Memory in Vergil's Aeneid
Creating the Past

Investigates the themes of recollection and commemoration in a new reading that engages with critical work on memory.

Aaron M. Seider (Author)

9781107031807, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 12 September 2013

240 pages
23.5 x 15.7 x 2.1 cm, 0.49 kg

'Seider's book is a welcome addition to the recent scholarly work on the Aeneid and makes a convincing case for the importance of analyzing the concept of memory as shaping history and identity in the poem … If the reviewer may appear to have more questions than answers, it is thanks to the rich and stimulating discussions found throughout the book. Seider's work tackles a fruitful line of inquity that will surely stimulate more research on the problem of memory and identity in Roman literature.' Vassiliki Panoussi, New England Classical Journal

Tracing the path from Troy's destruction to Rome's foundation, the Aeneid explores the transition between past and future. As the Trojans struggle to found a new city and the narrator sings of his audience's often-painful history, memory becomes intertwined with a crucial leitmotif: the challenge of being part of a group that survives violence and destruction only to face the daunting task of remembering what was lost. This book offers a new reading of the Aeneid that engages with critical work on memory and questions the prevailing view that Aeneas must forget his disastrous history in order to escape from a cycle of loss. Considering crucial scenes such as Aeneas' reconstruction of Celaeno's prophecy and his slaying of Turnus, this book demonstrates that memory in the Aeneid is a reconstructive and dynamic process, one that offers a social and narrative mechanism for integrating a traumatic past with an uncertain future.

Introduction
1. Turning toward Rome
2. The challenge of Troy
3. A personal affair: memories of Dido
4. The narrator's song
5. Imperatives of memory: foundation and fury in Aeneid 12
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Literary studies: poetry & poets [DSC], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB], Poetry by individual poets [DCF], Poetry [DC]