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The anonymous poet of the ‘Orphic’ Lithica devotes special attention to coral: the passage dedicated to this ‘stone’ (l. 510-609) almost constitutes a poem in itself, the length and formal accuracy of which corresponds to a very precise ideological dimension. A natural prodigy that is inexplicable t...
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| Xuất bản năm: | Revue de philologie, de littérature et d'histoire anciennes | XCVII | 1 | 2023-02-03 | p. 3-6 | 0035-1652 |
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| Tác giả chính: | |
| Định dạng: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Ngôn ngữ: | Français |
| Được phát hành: |
2023
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| Truy cập trực tuyến: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Tóm tắt: | The anonymous poet of the ‘Orphic’ Lithica devotes special attention to coral: the passage dedicated to this ‘stone’ (l. 510-609) almost constitutes a poem in itself, the length and formal accuracy of which corresponds to a very precise ideological dimension. A natural prodigy that is inexplicable to the human mind, the transformation of the coral, which has moved from the vegetable kingdom to the mineral kingdom, invites us, precisely because of the incredulity it arouses, to consider it a divine manifestation that can foster the soul’s ascent towards higher realities. The metamorphosis of the sea plant that miraculously becomes stone heralds the metamorphosis of the soul at the end of a process of philosophical purification, evoked through the story of Perseus, the mythical antecedent of the coral’s change of nature. Only at the end of this purification will it be possible to acquire the theurgical skills necessary to properly manipulate the stone so that its powers manifest themselves. This interpretation is based on a comparison of the text of the Lithica with the writings of the Neo-Platonic philosophers of Late Antiquity, confirming the composition of the poem in the milieu of Emperor Julian (r. 361-363) and the need to read the entire work as a writing of an allegorical nature. |
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