Podcasts about virgilian

It's Aeneas and Dido: A Tale of Love and War. As we get into the first major episodes of Aeneas' journey, we embark upon an intricate composition of wheels within wheels--stories of carnage and battle interlocked with stories of desire, affection, and lust. From an explanation of ring composition via Harry Potter, to a Virgilian image that has changed poetry ever since, to a bonus segment on chiasmus and the clapper (you know, that thing you can use to turn your lights on and off) it's a jam-packed addition to our Aeneas series. Check out our Sponsor, The Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/heretics Order Light of the Mind, Light of the World (and rate it five stars): https://a.co/d/2QccOfM Subscribe to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com Beatrice Groves on Ring Composition in Harry Potter:  https://www.hogwartsprofessor.com/guest-post-stone-goblet-hallows-literary-links-and-riddles-in-philosophers-stone-goblet-of-fire-and-deathly-hallows-dr-groves-part-ii/

In this episode, Melissa explores the reception of Homer and Virgil, and the concept of 'family' in their epics, in 20th-century Germany and France. Transcription link: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/classics/sites/classics/files/family_in_broch_and_giraudouxs_receptions_of_the_homeric_and_virgilian_epics_transcript.docx Date of episode recording: 2021-06-28T00:00:00Z Duration: 00:20:43 Language of episode: English Presenter:Sofia Bongiovanni Guests: Melissa Pires da Silva Producer: Sofia Bongiovanni

The late antique and medieval Church saw Virgil as a pagan herald of Christ, due to the seemign messianic prophecies in Eclogue IV. In a 1953 essay titled "Vergil and the Christian World," T.S. Eliot argues that the Christian sympathies in Virgil's poetry go even deeper than that single poem, and in fact suffuse the entire Virgilian corpus.T.S. Eliot's Vergil and the Christian World: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27538181Vergil's Eclogue 4 (Latin): https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/vergil/ec4.shtmlVergil's Eclogue 4 (English): http://classics.mit.edu/Virgil/eclogue.4.iv.htmlVirgil's Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid (Latin-English): https://amzn.to/3VlnUqrFustel de Coulanges's La Cité Antique (French): https://amzn.to/3yzATuZFustel de Coulanges's The Ancient City (English): https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780648690542Alan Jacobs's The Year of Our Lord 1943: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780190864651T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land: https://poets.org/poem/waste-landPlutarch's On the Obsolescence of Oracles: https://amzn.to/3RVk4kWNew Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/Links may have referral codes, which earn us a commission at no additional cost to you. We encourage you, when possible, to use Bookshop.org for your book purchases, an online bookstore which supports local bookstores.Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com

Virgil's life and career. The Aeneid influenced by Virgil's experience of anarchy and civil war as the Roman Republic crumbles. The rise of Caesar Augustus, first Roman Emperor: the promise of law, order, and civilization. But at what cost? The “Virgilian melancholy.” --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/michael-dolzani/support

Nessus has dropped our pilgrim, Dante, off on the other side of the river where he and Virgil step into a gloomy wood with thorns rather than fruit, twisted limbs rather than shapely trees. We know from Virgil's map of hell in Canto XI that this should be the place of the suicides, those who have committed violence against themselves (and their property). But what we find instead is a landscape that highlights a central problem for Dante-the-poet: How do you trust what you read? Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for this exploration of one of the most gorgeous and troubling cantos in INFERNO. Virgil, Ovid, Harpies, rhetoric, metamorphosis, and torqued grammar: It all adds up to a tour de force from the poet Dante. Here are the segments of this episode of the podcast: [01:20] My English language translation of this passage from INFERNO: Canto XIII, lines 1 - 45. If you want to see this passage, you can look it up on my website markscarbrough.com under the header "Walking With Dante." [04:19] We've stepped into a canto of negation: "non," "non," "non," a refrain that introduces us to poetry that will eventually test the limits of rhetoric and our own credulity. How much are we going to let the poet get away with? [08:05] There are Harpies in those sickly trees? In other words, we've stepped back into a Virgilian landscape--but with a difference. [12:00] And here's the difference: Virgil says you wouldn't believe this place even if I, the great poet, wrote about it. Which brings up the nightmare question for any writer: How do you create a text that is trustworthy? [15:27] Dante-the-pilgrim is "completely lost"--just as he was once before in another trackless wood. [16:50] The central problem: Interpretation is a matter of trust, of faith. [20:28] Our pilgrim breaks off a steam--and it speaks! [23:16] A gorgeous simile which sets up the central metaphor of burning that will occupy the middle of this canto. But there's another problem: the speech from the sinner we're about to meet takes its cue from the metaphor that the poet has just written. What? [26:00] A review of the issues we've already found in Canto XIII. Support this podcast

Finally, we are done with the fifth circle of hell, with the wrathful (and the sullen) and all that happens standing before the gates of Dis. We're also done with the seven deadly sins as a structuring device for INFERNO, because we follow our pilgrim, Dante, and his guide, Virgil, into the sixth circle, not of envy, pride, or sloth, but of heresy. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we continue our slow walk with our pilgrim through the infernal worlds. We have finally passed into the sixth circle of hell, a circle that's a bit hard to figure out. Why heresy? And why here? (And these are only the beginnings of the problems in this most curious circle.) I'll try to answer those questions and more in this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE. Here are the segments of this episode: [01:00] My English translation of the passage from Inferno: Canto IX, lines 107 - 133. [03:48] Five general observations on the sixth circle of hell, the ring of the heretics. 1) They're in tombs--which are INSIDE the city's walls, where they'd rarely be in a medieval landscape. 2) There is no formal descent (or even a step down) to this circle. 3) The sin punished is not self-evident until Virgil fills the pilgrim in. 4) The sin itself--heresy--is a strange one in the poem's schematics where every sin seems to be about the will. And 5) Maybe heresy shows a bit of poetic insecurity, as Dante-the-poet steps beyond and Virgilian landscape and into one of his own creation. [11:38] Six glosses (or notes) on this particular passage. 1) These are ROMAN tombs. 2) There's a curious reference to art (or craft) in the passage (so maybe more about poetics?). 3) The tombs' lids are "suspended"--as Virgil is in Limbo. 4) The tombs are described as arks--you know, like Noah's. 5) The classical world has definitely been left behind. And 6) Virgil leads Dante to the right, not the left, as he does in almost every other instance in INFERNO. [24:25] One more time reading through the passage to set it in your mind. Support this podcast

Dante-the-pilgrim and Virgil have made it across Styx, leaving behind Filippo Argenti and the wrathful. They've come to the iron walls of Dis, the city of hell. These walls are more than that a geopolitical barrier in INFERNO. They're a literary barrier, too. Because this is the farthest point in the afterlife Aeneas got to. Here is the farthest Virgil's imagination could go. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we watch the poet come up to an important wall: the one Virgil couldn't (or didn't) pass. The poet must decide to go on. This is the point at which our poet's folly is bearing in on him. Maybe at the start of this canto, there was a break. But THIS is more of a moment of true change in the poem. Here are the segments of this episode: [01:23] My English translation of this passage from INFERNO: Canto VIII, lines 64 - 96 [04:00] One way to think about hell: a two-part structure of the moments outside of Dis and the moments inside this city. [08:31] The minarets of Dis are the poet's one last brushstroke on a completely Virgilian landscape painting. From here on out, we're leaving THE AENEID behind. [13:21] Our first Christian demons! It can't be a mistake that we encounter them here, on the walls of Dis, the farthest point Aeneas (and maybe the poet Virgil) reached. [14:41] Dante's folly without Virgil--a writer's insecurity writ large. [19:13] The first direct address to the reader in COMEDY. There will be seven in each of the three parts of the work. And that the first occurs here can't be a mistake. This is the moment in which the poet's folly is beginning to bear in on him. Support this podcast

PODCAST #19: VIRGIL'S ECLOGUES WITH VERSE REPLIES On the back cover I write, summing up the global importance of this ancient Roman work: “One of the major bisexual imaginings in world literature, the Eclogues of Virgil are ancient Roman musical masterworks, rivaling the Sonnets of Shakespeare. Every wordsong in the group of ten is a one-act play, and every character is a music lover. Love and Death are always with us, to enjoy and to suffer, but word music is the great transcender: Art redeems Life. Since the works in this collection are rather longer than those I've worked with before, I'll recite, among Virgil's poems, only Eclogue Two, featuring the love soliloquy of Corydon, lamenting the inattention of his male friend Alexis and pleading for a more encouraging response to the would-be lover's gifts and requests. I then recite “Virgil and Shakespeare,” the opening section of my verse reply to the eclogue, important in highlighting a central fact about the Virgilian achievement in this volume: as a triumph of bisexual lyrical imagining, it is the precursor of the Shakespeare Sonnets.

Actor Stephen Rea performed Seamus Heaney's translation of Book VI of the Aeneid, Virgil's epic poem written between 29 and 19 BC. The story follows Aeneas as he journeys into the underworld. Acknowledging the significance of Virgil's poem to his writing, Heaney noted “there's one Virgilian journey that has indeed been a constant presence, and that is Aeneas's venture into the underworld. The motifs in Book VI have been in my head for years—the golden bough, Charon's barge, the quest to meet the shade of the father.” Accompanied by musician Neill Martin

Gardeners.   Horticultural experts.   Professors, even.   On the garden path, you can, from time to time, run into people that decimate you faster than a Japanese Beetle on green beans.   Let's just set one thing straight. Gardening is good for you, but people who give garden advice can be bad for you.    What they fail to realize is that gardening is an activity of the head AND the heart.   I'm here to tell you, gardening is the absolute most wonderful pastime. But don't let anyone diminish your love for it. If the folks giving you advice aren't respectful, helpful, or loving - they shouldn't be in the business of helping people garden. The world needs every gardener it can get. The best thing you can give a gardener is encouragement.     Brevities     #OTD It's the death day of William Herbert (12 January 1778 – 28 May 1847).    He was a British botanist, a distinguished scholar and poet, an Amaryllis breeder, and a clergyman who eventually became the first Dean of Manchester; the head of the Chapter of Manchester Cathedral.   In 1837, Herbert wrote a book about the Amaryllidaceae ("am-uh-ril-id-AY-see-ee") or the Amaryllis ("am-uh-RIL-us") family.  The Amaryllis was named after Virgil's shepherdess Amarysso from Greek mythology, meaning "to sparkle".   Nearly two decades earlier,  Herbert had split the genera in two – creating one genera for the original Amaryllis genera named by Linnaeus and for the other genera for what he called the Hippeastrum ("hip-ee-ASS-trum").   He explained his actions in writing saying:   "Many years ago,...when I  distinguished this genus,... I retained for it the name Amaryllis, and proposed that of Coburghia for Belladonna and Blanda. I was not then aware that Linnaeus had given the name Amaryllis to Belladonna, with a playful reason assigned; but as soon as I learned it, I felt, ... that the jeu d'esprit of a distinguished man ought not to be superceded, and that and that no continental botanist would submit to the change. I therefore restored the name Amaryllis to Belladonna, and gave that of Hippeastrum or Equestrian star to this genus, following up the idea of Linnaeus when he named one of the original species equestre."   Hippeastrum is Greek; hippeus for rider and astron for star - thus, "horseman's star". Gardeners surmise that the closed buds of the flower look something like a horse's ear and the blossoms are shaped like six-pointed stars.     As is often the case in horticulture, the more popular name didn't end up with the more popular genus. The the original Amaryllis genus ended up with only one species - the belladonna - although another species has been discovered.  Meanwhile the Hippeastrum genus has a whopping 90 species and over 600 cultivars. It's clearly more significant, botanically speaking, after being hybridized in the 19th century. Thus, it's the hippeastrum genera that gives us the large bulbs we pot up in the winter and lovingly call by their common name: Amaryllis... but they are really Hippeastrum. So this November, when you're potting up your Amaryllis, think to yourself - Hip Hip Hooray - it's Hippeastrum day!   What's the likelihood that actually happens? Yeah. It doesn't roll off the tongue, does it?   The confusion about the two different genera stems from the fact that folks didn't like and don't likesaying Hippeastrum.   When the change was announced, the eminent horticultural empire builder, Harry Veitch challenged it eloquently when he said,   "Are we wrong in continuing to call these grand flowers after the name of the Virgilian nymph, and should we therefore drop the pleasing appellative with which they have been almost indissolubly connected from our earliest memory, and substitute the rougher Hippeastrum for the softer Amaryllis?'   Veitch was not alone. The century growers from the infamous bulb families refused to go along with the name change. To this day, the bulbs are exported from the Netherlands in crates clearly marked Amaryllis.   Yet, William Herbert is remembered fondly through the ages. The genus Herbertia of Sweet - a small genus in the Iris Family - commemorated him.   Charles Darwinwrote about Herbert in the On the Origin of Species(1859):  In regard to plants, no one has treated this subject with more spirit and ability than W. Herbert, Dean of Manchester, evidently the result of his great horticultural knowledge. And, the International Bulb Societyawards The Herbert Medalto people who advance the knowledge of bulbous plants.     #OTD It's the birthday of Carl Richard Nyberg (May 28, 1858, – 1939) the Swede who created the blowtorch which in turn led to the flame weeder.   Nyberg worked in various industrial companies, eventually landing at J. E. Eriksons Mekanikus. While he was there, he came up with the idea for the blowtorch. He built a prototype complete with safety features.    Convinced he was on to something, he quit his job at Eriksons in 1882 and set up a workshop in Stockholm making blowtorches.  Nyberg hadn't set up efficient production and he didn't have a dedicated or trained sales team.  It flopped.   Four years later, in 1886, he met a man named Max Sievert at a country fair. They struck up a conversation and Sievert was savvy enough to know realize the potential of Nyberg's blowtorch.  Seivert started selling it and Nyberg was back in business.   This time, Nyberg diversified. He made blowtorches as well as small paraffin oil and kerosene stoves.   Nyberg's company went public in 1906 and Nyberg gave his employees stock in the company. Known as "Nybergs snobbar" or Nyberg's snobs, Nyberg's employees were better off than their peers in other companies.In 1922 Nyberg's old friend, Max Sievert, bought the company and he continued to own it until 1964 when it was bought by Esso.   Although Nyberg worked on countless other inventions, his heart actually belonged to aviation. He became known as "Flyg-Nyberg" (Flying-Nyberg). For over two decades beginning in the late 1800's, he built and tested his plane, the Flugan (The Fly) on a circular wood track in his garden.  Nyberg was the first to test his design in a wind tunneland the first to build an airplane hangar.Despite his inability to get his invention to fly, the fact he attempted it at all was something of a miracle; Nyberg was afraid of heights.       Unearthed Words Greek mythology tells the story of Amaryllis, who was a lovestruck shepherdess. She met a handsome shepherd on the mountainside. His name was Alteo and she fell in love with him. But, the problem was that Alteo had a heart only for flowers. Oh, to be one of his beloved blossoms! Amaryllis went to the Oracle at Delphi who gave her a Golden arrow. The Oracle told Amaryllis that each night she must dress all in white and stand outside Alteo's house. Then she must pierce her own heart with the Golden arrow and knock on Alteo's door. For 29 nights, Alteo slept soundly, never hearing Amaryllis cry out; never hearing her knock at his door. But, on the 30th night, Alteo awoke to her cry, and when she knocked on his door, he opened it. There, Amaryllis stood in her white gown. Her heart was fully healed and on the ground, wherever her blood has been shed, were the most magnificent scarlet flowers Alteo had ever seen. Alteo knelt before her and pledged his undying love to Amaryllis. Now, every holiday season, we watch the Amaryllis bloom and we are reminded of the wonder and the power of love; which is the strongest power of all - stronger than even death. Here's a little poem I wrote about the Amaryllis:   Amaryllis by Jennifer Ebeling   Amaryllis is so sweet and fair, A name that's true; beyond compare. Though Herbert made the genera split, He picked a name we'd soon   forget So goche, it starts with hippeasst, In the game of names, it   comes in last Rather follow like sheep where Linnaeus led, Honoring a shepherdess who willing bled For the love of a shepherd who saw her not, But oh, Amaryllis, gardeners have not forgot. Today, we say Alteo who? But, at your name, we can construe The bulb that blooms in winter's chill. Amaryllis, you are with us still.       Today's book recommendation: Medieval Herbals by Minta Collins    Published in 2000, Minta's book the first book author Anna Pavord gives credit to for her work in The Naming of Names about the earliest work in plant taxonomy. Medieval Herbals provides one of the few resources on the subject of the earliest ideas and books of herbs. Minta explains how herbals became the backbone of knowledge for medical scholars. The books were expensive, difficult to obtain and often invaluable to historians, botanists, and the world of culture and art. I, for one, love that someone named Minta wrote a book about herbs. Hardcover versions of this book sell for over $300. However, the link in today's show notes, can get you to paperback copies on Amazon of this incredible resource for just over $30. That's a 90% savings.     Today's Garden Chore:   Address exposed tree roots with mulch instead of soil. Depending on your type of soil, and the type of tree, tree roots can sometimes erupt on the surface of the soil. Many gardeners want to bury the Exposed roots; But, putting more than an inch to an inch and a half of soil on top of the exposed root can actually smother the tree.  Placing a small layer of mulch on top of the exposed tree root is preferred. Mulch is lighter, has more air pockets, and when rained on creates an organic tea; adding nutrients back into the soil.     Something Sweet  Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart   #OTD  On this day in 1919, New Hampshire selected the purple lilac as the state flower Because they said it symbolized the hardy character of the men and women of the Granite State.   In 1750, the first lilac was planted at the home of the first Gov. Benning Wentworth. An Englishman, Wentworth had brought the lilac along with other trees and shrubs when he immigrated to America.   Nearly 200 years later, New Hampshire Gov. Francis P. Murphy commemorated a planting at the capital on April 25, 1939.   He remarked,   "Six roots were taken from the famous lilac trees In the garden of the first colonial governor of New Hampshire.So today, We are placing in the earth of the Capitol grounds root cuttings from the very first lilacs ever to come to America. We are very proud of this little flower which is uniquely ours and as I plant these routes today, I ask you to join with me in the hope that they may thrive and in the course of time, grow into full beauty."   And here's one final note about the Wentworth lilacs: The lilacs planted at Mount Vernon by George Washington are also thought to be slips taken from the Wentworth estate.       Thanks for listening to the daily gardener, and remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Here I ask the question whether the heroic, the practical, and the private (meditation/love etc.) are the three fundamental elements of Western culture, as they were at one time the divisions of Western literature.  I hope to define and contrast each of these primary categories for the contemporary listener.

We catch up with @manmademoon's choice for this month - Down and Out in Paris and London - George Orwell's (not H. Lewis Allways') masterful piece of reporting on poverty AND talk to our Virgilian guide through the songs of David Bowie - Chris O'Leary, whose Rebel Rebel is an essential reference for any Bowie fan.

In books 11-14 of the Metamorphoses Ovid takes on the stories of Troy's fall and Rome's origin - have we finally reached the point of 'real epic'? In fact, Ovid's approach is very different from Virgil's in the Aeneid, and tends to focus on characters tangential to the canonical Virgilian and Homeric versions. There are also long diversions as characters from the Trojan War narrate non-military tales, with the result that Troy's destruction and Rome's foundation are told in a non-linear fashion. This lecture will explore Ovid's narrative strategy in these later books, and investigate the political and poetic effect of this Callimachean alternative to Roman foundation myth. Copyright 2014 Rhiannon Evans / La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

In books 11-14 of the Metamorphoses Ovid takes on the stories of Troy's fall and Rome's origin - have we finally reached the point of 'real epic'? In fact, Ovid's approach is very different from Virgil's in the Aeneid, and tends to focus on characters tangential to the canonical Virgilian and Homeric versions. There are also long diversions as characters from the Trojan War narrate non-military tales, with the result that Troy's destruction and Rome's foundation are told in a non-linear fashion. This lecture will explore Ovid's narrative strategy in these later books, and investigate the political and poetic effect of this Callimachean alternative to Roman foundation myth. Copyright 2014 Rhiannon Evans / La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

This lecture focusses on the two most prominent lovers in Metamorphoses 9-11, Orpheus and Pygmalion. Both also happen to be artists. We first examine Orpheus, paying particular attention to the ways in which Ovid reworks the Virgilian account in Georgics 4, and then Pygmalion, concentrating on the nature of his passion and the connections between the sculptor and the internal narrator who tells his story. We conclude with reflections on the implications of these stories for our understanding of Ovid’s representation of artists in Metamorphoses. Copyright 2014 Rhiannon Evans / La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

FIrst (of two) classes on Swift.  Swift's vividness compared to Rochester's.  His misanthropy and also his sense of human wrong: how it's the fact that humans do wrong that makes them hateful, but the wrong they do is to humans.  Corinna and Celia as human and as holding it together when everything is falling apart.  Swift's sense of how hard aesthetic surface or "varnish" is.  Virgilian description of a city shower.