Virgile

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani comes back mainly to a few lines by Virgil. Taken from the Georgics, "rerum cognoscere causas" is, in his account, the saying inscribed above the door of the temple of philosophy1. He links it to Virgil's role as Dante's guide, leading him toward the light through the act of knowledge2. From the Aeneid he takes up the line "exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor", in which Freud's friend forgets the word "aliquis"3. He also quotes "facilis descensus Averno", placed beneath an engraving of the Bastille, to make the journey a descent into hell. He notes that the name Achates, given to Rousseau's dog, comes from the Aeneid, and that Rousseau, then a lackey, corrected the aristocrats' quotations from Virgil. He presents Virgil as a Latin poet who follows Greek models. For him, the Eclogues and the Georgics are a Roman patrician's reverie about a humanised nature, far from the countryside of poverty4. He connects "Et in Arcadia ego" to them. With "O fortunatos nimium", he also sees in them a court poet who already anticipates modern environmentalism5.

1. 1#4.7 Angélique (de Nerval)12 Apr 2018 · 1:46:43
2. 29 #24 "C'est réglé comme du papier à musique !" • Nerval • Baudelaire • 2ème partie30 Jun 2021 · 1:13:34
3. 3#3.4 D'Ulysse à Dédale1 Aug 2017 · 1:34:05
4. 4Dominique Pagani : « Ce qui menace les sociétés, ce sont les hommes et femmes bénéficiaires de l’exploitation des autres »12 Mar 2019 · 2:24:33
5. 5#16 • Retour aux logiques du sujet30 Jul 2020 · 29:12

Summary produced automatically from 19 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.