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Article: Pouring the wrong wax in the literary mold: Plutarch's Mdrius and Homer's Odyssey.(Critical essay)
- Article from:
- College Literature
- Article date:
- September 22, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 West Chester University. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In an age of constant reinvention of the genre of epic, the ancient biographer Plutarch creates poignant connections between his Life of Marius and the Odyssey. Such a connection is unexpected, since Gaius Marius, the ancient late Roman Republican general, is a brutish and unphilosophical statesman, while Odysseus is portrayed by Plutarch as a man of virtue who is always concerned with public welfare. The links between these two works serve not to draw the heroes together and confirm Marius's moral virtue, but to illustrate that the character of Marius, when placed into a literary mold that recalls the Odyssey, betrays a complete lack of the qualities that aid Odysseus and ...
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Encyclopedia entry: Marius, Gaius
Who's Who in the Classical World;
700+ words
...Marius, Gaius, born c. 157 BC near Arpinum ... Caecilius Metellus Delmaticus when he opposed Marius' law ensuring secrecy of individual votes ... a guerrilla war against Jugurtha , chose Marius as his senior legate. But when Marius requested ...
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