Domus omnipotentis Olympi : Eine kompositionsanalytische Untersuchung der Götterversammlung Vergils (Aen. 10, 1-117)
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Date
2025-10-21
Authors
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Philipps-Universität Marburg
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Abstract
Divine council scenes (concilia deorum) are an integral part of epic narrative already in the Iliad and Odyssey. As a characteristic of the genre, they provide an identity-forming paradigm that also becomes canonical for the entire further epic genre succeeding Homer. Virgil's divine council at the beginning of the tenth book of the Aeneid (Aen. 10, 1-117) fits into this tradition. On the one hand, it represents the only scene sui generis in the entire poem, on the other hand, it has a prominent position right in the middle of the Iliadic second half of the epic as well as the opening of the last quarter of the Aeneid. Simultaneously, with the debate between the parties of the gods about guilt and responsibility for the war that broke out in Latium and the dispute concerning the further progression and eventual outcome of the escalating conflict situation, it touches on essential aspects of the entire epic plot. As a direct (and also only) meeting of all three Aeneid central gods Jupiter, Juno and Venus, the scene also evokes an increase in dramatic tension potential. All of this leads to expect that Virgil might attribute specific relevance to his single concilium deorum in the Aeneid composition.
Contrary to this, the assembly of the gods is assessed almost entirely negatively in philological research: On the one hand, the narrative expendability of the scene is emphasized, as it has no consequences for the further course of the narrative. On the other hand, Jupiter apparently acts in a self-contradictory and inconsistent manner, since his declared neutrality is in discrepancy with the teleology of the epic. At times the divine council is even seen as a poetic failure and attributed to Virgil's compositional insufficiency.
In contrast, the present study aims at a philological revision and interpretive rehabilitation of the assembly of the gods, which rather seeks to see in it a conscious artistic design intention on Virgil's part. The synopsis on the one hand reveals an immanent coherence and stringency of the scene in the organic synthesis of multidimensional compositional levels. Furthermore, the assembly of the gods fits seamlessly into the epic narrative and, in particular, provides a specific interpretative horizon for the relationship between divine and human action in the poem. In conclusion this rather underlines Virgil's poetic refinement in the composition of the Aeneid's divine council.
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Dates
Created: 2025Issued: 2025-10-21Updated: 2025-10-21
Faculty
Fachbereich Fremdsprachliche Philologien
Language
ger
Data types
DoctoralThesis
Keywords
AeneidDivine councilVirgilAssembly of the godsDeorum concilium
DFG-subjects
GötterversammlungDeorum conciliumAeneisVergil
DDC-Numbers
890
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Bulle, Johannes: Domus omnipotentis Olympi : Eine kompositionsanalytische Untersuchung der Götterversammlung Vergils (Aen. 10, 1-117). : Philipps-Universität Marburg 2025-10-21. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17192/z2025.0099.
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This item has been published with the following license: In Copyright