In the Image of the Ancestors

by Bernstein, Neil W.

• ISBN13: 9780802098795
• ISBN10: 0802098797
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-08-09
• Publisher: Univ of Toronto Pr

Summary

Only four Roman epic poems survive from the Flavian period (69-96 AD): Valerius Flaccus's Argonautica , Statius's Thebaid and Achilleid , and Silius Italicus's Punica. Neil W. Bernstein argues that these poems contain depictions of kinship that are significantly different from earlier epic and examines these representations in the context of the social, political, and aesthetic changes of the early Imperial period.The author analyses various kinds of kinship, including biological relationships, elective relationships such as marriage and adoption, and the symbolic bonds of social and political allegiances, to illuminate the complex ways in which the Roman upper class asserted their status with or without noble lineage. A fresh and fascinating look at not only Roman poetry, but the epic tradition itself, In the Image of the Ancestors is essential reading for classicists and literary historians.

Author Biography

Neil W. Bernstein is assistant professor in the Department of Classics and World Religions at Ohio University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 3
Kinship as Narrative	p. 7
Valerius' Argonautica: Kinship and Power	p. 30
Statius' Thebaid	p. 64
Kinship as Destiny	p. 64
Kinship and Gender	p. 85
Statius' Achilleid: Nature and Nurture	p. 105
Silius' Punica: Kinship and the State	p. 132
From Family to Nation: Descent and Ethnicity in Flavian Epic	p. 160
The Poetics of Kinship	p. 193
Notes	p. 205
Works Cited	p. 245
Index Locorum	p. 265
General Index	p. 271
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