PHILOSOPHICAL REFERENCES AND COMPOSITIONAL STRATEGIES IN LEO THE PHILOSOPHER’S POEM JOB, OR, ON INDIFFERENCE TO GRIEF AND ON PATIENCE

The poem Job is the only long poem elaborated by Leo the Philosopher that has been preserved in a single manuscript. Since editio princeps by Westerink in 1986, it has been scarcely studied. The poem traditionally was defined as a diatribe, although it presents hybrid character. The poem was presented as a Christian moral discourse, although the result is a compendium of philosophical-moral arguments and anecdotes with a clear parenetic purpose. The poem recreates the epic style and presents an allusive material rooted in the cultural tradition of Antiquity, which is due to the enlightened Hellenism that characterizes the author and his work. Analysis of philosophical-moral contents and compositional techniques, all detectable in the rhetorical instruction at the school, corroborates the hypothesis that redefines the poem as a rhetorical exercise within the school context. For the analysis of philosophical-moral material and rhetorical strategies, the following methodology has been applied: classification of references; review of the sources of each reference; rhetorical techniques activated in each reference; contextualization of philosophical content; contextualization of the compositional strategies in the rhetorical instruction. It is concluded that the poem could have been conceived as an advanced rhetorical exercise in which Leo, as teacher, activates techniques learned in the rhetorical and philosophical training of his students.