The shadow of Bacchus: Liber and Dionysus in Christian Latin literature (2nd–4th centuries)
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Francesco Massa
Abstract
This chapter proposes to analyse the role of Dionysus and Liber in the Christian Latin literature, from the end of the second century up until the second half of the fourth century. It aims not only to clarify how Christian authors wrote about Dionysus and Liber, but also to bring to light the differences that exist between the Greek Dionysus and the Roman Liber and between the originally Greek Dionysian koine attested in texts and images, and a distinctly Roman trait stemming from their ritual practices. The chapter will focus on some Christian works, in particular the Apologeticum by Tertullian, the Adversus nationes by Arnobius, the Institutiones divinae by Lactantius and the De errore profanarum religionum by Firmicus Maternus.
Abstract
This chapter proposes to analyse the role of Dionysus and Liber in the Christian Latin literature, from the end of the second century up until the second half of the fourth century. It aims not only to clarify how Christian authors wrote about Dionysus and Liber, but also to bring to light the differences that exist between the Greek Dionysus and the Roman Liber and between the originally Greek Dionysian koine attested in texts and images, and a distinctly Roman trait stemming from their ritual practices. The chapter will focus on some Christian works, in particular the Apologeticum by Tertullian, the Adversus nationes by Arnobius, the Institutiones divinae by Lactantius and the De errore profanarum religionum by Firmicus Maternus.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Contents VII
- List of illustrations IX
- List of Contributors XI
- Introduction. Dionysus in Rome: accommodation and resistance 1
- The ancient reception of Euripides’ Bacchae from Athens to Byzantium 39
- Images of Dionysus in Rome: the archaic and Augustan periods 85
- Liber, Fufluns, and the others: rethinking Dionysus in Italy between the fifth and the third centuries BCE 111
- Dionysian associations and the Bacchanalian affair 133
- Dionysus/Bacchus/Liber in Cicero 157
- Bacchus and the exiled Ovid (Tristia 5.3) 177
- Alius furor. Statius’ Thebaid and the metamorphoses of Bacchus 193
- The shadow of Bacchus: Liber and Dionysus in Christian Latin literature (2nd–4th centuries) 219
- Index rerum et nominum 239
- Index locorum 245
- Index of inscriptions and visual artefacts 247
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Contents VII
- List of illustrations IX
- List of Contributors XI
- Introduction. Dionysus in Rome: accommodation and resistance 1
- The ancient reception of Euripides’ Bacchae from Athens to Byzantium 39
- Images of Dionysus in Rome: the archaic and Augustan periods 85
- Liber, Fufluns, and the others: rethinking Dionysus in Italy between the fifth and the third centuries BCE 111
- Dionysian associations and the Bacchanalian affair 133
- Dionysus/Bacchus/Liber in Cicero 157
- Bacchus and the exiled Ovid (Tristia 5.3) 177
- Alius furor. Statius’ Thebaid and the metamorphoses of Bacchus 193
- The shadow of Bacchus: Liber and Dionysus in Christian Latin literature (2nd–4th centuries) 219
- Index rerum et nominum 239
- Index locorum 245
- Index of inscriptions and visual artefacts 247
