Madness features in many ancient epics: not only do characters go mad, but madness often plays an important thematic role. This book examines the representation and poetic function of madness in epic poetry (including the work of Homer, Virgil, and Ovid), addresses the difficulty of defining madness, and discusses how each epic explores the theme in a unique way.

Review

`In this enormously learned first book, the author presents a series of essays on madness ... The study is a revision of the author's 1995 dissertation, and she appears to have read everything on the subject in the original languages. If this becomes the standard for dissertations, the next generation is in trouble.' Peter King, The Historian, Summer 2000

`H.'s treatment of the developing overlap between Juno and Jupiter, as the goddess's desires and designs gradually merge with those of her husband, helps further our understanding of Virgil's purposes in Book 12... her finest pages are devoted to Statius. She traces the alternation between madness and exhaustion that helps structure the Thebaid and the very excessiveness which, in several senses, marks the poem as the ne plus ultra of Classical epic.' Michael C.J. Putnam. Journal of Roman Studies LXXXIX 1999.

About the Author

Debra Hershkowitz is at Christ Church College, Oxford.