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). |
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Page ix
... poet's workmanship and artistic craft . Benardete provided much assistance to my work between 1998 and 2001. His death in November of 2001 , as I was finishing my Virgil commentary , came as a blow to all of us who had the pleasure of ...
... poet's workmanship and artistic craft . Benardete provided much assistance to my work between 1998 and 2001. His death in November of 2001 , as I was finishing my Virgil commentary , came as a blow to all of us who had the pleasure of ...
Page xiii
... poetic genius . Fur- ther , the second half of the poem both expands upon and forces a reappraisal of the poem's first six books . 3 Unfortunately , due in part to the exigencies of time , most Latin classes on the Aeneid ( both the ...
... poetic genius . Fur- ther , the second half of the poem both expands upon and forces a reappraisal of the poem's first six books . 3 Unfortunately , due in part to the exigencies of time , most Latin classes on the Aeneid ( both the ...
Page xiv
... poetic mind and the nur- turing of the artist's voice . Horace ( 65 B.C. - 8 B.C. ) , Virgil's close personal friend , probably published his collection of three books of carmina ( the “ Odes ” ) in 23 B.C. , at the age of forty - two ...
... poetic mind and the nur- turing of the artist's voice . Horace ( 65 B.C. - 8 B.C. ) , Virgil's close personal friend , probably published his collection of three books of carmina ( the “ Odes ” ) in 23 B.C. , at the age of forty - two ...
Page xv
... poet's most recent accomplishment with his first published work , the Eclogues , which open with an address to the shepherd Tityrus . But in the context of Virgil's triple poetic achievement , the Aeneid offers the most sustained ...
... poet's most recent accomplishment with his first published work , the Eclogues , which open with an address to the shepherd Tityrus . But in the context of Virgil's triple poetic achievement , the Aeneid offers the most sustained ...
Page xvii
... poet chose to end his work not with a triumphal scene in heaven ( Venus is conspicuously absent from the end of the ... poetic mantle , Lucan ( A.D. 39-65 ) , to set the stage for his own verse exposition of Rome's nightmare . 18 Notes 1 ...
... poet chose to end his work not with a triumphal scene in heaven ( Venus is conspicuously absent from the end of the ... poetic mantle , Lucan ( A.D. 39-65 ) , to set the stage for his own verse exposition of Rome's nightmare . 18 Notes 1 ...
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Common terms and phrases
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