While some may see Classics in the current fluid educational landscape as an increasingly marginalized discipline, the reality is quite the opposite. Indeed, the American Philological Association's "Statement on Research" has rightly regarded Classics as more comprehensive than the simple study of texts: "[M]odern research considers also the political, social and economic structures, science and technology, religions and philosophies, and creative and performing arts of the ancient world." Those of us who teach literary texts -- both in the original languages and in translation -- must as a regular practice bring the inherent interdisciplinary nature of Classics to bear on those works for the larger benefit of our students.

This conference presentation will demonstrate one approach to achieving that objective. It will propose a shift of our attention away from the markedly anthropocentric character of most canonical literary texts and will argue for introducing into the study of ancient literature in general an ongoing awareness of the larger world of non-human reality all around us. Since the ancients were more acutely aware of that reality than we moderns tend to be, it makes sense to gaze upward and outward, well beyond the confines of the written text directly in front of us -- and indeed beyond those of the physical classroom, to make those closer connections with the natural world that originally informed, influenced, and inspired the culture in which those very textual artifacts that we read were produced.

The talk will use examples from a variety of commonly taught ancient literary texts, both Latin and Greek, to make the case for expanding our experience and deepening our understanding of how the incorporation of the floral, the faunal and the celestial realms functions in ancient literary contexts. Examples will be drawn from commonly taught Classical texts, including Homer, Hesiod, Sappho, Vergil, Horace, Ovid and Petronius. In addition, the presentation will also consider authors whose works are of a more distinctly technical character but well worth including as part of a comprehensive program designed to introduce students to the richness of the natural world. These latter include Theophrastus, Hyginus, Vitruvius, Columella, and Pliny the Elder, among others.

The final portion of this paper will make simple and practical suggestions for linking the natural world as known to the ancients to that of our own through the specific association of floral and faunal species and through the observation of celestial occurrences easily noted by the modern student.