Virgil's Aeneid

by Putnam, Michael C. J.

• ISBN13: 9780807844991
• ISBN10: 0807844993
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr

Summary

In this collection of twelve of his essays, distinguished Virgil scholar Michael Putnam examines the Aeneidfrom several different interpretive angles. He identifies the themes that permeate the epic, provides detailed interpretations of its individual books, and analyzes the poem's influence on later writers, including Ovid, Lucan, Seneca, and Dante. In addition, a major essay on wrathful Aeneas and the tactics of Pietasis published here for the first time. Putnam first surveys the intellectual development that shaped Virgil's poetry. He then examines several of the poem's recurrent dichotomies and metaphors, including idealism and realism, the line and the circle, and piety and fury. In succeeding chapters, he examines in detail the meaning of particular books of the Aeneidand argues that a close reading of the end of the epic is crucial for understanding the poem as a whole and Virgil's goals in composing it.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Sources and Acknowledgments	p. xi
Abbreviations	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
Notes	p. 7
The Virgilian Achievement	p. 9
Notes	p. 26
Possessiveness, Sexuality, and Heroism in the Aeneid	p. 27
Notes	p. 46
The Third Book of the Aeneid: From Homer to Rome	p. 50
Notes	p. 68
Daedalus, Virgil, and the End of Art	p. 73
Notes	p. 91
Aeneid 7 and the Aeneid	p. 100
Notes	p. 117
Umbro, Nireus, and Love's Threnody	p. 121
Notes	p. 131
Pius Aeneas and the Metamorphosis of Lausus	p. 134
Notes	p. 148
The Hesitation of Aeneas	p. 152
Notes	p. 166
Anger, Blindness, and Insight in Virgil's Aeneid	p. 172
Notes	p. 194
Wrathful Aeneas and the Tactics of Pietas in Virgil, Ovid, and Lucan	p. 201
Notes	p. 241
Virgil's Tragic Future: Senecan Drama and the Aeneid	p. 246
Notes	p. 280
Virgil's Inferno	p. 286
Notes	p. 308
Bibliography	p. 317
Index	p. 325
Index	p. 329
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