There is in The Aeneid one "voice" that Vergil wishes us to hear, what may be called the epic voice, not shocking in tone and substance, even patriotic and inspiriting. But there are in addition "further voices" which Vergil incorporates into his great epic, and these may be disturbing, even shocking, as they add to, comment upon, question, and occasionally subvert the implications of the epic voice. This book provides the first in-depth analysis of these "further voices," illuminating with unusual clarity Vergil's method of composition and yielding an intimate glimpse into the working of his...

Throughout his vast literary output, to a surprising extent, Vergil avoided artifacts of poetic diction like archaism and grecism, preferring instead ordinary language that grew from the common stock of the Latin tongue such as colloquialisms and prosaisms. This remarkably coherent and readable study identifies and categorizes such diction in Vergil's writings showing further how such comparatively unpromising material was converted by the poet's methods of "combination" (unctura) into poetry. In a critical analysis, Lyne draws parallels between Horace's procedures in combining works to "make...

This volume presents a wide range of pieces from a world-class Latinist which displays both his diverse interests as a scholar and his consistent concern with Augustan texts, their language and literary texture. The range of articles, written over more than three decades and including one previously unpublished piece, covers the same connected territory - largely Virgil, Horace, and elegy. R. O. A. M. Lyne's consistent approach of close reading means that the articles form a coherent whole, while his compelling style as an engaged literary analyst ensures that these are not dry or forbidding...

This collection of essays, written by former pupils, celebrates the career of Jasper Griffin, one of the foremost modern scholars of classical epic. The volume surveys the epic tradition from the eighth century BC to the nineteenth century of our era. Individual chapters focus on: Homer and the oral epic tradition; Homer in his religious context; Herodotus and Homer; Hellenistic epic; Virgil in his literary context; Virgil in his political-cultural context; the Augustan poets and the Aeneid; Statius' Thebaid; Old English and Old Irish epic; Renaissance epic: Tasso and Milton; and the...

The Ciris is a mythological narrative poem on the legend of Scylla and Nisus, and is an outstanding example of the epyllion genre - miniture epics, of which there must have been many from Catullus onwards. Late sources in Antiquity and inferior manuscript tradition attributed this poem to Vergil, and the possibility of Vergilian authorship has been discussed since the Renaissance. Dr Lyne has reassessed the manuscript authorities for the Ciris and here presents a new and better text of the poem with apparatus criticus. In his introduction and commentary he provides a complete account of the...