The Silence of Vergil and The End of The Aeneid
The Silence of Vergil and The End of The Aeneid
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ROBERT J. EDGEWORTH,
Ed. REX STEM*
* This at the2004
essayhas itsoriginsin a paperProfessorEdgeworth presented
Annual Meetingof the AmericanPhilologicalAssociation,"The Silence of
Vergil,"a versionof whichhe had submitted to Vergiliusbeforehis deathon
October 22, 2004. I would like to thankMrs. KathleeenEdgeworthfor
entrustingme withthetaskof revisingthatsubmission, as well as theeditorof
Vergiliusforhersupportof myroleas posthumous editor,a rolethatallowsme
to acknowledgemydeep respectforProfessor Edgeworth as a colleagueand as
a wonderfully learnedmanof greatintegrity. My primary contributionhas been
to incorporatethecontentsof his 2003 APA paper,"The End of theAeneid
intotheessayhe originally submitted,in thebeliefthatthisexpansionsharpens
and extendstheargument. Thus I am responsibleforthefocusof theargument
in thisversion,as well as someof itsstructuring,butall of itsideas,and indeed
almostall ofitswords,arehis.
51 (2005) 3-11
Vergilius
1 An
example of a criticalapproachwhich seeks to abolish this silence is
affordedby RichardJenkyns, Virgil'sExperience(Oxford1998), 67: "Virgilis
movingwithsuchrapidity thathe does notpause to tellus if thissupplication
['returnmybody'] is granted, buthe does notneedto,forwe are surethatitis."
We can be sureofno suchthing.
2 Note how Turnusswearsthisoath.We are
Vergilis also silentaboutwhether
toldat 12.175-221thatAeneas takestheoath,thatLatinustakestheoath,that
Turnusstepsforward and veneratesthealtarand ... thenVergilcutsaway and
changesthesubject.
3 See R. O. A. M.
Lyne,Wordsand thePoet: Characteristic
TechniquesofStyle
in Vergil'sAeneid(Oxford1989),113.
4 BarbaraWeiden
Boyd,"'Tum PectoreSensus Vertuntur Varii': Readingand
TeachingtheEnd oftheAeneid," in W. S. AndersonandL. N. Quartarone, eds.,
Approachesto TeachingVergil'sAeneid(ModernLanguageAssociation2002),
80-86, at 80. See further Daniel M. Hooley, "TwentiethCenturyCritical
Perspectives,"in the same volume(22-31), as well as S. J. Harrison,"Some
Views of theAeneidin theTwentieth Century,"in S. J.Harrison,ed., Oxford
Readingsin Vergil'sAeneid(Oxford1990), 1-20.
Representative works: Karl Galinsky,"The Anger of Aeneas," AJP 109
(1988): 321-48; Hans-Peter Stahl,"The Death of Turnus:AugustanVergiland
thePoliticalRival," in K. A. Raaflauband M. Toher,eds., BetweenRepublic
and Empire:Interpretations of Augustusand his Principte(Berkeley1990),
174-211; Francis Cairns, Virgil'sAugustanEpic (Cambridge1989); Viktor
Pschl,TheArtof Vergil , tr.Gerda Seligson(Ann Arbor1962); BrooksOtis,
Virgil:A Studyin CivilizedPoetry(Oxford1963).
Representative works: Michael C. J. Putnam,The Poetryof the Aeneid
(Cambridge MA 1965); RichardF. Thomas,Virgiland theAugustanReception
(Cambridge2001); R. O. A. M. Lyne, FurtherVoices in Vergil'sAeneid
(Oxford,1987); StevenFarron,Vergil'sAeneid: A Poem of Griefand Love
(Leiden 1993); W. R. Johnson, Darkness Visible: A Studyof Vergil'sAeneid
(Berkeley1976).
7 In
usingtheterm"eschatological"here,I refernotto theend of thecosmos,
butsimplyto thecourseof future events,and in particular
to thatfuturestateof
justice,peace, and harmony in which the human race, in its better
moments,
desiresto live.
8 See Pschl
(note5, above) 13-33.
9
E.g., PhilipHardie,TheEpic Successorsof Virgil(Cambridge1993),2: "the
Aeneid constantly worksagainstits own closure."More generally,see the
closing pages of Stephanie Quinn, ed., Why Vergil? A Collection of
Interpretations (Bolchazy-Carducci 2000),423-430.
13Christine
Perkell,"The Lamentof Juturna: Pathosand Interpretation
in the
Aeneid TAPA 127 (1997): 257-286, articulateshow Vergil suggests"the
inadequacyof mere power eitherto undo or to compensatefor the moral
problemsthatconquestentails"(284).
14Sarah
Spence,"CinchingtheText:The Danaids and theEnd of theAeneid,"
Vergilius37 (1991): 11-19,showshowthereweregood reasons,bothofpublic
policy and of public art, for the Danaids to be on the minds of Vergil's
contemporaries. See furtherhercontributionto Andersonand Quartarone (note
"
4, above): Pietas and Furor: Motivational Forcesin theAeneid 46-52. She
stressestheinterdependence ofpietas andfuror,whileI say thatfurordepends,
notonpietas,buton humanmoralweakness,and thatwhatdependswponfuror
is notpietas,butthefuture (sometimes forgood,sometimesforill).
15 See
further AlessandroBarchiesi,"VirgilianNarrative:Ecphrasis,"in C.
Martindale, ed., The CambridgeCompanionto Virgil(Cambridge1997), 271-
81.
16See Dolores
O'Higgins,"The Emperor'sNew Clothes:Unseen Images on
Pallas' Baldric,"Hermathena158 (1995): 61-7,at 66.