SLC / Classics Research Seminar Series 2019 - Peter Gainsford

The Aeneid and The Epic Cycle

Presented by Peter Gainsford

Abstract

Did Vergil know the Epic Cycle? The conventional answer is: We can’t be certain, but probably not. Paradoxically, that didn’t stop him from drawing on it. This seminar will give an overview of the Epic Cycle and have a look at some of the ways Vergil exploits it, what kind of level of knowledge we’re looking at, and what form it existed in.

Biography

Peter Gainsford is Teaching Fellow in Classics at the Victoria University of Wellington. Peter is an expert in Greek literature and philology and author of Early Greek Hexameter Poetry (Cambridge 2015) as well as numerous specialist papers. Healso writes the lively classics blog, Kiwi Hellenist: Modern myths about the ancient world.