Georgics: Vol 1, Books I-II

by Richard F. Thomas (Editor)

These two volumes provide a commentary, with text, on Virgil's Georgics, a poem in four books probably written between 35 and 29 BC. The introduction, in Volume 1, treats the poem's historical background and its relationship to the early years of Augustan Rome, Virgil's use of prior literary material, his stylistic and metrical expertise, and questions of poetic structure. There is also a section interpreting the poem in light of recent scholarship, which seeks to consider the poem as part of the broad unity of Virgil's career, rather than from a narrow didactic approach. A new Latin text of the poem is followed by extensive line-by-line commentary, explaining difficult passages, interpreting poetic intent, and tracing the influence of Virgil's Greek and Roman antecedents. A subject index and indexes of important Greek and Latin words conclude each volume.

Genres: Poetry, Classics

288 pages, Paperback

First published July 29, 1988

About the author

Richard F. Thomas is George Martin Lane Professor of the Classics at Harvard University. His teaching and research interests are focused on Hellenistic Greek and Roman literature (chiefly Callimachus, Theocritus, Catullus, Virgil, Horace, Propertius, Ovid, Tacitus), intertextuality, translation and translation theory, the reception of classical literature, and the works of Bob Dylan. Publications include more than 100 articles and reviews and the following books: Lands and Peoples in Roman Poetry: The Ethnographical Tradition (1982), Reading Virgil and his Texts. Studies in Intertextuality (1999), Virgil and the Augustan Reception (2001), Why Bob Dylan Matters (2017); commentaries on Virgil, Georgics (1988) and Horace, Odes 4 and Carmen Saeculare (2011). He has co-edited and contributed to Classics and the Uses of Reception (2006), Bob Dylan’s Performance ArtistryVirgil Encyclopedia (2014).