Martianus Capella as Apuleius' imitator? Novelistic features in De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii
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| Year of publication | 2010 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Citation | |
| Description | The work De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii by Martianus Capella has raised a number of controversial questions in the scientific discourse. The author gave his work the frame of a narrative about the marriage of the learned earthwoman Philology and the Roman god Mercury and combined an allegory with the witty Menippean Satire, whereby he eased the seriousness of his textbook, following the principle docere et delectare, but also made his text difficult to interpret. The aim of the paper is to thoroughly examine to what extent Martianus drew inspiration from Apuleius' Metamorphoses, as well as to discuss the legitimacy of religious interpretations of this encyclopedia, interpretations that are one of the results of excessive accentuation of particular novel characteristics in Martianus' work. In more general terms, the paper sheds light on the adequate generic classification of Martianus' writing that is difficult to specify by means of traditional generic criteria. |
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