THE POWER OF PRAYER: RELIGIOUS DIALOGUE IN VERGIL’S AENEID by AMANDA JANE SHERPE B.A., University of Wisconsin – Madison, 2001 M.A., University of Arizona, 2004 A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Classics 2011 This thesis entitled: The Power of Prayer: Religious Dialogue in Vergil’s Aeneid written by Amanda Jane Sherpe has been approved for the Department of Classics (Professor Peter Knox) (Assistant Professor Jacqueline Elliott) Date 3/15/2011 The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we Find that both the content and the form meet acceptable presentation standards of scholarly work in the above mentioned discipline. iii ABSTRACT Sherpe, Amanda Jane (Ph.D., Classics) The Power of Prayer: Religious Dialogue in Vergil’s Aeneid Thesis directed by Professor Peter Knox This dissertation closely examines direct-speech prayers in Vergil’s Aeneid and how they reflect their source material, and argues that a careful look at their context, intertext and language shows that prayers are a highly allusive dialogue that point to Roman cultural identity. Moreover, the mobilization of this large body of religious language is linked to the ideological function of the Aeneid so that prayers illuminate the complicated nature of the poem’s link to the Augustan regime. This dissertation counters the claim that the poem’s prayers are simply Homeric in their phrasing and instead shows that, although it is clear that Vergil has intentionally entwined Homer’s epic into his own and that the prayers of the Aeneid do, in fact, occasionally resemble Greek models, there is ubiquitous Roman material placed beside the Greek and several to draw from Roman religious precedent that connect specific authors, time periods, Roman rituals and cultural norms. Chapter 1 shows that through allusion to Ennius’ Annales, Vergil self- consciously asserts authority over the material and reworks Ennian subject matter. The next chapter argues that use of Homeric motif and allusion to prayers in the Homeric epics elicit comparisons with corresponding Homeric characters and situations while the incorporation of Roman and Italic ritual in these same prayers brings out the underlying focus of the epic: Rome and Roman traditions. In Chapter 3, I have shown that the combination of language drawn from historical prayer formula and ritual action frame each of these speeches in Roman terms often germane to Augustan ideology. In prayers that are accompanied by ritual action speakers often prefigure Roman practice and therefore assume a position of power through their privileged access to technical religious language and action. Finally, in Chapter 4 I show that prayers to local and familial gods metaphorically put the struggle between the Trojans and the Latins in terms of a shift from one religious system to another, the Saturnian to Jovian, and a transformation from the prehistoric version of the native Italian gods to their later role in Roman civic cult. DEDICATUM memoriae avae mirae quae moribus antiquis virisque studere me adduxit et meis parentibus maritique qui patientia immensa favit mihi succurritque omnibus in aerumnis v AKNOWLEDGMENTS I am indebted to the funding I have received from the University of Colorado Graduate School in the form of two dissertation fellowships that have allowed me the time to write. I am thankful for the financial help I obtained from the Classics Department and the Graduate School to attend CAMWS last year, at which conference I received helpful guidance that informed this dissertation. I am also grateful for the Ann Nichols Graduate Teaching Fellowship, which helped me get through the first two years of graduate school without constant financial stress. This thesis and my graduate career would never have been completed without the help of Peter Knox and Jackie Elliot, who were consistent supporters in my studies, read my drafts and provided much needed advice and direction. I would also like to thank the many other colleagues and professors at the University of Colorado who gave me so much encouragement, especially Scott Farrington, John Gibert, Peter Hunt, Andy Cain, Noel Lenski, Alison Orlebeke, Mary Lovitt and Barb Werner. I owe my happiness and sanity to my wonderful friends and family, especially my husband, Scott, who is my biggest fan and toughest critic. Without his relentless support I would never have made it this far. I would also like to thank my Mama. She first recommended that I take Latin when I started college and has been a life-long inspiration to always learn new things, meet interesting people and travel as much as possible. One of my greatest disappointments is that she will not see me finish. I miss her every day. vi CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................1 CHAPTER I. ENNIAN ALLUSION IN PRAYERS................................................... 13 II. BORROWED LANGUAGE: HOMER IN PRAYER........................... 38 III. ROMAN RITUAL AND CULT............................................................ 74 IV. THE GODS OF ITALY....................................................................... 119 CONCLUSION......................................................................................................... 155 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………..……………………………………………159 INTRODUCTION This dissertation closely examines prayers in Vergil’s Aeneid and how they reflect their source material, and argues that a careful look at their context, intertext and language provides the key to understanding prayer in the poem. By presenting evidence for the extended use of allusion to literary precedent and language appropriated from Roman religious ritual, this thesis shows that the Aeneid’s prayers constitute a highly allusive dialogue. Moreover, the mobilization of this large body of religious language is linked to both the construction of character and the ideological function of the Aeneid, and illuminates the complicated nature of the poem’s link to the Augustan regime. For the ancient Romans, cult and ritual were central to both public and private life. The wording of prayers associated with daily observance was crucial; several sources underscore that the exact repetition of formulae was necessary for a legitimate transaction between men and gods.1 For example, when Pliny in his Natural History poses the question of whether there is power inherent in ritual words and incantations, he concludes from the evidence of several examples that there is a genuine belief in the power of these formulaic words for Romans of every class, in both public and private 1 Appel 1975: 205–6 notes the importance of verbal precision in reciting prayers and cites several passages in which this is emphasized: Cic. Nat. D. II.10; Cic. Dom. 139; Hor. Epist. II 1.26; Macrob. Sat. III 9.3; Val. Max. IV 1.10; Plin. HN XXVIII 11; Stat. Silv. IV 3.138; Suet. Aug. 97; Apul. Met. XI.17; Gell. NA XIII 23.1; Festus p. 171M. 1 arenas, at every period of Roman history.2 In the De Agri Cultura, Cato too implicitly communicates the importance of precision in the private sphere when he supplies the exact wording for prayers conducted before harvests, pruning groves, digging and purifying the field (134–41).3 In addition to what is found in these sources, the formats of several public and private prayers have been preserved for us in inscriptions and literary descriptions dating from the republican era into the empire. Prayer language in literature of the Republican, Augustan and Imperial eras is often quite unlike examples of the lanugage of ritual from agricultural and antiquarian writers or inscriptions. While prayer for an official purpose may have had to be precisely 2 Plin. HN 28.10–11: Ex homine remediorum primum maximae quaestionis et semper incerta est, polleantne aliquid verba et incantamenta carminum. quod si verum est, homini acceptum fieri oportere conveniat, sed viritim sapientissimi cuiusque respuit fides, in universum vero omnibus horis credit vita nec sentit. quippe victimas caedi sine precatione non videtur referre aut deos rite consuli. [11] praeterea alia sunt verba inpetris, alia depulsoriis, alia commendationis, videmusque certis precationibus obsecrasse summos magistratus et, ne quod verborum praetereatur aut praeposterum dicatur, de scripto praeire aliquem rursusque alium custodem dari qui adtendat, alium vero praeponi qui favere linguis iubeat, tibicinem canere, ne quid aliud exaudiatur, utraque inisigni, quotiens ipsae dirae obstrepentes nocuerint quotiensve precatio erraverit; sic repente extis adimi capita vel corda aut geminari victima stante. 3 For example, when Cato instructs on purifying fields, he furnishes a lengthy prayer that draws on archaic language and prayer formulae: 141: Ianum Iovemque vino praefamino, sic dicito: "Mars pater, te precor quaesoque uti sies volens propitius mihi domo familiaeque nostrae, quoius rei ergo agrum terram fundumque meum suovitaurilia circumagi iussi, uti tu morbos visos invisosque, viduertatem vastitudinemque, calamitates intemperiasque prohibessis defendas averruncesque; utique tu fruges, frumenta, vineta virgultaque grandire beneque evenire siris, pastores pecuaque salva servassis duisque bonam salutem valetudinemque mihi domo familiaeque nostrae; harumce rerum ergo, fundi terrae agrique mei lustrandi lustrique faciendi ergo, sicuti dixi, macte