BiblioVault - Books about Vergil

Eclogues and Georgics

Vergil, Translated by James Bradley Wells

University of Wisconsin Press, 2022

James Bradley Wells combines creative practice and intimate knowledge of contemporary poetry and classical antiquity in this thought-provoking new translation of two early works by ancient Rome’s most well-known and most esteemed poet, Vergil’s Eclogues and Georgics. With its emphasis on the musicality of English, Wells’s translations honor the original spirit of Latin poetry as both a written and performance-based art form.

The accompanying introductory essays situate Vergil’s poems in a rich literary tradition. Wells provides historical context and literary analysis of these two works, eschewing facile interpretations of these oft examined texts and ensconcing them in the society and culture from which they originated. These annotated essays, a pronunciation guide, and a glossary, alongside Wells’s bold vision for what translation choices can reveal, guide readers as they explore this ancient and famously difficult poetry.

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True Names

Vergil and the Alexandrian Tradition of Etymological Wordplay

James J. O'Hara

University of Michigan Press, 2016

In True Names: Vergil and the Alexandrian Tradition of Etymological Wordplay, James O’Hara presents a richly annotated, comprehensive collection of examples of etymological wordplay in Vergil’s Aeneid, Eclogues, and Georgics. An extensive introduction on the etymologizing of Vergil and his poetic forerunners places the poet in historical context and analyzes the form and style of his wordplay.

In this new edition, O’Hara offers more than one hundred new examples, and more than 250 new bibliographical items on etymologizing in Vergil and other ancient authors, especially the other Augustan poets. A substantial new Introduction reflects on the wide scholarly response to the first edition, and it discusses issues in scholarship on etymologizing from the last two decades.

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Vergil and Classical Hexameter Poetry

A Study in Metrical Variety

George E. Duckworth

University of Michigan Press, 1969

Using Vergil's Aeneid as a norm, George E. Duckworth provides an authoritative and comprehensive analysis of the metrics of Vergil and other Latin poets who composed in hexameters—from Ennius to Arator and Corippus, from the second century before Christ to the Age of Justinian. Duckworth begins by describing the various patterns of hexameter poetry and goes on to apply these statistical criteria to poems written over a period of 750 years—thus providing a history as well as an analysis of the genre. The study of metrical variety serves to reveal the influence of earlier poets on later writers and to illuminate successive developments in an individual poet's work. Comparisons support Duckworth's views on the authenticity of works of questionable authorship, and the structural approach aids in the determination of the correct chronology of works written by a specific poet. Also included are juxtapositions of Latin poets with selected Greek hexameter poets—Ennius with Homer, Catullus with Callimachus and Apollonius of Rhodes, the later Roman poets with Quintus of Smyrna and Nonnus. Like his earlier work on the structures of the Aeneid, Duckworth's new book provides material on which to base a heightened appreciation of the genius of Vergil and other Latin poets.

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Vergil, Philodemus, and the Augustans

Edited by David Armstrong, Jeffrey Fish, Patricia A. Johnston, and Marilyn B. Skinner

University of Texas Press, 2003

The Epicurean teacher and poet Philodemus of Gadara (c. 110-c. 40/35 BC) exercised significant literary and philosophical influence on Roman writers of the Augustan Age, most notably the poets Vergil and Horace. Yet a modern appreciation for Philodemus' place in Roman intellectual history has had to wait on the decipherment of the charred remains of Philodemus' library, which was buried in Herculaneum by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. As improved texts and translations of Philodemus' writings have become available since the 1970s, scholars have taken a keen interest in his relations with leading Latin poets.

The essays in this book, derived from papers presented at the First International Symposium on Philodemus, Vergil, and the Augustans held in 2000, offer a new baseline for understanding the effect of Philodemus and Epicureanism on both the thought and poetic practices of Vergil, Horace, and other Augustan writers. Sixteen leading scholars trace his influence on Vergil's early writings, the Eclogues and the Georgics, and on the Aeneid, as well as on the writings of Horace and others. The volume editors also provide a substantial introduction to Philodemus' philosophical ideas for all classicists seeking a fuller understanding of this pivotal figure.

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