Tibullo poeta sacerdos nell'elegia 2,1: riverberi linguistici della mimesi sacrale

Conventionally identifying the rite described in Tib. 2,1 in the private Ambarvalia, this article analyses the dual role of poeta and sacerdos played in this elegy by Tibullus who, following the Callimachean model of the “mimetic” hymn, simultaneously officiates and portrays the rite. By researching some of the linguistic and stylistic consequences brought about by this coincidence of roles, the contribution attempts to highlight how the poet, lyrically guiding the priest’s gestures and voice and actively interpreting his own double role, varies, expands and innovates certain formular locutions of the rite and certain literary expressions specialised in the religious sphere. The hypothesis put forward is centred on the assumption that the numerous efforts of linguistic and stylistic innovation concentrated in the “ritual” section of Tib. 2,1 were aroused and fostered by the performative character inherent in the compositional technique employed, by a mimetic identification of the poet with the sacerdos that constantly induced the one, in a delicate balance of roles, to watch over the elocution of the other. The purpose is to seek the linguistic reverberations of sacral mimesis in the portion of elegy examined (1-26), investigating the most significant examples from a critical perspective that does not separate the poet’s word from the officiant’s action and shows how one reciprocally influences the other.