The Philosophizing Muse: The Influence of Greek Philosophy on Roman PoetryDavid Konstan, Myrto Garani Despite the Romans’ reputation for being disdainful of abstract speculation, Latin poetry from its very beginning was deeply permeated by Greek philosophy. Philosophical elements and commonplaces have been identified and appreciated in a wide range of writers, but the extent of the Greek philosophical influence, and in particular the impact of Pythagorean, Empedoclean, Epicurean and Stoic doctrines, on Latin verse has never been fully investigated. In this volume, an international group of scholars specialising in Roman literature and the reception of the Greek philosophical tradition have come together to analyse the debt of Latin poetry to Greek philosophy across a range of authors, from the 3rd century BC to the 1st century AD. The volume contains ten chapters, which examine Plautus, Ennius, Cato and Lucilius (Dorota Dutsch); Lucretius (Gordon Campbell); Vergil (Joseph Farrell); Horace (David Armstrong); Ovid (Myrto Garani); Manilius (Ilaria Ramelli); Seneca (Claudia Wiener); Lucan (Francesca D'Alessandro Behr); Persius (Shadi Bartsch); and Valerius Flaccus (Andrew Zissos). The contributors address the poems in a variety of ways, each according to the nature of the work under consideration and its particular relation to Greek philosophy. The essays are all original, published for the first time in this volume, and they illustrate the subtle ways in which these Roman poets absorbed and transformed their sources. |
Contents
1 | |
CHAPTER TWO | 26 |
CHAPTER THREE | 61 |
CHAPTER FOUR | 91 |
CHAPTER FIVE | 128 |
CHAPTER SIX | 161 |
CHAPTER SEVEN | 187 |
CHAPTER EIGHT | 218 |
CHAPTER NINE | 245 |
CHAPTER TEN | 269 |
298 | |
331 | |
351 | |
Common terms and phrases
Aeneid Alcibiades allegorical anger Aphrodite Aratus Argonautica argues argument atque Atreus Bellum Civile Cato Cato's Chrysippus Cicero Cleanthes conception Cornutus crime criticism death dialogue diatribe discourse discussion divine doctrine Eclogues elements Empedoclean Empedocles Ennius epic Epicurean Epicurus Epist eromenos ethical Euhemerus Fasti fate Flavian Garani genre Georgics gods Greek Hercules Homeric Horace Horace's human Hymn ideas influence interpretation intertextual Jason Jupiter literary Lucan's Lucilius Lucretius Manilius Medea Mopsus moral motifs myth narrator nature Numa's Ovid Ovid's passage Persius Philodemus philosophical Platonic poem poet poetic poetry Pompey praise Pythagoras Pythagorean quae quod Ramelli reference relationship role Roman Rome satire says seems Seneca Servius Socrates soul Stoic Stoicism theme Thyestes tradition tragedies translation trnsl universe Valerius Varius Venus Vergil Vergilian virtue vita Zeus Zissos γὰρ δὲ καὶ μὲν τὰ τε τὴν τῆς τὸ τοῦ τῶν