Literary Anamnesis: Boethius Remembers Ovid

Manlius Anicius Severinus Boethius composed the Consolatio philosophiae in the first quarter of the sixth century C.E., while the ex-consul was exiled from Rome, probably imprisoned at Pavia and awaiting execution. Boethius was a victim of the complex politics of his time that set the Orthodox East against the Arian West. (1) Both classicists and medievalists find the polymath Boethius of interest. (2) He was not a great original thinker but, along with Cicero, is considered the purveyor of Greek philosophy to the Latin West. Boethius's writings on philosophy, mathematics, music, and theology stretch over a wide spectrum of disciplines, culminating in the Consolatio. (3) The work comprises a melange not only of philosophical views but also of allusions to virtually the whole of the classical canon, including the major poets of the Augustan era. In the main it reflects Platonic thought on the nature of God and the relative merits of Free Will versus Providence, (4) and portrays the fall from grace and the recovery of its author in the guise of reminiscences about the visitation of the allegorical figure of Philosophy herself, who, as mentor and physician, brings her lapsed adherent back to full recollection (anamnesis) of her healing and sustaining precepts in an extended dialectic. We may assume that throughout the text "Dame Philosophy" and her "pupil" are both mouthpieces for the philosopher's own inner struggle to come to terms with his lot. That is, the creative author reports in the words of the prisoner what he himself as historical personage feels or has felt and, in the words of Philosophy, what he knows he should be thinking. (5) In his political fall and banishment from Rome, Boethius may appear to resemble the famous exiles of an earlier era, Cicero, Ovid, and Seneca, but in circumstances and general mindset he seems a world removed from all three, Ovid in particular. Yet it is my intention here to consider possible Ovidian influence in the manner in which Boethius treats the topic of amor. Specifically I try to answer the question as to what degree Boethius's concept of amor in various key poems agrees with, or opposes, Ovid's. Such intertextual comparison may playfully be termed an exploration of "literary anamnesis." Various problems of interpreting the Consolatio need no more than a rapid review. (6) The five books of the work are Menippean in format, (7) that is, we have prose passages of varying length alternating with thirty-nine poems in a variety of meters, most purportedly sung by Philosophia, with only four in the prisoner's mouth. (8) Generic considerations are a matter of debate, such as the nonsatirical content of what essentially is Menippean satire, and its prosimetric format. (9) Critics disagree on the importance and degree of integration of the verse sections with the prose: Are the poems integral to the philosophical prose, or mere ornament, perhaps even the insertion by the perforce idle consular of previously composed nugae? Do they offer contrast or counterpoint to the prose? Or do they carry a supporting or even a secondary philosophical message? (10) Contents vary considerably. (11) The workings of the cosmos and extraterrestrial signs are perhaps the most frequent topic; but various myths are told, and the central hexameter (3.m.9) is a hymn to the cosmic Creator-Deity. (12) On how to judge the poems, Walsh (1999, xliii) suggests that Boethius is "more of a versifier than a true poet," denoting him a "prisoner of his models, assembling a medley of borrowings without ordering them into a unique vision." For Walsh, this versifier's chief skill lies in his adaptation of his verses "to the contexts of the philosophical arguments." This assertion needs exploration. Philosophical Content Critics are unsure if the Consolatio was meant as an apologia pro vita sua. Its conversational format is deceptively simple, veering between first-person reminiscence and second-person address. …