CLASSICS 1B03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Dactylic Hexameter, Ekphrasis, Argonautica
26 Jan 2017
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Document Summary
Difficulties of interpretation: meant to show how terrible they can be when seeking revenge. Some romans start to move away form mythological subjects. Neoteric poets: new, funny, obscene, serious, experimenting, highly intelligent. An epyllion: a mini-epic (intimate details in epyllion: short, written in dactylic hexameter, mythological subject, but different focus than epic. 64: outer story: marriage of peleus and thetis, ekphrasis: detailed description of a piece of art inner story: relationship of theseus and ariadne. Departure from greek poetry: influence of gods. Catullus tricks the reader (thinks reading argonautica but only sailing by the argo) Catullus glosses over the less pleasant details. The couch: symbol of marriage; turning point of narration. Ekphrasis: moves us from the outer to the inner story. Ariadne, daughter of king minos and queen pasiphae of crete. Pasiphae and the bull (mats with bull while in cow suit: daedalus, royal crasftman, baby minotaur. Androgeos, son of minos, dies in athens.
