The Origin of Sin

The Origin of Sin

Author: Prudentius

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2012-03-15

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 0801463068

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Aurelius Prudentius Clemens (348–ca. 406) is one of the great Christian Latin writers of late antiquity. Born in northeastern Spain during an era of momentous change for both the Empire and the Christian religion, he was well educated, well connected, and a successful member of the late Roman elite, a man fully engaged with the politics and culture of his times. Prudentius wrote poetry that was deeply influenced by classical writers and in the process he revived the ethical, historical, and political functions of poetry. This aspect of his work was especially valued in the Middle Ages by Christian writers who found themselves similarly drawn to the Classical tradition. Prudentius's Hamartigenia, consisting of a 63-line preface followed by 966 lines of dactylic hexameter verse, considers the origin of sin in the universe and its consequences, culminating with a vision of judgment day: the damned are condemned to torture, worms, and flames, while the saved return to a heaven filled with delights, one of which is the pleasure of watching the torments of the damned. As Martha A. Malamud shows in the interpretive essay that accompanies her lapidary translation, the first new English translation in more than forty years, Hamartigenia is critical for understanding late antique ideas about sin, justice, gender, violence, and the afterlife. Its radical exploration of and experimentation with language have inspired generations of thinkers and poets since—most notably John Milton, whose Paradise Lost owes much of its conception of language and its strikingly visual imagery to Prudentius's poem.


The Psychomachia of Prudentius

The Psychomachia of Prudentius

Author: Aaron Pelttari

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2019-08-22

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 0806165626

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Prudentius (b. 348 c.e.), one of the greatest Latin poets of late antiquity, was also a devoted Christian. His allegorical masterpiece, Psychomachia, combines epic language and theological speculation to offer a powerful vision of Roman and Christian triumphalism. Yet this important work—one of the most popular and influential poems of the Middle Ages—is unfamiliar to most contemporary students of Latin. This edition, featuring the first full-length English commentary on the poem, makes Psychomachia accessible to modern learners. In his wide-ranging introduction, Aaron Pelttari examines the life of Prudentius, the world of late antiquity, and the structure of Psychomachia, along with its aims, reception, and manuscript transmission. The Latin text includes an apparatus criticus, and the corresponding commentary covers points of textual, grammatical, literary, and historical interest. Following the commentary are two appendices: an explanation of the poem’s meter, and a glossary of rhetorical and literary terms. A bibliography and a complete Latin-to-English glossary round out the volume. Ten illustrations enrich the text by showcasing medieval illuminations and early editions of the poem. Ideally suited for intermediate and advanced students of Latin, this volume is also useful for instructors and scholars, who will welcome its lucid interpretation of the poem and expert guidance on difficult passages. With its concise yet carefully considered format, The Psychomachia of Prudentius will be a welcome addition to scholarship on late antique Latin literature.


Prudentius' Hymns for Hours and Seasons

Prudentius' Hymns for Hours and Seasons

Author: Nicholas Richardson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-12-22

Total Pages: 199

ISBN-13: 1317500571

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Combining faithfulness to the Latin with sensitivity to Prudentius’ poetic qualities, Nicholas Richardson offers a precise yet creative verse translation of a major work by one of the most important Christian Latin poets of late antiquity. Prudentius’ Hymns for Hours and Seasons also provides readers with a wealth of supporting material which sets the life and output of this poet in its historical, religious and literary context, outlines manuscript and editorial details, discusses metrics and Latinity, and also gives a sense of the individual hymns of the Cathemerinon. Richardson’s fresh translation allows readers unfamiliar with Latin to understand and interpret the poems, as well as offering those who know Latin a translation that keeps very close to the original text. Detailed notes at the end of the book illuminate both the literary and the religious aspects of each hymn. This commentary, along with the introduction and translated text, provides students and scholars alike with a comprehensive volume on one of the key works of later Latin poetry.


The Roman Self in Late Antiquity

The Roman Self in Late Antiquity

Author: Marc Mastrangelo

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2007-12-21

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 0801887224

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The Roman Self in Late Antiquity for the first time situates Prudentius within a broad intellectual, political, and literary context of fourth-century Rome. As Marc Mastrangelo convincingly demonstrates, the late-fourth-century poet drew on both pagan and Christian intellectual traditions -- especially Platonism, Vergilian epic poetics, and biblical exegesis -- to define a new vision of the self for the newly Christian Roman Empire. Mastrangelo proposes an original theory of Prudentius's allegorical poetry and establishes Prudentius as a successor to Vergil. Employing recent approaches to typology and biblical exegesis as well as the most current theories of allusion and intertextuality in Latin poetry, he interprets the meaning and influence of Prudentius's work and positions the poet as a vital author for the transmission of the classical tradition to the early modern period. This provocative study challenges the view that poetry in the fourth century played a subordinate role to patristic prose in forging Christian Roman identity. It seeks to restore poetry to its rightful place as a crucial source for interpreting the rich cultural and intellectual life of the era.


Prudentius’ Crown of Martyrs

Prudentius’ Crown of Martyrs

Author: Len Krisak

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-08-21

Total Pages: 227

ISBN-13: 1351136925

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Prudentius’ Crown of Martyrs offers an English translation, with introduction and commentary, of the Liber Peristephanon, Prudentius’ vivid collection of lyric hymns in honor of Christian martyrs. To render Prudentius’ metrically varied lines for twenty-first-century readers, Len Krisak relies on the inherent iambic nature of English. The introduction offers insight into social, political, and literary features of the fourth century, the life of Prudentius, the poet’s other works, his Latinity and mastery of ancient meters, and the manuscript tradition and the reception of Prudentius in the Middle Ages and beyond. Given Prudentius’ central place in the history of Latin poetry, this translation is a welcome resource for general readers interested in Western literary history. It will also find a home with scholarly audiences working on Late Antique and Early Christian literature and culture, in a wide variety of college classrooms and in academic libraries.


Prudentius, Spain, and Late Antique Christianity

Prudentius, Spain, and Late Antique Christianity

Author: Paula Hershkowitz

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2017-01-05

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 1107149606

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This book sets Prudentius' martyr poetry within the religious, social, and visual contexts of late antique Spain. This original approach utilises the fields of history, archaeology, classical literature and art history, and the book is important for academics and more advanced students within these disciplines.


Prudentius' Psychomachia

Prudentius' Psychomachia

Author: Macklin Smith

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2015-03-08

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 1400871166

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Prudentius' Psychomachia, written about A.D. 405, has been studied by classicists, medievalists, and general literary historians. Nevertheless, scholars have barely explored the allegory's inner workings or related it to its historical context. The present study remedies this critical neglect and its attendant misreadings. The author arrives at a coherent, unified interpretation by examining the work's major features in relation to the poet's life and times. He contends that the poet balanced an affirmation of Christian allegory with an ironic negation of pagan literary tradition. For this remarkable achievement his audience was the aristocracy, still largely pagan at a time of intense antagonism between the Church and old Roman religious institutions. Originally published in 1976. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.


The Prudentius's epos. A bridge between Classicism and Latin Middle Ages

The Prudentius's epos. A bridge between Classicism and Latin Middle Ages

Author: Elisa Sicuri

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2017-05-29

Total Pages: 26

ISBN-13: 3668455104

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Essay from the year 2017 in the subject Latin philology - Medivial and Modern Latin, , language: English, abstract: This essay deals with the Prudentius’s Epos and tries to link Classicism and Latin Middle Ages. In the imperial era the epic genre had undergone important modifications to its origins and developed radically with the coming of Christianity. The dissemination of Christ’s message covered all areas of culture and had deep repercussions on literary writing. The idea that literary production should be put to the service of the spread of faith went ahead and this ended up altering the formal features of new works. Unlike the Greek and Latin literature, that generally had an elitist destination, the Christian writers were also aimed to the humblest sections of population until then excluded from the literary communication. The novelties of the new Christian literature (the desire to speak to everyone, the approach to everyday life, the attribution of new importance to simple things) ended up scrapping the traditional set of literary genres, including the epic genre. Almost all literary genres used in Greek and Latin literature were reused by Christian writers, but modified for new needs and new contents.