ABSTRACT
It is not unusual for Latin poems from the Classical period onward to have Greek titles; for example, Vergil’s Aeneid, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and Claudian’s Gigantomachy (on Claudian and P’s Prefaces see Dorfbauer 2010). The word psychomachia is ambiguous and can mean “battle in/of/ for the soul.” Prudentius (P. hereafter) extends the ambiguity into the poem through his all-encompassing allegorical construction. The battle between the virtues and vices is simultaneously taking place within an individual soul, in human history, in the Church, and on epic battlefields. The Preface allegorizes events from the life of Abraham in order to exhibit the struggle of a soul to achieve the status of a virtuous Christian. The metaphors of victory in combat and the resultant freedom from slavery dominate the first 28 lines of the Preface. In the first section of the Preface (1–14), P. establishes a didactic pose (the poet as teacher), which sets the stage for references to Abraham’s life and actions, which convey moral and allegorical meaning. The stories of Abraham, Lot, and Sara, taken from Gen. 14–18, foreshadow the victory of virtue over vice to come in the main poem. Moreover, this victory can only be achieved within a person’s soul through faith, a commitment to Nicean Christian doctrines of the Trinity, the sacraments, and Salvation History. Following on from this scenario, P. invites the reader to compare the stories of Melchisedech and Christ, describing their mysterious origins and priestly/kingly status. The purpose is to portray the New Testament as the fulfillment of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible), subordinating the Hebrew covenant to the new Christian dispensation. The pairings of Abraham/faith and Melchisedech/Christ extend to the individual soul of the reader as he or she struggles to develop the faith in order to accept Christ and the doctrines of the Church.
