In the Image of the Ancestors : : Narratives of Kinship in Flavian Epic / / Neil Bernstein.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter UTP eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2015
• VerfasserIn: Bernstein, Neil,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2016]; ©2008
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Series: Phoenix Supplementary Volumes ; 48
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

Only four Roman epic poems survive from the Flavian period (69-96 AD): Valerius Flaccus's Argonautica, Statius's Thebaid and Achilleid, and Silius Italicus's Punica. Neil W. Bernstein argues that these poems contain depictions of kinship that are significantly different from earlier epic and examines these representations in the context of the social, political, and aesthetic changes of the early Imperial period. The author analyses various kinds of kinship, including biological relationships, elective relationships such as marriage and adoption, and the symbolic bonds of social and political allegiances, to illuminate the complex ways in which the Roman upper class asserted their status with or without noble lineage. A fresh and fascinating look at not only Roman poetry, but the epic tradition itself, In the Image of the Ancestors is essential reading for classicists and literary historians.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Kinship as Narrative -- 2. Valerius' Argonautica: Kinship and Power -- 3. Statius' Thebaid -- 4. Statius' Achilleid: Nature and Nurture -- 5. Silius' Punica: Kinship and the State -- 6. From Family to Nation: Descent and Ethnicity in Flavian Epic -- 7. The Poetics of Kinship -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Index Locorum -- General Index -- Backmatter