Dissertation committee:
1. Ανδρέας Μιχαλόπουλος, Καθηγητής Λατινικής Φιλολογίας του Εθνικού και Καποδιστριακού Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών
2. Ελένη Καραμαλέγκου, Ομότιμη Καθηγήτρια Λατινικής Φιλολογίας του Εθνικού και Καποδιστριακού Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών
3. Σοφία Παπαϊωάννου, Καθηγήτρια Λατινικής Φιλολογίας του Εθνικού και Καποδιστριακού Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών
4. Σοφία Γεωργακοπούλου, Καθηγήτρια Λατινικής Φιλολογίας του Εθνικού και Καποδιστριακού Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών
5. Βάιος Βαϊόπουλος, Καθηγητής Λατινικής Φιλολογίας του Εθνικού και Καποδιστριακού Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών
6. Μυρτώ Γκαράνη, Αναπληρώτρια Καθηγήτρια Λατινικής Φιλολογίας του Εθνικού και Καποδιστριακού Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών
7. Ρουμπίνη Δημοπούλου, Επίκουρη Καθηγήτρια Λατινικής Φιλολογίας του Εθνικού και Καποδιστριακού Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών
Summary:
The dissertation offers a new interpretative commentary on the first book of Vergil’s Aeneid, which coming after Austin’s commentary in the Oxford Reds series and that of Ganiban, is aiming to provide a full review of modern bibliography for the first book of the Vergilian epic and a new interpretation of its themes and topics. The dissertation in organized in four chapters, the Introduction, the Latin Text, its Translation into modern Greek and the Commentary. The dissertation is concluded with two Appendices (1. ll. 265-272 tertia ... terna ... triginta ... ter centum, where is offered a study of the repeated number three in Jupiter’s prophecy· 2. The verses Ille ego qui ... (1a-1d), an appendix in which in an introductory essay a review of the relevant bibliography is provided together with an aesthetic judgement of these. After the introductory essay, follows a detailed line-by-line commentary of the ille ego qui quondam verses) and the Index Locorum. The Introduction includes a presentation of the structure of the book and its main themes around of which it is centered. Furthermore, there follows an extended discussion of specific themes of the first book, such as a study of the programmatic proem and its literary models, the first appearance of the epic’s protagonist, Aeneas, and also the theme of the Golden Age as it makes its appearance in Jupiter’s prophecy and its relationship with other passages in the epic and the previous works of Vergil. The Introduction is concluded with a review of the manuscript tradition and a table of readings adopted in the Latin Text which receive full treatment in the commentary. The Commentary is line-by-line and follows the numbering of lines of the text; the beginning of each episode is preceded by an introductory essay, which provides a brief summary of the content of the episode, a review of the relevant bibliography, together with an interpretation and function of this episode within the plot of the book. Each introductory essay offers detailed discussion of the literary and antiquarian, if any, models of the episode, the characterization of its heroes and the relationship which is intentionally built by the poet with other similar episodes in the other books of the poem and, consequently, the meaning produced by this linking. In the line-by-line commentary the purpose of the comments is to cover every possible problem which arises from the text. For this purpose, are included comments on prosody, morphology, grammar, syntax, while particular emphasis is given to the Vergilian style and meter and the way it illustrates the meaning. In every case, numerous parallels from other passages of the epic are offered. Also, in lexical level, are detected and discussed elements of colloquial Latin and archaisms, focusing on the way these elements contribute to the speaker’s delineation. In many lines are discussed in depth problems of textual criticism and the different readings which are offered form the manuscript tradition, in each case many parallels are cited from Vergil himself and from other authors as well and arguments are put forth about the reading which is adopted in the Latin text and its possible alternatives. The line-by-line commentary provides extended interpretative comments, which are focused not only to the immediate context of each line and passage but also strive to align them with passages from other books of the epic and to offer an overall interpretation of the lines and episodes inside the Aeneid’s plot and its social, cultural and political atmosphere. More particular, Vergil’s intertextual relationship with his models (Homeric poetry and philology, Greek and Roman tragedy, Hellenistic poetry, historiography, Roman poetry and prose of the Republican Age) receives an in-depth treatment; also Vergil’s handling of epic themes and his innovations, such as we detect them in the poem’s proem, in the description of the storm and landscapes, in the ecphrasis of the murals of Carthaginian Juno’s temple, in the presentation of god delivered prophecies, in scenes involving gods, in the monologues, in similes, in omens and in the reception of the Trojans in Carthage and in the banquet offered by the queen Dido. Not least, the poet’s mythological references and innovations are illustrated, as they are represented in the myth of Aeneas, Dido, Antenor, Teucer, and others. Finally, in the commentary are highlighted possible allusions to political and historical events and persons, i.e. the recall of events or personalities from Rome’s Carthaginian wars or the multivalent relationship with Augustan Age and Augustan ideology.
Keywords:
Vergil, Aeneas, Dido, Epic Poetry, Augustan Literature, Homer, Octavian Augustus
