Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Boethius's The Consolation of Philosophy. Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.
The Consolation of Philosophy: Introduction
The Consolation of Philosophy: Plot Summary
The Consolation of Philosophy: Detailed Summary & Analysis
The Consolation of Philosophy: Themes
The Consolation of Philosophy: Quotes
The Consolation of Philosophy: Characters
The Consolation of Philosophy: Terms
The Consolation of Philosophy: Symbols
The Consolation of Philosophy: Theme Wheel
Brief Biography of Boethius
Historical Context of The Consolation of Philosophy
Other Books Related to The Consolation of Philosophy
- Full Title: The Consolation of Philosophy (De consolation philosophiae)
- When Written: 523-524
- Where Written: Pavia (present-day Italy)
- When Published: 524
- Literary Period: Classical Roman Literature; Medieval Literature
- Genre: Medieval Philosophy; Philosophical Dialogue; Prison Writing; Prosimetrum (combination of prose and poetry)
- Setting: Boethius’s room or prison cell
- Climax: At the end of Book III, Lady Philosophy convinces Boethius that “true happiness” and “perfect good” are the same thing as God. This means that Boethius must stop dwelling on his misfortune, and instead dedicate himself to prayer and the contemplation of God.
- Antagonist: Fortune; Evil; Ignorance
- Point of View: First Person
Extra Credit for The Consolation of Philosophy
Famous Translators. Boethius’s importance as a translator of Greek philosophy to Latin, combined with the notorious circumstances surrounding his death, made The Consolation of Philosophy a very influential and widely-read text in the thousand years after his death. As a way to prove their wisdom and fitness to rule, numerous monarchs, including England’s King Alfred (886-889) and Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603), translated the Consolation from Latin into vernacular languages.
Long-Awaited Revival. The poems that comprise an important portion of Boethius’s The Consolation of Philosophy were originally intended as songs, to be performed with accompanying music. However, in the medieval tradition, directions for how to perform such songs were mostly passed down orally, and only vague outlines were written down as memory aids. However, using these aids and a lost document discovered by chance in 1982, a Cambridge University researcher managed to reconstruct the music that would have accompanied Boethius’s poems. In 2016, he finished his reconstruction and an ensemble performed the songs, for the first time in more than a thousand years.