Anna Maria Wasyl, Alcestis barcelońska oraz centon Alcesta. Późnoantyczne spojrzenie na mit i gatunek, Kraków (Cracovie), 2018.

Éditeur : Wydawnictwo UJ /Jagiellonian University Press
256 pages
ISBN : 978-83-233-4385-1
39.90 PLN

The Barcelona Alcestis and the cento Alcesta can be considered – with no exaggeration at all – two very important examples of the exploitation of the Alcestis myth in Latin literature. In addition – if we take into account the period when they were composed – they both show how the Alcestis myth was read in late antiquity, in a period already marked by the influence of the Christian culture, even though – and this is no less intriguing – none of them offers us a strictly Christian reinterpretation of the story of Alcestis and Admetus. […]
The two minor poems on Alcestis exemplify remarkably well the features that might be considered typical of late antique poetics and literary aesthetics, with their compositional idiosyncrasies, rich intertextual texture, playfulness, finesse, learnedness, and an additional quality, often described in literary studies as ‘poetological self-consciousness'. If we add to all that the fact that at least one of the poems in question (possibly) introduces us into the world of ancient female literature (though, as a matter of fact, because of their specific topic this is peculiar to them both), we need not find further arguments to show that they deserve more scholarly attention on our part.

Contents

Introduction

I. Literary and cultural background
I.1. The Alcestis myth in Roman literature and art
I.2. Latin mythological poetry in late antiquity (ca. 400-534 A.D.)

II. Two late antique Alcestae
II.1. Alcestis Barcinonensis
II.1.1. Codex miscellaneus from Montserrat
II.1.2. Alcestis: contents, composition, and general message
II.2. Alcesta cento
II.2.1.1. Anthologia Salmasiana
II.2.1.2. The phenomenon of the Virgilian cento
II.2.1.3. The problem of authorship of the centos from the Anthologia Latina. Siria Alcestae?
II.2.2. Alcesta: contents, composition, and general message

III. Genre / Genres (?)
III.1. Around the notion of tragoedia
III.2. Around the notion of genus mixtum
III.3. Concretization through the medium of pantomime

Alcestis Barcinonensis; Alcesta cento. Texts and Polish translations

Bibliography

Summary: Alcestis Barcinonensis and Alcesta cento. Approaching a myth and a genre in Latin late antiquity

Source : https://www.wuj.pl/