Epic of Christ

'Oh why, supreme Father, are you deserting me in my ultimate peril? Where now is your care for your son?' Marco Girolamo Vida's Christias, or The Epic of Christ, is one of the supreme achievements of sixteenth-century literature. It offers a vivid, energetic retelling of the life of Christ, steeped in the classical tradition of epic poetry as represented chiefly by Virgil's Aeneid. The familiar Bible stories are recast in the heroic idiom of Latin epic, representing Christ's mission on earth as a quest for the redemption of humanity. Vida deploys the full resources of classical rhetoric to lend power and pathos to Christian theology, while subtle and intricate allusions to classical texts and other earlier literature deepen the implications of his narrative and the characterisation of major figures from the biblical tradition. The result is a rich, imaginative amalgam of classical, Christian, and early modern elements which was to inspire later authors such as John Milton and Torquato Tasso, and would be imitated and translated in numerous European languages over the following centuries. This new translation by L. B. T. Houghton captures the drama, majesty, and humanity of Vida's epic and identifies the poet's most important literary models, setting this hugely influential work within its historical, intellectual, and artistic contexts. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

L. B. T. Houghton is Lecturer in Latin at the University of Edinburgh. He previously taught at the Universities of Glasgow, Reading, and Cambridge, and at University College, King's College, Birkbeck, Royal Holloway, and the Courtauld Institute in London. He is the author of Virgil's Fourth Eclogue in the Italian Renaissance (2019) and has edited several collections of essays, including Perceptions of Horace (with Maria Wyke, 2009), Neo-Latin Poetry in the British Isles (with Gesine Manuwald, 2012), and Virgil and Renaissance Culture (with Marco Sgarbi, 2018).