The poetics of Honorius’ romantic behaviour in Claudian’s Epith. 1-46

Abstract

In Epith. 1-46, Claudian narrates Honorius’ impatience for his wedding to his betrothed spouse, Maria. In the half passage (1-19) we hear the poet’s voice, while in the remainder it is that of the young emperor (20-46), who expresses his complaints towards Maria’s parents, Stilicho and Serena. Claudian presents Honorius as an elegiac lover, who suffers due to his romantic passion. My paper aims to reveal this passage’s generic interaction between elegy and epic. We will see that Honorius’ love behaviour wavers between his elegiac persona and his epical reality. Furthermore, I attempt to prove that in these verses, Claudian includes a metapoetic discourse on the impact of Callimachean theory within his poetics.