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PROSERPINA IN PIECES: CLAUDIAN ON HER RAPE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 August 2019

Sigrid Schottenius Cullhed
Sigrid Schottenius Cullhed*
Affiliation:
Uppsala Universitysigrid.cullhed@littvet.uu.se
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Extract

      antra procul Scyllaea petit, canibusque reductis
      pars stupefacta silet, pars nondum exterrita latrat.
    (Claud. Rapt. 3.447f.)
      [The torch-light], farther away, reaches the cave of Scylla—her dogs drawn back,
      one part is silent with amazement, one part barks, still undaunted.
With this climactic scene, the Latin epic poem De raptu Proserpinae by Claudius Claudianus (fl. c.400 AD) ends just as Ceres sets out to search for her lost daughter. The poem relates the myth primarily known from the Homeric Hymn to Demeter with a great deal of variations, the most crucial one being that mother and daughter, Ceres and Proserpina, are still not reunited when the poem comes to a close.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ramus , Volume 48 , Issue 1 , June 2019 , pp. 82 - 94
Copyright
Copyright © Ramus 2019 

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Footnotes

This research was supported by a fellowship from the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities. I am grateful for comments on previous versions of this paper from Marco Formisano, Philip Hardie, Scott McGill, Ingela Nilsson, Jesper Olsson, Michael Paschalis, Danny Praet, Cristiana Sogno, and Wim Verbaal. I am also grateful for the helpful comments of two anonymous readers.

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