عنوان

More than epic :

Number

TLets515139

Title Proper

More than epic :

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Earnshaw, Katharine

Title Proper by Another Author

A commentary on book 4 of Lucans Pharsalia (Lines 1-253)

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

The University of Manchester

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2009

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Body granting the degree

The University of Manchester

Text preceding or following the note

2009

Text of Note

This thesis presents a commentary on the first 253 lines of book 4 of Lucan's epicpoem, the Pharsalia, and is split into four parts. Part one forms the main introduction,which outlines the methodology and focus of the commentary; there the question ofLucan's 'epicness' is posed, and the plus quam motif of the poem is related to thepassage under discussion. Also contained in part one are sections on the structuralformat of the commentary, a review of particularly important scholarship, a briefdiscussion of Lucan's style, and notes on the text. The remaining three parts of thethesis form the commentary proper: each section of commentary is prefaced with anintroductory discussion, which outlines key events and themes in that segment of theepisode, and discusses Lucan's interaction with a particular type of literature.The introduction to part two is primarily concerned with Lucan's use and/or abuse ofhistorical sources. It compares the version of the episode at Herda provided by Lucanwith that narrated by Caesar in his account of the Civil War, and suggests possibilitiesfor differences between the two (such as Lucan's characterization of Caesar). It thenbriefly outlines the other extant sources which refer to the Herda conflict. andconsiders the question of whether Lucan was responding directly to Caesar's account,or whether there may have been an intermediary source (such as Livy). Thecommentary on lines 1-47 follow.The introduction to part three assesses Lucan's response to didactic and philosophicaltexts. It argues that an underlying dialogue with Virgil's Georgics can be foundthroughout the episode at Herda, and that this intertextual relationship is established inorder to contrast the destructive civil war behaviour of the soldiers with the productiveagricultural activity which they could be undertaking. Another section of theintroduction considers the similarities between Lucan's deluge scene and those foundin Ovid's Metamorphoses and Seneca's Natural Questions. It proposes that Lucanalludes to the cataclysmic imagery of these texts in order to suggest a new world order,which is then undermined when the post-deluvian world is proven to be worse thanthat which went before. The commentary on lines 48-143 follow.The introduction to part four argues that Lucan deliberately underpins thefraternization scene with the imagery of love, sex and marriage, and that his decisionto end the scene with a mass slaughter forms part of a wider concern linking sex,marriage and death within the Pharsalia. It assesses the importance of Concordia as agoddess in social, political and philosophical terms, and concludes that her presencemay imply that the kinsmen are in some way participating in a pseudo-marriageceremony. The commentary on lines 143-253 follow.The commentary demonstrates that throughout the Herda episode Lucan engages witha wide range of texts, and that his decision to respond to genres which are not'traditionally' epic shows him both as an inheritor of Virgil and Ovid's style of multilayeredepic, and as an author pushing the boundaries of epic poetics.

Earnshaw, Katharine

The University of Manchester

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y