Virgil's last dream of Aeneas and Homer

Virgil's last dream of Aeneas and Homer PDF

Author: Art Aeon

Publisher: AEON PRESS, Halifax, NS, Canada

Published:

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 199006020X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Virgil’s Last Dream of Aeneas and Homer by Art Aeon is a fictional narrative poem in the tercet stanza. It unfolds the imaginary dialogues between Augustus (63 BCE-14 CE), the first Roman emperor, and Varius Rufus (74-14 BCE), a literary executor of the great Roman poet, Publius Vergilius Maro (70-19 BCE), known as Virgil. Varius reports Virgil’s untimely death to Augustus and reveals that he keeps Virgil’s unpublished manuscript of The Aeneid. At Augustus’s request, Varius relates a succinct gist of the first six books of The Aeneid and what Virgil told him at his death about his numinous last dream on how the spirit of Aeneas guided Virgil to Dis to meet with the spirit of Homer, and what they discussed on the epic poetry: In his dream, Virgil prayed to muse Calliope for inspiration to bring his Aeneid to a meaningful conclusion. Calliope suggested that Virgil invoke Aeneas to guide him for a supernatural adventure to meet Homer in Dis and ask for expert advice in improving his new epic. At Virgil’s sincere invocation, Aeneas’s spirit appeared to him. Eventually, Aeneas guided Virgil to the palace of the queen of the dead, Proserpina. In an impromptu symposium, held by Proserpina at the plea of Aeneas, Virgil met Homer-Meles, the author of The Iliad, and Homer-Outis, the author of The Odyssey. Virgil recited his Aeneid for his revered Greek poets. After their earnest and enlightening discussions, the Greek bards convinced Virgil that his Aeneid was as good as a human could achieve. Proserpina announced that Virgil’s visit to Dis was overdue; he should return to the world of the living. At that point, Virgil awakes from his numinous dream and finds his dear friend Varius, waiting by his bed. He realizes that the time has come for him to depart from this world to Dis. Virgil requests Varius to publish The Aeneid as it is and impart his dream of Aeneas and Homer to others. Then Virgil gently passes away in peace.

Virgil's Dream of Aeneas and Homer

Virgil's Dream of Aeneas and Homer PDF

Author: Art Aeon

Publisher: Aeon Press, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Published: 2018-09-08

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 9781988038278

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

VIRGIL'S DREAM OF AENEAS AND HOMER by Art Aeon is a fictional narrative poem in tercet stanza. It unfolds the imaginary dialogues between Augustus (63 BCE-14 CE), the first Roman emperor, and Varius Rufus (74-14 BCE), a literary executor of the great Roman poet Publius Vergilius Maro (70-19 BCE), known as Virgil. Varius reports the untimely death of Virgil to Augustus, and reveals that he keeps the Virgil's unpublished manuscript of the Aeneid. At the sincere request of the emperor, Varius relates a pithy gist of the first six books of the Aeneid, and what Virgil told him at his death about his numinous last dream on how the spirit of Aeneas guided Virgil to Elysium to meet with the spirit of Homer, and to discuss on epic poetry. After their earnest enlightening discussions, Virgil was convinced that his Aeneid was ready to see the light. Finally Virgil requested Varius to publish the Aeneid as he had entrusted it to him before he left Rome to Greece for its improvement, and gently passed away in peace.

Aeneid

Aeneid PDF

Author: Virgil

Publisher: Courier Corporation

Published: 2012-03-12

Total Pages: 259

ISBN-13: 0486113973

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Monumental epic poem tells the heroic story of Aeneas, a Trojan who escaped the burning ruins of Troy to found Lavinium, the parent city of Rome, in the west.

Dreams and Dreaming in the Roman Empire

Dreams and Dreaming in the Roman Empire PDF

Author: Juliette Harrisson

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2013-07-04

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1441136002

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The history and literature of the Roman Empire is full of reports of dream prophecies, dream ghosts and dream gods. This volume offers a fresh approach to the study of ancient dreams by asking not what the ancients dreamed or how they experienced dreaming, but why the Romans considered dreams to be important and worthy of recording. Dream reports from historical and imaginative literature from the high point of the Roman Empire (the first two centuries AD) are analysed as objects of cultural memory, records of events of cultural significance that contribute to the formation of a group's cultural identity. The book also introduces the term 'cultural imagination', as a tool for thinking about ancient myth and religion, and avoiding the question of 'belief', which arises mainly from creed-based religions. The book's conclusion compares dream reports in the Classical world with modern attitudes towards dreams and dreaming, identifying distinctive features of both the world of the Romans and our own culture.

The Primacy of Vision in Virgil's Aeneid

The Primacy of Vision in Virgil's Aeneid PDF

Author: Riggs Alden Smith

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2013-09-13

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 0292756208

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

One of the masterpieces of Latin and, indeed, world literature, Virgil's Aeneid was written during the Augustan "renaissance" of architecture, art, and literature that redefined the Roman world in the early years of the empire. This period was marked by a transition from the use of rhetoric as a means of public persuasion to the use of images to display imperial power. Taking a fresh approach to Virgil's epic poem, Riggs Alden Smith argues that the Aeneid fundamentally participates in the Augustan shift from rhetoric to imagery because it gives primacy to vision over speech as the principal means of gathering and conveying information as it recounts the heroic adventures of Aeneas, the legendary founder of Rome. Working from the theories of French phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Smith characterizes Aeneas as a voyant-visible, a person who both sees and is seen and who approaches the world through the faculty of vision. Engaging in close readings of key episodes throughout the poem, Smith shows how Aeneas repeatedly acts on what he sees rather than what he hears. Smith views Aeneas' final act of slaying Turnus, a character associated with the power of oratory, as the victory of vision over rhetoric, a triumph that reflects the ascendancy of visual symbols within Augustan society. Smith's new interpretation of the predominance of vision in the Aeneid makes it plain that Virgil's epic contributes to a new visual culture and a new mythology of Imperial Rome.

Virgil's Double Cross

Virgil's Double Cross PDF

Author: David Quint

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2018-05-22

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 0691179387

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The message of Virgil's Aeneid once seemed straightforward enough: the epic poem returned to Aeneas and the mythical beginnings of Rome in order to celebrate the city's present world power and to praise its new master, Augustus Caesar. Things changed when late twentieth-century readers saw the ancient poem expressing their own misgivings about empire and one-man rule. In this timely book, David Quint depicts a Virgil who consciously builds contradiction into the Aeneid. The literary trope of chiasmus, reversing and collapsing distinctions, returns as an organizing signature in Virgil's writing: a double cross for the reader inside the Aeneid's story of nation, empire, and Caesarism. Uncovering verbal designs and allusions, layers of artfulness and connections to Roman history, Quint's accessible readings of the poem's famous episodes--the fall of Troy, the story of Dido, the trip to the Underworld, and the troubling killing of Turnus—disclose unsustainable distinctions between foreign war/civil war, Greek/Roman, enemy/lover, nature/culture, and victor/victim. The poem's form, Quint shows, imparts meanings it will not say directly. The Aeneid's life-and-death issues—about how power represents itself in grand narratives, about the experience of the defeated and displaced, and about the ironies and revenges of history—resonate deeply in the twenty-first century. This new account of Virgil's masterpiece reveals how the Aeneid conveys an ambivalence and complexity that speak to past and present.

The Cambridge Companion to Virgil

The Cambridge Companion to Virgil PDF

Author: Charles Martindale

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1997-10-02

Total Pages: 408

ISBN-13: 9780521498852

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Virgil became a school author in his own lifetime and the centre of the Western canon for the next 1800 years, exerting a major influence on European literature, art, and politics. This Companion is designed as an indispensable guide for anyone seeking a fuller understanding of an author critical to so many disciplines. It consists of essays by seventeen scholars from Britain, the USA, Ireland and Italy which offer a range of different perspectives both traditional and innovative on Virgil's works, and a renewed sense of why Virgil matters today. The Companion is divided into four main sections, focussing on reception, genre, context, and form. This ground-breaking book not only provides a wealth of material for an informed reading but also offers sophisticated insights which point to the shape of Virgilian scholarship and criticism to come.

Communication, Love, and Death in Homer and Virgil

Communication, Love, and Death in Homer and Virgil PDF

Author: Stephen Ridd

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2017-08-24

Total Pages: 347

ISBN-13: 0806159464

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and Virgil’s Aeneid are three of the most important—and influential—works of Western classical literature. Although they differ in subject matter and authorship, these epic poems share a common purpose: to tell the “deeds both of men and of the gods.” Written in an accessible style and ideally suited for classroom use, Communication, Love, and Death in Homer and Virgil offers a unique comparative analysis of these classic works. As author Stephen Ridd explains, the common themes of communication, love, and death respond to “deeply ingrained human needs” and are therefore of perennial interest. Presenting select passages from the original Greek and Latin texts—translated here into modern English—Ridd explores in detail how the characters within the poems communicate on these subjects with one another as well as with the reader. Individual chapters focus on subjects such as the traditions of singing and storytelling, relationships between sons and mothers, the role of Helen of Troy and her ties to the men in her life, and communication with the dead. Throughout his analysis, Ridd treats the three poems on an equal basis, revealing similarities and differences in their handling of prevalent themes. By introducing readers to a new way of reading these abiding classics, Communication, Love, and Death in Homer and Virgil enhances our appreciation of the imaginative world of ancient Greek and Roman epic poetry.

The Epic Successors of Virgil

The Epic Successors of Virgil PDF

Author: Philip R. Hardie

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 148

ISBN-13: 9780521425629

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

A critically sophisticated introduction to the epic tradition of the early Roman empire.