Publisher's Synopsis
The role of the gods in the classical world's epic tradition has been the subject of controversy since ancient times, and many modern readers continue to find their presence a source of frustration.;The work of the ancient critics provides some access to the interpretative conventions of the original reading community, while their theories of fiction and genre may also shed light on the problems of the truth-value of epic fiction and the kind of belief that poetry generates. Their work is only a preliminary guide, however, and the major portion of this study is devoted to the poets themselves and to the themes particularly associated with them - discussion of fiction is located with Apollonius, allegory with Statius, anthropomorphism with Ovid, and so on.
