What is epic? Is it all kings and battles with no women? Is it about glorifying and validating the victors? These are the questions that Virgil's successors self-consciously explored through poetry in the 120 years after the Aeneid achieved instant classic status and set the standard for Roman epic. Through their work they engaged in a dynamic process of imitating, interpreting, reacting against, and even perverting that standard. With subject matter drawn from myth and history - from Hannibal to Caesar, Oedipus to Medea - these poems explore issues of gender, the relationship between gods and mortals, tyranny, civil war, and, above all, what it meant to be Roman under the Emperors. After a survey of the epic tradition before Virgil and on through Ovid, each chapter explores a theme or issue, with illustrations and case-studies from all of the post-Virgilian epics. Themes covered include intertextuality, politics, cities, gender, the supernatural, and narrative. A final chapter will examine the reception and afterlife of post-Virgilian epic.
- ISBN10 1904675611
- ISBN13 9781904675617
- Publish Date 1 January 2014
- Publish Status Transferred
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Liverpool University Press
- Imprint Bristol Phoenix Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 160
- Language English