Scott McGill
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195175646
- eISBN:
- 9780199789337
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195175646.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The Virgilian centos, in which authors reconnect discrete lines taken from Virgil's Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid to create new poems, are some of the most striking texts to survive from antiquity. ...
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The Virgilian centos, in which authors reconnect discrete lines taken from Virgil's Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid to create new poems, are some of the most striking texts to survive from antiquity. This book examines the twelve mythological and secular examples, which probably date from c.200-c.530. While verbal games, the centos deserve to be taken seriously for what they disclose about Virgil's reception, late-antique literary culture, and other important historical and theoretical topics in literary criticism. As radically intertextual works, the centos are particularly valuable sites for investigating topics in allusion studies: when can and should audiences read texts allusively? What is the role of the author and the reader in creating allusions? How does one determine the functions of allusions? This book explores these and other questions, and in the process comes into dialogue with major critical issues.Less
The Virgilian centos, in which authors reconnect discrete lines taken from Virgil's Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid to create new poems, are some of the most striking texts to survive from antiquity. This book examines the twelve mythological and secular examples, which probably date from c.200-c.530. While verbal games, the centos deserve to be taken seriously for what they disclose about Virgil's reception, late-antique literary culture, and other important historical and theoretical topics in literary criticism. As radically intertextual works, the centos are particularly valuable sites for investigating topics in allusion studies: when can and should audiences read texts allusively? What is the role of the author and the reader in creating allusions? How does one determine the functions of allusions? This book explores these and other questions, and in the process comes into dialogue with major critical issues.
Yasmin Annabel Haskell
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197262849
- eISBN:
- 9780191734588
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262849.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
National loyalties and literary tastes generally compete with institutional and ideological alliances, as was the case of the Jesuits, where there was an unspoken conflict of taste between the ...
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National loyalties and literary tastes generally compete with institutional and ideological alliances, as was the case of the Jesuits, where there was an unspoken conflict of taste between the classicism and patriotism of Rapin and the mannerisms of his Neopolitan contemporaries. Although Neopolitan Jesuits were aware of the existence of a Rapinian model, they were more inclined to imitate local, non-Jesuit, Latin authors. As with the literary terms, the didactic poems of Jesuits also exhibit diverse aims as various as their geographical and chronological contexts. Although their poems were dominated by individual aims and intentions, Jesuit didactic poetry nevertheless exhibited uniform lineament. Most Jesuit didactic poems were tailored after Virgil's Georgics and the Virgilian form. There were also various mechanisms of internal imitation wherein a group of poems share thematic preoccupations and stylistic idiosyncrasies. Jesuit didactic poetry is also characterized by an emphasis on experience and usefulness, on orderliness, on difficulty embraced and surmounted, and on efforts divinely ordained and rewarded.Less
National loyalties and literary tastes generally compete with institutional and ideological alliances, as was the case of the Jesuits, where there was an unspoken conflict of taste between the classicism and patriotism of Rapin and the mannerisms of his Neopolitan contemporaries. Although Neopolitan Jesuits were aware of the existence of a Rapinian model, they were more inclined to imitate local, non-Jesuit, Latin authors. As with the literary terms, the didactic poems of Jesuits also exhibit diverse aims as various as their geographical and chronological contexts. Although their poems were dominated by individual aims and intentions, Jesuit didactic poetry nevertheless exhibited uniform lineament. Most Jesuit didactic poems were tailored after Virgil's Georgics and the Virgilian form. There were also various mechanisms of internal imitation wherein a group of poems share thematic preoccupations and stylistic idiosyncrasies. Jesuit didactic poetry is also characterized by an emphasis on experience and usefulness, on orderliness, on difficulty embraced and surmounted, and on efforts divinely ordained and rewarded.
Damien Nelis
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199558681
- eISBN:
- 9780191720888
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199558681.003.0011
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter offers a study of some aspects of the structure of the first book of Vergil's Georgics. It attempts to explain the book's thematic coherence by looking at the ways in which the poet ...
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This chapter offers a study of some aspects of the structure of the first book of Vergil's Georgics. It attempts to explain the book's thematic coherence by looking at the ways in which the poet relates his description of the life and work of the Italian farmer to the movement of the solar year, to Roman history, and to contemporary politics. Particular attention is paid to the ways in which Vergil reacts to his predecessors in the didactic genre and to the ways in which he handles the themes of religion and knowledge and the role of the new divinity he refers to by the name ‘Caesar’. Study of the poem's intertextuality helps to illustrate his engagement with contemporary politics, civil strife and the Roman revolution.Less
This chapter offers a study of some aspects of the structure of the first book of Vergil's Georgics. It attempts to explain the book's thematic coherence by looking at the ways in which the poet relates his description of the life and work of the Italian farmer to the movement of the solar year, to Roman history, and to contemporary politics. Particular attention is paid to the ways in which Vergil reacts to his predecessors in the didactic genre and to the ways in which he handles the themes of religion and knowledge and the role of the new divinity he refers to by the name ‘Caesar’. Study of the poem's intertextuality helps to illustrate his engagement with contemporary politics, civil strife and the Roman revolution.
R.O.A.M. Lyne
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199203963
- eISBN:
- 9780191708237
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199203963.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This is another commentary-style close reading, this time of a key passage of Virgil, which brings out much significant detail and its symbolic ideological value and political function.
This is another commentary-style close reading, this time of a key passage of Virgil, which brings out much significant detail and its symbolic ideological value and political function.
R.O.A.M. Lyne
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199203963
- eISBN:
- 9780191708237
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199203963.003.0007
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This paper is a stimulating account of the alienation effect apparently achieved by topographical dislocation in the Eclogues, and of the political symbolism of agriculture in the Georgics.
This paper is a stimulating account of the alienation effect apparently achieved by topographical dislocation in the Eclogues, and of the political symbolism of agriculture in the Georgics.
S.J. Harrison
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199203581
- eISBN:
- 9780191708176
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199203581.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Clearly transitional between the Eclogues and the Aeneid, this poem shows generic strain in its second half, especially in the proem to Book 3 with its anticipation of martial epic, and in the ...
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Clearly transitional between the Eclogues and the Aeneid, this poem shows generic strain in its second half, especially in the proem to Book 3 with its anticipation of martial epic, and in the Aristaeus section at the end of Book 4, where the interplay of questions of literary form and political commitment is brilliantly explored (Homeric, neoteric, Hesiodic, Hellenistic).Less
Clearly transitional between the Eclogues and the Aeneid, this poem shows generic strain in its second half, especially in the proem to Book 3 with its anticipation of martial epic, and in the Aristaeus section at the end of Book 4, where the interplay of questions of literary form and political commitment is brilliantly explored (Homeric, neoteric, Hesiodic, Hellenistic).
G. O. Hutchinson
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199279418
- eISBN:
- 9780191707322
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199279418.003.0010
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Latin didactic poems commonly have several books, unlike Hellenistic didactic poems. The details of beginning and ending show a significant relation with the books of Hellenistic and Republican prose ...
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Latin didactic poems commonly have several books, unlike Hellenistic didactic poems. The details of beginning and ending show a significant relation with the books of Hellenistic and Republican prose treatises: Latin didactic does not simply transmute prose but evokes its intellectual structuring and division. Lucretius, Virgil's Georgics, Ovid's Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris, and Manilius are looked at in turn; there are implications for Ovid's design. The final myth of Georgics 4 is related to Cicero, De Re Publica; antithetical poetic books are related to antithetical books of Latin prose. Clarity and brevity are goals in Lucretius and in prose. Didactic prose as well as poetry is seen to have stylistic range and structural enterprise: dialogue in Varro illustrates.Less
Latin didactic poems commonly have several books, unlike Hellenistic didactic poems. The details of beginning and ending show a significant relation with the books of Hellenistic and Republican prose treatises: Latin didactic does not simply transmute prose but evokes its intellectual structuring and division. Lucretius, Virgil's Georgics, Ovid's Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris, and Manilius are looked at in turn; there are implications for Ovid's design. The final myth of Georgics 4 is related to Cicero, De Re Publica; antithetical poetic books are related to antithetical books of Latin prose. Clarity and brevity are goals in Lucretius and in prose. Didactic prose as well as poetry is seen to have stylistic range and structural enterprise: dialogue in Varro illustrates.
Philip Thibodeau
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520268326
- eISBN:
- 9780520950252
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520268326.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This book reinvigorates our understanding of Vergil's Georgics, a vibrant work written by Rome's premier epic poet shortly before he began the Aeneid. Setting the Georgics in the social context of ...
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This book reinvigorates our understanding of Vergil's Georgics, a vibrant work written by Rome's premier epic poet shortly before he began the Aeneid. Setting the Georgics in the social context of its day, the book connects the poem's idyllic, and idealized, portrait of rustic life and agriculture with changing attitudes toward the countryside in late Republican and early Imperial Rome. It argues that what has been seen as a straightforward poem about agriculture is in fact an enchanting work of fantasy that elevated, and sometimes whitewashed, the realities of country life. Drawing from a wide range of sources, the book shows how Vergil's poem reshaped agrarian ideals in its own time, and how it influenced Roman poets, philosophers, agronomists, and orators. The book brings a fresh perspective to a work that was praised by Dryden as “the best poem by the best poet”.Less
This book reinvigorates our understanding of Vergil's Georgics, a vibrant work written by Rome's premier epic poet shortly before he began the Aeneid. Setting the Georgics in the social context of its day, the book connects the poem's idyllic, and idealized, portrait of rustic life and agriculture with changing attitudes toward the countryside in late Republican and early Imperial Rome. It argues that what has been seen as a straightforward poem about agriculture is in fact an enchanting work of fantasy that elevated, and sometimes whitewashed, the realities of country life. Drawing from a wide range of sources, the book shows how Vergil's poem reshaped agrarian ideals in its own time, and how it influenced Roman poets, philosophers, agronomists, and orators. The book brings a fresh perspective to a work that was praised by Dryden as “the best poem by the best poet”.
Michèle Lowrie
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199545674
- eISBN:
- 9780191719950
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545674.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Vergil consistently brings together the monument and festival at significant points in the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid. Representative passages from each oeuvre show that Vergil moves his reader ...
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Vergil consistently brings together the monument and festival at significant points in the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid. Representative passages from each oeuvre show that Vergil moves his reader through a simple dichotomy between writing and song to a more nuanced approach to the interrelation of these media. Ecphrasis of art works in the Aeneid in particular allows for the exploration of questions of fixity and perpetuity that other poets explore more directly through the language of writing. Although the ability to interpret the various media is an important aspect of imperial citizenship, Vergil does not offer a successful model for achieving this goal.Less
Vergil consistently brings together the monument and festival at significant points in the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid. Representative passages from each oeuvre show that Vergil moves his reader through a simple dichotomy between writing and song to a more nuanced approach to the interrelation of these media. Ecphrasis of art works in the Aeneid in particular allows for the exploration of questions of fixity and perpetuity that other poets explore more directly through the language of writing. Although the ability to interpret the various media is an important aspect of imperial citizenship, Vergil does not offer a successful model for achieving this goal.
Emma Gee
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198154754
- eISBN:
- 9780191715457
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198154754.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter considers the intertextual relationship between Ovid’s didactic poem and Virgil’s Georgics, a relationship which provides a didactic subtext that unites the Robigalia, Orion, and Mars ...
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This chapter considers the intertextual relationship between Ovid’s didactic poem and Virgil’s Georgics, a relationship which provides a didactic subtext that unites the Robigalia, Orion, and Mars Ultor. The common features in the apparently dissimilar structure, content, and programme of the two passages help to shed light on the way in which misrepresentations of astronomical material function in the immediate context in the Fasti, and on the place of astronomy in the work as a whole.Less
This chapter considers the intertextual relationship between Ovid’s didactic poem and Virgil’s Georgics, a relationship which provides a didactic subtext that unites the Robigalia, Orion, and Mars Ultor. The common features in the apparently dissimilar structure, content, and programme of the two passages help to shed light on the way in which misrepresentations of astronomical material function in the immediate context in the Fasti, and on the place of astronomy in the work as a whole.
Lorna Hardwick and James I. Porter
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199582969
- eISBN:
- 9780191731198
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199582969.003.0011
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
While Joyce Carol Oates uses Virgil to explore the dangers facing the United States from the divided social factions at the heart of the community, Janet Lembke's concern is to alert us to the ...
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While Joyce Carol Oates uses Virgil to explore the dangers facing the United States from the divided social factions at the heart of the community, Janet Lembke's concern is to alert us to the irreversible damage caused to the landscape by government policies that have been driven by material gain and have resulted in both dispossession and climate change. Lembke's decision to translate the Georgics for the 21st century demonstrates her belief that Virgil's treatise on farming can still offer us valuable lessons about the catastrophic consequences that are attendant upon greed and a criminal disregard of the need to respect the delicate equilibrium between human sustenance and nature's ecologies.Less
While Joyce Carol Oates uses Virgil to explore the dangers facing the United States from the divided social factions at the heart of the community, Janet Lembke's concern is to alert us to the irreversible damage caused to the landscape by government policies that have been driven by material gain and have resulted in both dispossession and climate change. Lembke's decision to translate the Georgics for the 21st century demonstrates her belief that Virgil's treatise on farming can still offer us valuable lessons about the catastrophic consequences that are attendant upon greed and a criminal disregard of the need to respect the delicate equilibrium between human sustenance and nature's ecologies.
Gian Biagio Conte and S. J. Harrison
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199287017
- eISBN:
- 9780191713262
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199287017.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter discusses Aristaeus, Orpheus, and the Georgics. Reacting favourably to Jasper Griffin's justly influential article on Georgics 4, it agrees that readers need an interpretation that can ...
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This chapter discusses Aristaeus, Orpheus, and the Georgics. Reacting favourably to Jasper Griffin's justly influential article on Georgics 4, it agrees that readers need an interpretation that can encompass the whole of the Georgics and show its essential unity. The chapter also reinforces the crucial original perception that Aristaeus is an extrapolation on the mythical level of the farmer of the Georgics and makes the equally convincing argument that the Aristaeus story consciously echoes the myths of Platonic dialogues in enacting on the mythical level and in final climactic position the essential message of the didactic work. Centrally important too is the analysis of the Alexandrian narrative technique of the Aristaeus-episode, arguing incontrovertibly that the juxtaposition of two structurally similar but crucially different stories is a key part of interpretation, just as it is in Catullus 64.Less
This chapter discusses Aristaeus, Orpheus, and the Georgics. Reacting favourably to Jasper Griffin's justly influential article on Georgics 4, it agrees that readers need an interpretation that can encompass the whole of the Georgics and show its essential unity. The chapter also reinforces the crucial original perception that Aristaeus is an extrapolation on the mythical level of the farmer of the Georgics and makes the equally convincing argument that the Aristaeus story consciously echoes the myths of Platonic dialogues in enacting on the mythical level and in final climactic position the essential message of the didactic work. Centrally important too is the analysis of the Alexandrian narrative technique of the Aristaeus-episode, arguing incontrovertibly that the juxtaposition of two structurally similar but crucially different stories is a key part of interpretation, just as it is in Catullus 64.
KATHARINA VOLK
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199245505
- eISBN:
- 9780191714986
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199245505.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter examines Vergil's Georgics, a poem in four books on agriculture, considering the work specifically as a didactic poem. It has frequently been doubted that the Georgics is primarily ...
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This chapter examines Vergil's Georgics, a poem in four books on agriculture, considering the work specifically as a didactic poem. It has frequently been doubted that the Georgics is primarily didactic, given that large parts of the poem are dedicated to topics other than the teaching of agriculture. The chapter addresses this issue, examining in detail the interactions of the persona with his two addressees: the farmers and the poet's patron Maecenas. By reflecting at length on his poetic activity, including on types of poetry that he is not currently composing but might attempt in the future, the persona paints a portrait of himself as a poet in mid-career. This strategy of self-presentation has greatly influenced later readings of Vergil's career, according to which the Georgics, situated between the Eclogues and the Aeneid, presents the midpoint of the poet's output.Less
This chapter examines Vergil's Georgics, a poem in four books on agriculture, considering the work specifically as a didactic poem. It has frequently been doubted that the Georgics is primarily didactic, given that large parts of the poem are dedicated to topics other than the teaching of agriculture. The chapter addresses this issue, examining in detail the interactions of the persona with his two addressees: the farmers and the poet's patron Maecenas. By reflecting at length on his poetic activity, including on types of poetry that he is not currently composing but might attempt in the future, the persona paints a portrait of himself as a poet in mid-career. This strategy of self-presentation has greatly influenced later readings of Vergil's career, according to which the Georgics, situated between the Eclogues and the Aeneid, presents the midpoint of the poet's output.
Ian Calvert
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781474475648
- eISBN:
- 9781399501897
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474475648.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Chapter 3 examines the influence of Virgilian prophecy on Abraham Cowley’s poetry, especially his attempts to praise the Stuart monarchy. Cowley’s predictions of a royalist victory in his first epic, ...
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Chapter 3 examines the influence of Virgilian prophecy on Abraham Cowley’s poetry, especially his attempts to praise the Stuart monarchy. Cowley’s predictions of a royalist victory in his first epic, The Civil War, were soon overtaken by events in the war itself, and forced prophecy to give way to lament. His next epic, the Davideis, deployed prophecy more successfully to acknowledge the future that he hoped would come to pass but feared would not. Cowley’s translation from the Georgics continued to express hopes for a Stuart restoration while acknowledging that such an event might never happen, even though it was first published in the early 1660s. Cowley’s final epic Sex Libri Plantarum celebrated the Restoration in explicitly panegyrical terms, but the Virgilian allusions in the poem’s prophecies undermined its triumphalism and predicted further catastrophes for the Stuart dynasty and the nation.Less
Chapter 3 examines the influence of Virgilian prophecy on Abraham Cowley’s poetry, especially his attempts to praise the Stuart monarchy. Cowley’s predictions of a royalist victory in his first epic, The Civil War, were soon overtaken by events in the war itself, and forced prophecy to give way to lament. His next epic, the Davideis, deployed prophecy more successfully to acknowledge the future that he hoped would come to pass but feared would not. Cowley’s translation from the Georgics continued to express hopes for a Stuart restoration while acknowledging that such an event might never happen, even though it was first published in the early 1660s. Cowley’s final epic Sex Libri Plantarum celebrated the Restoration in explicitly panegyrical terms, but the Virgilian allusions in the poem’s prophecies undermined its triumphalism and predicted further catastrophes for the Stuart dynasty and the nation.
Philip Thibodeau
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520268326
- eISBN:
- 9780520950252
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520268326.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter first sets out the purpose of the book, which is to evoke the interest of the Georgics' representations of farming and rural life per se. Doing so will require two efforts. The first is ...
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This chapter first sets out the purpose of the book, which is to evoke the interest of the Georgics' representations of farming and rural life per se. Doing so will require two efforts. The first is a project of literary and historical reconstruction that will allow us to situate the Georgics within the discourse of agrarianism in ancient Rome. The second task of this book is to show how the poem innovates and departs from the conventions of agrarian discourse and practice. The chapter then provides an introduction to the poem and some scholarly approaches to it.Less
This chapter first sets out the purpose of the book, which is to evoke the interest of the Georgics' representations of farming and rural life per se. Doing so will require two efforts. The first is a project of literary and historical reconstruction that will allow us to situate the Georgics within the discourse of agrarianism in ancient Rome. The second task of this book is to show how the poem innovates and departs from the conventions of agrarian discourse and practice. The chapter then provides an introduction to the poem and some scholarly approaches to it.
Philip Thibodeau
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520268326
- eISBN:
- 9780520950252
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520268326.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
What kind of person counted as a farmer—an Agricola—for the Romans? To gain a purchase on Roman discourse about agricolae this chapter begins by addressing a series of topics, all of them economic in ...
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What kind of person counted as a farmer—an Agricola—for the Romans? To gain a purchase on Roman discourse about agricolae this chapter begins by addressing a series of topics, all of them economic in the ancient sense of the term. First, how were the duties of labor and management divided up among various persons on a Roman estate. Second, how in terms of operation did the estates owned by the rich and powerful differ from those of the poor. Third, how did the farmers familiar to Vergil's readers from ordinary life differ from the idealized concept of the Agricola. It concludes by examining some passages from the poem and considering the status of the poet and his audience; but the first goal is to answer St. Augustine's question: quid facit Agricola?Less
What kind of person counted as a farmer—an Agricola—for the Romans? To gain a purchase on Roman discourse about agricolae this chapter begins by addressing a series of topics, all of them economic in the ancient sense of the term. First, how were the duties of labor and management divided up among various persons on a Roman estate. Second, how in terms of operation did the estates owned by the rich and powerful differ from those of the poor. Third, how did the farmers familiar to Vergil's readers from ordinary life differ from the idealized concept of the Agricola. It concludes by examining some passages from the poem and considering the status of the poet and his audience; but the first goal is to answer St. Augustine's question: quid facit Agricola?
Philip Thibodeau
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520268326
- eISBN:
- 9780520950252
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520268326.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The Georgics regularly treats its addressee as an agricola, and on occasion explicitly identifies him as such. To the extent then that the reader identifies with the addressee, the poem provides him ...
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The Georgics regularly treats its addressee as an agricola, and on occasion explicitly identifies him as such. To the extent then that the reader identifies with the addressee, the poem provides him or her with the imaginary experience of being a farmer. For the most part that experience did not correspond to anything in the daily routine of Vergil's ancient Roman readers. Accordingly, that experience is referred to as a fantasy, one in which the reader “plays the farmer.” That fantasy is the subject of this chapter. It focuses on economic fantasies, fictions in the poem's representations of such things as labor, management, and money on the farm.Less
The Georgics regularly treats its addressee as an agricola, and on occasion explicitly identifies him as such. To the extent then that the reader identifies with the addressee, the poem provides him or her with the imaginary experience of being a farmer. For the most part that experience did not correspond to anything in the daily routine of Vergil's ancient Roman readers. Accordingly, that experience is referred to as a fantasy, one in which the reader “plays the farmer.” That fantasy is the subject of this chapter. It focuses on economic fantasies, fictions in the poem's representations of such things as labor, management, and money on the farm.
Philip Thibodeau
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520268326
- eISBN:
- 9780520950252
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520268326.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter attempts to bring to the fore representations of leisure (otium) and villa culture in the Georgics. Despite realistic elements, these also constitute a fantasy that can be usefully ...
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This chapter attempts to bring to the fore representations of leisure (otium) and villa culture in the Georgics. Despite realistic elements, these also constitute a fantasy that can be usefully analyzed in terms of its emphases and omissions, shaped by moral and aesthetic concerns. It first considers Vergil's use of prestige language—value terms like honor, Gloria, and dignitas, heavy in their social overtones—that are attached to elements of rural life. It then looks at the poem's habit of tracing the traditions of the countryside back to their origins in a mythological or heroic past, so that they acquire a dignified genealogy. It next analyzes the poem's representations of festivals within a rustic setting, in order to tie those images to aristocratic habits of euergestism and communal patronage. Finally, it takes a close look at the most extended and explicit account of rustication in the poem, the Laudes Ruris, “Praises of the Countryside” sequence at the end of book 2, observing how Vergil uses that passage to weave the aforementioned themes together.Less
This chapter attempts to bring to the fore representations of leisure (otium) and villa culture in the Georgics. Despite realistic elements, these also constitute a fantasy that can be usefully analyzed in terms of its emphases and omissions, shaped by moral and aesthetic concerns. It first considers Vergil's use of prestige language—value terms like honor, Gloria, and dignitas, heavy in their social overtones—that are attached to elements of rural life. It then looks at the poem's habit of tracing the traditions of the countryside back to their origins in a mythological or heroic past, so that they acquire a dignified genealogy. It next analyzes the poem's representations of festivals within a rustic setting, in order to tie those images to aristocratic habits of euergestism and communal patronage. Finally, it takes a close look at the most extended and explicit account of rustication in the poem, the Laudes Ruris, “Praises of the Countryside” sequence at the end of book 2, observing how Vergil uses that passage to weave the aforementioned themes together.
Philip Thibodeau
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520268326
- eISBN:
- 9780520950252
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520268326.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter demonstrates how a number of aesthetic, rhetorical, and philosophical strands in the poem's representation of agriculture contribute to an end that is described as protreptic. Three ...
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This chapter demonstrates how a number of aesthetic, rhetorical, and philosophical strands in the poem's representation of agriculture contribute to an end that is described as protreptic. Three features of the poem are considered. The first is its selectivity, the Georgics' extreme compression and omission of topics other writers treat as indispensable. It is argued that what it loses in usefulness it gains in the curiosity it elicits regarding technical subjects. Next, the chapter returns to a theme from Chapter 3 and shows how in his aitia, or causes, Vergil creates a complex series of ties between agriculture and other more prestigious fields of knowledge, which elevate agronomy and make it seem like a true liberal art. The last section examines the poet's construction of thaumata, or marvels, in passages where he either explicitly or implicitly impels the reader to an experience of wonder at the subject. Vergil deploys wonders for various ends, but most often it is to make an intellectual response to his material seem necessary.Less
This chapter demonstrates how a number of aesthetic, rhetorical, and philosophical strands in the poem's representation of agriculture contribute to an end that is described as protreptic. Three features of the poem are considered. The first is its selectivity, the Georgics' extreme compression and omission of topics other writers treat as indispensable. It is argued that what it loses in usefulness it gains in the curiosity it elicits regarding technical subjects. Next, the chapter returns to a theme from Chapter 3 and shows how in his aitia, or causes, Vergil creates a complex series of ties between agriculture and other more prestigious fields of knowledge, which elevate agronomy and make it seem like a true liberal art. The last section examines the poet's construction of thaumata, or marvels, in passages where he either explicitly or implicitly impels the reader to an experience of wonder at the subject. Vergil deploys wonders for various ends, but most often it is to make an intellectual response to his material seem necessary.
Philip Thibodeau
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520268326
- eISBN:
- 9780520950252
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520268326.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter returns one more time to Seneca's aper çu about the Georgics, this time to linger on its first clause: to enchant readers. It maps out the “psychagogy” of the Georgics, primarily but not ...
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This chapter returns one more time to Seneca's aper çu about the Georgics, this time to linger on its first clause: to enchant readers. It maps out the “psychagogy” of the Georgics, primarily but not exclusively by showing how Vergil represents and evokes the passions while talking about rustic things. His techniques for doing so can be studied by considering three fundamental aspects of the text. The first is its content: when the work is set against its sources, it is often possible to see Vergil gravitating toward material related to the passions, or adding content rich in pathos to that which lacks it. Second is its use of rhetoric: the language of the Georgics features a wide range of classic rhetorical figures, everything from anaphora to personification, which have the effect of amplifying its emotive force. Thirdly, there is the poem's narratology, which refers to the way the text attributes passions, not just to the various domestic and wild fauna it describes, but to the narrator and in some cases to the addressee, whose emotional reactions are prescribed by the text as if by a script.Less
This chapter returns one more time to Seneca's aper çu about the Georgics, this time to linger on its first clause: to enchant readers. It maps out the “psychagogy” of the Georgics, primarily but not exclusively by showing how Vergil represents and evokes the passions while talking about rustic things. His techniques for doing so can be studied by considering three fundamental aspects of the text. The first is its content: when the work is set against its sources, it is often possible to see Vergil gravitating toward material related to the passions, or adding content rich in pathos to that which lacks it. Second is its use of rhetoric: the language of the Georgics features a wide range of classic rhetorical figures, everything from anaphora to personification, which have the effect of amplifying its emotive force. Thirdly, there is the poem's narratology, which refers to the way the text attributes passions, not just to the various domestic and wild fauna it describes, but to the narrator and in some cases to the addressee, whose emotional reactions are prescribed by the text as if by a script.