Mythological epyllia written in the form of Virgilian centos : a model case of intertextuality (original) (raw)
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2021
This paper deals with the 24-line mythological epyllion Progne et Philomela (Anth. Lat. 13 R), an anonymous Virgilian cento of presumed North African origin, which is usually dated to the fourth or fifth century and is marked by considerable obscurity. The aim is to shed some light on the most intriguing parts of this elliptical retelling of the given myth, in particular the puzzling network of family relationships and the extended talking-blood metaphor. Offering a new perspective on the text, the author claims that its general ambiguity is, to some extent, a purposefully adopted authorial strategy rather than a by-product of the cento technique. For this reason, it is proposed that the poem might have been written as a sort of mythological riddle to be solved by its readers.
"The contraposition between "epos" and "epyllion" in Hellenistic poetry: status quaestionis"
AEF (Anuario de estudios filológicos), XXVII, 2004, pp. 23-39.
En este artículo se esbozan algunos de los hitos más importantes que configuran, desde Antímaco de Colofón hasta las últimas manifestaciones poéticas helenísticas y romanas, la contraposición entre el e[ po~ y el ej puv llion. Sobre este último «género», repleto de elementos etiológicos y largas digresiones, se aportan y se comparan datos importantes mediante dos métodos conocidos: la Quellensforchung y la comparación entre seguidores de la escuela de Calímaco y los denominados Telquines. Se analizan epigramas concretos, epilios de Teócrito, Mosco, la Hécale de Calímaco, epilios de Trifiodoro, Hedilo, Museo, Euforión, Partenio, Poliano, así como de Cornelio Galo y Cinna. Finalmente, se estudia la dicotomía «agua»/«vino» como símbolos de inspiración y se ofrece una posible clave para focalizar el paso de dicha contraposición desde la literatura helenística griega a la romana.
Virgilian Criticism and the Intertextual Aeneid
Mnemosyne, 2023
This review article of Joseph Farrell’s 2021 monograph on Virgil’s Aeneid (Juno’s Aeneid: A Battle for Heroic Identity, Princeton and Oxford) takes the cue from Farrell’s analysis of Virgil’s intertextuality with the Homeric epics and provides a methodological re-assessment of intertextuality in Virgilian studies and Latin literature more broadly. It attempts to retrace the theoretical history and some of the main applications of Latin intertextual studies and suggests some possible ways for Latinists to engage more profoundly with deconstructive criticism and post-critique.
Ut imago poesis: a pastiche of Virgil and Ovid in the cento Narcissus
2009
MARIE oxxčov Á (MASARYK UNIVERSITY, BRNO) UT lMAGOPOESlS: APASTICHE OFVIRGILAND OVID IN THE CENTO NARClSSUSl The aim oj the paper is to produce ac/ose textual analysis oj the short Virgilian cento Narcissus (AL 9 R), which has so Jar attracted only little attention oj c/assical scholarship. An examination oj the poem s compositional structure, its imagery and register, and, last but not least, oj its significant allusions to both Virgil and other Latin treatments oj the Narcissus myth is provided. Further, the cento s underlying metatextual significance, as well as the possibilities oj its interpretation in terms oJthe Lacanian concept of the "mirror stage'' and Derridean deconstruction, is discussed.
A Patchwork of Patroclus: Reading the Homeric Centones of Aelia Eudocia Augusta
A cento is a patchwork poem – it is an arrangement of lines from an existing poem that convey a new narrative. In the 5th Century AD, The Empress Eudocia Augusta composed more than 2,000 lines of Homeric centones. These centones describe a Christian narrative spanning the creation of the world to the Ascension of Jesus. Many scholars have considered the cento form to be an inconsequential act of plagiarism. As a result, the form has been almost unilaterally neglected in classical scholarship, and many works have not been fully edited or translated into modern languages. In Late Antiquity however, centones were a popular literary form because of their links to prestigious literary works such as Homer. As a form, centones made use of the cultural memories of their readers to great effect. This thesis examines the ways in which centones draw on collective memories of classical culture. Homeric centones as a form derive prestige from their associations with classical culture. This allows them to communicate Christian content within the confines of an existing literary tradition. They also draw upon classical rhetorical techniques such as ethopoeia to successfully manipulate biblical narrative. It is also argued that experience of reading a cento also heavily relies on a knowledge of Classical culture. This thesis proposes that readers would have used their memory of Homeric and Biblical texts to perceive the consonances and dissonances between the work’s simultaneous intertextual allusions. This methodology differs from previous attempts to analyse the intertextual mechanism of centones, which have mostly attempted to pick out particularly ‘significant’ allusions in the work.
Classical Studies ) Classical Studies at Penn 1997 The Virgilian Intertext
2016
The fact that Virgil's poetry exhibits many points of contact with the literature of the past is beyond dispute. What to make of this fact is much less certain. The view taken here is that the poetics of intertextuality is one of Virgil's most powerfully evocative tools for communicating ideas, for establishing his place in the literary canon, and for eliciting the reader's active collaboration in making meaning. In this essay I shall try to suggest something of what attention to the intertext can do to enhance the appreciation of Virgil's poetry. Disciplines Arts and Humanities | Classics This book chapter is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/classics\_papers/123
And Cytherea Smiled": Sappho, Hellenistic Poetry, and Virgil's Allusive Mechanics
American Journal of Philology, 2011
This article examines the intertextuality of three passages in the Aeneid: 6.460, 4.441-49, and 4.90-128. In each, Virgil's language alludes to both a Hellenistic poet and Sappho. The Sapphic allusions appear where Virgil diverges from the thematic content of his Hellenistic sources. After analyzing the meaning of each intertext, I conclude that this technique of using Hellenistic intermediaries in "window allusions" to Sappho could be due to the ubiquitous appropriation of Sappho by Hellenistic poets, a Virgilian poetic program which privileges archaic over Hellenistic sources, or a systematic use of Sappho as a mediator and modifier of Hellenistic poetry.