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INTERMEDIALITY AND EKPHRASIS IN LATIN EPIC POETRY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2018

Riemer A. Faber
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Extract

The concept of intermediality arose in the theoretical discourse about the relations between different systems or products of meaning, such as the relations between music and art, or image and text. The word gained currency in the 1980s in German- and French-language studies of theatre performance, and in scholarship on opera, film, and music, in order to capture the notion of the interconnections between different art forms. For reasons of utility, the concept has been divided into three kinds: intermediality may refer to the combination of media (as in opera, in which music, dance, and song are conjoined into one aesthetic experience); the transformation or transposition of media (as in a film version of a book); and intermedial references or connections, whereby attention is drawn to another system of meaning, as in the references in literature to a work of art. The term has entered the field of classics especially via the study of the relations between the narrative and inscriptional modes in literary epigram.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 65 , Issue 1 , April 2018 , pp. 1 - 14
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2018 

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Footnotes

Earlier versions of this article were presented to the Classical Association of Canada at its annual meeting in May 2015 and to graduate students in a seminar on Roman literature led by Prof. Basil Dufallo at the University of Michigan in March 2016. I am grateful for the many helpful comments received on those occasions, and now also from this journal's readers and editor.

References

1 For a brief history of the concept see Rajewsky, I. O., ‘Intermediality, Intertextuality, and Remediation: A Literary Perspective on Intermediality’, Intermédialités 6 (2005), 43–4Google Scholar.

2 Rajewsky, I., Intermedialität (Tübingen, 2002), 15–17 Google Scholar. More precisely, by means of intermedial references a semiotic system uses the means specific to its own medium to refer to an individual work produced in another medium, or to another medium generally (Rajewsky [n. 1], 53).

3 Dinter, M., ‘Inscriptional Intermediality in Latin Literature’, in Liddell, P. and Low, P. (eds.), Inscriptions and Their Uses in Greek and Latin Literature (Oxford, 2013), 303–16Google Scholar; Dinter, M., ‘Intermediality in Latin Epic: en video quaecumque audita ’, in Lovatt, H. and Vout, C. (eds.), Epic Visions. Visuality in Greek and Latin Epic and Its Reception (Cambridge, 2013), 122–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dinter, M., ‘Inscriptional Intermediality in Latin Elegy’, in Keith, A. (ed.), Latin Elegy and Hellenistic Epigram. A Tale of Two Genres at Rome (Cambridge, 2011), 7–18 Google Scholar; Squire, M., ‘Ekphrasis at the Forge and the Forging of Ekphrasis: The “Shield of Achilles” in Graeco-Roman Word and Image’, Word and Image 29 (2013), 157–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Squire, M., Image and Text in Greco-Roman Antiquity (Cambridge, 2009)Google Scholar.

4 Wolf, W., ‘(Inter)mediality and the Study of Literature’, Comparative Literature and Culture 13 (2011), 44Google Scholar. Rajewsky (n. 1), 59, observes that in intermedial references only one conventional distinct medium is present.

5 Rajewsky (n. 1), 53.

6 Kristeva, J., Desire in Language. A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art, ed. Roudiez, Leon S., trans. Gora, T., Jardine, A., and Roudiez, L. S. (New York, 1980), 66Google Scholar.

7 Rajewsky (n. 2), 60.

8 Wolf (n. 4), 5.

9 Eilittä, L., ‘Introduction’, in Eilittä, L., Louvel, L., and Kim, S., (eds.), Intermedial Arts: Disrupting, Remembering and Transforming Media (Newcastle upon Tyne, 2012), ixGoogle Scholar.

10 On ekphrasis as literary figure generally, see Zeitlin, F. I., ‘Figure: Ekphrasis’, G&R 60 (2013), 17–31 Google Scholar, and bibliography there.

11 Dinter (n. 3 [2013]), 128, uses the term ‘contamination’ to describe the mixing of the two semiotic systems in ekphrasis, while Squire (n. 3 [2013]), 161, speaks of ‘intermedial fusion’.

12 An example of an approach to ekphrasis which privileges a model of competition between systems of meaning is Mitchell, W. J. T., Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation (Chicago, IL, 1994), 156Google Scholar, who states that ekphrastic texts highlight the ‘oppositions of semiotics: symbolic and iconic representation; conventional and natural signs, temporal and spatial modes; visual and aural media’.

13 For recent treatments of this ekphrasis, and further bibliography, see Feldherr, A., ‘Viewing Myth and History on the Shield of Aeneas’, ClAnt 13 (2014), 281–318 Google Scholar; Kirichenko, A., ‘Virgil's Augustan Temples: Image and Intertext in the Aeneid ’, JRS 103 (2013), 81–3Google Scholar; Casali, S., ‘The Making of the Shield: Inspiration and Repression in the Aeneid ’, G&R 53 (2006), 185–204 Google Scholar.

14 Translations from the Aeneid are amended versions of those in Fairclough, H. R., rev. Goold, G. P., Virgil. Aeneid. Books 7–12, Appendix Vergiliana (Cambridge, MA, 2000)Google Scholar.

15 See Dinter (n. 3 [2013]), 128. A strong case for the representation of the scenes as reflecting the plastic arts is made by West, D. A., ‘ Cernere erat: The Shield of Aeneas’, PVS 15 (1975–6), 1–7 Google Scholar, reprinted in Harrison, S. J. (ed.), Oxford Readings in Vergil's Aeneid (Oxford, 1990), 295–304 Google Scholar.

16 Thilo, G. and Hagen, H. (eds.), Servius. In Vergilii Carmina Commentarii (Leipzig, 1881)Google Scholar, 298, ad Aen. 8.675.

17 Henry, J., Aeneidea. Critical, Exegetical and Aesthetical Remarks on the Aeneis. Vol. 3 (Dublin, 1889), 764–5Google Scholar, ad Aen. 8.652–8. Peerlkamp's interpretation is cited from Henry's commentary. Henry's reading is followed by Thomas, R. F., ‘Vergil's Ekphrastic Centerpieces’, HSPh 87 (1983), 179Google Scholar. Cf. Gransden, K. W., Virgil. Aeneid 8 (Cambridge, 1976), 170Google Scholar: ‘there is a double meaning implied, since Manlius is also depicted as being on top of the Capitol’.

18 Conington, J. and Nettleship, H., P. Vergili Maronis Opera. Vol. 3 (London, 1871), 145Google Scholar, ad Aen. 8.675.

19 Thomas (n. 17), 175–84.

20 Feldherr, A., ‘Nothing like the Sun: Repetition and Representation in Ovid's Phaethon Narrative’, in Fulkerson, L. and Stover, T. (eds.), Repeat Performances. Ovidian Repetition and the Metamorphoses (Madison, WI, 2016), 28–9Google Scholar.

21 Dufallo, Thus B., The Captor's Image. Greek Culture in Roman Ecphrasis (Oxford, 2013), 163–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 Translation (with amendments) from Miller, F. J., rev. Goold, G. P., Ovid. Metamorphoses. Volume 1. Books 1–8 (Cambridge, MA, 1977, repr. 1984)Google Scholar.

23 The twofold function of the words materia and opus as terms of literary criticism as well as fine art, noted by Barchiesi, A., Ovidio Metamorfosi Volume 1 (Libri I–II), trans. Koch, L. (Milan, 2005), 239Google Scholar, intimate the interplay between art and text in the ekphrasis.

24 The intermediality is reinforced by the expression caeli fulgentis imago, which, as Barchiesi (n. 23), 240, observes, applies equally to the depicted image of the sun and to the shiny metal of the shield.

25 On the thematic relevance of the ekphrasis to the narrative, see H. Bartholomé, Ovid und die antike Kunst, PhD thesis, Münster (1935), 17–20, 74–8. The portrayal of the zodiac (2.18) anticipates Helios’ warning to Phaethon to avoid the zodiac (2.78), and Phaethon's fear of it (2.195).

26 Küppers, J., Tantarum causas irarum. Untersuchungen zur einleitenden Bücherdyade der Punica des Silius Italicus (Berlin, 1986), 157–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar; similarly, Vessey, D. W. T., ‘Silius Italicus: The Shield of Hannibal’, AJPh 96 (1975), 392Google Scholar. Other, more recent, treatments of the shield description include Ganiban, R. T., ‘Virgil's Dido and the Heroism of Hannibal in Silius' Punica ’, in Augoustakis, A. (ed.), Brill's Companion to Silius Italicus (Leiden, 2010), 84–90 Google Scholar; Tipping, B., Exemplary Epic. Silius Italicus’ Punica (Oxford, 2010), 95–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Stocks, C., The Roman Hannibal. Remembering the Enemy in Silius Italicus’ Punica (Liverpool, 2014), 90–1CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

27 For a recent reading of the description of Hannibal's shield, see Faber, R. A., ‘Literary Allusion and Unity of Thought in the Description of Hannibal's Shield in Punica 2.403–452’, Phoenix 70 (2016), 302–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

28 Translations of the Punica (with one amendment in this instance) are from Duff, J. D., Silius Italicus. Punica. Volume 1. Books 1–8 (Cambridge, MA, 1934)Google Scholar.

29 On intermediality in Homer, see Becker, A.S., The Shield of Achilles and the Poetics of Ekphrasis (Lanham, MD, 1995), 96–100 Google Scholar; and Squire (n. 3 [2013]), 159.

30 The use of ora to mean ‘shield-edge’ appears in Silius’ model, Verg. Aen. 10.242–3: clipeum quem dedit ipse / invictum ignipotens atque oras ambiit auro (‘the invincible shield that the fire-lord gave you himself, that he circled with rims of gold’).

31 As vault of heaven, Ennius fr. xcvi.188–9 (Jocelyn): in altisono / caeli clipeo (‘on the lofty orb of the sky’); as the disk of the sun, Ov. Met. 15.192: dei clipeus, terra cum tollitur ima (‘the god's orb, as it rises from beneath the earth’).

32 Virgil uses orbis to denote shield: e.g. Aen. 8.448–9: septenosque orbibus orbis / impediunt (‘they fasten sevenfold shields to shields’); 10.783–5: Aeneas hastam iacit; illa per orbem / aere cavum triplici… / transiit (‘Aeneas hurls his spear, and it pierces through the curved shield of triple bronze’). Cf. the parallels noted in Horsfall, N., Virgil. Aeneid 2. A Commentary (Leiden, 2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 205, ad 2.227. See also Statius Theb. 4.232: flammeus orbis, ‘the fiery orb’ of Hippomedon's shield. Similarly, Petronius: gladios retractant, commovent orbes manu / bellumque sumunt (‘they draw their swords, take up their shields in their hands and engage battle’; Sat. 88.60–1). The interpretation of Virgil's shield description as icon for the entire cosmos is advanced by Hardie, P., Virgil's Aeneid. Cosmos and Imperium (Oxford, 1986), 336–76Google Scholar.

33 Thilo and Hagen (n. 16), 297.

34 On this, see Tipping (n. 26), 65.

35 On the figurative limits imposed on the scenes by the shield's outer circle of Oceanus, see Scully, S., ‘Reading the Shield of Achilles: Terror, Anger, Delight’, HSCPh 101 (2003), 42Google Scholar.

36 Dinter (n. 3 [2013]), 128.

37 Translation (with amendments) from Mozley, J. H., Statius. Silvae. Thebaid 1–4 (Cambridge, MA, 1928)Google Scholar.

38 The physicality of the object is reinforced by the burdensome bulk suggested by the words molis and onus (R. Parkes, Statius. Thebaid 4 [Oxford, 2012], 127).

39 Again Statius’ model for intermedial convergence is Virgil's Aeneid: tunicam squalentem auro (‘tunic of scaly gold’; Aen. 10.314; cf. 12.87). Moreover, aspera suits the engraved artefact and scaly monster, as Parkes (n. 38), 127, observes.

40 Thus Harrison, S. J., ‘The Arms of Capaneus: Statius, Thebaid IV.165–77’, CQ 42 (1992), 249CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

41 E.g. ferroque micantia tela (‘steel-flashing arrows’; Theb. 2.589); enses / triste micant (‘swords flash sorrowfully’; 4.153–4); fulva metallo / parma micet (‘the shield flashes golden’; 11.398–9).

42 See also Verg. Aen. 8.682; Sil. Pun. 2.426 (parte alia, ‘in another part’).

43 Håkanson, L., Statius’ Thebaid. Critical and Exegetical Remarks (Lund, 1973), 22Google Scholar.

44 The expression arte reperta (‘with clever skill’), in line 170 reinforces the metaliterary tone of this passage, for as Parkes (n. 38), 127, observes, arte may be taken as ‘a reference to the composition of the shield… or as alluding to the craft of Hercules in devising a way to halt the Hydra's growth of heads’.

45 OLD, s.v. 2, notes that umbo is also used for hill; Statius employs it in this sense in Theb. 6.257 and 7.15.

46 E.g. Stat. Theb. 2.276–7: ibi arcano florentes igne smarygdos / cingit (‘he there sets a ring of emeralds fluorescent with hidden fire’); Plin. HN 33.23: ferrum auro cingunt (‘they emboss an iron ring with gold’).

47 Vessey 1975 (n. 26), 404.

48 von Albrecht, M., Silius Italicus. Freiheit und Gebundenheit römischer Epik (Amsterdam, 1964), 55–6Google Scholar.

49 For the debate on whether intermediality is a fundamental condition or a critical category of analysis, see Rajewsky (n. 1), 47–8.