Latin Didactic Poetry Research Papers (original) (raw)

Henry, archdeacon of Huntingdon, England (ca 1088–ca 1154) has been admired for centuries as the author of the monumental Historia Anglorum. The recent discovery of the Anglicanus ortus opens a new window onto this important English author as well as onto the uses of poetry and the knowledge of medicine in medieval England. Written in Latin verse, the Anglicanus ortus describes the medicinal uses of 160 different herbs, spices and vegetables. Henry drew on centuries of learned medicine to compose this work, employing the medical knowledge of ancient authors like Pliny the Elder and Dioscorides and of medieval scholars like Walahfrid Strabo, Macer Floridus and Constantine the African. But this is no ordinary herbal: the work is staged first as a discussion between a master and a student walking around a garden, inspecting the plants in their separate beds, and then as an awkward performance by the same master before Apollo and a critical audience, seated in a theatre at the garden’s centre. Beyond its didactic and performative aspects, the entire work is framed as a prayer to God’s generative capacity and the rational order of nature. The search for that order is virtuous: as Henry himself says, ‘Happy is he who can know the causes of things, especially whatever will be the cause of health.’ This critical edition is based on the five extant manuscripts and includes a complete English translation on facing pages and a commentary on every poem. An extensive introduction traces the history and relation of the manuscripts, examines Henry’s poetic skill and use of sources, and establishes the place of the Anglicanus ortus in a pivotal era in the history of medicine and natural philosophy.

- by Winston E Black
- •
- Pharmacology, History of Medicine, Herbals, Garden History

Cet article propose de voir à quoi correspond, dans l’Antiquité, la catégorie d’ « épopée didactique » (ou « poésie didactique »), couramment utilisée par les savants modernes pour rendre compte d’œuvres comme les Travaux et les jours, le De rerum natura ou encore les Géorgiques, en opposition avec la catégorie d’« épopée narrative » (ou parfois simplement d’« épopée »), qui comprendrait les poèmes d’Homère, l’Énéide, etc. Une enquête anthropologique et pragmatique montre que la catégorie de « poésie didactique » n’existait pas chez les Anciens. Dans un deuxième temps, on essaie de voir à quel moment on commence à parler de « poésie didactique ».

- by Pierre Vesperini
- •
- Homer, Poetry, Hesiodic Poetry, Vergil

Abstract: While the distinction between the calm and violent passions has been treated by Hume scholars from a number of perspectives relevant to the Scottish philosopher’s thought more generally, little scholarly attention has been paid to this distinction either in the works of Hume’s non-English contemporaries (e.g., the French Jesuit Pierre Brumoy) or in the long rhetorical and literary tradition which often categorized the emotions as either calm or violent. This article examines the long history of the distinction between calm and violent, or mild and vehement, emotions from the classical Roman rhetorical tradition through the Renaissance and into the modern period. In doing so, it provides a partial but substantial genealogy of an important heuristic taxonomy in the history of emotions, while suggesting that the philosophical import of the distinction in the eighteenth century owes something to rhetorical and poetic traditions which are often not considered by historians of philosophy.

- by Yasmin Haskell and +1
- •
- Erasmus, Jesuit history, David Hume, Latin Didactic Poetry
- by James Uden
- •
- Mythology, Classics, Augustan Poetry, Manilius

This article examines three sections of the proem to Lucretius' De rerum natura: the so-called hymn to Venus (Lucr. 1.1-43), the praise of Epicurus (1.62-79), and the Iphigenia passage (1.80-101). The article's goal is to show that distinct, interconnected political echoes are perceptible in these three sections of Lucretius' proem, and that Lucretius intertwines his philosophical teaching with Roman political culture in such a way as to make his Epicurean message more acceptable to Roman audiences. The article demonstrates Lucretius' interaction with the use of myth in political language in Rome in the 60s and 50s bce. It analyzes the relevance of the Mithridatic wars to Roman discussions of imperialism and Lucretius' exploitation of this conflict's iconic status. This article suggests that Memmius' political action in the 60s may have made him a particularly suitable addressee for Lucretius' poem. It also explores the implications of this new reading of the proem for the date of Lucretius' De rerum natura.

- by Stefano Rebeggiani
- •
- Political Philosophy, Latin Literature, Roman History, Propaganda
- by Katharina Volk
- •
- Ovid, Latin Didactic Poetry, Roman Elegy

Some scholars have read Virgil’s grafted tree (G. 2.78–82) as a sinister image, symptomatic of man’s perversion of nature. However, when it is placed within the long tradition of Roman accounts of grafting (in both prose and verse), it seems to reinforce a consistently positive view of the technique, its results, and its possibilities. Virgil’s treatment does represent a significant change from Republican to Imperial literature, whereby grafting went from mundane reality to utopian fantasy. This is reflected in responses to Virgil from Ovid, Columella, Calpurnius, Pliny the Elder, and Palladius (with Republican context from Cato, Varro, and Lucretius), and even in the postclassical transformation of Virgil’s biography into a magical folktale.

- by Dunstan Lowe
- •
- Classics, Latin Literature, Vergil, Georgics
- by Anna Gabriella Chisena
- •
- Art History, Italian Studies, Renaissance Studies, Italian Literature

A new Spanish translation of Lucretius' De Rerum Natura with a preliminary essay, notes, and commentary. Bilingual Edition. Traducción, notas y estudio introductorio: Liliana Pégolo y equipo, Estudio Preliminar: Facundo Bustos Fierro, Laura Carolina Durán & Matías Ignacio Pizzi. La presente edición bilingüe de "De rerum natura" (ca. 50 a. C.) de Tito Lucrecio Caro es, sin dudas, una de las producciones más singulares y fascinantes de la historia literaria, no solo por la magnitud de su contenido y su admirable belleza poética, sino también por la conflictiva historia de su recepción. Diversos temas que se insertan en el centro de las inquietudes político-filosóficas de la Roma tardo-republicana son tratados por Lucrecio, didácticamente, valiéndose del verso y el estilo de la poesía épica. En De rerum natura el poeta confronta, al mismo tiempo, con las filosofías naturalistas griegas, con los grandes poetas épicos del pasado y, particularmente, con la religión o cial romana. Desde su redescubrimiento en el siglo XV por Poggio Bracciolini, el poema ha producido tanta fascinación como reticencia. Condenado por la iglesia, comentado en su juventud por Marsilio Ficino, inspirador para Botticelli en La primavera y para Michel de Montaigne en los Ensayos. También ha influido en el desarrollo teórico de Galileo Galilei. En el siglo XX, filósofos como Michel Serres, Gilles Deleuze y Clement Rosset volvieron a otorgarle un lugar preeminente a las ideas de Lucrecio incorporándolas como elementos constitutivos de sus propios sistemas de pensamiento.

- by Alexis Robledo and +2
- •
- Philosophy, Latin Literature, Latin Language and Literature, Latin Didactic Poetry

The paper analyzes the imagery of the Gigantomachy in Manilius' Astronomica, in two different functions: the first metaliterary and metascientific, the second in the form of mythical narration, identifying the intertextual relations with... more

- by bruna pieri
- •
- Vergil, Latin Didactic Poetry, Lucretius, Catullus
- by Michael Lurie
- •
- Religion, Intellectual History, Cultural History, Classics

I propose that Manilius’ fundamental view is that the stars represent order and the earth chaos, a conviction partly expressed through Stoic doctrine and partly through poetic tropes. He frequently uses the imagery of the four elements to divide the superior realm of air and fire from the inferior realm of water and earth. Significant themes contributing toward this include Gigantomachy, cosmic vapours, the planets, and the figure of the Whale (Cetus) in the Andromeda story near the close of the poem.

- by Dunstan Lowe
- •
- Latin Literature, Archaeoastronomy, Manilius, Ancient Cosmologies
- by bruna pieri
- •
- Georgics, Latin Didactic Poetry, Lucretius, Lingüística
- by Rita Pierini
- •
- Classics, Latin Literature, Augustan Poetry, Vergil
- by Pierre Vesperini
- •
- Vergil, Manilius, Latin Didactic Poetry, Lucretius

This article aims at analyzing the history of the Latin iunctura “machina mundi” since its original formulation (Lucretius, DRN 5.95-96). Lucretius’ use of the world-machine metaphor contains a clear polemical intent, directed against two complementary images: the Platonic view of the world as a divine creation and the widespread Hellenistic representation of the world as a perfect mechanism of spheres turning around an immobile Earth. The shadow of the original eschatological context in Lucretius’ poem hangs over its first quotations and reformulations (Manilius, Aetna, Lucan): an important role is played by Statius (later imitated by Avienus), who first interprets and transforms Lucretius’ machina mundi into a machina caeli, with emphasis on the rotation of celestial spheres. Another important turning point is the Christian appropriation of the iunctura, both in prose (Arnobius, Firmicus Maternus) and verse (Laudes Domini), since late III century AD. At the same time, the expression machina mundi becomes a commonplace formula to refer to the Vault of Heaven or to the world. However, its reuse during the IV Century AD seems often linked to Lucretius’ original context (with polemical intent). The analysis concludes with the work of Prudentius and Claudianus, which represents a perfect synthesis of the interpretations of the iunctura until late antiquity. In the final chapter, returning to Lucretius’ verses, it is suggested that in DRN 5.95-96 we find an allusion to the myth of Atlas and its allegorical interpretations.

- by Manuel Galzerano
- •
- Latin Literature, Ancient Science, Early Christianity, Statius (Classics)
- by Fabio Gasti and +3
- •
- Manilius, Latin Didactic Poetry, Lucretius, Ovid (Classics)

This article argues that the structure of Astronomica 1 is based on Aratus’ Phaenomena and the Latin Aratea. Manilius’ text, of course, addresses numerous topics unknown to the Aratean tradition and promotes an astrological worldview foreign to Aratus. By enthusiastically incorporating non-Aratean material into his Aratean book and repurposing the framework and language of the Aratean tradition, Manilius composes a “Hyper-Aratea” that implicitly critiques the value and outlook of figures like Aratus, Cicero, and Virgil. This maneuver contributes to Manilius’ self-representation as a literary Phaethon who sets fire to the Aratean heavens, and reveals the contention surrounding Aratus at Rome.

- by Patrick Glauthier
- •
- Vergil, Manilius, Latin Didactic Poetry, Aratus

This panel explores strategies of literary world-building in Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura, highlighting in particular paradoxes and alternative readings of “orderliness” in the Lucretian cosmos and analyzing ways in which literary devices such as analogy and metaphor, allusion, and ekphrasis are deployed in the depiction of the cosmos and its relationship to poetry and poetics.

- by Del A Maticic and +1
- •
- Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Metaphor, Cicero, Ekphrasis
- by Robert Cowan
- •
- Classics, Latin Literature, Narratology, Vergil

This article argues that Ovid’s dead parrot poem, Amores 2.6, is a tribute to the didactic poet Aemilius Macer, who died in 16 B.C., was a friend of Ovid (Tr. 4.10.43-44), and was famous for his translations of Nicander’s Theriaca and (probably) Boeus’ Ornithogonia. The imitatrix (“imitator”) parrot reflects Aemilius Macer’s skills as a translator, his interest in birds, and his humble didactic style and also plays on the name Aemilius (aemulatio, “emulation, imitation”) Macer (“thin”).

- by Leah Kronenberg
- •
- Ovid, Latin Didactic Poetry, Ovid (Classics), Nicander Colophonius
- by Nicholas Freer
- •
- Latin Literature, Hellenistic Philosophy, Textual Criticism, Roman Republic
- by Alessandro Schiesaro
- •
- Analogy (Philosophy), Latin Didactic Poetry, Lucretius, Latin poetry

After a brief bloom in the Hellenistic period, didactic epigrams remain rather episodic and marginal in the Greek poetry, while in Latin they seem to be even absent until late antiquity. Conversely, in late Latin literature the didactic epigram – especially, but not only, in the form of catalogue poem – has a remarkable flourishing with a wide and manifold production, which this paper aims to investigate in its development, formal variety, and thematic range. Texts and authors involved are: Carmina XII sapientum, Argumenta Vergiliana and other poems of the Anthologia Latina, Ausonius’ Caesares and Eclogae, Isidore of Seville's Versus and many didactic poems by Eugenius of Toledo.

- by Luca Mondin
- •
- Latin Didactic Poetry, Late Antique Latin Poetry, Latin epigram

The aim of the following article is to study the relation between Rhetoric, Poetics, and Philosophy in Lucretius De rerum natura. Seeking to convert his Roman reader to Epicureanism, the poet implements propagandistic strategies, which provide an important role to Poetry and Rhetoric, although Epicurus had harshly criticized them. This lucretian didactic method based on dialogue is then explained and analyzed through the study of the Nature’s speech in book III.

- by Sabine Luciani
- •
- Latin Didactic Poetry, Lucretian Studies
- by Yasmin Haskell
- •
- Classics, Ovid, Classical Reception Studies, Latin Didactic Poetry
- by Peter Nahon
- •
- Book History, Renaissance Studies, Renaissance Humanism, Renaissance Philosophy

Das Territorium der nachmaligen Schweiz ist eine Kontaktzone unterschiedlicher Ethnien, Sprachregionen und literarischer Einflüsse. So etwas wie eine schweizerische Literaturlandschaft gibt es im lateinischen Mittelalter nicht. Auch haben sich hier erst im Spätmittelalter erste Ansätze zur Bildung eines Staates eingestellt. In den westlichen Gebieten lassen sich zahlreiche Einflüsse aus Gallien / Frankreich erkennen. Der Südosten gehört dem räto-romanischen Kulturraum zu. Im Osten, von den Alemannen besiedelt, war die Region des Bodensees, mit den Abteien St. Gallen und Reichenau, höchst produktiv. Basel war nach Norden, nach dem Oberrhein, orientiert. Literatur wurde zunächst in Klöstern und an Bischofssitzen hervorgebracht, später zunehmend in Städten. Vor allem Hagiographie und regionale Historiographie wurde gepflegt, daneben wurden geistliche Poesie, theologische wie auch profanwissenschaftliche Literatur, ferner didaktische Dichtung geschaffen.

- by bruna pieri
- •
- Ennius, Sophocles, Latin Didactic Poetry, Lucretius
- by Jason Nethercut
- •
- Latin Literature, Latin Epic, Ancient Philosophy, Epicurus
- by Martina Venuti
- •
- Late Latin Literature, Latin Didactic Poetry

In Verg. georg. iii 147 ff., the expression Grai uertere uocantes, that introduces a name for the gadfly alternative to asilus, is not an example of “domesticating translation” (« ethnocentric », according to the definition of A. Berman), but claims the victory of the Roman authors over their proverbial linguistic and literary egestas. The sophisticated word asilus may have already been used, together with oestrus, by Calvus in his Io as well as by Varro Atacinus in his Argonautae. In his versions from Greek models which he imitates or alludes to, Virgil shows in fact a mature balance between domestication and foreignization.

- by bruna pieri
- •
- Translation Studies, Latin Didactic Poetry, Virgil, Virgil's Georgics

In the first book of De Rerum Natura, Lucretius describes his didactic undertaking as a metaphorical process of gift exchange (1.50-53): the obscure and salvific precepts of Epicurean philosophy, skilfully arranged in hexameters, are said to be 'gifts' (dona) that the poet has prepared with loyal zeal (studio fideli). Such a suggestive depiction of Lucretius' relationship to the work's dedicatee, Gaius Memmius, seems to reflect a relevant functional pattern of De Rerum Natura as a coherent system of communication strategies, variously readapting social models and cultural traditions. The present paper employs the interpretative approach of gift theories – the thought-provoking theories elaborated by modern anthropologists in order to explain the structure of archaic societies – as a key to understand the poetics of Lucretius' didactic. Since K. Polanyi's and M. Finley's path-breaking studies, several surveys have pointed to the role of exchange practices in the Graeco-Roman world, remarking on the impact of pre-modern gift-giving patterns on ancient literature (e.g. Gill et al. 1998, Bowditch 2001, Coffee 2009, Satlow 2013). However, much more attention should be paid to the special case of Lucretius in light of the influence of two important backgrounds: the milieu of Roman society, in which patronage relationships and interpersonal transactions played a prominent role (Veyne 1976, Saller 1982), and the tradition of Epicurean communities, which conveyed their doctrinal teachings though a series of reciprocal bonds, ideally supported by a thorough reflection on giving, gratitude, and the transmission of knowledge. The present paper reassesses the evidence provided by Roman and Epicurean sources (especially Philodemus' treatises On Frank Criticism and On Gratitude, Epicurus' fragments, and Diogenes of Oenoanda's inscription) in order to further investigate Lucretius' rhetoric of persuasion.
N.B. This is my own manuscript version of a paper published on HSCP. If you wish to cite this work, please refer to HSCP layout and page numbers.

- by Pedro Conde Parrado
- •
- Georgics, Latin Didactic Poetry, Trade, Mediterranean archaeology

The didactic poem is one of the earliest and most enduring forms of “information technology”. Didactic poems in Western literature date back to archaic Greece, to the poet Hesiod, whose Works and Days relays mundane precepts on home economics to the poet’s refractory younger brother, Perses. Many centuries, and many didactic poems later, a Roman poet, Lucretius, assuming the mantle of the Pre-Socratic philosopher-bard, Empedocles, rendered the physics of a very different philosopher, Epicurus, into hexameter verse. Lucretius’ On the nature of things influenced no less a poet than Virgil, whose Georgics – a poem on farming in four books – was destined to become the most imitated didactic poem ever. Other Roman poets jumped on the didactic bandwagon, too, including Horace (Ars poetica), Ovid (Ars amoris; Remedia amoris), and Manilius (Astronomica). Indeed, the Romans seem to have had a natural flare for the genre, as Hegel once tartly observed.1 Didactic poems were legion in the Middl...

- by Yasmin Haskell
- •
- Philosophy, Latin Didactic Poetry, Didactic poetry, Neo Latin Literature
- by Patrick Glauthier
- •
- Ancient Science, Lucan, Manilius, Latin Didactic Poetry

In this paper, I build on work by Mario Labate and Roy Gibson, as well as my own earlier publications, to argue that the Ars amatoria and Remedia amoris are profoundly philosophical poems. The Hellenistic philosophies popular at Rome on Ovid's time, first and foremost Stoicism and Epicureanism, market themselves as "arts of life," rational techniques that via a kind of cognitive-behavioral therapy enable their practitioners to achieve their goal, viz. happiness or the uita beata. Ovid's amatory didactic adopts many of the images and practices of the philosophical schools, including the idea of ignorance and unhappiness as a form of physical or mental illness; the typical intellectualism of ancient philosophy, according to which a problem understood is a problem solved; the rhetoric of (self-)exhortation; the stress on the "care of the self"; the downgrading of the emotions; and the optimistic belief that all humans are capable of living the happy life—or having a flourishing love affair. It is my contention that Ovid does not simply employ such concepts as part of an intertextual and intellectual game, but that his Art of Love—with its stress on the ability of human ingenuity to shape reality—presents, in its own Ovidian way, a serious art of life of its own. While it do not dispute the parodic and satirical elements of the Ars and Remedia (two of the funniest texts ever written), I do not, unlike certain scholars, view Ovid's humor as destructive or pessimistic, but rather as the vehicle of a humane vision of human life and interpersonal relations.

- by Katharina Volk
- •
- Latin Literature, Stoicism, Michel Foucault, Cicero
- by Rita Pierini
- •
- Latin Didactic Poetry, Ovid (Classics), Latin poetry, Ovid, Ars amatoria