Pervigilium Veneris

The Pervigilium Veneris (Latin " night celebration of Venus ") is a late antique Latin poem, which was handed down without the author's name in the Anthologia Latina.

In 93 verses (metric: trochaic tetra catalectic meters ) it portrays the return of spring with the revival of nature on the eve of a traditional festival Venus ( the eponymous, Night Celebration ') in the grove of Hybla in Sicily. The description is particularly true of the mythical significance of spring, as the poem of the dances of the nymphs and the occurrence of Cupid Cupid / Eros and the life and love of reports giving goddess Venus / Aphrodite. The text is by the ever- recurring refrain:

Divided into loose verses. The poem sounds in the elegiac lament of the poet (more precisely, of the lyrical ego ) from:

Although the text is formal as a traditional procession song as it was sung at such festivals, it is probably the work of a single author, which is attributable to the poetae novi of the 4th century AD, according to more recent research. Much has been discussed already in 1872 put forward a presumption of authorship of Tiberianus. Its proponents point to stylistic similarities with the small seal of Tiberianus. The hypothesis limits, however, in more recent research mainly on skepticism and resolute opposition.

Since its rediscovery and first edition by the humanist Pierre Pithou the Pervigilium has found many admirers and is one of the most famous anonymous traditional Latin poems. For this is responsible in addition to the linguistic elegance and loving nature and mythology describing esp. the melancholy conclusion that can be recognized as one of the first and most elegant intra- literary texts frequent in modern literature phenomenon of writer's block.

Text editions and translations

  • Laurence Catlow (Ed.): Pervigilium Veneris. Latomus, Bruxelles 1980, ISBN 2-87031-112-5 ( critical edition with extensive introduction, English translation and commentary )
  • Andrea Cucchiarelli: La Veglia di Venere. Pervigilium Veneris. Rizzoli, Milano 2003, ISBN 88-17-10635-6 ( Italian translation with introduction and detailed commentary )
  • Crescenzo Formicola (ed.): Pervigilium Veneris. Loffredo, Napoli 1998, ISBN 88-8096-558-1 ( critical edition with extensive introduction, Italian translation and commentary )
  • George P. Goold (ed.): Catullus, Tibullus, Pervigilium Veneris. 2nd edition. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (MA), 1988, ISBN 0 - 434-99006 -X, pp. 341-359 ( Latin text and English translation, revised version of the edition of John William Mackail, 1913)
Lyric poetry Latin Anthology Tetrameter Strophe Anonymity Writer's block Alan Cameron (classical scholar)
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