Year: 1990
Type: article
Abstract: If one is convinced that Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy presents, in the face of death, a philosopher's heartfelt belief in the truths of the study to which he devoted his brief lifetime, then one is inclined, with Helm and Courcelle, to regard the Menippean form of the Consolation as something essentially irrelevant to its themes.^Thework would merely exemplify a prosimetric form, and not participate actively in the traditions of Menippus and Varro.2But I am not convinced of this, and think that the Consolation questions the value of Classical philosophy in a debate that is inconclusive, never reaching its promised goal of telling the narrator, otherwise quite an adept in the definition of persons, who he really is.^The Middle Ages, 'R.Helm, "Menippos 10." RE XV. 1 (1931) 893; P. Courcelle.La consolation de philosophie dans la tradition Utteraire: Antecedents et posterite de Boece (Paris 1967) 17-28.Courcelle relates the Consolation to the genre of the apocalypse; but F. Klingner.De Boethii Consolatione Philosophiae, Philologische Untersuchungen 27 (Berlin 1927) 155 is, I think, right when he suggests that apocalyptic became intertwined with the genre of Menippean satire before Boethius' time, so as to account for similarities between Julian's Caesares, Marlianus' De Nuptiis, and Boethius.I would claim that apocalypse has always been part of the genre, which relies heavily upon supernatural revelations of truth; consider Menippus* vision of judgement in iMcizn' s Necyomantia.^K.Reichenburger, Untersuchungen zur literarischen Stellung der Consolatio Philosophiae, Kolner Romanistische Arbeiten, N. F., 3 (Koln 1954) 34 and n. 1. notes also that the mixture of a range of literary forms within the Consolation (prose and verse, consolation and protreptic, Cynic and Platonic argumentation) may be assigned to the influence of Menippean satire.^See H. Trankle, "1st die 'Philosophiae Consolatio* des Boethius zum vorgesehenen AbschluB gelangt?." Vigiliae Chrislianae 31 (1977) 148-54, also available, with the author's Nachtrag of 1983. in M. Fuhrmann and J. Gruber.edd.. Boethius, Wege der Forschung 483 (Danmstadt 1984) 311-19.I do not agree with Trankle, however, that this shows that the Consolation is unfinished.Boethius* Theological Tractates, defenses of orthodox views of the Trinity, frequently define persons and natures with some degree of originality; cf.J. Mair, "Reflections Upon the Theological Tractates of Boethius." in A. Moffatt, ed.. Maistor: Classical, Byzantine and Renaissance Studies for Robert Browning (Canberra 1984) 149-58; see also H. Chad wick.Boethius: The Consolations of Music, Logic, Theology, and Philosophy (Oxford 1981) 180-85.describing Against Eutyches and Nestorius as "among the most original pieces to come from Boethius' pen.** * P. Courcelle, "Le Personnage de philosophie dans la litterature latine," Journal des Savants (Oct.-Dec.1970)209-52.' As, for example, in Lucian's tales of the adventures of Menippus in heaven and hell, Icaromenippus and Necyomantia.For motifs of Old Comedy in these and others of Lucian's works, see G. Anderson, Lucian:ThemeandVariationin the Second Sophistic, Mnemosyne
Author: Joel C. Relihan
Language: English
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1503228840