The Goddess Venus in Lucretius’ poem ‘De rerum natura’

In the paper, the structure, composition and properties of feminine vestimentary fashion as a visual symbolic system, are studied. It is found out that the system of female fashion cannot be deduced as a simple derivative of the costume design either in synchronic or diachronic (historical) aspect. The methodology used in the work includes techniques and methods of semiotic analysis proposed by R. Barthes, Prince N. Trubetzkoy, L. Hjelmslev, A. Martinet and Ch. Peirce. It is shewn that throughout the history the semiotic potential of fashion has always been unevenly distributed between the two genders. The man has always considered clothing exclusively as an object of use and necessity, while on the basis of the costume design, the woman was able to create a complex visual semiotic system of fashion completely separate and unrelated to the costume design directly. The real clothing, conditioned by its goals and purposes, does not mean anything. Women's fashion, by contrast, means and represents, encodes and transposes the meanings and denotes and connotes the signifiers. Feminine fashion simulates symbolic and social reality and builds a new world of the imaginary, drawing horizons of appearances and expanding the semantic foundations of the phaenomenology of clothing. In general, female fashion system is as complex as the real clothes are simple. Even in the extreme case of nudity, female nakedness transforms to a semiotic system. An approach to the classification of visual signs of women's fashion is proposed, according to which these signs with respect to mobility can be a) static, b) dynamic and c) static-dynamic. According to the message of meaning aimed at the recipient, the signs can be divided into: i) semantic signs, ii) signs-ciphers, which, in turn, are divided into ii, α) purely cryptographic signs and ii, β) simulacra, and iii) signs-imperatives. It is revealed that the semiotic chains built by women's fashion can be of four levels: 0) the level of expediency, 1) main denotative level, 2) level of symbolic ritual tradition (level of initial connotation of meanings), 3) level of fashion mythology (an aggregate of many levels of subsequent connotation of meanings).

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Il porco e la maggiorana. Per una lettura epicurea delcarme13 di Catullo

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2023

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In addition to a reminiscence of some epigrams written by the Epicurean Philodemus of Gadara, in Catullus 13 we can also recognize an allusion to some verses of Lucretius (6.973‑8), in which the marjoram unguentum is placed alongside the image of the pig that shuns it. This allusion could be explained by the custom of comparing the followers of Epicurus precisely to pigs, as indicated even by Lucretius’ contemporary Cicero. The invitation to Fabullus, in an atmosphere of playful Epicurean lightheartedness, would therefore induce his friend not to flee from the precious unguentum donated by Veneres Cupidinesque, since he could, thanks to his venustas, enjoy its sweet and refined perfume to the full.

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The Goddess Venus in Lucretius’ poem ‘De rerum natura’

Cited by 3 publications

References 8 publications

Fashion in Clothes as a Political Instrument of (Re)Shaping Gender Social Roles: Reaction of Muslim Diasporas to the EU’s Initiatives

Fashion in Clothes as a Political Instrument of (Re)Shaping Gender Social Roles: Reaction of Muslim Diasporas to the EU’s Initiatives

Visual Semiotics of Feminine Fashion: A Concise Analysis

Il porco e la maggiorana. Per una lettura epicurea delcarme13 di Catullo

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