The Vatican Mythographers offers the first complete English
translation of three important sources of knowledge about the
survival of classical mythology from the Carolingian era to the
High Middle Ages and beyond. The Latin texts were discovered in
manuscripts in the Vatican library and published together in the
nineteenth century. The three so-called Vatican Mythographers
compiled, analyzed, interpreted, and transmitted a vast collection
of myths for use by students, poets, and artists. In terms
consonant with Christian purposes, they elucidated the fabulous
narratives and underlying themes in the works of Ovid, Virgil,
Statius, and other poets of antiquity. In so doing, the Vatican
Mythographers provided handbooks that included descriptions of
ancient rites and customs, curious etymologies, and, above all,
moral allegories. Thus we learn that Bacchus is a naked youth who
rides a tiger because drunkenness is never mature, denudes us of
possessions, and begets ferocity; or that Ulysses, husband of
Penelope, passed by the monstrous Scylla unharmed because a wise
man bound to chastity overcomes lust. The extensive collection of
myths illustrates how this material was used for moral lessons. To
date, the works of the Vatican Mythographers have remained
inaccessible to scholars and students without a good working
knowledge of Latin. The translation thus fulfills a scholarly void.
It is prefaced by an introduction that discusses the purposes of
the Vatican Mythographers, the influences on them, and their place
in medieval and Renaissance mythography. Of course, it also
entertains with a host of stories whose undying appeal captivates,
charms, inspires, instructs, and sometimes horrifiesus.The book
should have wide appeal for a whole range of university courses
involving myth.
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