Cento Vergilianus de laudibus Christi
Cento Vergilianus de laudibus Christi | |
---|---|
by Faltonia Betitia Proba | |
Written | Fourth-century AD |
Country | Roman Empire |
Language | Latin |
Subject(s) | Christianity, the Old and New Testaments |
Genre(s) | Cento |
Meter | Dactylic hexameter |
Cento Vergilianus de laudibus Christi (Latin:
While scholars have proposed a number of hypotheses to explain why the poem was written, a definitive answer to this question remains elusive. Regardless of Proba's intent, the poem would go on to be widely circulated, and it eventually was used in schools to teach the tenets of Christianity, often alongside
Origin and style
The author of the poem, Faltonia Betitia Proba, was born c. AD 322. A member of an influential, aristocratic family, she eventually married a prefect of Rome named Clodius Celsinus Adelphius.[1][2] Proba wrote poetry, and according to contemporary accounts, her first work was titled Constantini bellum adversus Magnentium; this poem, which is now lost, recounted the war between Roman Emperor Constantius II and the usurper Magnentius that occurred between AD 350–53.[2][3] At some point, Proba converted from paganism to Christianity, and De laudibus Christi, which was probably written c. AD 352–384,[1] was her attempt to "turn away from battle and slayings in order to write holy things".[4]
With the exception of the
Hardly any names are present in De laudibus Christi. This is because Virgil never used Hebrew names like "Jesus" and "Mary", and thus Proba was limited in terms of what she was able to work with. To compensate, Proba used vague words like mater ("mother"), pater ("father"), deus ("god"), and vates ("poet" or "priest") to refer to key Judeo-Christian figures.
Contents
Summary
But baptised, like the blest, in the Castalian font—
I, who in my thirst have drunk libations of the Light—
now begin my song: be at my side, Lord, set my thoughts
straight, as I tell how Virgil sang the offices of Christ.
—De laudibus Christi, ll. 20–23, translated by Josephine Balmer[19]
The cento's 694 lines are divided into a proem and invocation (lines 1–55), select stories from the
At the end of the invocation, Proba states her poem's main purpose: to "tell how Virgil sang the offices of Christ."The passages focusing on the Old Testament concern the
After the story of Creation, Proba briefly references the Great Flood by making use of lines from the fourth book of the Georgics that originally discussed the death of a beehive and the necessity of laws after the end of the Golden Age, respectively. According to the classicist Karla Pollmann, by using lines that concern destruction and the establishment of law, Proba is able to convey the traditional idea that Noah's survival represents the dawning of a "second creation and a new order" (that is, the Patriarchal age).[31] Proba dedicates only a few lines to Exodus before moving onto the New Testament. Cullhed reasons that this is because the Book of Exodus and the remaining Old Testament is replete with violence and warfare that is stylistically too close to the tradition of pagan epic poetry—a tradition that Proba expressly rejects in the proem of De laudibus Christi.[32] In the transitional section between the Old and New Testaments, Proba appropriates the invocation of the Muses of war that immediately precedes the Catalogue of Italians (from Book VII, Aeneid) and verses that originally described Aeneas's prophetic shield (from Book VIII, Aeneid). According to Culhed, these verses originally functioned as poetic devices, enabling Virgil to move from the "Odyssean" first half of the poem to the "Iliadic" latter half. Proba likewise has re-purposed these verses to aid in her transition from the Old Testament into the New.[33]
The portion of De laudibus Christi that focuses on the New Testament recounts the
Characterization of Jesus
Due to her borrowing from Virgil, Proba's Christ is very similar to the Virgilian epic hero.[45] Parallels between the two include both seeking a goal greater than their own happiness, initiating realms "without end", and projecting auras of divinity.[46] According to the early Christian specialist Elizabeth A. Clark and the classicist Diane Hatch, Proba's purpose was to "imbue the Christ with heroic virtues" akin to the Virgilian hero.[47] The poet does this in three major ways: First, she describes Jesus as remarkably beautiful,[48] with "a magnificent and commanding presence" similar to that of Aeneas.[49] Second, during the Crucifixion, Jesus does not go meekly to his death, but aggressively lashes out at his persecutors.[50] Her reconfiguration of Jesus's crucifixion is thus in line with Aeneas' vindictive slaying of Turnus described at the very end of the Aeneid.[51] Finally, Proba transfers to Jesus portions of prophecies scattered throughout the Aeneid that detail Rome's glorious future, thus recasting pagan oracles in a Christian light.[51]
Characterization of Mary
The characterization of Mary has caused much scholarly debate. The historian Kate Cooper sees Mary as a courageous, intelligent materfamilias.
Cullhed writes that the most scholarly views of Mary in the poem are inadequate, and that Proba made Mary "the twofold fulfillment and antitype of both Eve and Dido."[53] Cullhed bases this on the fact that line 563 of the fourth book of the Aeneid (from Mercury's speech to Aeneas, in which the god admonishes the hero for lingering with Dido in Carthage) is used in two of the sections of the cento: once, in which Adam admonishes Eve for sinning, and again, in which Mary learns that Herod wants to kill her child. According to Cullhed, the "negative characterization" of the original verse and its reuse in the Old Testament portion of the cento is transformed into a "positively charged ability" allowing Mary and Jesus to escape Herod's wrath.[53] Because Mary can foretell the future, she is compared (through the use of Virgilian language) to Greco-Roman goddesses and prophets.[54]
Proba's character and motivation
Because historical information about Proba is limited, many scholars have taken to analyzing De laudibus Christi to learn more about her. According to the classicist Bernice Kaczynski, "Scholars have seen traces of Proba's own character in her emphasis on the beauty of the natural world, readily apparent in her account of the creation."[4] The cento suggests that Proba had great regard for "domestic matters, for marriage and the family, for marital devotion and [for] filial piety".[4] While the New Testament stresses asceticism, Proba seems to de-emphasize its importance, given that topics like virginity and poverty are not stressed in her poem. In regards to issues of finance, Proba reinterprets a number of the New Testament episodes in which Jesus urges his followers to eschew wealth as passages suggesting that Christians should simply share wealth with their families. These changes illustrate Proba's historical context, her socio-economic position, and the expectations of her class.[4]
As to why Proba arranged in the poem in the first place, scholars are still divided. The Latinist R. P. H. Green argues that the work was a reaction to the Roman emperor Julian's law forbidding Christians from teaching literature that they did not believe to be true (which is to say, classical Greek and Latin mythology).[55][56] Proba's goal, Green writes, was to present Virgil "without [pagan] gods, and [thus] a [Virgil] no longer vulnerable to Christian criticism".[57] In this way, a Christian teacher could use the text to discuss Virgil without compromising their religious and moral integrity.[57] Clark and Hatch, on the other hand, postulate that Jesus's Virgilian nature in the cento may have been Proba's attempt to rebut the unflattering, demonizing descriptions of Jesus in Julian's Caesares and Contra Galilaeos. They conclude that the hypothesis is intriguing but unverifiable due to the lack of information about Proba, the date of the cento's creation, and her intentions.[46][49] Finally, the classicist Aurelio Amatucci suggests that Proba composed the cento to teach her children stories from the Bible,[58] although there is no solid evidence that the poem was ever intended to be a teaching tool.[59][60]
Reception
In the late-4th and early-5th centuries, the work began to receive a more mixed response. Many scholars hold that the
During
During the
Scholarship in the 19th and early 20th century was more critical of De laudibus Christi.
Authorship controversy
The poem is traditionally attributed to Faltonia Betitia Proba largely on the assertion of Isidore, who wrote in his
In her 2015 book Proba the Prophet, Cullhed counters Shanzer's claims, first by noting that there is no definitive evidence that Faltonia Betitia Proba died in AD 351 and that such an assertion remains speculative at best. Cullhed also argues that "there are no 'grounds for determining priority'" of the poem's opening lines, and that the supposed reference to the AD 387 debate about Easter could have likely referred to an earlier, perhaps less famous dispute.[88] As to the titles found in later manuscripts, Cullhed writes that it is likely that they were erroneously inserted during the Middle Ages by scribes who had understandably confused the two Probas. Cullhed also reasons that if Anicia Proba had written De laudibus Christi, the Latin poet Claudian would have almost certainly praised her poetic abilities in his AD 395 panegyric celebrating the joint consulship of her sons Anicius Hermogenianus Olybrius and Anicius Probinus.[88] Cullhed concludes: "The evidence for discrediting Isidore's attribution [of Faltonia Betitia Proba as the author of the cento] is not sufficient, and so, I will assume that the cento was written in the mid-fourth century by Faltonia Betitia Proba."[88] Today, the general consensus among classicists and scholars of Latin is that De laudibus Christi was indeed written by Faltonia Betitia Proba.[1][89]
See also
- Interpretatio Christiana, the adaptation of non-Christian elements of culture or historical facts to the worldview of Christianity
Notes
- ^ The poem is also known as De laudibus Christi (Latin: [deː ˈlau̯dɪbʊs ˈkʰriːstiː]; Concerning the Glory of Christ) and Cento Probae (Latin: [ˈkɛntoː ˈproːbae̯]; The Cento of Proba).
- ^ The proem and invocation are both mixes of original Latin lines and lines borrowed from or alluding to the Virgil, the Silver Age poet Lucan, and the fourth-century poet Juvencus.[5]
- ^ Ausonius (AD 310–395) is the only poet from Antiquity to comment on the form and content of the Virgilian cento, and his statements are regarded as authoritative by many scholars.[8] Ephraim Chambers, in his Cyclopædia (1728), paraphrases Ausonius statements as such: A cento "may be taken either from the same poet, or from several. The verses may be either taken entire[ly], or divided into two, one half to be connected to another half taken elsewhere. But two verses should never be us[e]d running, nor much less than half a verse be taken."[9]
- ^ Alessia Fassina proposed that the garrula anus referred to by Jerome was actually Melania the Elder,[63] and Sigrid Schottenius Cullhed hypothesizes that Jerome is not talking about any one person, but rather the type of person not fit to preach the Gospel.[64] Cullhed nevertheless concedes that "the majority of scholars believe that 'this babbling old lady' must refer to none other than Proba".[65]
- ^ Ironically, in the Medieval period—because Faltonia Betitia Proba was often confused with her granddaughter Anicia Faltonia Proba and because Jerome praised Anicia Proba in a letter to Demetrias—De laudibus Christi was sometimes called "The cento of the illustrious poet Proba Faltonia, approved of by divine Jerome".[67]
- ^ For instance: Green argues that "a Vergilian cento [i.e. De laudibus Christi] has suffered unjustified neglect from scholars",[84] Kaczynski calls the work "remarkable" and "the most successful Christian" cento,[6] and Cullhed notes that the works "position in the tradition between Virgil and the Bible [as well as] its radical technique of literary imitation and female author-function ... renders the reception of the Cento a rewarding field of study."[85]
References
- ^ a b c d Plant (2004), p. 170.
- ^ a b Kaczynski (2013), pp. 131–32.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), p. 24.
- ^ a b c d Kaczynski (2013), p. 132.
- ^ a b Cullhed (2015), p. 113.
- ^ a b Kaczynski (2013), p. 131.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), p. 1.
- ^ McGill (2005), pp. 2–5.
- ^ Chambers (1728), p. 180.
- ^ Comparetti (1895), pp. 1–14.
- ^ Ziolkowski & Putnam (2008), p. 475.
- ^ Comparetti (1895), p. 159.
- ^ Ziolkowski & Putnam (2008), p. 469.
- ^ Comparetti (1895), p. 53.
- ^ Ziolkowski & Putnam (2008), p. 470.
- ^ Comparetti (1895), p. 99.
- ^ a b Kastner & Millin (1981), p. 39.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), p. 128.
- ^ Balmer (1996), p. 111.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), pp. 190–231.
- ^ Stevenson (2005), pp. 65–66.
- ^ Stevenson (2005), p. 66.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), pp. 138–40.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), p. 138.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), pp. 141–42.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), p. 142.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), p. 145.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), p. 151.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), pp. 154–55.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), p. 157.
- ^ Pollmann (2017), p. 113.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), p. 121.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), pp. 122–23.
- ^ a b Disse, Dorothy (November 26, 2012). "Proba/Faltonia Betitia Proba (c. 322–c. 370)". InfIonLine.net. Archived from the original on April 3, 2013.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), p. 164.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), pp. 158, 176–83.
- ^ a b c Cullhed (2015), pp. 164–65.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), pp. 169–70.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), p. 176.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), p. 181–82.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), p. 182.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), p. 184.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), p. 185.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), p. 186.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), p. 158.
- ^ a b c Clark & Hatch (1981), p. 31.
- ^ Clark & Hatch (1981), p. 36.
- ^ Clark & Hatch (1981), pp. 33–34.
- ^ a b Clark & Hatch (1981), p. 33.
- ^ Clark & Hatch (1981), p. 34.
- ^ a b Clark & Hatch (1981), p. 35.
- ^ Cooper (2007), pp. 66–67.
- ^ a b Cullhed (2015), p. 165.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), p. 166.
- ^ Green (1995), pp. 555–58.
- ^ Stevenson (2005), p. 67.
- ^ a b Green (1995), p. 558.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), pp. 52–53.
- ^ a b Plant (2004), p. 171.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), p. 53.
- ^ Copeland (2016), p. 357.
- ^ Green (1995), p. 553.
- ^ Fassina (2004).
- ^ Cullhed (2015), p. 58.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), p. 57.
- ^ Thompson (1906), p. 650.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), p. 64.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), p. 190.
- ^ a b c Stevenson (2005), p. 68.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), p. 59.
- ^ Harich-Schwarzbauer (2006).
- ^ Jensen (1996), p. 53.
- ^ Isidore of Seville, De viris illustribus, V.
- ^ Cox (2008), p. 18.
- ^ a b Cullhed (2015), p. 25.
- ^ "Proba, Falconia – Carmina, sive Centones Vergilii". Universal Short Title Catalogue. Archived from the original on June 27, 2018. Retrieved July 11, 2017.
- ^ Worth 2015, p. 66.
- ^ Stevenson (2005), p. 69.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), p. 56.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), pp. 66–67.
- ^ Smith (1849), p. 134.
- ^ Lejay (1911).
- ^ Kaczynski (2013), p. 133.
- ^ a b c Green (1995), p. 551.
- ^ a b Cullhed (2015), p. 6.
- ^ Cullhed (2015).
- ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae, I.39.26.
- ^ a b c d e Cullhed (2015), pp. 22–23.
- ^ Cullhed (2015), p. 65.
Bibliography
- Balmer, Josephine (1996). Classical Women Poets. ISBN 978-1-85224-342-5.
- Chambers, Ephraim, ed. (1728). "Cento". Cyclopædia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences. Vol. 1. J. and J. Knapton. p. 180. Archived from the original on 2008-12-02. Retrieved 2017-08-07.
- Clark, Elizabeth; Hatch, Diane (1981). "Jesus as Hero in the Vergilian 'Cento' of Faltonia Betitia Proba". Vergilius (27): 31–39. JSTOR 41591857.
- Comparetti, Domenico (1895). Vergil in the Middle Ages. Translated by E. F. M. Benecke. London, UK: Swan Sonnenschein & Co. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
- Cooper, Kate (2007). The Fall of the Roman Household. ISBN 978-1-139-46910-4.
- Copeland, Rita, ed. (2016). The Oxford History of Classical Reception in English Literature: 800–1558, Volume 1. ISBN 978-0-19-958723-0.
- Cox, Virginia (2008). Women's Writing in Italy, 1400–1650. ISBN 978-0-8018-8819-9.
- Cullhed, Sigrid Schottenius (2015). Proba the Prophet. Mnemosyne Supplements. Vol. 378. ISBN 978-90-04-28948-2.
- Fassina, Alessia (2004). Una Patrizia Romana al Servizio della Fede: Il Centone Cristiano di Faltonia Betitia Proba (Dissertation thesis). Ca' Foscari University of Venice. Archived from the original on June 8, 2017.
- Green, R. P. H. (1995). "Proba's Cento: Its Date, Purpose, and Reception". The Classical Quarterly. 45 (2): 551–563. S2CID 163022254.
- Harich-Schwarzbauer, Henriette (2006). "Proba". In Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth; Salazar, Christine; Landfester, Manfred; Gentry, Francis (eds.). .
- Jensen, Anne (1996). God's Self-Confident Daughters. ISBN 978-0-664-25672-2.
- Kaczynski, Bernice (2013). "Faltonia Betitia Proba: A Vergilian Cento in Praise of Christ". In Churchill, Laurie; Brown, Phyllis; Jeffrey, Jane (eds.). Women Writing Latin. ISBN 978-1-136-74291-0.
- Kastner, G. Ronald; Millin, Ann (1981). "Proba". In Wilson-Kastner, Patricia (ed.). A Lost Tradition: Women Writers of the Early Church. Washington, D.C: ISBN 978-0-8191-1642-0.
- Lejay, P. (1911). "Faltonia Proba". New Advent.
- McGill, Scott (2005). Virgil Recomposed: The Mythological and Secular Centos in Antiquity. ISBN 978-0-19-803910-5.
- Plant, Ian, ed. (2004). "Proba (About AD 322–70)". Women Writers of Ancient Greece and Rome: An Anthology. ISBN 978-0-8061-3621-9.
- Pollmann, Karla (2017). The Baptized Muse: Early Christian Poetry as Cultural Authority. ISBN 978-0-19-103995-9.
- Smith, William, ed. (1849). "Falconia [sic] Proba". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 2. London, UK: Spottiswoode and Company. p. 134.
- Stevenson, Jane (2005). Women Latin Poets: Language, Gender, and Authority, from Antiquity to the Eighteenth Century. ISBN 978-0-19-818502-4.
- Thompson, James (1906). "Vergil in Mediaeval Culture". The American Journal of Theology. 10 (4): 648–662. JSTOR 3154430.
- Worth, Roland H. (2012). Shapers of Early Christianity: 52 Biographies, A.D. 100–400. ISBN 978-0-7864-8228-3.
- Ziolkowski, Jan; Putnam, Michael, eds. (2008). The Virgilian Tradition: The First Fifteen Hundred Years. ISBN 978-0-300-10822-4.
Further reading
- English translations
- Clark, Elizabeth A.; Hatch, Diane F.; Proba (1981). The Golden Bough, The Oaken Cross: The Virgilian Cento of Faltonia Betitia Proba. ISBN 978-0-89130-481-4.
- Cullhed, Sigrid Schottenius (2015). "Appendix: The Cento of Proba". Proba the Prophet. Mnemosyne Supplements. Vol. 378. ISBN 978-90-04-28948-2.
- Plant, Ian, ed. (2004). "Proba (About AD 322–70): Proba". Women Writers of Ancient Greece and Rome: An Anthology. ISBN 978-0-8061-3621-9.
- Wilson-Kastner, Patricia, ed. (1981). "Proba: Cento". A Lost Tradition: Women Writers of the Early Church. Translated by Reedy, Jeremiah. Washington, D.C: ISBN 978-0-8191-1642-0.
- Secondary sources
- Matthew, John (1989). "The Poetess Proba and Fourth-century Rome: Questions of Interpretation". In Michel Christol (ed.). Institutions, Société et Vie Politique dans l'Empire Romain au IVe Siècle ap. J.-C [Institutions, Society, and Political Life in the Roman Empire in the Fourth Century AD]. Collection de l'Ecole française de Rome (in English and French). ISBN 978-2-7283-0253-6.
- McGill, Scott (2007). "Virgil, Christianity, and the Cento Probae". In J. H. D. Scourfield (ed.). Texts and Culture in Late Antiquity: Inheritance, Authority, and Change. ISBN 978-1-905125-17-3.
- Sandnes, Karl Olav (2011). "Faltonia Betitia Proba: The Gospel "According to Virgil"". The Gospel "According to Homer and Virgil": Cento and Canon. Supplements to Novum Testamentum. ISBN 978-90-04-18718-4.
- Shanzer, Danuta (1986). "The Anonymous carmen contra paganos and the Date and Identity of the Centonist Proba". Revue des Études Augustiniennes. 32 (3–4): 232–48. .