Word: vergil
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...Norton Professor of Poetry, Bloom will give three more talks next spring under the general heading of "Poetry and Belief." Topics so far have included Dante, Homer, Vergil and the Hebrew Bible...
Tuchman seizes on the legend as evidence that such folly "is an old and inherent human habit." But her purpose seems deeper. The tale, told most memorably by Vergil in the Aeneid, portrays the Trojans as victims of fate. Despite the urgings of citizens that the Greek gift be destroyed or at least broken open, Troy's leaders take it in, hidden Greeks and all, because the gods have so ordained. That excuse will not do for Tuchman. "The gods (or God, for that matter) are a concept of the human mind," she writes. "The gods' interference...
...same level academically as the 15 we picked," says Karl Galinsky, chairman of the classics department at the University of Texas in Austin; he sought the aid of a local high school teacher in reviewing applications for his course on Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and Vergil's Aeneid...
...spacious and sunny room in Waggener Hall, Galinsky last week joined his class of teachers, who clustered informally around a conference table. There was a communal feeling in the group during the friendly discussion. Galinsky wondered if his class saw any change from Homer to Vergil in the ancient poets' view of man in society. Said Barbara Kane, a classical studies teacher from Spring Lake, N.J.: "In the Aeneid, there's a definite movement away from the focus on the individual per se-you have a national responsibility to the group." Said Tom Ahern, who teaches Latin...
Asked Galinsky: "Would you say that what Homer is doing is more primitive, reflecting an earlier stage of society?" Answered John Amoroso, a history teacher from Boston: "I think that what Vergil is trying to do here is to domesticate some of the virtues that we find in Homer. The problem with the Homeric hero is, ultimately, that he takes individualism to an extreme. In Homer, you could never see a domesticated hero. It's a contradiction of terms. With Vergil, we're seeing the heroic within the social fabric...