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Flavian Epicists on Virgil's Epic Technique

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2014

Philip Hardie
Philip Hardie*
Affiliation:
Magdalene College, Cambridge
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Extract

Despite some notable recent essays in the rehabilitation of the Latin epic of the first century A.D., there remains a prejudice that post-Virgilian epicists are slavishly imitative in a way that Virgil (and his contemporaries in other genres) are not. The following three studies, in Valerius Flaccus, Statius, and Silius Italicus, are contributions to an argument, currently being conducted on a wide front, that imitation, even of a very close kind, may behave in a dynamic and creative way; in particular I wish to show how the epigone may function as an implicit literary analyst or critic, anticipating the results of twentieth-century criticism. My three examples take their starting-point from what I see as a general modern consensus about the nature of Virgilian epic, but the direction could be reversed, that is, we might use post-Virgilian epic as a critical aid to our reading of Virgil.

I take individual passages from the Flavian epics in which two (or more) passages of the Aeneid are laid under contribution; analysis of such passages reveals that the later poets were reading Virgil with an eye to structural correspondences or contrasts, and to image-structures reaching from the small scale of the ‘multiple-correspondence simile’ to the large scale of patterns that arch over the whole text, features that have been at the centre of much modern Virgilian criticism. Repeated reading of the Aeneid reinforces the impression of a vast structure of self-allusion and self-comment aiming for a maximal transparency of the text to itself, in so far as the prima materia of language will allow, and demanding a ‘simultaneous reading’ that is more spatial than temporal. The fragmentary state of previous large-scale Hellenistic poetry makes it difficult to judge of the originality of Virgil in this extreme extension of the features of repetition and self-allusion that characterize all literary works; but, for example, every increase in our knowledge of Callimachus' Aitia makes it seem more likely that it was constructed in a similar way.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ramus , Volume 18 , Issue 1-2 , 1989 , pp. 3 - 20
Copyright
Copyright © Aureal Publications 1989

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References

1. I think in particular of the work of critics like Conway, Boyle, Fenik, Duckworth, Putnam, Pöschl, D. West, Otis. Lesueur, R., L’Énéide de Virgile: Étude sur la composition rhythmique d’une épopée (Toulouse 1975), 21–46Google Scholar, contains a survey of various structural schemes; Moskalew, W., Formular Language and Poetic Design in the Aeneid (Leiden 1982)Google Scholar discusses the significance of repetition on the smaller scale. For related features in the visual arts see Brilliant, R., Visual Narratives: Storytelling in Etruscan and Roman Art (Ithaca & London 1984)Google Scholar, ch. 2 ‘Pendants and the Mind’s Eye’. ‘Spatial form’ and internal ‘reflexive reference’ are also important in the theory of modernism: see Frank, J., ‘Spatial Form in Modern Literature’, Sewanee Review 53 (1945), 221–40Google Scholar, 433–56, 643–53.

2. Such internal echoing may also operate between short poems within a book: cf. e.g. Hopkinson, N., Callimachus Hymn to Demeter (Cambridge 1984), 13–17Google Scholar, on correspondences between Hymns 5 and 6.

3. La traccia del modello (Pisa 1984), ch. 3.

4. Further instances of Virgil’s combinatorial imitation of Homer: Knauer, G.N., Die Aeneis und Homer (Göttingen 1964)Google Scholar, index s.v. Vergils Homerumformung: Kontaminationen; note also the inverse feature of dédoublement.

5. Giangrande, G., ‘“Art allusiva” and Alexandrian epic poetry’, CQ n.s. 17 (1967), 85–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, ‘Hellenistic Poetry and Homer’, Ant. Class. 39 (1970), 46–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schlunk, R.R., The Homeric Scholia and the Aeneid (Ann Arbor 1974)Google Scholar; Fiske, G.C., Lucilius and Horace (Madison 1920), 15Google Scholar (‘in my belief Horace the poet and Horace the critic are one’); Du Quesnay, I.M., in Woodman & West, Creative Imitation and Latin Literature (Cambridge 1979)Google Scholar, 221 n. 234.

6. On contaminatio (and related dédoublement) see Thill, A., Alter ah illo: recherches sur imitation dans la poésie personelle a l’époque augustéenne (Lille 1976)Google Scholar, 61ff.; Fiske (n.5 above), 50.

7. D. Russell, in Woodman & West (n.5 above), 5f.

8. See McKeown, J.C., Ovid’s Amores I. Text and Prolegomena (Liverpool 1987)Google Scholar, 37ff.; Thomas, R.F., in an article on the Georgics that sets out to establish a typology of allusion, uses the term ‘window reference’ (HSCP 90 [1986], 188)Google Scholar; Thomas does not consider ‘combinatorial imitation’ of the kind here discussed.

9. I discuss these matters in ‘Lucretius and the Delusions of Narcissus’, Materiali e Discussioni 20.21 (1988), 71–89Google Scholar.

10. See my Virgil’s Aeneid: Cosmos and Imperium (Oxford 1986)Google Scholar, index s.v. inversion; von Albrecht, M., ‘Die Kunst der Spiegelung in Vergils Aeneis’, Hermes 93 (1965), 54–64Google Scholar, on internal mirroring as inversion.

11. And frequently analysed: e.g. Heinze, R., Virgils epische Technik3 (Leipzig & Berlin 1915)Google Scholar, 182f; Pöschl, V., The Art of Virgil (Ann Arbor 1962)Google Scholar, 24ff.

12. I hope to discuss this example in more detail elsewhere.

13. Much pertinent discussion will be found in Thompson, L. & Bruère, R.T., CP 63 (1968)Google Scholar, 16ff.; Ahl, F., Lucan: An Introduction (Ithaca 1976)Google Scholar, 209ff.; Zwierlein, O., Hermes 114 (1986)Google Scholar, 460ff.

14. A Map of Misreading (New York 1975), 3Google Scholar; ibid. 3f. for a plea for the continuation of the Alexandrian association between poetry and the academy.

15. In general on Valerius’ imitation of Virgil: Summers, W.C., A Study of the Argonautica of Valerius Flaccus (Cambridge 1894)Google Scholar, 26ff.; Stroh, H., Studien zu Valerius Flaccus, besonders über dessen Verhältnis zu Vergil (Diss. Munich 1902)Google Scholar, esp. ch. 5 on ‘Contaminatio’ (i.e. imitation of more than one Virgilian model at the level of the individual verse). Brief but highly pertinent comments also in Kroll, W., Studien zum Verständnis der römischen Literatur (Stuttgart 1924)Google Scholar, 173f. On structure and internal correspondences in the Argonautica see esp. Adamietz, J., Zur Komposition der Argonautica des Valerius Flaccus (Munich 1976)Google Scholar.

16. 1 follow Schetter and Adamietz in holding that eight was the planned total of books: cf. Burck, E., Das römische Epos (Darmstadt 1979)Google Scholar, 212f.

17. But the subplot of Hercules does allow for a close imitation of Virgil in this respect: there is a passing imitation of the first Virgilian intervention of Juno in her complaint at Argon. 1.111f. of her inability to get at Hercules while he is in the company of her favourites; her boast that otherwise she would have used the thunderbolt of her unwilling husband (116) alludes to Aen. 1.42ff. To Argon. 1.111ff. corresponds, in Virgilian manner, the second speech in which Juno expresses her anger at Hercules, at 3.509ff. (itself combining features of the speeches of Juno in both Aen. 1 and 7), which prefaces her successful attack on her stepson through Hylas.

18. Only at the end will she agree to the conubia felicia (‘happy wedding’ 12.821) of Aeneas and Lavinia.

19. Cf. Lucr. 4.1103f. nee manibus quicquam teneris abradere membris / possunt errantes incerti corpore toto (‘nor as their hands wander aimlessly over the whole body can they rub anything off the soft limbs’).

20. With 7.355 ossibus implicat ignem cf. 1.660 ossibus implicet ignem.

21. Further Voices in Vergil’s Aeneid (Oxford 1987)Google Scholar, 13ff. But I do not believe that Amata is in love with Turnus. Another factor that helps to determine the erotic quality of the Amata scene is the inverted correspondence between it and the seduction of Vulcan by Venus (his lawfully wedded wife!) in the next book: see Hardie, P.R., PLLS 5 (1986)Google Scholar, 93f.

22. It is related to the conceit that the torches at an ill-omened wedding are those of the Furies: cf. Bömer on Ov. Met. 6.430, and also Aen. 7.319ff. Suggestive also is Met. 10.311–14 ipse negat nocuisse tibi sua tela Cupido, / Myrrha, facesque suas a crimine vindicat isto: / stipite te Stygio tumidisque afflavit echidnis / e tribus una soror (‘Cupid himself says that his weapons did not hurt you, Myrrha, and absolves his torches from that charge; one of the three sisters it was that infected you with Stygian brand and venom-puffed vipers’). Statius imitates Valerius at Theb. 5.64ff. Note Argon. 4.13 (Jupiter to Juno)i, Furias Veneremque move (‘go, unleash the Furies and Venus’).

23. In a simile at 192ff.; with 237f. dura in limine coniunx / obsidet cf. Aen. 7.343 obsedit limen Amatae (of Allecto). The details of Venus’ Fury-like appearance at Argon. 2.104f. echo the description of Dido at Aen. 4.642–44, which is close to the appearance of Amata at 7.399: Virgil suggests by various means that the two queens turn into Furies.

24. With 119 fremens (of Fama) cf. Aen. 1.56 fremunt (of the winds).

25. With 3.535f. quem tibi coniugio tot dedignata dicavi, / nympha, procos (‘whom I have marked out for your spouse, nymph, after rejecting so many other suitors’) cf. Aen. 1.73 conubio iungam stabili propriamque dicabo (‘I will join her to you in lasting wedlock and mark her out as your own wife’).

26. Statius’ imitation of Virgil: Mozley, J.H., CW 27 (1933), 33–38Google Scholar; Krumbholz, G., Glotta 34 (1955)Google Scholar, 93ff.; Venini, P., RIL 95 (1961), 371–400Google Scholar; Kytzler, B., Hermes 97 (1969), 209–32Google Scholar. Parthenopaeus: Mozley, J.H., PVS 3 (1963-4)Google Scholar, 19f.; Vessey, D., Statius and the Thebaid (Cambridge 1973)Google Scholar, 201f., 298ff.

27. See Fowler, D.P., ‘Vergil on Killing Virgins’ in Whitby, & Hardie, (edd.), Homo Viator: Classical Essays for John Bramble (Bristol 1987), 185–98Google Scholar.

28. On the baldric of Pallas and the theme of mors immatura see Conte, G.B., The Rhetoric of lmitation (Ithaca & London 1986), 185–95Google Scholar.

29. After his appearance at 10.132ff. before his father returns, he is shown in action only in passing at 604f.; at 524 and 534 his name is used in a context which shows how closely Aeneas links Pallas with his own family.

30. Once again the Latin language allows easy word-play on contrasting statuses and roles: at 1.493 the scene of Penthesilea on the temple of Juno at Carthage (a scene that finds many echoes in the description of Camilla) concludes with the words audetque virisconcurrere virgo (‘and the maiden dares join battle with men’) (and the next sight that confronts Aeneas is a flesh-and-blood woman in a man’s world, Dido).

31. On other warrior-youths in the Thebaid see Vessey (n.26 above), 285.

32. As at Aen. 2.549 (Pyrrhus and Achilles).

33. Cf. esp. Theb. 9.622ff. with Aen. 8.554ff.

34. The boy-archer has something of the god of elegy, Cupid, about him: note esp. 9.744, and see Ahl, F., ANRW 2.32.5 (1986), 2905Google Scholar.

35. Pulcher lulus at line-end; Aen. 5.570, 7.107, 9.293, 310; cf. also 7.477f. Cf. also Aen. 10.133ff. with Theb 9.699ff.

36. Cf. Bloch, A. ‘Arma virumque als heroisches Leitmotiv’, MH 27 (1970), 206–11Google Scholar.

37. Cf. also 4.318f. (Atalanta’s first words to her son) unde haec furibunda cupido, / nate, tibi? teneroque unde improba pectore virtus? (‘Whence, my son, this mad desire? How comes this dangerous spirit of manhood into your boyish breast’); 9.825–27 protervam / virginitate vides mediam se ferre virorum / coetibus (‘do you see the rash virgin rush into the midst of troops of men?’), with which cf. Aen. 1.493 (quoted in note 30 above).

38. See Dickie, M., PLLS 5 (1986)Google Scholar, 209f.

39. Aequalibus, 784: cf. Aen. 11.820 Accam ex aequalibus unam.

40. Remulus’ icy rivers have now frozen over completely, and the hunter even ventures within the wild beasts’ lairs. At Theb. 4.275ff. we hear of the birth of primitive Arcadians from trees, a notion found at Aen. 8.315, and hinted at punningly at 9.603 durum a stirpe genus (‘a race with a hardy family tree’ [of Remulus’ Italians]) and again at 11.554ff. (Camilla’s ‘rebirth’ as a servant of Diana).

41. Aen. 9.617–20, o vere Phrygiae … sinite arma viris et cedite ferro (‘Phrygian women, if the truth be told,… leave weapons to men and keep away from the iron’s edge’). Parthenopaeus’ mention of his mother also engages with Aen. 9.619f. Matris / Idaeae.

42. Non tulit, Theb. 9.801 = Aen. 9.622. Note that Ascanius’ bowshot (Aen. 9.633f.) is echoed in Parthenopaeus’ archery at Theb. 9.761.

43. Cf. also parce, Theb. 9.813, Aen. 9.656.

44. The first word of ‘Dorceus” address, in which Diana urges an Apollonian moderation, repeats the first word of Camilla’s dying words at Aeneid 11.823, hactenus, Acca soror, potui (‘thus far, sister Acca, has my strength availed’): hactenus (as one word) occurs in the Aeneid only here and at 10.625.

45. Aen. 2.608f. avulsaque saxis / saxa; Luc. 9.977f. discussa … I saxa.

46. The oak simile reworks Virgil’s description of another great oak (aesculus) at Geo. 2.291–97, which endures through many generations of men: a symbol of the continuity of a society or city.

47. Cf. my Cosmos and Imperium, 28If.

48. Fenik, B., AJP 80 (1959)Google Scholar, 23f.

49. Morwood, J.H.W., JRS 75 (1985)Google Scholar, 58f.

50. Note the brief echo of the oak simile of Aen. 4 at 12.400, lacrimis immobilis (‘unmoved by tears’) of the wounded Aeneas surrounded by grieving warriors. Latinus fails his city because he is not sufficiently rock-like, 7.586ff.

51. 3.474 correpta sub - Aen. 1.100 (in same sedes); 475 vertice torquensr. cf. Aen. 1.117 torquet … vertex. With 477 praeteritos ultra meminisse labores (‘further memory of past toils’) cf. Aen. 1.203 forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit (‘perhaps one day the memory even of these things will bring pleasure’). 3.49If. iam cuncti flatus ventique furentia regno / Alpina posuere domo (‘now all the blasts and winds established their kingdom of violence in an Alpine palace’), a relocation of Aeolus’ mountain kingdom. Storm assails the Carthaginians as they make their way over the Alps, 3.523ff. Hannibal’s crossing of mountains and rivers at the beginning of his expedition is indebted to the opening of Lucan’s narrative of Caesar’s invasion of Italy, 1.183ff.: Lucan’s swollen Rubicon nods in the direction of Aeneas’ passage through the storm at the beginning of Virgil’s epic narrative. Silius’ fullest reworking of the storm of Aen. 1 comes at the end of his epic (though here too he is obedient to the ring composition of the Aeneid, where motifs of storm recur in the final scene of 12), at 17.236ff.: Hannibal is driven back from Italy by a wave ‘like a mountain’ (17.257: cf. Aen. 1.105).

52. 3.484–86 quantum Tartareus regni pallentis hiatus / ad manes imos atque atrae stagna paludis / a supera tellure patet, tam longa per auras / erigitur tellus et caelum intercipit umbra (‘as deep as the yawning abyss of Tartarus’ pale kingdom that reaches down from the earth above to the profoundest shades and the pools of the black swamp, so high does the earth stretch up into the breezes and cuts off the light of heaven with its shadow’): cf. Aen. 4.445f. quantum vertice in auras / aetherias, tantum radice in Tartara tendit (‘as high as its peak reaches up to the breezes of heaven, so deep do its roots reach down to Tartarus’): the description of the perpetual winter on the Alps is indebted to the perpetual cloud and ice of the Virgilian Atlas. Note esp. 480 riget (Aen. 4.251), 489f. nubes … atras (Aen. 4.248).

53. With 555 optato vertice cf. Aen. 1.223–25 luppiter … vertice caeli

54. Storming the Capitol and crossing the Alps are already the two obsessions of Hannibal’s dreams at 1.64f.

55. Note the hyperbole of 12.622 [luppiter] celsus summo de culmine montis (‘towering on the highest peak of the mountain’). The divine salvation of Rome in 12 is an extended inversion of the destruction of Troy in Aen. 2: cf. esp. 701ff. with Aen. 2.589ff. (von Albrecht, M., Silius Italicus: Freiheit und Gebundenheit rümischer Epik [Amsterdam 1964], 175Google Scholar). Hannibal had received warning of Jupiter’s defence of the Capitol in a dream at 10.358ff., where he is told (367f.) that he will no more be allowed to enter the sacred walls of Rome than to climb the heavens.

56. Silius Italicus, 24ff. At 1.370ff. the collapse of the walls of Saguntum (a prefiguration of what Hannibal might do to Rome) is compared to a rockslide in the Alps; cf. also 12.70ff.

57. Examples of significant references to the Tarpeian rock: 1.541; 2.33; 4.15 1f., 287; 5.82, 635f.; 8.341; 10.335, 432; 11.85f.; 12.517; 13.1. The poem ends with Scipio’s triumphal procession to the Capitol; its last words are (17.653f., apostrophizing Scipio) nee vera, cum te memorat de stirpe deorum, / prolem Tarpei mentitur Roma Tonantis (‘Rome tells of no false son of the Tarpeian Thunderer when she records that you are descended from the race of gods’).

58. Cf. Aen. 12.702f. nivali / vertice se attollens pater Appenninus ad auras (‘father Appenninus rearing his snowy head to the sky’). The Alps and the Apennines are also brought together at Pun. 8.648f. (omens before Cannae).