Iliad Latina
The Iliad Latina ( Latin Iliad ), also "Homerus Latinus" ( Latin Homer ), is an epic from the time of the Roman Emperor Nero , completed in AD 68. The author has used an acrostic in the first letters of the first and last eight Verses immortalized: ITALICUS SCRIPSIT ( Italicus wrote [it] ). Today it is assumed that it could be Publius Baebius Italicus .
The poem shortens the content of the 24 books of the Iliad to 1070 verses. The first five books take up the most space. In such a reduction, the work is of course much more superficial than its original. When reading it, one can easily get the impression that it is primarily a list of the most bloody fights possible. In fact, the author does show literary ambitions. The poem is interesting as a phenomenon of reception history. The author describes the events of the Iliad from a Roman point of view, emphasizing Roman values. As a tribute to Nero, the Trojan Aeneas is particularly emphasized.
The Iliad Latina is of great importance for the history of the reception of Homer's work. The Homeric text was unknown in western Europe in the Middle Ages, so that the Iliad Latina, which is also used as a school book, was the most important text witness to the classical topos. It is mentioned for the first time in a letter from Passau Bishop Ermenrich von Ellwangen (866-874). Up until the High Middle Ages , Homer was regarded as the author of the Iliad Latina in western Europe because the Homeric text was unknown. That changed in the 14th century with the translation of Homer Leonzio Pilatos .
literature
- Baebi Italici Iliad latina . ed. M. Scaffai. Bologna 1982/97. (Standard edition with extensive Italian introduction)
- Friedrich Vollmer : Iliad latina . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IX, 1, Stuttgart 1914, Col. 1057-1060.
- George A. Kennedy . The Latin Iliad. Introduction, Text, Translation, and Notes. Self-published 1999. (with English translation)
- Elisabeth Heyse: Iliad Latina . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 5, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-7608-8905-0 , Sp. 379.