fulgentius the mythqgraphe

280 Pages·2006·13.14 MB·English

FULGENTIUS
THE MYTHQGRAPHE
Translated from the Latin with Introductions by
LESLIE GEORGE WHITBREAD
$15.00

FULGENTIUS
THE MYTHOGRAPHER
Translated from the Latin, with Introduc­
tions, by Leslie G. Whitbread
Throughout the Middle Ages and well into
the Renaissance, the writings of Fulgentius
the mythographer, who lived in the late fifth
or early sixth century, were extremely popu­
lar, much admired, and widely imitated. His
influence on poetry, art, preaching, education,
and the modes that were employed to adapt
classical myth and literature to the require­
ments of more-or-less Christian patterns of
thought was unquestionably profound.
Translations of the five Latin works
ascribed to him have long been needed, sim­
ply to make a significant influence available
to modern historians of medieval and Ren­
aissance art, literature, and intellectual life.
But the language of Fulgentius is appallingly
difficult. Composed in the decadent Latin of
his time, his writing is full of intricate rhe­
torical excesses of a particular extravagance
and complexity that could only discourage the
prospective translator, and that have caused
some to describe his work as simply untrans­
latable.
The substance, too, of Fulgentius's five trea­
tises — on the content of Virgil according to
moral philosophy, on classical mythology, on
the Thebaid, on obsolete words, and on the
ages of man and the world — has been found
wanting. Charges have been made that both
his purposes and his methods are confused
and of dubious merit, and that the learning
displayed in the convoluted syntax of his
pompous and extravagant prose is merely sec­
ondhand when it is not just highly suspect.
It is an indisputable fact, however, that
whenever such broad literary themes are
under study as the development of allegory,
(Continued on back flap)

FULGENTIUS
THE MYTHOGRAPHER

The Mythologies
The Exposition of the Content of Virgil
according to Moral Philosophy
The Explanation of Obsolete Words
On the Ages of the World and of Man
On the Thebaid
FULGENTIUS
THE MYTHOGRAPHER
Translated from the Latin, with Introductions, by
LESLIE GEORGE WHITBREAD
Ohio State University Press
Copyright © 1971 by the Ohio State University Press
Library of Congress Catalogue Number: 70-165263
International Standard Book Number: 0-8142-0162-8
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America