Linked e-resources
Linked Resource
Details
Title
The Vatican Mythographers / Ronald E. Pepin.
Author
ISBN
9780823293315
Published
New York, NY : Fordham University Press, [2022]
Copyright
©2008
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource (320 p.)
Item Number
10.1515/9780823293315 doi
Summary
The Vatican Mythographers offers the first complete English translation of three important sources of knowledge about the survival of classical mythology from the Carolingian era to the High Middle Ages and beyond. The Latin texts were discovered in manuscripts in the Vatican library and published together in the nineteenth century. The three so-called Vatican Mythographers compiled, analyzed, interpreted, and transmitted a vast collection of myths for use by students, poets, and artists. In terms consonant with Christian purposes, they elucidated the fabulous narratives and underlying themes in the works of Ovid, Virgil, Statius, and other poets of antiquity. In so doing, the Vatican Mythographers provided handbooks that included descriptions of ancient rites and customs, curious etymologies, and, above all, moral allegories. Thus we learn that Bacchus is a naked youth who rides a tiger because drunkenness is never mature, denudes us of possessions, and begets ferocity; or that Ulysses, husband of Penelope, passed by the monstrous Scylla unharmed because a wise man bound to chastity overcomes lust. The extensive collection of myths illustrates how this material was used for moral lessons. To date, the works of the Vatican Mythographers have remained inaccessible to scholars and students without a good working knowledge of Latin. The translation thus fulfills a scholarly void. It is prefaced by an introduction that discusses the purposes of the Vatican Mythographers, the influences on them, and their place in medieval and Renaissance mythography. Of course, it also entertains with a host of stories whose undying appeal captivates, charms, inspires, instructs, and sometimes horrifies us. The book should have wide appeal for a whole range of university courses involving myth.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 03. Jan 2023)
Series
Medieval Philosophy: Texts and Studies
Available in Other Form
print 9780823228928
Linked Resources
Record Appears in
Table of Contents
Frontmatter
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
First mythographer
Second mythographer
Third mythographer
Notes
Select bibliography
Index
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
First mythographer
Second mythographer
Third mythographer
Notes
Select bibliography
Index