Prudentius’ Psychomachi Essay

Write 4-5 sentences answering each question separately. Do not use outside sources because everything you need is attached to this questions

1. In the beginning of Psychomachia, Prudentius brings up the story of story of Abraham rescuing his nephew Lot from his imprisonment by pagan kings. Why does God tell Abraham to fight these unholy men? Why is it important to “cleanse” the child’s heart?
2. In Psychomachia, how do you perceive the virtues and the vices? What is the difference between the two? What is the end goal of the vices? How do the virtues ultimately defeat the vices?
3. How is Prudentius’ Psychomachia similar to our other readings, especially Virgil’s Aeneid? How are they different? Why in nearly all the readings does good always triumph evil (Your opinion)?

Aurelius Prudentius Clemens, The Battle for the Soul of Man (Psychomachia)
Prologue: The faithful old man who first showed the way of faith became a father late
in life: his sons became a race blessed by God and his name, Abram, which his father
gave him,became Abraham when God spoke with him. He made a sacrifice of his first
born and showed us that the only sacrifice pleasing to God is one which offers what is
dearest to our hearts. He warned us that we must fight unholy men; he himself showed
us that no child is pleasing to God or virtuous until the spirit kills the monsters
lurking within the child’s heart.
Vicious kings captured Lot and made him stay in Sodom and Gomorrah where he
was known as a great man, though an alien. A messenger brought to Abram the news
that his kinsman had been placed in bondage by barbarians. He armed his own
servants, slaves who had always lived in his household, to pursue the enemy and catch
them while they marched burdened by the victory and the great weight of booty they
had seized. Abraham himself, filled with God’s Spirit, took a sword and drove those
insolent kings into a lumbering flight. He killed them and trampled their bleeding
bodies; he broke the chains and released the plundered riches – gold, young women,
children, jewels, mares, CUPS, clothing and cattle. Lot himself was freed, and
straightened his neck and massaged himself where the chains had rubbed and
blistered his skin.
Abram, after destroying that triumph, returned covered with glory because he had
saved his brother’s son from slavery so that their race would not be subjected to the
rule of wicked, barbarian kings.
While Abram and his men were on the road from this slaughter, a priest stopped
their journey and gave them heavenly food. This great priest, a mighty king, had no
known mother and no known father: without parents, without children except those
known only to God, he fed the father of undying sons Then a trinity of angels under
the form of three men came to the old man’s cottage for food and rest. Sara conceived
and was astounded to find her old womb alive with the strength and promise of youth;
she was becoming a mother after. the time for bearing children had gone by. She
rejoiced for the heir and regretted her laughter when she had heard the promise.
This picture of the ways of God and man has been drawn as a model for our lives to
show again that our hearts must-have faith and that every part of our captive flesh
must be freed from the foulness of desire. We must see that we have servants enough
from within our own house to overcome the evil that always rages in us. Christ
himself, who is the only true Priest, the Son of one whose name cannot be said, will
feed the victor and enter his heart to let it entertain the Trinity. The Spirit will
embrace the childless soul and make it fertile with eternal seed; late in her life, this
richly endowed soul will be a mother and produce an heir.
0 Christ, you have always been revered because you have always had compassion
on the misery of man; you are always revered for the powers you share with the
Father – it is one power for it is only one God yet it is not merely one God that we
worship since you too are also God born of the Father. Tell us, great King, how the
soul is endowed with strength to fight and expel our sins from our hearts; when our
thoughts are scattered and when strife rises within us, when evil desires rebel, tell us
how to guard the liberty of the soul; tell us about our defenses against the fiend.
For you, good leader, have not left us here helpless before the onslaught of vice
without the virtues to help us in battle and renew our courage; you yourself are in
command of legions that fight this battle where the attack is worst. YOU yourself can
arm the spirit with precious skills which permit it to resist and fight for you, conquer
for you. The path to victory is there before your eyes. We must study the features of
the virtues and the dark monsters waiting there to challenge their strength.
Faith is the first to appear on the field to face the uncertainty of this conflict. Her
rough dress is disheveled, her shoulders are bare, her long hair is untrimmed and her
arms are uncovered. The glow on her skin is caused by the prospect of sudden and
unexpected battle. She bums to enter new contests, she ignores the. demands of armor.
Faith puts her confidence in her strong heart and arms. She scorns the dangers of
hand-to-hand combat and intends to destroy her foe by exhausting him.
The first adversary approaches Faith; it is Worship-of-the-Old-Gods (we have no
better name) who proposes to accept the challenge of Faith. But Faith strikes the
enemy’s head and it tumbles in the dirt where it lies, with its be-ribboned brows and
the wide mouth that ate the warm red flesh of beasts.
Faith tramples the head and takes particular pains to squeeze the dead grey eyes out
of the bloody skull; the monster’s throat is dosed and its breath is throttled in its
passages until it gasps a hard death. The spectators, who have been assembled by
Faith from among the ranks of the martyrs, become brave enough to face the foe: she
crowns her followers with blossoms and gives them robes of flaming purple.
The next person to step out on the grassy field is Chastity, the virgin, shining in
armour. Lust, who has come from Sodom, is armed with torches. The vice thrusts a
burning pine knot dipped in sulphur and tar into the maiden’s eyes. But without fear
she strikes the hand with a stone and the blazing torch is knocked away. With only
one thrust of her sword, she pierces the throat of the whore and -stinking fumes with
clots of blood are spat out; the foul breath poisons the near-by air. The virtuous queen
then cries out:
‘It is done, this will be your end – you will always lie prostrate, never again will you
dare to spit your flames against the men and women who are God’s; their hearts are
kindled by the torch of ‘ Christ’s pure love. Do you think, molester of men, that. you
can get your strength and be warmed again by the breath of life? Remember the head
of Holofernes: it soaked the cushions of his couch with the blood of passion; Judith,
an honest woman, refused his jewelled bed and stopped his fervour with one thrust of
her dagger. Weak woman though she was, her hand never trembled as she fought for
my cause with heavenly boldness. But perhaps you think that because such a woman
acted under the old law, a physical law, she and others like her would be powerless
now that the battle has been moved to spiritual realms. But I tell you that feeble hands
can still sever the heads of the mighty: a virgin has now borne a child. On that day
when the flesh lost its nature and the power of God made for us a new flesh, a bride
who never a wife conceived the Christ who is both man because of his mother and
God because he was conceived by the Spirit of God. Ever since that day, all flesh is
godlike since it conceives the Son of God and assumes his nature by a compact of
partnership. The Word of God has not become another thing by taking flesh. The
majesty of God is in no way reduced by the limits of bodily experience. But mankind
is raised to understand nobler things: God remains as he always is though he begins to
be something that he was not; we are no more as we had been because we have been
born again to a be better condition. He give of himself to men, without detracting from
what he is; he has not been diminished by taking what is ours, but by adding What is
his to what is ours he has elevated us to the height of his gifts.
That you, foul Lust, lie here defeated in the dirt and cannot challenge me because of
Mary is the gift of God to men. You are the way of death; you are the gateway to ruin.
You stain our flesh and you plunge our spirits into the pit of Hell. Bury your head in
the abyss of grief, you are a pestilence without power, you are frozen. Die, whore; go
down to the damned. May you be enclosed in Hell and be thrown in the dark crevasse
of night; may the blazing rivers toss you on their currents; may the flood of darkness
and the pools of sulfur fling you among the rapids of their roaring streams. Never
again, Prince of fiends, will you tempt Christians; their bodies will be kept dean and
pure for their King! . That was the speech of Chastity. She washed her sword in the
Jordan because the hammered steel was stained red by the blood that bad gushed from
the monster’s wound. The victorious queen cleansed her blade in the stream, clipping
it again and again until the dots had washed away. Then, because she was afraid that it
might rust in its tight sheath, she consecrated it in a Catholic temple from. which the
river of God flows. in that place the sword cannot be dimmed.
When Chastity has retired, Longanimity or Patience comes on to the field. she is
standing by the side watching the uproar of that combat: her quiet expression never
changes as spears inflict their mortal wounds. Wrath, from, a great distance, spies the
easy-tempered virtue and all at once becomes enraged. Baring her teeth in anger and
letting flecks of foam fall from her gaping black mouth, the vice darts her bloodshot
eyes this way and that and challenges Patience to fight both by brandishing the
weapons of combat and by making a speech: she mocks Patience for keeping a place
on the side. infuriated by such reticence, Wrath throws a spear and abuses the meek,
long-suffering virtue: ‘This is for fools like you who stand aside and watch the combat
without expressing favour. Take this wound in your gentle breast without crying; you
would be dishonoured to admit any pain! With these words a shaft of pine is hurled
through the air. Thrown with a good aim, the long sharp shaft strikes against the belly
of Patience but falls into the dust. The virtue has wrapped her body in a jacket of steel
links: this garment is three layers in thickness and its fabric is stitched together with
leather. Longanimity stands there quite unruffled while a storm of weapons falls at her
brave feet; she keeps such a line of defence that nothing injures her. While she stands
unmoving, Patience watches her foe rage in an uncontrolled frenzy. But Patience
waits because Wrath will perish by her own violence. When that opponent has finally
exhausted her strength and used all of her weapons her right hand is useless and the
ground is littered with weapons. Then she reaches-for a sword: raising the steel blade
high over her head, she brings it down on the head of Patience, but a helmet of forged
bronze only rings under that great blow. The sword its edge blunted, rebounds; the
unbending helmet shatters it and Patience still stands there, unmoved, as she was
before. The fury of Wrath is multiplied: with her sword scattered about her feet, she
throws the hilt aside and finds herself without weapons. Only one thing remains: she
had spent all her energies and won nothing for herself; her unreasoning anger turns on
herself and she prepares for suicide. She picks up one of her useless weapons; she puts
the shaft in the dirt and falls on the upturned point. Patience stands over Wrath and
speaks: ‘We have conquered. With no danger to life our accustomed virtue has won
the day again. This is the way we live, wiping out the devils of passion and all their
attendant evils by standing as they attack. Wrath is its own enemy, Fury kills herself.
As she turns away and walks among the martyrs, a noble man appears there as her
escort. Job had stayed by her, enduring the battle with her. Before his expression was
grave and he panted as he watched the conflict. But now he is smiling 2s he thinks of
his healed sores and the scars he shows as his glory after thousands of 6rd-won fights.
Heaven’s King invited him to rest and he gave job those spoils of battle that he will
never lose. Patience herself walks through the raging battlefield without injury.
Patience allies herself with the other virtues and freely gives assistance wherever it is
needed. No virtue enters the battle without the help of Patience. Only Patience has the
strength needed by all the others.
It happens that Pride is riding about the field on a high, spirited horse. As usual, she
is all inflated by her own great importance: she has laid a lion’s pelt across die horse’s
strong shoulders so that she can look more important as she keeps her disdainful poise
above the field. She has braided her hair high on her head so that there might be a
lofty and more imposing peak above her haughty brows. A mantle made of fine
Spanish linen is thrown across her shoulders and gathered high at the bosom so that
her breasts are made more prominent. A long veil hangs from her neck like a
transparent scarf; when the wind blows around her, it flows ‘ and billows like a
vessel’s -pennant. Her horse, a charger who cannot stand still, carries himself in
haughty fashion unwilling to have his jaw curbed by the bit. Since the horse is
restrained, he cannot enjoy the freedom he seeks: he stamps with rage because the
reins press hard against his neck. in such fashion does this virago show herself Head
and shoulders above the opposing troops, she parades up and down on her horse and
glares at those confronting her. Her enemy is poor in arms and numbers, a force
conscripted by Lowliness. Though noble, Lowliness has need of another since she
cannot rely on her own resources. Hope is her friend, a virtue whose estate is rich and
raised above the earth to be a place of wealth.