Aaron Seider | College of the Holy Cross (original) (raw)

Papers by Aaron Seider

The Classical Journal, 2018

A series of links to the last verses of the Eclogues and Georgics characterizes A. 12.945–52 as a... more A series of links to the last verses of the Eclogues and Georgics characterizes A. 12.945–52 as a covert sphragis that reflects on Vergil's corpus. Through their description of Pallas' baldric, focus on Aeneas' relationship with Pallas and allusion to Eclogue 1, the epic's final lines continue the modes of closural reflection established by Ecl. 10.70–7 and G. 4.559–66. In doing so, they mark grief as a central emotion of the Aeneid and render distance and death a point of conclusion for Vergil's earlier works as well. This perspective emphasizes the tension between the necessity of Aeneas' last action and the emotional toll it entails, at the same time as it calls attention to the opposition between the frailty of human bonds and the courage of those who attempt to form them in all of Vergil's writings.

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Interfaces, 2017

When the National September 11 Memorial & Museum opened in 2014, a quotation from the Aeneid thru... more When the National September 11 Memorial & Museum opened in 2014, a quotation from the Aeneid thrust its 2,000-year-old author into a contemporary debate about honor and remembrance. Emblazoned on the central wall of Memorial Hall, the sentence " No day shall erase you from the memory of time, " attributed simply to Virgil, stood high above the museum's visitors. This elegant translation of the Latin phrase nulla dies umquam memori vos eximet aevo, 1 line 447 in the ninth book of Virgil's epic poem the Aeneid, sparked a series of conversations in newspapers and magazines about the appropriateness of transferring a Virgilian epitaph for two mythological soldiers to the victims of the 9/11 attacks. While these reactions focused on the challenges posed by the relationship between ancient and modern contexts, they left unexplored consequential issues of appropriation and commemoration that reorient the interpretive possibilities of the contexts of Virgil's words and subtend the dynamics of nearly every act of quotation. In this article I explore how this single act of appropriation compels the consideration and reconsideration of these words' relationships with their ancient and modern contexts. While some aspects of the verse's original setting complicate its memorializing function in the Memorial Museum, a fuller exploration of its ancient and modern contexts reveals the power of quotation as a form of appropriation that demands a new interpretation. More specifically, I argue that this quotation in the Memorial Museum exemplifies the tension between the allure of antiquity and the impossibility of controlling its meaning, as Virgil's promise of eternal remembrance occasions larger concerns about time and memory that leave the signification of its words unstable and erase borders between texts and audiences. At the same time, though, as this interaction between different contexts destabilizes the words' commemorative force, the friction produced by that interaction offers new insight into other commemorative appropriations in the Memorial Museum and in Virgil's Aeneid. For the Memorial Museum, this engagement with the Aeneid illuminates a dialogue between the universal and the unique, while these words' placement within the Memorial Museum highlights the futility of trying to control commemoration within the Aeneid.

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Vergilius, 2016

This paper explores how Eclogues 6 and 10 fashion a narrative of expansion that associates Vergil... more This paper explores how Eclogues 6 and 10 fashion a narrative of expansion that associates Vergil’s efforts at generic enrichment with those of his friend Gallus. In a series of passages marked by his affection for his fellow poet, Vergil illustrates his incorporation of other generic strands within pastoral by detailing Gallus’ attempts to do the same with elegy. With Vergil’s experiments distinguished by their temporal priority and artistic success, he claims the origin and end of this boldly refashioned genre as his own and positions his exit from Eclogue 10 as a consequence of pastoral’s fullness. Wordplay in the collection’s final line emphasizes and validates this generic richness, as, by designating his goats as saturae (“full,” Ecl. 10.77), Vergil capitalizes on the presumed etymological link between the adjective satur and the noun satura to associate his pastoral poetry with the variety in content and form of early Roman satire.

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Classical Antiquity, 2016

This article considers Catullus’ reaction to his brother’s death and argues that the poet, having... more This article considers Catullus’ reaction to his brother’s death and argues that the poet, having found the masculine vocabulary of grief inadequate, turns to the more expansive emotions and prolonged dedication offered by mythological examples of feminine mourning. I begin by showing
how Catullus complicates his graveside speech to his brother in poem 101 by invoking poems 65, 68a, and 68b. In these compositions, Catullus likens himself to figures such as Procne and Laodamia, and their feminine modes of grief become associated with the poet. While these
women’s grief brings them to a dreadful end, in my second reading of poem 101 I show how Catullus incorporates their emotional intensity and devoted attention into a masculine performance of mourning. Connecting his voyage to his brother’s grave with Odysseus’ journey, Catullus valorizes his single-minded remembrance of his sibling, even as he acknowledges that he will never overcome the distance between them.

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EPEKEINA, 2014

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New England Classical Journal, 2012

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American Journal of Philology, 2012

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Books by Aaron Seider

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The Classical Journal, 2018

A series of links to the last verses of the Eclogues and Georgics characterizes A. 12.945–52 as a... more A series of links to the last verses of the Eclogues and Georgics characterizes A. 12.945–52 as a covert sphragis that reflects on Vergil's corpus. Through their description of Pallas' baldric, focus on Aeneas' relationship with Pallas and allusion to Eclogue 1, the epic's final lines continue the modes of closural reflection established by Ecl. 10.70–7 and G. 4.559–66. In doing so, they mark grief as a central emotion of the Aeneid and render distance and death a point of conclusion for Vergil's earlier works as well. This perspective emphasizes the tension between the necessity of Aeneas' last action and the emotional toll it entails, at the same time as it calls attention to the opposition between the frailty of human bonds and the courage of those who attempt to form them in all of Vergil's writings.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Interfaces, 2017

When the National September 11 Memorial & Museum opened in 2014, a quotation from the Aeneid thru... more When the National September 11 Memorial & Museum opened in 2014, a quotation from the Aeneid thrust its 2,000-year-old author into a contemporary debate about honor and remembrance. Emblazoned on the central wall of Memorial Hall, the sentence " No day shall erase you from the memory of time, " attributed simply to Virgil, stood high above the museum's visitors. This elegant translation of the Latin phrase nulla dies umquam memori vos eximet aevo, 1 line 447 in the ninth book of Virgil's epic poem the Aeneid, sparked a series of conversations in newspapers and magazines about the appropriateness of transferring a Virgilian epitaph for two mythological soldiers to the victims of the 9/11 attacks. While these reactions focused on the challenges posed by the relationship between ancient and modern contexts, they left unexplored consequential issues of appropriation and commemoration that reorient the interpretive possibilities of the contexts of Virgil's words and subtend the dynamics of nearly every act of quotation. In this article I explore how this single act of appropriation compels the consideration and reconsideration of these words' relationships with their ancient and modern contexts. While some aspects of the verse's original setting complicate its memorializing function in the Memorial Museum, a fuller exploration of its ancient and modern contexts reveals the power of quotation as a form of appropriation that demands a new interpretation. More specifically, I argue that this quotation in the Memorial Museum exemplifies the tension between the allure of antiquity and the impossibility of controlling its meaning, as Virgil's promise of eternal remembrance occasions larger concerns about time and memory that leave the signification of its words unstable and erase borders between texts and audiences. At the same time, though, as this interaction between different contexts destabilizes the words' commemorative force, the friction produced by that interaction offers new insight into other commemorative appropriations in the Memorial Museum and in Virgil's Aeneid. For the Memorial Museum, this engagement with the Aeneid illuminates a dialogue between the universal and the unique, while these words' placement within the Memorial Museum highlights the futility of trying to control commemoration within the Aeneid.

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Vergilius, 2016

This paper explores how Eclogues 6 and 10 fashion a narrative of expansion that associates Vergil... more This paper explores how Eclogues 6 and 10 fashion a narrative of expansion that associates Vergil’s efforts at generic enrichment with those of his friend Gallus. In a series of passages marked by his affection for his fellow poet, Vergil illustrates his incorporation of other generic strands within pastoral by detailing Gallus’ attempts to do the same with elegy. With Vergil’s experiments distinguished by their temporal priority and artistic success, he claims the origin and end of this boldly refashioned genre as his own and positions his exit from Eclogue 10 as a consequence of pastoral’s fullness. Wordplay in the collection’s final line emphasizes and validates this generic richness, as, by designating his goats as saturae (“full,” Ecl. 10.77), Vergil capitalizes on the presumed etymological link between the adjective satur and the noun satura to associate his pastoral poetry with the variety in content and form of early Roman satire.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Classical Antiquity, 2016

This article considers Catullus’ reaction to his brother’s death and argues that the poet, having... more This article considers Catullus’ reaction to his brother’s death and argues that the poet, having found the masculine vocabulary of grief inadequate, turns to the more expansive emotions and prolonged dedication offered by mythological examples of feminine mourning. I begin by showing
how Catullus complicates his graveside speech to his brother in poem 101 by invoking poems 65, 68a, and 68b. In these compositions, Catullus likens himself to figures such as Procne and Laodamia, and their feminine modes of grief become associated with the poet. While these
women’s grief brings them to a dreadful end, in my second reading of poem 101 I show how Catullus incorporates their emotional intensity and devoted attention into a masculine performance of mourning. Connecting his voyage to his brother’s grave with Odysseus’ journey, Catullus valorizes his single-minded remembrance of his sibling, even as he acknowledges that he will never overcome the distance between them.

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EPEKEINA, 2014

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New England Classical Journal, 2012

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American Journal of Philology, 2012

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