Skip to Main Content

The Return of Proserpina: Cultural Poetics of Sicily from Cicero to Dante

Online ISBN:
9780691227160
Print ISBN:
9780691227177
Publisher:
Princeton University Press
Book

The Return of Proserpina: Cultural Poetics of Sicily from Cicero to Dante

Sarah Spence
Sarah Spence
University of Georgia
Find on
Published online:
21 September 2023
Published in print:
3 January 2023
Online ISBN:
9780691227160
Print ISBN:
9780691227177
Publisher:
Princeton University Press

Abstract

In the first century BC, Cicero praised Sicily as Rome's first overseas province and confirmed it as the mythic location for the abduction of Proserpina, known to the Greeks as Persephone, by the god of the underworld. This book takes readers from Roman antiquity to the late Middle Ages to explore how the Mediterranean island offered authors a setting for forces resistant to empire and a location for displaying and reclaiming what has been destroyed. Using the myth of Proserpina as a through line, the book charts the relationship Western empire held with its myths and its own past. It takes an in-depth, panoramic look at a diverse range of texts set on Sicily, demonstrating how the myth of Proserpina enables a discussion of empire in terms of balance, loss, and negotiation. Providing new readings of authors as separated in time and culture as Vergil, Claudian, and Dante, the book shows how the shape of Proserpina's tale and perceptions of the island change from a myth of loss to one of redemption, with the volcanic Mt. Etna playing an increasingly central role. Delving into the ways that myth and geography affect politics and poetics, the book explores the power of language and the written word during a period of tremendous cultural turbulence.

Contents
Close
This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

Close

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

View Article Abstract & Purchase Options

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Close