Virgil

Past Masters (Oxford)

by Jasper Griffin

Virgil lived through the fall of the Roman Republic and the establishment of the Empire. In his poems we see a series of attempts, increasingly ambitious in scale and conception, to combine technical brilliance and beauty with profound meditation on the nature of imperialism and the relation of the individual to the State. From short pastoral poems on love and song he progressed to the heroic myth of the founding of Rome. "The Aeneid", immediately recognised as the greatest masterpiece of Latin literature, has had incalculable influence on European literature in the two thousand years since it was first published.

Genres: Literature, History, Biography

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1377

About the author

Jasper Griffin (born May 29, 1937), MA (Oxon), FBA, was Public Orator and Professor of Classical Literature in the University of Oxford from 1992 until 2004.

Jasper Griffin read Classical Moderations and Greats at Balliol College, Oxford (1956-1960) and was Jackson Fellow at Harvard University (1960-61). On his return to Oxford he became Dyson Junior Research Fellow at Balliol (1961-63), Tutorial Fellow in Classics (1963-2004), and Senior Fellow (2000-04).

His wife of nearly fifty years, Dr Miriam T. Griffin (née Dressler), is also a noteworthy classicist. They have three daughters: Julia, Miranda and Tamara.

Reviews

[Felix · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an adequete scholarly introduction to the work of Virgil. The first chapter, a brief biography of Virgil (and some other introductory matter), is excellent. The book gets a little weaker later on. Griffin seems more at home in close analysis than in overview, and although his treatment of Virgil's presentation of various themes, characters, etc. is very good, it probably also dives a little too deep, leaving out simpler content that might be required to explain the material more thoroughly. I have spent a fair amount of time studying the ancient world, and even I lost the thread a few times. I suppose the phrase, 'losing the wood for the trees' comes to mind.

Nevertheless, I can't not recommend this book. There is little 'easy reading' the topic of Virgil. This is not a bad book by any means, but it's not for the general reader.

[Soheil · Rating 4 out of 5]

این کتاب با اینکه حجم کمی داره اما خیلی کامل و جامع هست
نه تنها در مورد خود ویرژیل و آثارش اطلاعات خوبی میده بلکه در مورد هومر و آثارش و تاثیری که ویرژیل از اون گرفته هم صحبت می‌کنه
در کل اگر خواستید این کتاب رو بخونید قبلش بهتره یک پیش زمینه از آثار ویرژیل و مخصوصا هومر داشته باشید