Skip to main content

Sabazius in the Aeneid (7.431-60)

Lowe, Dunstan (2012) Sabazius in the Aeneid (7.431-60). Vergilius, 58 (1). pp. 81-91. ISSN 0506-7294. (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:34368)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.

Abstract

The sensual bedroom epiphany of the Fury Allecto, by which Amata is driven into a Bacchic frenzy, resembles the initiation ritual of the cult of Sabazius, a "sacred marriage" in which a metal snake was dropped down the front of the initiand's clothes. This Thraco-Phrygian deity had a small but persistent presence in the Roman empire (attested in the army as early as the first century BC, and also at Pompeii), and was frequently identified with Dionysus. Virgil seems to have known of this cult and integrated it into the symbolic economy of the poem, in which feminine, sensual, oriental (including Phrygian) and ecstatic elements are opposed to the masculine self-control of the protagonist and his descendants.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: P Language and Literature > PA Classical philology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > Department of Classical and Archaeological Studies
Depositing User: Dunstan Lowe
Date Deposited: 22 Jun 2013 16:34 UTC
Last Modified: 19 Apr 2022 13:38 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/34368 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.