Abstract

“Causas memorare - causas cognoscere - causas expromere. Towards a Poetology of Causation in Greco-Roman Epic.” This article examines the different mechanisms of explaining and reasoning that are at work in three proems of epic poetry (Homer, Iliad; Virgil, Aeneid; Lucan, Pharsalia). While the proem of the Iliad explains the causes of events in a psycho-theological way, the explanation that the poet of the Pharsalia gives in the proem of his work is predominantly an aetiological- teleological one. The proem of the Aeneid combines the two forms. The mode of presentation is narrative in the proem of the Iliad, but analytical in the proem of the Aeneid and the Pharsalia. As far as the constitution of the narrator is concerned, the proem of Lucan’s Pharsalia is an interesting case: Here, we are clearly dealing with an unreliable narrator whose emotional state casts doubt on the reliability of his statements.