All Manners of Actual Teaching

Abstract

This project is concerned with the evolution and development of the genre of didactic poetry. Five poets, Hesiod, Aratus, Lucretius, Vergil, and Pseudo-Oppian, were investigated to find out how they applied didactic tools like teacher's authority, direct instruction, and the présence of the student, collectively referred to as the poem's didaxis, to instruct an audience. Many different tendencies were found in the diverse works, in line with the poets' intentions, but also an overarching definition qua didaxis is offered on the basis of the poems' likenesses.