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CLAUDIAN, DE RAPTU PROSERPINAE 1.82 AND GEORGICS 3.68*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2014
Extract
That Claudian imitates Virgil's Georgics in the De raptu Proserpinae is well known. Most of his allusions are restricted to Golden Age or Underworld imagery, largely from Books 1, 2, and 4. However, one imitation of the third Georgic that appears not to have been noted previously occurs at De raptu Proserpinae 1.82. The context is Claudian's famous description of Pluto enthroned:
- ipse rudi fultus solio nigraque uerendus
- maiestate sedet: squalent inmania foedo
- sceptra situ; sublime caput maestissima nubes
- asperat et dirae riget inclementia formae;
- terrorem dolor augebat. (De raptu Proserpinae 1.79–83)
- optima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus aeui
- prima fugit; subeunt morbi tristisque senectus
- et labor, et durae rapit inclementia mortis. (Georgics 3.66–8)
- Type
- Shorter Notes
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Classical Association 2014
Footnotes
I am grateful to Michael Dewar, Catherine Ware, and the anonymous reader for CQ for their comments on an earlier version of this note.
References
1 See e.g. Clarke, A.K., ‘Claudian's method of borrowing in De raptu Proserpinae’, PCPhS 181 (1950–1), 4–7Google Scholar; Dilke, O.A.W., ‘Patterns of borrowing in Claudian's De raptu Proserpinae’, RBPh 43 (1965), 60–1CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ware, C., Claudian and the Roman Epic Tradition (Cambridge, 2012), 171–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
2 On the word, see further Austin, R.G., P. Vergili Maronis Aeneidos Liber Secundus (Oxford, 1964)Google Scholar, on Aen. 2.602. For Claudian's use of it, see Dewar, M., Claudian: Panegyricus de Sexto Consulatu Honorii Augusti (Oxford, 1996)Google Scholar, on VI Cons. Hon. 445. Gasti, H., ‘Divum inclementia’, CQ 56 (2006), 629–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar, suggests that the phrase at Aen. 2.602 is a translation of θεῶν ἀγνωμοσύνην at Soph. Trach. 1266.
3 See the excellent comments ad loc. in Gruzelier, C., Claudian: De raptu Proserpinae (Oxford, 1993)Google Scholar, as well as Schwarz, G., ‘Nigra maiestas: Bryaxis – Sarapis – Claudian’, in Schwarz, G. and Pochmarski, E. (edd.), Classica et provincialia: Festschrift Erna Diez (Graz, 1978), 189–210Google Scholar, and Kellner, T., Die Göttergestalten in Claudians De raptu Proserpinae (Stuttgart, 1997), 244–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
4 On Claudian's poetic technique see especially Gualandri, I., Aspetti della tecnica composita in Claudiano (Milan, 1968)Google Scholar; Fo, A., Studi sulla tecnica poetica di Claudiano (Catania, 1982)Google Scholar; Gruzelier, C., ‘Temporal and timeless in Claudian's De raptu Proserpinae’, G&R 35 (1988), 56–72Google Scholar.