Dean of the College and Classical Studies Program Present
Shepherds Astray in Tragedy and Epic
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
Olin LC 208
4:30 pm EST/GMT-5
4:30 pm EST/GMT-5
a lecture by Julia Scarborough
Why do Virgil’s shepherds stop singing and start killing? In his heroic epic, the Aeneid, we might expect the poet to leave behind the pastoral world of his Eclogues, where peaceful shepherds devote themselves to song. Instead, at crucial junctures, shepherds enter the action – with catastrophic results, culminating in war between Aeneas’ Trojans and the Italians with whom they are fated to merge in a new Roman nation. The clash of pastoral and epic has troubled both ancient and modern critics. Does Virgil simply not know how to start an epic war? Are the Italian shepherds innocent victims of an imperialist invasion, or are they violent rustics in need of civilizing leadership? I argue that the key to understanding the role of pastoral in the epic is recognizing a third genre at work: tragedy. Shepherds in Attic tragedy bring disruption onto the stage; their good intentions combined with inexperience make them dangerous. This role offers a paradigm for the part played by shepherds in the Aeneid – including the poem’s most important shepherd: Aeneas himself. Invoking tensions inherent in the figure of the shepherd in tragedy, Virgil transforms the Homeric metaphor of the hero as shepherd of his people to explore the tragic ironies in which Aeneas is implicated as he struggles to fulfill his destiny.For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].
Time: 4:30 pm EST/GMT-5
Location: Olin LC 208