[Histling-l] Seminar eight: UCL Lyceum Classics Community Seminar Series

[Andrea Farina]

We are delighted to invite you to the eighth talk in the UCL Lyceum Classics Community Seminar Series for 2024/25. The seminar will be held both in person at UCL, Gordon House 209 (followed by a food and drinks reception) and remotely via Zoom on Wednesday, 29 January 2025, at 17:00 GMT.

This session will feature a presentation by Federica Colella (Università degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli), titled:
Healing from a wounded deity. A comparative study on the wounding of Aeneas (Aen. XII).

To attend either in person or online, please register using the following link: https://forms.gle/qvd1HkQPVAkAvvCd9.

Abstract:

The wound-cure combination, a theme deeply rooted in both historical-literary and anthropological reflections, lies at the core of the episode depicting the wounding of Aeneas in Book XII of the Aeneid. This study aims to conduct a comparative analysis of this episode (XII, lines 389ff and 411ff) and a 4th-style Pompeian fresco, preserved at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples (MANN), from the triclinium of the House of Siricus, dating to the second half of the 1st century AD. The goal is to uncover new perspectives related to the lexicon of vulnerability and healing in Virgil’s poem, highlighting the extent to which this topic remains underexplored within the field of emotion studies. Additionally, the research examines the degree to which the narrative of this healing process aligns with Augustanpropaganda, which sought to translate the new imperial power into a unified literary and visual language.
Both the literary text and the artwork portray Aeneas, leaning on his spear and immobilized by tears, as he is first treated and then unknowingly healed by the physician Iapyx (line 420, fovit ea vulnus lympha longaevos Iapyx ignarus), thanks to the miraculous intervention of Venus, who infecit occulte medicans spargitque salubris ambrosiae sucos et odoriferam panaceam (lines 418–419). Despite Iapyx’s surgical tools and his name associated with the Greek verb ἰάομαι (“to heal”), the true therapeutic action, capable of fully erasing Aeneas’ pain (lines 421–422), belongs to Venus. It is no coincidence that it is a deity, whose own divine perfection is violated (Aen. XI, line 277; Il. V, lines 335–340), who heals Aeneas’ wound, transforming his human vulnerability into the foundation for the invulnerable political divinization of the future gens Iulia.


The Lyceum Classics Community Seminars provide an international platform for postgraduate students and scholars with a shared passion for Classics and the Ancient Mediterranean World. Our aim is to foster interdisciplinary exchange and collaboration, offering a dynamic space for discussing new research and ideas.

For more information about the seminar series, including upcoming talks, please visit the "Programme" section of our website: https://ucllyceumseminar.wordpress.com/programme/.

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