UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Recognition and its Dilemmas in Roman Epic Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4hn808p4 Author Librandi, Diana Publication Date 2021 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Recognition and its Dilemmas in Roman Epic A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Classics by Diana Librandi 2021 © Copyright by Diana Librandi 2021 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Recognition and its Dilemmas in Roman Epic by Diana Librandi Doctor of Philosophy in Classics University of California, Los Angeles, 2021 Professor Francesca Katherine Martelli, Chair The present dissertation examines the widespread presence of tropes of tragic recognition in Roman epic poetry from an interdisciplinary perspective. I argue that Roman epic poets draw at once on tragedy and ancient philosophy to address the cognitive instability generated by civil war, an event which recurrently marks the history of Rome since its foundation. When civil conflicts arise, the shifting categories of friend and enemy, kin and stranger, victor and vanquished, generate a constant renegotiation of individual identities and interpersonal relationships. It is in light of these destabilizing changes that I interpret the Roman epic trend of pairing civil war narratives with instances of tragic recognition. Far from working exclusively as a plot device or as a marker of the interaction between the genres of epic and tragedy, tropes of tragic recognition in Roman epic are conducive to exploring the epistemological and ethical dilemmas posed by civil war. While civil strife permeates the fabric of all the epic poems considered in my study, each author magnifies the interplay between recognition and civil war in relation to specific categories: friends ii and foes in Lucan’s Pharsalia, hosts and guests in Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica, kinsmen and strangers in Statius’ Thebaid, and the human and the non-human in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. iii The dissertation of Diana Librandi is approved. Rebecca Langlands Giulia Sissa Lydia M. Spielberg Adriana Maria Vazquez Francesca Katherine Martelli, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2021 iv Ai miei genitori e a mia sorella Katia v TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements vii Vita ix Introduction. Recognition in Roman Epic: the Emblematic Case of the Aeneid _____________ 1 Chapter 1. Recognizing Romans: Recognition and Civil War in Lucan’s Pharsalia _________ 42 Chapter 2. Repetition Blindness: The Cyzicus Episode in Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica ____ 77 Chapter 3. “Don’t You Recognize Your Enemies?” Antigone, Jocasta, and Maternal Recognitions in Statius’ Thebaid ________________________________________________ 125 Chapter 4. What is Left to Recognize? Residual Recognitions in Ovid’s Metamorphoses ___ 186 Epilogue ___________________________________________________________________ 242 Bibliography _______________________________________________________________ 246 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I was able to complete this dissertation thanks to the support of many people, near and far. I am indebted to my adviser and committee chair, Francesca Martelli, for her unswerving encouragement and intellectual generosity. She first saw this project take shape in her seminar on Caesar and Lucan in 2015 and believed in its potential since then. My doctoral committee improved every page of this study. Thanks to Rebecca Langlands for her eye-opening insights; to Giulia Sissa for always helping me see the big picture; to Lydia Spielberg for her profuse leads on the present version and future stages of this project; and to Adriana Vazquez for her thoughtful support and painstaking comments. My years in the Department of Classics at UCLA would not have been as formative without the mentorship of Bob Gurval. I will cherish the memories of teaching in Rome under his supervision for many years to come. Thanks are due to Alex Purves, who has been an inspiring interlocutor both academically and pedagogically. I would also like to thank David Blank for his philosophical advice and Sarah Morris for her enthusiastic guidance in her role as Faculty TA coordinator. I owe much to Savannah Shapiro for her jovial help. Special thanks to my fellow graduate students: I am grateful for our exchange of ideas in our research workshops, for the good times in Dodd Hall, and lately for the pandemic videocalls. A warm “thank you!” to the friends who crossed my path away from home: Anastasia Baran, Karime Castillo, Ana Guay, Milena Anfosso, Patrick Bonczyk, Leonardo Cazzadori, Iara Mantenuto, Jennifer Monti, and Vera Rondano. I found a precious ally in Roberto Petrosino, who has guided me through the maze of applications to doctoral programs in the US and encouraged me to apply in the first place. vii Infine, qualche parola di ringraziamento nella mia lingua madre. Ai miei genitori, Eugenio e Maria, va la mia più profonda gratitudine e il mio bene infinito. Non avrei potuto concludere questo percorso né fare tanto altro se non aveste combattuto per me. A mia sorella Katia devo dire grazie per avermi tenuto per mano nei giorni più difficili e per le risate incontenibili. A voi tre è dedicato questo lavoro. Grazie ai miei nonni, esempio costante di tenacia e premura, per avermi regalato leggerezza e buonumore. Alle amiche e agli amici di una vita, fari luminosi nelle mie notti più buie, ora e sempre un grazie speciale. E grazie al mio sposo, Anton: in te solo mi riconosco. viii Vita Diana Librandi graduated in Classics (B.A. 2010, summa cum laude) and in Ancient Studies (M.A. 2012, summa cum laude) from the University of Siena, Italy. After joining the Ph.D. program in Classics at UCLA in 2014, she obtained a graduate certificate in Gender Studies from the UCLA Center for the Study of Women in 2018 and advanced to candidacy in the same year. Diana Librandi presented part of her research on ancient epic at professional conferences organized by the Society for Classical Studies and the Classical Association of Canada. Throughout her graduate career at UCLA, she taught a wide range of courses in the Department of Classics and collaborated with the Center for Advancement of Teaching as well as with the EPIC (Excellence in Pedagogy and Innovative Classroom) Program. ix Introduction. Recognition in Roman Epic: the Emblematic Case of the Aeneid Recognition at the end of the Aeneid: an Aristotelian test At the end of the Aeneid, Aeneas hesitates between killing and sparing Turnus, between dismissing and heeding his last words. The Trojan hero eventually thrusts his unforgiving sword into his enemy’s chest. A moment before, Pallas’ baldric was shining before his eyes (Aen. 12.938-52): stetit acer in armis Aeneas uoluens oculos dextramque repressit; et iam iamque magis cunctantem flectere sermo coeperat, infelix umero cum apparuit alto balteus et notis fulserunt cingula bullis Pallantis pueri, uictum quem uulnere Turnus strauerat atque umeris inimicum insigne gerebat. ille, oculis postquam saeui monimenta doloris exuuiasque hausit, furiis accensus et ira terribilis: ‘tune hinc spoliis indute meorum eripiare mihi? Pallas te hoc uulnere, Pallas immolat et poenam scelerato ex sanguine sumit.’ hoc dicens ferrum aduerso sub pectore condit feruidus; ast illi soluuntur frigore membra uitaque cum gemitu fugit indignata sub umbras.1 Fierce Aeneas stood in his armor, shifting his eyes, and curbed his hand. And now and now more Turnus’ speech started to sway him as he was hesitating, when the unlucky2 baldric came into view on Turnus’ shoulder, and the belt of young Pallas shone with the familiar studs. Him, defeated, Turnus had laid low with a blow, and he was bearing on his shoulders the hateful emblem. After taking in with his eyes the memorials of that cruel grief and the 1 In quoting Roman epic poets, I have used the following critical editions: P. Vergili Maronis Opera, R. A. B. Mynors (ed.), Oxford 1969; T. Lucreti Cari De Rerum Natura Libri Sex, C. Bailey (ed.), Oxford 1921; P. Ovidi Nasoni Metamorphoses, R. J. Tarrant (ed.), Oxford 2004; M. Annaei Lucani Belli Civilis Libri Decem, A. E. Housman (ed.), Oxford 1970; P. Papini Stati Thebais, A. Klotz, Th. C. Klinnert (eds.), Leipzig 1973; Gai Valeri Flacci Setim Balbi Argonauticon Libros Octo, W.-W. Ehlers (ed.), Stuttgart 1980. Quotes from other Latin and ancient Greek authors follow the most recent LOEB Classical Library edition unless otherwise indicated. Abbreviations of classical references primarily follow S. Hornblower, A. Spawforth and E. Eidinow (eds.), The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th edn., Oxford 2012, with a few exceptions. 2 On the ambiguous meaning of the adjective infelix in this context, see Tarrant 2012 ad Aen. 12.941. The text is replete with adjectives that could refer both to the events narrated by the poet, that is, the killing of Turnus, and the scenes represented on the baldric, namely the Danaids’ slaughter of their spouses. The Aeneid’s finale is among the most discussed and controversial passages in the poem. For an analysis of the ideological contradictions and divided truths that animate the characters of the poem and, by extension, its interpreters, see Hardie 1997 and Conte 2007 with further bibliography. In the Aeneid’s finale, as Conte (2007, 155) notes, we find two contradictory yet equally valid claims side by side: the imperative to exact vengeance and the moral duty to show mercy towards the enemy. 1 spoils, inflamed by fury and terrible in his wrath: “And from here, girded with the spoils of my dear ones, are you to be snatched away from me? Pallas is the one with this blow, Pallas immolates you and exacts vengeance out of impious blood.” Saying these words, furious Aeneas buries the spear in Turnus’ chest. But Turnus’ limbs are loosened with chill, and his life, with a sigh, flees indignantly to the shades below.3 Scholars have described the last scene of the Aeneid as a tragic episode.