Telling Tales of Wonder: Mirabilia in the Letters of Pliny the Younger
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Margot Neger
Abstract
Several letters in the epistolary oeuvre of Pliny the Younger deal with various wondrous occurrences. We can distinguish between accounts of dreams and supernatural experiences on the one hand and descriptions of marvels of nature on the other hand - both types of mirabilia seem to have been deliberately arranged by Pliny in letter-cycles. The cycle on dreams and visions (Epist. 1.18; 3.5; 5.5; 7.27; 9.13), reaching from the first to the last book of the collection, links important phases of Pliny’s biography and is part of a larger political narrative which stages crucial moments of Pliny’s life under and after Domitian. In the cycle on marvels of nature (4.30; 6.16; 6.20; 8.8; 8.17; 8.20; 9.33) we can observe an alternation between the depiction of loci amoeni and narratives about the destructive power of nature. Most of the letters belonging to this cycle are set in the sphere of otium and can be read as implicit reflections on Pliny’s role as a writer. Through these texts he competes both with the elder Pliny and his contemporaries such as Tacitus and Caninius Rufus. Pliny’s skills in creating enargeia turn the absent addressees (and general readers) into beholders and witnesses by enabling them to gaze at the marvels of nature with their mind’s eye.
Abstract
Several letters in the epistolary oeuvre of Pliny the Younger deal with various wondrous occurrences. We can distinguish between accounts of dreams and supernatural experiences on the one hand and descriptions of marvels of nature on the other hand - both types of mirabilia seem to have been deliberately arranged by Pliny in letter-cycles. The cycle on dreams and visions (Epist. 1.18; 3.5; 5.5; 7.27; 9.13), reaching from the first to the last book of the collection, links important phases of Pliny’s biography and is part of a larger political narrative which stages crucial moments of Pliny’s life under and after Domitian. In the cycle on marvels of nature (4.30; 6.16; 6.20; 8.8; 8.17; 8.20; 9.33) we can observe an alternation between the depiction of loci amoeni and narratives about the destructive power of nature. Most of the letters belonging to this cycle are set in the sphere of otium and can be read as implicit reflections on Pliny’s role as a writer. Through these texts he competes both with the elder Pliny and his contemporaries such as Tacitus and Caninius Rufus. Pliny’s skills in creating enargeia turn the absent addressees (and general readers) into beholders and witnesses by enabling them to gaze at the marvels of nature with their mind’s eye.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgments V
- Table of Contents VII
- Introduction: In search of the Miraculous IX
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I. Miracles
- Ctesias’ Indica and the Origins of Paradoxography 3
- The Epidaurian Iamata: The first “Court of Miracles”? 17
- Medicine and the paradox in the Hippocratic Corpus and Beyond 31
- ‘One might rightly wonder’ – marvelling in Polybios Histories 63
- Omens and Miracles: Interpreting Miraculous Narratives in Roman Historiography 85
- Miracles and Pseudo-Miracles in Byzantine Apocalypses 111
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II. Workings of Miracles
- Wonder-ful Memories in Herodotus’ Histories 133
- Wonder(s) in Plautus 153
- Telling Tales of Wonder: Mirabilia in the Letters of Pliny the Younger 179
- Paradoxographic discourse on sources and fountains: deconstructing paradoxes 205
- Lucian’s Alexander: technoprophecy, thaumatology and the poetics of wonder 225
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III. Believing in Miracles
- Perceiving Thauma in Archaic Greek Epic 259
- Turning Science into Miracle in the Voyage of Alexander the Great 275
- ‘Many are the wonders in Greece’: Pausanias the wandering philosopher 305
- Miracles in Greek Biography 327
- Apuleius on Raising the Dead Crossing the Boundaries of Life and Death while Convincing the Audience 353
- Recognizing Miracles in ancient Greek Novels 381
- List of Contributors 417
- Index Nominum et Rerum 423
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgments V
- Table of Contents VII
- Introduction: In search of the Miraculous IX
-
I. Miracles
- Ctesias’ Indica and the Origins of Paradoxography 3
- The Epidaurian Iamata: The first “Court of Miracles”? 17
- Medicine and the paradox in the Hippocratic Corpus and Beyond 31
- ‘One might rightly wonder’ – marvelling in Polybios Histories 63
- Omens and Miracles: Interpreting Miraculous Narratives in Roman Historiography 85
- Miracles and Pseudo-Miracles in Byzantine Apocalypses 111
-
II. Workings of Miracles
- Wonder-ful Memories in Herodotus’ Histories 133
- Wonder(s) in Plautus 153
- Telling Tales of Wonder: Mirabilia in the Letters of Pliny the Younger 179
- Paradoxographic discourse on sources and fountains: deconstructing paradoxes 205
- Lucian’s Alexander: technoprophecy, thaumatology and the poetics of wonder 225
-
III. Believing in Miracles
- Perceiving Thauma in Archaic Greek Epic 259
- Turning Science into Miracle in the Voyage of Alexander the Great 275
- ‘Many are the wonders in Greece’: Pausanias the wandering philosopher 305
- Miracles in Greek Biography 327
- Apuleius on Raising the Dead Crossing the Boundaries of Life and Death while Convincing the Audience 353
- Recognizing Miracles in ancient Greek Novels 381
- List of Contributors 417
- Index Nominum et Rerum 423
