This pdf was forwarded to me by David Kelley, a WNTS member from California. It was posted originally in the WNTS Gogle Group, but I want to repost it here as well.
John M. McMahon, Le Moyne College
mcmahon@maple.lemoyne.edu
John M. McMahon, Le Moyne College
mcmahon@maple.lemoyne.edu
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As readers of Homer, Vergil, Ovid, and other Classical authors are well aware, trees play a prominent role in the literature of the ancient Greeks and Romans. From the sturdy epic oaks of the Iliad and the Aeneid,to the Ash Nymphs of Hesiod's Theogony, and to the restful shade of Vergil's spreading beech and Horace's plane, trees appear as bearers both of poetic experience and of culturally significant information. Yet what is often lacking for the modern reader is an actual knowledge of the trees themselves and of attendant connotations that make the literary record itself such a vehicle for cultural transmission. The result is the loss of that sensible experience that makes literature and especially poetry more than just an exercise in translation. As a response to this deficiency this paper endeavors to promote a wider understanding and a deeper appreciation of the role of trees in Classical literary contexts and to suggest exemplary passages from several major authors illustrating the cultural and literary significance of trees. (cont.)
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