How to Make Aeneas a Queen? Heroines in Neo-Latin Epic Poetry

Considering ancient epic poetry, the protagonists of these poems were always men: Achilles (Iliad), Ulisses (Odyssey), Aeneas (Aeneid), Caesar and Pompeius (Pharsalia), Scipio (Punica) are only the best-known examples. The protagonists of Neo-Latin epic poems were also usually men whose portrayal—especially from the sixteenth century onwards—was very much based on Virgil’s portrayal of Aeneas. This general feature of Neo-Latin epic poetry has already been highlighted in several studies (Hofmann 2001, Kallendorf 2014, Schaffenrath 2015, Gwynne 2017).

However, there is also a significant number of poems that are written about a female protagonist. Their authors have not found a direct model for this task in ancient epic poetry. Outstanding examples of this sub-group of Neo-Latin epic poetry are Erasmus Laetus’ Margaretica (Frankfurt a.M. 1573) on Queen Margaret I of Denmark, William Alabaster’s fragmentary Elisaeis (before 1590) on Elizabeth I of England, or the anonymous Theresias (1746) on Maria Theresa of Austria, to whom also Francesco Maria Cesare’s Theresia (Vienna 1752) is dedicated. Individual studies are available on these epics, e.g. O’Connell 1979 on the Elisaeis, or Skovgaard-Petersen 1988 on the Margaretica.

In my lecture, however, I will not present one of these poems in detail, but rather pursue the overarching question of which strategies the early modern poets used in order to still be able to fall back on Virgil’s model for the representation of their heroines; after all, the representation of a person in the form of an epic was associated with a great deal of prestige, and it was precisely this fame that the epic poets wanted to claim for their poetry. Central points will be: the portrayal of the heroine as mater (inspired by the model of pater Aeneas), the mockery of femininity by the heroine’s opponents or negative powers, and the orientation towards famous warrior maidens such as Penthesilea or Camilla.