Proserpina in Pieces: Claudian on Her Rape

Abstract

antra procul Scyllaea petit, canibusque reductispars stupefacta silet, pars nondum exterrita latrat.(Claud. Rapt. 3.447f.) [The torch-light], farther away, reaches the cave of Scylla—her dogs drawn back,one part is silent with amazement, one part barks, still undaunted. With this climactic scene, the Latin epic poem De raptu Proserpinae by Claudius Claudianus (fl. c.400 AD) ends just as Ceres sets out to search for her lost daughter. The poem relates the myth primarily known from the Homeric Hymn to Demeter with a great deal of variations, the most crucial one being that mother and daughter, Ceres and Proserpina, are still not reunited when the poem comes to a close.