Classical and Early Modern Epic: Comparative Approahces and New Perspectives

During the early modern period none of the classical epics exercised a greater influence on European literature than Virgil's Aeneid. It was translated, imitated and reworked in Italian, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, English and more. The project of imitation and translation of Virgil had as one of its goals the creation of literary language in the European vernaculars and had a more or less explicitly patriotic or nationalistic agenda.

The Virgilian episode of Venus appearing to Aeneas in the Carthaginian woods under the guise of a virgin huntress (Verg. Aen. 1.314-417) has attracted a wide range of responses through the centuries, proving itself as a highly disturbing text for readers of all times. From the first interpretations, the scene has always been either censured or adjusted in order to be mastered and to look more conventional.

What can scholars of early modern epic gain by looking at classical epic and vice versa? In my paper I will tackle this question by examining two epics that were written in the wake of the battle of Lepanto (October 7, 1571) by Iberian authors. The first one is the Austrias Carmen of Juan Latino, a former black slave of the high-ranking Fernández de Córdoba family and professor of Latin at the University of Granada.

One of the best reasons for an integrative approach to studying classical and early modern epic is simply to have a more unified and nuanced view of cultural production. The new accessibility of many seldom-read early modern texts through digitization, the expanding bibliographical databases on formats and editions for all kinds of early modern books, and the conceptual expansion of translation studies have made new levels of integration possible.