Omnia luxus habet: los sentidos y el pecado original en la 'Hamartigenia' de Prudencio

En este arti´culo analizo la peculiar reflexio´n cosmolo´gica de Prudencio sobre el lujo. Partiendo del tratamiento moral de Salustio, Prudencio lo presenta como actitud soberbia que desafi´a y subvierte el orden de la creacio´n en su poema dida´ctico titulado Hamartigenia u Origen del pecado, destinado a un pu´blico educado y rico y con inquietudes asce´ticas muy cercanas al maniquei´smo. Valie´ndose de to´picos, ima´genes y lemas de la tradicio´n cla´sica Prudencio intenta acceder y atraer a los lectores a la ortodoxia nicena, fusionando el austero mos maiorum con la espiritualidad cristiana. In this paper I analyse Prudentius’ peculiar cosmological reflection on luxury in Hamartigenia (or The origin of sin). Inspired by Sallust’s Catilina, Prudentius describes luxury as an arrogant attitude that subverts God’s order in creation and is in the origin of evil. Hamartigenia is thus directed to rich and educated readers, most of them Manichaean, whom Prudentius tries to gain to the orthodox Nicene faith. To achieve this, he uses a shared code, made up of both Manichaean concepts and Latin authoritative poetry, and re-defines it with a new meaning so as to fuse Roman austere mos maiorum with Christian anti-materialism