SPRINGER, C.P.E.,
The Gospel as Epic in Late Antiquity. The Paschale Carmen of Sedulius.
Brill, Leiden (...), 1988. XI,168p. Original blue gilt titled cloth. A few rust stains to right upper corner upper edge. Series: Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae, Volume II. 'Sedulius is, to stay with the common cliché, a poet between two worlds, and one of the strong points of this study is that S. keeps his eye on both the Christian and the pagan contexts. His Sedulius is not just a paraphraser or exegete; he is also composing a Christian 'Aeneid'. But with the evidence as presented here - which is not always deployed to best advantage - this case is far from convincing. The metre and 'voice' of the poem, its invocations, and its military imagery among which S. rather forcibly includes 'excuviae' (pp.75 ff.) do not take on very far, nor does the presence of typology and general complexity; and S.'s treatment of lions, storms, and snakes in Sedulius will not convince those who see poets of this period as mosaicists ready to take material from a variety of contexts. (...) Books on Sedulius are rare, and it is a pity that in many areas this one does little more than scratch the surface.' (R.P.H. GREEN in The Classical Review (New Series), 1990, p.159).
€ 50.00
(Antiquarian)