Alexander the Great, according to Plutarch, carried on his campaigns a copy of the Iliad, kept alongside a dagger; on a more pronounced ideological level, ancient Romans looked to the Aeneid as an argument for imperialism. In this major reinterpretation of epic poetry beginning with Virgil, David Quint explores the political context and meanings of key works in Western literature. He divides the history of the genre into two political traditions: the Virgilian epics of conquest and empire that take the victors' side (the Aeneid itself, Camoes's Lusíadas, Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata) and the countervailing epic of the defeated and of republican liberty (Lucan's Pharsalia, Ercilla's Araucana, and d'Aubigné's Les tragiques). These traditions produce opposing ideas of historical narrative: a linear, teleological narrative that belongs to the imperial conquerors, and an episodic and open-ended narrative identified with "romance," the story told of and by the defeated. Quint situates Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained within these rival traditions. He extends his political analysis to the scholarly revival of medieval epic in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and to Sergei Eisenstein's epic film, Alexander Nevsky. Attending both to the topical contexts of individual poems and to the larger historical development of the epic genre, Epic and Empire provides new models for exploring the relationship between ideology and literary form.

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This volume offers a new interpretation of Flaccus' Argonautica, a Latin epic poem. Stover's approach to the text is both formalist and historicist as he seeks not only to elucidate Flaccus' dynamic appropriation of Lucan, but also to associate the Argonautica's formal gestures within a specific socio-political context.

A critically sophisticated introduction to the epic tradition of the early Roman empire.

The first in-depth analysis of some of the most important epic poems of the Spanish Golden Age, Myth and Identity in the Epic of Imperial Spain breathes new life into five of these long- neglected texts. Elizabeth Davis demonstrates that the epic must not be overlooked, for doing so creates a significant gap in one's ability to appraise not only the cultural practice of the imperial age, but also the purest expression of its ideology. Davis's study focuses on heroic poetry written from 1569 to 1611, including Alonso de Ercilla's La Araucana, undeniably the most significant epic poem of its time. Also included are Diego de Hojeda's La Christiada, Juan Rufo's La Austriada, . Lope de Vega's Jerusalén Conquistada, and Cristóbal de Virués's Historia del Monserrate. Examining these epics as the major site for the construction of cultural identities and Renaissance nationalist myths, Davis analyzes the means by which the epic constructs a Spanish sense of self. Because this sense of identity is not easily susceptible to direct representation, it is often derived in opposition to an "other," which serves to reaffirm Spanish cultural superiority. The Spanish Christian caballeros are almost always pitted against Amerindians, Muslims, Jews, or other adversaries portrayed as backward or heathen for their cultural and ethnic differences. The pro-Castilian elite of sixteenth-century Spain faced the daunting task of constructing unity at home in the process of expansion and conquest abroad, yet ethnic and regional differences in the Iberian Peninsula made the creation of an imperial identity particularly difficult. The epic, as Davis shows, strains to convey the overriding image of a Spain that appears more unified than the Spanish empire ever truly was. An important reexamination of the Golden Age canon, Myth and Identity in the Epic of Imperial Spain brings a new twist to the study of canon formation. While Davis does not ignore more traditional approaches to the literary text, she does apply recent theories, such as deconstruction and feminist criticism, to these poems, resulting in an innovative examination of the material. Confronting such issues as canonicity, gender, the relationship between literature and Golden Age culture, and that between art and power, this publication offers scholars a new perspective for assessing Golden Age and Transatlantic studies

A lively account of the Romantic-era revival of epic literature set against the background of British imperialism's evangelical turn.

In the nineteenth century, epic poetry in the Homeric style was widely seen as an ancient and anachronistic genre, yet Victorian authors worked to recreate it for the modern world. Simon Dentith explores the relationship between epic and the evolution of Britain's national identity in the nineteenth century up to the apparent demise of all notions of heroic warfare in the catastrophe of the First World War. Paradoxically, writers found equivalents of the societies which produced Homeric or Northern epics not in Europe, but on the margins of empire and among its subject peoples. Dentith considers the implications of the status of epic for a range of nineteenth-century writers, including Walter Scott, Matthew Arnold, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, William Morris and Rudyard Kipling. He also considers the relationship between epic poetry and the novel and discusses late nineteenth-century adventure novels, concluding with a brief survey of epic in the twentieth century.

Written during the crucial first phase of English empire-building in the New World, Paradise Lost registers the radically divided attitudes toward the settlement of America that existed in seventeenth-century Protestant England. Evans looks at the relationship between Milton's epic and the pervasive colonial discourse of Milton's time. Evans bases his analysis on the literature of exploration and colonialism. The primary sources on which he draws range from sermons about the New World justifying colonization and exhorting virtue among colonists to promotional pamphlets designed to lure people and investment into the colonies. Evans's research allows him to create a richly textured picture of anxiety and optimism, guilt and moral certitude. The central question is whether Milton supported England's colonization or covertly attempted to subvert it. In contrast to those who attribute to Paradise Lost a specific political agenda for the American colonies, Evans maintains that Milton reflects the complexity and ambivalence of attitudes held by English society. Analyzing Paradise Lost against this background, Evans offers a new perspective on such fundamental issues as the narrator's shifting stance in the poem, the unique character of Milton's prelapsarian paradise, and the moral and intellectual status of Adam and Eve before and after the fall. From Satan's arrival in Hell to the expulsion from the garden of Eden, Milton's version of the Genesis myth resonates with the complex thematics of Renaissance colonialism.

This is a book for people who love a good story--this story has truly stood the test of time. Millions of people continue to discover it and love it, generation after generation, even 2,050 after it was first made available to the public. It's about the hero's quest; it's about a good man dealing with incredibly difficult decisions. If you've always wondered who Aeneas was, who Dido was, what all the famous artwork is about, and what the opera Dido and Aeneas is about--this book will give you all the background, in easy-to-read language. If you're looking for a book that's a page-turner, that has characters who stay in your imagination long after you've finished reading, then this is the book for you. Below is an excerpt: -- This story is about a man-Aeneas-who endured hardships on sea and land to fulfill his destiny and establish a city that would become the epicenter of a vast and mighty empire. The gods had blessed Aeneas with courage, strength, beauty, humility, wisdom, and skill in warfare. He was the one who had been chosen to father a race of men who would one day rule the world. The goddess Hera, wife to Zeus, had a deep and abiding hatred for the Trojans. Long ago, in a beauty contest for goddesses, a Trojan named Paris had failed to select Hera as the winner, wounding Hera's pride and profoundly offending her. At another point in the past, a beautiful Trojan man named Ganymede had stolen the hearts of many gods, Zeus among them. This was another offense that Hera could not forgive. And there was the prophecy stating that the city that Aeneas planned to establish would one day destroy Hera's beloved city of Carthage. For all these reasons, Hera devoted herself to thwarting the Trojans at every opportunity. Her fondest wish was to eliminate every last Trojan from the Earth. Aeneas and his brave Trojan refugees, from their ships, spotted the coast of Italy in the distance. Finally! After years spent traveling-years facing obstacles and dealing with setbacks-they were now about to reach their destination. Hera, seeing this, became enraged. Desperate to stop them, she thought of the various ways she could annihilate this stubborn Trojan remnant once and for all. Hera visited King Aeolus and asked him to send a storm that would sink all of Aeneas' ships. King Aeolus had been designated by Zeus as the keeper the Earth's winds. To keep the Earth safe, King Aeolus kept the winds locked in a mountain. In exchange for Aeolus' help, Hera promised to give him a nymph he had long loved. Aeolus pounded the mountain one time with his fist, and a portal opened up in the rock. The two strongest winds-Eastwind and Southwind-came screaming out, furious at having been locked away so long, and eager to do as much damage as possible in the shortest amount of time. They immediately swept towards Aeneas' ships. Aeneas and his companions saw the clouds thicken suddenly. Where there had been sunlight, now there was darkness. They felt the boat lift up, lurch to the side, and then sink down freefalling in a twenty-foot swell. Without the slightest warning or signal, they found themselves in the midst of a hurricane! Aeneas tried to keep an eye on the other ships, but the swells and the walls of crashing water made it impossible. All he could do was hear. He heard the shouts of his men as they fought to survive the storm. He heard the screams and cries of others as they were pulled overboard by the angry sea. He heard ropes snapping and breaking. He heard wood creaking and cracking. Above it all he heard the roar of the storm, the wind and water pounding his ship again and again. -- Experience the unforgettable story for yourself!

In the nineteenth century, epic poetry in the Homeric style was widely seen as an ancient and anachronistic genre, yet Victorian authors worked to recreate it for the modern world. Simon Dentith explores the relationship between epic and the evolution of Britain's national identity in the nineteenth century up to the apparent demise of all notions of heroic warfare in the catastrophe of the First World War. Paradoxically, writers found equivalents of the societies which produced Homeric or Northern epics not in Europe, but on the margins of empire and among its subject peoples. Dentith considers the implications of the status of epic for a range of nineteenth-century writers, including Walter Scott, Matthew Arnold, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, William Morris and Rudyard Kipling. He also considers the relationship between epic poetry and the novel and discusses late nineteenth-century adventure novels, concluding with a brief survey of epic in the twentieth century.