The Return of Proserpina

Book excerpt: "In this book, Sarah Spence explores the role of Sicily in the European imagination through the myth of Proserpina, who was abducted by the god of the underworld from the same Mediterranean island. Drawing on the author's training in both classics and medieval studies, the book explores how mythic narrative reflects ideas about ancient and medieval empires and engages with debates about the nature of the classical tradition as it evolved during the Middle Ages. Spence argues that the narrative structure of the Proserpina myth, the history of Sicily, and ideas about empire come to reflect, refract, and refine one another through literature, including works by Cicero, Vergil, Ovid, Claudian, and Dante. More broadly, Spence considers the way in which literature offers a space for political deliberation and imagination. While Roman poets focus on Proserpina's abduction as a means for discussing the problems of imperial expansion, for example, high medieval renderings of the myth-invoked in discussions of a new Christian empire shaped by the Crusades-instead focus on the loss of Proserpina, her eventual return, and the necessary negotiations her return involves. In this way, the tale of Proserpina and the history of Sicily trace the changing needs and understandings of empire, literature, and the complicated links between the two"--