This study constitutes the first modern book-length, in-depth critical analysis of Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.623–14.582. In this unit Ovid, by challenging openly the artistry of his great predecessor Vergil, redraws the parameters associated with the definition and appreciation of epic poetry. The book first introduces the methodological complexity of the Ovidian embrace strategy, and, subsequently, it reads the ‘little Aeneid’ closely, discussing the network of allusions to its prototype. It assesses the structure and thematics of each episode in the cluster, and traces the recurrence of prominent motifs throughout the Metamorphoses. Not least, it explores poetics, arguing that Ovid’s selective incorporation of the Aeneid reproduces the spirit and fundamental ideas of the model in an idiosyncratic sophisticated manner.

By the time the Roman poet Valerius Flaccus wrote in the first century CE, the tale of Jason and his famous ship the Argo had been retold so often it was a byword for poetic banality. Why, then, did Valerius construct his epic Argonautica? In this innovative analysis, Jessica Blum-Sorensen argues that it was precisely the myth's overplayed nature that appealed to Valerius, operating in and responding to a period of social and political upheaval. Seeking to comment obliquely on Roman reliance on mythic exempla to guide action and expected outcomes, there was no better vessel for his social and political message than the familiar Argo. Focusing especially on Hercules, Blum-Sorensen explores how Valerius' characters--and, by extension, their Roman audience--misinterpret exemplars of past achievement, or apply them to sad effect in changed circumstances. By reading such models as normative guides to epic triumph, Valerius' Argonauts find themselves enacting tragic outcomes: effectively, the characters impose their nostalgic longing for epic triumph on the events before them, even as Valerius and his audience anticipate the tragedy awaiting his heroes. Valerius thus questions Rome's reliance on the past as a guide to the present, allowing for doubt about the empire's success under the new Flavian regime. It is the literary tradition's exchange between triumphant epic and tragedy that makes the Argo's voyage a perfect vehicle for Valerius' exploration: the tensions between genres both raise and prohibit resolution of anxieties about how the new age--mythological or real--will turn out.

Ancient Epic offers a comprehensive and accessible introduction to six of the greatest ancient epics – Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Vergil's Aeneid, Ovid's Metamorphoses, and Apollonius of Rhodes' Agonautica. Provides an accessible introduction to the ancient epic Offers interpretive analyses of poems within a comprehensive historical context Includes a detailed timeline, suggestions for further readings, and an appendix of the Olympian gods and their Akkadian counterparts

A wide-ranging, interdisciplinary collection exploring different ways of visualising Greek and Roman epic in both ancient and modern culture.

The volume offers an innovative and systematic exploration of the diverse ways in which Later Greek Epic interacts with the Latin literary tradition. Taking as a starting point the premise that it is probable for the Greek epic poets of the Late Antiquity to have been familiar with leading works of Latin poetry, either in the original or in translation, the contributions in this book pursue a new form of intertextuality, in which the leading epic poets of the Imperial era (Quintus of Smyrna, Triphiodorus, Nonnus, and the author of the Orphic Argonautica) engage with a range of models in inventive, complex, and often covert ways. Instead of asking, in other words, whether Greek authors used Latin models, we ask how they engaged with them and why they opted for certain choices and not for others. Through sophisticated discussions, it becomes clear that intertexts are usually systems that combine ideology, cultural traditions, and literary aesthetics in an inextricable fashion. The book will prove that Latin literature, far from being distinct from the Greek epic tradition of the imperial era, is an essential, indeed defining, component within a common literary and ideological heritage across the Roman empire.

This compendium (4 vols.) studies the continuity, flexibility, and variation of structural elements in epic narratives. It provides an overview of the structural patterns of epic poetry by means of a standardized, stringent terminology. Both diachronic developments and changes within individual epics are scrutinized in order to provide a comprehensive structural approach and a key to intra- and intertextual characteristics of ancient epic poetry.

Re-envisions epic from Homer to Nonnus through theories of the gaze.

This volume on the three Flavian epic poets (Valerius Flaccus, Statius and Silius Italicus) for the first time critically engages with a unique set-up in Roman literary history: the survival of four epic poems from the same period (Argonautica; Thebaid, Achilleid; Punica). The interactions of these poems with each other and their contemporary context are explored by over 20 experts and emerging scholars. Topics studied include the political dimension of the epics, their use of epic themes and techniques and their intertextual relationship among each other and to predecessors. The recent upsurge of interest in Flavian epic has been focussed on the analysis of individual works. Looking at these poems together now allows the appreciation of their similarities and nuanced differences in the light of their shared position in literary and political history and gives insights into the literary culture of the period. The different approaches and backgrounds of the contributors ensure the presentation of a range of viewpoints. Together they offer new perspectives to the still increasing readership of Flavian epic poetry but also to anyone interested in the epic genre within Roman literature or other cultures more generally.

PIERIDES II, Series Editors: Philip Hardie and Stratis Kyriakidis The re-emergence of Menander from the landfills of Egypt in the late-19th century and the subsequent discovery of the Bodmer Codex in the 1950s caused a sensation among scholars. After a period in which the primary editing and reconstruction of the substantially preserved plays and fragments was the main line of criticism, scholars were finally in a position to take a deep breath and look at Menander and New Comedy, both Greek and Roman, in wider contexts of interpretation and with fresh perspectives drawn from innovative work both in Classical and more modern studies. This book aims to showcase these new approaches to postclassical comedy. The individual contributions, six in total, approach New Comedy as theatrical performance, but also as a dynamic player in the socio-political discourses of the polis culture that gave birth to it. The chapters highlight continuities as well as discontinuities with the cultural and literary past of Athens and the Greek world, but mostly emphasise the progressiveness of New Comedy as a genre and its importance for the nascent culture of Hellenism and Rome thereafter. Blumeâ (TM)s introductory chapter tells the story of Menanderâ (TM)s re-emergence from the tenebrae in full detail. The other five chapters are dual in nature: expositional of a method, but also practical examples of it. They are arranged in a fashion which underlines the major theoretical underpinnings of New Comedy studies, as they are being developed in the present: Cultural Studies (David Konstan and Susan Lape), Intertextuality and Performance (Antonis K. Petrides and Rosanna Omitowoju), and Reception in Rome (Sophia Papaioannou).