Dr Dunstan Lowe from Classical and Archaeological Studies has published a new book entitled Monsters and Monstrosity in Augustan Poetry.
Monsters and Monstrosity in Augustan Poetry is the first full-length study of monsters in Augustan poetry, and the first metapoetic reading of monstrosity in classical antiquity.
Dunstan Lowe takes a fresh approach to the canonical works of Vergil, Ovid, and their contemporaries, contributing to a very recent turn toward marvels, monsters, and deformity in classical studies.
Monsters provided a fantastical means to explore attitudes toward human nature, especially in its relationship with sex. They also symbolised deformations of poetic form. Such gestures were doomed to replay the defeat of hypermasculine monsters yet, paradoxically, they legitimised poetic innovation.
Lowe proposes that monstrosity was acutely topical during the birth of the principate, having featured in aesthetic debates of the Hellenistic age, while also serving as an established, if controversial, means for public figures to amaze the population and display their power.
For more details on the book please see the publisher’s website.