Epic Poetry: Virgil, Lucan, and the Roman Tradition
Epic Poetry and the Roman Tradition
Epic poetry recounts the deeds of heroes or legendary historical events. In America, it often reflects a fascination with significant events in national history, blending legend with military origins and current affairs. This interest stems from three sources: Greek tradition, national history, and Alexandrian poetry, with its sophisticated stylistic aspects and mythological motifs.
Virgil’s predecessors included Livius Andronicus, who translated Homer’s Odyssey and wrote the Bellum Punicum, dedicated to the war between Rome and Carthage, and Ennius, who used dactylic hexameter in his Annals, a lengthy epic on Roman history.
Virgil: Life and Works
Virgil was born near Mantua, close to Rome. He continued his study of rhetoric but devoted himself to philosophy, admiring Lucretius and embracing Epicureanism. He became part of a literary circle of patrons and an enthusiastic collaborator in Augustus’s policies.
Besides the Bucolics, he wrote the Georgics and the Aeneid, a great Roman epic in twelve books divided into two parts. The first six books, inspired by the Odyssey, narrate Aeneas’s journey to Italy. The other six books, imitating the Iliad, recount Aeneas’s wars against different peoples. The narrative is not chronological. Virgil combines elements of Rome’s past with the Trojan War and expectations for the future.
The theme of the play, the founding of Rome by Aeneas, was carefully chosen. The Aeneid is a poem of religious and moral restoration sought by Augustus, exalting the past to serve contemporaries. Virgil’s personality strikes a balance between external demands and his creative power.
The Aeneid is an admirable work of art. Its composition embodies the idea of Roman greatness. Each book is a story of interest. Tragedies, such as the story of Dido and Aeneas, are inserted into the plot, creating a world of colors and sounds that suggest art. Virgil is a master of balance.
The characters form a rich and varied gallery: Mezentius is humanized by the death of his son, and Nisus and Euryalus are symbols of friendship. Dido’s authentic painting of love transforms and enriches Aeneas as he grows to recognize his national duties and Roman responsibilities. The hero embodies the virtues of which the early Romans took pride: courage, respect for elders, and respect for the divine will.
The poem enjoyed instant success and was cited by all later authors as a model. It influenced Dante, Tasso, and Milton. His contribution was extraordinary.
Lucan and the Pharsalia
Lucan was born in Cordoba, the nephew of Seneca, the philosopher. He lived in Rome and completed his training in Greece. Like his uncle, he was charged and slashed his wrists at 25 years old.
He wrote a considerable body of work: epic poems, books of Silvae, tragedies, epigrams, speeches, etc. Only Pharsalia, an epic poem about the civil war between Caesar and Pompey, is conserved. His poem represents a revolution in the epic, which states:
- A) The absence of gods and the supernatural.
- B) The absence of the hero-character, replaced by three characters: Caesar, Pompey, and Cato.
- C) Reasoning replaces divine intervention, installing “man” and his “reason.” Occurrences are explained by natural causes.
- D) Historicism: choosing a historical topic close to his time, compared to the traditional techniques of classical epic historians.