The Gods in Epic Poets and Critics of the Classical Tradition [Paperback]

This is the first study devoted to the classical literary tradition as a whole, together with the apparatus of critical scholarship which was part of that tradition. The work of the ancient critics provides some access to the interpretative conventions of the original reading community, while their theories of fiction and genre may also shed light on the problems of the truth-value of epic fiction and the kind of belief that poetry generates. Focusing on the poets themselves, Feeney explores the themes associated with each poet, including the fiction of Apollonius, allegory in the work of Statius, and anthropomorphism in Ovid's work.

Abbreviations
Introduction
1. The Critics: beginnings, and a synthesis
2. Apollonius'Argonautica
3. From Greece to Rome: Naevius and Ennius
4. Vergil'sAeneid
5. Ovid'sMetamorphoses
6. Epic of History: Lucan'sBellum Civileand Silius'Punica
7. Epic of Myth: Valerius Flaccus'Argonauticaand Statius'Thebaid
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index

A stunning synthesis of literary and intellectual history, supported, as readers of Feeney's several important articles on Vergil have come to expect, by acute and stimulating literary analysis....Feeney's book is essential reading for anyone interested in epic after Homer. --Bryn Mawr ClassicalReview

A work of dazzling and delightful scholarship and criticism....In every way a remarkable book....A landmark in the study of Latin epic. --Philip Hardie,New Hall, Cambridge University

This extremely learned book is the first study to be devoted to the Classical literary tradition as a whole....An introduction and a discussion of critics ancient and modern is followed by excellent analyses of Apollonius of Rhodes'Argonautica, Naevius and Ennius, Vergil'sAeneid, Ovid'sMetamorphosis, Lucan'sBellum Civile, Silius'Punica