Epic Visions

This wide-ranging interdisciplinary collection explores different ways of visualising Greek and Roman epic from Homer to Statius in both ancient and modern culture. The book presents new perspectives on Homer Virgil Ovid Lucan Valerius Flaccus and Statius and covers the re-working of epic matter in tragedy opera film late antique speeches of praise story-boarding sculpture and wall-painting. The chapters use a variety of methods to address the relationship between narrative and visuality exploring how and why epic has inspired artists authors and directors and offering fresh visual interpretations of epic texts. Themes and issues discussed include: intermediality ekphrasis and panegyric illusion and deception imagery and deferral alienation and involvement the multiplicity of possible visual responses to texts three-dimensionality miniaturisation epic as cultural capital and the specificity of genres both literary and visual. Language: English