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VIRGIL'S CARTHAGINIANS AT AEN. 1.430–6: CYCLOPES IN BEES’ CLOTHING

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 April 2014

Elena Giusti
Elena Giusti*
Affiliation:
King's College, Cambridge
*
*E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Virgil's poetry has long been recognised as delving into a poetics of comparison which employs sudden shifts from the miniature to the gigantic. So too have Virgilian similes long been singled out as a privileged locus where complex inter- and intra-textual allusions serve to highlight the primary role that these similes play in the narrative and poetic context of Virgil's work. Along these lines, this paper addresses one such simile at Aene.d 1.430–6, where the Tyrians building Carthage are compared to busy bees working at their hive. The paper explores the impact that the recognition of the simile's inter- and intra-textual connections may have on the interpretation of the scene of Aeneas’ arrival at Carthage, and on certain long-debated aspects of the poem as a whole.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Cambridge Classical Journal , Volume 60 , 30 April 2014 , pp. 37 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2014. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This paper originated from a 2008 undergraduate commentary thesis. Since then, I have no words to describe my gratitude for the Cyclopean labour offered by Alessandro Schiesaro, Victoria Rimell, Philip Hardie, Ellen Oliensis and Emily Gowers, not to mention the invaluable help of various anonymous referees. Francesca Bellei, Siobhan Chomse, John Henderson and Fiachra Mac Góráin were the industrious bees who helped me with the article's labor limae. For its waxy nature, I am solely responsible.

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