Virgil's Experience: Nature and History: Times, Names, and PlacesThis book studies Virgil's ideas of nature, history, sense of nation, and sense of identity. It is exact and patient in its probing for nuance and detail, but also bold, wide, and original in its scope. It combines the study of Virgil with the study of attitudes to nature throughout antiquity. Blending literature with history, and in the case of Lucretius, philosophy, it offers a vision and an interpretation of the culture of the 1st century BC as a whole. It argues that Lucretius and Virgil affected a revolution in Western sensibility; claiming that a book about poetry should be a book about life, it combines scholarship and precision with a sense of the importance of literature and its capacity to enhance our understanding of our past and of ourselves. |
From inside the book
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Page 14
... river , who gave you walls , Mantua , and his mother's name , Mantua , rich in ancestors . . . ' Mantus . . . Mantua . . . Mantua ' — the repetition forces the name on our attention ; and as the poet continues to linger over this theme ...
... river , who gave you walls , Mantua , and his mother's name , Mantua , rich in ancestors . . . ' Mantus . . . Mantua . . . Mantua ' — the repetition forces the name on our attention ; and as the poet continues to linger over this theme ...
Page 17
... rivers , and little attracted by the sea . The sea is the most evocative natural element in the Iliad's landscape : Achilles weeps by the edge of the grey sea , gazing upon the boundless deep , heralds and ambassadors pass along the ...
... rivers , and little attracted by the sea . The sea is the most evocative natural element in the Iliad's landscape : Achilles weeps by the edge of the grey sea , gazing upon the boundless deep , heralds and ambassadors pass along the ...
Page 18
... Rivers might also be taken as emblematic of what we shall find to be one of his recurrent themes , the blend of change and continuity , for they are immemorially ancient and yet ' you can- not step into the same river twice ' . They are ...
... Rivers might also be taken as emblematic of what we shall find to be one of his recurrent themes , the blend of change and continuity , for they are immemorially ancient and yet ' you can- not step into the same river twice ' . They are ...
Page 19
... river , friend to the new arrivals and spokesman for the Italian earth , is also a formidable power.37 In another place Aeneas himself compares his prospect of the fall of Troy to a torrent in spate flattening crops and fields and ...
... river , friend to the new arrivals and spokesman for the Italian earth , is also a formidable power.37 In another place Aeneas himself compares his prospect of the fall of Troy to a torrent in spate flattening crops and fields and ...
Page 29
... river , where the lovely water wells up in abundance , pure and never- failing ; the washing done , they bathe and eat on the bank , where the grass grows lush and ' honey - sweet'.24 It would be a pity to say that this setting ...
... river , where the lovely water wells up in abundance , pure and never- failing ; the washing done , they bathe and eat on the bank , where the grass grows lush and ' honey - sweet'.24 It would be a pity to say that this setting ...
Contents
21 | |
A Transpadanes Experience | 73 |
The Neoteric Experience | 131 |
Energy and Delight | 211 |
The Conquest of Death | 252 |
Earth and Country | 297 |
Land and Nation | 341 |
The Wanderings of Aeneas | 389 |
Latinus Kingdom | 463 |
Evanders Kingdom | 515 |
The Later Aeneid | 564 |
Virgil and the Poets | 593 |
Virgil Augustus and the Future | 631 |
Labor Improbus | 678 |
Index of Passages Cited | 685 |
Index of Greek and Latin Words | 704 |
Other editions - View all
Virgil's Experience: Nature and History, Times, Names, and Places Richard Jenkyns No preview available - 1998 |
Virgil's Experience: Nature and History, Times, Names, and Places Richard Jenkyns No preview available - 1998 |
Common terms and phrases
Achilles adjective Aeneas Aeneid Anchises ancient Arcadia Ascanius atque Augustan Augustus Caesar Callimachus Carm Catullus Cicero colour comes context contrast Creusa death describes Dido distinctive divine earth echoes Eclogues emotional Ennius epic Epicurus Evander experience father Faunus feel force Georgics glory goddess gods golden age Greek hero Homer Horace human idea Iliad imagination Italian Italy Jupiter land landscape later Latin Latium laus Italiae lines literary look Lucr Lucretius meaning metaphor moral nature Nymphs Odyssey once Ovid Pallas paradox passage pastoral pathetic fallacy patriotic perhaps phrase poem poem's poet poet's poetic poetry praise Propertius quae rerum river Roman Rome scene seems seen sense sentence significance simile speech spirit story suggests tells theme Theocritus things Tiber Tiberinus Tibullus tion tone Transpadane Trojans Troy Turnus Venus verse Virgil vision whole woods words