Similes in Vergil's Aeneid

FAIN: FT-61693-14

Deborah Beck
University of Texas at Austin (Austin, TX 78712-0100)

Throughout the Aeneid, the main narrative about the hero Aeneas and the similes that tell many aspects of his tale work together as full and equal partners in narrating the poem. This view of similes challenges the usual idea that they provide a kind of seasoning for the meat and potatoes of epic narrative. Work from various disciplines shows that a simile draws in readers both emotionally, by challenging them to provide their own interpretations of it and its relation to the context, and cognitively, by making the narrative more memorable. No study exists that focuses on similes in the Aeneid, and that draws on the wide range of interdisciplinary treatments of how they help a narrative connect with its audience. This study will argue that a reader who grapples with the content, themes, construction, and interpretation(s) of similes understands the Aeneid as a whole. It reshapes our understanding of similes and narrative in Vergil's poetry and of the relationship between the two.

Associated Products

The First Simile of the Aeneid (Article)
Title: The First Simile of the Aeneid
Author: Deborah Beck
Abstract: This paper argues that the first simile of the Aeneid introduces readers to ideas about allusion, theme, plot, and interpretation that map out for readers the contours of their roles as interpreters of the Aeneid.
Year: 2014
Format: Journal
Publisher: Vergilius 60, 1-17

Simile Structure in Homeric Epic and Vergil’s Aeneid (Book Section)
Title: Simile Structure in Homeric Epic and Vergil’s Aeneid
Author: Beck, Deborah
Editor: Scodel, Ruth
Abstract: Compares the extended similes in Homeric epic and Vergil _Aeneid_ from both cognitive and aesthetic perspectives.
Year: 2014
Primary URL: http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=1730523
Primary URL Description: WorldCat URL
Publisher: Brill
Book Title: Between Orality and Literacy: Communication and Adaptation in Antiquity
ISBN: 978-90-04

The Stories of Similes in Greek and Roman Epic (Book)
Title: The Stories of Similes in Greek and Roman Epic
Author: Deborah Beck
Abstract: A simile in an ancient Greek or Roman epic poem frames a brief tale about something outwardly unrelated to the poem’s main story. Just as the story of an epic poem is woven from characters and plot, so too the individual similes within an epic create a unified and unique simile world. Its similes band together to create an internally consistent world like any other story, peopled by individual characters, happenings, and experiences. The simile world that complements the epic mythological story is re-imagined afresh in relation to the themes of each epic poem. Indeed, the story and simile worlds are reshaped in tandem from epic to epic. Over time, a simile world takes shape across many poems composed over many centuries. This evolving landscape resembles the epic story world of battles and heroes and voyages that comes into being through relationships among different epic poems. Epic narrative is woven from a warp of the mythological story world and a weft of the simile world. They are partners in creating the fabric of epic poetry. This book answers the question, “what kind of stories emerge from classical epic if we put similes front and center?”
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/stories-of-similes-in-greek-and-roman-epic/99D40D401891F17CE85438660099F0C0
Primary URL Description: Cambridge University Press page for the book
Secondary URL: https://epic-similes-beck.la.utexas.edu/
Secondary URL Description: open-access database
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Type: Single author monograph
Copy sent to NEH?: No

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