Scene di profezia nel De raptu Helenae di Draconzio: riprese di moduli epici e tragici (Romulea VIII 119-212)

Abstract

Prophecies are one of the stylistic devices at home in both epic and tragedy that Dracontius employs in his epyllia. As an example of his use of the prophecy the paper analyses a passage from the De raptu Helenae (Romulea VIII) where three prophecies are to be found, delivered respectively by Elenus, Cassandra and Apollo. Structure, hypotexts and models, both preserved (some prophecies in the Aeneid) and lost (episodes from the Cypria, Euripides’ Alexandros and Ennius’ Alexander), are discussed. Finally, the paper intends to demonstrate that Dracontius draws not only the forms but also the functions of this literary device of the past, such as the use of prophetic anticipation as intertextual link between a narrative segment and a large epic cycle. This could support a hypothesis suggested by Diaz de Bustamante, who thinks of the Romulea (the collection to which our epyllion belonged) as a narrative cycle of ‘epic inspiration’ on the origins of Rome

Keywords

• Dracontius
• Romulea
• De raptu Helenae
• prophecy
• Helenus
• Cassandra