Books about the Aeneid

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Hellbent
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Books about the Aeneid

Post by Hellbent »

Hi,

I am looking for books about the Aeneid. I am interesting in knowing more about the mythology behind, as well as the historical importance of the epic. I am also very much interested in hearing your opinions about any commentaries as long as they are available as separate books.

I have found the following books, which seem to cover quite a bit. But I suppose some of them are overlapping?

seanjonesbw
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Re: Books about the Aeneid

Post by seanjonesbw »

I'm sure someone will give you some good advice about which book would be best to start with, but here's an enormous reading list to peruse while you wait:

http://lib5.leeds.ac.uk/rlists/broker/? ... 4029_1&s=m

Hellbent
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Re: Books about the Aeneid

Post by Hellbent »

seanjonesbw wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2020 7:03 pm I'm sure someone will give you some good advice about which book would be best to start with, but here's an enormous reading list to peruse while you wait:

http://lib5.leeds.ac.uk/rlists/broker/? ... 4029_1&s=m
Thank you very much. Browsing through that huge list will keep me occupied for a long time. It feels like I am about to open the door to a whole new world. The Aeneid is much more than I thought It seems.

Aetos
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Re: Books about the Aeneid

Post by Aetos »

Hi Sean,
Thanks for posting the reading lists! Not having an account at Leeds, I had to do a little digging, but was rewarded with a free reading of Barchiesi's Homeric Effects in Vergil's Narrative. Apparently due to COVID-19, Project Muse are making available free readings of some of their publications. I've only read Philip Hardie's forward so far, but the monograph appears quite promising. Narratology, Intertextuality and Reception are relatively new concepts for me and apparently Barchiesi was one of the first "New Latinists" to read Vergil with a view to these considerations.

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Re: Books about the Aeneid

Post by Aetos »

Hellbent wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2020 11:51 pm It feels like I am about to open the door to a whole new world. The Aeneid is much more than I thought It seems.
Welcome, Hellbent! That's exactly how I felt when Seneca 2008 suggested Seneca's Thyestes to me as a project. I'm just finishing the Aeneid right at the moment (at least this round!) and just finished the Iliad last week. It's been great fun trying to spot all the connexions between the two epics and seeing how skillfully Vergil adapts a Greek epic for Roman consumption. You're in for lots of discoveries!

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Re: Books about the Aeneid

Post by seanjonesbw »

Aetos wrote: Thu Apr 16, 2020 12:49 am Thanks for posting the reading lists!
You're welcome! I found their reading lists last year googling Odyssey commentaries. There's a 'list of lists' with all their classics reading lists, which includes the Iliad, the Odyssey, Herodotus, Greek novels, Catullus & Ovid, Roman Comedy, Seneca (DCCL a.u.c., not 2008) and a whole bunch of topic-based lists.

Thanks for the heads up about Project Muse - for anyone else interested if you search here and then filter by "Only content I have access to" and tick "Books", it shows you all the open access titles available for that search.

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seneca2008
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Re: Books about the Aeneid

Post by seneca2008 »

I recommend "The Last Trojan Hero, A cultural History of Virgil's Aeneid", Philip Hardie, London 2014.

Also the "Cambridge Companion to Virgil", edited by Charles Martindale, Cambridge, 1997 is interesting.

As to commentaries I have a few of the Focus series. Books 1 and 2 are by Randall Ganiban. They helpfully have comments under the text so there is no back and forth or using two texts and having to check that the text of the commentary is the same as the text you have in from of you.

Austin and Williams produced individual commentaries on books 1-6 which are essential I would have thought, although a little old in terms of interpretation.

Williams of course wrote a full commentary with pared down notes so the whole could be accommodated in two volumes.
Persuade tibi hoc sic esse, ut scribo: quaedam tempora eripiuntur nobis, quaedam subducuntur, quaedam effluunt. Turpissima tamen est iactura, quae per neglegentiam fit. Et si volueris attendere, maxima pars vitae elabitur male agentibus, magna nihil agentibus, tota vita aliud agentibus.

Hellbent
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Re: Books about the Aeneid

Post by Hellbent »

seneca2008 wrote: Thu Apr 16, 2020 6:03 pm I recommend "The Last Trojan Hero, A cultural History of Virgil's Aeneid", Philip Hardie, London 2014.

Also the "Cambridge Companion to Virgil", edited by Charles Martindale, Cambridge, 1997 is interesting.

As to commentaries I have a few of the Focus series. Books 1 and 2 are by Randall Ganiban. They helpfully have comments under the text so there is no back and forth or using two texts and having to check that the text of the commentary is the same as the text you have in from of you.

Austin and Williams produced individual commentaries on books 1-6 which are essential I would have thought, although a little old in terms of interpretation.

Williams of course wrote a full commentary with pared down notes so the whole could be accommodated in two volumes.
Thank you
The book by Hardie seems to be exactly what I am looking for. Regarding the commentaries; i actually would prefer to have them separate from the Aeneid itself, in different books. But I suppose that is a quite uncommon wish. I will start looking for the Austin and Williams commentaries you mentioned.

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seneca2008
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Re: Books about the Aeneid

Post by seneca2008 »

I forgot to mention Horsfall, N. (ed.), 1995. A Companion to the Study of Virgil. Leiden: Brill. The Brill companions are very expensive but you may be able to find it on line or in a University library.
Persuade tibi hoc sic esse, ut scribo: quaedam tempora eripiuntur nobis, quaedam subducuntur, quaedam effluunt. Turpissima tamen est iactura, quae per neglegentiam fit. Et si volueris attendere, maxima pars vitae elabitur male agentibus, magna nihil agentibus, tota vita aliud agentibus.

Hellbent
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Re: Books about the Aeneid

Post by Hellbent »

seneca2008 wrote: Fri Apr 17, 2020 5:02 pm I forgot to mention Horsfall, N. (ed.), 1995. A Companion to the Study of Virgil. Leiden: Brill. The Brill companions are very expensive but you may be able to find it on line or in a University library.
Great! Thanks, I found a couple of used ones on Abebook. Not too expensive actually.

Ronolio
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Re: Books about the Aeneid

Post by Ronolio »

It may be a bit dated, but I found Brooks Otis's Virgil: A Study in Civilized Poetry, to be highly enjoyable. Also, Darkness Visible by W.R. Johnson and William Anderson's Art of the Aeneid are quite good. All 3 of those have a good bit on the mythology and Otis and Anderson also look closely at the structural arrangement of the Aeneid, which I find fascinating.

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Re: Books about the Aeneid

Post by Ghermanius »

Hellbent wrote: Fri Apr 17, 2020 3:19 pm
Regarding the commentaries; i actually would prefer to have them separate from the Aeneid itself, in different books. But I suppose that is a quite uncommon wish. I will start looking for the Austin and Williams commentaries you mentioned.
[/quote]

That wish is not at all unusual. Physically it's much more convenient to have a bare text (OCT or Teubner) in front of one, and seperately, one or two commentaries to consult.

That's how I have worked since my undergrad days, and I still do.

As to Vergil, those oxford commentaries are what I have, too. The only thing is, they are from some time ago, and back then they seemed to think the Aeneid stopped at the end of book 6. There are interesting more recent commentaries for the later books in the Cambridge yellows and greens. And of course there are the exhaustive and rather expensive Horsfall commentaries.

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