LATIN EPIC AND DIDACTIC POETRY: GENRE, TRADITION AND INDIVIDUALITY; ED. BY MONICA GALE

The epic was a daunting genre for Latin poets and audiences alike, with poets well aware that they were part of a tradition in which innovation had to be carefully balanced with the elements laid down by their Greek forbears. These eleven papers, from a conference held in Maynooth in 2000, examine the ways in which Latin authors used the genres of epic and didactic, the reasons for the blurred distinction or margins between the two, and the historical and political context of specific poems. Supported throughout with numerous extracts in Latin and English translation, the contributions discuss the language of epic and didactic, Politian's Ambra , Lucretius' De Rerum Natura , Virgil's Georgics and works by Valerius Flaccus, Statius, Claudian, Juvencus and, lastly, more recent works, including 20th-century Welsh poetry. Virgilian epic has an `absent presence' here; later poets all measured their own work against the Aeneid but no contributor chose to make it their chief subject. How Is It Possible For A Poet To Find His Own Individual Voice, When He Is Writing In A Tradition So Venerable And So Constrained By Convention As Roman Epic? How Do Poets Working In Related Genres - Particularly Didactic - Conceptualize Their Relationship To The Main Epic Tradition? The Eleven Essays In This Volume, By Leading Scholars In The Field Of Roman Poetry And Its Post-classical Receptions, Consider Some Of The Strategies Which Writers From Lucretius Onwards Have Employed In Negotiating Their Relationship With Their Literary Forebears, And Staking Out A Place For Their Own Work Within A Tradition Stretching Back To Hesiod And Homer.--book Jacket. Introduction: Genre, Tradition, And Individuality / Monica Gale -- Getting The Measure Of Heroes: The Dactylic Hexameter And Its Detractors / Llewelyn Morgan -- Politian's Ambra And Reading Epic Didactically / Andrew Laird -- The Story Of Us: A Narratological Analysis Of Lucretius' De Rerum Natura / Monica Gale -- From Didactic To Epic: Georgics 2.458-3.48 / Damien Nelis -- Virgil's Corycius Senex And Nicander's Georgica: Georgics 4.116-148 / Stephen Harrison -- Tradition And Originality: Allusion In Valerius Flaccus' Lemnian Episode / Ray Clare -- The Repetitions Of Hypsipyle / Bruce Gibson -- Claudian: The Epic Poet In The Prefaces / Catherine Ware -- Approaching Christian Epic: The Preface Of Juvencus / Roger Green -- Virgilian Imperialism, Original Sin And Fracastoro's Syphilis / Philip Hardie -- The Aeneid And Twentieth-century Welsh Poetry / Ceri Davies. Edited By Monica Gale ; Contributors, Ray Clare, ... [et Al.] Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes. Cover Title page Contents Acknowledgements Notes on contributors Introduction: Genre, tradition and individuality PART 1: FRAMING EPICS: EPIC, DIDACTIC AND RELATED GENRES 1. Getting the measure of heroes: The dactylic hexameter and its detractors 2. Politian's Ambra and reading epic didactically 3. The story of us: A narratological analysis of Lucretius' De Rerum Natura 4. From didactic to epic: Georgics 2.458 - 3.48 PART II: GENRE AND TRADITION: VIRGIL AND AFTER 5. Virgil's Corycius senex and Nicander's Georgica: Georgics 4.116-148 6. Tradition and originality: Allusion in Valerius Flaccus' Lemnian episode 7. The repetitions of Hypsipyle 8. Claudian: The epic poet in the prefaces PART III: RECEPTIONS: REINVENTING CLASSICAL EPIC 9. Approaching Christian epic: The preface of Juvencus 10. Virgilian imperialism, original sin and Fracastoro's Syphilis 11. The Aeneid and twentieth-century Welsh poetry Index Locorum General Index