The study of Homeric imitations in Vergil has one of the longest
traditions in Western culture, starting from the very moment the
Aeneid was circulated. Homeric Effects in Vergil's Narrative is the
first English translation of one of the most important and influential
modern studies in this tradition. In this revised and expanded edition,
Alessandro Barchiesi advances innovative approaches even as he
recuperates significant earlier interpretations, from Servius to G. N.
Knauer.
Approaching Homeric allusions in the Aeneid as "narrative effects"
rather than glimpses of the creative mind of the author at work,
Homeric Effects in Vergil's Narrative demonstrates how these allusions
generate hesitations and questions, as well as insights and guidance,
and how they participate in the creation of narrative meaning. The book
also examines how layers of competing interpretations in Homer are
relevant to the Aeneid, revealing again the richness of the Homeric
tradition as a component of meaning in the Aeneid. Finally, Homeric
Effects in Vergil's Narrative goes beyond previous studies of the
Aeneid by distinguishing between two forms of Homeric intertextuality:
reusing a text as an individual model or as a generic matrix.
For this edition, a new chapter has been added, and in a new afterword
the author puts the book in the context of changes in the study of Latin
literature and intertextuality.
A masterful work of classical scholarship, Homeric Effects in Vergil's
Narrative also has valuable insights for the wider study of imitation,
allusion, intertextuality, epic, and literary theory.
