Abstract (eng)
The thesis presents an approach to structural analysis of Vergil’s Aeneid and applies it to book 3. The aim was to come up with an analytical technique that would allow to capture as many aspects of the poetic work as possible both on the small and large scale. A chapter on methodology briefly discusses structural forms that can often be found in Augustan poetry and then presents those aspects that underlie the analytic investigation: factual elements of the narrative, motifs, semantic elements, repetitions of words and parts of verses, repetitions of episode structures, intertextual references – above all to Homer, Apollonios, Callimachos and Euripides –, and for the first time also the phonological dimension of the poetic text.
Since including sound among the elements considered in a strucural analysis is a novelty, at least in the way presented, an attempt at a systematic presentation of Vergilian sound technique is made. In this approach, traditional forms of approaching sound are largely superseded by looking at the texture of what actually sounds and can be heard in a recital of the text. Among others, strophical structures emerge.
The application of the method of structural analysis is demonstrated by means of a complete structural analysis of the third book of the Aeneid. After a report on the research done in this field so far, the first part proper in this section is an analysis of the book’s individual episodes. It not only shows the internal structure of the episodes but also the structures within smaller passages of text. Then,the different structural patterns in the book as a whole are presented: a concentric pattern that, starting from the frame, proceeds episode by episode towards the book’s centre, which in this pattern happens to be Helenus‘ prophecy; a sequential pattern, in which the journey from Troy to Buthrotum is parallelised with the journey from Actium to Carthage – the centre being Actium; a tripertite structure in which Buthrotum is the middle third and the first third can be perceived as consisting of the journey from Troy to Crete and the journey from Crete to Buthrotum: two halves which are, again, sequentially parallelised episode by episode; and lastly, the function of the stop near Mount Etna as finale that ties together and transforms elements from almost all preceding episodes. At the end, a first attempt is made at interpreting the structure’s meaning.
The concluding chapter closes with the presentation of ideas for further research in sound and structure.