Virgil
Virgil ( Publius Vergilius Maro ) ( 70 – 19 BC ),the greatest of Roman poets, valued particularly for his craftsmanship, love of nature, and sense of pathos. Maturing at a time when the Romans were struggling to produce a literature that would match the Greek, he imitated successively the pastorals of Theocritus , the didactic poems of Hesiod and Aratus , and the epics of Homer , making original contributions to all three genres. In his Eclogues he added a new level of meaning to the pastoral's idealization of country life by alluding to topics of contemporary interest; in the Georgics he transformed the bald didacticism of his models into a panegyric of Italy and the traditional ways of rural life; and in the Aeneid he committed the epic to the presentation of a major patriotic theme. He began like most poets of his generation by working within the conventions of Hellenistic poetry , but...
[The entire page is 452 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Oxford University Press Titles
