Subject Area
Literature
Description
This Masters thesis is an introduction to and prose translation of Prudentius’s Psychomachia. In the introduction, besides discussing personification allegory, I suggest that the synthesis of classical and Christian elements in the Psychomachia is a response to the historical phenomena of the times. The conflict between the Christian and pagan elements is important because it mirrors the action of the poem itself, in which the soul tries to cope with the presence of two battling opposite forces: the Virtues and the Vices. This internalized soul conflict is a personalized representation of 4th Century Church history, during which intellectuals and heresiarchs were assailing Church doctrine. The poem, then, is a polarization of elements, all of which are layered upon the primary conflict occurring within the soul of the Christian Everyman. Just as Prudentius, as a Christian humanist, gives his nod of approval to the poem’s Christian content, he also features his classical side (influenced by battle scenes in Vergil’s Aeneid) by linking up certain Scriptural allusions with each of the Virtues and Vices.
The purpose of my translation itself is to provide an extremely literal, yet readable translation of the Psychomachia. Such a translation benefits two types of readers: the Latin student of intermediate proficiency, who wishes to closely follow the Latin, rather than floundering about in another translator’s creative, though sometimes, inaccurate prose; and the non-Latin student, who wishes to read an English translation which captures the richness and depth of Prudentius’s diction.
Publisher
University of New Hampshire
Publication Date
1978
Type
Thesis
Format
Text
.pdf (text under image)
Language
English
