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The Vatican Mythographers
The Vatican Mythographers offers the first complete English translation of three important sources of knowledge about the survival of classical mythology from the Carolingian era to the High Middle Ages and beyond. The Latin texts were discovered in manuscripts in the Vatican library and published together in the nineteenth century. The three so-called Vatican Mythographers compiled, analyzed, interpreted, and transmitted a vast collection of myths for use by students, poets, and artists. In terms consonant with Christian purposes, they elucidated the fabulous narratives and underlying themes in the works of Ovid, Virgil, Statius, and other poets of antiquity. In so doing, the Vatican Mythographers provided handbooks that included descriptions of ancient rites and customs, curious etymologies, and, above all, moral allegories. Thus we learn that Bacchus is a naked youth who rides a tiger because drunkenness is never mature, denudes us of possessions, and begets ferocity; or that Ulysses, husband of Penelope, passed by the monstrous Scylla unharmed because a wise man bound to chastity overcomes lust. The extensive collection of myths illustrates how this material was used for moral lessons. To date, the works of the Vatican Mythographers have remained inaccessible to scholars and students without a good working knowledge of Latin. The translation thus fulfills a scholarly void. It is prefaced by an introduction that discusses the purposes of the Vatican Mythographers, the influences on them, and their place in medieval and Renaissance mythography. Of course, it also entertains with a host of stories whose undying appeal captivates, charms, inspires, instructs, and sometimes horrifies us.The book should have wide appeal for a whole range of university courses involving myth.
eBook
FIRST MYTHOGRAPHER
After Prometheus created men, he is said to have ascended into the sky with the help of Minerva. With a little torch applied to the Sun’s chariot wheel, he stole fire, which he made known to mankind. Angered by this, the gods sent two evils upon the earth: fevers, that is emaciation, and diseases. Also, with the help of Mercury, they bound Prometheus to a rock on Mount Caucasus, where an eagle was summoned to devour his heart. There is a rational explanation for these stories: Prometheus was a most intelligent man, and he was the first to teach astrology
Book Chapter
SECOND MYTHOGRAPHER
Poets gave a name to fables fromfando, “speaking,” since they are not deeds that have been done, but only invented in speech. Thus, they were introduced so that a certain representation of the life of human beings might be recognized in the conversations of imaginary dumb animals among themselves. Tradition has it that Alcmaeon of Croton first invented fables, and they are only called Aesopic because he practiced this art among the Phrygians. Moreover, fables are either Aesopic or Lybistic.¹ They are Aesopic when the dumb animals are imagined to have conversed among themselves, or things converse that do
Book Chapter
THIRD MYTHOGRAPHER
There was in Egypt a very rich man named Syrophanes. He had an only-begotten son whom he loved beyond measure. It happened that the son died. Out of excessive feelings of love, the father set up in his house a statue of his son, and while he sought a cure for sorrow, he found rather a seed bed of grief. That statue was calledeidolon, which in Latin we call an “image of sorrow” (speciem doloris). As an act of homage toward the master, his whole household used to weave garlands for the statue; they brought flowers and lighted incense.
Book Chapter
'Thomae Mori Constantia' : A Rare Edition
Pepin talks about a fascinating poem entitled 'Thomae Mori Constantia' by Father Jacob Balde. Balde (1604-1668) was a German Jesuit, a professor of rhetoric who had studied at Ensisheim and Ingolstadt. As a writer, he was gifted and prolific, leaving at his death eight volumes of poetry in both German and Latin, including a celebrated satire on the abuse of tobacco. Much neglected in the past, Balde's work has received some critical attention in the last twenty-five years, though 'Thomae Mori Constantia' has attracted comment only quite recently.
Journal Article
