Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Texts and abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Publication
- Part II Reputation
- Part III Interpretation
- Chapter 5 Virgil’s Odyssey
- Chapter 6 Virgil’s Iliad
- Epilogue
- Appendix A Virgil commentaries in Latin editions, 1469–1599
- Appendix B Virgil commentaries ranked by number of printings
- Index
- References
Chapter 6 - Virgil’s Iliad
from Part III - Interpretation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2014
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Texts and abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Publication
- Part II Reputation
- Part III Interpretation
- Chapter 5 Virgil’s Odyssey
- Chapter 6 Virgil’s Iliad
- Epilogue
- Appendix A Virgil commentaries in Latin editions, 1469–1599
- Appendix B Virgil commentaries ranked by number of printings
- Index
- References
Summary
Know’st thou not there is but one theme for ever-enduring bards?
And that is the theme of War, the fortune of battles,
The making of perfect soldiers.
Walt Whitman, “As I Ponder’d in Silence”From antiquity onward, the Aeneid was divided into two parts: an Odyssean half, of wanderings, and an Iliadic half, of wars. Interpretation of Books 1 through 6 followed the outlines established by ancient commentaries on Homer’s Odyssey, in which the journey of the hero was allegorized as the soul’s progress from sensuality to wisdom. The main difference was that commentaries on the Aeneid gave far more attention to the underworld.
Commentary on the second half of the Aeneid was less focused, in that no one episode dominated interpretation. There is a contrast here, not only with the first six books, but with much of recent scholarship. More than anything, the episode that has occupied critics in our own time is the death of Turnus in Book 12. In deference to this, we shall begin there, with the ending. But that is a concession: as we shall see, the death of Turnus was important in the Renaissance, but it was not the defining moment of the whole poem.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Virgil in the Renaissance , pp. 191 - 247Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010
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