Vivid!

My immediate appreciation of Prudentius was far stronger than it was for Rutilius, who continued to grow on me over the past month. The vividness of the imagery was both startling and occasionally lovely--I particularly liked the idea of caves and dwellings within the breast or heart. It reminds me of the "che nel lago del cor m'era durata" of the first canto of the Inferno. Speaking of which, I had thought a poem by Prudentius was the possible precedent for Dante's use of Apollo as a figura Christi at the beginning of the Paradiso. It turns out that was actually from a poem that shows up in manuscripts of Paulinus of Nola; but "qui miserate graves labores hominum" reminded me of the same canto, where Dante appeals for help in his "last labor". Looking forward to next week!

From Sam

And,I (that is, Martha, who posts Sam's blog items) would add, the cave of the heart reminds me of Augustine in his Confessions talking about the thesauri mentis, the treasure chambers of the mind.  The idea that there is a huge internal architecture/ landscape seems to fit the Late Antique Zeitgeist-- further up and further in!