When Legends Come Alive

"It is Lucan's own particular approach to intertextuality that makes any analysis and interpretation of the Pharsalia such a challenge. He may repeatedly allude to the same hypotext or simultaneously allude to several, paying no regard to the formal division of the epic into books. Indeed, he may also make allusions to passages previously written by himself. At first sight, therefore, the composition of the poem appears to be somewhat chaotic. Paradoxically, however, the key to understanding the Pharsalia lie precisely in its highly intertextual character and its seemingly fragmentary structure, as it contains informal compositional units that are independent of the poem's formal division into books. At one and the same time, therefore, the epic is both chaotic and very neatly ordered. The goal of the present study is to discover just how this informal division operates by analysing its basic elements, the way in which they are connected and - of course - their meaning."