Valentino D’URSO (Università degli Studi di Salerno)
FABULA MENDAX. RELIGIOSITÀ E CONCEZIONE DEL MITO NEL BELLUM CIVILE DI LUCANO
Keywords: Lucan, gods, myth, rationalism, demythologisation, desacralisation.
Abstract: Fabula mendax. Myth and religiosity in Lucan’s Bellum civile. Both the representation of the gods and the use of myth are distinctive features of Lucan’s anticonformism: they equally reveal the scepticism and rationalism of the poet who criticises traditional Roman religio as vacuous superstition. This article intends to highlight the mechanisms of the desacralisation of the gods, the demystification of religious beliefs, and thus the rational critique of myth enacted by Lucan, who takes to extremes similar processes already employed by Lucretius, his master Cornutus and his uncle Seneca.