In the Eclogues, it seems like Virgil has very modern views toward urban and rural life which are respectively associated with the political and ordinary world. I think this is simply because he had a major hand in the creation of these antiheses as later pastoralists imitated them.
Dan Knauss At 04:10 AM 5/5/1999 PDT, Daniel Trambaiolo wrote: >I can't say I'm at all familiar with Aristaeus, but this got me wondering >about what Virgil and other classical authors might have thought about the >contrast between the "ordinary" and the "political" worlds. How close would >this have been to the concepts we have today (whatever those might be)? >Certainly in fifth or fourth century Athens the ordinary citizen would have >had a very different view of his (probably not "her") role in the process of >shaping their city-state's future from those of most people nowadays. How >would the Romans of the Augustan era have thought of this? >Another point that might be worth considering is whether different standards >of "ordinariness" might apply in epic (or in poetry in general) from those >which might apply in everyday life. The fact that someone is the son of a >god might not be felt to be as significant if we hear about him in a poem as >it would be if we met him on the street! > >Daniel Trambaiolo > >>From: Adrian Pay <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>Date: Tue, 4 May 1999 21:31:42 +0100 >> >>I'd be interested if you could expand on what you mean by "a flawed >>character who is not a political leader but belongs in the >>ordinary world, like V's Aristaeus". I've found the political resonance of >>Aristaeus very interesting but ultimately very difficult. Do you think that >>Vergil is saying anything different about political leadership with >>Aristaeus than he does with Aeneas? How much do you think we can pursue the >>analogy Aristaeus=Augustus? Why the "ordinary world"... Aristaeus is the >>son of a god and the episode is steeped in mythology? >> >>Adrian Pay > > >______________________________________________________ >Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com >----------------------------------------------------------------------- >To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. >Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message >"unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You >can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub > _____________________________________________ Dan Knauss - [EMAIL PROTECTED] Department of English, University of Wisconsin - Madison ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub
