Vergil's Georgics and the Traditions of Ancient Epic

Vergil's Georgics and the Traditions of Ancient Epic PDF Author: Joseph Farrell
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
In this important and original new book, Joseph Farrell argues that there is a detailed and extensive program of literary allusion in Vergil's Georgics, moving basically from Hesiod and Aratus in the first book, to Lucretius in the middle two, to Homer in the fourth. This program involves what he calls "analytic" allusion, namely a reconstruction or interpretation of the texts alluded to; and, he contends, the direction of the allusion, moving from Hesiod (and perhaps Alexandrian poetics) toward Homer and heroic epic, helps to clarify the development of Vergil's poetic career, which moves from the Callimacheanism of the Eclogues to the full-fledged epic of the Aeneid. Applying to the Georgics the full range of recent scholarly methodology, Farrell's pathbreaking book will be of great interest to all scholars and students of Vergil, classical literature, and literary allusion.

Vergil's Georgics and the Traditions of Ancient Epic

Vergil's Georgics and the Traditions of Ancient Epic PDF Author: Joseph Farrell
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
In this important and original new book, Joseph Farrell argues that there is a detailed and extensive program of literary allusion in Vergil's Georgics, moving basically from Hesiod and Aratus in the first book, to Lucretius in the middle two, to Homer in the fourth. This program involves what he calls "analytic" allusion, namely a reconstruction or interpretation of the texts alluded to; and, he contends, the direction of the allusion, moving from Hesiod (and perhaps Alexandrian poetics) toward Homer and heroic epic, helps to clarify the development of Vergil's poetic career, which moves from the Callimacheanism of the Eclogues to the full-fledged epic of the Aeneid. Applying to the Georgics the full range of recent scholarly methodology, Farrell's pathbreaking book will be of great interest to all scholars and students of Vergil, classical literature, and literary allusion.

Reflections and New Perspectives on Virgil's Georgics

Reflections and New Perspectives on Virgil's Georgics PDF Author: Nicholas Freer
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350070521
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
Virgil's Georgics, the most neglected of the poet's three major works, is brought to life and infused with fresh meanings in this dynamic collection of new readings. The Georgics is shown to be a rich field of inherited and varied literary forms, actively inviting a wide range of interpretations as well as deep reflection on its place within the tradition of didactic poetry. The essays contained in this volume – contributed by scholars from Australia, Europe and North America – offer new approaches and interpretive methods that greatly enhance our understanding of Virgil's poem. In the process, they unearth an array of literary and philosophical sources which exerted a rich influence on the Georgics but whose impact has hitherto been underestimated in scholarship. A second goal of the volume is to examine how the Georgics – with its profound meditations on humankind, nature, and the socio-political world of its creation – has been (re)interpreted and appropriated by readers and critics from antiquity to the modern era. The volume opens up a number of exciting new research avenues for the study of the reception of the Georgics by highlighting the myriad ways in which the poem has been understood by ancient readers, early modern poets, explorers of the 'New World', and female translators of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Virgil, a Study in Civilized Poetry

Virgil, a Study in Civilized Poetry PDF Author: Brooks Otis
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 9780806127828
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 460

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Book Description
In this classic study, Brooks Otis presents Virgil as a radically different poet from any of his Greek or Roman predecessors. Virgil molded the ancient epic tradition to his own Roman contemporary aims and succeeded in making mythical and legendary figures meaningful to a sophisticated, unmythical age. Otis begins and ends his study with the Aeneid and includes chapters on the Bucolics and the Georgics. A new foreword by Ward W. Briggs, Jr., places Otis’s groundbreaking achievement in the context of past and present Virgilian scholarship.

Aratus and the Astronomical Tradition

Aratus and the Astronomical Tradition PDF Author: Emma Gee
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199781788
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Why were the stars so important in Rome? Their literary presence far outweighs their role as a time-reckoning device, which was, in any case, superseded by the synchronization of the civil and solar years under Julius Caesar. One answer is tied to their usefulness in symbolizing a universe built on "intelligent design." From Plato's time onwards, the stars are most often seen in literature as evidence for a divine plan in the layout and maintenance of the cosmos. Moreover, particularly in the Roman world, divine and human governance came to be linked, one striking manifestation of this being the predicted enjoyment of a celestial afterlife by emperors. Aratus' Phaenomena, a didactic poem in Greek hexameters, composed c. 270 BC, which describes the layout of the heavens and their effect on the lives of men, was an ideal text in expressing such relationships: a didactic model which was both accessible and elegant, and which combined the stars with notions of divine and human order. Across a period extending from the late Roman Republic and early Empire until the age of Christian humanism, the impact of this poem on the literary environment is apparently out of all proportion to its relatively modest size and the obscurity of its subject matter. It was translated into Latin many times between the first century BC and the Renaissance, and carried lasting influence outside its immediate genre. Aratus and the Astronomical Tradition answers the question of Aratus' popularity by looking at the poem in the light of Western cosmology. It argues that the Phaenomena is the ideal vehicle for the integration of astronomical "data" into abstract cosmology, a defining feature of the Western tradition. This book embeds Aratus' text into a close network of textual interactions, beginning with the text itself and ending in the sixteenth century, with Copernicus. All conversations between the text and its successors experiment in some way with the balance between cosmology and information. The text was not an inert objet d'art, but a dynamic entity which took on colors often in conflict in the ongoing debate about the place and role of the stars in the world. With this detailed treatment of Aratus' poem and its reception, Emma Gee resituates a peculiar literary work within its successive cultural contexts and provides a benchmark for further research.

The Cambridge Companion to Virgil

The Cambridge Companion to Virgil PDF Author: Charles Martindale
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107493838
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
Virgil became a school author in his own lifetime and the centre of the Western canon for the next 1800 years, exerting a major influence on European literature, art, and politics. This Companion is designed as an indispensable guide for anyone seeking a fuller understanding of an author critical to so many disciplines. It consists of essays by seventeen scholars from Britain, the USA, Ireland and Italy which offer a range of different perspectives both traditional and innovative on Virgil's works, and a renewed sense of why Virgil matters today. The Companion is divided into four main sections, focussing on reception, genre, context, and form. This ground-breaking book not only provides a wealth of material for an informed reading but also offers sophisticated insights which point to the shape of Virgilian scholarship and criticism to come.

Virgil

Virgil PDF Author: R. Alden Smith
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444351540
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
VIRGIL “A truly useful introduction to Vergil and his poetry. Smith combines up-to-date information on the issues with an intelligent and well-written assessment. Highly recommended.” Karl Galinsky, University of Texas at Austin “For the newcomer to Virgil, this book will be a welcome introduction to the poet’s works and their reception by critics, artists, and scholars through the centuries.” Peter E. Knox, University of Colorado, Boulder Incorporating the most up-to-date classical scholarship, Virgilian scholar R. Alden Smith presents a comprehensive introduction to Virgil’s literary works and narrative technique. In addition to exploring the historical milieu, this book considers the reception of Virgil’s works, citing examples from painting, sculpture, and drama. After analyzing Virgil’s three major works – the Eclogues, Georgics, and the great national epic of Rome, the Aeneid – Smith addresses other key topics, including the manuscript tradition and various problems associated with establishment of the text. Virgil’s legacy, including his influence on subsequent Latin poetry and later literary figures (e.g., Dante, Camões, Milton) is also a feature of this study. Combining scholarly rigor and an accessible writing style, Smith offers an insightful introduction to Virgil and the world in which he lived.

Atomism in the Aeneid

Atomism in the Aeneid PDF Author: Matthew M. Gorey
Publisher:
ISBN: 0197518745
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 191

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Book Description
Atomism in the Aeneid investigates allusions to Lucretian atomism in descriptions of indecision, violence, and disorder in Virgil's epic. Drawing upon a long tradition of anti-atomist discourse in Greek philosophy, Gorey argues that atomic imagery functions as a metaphor for cosmic and political anarchy in the Aeneid.

The Georgics and the Eclogues

The Georgics and the Eclogues PDF Author: Virgil
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781483703411
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 104

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Book Description
The Eclogues, also called the Bucolics, is the first of the three major works of the Latin poet Virgil, containing ten pieces, each called not an idyll, populated by and large with herdsmen imagined conversing and performing amoebaean singing in largely rural settings, whether suffering or embracing revolutionary change or happy or unhappy love. The Georgics is the second major work by the Latin poet Virgil, with the subject of agriculture; but far from being an example of peaceful rural poetry, it is a work characterized by tensions in both theme and purpose. Publius Vergilius Maro, Virgil, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, The Eclogues, The Georgics, and The Aeneid.

A Companion to Vergil's Aeneid and its Tradition

A Companion to Vergil's Aeneid and its Tradition PDF Author: Joseph Farrell
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118785126
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 605

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Book Description
A Companion to Vergil’s Aeneid and its Tradition presents a collection of original interpretive essays that represent an innovative addition to the body of Vergil scholarship. Provides fresh approaches to traditional Vergil scholarship and new insights into unfamiliar aspects of Vergil's textual history Features contributions by an international team of the most distinguished scholars Represents a distinctively original approach to Vergil scholarship

Fate and the Hero in Virgil's Aeneid

Fate and the Hero in Virgil's Aeneid PDF Author: Graham Zanker
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1009319868
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
This book explores how Virgil in his Aeneid incorporates the ancient Stoics' thinking about how humans can exercise moral responsibility and how this can affect providential world fate. The third-century BC philosopher Chrysippus of Soli located this freedom in the way we can assent to courses of action, and Graham Zanker innovatively demonstrates how Virgil appropriates this concept in the way that Jupiter and Aeneas can assent to the world fate in which they have discovered they must play a part, or Juno and Dido can withhold their assent to it. Indeed, Virgil even offers the model to no-one less than Augustus: the emperor is invited to give his assent to ruling what was believed to be his 'world-wide' empire justly. The book is accessible to both students and professional scholars of the Aeneid, with all Greek and Latin translated into idiomatic English.