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 164
... underworld . The shores of Cumae are called " Euboean " ( 6.2 ) because a colony from Chalcis on Euboea had been founded there sometime in the eighth century B.C. The ominous asso- ciation of the region with the realm of the dead ...
... underworld . The shores of Cumae are called " Euboean " ( 6.2 ) because a colony from Chalcis on Euboea had been founded there sometime in the eighth century B.C. The ominous asso- ciation of the region with the realm of the dead ...
Page 170
... underworld ; after all , death comes easily enough to everyone , and the gates of Dis are open night and day to accommodate the constant flow of souls . The problem is the ascent : the Sibyl , in a sense , is speaking of returning to ...
... underworld ; after all , death comes easily enough to everyone , and the gates of Dis are open night and day to accommodate the constant flow of souls . The problem is the ascent : the Sibyl , in a sense , is speaking of returning to ...
Page 197
... underworld of mytho- logical lore to the underworld of those more hopeful philosophers who envis- aged some sort of fate after death besides the gloomy underworld home that Achilles lamented to Odysseus was worse than the life of some ...
... underworld of mytho- logical lore to the underworld of those more hopeful philosophers who envis- aged some sort of fate after death besides the gloomy underworld home that Achilles lamented to Odysseus was worse than the life of some ...
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