University of Massachusetts Boston ScholarWorks at UMass Boston Classics Faculty Publication Series Classics 2015 'Furor' as Failed 'Pietas': Roman Poetic Constructions of Madness through the Time of Virgil Emily A. McDermott University of Massachusetts Boston,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.umb.edu/classics_faculty_pubs Part of the Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons, and the Classical Literature and Philology Commons Recommended Citation McDermott, Emily A., "'Furor' as Failed 'Pietas': Roman Poetic Constructions of Madness through the Time of Virgil,' in Perdicoyanni-Paléologou, Hélène, ed., The oncC ept of Madness from Homer to Byzantium: Manifestations and Aspects of Mental Illness and Disorder, Hakkert Editore, Amsterdam, 2016, 191-244. http://scholarworks.umb.edu/classics_faculty_pubs/24/ This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Classics at ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. It has been accepted for inclusion in Classics Faculty Publication Series by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Furor as Failed Pietas: Roman Poetic Constructions of Madness through the Time of Virgil nulla enim vitae pars neque publicis neque privatis neque forensibus neque domesticis in rebus, neque si tecum agas quid neque si cum altero contrahas, vacare officio potest, in eoque et colendo sita vitae est honestas omnis et neglegendo turpitudo. (Cic. off. 1.2.4) religionem eam quae in metu et caerimonia deorum sit appellant, pietatem quae erga patriam aut parentes aut alios sanguine coniunctos officium conservare moneat. (Cic. inv. 2.22.66) In Catullus’s Attis poem, ‘perhaps the most remarkable poem in Latin’, a mythic acolyte of Cybele castrates himself in a religious frenzy, stimulatus ibi furenti rabie, vagus animis (Cat.