Hermes 150 (3):351 (
2022)
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Abstract
In the Aeneid, Virgil sets out to achieve a new sublime style, paradoxically steeped in the common parlance. He aims for the spontaneity of everyday language to win readers’ involvement, while elaborating a discourse both expressively taut and stylistically marked, that avoids a register too colloquial or prosaic. Above all, he tirelessly deploys an array of subtle strategies – below the threshold of perception – that defamiliarize language in order to elevate its style. The present paper furnishes a selection of case studies.