La mort de Palinure (Virgile, Eneide, V et VI)
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Abstract EN:
"palinurus'death", a work in two parts, provides an insight into the poet's technique and inspiration. It is one of the heights of creative art : the contents of the two episodes is in tune with the whole of the aeneid. Palinurus' fall, merging with aeneas' own life-story, completes his odyssey. The pilot's death was suggested to the antiquarian poet by aetiological legends -- either native or already established by historians -- and by the katabatic tradition -- egyptian or babylonian -- to which virgil's narrative owes its structure. The poet, however, dissociated himself from his numerous sources thanks to a powerful capacity for synthesis, duverged from his models and his own themes and turned what might have been a mere compilation into a meditation about history. The originality of his creative work is due to the novelty of his way of arranging his material. There is another side to it : virgil tried to fuse two episodes composed at two different times ; by using the later one as the keystone of the whole construction, he gave the earlier one a meaning it did not initially convey. The harmony of opposites resulting from this work is fraught with a new meaning. Palinurus and aeneas embody the dyarchic structure of any foundation ; moreover, because of numerous analogies, palinu- rus may be looked upon as august's "collega", agrippa. The ideology of the augustean regime made the rehabilitation of the "second" necessary. A second- rate character though he was, palinurus is also the tangible representation of the archetype of the leader. Substituting aeneas for his pilot symbolizes the hero's way of surpassing himself and, by analogy with it, octavius' in 23. Such a symbol, borne out borne out by the experience of the katabasis, leads to the epic celebration of august achieving self-knowledge and grown in stature through his moral sacrifice ; thus a glimpse of the sacred is provided, crowned by dreamlike inspiration as embodied by somnus. Within such a frame- work of references, "palinurus' death" actually expresses the new birth of rome.
Abstract FR:
La "mort de palinure", composition en deux tableaux, donne un apercu du travail, de l'inspiration du poete. Moment privilegie de la creation : le contenu des deux episodes est en resonance avec l'ensemble de l'eneide. La chute de palinure, se confondant avec l'histoire d'enee, acheve son odysee. La mort du pilote est suggeree au poete antiquaire par des legendes etiologiques, indigenes ou deja fixees par des historiens, et par la tradition catabatique - egyptienne, babylonienne - a laquelle est redevable la structure du recit virgilien. Le poete se demarque toutefois de sources si diverses par une puis- sante synthese, un ecart par rapport a ses modeles et ses propres themes, et en s'elevant d'un travail de compilation a une meditation sur l'histoire. La nouveaute de sa creation tient a celle de l'agencement du materiau utilise. Autre marque d'originalite : virgile tente d'harmoniser deux episodes appar- tenant a deux etapes differentes de l'elaboration ; faisant du plus recent la cle de voute de l'edifice, il enrichit le plus ancien d'un sens qu'il n'avait pas. Ce travail fait jaillir de l'accord des contraires un sens nouveau. Pali- nure et enee incarnent la structure dyarchique de toute fondation ; de nom- breuses analogies permettent d'ailleurs de voir en palinure le "collega" d' auguste, agrippa. L'ideologie du regime augusteen imposait la rehabilitation du "second". Mais, personnage de second ordre, palinure est aussi la represen- tation sensible de l'archetype du chef. La substitution d'enee a son pilote symbolise le depassement du heros et, par analogie, d'octave en 23. Un tel symbole, prolonge par l'experience de la catabase, permet la celebration epi- que d'auguste, revele a lui-meme et grandi par son sacrifice moral : ouvertu- re sur le sacre que couronne l'inspiration onirique, representee par somnus. Dans ce cadre-la, la "mort de palinure" exprime vraiment la nouvelle naissance de rome.