Pervigilium Veneris

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The beginning of the poem in the Codex Salmasianus
The Pervigilium Veneris in the Paris manuscript, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. lat. 10318 (8th century)
The end of the poem in a humanistic manuscript (codex V)

The Pervigilium Veneris ( Latin "Night Celebration of Venus") is a late antique Latin poem that was handed down in the Anthologia Latina without an author's name .

In 93 verses ( metric : catalectic trochaic tetrameters ) it describes the return of spring with the revitalization of nature on the eve of a traditional Venus festival (the eponymous 'night celebration') in the Hybla grove in Sicily . The description applies particularly to the mythical meaning of spring, the poem tells of the dances of the nymphs and the appearance of the love god Amor / Eros and the life and love-giving goddess Venus / Aphrodite . The text is made up of the recurring refrain:

Cras amet qui numquam amavit, quique amavit cras amet!
Tomorrow love, whoever has never loved, who has already loved, love tomorrow!

divided into loose stanzas . The poem ends in the elegiac lament of the poet (more precisely: of the lyrical self ):

That [the swallow] sings, only I must be silent. When does my spring appear to me?
When will I be like the swallow that I can break my silence?
I have lost the muse in silence, Phoebus ignores me.

Although the text is formally a traditional processional song, as it was sung at such festivals, it is probably the work of a single author who, according to more recent research, can be assigned to the Poetae novi of the 4th century . The assumption of the authorship of Tiberian, put forward as early as 1872, was much discussed . Its proponents point to stylistic similarities with the small poetry of Tiberianus. In recent research, however, the hypothesis has mostly met with skepticism or decided rejection.

Since its rediscovery and first edition by the humanist Pierre Pithou , the pervigilium has found many admirers and is one of the most famous anonymously transmitted Latin poems. In addition to the linguistic elegance and the affectionate description of nature and mythology, v. a. responsible for the melancholy ending, which can be regarded as one of the first and most elegant inner-literary processing of the phenomenon of writing inhibition , which is common in modern literature .

Text editions and translations

  • Laurence Catlow (Ed.): Pervigilium Veneris . Latomus, Bruxelles 1980, ISBN 2-87031-112-5 (critical edition with detailed introduction, English translation and commentary)
  • Andrea Cucchiarelli: La veglia di Venere. Pervigilium Veneris . Rizzoli, Milano 2003, ISBN 88-17-10635-6 (Italian translation with introduction and detailed commentary)
  • Crescenzo Formicola (Ed.): Pervigilium Veneris . Loffredo, Napoli 1998, ISBN 88-8096-558-1 (critical edition with detailed introduction, Italian translation and commentary)
  • George P. Goold (Ed.): Catullus, Tibullus, Pervigilium Veneris . 2nd Edition. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (MA) 1988, ISBN 0-434-99006-X , pp. 341–359 (Latin text and English translation, revised version of the edition by John William Mackail, 1913)

literature

Overview representations

Investigations

  • Cecil Clementi: Pervigilium Veneris, The Vigil of Venus. 3. Edition. Blackwell, Oxford 1936 (classic study with facsimiles of the manuscripts as well as an overview of the earlier research and effects)
  • Alan Cameron : The Pervigilium Veneris. In: La poesia tardoantica: tra retorica, teologia e politica . Messina 1984, pp. 209–234 (strongly supports the attribution to Tiberianus)

Web links

Commons : Pervigilium Veneris  - collection of images, videos and audio files