Virgil's Augustan Temples: Image and Intertext in theAeneid

Abstract

AbstractThis article discusses the most memorable works of art described in Virgil'sAeneid(the paintings at the temple in Carthage, the doors of the temple in Cumae, the shield of Aeneas, and the baldric of Pallas) as visual models for the poem's organization of its own intertextual memory. The multi-dimensionality of memory enacted in the viewing of these pictorial programmes emerges as a metaphorical visualization of the semantic density created by the overlapping intertexts within the narrative itself and, what is more, urges the reader to perceive works of Augustan monumental art as embodiments of a similarly complex universe of memory.