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Roman epic authors extended, reinvented and created new wild animal representations that stood apart from traditional Greek epic renderings. The treatment of wild animals in seven Roman epics (Virgil’s Aeneid, Lucan’s Civil War, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Statius’ Thebaid and Achilleid, Valerius’ Argonautica and Silius’ Punica) forms the basis of this thesis, but the extensive study of other relevant works such as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and Apollonius’ Argonautica allows greater insight into traditional Greek renderings and throws Roman developments into starker contrast. Initial stages of research involved collection and detailed examination of almost 900 epic references to wild animals. The findings from this preliminary research were analysed in the context of Pliny’s Natural History, Aristotle’s Historia Animalium, and other ancient works that reveal the Greeks’ and Romans’ views of wild animals. The accumulation of such a range of evidence made it possible for patterns of development to become evident. This thesis focuses on the epic representation of animals and considers a number of questions: 1) How Roman epic authors represented animals’ emotions and employed creatures’ thought processes. 2) How Roman epic authors examined the difference between wild and tame animals and manipulated the differences and similarities between humans and animals and culture and nature. 3) How wild animals were aligned with scientific and cultural beliefs that were particular to Roman society. 4) How animals were employed to signify foreign countries and how some epic animals came to be symbolic of nations. 5) How Roman epic authors represented particular aspects of animal behaviours with fresh insight, sometimes ignoring traditional representations and historiographic sources.

This thesis adopts a mixed-method approach of quantitative and qualitative analysis to discuss the role of women, especially female speakers and addressees, in Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica. In addition to the traditional individual mortal and divine speech roles, discourse categories such as the influence of the Muses, the presentation of female personifications, female collectives, frame and inserted speakers, and goddesses in disguise are also taken into consideration. The study shows that, despite the shared subject matter and greatly overlapping ensemble of speakers, Valerius makes significant changes in nearly all categories of female speech representation. Valerius entirely omits some of Apollonius’ female speech acts, reduces speeches from oratio recta to mere speech summaries, replaces Greek goddesses with similar, but not equivalent Roman speakers, assigns new speech roles to previously silent female characters, adds important new episodes with female speakers that do not occur in Apollonius’ epic, changes the speech contexts, the conversational behaviour and the overall characterization of speakers – in isolated individual instances as well as in more complex character portrayals. Valerius even modifies or transfers entire discourse patterns such as conversational deceit in speech and silence, or divine disguise, from one speaker group to another, usually of the opposite sex. Valerius transforms the Apollonian arrangement of a male-dominated, 'epic' first half following the invocation of Apollo and a second female, 'elegiac' half with many female speech acts and epiphanies, after a revision of the narrator’s relationship with the Muses, into a more traditional portrayal of the Muses and a much more balanced occurrence and continued influence of female speakers. The different female voices of the Argonautica, especially Juno, can continuously be heard in the Flavian epic and provide the reader with an alternative perspective on the events. Even the less prominent female speakers are part of a well-balanced and refined structural arrangement and show influences of several pre-texts, which they sometimes self-consciously address and use to their advantage. There can be no doubt that, like Apollonius, Valerius does not merely use female speech acts to characterise the male protagonists, but follows a clear structuring principle. Whereas Apollonius in accordance with his revised invocation of the Muses concentrates the female speech acts in the second half of his epic, especially the final book, Valerius links episodes and individual characterizations through same-sex and opposite-sex speaker doublets and triplets that can be ascribed to and explained by Jupiter’s declaration of the Fata. From Juno’s unofficial opening monologue to Medea’s emotional closing argument, the female voice accompanies and guides the reader through the epic. The female perspective is not the dominant view, but rather one of many perspectives (divine, mortal, female, male, old, young, servant, ruler, et al.) that complement the primary viewpoint of the poet and the male, mortal protagonists and offer an alternative interpretation.

IVETA PASTYŘÍKOVÁ: ORDER, PROGRESS, AND IDEAL GOVERNMENT IN CLAUDIAN'S EPIC DE RAPTU PROSERPINAE ABSTRACT The aim of the diploma thesis is to show how late Ancient poet Claudius Claudianus deals with the problem of ideal government in the mythological epic De Raptu Proserpinae, by which strategies he exhorts his reader to evaluate Jupiter's rule in the world of the poem and to compare it with the situation in the real world. The chosen method is the theory of fictional worlds. Firstly, the thesis outlines the relation between the fictional world of the epic and the real world, then, the attention is paid to the essential question of this fictional world, ideal government. The thesis presents the prefaces of the epic as entrances into the fictional world foreshadowing topics elaborated in the world of the poem, where the ruler Jupiter has a difficult task ahead of him: to harmonize progress with protection against chaos. The last chapter summarizes the author's strategies and compares the epic with Claudian's other poems.

Im neunten Buch von Lucans Bellum civile übernimmt Cato der Jüngere den durch Pompeius´ Ermordung in Ägypten vakant gewordenen Oberbefehl über die bei Pharsalos von Caesar geschlagenen pompejanischen Truppen. Cato versucht die republikanische Verfassung vor dem Tyrannen Caesar zu retten. Aus dem verbrecherischen Bürgerkrieg zweier Despoten, Pompeius und Caesar, ist somit ein bellum iustum geworden (9, 292-293). Nachdem Cato Pompeius durch eine laudatio funebris die letzte Ehre erwiesen hat (9, 190-214), besteht er eine Reihe von Bewährungsproben und erweist sich als idealer Feldherr. Zur Charakterisierung Catos greift Lucan verschiedene literarische Traditionen auf. Cato übertrifft den homerischen Odysseus (9, 294-299. 388-389) und Alexander den Großen (9, 268-269. 493-510. 564-586); er entspricht in vollkommener Weise dem Feldherrenideal, wie es sich bei den römischen Historikern der Republik (Sallust; Livius) findet (9,294-296. 379-406. 587-593). Zentrum und Höhepunkt des neunten Buchs stellt Lucans Bewertung Catos in 9, 587-604 dar. Die Triumphzüge des Pompeius und des Marius sind geringer einzuschätzen als die Leistung Catos, obwohl er schließlich Caesar unterliegt. Entsprechend der stoischen Ethik bemißt sich der Wer einer Leistung nicht nach dem äußeren Erfolg -dieser hängt allein von der Fortuna ab- , sondern nach der vorbehaltlosen Erfüllung des moralisch Gebotenen. Für den Erhalt der Republik ist Cato in den Tod gegangen; er ist mulitärischer Held und pater patriae; er verdient göttliche Verehrung.Die stoische Moralphilosphie ist Kern der Poetik Lucans; daneben greift er jedoch auch auf andere stoische Theoreme zurück. Vor allem die Naturschilderungen (9, 303-318. 420-420-444. 444-492) lehnen sich an stoische Lehre an. Zuweilen finden sich auch Rückgriffe auf Lucrez (9, 76-77. 315-318. 471-472). Lucan ist poeta doctus; er gibt eine wissenschaftlich-rationale Weltdeutung.Der Stil Lucans ist geprägt durch das Paradox und die Sentenz. Dem Leser wird auf diese Weise die Ungerechtigkeit des Schicksals vor Augen geführt, das es zugelassen hat, daß Rom unter die Herrschaft von Tyrannen geraten ist. Lucan beabsichtigt die Empörung seiner Leser hervorzurufen und ermuntert sie, gegen die Kaiser Widerstand zu leisten.