Introduction

By placing twelfth-century Latin epic in the context of the Virgilian tradition, this study seeks to promote wider interdisciplinary knowledge of these poems. At the same time, it attempts to bridge a gap in scholarship between late antique epic and early modern epic. The Introduction presents what information is known about the lives of Joseph of Exeter, Walter of Châtillon, Alan of Lille, and John of Hauville, as well as the chronology of the composition of their poems, the Ylias, Alexandreis, Anticlaudianus, and Architrenius, respectively. The poets all lived in close geographical proximity—all were active in northern France for all or much of their careers. There was also a narrow window of time in which all four poems were composed—roughly a decade, centered around the 1180s. These facts suggest the possibility of direct competition and mutual influence.

The Medieval Classic

This book considers how ancient and medieval commentaries on the Aeneid by Servius, Fulgentius, Bernard Silvestris, and others can give us new insights into four twelfth-century Latin epics—the Ylias by Joseph of Exeter, the Alexandreis by Walter of Châtillon, the Anticlaudianus by Alan of Lille, and the Architrenius by John of Hauville. Virgil’s influence on twelfth-century Latin epic is generally thought to be limited to verbal echoes and occasional narrative episodes, but evidence is presented that more global influences have been overlooked because ancient and medieval interpretations of the Aeneid, as preserved by the commentaries, were often radically different from modern readings of the Aeneid. By explaining how to interpret the Aeneid, these commentaries directly influenced the way in which twelfth-century Latin epic imitated the Aeneid. At the same time, these Aeneid commentaries allow us a greater awareness of the generic expectations held by the original readers of twelfth-century Latin epic. Thus, this book provides a new way to look at the development of allegory and contributes to our understanding of ancient and medieval perceptions of the Aeneid while exploring the importance of commentaries in shaping poetic composition, imitation, and reading.

Vergilija „Eneīdas” mēģinājumi latviešu heksametros

This paper presents the compilation and analysis of the Latvian translations of the Aeneid, the Latin epic poem written by Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro), from the first attempts in the late 19th century until the most recent publication in 1970. The materials analysed also include republications of translation excerpts. The source texts are arranged and revised chronologically, and the text analysis is achieved through the comparative method. Particular attention is paid to the translation issues of the dactylic hexameter, the ancient meter also known as “the meter of the epic”. There is no tradition in the Latvian cultural context to render epic poems into prose or any other meter than the dactylic hexameter. Augusts Ģiezens is the most prolific translator of epic poems in Latvian and has translated all Ancient Greek epic poems and the Roman Aeneid. Consequently, his version of the dactylic hexameter has established itself as an example for many generations of readers. The reason for this is the lack or unavailability of other translations. The comparison of translations also offers a look into the rendering of ancient proper nouns. Particular care is devoted to critiques of the translations as published by contemporaries in the press. The variations of translation strategies in early 20th-century poetry renderings in terms of both meter and proper noun rendering lead to the conclusion that attempts in creating a Latvian hexameter have not yet been exhausted and are likely to find new manifestations, particularly in Latvian ancient poetry translation.

Polska epika bohaterska przed i po „Gofredzie”

The article is a review of the most important trends in the development of the Polish epic in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the absence of significant traditions of knightly works, the creation of Polish heroic poetry should be associated primarily with the humanistic movement, whose representatives set a heroic epic at the top of the hierarchy of genres and recognized 'Eneid' as its primary model. The postulate proposed first by the Renaissance and later by the Baroque authors did not lead to the creation of a ‘real’ epic in Poland. The translations of: the Virgil’s epic poem (1590) by Andrzej Kochanowski and Book 3 of 'The Iliad' by Jan Kochanowski can be regarded as the genre substitutes. These translations seem to test whether the young Polish poetic language is able to bear the burden of an epic matter. Then again, the works of Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski on the Latin 'Lechias' (the 1st half of the 17th century), which was to present the beginnings of the Polish state, were not completed. Polish Renaissance authors preferred themes from modern or even recent history, choosing 'Bellum civile' by Lucan as their general model but they did not refrain from typically heroic means in the presentation of the subject. This is evidenced by such poems as 'The Prussian War' (1516) by Joannis Vislicensis or 'Radivilias' (1592) by Jan Radwan. The Latin epic works were followed by the vernacular epic in the 17th century, when the historical epic poems by Samuel Twardowski and Wacław Potocki were created, as well as in the 18th century (the example of 'The Khotyn War' by Ignacy Krasicki). The publication of Torquato Tasso’s 'Jerusalem delivered' translation by Piotr Kochanowski in 1618 introduced to the Polish literature a third variant of an epic poem, which is a combination of a heroic poem and romance motives. The translation gained enormous recognition among literary audiences and was quickly included in the canon of imitated works, but not as a model of an epic, but mainly as a source of ideas and poetic phrases (it was used not only by epic poets). The exception here is the anonymous epos entitled 'The siege of Jasna Góra of Częstochowa', whose author spiced the historical action of the recent event with romance themes, an evident reference to the Tasso’s poem. The Polish translation of Tasso’s masterpiece also contributed to the popularity of the ottava rima, as an epic verse from the second half of the 17th century (previously the Polish alexandrine dominated as the equivalent of the ancient hexameter). This verse was used both in the historical and biblical epic poems, striving to face the rhythmic challenge.

Ennius and the Tradition of Republican Epic

This chapter re-examines the influence of Ennius on subsequent Latin epic poetry before Lucretius, showing that this influence is far less apparent and much more nuanced than has been generally assumed. Close analysis of the fragments of post-Ennian Republican epic shows that engagement with the Annales during this period was dynamic and eristic, rather than reflexive and inevitable. In the final analysis, this chapter argues for a new conceptualization of the literary terrain into which Lucretius embarks in writing his poem, one marked by creative engagement with the Annales.

ONE OR MANY MILITES? MILITARY MULTIPLICITY IN LATIN EPIC

Since Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari emerged into the realm of Continental philosophy in the late twentieth century, the pair have sustained a prominent and influential presence in the fields of cultural studies, politics and sociology, also literary, artistic and cinematic scholarship, spurred on by the appropriation of the arts in Deleuze and Guattari's own work. The contributions to this special edition bring to light how the rubble-strewn textual field of Classical antiquity also ineludibly invites a methodological framework informed by Deleuze and Guattari's philosophy. By its contemporary nature, the Classical ‘canon’ is a warzone of competing translations, fragments and fragmentary orders, de- and re-constructions, bearing a torrid resemblance to the flattened and interconnected plane of existence described in Deleuze and Guattari's work. The pair draw from multiple avenues of academic exploration and encourage the seed-like spread of their multifarious ideas. This article makes a case for employing one concept in particular as a practice for reading Classical texts: ‘multiplicity’.

General

Structures of Epic Poetry is a monumental, four-volume compendium which aims to classify, analyse, and compare epic structures across Greek and Latin epic poems (and beyond) in a systematic and overarching way. While the individual Bauformen (‘structural elements’) have been the focus of the study of epic for decades, a comprehensive analysis providing a systematic overview of all structural elements in the totality of ancient epic is obviously not a one-person job. The editors, Christiane Reitz and Simone Finkmann, gathered an international group of experts for this herculean task. The compendium provides a set of broad cross-sectional papers on the individual epic structural elements, using a consistent terminology. It has to be said that the editors’ understanding of what constitutes an epic structural element is very broad: it includes the ‘type-scenes’, but also the narrative patterns such as catalogue and ecphrasis, and stylistic hallmarks such as similes; in fact, structural elements as understood by the editors come closest to genre markers.

Origins and Introductions

The chapter compares different uses of the legend of Troy as a ‘Trojan preface’ to historical and literary texts in medieval England, Wales, and Ireland. Typically used to introduce narratives of nationalist significance, the ‘Trojan preface’ forms a distinctive genre that functioned to establish or confirm myths of national origin. The work of early historians such as Henry of Huntingdon and Geoffrey of Monmouth provides examples of the uses of Troy to construct a particular kind of English identity. In Welsh and Irish texts, the Trojan legend was inserted as a chronological milestone which aligned the ethnic histories of Wales (or Britain) and Ireland with world events. The legacy of Rome was another source of English identity which worked to exclude the early British people and their descendants, the Welsh. Rome was also an important point of reference for the Welsh and Irish, who established their claim to ancient lineage through literary references to Britain under the Romans and through adaptations of Latin epic. The ambiguity of Troy, represented by Aeneas as a figure of both heroic endeavour and treacherous betrayal, is addressed in different ways by English, Welsh, and Irish writers. The chapter ends with a discussion of the Trojan prefaces in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Chaucer’s House of Fame, suggesting that these prefaces are motivated comments on the questionable historical construction of English identity.