Fathers and Sons in Virgil's Aeneid: Tum Genitor Natum PDF
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Fathers and Sons in Virgil's Aeneid : Tum title: Genitor Natum author: Lee, M. Owen. publisher: State University of New York Press isbn10 | asin: 0873954513 print isbn13: 9780873954518 ebook isbn13: 9780585067995 language: English Virgil.--Aeneis, Aeneas (Legendary character) in literature, Epic poetry, Latin-- subject History and criticism, Fathers and sons in literature, Rome in literature. publication date: 1979 lcc: PA6825.L37eb ddc: 873/.01 Virgil.--Aeneis, Aeneas (Legendary subject: character) in literature, Epic poetry, Latin-- History and criticism, Fathers and sons in literature, Rome in literature. Page iii Fathers And Sons In Virgil's Aeneid: Tum Genitor Natum M. Owen Lee State University of New York Press ALBANY Page iv Published by State University of New York Press, Albany ©1979 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address State University of New York Press, State University Plaza, Albany, N.Y., 12246 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Lee, M Owen, 1930- Fathers and sons in Virgil's Aeneid: Tum genitor natum. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Vergilius Maro, Publius. Aeneis. 2. Fathers and sons in literature. I. Title. PA6825.L37 873'.01 79-15157 ISBN 0-87395-402-5 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Page v PATRIBUS BASILIANIS Page vii Contents Preface ix I Introduction: The Death of Pallas 1 II Some Preliminary Considerations 8 Augustus in the Aeneid 8 The Proscriptions 14 Pietas 17 The Divine Machinery 23 III The Poem 30 Arma virumque 30 Conticuere omnes 36 Postquam res Asiae 46 At regina gravi 50 Interea medium Aeneas 55 Sic fatur lacrimans 59 Tu quoque litoribus 68 Ut belli signum 72 Atque ea diversa 77 Panditur interea domus 81 Oceanum interea surgens 93 Turnus ut infractos 96 IV Some Further Considerations 105 V Homer's Poems 119 VI The Failure of Aeneas 140 VII The Failure of Virgil 157 VIII The Undoing of Virgil's Failure 168 Notes 177 Indexes 195 Page ix Preface Virgil is a writer the Latinist reads early, lives his life with, and often comes late to love. Through the years I have read him for myself far more than I have read him with or written on him for others. These are in fact the first pages I have ever published on the Aeneid, and the tone throughout them is personal. In the first sentence I speak in the first person. This is unusual and perhaps will be thought unacceptable in a book presented by a university press. But I have not written a work of scholarship. I have used footnotes mainly to support and in some cases to qualify statements which are likely to strike the wissenschaftlich Virgilian as strange if not altogether inappropriate. I have touched on subjects which may appear peripheral to my argument until the final chapters are reached. And I have, throughout, been subjective in my response to a poet we have been taught of late to read for his subjective responses. A recent introduction to the Aeneid makes a distinction between what a commentator may say and what an individual can find and respond to. I want to cross that line. So I have spoken as an individual. A good portion of my text is devoted to a book-by-book narrative summary of Virgil's poem. Something similar has already been done in at least three other volumes written in English on the Aeneid in the last few years. I can only say that, like the authors of those volumes, I found this the only Page x convenient way of saying what needed to be said. My plot summary is long, because there are many points to be made in their proper places in the narrative and discussed later. It is also to some extent condensed, as there are numerous events in the plot of the Aeneid not necessary to my purposes. I make my way through the long story with a single point of view, and that at least distinguishes my summary from those others have written. In reaching my conclusions I have had recourse to some of the insights and terminology of C.G. Jung. This requires less apology now, I think, than it might have a generation back, when Jackson Knight, in the additions made to his Cumaean Gates, predicted that Virgilian studies would take this turn. I am aware that some aspects of Jung are open to question. At the same time, the importance of his insights for understanding works of art, and in particular those works which deal with mythical subjects in intuitive ways, is becoming increasingly clear. My observations hardly exhaust what Jung can say about the Aeneid, and I hope that some Virgilian better qualified than I to deal with the subject will eventually develop the ideas only suggested here. In commenting on Virgil and on the long Virgilian tradition I have also spoken, sometimes at length, about other poets and about philosophers, artists, composers, and film-makers. The remarks I make about these para-Virgilians may not be helpful to every reader, but the principle at work is, I think, sound enough. Who knows Virgil who only Virgil knows? I owe a debt of thanks, for stimulating conversations had, to Emmet Robbins in Vienna and again in Toronto, to Michael Masi in Rome, to Robert Barringer in Oxford, and especially to Ross Woodman in London. I must hasten to add that none of them is to be held responsible for the conclusions reached in this book, and I suspect that all of them would to some degree
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