Dal Cosmos al Chaos. Lo spettro della catastrofe in Claudiano / From Cosmos to Chaos. The specter of catastrophe in Claudian

Abstract: From Cosmos to Chaos. The specter of catastrophe in Claudian. Claudian’s anxieties about barbarian threats to the stability of the empire, as well as the internal tensions and divisions shaking the orderly state structure, are often expressed in cosmic terms: the risk of a return to primordial Chaos is repeatedly, almost obsessively, raised in his works (both political and mythological), mostly in connection with the myth of the Gigantomachy and other archetypal myths, such as those of the great flood and Phaethon. On an artistic level, the representation makes use of a characteristic imagery, tried and tested by literary tradition, and an immediately recognizable visual language: in this respect, the model of Ovid’s Metamorphoses is of primary importance