On Thu, 16 Apr 1998, Philip Thibodeau wrote:
> And whenever we want we can turn back the page and be with Dido or > Pallas or whoever while they're still alive. So my question for the list > would be, do people believe Vergil could foresee how much his readers would > care about Dido, for example? And if so, then isn't it incomplete to say > that what Vergil's real message is is that we should do our duty and obey > fate, or that women are obstacles to Roman progress? What if we formulate the question this way: does the text of the Aeneid itself _foresee how much its readers would care_? It takes us to the problem of pathos (and to the problem of enjoying the turbulent emotions for the sake of their energy, perhaps)... enabling us at the same time to keep the speculation in check, to stick to what was written... I read Heinze (slowly, slowly...) (_Vergil's Epic Technique_, Bristol 1993) and find here a lot of possible points to start from. In a way it is a classic, like Vergil himself: you can go different places from there. Neven ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. You will just prove to everyone that you can't read directions. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body.
