Elegiac Love and Death in Vergil's Aeneid

Elegiac Love and Death in Vergil's 'Aeneid' poses new questions about Vergil's pervasive engagement with elegy, both amatory and funerary, throughout his final epic endeavor. A foundational discussion of elegiac experimentation in the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid 1-6 explores the aesthetic and conceptual development of destructive Vergilian amor (passion). The unique emphasis of subsequent chapters on the amatory and funerary elegiac dimensions of crucial episodes in Aeneid 7-12 illuminates the intergeneric character of Vergil's martial maius opus. A detailed examination of the inter- and intratextual strands of pivotal moments in the Aeneid evinces Vergil's intense engagement with literary predecessors and contemporaries, his evolving artistic vision, and his enduring influence on subsequent Roman poets. Each chapter of this volume enhances our understanding of the generic complexity of the Aeneid, presenting revisionary readings of key episodes and transformative interpretations of its main characters.

1 - From Caieta to Erato: Vergil's Elegiac Program (Aeneid 7.1-45)
2 - Conflicting Amores: The War's Beginnings in Aeneid 7
3 - Wielding Passion as Power: Venus' Manipulation of Vulcan in Aeneid 8
4 - Warriors in Love: Passion and Death in the Catalogues of Aeneid 7 and 10
5 - From Amor to Mors: Passion and Devastation in Aeneid 12

Sarah L. McCallum is an Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of Arizona. Her research focuses on Greek and Latin language and literature, particularly epic, elegiac, and pastoral poetry. She is especially interested in the complex negotiation between tradition and innovation that characterizes the development of Roman poetry in the first century BCE.