Vergil's Georgics and the Traditions of Ancient Epic: The Art of Allusion in Literary History
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About this book
In this important and original new book Joseph Farrell argues that there is a detailed and extensive program of literary allusion in Vergils Georgics moving basically from Hesiod and Aratus in the first book to Lucretius in the middle two to Homer in the fourth. This program involves what he calls "analytic" allusion namely a reconstruction or interpretation of the texts alluded to; and he contends the direction of the allusion moving from Hesiod (and perhaps Alexandrian poetics) toward Homer and heroic epic helps to clarify the development of Vergils poetic career which moves from the Callimacheanism of the Eclogues to the full-fledged epic of the Aeneid. Applying to the Georgics the full range of recent scholarly methodology Farrells pathbreaking book will be of great interest to all scholars and students of Vergil classical literature and literary allusion.
