Virgil’s voice and ancient reading

This article argues that ancient descriptions of Virgil’s recitations enable expressly affective and creative responses to his poetry on the part of their readers, even as ancient literary criticism attempts to distance itself from such forms of readerly attachment. Virgil’s voice itself emerges as a key vector for contested and troubling ways of responding to his poems. Three case studies from the ancient biographical and commentary tradition on the Georgics illustrate responsive, immersive and erotic modes of reading, building particularly on ancient and modern approaches to the voice. The article contributes to current conversations in literary studies on the ‘limits of critique’ and ‘non-hermeneutic reading’; it concludes by suggesting ‘interrupted reading’ as a productive model for modern readers of ancient literature.