Augustan Poetry

This article offers a thorough study of Virgil's interaction with the myth of Eteocles and Polynices' war for the throne of Thebes, as represented especially in Athenian tragedy. It demonstrates that allusions to the Theban myth are crucial to the Aeneid's construction of a set of tensions and oppositions that play an important role in Virgil's reflection on the historical experience of Rome, especially in connection with the transition from Republic to Empire. In particular, interaction with Theban stories allows Virgil to explore: (1) the dichotomy between similarity and foreignness in the depiction of Rome's enemies; (2) the tension in differing attitudes towards the state as reflected in antithetical character types ––namely, the selfless youth who sacrifices himself for the community and the would-be tyrant prepared to go to any lengths to achieve sole power; and, finally, (3) the dichotomy between opposing notions of time defined by teleology, on the one hand, and circularity and repetition on the other, the two representing the differing temporalities of epic and tragedy, respectively.

On the acculturation of Greek modes of humor in a Roman setting, putting special attention on Horace and his signature brand of playful, but mercilessly needling irony.  The article represents a slightly revised and expanded version of the keynote lecture that was delivered at the 'Rideamus Igitur' conference in Athens, in May 2011.

RESUMO: Para verter a parelha elegíaca latina, algumas traduções poéticas metrificadas de obras ovidianas em língua portuguesa têm demonstrado certa preferência pelo dístico vernáculo, engendrado por Péricles Eugênio da Silva Ramos (1964), composto por verso alexandrino sucedido de decassílabo heroico. Seguindo esse modelo, apresentamos nossa proposta de transposição criativa para a carta de Penélope a Ulisses, das Heroides, elaborada com base nas considerações de alguns tradutores-poetas que se serviram desse mesmo arranjo e nos pressupostos teórico-metodológicos norteadores da prática da tradução poética, segundo Roman Jakobson (1969), Samuel Levin (1978) e José Paulo Paes (2008).
Palavras-chave: Ovídio, Heroides, Penélope a Ulisses, Transposição criativa

Neste trabalho, apresentamos nossa proposta de tradução poética para as obras Ibis, Nux e Halieutica, atribuídas ao poeta romano Publius Ouidius Naso. Tendo em vista que a crítica tradicional costuma dividir a carreira literária de Ovídio em três fases – juventude, maturidade e exílio –, acreditamos ser possível vislumbrar a existência de uma quarta fase ovidiana se alinharmos esses três poemas aos nove títulos que compõem o corpus mais comumente aceito como autêntico, tanto pelo flagrante diálogo que eles estabelecem com as obras precedentes como pela sublimação temática dessas que, supostamente, teriam sido suas derradeiras composições.

Palavras-chave: Ovídio; Ibis; Nux; Halieutica; Tradução poética.

In this dissertation, we present our poetic translation proposal for the works Ibis, Nux and Halieutica, attributed to the Roman poet Publius Ouidius Naso. Since traditional criticism often divides Ovid's literary career into three phases – youth, maturity, and exile – we believe it is possible to glimpse the existence of a fourth Ovidian phase if we align these three poems with the nine titles that make up the most commonly accepted corpus as authentic, both by the blatant dialogue that they establish with the previous works and by the thematic sublimation of those that supposedly would have been his last compositions.

Keywords: Ovid; Ibis; Nux; Halieutica; Poetic translation.

Review of: T. P. Wiseman, The House of Augustus: A Historical Detective Story. This engaging and accessible book conclusively puts to rest the longstanding misidentification of grand ruins on Rome’s Palatine Hill as the “House of Augustus.” Wiseman defends the view that Augustus’ buildings on the Palatine carefully differentiated between private modesty and public munificence while aligning the princeps with Romulus through their various imprints on this storied landscape. Sound archaeological arguments are couched within a less convincing attempt to reframe Augustus as a populist hero.

This paper explores the Aeneid’s geopoetics and travel thematics in relation to Vergil’s inclusion of the Eridanus-Po river in his description of Elysium (Aen. 6.558-9). The paper proposes that the reference to the Eridanus evokes an aboveground journey from Cumae to the Po region that symbolically corresponds to Aeneas’ Underworld journey in Aeneid 6. To support this supposition, the paper surveys references to travel in Aeneid 6; reviews previous interpretations of 6.558-9 as well as mythical and literary traditions relating to the Eridanus; and demonstrates the fundamental role of rivers for Greco-Roman conceptualizations of geographical space. The final section of the paper speculates about how a journey from Cumae to the Po resonates with travel that Vergil himself undertook during his lifetime, and considers ways in which linking Elysium to the Po region recalls Vergil’s earlier poetic representations of his patria and imbues his Underworld with a Padane tint.

Studio sui modi dell'influenza ovidiana sulle Metamorfosi di Apuleio. Al di là delle non numerosissime allusioni e riprese testuali, una lezione importante che Apuleio sembra aver imparato da Ovidio è l’uso di sottili metalessi per stimolare il coinvolgimento del lettore, che è continuamente esortato a vedere, capire, immaginare, stupirsi, (non) credere: tutte azioni che facilitano l’ingresso del lettore nell’universo narrativo e, direbbe Coleridge, la sua “temporanea sospensione dell’incredulità”.

Bucolic, a tradition of ancient Greek and Latin poetry deriving from certain works of Theocritus, emerges in a period of literary experimentation and reconsolidation of the Greek cultural past. The period after Theocritus sees a codification of dialogues about idealized herdsmen, modelled on a subset of his poems; a still later Greek tradition expands the thematic repertory under the same linguistic and metrical features. Virgil brings the type into Latin with an emphasis on the political position of poetry in an increasingly autocratic Rome, and later Roman bucolic poets respond in different ways to those concerns.

In K. Seigneurie and I. Ramelli, eds., A Companion to World Literature, vol. 1 (Chichester and Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2020), pp. 549-59.

Résumé : L’Énéide de Virgile est une source inépuisable de recherches. Entre sens révélé par les exégètes anciens et modernes, interprétations symboliques ou réceptions poétiques, le présent article donne une voix à ce qui est tu, à ce qui n’est pas dit par le poète. En effet, les tableaux historiques présentés aux livres 6 et 8 de l’épopée virgilienne font apparaître des lacunes temporelles pour lesquelles ce travail apporte quelques pistes de réflexion. L’oubli de noms illustres, de grandes périodes historiques laisse se dessiner, en filigrane du texte, une forme de silence à l’égard des violentes proscriptions de 43 av. J.-C., dont Octave fut l’un des acteurs majeurs. Sans relancer la polémique autour de la courtisanerie supposée de Virgile, cet article pose la question d’une auto-censure du poète qui répond, fort commodément, aux embarras politiques du princeps.