Vergil's "Georgics" and the Traditions of Ancient Epic: The Art of Allusion in Literary History

Abstract

In this important and original new book, Joseph Farrell argues that there is a detailed and extensive program of literary allusion in Vergil's Georgics, moving basically from Hesiod and Aratus in the first book, to Lucretius in the middle two, to Homer in the fourth. This program involves what he calls analytic allusion, namely a reconstruction or interpretation of the texts alluded to; and, he contends, the direction of the allusion, moving from Hesiod (and perhaps Alexandrian poetics) toward Homer and heroic epic, helps to clarify the development of Vergil's poetic career, which moves from the Callimacheanism of the Eclogues to the full-fledged epic of the Aeneid. Applying to the Georgics the full range of recent scholarly methodology, Farrell's pathbreaking book will be of great interest to all scholars and students of Vergil, classical literature, and literary allusion.