Dire les mystères en latin, et en vers, au IVe s. apr. J.C. : À propos d’orgia (Aviénus et Optatien Porphyre) et d’Eleusis (Claudien)

Abstract

Abstract In this article, I first examine the use of the word orgia in the context of Optatian’s, Avienus’ and Claudian’s poetry. I then evaluate the references to the cult of Eleusis occurring in the proemium of the first book of Claudian’s Rape of Proserpina. By these two test cases, I try to survey the way in which the vocabulary of the mystery cults is used by Latin poets writing in the 4th century AD, a time punctuated by events which had progressively pushed the mystery cults to the margins of the Empire. In these texts, which might possibly mirror contemporary religious issues—although they are, first and foremost, literary projects shaped by their own models and narrative mechanisms—the mystery ceremony is sometimes likened to a theatrical performance; the emphasis is placed on the collective sensory experience, on the occult nature of these practices, as well as on their etiological aspects and symbolic meaning.