On the Origins and Political Meaning of Animal Metaphors in Dracontius’ Satisfactio: The Influence of Ovid
Nikolsky Ivan M.
The paper deals with two passages from the Satisfactio by the fifth-century poet Dracontius, where the poet uses images of various animals, in particular that of a lion, as metaphors. The interpretation of the whole poem and its political subtext depends on how one understands the meaning of these comparisons: the predator serves as a model of mercy for the Vandal king Gunthamund, the poem’s main addressee. The origins of Dracontius’ metaphor are found in Ovid, whose Tristia can be considered the genre prototype for Satisfactio. However, it can be suggested that Dracontius was much more influenced ideologically and substantively by Ovid’s other work, the Metamorphoses, with its Pythagorean rhetoric, including criticism of any ‘carnivorous’ behavior.
References:
Bouquet, J. 1982: L’imitation d’Ovide chez Dracontius. In: R. Chevallier (éd.), Colloque: Présence d’Ovide. Paris, 177–187.
Bruzzone, A. 2017: Ovidio e Draconzio. Sondaggi di intertestualità nell’Hylas. Classica et Christiana 12, 55–67.
Conant, J. 2012: Staying Roman. Conquest and Identity in Africa and the Mediterranean, 439–700. Cambridge–New York.
De Gaetano, M. 2009: Scuola e potere in Draconzio. Alessandria. De Gaetano, M. 2019: La παιδεία musicale di Achille nel Romul. 9. In: K. Pohl (Hrsg.), Dichtung zwischen Römern und Vandalen. Tradition, Transformation und Innovation in den Werken des Dracontius. Stuttgart, 133–151.
Falcone, M.J. 2020: Some Observations on the Genre of Dracontius’ Satisfactio. In: F. Hadjittofi, A. Lefteratou (eds.), The Genres of Late Antique Christian Poetry. Between Modulations and Transpositions. (Trends in Classics – Supplementary Volumes, 86). Berlin–New York, 125–138.
Fielding, I. 2017: Transformations of Ovid in Late Antiquity. Cambridge.
Filosini, S. 2018: The Satisfactio: Strategies of Argumentation and Literary Models. The Role of Ovid. In: F.E. Consolino (ed.), Ovid in Late Antiquity. (Studi e testi tardoantichi, 16). Turnhout, 327–357.
Galli Milić, L. 2009: Stratégies argumentatives dans la Satisfactio de Dracontius. In: H. Harich- Schwarzbauer, P. Schierl (Hrsg.), Lateinische Poesie der Spätantike. Internationale Tagung in Castelen bei Augst, 11–13 Oktober 2007. (Schweizerische Beiträge zur Altertumswissenschaft, 36). Basel, 245–266.
González García, A. 2012: Hunerico y Draconcio. La imperialización del reino vándalo y la represión de la disidencia. Herakleion 5, 71– 83.
Luceri, A. 2015: “Notus et ignotus desunt”. Draconzio e i suoi (presunti) amici. In: É. Wolff (éd.), Littérature, politique et religion en Afrique vandale. Collection des Études Augustiennes. Paris, 275–286.
Merrills, A.H. 2004: The Perils of Panegyric: The Lost Poem of Dracontius and its Consequences. In: A.H. Merrills (ed.), Vandals, Romans and Berbers: New Perspectives on Late Antique North Africa. London–New York, 145–162.
Michel d’Annoville, C., Stoehr-Monjou, A. 2008: Fidélité à la tradition et détournements dans la controverse de Dracontius (Romulea 5): un poème à double sens. In: Cl. Sotinel, M. Sartre (éd.), L’usage du passé entre Antiquité tardive et Haut Moyen Âge. Hommage à Brigitte Beaujard. Rennes, 29–45.
Miles, R. 2017: Vandal North Africa and the Fourth Punic War. Classical Philology 112/3, 384–410.
Roberts, M. 2002: Creation in Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” and the Latin Poets of Late Antiquity. Arethusa 35/3, 403–415.
Scafoglio, G. 2021: Dracontius and the Crossroad of Religions in Vandal Africa. Classica et Christiana 16/1, 307–326.
Schetter, W. 1990: Zur „Satisfactio“ des Dracontius. Hermes 118/1, 90–117.
Simons, R. 2005: Dracontius und der Mythos. Christliche Weltsicht und pagane Kultur in der ausgehenden Spätantike. Berlin.
Stoehr-Monjou, A. 2015a: Dracontius, Poèmes profanes VI–X, épigrammes et fragments. Bibliographie commentée (1996–2015). Vita Latina 191–192, 199–210.
Stoehr-Monjou, A. 2015b: L’Afrique vandale, conservatoire et laboratoire de la déclamation latine entre Orient et Occident. Signification et enjeux de trois déclamations versifiées (AL 21 Riese; Dracontius, Romul. 5 et 9). In: R. Poignault, C. Schneider (éds.), Présence de la déclamation antique (controverses et suasoires). Clermont-Ferrand, 101–126.
Stoehr-Monjou, A. 2018: Ovide dans l’oeuvre profane de Dracontius: une influence paradoxale? Du microcosme du vers au macrocosme des poèmes. In: F.E. Consolino (ed.), Ovid in Late Antiquity. (Studi e testi tardoantichi, 16). Turnhout, 359–412.
Tizzoni, M.L. 2012: The Poems of Dracontius in their Vandalic and Visigothic Context. PhD thesis. Leeds.
Wasyl, A.M. 2011: Genres Rediscovered: Studies in Latin Miniature Epic, Love Elegy, and Epigram of the Romano-Barbaric Age. Kraków.
Wasyl, A.M. 2023: ‘Etsi peccaui, sum tamen ipse tuus’. O elegii pokutnej Drakoncjusza (i słówko o pojęciu: barokowa ‘elegia’ pokutna. Symbolae Philologorum Posnaniensium Graecae et Latinae 33/1, 417–449.
Whelan, R. 2018: Being Christian in Vandal Africa: The Politics of Orthodoxy in the Post-Imperial West. Oakland.
Wolff, É. 2015: Dracontius. Bilan et aperçus sur quelques problèmes de sa vie et de son oeuvre. In: É. Wolff (ed.), Littérature, politique et religion en Afrique vandale. Collection des Études Augustiennes. Paris, 211–225.