Pastoral poetry was probably the creation of the Hellenistic poet Theocritus, and he was certainly its most distinguished exponent in Greek. Vergil not only transposed the spirit of Greek pastoral into an Italian setting, blending details from the life of his native countryside …
In this book, conceived as a sort of Prolegomena to his two Teubner editions, Conte gives account of his choices in editing his Virgilian text. Engaging in a passionate debate with his predecessors and critics, he guides the reader in a fascinating journey in the history of tran…
The author seeks to demonstrate in the first chapter (which analyzes Virgil's working over of the text of Homer) that "on the contrary, imitation very often is the actual path of originality, the condition thanks to which it is brought into being--at least in the classical liter…
In the author's view, the 'Georgics' is far from being tediously didactic; on the contrary, it is vividly descriptive, the first poem in all literature in which description is the chief source of pleasure, a poem written not so much to teach farmers as to delight readers. And it…
Professor Ross presents the Georgics as a poem of science, of the power and ultimate failure of knowledge. Exploring the science that Virgil knew and used, he analyzes the oppositions and balances of lire and water, of the qualities of hot and cold, wet and dry, throughout the p…
Examines the "Elements" of Virgil's "Georgics": both the elements of the physical world (earth, air, fire, and water) and the ideas, motifs and themes of Virgil's poetic thought.
Professor Ross presents the Georgics as a poem of science, of the power and ultimate failure of knowledge. Exploring the science that Virgil knew and used, he analyzes the oppositions and balances of lire and water, of the qualities of hot and cold, wet and dry, throughout the p…