1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910959662603321

Autore

Gale Monica (Monica R.)

Titolo

Virgil on the nature of things : the Georgics, Lucretius, and the didactic tradition / / Monica R. Gale

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2000

ISBN

1-107-12027-6

1-280-42973-9

0-511-17328-8

0-511-01732-4

0-511-15234-5

0-511-32746-3

0-511-48218-3

0-511-04596-4

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xiii, 321 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Disciplina

871/.01

Soggetti

Didactic poetry, Latin - History and criticism

Philosophy, Ancient, in literature

Allusions in literature

Intertextuality

Rome In literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 275-287) and indexes.

Nota di contenuto

Cover; Half-title; Title; Copyright; Dedication; CONTENTS; PREFACE; ABBREVIATIONS; 1 Introduction: influence, allusion, intertextuality; 2 Beginnings and endings; 3 The gods, the farmer and the natural world; 4 Virgil s metamorphoses: mythological allusions; 5 Labor improbus; 6 The wonders of the natural world; 7 The cosmic battlefield: warfare and military imagery; 8 Epilogue: the philosopher and the farmer; BIBLIOGRAPHY; INDEX OF PASSAGES CITED; GENERAL INDEX;

Sommario/riassunto

The Georgics has for many years been a source of fierce controversy among scholars of Latin literature. Is the work optimistic or pessimistic, pro- or anti-Augustan? Should we read it as a eulogy or a bitter critique of Rome and her imperial ambitions? This book suggests that the



ambiguity of the poem is the product of a complex and thorough-going engagement with earlier writers in the didactic tradition: Hesiod, Aratus and - above all - Lucretius. Drawing on both traditional, philological approaches to allusion, and modern theories of intertextuality, it shows how the world-views of the earlier poets are subjected to scrutiny and brought into conflict with each other. Detailed consideration of verbal parallels and of Lucretian themes, imagery and structural patterns in the Georgics forms the basis for a reading of Virgil's poem as an extended meditation on the relations between the individual and society, the gods and the natural environment.