… doceas iter et sacra ostia pandas : Open Mouth of Literary Prophecy.
| Autoři | |
|---|---|
| Rok publikování | 2024 |
| Druh | Další prezentace na konferencích |
| Fakulta / Pracoviště MU | |
| Citace | |
| Popis | The paper aims to explore forms and possibilities of divination and prediction as a literary device in epic and narrative, based on the revelation of the future of Aeneas’ descendants, mediated by Anchises to Aeneas during his stay in the underworld (Verg. Aen. 6, 752-887). What is particularly noteworthy about Virgil’s prediction is that it is not a factual prediction, but an ex-eventu prediction (i.e. “false”), at a point when the event outcome is already obvious and given. Thus, this prediction cannot have the power to change history, but it gains the power ? and makes full use of it ? to confirm the idea of the influence of the gods on history in order to fulfill the goals of the history of Rome, i.e. to confirm also the prosperous development of the plot of the epic. In sharp contrast to Virgil’s foretelling of Rome’s future political importance is Lucan’s depiction of a magical practice that is supposed to predict the fate to Pompey and his army, but which brings the disillusionment of a forced prophecy: a condemnation of a civil war that transcended all limits and extended even into the underworld. Instead of the promise of imperium sine fine (Verg. Aen. 1, 279), the questioner faces the reality of discordia and impia arma (Luc. Phars. 6,780f.). All the circumstances of the depraved oracle foreshadow its content: the description of the hopeless place, the characterization of the Thessalian witch Erichtho, and the impiety of the necromantic ritual. Lucan’s approach is also innovative in combining epic and philosophical “prediction” (presented as a mythic description), using a corpse from the battlefield in a clear allusion to the conclusion of Plato’s Republic (10,614b-621d). Linking the contrast to Virgil’s myth of the great future of the great nation to the contrast to Plato’s philosophical exhortation to a just life rewarded by harmony with the cosmic order, the prediction of irreconcilable civil conflict takes on the dimension of philosophical chaos. Finally, we outline the possibilities of using a combination of epic and philosophical predictions in narrative. |
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