Elegiac Love and Death in Vergil's Aeneid

Abstract Elegiac Love and Death in Vergil’s Aeneid poses new questions about Vergil’s pervasive engagement with elegy, both amatory and funerary, throughout his final epic endeavour. A foundational discussion of elegiac experimentation in the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid 1–6 explores the aesthetic and conceptual development of destructive Vergilian amor (passion). The unique emphasis of subsequent chapters on the amatory and funerary elegiac dimensions of crucial episodes in Aeneid 7–12 illuminates the intergeneric character of Vergil’s martial maius opus. A detailed examination of the inter- and intratextual strands of pivotal moments in the Aeneid evinces Vergil’s intense engagement with literary predecessors and contemporaries, his evolving artistic vision, and his enduring influence on subsequent Roman poets. Each chapter of this volume enhances our understanding of the generic complexity of the Aeneid, presenting revisionary readings of key episodes and transformative interpretations of its main characters.