Abstract:

Several hymns of the fourth- and fifth-century Spanish poet Prudentius are often sung from the New English Hymnal, and he seems comfortably familiar. ‘Bethlehem of noblest cities’ or ‘Of the Father’s heart begotten’ do not confront us with theological difficulties, but appear to sit contentedly among the Renaissance and Victorian classics of the Christmas season. Yet Prudentius wrote in a politically, aesthetically, and religiously unsettled time, when neither the Nicene consensus nor the rules of Latin poetry were stable. His oeuvre, which ranges from hymns for the daily hours to a versification of Genesis or an attack on pagan magistrates and monuments, responds vibrantly to the vicissitudes of the period. This talk will situate Prudentius in his historical and literary contexts, before considering several works in detail, including his hymns for the martyrs (the Liber Peristephanon) and his elaborate allegorical epic on the battle of Virtues and Vices in the human soul (the Psychomachia). I hope to show that, through remarkably adept composition and unparalleled generic agility, the poet deals sensitively with the shifting polemical targets of late antique Roman Christianity.