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‘A Word From Another World’: Mourning And Similes In Homeric Epic And Alice Oswald’S Memorial, Corinne Ondine Pache
‘A Word From Another World’: Mourning And Similes In Homeric Epic And Alice Oswald’S Memorial, Corinne Ondine Pache
Classical Studies Faculty Research
This article focuses on Alice Oswald’s 2012 Memorial: A Version of Homer's Iliad and its connections with ancient epic and lament. Oswald’s poem is inspired by the Iliad, but omits the plot and most of the main events to focus on minor characters’ encounters with death and the grief they leave behind. Memorial thus strongly rejects the possibility of heroism on the battlefield, and foregrounds mourning. Oswald’s narrator interacts with both the characters of the poem and the audience, reactivating an ancient tradition for a modern audience, turning readers (and listeners) into mourners, and connecting the dead from the …
Death Ante Ora Parentum In Virgil’S Aeneid, Timothy M. O'Sullivan
Death Ante Ora Parentum In Virgil’S Aeneid, Timothy M. O'Sullivan
Classical Studies Faculty Research
Virgil's Aeneid includes a number of scenes in which children die in front of their parents. While the motif has a Homeric precedent, Virgil's invention of a formula (ante ora parentum: "before the faces of one's parents") suggests a particular interest in the theme. An analysis of scenes where the formula recurs (such as Aeneas's shipwreck, the fall of Troy, and the lusus Troiae) reveals a metapoetic resonance behind the motif, with the parent-child relationship acting as a metaphor for authorial influence and artistic creation. Thus the threat that Aeneas might die as Anchises looks on, for …