Epic’s Last Lament

This chapter argues that Lucan follows Homer in his use of the common stylistic and thematic components of speeches of lament (gooi) and in his incorporation of an antiphony of commiserating voices; but that he also exercises aemulatio by forcefully moving the voice of lament from epic’s margins to its center, creating an antiphony that includes not only communal voices in the poem, but also the voice of the narrator himself, and even the inclusive “we” of the poem’s readers living under the reign of the Caesars. The sweeping nature of Lucan’s use of the master trope of lament leads to a reading of the poem itself as a grand lament and thus a completion of Homeric epic. The chapter concludes by focusing on the way lament in the Pharsalia communicates greatness, and thus has the capacity to sound—and celebrate—the end of epic’s song of sorrow.