Biography & Autobiography Political
Virgil as Orpheus
A Study of the Georgics
- Publisher
- State University of New York Press
- Initial publish date
- Jan 1996
- Category
- Political
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780791427842
- Publish Date
- Jan 1996
- List Price
- $44.95
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Description
Presents a popular introduction to Virgil's Georgics for the general reader.
Though John Dryden once called the Georgics "the best Poem of the best Poet," and Montaigne thought it the most highly finished work in all of poetry, Virgil's song of the earth has never won as many readers as has his Aeneid, and at present it is the subject of more debate among classicists than perhaps any other poem in Latin. Using a Jungian approach, this book draws on the new commentaries in English as well as on the work of the great German Virgilians of the past, and is written in the eloquent, accessible, and personal style for which its author has become known. It outlines clearly the literary and historical background of the poem, discusses the sound of Virgil's hexameters, and treats each of the four georgics in detail, with special emphasis on the concluding myth of Orpheus. The most baffling of all Latin poems is shown in these pages to be Virgil's gift to Augustus, the most powerful man in the world as the salvational leader of the renewed Roman state, telling him what he must know about nature and about human nature if he is to rule the world well.
About the author
M. Owen Lee, CSB, is a Catholic priest and Professor Emeritus of Classics at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto. He is a commentator for the Texaco Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts and the author of a number of books on opera, including A Season of Opera: From Orpheus to Ariadne (UTP 1998) and Wagner: The Terrible Man and His Truthful Art (UTP 199).
Editorial Reviews
"I think it is very useful as a popular introduction to a text that many readers must be curious about. It is, so to speak, the written record of an ideal college course on Virgil's Georgics open to majors and non-majors alike." — Steven F. Walker, Rutgers University
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