The Cambridge Companion to Virgil

Virgil became a school author in his own lifetime and the centre of the Western canon for the next 1800 years, exerting a major influence on European literature, art, and politics. This Companion is designed as an indispensable guide for anyone seeking a fuller understanding of an author critical to so many disciplines. It consists of essays by seventeen scholars from Britain, the USA, Ireland and Italy which offer a range of different perspectives both traditional and innovative on Virgil’s works, and a renewed sense of why Virgil matters today. The Companion is divided into four main sections, focussing on reception, genre, context, and form. This ground-breaking book not only provides a wealth of material for an informed reading but also offers fresh and sophisticated insights which point to the shape of Virgilian scholarship and criticism to come.

• Contributions by leading scholars from Britain, the USA, Ireland and Italy • Refreshing approach to Virgil • Emphasis on the reception of Virgil in later centuries - hence appeal beyond the classical market • All essays newly commissioned for this Companion

List of illustrations; Preface; 1. Introduction: ‘The classic of all Europe’ Charles Martindale; Part 1. Translation and Reception: 2. Virgil in English translation Colin Burrow; 3. Modern receptions and their interpretative implications Duncan F. Kennedy; 4. Aspects of Virgil’s reception in Antiquity R. J. Tarrant; 5. The Virgil commentary of Servius Don Fowler; 6. Virgils, from Dante to Milton Colin Burrow; 7. Virgil in art M. J. H. Liversidge; Part II. Genre and Poetic Career: 8. Green politics: the Eclogues Charles Martindale; 9. Virgilian didaxis: value and meaning in the Georgics William Batstone; 10. Virgilian epic Duncan F. Kennedy; 11. Closure: the Book of Virgil Elena Theodorakopoulos; Part III. Contexts of Production: 12. Poetry and power: Virgil’s poetry in contemporary context R. J. Tarrant; 13. Rome and its traditions James E. G. Zetzel; 14. Virgil and the cosmos: religious and philosophical ideas Susanna Morton Braund; 15. The Virgilian intertext Joseph Farrell; Part IV. Contents and Forms: 16. Virgil’s style James J. O’Hara; 17. Virgilian narrative: (a) Storytelling Don Fowler; (b) Ecphrasis Alessandro Barchiesi; 18. Approaching characterisation in Virgil Andrew Laird; 19. Sons and lovers: sexuality and gender in Virgil’s poetry Ellen Oliensis; 20. Virgil and tragedy Philip Hardie; 21. Envoi: the death of Virgil Fiona Cox; Dateline; Index.