![]() ![]() The stories, both pagan and biblical, are so well known that it is impossible to pin down sources with any certainty. 664) says that there are countless (zahllose) manuscripts. After this its place in the curriculum of easy reading was assured until Humanism and the Renaissance, and it frequently keeps company with other 'libri Catoniani.' Hans Walther (Initia No. Consequently its pedagogic value was quickly recognized in the early, twelfth century it was included by Conrad of Hirsau in his Dialogus super auctores (a list of texts suitable for instruction), alongside Donatus, the Distichi Catonis, 'Aesop', Avianus, Sedulius, Juvencus, Prosper of Aquitaine, Arator, Prudentius, and classical poets. The Ecloga combines the classicism of a Vergilian setting and of pagan mythology with a survey of major Old Testament stories and a clear win for Christianity. ![]() In German this would translate as Gottes-schalke, and attempts have been made to identify him with the Carolingian poet Gottschalk (ninth century, died before 870), but the identification has been contested for metrical reasons. ![]() His name is Greek, like that of his protagonists and means 'servant of God'. Its placing of the stories of Judith and Esther (274-6, 281-4) after Susanna (265-8) argues for the Alcuinian or Theodulfian biblical arrangement. Its classicism suggests a connexion with the Carolingian court, but most of the major Carolingian poets avoid rhyme. The Ecloga was written no later than the tenth century (the date of the oldest manuscript, Eton College, L.6.5) but after the establishment of regular Leonine rhyme, and so probably in the ninth or early tenth century. In the debate (37-336) the contestants speak in quatrains, the scheme used by Prudentius (4th-5th century) in his Dittochaeon (Tituli), which summarizes episodes from the Old and New Testaments. The metre is dactylic hexameters with monosyllabic rhyme between the penthemimeral caesura and the end of the line (Leonine rhyme). 3, in which two quarrelsome herdsmen engage in a song contest for a prize with a judge as arbitrator. The setting (1-36) is pastoral, modelled on Vergil's Eclogues, especially in Ecl. Wisdom asks Truth to be merciful her victory. Falsehood relates a story from classical legend and Truth responds with one from the Old Testament, until Truth says that she will rely on the Gospels, at which point Falsehood acknowledges his defeat and yields. It is presented as a verse contest between Falsehood (Pseustis) and Truth (Alethia), presided over by Wisdom (Phronesis). The Eclogue of Theodulus (Ecloga Theoduli), ninth-tenth century, is a debate between pagan classical myth and Christian biblical truth, which (not surprisingly) is won by Christianity. Citations of this translation should reference the URL of this web page. Use of this material for research or teaching purposes is permitted freely: any other publication, reproduction, transmission, display, sale, rental, lending or storage in any publicly-accessible retrieval system without the express written consent of the Centre for Medieval Studies in the University of Toronto is prohibited. Rigg's translation and associated editorial content is protected by copyright: © Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, 2005. George Rigg's translation of a ninth- or tenth-century "debate" between classical myth and Christian biblical truth. ![]()
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