INSTITUTIONEN FÖR SPRÅK OCH LITTERATURER DE INCONEXIS CONTINUUM A Study of the Late Antique Latin Wedding Centos DE INCONEXIS CONTINUUM A Study of the Late Antique Latin Wedding Centos SARA EHRLING QuickTime och en -dekomprimerare krävs för att kunna se bilden. SARA EHRLING DE INCONEXIS CONTINUUM INSTITUTIONEN FÖR SPRÅK OCH LITTERATURER DE INCONEXIS CONTINUUM A Study of the Late Antique Latin Wedding Centos SARA EHRLING Avhandling för filosofie doktorsexamen i latin, Göteborgs universitet 2011-05-28 Disputationsupplaga Sara Ehrling 2011 ISBN: 978–91–628–8311–9 http://hdl.handle.net/2077/24990 Distribution: Institutionen för språk och litteraturer, Göteborgs universitet, Box 200, 405 30 Göteborg Acknowledgements Due to diverse turns of life, this work has followed me for several years, and I am now happy for having been able to finish it. This would not have been possible without the last years’ patient support and direction of my supervisor Professor Gunhild Vidén at the Department of Languages and Literatures. Despite her full agendas, Gunhild has always found time to read and comment on my work; in her criticism, she has in a remarkable way combined a sharp intellect with deep knowledge and sound common sense. She has also always been a good listener. For this, and for numerous other things, I admire and am deeply grateful to Gunhild. My secondary supervisor, Professor Mats Malm at the Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion, has guided me with insight through the vast field of literary criticism; my discussions with him have helped me correct many mistakes and improve important lines of reasoning. For this, I thank him warmly. I am also much indebted to Docent Maria Plaza at the Department of Languages and Literatures. Maria’s deep insight in Classical literature and her interest in humour have been a source of inspiration for me. As the opponent at my final seminar, Maria also offered some important suggestions which have improved my work. During earlier stages of my work, the discussions with Professor emeritus Magnus Wistrand were most fruitful. As my former supervisor, Magnus wisely guided me towards my licentiate dissertation; for this, I wish to express my warmest gratitude to Magnus. I am grateful also to my first supervisor, Professor Monika Asztalos, whose ardent intellect and enthusiasm encouraged me to proceed with my Latin studies as a young student. Last, but not least, I thank the participants in the higher Latin Seminar at Gothenburg University. Among these I am particularly indebted to Dr Anna Holst- Blennow, Professor Karin Hult and Docent Christina Thomsen-Thörnqvist. I thank them for constant support and encouragement, as well as for concrete help at various crucial points in my work. I thank also Mr. Jon van Leuven for having corrected my English, and Mr. Thomas Ekholm for helping me with the cover design. My warmest thoughts at this moment go to my mother, Wivi, who has always done her best to encourage and support me through every moment of life. I dedicate this work to her and to my son Albin. Abstract Title: De Inconexis Continuum – A Study of the Late Antique Latin Wedding Centos Author: Sara Ehrling Language: English Department: Department of Languages and Literatures, University of Gothenburg, Box 200, SE 405 30 Göteborg Year: 2011 ISBN: 978–91–628–8311–9 http://hdl.handle.net/2077/24990 Key words: cento, cento poetry, Cento Nuptialis, Epithalamium Fridi, wedding poetry, late antique Latin poetry, Ausonius, Luxorius, Open works. The kind of literature that is called cento is studied in this thesis with a special focus on two late antique Latin wedding poems, Cento Nuptialis written by Ausonius in the late 4th century A.D., and Epithalamium Fridi probably written in Carthage some hundred years later. These two poems are the only late antique Latin centos which belong to the same genre; they are therefore investigated with the aim of showing how centos belonging to the same genre may relate in different ways to both their text of origin and their genre. The method used is based on the belief that centos are best described as ‘open works,’ with a wide ‘field of possibilities.’ In the analyses a hermeneutical approach is applied, and the Model Reader’s interpretations are in focus. The two wedding centos relate in different ways to text of origin and genre. Associations which forecast the events of the part of the poem called Imminutio, a ‘notion of combat’, and the double circumstances lying behind the composition of the poem are found crucial for the interpretation of Cento Nuptialis. The humour of the Imminutio part is explained as a result of incongruity between cento, text of origin and genre-expectations. In Epithalamium Fridi, it is shown that the text of origin is sub- ordinated to the panegyric scope of the epithalamium of occasion. Some general conclusions are cautiously suggested. These concern: various kinds of reinterpretation of the text of origin through the lens of a cento; different kinds of guidance for the interpretation of a cento; and different functions for which centos may be particularly apt, e.g. subversive and humorous poems. Contents Aim of study 9 PART ONE: BACKGROUND 1. What do ancient Latin authors say about centos? 11 a. Latin discussions on cento 11 b. Ausonius’ discussion on cento 14 2. What ancient Latin cento poetry remains today? 21 a. Cento-like passages 21 b. Extant Latin centos 24 c. Formal rules for ancient Latin centos 30 3. Why did ancient Latin cento poetry develop? 31 a. Roman education 32 b. Deciphering Virgil 34 c. Virgil – a Roman Homer 35 4. What research has been done about centos? 35 5. Theoretical models for the understanding of centos 39 6. The reception of centos 53 a. Contemporary reception 53 b. Repertoires 55 c. Different kinds of readers 56 d. The ‘Model-Reader’s’ co-operation 58 7. Method used in this work 62 PART TWO: WEDDING-RELATED TEXTS 8. How did late antique wedding poetry develop? 65 a. Early wedding poetry 69 b. Theocritus and Catullus 71 c. Weddings in epic and recited tragedy – anti-epithalamia 77 d. Rhetorical advice on wedding speeches 88 e. The late antique epithalamium of occasion 91 9. Attitudes towards marriage in ancient literature 101 a. The role of the gods – truthfulness vs. treachery 103 b. Convincing arguments – sense together with sensibility or sensibility alone 104 PART THREE: WEDDING CENTOS 10. The wedding centos per se 106 a. Cento Nuptialis 106 b. Epithalamium Fridi 108 11. The text of origin – Provenance and original contexts of the quotations 110 a. Cento Nuptialis 111 b. Epithalamium Fridi 133 12. Analysis of Cento Nuptialis 148 13. Analysis of Epithalamium Fridi 180 PART FOUR: GENERAL CONCLUSIONS AND FURTHER DISCUSSIONS 14. Functions of associations and reconsideration of the text of origin 198 a. Different functions of associations 198 b. Reconsideration of the text of origin 205 15. How does a cento guide its readers beyond a wide field of possibilities? 214 a. Inclination towards the genre 214 b. Internal associations 220 16. Which are the probable functions of a cento? 221 a. Markers of sophistication and social status 221 b. Occasional poems 223 c. Poetic games 224 d. Subversive poems 225 e. Humorous poems 227 Summary 229 Bibliography 233 Aim of study The cento is a complex form of literature, and one which has often been neglected for anachronistic reasons. Twentieth-century classicists have often regarded centos as deca- dent products of a late antique Roman culture in decline. Shackleton Bailey is not alone in his condemnations of them, but his refusal to include the Virgilian centos in his edition from 1982 of Anthologia Latina (the collection which contains most Latin centos) is unusually frank:1 Centones Vergiliani (Riese 7–18), opprobia litterarum, neque ope critica multum indigent neque is sum qui vati reverendo denuo haec edendo contu- meliam imponere sustineam. “The Virgilian centos (Riese 7–18), disgrace of literature, do not much call for scholarly labour, nor am I one who suffers to insult, by editing those poems again, the Poet who ought to be worshiped.” (My translation) Despite the negative attitudes of Shackleton Bailey and others, during the last decades the cento’s repute has to some degree been restored. Monographs on single centos have appeared, as well as one monograph on all mythological and secular Virgilian centos extant from antiquity; an increasing number of articles on centos have also been published.2 But, so far no extensive studies have been written on the relationship between centos, their text of orgin and their genre.3 Given the increasing general interest in centos, I would like to contribute to the understanding of the cento as a literary work, and for this purpose I have chosen to study the only two centos which belong to the same genre: Cento Nuptialis and Epithalamium Fridi. The renowned poet, teacher and rhetorician Decimus Magnus Ausonius (c. 310– 395) wrote Cento Nuptialis in 374/375. Some time later, Ausonius sent the cento in a letter to his friend Paulus; this letter also contains the only detailed description extant from antiquity of what cento poetry is, a description which will be thoroughly treated in Chapter 1b.4 Epithalamium Fridi was written some 100–150 years later, by an author named Luxorius (or something similar). Luxorius wrote other poems too, and with all probability he lived in Carthage during the late 5th or early 6th century; cf. Chapter 10b. We know from Ausonius’ letter to Paulus that Cento Nuptialis was written in response to a similar poem by the Emperor Valentinian I (321–375); at the emperor’s request, Ausonius had to compete with him in a literary competition.