Virgil's epic designs
Subtitle: ekphrasis in the Aeneid
By: Michael C.J. Putnam.
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: New Haven
Language: eng
Number of pages: 257
Subjects: Virgil; Virgil -- Technique; Epic poetry, Latin -- History and criticism; Aeneas (Legendary character) in literature; Description (Rhetoric) -- History -- To 1500; Rhetoric, Ancient; Ekphrasis
Description: This book by one of the preeminent Virgil scholars of our day is the first comprehensive study of ekphrasis in Virgil's final masterpiece, the Aeneid. Virgil uses ekphrasis - a self-contained aside that generates a pause in the narrative to describe a work of art or other object - to tell us something about the grander text in which it is embedded, says Michael C. J. Putnam. Individually and as a group, Virgil's ekphrases enrich the reader's understanding of the meaning of the epic.

Putnam shows how the descriptions of works of art, and of people, places, and even animals, provide metaphors for the entire poem and reinforce its powerful ambiguities.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [245]-251) and index.