This full-length book on Virgil’s style aims to clarify an important aspect of poetry; namely, the relationship between word order and expressiveness. Through offering a detailed analysis of selected passages of the Aeneid and other hexametric poetry that clearly shows a stylistically motivated use of the various figures, the author provides an effective tool for evaluating and fully appreciating the expressiveness of the word order.
When can word order be considered expressive? And what we do mean by “expressiveness”? This work, based upon a statistical and stylistical enquiry into Virgil’s Aeneid as well of other hexametric poetry, aims to answer these questions from an appropriate perspective. Through offering a detailed analysis of selected passages, the author stresses the evident recurrence of the same figures in similar contexts and with the same stylistic effects. In this view, a rare word order as well as a relevant metrical and syntactical pattern appear to constitute a deviation from the norm stylistically motivated, that can highlight significant words or iconically stress the semantics of a passage. By combining the main notes on style from the Aeneid commentaries and the stylistic readings also applied to modern texts, the author, with a clear approach, systematically discusses the various structures of Latin hexameter – enjambement, synaloepha, hiatus, four-word lines, name-lines, relevant juxtapositions etc. – in terms of “effects”, showing how they interact and converge in the text. This introduction to Virgil’s expressiveness aims to be an effective tool for a stylistic reading of any Latin hexametric text.