Madness Unchained: A Reading of Virgil's AeneidMadness Unchained is a comprehensive introduction to and study of Virgil's Aeneid. The book moves through Virgil's epic scene by scene and offers a detailed explication of not only all the major (and many minor) difficulties of interpretation, but also provides a cohesive argument that explores Virgil's point in writing this epic of Roman mythology and Augustan propaganda: the role of fury or madness in Rome's national identity. There have been other books that have attempted to present a complete guide to the Aeneid, but this is the first to address every episode in the poem, omitting nothing, and aiming itself at an audience that ranges from the Advanced Placement Virgil student in secondary school to the professional Virgilian and everyone in-between, both Latinists and the Latin-less. Individual chapters correspond to the books of the poem; unlike some volumes that prejudice the reader's interpretation of the work by rearranging the order of episodes in order to influence their impact on the audience, this book moves in the order Virgil intended, and also gives rather fuller exposition to the second half of the poem, Virgil's self-proclaimed "greater work" (maius opus). The notes to each chapter, as well as the "Selected Bibliography," are meant to provide a guide to the dense forest that is Virgilian scholarship. The notes aim at familiarizing the interested reader with the better and lesser known byways of Virgilian criticism, both English/American and continental, and at introducing the reader to some of the perennial problems of Virgilian literary criticism. It is hoped that Madness Unchained will become the standard introductory guide to the poem, useful in college and university courses in mythology, Roman literature, epic poetry, and Virgil (in Latin or translation), as well as offering a reappraisal of the poem to the many readers and scholars in other disciplines who know they should "like" the Aeneid, but who have always been perplexed by the seemingly stra |
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Page xiii
... poem of war . I disregarded his advice during the Christmas season of 1995-1996 , and read one book of the poem a day as a sort of Virgilian twelve days of Christmas , and I have repeated that nativity tradition yearly ever since.2 ...
... poem of war . I disregarded his advice during the Christmas season of 1995-1996 , and read one book of the poem a day as a sort of Virgilian twelve days of Christmas , and I have repeated that nativity tradition yearly ever since.2 ...
Page xvi
... poem will arrive at heartfelt conclusions about the ambi- guities , vagaries , perplexities , and outright paradoxes the poem offers its readers . ( and listeners ! ) . Once we have decided to disobey Virgil and set out to read his epic ...
... poem will arrive at heartfelt conclusions about the ambi- guities , vagaries , perplexities , and outright paradoxes the poem offers its readers . ( and listeners ! ) . Once we have decided to disobey Virgil and set out to read his epic ...
Page 405
... poem spend as much time as possible buried in the commentary tradition ( including the " readings " of the poem offered by Dante , Milton , and the medieval Aeneid poets ! ) , and be as immersed as possible in Homer , before they worry ...
... poem spend as much time as possible buried in the commentary tradition ( including the " readings " of the poem offered by Dante , Milton , and the medieval Aeneid poets ! ) , and be as immersed as possible in Homer , before they worry ...
Contents
Arms and the Man | 1 |
All Fell Silent | 37 |
After It Seemed Best | 75 |
Copyright | |
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Acestes Achilles Actium Aeneas Aeneid Allecto Anchises Apollo appearance Arcadian arma arms Arruns Ascanius Augustan Augustus battle beginning Book 11 Book 9 Camilla Carthage Carthaginians cavalry Chloreus Classical combat commentary Creusa dead death depiction describes Diana Dido Dido's Diomedes divine Drances end of Book epic episode Etruscan Evander Evander's evoke fate father fight final further future goddess gods Greek Harpalyce Hector Helenus hero Homer horse hunt Iliad immortals Italian Italy Juno Juno's Jupiter Jupiter's Juturna killed Latin Latium Lausus Lavinia Lucretius madness Marcellus mention Mezentius mother narrative neas Nisus and Euryalus notes Odysseus once Oxford Palinurus Pallas passage peace Penthesilea poem poem's poet Priam prophecy rage rites Roman Rome Rome's Rutulians scene Servius shield ships Sibyl Sicily simile slaughter storm story temple theme tion tradition Trojans Troy Turnus underworld Venus Vergilius victory Virgil Virgil's Aeneid Virgilian Volscian words wounded young