BMCR 2008.10.14, Mario Lentano, La prova del sangue. Storie di identita\

Mario Lentano,  La prova del sangue. Storie di identita\ e storie di
legittimita\ nella cultura latina. Antropologia del mondo antico, 3.
Bologna:  Societa\ editrice il Mulino, 2007.  Pp. 295.  ISBN
978-88-15-12109-7.  EUR 20.00 (pb).

Reviewed by Anastasios D. Nikolopoulos, University of Peloponnese
([email protected])
Word count:  1012 words
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Table of contents
(http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/toc/casalini07/07955249.pdf)

This is the third volume to appear in the series 'Antropologia del
Mondo Antico' inaugurated five years ago with Cristiana Franco's  Senza
ritegno: il cane e la donna nell'immaginario della Grecia antica (BMCR
2005.08.17) under the guidance of Maurizio Bettini.

This book by Mario Lentano lacks a formal introduction, but is equipped
with conclusions. The essays which form its contents are divided into
two parts: first the stories, and then the models. The term 'essays' is
deliberately used because there is hardly any sense of logical
progression or overall argument despite a certain amount of
cross-reference. This is not necessarily a drawback, as each reader can
choose what interests him-/herself more, skimming through the table of
contents: the titles are appropriate and informative. A further essay
on Horace Odes 4.4 is relegated to an Appendix, presumably because it
is more textually focused than the rest. Finally, the bibliography
which closes the book is full and, as far as I was able to check,
almost typographically flawless.

All Greek and Latin is quoted in translation, while the original text
is normally offered in the notes that follow after each chapter. The
names and titles of ancient authors and works appear in Italian without
abbreviations.  All this makes the book accessible to everyone
interested in the anthropology of the ancient world, and beyond.
Indeed, one of the most enjoyable qualities of this book is the
wide-ranging knowledge of European literature and culture of its
author. This is a great asset for anyone using an anthropological
approach to ancient literature as 'anthropology is fundamentally
comparative.'[[1]]

Shakespeare is quoted several times, but the book's striking
starting-point is Andersen's (not Hamlet's) Denmark, where the Ugly
Duckling comes to life on a sunny day. Reading on, one realizes that
this is a standard procedure followed by Lentano: a literary text,
sometimes rather obscure, like Erasmus' Christiani matrimoni institutio
in chapter three, sets the scene for the exposition. In the first three
chapters three tests employed by animals and barbarians in order to
find out if their offspring is genuine and at the same time if their
wives are faithful are discussed. Baby eagles must be able to stare at
the sun (chapter 1), infant Psylli should survive snake-bites (chapter
2) and new-born Germans should withstand the Rhine's cold water
(chapter 3). In the fourth chapter Lentano moves on to the other end of
the spectrum, i.e. divine offspring, before concluding the first
section with a chapter on more or less plain humans (chapter 5).

As Lentano himself acknowledges on p. 86, for example, the essays
largely offer a 'percorso', in other words a diachronic (more often
than synchronic) series of examples or manifestations of a certain
cultural phenomenon, a standard procedure in anthropological
literature. These are meant to shed light by themselves, by embedding
the specific custom or ritual in a cultural and cross-cultural context.
On occasion Lentano puts forward assertions like the one on p. 65:
"Therefore, Latin culture does not seem to distinguish, as far as the
linguistic and conceptual categories employed are concerned, between
legitimacy proper, i.e. with reference to the familial nucleus, and
'ethnic' legitimacy". Only at such rare points does the style become
rather intricate and demanding. Compared to the quoted statement, which
seems to derive naturally from Lentano's presentation of the relevant
material, others are not so convincing. Nevertheless, Lentano is always
careful to show the requisite academic caution, as on p. 62, where it
is claimed that the 'hardening' of the baby's 'soft' flesh has a
symbolical rather than a physical significance (my emphasis).

What underlies all the stories in the first part of the volume is the
search for signs, not so much external signs, as these can be forged,
but signs of behavior which are somehow related to innate
characteristics. The second part begins with an essay on the language
of resemblance in Latin culture (chapter 1): monumentum, imago and
similitudo.[[2]] The signs sought in the stories of the first part are
used to verify the similarity (similitudo) between aspiring members and
those belonging to the in-group, the tribe (gens) as well as the family
(genus). Or considered from a slightly different angle, the issue is to
what extent these new members can serve as reminders (monumenta) of the
older generation, to what extent they constitute true images (imagines)
rather than flawed or even fake copies. Lentano is convinced that both
monumenta and imagines are culturally neutral terms, i.e., by
themselves they do not differentiate between genuine and illegitimate
offspring. He will only go so far as to admit that the former naturally
denotes something inferior to the original (p. 150).

It is no surprise that the resemblance that matters to Romans is that
of the male offspring with the male parent. Again it is emphasized that
although physical similarities, especially with regard to the face and
the forehead, were considered significant, behavior, starting from the
way one walks (incessus), was even more so. To illustrate this thesis,
Lentano mines the texts of Plautus and Seneca (chapter 2). Conversely,
the son whose habits and ethos did not resemble his father's was
considered degenerate (chapter 3). Given the emphasis on the male side
of the family tree, it is hardly surprising that Latin culture does not
differentiate between the various reasons for genetic mutation, i.e.
degeneration. All that is not genuine is the product of adultery.
Indeed, in all periods of Latin[[3]] the root adulter- seems to be
related not only to unchaste sexual relationships but also to the
production of impure, counterfeit objects. To conclude, part 2 contains
more discussion of linguistic matters and excellently complements part
1.

All in all, this is a readable collection of material on legitimacy in
Latin and other pre-modern cultures, clearly a formative aspect of
identity, inasmuch it is legitimate to use this concept with reference
to the ancient world. Classicists averse to theory need not be afraid
of a practically jargon-free book which puts Latin words and texts in
their cultural and social context with sophisticated clarity.


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Notes:


1.   Marcel Detienne's phrase from the English text of the preface
written specially for the Greek edition of D. Yatromanolakis-P. Roilos,
also available in  Towards a ritual poetics, Athens 2003, pdf
(http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~classics/people/roilos-preface.pdf)  form.

2.   This term is consistently preferred by Lentano, instead of "Roman
culture".

3.   adulterinus in the sense of 'forged', 'counterfeit' appears
already in Plautus, while for the other words originating from this
stem this particular semantic aspect is attested from Ovid onwards.