LA AUCTORITAS SUBVERTIDA: MAGISTER Y DISCIPULUS EN LA EXPOSITIO VIRGILIANAE CONTINENTIAE DE FULGENCIO EL MITÓGRAFO

Abstract

The Expositio uirgilianae continentiae –written by Fulgentius the Mythographer around the end of the 5^th century A. D., or at the beginning of the 6^th– is articulated on a series of assumptions that immediately refers us to the imaginary of two didactic discursive scenarios of Late Latin Literature. On one hand, the school of the grammaticus, with the omnipresence of Virgil, and linguistic and cultural normative. On the other hand, philosophical commentary, similar genre, but external to school and more interested in interpretation and exegesis. Fulgentius articulates his work in the form of a dialogue, through which Virgil's work is explained allegorically in terms of the stages of man's life. After that, the Christian sanction is added in order to close the meaning. Fulgentius asks Virgil, as grammaticus, to propose the allegorical interpretation of his poem, and then he completes the reading with the Christian sanction, through the quotation of the Holy Scriptures. This narrative design leads to the redefinition of the categories of magister and discipulus, as to a reformulation of the concept of auctoritas.

The present paper aims to study the construction of the figures of magister and discipulus in relation to the subtexts of late antique commentary, with the purpose of detecting the transformations operated, the register in which these transformations take place, and the reading key proposed by Fulgentius in order to read Virgil's work.