The Primacy of Vision in Virgil's Aeneid

Preface and Acknowledgments

Preface and Acknowledgments n My desire to consider vision in the Aeneid is in part derived from an interest in ancient art that I first cultivated at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome, a program that I attended as an undergraduate under Mary Sturgeon and Fred Albertson. My own research about ecphrasis, which I considered in my first book, also influenced my consideration of the topic of vision in the Aeneid. Based on my preliminary studies, I gave papers at Princeton, Yale, Wesleyan, Columbia, Notre Dame of Maryland, Austin College , Texas Tech, Monmouth College, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Vermont, and later, at Penn and Colorado. While only a little of the specific content of any of these lectures has come into this book, the development of my methodology is owed to them, and I wish to thank each of those departments for a warm reception and lively discussion. To Denis Feeney, David Quint, Jim O’Hara, Gareth Williams, Sister Thérèse Dougherty, Robert Cape, Edward George, Karl Galinsky, Tom Sienkewicz, Phil Ambrose, Joe Farrell, and Peter Knox, and all their colleagues, I express my gratitude here. I wish to thank the committees for research grants and sabbaticals at Baylor University, for without a respite from my duties at Baylor and without adequate financial support I could not have undertaken this project; special thanks to Wallace Daniel, Thomas Hibbs, David Jeffrey, Donald Schmeltekopf , and Robert Sloan for support, encouragement, and vision. I would also like to thank Tommye Lou Davis for taking over as acting chair of the department in my absence. I wrote this book in Philadelphia, where I used the resources of the University of Pennsylvania’s Van Pelt Library. I wish to thank the kind librarians there, as well as those of Moody Library at Baylor and of the Classics Library ix the primacy of vision in virgil’s Aeneid at the University of Texas at Austin (particularly Bonnie) for timely assistance throughout this project. I thank my mother, too, for allowing me to stay with her in New Hope, Pennsylvania, so that I could take advantage of her home’s proximity to the Penn campus. My own gentle colleagues at Baylor have been of great support and have offered numerous editorial insights. I acknowledge all of them for encouragement, among whom are Tommye Lou Davis, Daniel Eady, Chris Flood, Kevin Hawthorne, Carol King, John Nordling, and Amy Vail. Those who read and edited sizeable portions of the manuscript include Antony Augoustakis, Julia Dyson, Jeff Fish, Brent Froberg , Aaron Johnson, and John Thorburn. Megan Mauldin, my assistant in the University Scholars Program, was of great help in the final stages of this project. I also thank Richard Duran for insightful suggestions and Paulette Edwards for logistical support. My colleagues’ observations have much improved this project. My former students, too, have offered comments, suggestions, and encouragement . Among many I would like to thank Angeline Chiu, Jason Gajderowicz, Dan Hanchey, Dustin Heinen, Jeff Hunt, Leslie Hutton, Sean Mathis, Amanda Seamans-Mathis, and Michael Sloan. My current students, some of whom have studied Virgil with me and have read a previous version of this book, offered several insights.These students are Katie Calloway, Rosalyn Chan, Jonathan Dunbar, Lesley-Anne Dyer, Cory Elliott, Erik Ellis, Lindsay Fuller, Martin Gallagher, Karen Kelly, Christin Laroche, Rachel Miller, Emily Nicholson, Dionne Peniston, Katie Smith, Candace Spain, and Becky Tompkins. I want also to thank other colleagues and friends who have assisted me in various different ways on this project: Michael Appleby, David Armstrong, Olof Brandt, Fred Crosson, Roald Docter, Carlo Gasparri, Timothy Johnson, Eric Kyllo, Paolo Liverani, Paul McCoy, Jan Stubbe Østergaard, Piergiacomo Petrioli, Steve and Brenda Ramer, David White, Orley Lindgren and Katriona Munthe-Lindgren (for a salutary retreat in Leksand amidst the chaos), and la familia Scariglia, for a similar retreat in Cumae. At Leksand I had the pleasure to meet Pia and Jan Thunholm. I wish to express my appreciation to Jan, whose beautiful linocut adorns this book’s cover. Professor Bettina Bergmann of Mt. Holyoke was especially helpful in securing for me the photograph of Helen from the House of the Tragic Poet. I thank her for allowing me to use her copy of this photograph. To Philip Lockhart, Professor Emeritus , Dickinson College, I can barely begin to express my deepest gratitude. Phil’s constant advice and encouragement and gentleness have shaped and guided me throughout...