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Virgil and
Roman poetry |
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Publius
Vergilius Maro was born in 70 BC, into a world debased
by civil
wars and then repression under Caesar
and Augustus.
He was dispossessed of his small-holding by returning veterans,
but was able to work quietly under the patronage of Maecenas.
Virgil's three works are all masterpieces: Eclogues,
Georgics
and Aeneid,
and have been frequently translated, the last most famously
by Dryden.
Not
much is known of his life, but Virgil seems to have
remained awkward and retiring, unmarried and of indeterminate
sexual orientation. Though asked to write the great Roman
epic of the Aeneid
by Augustus, and famous in his day, the poet kept out of
politics and public life. His death in 19 BC was probably
by natural causes, though some
have argued for murder.
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Virgil's influence |
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Virgil
was, and
continues to be, one of the great influences
on western literature, as important for craftsmanship as
his reworking of the epic
tradition. Virgil brought to perfection the Latin hexameter,
the reading of which (and sometimes the writing) was required
of all European poets until the twentieth century. He also
took from Alexandrian poets a fuller portrayal of women,
and gave his hero greater compassion and psychological complexity,
aspects that foreshadowed Christian attitudes. The Aeneid
was often allegorized in the Middle Ages, the characters
turned to abstract qualities. In the Renaissance, however,
together with Seneca and Ovid, Virgil became the greatest
influence on extended literary composition and so helped
create the models of excellence that have lasted till comparatively
recently.
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Reading the Latin |
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Latin is still
read, and the essentials of the language can be learned
from books,
cassettes,
CDs
and online.
Virgil readings can be heard at Harvard
Classics (Latin and translations) and Wired
for Books (Latin). Modern translations and imitations
have various
aims, as can be seen in the work of A
S Kline, R
Fitzgerald, R
Pinsky, P.
Valery, D. Slavit, A.
Mandelbaum and
W. Frost. Beginners will find the Virgil
Study Guide and Bulfinch's
Mythology useful, and scholars will already know the Virgil
Concordance. |
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Books etc. on Roman poetry |
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Virgil is well served by the Internet. Excellent sites
with listings covering all conceivable aspects of Virgil,
his times, and influence on later literature and thought,
can be found at: virgil.org,
the
virgil homepage, studies
in the classics, multimedia
paths in text and image, voice
of the shuttle and malaspina.
For bibliographies, try: A
Bibliographic Guide to Virgil's Aeneid, or A
Brief Selected Vergil Bibliography. The University of
Virginia's multimedia Aeneas
in the Underworld is particularly attractive, and the
Aeneid was a favourite with history painters, a tradition
continued in book illustration. |
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