Early Christian Literature

Abstract

The aetiological formulae observed throughout Greek and Roman antiquity remain well and alive even beyond the transition from Classical to Christian antiquity. In Prudentius’ Peristephanon 2, the aetion around which the poem is centred provides the site for the conversion of the poem itself and its turn towards heaven, but it no longer establishes an exclusive connection between past and present. It shares this function with typological parallels, which privilege similarity over chronological order. The aetion embodies the position of Prudentius and his fellow Christians in time: still bound to this world with its sense of chronology and beginnings, but already looking forward to the realm of God, when time in its usual sequentiality will no longer count and the true light of God will fully be seen. Orosius, by contrast, uses aetia as textual loci that encapsulate with particular clarity his vision of time and of God’s role in human history. They also become touchstones of faith, since they can only be fully understood by those who can see the truth and the working of God in this world. Aetia become powerful textual occasions on which Orosius memorably instructs his audience about the power of God, his wrath and constant punishment of sin. For him, aetia become part and parcel of his agenda as a Christian author.