''Leucothoe'' is a 1883
poem
Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings ...
in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...
by
Giovanni Pascoli
Giovanni Placido Agostino Pascoli (; 31 December 1855 – 6 April 1912) was an Italian poet, classical scholar and an emblematic figure of Italian literature in the late nineteenth century. Alongside Gabriele D'Annunzio, he was one of the great ...
, rediscovered and published in 2012. The work takes the form of a mythological and erotic
epyllion
A sleeping Theseus.html" ;"title="Ariadne's abandonment by Theseus">Ariadne's abandonment by Theseus is the topic of an elaborate ecphrasis in Catullus 64, the most famous extant epyllion. (Roman copy of a 2nd-century BCE Greek original; :it:Vill ...
of 144 verses.
Editorial history
Pascoli composed the poem in 1883 when, in financial difficulties, he heard about the
Certamen poeticum Hoeufftianum
Certamen, Latin for competition, may refer to:
*''Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi'', a Greek narrative of an imagined poetical agon between Homer and Hesiod
* Certamen (quiz bowl), a competition with classics-themed questions
See also
*Agon
Agon ( ...
, a prize awarded annually by the
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...
in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
. He sent the composition, however, without knowing the rules of the competition, nor did he include his name, so he received no news from the academy and the work was lost in the Dutch archives.
In 2012, the philologist
Vincenzo Fera
Vincenzo is an Italian male given name, derived from the Latin name Vincentius (the verb ''vincere'' means to win or to conquer). Notable people with the name include:
Art
*Vincenzo Amato (born 1966), Italian actor and sculptor
* Vincenzo Bell ...
tracked down the poem at the
Noord-Hollands Archief in
Haarlem, finding the original text in its entirety, on three sheets of paper handwritten by the author, and published it in December 2012.
Title
The name of the protagonist, Leucothoe, does not seem to draw so much from Ovid's
Leucothoe as from the myth of the goddess
Leucothea
In Greek mythology, Leucothea (; grc-gre, Λευκοθέα, Leukothéa, white goddess), sometimes also called Leucothoe ( grc-gre, Λευκοθόη, Leukothóē), was one of the aspects under which an ancient sea goddess was recognized, in this ...
.
Contents
Leucothoe is the daughter of a marine divinity and a mortal. Her semi-divine nature will induce her to seek a rapprochement with the
Nereids
In Greek mythology, the Nereids or Nereides ( ; grc, Νηρηΐδες, Nērēḯdes; , also Νημερτές) are sea nymphs (female spirits of sea waters), the 50 daughters of the ' Old Man of the Sea' Nereus and the Oceanid Doris, sister ...
nymphs, causing her isolation from mortals and thus avoiding the courtship of her peers: her love is in fact reserved for a sea deity, who will make her his.
References
{{Authority control
Italian literature