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Dazzling Likeness: Seeing Ekphrasis in Aeneid 101

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2014

Anne Rogerson
Anne Rogerson*
Affiliation:
Pembroke College, Cambridge
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Extract

What, exactly, identifies the ekphrastic at work? Some basic definitive properties can be agreed: ekphrasis is a descriptive trope that brings what it describes vividly before the imaginative gaze of its audience. It is through its vivid evocation of a scene or object unseen to this audience that the ekphrasis fulfils its purpose, and makes an emotional impact upon them. The affective power of ekphrasis thus draws its audience into the fictional world of its narrative, blurring the boundaries necessarily erected by its verbal frame, while at the same time the focus on crafted objects that we often see in ekphraseis (particularly in those on which scholars have predominantly chosen to concentrate)—and the break that an ekphrasis can create when it is interposed in a continuing narrative—serve to highlight the very createdness of this world.

So ekphrasis is on the face of it a well-defined literary figure, easily recognisable both by its intrinsic attributes and by its effects. Nevertheless the boundaries of ekphrasis are not as clearly defined as the summary above might suggest. Ekphraseis of art objects have commanded the most scholarly attention: they allow for discussion of the fashioning of the text as well as its function and they conform to modern understandings of what an ekphrasis looks like. But defined in classical terms, ekphrasis covers a far broader descriptive territory than does verbal representation of representative art alone and can include, as well as descriptions of objets d'art, descriptions of battles, of cities, of persons, places, times and events, of plants and animals, and of festivals…

Type
Research Article
Information
Ramus , Volume 31 , supplement 1-2: The Verbal and the Visual: Cultures of Ekphrasis in Antiquity , 2002 , pp. 51 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © Aureal Publications 2002

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Footnotes

1.

This article is based on a paper given at the 2002 Passraore Edwards Symposium, titled ‘Ekphrastic Representation and Ascanius in Aeneid 10’. I am grateful to my audience and chair, Stephen Harrison, for their perceptive, helpful and encouraging comments, as well as to Elton Barker, Jaś Elsner, Richard Fletcher and Philip Hardie, for their generous assistance and advice on various drafts of this piece of work.

References

2. Such ekphraseis are defined by Eisner as interventive, in distinction from the self-standing variety, in the introduction to this volume.

3. Webb (1999), esp. 11–15. On the expansive range of ancient ekphrasis see also Fantuzzi and Reitz (1997).

4. On ekphrasis and simile see in particular Becker (1995), 41–50, and Lonsdale (1990). And further on epic similes see Lyne (1989), 63–99, and West (1969).

5. On the permeability of the Virgilian ekphrastic frame see Boyd (1995).

6. In order, these are: the scenes from the Trojan war on Juno’s temple at Carthage (Aen. 1.453–93); the image of Ganymede embroidered on the cloak given as first prize in the ship-race at Anchises’ funeral games in Sicily (Aen. 5.250–57); the sculptures of Daedalus ort the doors of the temple of Apollo at Cumae (Aen. 6.20–33); the shield of Turnus (Aen. 7.789–92); the shield of Aeneas (Aen. 8.617–731); Pallas’ swordbelt (Aen. 10.496–99). Other Virgilian descriptions that might be classed as ekphrastic have been discussed by Putnam (1998), ch. 4 (‘Silvia’s Stag’), and Boyd (1992).

7. On the drive to interpret such narrative pauses see Fowler (1991), 27: ‘Much modern critical reading of ekphrasis in classical literature takes the form of an attempt to show that what earlier critics had seen as “merely” decorative description can in fact be integrated with narrative, indeed demands to be so integrated. Precisely because ekphrasis represents a pause at the level of narration and cannot be read functionally, the reader is possessed by a strong need to interpret.’

8. Besides Putnam (1998), Boyd (1992 and 1995) and Fowler (1991), see also the important studies by Barchiesi (1997); Boyle (1986), 133–76; Hardie (2002); Harrison (2001). Recently, on art in the Aeneid, see Putnam (2001).

9. Ekphraseis of works of representative art are termed ‘notional ekphraseis’ by Putnam (1998), 1.

10. Heffernan (1991), 298.

11. The emphasis on viewing in Roman writing about visual art, and in Roman ekphraseis, is stressed by Laird (1996).

12. ‘Enargeia is at the heart of ekphrasis’: Webb (1999), 13.

13. The effect of ekphrastic description on both emotions and understanding is discussed by Bartsch (1998). The bonds between reader and internal audience are strengthened by the narrative pause, which causes the reader to halt as the internal audience’s attention is caught up by the scene described; on the arresting nature of art displayed in ekphrasis see Caws (1989), esp. 256f.

14. The visual details of ekphrasis cannot be separated from pathos and effect, as Boyd (1995), 71, notes they frequently have been. Recently, the strong emotional effect of the ekphrasis of the shield of Achilles in the Iliad has been stressed by Scully (forthcoming 2003).

15. I use the translation of Russell, D.A., Quintilian: The Orator’s Education (Cambridge MA 2001Google Scholar), for all sizeable quotations from the Institutio Oratorio.

16. Cf. Scholz (1998), 76: ‘The term “ekphrasis” therefore…refers to the (verbal) activity of clarifying something completely and without a remainder.’

17. Quintilian’s discussion of pathos (Inst. Or. 6.2.29–32) emphasises that the powerful evocation of emotions is inextricably linked with the presentation of images of absent things in such a way that they seem physically present, and so with enargeia.

18. On the ‘visualizing power of the word’ see the work on Greek tragedy by Montiglio (2000), 181–92.

19. Further on this phenomenon see Goldhill (2001), esp. 172–80, and Hardie (2002), esp. 173–226.

20. Investigation of the ‘relation of description to narrative on a psychological level’ is cited by Fowler (1991) as the interpretative tactic that raises the most important questions about the ekphrastic.

21. Fowler (1991), 33–35, has noted the similarities between the ways in which ekphrasis and simile are related to the narratives in which they are embedded. These two types of ornamental figure need not be considered as being mutually exclusive, and their consecutive treatment by Quintilian, whose discussion of the effect and characteristics of enargeia (Inst. Or. 8.3.61–71) is followed by consideration of similes (Inst. Or. 8.3.72–82), would suggest that the borders between them are not so crisply defined that one passage cannot contain both. Also suggestive in this regard is Webb’s citation of the Homeric scholiast (bT), who uses the term -κϕράζων in relation to the simile describing Apollo descending like a hawk (Iliad 15.237f): Webb (1999), 13.

22. Aen. 9.661–63.

23. Aen. 1.267f.

24. He is described as Dardanius (Aen. 10.133). The treacherous implications of his ancestry may further be highlighted by his associations with ivory and gold, materials equally deceptive and inspirational of the destruction of heroes as they are precious. On the deceptiveness of ivory see Eisner (1991), 162–64; Hexter (1990), 123f. On gold, and the heroic lust for gold, as an agent of destruction see Boyle (1986), 141.

25. As is frequently assumed in readings of Virgil’s two ekphrastic similes in Book 10.

26. Cf. the vulnerable troops of Tac. Ann. 13.38, who have put aside armour and helmets in the guise of peace, and are thus exposed to attack despite their great numbers.

27. The demand for recognition in Virgil’s description of Ascanius’ appearance is emphasised by his use of detectus rather than the more common nudus to describe the young hero’s unhel-meted head. The appearance of the past participle of detego highlights exposure as a prelude— and incitement—to recognition: cf. the detection of Nero (detecta facie agnitus est, Suet. Nero 48.2) and the exposure to view of Cacus’ hidden cave (Virg. Aen. 8.241f.).

28. The reactions of the Carthaginians are reminiscent of Aeneas’ reactions to ekphrasis: the friezes on the temple of Carthage (miratur, 1.456) and the shield given to him by Venus (miratur, 8.619). On miratur as a marker of Virgilian ekphrasis see Boyd (1992), 227f.

29. Homer Od. 6.232–35 = Homer Od. 23.159–62. These heroes are the inverse of those like-life statues that are frequently the subject of epigram. Further on variations on this theme, see Bing (2002).

30. For example: obstipuit primo aspectu Sidonia Didojcasu deinde uiri tanto (Aen. 1.612f.).

31. It is not clear to whom magnanimae gentes (Aen. 10.139) refers. I would prefer to read it as indicating both the Trojan and the Italian ranks, leaving open the multiplicity of emotional effects Ascanius might have on his mixed audiences.

32. Homer Il. 19.15–18.

33. On the strong visual emphasis in this passage see Hardie (1986), 120–25.

34. The connections between these Gauls and Ascanius in Book 10 are emphasised by repetition of vocabulary in both passages: aureacaesaries ollis atque aurea uestisjuirgatis lucent sagulis, tum lactea collalauro innectuntur (8.659–71) echoes, in particular, lucet ebur; fusos ceruix cui lactea crinislaccipit et molli subnectens circulus auro (10.137f.).

35. It is easy to confuse Augustan and barbarian princes. Such uncertainty has fuelled debate on the identity of the two children on the Ara Pads Augustae.

36. Cf. Nisus and Euryalus in Book 9, two archetypal desirable young warriors who prove fatally dangerous to themselves and their compatriots.

37. mea maxima cura (Aen. 1.679) is reminiscent of expressions of desire in love poetry, as is noted by Harrison (1991) ad Aen. 10.132.

38. See p.59 above.

39. For this phenomenon in the Iliad see Monsacré (1984), 63–77.

40. See p.60 above.

41. The erotics of Statius’ presentation of Parthenopaeus are discussed by Lovatt (2001a), 34–47.

42. On Penthesilea see Boyd (1992), 224–26.

43. Specific echoes of vocabulary are underlined: Penthesilea furens mediisque in milibus ardet,/aunji subnectens (1.491 f.) recalls Ascanius inter medios (10.132) and the molli subnectens circulus auro (10.138).

44. For awed desire as a standard response to the dazzlingly beautiful young see also Xenophon’s description of the reaction given to the glorious, glowing Autolycus, who draws all eyes towards him (Symp. 1.8f). The erotic overtones of Virgil’s ekphrastic description of Ascanius may further be highlighted by comparison of the young prince to two works of art, argued by Putnam (2001) to have strong links to female emotionality.

45. On Pallas and the erotic see Putnam (1985) and Spence (1999). Here we must also compare the starry Marcellus of Horace Odes 1.12.45–48.

46. E.g., Rhianus, A.P. 12.93.

47. See also Meleager’s first century variation on Asclepiades’ theme (A.P. 12.165), where the poet puns on his own name in speaking of two youths whose contrasting complexions, of white and honey, increase his desire for them both.

48. See further Harrison (1991) ad. Aen. 10.134f.

49. Just as do actual objects: ‘Objects provide a constantly mutating system of iconic projections and investments for negotiating between selves and worlds’ (Henderson [2002], 24).

50. On expressions of love and desire for (Roman) leaders see further Du Quesnay (1995), esp. 150–52 on the relationship of this poem to the traditional klētikon.

51. I am indebted to Richard Fletcher for this astute observation.

52. On ekphrasis and simile see also Bartsch (1998).