Seas and Seasons

This week, as I mentioned to some extent in class, I really enjoyed Boethius' imagery in his metron dealing with the order of the seasons and the natural world and how these strict laws remain in stark contrast to the apparent lax behavior of Fortuna, who whirls individuals around by chance.  In particular, the image of a stormy ocean (I really liked the phrase salo fortunae) relates well to the capricious nature of fate and this depiction is picked up again by the rapidos fluctus that are supposed to be repressed by the creator.  Naturally, the image of a city or even the world as a ship at sea is fairly common throughout Latin literature, so there is little surprise here that this analogy continues throughout the work.  Although Prof. Malamud mentioned that the stormy seas eventually die down allowing for more navigable waters, I would be interested to know if, later on in the poem, the water itself provides a clear and direct course in the form of currents (i.e. rather than acting as a opposition or a passive medium)
My second observation of this week stems from the language in Boethius' depiction of the natural world, and in particular through his description of a unfortunate farmer who turns to nuts and berries after he is deceived in his trust of the goddess of agriculture.  What struck me about this passage is even though the order and nature of the seasons is fixed, there is still some semblance of uncertainty within this established framework.  This is echoed in the language as the farmer who entrusts his seeds (and presumably his livelihood) to the soil is duped and let down in his trust of Ceres.  This concept of chaos (or at least, ignorance) within order may relate to the concept that some things still remain largely unknown to humans in the cosmic order of the world (although it could of course just be an untrained farmer!)

Nubibus atris

Stars hidden
by black clouds
can shed
no light.

If the violent South Wind
turning over the sea
should stir up the swell,
a wave, glassy
just now like
clear days,
soon, filthy with mud
freed from below*
blocks our sight

and the river
that
often stops still wanders
flowing down
from the high mountains
often is blocked [lit., stands still]
by the barrier of rock
loosened from the cliff.

You, too, if you wish
to see the truth
with clear sight [or by means of a clear light],
to take the track
with a straight path:
push away joys
push away fear
put hope to flight
nor let grief be present.

The mind is clouded
and bound by ties
when these things rule.

*resoluto caeno-- with mud having been loosened/freed, presumably from the bottom of the sea

Metron 7 (from Sam)

Poem 7 was a beautiful conclusion to Book I--I've never actually seen anything written entirely in adonics (as opposed to their ending a Sapphic), and the effect is simultaneously brisk and soothing. "Officinias sceleratorum" also caught my eye--while Boethius' tone is almost uniformly serene and elevated, phrases like this and "scenicas meritriculas" lend a certain credence to the satirical/Menippean reading of the De Consolatione. The closest model for his narrative style, however, seems to be Plato rather than any Roman writer. The gentle comedy of the narrator's repeated confusion about (what Philosophia seems to think are) fairly basic ideas reminded me of Socrates' conversation with Meno, where the latter repeatedly has to backtrack to have something clarified. Whereas an Aristotle, by way of laying out his ideas, would calmly proceed from bullet point to bullet point, Plato and Boethius are just as concerned with the aporic process of coming to know something as with the object of knowledge itself.

Metron VII

The final metron of Book I was very interesting in its composition. The very short and clipped lines gave a confused feeling that went along with the th theme of the metron. The discussion within the metron of the mind being clouded and compared the sea to being stirred up by the winds sets the theme of confusion and obscurity and the discussion about taking the right path both seemed to play into the metrons metrical structure. Because the shortness of each line forces constant enjambment, the reader has to wind their way through the passage taking the “rector trames” in order to understand the meaning. It is a lovely way of illuminating the theme of a passage, using the meter to create a structure that mimics the theme.

Dr. Philosophy: Medicine Goddess

I wanted to hone in on Prose 6 because I really enjoyed the dialogue between Philosophy and Boethius here. We have mentioned before that he uses a lot of medical terminology, but (I suppose for my own lack of paying attention enough :/) I always chalked it up to the same ideas we had seen before in other authors. like Jerome, where they talk about things like "only use wine because of stomach ailments," etc. But the dialogue here finally made me realize that Philosophy has in essence come to cure Boethius of the crazies! He is fully presented as someone inflicted by mental illness, with a disturbed mind and confusion and ignorance. Philosophy makes a lot of sense here, as who better to cure someone of mental illness than philosophical knowledge. It seems to me almost that Boethius, who had been trying to follow in the footsteps of those he admired, (namely Plato, Socrates perhaps, etc) is losing his mind over being equally penalized and Philosophy has decided to make a house call to snap him out of it, since it would certainly have been a privilege for Boethius to do so. Philosophy in essence has come to free Boethius from the prison of his mind, even though she cannot free him from his paralleled physical prison. If you can be happy in your mind than your physical distress does not matter. Thank you Philosophy, I will try to remember that the next time I am freaking out over the end of the semester. :)

Ghastly Goths

I was struck this week by a comment in the Perseus commentary on Boethius' work concerning the author's treatment of Goths.  Naturally, at this point in the Roman Empire, Goths played a major role in the administration as well as holding political positions of power.  However, as the comment mentions, Boethius has no qualms about lambasting the two individuals Conigastus and Trigguillas despite their cultural background and power.  Clearly, Boethius, in his current position, was no longer constrain to curry favor from these individuals and regarded them with nothing but contempt.  Although he does not specifically mention their ethnic origin, I wonder if he does so at all later in the poem and if the inherent Roman vs. Barbarism issue was still a major point of debate this late in the life of the Empire.  Naturally, with Rome both as his birthplace and home, Boethius may have still have felt a strong attachment to the city and the culture and values that it formally held in the earlier 5th century.

Back in my day!

The 5^th Metron provides a very interesting contrast to the preceding Prosa (number 4). The 4^th prosa is based around Boethius describing what has gone wrong, why he is in prison. The main slant of it is that although he was acting in a manner that was to benefit the Senate, he is falsely accused by others out of desire for gain and advancement. The accusations made against Boethius are supposed to seem overwhelmingly false because they conflict with what he has learned from Philosophia; however the charges themselves are based on his philosophy, or so it seems he would have the reader believe. The picture that the 4^th prosa paints is one of over-turned expectation. What Boethius believes ought to be right and what ought to be done are not and instead evil triumphs. The 5^th metron, then, coming right afterwards paints an opposite picture. In this metron Boethius describes the heavans/nature working in proper fashion and directly addresses the great creator as the orchestrator of the heavenly/natural order. The first three quarters or so of this metron is dedicated to the description of the proper workings of the heavens and Boethius directly addresses that no part leaves its work “Nihil antiqua lege solutum/Linquit propriae stationis opus”. The last part of the Metron calls on the great ruler to turn his gaze towards the issues of the world and the broken order there, as well as to bring the laws that govern heaven peacefully to earth. It is a lovely contrast that follows the 4^th Prosa and the calm beginning of the 5^th metron allows for greater emphasis of the call for change at the end.

War of the Mind

I just wanted to pick up on what John was saying concerning the battle allegory of Prudentius vs. corresponding imagery in Boethius.  I was able to draw some interesting parallels between the two especially in the linguistic presentation of the enemy.  The phrase temere ac passim . . . raptatur strongly parallels the ruinous rage that Ira is seized by in her frenzied assault of Patientia.  Likewise, the greedy throng of the enemy seizing at the pointless materials and equipment can be strongly contrasted with the virtue's aversion to any of the remains of the Vices, stomping them into the ground rather than acquiring them as booty.  Likewise, while there did not appear to be a single leader of the Vices in the Psychomachia, although one could argue that Luxuria did possess her own retinue, the Virtues are led by Faith.  Battle imagery does seem to be largely prevalent throughout Christian writing and perhaps became later influenced by the actual conflict between various heresies during Late Antiquity