Counterpoint, polyphony and monologue: On the mythological poetic texts of Boethius' the Consolation of Philosophy

The Consolation of Philosophy is the swan song of the Roman philosopher Anicius Manlius Severinus Beothius. By giving contrapuntal analysis on the mythological poetic texts and the prose parts of Consolation, this article shows how Boethius uses the classic thoughts of Plato, Aristotle, the Stoicism and Seneca, and blends all into a harmonious one by interweaving the poetic and prose literary styles. Furthermore, referring to the relevance of Bakhtin's theory of polyphony, the analysis goes further to reveal the relations among the lead role, the mythological roles who have the polyphonic relations with the lead role, and the author of this text, and then comes into a conclusion that the dialogues between the lead role and the mythological roles constitute Boethius' method of memory, that is, ending up all the classic questions on human being with the theological monologue. By doing so, this article indicates the literary characteristic and the gist of Consolation.