The Virgil Encyclopedia, 3 Volume Set

This is the first comprehensive English langage reference volume on Virgil, a poet whose works and thoughts have been at the center of Western literary, cultural, artistic, and pedagogical traditions for more than two millennia.

• Complements existing Virgil works by providing readers of all levels an approachable point of entry intry into further Virgil studies
• Offers in-depth treatment of all aspects of Virgil’s poetry, including the Greek and Roman literary traditions that inform his three great collections, the Eclogues, Georgics and Aeneid, and the reception of Virgil's oeuvre in literature, art, and music down through the ages
• Brings together over 350 contributors who are leading scholars in various periods of literary and cultural studies
• Comprises over 2,200 entries organized in A-Z format

Winner of the 2017 Alexander G. McKay Book Prize for the best book in Vergilian studies bestowed by The Vergilian Society.

Also available on Wiley Online Library. For sample content and information on online access, visit www.wileyonlinelibrary.com/ref/virgil.

List of Entries viii

List of Illustrations xxxi

Contributors xxxvi

Preface lxv

Notes to the Reader lxviii

Acknowledgments lxxi

Acknowledgments for Illustrations lxxii

Abbreviations lxxiii

Volume I The Virgil Encyclopedia A–E 1–468

Volume II The Virgil Encyclopedia F–Pe 469–994

Volume III The Virgil Encyclopedia Ph–Z 995–1410

Stylistic Terms Appendix 1411

Timeline 1419

Index of Virgil Citations 1431

General Index 1447

"It should be of widespread use well beyond Classics, and would even be suitable for school libraries... The editors more than deliver on their hope to 'contribute, even in a small way, to the continuation of the Virgilian tradition by facilitating the work of those who teach and study it'" - Classical Review, Jan. 2015

“It is all here, and more; besides, I cannot see t his encyclopedia being even partially superseded for very many years, if at all, which makes it a sound investment for any library.” (Reference Reviews, 1 October 2014)

“This wide-ranging work will be invaluable to anyone interested in Virgil, although its price will make it inaccessible to many. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through researchers/faculty.” (Choice, 1 May 2014)

"Their wish is not to provide a comprehensive, self-standing resource so much as a conduit to the 'large and vibrant field of Virgilian studies', both digital and bibliographical, their abmit 'everything of importance that enters into Virgil, that is in Virgil, and that comes out of Virgil into literature, art, and music.'" (Times Literary Supplement, January 2014) Richard F. Thomas is George Martin Lane Professor of the Classics at Harvard University. His books include Lands and Peoples in Roman Poetry: The Ethnographical Tradition (1982), a two-volume commentary on Virgil’s Georgics (1988), Reading Virgil and his Texts (1999), Virgil and the Augustan Reception (2001), and a commentary on Horace, Odes 4 and Carmen Saeculare (2011).

Jan M. Ziolkowski is Director of Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection in Washington, DC, and Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Medieval Latin at Harvard University. His books include Nota Bene: Reading Classics and Writing Songs in the Early Middle Ages (2007); Fairy Tales from Before Fairy Tales: The Medieval Latin Past of Wonderful Lies (2007); The Virgilian Tradition: The First Fifteen Hundred Years, co-edited with Michael C. J. Putnam (2008); and Solomon and Marcolf (2008).

The Virgil Encyclopedia represents the first comprehensive reference volume to be published in English on Publius Vergilius Maro, the classical Roman poet whose works and thoughts have been at the center of Western literary, cultural, artistic, and pedagogical traditions for more than two millennia. Through some 2,200 carefully researched entries, scholars and students alike are provided with an in-depth treatment of all aspects of Virgil’s poetry, including the Greek and Roman literary traditions that inform his three great collections, the Eclogues, Georgics and Aeneid. Entries also reveal the reception of Virgil’s oeuvre in literature, art, and music from the moment each work appeared and transformed the Roman literary and intellectual world.

Contributors include top specialists in the literature of antiquity; as well as international scholars in medieval, Renaissance, early modern, and contemporary literary and cultural studies. The result of this unique collaborative effort is the most broad-ranging, meticulously researched, and up-to-date resource available today on a man whose imaginative works brought tears to Augustine, guided Dante through Hell, helped shape Milton’s Paradise Lost, and inspired Tennyson. The Virgil Encyclopedia provides innovative insights into a poet from the ancient world whose immeasurable influence on Western literature continues to the present day.

• The Virgil Encyclopedia is available in three print volumes, or in an electronic edition on Wiley Online Library: www.wileyonlinelibrary.com/ref/virgil.

“The Virgil Encyclopedia, edited by Richard Thomas and Jan Ziolkowski, is a very valuable aid to the study of the major Latin poet, surpassing Horace, Catullus, Ovid, and Lucretius. Both for its information and for its consistently high level of interpretation, this reference work should be of permanent use for anyone seeking to better appreciate Virgil.”
-Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University

“The editors have assembled a diverse and distinguished group of contributors to create a comprehensive guide to Virgil’s writings, their sources and context, and their cultural afterlife. It will be an essential resource for the study of Virgil and his reception.”
-Colin McCaffrey, Classics Librarian, Yale University