Homeric Effects in Vergil's Narrative - Updated Edition (Hardcover, Revised edition)

The study of Homeric imitations in Vergil has one of the longest traditions in Western culture, starting from the very moment the "Aeneid" was circulated. "Homeric Effects in Vergil's Narrative" is the first English translation of one of the most important and influential modern studies in this tradition. In this revised and expanded edition, Alessandro Barchiesi advances innovative approaches even as he recuperates significant earlier interpretations, from Servius to G. N. Knauer.

Approaching Homeric allusions in the "Aeneid" as "narrative effects" rather than glimpses of the creative mind of the author at work, "Homeric Effects in Vergil's Narrative "demonstrates how these allusions generate hesitations and questions, as well as insights and guidance, and how they participate in the creation of narrative meaning. The book also examines how layers of competing interpretations in Homer are relevant to the "Aeneid," revealing again the richness of the Homeric tradition as a component of meaning in the "Aeneid." Finally, "Homeric Effects in Vergil's Narrative" goes beyond previous studies of the "Aeneid" by distinguishing between two forms of Homeric intertextuality: reusing a text as an individual model or as a generic matrix.

For this edition, a new chapter has been added, and in a new afterword the author puts the book in the context of changes in the study of Latin literature and intertextuality.

A masterful work of classical scholarship, "Homeric Effects in Vergil's Narrative" also has valuable insights for the wider study of imitation, allusion, intertextuality, epic, and literary theory.