Epithalamia

The idea that Gregory of Nyssa’s work On Virginity was a piece of advocacy for Basil the Great’s ascetic programme has recently been challenged from various perspectives. Here I examine Gregory’s creation of a particular authorial voice through his manipulation of certain stock themes from classical literature on marriage; I show that De virginitate employs a range of reference hitherto unrecognised by scholars and is not just artful but poetic. By challenging boundaries between rhetoric, philosophy and poetry, and the useful and beautiful in the arts (boundaries which modern readers impose on ancient texts), I suggest that Gregory explicitly defends both virginity and marriage; he also implicitly gives a theological defence of his use of artful rhetoric. On Virginity is thus as much about theological poetics as it is about either marriage or celibacy.

On 2 March 1539 the Hungarian king János Szapolyai (1487–1540) married Princess Isabella Jagiełło of Poland (1519–1559). A number of wedding poems (epithalamia) were written for this event, by poets such as Stanislaus Glandinus, Stanislaus Kleryka, Sebastianus Marschevius, Venceslaus Schamotuliensis, etc. The Croatian (and Hungarian) humanist Michael Verancius also wrote an epithalamion for the occasion. In the first part of the paper a brief historical overview of the royal wedding in Cracow and in Buda is given, followed by a brief description of the genre of epithalamion. Since Verancius’ poem has come down to us in two versions, printed and manuscript, the second part of the paper examines and compares these two versions. At the end of the paper a critical edition of the poem is published.

Τα επιθαλάμια της Σαπφούς αποτελούν, παρά την αποσπασματικότητά τους, ίσως το πιο ολοκληρωμένο παράδειγμα σωζόμενων γαμήλιων ασμάτων από τον αρχαίο κόσμο. Στο κέντρο της εν δυνάμει «εξιστόρησης» των γαμήλιων στιγμιοτύπων από την ποιήτρια-«χορηγό» δεσπόζει το δίπολο «νύμφα» και «γάμβρος», δοσμένο μέσα από το πρίσμα μιας ειρηνικής και συγκαταβατικής ετερότητας. Μιας ετερότητας με αλληλοσυμπληρούμενα και όχι αντιμαχόμενα επιμέρους στοιχεία. Με λίγα λόγια, τα επιθαλάμια μπορούν να θεωρηθούν ως μια τρόπον τινά «ωδή στην ετερότητα», έννοια που τόσο αρμονικά, συνοπτικά μεν αλλά και καθαρά εσωκλείουν στη θεματική τους, ένας «αίνος» στο ζευγάρι για τα φυσικά του χαρίσματα, τις αρετές και τα ανδραγαθήματά του.
Η παρούσα εισήγηση στοχεύει αρχικά στην ιχνηλάτηση της ιδιόμορφης επιθαλάμιας τυπολογίας σε παπυρικά αποσπάσματα που περιλαμβάνουν σκιαγραφήσεις του ζευγαριού και το κατατάσσουν νοερά στη δεσπόζουσα θέση του γαμήλιου «αξιακού συστήματος». Δευτερευόντως στοχεύει στη μακροσκοπική εξέταση και ανάλυση των ανιχνευθέντων στοιχείων με ιδιαίτερη έμφαση στις εικόνες και τις παρομοιώσεις. Με τον τρόπο αυτό μπορεί να διαπιστωθεί κατά πόσο η γλώσσα εικονοποιεί και αποτυπώνει ιδανικά από τη μια τη γυναικεία θηλυκότητα και από την άλλη την αρρενωπότητα του γαμπρού, και συνακόλουθα να εξακριβωθεί ο τρόπος με τον οποίο επιτυγχάνεται η προβολή της διαφορετικότητας των δύο φύλων μέσα από τις παρομοιώσεις. Επιπλέον, η εισήγηση στοχεύει στην εξέταση των νοερών ή φαντασιακών απεικονίσεων στα ποιήματα, προκειμένου να διαπιστωθεί κατά πόσο η εξίσωση του ζευγαριού με προκαθορισμένα τυπολογικά μοτίβα (η νύφη
παρομοιάζεται συχνά με μήλο ή λουλούδι, ο γαμπρός με δέντρο κ.α.) επηρεάζει την εικόνα του αναγνώστη για το θηλυκό και το αρσενικό. Τέλος, θα εξεταστεί κατά πόσο οι εικόνες που προκύπτουν αλληλοσυμπληρώνονται ή αντικρούονται σε σχέση με τα επικρατούντα πρότυπα της εποχής που γράφθηκαν τα ποιήματα. Για το σκοπό αυτό σκόπιμη θεωρείται η παράθεση σχετικών αποσπασμάτων, π. χ. Sapph. fr. 44 V. κ.α..


Forms and Visualization of the “Other” in Sappho’s Wedding Songs: The “Heteron” (ἕτερον) as Seen Through the Binary “Nympha” (νύμφα) and “Gambros” (γάμβρος).

Abstract:
Sappho’s wedding songs, in spite of being fragmentary, constitute the most typical example of surviving epithalamia from the ancient world. A dominant element in the nuptial “narration” of the poetess/chorus leader is the binary “nympha” and “gambros”, two different forms of the “other” delivered to the hearer/reader from a “conciliatory” and “acquiescent” point of view. In other words, in Sappho’s epithalamia the elements of otherness are not in conflict but co-exist harmoniously rendering her wedding songs an “ode” to the above-mentioned notion. The wedding songs talk about the “other” concisely, yet frankly and clearly, working in addition as a praise (“ainos”) of the couple for their qualities, virtues and skills.
The main goals of the present paper can be briefly summarized as following: Firstly, there will be an attempt to trace the peculiar formulas of epithalamia in the surviving fragments containing descriptions of the wedding couple which place them at the top rank of the conjugal system of values. Another aim of the paper is to macroscopically examine and analyze the existing formulas focusing specifically on the images and comparisons concerning the couple. I will ascertain whether the language can adequately illustrate and render the bride’s femininity on the one hand and the groom’s masculinity on the other, and will consequently verify the way in which the diversities between “masculine” and “feminine” are displayed through the existing comparisons. Furthermore, one of the main goals of the paper is to examine the visualization in the existing fragments in order to be verified whether the equation of the wedding couple with predefined typological patterns affects the hearer’s/reader’s point of view for the “male“ and the “female”(the bride is often equated to an apple or a flower and the groom to a
tree). In conclusion, it will be inquired whether such images complement or contradict the prevalent archetypes of the time in which the examined epithalamia were composed. For this reason, it will be appropriate to include in the analysis some other relevant passages from Sappho’s poetry, e.g. Sapph. fr. 44 V. etc.

Since 1537, it had been frequently suggested by the court of John Szapolyai that it would be advisable to contract a marital union between the royal house of Hungary and one of the other European dynasties. On 2 March 1539, the Hungarian king married Isabella Jagiellon. A number of wedding hymns were written for this event, by poets such as Stanislaus Glandinus, Stanislaus Kleryka, Sebastianus Marschevius, Venceslaus Schamotuliensis, etc. These works are not included in the book of Brożek (titled Szesnastowieczne epithalamia Łacińskie w Polsce, 1999). Such occasional poems Abstracts in alphabetical order 17 proliferated under the conditions of the aristocratic patronage in the early modern period. It is therefore no wonder that several poets presented their poems to the royal court in the throne room of the Cracovian Palace on 31 January 1539. The Dalmatian humanist Michael Verantius (1514–1571?) also wrote an epithalamium which can be found in two different forms (a printed edition and a manuscript). The title on the frontispiece of the Cracovian printed version of his work, owned by the Biblioteka Czartoryska in Cracow, is Epithalamion Serenissimi Ioannis Hungariae regis et Isabellae reginae... The manuscript version is found in a collection of Latin poems entitled Praeludia Michaelis Verantii, which is kept in the National Széchényi Library in Budapest. This volume contains the same poem of Verancius titled Ioannis Hungariae regis nuptiae.This wedding hymn tells the story how Szapolyai suggested the marriage after having been acknowledged as a king of Hungary. He sent a delegation to Sigismund I in Cracow to ask for the hand of his daughter, Isabella in order to forge an alliance against the common enemy, the Ottomans.The ceremony was followed by festivities at the royal court in Cracow. A Hungarian chivalric contest and a tournament of knights were organized on the second day (see Marschevius’ work entitled De ludis equestribus…), then the marriage settlement was concluded. The Polish king took farewell of his daughter. Later the poem talks about the journey of the royal princess across the Carpathians as well as describes the wedding at Buda in details. The Hungarian nobility welcomed her at the palace. They reminded her of the former greatness of the Scythians whose ancestry dominated the whole of Asia a long time ago. Not a humble and weak, but a most brave and strong race will stem from the ‘Sarmatian-Scythian league’. In the first part of the paper I will provide a brief historical overview of the royal wedding in Cracow and in Buda. In the second part I will examine the epithalamia of Glandinus and Marschevius, and I will compare the two versions of Verantius’ poem. Early modern authors of wedding poems could imitate a series of ancient and medieval poetic examples as well as a number of rhetorical treatises. Thus, in the second part of my paper I will show the political usage of ancient genres in Central Europe during the Renaissance.

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.

The Epithalamium Fridi is a sixth-century Virgilian cento that commemorates the marriage of the Vandal noble Fridus with his unnamed bride. Its author, the African poet Luxurius, engages in versatile poetic play fusing Virgil with multiple epithalamial models such as Statius, Claudian, and Ausonius. Through the dynamics of triangular intertextu-ality the centonist is able to strengthen the wedding poem's generic bonds and to connect himself and his work firmly to the classical Roman tradition. At the same time, echoes of distinctive African idiosyncrasies as prefigured by Dracontius highlight the hybrid character of sixth-century Romano-Vandal elite culture and its celebration of what appears to be a distinctive African Romanness.

Specialization Course in Literary Forms between Ancient and Modern (it. Corso di Perfezionamento in Forme letterarie tra antico e moderno) at the University of Naples Federico II, with a dissertation on an essay I wrote in Classical Philology entitled “Simile a fiori d’oro. Il rapporto madre-figlia in Saffo” (eng. SIMILAR TO GOLDEN FLOWERS. THE MOTHER-DAUGHTER RELATIONSHIP IN SAPPHO); tutor: prof. Giovan Battista D’Alessio.

Il contributo analizza la funzione di due reminiscenze virgiliane nell’epitalamio di Venanzio Fortunato (carm. 6, 1). Un nucleo narrativo virgiliano (georg. 4, 197-202) è contenuto nei vv. 7-10 della praefatio che apre il componimento, in cui è esaltata la ‘casta fecondità’ dell’ape; un’allusione a Verg. Aen. 6, 791-794, i celebri versi in cui Anchise introduce Augusto ad Enea, è individuata nei vv. 67-69, l’esordio dell’elogio dello sposo da parte di Cupido. Entrambe le reminiscenze, oltre che provare la notevole abilità compositiva del poeta, sembrano contribuire a delineare un’immagine ideale dello sposo, che, casto come l’ape, s’accontenta di un unico amore conformandosi al canone cristiano della pudicitia e, ‘diretto’ discendente di Augusto, si pone in linea con la tradizione imperiale romana.

The article deals with the function of two Virgilian reminiscences in Venantius Fortunatus’ epithalamium (carm. 6, 1). A Virgilian narrative core (georg. 4, 197-202) is contained in vv. 7-10 of the praefatio, in which the ‘chaste fecundity’ of the bee is exalted; an allusion to Verg. Aen. 6, 791-794, the famous lines in which Anchises introduces August to Aeneas, is detected in vv. 67-69, the incipit of the praise of the groom by Cupid. Both reminiscences show Fortunatus’ remarkable ability and seem to help to outline an ideal image of the groom: conforming himself to the Christian value of pudicitia, he is chaste like the bee and satisfied with a single union; like a ‘direct’ descendant of August, he is also in line with the Roman imperial tradition.

Aemilia Lanyer calls her _Salve Deus_ a “Book,” a “Mirror,” and an “Apologie.” She uses artistic and dramatic metaphors to compare it to an icon and a stage play. She uses metaphorical language from biblical poetry, invoking the image of Bride and Bridegroom, to suggest that her work is also a kind of epithalamion. Her conclusion indicates that the title of her work was revealed in a dream, implying that her _Salve Deus_ is at least part dream vision as well. Her goal appears to be the spiritual formation of her anticipated audience of women readers.

This study seeks to present a philologically accurate edition of Ridolfo Campeggi’s collection of lyric poetry published in 1620, and to contextualize his work within a broader perspective in terms of the history of literature. The collection comprises a total of 392 poems: 278 sonnets, 77 madrigals, 9 poems in octaves, 11 poems in sesta rima (six-line stanzas) and 11 canzonette. The investigation conducted on Campeggi’s poems has led to discover that the variety of metrical structures and subjects that make up his collection are perfectly in line with the trends of the century, as confirmed by comparing Torquato Tasso, Cesare Rinaldi, Tommaso Stigliani and Giovan Battista Marino’s numerous works. The present study highlights Ridolfo Campeggi’s unique personal and poetic network within Bologna and the Italian cultural environment as well, an impressive network for an author who was in contact with the major intellectual and political figures of his time. Throughout the first four ch...

Dracontius' "De origine rosarum" is an etiological epigram about roses born after Venus was injured by a thorn. It is written in emulation of Ovid's "Metamorphoses" and Latin tardive poems (Anthologia Latina)  about roses. But many elements of the text  and of Dracontius' "Epithalamium Ioannis et Vitulae" give an erotic meaning, in emulation of Claudian : Venus appears as a "uirgo", the injury is the symbol of her defloration whoses the rose is the gift.

This is a meticulous survey of the reception of some lyric subgenres
in Hellenistic poetry and it is meant to be the first of a series of contributions
on the subject. Leaving aside lyric in a religious context, the paper is divided
into two main sections, namely lyric poetry composed for rulers and lyric poetry
written for everyday people. In the new social context lyric poetry was intended
for presentation in the royal symposia. The Alexandrians wrote all types of occasional
lyric poetry (enkomia, epinikia, epithalamia, threnoi and epikedeia), a fact
that is reflected both in the work of distinguished poets, such as Callimachus,
Posidippus and Theocritus as well as in the epigrammatic tradition and in poetic
fragments found on papyri. Special attention is given to stichic lyric poetry and
to the new genre of the mime, whereas the oral tradition of the carmina popularia
and the making of lyric anthologies for symposiastic use complete the picture.

The aim of this paper is to explore the erotic subject-matter in Claudian’s nuptial poetry (his Epithalamium on Honorius and Maria, and four fescennine poems). Claudian takes numerous motifs from previous amatory poetry, notably from Catullus (61, 62, 64) and Statius (silv. 1.2). Furthermore, Claudian inserts an aetiological epyllion in his epithalamium, with Venus intervening for the purpose of arranging the marriage. In this, he follows on the footsteps of Statius. For another thing, there is a pervasive presence of the commander Stilico in Claudian’s nuptial poetry. The poet includes three thematic elements (mores, dei, and viri), which had been traditionally considered bases of the Roman state. His ultimate aim is to legitimate the imperial régime and Stilico’s political position.

En este trabajo estudiamos la función de la temática amatoria en la poesía epitalámica de Claudiano, especialmente en su Epitalamio dedicado a Honorio y María, y en sus cuatro poemas fesceninos compuestos para la misma ocasión. Claudiano adapta muchos motivos de la poesía amatoria anterior, especialmente de los epitalamios de Catulo (61, 62, 64) y de Estacio (silv. 1.2). Por otro lado, el poeta inserta en su epitalamio un epilio central de carácter etiológico, con intervención de Venus para concertar el matrimonio. En este aspecto, sigue el precedente de Estacio. Además, hay una relevante presencia del general Estilicón en dicha poesía. Claudiano incorpora en esta poesía tres elementos (mores, dei y viri) que se habían considerado tradicionalmente fundamentos del estado romano. Su propósito último es legitimar el régimen imperial y la posición de Estilicón.

This article aims to offer a comprehensive re-appraisal of Sappho’s fr. 104a by addressing three fundamental difficulties posed by it. First, this article retraces the complex transmission of the fragment and establishes the authority of the vari- ous testimonies. Second, it analyses the genre of the original composition and chal- lenges the prevalent view that the fragment derives from an epithalamium. Third, it discusses the metre of the fragment and especially the relationship of the two lines to each another.

Abstract: All the editors of Sapph. fr. 117 V. print the text with the words †χαίροιϲ ἀ νύμφα† between cruces and overlook a testimonium to the fragment which is quoted
in the schol. vet. in Arat. Phaen. 250. This scholion, which guarantees for the first time Sappho’s authorship, transmits a probably older reading of the text, which is almost correct, both textually and metrically. Thus the schol. vet. in Arat. Phaen. 250 helps us to restore the original, “Alexandrian” reading of the passage: <x> χαῖρε, νύμφα, χαιρέτω δ᾽ὀ γάμβροϲ.

Epithalamia contains love poems and poems about weddings in the tradition of the epithalamium, an ancient Greek wedding hymn popularized by Sappho. The poems in this chapbook, each set in a different state, explore the spiritual, political, and personal meanings of marriage at a moment in American history when the definition of marriage differed across state lines.

This note starts with a discussion of the text and metrical design of Sapph. fr. 117 V. Concluding that Hephaestion's scansion (though not his metrical interpretation) must be observed in order to emend to corrupt text, this note proposes a new conjecture. The second part of this note discusses whether the fragment is likely to be by Sappho. Arguing that the period, however interpreted, is unlikely to be Sapphic, this note suggests Alcman instead as the original author.

The Cracovian competition of wedding songs in 1539

The childless János Szapolyai (1487–1540) designated Ferdinand I (1503–1564) to be his successor after his death, as a result of the Peace of Várad on 24 February 1538. However, he married princess Isabella Jagiellon of Poland (1519–1559) on 2 March 1539, and finally they had a son, János Zsigmond. Many wedding songs (epithalamion) were written to this event. For example, the work of Stanisław Glandinus Aichler, Stanisław Gąsiorek (Kleryka), Sebastian Marszewski and Wacław Szamotulski etc. Mihály Verancsics (1514?–1571) has also written a wedding song on the occasion of the wedding, which has two versions presented to us. The printed version – entitled Epithalamion Serenissimi Ioannis Hungariae regis et Isabellae reginae per Michaelem Wrantium Dalmatam M D XXXIX – is located in the Czartoryski Museum and Library (BCzart) in Kraków. The manuscript – entitled Ioannis Hungariae regis nuptiae – can be found in the National Széchényi Library (OSzK) in Budapest.