MUSES IN THE SKY: LUCRETIUS' INVOCATIVE TELESTICH AND ITS MULTIPLE REVIVALS IN LATIN POETRY*.

Autor: TAMÁS, ÁBEL
Předmět:
Zdroj: Classical Journal; 2023, Vol. 119 Issue 1, p1-43, 43p
Abstrakt: In the first seven lines of his opening proem, where we notoriously find a Hymn to Venus, Lucretius compensates the Muses with an invocative Muse-telestich spelling MuSAS/MuSIS, which is signposted by caeli ... labentia signa and thus connected to the Aratean tradition of both heavenly and written "signs". Moreover, Lucretius' telestich establishes a firm tradition including (so far) Catullus, Vergil, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan, who mark some of their most emphatic--predominantly, but not exclusively, proemial--passages with variants of the Lucretian Muse-telestich and adjust them to their respective poetic programs. The Muse-telestich thus became a textual device by which Latin poets watermarked their highest poetic aspirations in exceedingly creative ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Databáze: Complementary Index