ABSTRACT
The Ciceronianus fallacy If the meaning of the new genealogical techniques can only be the old blood myth, then the meaning of the newly adopted techniques of imitation, revised for Christian poets, can only be ancient poetry and oratory. This is precisely where the survival of the pagan gods is meant to take place amid the crumbling ethnogenic fables. But in actuality the pagan gods can’t survive the practice of imitatio because that practice is turned into an art form when adopted as a new technology by Renaissance authors. The transformation of an ancient practice into a “modern” art form imbues the new technology with contemporary values. Notwithstanding the free play of modern tropes, these contemporary values, presented with the trappings of a proudly retrospective technique, empty out and remythicize the icons of the past, expunging them from culture in the very act of admiring and assimilating the ancient technique.
