Today was an interesting exercise in attempting to read the Psychomachia allegorically. The idea of one-to-one correspondences between properties of the soul and characters in the poem was already disrupted by the intrusion of Job, who seems like the odd one out in the midst of the poem's catalogue of virtues and vices. But today's reading was more subtly ambiguous, in that I ultimately remain undecided as to whether the actions of Avarice's minions (470-479) are intended as a minute description of the human psyche, or simply as a vivid set piece that serves no direct allegorical function. The former interpretation could be sustained by means of, in the case of the vices' treachery towards one another, Plato's opinion in the republic that the wicked or self-interested are unable to coordinate with one another, even to do evil. But on another level, this feels like the sort of inane eisegesis inflicted on poems by later interpreters, rather than their creators. Finally, I'd be interested to compare this scene with similar ones in Lucan, given both Prudentius' general fondness for him and the explicit invocation of Civilis Discordia.
From Sam
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