“Come, be the author of this poem”: commentary on the preface of Juvencus’ Euangeliorum libri quattuor

Abstract

In the fourth century CE, Juvencus, a Spaniard priest, was responsible for inaugurating the tradition of the so-called biblical epics with his only surviving work – the Euangeliorum libri quattuor – which is dedicated to narrating Christ’s life in dactylic hexameters. Given this novelty, the poet uses the preface to situate his work in relation to previous poets, justifying his endeavor and summarizing his choices for the text construction. Addressing the information presented and the way it is done, we propose an analysis of this portion of his poem in order to demonstrate how the author pursues this process using common themes of previous poetry at the same time that he rivals with it. It is observed, as an example, that the programmatic invocation to the Muses is replaced by an appeal to the Holy Spirit, and the traditional Greek springs from which inspiration flows, by the Jordan River.