The Primacy of Vision in Virgil's AeneidOne of the masterpieces of Latin and, indeed, world literature, Virgil's Aeneid was written during the Augustan "renaissance" of architecture, art, and literature that redefined the Roman world in the early years of the empire. This period was marked by a transition from the use of rhetoric as a means of public persuasion to the use of images to display imperial power. Taking a fresh approach to Virgil's epic poem, Riggs Alden Smith argues that the Aeneid fundamentally participates in the Augustan shift from rhetoric to imagery because it gives primacy to vision over speech as the principal means of gathering and conveying information as it recounts the heroic adventures of Aeneas, the legendary founder of Rome. Working from the theories of French phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Smith characterizes Aeneas as a voyant-visible, a person who both sees and is seen and who approaches the world through the faculty of vision. Engaging in close readings of key episodes throughout the poem, Smith shows how Aeneas repeatedly acts on what he sees rather than what he hears. Smith views Aeneas' final act of slaying Turnus, a character associated with the power of oratory, as the victory of vision over rhetoric, a triumph that reflects the ascendancy of visual symbols within Augustan society. Smith's new interpretation of the predominance of vision in the Aeneid makes it plain that Virgil's epic contributes to a new visual culture and a new mythology of Imperial Rome. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 53
... Roman Archaeology JRS Journal of Roman Studies Lewis and Short Lewis and Short, A Latin Dictionary LIMC Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae M. Mandelbaum Od. Odyssey OED Oxford English Dictionary OLD Oxford Latin Dictionary ...
... Roman Republic and the waxing influence of images in the new empire.15 Paul Zanker and Karl Galinsky have shown that visual messages played a major role in shaping Augustan culture. Zanker notes that images primarily serve the creation ...
... Roman Gaze, edited by David Fredrick,29 have called attention to the importance of vision in Roman art and architecture. Sharrock's discussion of the Portland vase30 stands out as particularly exemplary of how important the visual ...
... Romans could glean information about the new imperial order, various current events, and even the significance of international developments. A Roman of the middle Augustan period, for example, could walk from the Forum Romanum, an ...
... Roman house or funeral procession.When Aeneas sees the imago of his father or of Creusa, therefore, there is a poignancy to the word that transcends any English translation.67 Finally, one last note on terminology.Words for vision in ...
Contents
1 | |
Ruse and Revelation Visions of the Divine and the Telos of Narrative | 24 |
Vision Past and Future | 60 |
Hic amor Love Vision and Destiny | 97 |
Vidi Vici Visions Victory and the Telos of Narrative | 128 |
Conclusion Ante ora parentum | 176 |
Notes | 183 |
Bibliography | 223 |
Subject Index | 237 |
Index Locorum | 247 |