Home Love Motifs in Prudentius
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Love Motifs in Prudentius

  • Rosario Moreno Soldevila EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: December 1, 2021
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill

Abstract

By analysing three paradigmatic passages, this paper explores how Prudentius uses classical love motifs and imagery not only to lambast paganism, but also as a powerful rhetorical tool to convey his Christian message. The ‘fire of love’ imagery is conspicuous in Psychomachia 53–57, which wittily blends Christian and erotic language. In an entirely different context (C. Symm. 2.1071–1085), the flamma amoris is also fully exploited to depict lustful young Vestal Virgins, in combination with other classical metaphors of passion, such as the ‘wound of love’ and the signa amoris. Additionally, the contrast between heat and cold is a central element in the description of the Vestals’ tardy nuptials, redolent of classical satirical portraits of vetulae libidinosae. Finally, in Hamartigenia 628–636 the relationship between the soul and God draws from a Christian tradition of bridal (and coital) representation, but the lapse into sin is portrayed as the love triangle, typical of the Latin love elegy. These examples illustrate how Prudentius creatively and consciously frames love and sex imagery in new contexts, exploring their potential and infusing clichés with new meanings and forms.

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to profs. Luis Rivero García and Juan Martos, as well as the anonymous readers of Philologus for their insighful comments on this paper, which was funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (FFI2014-56798-P).

Bibliography

G. O’Daly, Days Linked by Song: Prudentius’ Cathemerinon, Oxford/New York 2012. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199263950.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

A. Pelttari, The Psychomachia of Prudentius, Text, Commentary, and Glossary, Norman 2019. Search in Google Scholar

Prudencio, Obras, introducción, traducción y notas de L. Rivero García, 2 voll., Madrid 1997.Search in Google Scholar

Prudentius, Translated by H. J. Thomson, 2 voll., Cambridge, MA 1949.Search in Google Scholar

Prudentius, Hamartigenia, with an Introduction, Translation and Commentary by J. Stam, Paris 1940. Search in Google Scholar

Prudentius, Psychomachia, Einleitung, Text, Übersetzung und Kommentar von M. Frisch, Berlin/Boston 2020. Search in Google Scholar

Prudentius, The Origin of Sin: An English Translation of the Hamartigenia, Translated and with an Interpretive Essay by M. Malamud, Ithaca 2011.Search in Google Scholar

N. J. Richardson, Prudentius’ Hymns for Hours and Seasons: Liber Cathemerinon, Abingdon/New York 2016.10.4324/9781315714295Search in Google Scholar

Rosvita de Gandersheim, Obras completas, Introducción, traducción y notas de J. Martos y R. Moreno Soldevila, Huelva 2005. Search in Google Scholar

J. N. Adams, The Latin Sexual Vocabulary, London 1982.10.56021/9780801829680Search in Google Scholar

R. J. Baker, “Dying for Love: Eulalia in Prudentius, Peri Stephanon Liber 3”, in: K. Lee/C. J. Mackie/H. Tarrant (eds.), Multarum Artium Scientia: A ‘Chose’ for R. Godfrey Tanner, Auckland 1993, 12–25.Search in Google Scholar

Alan Cameron, The Last Pagans of Rome, New York/Oxford 2011.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199747276.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Averil Cameron, Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire, Berkley/Los Angeles 1991. 10.1525/9780520915503Search in Google Scholar

A. Cameron, “Early Christianity and the Discourse of Female Desire”, in: L. J. Archer/S. Fischler/M. Wyke (eds.), Women in Ancient Societies: An Illusion of the Night, Basingstoke/London 1994, 152–168. 10.1007/978-1-349-23336-6_9Search in Google Scholar

A. Cameron, “Sacred and Profane Love: Thoughts on Byzantine Gender”, in: L. James (ed.), Women, Men, and Eunuchs: Gender in Byzantium, London/New York 1997, 1–23.Search in Google Scholar

F. Cairns, “The Terms komos and paraclausithyron”, GRBS 60, 2020, 262–271.Search in Google Scholar

A. Canty, “The Nuptial Imagery of Christ and the Church in Augustine’s Enarrationes in Psalmos”, in: C. A. Evans/H. D. Zacharias (eds.), Early Christian Literature and Intertextuality, London/New York 2009, 225–235.Search in Google Scholar

J.-L. Charlet, La création poétique dans le Cathemerinon de Prudence, Paris 1982.Search in Google Scholar

J. Clarke, “Bridal Songs: Catullan Epithalamia and Prudentius Peristephanon 3”, Antichthon 40, 2006, 89–103.10.1017/S0066477400001672Search in Google Scholar

A. Dykes, Reading Sin in the World: The Hamartigenia of Prudentius and the Vocation of the Responsible Reader, Cambridge/New York 2011.10.1017/CBO9780511791420Search in Google Scholar

J. A. Estévez Sola, “Milicia de amor”, in: R. Moreno Soldevila (ed.), Diccionario de motivos amatorios en la literatura latina (ss. III a.C.–II d.C.), Huelva 2011 a, 275–286.Search in Google Scholar

J. A. Estévez Sola, “Sedes del amor”, in: R. Moreno Soldevila (ed.), Diccionario de motivos amatorios en la literatura latina (ss. III a.C.–II d.C.), Huelva 2011 b, 377–380.Search in Google Scholar

J. A. Estévez Sola, “Torturas de amor”, in: R. Moreno Soldevila (ed.), Diccionario de motivos amatorios en la literatura latina (ss. III a.C.–II d.C.), Huelva 2011 c, 418–419.Search in Google Scholar

W. Evenepoel, Studies in the Christian Latin Poetry of Late Antiquity, Leuven 2016.Search in Google Scholar

J. Fontaine, “La femme dans la poésie de Prudence”, in: Id., Études sur la poésie latine tardive d’Ausone à Prudence, Paris 1980, 415–443 (= Mélanges Marcel Dury, REL 47bis, 55–83).Search in Google Scholar

J. H. Gaisser, Catullus, Malden/Oxford 2009.10.1002/9781444310474Search in Google Scholar

T. A. Geue, “Forgetting the Juvenalien in our Midst: Literary Amnesia in the Satires”, in: A. König/C. Whitton (eds.), Roman Literature under Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian. Literary Interactions, AD 96–138, Cambridge 2018, 366–384.10.1017/9781108354813.018Search in Google Scholar

Ch. Gnilka, Chrêsis: die Methode der Kirchenväter im Umgang mit der antiken Kultur. I, Der Begriff des “rechten Gebrauchs”, Basel/Stuttgart 1984.Search in Google Scholar

Ch. Gnilka, Chrêsis: die Methode der Kirchenväter im Umgang mit der antiken Kultur. II, Kultur und Conversion, Basel 1993.Search in Google Scholar

Ch. Gnilka, Prudentiana I. Critica, München/Leipzig 2000.Search in Google Scholar

Ch. Gnilka, Prudentiana II. Exegetica, München/Leipzig 2001.Search in Google Scholar

L. Gosserez, Poésie de lumière: Une lecture de Prudence, Louvain/Sterling, VA 2001.Search in Google Scholar

R. P. H. Green, “Latin Love Elegy in Late Antiquity: Maximianus”, in: T. S. Thorsen (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Latin Love Elegy, Cambridge 2013, 257–270.10.1017/CCO9781139028288.023Search in Google Scholar

Ph. Hardie, “How Prudentian Is the Aeneid?”, Dictynna 14, 2017 (online), http://journals.openedition.org/dictynna/1431.10.4000/dictynna.1431Search in Google Scholar

Ph. Hardie, “Augustan and Late Antique Intratextuality: Virgil’s Aeneid and Prudentius’ Psychomachia”, in: S. Harrison/S. Frangoulidis/T. D. Papanghelis (eds.), Intratextuality and Latin literature, Berlin/Boston 2018, 159–170.10.1515/9783110611021-010Search in Google Scholar

C. Heinz, Mehrfache Intertextualität bei Prudentius, Frankfurt am Main 2007.Search in Google Scholar

K. Haworth, Deified Virtues, Demonic Vices, and Descriptive Allegory in Prudentius’ Psychomachia, Amsterdam 1980.Search in Google Scholar

P. Hershkowitz, Prudentius, Spain, and Late Antique Christianity: Poetry, Visual Culture, and the Cult of Martyrs, Cambridge 2017.10.1017/9781316569917Search in Google Scholar

S. Horstmann, Das Epithalamium in der lateinischen Literatur der Spätantike, München 2004.10.1515/9783110956528Search in Google Scholar

L. Krollpfeifer, Rom bei Prudentius: Dichtung und Weltanschauung in ‘Contra orationem Symmachi’, Göttingen 2017.Search in Google Scholar

G. Laguna Mariscal, “Concatenación de amor”, in: R. Moreno Soldevila (ed.), Diccionario de motivos amatorios en la literatura latina (ss. III a.C.–II d.C.), Huelva 2011 a, 101–102.Search in Google Scholar

G. Laguna Mariscal, “Contigo, al fin del mundo”, in: R. Moreno Soldevila (ed.), Diccionario de motivos amatorios en la literatura latina (ss. III a.C.–II d.C.), Huelva 2011 b, 103–106.Search in Google Scholar

G. Laguna Mariscal, “Insomnio”, in: R. Moreno Soldevila (ed.), Diccionario de motivos amatorios en la literatura latina (ss. III a.C.–II d.C.), Huelva 2011 c, 205–206.Search in Google Scholar

M. Lavarenne, Étude sur la langue du poète Prudence, Paris 1933.Search in Google Scholar

F. G. Leme, “Prudentius’ Metamorphoses”, in: P. Martins/A. Hasegawa/J. A. O. Neto (eds.), Augustan Poetry. New Trends and Revaluations, São Paulo 2019, 417–443.10.24277/978-85-7506-371-2.417-443Search in Google Scholar

M. Librán Moreno, “Herida de amor”, in: R. Moreno Soldevila (ed.), Diccionario de motivos amatorios en la literatura latina (ss. III a.C.–II d.C.), Huelva 2011, 201–202.Search in Google Scholar

R. López Gregoris, “Rival”, in: R. Moreno Soldevila (ed.), Diccionario de motivos amatorios en la literatura latina (ss. III a.C.–II d.C.), Huelva 2011, 369–371.Search in Google Scholar

M. Lühken, Christianorum Maro et Flaccus: Zur Vergil- und Horazrezeption des Prudentius, Göttingen 2002.10.13109/9783666252402Search in Google Scholar

M. Malamud, A Poetics of Transformation: Prudentius and Classical Mythology, Ithaca 1989.Search in Google Scholar

M. Malamud, “Making a Virtue of Perversity: The Poetry of Prudentius”, in: A. J. Boyle (ed.), The Imperial Muse. Ramus Essays on Roman Literature of the Empire. Flavian Epicist to Claudian, Bendigo 1990, 64–88.10.1017/S0048671X00002964Search in Google Scholar

S. Malick-Prunier, Le corps féminin dans la poésie latine tardive, Paris 2011.10.4000/books.lesbelleslettres.5459Search in Google Scholar

J. Martos/R. Moreno Soldevila (eds.), La tradición erótica en la poesía latina tardía, Nordhausen 2017. Search in Google Scholar

M. Mastrangelo, The Roman Self in Late Antiquity: Prudentius and the Poetics of the Soul, Baltimore 2008.10.1353/book.3489Search in Google Scholar

M. Mastrangelo, “Toward a Poetics of Late Latin Reuse”, in: S. McGill/J. Pucci (eds.), Classics Renewed: Reception and Innovation in the Latin Poetry of Late Antiquity, Heidelberg 2016, 25–45. Search in Google Scholar

R. Moreno Soldevila (ed.), Diccionario de motivos amatorios en la literatura latina (ss. III a.C.–II d.C.), Huelva 2011 a. Search in Google Scholar

R. Moreno Soldevila, “Amada codiciosa”, in: R. Moreno Soldevila (ed.), Diccionario de motivos amatorios en la literatura latina (ss. III a.C.–II d.C.), Huelva 2011 b, 31–32. Search in Google Scholar

R. Moreno Soldevila, “Amor en la vejez”, in: R. Moreno Soldevila (ed.), Diccionario de motivos amatorios en la literatura latina (ss. III a.C.–II d.C.), Huelva 2011 c, 62–67. Search in Google Scholar

R. Moreno Soldevila, “Llama de amor”, in: R. Moreno Soldevila (ed.), Diccionario de motivos amatorios en la literatura latina (ss. III a.C.–II d.C.), Huelva 2011 d, 232–240. Search in Google Scholar

R. Moreno Soldevila, “Suspiros de amor”, in: R. Moreno Soldevila (ed.), Diccionario de motivos amatorios en la literatura latina (ss. III a.C.–II d.C.), Huelva 2011 e, 411. Search in Google Scholar

R. Moreno Soldevila, “Motivos amatorios en las Églogas de Nemesiano”, CFC(L) 38, 2018, 59–82.10.5209/CFCL.60933Search in Google Scholar

G. O’Daly, “Prudentius: the Self-definition of a Christian Poet”, in: S. McGill/J. Pucci (eds.), Classics Renewed: Reception and Innovation in the Latin Poetry of Late Antiquity, Heidelberg 2016, 221–239.Search in Google Scholar

C. O’Hogan, Prudentius and the Landscapes of Late Antiquity, Oxford 2016.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198749226.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

A.-M. Palmer, Prudentius on the Martyrs, Oxford 1989.Search in Google Scholar

K. Pollmann, The Baptized Muse: Early Christian Poetry as Cultural Authority, Oxford 2017.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198726487.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

J. Pucci, “Prudentius’ Readings of Horace in the Cathemerinon”, Latomus 50, 1991, 677–690.Search in Google Scholar

A. Richlin, “Invective against Women in Roman Satire”, Arethusa 17, 1984, 67–80.Search in Google Scholar

L. Rivero García, “Pervivencia literaria de los Medicamina faciei femineae de Ovidio”, Habis 26, 1995, 145–152.Search in Google Scholar

L. Rivero García, “Ecos catulianos en los poemas de Prudencio”, Anuario de Estudios Filológicos 19, 1996 a, 443–456.Search in Google Scholar

L. Rivero García, La poesía de Prudencio, Huelva/Cáceres 1996b.Search in Google Scholar

M. J. Roberts, “Late Roman Elegy”, in: K. Weisman (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy, Oxford 2010, 85–100.10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199228133.013.0005Search in Google Scholar

G. Salamon/B. Bureau, Silves latines 2017–2018: Sénèque, Lettres à Lucilius, livres I et II; Prudence, Contre Symmaque, livre II, Neuilly 2017. Search in Google Scholar

K. Shuve, The Song of Songs and the Fashioning of Identity in Early Latin Christianity, Oxford 2016. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198766445.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

M. Smith, Prudentius’ Psychomachia. A Reexamination, Princeton 1976. Search in Google Scholar

A. J. Traver Vera, “Regalos”, in: R. Moreno Soldevila (ed.), Diccionario de motivos amatorios en la literatura latina (ss. III a.C.–II d.C.), Huelva 2011 a, 358–361.Search in Google Scholar

A. J. Traver Vera, “Ronda de amor”, in: R. Moreno Soldevila (ed.), Diccionario de motivos amatorios en la literatura latina (ss. III a.C.–II d.C.), Huelva 2011 b, 371–374.Search in Google Scholar

A. J. Traver Vera, “Síntomas de amor”, in: R. Moreno Soldevila (ed.), Diccionario de motivos amatorios en la literatura latina (ss. III a.C.–II d.C.), Huelva 2011 c, 398–402.Search in Google Scholar

S. Treggiari, Roman Marriage: Iusti Coniuges from the Time of Cicero to the Time of Ulpian, Oxford 1991.10.1093/oso/9780198148906.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

T. Tsartsidis, “Prudentius’ Agnes and the Elegiac puella”, Mnemosyne (published online ahead of print 2020).10.1163/1568525X-BJA10011Search in Google Scholar

J. Uden, “Love Elegies of Late Antiquity”, in: B. K. Gold (ed.), A Companion to Roman Love Elegy, Oxford 2012, 459–475.10.1002/9781118241165.ch28Search in Google Scholar

S. Undheim, “The Wise and the Foolish Virgins: Representations of Vestal Virginity and Pagan Chastity by Christian Writers in Late Antiquity”, Journal of Early Christian Studies 25.3, 2017, 383–409.10.1353/earl.2017.0034Search in Google Scholar

S. Undheim, Borderline Virginities: Sacred and Secular Virgins in Late Antiquity, Abingdon/New York 2018.10.4324/9781315569734Search in Google Scholar

C. Witke, “Prudentius and the Tradition of Latin Poetry”, TAPhA 99, 1968, 509–525.10.2307/2935860Search in Google Scholar

C. Witke, “Recycled Words: Vergil, Prudentius and Saint Hippolytus”, in: E. Rees (ed.), Romane memento: Vergil in the Fourth Century, London 2004, 128–140. Search in Google Scholar

F. Zambon, “Vipereus liquor. Prudenzio e l’impuro concepimento della vipera”, in: Studi di filologia romanza e italiana offerti a Gianfranco Folena dagli allievi padovani, Modena 1980, 1–15. Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2021-12-01
Published in Print: 2021-11-04

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 25.10.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/phil-2021-0109/html?lang=en
Scroll to top button