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Proserpina and the Martyrs: Pagan and Christian in Claudian’s De raptu Prosperpinae
- Cork University Press
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16 Proserpina and the Martyrs: Pagan and Christian in Claudian’s De raptu Prosperpinae1 CATHERINE WARE The impact of the classical tradition on Christianity has been well documented but much remains to be done on the related question: how was the classical tradition modified by Christianity? This paper will examine Claudian’s unfinished epic, the De raptu Proserpinae, in this context, arguing that Claudian’s narrative is very much a product of his own time. His version of the myth is conveyed in language and images which have a specific validity for late antiquity and which have grown from the gradual merging of classical and Christian culture. As will be shown, in presenting his heroine as a sacrifice, Claudian combines a classical sacrificial model, Seneca’s Polyxena, with themes drawn from a specifically Christian genre – martyr literature. Such sacrifice stories were popularly told from the second century AD onwards and, by the fourth century, were the subject of more literary and learned works, such as the Peristephanon by Claudian’s contemporary , Prudentius.2 Like these stories, Claudian’s myth is set in motion by a disgruntled suitor, portrays the sacrificial death of an innocent virgin, identifies marriage with death and sacrificial death as the gateway to a better world. I The myth of Proserpina is an ancient one. In its most familiar form, Pluto, the god of the Underworld, falls in love with Proserpina, the daughter of Ceres, and snatches her to become his wife and queen.3 Ceres, grief-stricken, wanders the earth seeking her daughter, withholding her gift of agriculture from mankind until a compromise is reached and Proserpina is allowed to return for part of the year. In ancient art and literature, Proserpina can appear in various guises. She is an image of erotic violence, a young girl Proserpina and the Martyrs 17 snatched by an older ravisher. She is a significant cult figure, since her descent to the Underworld and subsequent return are a key part of the Eleusinian mysteries. She further appears as the dark queen of the Underworld, enthroned with Hades and possessing power over the souls who come before her.4 Proserpina is particularly prominent in funerary art. Because she was allowed to return from Hades to the world above, her return signifying spring and summer, Proserpina was seen as a symbol of rebirth. The bottom row of the Velletri sarcophagus shows her abduction by Pluto, while the row above shows a scene of her seated in majesty with him.5 The iconography was adopted by Christians and was combined, on at least one occasion, with Christian images of rebirth: in the fourth-century catacomb on the Via Latina, figures thought to be Ceres and Proserpina guard the entrance to the cubiculum decorated with the raising of Lazarus.6 As queen of the Underworld, Proserpina also has the power to intercede with her husband, Pluto, for the souls of those who come to his realm. In late antiquity, then, the figure of Proserpina suggests a violent attack on a young girl, death and rebirth, honour in the life after death and a role as subordinate ruler and mediator, a narrative outline which, as we shall see, could apply to Agnes or Victoria or Agatha or one of a dozen young female Christian martyrs. By the late fourth century, the shrines of martyrs had become immensely popular centres of devotion, attracting pilgrims from far away, who would pray for the martyrs to intercede with God on their behalf and, it seems from the warnings of St Augustine, sometimes thought of the martyrs as almost godlike.7 In De civitate Dei, Augustine expresses his concerns that martyrs were being worshipped as gods, singling out as associated with the martyrs Isis and Ceres who, with Proserpina, were seen to be different aspects of the one goddess and whose cults promised spiritual rebirth. ‘God forbid,’ he warned, ‘that they should in the least respect compare them with our martyrs.’8 We do not know if and to what extent these goddesses were associated in the minds of the simple with the martyrs but Augustine’s fears are understandable. Religious syncretism was widespread in the third and fourth centuries:9 many non-Christians believed that the gods of different cults could be worshipped under other names. Apuleius, for example, a devotee of Isis, invokes her in all her aspects, whether she appears as Ceres, Venus, Diana or Proserpina.10 Claudian too introduces Proserpina in her various guises: she...