Antony’s Onocentaur: The Symbolism of a Mythological Curiosity (Athanasius, Vita Antonii 53,1–3)
In his Vita Antonii, Athanasius narrates a hostile encounter that his protagonist Antony has with a half-human, half-asinine creature which intrudes upon his solitude in the desert and dies a violent death after Antony banishes it. Many scholars have suggested that this humanoid’s strange appearance...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | German |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
[2020]
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| In: |
Wiener Studien
Year: 2020, Volume: 133, Pages: 107-118 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | In his Vita Antonii, Athanasius narrates a hostile encounter that his protagonist Antony has with a half-human, half-asinine creature which intrudes upon his solitude in the desert and dies a violent death after Antony banishes it. Many scholars have suggested that this humanoid’s strange appearance is meant to evoke one or other Egyptian deity. In this article I propose that it represents instead a species of centaur from Greco-Roman mythology, the onocentaur. I then argue that Athanasius deploys the story about this creature’s demise as part of a larger narrative strategy in his idealized construction of Antony as a Christian holy man. |
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| ISSN: | 1813-3924 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Wiener Studien
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1553/wst133s107 |