Surprisingly, this is the first full-scale scholarly commentary on the Eclogues to appear in this century. These ten short pastorals are among the best known poems in Latin literature. Clausen's commentary provides a comprehensive guide to both the poems and the considerable scholarship surrounding them. There are short introductions to each poem, as well as a general introduction to the Eclogues as a whole.
Vergil s commentary on political issues is discussed after analyzing the whole of the poet s work. His political engagement noticeable in much of his work, is clear.The new notion of the functional model, which the poet often used when making a political statement is introduced. New interpretations of a number of the Eclogues and passages of the Georgics and the Aeneid are given."
"The date of the Eclogues is much debated.* A preliminary distinction is in order: that between the composition of the individual poems (which, at least in certain cases, were doubtless read immediately and circulated within a restricted group around the poet) and the publication of the final collection. There are only two obvious clues to the dating of the book: the land confiscations in the territory of Cremona and Mantua, which peaked in the aftermath of the battle of Philippi (though continuing during the early 30s BCE: cf. E. 1 and 9), and the consulship of Asinius Pollio, in 40 BCE (E. 4)"--
Publius Vergilius Maro (70-19 B.C.), known in English as Virgil, was perhaps the single greatest poet of the Roman empire—a friend to the emperor Augustus and the beneficiary of wealthy and powerful patrons. Most famous for his epic of the founding of Rome, the Aeneid, he wrote two other collections of poems: the Georgics and the Bucolics, or Eclogues. The Eclogues were Virgil's first published poems. Ancient sources say that he spent three years composing and revising them at about the age of thirty. Though these poems begin a sequence that continues with the Georgics and culminates in the Aeneid, they are no less elegant in style or less profound in insight than the later, more extensive works. These intricate and highly polished variations on the idea of the pastoral poem, as practiced by earlier Greek poets, mix political, social, historical, artistic, and moral commentary in musical Latin that exerted a profound influence on subsequent Western poetry. Poet Len Krisak's vibrant metric translation captures the music of Virgil's richly textured verse by employing rhyme and other sonic devices. The result is English poetry rather than translated prose. Presenting the English on facing pages with the original Latin, Virgil's Eclogues also features an introduction by scholar Gregson Davis that situates the epic in the time in which it was created.
The series consists of a variety of monographs from the fields of Classical Philology and Ancient History. While maintaining a broad thematic and methodological scope, the editors are especially keen on studies showing a thorough and critical engagement with the relevant literary texts and primary sources.
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.
Beginning in outer space and ending up among the atoms, "Bucolic Ecology" illustrates how these poems repeatedly turn to the natural world in order to define themselves and their place in the literary tradition. It argues that the 'Eclogues' find there both a sequence of analogies for their own poetic processes and a map upon which can be located other landmarks in Greco-Roman literature. Unlike previous studies of this kind, "Bucolic Ecology" does not attribute to Virgil a predominantly Romantic conception of nature and its relationship to poetry, but by adopting such differing approaches to the physical world as astronomy, geography, topography, landscape and ecology, it offers an account of the Eclogues that emphasises their range and complexity and reaffirms their innovation and audacity.
The Aeneid, generally considered the greatest poem of Roman literature, is a story of migration, and Book 3 is at the heart of this story--the arrestingly dramatic account that Aeneas gives to the Carthaginian Queen Dido of his people's journey from the sacked city of Troy. This journey sees them encounter a series of brilliantly characterized individuals and visit some of the most extraordinary places in the central Mediterranean, both real and imaginary: shrines and volcanoes, floating islands and monsters. Yet though it is on one level a thrilling traveller's tale, it is also a profound story of a voyage from a dead past to an uncertain, but ultimately glorious, future in Augustan Rome. This new edition contains an introduction, the Latin text, and a detailed commentary, as well as an extensive Appendix illustrating the rich variety of texts that Vergil used as his models through an ample collection of relevant passages: from the heroic voyages described in the Odyssey and the Argonautica, to tragic explorations of the aftermath of Troy's fall (especially Euripides' Hecuba, Troades, and Andromache) and texts on Delos and Etna. The introduction grounds the book in its historical and literary contexts, while the commentary itself aims to bring out the poet's artistry and learning, keeping the dramatic situation of Aeneas' storytelling in view throughout. Translations of all cited Latin and Greek and regular references to Roman history will provide readers new and old with a clear understanding not only of the original text, but also of the poet's vision of Rome, history, and humanity.
A complete treatment of Aeneid XI, with a thorough introduction to key characters, context, and metre, and a detailed line-by-line commentary which will aid readers' understanding of Virgil's language and syntax. Indispensable for students and instructors reading this important book, which includes the funeral of Pallas and the death of Camilla.
