VERGIL THE HESITANT HORTICULTURALIST: READING EMOTIONS FROM THE EPICUREAN GARDEN IN THE 'AENEID'

Abstract

The passions of love and anger are at the root of character motivation in Vergil’s Aeneid, and often act as an essential narrative device for developing the poem’s more cosmic themes. This thesis endeavours to apply the philosophical structures of the Epicurean thinkers Philodemus and Lucretius to love and anger as they are explored in the Aeneid. It subsequently explores the interpretative repercussions of the Epicurean view for the poem, and the difficulties of truly grappling with the text in strictly philosophical terms.