Virgil on the Nature of Things

The Georgics , Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition

Bibliographic Data

ID19949595
AuthorsMonica R Gale (0000-0002-6032-5718, Trinity College Dublin, corresponding author)
Year2000
Publication date2000-11-09
Open AccessYes
TypeBOOK
VenueVirgil on the Nature of Things (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherCambridge University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/cbo9780511482182
OpenAlexW4214684578
Open LibraryOL7753524M
ISBN9780511482182
LanguageEN
Citations received93

The Georgics has for many years been a source of fierce controversy among scholars of Latin literature. Is the work optimistic or pessimistic, pro- or anti-Augustan? Should we read it as a eulogy or a bitter critique of Rome and her imperial ambitions? This book suggests that the ambiguity of the poem is the product of a complex and thorough-going engagement with earlier writers in the didactic tradition: Hesiod, Aratus and - above all - Lucretius. Drawing on both traditional, philological approaches to allusion, and modern theories of intertextuality, it shows how the world-views of the earlier poets are subjected to scrutiny and brought into conflict with each other. Detailed consideration of verbal parallels and of Lucretian themes, imagery and structural patterns in the Georgics forms the basis for a reading of Virgil's poem as an extended meditation on the relations between the individual and society, the gods and the natural environment

Allusion · Art · Eulogy · Intertextuality · Linguistics · Literature · Natural (archaeology) · Parallels · Philology · Poetry · Reading (process) · Sociology · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Philosophy · Allusions · Allusions in literature · Ancient - Rome · Ancient and Classical · Ancient, Classical & Medieval · Ancient, in literature · Classic Literature · Criticism · Criticism and interpretation · Didactic poetry · Didactic poetry, history and criticism · Didactic poetry, Latin · Fiction · General · Georgica · History & Surveys - Ancient & Classical · History and criticism · in literature · Influence · Knowledge · Knowledge and learning · Language · Latin · Latin Didactic poetry · Latin literature · Latin poetry · Latin poetry, history and criticism · Literary collections · Literary Criticism · Literary studies: classical, early & medieval · Literature - Classics · Lucretius Carus, Titus · Philosophy in literature · Poetry & poets: classical, early & medieval · Roman Literature · Roman Philosophy · Rome · Virgil

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