Professional paper

Laetitiae Bacchus Dator? - The Virgilian Wine God

Lee Fratantuono ; The National University of Ireland, Maynooth

Abstract

The wine god Bacchus is cited often in the works of Virgil, not least in his epic Aeneid. Detailed examination of the references to Bacchus in Virgil’s works reveals a carefully arranged, coherent progression of images. Virgil utilizes Bacchus as a key divine figure in his poetic commentary on
the history of the nascent Augustan regime, not least with respect to its vanquishing of the disgraced triumvir Antony and his foreign consort Cleopatra. The ambivalent depiction of the epic hero Aeneas reflects in part the problems inherent to the depiction of the eastern, Trojan elements
of the Roman identity, elements that took on particularly acute significance during the last of the civil wars.

Keywords

Virgil; Bacchus; Dionysus; Aeneas; Antony; Cleopatra

Hrčak ID:

305426

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/305426

Publication date:

1.6.2023.

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