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An Unconventional Love: Modern Interpretations of Caligula and Drusilla’s Incestuous Relationship. Emma Southon IAA. Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus . 31 August AD 12 – 24 January AD 41 [ http://www.apollonius.net/Images/caligula.jpg ].
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An Unconventional Love: Modern Interpretations of Caligula and Drusilla’s Incestuous Relationship Emma Southon IAA
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus 31 August AD 12 – 24 January AD 41 [http://www.apollonius.net/Images/caligula.jpg].
‘He lived in habitual incest with all his sisters... Of these he is believed to have violated Drusilla when he was still a minor, and even to have been caught lying with her by his grandmother Antonia... The rest of his sisters he did not love with so great affection, nor honour so highly.’ • Suet Cal 24
‘When she died, he appointed a season of public mourning, during which it was a capital offence to laugh, bathe, or dine in company with one's parents, wife, or children. He was so beside himself with grief that suddenly fleeing the city by night...he went to Syracuse and hurriedly returned from there without cutting his hair or shaving his beard. And he never afterwards took oath about matters of the highest moment, even before the assembly of the people or in the presence of the soldiers, except by the godhead of Drusilla. ’ • Suet, Cal24.
Childhood incest. • ‘Reliquas sorores nec cupiditate tanta nec dignatione dilexit’ • Mourning and honours.
Jack Pullman/Herbie Wise, 1976 I, Claudius (BBC TV series). • Bob Guccione/Tinto Brass/Gore Vidal1979 Caligula. (pornographic film). • Eric Svejcar, 2004 Caligula: A Glam Rock Epic (musical). • Douglas Jackson, 2008 Caligula (novel).
‘The great love of his life is his sister, Drusilla, and so it needs to be shown. And when she died, I think he began to change.’ • Gore Vidal in Lui, 1980. The Making of Caligula.
The only one who has ever made me feel right Now that I have you, This much I know When you’ve found love You got to take it, Protect it, Don’t let it go. Hold it as tight as you can.” “I may not be perfect I may not be smart But I know what I have in you. You are my rescue my port in a storm The reason that I make it through. You’re the only whose still here in the darkness and the light
‘”Had anyone ever suffered as he did? Had anyone ever been more alone? Drusill was gone. His only friend. His sister, The only one he ever really trusted. How could she leave him? “ He sniffed, blinking away a tear.’ • Jackson, 2008: 270
‘Euan and Brooke do such a terrific job of playing a convincing (if thoroughly unconventional) romantic pair that you often forget it was incestuous. That was my intention – what’s important is not that he’s in love with his sister, but that he’s in love, period.’ • Svejcar, 2005 [email] Personal email 26/10/05