R. O. A. M. Lyne – författare

The Aeneid can strike one as a relatively conventional epic. It may seem an objective heroic tale of Rome's beginnings, unshocking in tone and substance, indeed (and more particularly) patriotic and inspiring. Vergil designed it so that it might read in this way. This is one `voice` that he wished us to hear. We may call it the epic voice. But there are `further voices`. Imagery and other stylistic devices are exploited to insinuate ramifying meanings and messages for those prepared to listen, and these may be disturbing, even shocking, as they add to, comment upon, question and occasionally subvert the implications of the epic voice. This book examines and illustrates Vergil's method of intruding such further voices. In doing so it illuminates with unusual clarity the manner and content of Vergil's communications; it is as if one is taken inside Vergil's workshop, indeed inside his mind.

The Latin Love Poets from Catullus to Horace

Readers familiar with Dr Lyne's last book on Virgil will know what to expect. There is the same clarity of expression and layout, the same care to make his use of special terminology unambiguous, the same passionate belief, to use his own words, that "nothing in Vergil is without purpose of explanation". Dr Lyne undoubtedly makes the reader think and sharpens his perception of Virgil; he imparts much interesting, factual information in a clear, orderly style and his passion to know what can be found in Virgil's text is genuine and attractive.' Greece & RomeTo a surprising extent Vergil avoids artifices of poetic diction like archaism and grecism, preferring ordinary language: words that were the common stock of the Latin tongue or even (and this remarkably often) words that conventional poets generally avoided at all costs as too ordinary (prosaisms, colloquialisms). In this he shares the taste of his contemporary Horace. The present book identifies and categorizes such diction in vergil. But more importantly it shows how such comparatively unpromising material is converted by the poet's methods of `combination' (iunctura) into poetry. Parallels are drawn with Horace's procedures, and Vergil's boldness stressed. Horace combines words in such a way as to `make them new'; Vergil's combinations veritably extort unexpected and novel sense. Horace can put prosaic words to work in spite of their unpromising familiarity; Vergil more vigorously exploits them. The Vergilian techniques of extortion and exploitation are richly illustrated in this book. Not all Vergil's characteristic methods merit such violent descriptions. His use of the traditional simile ('narrative through imagery') is characterized by discretion and guile - but at key points links up with those more forceful methods. Guileful too is the way in which he may persuade some neutral word to acquire a specal sense over a stretch of text - or the way he may incite us to pursue a sequence of related effects. Vergilian narrative through imagery, and his techniques of incitement and acquisition, are also fully explained in this richly original and informative book.

This volume presents a wide range of pieces from a world-class Latinist which displays both his diverse interests as a scholar and his consistent concern with Augustan texts, their language and literary texture. The range of articles, written over more than three decades and including one previously unpublished piece, covers the same connected territory - largely Virgil, Horace, and elegy. R. O. A. M. Lyne's consistent approach of close reading means that the articles form a coherent whole, while his compelling style as an engaged literary analyst ensures that these are not dry or forbidding pieces.

This collection of essays, written by former pupils of his, celebrates the career of Jasper Griffin, one of the foremost modern scholars of classical epic. The volume surveys the epic tradition from the eighth century BC to the nineteenth century of our era. Individual chapters focus on: Homer and the oral epic tradition; Homer in his religious context; Herodotus and Homer; Hellenistic epic; Virgil in his literary context; Virgil in his political-cultural context; the Augustan poets and the Aeneid; Statius' Thebaid; Old English and Old Irish epic; Renaissance epic: Tasso and Milton; and the Victorians. The aim of the book is to situate writers of epic in their literary and cultural contexts - the essence of the term 'interaction' in the title. The chapters singly offer insights into some of the foundational poems of the European epic tradition and together take a bold, holistic look at that tradition.

This fascinating study of one of the greatest poets of the Augustan Age sheds new light on Horace's works, combining literary analysis with investigation into the poet’s social and political circumstances.Lyne’s personal and historical approach focuses on the poet’s relations with his patron Maecenas, with the Emperor Augustus, and with other grandees. Closely analyzing poems from Satires, Odes, and Epistles, Lyne reveals not only the magnificence of Horace’s public literature, but the private man behind it. He shows how Horace neatly balanced deference with the careful assertion of his own social and political standing.According to Lyne, Horace was a master of private insinuation, as well as a skilled maker of public poetry. He was also a master in the art of ordering his works: exactly where a poem occurs is often of the subtlest importance. Lyne also examines the resumption of the great political lyric in the Odes of Book 4 (set aside in 23 B.C.), and contends that, beneath the public face, Horace here exhibited resentment, recording views that undermined earlier patriotic statements.