Resonancias del sintagma candida bucula en el De Raptu Helenae de Draconcio

Abstract

Although the eighth of Dracontius’ Romulea is titled De raptu Helenae, the poet always refers to Helen through Leda, or by the adjectives Lacaena and Spartana. He denominates her by name only once (v. 440), where he also characterizes her as candida. This happens twenty verses after Paris, within a bucolic parliament pronounced offshore during a storm, uses the same adjective to describe the heifer two bulls are fighting about (vv. 418- 419). In this paper, we will try to demonstrate that Paris’ speech’s candida bucula, until now understood by translators, critics and commentators only as one of the pastoral elements listed by the Trojan, functions as a hinge point that alludes to Helen and suggests that her raptor’s heroic type might be close to the elegiac lover’s status.