Days Linked by Song: Prudentius' CathemerinonPrudentius is often considered the greatest Latin poet of late antiquity. In this volume, O'Daly looks at Prudentius' lyric poems, the Cathemerinon, Poems for the Day, which were published early in the fifth century AD. Reflecting the religious concerns of the increasingly Christianized western Roman Empire in the age of the emperor Theodosius and Ambrose of Milan, the Cathemerinon are above all the writings of a private person, and of the ways in which his religious beliefs colour his everyday life. They speak of bird-song and morning light, they are about about the taking of food, about lighting lamps as dark sets in, and about the night's sleep. Rich in biblical themes and narratives, images and symbols (including paradise and the Fall, Exodus, Jonah, Daniel, and the Magi), they also celebrate Christ's miracles and the feasts of Christmas and Epiphany. However, while they exploit the themes of the Bible, they are also written in the classical metres of Latin poetry and make use of its vocabulary and metaphors. They achieve a remarkable creative tension between the two worlds that determined Prudentius' culture: the beliefs and practices, sacred books, and doctrines of Christianity; and the traditions, poetry, and ideas of the Greeks and Romans. A good part of the attractiveness of these poems comes from the interplay between these two worlds. The volume includes the Latin texts, English translations, and critical essays on each of the twelve poems. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
1 Before Dawn Cath 1 | 37 |
2 Morning Cath 2 | 63 |
3 Before Taking Food Cath 3 | 81 |
4 Postprandial Cath 4 | 119 |
5 The Lighting of the Lamps Cath 5 | 143 |
6 Before I Lay Me Down to Sleep Cath 6 | 171 |
7 Fasting Cath 7 | 193 |
10 The Burial of the Dead Cath 10 | 291 |
11 Christmas Cath 11 | 321 |
12 Wise Men and Innocents Cath 12 | 351 |
13 Afterlife | 381 |
The Praefatio | 385 |
| 391 | |
| 401 | |
| 407 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Aeneid alludes allusion Ambrose Ambrose's hymns anaphora Apoth Assendelft Ausonius baptism Becker Bible biblical biblical narrative biblical texts birth body Buchheit catalectic Cath Cathemerinon Catullus Charlet Christ Christian cock-crow context contrast Création darkness death detail deus Dichtkunst divine dreams echoes Eclogue epic episode Epode evocation evoked exegesis Exod faith fasting Father following stanzas Gnilka God's heaven Heinz Herzog Horace Horace's human Hymn Hymnus iambic dimeter influence interpretation Intertextualität Jesus John Jonah Juvencus Late Antiquity Latin light lines Lühken Magi Maro martyr Matt metaphor metre miracle Moses motif night Odes Ovid pagan passage Paulinus of Nola Perist phrase poem poem's poetic poetry Praefatio praise prayer Priscillian Prudence Prudentiana Prudentius Psychomachia quae quod reference resurrection Roman sense Septuagint sequence sleep Smolak soul Spirit stanza 13 star stresses symbolic Tertullian theme Theodosius tion Tischgebet tradition translation victory Virgil words