Incerti Auctoris Aetna

This edition provides a reliable text of the Aetna, a didactic poem about volcanic activity.

F. R. D. Goodyear (Author)

9780521604345, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 20 May 2004

256 pages
21.2 x 14 x 1.6 cm, 0.347 kg

The Aetna is something of a curiosity: a didactic poem on the nature and causes of volcanic activity. In antiquity it was ascribed by some to Virgil; modern scholars reject this and, although unable to agree upon a date, favour the first century A.D. The text itself presents many problems in reading and interpretation, arising partly from corruptions in the manuscripts, partly from obscurities in the subject-matter. These difficulties are increased by the nature of the author's style: it is terse and elliptical, and at the same time loaded with scientific detail and mythological allusion. Dr Goodyear's edition provides a long introduction, a text with critical apparatus, a commentary, bibliography and indexes. The text is more reliable than any published hitherto.

Preface
Introduction
Text and critical apparatus
Commentary
Bibliography
Indices.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]