Dirae: A Poem From the Appendix Vergiliana

Author:   Dr Boris Kayachev (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)
Publisher:   Classical Press of Wales
ISBN:  

9781914535413


Pages:   220
Publication Date:   22 August 2024
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Our Price $181.13 Quantity:  
Add to Cart

Share |

Dirae: A Poem From the Appendix Vergiliana


Add your own review!

Overview

The Dirae is a curse uttered, in bucolic hexameters, by an Italian farmer against his former estate which was confiscated to enable the settlement of Caesarean veterans in the aftermath of the battle of Philippi: this commentary is the first work, in 80 years, to offer a systematic exploration of the poem within the literary and historical context of the Late Republic. At the heart of the volume is a freshly edited Latin text, based on a thorough reappraisal of manuscript evidence and earlier textual scholarship, which in particular aims to restore the poem’s stanzaic organisation, gravely distorted in the course of transmission. Besides providing an account of the manuscripts and an overview of the poem’s structure and contents, the introduction discusses at length the Dirae's engagement with other poetic texts and traditions, first of all with its 'sibling' the Lydia, but also, crucially, with Greek bucolic, before considering its reception in Virgil's Eclogues and later Augustan poetry; it sheds new light too on the Dirae's links with Hellenistic curse poetry and with the ritual tradition of inscribed curses. Endorsing a composition period shortly after the poem’s dramatic date (spring–summer of 41 BC) and tentatively reviving the old attribution to Valerius Cato, the introduction also explores the Dirae's engagement with the political events and narratives of one of the most dramatic moments of Roman history. The line-by-line commentary provides exegesis of the poem’s textual, linguistic, literary and historical aspects, with the English translation offering a further point of orientation.

Full Product Details

Author:   Dr Boris Kayachev (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)
Publisher:   Classical Press of Wales
Imprint:   Classical Press of Wales
ISBN:  

9781914535413


ISBN 10:   1914535413
Pages:   220
Publication Date:   22 August 2024
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

Preface Introduction The Poem 1. Earlier Scholarship and the Present Work 2. The Dirae and the Lydia: Unity, Authorship, Chronology 3. Characters, Setting, Structure Frameworks and Contexts 4. Historical and Political Context 5. Literary Frameworks 6. Ritual Background The Text 7. The Manuscripts and This Edition Dirae Text and Apparatus Criticus Translation Commentary Bibliography Indexes

Reviews

Author Information

Boris Kayachev is a Research Fellow at Trinity College Dublin. His main interests lie in the literary, textual and linguistic exegesis of Latin poetry, in particular of the Appendix Vergiliana: he has published books on the Ciris (Allusion and Allegory: Studies in the Ciris, 2016; Ciris: A Poem from the Appendix Vergiliana, 2020), the Lydia (Lydia: A Poem from the Appendix Vergiliana, 2023), and now the Dirae.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions
Latest Reading Guide

Aorrng

Shopping Cart
Your cart is empty
Shopping cart
Mailing List