C. Valerius Flaccus Argonautica Book II: A Commentary 9053830227, 9789053830222

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VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT

C. VALERIUS FLACCUS ARGONAUTICA BOOK II A commentary

ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Vrije Universiteit te Amsterdam, op gezag van de rector magnificus dr. C. Datema, hoogleraar aan de faculteit der letteren, in het openbaar te verdedigen ten overstaan van de promotiecommissie van de faculteit der letteren op woensdag 12 juni 1991 te 13.30 uur in het hoofdgebouw van de universiteit. De Boelelaan 1105 door

Harm Marien Poortvliet

geboren te Rotterdam

VU University Press Am sterdam 1991

Prom otor: Referent:

prof.dr. A.J. Kleywegt dr. J.J.L. Smolenaars

Voor Wieke

VOORWOORD Nu het dan ('eindelijk', zullen de meesten van de hieronder genoemden verzuchten) zo ver is, wil ik graag enkele woorden van dank uitspreken. Prof.dr. A J. Kleywegt, mijn promotor, heeft mijn onderzoek begeleid met een nauwgezetheid, zoals een promovendus zieh die maar wensen kan. Ik realiseer me heel wel dat hij mij door zijn scherpzinnigheid menigmaal voor uitglijders heeft behoed. Dat hij daar niet altijd in geslaagd is, ligt aan mijzelf. Dr. J.J.L. Smolenaars heeft zieh als referent uitvoerig met dit proefschrift beziggehouden, en mij in vele, door sigarerook omfloerste sessies vanuit zijn eigen ervaring geleerd hoe je een commentaar ook kunt schrijven. Dr. E. Vester heeft de vrije tijd die zij niet had, gestoken in het lezen van mijn manuscript, en taalkundige termen die dat niet waren, veranderd in voor iedereen herkenbare. Mevrouw M.L. Vaalburg-Darbon was zo vriendelijk de steenkolen uit mijn Engels te halen. Mijn ouders ben ik dankbaar dat zij mij de kans hebben gegeven te studeren, en niet alleen daarom. Ik draag dit boek op aan Wieke, al was het alleen maar vanwege de manier waarop zij zieh in haar tijdelijk lot van onbewust gehuwde moeder schikte. Ik hoop dat zij, Annemarijn en Marjolein in de hologige vreemdeling die ze de laatste tijd in hun midden hebben moeten dulden spoedig weer hun echtgenoot en vader zullen herkennen.

NOTE TO THE READER The text preceding the commentary is my own. In the following places it differs from that of Ehlers’ recent Teubner edition (1980):

51 53 60 61 75 90 103 116 139 177 191 215 227 233 239 253 271 283 283 317 318 324 329 346 360 387 442 450 464 473 477

Ehlers an Pallados et mens stat erexit dum eadem vaga litoribus tristesque infestaque ingerit

his furorum miserf oro e paribus furiis accendere sed maxima cete Pharii se patris

Poortvliet at (ω) Palladis (ω) it (recc.) monstrant (ω) exegit (ω) cum (ω) ea cum (ω) vagam (ω) muneribus (Poortvliet) tristes (Ph. Wagner) festinaque (ω) inserit (Herelius) viri (B-1474) it (Sabellicus) furoris (Carrio) miserere (ω) in (Bährens) patrios furtis (ω) accedere (B-1474) ■\sed maxima taetaej (ω) Phariis jej· (a)

tempore dux medio maesti vix praeviderat obtendit

tempora (ω) sub (ω) medium (Heinsius) Moesi (Bährens) quique (V-1523) providerat (ω) ostendit (ω)

fluctus felix tum

fletus (S) veteris felix (Poortvliet) cum (ω)

2 517 518 520 521 529 565A 572 631 642

NOTE TO TH E READER

nox tum illa simul jratesj arcu impulerat ut tibi, servata statui quae munera prole. duria sub ■\longaquej

necdum (ω) jilla simulf rates arcum (ω) impulerit (ω) - (a) Dorica (recc.) Per (S)

longaque

For the sigla used both above and in the commentary please refer to Ehlers’

praefatio, chapters 2 and 3 (pp. VI-XIX). The sigla constituting Ehlers’ stemma are: V = Vaticanus Latinus 3277 (s. IX) S = Sangallensis deperditus (s. IX-X) a = exemplar codicum VS L = Laurentianus plut. 39,38 (s. XV) ω = exemplar codicum oìL Perhaps room should also be made in the stemma for C = codex Carrionis deperditus (s. ?); cf. P.R. Taylor, The authority of the codex Carrionis in the ms. tradition of Valerius Flaccus, CQ 39 (1989) 451-71, as well as for an intermediary ms. between ω and L; cf. my note on 565f. Sometimes the origin of late 15th-early 16th century readings cannot be traced with absolute certainty. In those cases I use the term ‘recc.’. Quotations of Valerian passages outside book 2 are from Ehlers’ edition. The abbreviations used for periodicals and for Latin authors and texts are largely those of L ’Année philologique on the one hand, and of the Oxford Latin

Dictionary and the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae on the other. Valerius Flaccus is abbreviated as VF. O f the other abbreviations used, ALL, KS, LSJ, OLD, RE and TLL will not sound too unfamiliar. ‘Leum.’ stands for M. Leumann, Lateinische Laut- und Formenlehre, München 1977, ‘Sz.’ for J.B. Hofmann, A. Szantyr, Lateinische Syntax und Stilistik, München 1965.

TEXT

STELLINGEN

1. Valerius Flaccus heeft zijn Argonautica niet voltooid. - Tegen W.-W. Ehlers, ed. Teubneriana, Stuttgart 1980, p. V. 2. De verzen 1.45, 2.565A, 7.579-80 en 8.463A zijn niet afkomstig van Valerius zelf. - Tegen W.-W. Ehlers, Untersuchungen zur handschriftlichen Überlieferung der Argonautica des C. Valerius Flaccus, München 1970, pp. 47-66. 3. Ten onrechte schrapt Ehlers est in 7.412 has tandem voces dedit et solatus amantem est cf. Verg. Aen. 4.370. 4. Valerius Flaccus is niet slecht, maar Statius is beter. 5. Met de termen imitatio en aemulatio behoort zorgvuldig omgesprongen te worden. 6. Verg. Aen. 9.85 pinea silva mihi multos dilecta per annos is niet meer dan een eerste probeersel van Vergilius, door hemzelf al direct opgegeven ten gunste van 86 lucus in arcefuit summa. 7. Het wordt tijd dat er een nieuwe Phaedruscommentaar verschijnt. 8. De betekenis van AR 1.607 όίμ’ ήελίοιο βολαϊς άνέμοιο λπτόντος is niet ‘toen de wind hen bij zonsopgang in de steek lief, maar ‘toen de wind, gelijktijdig met de zonnestralen, hen in de steek lief, m.a.w. ‘bij zonsondergang’. Cf. Verg. Aen. 3.568 interea fessos ventus cum sole reliquit. - Tegen H. Fränkel, Noten zu den Argonautika des Apollonios Rhodios, München 1968, p. 89. 9. Het uitvoeren van oude muziek op authentieke Instrumenten is even zinvol als het uitgeven van antieke teksten op papyrus. 10. De mestoverschotten zouden snel verleden tijd zijn als iedere auto voorzien was van een copromotor.

C. VALERI FLACCI ARGONAUTICON LIBER Π Interea scelerum luctusque ignarus Iason alta secat; neque enim patrios cognoscere casus luno sinit, mediis ardens ne flectat ab undis ac temere in Pelian et adhuc obstantia regis fata ruat placitosque deis ne deserat actus. Iamque fretis summas aequatum Pelion ornos templaque Tisaeae mergunt obliqua Dianae, iam Sciathos subsedit aquis, iam longa recessit Sepias, attollit tondentes pabula Magnes campus equos; vidisse putant Dolopeia busta intrantemque Amyron curvas quaesita per oras aequora, flumineo cuius redeuntia vento vela legunt, remis insurgitur; inde salutant Eurymenas. recipit velumque fretumque reversus Auster et in nubem Minyis repetentibus altum Ossa redit, metus ecce deum damnataque bello Pallene, circumque vident immania monstra terrigenum caelo quondam adversata Gigantum, quos scopulis trabibusque parens miserata iugisque induit et versos exstruxit in aethera montes, quisque suas in rupe minas pugnamque metusque servat adhuc; quatit ipse hiemes et torquet ab alto fulmina crebra pater; scopulis sed maximus illis horror abest, Sicula pressus tellure Typhoeus, hunc profugum et sacras revomentem pectore flammas, ut memorant, prensum ipse comis Neptunus in altum abstulit implicuitque vadis, totiensque cruenta mole resurgentem torquentemque anguibus undas Sicanium dedit usque fretum cumque urbibus Aetnam intulit ora premens, trux ille eiectat adesi fundamenta iugi; pariter tunc omnis anhelat Trinacria, iniectam fesso dum pectore molem commovet experiens gemituque reponit inani. Iamque Hyperionius metas maris urget Hiberi currus et evectae prono laxantur habenae

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aethere, cum palmas Tethys grandaeva sinusque sustulit et rupto sonuit sacer aequore Titan, auxerat hora metus, iam se vertentis Olympi ut faciem raptosque simul montesque locosque ex oculis circumque graves videre tenebras, ipsa quies rerum mundique silentia terrent astraque et effusis stellatus crinibus aether, ac velut ignota captus regione viarum noctivagum qui carpit iter non aure quiescit, non oculis, noctisque metus niger auget utrimque campus et occurrens umbris maioribus arbor, haud aliter trepidare viri, sed pectora firmans Hagniades ‘non hanc’ inquit ‘sine numine pinum derigimus nec me tantum Tritonia cursus erudiit: saepe ipsa manu dignata carinam est. at non experti, subitus cum luce fugata horruit imbre dies? quantis, pro Iuppiter, Austris restitimus, quanta quotiens et Palladis arte in cassum decimae cecidit tumor arduus undae! quin agite, o socii; micat immutabile caelum puraque nec gravido surrexit Cynthia cornu (nullus in ore rubor) certusque ad talia Titan integer in fluctus et in uno decidit Euro, adde quod in noctem venti veloque marique incumbunt magis: it tacitis ratis ocior horis, atque adeo non illa sequi mihi sidera monstrant quae delapsa polo reficit mare (tantus Orion iam cadit, irato iam stridet in aequore Perseus), sed mihi dux, vetitis qui numquam conditus undis axe nitet Serpens septenosque implicat ignes.’ sic ait et certi memorat qui vultus Olympi, Pleiones Hyadumque locos, quo sidere vibret Ensis et Actaeus niteat qua luce Bootes, haec ubi dicta dedit, Cereris tum munere fessas restituunt vires et parco corpora Baccho, mox somno cessere, regunt sua sidera puppem. Iamque sub Eoae dubios Atlantidis ignes albet ager motisque truces ab ovilibus ursi

ARGONAUTICON LIBER II tuta domosque petunt, raras et litus in altum mittit aves, cum primus equis exegit anhelis Phoebus Athon mediasque diem dispersit in undas, certatim remis agitur mare rostraque cursu prima tremunt, et iam summis Vulcania surgit Lemnos aquis, tibi per varios defleta labores, Ignipotens, nec te furiis et crimine matrum terra fugat meritique piget meminisse prioris. Tempore quo primum fremitus insurgere opertos caelicolum et regni sensit novitate tumentes Iuppiter aetheriae nec stare silentia pacis, Iunonem volucri primam suspendit Olympo horrendum chaos ostendens poenasque barathri, mox etiam pavidae temptantem vincula matris solvere praerupti Vulcanum vertice caeli devolvit, ruit ille polo noctemque diemque turbinis in morem, Lemni cum litore tandem insonuit, vox inde repens ut perculit urbem, acclinem scopulo inveniunt miserentque foventque alternos aegro cunctantem poplite gressus, hinc, reduci superas postquam pater adnuit arces, Lemnos cara deo, nec fama notior Aetne aut Lipares domus, has epulas, haec templa peracta aegide et horrifici formatis fulminis alis laetus adit, contra Veneris stat frigida semper ara loco, meritas postquam dea coniugis iras horruit et tacitae Martem tenuere catenae, quocirca struit illa nefas Lemnoque merenti exitium furiale movet; neque enim alma videri tantum ea, cum tereti crinem subnectitur auro sidereos diffusa sinus; eadem effera et ingens et maculis suffecta genas pinumque sonantem virginibus Stygiis nigramque simillima pallam. Iamque dies aderat. Thracas qui fuderat armis dux Lemni puppes tenui contexere canna ausus et inducto cratem defendere tergo laeta mari tum signa refert, plenasque movebant armentis nuribusque rates (et barbara vestis

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et torques insigne loci), sonat aequore clamor ‘o patria, o variis coniunx nunc anxia curis, has agimus longi famulas tibi praemia belli’, cum dea se piceo per sudum turbida nimbo praecipitat Fam am que vagam vestigat in umbra, quam pater omnipotens digna atque indigna canentem spargentemque metus placidis regionibus arcet aetheris, illa fremens habitat sub nubibus imis, non Erebi, non diva poli, terrasque fatigat, quas datur, audentem primi spernuntque foventque; mox omnes agit et motis quatit oppida linguis, talem diva sibi scelerisque dolique ministram quaerit avens, videt illa prior iamque advolat ultro impatiens iamque o ra parat, iam suscitat aures, hanc super incendit Venus atque his vocibus implet: ‘vade age et aequoream, virgo, delabere Lemnon et cunctas mihi verte domos, praecurrere qualis bella soles, cum mille tubas arm ataque campis agmina et innumerum flatus cum fingis equorum, adfore iam luxu turpique cupidine captos fare viros carasque toris inducere Thressas. haec tibi principia, hinc rabidas dolor undique matres instimulet, mox ipsa adero ducamque paratas. Illa abit et mediam gaudens defertur in urbem et primam Eurynomen ad proxima limina Codri occupat exesam curis castumque cubile servantem, manet illa viro famulasque fatigat muneribus, tardi reputant quae tem pora belli ante torum et longo mulcent insomma penso, huic dea cum lacrimis et nota veste Neaerae icta genas ‘utinam non hic tibi nuntius essem, o soror, aut nostros’ inquit ‘prius unda dolores obruat, in tali quoniam tibi tem pore coniunx sic meritae, votis quem tu fletuque requiris, beu furit et captae indigno famulatur amore, iamque aderunt, thalamisque tuis Threissa propmquat, non forma, non arte colus, non laude pudoris Par tibi, nec magni proles praeclara Doryc i,

ARGONAUTICON LIBER II picta manus ustoque placet sed barbara mento, ac tamen hos aliis forsan solabere casus tu thalamis fatoque leges meliore penates; me tua matris egens damnataque paelice proles exanimat, quam iam miseros transversa tuentem letalesque dapes infectaque pocula cerno, scis simile ut flammis simus genus; adde cruentis quod patrium saevire Dahis, iam lacte ferino, iam veniet durata gelu, sed me quoque pulsam fama viro, nostrosque toros virgata tenebit et plaustro derepta nurus.’ sic fata querellas abscidit et curis pavidam lacrimisque relinquit, transit ad Iphinoen isdemque Amythaonis implet Oleniique domum furiis; totam inde per urbem personat ut cunctas agitent expellere Lemno, ipsi urbem Thressaeque regant, dolor iraque surgit; obvia quaeque eadem traditque auditque neque ulli vana fides, tum voce deos, tum questibus implent, oscula iamque toris atque oscula postibus ipsis ingeminant lacrimisque iterum visuque morantur, prosiliunt nec tecta virum thalamosque revisunt amplius; adglomerant sese nudisque sub astris condensae fletus acuunt ac dira precantur coniugia et Stygias infanda ad foedera taedas. Has inter medias Dryopes in imagine maestae flet Venus et saevis ardens dea planctibus instat primaque ‘Sarmaticas utinam fortuna dedisset insedisse domos, tristes habitasse pruinas, plaustra sequi, vel iam patriae vidisse per ignes culmen agi stragemque deum, nam cetera belli perpetimur, mene ille novis, me destinat amens servitiis? urbem aut fugiens natosque relinquam? non prius ense manus raptoque armabimus igne dumque silent ducuntque nova cum coniuge somnos magnum aliquid spirabit amor?’ tunc ignea torquens lumina praecipites excussit ab ubere natos, ilicet arrectae mentes, evictaque matrum corda sacer Veneris gemitus rapit, aequora cunctae

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prospiciunt simulantque choros delubraque festa fronde tegunt laetaeque viris venientibus adsunt, iamque domos mensasque petunt, discumbitur altis porticibus, sua cuique furens festinaque coniunx adiacet, inferni qualis sub nocte barathri accubat attonitum Phlegyan et Thesea iuxta Tisiphone saevasque dapes et pocula libat, tormenti genus, et nigris amplectitur hydris. Ipsa Venus quassans undantem turbine pinum adglomerat tenebras pugnaeque accincta trementem desilit in Lemnon; nimbis et luce fragosa prosequitur polus et tonitru pater auget honoro, inde novam pavidas vocem furibunda per auras congeminat, qua primus Athos et pontus et ingens Thraca palus pariterque toris exhorruit omnis mater et adstricto riguerunt ubere nati, accelerat Pavor et Geticis Discordia demens e stabulis atraeque genis pallentibus Irae et Dolus et Rabies et Leti maior imago, visa truces exserta manus, ut prima vocatu intonuit signumque dedit Mavortia coniunx. hic aliud Venus et multo magis ipsa tremendum orsa nefas gemitus fingit vocesque cadentum inrupitque domos et singultantia gestans ora manu taboque sinus perfusa recenti arrectasque comas ‘meritos en prima revertor ulta toros, premit ecce dies.’ tum verbere victas in thalamos agit et cunctantibus inserit enses. Unde ego tot scelerum facies, tot fata iacentum exsequar? heu vatem monstris quibus intulit ordo! quae se aperit series! o qui me vera canentem sistat et hac nostras exsolvat imagine noctes! Invadunt aditus et quondam cara suorum corpora, pars ut erant dapibus vinoque soporos, pars conferre manus etiam magnisque paratae cum facibus quosdam insomnes et cuncta tuentes, sed temptare fugam prohibetque capessere contra arma metus, adeo ingentes inimica videri

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diva dabat, notaque sonat vox coniuge maior; tantum oculos pressere viri, velut agmina cernant Eumenidum ferrumve super Bellona coruscet, hoc soror, hoc coniunx propiorque hoc nata parensque saeva valet, prensosque toris mactatque trahitque femineum genus, immanes quos sternere Bessi nec Geticae potuere manus aut aequoris irae, it eruor in thalamis et anhela in pectore fumant vulnera seque toris misero luctamine trunci devolvunt, diras aliae ad fastigia taedas iniciunt adduntque domos; pars ignibus atris effugiunt propere, sed dura in limine coniunx obsidet et viso repetunt incendia ferro, ast aliae Thressas, labem causamque furoris, diripiunt; mixti gemitus clamorque precantum barbarus ignotaeque implebant aethera voces. Sed tibi nunc quae digna tuis ingentibus ausis orsa feram, decus et patriae laus una ruentis, Hypsipyle? non ulla meo te carmine dictam abstulerint, durent Latiis modo saecula fastis Iliacique lares tantique palatia regni. Inruerant actae pariter nataeque nurusque totaque iam sparsis exarserat insula monstris; illa pias armata manus ‘fuge protinus urbem meque, pater, non hostis,’ ait ‘non moenia laesi Thraces habent: nostrum hoc facinus; ne quaere, quis auctor, iam fuge, iam dubiae donum rape mentis, et ensem tu potius, miserere, tene.’ tunc excipit artus obnubitque caput tacitumque ad conscia Bacchi templa rapit primoque manus a limine tendens ‘exime nos sceleri, pater, et miserere piorum rursus’ ait. tacita pavidum tunc sede locavit sub pedibus dextraque dei; latet ille receptus veste sacra, voces chorus et trieterica reddunt aera sonum fixaeque fremunt in limine tigres. regina ut roseis Auroram surgere bigis vidit et insomni lassatas turbine tandem conticuisse domos, stabilem quando optima facta

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dant animum maiorque piis audacia coeptis, serta patri iuvenisque comam vestesque Lyaei induit et medium curru locat aeraque circum tympanaque et plenas tacita formidine cistas, ipsa sinus hederisque ligat famularibus artus pampineamque quatit ventosis ictibus hastam, respiciens teneat virides velatus habenas ut pater, in nivea tumeant ut cornua mitra et sacer ut Bacchum referat scyphus, impulit acri tum validas stridore fores rapiturque per urbem talia voce canens: ‘linque o mihi caede madentem, Bacche, domum, sine foedatum te funere pontus expiet et referam lotos in templa dracones.’ sic medios egressa metus; facit ipse verendam nam deus et flatu non inscia gliscit anhelo, iamque senem tacitis saeva procul urbe remotum occulerat silvis, ipsam sed conscius ausi nocte dieque pavor fraudataque turbat Erinys. non similes iam ferre choros (semel orgia fallunt) audet, non patrios furtis accedere saltus, et fuga diversas misero quaerenda per artes, visa ratis saevae defecta laboribus undae, quam Thetidi longinqua dies Glaucoque repostam solibus et canis urebat luna pruinis, huc genitorem altae per opaca silentia noctis praecipitem silvis rapit et sic maesta profatur: ‘quam, genitor, patriam, quantas modo linquis inanes pube domos! pro dira lues, pro noctis acerbae exitium! talin possum te credere puppi, care parens? possum tantis retinere periclis? solvimus heu serum Furiis scelus, adnue votis, diva, soporiferas quae nunc trahis aequore bigas, non populos, non dite solum, non ulla parenti regna peto: patria liceat decedere terra, quando ego servato mediam genitore per urbem laeta ferar? quando hic lacrimas planctusque videbo?’ dixerat, ille procul trunca fugit anxius alno Taurorumque locos delubraque saeva Dianae

advenit, hic illum tristi, dea, praeficis arae ense dato; mora nec terris tibi longa cruentis: iam nemus Egeriae, iam te ciet altus ab Alba Iuppiter et soli non mitis Aricia regi. Arcem nata petit, quo iam manus horrida matrum congruerat, rauco fremitu sedere parentum natorumque locis vacuaeque in moenibus urbis iura novant, donant solio sceptrisque paternis ut meritam, redeuntque piae sua praemia menti. Ecce procul validis Lemnon tendentia remis arma notant; rapitur subito regina tumultu conciliumque vocat, non illis obvia tela ferre nec infestos derat furor improbus ignes, ni Veneris saevas fregisset Mulciber iras, tunc etiam vates Phoebo dilecta Polyxo (non patriam, non certa genus, -fsed maxima taetaef Proteaque ambiguum Phariis -fe-f ab antris huc rexisse vias iunctis super aequora phocis; saepe imis se condit aquis cunctataque paulum surgit ut auditas referens in gurgite voces) ‘portum demus’ ait ‘< — > haec, credite, puppis advenit et levior Lemno deus aequore flexit huc Minyas. Venus ipsa volens dat tempora iungi, dum vires utero maternaque sufficit aetas.’ dicta placent, portatque preces ad litora Grais Iphinoe; nec turba nocens scelerisque recentis signa movent, tollitque loci Cytherea timorem, protinus ingentem procerum sub nomine taurum deicit, insuetis et iam pia munera templis reddit et hac prima Veneris calet ara iuvenca. ventum erat ad rupem, cuius pendentia nigris fumant saxa iugis coquiturque vaporibus aer. substitit Aesonides atque hic regina precari hortatur causasque docens ‘haec antra videtis Vulcanique’ ait ‘ecce domos: date vina precesque. forsitan hoc factum taceat iam fulmen in antro; nox dabit ipsa fidem, clausae cum murmura flammae, hospes, et incussae sonitum mirabere massae.’

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moenia tum viresque loci veteresque parentum iactat opes, mediis famulae convivia tectis expediunt; Tyrio vibrat torus igneus ostro, stat maerens atavos reges regesque maritos Thressa manus, quaecumque faces timuisse iugales credita nec dominae sanctum tetigisse cubile, iam medium Aesonides, iam se regina locavit, post alii proceres, sacris dum vincitur extis prima fames, circum pateris it Bacchus et omnis aula silet, dapibus coeptis mox tempora fallunt noctis et in seras durant sermonibus umbras, praecipueque ducis casus mirata requirit Hypsipyle, quae fata trahant, quae regis agat vis, aut unde Haemoniae molem ratis, unius haeret adloquio et blandos paulatim colligit ignes, iam non dura toris Veneri nec iniqua reversae, et deus ipse moras spatiumque indulget amori. Pliada lege poli nimboso moverat astro Iuppiter aeternum volvens opus, et simul undis cuncta ruunt, unoque dei Pangaea sub ictu Gargaraque et Moesi steterant formidine luci, saevior haud alio mortales tempore gentes terror agit, tunc urget enim, tunc flagitat iras in populos Astraea Iovem, terrisque relictis invocat adsiduo Saturnia sidera questu, insequitur niger et magnis cum fratribus Eurus intonat Aegaeo, tenditque ad litora pontus, et lunam quarto densam videt imbribus ortu Thespiades, longus coeptis et fluctibus arcet qui metus, usque novos divae melioris ad ignes urbe sedent laeti Minyae viduisque vacantes indulgent thalamis, nimbosque educere luxu nec iam velle vias, Zephyrosque audire vocantes dissimulant, donec resides Tirynthius heros non tulit, ipse rati invigilans atque integer urbis: invidisse deos tantum maris aequor adortis, desertasque domos fraudataque tempore segni vota patrum; quid et ipse viris cunctantibus adsit?

15 ‘o miseri quicumque tuis accessimus actis! Phasin et Aeeten Scythicique pericula ponti redde’ ait ‘Aesonide, me tecum solus in aequor rerum traxit amor, dum spes mihi sistere montes Cyaneos vigilemque alium spoliare draconem. si sedet Aegaei scopulos habitare profundi, hoc mecum Telamon peraget meus.’ haec ubi dicta, haud secus Aesonides monitis accensus amaris quam bellator equus, longa quem frigida pace terra iuvat, quique in laevos piger angitur orbes, frena tamen dominumque velit, si Martius aures clamor et obliti rursus fragor impleat aeris. tunc Argum Tiphynque vocat pelagoque parari praecipitat, petit ingenti clamore magister arma viros pariter sparsosque in litore remos. Exoritur novus urbe dolor planctusque per omnes et facies antiqua domos: sibi moenia linqui en iterum, et quando natorum tempora, gentem qui recolant, qui sceptra gerant? nunc triste nefandae noctis opus, vidui nunc illa silentia tecti saeva magis, thalamos excussaque vincla quod ausae induere atque iterum tales admittere curas. ipsa quoque Hypsipyle, subitos per litora cursus ut vidit totaque viros decedere Lemno, ingemit et tali compellat Iasona questu: ‘iamne placet primo deducere vela sereno, carius o mihi patre caput? modo saeva quierunt aequora! sic portus fugeret ratis, aspera si te Plias in adversae tenuisset litore Thraces. ergo moras caelo cursumque tenentibus undis debuimus?’ dixit lacrimans haesuraque caro dona duci promit, chlamydem textosque labores. illic servati genitoris conscia sacra pressit acu currusque pios: stant saeva paventum agmina dantque locum; viridi circum horrida tela silva tremit; mediis refugit pater anxius umbris, pars et frondosae raptus expresserat Idae inlustremque fugam pueri; mox aethere laetus

380

385

390

395

400

405

410

415

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adstabat mensis; quin et Iovis armiger ipse accipit a Phrygio iam pocula blanda ministro, tunc ensem notumque ferens insigne Thoantis ‘accipe,’ ait ‘bellis mediaeque ut pulvere pugnae sim comes, Aetnaei genitor quae flammea gessit dona dei, nunc digna tuis adiungier armis, i memor, i, terrae quae vos amplexa quieto prima sinu, refer et domitis a Colchidos oris vela per hunc utero quem linquis Iasona nostro.’ sic ait Haemonii labens in colla mariti; nec minus Orphea tristis cervice tuaque, Aeacide, et gemino coniunx a Castore pendet. Has inter lacrimas legitur piger uncus harenis. iam remi rapuere ratem, iam flamina portant; spumea subsequitur fugientis semita clavi, tunc tenuis Lemnos transitque Electria tellus Threiciis arcana sacris, hic numinis ingens horror et incautis decreta piacula linguis, hanc demissa Iovi non umquam laedere fluctu audet hiems; sponte ipse deus tunc asperat undas, cum vetat infidos sua litora tangere nautas, obvius at Minyas terris adytisque sacerdos excipit hospitibus reserans secreta Thyotes, hactenus in populos vati, Samothraca, diemque missa mane, sacrisque metum servemus opertis. «Ii sole novo laeti plenique deorum considunt transtris, iam quas providerat urbes navita condebat proraeque accesserat Imbros et sol aetherias medius conscenderat arces. Thessala Dardaniis tunc primum puppis harenis appulit et fatis Sigeo litore sedit, desiliunt, pars hinc levibus candentia velis castra levat, tracto pars frangit adorea saxo farra, citum strictis alius de cautibus ignem ostendit foliis et sulphure pascit amico. Alcides Telamonque comes dum litora blando anfractu sinuosa legunt, vox accidit aures flebile succedens cum fracta remurmurat unda.

ARGONAUTICON LIBER II attoniti pressere gradum vacuumque sequuntur vocis iter, iam certa sonat, desertaque durae virgo neci quem non hominum superumque vocabat?

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455

acrius hoc instare viri succurrere certi, qualiter, implevit gemitu cum taurus acerbo avia frangentem morsu super alta leonem terga ferens, coit e sparso concita mapali agrestum manus et caeco clamore coloni, constitit Alcides visuque enisus in alta rupe truces manicas defectaque virginis ora cernit et ad primos surgentia lumina fletus, exanimum veluti multa tamen arte coactum maeret ebur, Pariusve notas et nomina sumit cum lapis aut liquidi referunt miranda colores, ductor ait: ‘quod, virgo, tibi nomenque genusque, quae sors ista, doce, tendunt cur vincula palmas?’ illa tremens tristique oculos deiecta pudore ‘non ego digna malis,’ inquit ‘suprema parentum dona vides, ostro scopulos auroque frequentes. nos Ili veteris < ..................................... ........ > felix quondam genus, invida donec Laomedonteos fugeret Fortuna penates, principio morbi caeloque exacta sereno temperies; arsere rogis certantibus agri, cum subitus fragor et fluctus Idaea moventes cum stabulis nemora, ecce repens consurgere ponto belua, monstrum ingens, hanc tu nec montibus ullis nec nostro metire mari, primaeva furenti huic manus amplexus inter planctusque parentum

460

465

470

473a 473b 475

480

deditur, hoc sortes, hoc corniger imperat Hammon, virgineam damnare animam sortitaque Lethen corpora, crudelis scopulis me destinat urna, verum o iam redeunt Phrygibus si numina, tuque

485

ille ades auguriis promisse et sorte deorum, iam cui candentes votivo in gramine pascit cornipedes genitor, nostrae stata dona salutis, adnue meque, precor, defectaque Pergama monstris eripe, namque potes; neque enim tam lata videbam

490

C. VALERI FLACCI pectora, Neptunus muros cum iungeret astris, nec tales umeros pharetramque gerebat Apollo.’ auxerat haec locus et facies maestissima capti litoris et tumuli caelumque quod incubat urbi, quale laborantis Nemees iter aut Erymanthi vidit et infectae miseratus flumina Lernae. Dat procul interea signum Neptunus, et una monstriferi mugire sinus Sigeaque pestis adglomerare fretum, cuius stellantia glauca lumina nube tremunt atque ordine curva trisulco fulmineus quatit ora fragor pelagoque remenso cauda redit passosque sinus rapit ardua cervix, illam incumbentem per mille volumina pontus prosequitur lateri adsultans trepidisque ruentem litoribus sua cogit hiems. non fluctibus aequis nubiferi venit unda Noti, non Africus alto tantus ovat patriisque manus cum plenus habenis Orion bipedum flatu mare tollit equorum, ecce ducem placitae furiis crudescere pugnae surgentemque toris stupet immanemque paratu Aeacides pulsentque graves ut terga pharetrae, ille patrem pelagique deos suaque arma precatus insiluit scopulo motumque e sedibus aequor horruit et celsi spatiosa volumina monstri, qualis ubi a gelidi Boreas convallibus Hebri tollitur et volucres Rhipaea per ardua nubes praecipitat, piceo necdum tenet omnia caelo, jilla simulj molem horrificam scopulosaque terga promovet ingentique umbra subit; intremere Ide inlidique rates pronaeque resurgere turres, occupat Alcides arcum totaque pharetrae nube premit, non illa magis quam sede movetur magnus Eryx, deferre velint quem vallibus imbres, iam brevis et telo volucri non utilis aer. tum vero fremitus vanique insania coepti et tacitus pudor et rursus pallescere virgo, proicit arma manu, scopulos vicinaque saxa respicit, et quantum ventis adiuta vetustas

495

500

505

510

515

520

525

ARGONAUTICON LIBER II impulerit pontive fragor, tantum abscidit imi concutiens a sede maris, iamque agmine toto pistris adest miseraeque inhiat iam proxima praedae, stat mediis elatus aquis recipitque ruentem Alcides saxoque prior surgentia colla obruit, hinc vastos nodosi roboris ictus congeminat, fluctus defertur in imos iam totis resoluta vadis. Idaeaque mater et chorus et summis ulularunt collibus amnes, protinus e scopulis et opaca valle resurgunt pastores magnisque petunt clamoribus urbem, nuntius hinc socios Telamon vocat, ac simul ipsi horrescunt subitoque vident in sanguine puppem. nec minus in scopulos crudique cacumina saxi emicat Alcides vinclisque tenentibus aufert virgineas de rupe manus aptatque superbis arma umeris, regem inde petens superabat ovanti litora tuta gradu, qualis per pascua victor ingreditur, tum colla tumens, tum celsior armis, taurus, ubi adsueti pecoris stabula alta revisit et patrium nemus et bello quos ultus amores. Obvia cui contra longis emissa tenebris turba Phrygum parvumque trahens cum coniuge natum Laomedon; iam maestus equos, iam debita posci dona gemit, pars aerii fastigia muri cingit et ignotis iuvenem mirantur in armis, illum torva tuens atque acri lubricus astu rex subit et patrio fatur male laetus amore: ‘maxime Graiugenum, quem non Sigea petentem litora nec nostrae miserantem funera Troiae appulit his fors ipsa locis, si vera parentem fama Iovem summique tibi genus esse Tonantis, noster ades iunctisque venis, sator unus et idem stirpis honos, quamquam longis disiungimur oris, quot mihi post lacrimas, post quanta piacula patrum serus ades! quam parva tuis iam gloria factis! verum age nunc socios fraternis moenibus infer; crastina lux biiuges stabulis ostendat apertis.’

20

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dixerat haec tacitusque dolos dirumque volutat corde nefas, clausum ut thalamis somnoque gravatum immolet ereptaque luat responsa pharetra, namque bis Herculeis deberi Pergama telis audierat. Priami sed quis iam vertere regnis fata queat? manet immotis nox Dorica lustris et genus Aeneadum et Troiae melioris honores. ‘nos’ ait ‘ad Scythici’ Tirynthius ‘ostia ponti raptat iter, mox huc vestras revehemur ad oras donaque dicta feram.’ tum vero plura vocatis adnuit ille deis, promissa infida tyranni iam Phryges et miserae flebant discrimina Troiae. Panditur hinc totis in noctem carbasus alis litoraque et veteris tumulos praelabitur Ili Dardaniumque patrem, vigili simul omnia ludo festa vident; hinc unda, sacris hinc ignibus Ide vibrat et horrisonae respondent Gargara buxo, inde ubi iam medii tenuere silentia ponti stridentesque iuvant aurae, Phrixea subibant aequora et angustas quondam sine nomine fauces, ecce autem prima volucrem sub luce dehiscens terruit unda ratem, vittataque constitit Helle, iam Panopes Thetidisque soror iamque aurea laeva sceptra tenens, dum sternit aquas, proceresque ducemque aspicit et placidis compellat Iasona dictis: ‘te quoque ab Haemoniis ignota per aequora terris regna infesta domus fatisque simillima nostris fata ferunt, iterum Aeolios fortuna nepotes spargit et infelix Scythicum gens quaeritis amnem, vasta super tellus, longum (ne defice coeptis) aequor, et ipse procul, verum dabit ostia, Phasis, hic nemus arcanum geminaeque virentibus arae stant tumulis; hic prima pia sollemnia Phrixo ferte manu cinerique, precor, mea reddite dicta: "non ego per Stygiae, quod rere, silentia ripae, frater, agor; frustra vacui scrutaris Averni, care, vias, neque enim scopulis me et fluctibus actam frangit hiems: celeri extemplo subiere ruentem

570

575

580

585

590

595

600

ARGONAUTICON LIBER II Cymothoe Glaucusque manu, pater ipse profundi has etiam sedes, haec numine tradidit aequo regna nec Inois noster sinus invidet undis."’ dixerat et maestos tranquilla sub aequora vultus cum gemitu tulit, ut patrii rediere dolores, tum pelago vina invergens dux talibus infit: ‘undarum decus et gentis, Cretheia virgo, pande viam cursuque tuos age, diva, secundo’, immittitque ratem mediasque intervolat urbes, qua brevibus furit aestus aquis Asiamque prementem effugit abruptis Europa immanior oris, has etiam terras consertaque gentibus arva sic pelago pulsante, reor, Neptunia quondam cuspis et adversi longus labor abscidit aevi ut Siculum Libycumque latus, stupuitque fragore Ianus et occiduis regnator montibus Atlans, iam iuga Percotes Pariumque infame fragosis exsuperant Pityamque vadis, transmissaque puppi Lampsacus, Ogygii quam nec trieterica Bacchi sacra neque arcanis Phrygius furor invehit antris sed suus in Venerem raptat deus, illius aras urbe super celsique vident velamina templi. Rarior hinc tellus atque ingens undique caelum rursus et incipiens alium prospectus in orbem, terra sinu medio Pontum iacet inter et Hellen ceu fundo prolata maris; namque improba caecis intulit arva vadis longoque per aequora dorso litus agit, tenet hinc veterem confinibus oris pars Phrygiam, pars discreti iuga pinea montis, nec procul ad tenuis surgit confinia ponti urbs placidis demissa iugis. rex divitis agri Cyzicus. Haemoniae qui tum nova signa carinae ut videt, ipse ultro primas procurrit ad undas miraturque viros dextramque amplexus et haerens incipit: ‘o terris nunc primum cognita nostris Emathiae manus et fama mihi maior imago, non tamen haec adeo semota neque ardua tellus longaque iam populis impervia lucis eoae,

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cum tales intrasse duces, tot robora cerno, nam licet hinc saevas tellus alat horrida gentes meque fremens tumido circumfluat ore Propontis, vestra fides ritusque pares et mitia cultu his etiam mihi corda locis, procul effera virtus Bebrycis et Scythici procul inclementia sacri.’ sic memorat laetosque rapit, simul hospita pandi tecta iubet templisque sacros largitur honores. stant gemmis auroque tori mensaeque paratu regifico centumque pares primaeva ministri corpora; pars epulas manibus, pars aurea gestant pocula bellorum casus expressa recentum. atque ea prima duci porgens carchesia Graio Cyzicus ‘hic portus’ inquit ‘mihi territat hostis, has acies sub nocte refert, haec versa Pelasgum terga vides, meus hic ratibus qui pascitur ignis.’ subicit Aesonides: ‘utinam nunc ira Pelasgos adferat et solitis temptet concurrere furtis cunctaque se ratibus fundat manus: arma videbis hospita nec post hanc ultra tibi proelia noctem.’ sic ait hasque inter variis nox plurima dictis rapta vices nec non simili lux postera tractu.

645

650

655

660

COMMENTARY

1-5. Meanwhile Jason sails on, in blissful ignorance, through Juno’s agency, of the tragic death of his parents and little brother. [Lüthje 59-61, Adamietz (1976) 30f.] These five lines form a transition from the events described in 1.700ff., with the suicide of Jason’s parents Aeson and Alcimede (752ff.) and the murder of his brother (820ff.), to the resumption of the narrative of Jason’s journey towards Colchis. It is not without reason that I follow Williams’ wording in his note on Aen. 5.1-7, the succession of events in Arg. 1.730-2.71 being modelled, as Barich points out (136), on that of Aen. 4.584-5.34. There we find Dido’s rites and suicide, Aeneas’ sailing on, unaware of her death, and the speech by Palinurus, the helmsman; here we have the rites of Aeson and Alcimede and their suicide, Jason’s sailing on, likewise unaware of the fatal events, and the speech by Tiphys, another helmsman (47ff.). As for the lines in question, compare especially Arg. 2.1f. interea . . . secat with Aen. 5.1f. interea . . . secabat, and Arg. 2.1 ignarus with Aen. 5.4f. quae tantum accenderit ignem/ causa latet. If. Interea scelerum luctusque ignarus Iason/ alta secat; Compare Ovid’s portrayal of Alcyone in Met. 11.573f. Aeolis interea tantorum ignara malorum/ dinumerat noctes. interea: a favourite word of the epic poets’ at the beginning of a new book: cf. Verg. Aen. 5.1, 10.1, 11.1, Stat. Theb. 2.1 (with Mulder’s note), Sii. 7.1; see also Smolenaars on Stat. Theb. 7.1 atque. For interea introducing a new scene in a book cf. 1.574, 3.332, 4.90, 529, 5.259, 8.134. scelerum luctusque ignarus: cf. Verg. Aen. 2.106 ignari scelerum tantorum artisque Pelasgae. In 5.48 and 7.494, too, Jason seems to have no reason to believe his father to be other than alive, but in 3.301ff. he mentions a prophecy, made by the seers, of Aeson’s exitium crudele. Now, we might reconcile 3.301ff. on the one hand and 5.48, 7.494 and our passage on the other, by arguing that from 3.301ff. it does not necessarily follow that Jason considers his father already dead, but that still leaves us with the disconcerting fact that this prophecy apparently did not deter Jason from going to Colchis. Ehlers ‘suspects’ 3.302. alta secat: secat echoes Vergil’s secabat (see the introductory note). Other instances of secare with a sailor, and not (as for instance in 4.269ff.) a ship, as

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COMMENTARY

subject are labitur alta τέμνω had μέσον είς iterabimus.

Aen. 10.147 media Aeneas freta nocte secabat and 687 (Turnus) secans, where we find the combination with alta again. In Greek, already been so used by Homer: cf. Od. 3.l74f. ήνώγει TréXor/0^ Εύβοιαν/ τέμνειν. See also Nisbet-Hubbard on Hor. Od. 1.7.32

2f. neque enim patrios cognoscere casus/ luno sinit, Valerius seems to have in mind Verg. Aen. 1.643f. neque enim patrius consistere mentem/passus amor. Cf. also Aen. 2.10, 3.299. Commentators are right to point out that Jason would have been equally unaware of what had happened at home if Juno had not interfered. neque enim: 15 or 16 times in Valerius (depending on what one chooses to read in 1.17), as against nec enim twice (3.681, 6.488, where Courtney suggests we read neque enim as well). Vergil never has nec enim (as against neque enim 20 times), but in Lucan, for instance, we find it 4 times (neque enim 11 times). For the idiom as such see Fordyce on Aen. 7.581. patrios. . . casus: cf. Man. 2.934, Stat. Theb. 5.626. cognoscere . . . sinit: sc. eum. Ellipse of the direct object after sinere is as old as Plautus, cf. Epid. 63 asta, abire hinc non sinam; another Valerian example is 6.176f. nec semineces ostendere crines/ tempus adhuc. . . sinit. luno: the main patron of Jason and his crew throughout the Argonautica, a minor role being played by Pallas, without whose help in building the Argo (1.92ff., 123ff.), however, there would have been no expedition at all (cf. Langen on 1.88). Jason had been in Juno’s good books ever since he helped an old woman across a raging river (the Anaurus in AR 3.67, the Enipeus in VF 1.83, where see Langen), who later turned out to be no other than the goddess herself. It is Juno who drums up the crew (1.96ff.), who, together with Pallas, induces Neptune to leave the Argo alone (1.642ff.; cf. 1.214ff.) and makes it possible tor the Argonauts to pass through the Symplegades (4.682ff.). In Colchis she sheds beauty over Jason (5.363ff.) and shrouds him in a mist (5.400f.); she leads Medea to the city walls, with the intention of making the princess fall in love with Jason (6,477ff.); in the battle against the Scythians she gives Jason new strength (6.602f.) and once even saves his life (6.648ff.). It is Juno, too, who pulls the strings in book 7 and in the end sends bad weather to the Colchians as the) pursue the Argonauts (8.318ff.). On the other hand, it should not be forgotten that it is she who seriously endangers the Argonauts by removing Hercules from their midst (3.487ff.), for which she is severely rebuked by Jupiter (4. Iff.). See

COMMENTARY

27

also W. Schubert’s article ‘"Socia luno". Zur Gestalt der Götterkönigin in Valerius Flaccus’ "Argonautica"’, in Ratis omnia vincet. The form luno occurs 29 times in Valerius, 14 times with -o, as here, 6 times with (classical) -δ, whereas in the remaining 9 cases we cannot tell. Valerius’ contemporaries Statius and Silius are far more consistent in their practice (Statius, with 26 cases, never has luno, Silius on the other hand, with 23 cases, never has Iunö, except in 17.598), and these figures may be another indication of Silius’ classicism and Statius’ anti-classicism, Valerius, as so often, occupying a position in between (Lucan, not surprisingly, mentions the goddess only once, in 1.576, and then in the genitive). See further Kösters 85ff. 3ff. mediis ardens ne flectat ab undis/ ac temere in Pelian et adhuc obstantia regis/ fata ruat placitosque deis ne deserat actus. ardens: ‘sc. ira’ (Langen, who compares, i.a., 1.700f. saevit atrox Pelias inimicaque vertice ab alto/ vela videt nec qua se ardens effundere possit). Cf. also 4.3 ardenti. . . ira. flectat: intransitive flectere is very rare in poetry: the only certain instances outside Valerius seem to be Verg. Aen. 9.372 cum procul hos laevo flectentis limite cernunt and Calp. Ecl. 3.14 laevas flecte sub ulmos. Valerius has it again in 8.200 protinus inde alios flectunt regesque locosque, with its remarkable (to say the least) accusatives of direction (flexu Ph. Wagner 1863). In prose this usage is more common (first in Livy, cf. e.g. 3.8.6 ex Gabino in Tusculanos flexere colies), and it even becomes frequent in Tacitus. That Juno does not want Jason ‘to rush into Pelias and the king’s still opposing fate’, is because king Pelias was destined to die, not at the hands of Jason, but at the hands of his own daughters (cf. 1.810ff.). temere: for the use of this adverb in poetry (only three times in Valerius) see Häkanson 1986, 49. obstantia regis fata: for ‘opposing fate’ cf. Verg. Aen. 4.440 fata obstant, Ον. Met. 13.373 obstantia fata removi; for fata + gen. used of someone’s personal fate cf. e.g. 4.101 regis fatis et numine freti, Liv. 8.24.2 ibi fatis eius terminum dari. ruat: with this use of ruere in, followed first by an acc. personae, and then by fata (alicuius), compare that of emicare in in 6.550f. in Sueten magnique in fata Ceramni/ emicuit. Cf. also [Sen.] Oct. 364 mit in miserae fata parentis. Above all (though this is not how Valerius himself puts it), Juno does not want Jason ‘to abandon the exploits decreed by the gods’.

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ne: Burman’s correction, made in Ms 1702 edition, of the mss. reading neu, -que . . . ne standing for classical neu (KS 2.211b, 232). We find -que . . . ne again in 4.124f. nec tibi nunc virtus aut det fiducia nostri,/ nate, ani>ri°s opibusque ultra ne crede patemis and 7.80f. (Medea) contremuit . ■ ■ metu ne nescius audeat hospes/ seque miser ne posse putet. deserat: cf. Sil. 1.459 ingentes deserit actus, and compare Verg. Aen. 9.694 deserit inceptum. actus: cf. OLD 11. Valerius applies the word again to the Argonauts’ expedition in 4.163 and 5.507. 6-33. Leaving the Gulf o f Pagasae, the Argonauts round the Tisaean headland and Cape Sepias, follow the Magnesian coastline and then cross the sea towards Pallene, where they encounter the metamorphosed Giants, minus Typhoeus. [Lüthje 6 Iff., Adamietz (1976) 30f.] Up to line 17, the end of the itinerary, Valerius adheres quite closely to Apollonius’ description in 1.566-600, but the digression on the Giants and Typhoeus in 17-33 is new. Catalogues of the names of places passed by in sailing are a regular feature of Latin poetry. Valerius has two others in 2.621-3 and 5.101-8. Cf. also Verg. Aen. 3.692-708, Ov. Fast. 4.277-90, Ciris 463-77, Luc. 8.243-55, S m .A c h . 1.675-81. 6f. Iamque fretis summas aequatum Pelion ornos/ templaque Tisaeae mergunt obliqua Dianae, Valerius’ order is the reverse of Apollonius’, in whose account we first find Ίίσαίην ευκηλοι ΐπτέρ δολι-χήν θέον οίκρην (1.568), and then, in 58 L Πηλιάδας δέ τταρεξήμειβον èpi/irvas. At first sight the Greek version makes little sense (cf. Shreeves 29), but Apollonius may be referring to Pelion’s spurs between the Tisaean headland and Cape Sepias. The author of the so-called ‘Orphic Argonautica’ shares Valerius’ order: ΠηΧίου έκνεύσαντες (458), Τισαίη δ’ άττέκρυφθεν άκρη etc. (460). Cf. also Venzke 62. The construction is something of a problem: is mergunt transitive (subject ‘the Argonauts’) or intransitive (subject Pelion and templa)? Opinions are divided. Burman hesitates, the former solution is advocated by J.A. Wagner, Housman (on Man. 3.330), Lüthje (62) and the OLD (mergo 4), the latter by Langen, Samuelsson (1899,110), Merone (26) and the TLL (Vlll.831.24ff.).

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Those who prefer the first interpretation compare Vergil’s use of abscondere in Aen. 3.291 aerias Phaeacum abscondimus arces (cf. Sen. Ep. 70.2, Claud. RP 3.140, Prud. Perist. 5.464), Valerius’ own experiment with condere in 2.443, 4.636 and 5.106, and the use of αποκρύπτω in PI. Prot. 338a, Arg. Orph. 460 (see above), and elsewhere. The other side may point out a. that mergere is in fact sometimes used intransitively (cf. Aetna 181 vasti terrent aditus merguntque profundo, with Goodyear’s note, Ven. Fort. Carm. 1.21.30 ungula mergit equi·, compare intransitive immergere in PI. Bac. 677, Rud. 397), and b. that the sequence mergunt - subsedit - recessit - attollit favours the intransitive interpretation. All in all, I cannot find these arguments conclusive one way or the other and prefer to remain sitting on the fence, next to Burman (unfortunately, Arg. Orph. 460 cannot be used in evidence, because its author may have misunderstood Valerius, if he read him at all). iamque followed by iam . . . iam in 8 suggests speed, as does the series δύετο, εδυνε, φαίνετο, φαίνουτο in AR 1.581ff. Cf. also 124f. iamque . . . iamque. . . iam. fretis summas aequatum Pelion ornos: ‘Pelion made level with the waves, with regard to the peaks of its ashes’ (certainly not the most lucid of expressions); ‘Pelion quoque mergitur aquis vel, ut poeta dicit . . ., aequatur undis Pelion cum summis ornis in cacumine positis’ (Langen). For the accusative of respect see on 103 crinem subnectitur. The ornus was the mountain tree par excellence, cf. e.g. Verg. G. 2.111, Plin. Nat. 16.73, and see Börner on Met. 10.101, 12.339. For those of Mt. Pelion cf. 1.406 Peliacas. . . omos. templa . . . Tisaeae . . . Dianae: Τισαίη άκρωτήριον Θεσσαλίας ή Μαγνησίας, τινές δε τής Θεσπρωτίας (schol. AR 1.568). Here the southwestern extremity of the Magnesian headland is meant. Delage (76) refers to Scyl. 65 (where the reading is uncertain) and Plb. 10.42.7; cf. also Liv. 28.5.17 ipse in Tisaeo - morn est in altitudinem ingentem cacuminis editi - speculam posuit. Ours is the only passage in ancient literature mentioning a temple of Diana on this site (see A.J.B. Wace, JHS 26 (1906) 148, for a tentative identification), but in AR 1.569ff., immediately after the rounding of the Tisaean headland, Orpheus sings a song of Artemis, ή κείνας σκοπιάς άλός άμφιέπεσκευ (571). For the cult of Artemis Iolcia (or: Pagasitis) see Vian 64, n.3. Dianae is with -Ϊ- (cf. 301, 5.238, 345, 379, 6.73, 7.179, 8.208), but Valerius has (original) Diana in 4.60 (cf. Austin on Aen. 1.499).

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obliqua: out of the comers of their eyes the Argonauts see Diana s tem ple sink below the horizon. Line 7 is the first of three Golden Lines in this book, the other two being 56 and 248; the only Silver Line in this book is 93. For the terminology see Wilkinson 215ff. In Wilkinson’s examples the central verb is invariably preceded by the two adjectives and followed by the two nouns (‘golden’: AaVNn; silver . AaVnN); I have taken the liberty of also applying the terms to lines which show a different order (as in this case: NaVAn). The pattern of our line resembles that of 8.208 illa Thoanteae transit defleta Dianae. 8f. iam Sdathos subsedit aquis, iam longa recessit/ Sepias. Cf. AR 1.582f. έδυνε δέ Στρτιάς άκρη·/ φαίυετο δ’ είναλί/η Σκιάθος, Arg. Orph. 460f. Σηττιάς άκτη (sc. άττεκρύφθη)-/ φάνθη δέ Σκιάθος, Delage 76. subsedit . . . recessit: Langen compares Verg. Aen. 3.72 terrae . . ■ urbesque recedunt, where see Williams; see also Tarrant on Sen. Ag. 444f. terras procul/ quantum recedunt vela, fugientes notat, Kleywegt (ANRW) 2464f. In our book we find some more ‘moving landscapes’ (cf. Cic. Div. 2.120 navigantibus moven videntur ea quae stant) in 16 (redit), 78 (surgit), 431 (transit) and 44o (accesserat). In Stat. Theb. 1.549 Gargara desidunt surgenti (sc. Ganymedi) et Troia recedit the situation is of course completely different, but the diction quite similar to that of our line. The perfect tenses suggest speed again. subsedit aquis: with this meaning of the verb (OLD 4b) the construction with in + abl. is more common (cf. e.g. Man. 4.801 Venus subsedit in undis). longa . . . Sepias: Cape Sepias does not strike one as particularly long, and Valerius may well have been influenced by Apollonius’ description of the Ί isaean headland in 1.568 (Τισαίην εΰκηλοι ΰττέρ δολιχήν θεόν ακρη^), where the epithet is more in place, as it is, for instance, in Luc. 6.58 longae flexus . . . Maleae. 9f. attollit tondentes pabula Magnes/ campus equos; Cf. AR 1.583ff. (ραίνοντο δ’ άνωθεν/ ΠεψεσιαΙ Μ ά γ ισ σ ά θ’ ύττεύδιος ήπτείροιο/ ακτή. Valerius omits Peiresiai (also known as Peirasiai), whose mention in Apollonius is probably due to an error on his part (cf. Delage 76f.), though Valerius may not have been aware of this. The asyndeton (Sepias, attollit), repeated several times in the following lines, is suggestive of speed again.

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attollit: Valerius has in mind Verg. Aen. 3.205f. quarto terra die primum se attollere tandem / visa (followed, in 207, by vela cadunt, remis insurgamus·, cf. 13 below: vela legunt, remis insurgitur). For transitive, as opposed to reflexive, attollere cf. Sil. 1.585f. Herculei ponto coepere exsistere colles/ et nebulosa iugis attollere saxa Monoeci (where, however, Blass’ iugi se is not unattractive). tondentes pabula . . . equos: cf. Lucr. 2.317f. tondentes pabula laeta . . . pecudes, Verg. Aen. 3.537f. equos. . . tondentis campum late. Magnes campus: elsewhere, the adjective Magnes is only used of persons (Cic. Brut. 316, Att. 4.11.2, al.) or the magnet, the lapis magnes (Var. L. 9.94, Cic. Div. 1.86, al.), but we find Ovid applying feminine Magnetis to the Argo in Her. 12.9. For Magnesia’s famous horses cf. Luc. 6.385 Magnetes equis, Minyae gens cognita remis. 10. vidisse putant Dolopeia busta Cf. AR 1.585 τύμβος Δολοττήιος (sc. φαί νέτο), Arg. Orph. 461 Δόλοττός τ’ άνεφαίνετο σήμα. Of this Dolops and his grave we know nothing apart from what we are told by the scholiast on AR 1.587: ò δέ Δόλοψ Έρμοϋ υιός, δς έν Μαγνήσση τή ττόλει άττώλετο καί αυτόθι τάφον τταρά τώ αίγιαλώ εσχεν, ώς Κλεών έν α’ των Άργοναυτικών. He might be the eponymous hero of the Thessalian Dolopes (cf. Horn. II. 9.484, Verg. Aen. 2.7), but then again he might not. Apollonius relates (1.585-91) how head winds compel the Argonauts to land on the Magnesian coast, where they pay honour to Dolops and have to wait for two days before they can continue their journey, τήν δ’ ακτήν ' Αφέτας 'Αργούς ετι, κικλήσκουσιν (591; cf. Fränkel 87f.). Valerius has nothing of the sort: he just wants the Argonauts to move on, even if this means that they have to sail all the way to Pallene on their first day at sea (cf. 17, 34ff.). Besides, aetiology is not his cup of tea. vidisse putant: the Argonauts are not quite sure whether what they just saw was Dolops’ grave or not. For the thought cf. Verg. Aen. 6.453f. qualem primo qui surgere m ense/ aut videt aut vidisse putat per nubila lunam (based on AR 4.1479f.), Ον. Her. 17.32, Stat. Theb. 7.116, 8.135, all with the same ellipse of se. Langen gives some other instances of this ellipse in Valerius, but 5.29 avelli. . . negant and 7.306 tectis . . . negat procedere virgo are of a different order, negare, in its sense of ‘to refuse’, being (of course) always construed with an infinitive, not with an A.c.I.

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Dolopeia busta: for the poetic plural cf. e.g. Ov. Met. 4.88 busta Nini, Stat. Theb. 10.903 Smelea . . . busta, and compare the use of tumuli in 580 below, and ofrog/in Verghe«. 4.646 (the reading of M). Ilf. intrantemque Amyron curvas quaesita per oras/ aequora, Cf. AR 1.595f. ούδ’ i n δηρόν/ μέλλον ΰττέκ ττοταμοΐο βαλέίν Άμύροιο ρέεθρα and, probably, Arg. Orph. 462 βεΐθρόν τ’ Άμύρου άλιμυρές (but the text is uncertain). Valerius leaves out Meliboea and Homole, both mentioned by Apollonius (592, 594). Apollonius had been wrong about the location of the latter (cf. Delage 80f.), but again, as was the case with Peiresiai (see on 9f.), Valerius may not have been aware of this. intrantem . . . Amyron . . . aequora: both Valerius and the scholiast on AR 1.595-7c ("Αμυρος ττοταμός Θεσσαλίας έκρέων μετά την Μελίβοιαν) make the Amyros discharge into the sea, whereas in reality this river flows out into Lake Boebeis. The fault is probably theirs, not Apollonius’, who merely informs us (see above) that the Argonauts pass the ‘stream’ (or, if one wishes, the ‘bed’) of the river Amyros. Besides, in 4.616L he appears to be perfectly acquainted with the geographical situation: έν λιτταρή Λακερείη (situated near Lake Boebeis) . . . έττί Ίτροχοής 'Αμύροιο. See also Delage 24, 81, 292, Vian, N.C· onAR 1.596, id., REA 72 (1970) 91, n.l, Shreeves 29. Valerius is the first to use intrare of the outflow of a river into the sea. Cf. Avien. Οώ. Terr. 31f. (the Tanais) Maeolida Tethyn/intrat, al. curvas . . . per oras: ‘through its winding banks’. The adjective is more often applied to rivers than to their banks, but cf. Sii. 9.219 curvis. . . ripis. For ora - ripa see Langen on 1.2 Scythici . . . Phasidis oras, who compares Ov. Met. 7.438 (‘quamquam ibi etiam aliter explicatur’, as indeed is done by Börner), and two passages from Ausonius (Mos. 82, 202). Another example is Stat Silv. 4.4.5 dextrasflavi. . . Thybridis oras. quaesita: the Amyros ‘seeks the sea’. Cf. Verg. Aen. 7.801L qua . . . gelidi . . . per imas/ quaerit iter vallis atque in mare conditur Ufens, where the Ufens seeks its course and then disappears into the sea. 12£ flumineo cuius redeuntia vento/ vela legunt. ‘And they furl the sails blown backward by the river breeze’ (Mozley). flumineo . . . vento: for the phenomenon cf. AR 1.1159f. έγρομένοιο σάλον ξαχρηέσιν αύραις/ αϊ νέον έκ ιτοταμών ύττό δείελον ήερέθοντο. flumineus ventus is unparalleled, redeuntia: cf. Ov. Her. 20.71 bis tamen adverso redierunt carirasa vento.

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vela legunt: for the expression cf. Verg. G. 1.373, Aen. 3.532, [Ov.] Ep. Sapph. 216, Claud. 15.481 (ligant Hall), and compare Stat. Silv. 4.4.89 Thebais optato collegit carbasa portu. See also de St. Denis2 78f. 13f. remis insurgitur; inde salutant/ Eurymenas. Cf. AR 1.597f. κειθευ δ’ Εϋρυμένα? τε πολυκλύστους τε φάρα-γγα·;/ ’Όσσης ΟΰλύμτΓοιό τ’ έσέδρακον. remis insurgitur: ‘i.e. a transtris assurgendo in remos incumbunt’ (Langen), a clear echo of Verg. Aen. 3.207 vela cadunt (!), remis insurgimus (cf. also Aen. 3.560, 5.189); VF 1.450 insurgit transtris is slightly different, consurgere is used similarly: cf. Verg. Aen. 10.299 socii consurgere tonsis, and compare VF 1.362, 387. In Greek we find, for instance, έμβαλέει,ν κώτττρ (Horn. Od. 9.489 (10.129); cf. AR 2.589) and έττερρώουτ’ έλάτησιν (AR 2.661). For the impersonal passive see Austin on Aen. 1.272 and 4.416 (‘the oldest function of the Latin passive voice’). In our book we have discumbitur (190) and ventum erat (332); other Valerian examples are itur (5.563) and surgitur (5.695). salutant: cf. Verg. Aen. 3.524 Italiam laeto socii clamore salutant, Ov. Met. 3.25 (Cadmus) ignotos montes agrosque salutat. Eurymenas: the name of this place, ‘dont l’emplacement exact n’est pas connu’ (Delage 81), occurs in the same form in Liv. 39.25.3 and Plin. Nat. 31.29, but in Str. 9.5.22 and Plin. Nat. 4.32 we find Έ ρνμναί/Erymnae. 14f. recipit velumque fretumque reversus/ Auster redpit: the south wind ‘regains possession o f sail and sea. I know of no parallel for recipere so used, but we may compare the use of the simplex in Luc. 5.413f. fortius hibemi flatus caelumque fretumque (!),/ cum cepere, tenent, cf. also id. 2.454, 9.118. Valerius reverses the roles in 5.101 altius hinc ventos recipit ratis. velumque fretumque: for this manneristic use of -que . . . -que, ‘both . . . and’, with only the second -que having a co-ordinating function of its own, see Austin on Aen. 4.83 and Smith on Tib. 1.1.33, as well as J. Richmond, -que -que in classical Latin poets, Philologus 112 (1968) 135-9. Other instances in book 2 are: montesque locosque (39), veloque marique (59), noctemque diemque (89), spemuntque foventque (121), scelerisque dolique (123), traditque auditque (166), mactatque trahitque (230), nataeque nurusque (247), nomenque genusque (468) and proceresque ducemque (590). Valerius goes to extremes in 1.69 If. ventique imbresque nivesque/fulguraque.

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15f. et in nubem Minyis repetentibus altum / Ossa redit. Cf. AR 1.597f., quoted on 13f. in nubem . . . Ossa redit: O ssa merges again into the clouds’, cf. OLD redeo 2 (e.g. Luc. 2.722f. flexi iam plaustra Bootae/ in faciem puri redeunt languentia caeli)·, for the ‘moving landscape’ see on 8 subsedit . . . recessit. Incidentally, this is the fifth compound with re(d)- in five lines: 12 redeuntia, 14 recipit, reversus, 15 repetentibus, 16 redit. Minyis repetentibus altum: Summers takes repetentibus as = petentibus, but Valerius is picking up lf. Iason/ alta secat: the Argonauts first sail the Gulf of Pagasae, then, in 6ff., they skirt the coast, and now they are putting out to sea again. Cf. also 5.126f. For Minyae, ‘Argonauts’, see Vian 10-2, Börner on Met. 6.720. 16f. metus ecce deum damnataque bello/ Pallene, Cf. AR 1.598ff. ειτειτα/ κλίτεα Παλλήυαια . . . ήιηισαν, Arg. Orph. 466 Πελλήρην τ’ εύρεΐαν, Delage 82f. Having crossed the sea the Argonauts now face ‘the terror of the gods, Pallene, (once) condemned to war’ (the one between the gods and the Giants, that is), -que is epexegetic, as for instance in Verg. Aen. 5.399 pretio inductus pulchroque iuvenco. Langen is wrong to assume a case of traiectio of -que (‘deum ad bello referendum’), not only because this would leave metus intolerably bare, but also because in Valerius, who as a rule is not averse (to put it mildly) to intricate word order, this particular kind of traiectio does not occur. None of the ‘parallels’ adduced by Langen in his note on 1.49 is valid: in 1.49 itself meque is the reading of C, and of C only, in 1.420 we should probably read celer aspera with Withof (caelataque C), 1.848 (= 847) is of a different order, as Langen’s own note on 1.844 (= 843) implies, and, finally, iamque in 2.168 and 7.310 (cf. Verg.v4en. 3.588,5.225) has to be considered as one word; see also Leo 955f. metus . . . deum: metus not infrequently denotes a person or thing to be feared (cf. Langen on 1.23; cf. also maximus . . . horror in 23f. below), but it is only here that a region is so called. For the genitive cf. Sen. Phoen. 516f., Ilias 794, Sil. 3.70, al. damnata . . . bello Pallene: cf. Stat. Theb. 7.238f. subeunt campo, qui proximus urbi/ damnatus bellis patet, where, however, the battle still has to be fought. I agree with Strand (43ff.) that bello (and, for that matter, bellis in the Thebaid passage) is in all probability ablative (contra Langen and the TLL (V-1.18.82ff.)), and that damnare + abl. is much more frequent than is sometimes

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assumed, damnare + dat. being confined, as a rule, to those cases where the expression means ‘to deliver over to’ (OLD 4). Valerius has the ablative again in I. 70 flava quercum damnavit arista (a special case: see Strand, loc. cit., Kleywegt 1986, 332ff.), 2.153 damnata . . . paelice proles, where see note, and 3.260 ut mea fatali damnastis pectora somno! Pallene, or Phlegra (cf. Hdt. 7.123 την νϋν Παλλήνην ττρότερον δέ Φλέ7Ρην καλεομένην), is the site to which the gigantomachy is traditionally assigned, cf. e.g. Pind. Nem. 1.67f., AR 3.234, Prop. 2.1.39, Ov. Met. 10.150f., Sen. HF 444f„ Luc. 7.150, 9.656, Stat. Silv. 4.2.56, VF 1.564, 5.692. In most cases the place is called Phlegra, but cf. Luc. 7.150, Stat. Silv. 4.2.56. 17f. circumque vident immania monstra/ terrigenum caelo quondam adversata Gigantum, All around, the Argonauts see the terrifying remains of the Giants, fossilized by Earth, their mother (19f.). Up to these lines Valerius has followed Apollonius rather closely, but here he takes leave of his model, not to meet him again until 72. The theme of the gigantomachy had become a rather hackneyed one, but Valerius’ digression has some point: after all, the Argonauts have to pass Pallene on their way east, and the presence of these petrified Giants adds to the eeriness that surrounds this sea voyage, the first ever made by mankind. In Latin we find some longer references in Hor. Od. 3.4.42-80, Ov. Met. 1.15162, Aetna 41-73 (cf. R. Hildebrandt, Eine römische Gigantomachie, Philologus 66 (1907) 562-89). Claudian even wrote two gigantomachies, one in Latin and one in Greek; cf. also Ov. Am . 2.1.1 Iff. (with Bömer’s note on Met. 10.150f.), Mart. II. 52.17f. (addressed to Julius Cerealis) ipse tuos nobis relegas licet usque Gigantas/ Rura vel aeterno proxima Vergilio. For a full account of the story see Apollod. 1.6. If. See also Börner on Met. 1.151-62, F. Vian, La guerre des Géants. Le mythe avant l’époque hellénistique, Paris 1952, P.R. Hardie, Some themes from Gigantomachy in the ‘Aeneid’, Hermes 111 (1983) 311-26. circum . . . vident: the same words accentuate the same kind of creepy atmosphere in 1.714 and 2.40. immania monstra terrigenum . . . Gigantum: immania monstra comes from Ov. Fast. 5.35f. Terra feros partus, immania monstra, Gigantas/ edidif, in Verg. Aen. 3.583 the words mean ‘terrifying horrors’. For monstrum + gen. cf. e.g. Verg. Aen. 6.285 multa . . . variarum monstra ferarum, Prop. 4.7.58 mentitae lignea monstra bovis.

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Ovid was the first to apply terrìgena to a ‘Giant’ (Met. 5.325 terrigenam . . . Typhoea)·, before him, the word denoted the first men on earth (Lucr. 5.1411, 1427) or . . . the snail (cf. Cic. Div. 2.133). In 7.505, 629, 8.107 and 450 Valerius uses it of Jason’s earth-born adversaries, terrigenum is the usual form of the genitive plural, but Lucretius once has terrigenarum (5.1411). terrigena is one of several compounds with -gena in Valerius: others are amnigena (5.584), Graiugena (2.557, 6.389), indigena (6.93, 294) and Soligena (5.223, 317), the first and the last of which are not found earlier. See also J. André, Les composés en -gena, -genus, RPh 47 (1973) 7-30. Line 18 is framed by an attribute and its noun. For this pattern see Austin on Aen. 1.74, Norden, Comm, on Aen. 6, pp. 391f. Other instances in our book are 93,123,269 and 474. caelo . . . adversata: cf. Cic. Leg. 3.5 noster . . . Plato Titanum e genere statuit eos, qui, ut illi caelestibus, sic hi adversentur magistratibus. 19t quos scopulis trabibusque parens miserata iugisque/ induit et versos exstruxit in aethera montes. Valerius has in mind Luc. 9.655ff. caelo . . . tim ente/ olim Phlegraeo stantis serpente gigantas/ erexit montes, bellumque immane deorum/ Pallados e medio confecit pectore Gorgon (cf. Hor. Od. 3.4.57f., Claud, carm. min. 53.91ff.), but the transformation of the Giants into mountains is no longer the work of an enemy, but of Earth, their compassionate mother, who ‘clothed them with rocks, trees and ridges and having thus transformed them erected them sky-high as mountains’. Cf. also Ov. Met. 1.156-62. quos scopulis trabibusque . . . iugisque induit: scopulis etc. are not datives (Langen, TLL VII-l.1266.48ff.), but ablatives, not expressing a result (contra Strand 47), but ordinary ones, the rocks etc. being the Giants’ new ‘outfit’ (cf. OLD induo 4). induere admits of a wide range of constructions. In Valerius we find 1. induere aliquid (2.398f., 4.251, 7.90f.), 2. induere alicui aliquid (2.265f., 8.234f.), 3. induere 'aliquem’ (4.509), 4. induere aliquem aliqua re (h.l.), 5. indui aliquid (4.93L), 6. indui aliqua re (7.371f.). For Vergilian practice see Fordyce on Aen. 7.640 (curiously enough, Vergil has quos . . . / induerat . . . at the beginning of lines 19f. (!) of Aeneid 7). For scopulis trabibusque cf. 6.384. I do not quite understand why Langen, following Meyncke (1865), objects to trabibus: mountains do happen to be equipped with trees. parens: cf. Verghe«. 4.178 Terra parens, and see West on Hes. Th. 185.

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versos: cf. Verg. Aen. 7.189ff. Picus . . . quem . . . aurea percussum virga versumque venenis/fecit avem Circe. exstruxit . . . montes: montes is predicative, just as in Lucan’s erexit montes (9.657). The choice of the verb is remarkable and possibly intended to remind us of how it all started: cf. Verg. G. 1.283 ter pater exstructos disiecit fulmine montis (i.e. Pelion, Ossa and Olympus, piled up by the Giants as a stairway to heaven), Ov. Fast. 5.39, Sii. 9.308. 21f. quisque suas in rupe minas pugnamque metusque/ servat adhuc; An Ovidian turn: even after their transformation into mountains the Giants are still seen to ‘threaten, fight and recoil’. Cf. e.g. Met. 6.3Ilf. (Niobe) fixa cacumine montis/ liquitur, et lacrimas etiam nunc marmora manant, 9.226f. (the Lichas story) nunc quoque in Euboico scopulus brevis eminet alto/ gurgite et humanae servat vestigia formae, and especially 4.55 Iff. (the tale of Ino’s companions), with 560 quo quaeque in gestu deprensa est, haesit in illo. For some more petrifactions in the Metamorphoses cf. 4.657ff., 6.87ff. (the punishment of Rhodope and Haemus, who, like the Giants, aimed too high), 10.241f., 13.714f. minas . . . servat: cf. Sen. Oed. 618 Pentheus tenet . . . saevus etiamnunc minas, Sil. 5.673 (of dead soldiers) fronte minae durant, et stant in vultibus irae. ‘Still threatening’ Giants recur in Claud. RP 3.340f. adhuc crudele minantur/ adfixae truncis facies (sc. Gigantum). servat adhuc: compare Ov. Met. 14.759f. dominae sub imagine signum/ servat adhuc Salamis. 22f. quatit ipse hiemes et torquet ab alto/ fulmina crebra pater; It was Jupiter himself (for ipse pater cf. Cic. Mar. fr. 2, Cat. 64.21, Verg. G. 1.121, al.; Mozley oddly translates ‘their father’) who defeated the Giants with his thunderbolts (cf. e.g. Verg. G. 1.283, Aen. 1.665, Hor. Od. 3.4.73ff., Ov. Met. 1.154f, 10.150f., Luc. 7.150, Aetna 59, [Sen.] HO 1301f., Apollod. 1.6.2), and who has still not ceased raging {adhuc should be supplied from the previous sentence). quatit . . . hiemes: ‘brandishes storms’. The closest parallel comes from Valerius himself: cf. 1.82 caeruleum quateret cum Iuppiter imbrem. torquet . . . fulmina: before Valerius, who also has it in 1.372, the expression occurs only four times: cf. Verg. Aen. 4.208, Ov. Her. 4.158, Pont. 3.6.27, Sen. Ag. 802. 23f. scopulis sed maximus illis/ horror abest, Sicula pressus tellure Typhoeus.

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Typhoeus, also known as Typh(a)on (cf. e.g. Hymn. Ap. 306, Pinci. Ol. 4.9, Ov. Fast. 2.461, Ciris 32) or Typhos (in Greek literature only, cf. e.g. Pinci. Pyth. 1.16, Aesch. Prom. 370), was brought forth by Earth after the victory of the gods over the Giants (or, according to Hesiod, after their victory over the Titans: cf. Th. 820ff.) and was meant to take revenge for his brothers. But after many vicissitudes he too was finally defeated by Jupiter, who buried him under Mt. Etna (a variant tradition has him buried under Inarime, and the Giant Enceladus under Mt. Etna: see Langen’s extensive note). See further G. Seippel, Der Typhonmythos, Diss. Greifswald 1939, F. Vian, La guerre . . . (see on 17f.), 12-6, id., Le mythe de Typhée et le problème de ses origines orientales, in: Éléments orientarne dans la religion grecque ancienne (Colloque de Strasbourg 1958), Paris 1960, 17ff., J. Duchemin, Le captif de l’Etna, Typhée frère de Prométhée, Studi classici in onore di Quintino Cataudella, Catania 1972, I 149-72, S.M. Vaquero, Tifoeo, el cautivo del Etna, Helmantica 31 (1980) 245-9. Valerius mentions the monster again in 4.236 (‘Typhoeus’), 516 (‘Typhon’, acting as the father of the Harpies) and 6.170 {Typhoea verberat Μ2, B-1474: Typhona reverberat B-1498: typhea verberat ω). The Typhon appearing in 3.130 is probably not our Typhoeus/Typhon, but the personified typhoon. The idea of inserting this curious digression on Typhoeus (who was not there!) seems to have come from Aeneid 3, where the description of Aeneas’ fearful night off the Sicilian coast (583ff.), of which lines 38ff. below are a reminiscence, is preceded by a digression on Enceladus (578ff.). maximus . . . horror: Typhoeus is the ‘greatest terror’ of them all. For this use of horror cf. 1.744f. qui gentibus horror/ pergit! (Jason), Lucr. 3.1034 Scipiadas, . . . Carthaginis horror, Prop. 4.10.10, Luc. 5.344, al. Cf. also 16 metus . . . deum. Sicula pressus tellure: with Sicula . . . tellure compare Ov. Met. 5.361 Siculae . . . terrae: the story of Typhoeus as told in Met. 5.346ff. served, with that of Enceladus in Aeneid 3, as the chief model for our passage. premere is often used in this context: cf. e.g. Ov. Met. 5.351 Lilybaeo crura premuntur, Sen. Med. 409f. anhelantem premens/ Titana . . . Aetna, Sii. 12.148f. Inarime, quae. . . premit Iapetum. 25ff. hunc profugum et sacras revomentem pectore flammas,/ ut memorant, prensum ipse comis Neptunus in altum/ abstulit implicuitque vadis. Traditionally it was Jupiter who defeated Typhoeus and finally buried him under Mt. Etna/Inarime (cf. e.g. Apollod. 1.6.3). Valerius’ version, with Neptune setting the seal on Jupiter’s work (see on sacras revomentem pectore flammas).

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seems unprecedented, which makes one wonder who are being alluded to in 26 ut memorant. See further F. Vian, La guerre . . . (see on 17f.), 202f. profugum: cf. Apollod. 1.6.3 φεΰ-γειν δε όρμηθέντι αΰτώ. sacras revomentem pectore flammas: this is not a reference to Typhoeus’ ordinary fire-breathing activities (cf. e.g. Aesch. Sept. 493f.), but to the flames that issued from his body after he was struck by Jupiter’s thunderbolt: cf. Verg. Aen. 3.578ff. fama est Enceladi semustum fulmine corpus/ urged mole hac, ingentemque insuper A etnam / impositam ruptis flammam exspirare caminis (with Williams’ note), Apollod. 1.6.3 τούτο (i.e. Mt. Etna) δέ ΐπτερμέγεθές έστιν, έξ ου μέχρι, δεϋρό φασι,ν άττό τών βληθέντων κεραυνών yiveoQai ττυρός άναφυσήματα. Cf. also Verg. Aen. 1.44 illum (i.e. Ajax) exspirantem transfixo pectore flammas, where Pallas has treated Ajax in much the same manner as Jupiter has treated Typhoeus here. sacras . . . flammas: the flames are sacrae because they have been brought about by Jupiter’s thunderbolt: cf. e.g. [Sen.] Oct. 228ft caelitum rector . . .,/ qui saepe terras fulmine infesto quatit/ mentesque nostras ignibus terret sacris. Mozley’s ‘accursed fires’ is not possible. revomentem pectore: cf. Verg. Aen. 5.181f. ilium . . . salsos rident revomentem pectore fluctus. ut memorant: ‘as they say’, but we do not know who ‘they’ are (see above). The expression is confined to poetry: cf. PI. Ps. 199, Ov. Met. 13.47, 15.414, Tr. 4.4.65, Luc. 9.513, and compare firm. Ann. 166 Sk. uti memorant. prensum . . . comis: for pre(he)ndere + abl. cf. e.g. PI. Poen. 375 sine te exorem, sine prehendam auriculis. We find a rather similar phraseology in 3.130ff. Typhon . . . quem Iuppiter alte/ enne tinet (although this is probably a different Typhon from the one we are dealing with here: see on 23f.). implicuit . . . vadis: to ‘entangle’ someone in water seems a difficult thing to do, but it does occur, cf. Ov. Met. 3.342ff. caerula Liriope, quam quondam flumine curvo/ implicuit clausaeque suis Cephisos in undis/ vim tulit. Cf. also Stat. Theb. 4.815 implicitos fluvio. . . reges. Valerius uses vada in all its shades of meaning: it means “waters’ (as here) in 3.359, 6.140, 7.221, ‘the bottom of the sea’ in 2.536, 4.725, and ‘shoals’ in 2.622, 631, 3.43. He never has the singular. 27ff. totiensque cruenta/ mole resurgentem torquentemque anguibus undas/ Sicanium dedit usque fretum When Typhoeus keeps protesting Neptune has to think of something more drastic.

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enta mole, in comparison with the other epic poets Valerius uses cruentus remar ably sparingly, only 6 times, as against Vergil (Aen.) 22, Lucan 22, Statius pcs 52 and Silius 30 times. Ovid shares Valerius’ reserve with no more than 13 instances in the Metamorphoses. For moles denoting a person’s or animal’s bulk cf. 518 (the sea monster g g o ^ eS ^ t0 ^ eat)’ 3.479 (Hercules himself), 4.232 (Pollux, lacking moles). the snake that guards the Golden Fleece); Vergilian examples are Aen. 3.656 ( olyphemus) and 8.199 (Cacus). For the moles of a Giant cf. [Sen.] HO 12 H vasta tumidi mole gigantis, al. surgentem. cf. Ον. Met. 5.349 nititur ille quidem pugnatque resurgere saepe (said of Typhoeus after he has been buried under Mt. Etna), torquentem . . . undas: usually it is rowers who ‘churn up’ the w a te r: cf •362f. Naubolides tortas consurgit in undas/ Iphitus, Cat. 64.13 torta . . ■ remigio spumis incanuit unda, Verg.Aen. 3.208, 4.583, al. anguibus, both the Giants and Typhoeus had snakes where others h av e feet, or the Giants cf. e.g. Acc. trag. 307 Pallas bicorpor anguium spiras trahit. Ο ν. ast. 5.37, Tr. 4.7.17 serpentipedes . . . Gigantas, Luc. 9.656, Aetna 46f., Sil 6.181f., Claud, cami. min. 53.80f., Apollod. 1.6.1 (some curious remarks can be found m Serv. Aen. 3.578 and Macr. Sat. 1.20.9); for the serpentine fe et of Typhoeus cf. Man. 4.581 anguipedem. . . Typhona, Apollod. 1.6.3. Pausanias knew better than to believe all this (8.29.3). Sicanium dedit usque fretum: ‘he flung (or. moved) him all the way to the Sicilian waters’. Burman called this a ‘durior locutio’, and various attempts were made to m ake it less dura. Thus Burman himself toyed with the idea of reading tulit ( ‘sed quia sequitur intulit retineamus hanc Valerio peculiarem locutionem’), Peerlkamp (on Aen. 3.579) proposed rapit, with 30 inicit, Hermann and Ph. W agner (1863) both suggested vehit, which, in spite of its improbability, with the perfect tenses abstulit and implicuit preceding and intulit following, was adopted by L an g en and Mozley; Ellis (1880), finally, conjectured tulit, with 30 indidit. Ehlers ‘suspects' dedit. All this, however, becomes unnecessary, once it is realized that at some stage the verb dare was confused with *do (as in abdo, condo) and thereby acqu ired the meaning ‘to put, place’ (somewhere), or even ‘to fling, move’ (to). F o r the first nuance cf. 5.147f. Tibarenum/ dant virides post terga lacus, 6.347, C ato Agr. 114.1 eas radices dato circum vitem, Verg. Aen. 8.30 dedit per membra quietem (compare VF 6.670), OLD 19, and for the second (OLD 19b) Enn. Ann. 85 Sk. candida se radiis dedit icta foras lux, Verg. G. 4.528 Proteus . . . se iactu dedit

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aequor in altum. Suet. Aug. 96.1, and above all Ov. Pont. 4.8.59f. sic (sc. scimus) adfectantes caelestia regna Gigantas/ ad Styga nimbifero vindicis igne datos, where the main figures are closely related to the ones in our passage. Sicanium . . . fretum: fretum, combined with Sicanium or some such word, often denotes the Straits of Messina (cf. Cic. ND 3.24 freto Siciliensi, Caes. BC 2.3.1 freto Siciliae), but here the meaning may be more general: ‘the Sicilian waters’. Compare Verg. Aen. 1.557f. at freta Sicaniae saltem sedesque paratas,/ unde huc advecti, regemque petamus Acesten (Acestes did not live anywhere near the Straits of Messina: cf.Aen. 5.23f.). The adjective Sicanius occurs from Vergil onward, as an equivalent of the older Siculus. usque: ‘all the way to’, cf. OLD 2, KS 1.574, Sz. 254, Ed. Wölfflin, ALL 4 (1887) 52ff. 29f. cumque urbibus Aetnam/ intulit ora premens. Cf. Verg. Aen. 3.579f. ingentem . . . insuper A etnam / impositam, Ov. Met. 5.350ff. dextra . . . Ausonio manus est subiecta Peloro,/ laeva, Pachyne, tibi, Lilybaeo crura premuntur; / degravat Aetna caput, Fast. 4.491 alta iacet vasti super ora Typhoeos Aetne. intulit: inferre far more often means ‘to put, throw, thrust, etc. in' than ‘to put etc. on’ (OLD 4), but cf. Caes. BG 6.30.4 ilium in equum quidam ex suis intulit (a: impulit ß), Plin. Nat. 36.131. 3Qf. trux ille eiectat adesi/ fundamenta iugi; Cf. Verg. Aen. 3.575f. (Mt. Etna) interdum scopulos avulsaque viscera montis/ erigit eructans, Ov. Met. 5.352f. (Mt. Etna) sub qua resupinus harenas/ eiectat flammamque ferox vomit ore Typhoeus, Sil. 12.148ff. Inarime, quae . . . premit Iapetum flammas . . . rebelli/ ore eiectantem, in the last two of which passages we find eiectare (‘to disgorge’) again. Note, however, that Ovid and Valerius are much bolder than Silius: their Typhoeus ‘disgorges’ things which in fact come from Mt. Etna’s inside (cf. the Aeneid passage quoted above). adesi . . . iugi: I find it difficult to imagine Typhoeus ‘nibbling’ at Mt. Etna, which is how the OLD interprets these words (adedo 1), and think it more likely, with the TLL (I.603.79ff.), that adesi refers to the impact of the flames on the interior of the mountain (as Burman already suggested). For this meaning of adedere cf. Verg. Aen. 9.537 (flamma) corripuit tabulas et postibus haesit adesis, Prop. 4.7.9, al.; cf. also Hor. Od. 3.4.75f. nec peredit/ impositam celer ignis Aetnen.

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For iugi cf. Sen. Phaed. 190 Aetnaeis iugis. fundamenta: cf., in a similar context, Aetna 199ff. pellitur exustae glomerarim nimbus harenae,/flagrantes properant moles, volvuntur ab im o / fundamenta. 31f£. pariter tunc omnis anhplat/ Trinacria, iniectam fesso dum pectore molem/ commovet experiens gemituque reponit inani. Cf. Verg. Aen. 3.581f. fessum quotiens mutet latus, intremere o m n e m / murmure Trinacriam, Ov. Met. 5.354ff. saepe remoliri luctatur pondera terrae/ oppidaque et magnos devolvere corpore montes:/ inde tremit tellus. pariter tunc omnis anhelat Trinacria: ‘then the whole of Sicily pants at the same time’. For the combination of pariter and omnis (and similar words) see Strand 105f. omnis . . . Trinacria echoes Vergil’s omnem . . . Trinacriam. For Trinacria ‘Sicily’ see Börner on Fast. 4.419. In Latin the noun occurs from Vergil onwaid (Aen. 3.440); the adjective is first found in Cat. 68.53 (cf. VF 1.579). anhelat is an attractive variation on Vergil’s intremere and Ovid s tremit. Valerius uses the verb similarly in 3.208f. ut magis Inarime, magis ut mugitor anhelat/ Vesbius, attonitas acer cum suscitat urbes. iniectam. . . molem: cf. Ov. Met. 14.1 Giganteis iniectam faucibus Aetnen. moles often denotes the mass under which Typhoeus/Enceladus lies buried: cf. e.g. Verg. Aen. 3.578f. fama est Enceladi semustum fulmine corpus/ urgeri mole hac, Ov. Met. 5.347f. (Sicily) magnis subiectum molibus urget . . . Typhoea, Luc. 5.101. fesso. . . pectore: cf.Aen. 3.581 (quoted above). Valerius has fessus 28 times, as against lassus only once (7.561 lassa dies), which is in keeping with the overall picture of the use of these words in epic poetry: Vergil (Aen.) 33:1 (or, with 2.739, 2), Ovid (Met.) 28:6, Lucan 19:9, Statius (epics) 35:16, Silius 51:2. On the whole, fessus is the more elevated of the two words and as such preferred by Cicero, Horace (in the Odes) and the epic poets, whereas lassus is more colloquial, occurring mainly in comedy (but it should be noted that fessus is not attested before Varro and Cicero), Horace s satires and epistles, Ovid s elegies and in later writers (Sen., Plin. Min., Mart., Juv.). See also Axelson 29f. Valerius could have written iniectam dum fesso pectore molem, but by postponing dum one place further he achieves a neat symmetry (as in 130 innumerum flatus cum fingis equorum, instead of cum flatus, and 491 Neptunus muros cum iungeret astris, instead of cum mums) and at the same time avoids a spondaic disyllable in the fourth foot (see on 74 et), as, again, in 130 and 491.

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experiens: ‘sc. num deicere possit’ (Langen). gemitu . . . inani: ‘das . . . Adjektiv inanis . . . deutet an, dass Typhoeus’ Seufzen umsonst ist, suggeriert aber auch, dass er seufzt, weil seine Anstrengungen vergeblich gewesen sind’ (Kleywegt (ANRW) 2479f.). With Typhoeus’ gemitus compare Mt. Etna’s in Verg. Aen. 3.576f. liquefacta . . . saxa sub auras/ cum gemitu glomerat. gemitus inanis occurs only here, but Propertius has fremitu . . . inani in 2.16.37. Cf. also VF 3.696f. non tamen et gemitus et inanes desinit iras/fundere. reponit: as if Mt. Etna does not simply fall back on his chest! 34-71. Nightfall terrifies the Argonauts, but Tiphys, the helmsman, reassures them, and when they have taken some refreshments they go to sleep and let the stars guide their ship. [Lüthje 61ff., Adamietz (1976) 31, Currie 46ff.] Valerius’ description of the Argonauts’ first night at sea is a reminiscence of Vergil’s portrayal of Aeneas and his men as they pass an anxious night in the vicinity of Mt. Etna: Aen. 3.583ff. noctem illam tecti silvis immania monstra/ perferimus, nec quae sonitum det causa videmus./ nam neque erant astrorum ignes nec lucidus aethra/ siderea polus, obscuro sed nubila caelo,/ et lunam in nimbo nox intempesta tenebat. The two situations, however, are diametrically opposed: in the Aeneid it is the scary sounds and the utter darkness that terrify the Trojans, whereas in our passage it is the very silence (41) and the starspangled sky (42) that strike terror into the Argonauts. For the night theme in Valerius see Venini 1972b, 14ff. With regard to this particular night scene Currie draws our attention to the 23 lines we have of C. Albinovanus Pedo’s poem on Germanicus’ North Sea expedition (see also on 34 metas maris. . . Hiberi and 38 auxerat hora metus). Our passage has elicited many laudatory comments, even from those who deny our author any poetic quality at all, culminating in Garson’s eulogy (1964, 279, n.l): ‘Their first night at sea . . . evokes what must be one of the finest descriptions in Latin epic’. (In his note on 38 Langen betrays a curious lack of imagination: ‘Valerius aliquomodo obliviscitur vicissitudines dierum noctiumque etiam in terra continenti viros expertos esse et novisse’). 34ff. Iamque Hyperionius metas maris urget Hiberi/ currus et evectae prono laxantur habenae/ aethere,

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Descriptions of sunrise and sunset had for so long been stock features of epic poetry that originality, if indeed striven after at all, was difficult to achieve. With our lines compare especially 3.730f., Verg. Aen. 11.913f., Ov. Met. 11.257f., Stat. Theb. 3.407«., Ach. 1.689ff., Silv. 2.7.24ff. iamque . . . cum: a mainly epic formula of transition. Cf., in Valerius, 3.417ff„ 4.58ff. and especially 72ff. below, which lines serve as a counterpart to the ones in question (sunset here, sunrise there), and where, moreover, the same tenses are used: present tenses in the main clause, perfect tenses in the subordinate clause. See also Fordyce onAen. 7.25f. Hyperionius . . . currus: the sun’s chariot (mentioned again in 75f., 3.400f., 5.245, 411f., 431f., 6.517f.) is as old as the Homeric hymns: cf. Hymn. Merc. 68f., Hymn. Cer. 62f. (with Richardson’s note). Its horses had names, and rather telling ones at that: cf. Ov. Met. 2.153f. Pyrois et Eous et A eth on ,/ Solis equi, quartusque Phlegon. For the chariots of moon and dawn see on 294f. and 26Iff. resp. In Homer ' Υττερίων is either an epithet of, or another name for, Helios (II. 8.480, Od. 1.8, 12.133; II. 19.398, Od. 1.24), but on one occasion (Od. 12.176 ΉελΙου . . . ' ΥιτεριοιΛδαο ανακτος) he appears to be Helios’ father, and ever since ' Υ-περίων/Hyperion can denote either the father or the son/sun. Statius uses the name in a similar context in Silv. 2.7.24ff. felix heu nimis et beata tellus,/ quae pronos Hyperionis m eatus/ summis Oceani vides in undis/ stridoremque rotae cadentis audis. See further Gross 397-99, Börner on Fast. 1.385. The adjective Hyperionius is not found before Valerius. Like our author, Statius and Silius use it once (cf. Theb. 12.413 and 15.214 resp.), but after them little is heard of it. Another Valerian innovation, the patronymic Hyperionides (5.471), found no response at all. metas maris . . . Hiberi: either ‘the boundary of the Hiberian sea’ or ‘its goal, i.e. the Hiberian sea’, in which case the genitive may be labelled ‘appositional’ (KS 1.418) or ‘defining’ (Sz. 62). The first interpretation suggests itself more immediately, cf. e.g. 4.512 ad Ionii metas, Pedo poet. 4 ad rerum metas extremaque litora mundi (see the introductory note). On the other hand, meta quite frequently denotes the goal of the sun’s (day’s) or moon’s (night’s) journey, cf. e.g. Ov. Met. 2.142f. Hesperio positas in litore m etas/ umida nox tetigit, Sil. 11.267f. iamque diem ad metas defessis Phoebus O lympo/ impellebat equis. For mare Hiberum, ‘the Atlantic’, cf. Verg. Aen. 11.913f. ni roseus fessos iam gurgite Phoebus Hibero/ tingat equos, Ov. Met. 7.324f. ter iuga Phoebus equis in

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Hibero flumine mersis/ dempserat, and compare VF 3.730f. extremi nox litore Solis Hiberas/ condidit alta domos. urget: the OLD lists this instance of urgere under lb ‘to press as a result of crowding or close proximity’, but as yet (prono aethere) the sun’s chariot is not doing any ‘pressing’, it is only ‘getting close to’ the finish: cf. Hor. Od. 2.10. Iff. (under OLD lc) rectius vives, Licini, neque altum / semper urgendo neque . . . nimium premendo/ litus iniquum, where urgere (and, for that matter, premere) means ‘to keep close to’. et evectae prono laxantur habenae aethere: ‘and after their ascent the reins are slackened where the sky slopes downwards’. habenae performs a dual function: with laxantur it simply means ‘reins’ (cf. e.g. Curt. 4.9.24 laxatis habenis, Sil. 9.657), but with evectae it stands for currus or equi (cf. Sen. Thy. 838ff. non Phoebeis obvia flam m is/ demet nocti Luna timores/ vincetque sui fratris habenas, and see Mulder on Stat. Theb. 2.166); frena is used similarly, cf. e.g. Sen. Ag. 295f. Phoebum . . . frena revocantem sua. For evectae cf. Sen. HF 132f. caeruleis evectus aquis/ Titan, Mela 3.57 (sol) se altius evehens, TLL V-2.1008.7ff. According to Thilo (pr. XIV), ‘(equi) cum summum aethera superaverunt eum evecti esse apte dicuntur’ (cf. OLD eveho 2b), but Valerius has not mentioned the summus aether. For prono . . . aethere cf. Ov. Met. 2.67 (Sol to Phaethon) ultima prona via est. In the second half of that line Sol tells his son that this part of the sky requires firm guiding (eget moderamine certo). This is something quite different from slackening the reins, but we may compare (though the context is not the same) Man. 3.370ff. (Phoebus) simul e medio praeceps descenderit orbe/ inferiora petens deiecto sidera curru/ et dabit in pronum laxas effusus habenas. 36f. cum palmas Tethys grandaeva sinusque/ sustulit et rupto sonuit sacer aequore Titan. palmas Tethys . . . sinusque sustulit: cf. Ov. Met. 2.68f. (Sol to Phaethon again) tunc etiam, quae me subiectis excipit undis,/ ne ferar in praeceps, Tethys solet ipsa vereri, and compare VF 5.43 lf. at iuga vix Tethys sparsumque recolligit axem / et formidantem patrios Pyroenta dolores (after Phaethon’s fall). With sinus the verb is probably used by zeugma for something like pandit·, cf. Verg. Aen. 8.711ff. N ilum / pandentem . . . sinus et tota veste vocantem/ caeruleum in gremium latebrosaque flumina victos (with Henry’s note). grandaeva: cf. Ov. Met. 2.509f. ad canam descendit in aequora Tethyn/ Oceanumque senem, Epie. Drusi 437f. longaeva. . . Oceani coniunx.

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Homer called Oceanus, Tethys’ husband, θεών γένεση, ‘the origin of the gods’ (II. 14.201), and ever since the two of them were regarded as the oldest couple in existence. Cratinus wittily calls an old woman ΐφοτήθν? (fr· 438 Kock), with a pun on ττροτήθη, ‘great-grandmother’. Clymene, one of Tethys’ daughters (Hes. Th. 351), bore Sol a child, Phaethon (cf. Ov. Met. 1.750ff., 2.35ff.), so that Sol in a way is Tethys’ son-in-law (and a fine one at that, to visit his mother-in-law every night). rupto sonuit. . . aequore: the sun was believed to make a hissing sound when sinking down into the ocean, cf. e.g. Str. 3.1.5, Luc. 9.866 coeunt ignes stridentibus undis, Stat. Silv. 2.7.27 (quoted on 34ff.), Iuv. 14.280 Herculeo stridentem gurgite solem (with Courtney’s note), and also when emerging again, cf. Tac. Ger. 45.1 sonum insuper emergentis (sc. solis) audiri. Stars, too, did not leave their setting unnoticed: cf. 63 irato iam stridet in aequore Perseus. For rumpere ‘to cleave (water)’ cf. OLD 3c. sacer . . . Titan: the sun god was not a Titan himself, but his father Hyperion was (cf. Hes. Th. 132ff.), and he inherited the title; cf. 57, Cic. Aral. 294 (60), 589 (343), al., and see Korn on 4.91 Titania, W. Kranz, Die Sonne als Titan, Philologus 105 (1961) 290ff. The adjective sacer is not elsewhere applied to the sun god. Indeed, we find it very rarely used of any god, but cf. Ov. Fast. 1.95 sacer . . . I anus (cases like VF 5.192 sacri libamina Bacchi, where Bacchus is used metonymically, are of course different). See further Carter 145. 38ff. auxerat hora metus, iam se vertentis Olympi/ ut faciem raptosque simul montesque locosque/ ex oculis circumque graves videre tenebras. auxerat hora metus: cf. Pedo poet. 8 accumulat fragor ipse metus (see the introductory note). The choice of the verb augere seems to find its justification in the fact that the Argonauts have just encountered the petrified Giants, an experience which cannot have been very beneficial to their peace of mind. Together with metus it is picked up in 45 (the simile). Cf. also Germ. A rat. 291 cum terrores auget nox atra marinos, Stat. Theb. 8.161 nox auctura timores. hora is used rather loosely for ‘the time of the day’, in this case nightfall. Cf. Prop. 3.10.29f. cum fuerit multis exacta trientibus hora,/ noctis et instituet sacra ministra Venus, Ov. Ars 1.249f. nocte latent mendae . . . , / horaque formosam quamlibet illa facit. The Argonauts had spent their last night on the mainland in an altogether different mood: 1.274f. sol ruit et totum Minyis laetantibus undae/deduxere diem.

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se vertentis Olympi . . . fadem: the equation of 'Όλυμπος with ουρανός is old, but it is doubtful whether it is as old as Homer. Admittedly, it takes some subtlety to discern between the two in II. 5.749f. τΩραι,/ της έπιτέτραπται μέγας ουρανός Οΰλυμπός τε, but the very fact that the two nouns are thus juxtaposed seems to tell against their being completely synonymous. In any case, in classical Greek the equation had become a fact, cf. e.g. Soph. Ai. 1389 Όλυμπου τοϋδ’ ό πρεσβεύων πατήρ (note the demonstrative pronoun), and compare Var. L. 7.20 caelum dicunt Graeci Olympum. For a selection of instances of this use of Olympus in Valerius and other poets see Langen on 1.4; to the Valerian parallels adduced add 2.85,5.1, 691, 7.378. se vertentis: ‘the ancients believed that the sky revolved perpetually round the earth, carrying the stars with it, and that it completed a revolution in a day’ (Frazer on Ov. Fast. 4.179). vertere, as indeed could be expected, is one of the verbs used to describe this phenomenon, although more often passively (cf. e.g. Enn. Ann. 205 Sk. vertitur interea caelum cum ingentibus signis, Verg. Aen. 2.250) than reflexively, as here. faciem: cf. Sii. 12.665 laeta serenati facies aperitur Olympi, and compare caeli facies in Plin. Nat. 6.58, Luc. 4.105, Stat. Silv. 4.8.30. Valerius uses vultus similarly, cf. 66 below: certi memorat qui vultus Olympi. raptos . . . montesque locosque ex oculis: Valerius has in mind Verg. Aen. 1.88f. eripiunt subito nubes caelumque diemque/ Teucrorum ex oculis, where we find the compound. The simplex occurs in Liv. 28.7.8 deos hominesque accusans quod tantae rei fortunam ex oculis prope raptam amisisset, where the phrase is used metaphorically. For doubled -que see on 14 velumque fretumque. circum . . . graves videre tenebras: for circum . . . videre see on 17f. For gravis applied to darkness cf. 3.214f. gravior . . . umbra, 7.393 stupet ipsa gravi nox tardior umbra. Sen. HF 710, Thy. 826. 41f. ipsa quies rerum mundique silentia terrent/ astraque et effusis stellatus crinibus aether. The Argonauts are terrified by the very stillness of the world around them and by the star-spangled firmament (for the contrast with Verg. Aen. 3.583ff. see the introductory note), line 41, with its neat chiastic word order, referring to the physical world as a whole, line 42 to the sky and its stars. ipsa quies rerum mundique silentia terrent: the Argonauts experience what Aeneas experienced as he went back to Troy in search of Creusa: cf. Aen. 2.755 horror ubique animo, simul ipsa silentia terrent. Austin ad loc. compares [Quint.]

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Deci. 2.18 parvulis noctium turbamur offensis, excitant nos exigui plerumque motus, vox incerta longinqua, et aliquando ipsum silentium. quies rerum: for rerum cf. Ov. Met. 2.395 neve velit tenebras inducere rebus, and of course any page of Lucretius. In Ov. Met. 11.623 Somnus is addressed as quies rerum. effusis stellatus crinibus aether: ‘the sky, strewn with the flowing trails of shooting stars’. crinibus has caused quite a few headaches over the centuries. Bulaeus, followed by J.A. Wagner, took it as an equivalent of radiis (viz. of the astra just mentioned), comparing 5.414 madidis rorantes crinibus ignes and Culex 44 crinibus . . . roseis tenebras Aurora fugarat, but these passages will not do as parallels: in 5.414 the reference is to the ‘rainy Hyades’, who are wittily described as having their hair soaking wet, and in the Culex Dawn is personified, which makes all the difference. This is not to say that crinis is never so used: it sometimes is, but the development is late (Avienus and others: see Langen). The interpretation given by the I ’LL (‘de cometis’, IV.1204.78ff.) is of course impossible, given the extreme rareness of comets. crinibus must mean ‘trails’, viz. of meteors (Mozley), or ‘shooting stars’, as they are usually called, a very common natural phenomenon, as anyone who has ever spent a cloudless night on a Mediterranean beach can testify. For this meaning of crinis cf. Verg. Aen. 5.527Ì. caelo ceu saepe refixa/ transcurrunt crinemque volantia sidera ducunt (the absence in our passage of a word for ‘stars’ is of course fully compensated for by stellatus). It is perhaps along the same lines that we have to interpret 5.369f. nox . . . luciferas crinita faces, which would then come to mean ‘the night, spangled with the light-bearing trails of shooting stars’ (cf. OLD fax 4a). On the other hand, Langen’s explanation (luciferae faces sunt stellae, quibus caput Noctis ut crinibus ornatum cogitatur’) may well be right. For effusis crinibus used literally cf. e.g. Cat. 64.391 Thyiadas effusis euantis crinibus, luv. 6.164. For stellatus + abi. ‘adorned with (stars)’ cf. Man. 1.679 ingenti stellatus balteus orbe (the zodiac). 43£f. ac velut ignota captus regione viarum / noctivagum qui carpit iter non aure quiescit,/ non oculis. In these and the following lines the Argonauts are compared to a traveller by night, who is at a loss as to his whereabouts and just keeps on walking, not

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allowing his ears and eyes a moment’s rest, terrified as he is by the surrounding darkness. Statius remembered this charming little vignette when he started his description of Polynices’ journey from Thebes to Argos in Thebaid 1: in lines 346ff. of that book we read how all of a sudden heavy weather with storms, rain, hail and lightning bursts out over Polynices’ head, as he tries tomake his way through the dark night. Then, in 364ff., Polynices’ reaction is described: aure pavens (366; cf. 44 non aure quiescit) and incertus viae (368; cf.43 ignota . . . regione viarum), he nevertheless moves on (369 haurit iter, cf. 44 carpit iter). He is like (370 ac veluf, cf. 43 ac velut) a sailor (!), who is overtaken (370 deprensus; cf. 43 captus) by a storm and does not know what to do. Our simile, to be precise the part running from ignota to arbor (46), was incorporated in some of the medieval anthologies, be it with some changes (in 43 timidus instead of captus, and in 46 corpus et occurrit instead of campus et occurrens). For these anthologies see Ehlers, Untersuchungen 107ff. ignota captus regione viarum: an echo of Verg. Aen. 2.737 nota excedo regione viarum (Aeneas, leaving Troy). Cf. also Aen. 11.530 huc iuvenis nota fertur regione viarum, 7.215, 9.385. In the Aeneid passages regio is usually said to have its original meaning ‘direction, line’, but it could very well be argued that in Aen. 2.737, as in our line, regio viarum means little more than regio, ‘region’, alone (compare Curt. 5.4.19 nox quoque et ignota regio. . . multiplicabant metum). For captus, ‘overtaken’ (‘überrascht’, Morel 63), cf. 4.269 Pliade capta ratis, and compare Verg. G. 1.425f. numquam te crastina fallet/ hora, neque insidiis noctis capiere serenae. noctivagum qui carpit iter: Valerius has transferred noctivagus (a Lucretian compound) from the traveller to his journey; cf. Lucr. 4.582 noctivago strepitu, Claud. RP 3.331 noctivago . . . labori. For the adjective as such see Quint. Inst. 1.5.68. The expression carpere iter is first found in Hor. Sat. 1.5.94f. inde Rubos fessi pervenimus, utpote longum/ carpentes iter et factum corruptius imbri·, see also Norden on Aen. 6.629 carpe viam. The verb ‘suggests plodding persistence’ (Nisbet-Hubbard on Hor. Od. 2.17.11). non aure quiescit, non oculis: for the remarkable ablatives cf. Stat. Theb. 1.366 aure pavens (see above), 12.222 nil corde nec aure (rather than ore) pavescens. For the thought cf. also id. Silv. 1.4.117ff. quis om ni/ luce mihi, quis nocte timor, dum postibus haerens/ adsiduus nunc aure vigil, nunc lumine cuncta/ aucupor. Ciris 209f. Scylla. . . auribus arrectis nocturna silentia temptat.

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The anaphora of non accentuates the traveller’s alertness. 45f. noctLsque metus niger

auget utrim que/ campus et occurrens umbris

maioribus arbor, . campus: note how both metus and auget . . ______„ ,„o____ ^ noctis . . . metus niger auget refer back to 38 auxerat hora metus. With noctis . . . metus compare Sen. Ag. 765 nocturni metus. The ‘terrors of the night’ are not specified, nor should they be. utrimque: Laugen explains ‘a fronte et a tergo’, but Moaley’s ’to left and right’ it better: with thin interpretation all three directions covered by the nightly traveller’s field of vision are mentioned in these lines. occurrens umbris maioribus arbor: Noväkovä explains umbris maioribus as follows (29): ‘Der Schatten, der grösser als bei Tag ist, kann nur ein Doppelschatten sein, das ist der Schlag- samt dem Eigenschaften, comparing Tac Hist. 3.23 (the description of the fight between the Flaviani and the Vitelliam) neutro inclinaverat fortuna donec adulta nocte luna surgens ostenderet acies falleretque. sed Flavianis aequior a tergo; hinc maiores equorum virorumque umbrae, et falso, ut in corpora, ictu tela hostium citra cadebant. This is ingenious, but perhaps over-ingenious, and J.A. Wagner s interpretation ( umbris maioribus: quas longiores timor fecit’) seems preferable, cf. also Mozleys translation ‘shadows strangely huge’. For o c a ™ , -looming up’, cf. e.g. Verg. A m . 5.8f. m e iam amplius ulla/ occurrit tellus, Curt. 4.7.12 nulla arbor, nullum culti soli occurrebat vestigium. 47. haud aliter trepidare viri. trepidare: an -historic· or, if one prefers, -descriptive

..... .uf.mt.ve

, „ and a

Vergilian one at that: cf. A m . 2.685 nos pavidi trepidare metu, 6. mg trepidare metu, 9.538 turbati trepidare intus (as a matter of act t ese are only instances of the infinitive of this verb in Vergil). Cf. also 1 · · ’ Other such infinitives in our book are 371 educere, 372 velle, 457 instare, consurgere, 498 mugire, 499 adglomerare, 519 intremere, 520 res rg , pallescere (note that the last seven of these instances occur in g y dramatic Hesione episode). For Valerian practice see further Samuelsson 1 , 42ff., JJ. Schlicher, The historical infinitive, HI: Imitation and

ec me,

(1915) 54-74 (with statistics on pp. 72ff.); for literature see Sz. 368. 47ff. sed pectora firmans/ Hagniades ‘non hancf inquit ‘sine numine pinum /

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derigimus nec me tantum Tritonia cursus/ erudiit: saepe ipsa manu dignata carinam est. On a formal level the following speech by Tiphys the helmsman (partly in oratio recta (48-65), partly in oratio obliqua (66-8)) is the counterpart of Palinurus’ speech in Verg. Aen. 5.12ff. (see the introductory note to 1-5), but its contents rather echo Aeneas’ comforting words in Aen. 1.198ff.: cf. especially 2.47 pectora firmans - 1.197 pectora mulcet, 48 non . . . sine numine - 199 deus; 51 experti - 202 experti; 55 o socii -198 o socii. The first three lines (48-50) of the first part of oratio recta are taken up by a short, reassuring statement, ‘Pallas is on our side’, first put in the negative, ‘it is not without a god that I steer this ship, and Pallas did not just teach me the ins and outs of sailing’, and then in the positive, ‘more than once has she deigned the ship worthy of her hand’. This last sentence (saepe - est) may be regarded as standing in adversative asyndeton with the foregoing (in which case we should read a semicolon between erudiit and saepe), or, which I would prefer, as an explanation of it (and then a colon is the right punctuation); Ehlers is the only modern editor to print a full stop. In the last four lines (51-4) of the first part ‘proof is given of the truth of this statement. The second part (55-65) of oratio recta is devoted to a meteorological (55-60) and astronomical (61-5) exposé, which again serves to reassure the crew: the weather conditions are excellent, and the ship is guided by reliable stars. The three closing lines in oratio obliqua (66-8) are a sort of extra: the information given there is not immediately relevant, but it gives the Argonauts the pleasant feeling that their helmsman knows his job. For an earlier reference to Tiphys’ professional skill cf. 1.481ff. Tiphys . . . Hagniades, felix stellis qui segnibus usum / et dedit aequoreos caelo duce tendere cursus (compare AR 1.105ff.). pectora firmans: cf. 1.79f. confusa . . ■ pectora firm at/ religio, 5.322, Verg. Aen. 3.6lQt Anchises. . . animum (sc. Achaemenidis) praesenti pignore firmat. Hagniades: cf. 1.481f., AR 1.105, al., Apollod. 1.9.16 lupus Άγνιου (Άγυί,ου Aegius: αγρίου mss.), Arg. Orph. 122, al.; see also Vian, N.C. on AR 1.106. According to Hyginus, Tiphys’ father was a certain Phorbas (Fab. 14). non hanc . . . sine numine pinum derigimus: = non sine numine hanc pinum derigimus, in other words, it is not so much non which is dislocated (Langen) as hanc. The phrase is a variation on Vergil’s non haec sine numine divum / eveniunt (Aen. 2.777f.), not ‘almost a parody’ of it (Austin): for this label the context offers no justification whatsoever. For the thought cf. also 4.540ff. nec numine vano. . . tantum aequor adorti/ tendimus.

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pinum: ‘ship’. Pinewood was often used in shipbuilding (Verg. G. 2.442f. dant utile lignum/ navigiis pinus), especially merchant ships (Theophr. HP 5.7.1), and by a common metonymy pinus came to denote the ship itself: cf., in Valerius, 1.457 Palladia pinu, 5.435 pinus Pagasaea. Indeed, the Argo is often explicitly stated to have been made of pinewood: cf. 1.123f. pinus gracili dissolvere la m n a / Thespiaden, Eur. Med. 3f., Cat. 64. If. Other words for ‘ship’ in the Argonautica are carina, puppis, ratis (all very common) and alnus, even applied to the Argo (1.203, 637, 3.536), which (see above) was supposed to have been made of pinewood. Conspicuously absent among all these synonyms is navis itself, a feature which Valerius has in common with Lucan, Statius and Silius. Vergil and Ovid were less fastidious: they have navis 46 and 47 times respectively. derigimus: ‘steer’, cf. Nep. Cha. 4.2 gubernatorem . . . iubet eo derigere navem, Luc. 3.592 derigit huepuppem, al. ‘The earlier form appears to be der-, and no certain example of dir- occurs in inscriptions before the 4th century A.D. MSS. and edd. vary greatly in their practice’ (OLD s.v. dirigo (der-)). And so we find derige gressum in Verg. Aert. 1.401 OCT (derige GPR1: dirige MR2co), but cum . . . ipse iter ad Mutinam dirigerem in Plane. Fam. 10.11.2 OCT (all mss.), and equum . . . in ipsum . . . consulem derigit in Liv. 2.6.8 OCT (derigit Lachmann: dirigit OU), but cumini direxit in hostem in Ον. Met. 12.78 Teubner (all mss.), and so on, and so forth. In Valerius the situation is hardly better: in our passage (see Ehlers, Untersuchungen 118) VIIL have derigimus, OQMal dirigimus and XP pergimus (which seems to point to derigimus), in 1.569 all mss. read direxit, and in 6.541 nearly all mss. have derigit (see Thilo’s app. crit.). Likewise, Valerius’ editors Vary greatly in their practice’: of the last ten editors, Thilo, Schenkl and Langen always have di-, Bährens, Bury, Mozley and Courtney always de-, Kramer and Ehlers di-, de-, de- in books 1, 2 and 6 resp., in accordance with the (majority of the) mss., and Giarratano di-, de-, di-. However, even apart from the evidence of the inscriptions (see above), there is one very good reason for assuming that derigere was the classical form of the word, and that is the fact that dirigere would be the only compound with dis­ in which the prefix would be meaningless. (I agree with Munro, on Lucr. 6.823, that the distinction made by Isidores (Diff. 1.153 derigimus quae curva sunt, dirigimus, cum aliquo tendimus), and sometimes endorsed by commentators (for instance by Dilke on Stat. Ach. 1.632), is not based on facts: this seems to be an illustrative example of prescriptive grammar).

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If I am right in this, every case of dirìgere should be removed from the texts of, roughly, all authors covered by the OLD (cf. Goodyear on Tac. Ann. 2.31). For the last edition of Valerius this would mean that direxit in 1.569 should be altered to derexit (Ehlers had his doubts: see his app. crit.). nec me tantum Tritonia cursus erudiit: this does not mean that Pallas taught Tiphys other things besides sailing, but that she did more than just teach him: saepe ipsa manu dignata carinam est. It is not until now that we learn that it was Pallas who instructed Tiphys, but since it was she who helped to build the Argo (see on 3 Iuno), we could have guessed as much. Tritonia: the epithet is variously explained: according to some, Pallas was born at or from Lake Tritonis in North Africa (cf. Eur. Ion 871ff.) or alighted there first after her birth (cf. Luc. 9.350ff.), whereas others point to a mountainstream in Boeotia, called Triton, as her birthplace (Paus. 9.33.7), or to a spring in Arcadia, called Tritonis (Paus. 8.26.6). Thus she is named Τριτογένεια (cf. Horn. II. 4.515, Hes. Th. 895; for other explanations, some of them highly fanciful, see LSJ s.v.), Τριτωνίς/7πίο«ύ (AR 1.109f., 3.1183; Lucr. 6.750, Verg. Aen. 2.226, al.), or Tritonia, used both substantially, as here and in 1.93 (cf. Verg. Aen. 2.171), and adjectivally, as in 7.442 (cf. Verg. Aen. 5.704). cursus: ‘(the ins and outs of) sailing’, cf. 5.14 (Tiphys) quem cursus penes imperiumque carinae. erudiit: for erudire with a double accusative, one of the person taught and one of the thing taught, cf. Ov. Met. 8.215 (Daedalus) hortatur (sc. natum) . . . sequi damnosasque erudit artes, Stat. Theb. 10.506f. quae te leges praeceptaque fortia belli/ erudiit genetrix. The verb is rare in poetry, Vergil (Aen. 9.203) and Ovid (eight times) being the only poets to use it before Valerius. Statius seems to imitate Valerius in Theb. 3.104f., where he thus addresses the seer Maeon: non te caelestia frustra/ edocuit lauroque sua dignatus Apollo est. 51f. at non experti, subitus cum luce fugata/ horruit imbre dies? ‘But haven’t we experienced it (viz. Pallas’ helping hand), when all of a sudden the light was dispelled and the day became gloomy with rain?’, a reference to the storm as described in 1.608-54. Actually, it was Pallas’ tears, and those of Juno, that saved the Argo (642ff.)! at: all modern editors adopt Balbus’ an, but the mss. reading can stand if we assume an ellipse in the train of thought: ‘Pallas has often helped us. (You do not look like understanding what I am talking about,) but . . .’. This may seem far-fetched, but Verg. Aen. 7.363f. at non sic Phrygius penetrat Lacedaemona

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pastor,/ Ledaeamque Helenam Troianas vexit ad urbes? is similar, provided that at, the reading of yRco, is correct (Mynors and Conington-Nettleship think it is; Williams and Fordyce read an with Mbr): Amata begs Latinus (361ff.): ‘Have pity on me, whom that treacherous pirate, as soon as the north wind blows, will leave behind, taking the girl with him. (You do not look like understanding what I am talking about,) but didn’t Paris do exactly the same thing to Helen?’ (Williams finds an ‘more vivid’, and according to Fordyce, at for ‘but, look...’ ‘gives at a very weak force’; I would rather say that at is the more vivid of the two words, nor do I see why the translation ‘but, look...’ would give at ‘a very weak force’). experti: sc. sumus (Langen), or perhaps estis, as in Verg. Aen. 1.20If. vos et Cyclopia saxa/ experti (see on 47ff.). For the ellipse of these and other forms of esse in Valerius see Langen ad loc.; for an example with this same verb cf. 5.561 experti sc. sunt. See further KS 1.13 Anm. 2, Sz. 422f. subitus . . . horruit imbre dies: cf. Avien. Arat. 1609f. magnis/ cum madefacta dies sub tempestatibus horret. The storm itself is said to be(come) rough in Ov. Fast. 1.495, Sil. 1.134f. heu quaenam subitis horrescit turbida nimbis/tempestas! subitus is predicative (cf. OLD lb), as for instance in 1.180f., 6.154 subitam trepidis Maeotin solvere plaustris, Verg. Aen. 9.475 subitus miserae calor ossa reliquit, Iuv. 6.017 horum consiliis nubunt subitaeque recedunt. Langen’s note on 1.180 is a bit of a hotchpotch: in 8.261 subitus means ‘made in a hurry’ (OLD 5), and in 8.306 ‘suddenly appearing’ (OLD lc). Valerius has dies 17 times in the masculine, as here, and 14 times in the feminine. Like Vergil, he uses the feminine form only in the nominative (and once, in 7.336, in the vocative), and even then only when it is of metrical advantage (in the oblique cases, where there is no such advantage, he always uses the masculine form). See further Norden on Aen. 6.429, Ed. Fraenkel, Das Geschlecht von dies, Gloria 8 (1917) 24-68. 52ff. quantis, pro Iuppiter, Austris/ restitimus, quanta quotiens et Palladis a rte / in cassum decimae cecidit tumor arduus undae! restitimus: ‘we were immune’, cf. Ov. Met. 15.338f. Symplegados . . . quae nunc immotae perstant ventisque resistunt, OLD resisto 7. quanta quotiens et: = et quanta quotiens. et is postponed to the third place, as in 1.89, 5.12 and 8.29 (7.135 is problematic). For this mannerism see on 150 sed. For quanta quotiens cf. e.g. Cic. Mil. 38 quem si interficere voluisset, quantae quotiens occasiones. . . fuerunt! See also KS 2.497.4, Sz. 459.

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55

Palladis arte: cf. 4.554f. arte benigna/Pallados. Ehlers adopts Courtney’s Pallados, the form Valerius uses elsewhere (4.555, 5.345, 8.224), but in view of the apparent inconsistency of poets in these matters I prefer to keep Palladis. In Propertius, for instance, we find Palladis three times, but -os in 4.4.45, and in Ovid Palladis ten times, but -os in Met. 12.360; similarly, ω has Calydonis in VF 4.223, but Calydonos in 5.573. Besides, the line-ending may well be intended as an echo of Verg. Aen. 2.15 divina Palladis arte. in cassum . . . cecidit: ‘has fallen through’. Valerius neatly combines the literal meaning of cadere (cf. e.g. 8.188f. undam / quae latus in laevum Ponti cadit, Verg. G. 1.109, Ον. Met. 11.556) and the metaphorical one, for which cf. PI. Poen. 360 omnia incassum cadunt, Lucr. 2.1165 incassum magnos cecidisse labores, Sen. Thy. 1066, Dial. 10.11.1. See also Ed. Wölfflin, ALL 2 (1885) 14. decimae . . . tumor arduus undae: ‘the towering swell of the tenth wave’. The tenth wave is traditionally higher than the ones preceding and following, cf. Ov. Met. 11.530 vastius insurgens decimae ruit impetus undae, Paul. Fest. p.71M decumana ova dicuntur et decumani fluctus, quia sunt magni; nam et ovum decimum maius nascitur et fluctus decimus fieri maximus dicitur, and see Langen ad loc., de St. Denis1393. Compare the use of τρικυμία in Greek. For tumor ‘swell’, applied to the (waves of the) sea, cf. Sen. Thy. 361f. rabidus . . . ventosi tumor Hadriae, [Sen.] HO 732f. lassus tumor/ in litore ipso spumat, al. Cf. also VF 4.725f. unda. . . tumido riget ardua fluctu. 55. quin agite, o socii; Cf. Prop. 3.21.11 nunc agite, o socii, propellite in aequora navem. quin agite: (quin) ageIagite is usually followed by a second imperative (or, less often, a subjunctive). Occasionally, however, as here, there is no follow-up: cf. PI. Am . 302 agite, pugni, Verg. Eel. 3.52 quin age, si quid habes (VF 5.635f. quin age. . . imus nos? seems to be a conflation of quin age eamus! and quin imus?). o socii: from Verg. Aen. 1.198 (see on 47ff.). Cf. also VF 1.242 (Jason speaking), 8.183 (Erginus, Tiphys’ successor, speaking). 55. micat immutabile caelum The meteorological part of Typhys’ account deals with the starry sky (55), the moon (56f.), the sun (57f.) and the winds (59f.). micat: the verb is used more often of the sparkle of heavenly bodies than of heaven itself, but cf. Man. 5.727f., Sen. Thy. 825 nec ullo micat igne polus. For the line-ending cf. Calp. Eel. 5.50 mutabile caelum.

56

COMMENTARY

56f. puraque nec gravido surrexit Cynthia cornu/ (nullus in ore rubor) In 56-8 the ways in which the moon and the sun have risen and set respectively are shown to promise fine weather. Subject-matter and wording come from Verg. G. 1.424ff. (which in its turn had Arat. 778ff. as its model) and Luc. 5.539ff. (also based on Aratus), the moon being dealt with in G. 1.427-37 and Luc. 5.546-50, and the setting of the sun in G. 1.450ff. and Luc. 5.540-5. For line 56 cf. especially G. 1.432ff. s in o r tu q u a r to . . . p u r a n e q u e obtunsis p e r c a e lu m c o m ib u s i b i t , / to tu s e t ille d i e s e t q u i n a s c e n tu r a b i l l o / exactum ad m e n s e m p lu v ia v e n tis q u e c a r e b u n t and Luc. 5.546f. l u n a q u e n o n g r a c ili surrexit lu c id a c o m u / a u t o r b is m e d i i p u r o s e x e s a r e c e s s u s (note that 546 and our line have exactly the same pattern and much the same wording); for the beginning of line 57 cf. G. 1.430f. a t s i v ir g in e u m s u ff u d e r it o r e r u b o r e m , / v e n tu s erit: vento s e m p e r r u b e t a u r e a P h o e b e and Luc. 5.549 v e n to r u m . . . n o t a m r u b u it. pura: ‘clearly visible’, cf. Arat. 783 καθαρή, Verg. G. 1.433, Luc. 5.547. See also Nisbet-Hubbard on Hor. O d . 2.5.19, Smith on Tib. 1.9.36. gravido . . . comu: from Luc. 1.218 tertia . . . gravido pluvialis Cynthia cornu (again with almost identical pattern and wording), where see Getty. Cynthia: as Diana, who was born on Mt. Cynthus on Delos and was therefore called C y n th ia (in Latin from Hor. O d . 3.28.12 onward; see also Börner on Met. 2.465), was at the same time the goddess of the moon, the moon came to be called C y n th ia too (first in Ov. H e r . 17.74; cf. VF 3.558). Likewise, she was named D e lia (cf. Man. 1.231, [Sen.] H O 150), and, according to Varro (L. 5.68). even D ia n a . Compare the similar case of Apollo ( C y n th iu s from Verg. Eel. 6.5 onward; cf. Call. D e l. 10), whose additional function as the sun god caused the sun to be christened C y n th iu s (Ov. F a s t. 3.346) and A p o l l o (Var. L. 5.68). See further Pease on Cic. N D 2.68. Line 56 is a Golden Line (see on 6f.). (nullus in ore rubor): a red colour on the moon’s face announced wind: cf. Arat. 784f. λειπή δέ καί ευ μάλ’ έρευθής/ ττνευματίη, Verg. 1.430f., Lue 5.549. The same words form the beginning of C ir is 180 (n u llu s in o r e r u b o r : u b i enim ru bor, o b s ta t a m o r i). According to Lyne ad loc.. Very possibly the poet is borrowing from Val. 2.57 . . . or perhaps there is a common neoteric source’, but coincidence seems at least as likely an explanation: compare Ov. A m . 2.11.28 n u llu s in o re c o lo r, M e d . 98. See also on 69f. f e s s a s . . . v ire s. 57f. certusque ad talia Titan/ integer in fluctus et in uno decidit Euro.

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‘And Titan, who is reliable in these things, sank into the waves full-orbed and with only the east wind blowing’. It will be shown that these lines are modelled on Luc. 5.540-5, where the poor skipper Amyclas, asked by Caesar to take him across to Italy, replies: m u lta q u id e m p r o h ib e n t n o c tu r n o c re d e re p o n t o . / n a m s o l n o n ru tila s d e d u x it in a e q u o r a n u bes/ d id u c ta

co n co rd esq u e lu c e

tu lit

v o c a b a t./

ra d io s:

o rb e

N o to n

quoque

a lte ra

ex h a u stu s

P h o e b i,/ m e d io

a lte r a

pars

la n g u e n s q u e

B orean r e c e s s it/

s p e c ta n tis o c u lo s in fir m o lu m in e p a s s u s .

certus: ‘reliable’, cf. 1.17f.

neque

T yriae

C y n o s u ra

c a r i n a e / c e rtio r a u t

2.16.3, Tib. 1.9.10, and compare Vergil’s rhetorical question s o le m q u is d ic e re f a l s u m / a u d e a t? in G . 1.463f. c e rtu s a d occurs only here, but with other adjectives the use of this preposition, in its sense of ‘in respect of, is common enough: cf. e.g. Liv. 37.7.15 v iru m . . . a d c e te r a eg reg iu m . Titan: see on 36f. integer: ‘full-orbed’ (Mozley), cf. Avien. A ra t. 1564f. s i . . . in d id e r it . . . f a c e m p o n t o d e u s (i.e. the sun) in teger. The opposite is Lucan’s o r b e . . . e x h a u stu s m e d io (5.544). in uno . . . Euro: ‘with only the east wind blowing’. This has been variously emended (see usefully Giarratano’s app. crit.), and especially Phaedrus’ a u r o (cf. Schenkt pr. VI, Courtney pr. LIV) found many supporters (Heinsius, Thilo, Schenkl, Bährens, Bury, Kramer and Mozley (‘one blaze of gold’) among others), but the mss. reading is sound. The blowing of u n u s E u ru s is meant to contrast with Lucan’s N o to n a lte ra P h o e b i , / a lte r a p a r s B o r e a n d id u c ta lu c e v o c a b a t (see above): one of the things that prevented Amyclas from trusting the sea (540) was the fact that ‘with divided light one part of the sun (as it went down) summoned Notos, the other Boreas’ (who, in fact, are not long in coming: cf. 571f.). Tiphys, on the other G r a is H e lic e s e r v a n d a m a g istris,

Hor.

erit O d.

hand, d o e s trust the sea, because the sun went down “with only the east wind blowing’, ‘dum solus Eurus flat’ (Langen), in expressing ‘the conditions under which’ (OLD 40). That Valerius mentions the Eurus of all winds (when the Argonauts are heading for the east), need not worry us too much: cf. e.g. 4.421, where Io is asked to lead the Argo through the Bosporus im m is s is E u ris, Verg. A e n . 1.575, where Dido wishes that Aeneas were there, N o to c o m p u ls u s e o d e m (the Trojans came from the north), 3.70, Luc. 3.1. I am not sure that Luc. 4.61 (Cynthia) f la m m a s . . . a c c e p it in E u r o , adduced by Courtney (cf. also Ehlers’ app. crit.), is relevant to our passage: Bourgery’s

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translation (‘. . . s’enflamma au contact de 1’eurus’) seems preferable to Diifps . . grew bright while the East wind blew’. decidit: cf. Fest. ρ.178Μ (the sun) c u m d e c id it a s u p e r is in fr a te rra s. 59 t adde quod in noctem venti veloque m arique/ incumbunt magis: it tac;tjs ratis ocior horis. These lines appear in some of the medieval anthologies (see on 43ff.), thorny understandably, without the transitional formula a d d e q u o d . adde quod: rare in epic poetry (four times in Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Lueqn twice in Valerius (cf. 156f.), once in Statius’ epics, and not at all in Vergil aruj Silius). Lucan uses the formula in a similar ‘lecture’ in 10.223. in noctem: ‘as night comes on’. For this meaning of in cf. Lucr. 6.874f. a q u u i / u m o r . . . in lu c e m tr e m u lo ra r e s c it a b a e s tu . Cels. 7.27.1 s i f e b r i s . . ■ ,n n o c te m a u g etu r, Sen. A g . 576 c e c id it in lu c e m f u r o r . In Verg. A e n . 7.8 a s p ir Q nt a u ra e in n o c te m the expression rather means ‘into the night’ (which is here excluded by m a g is ). In 579 below the meaning of the words is different agujn; ‘für eine Fahrt bis in die Nacht’ (Kleywegt (ANRW) 2474). veloque marique: for doubled - q u e see on 14 v e lu m q u e f r e tu m q u e . incumbunt: cf. Verg. A e n . 1.84 { v e n ti) in c u b u e r e m a r i , Luc. 3 .If. ve//v c e d e n tib u s A u s t e r / in c u m b e n s .

it tacitis ratis odor horis:

it

(recc.) seems preferable to

et

(ω), because

expresses the relationship of cause and effect between in n o c te m v e n t i v e lo q u e m a riq u e in c u m b u n t m a g is and its sequel better. Besides, the ellipse of est (Valerius nowhere has ellipse of i t ) would in this case be rather harsh. o d o r is largely poetic; in prose it is confined to Livy (once) and the elder Pliny (eight times). With ta c itis . . . h o r is compare 5.231 t a c i t a e . . . per te m p o r a n o c tis .

61t

atque adeo non illa sequi mihi sidera monstrant/ quae delapsa polo reficit

mare In the astronomical part of his account Tiphys tells the crew that he intends to follow the lead of the Dragon, a constellation which is always visible, unlike, for instance, Orion and Perseus. Valerius’ model was Luc. 8.172ff., where Pompey’s helmsman gives the following exposition: sig n ife r o q u a e c u m q u e fluunt la b e n tia c a e l o , / n u m q u a m s ta n te p o l o m is e r o s f a l l e n t i a n a u t a s , / s id e r a non seq u im u r, se d , q u i n o n m e r g itu r u n d i s / a x is in o c c id u u s g e m i n a c la r is s im u s A r c t o . / ille regit p u p p e s .

Cf. also Ov. A r s 2.55ff., M e t. 8.206ff.

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Editors have difficulties with the mss. reading a tq u e a d e o . . . m o n s tr a n t. As a matter of fact, not one of the last ten keeps it: Thilo reads m e n s e s t with J.A. Wagner; Schenkl, Bährens, Courtney and Ehlers adopt Heinsius’ m e n s s ta t (an expression not found elsewhere); Langen conjectured a tq u e d e i . . . m o n s tr a n t ; Bury adopts Jacobs’ a rsq u e . . . m o n s tr a t (1807); and Giarratano, Kramer and Mozley read m o n s tr a t (subject ‘Pallas’) with Vossius (who himself took the Argo, ‘quae erat fatidica’, as the subject). Other suggestions are: m o s e s t (in the margin of the editio tertia), c o n s ta t (Columbus), m e n s f e r t (Heinsius), re sta n t (Ph. Wagner 1863) and v ia m , for s e q u i (Löhbach 1877). I feel convinced, however, that the mss. reading is sound, m o n s tr a r e + inf. has two shades of meaning: one is ‘to show, how to . . ., to teach to . . .’, as in Lucr. 5.1105f. h i v ic tu m v ita m q u e p r i o r e m / c o m m u ta r e n o v is m o n s tr a b a n t re b u s and Ov. A r s 2 .6 5 a p ta t o p u s p u e r o m o n s tr a tq u e m o v e r i, the other ‘to point out that (something should be done), to order to . . .’, for which cf. Verg. A e n . 9.44 co n fe rre m a n u m p u d o r ira q u e m o n s tr a t, and especially VF 3.435ff. (Mopsus) v in c u la

s o lv e r e

m o n s t r a t / p r im a

pedu m

g la u c a s q u e

c o m is p r a e te x e r e f r o n d e s /

where m o n s tr a t and im p e r a t are clearly synonymous. The next step is to add a dative of the person taught (1) or ordered (2) to the construction. This is not common, but there is a late example of (1) in Justinus (2.6.5 (the Athenians) a ra re q u o q u e e t se rere f r u m e n ta g la n d e m v e s c e n tib u s m o n s tr a r u n t), and I can think of no reason why our passage should not be an example of (2) (compare im p e r a r e with dative and infinitive in Verg. A e n . 7.35f. and elsewhere). Construe then: n o n illa s id e r a q u a e d e la p s a p o l o re fic it m a r e m ih i s e q u i (sc. s e ) m o n s tr a n t, ‘not those stars order me to follow, that . . .’. For the ellipse of s e cf. 7.300 illa s e q u i iu b e t. Note, with this reading, the parallelism with 64 s e d m ih i d u x . atque adeo: ‘furthermore’, often in comedy and Statius. sequi: cf. Luc. 8.174 (quoted above). delapsa polo: cf. 3.533. For d e la b i used of heavenly bodies cf. Cic. A r a t. 597 (351) c e d it d e la p s a C o r o n a , Val. Max. 2.10.2, Sen. P h o e n . 431, al. reficit: the sea was believed to endow the stars with new strength during their stay under water, cf. (with the same verb) Sii. 12.247f. O c e a n o re d ie n s C y th e re iu s i g n i s , / c u m s e s e V en eri ia c ta t s p le n d o r e r e fe c to . See further Langen ad loc., Pease on Cic. N D 2.40.

im p e r a t,

62f. (tantus O rion/ iam cadit, irato iam stridet in aequore Perseus), Most recent editors put colons before ta n tu s and after P e rs e u s (Courtney has a semicolon before ta n tu s , Ehlers a full stop), but brackets (thus Bährens and Bury), followed by a comma, surely give a better flow.

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COMMENTARY

tantus Orion: tantus does not necessarily have concessive force (Burman: ‘qui tam vastum et minax astrum est, ut videri posset numquam debere cadere’), but may simply mean that great. . (that you see there), as so often. Orion had been a giant during his lifetime (cf. e.g. Verg. Aen. 10.763ff.), and he remained impressive even after he was turned into a constellation: cf. Cic.

Arat. 345ff. (104ff.) quem qui suspiciens in caelum nocte serena/ late dispersum non viderit, haud ita vero/ cetera se speret cognoscere signa potesse, 536f. (290f.), Man. 1.387ff., 5.57f. Cf. also VF 4.123 chaos implet Orion. For the quantity of the first syllable (örion here and in 4.123, Orion in 1.647 and 2.508) see Austin onAen. 1.535, Börner on Fast. 5.493. In Verg. Aen. 3.515ff. the helmsman Palinurus looks up at the sky, where he sees Orion, Arcturus (cf. 68), the Hyades (67) and the twin Triones (65). cadit: cf. Hor. Epod. 10.10 qua tristis Orion cadit. This is of course not a reference to the setting of Orion, the (apparent) heliacal setting in early November which marked the beginning of the stormy season (cf. e.g. Verg. Aen. 7.719), but to a setting. irato . . . in aequore: according to a Vir doctus apud Harl(esium)’ (Langen), the sea is angry with Perseus for once having rescued Andromeda from the sea monster. He may be right, but the allusion remains an awkward one, because an aequor iratum is normally a wild, tempestuous sea (cf. 232 aequoris irae), whereas at this very moment the sea is supposed to be calm. stridet. . . Perseus: like the sun (see on 37 sonuit), Perseus makes a hissing sound as he sinks into the sea. Valerius has stridere eight times: six times the participle, once (h.l.) a form of the second conjugation, and once (4.498 stridunt) a form of the third. The constellation Perseus is rarely mentioned outside technical literature, but cf. Sen. HF 12f. ferro minax hinc terret Orion (!) deos/ suasque Perseus aureus stellas habet. 64f. sed mihi dux, vetitis qui numquam conditus undis/ axe nitet Serpens septenosque implicat ignes.’ Cf. Luc. 8.174ff. sed, qui non mergitur undis/ axis (probably the pole star, but Mayer takes a different view) inocciduus gemina clarissimus Arcto,/ Me re$

puppes. The Great Bear, the Little Bear and the Dragon which winds between the two never set in northern latitudes, which of course makes them of great use to sailors (cf. 1.17f., 419). References to this are as old as Homer: cf. //· 78.489 (Od. 5.275) (άρκτος) οιη . . . άμμορός έσ η λοετρών Ήκεανοϊο. Other

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relevant passages are Arat. 45ff., Verg. G. 1.244ff. maximus hic flexu sinuoso

elabitur Anguis/ circum perque duas in morem fluminis Arctos,/ Arctos Oceani metuentis aequore tingi, Ov. Met. 2.171f. tum primum radiis gelidi caluere Triones/ et vetito frustra temptarunt aequore tingi, 13.293, 726f., Sen. Med. 758f., Stat. Theb. 7.8f., [Sen.] HO 1584f. dux: cf. 1.19f. (addressed to the future constellation Vespasian) te duce Graecia mittet/ et Sidon Nilusque rates, Cic. Arat. 40, Man. 1.298. vetitis: the usual verb, cf. Ov. Met. 2.172 (quoted above), Sen. Med. 758f. vetitum mare/ tetigistis, ursae, [Sen.] HO 1584f. ante descendet glacialis ursae/ sidus et ponto vetito fruetur, and (with a different construction) Stat. Theb. 7.8f. Oceano vetitum qua Parrhasis ignem/ nubibus hibernis et nostro pascitur imbri (with Smolenaars’ note), conditus: cf. Verg. Aen. 7.719 saevus ubi Orion hibernis conditur undis. axe nitet: axis sometimes means ‘pole star’ (cf., probably, Luc. 8.175, quoted above), and the pole star is sometimes regarded as belonging to the Dragon (cf. Vitr. 9.4.6 Serpens . . . e qua stella quae dicitur polus elucet circum caput maioris Septentrionis, with Soubiran’s note), and so axe nitet could mean ‘shines with its pole star’. More probably, however, it simply means ‘shines at the pole’. Serpens: the constellation Dragon (cf. Vitr. 9.4.6, quoted above), also called Anguis (cf. Verg. G. 1.244, likewise quoted above) or Draco (cf. e.g. Cic. Arat. 47), not to be confused with the constellation Serpent (Serpens in Qc. Arat. 88, al., Anguis in Cic. Arat. 86, al.). In 6.40 Valerius uses Anguis to denote the northern part of the world, septenos . . . implicat ignes: the Dragon snakes its way between the Great and the Little Bear (cf. Ov. Met. 3.44f.), but it can also be regarded as entwining the Little Bear (cf. Germ. Arat. 53f.). If the latter is what Valerius has in mind, septenos ignes refers to the seven stars of the Little Bear, septeni, as so often, meaning little more than septem (cf. e.g. Verg. Aen. 5.85). More probably, however, septeni has its full distributive force, and the reference is to the seven stars of the little Bear as well as to those of the Great Bear, all of which are then considered to be enfolded by the Dragon: compare Arat. 46 περί, τ’ άμφί τ’, Verg. G. 1.245 circum perque, Sen. Med. 695f. anguis, cuius immensos duae,/ maior minorque, sentiunt nodos ferae. For implicat cf. 5.253ff. anguis . . . spiris nemus omne refusis/ implicuit, Verg. Aen. 2.214ff. parva duorum/ corpora natorum serpens amplexus uterque/ implicat, Ov. Met. 4.362, 364. For ignis ‘star’ cf. 5.414 madidis rorantes crinibus ignes (the Hyades), OLD 5.

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66f£ sic ait et certi memorat qui vultus Olympi,/ Pleiones Hyadumque locos, quo sidere vibret/ Ensis et Actaeus niteat qua luce Bootes. These three lines in oratio obliqua conclude Tiphys’ speech, certi memorat qui vultus Olympi: sc. sit. Schmitz (35) lists the following instances of ellipse of sit in subordinate clauses: 2.66, 251, 3.75, 5.453, 517, 639, 6.661, 7.541. For the ellipse of other forms of the subjunctive of esse see Langen on 2.51. certi: ‘clear’, cf. 5.70f. dat candida certam/nox Helicen. memorat: for the mixed construction (indirect question, accusative, indirect questions) cf. 4.599f., Verg. Aen. 10.149ff. In Aen. 1.742ff. (Iopas’ song!) canit is followed by accusatives and indirect questions alternately. vultus Olympi: compare 38f. Olympi . . . faciem. For the equation of "Ολυμπος with ουρανός see on 38ff. Pleiones Hyadumque locos: ‘the positions of the Pleiades and the Hyades’. The substitution of Pleione for her daughters, the Pleiades (cf. Ov. Fast. 5.83f.), is striking, but it is just possible that the same metonymy occurs in Pind. fr. 239 Bowra τρεχέτω δέ μετά/ Πληϊόναν (cf. schol. Pind. Nem. 2.17c, RE 18.1070.49ff.). Heinsius’ Pleiadas destroys the parallelism, and Langen’s Pleiades is even wrong: Roman writers always use the Greek accusative plural of this word. The Pleiades and Hyades, whose evening rising and morning setting in autumn were thought to bring rainy weather, are two of the most popular constellations in Latin poetry and, in fact, are often mentioned together, cf. e.g. 5.413f. densae . . . sequuntur/ Pliades et madidis rorantes crinibus ignes (i.e. the Hyades), Verg. G. 1.138 (compare Horn. II. 18.486, Hes. Op. 615), Ov. Met. 13.293, Fast. 3.105, Stat. Silv. 1.6.211 Valerius also mentions the Pleiades in 1.647, 2.357, 406, 4.269, 5.46, 305. For the Hyades and the derivation of their name see Pease on Cic. ND 2.111, NisbetHubbard on Hor. Od. 1.3.14. quo sidere vibret Ensis: for Ensis (or: Gladius), a group of three stars (cf. Man. 1.391) in the vicinity of Orion, considered to be his sword, cf. e.g. Cic. A rat. 613ff. (367ff.) at parte ex alia claris cum lucibus en a t/ Orion, umeris et lato pectore fulgens,/ et dextra retinens non cassum luminis ensem, Ov. Met. 8.207, 13.294 (after 293 Pleiadasque Hyadasque immunemque aequoris Arcton), Sen. HF 12, Stat. Silv. 1.1.44. Of the two synonyms ensis and gladius the former is the poetic, the latter the prose word: for Valerius the figures are 35:2 (1.438, 6.249), for Vergil 65:5, for Statius 100:1, and for Silius 127:14. Lucan, on the other hand, has gladius

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63

relatively often, 46 times, as against e n sis 53 times. Ovid occupies a position in between: e n sis 95 times, g la d iu s 32 times. quo sidere: Langen takes s id u s ‘de splendore stellarum’, but although s id u s does sometimes mean ‘starlike beauty, splendour’ (cf. especially Stat. T h e b . 7.695, S ilv. 3.4.26, both mentioned by Langen), it never denotes the ‘starlike beauty, splendour’ of s ta r s , or of other celestial bodies, for that matter. In fact, all ‘parallels’ adduced by Langen could, and probably should, be explained differently (see below). Nor do I think that Mozley’s translation (‘in what constellation’) is correct, as this would divert our attention from the sword to Orion himself, who already had his share in 62f. In all probability s id u s is the sword itself: cf. e.g. Ov. T r. 1.4. If. (Arctophylax) tin g itu r o c e a n o . . . a e q u o r e a s q u e s u o s id e re tu r b a t a q u a s , Avien. P h a e n . 1271 n o v o v ib ra rin t s id e re P is c e s (mentioned by Langen), where the s id u s is identical with the constellation involved. Similarly, in Ov. A m . 2.16.3 s o l lic e t a d m o to te llu re m s id e re f i n d a t and Stat. T h e b . 1.371f. n e q u e a m ic o s id e r e m o n s t r a t / L u n a v ia s (both mentioned by Langen) the s id u s is identical with the sun and the moon resp. For a far more remarkable ‘synonymous’ ablative cf. 357 P l i a d a . . . n i m b o s o . . . a str o , where see note. vibret: for v ib r a r e used of the flickering of heavenly bodies cf. Sii. 9.444 g e m in u m v ib ra re c o m e te n , Avien. P h a e n . 1271 (quoted above). Valerius often uses the verb in this sense (OLD 6): cf. 342,583,3.142,8.57,306. Actaeus . . . Bootes: cf. Sen. M e d . 314f. q u a e se q u itu r f le c titq u e s e n e x / A t tic a ta r d u s p la u s tr a B o o te s (with Zwierlein’s note). When the Athenian Icarus (or: Icarius) wished to make his fellow men acquainted with the gift of the vine, they killed him by way of thanks for alleged poisoning. After his death he became the constellation Bootes. For some references to this story cf. Prop. 2.33.23ff., [Tib.] 3.7.9ff., Ov. I b . 609f., Germ. A r a l. 91f., Hyg. F a b . 130.5. See further Bömer on M e t. 10.450 and F a s t. 4.939. Things are somewhat complicated by the fact that Areas, the son of Callisto, was believed to have become the constellation Arctophylax (cf. Ov. F a s t. 2.153-92, especially 190), also known as . . . Bootes (cf. Cic.

A r a t.

96

A r c to p h y la x , vu lg o

q u i d ic itu r e s se B o o te s ) .

For the learned epithet A c ta e u s , ‘Attic, Athenian’ (Plin. N a t. 4.23 a n tiq u itu s A c t e v o c a ta ) , cf. 1.394, 4.465, 6.217, Verg. E e l. 2.24 in A r a c y n th o , al. For the line-ending lu c e B o o te s cf. Cic. A r a t. 640 (394), Q. Cic. p o e t . 20.

A ttic e , A c ta e o

69f. haec ubi dicta dedit, Cereris tum munere fessas/ restituunt vires et parco corpora Baccho.

64

COMMENTARY

These lines are based on Vergil’s portrayal of Aeneas and his men after their landing on the African coast: tu m v ic tu r e v o c a n t viris, f u s i q u e p e r h e r b a m / im p le n tu r veteris B a c c h i p in g u is q u e f e r in a e ( A e n . 1.214f., following immediately on Aeneas’ reassuring speech: see on 47ff.). haec ubi dicta dedit: an early Latin formula (‘sicher ennianisch’, Norden, Comm, on A e n . 6, p. 373), possibly first attested in Lucil. 18 h a e c u b i d i c t a d e d it p a u s a m o re lo q u e n d i (depending on the question whether we should place the comma before or after d e d i t) . It evidently appealed to Vergil, who has it eight times (as against h a e c u b i d ic ta four times; cf. VF 2.384, 7.511), but it never became very popular: in Silver epic poetry it occurs only twice (here and in Sii. 7.746). Cf. also Liv. 3.61.7, 22.50.10 h a e c u b i d ic ta d e d it, s tr in g it g la d iu m cu n eo q u e etc. (a genuine dactylic hexameter!), Petr. 61.5, 121.100 (in the ‘Bellum Civile’). Here the formula does not follow oratio recta, but oratio obliqua: cf. Verg. A e n . 7.471. Cereris . . . munere: i.e. ‘bread’, or, more generally, ‘food’. For the expression cf. Ov. M e t. 10.74, and compare id. ib. 5.655 d o n a . . ■ C e re r is, 13.639 m u n e r a • . . C e re a lia . Cf. also Verg. A e n . 8.181 d o n a la b o r a ta e C e re r is, where C e r e s is used literally and metonymically at the same time. fessas . . . vires: the Argonauts have sailed all the way from Thessaly to Pallene in one day, and we are willing to believe that they show some signs of fatigue. For the expression cf. C iris 448 f e s s a e ta n d e m f u g iu n t d e c o r p o r e vires (‘perhaps directly borrowed from Val. 2.69f.’ (Lyne), but the combination is too unexciting to suspect any borrowing one way or the other; see also on 57 n u llu s in o re r u b o r), Apul. M e t. 7.28. For f e s s u s /l a s s u s see on 3 Iff. restituunt: cf. Luc. 4 . 1 5 3 t g e l i d o s . . . a g u rg ite c u r s u / r e s t i t u u n t a r tu s . parco . . . Baccho: the emphasis on the moderation of the Argonauts is remarkable (‘don’t drink and sail’), parco: ‘a little’, cf. Verg. G . 3.403 p a r c o s a le . Baccho: Lucretius criticizes the metonymic use of B a c c h u s for ‘wine’ in 2.655ff. h ic siq u is m a r e N e p tu n u m C e r e r e m q u e v o c a r e / c o n s titu e t f r u g e s e t B a c c h i n o m in e a b u t i / m a v u lt q u a m la tic is p r o p r i u m p r o f e r r e v o c a m e n ,

but his memory was short:

in 3.221 he calls the fragrance of wine B a c c h i . . . f l o s . Valerius also abuses the god’s name in 1.260, 2.348, 3.5 and 5.192. Everyone must decide for himself what to think of Statius’ plastic language in S ilv . 3.1.41, where Hercules is described as m u lto f r a tr e m a d e n te m (fr a tr e = B a c c h o = v in o ). . .

COMMENTARY

65

71. mox somno cessere, regunt sua sidera puppem. Cf. Verg. A e n . 5.836f. p l a c i d a la x a b a n t m e m b r a q u i e t e / su b r e m is f u s i p e r d u ra s e d ilia n a u ta e , 832f e r u n t s u a f l a m in a c la s s e m . This is a splendid line, starting with two drowsy spondees, and ending with dactyls suggestive of the smooth movement of the onward gliding ship. This pattern, s s d d , is relatively rare in Latin hexameter poetry: in this book there are only four other instances of it (77, 112, 165, 390), and in the whole of the Argonautica no more than 58, out of a total of nearly 5600 lines (see Duckworth 1967, 147, Garson 1968, 377). The sense of quiet and smoothness is further enhanced by the fact that the trochaic caesura after ce sse re constitutes the main pause in this line (cf. 3.732 f lu m in a co n tic u e re , ia c e t c u m f la tib u s a e q u o r ). somno cessere: cf. Lue. 3.8f. in d e so p o rife ro c e sse ru n t la n g u id a s o m n o / m e m b r a d u c is (i.e. Pompey, on board his ship), 5.511, Stat. T h e b . 12.355. regunt: said of stars, as for instance in Luc. 8.174ff. q u i n o n m e rg itu r u n d i s / a x is i n o c c id u u s . . . , / ille regit p u p p e s .

sua sidera: ‘its own stars’, i.e. stars that are on its side, favourable stars: cf. Vergil’s s u a f l a m in a (quoted above). Cf. also Hor. E p o d . 10.9 n e c s id u s a tr a n o c te a m ic u m a p p a r e a t.

72-427. scen e

T h e n e x t d a y L e m n o s lo o m s u p b e fo re th e A r g o n a u ts ’ eyes, th e re c e n t

of

a

te rrib le

ou tra g e.

-

The

in h a b ita n ts

of

th e

is la n d

had

s to p p e d

w o r s h ip p in g V en u s, a n d th e g o d d e s s h a d p u n is h e d th e m f o r th is b y in c itin g th e w om en

to

k ill

th e ir

h u sb a n d s,

w hom

th e y

had

been

u n fa ith fu ln e ss, a s w e ll a s th e re st o f th e m a le p o p u la tio n . saved

h e r fa th e r ,

k in g

T h o a s.

r e c e iv e a w a r m

w e lc o m e f r o m

a r e g e ttin g o u t

o f hand

- S h o rtly

le d

to

su sp ect

of

O n ly H y p s ip y le h a d

a fte rw a rd s th e A r g o n a u ts

arrive.

T h ey

th e w o m e n a n d e n jo y th e ir sta y , b u t w h e n th in gs

th e y a re r e p r im a n d e d b y H e r c u le s a n d ta k e le a v e

of

th e ir h o stesses.

[Dumézil, Bahrenfuss, Krumbholz 125-39, Happle 2-78, Garson (1964) 272-6, Fränkel 89-123, Gotting 79f., Alfonsi 121-5, Bornmann, Burkert, Delarue, Vessey (1970a) 44-8, id. (1970b) 51f, Burck (1971a) 75-8, Lüthje 64-77, Adamietz (1976) 31-6, Vian 19-28, Burck (1978) 32-8, id. (1979) 220f„ 249-51, Vessey (1985), R.P. Martin] The existence of warm relations between the Argonauts and the Lemnian women seems to have already been known to Homer, who mentions a certain Euneos as the son of Jason and Hypsipyle (II. 7.468f.; cf. 21.41, 23.747), but we

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COMMENTARY

have to wait until Pindar (Pyth. 4.252 Λαμνιάν . . . εθνει γυναικών άυδροφόνων) and Aeschylus (Cho. 63If.; cf. Hdt. 6.138) before we find any reference to the atrocities preceding those days of happy dalliance. The story was a popular one. We know that Aeschylus wrote a tetralogy consisting of 1. ’Αργώ, 2. Λήμνιοι (or Λήμνιαι: cf. Vian 27, n.2), 3. Ύψιττύλη, 4. Κάβειροι (fr. 35-49 Mette) and that Sophocles wrote a Λήμνιαι (fr. 384-9 Pearson), and the fragments of Euripides’ Ύψιττύλη enable us, to a certain extent, to reconstruct this play. Writers of comedy, too, did their share: Aristophanes, Nicochares, Antiphanes, Alexis and Diphilus all wrote a Λήμνιαι (cf. Vian 23, n.l). As for Roman writers, we know that Turpilius wrote a comedy on the subject, and the sixth letter of Ovid’s Heroides (‘Hypsipyle to Jason’) should be mentioned in this connection too (see further RE 2.755.67ff., Roscher 1.2853-6, 2.73f.). Most important, however, are the three full-scale epic versions by Valerius, Apollonius (1.601-909) and Statius (Theb. 5.48-498), a comparison of which may well be worth our while. First Valerius. After some lines which are both transitional and introductory (72-81) follows the ‘Lemnian story’ (82-427). This story is divided into two unequal parts, of which the first (82-310), a flash back, deals with the more or less recent events on Lemnos, and the second (311-427) with the arrival, stay and departure of the Argonauts. In its turn, the first part of the story, the flash back, also has two sections, one (82-106) dealing with the cause of Venus’ anger (the neglect of her worship by the Lemnians), the other (107-310) with her revenge: seeing the Lemnian men return home from a campaign in Thrace, she goes to Fama and orders her to spread the rumour among the Lemnian women that their husbands have fallen in love with the girls they have taken captive (107-34); Fama performs her duty (135-73), after which Venus does her bit, first in the guise of Dryope (174-95), and then as her own destructive self (196-215); then follows the massacre (21641). Only Hypsipyle remains unaffected by the divinely inspired madness and saves her father Thoas (242-305). Lines 306-10 describe the return to ‘normal’ life, with Hypsipyle’s accession to the throne. The second part of the story (‘the Argonauts on Lemnos’) is much shorter than the first and may be divided into four sections: arrival and reception (311-56), stay (357-73), rebuke by Hercules and preparations for departure (373-92), leavetaking (393-427). And now for something completely different.

COMMENTARY

67

After nine lines of transition/introduction (1.601-8) Apollonius, too, presents a bipartite ‘Lemnian story’ (609-909), but the proportions are wholly dissimilar from the ones we met in Valerius’ version: the flash back part (609-32) is 205 lines shorter than the one in Valerius, whereas the part dubbed ‘the Argonauts on Lemnos’ (633-909) is 160 lines longer. The first part again treats of the cause of Aphrodite’s wrath (the neglect of her worship, in any case by the Lemnian men (they are the most natural subject of ατισσαυ in 615)), and of the punishment inflicted by the goddess on the people of Lemnos (the rejection of the women by their husbands, the infatuation of these husbands with their Thracian captives and the subsequent massacre (609-19)). The story of Hypsipyle and Thoas is dealt with in seven lines (620-6), and the whole part is rounded off with a description of the women’s new way of life (627-32). The second part can, as in Valerius, be divided into four sections, of which the first (‘arrival and reception’, 633-860) is extremely long compared to Valerius’, whereas the second (‘stay’, 861f.) is extremely short; then follow ‘rebuke by Heracles and preparations for departure’ (863-78), and ‘leave-taking’ (878-909). There are many differences between Valerius’ treatment of the story and Apollonius’ (for instance, in Valerius the men do not reject their wives, nor do they fall in love with their slaves), but by far the most important divergence is the shift in focus from the second part of the story to the first. Why did Valerius do that? Why does he dwell so long on the events prior to the arrival of the Argonauts? The question has been asked a good many times before, and various answers have been given, of which Burck’s (1979, 220f.) is, on the whole, the most satisfactory. I quote him in full: ‘Die tückische Einfädelung des Racheaktes der Göttin und ihr suggestiv-dämonischer Zwang auf die Frauen zur Durchführung dieses schrecklichen Massenmordes lassen auf der einen Seite erstmalig das hohe Können des Valerius in der Freilegung affektgeladener Entwicklungen erkennen. Andererseits bezeugt die Schilderung der Blutnacht das besondere [this, however, is too strong] Interesse des Dichters an der Gestaltung ungewöhnlicher und grausiger Ereignisse und Phänomene. Dass die Königstochter Hypsipyle ihren greisen Vater mit grossem Opfermut rettet, gestaltet Valerius als einen beispielhaften Akt der pietas aus, der in krassem Kontrast zu den vorangegangenen entsetzlichen Bluttaten steht. Valerius liebt solche harte Antithesen im Grossen wie im Kleinen . . .’ (cf. also Garson 1964, 272f.). Moreover, as Burck points out in a footnote, Hypsipyle is in a way the

68

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counterpart of Medea, who shows no such p i e t a s to her father Aeetes (cf. also Adamietz 1976,35f.). We end our survey with Statius. After a brief introduction, in which Lemnos and its surroundings are described (48-56), Hypsipyle (for it is she who is the narrator, not, as was the case with Apollonius and Valerius, the author himself) tells Adrastus, the Argive king, the ‘Lemnian story’. This is again divided into two parts, although this time the first part is, for obvious reasons, not couched in a flash back. This first part is comparatively about as long as the one in Valerius (57-334) and deals with the cause of Venus’ wrath (the neglect of her worship, 58f.) and the resulting frìg id a iu stì c u ra to r i (71f.), which makes the men seek their fortune in war against Thrace (75ff.; the men are n o t unfaithful to their wives (as in Apollonius), nor is there any rumour in that direction (as in Valerius), only an isolated insinuation by Polyxo in 142 B is to n id e s v e n iu n t f o r ta s s e m aritae)·, then follow the inciting of the women by Polyxo (85-169; though it may be gathered from 134ff. and 157f. that Venus had something to do with it too), the last night together (170-94) and the mass murder (195-235). The rescue of Thoas by Hypsipyle is described in 236-95 and followed by ‘the day after the night before’, with Hypsipyle’s accession to the throne (296-334). The second part is also comparatively about as long as the one in Valerius (335-485) and deals with the arrival, stay and departure of the Argonauts. In lines 486-98, finally, Hypsipyle gives a brief account to Adrastus of the trials and tribulations she went through after the other women found out about her deceit, a part of the story that is of course absent from Apollonius and Valerius. There is every reason to believe that Statius incorporated the story of Hypsipyle in his Thebaid, b e c a u s e Valerius had dealt with the same subject only shortly before: it was a juicy story, offering him the opportunity to ‘beat [Valerius] on his own ground’ (Vessey 1970b, 52; but see below). I shall not dwell too long on the characteristics of Statius’ version, but merely point out some of the similarities and differences between him and Valerius. As for similarities, it has already been pointed out that the ratio between the first and the second part of the story is about the same in both writers: in Valerius the percentages are 66 and 34 resp., in Statius 65 and 35; moreover, there is a great deal of resemblance in their use of language, for which see the various notes below; finally, the protracted inciting of the Lemnian women, which in Valerius was done by Fama, Venus/Dryope and Venus herself, recurs in Statius, though he makes Polyxo the instigator. As for differences, wherever Statius diverges from his model, it is in a typically Statian way. Thus the section

COMMENTARY

69

in which Polyxo stirs up the other women is more gruesome than the corresponding one in Valerius (cf. especially 125-8 and the repulsive lines 15963), as is the description of the massacre (in particular 212ff., 233ff., 252ff.). Very Statian too are the storm and the fight in 36 Iff. and the far from carefree atmosphere during the Argonauts’ stay, at least as far as Hypsipyle is concerned. In short, Statius very much lives up to his reputation in this episode (I myself would not say ‘beats Valerius on his own ground’ (see above): the ghastly and the gloomy are much more Statius’ ‘ground’ than Valerius’). Finally, something must be said about the origin of this story. It was pointed out long ago by Dumézil, and more recently by Burkert, that this origin has to be sought in a Lemnian ritual which was not understood by the outside world and so gave rise to the strange story as we know it (Dumézil 57: ‘La légende classique que nous possédons n’est qu’une "projection" pseudohistorique, dans le passé, de ce scénario annuel’; Burkert 6: ‘It is by myth that ancient tradition explains the ritual’). We have two testimonies concerning this ritual. One comes from Myrsilus (FGrHist 477 F la = schol. AR 1.609-19e), who φησι την Μήδειαν τταραττλέο-υσαν διά ζηλοτυπίαν ριψαι εις τήν Λήμνον φάρμακου καί δυσοσμίαν γενέσθαι ταίς γυναιξίν (this rather unsavoury detail, also found elsewhere, is left out by Apollonius, Valerius and Statius), είναι τε μέχρι τοϋ νΰν κατ’ ενιαυτόν ήμέραν τινά, έν ή διά τήν δυσωδίαν άττέχειν τάς γυναίκας άνδρα τε καί υίείς. The other testimony comes from Philostratus, cf. Her. 53.5ff. De Lannoy έττί δέ τώ έργω τώ περί τους άνδρας ϋπό των έν Λήμνω γυναικών έξ ’Αφροδίτης ποτέ πραχθέντι καθαίρεται μέν ή Λήμνος καθ’ έ'καστον έτος καί σβέννυται το έν αυτή πϋρ έςήμέρας έννέαθεωρίς δέ ναϋς έκ Δήλου πυρφορεί, . . . έπειδάν δέ ή θεωρίς έσπλεύση καί νείμωνται τό πϋρ ές τε τήν άλλην δίαιταν ές τε τάς έμπυρους τών τεχνών, καινού τό έντεϋθεν βίου άρχεσθαι. Dumézil and Burkert have shown that the temporary separation of the sexes (Myrsilus) and the ditto extinguishing of all fires (Philostratus), followed by reunion and rekindling resp., are two aspects of one and the same purification and fertility ceremony, which symbolizes the end of old life and the beginning of new life, and which can be paralleled by similar ceremonies all over the world (Dumézil 25f., Burkert 4). They have further shown that all the main details of the story (the foul smell, the separation, the massacre, the rescue of Thoas, the love affairs between the Lemnian women and the Argonauts) can be explained as a projection in the distant past of uncomprehended parts of this ceremony.

COMMENTARY

70

The separation of the Lemnian men and women and the love affairs between these women and the Argonauts are of course the most easy to explain: they correspond to the separation and reunion of the sexes in the ritual. But the other features of the story, too, can be explained from ritual: Dumézil assumes (35ff.) that every year the Lemnian women prayed that they should remain free from foul smell (women’s diseases, infertility) or even feigned that they had already been thus afflicted (Dumézil adduces an Armenian parallel, in which the New Fire plays a part too), that the rescue of Thoas reflects a widespread ritual featuring a procession followed by the immersion of a man disguised as a vegetation demon (Dumézil gives a number of parallels, in some of which the New Fire turns up again (42ff.)) and that the massacre either combines the hostile separation of men and women and the symbolic killing of a man/vegetation demon (48) or, which is perhaps more likely, that it is an extreme translation of the first of these rites, the hostile separation (49). Burkert (lOff.) refers to yet other festivals with features strongly reminiscent of the ones in question, to wit a. the Skira, during which women ate garlic ευεκα τ ο ν άττέχεσθαι αφροδισίων (Philochorus, FGrHist 328 F 89), b. the Thesmophoria, involving, again, the eating of garlic (IG II/III2 1184) and a separation of men and women, which ‘in mythological phantasy . . . was escalated into outright war’ (not unsignificantly, this festival was believed to have been introduced in Greece by the Danaids (cf. Hdt. 2.171), whose fate so much resembles that of the Lemnian women (for the similarities between the Lemnian story and Hdt. 4.145 see Dumézil 5 Iff.; for the relationship with Aristophanes’ Lysistrata see R.P. Martin 88ff.)), and c., in Rome, the Vesta festival, which included a procession and an immersion, a separation of the sexes and, in a way, a purification of fire. The point is clear: it was not myth that gave rise to the ritual, as one might have thought, but the other way round. S e d f in is sit.

72-81.

T h e n ex t d a y V u lc a n ’s is la n d L e m n o s l o o m s u p b e f o r e th e A r g o n a u t s ’

eyes.

72ff. Iamque sub Eoae dubios Atlantidis ignes/ albet ager motisque truces ab ovilibus ursi/ tuta domosque petunt, raras et litus in altum mittit aves. This may seem a rather elaborate description of sunrise, but it pales before the one in 4.90ff. iamque . . . cum: for this transitional formula and for the clearly intended contrast between our lines and 34ff. see note there. The same formula occurs in

COMMENTARY the same context in Verg.

A en.

3.588ff. p o s te r a

71

ia m q u e d ie s p r im o su rg e b a t E o o /

. . . (immediately after the description of the anxious night of Aeneas and his men: see the introductory note to 34-71) and 7.25ff. ia m q u e r u b e s c e b a t ra d iis m a r e e t a e th e r e a b a l t o /

u m e n te m q u e A u r o r a p o l o d im o v e r a t u m b r a m , / c u m

A u r o r a in r o se is f u lg e b a t lu te a b i g i s ,/ c u m . . .

sub Eoae dubios Atlantidis ignes: ‘shortly before Atlas’ daughters (i.e. the Pleiades: cf. Hes. O p . 383) become dim in the morning’ (Burman, Langen), rather than ‘shortly before the rising of the dim Pleiades in the morning’ (Bolton, Ehlers (Lustrum 127)): s u b may be easier with the second explanation (cf. e.g. Verg. G . 1.67f. s u b i p s u m / A r c tu r u m , ‘shortly before the rising of Arcturus’), but the first receives decisive support from Lucan’s e t ia m P lia s h e b e t in his sunrise description in 2.719ff. (note also a lb a . . . n o n d u m lu x r u b e t in 720f., which, incidentally, does not mean ‘the ruddy light, not white as yet’ (Duff), but ‘the white light, not ruddy as yet’: see R. Mayer, Mnem. 32 (1979) 343f.). Valerius has in mind Verg. G . 1.221 a n te tib i E o a e A t la n t id e s a b s c o n d a n tu r , where, however, the reference is to the morning setting of the Pleiades in November (‘first, let Atlas’ daughters hide themselves in the morning’). Eoae: with g-, as in 4.509, 5.76, 245, 6.142, 690, but e - in 642, 3.539, 4.96, 6.699,7.22 (see Servius on A e n . 2.417). dubios: cf. Iuv. 5.20ff. so llic itu s n e /

to ta sa lu ta tr ix ia m tu r b a p e r e g e r it o r b e m , /

s id e r ib u s d u b iis .

Atlantidis: the collective singular is also found in Luc. 5.4; compare the more frequent use of P lia s for P lia d e s (see Langen on 1.647). The genitive singular in -is occurs only here, elsewhere we find the form in -os: [Tib.] 3.7.77, Ov. Tr. 1.11.15, Sii. 11.292. ignes: of the fire of a celestial body, cf. 1.516,2.369, 5.368, OLD 4. albet ager: Burman hesitates whether to supply lu c e or rore, but Valerius surely means the former: cf. e.g. 3.257f. e c c e le v i p r im o s ia m sp a rg e re lu m in e p o r t u s / o r ta d ie s n o ta e q u e (n e fa s) a lb e s c e r e tu rres, Cic. L u c . 105 ( m a r e ) q u a a s o le c o n lu c e t, a lb e s c it.

The same words form the beginning of 3.167, but the context is not quite the same: s p a r s u s . . . c e r e b r o / a lb e t ager. The next two lines deal with the transition in nature from night to day: the bears stop terrifying the sheep and return home, and the birds wake up and leave the shores. The traditional animal to harass the sheep in their folds is the wolf (cf. Verg. G . 3.537 (in the description of the plague) n o n lu p u s in s id ia s e x p lo r a t o v ilia c ir c u m , A e n . 9.59ff., 565f., Ov. Tr. 1.6.9f., P o n t. 1.2.18), but bears also fancied a

72

COMMENTARY

leg of mutton on occasion: cf. Hor. E p o d . 16.51 n e c v e s p e r tin u s u r s u s o v i le (in the curva b e a t a ) . In Verg. A e n . 9 .3 3 9 the culprit is a lion, motis: ‘terrified’.

circiu.ng e n . . ·.

tuta domosque petunt: ‘make for the safety of their homes’. For the neuter plural tu ta , used substantially, cf. 1.84, 698, Verg. A e n . 882, Ov. M e t. 10.714, Luc. 10.459, al., and for the hendiadys t u t a d o m o s q u e ϊψε ττοδός τεταγών dirò βηλοΰ θεσττεσίοιμ et iratus fidi uxori et suspendit illam. horrendum chaos. . . poenasque barathri: chaos and barathri refer to the same thing, the underworld. For chaos in this sense cf. 1.830, 4.123, 5.95, 7.401f., Ov. Met. 10.30 per Chaos hoc ingens vastique silentia regni (generally considered to be the first Latin example, but the meaning of the word cannot be much different in Verg. Aen. 6.264f. di, quibus imperium est animarum, umbraeque silentes,/ et Chaos et Phlegethon, loca nocte tacentia late). Compare the use of χάος in [PI.] Ax. 371e άγονται ττρός Έρινύων έττ’ έρεβος καί χάος διά Ταρτάρου, al. βάραθρον/βέρεθρον in itself means nothing more than ‘pit, abyss’, but its occurrence in II. 8.14 (quoted above) gave the word its specific meaning; cf. 192 below: inferni. . . sub nocte barathri, Lucr. 3.966 nec quisquam in barathrum nec Tartaradeditur atra, Verg.Aen. 8.245, al. poenas (S) seems preferable to poenam (recc.: poena VL), “varia enim poenarum genera apud inferos significat’ (Burman; cf. Stat. Theb. 11.575 cunctas Erebi ■· · poenas), poenam . . . barathri, ‘the punishment consisting of (living in) the underworld’ (for the epexegetic genitive cf. e.g. Ulp. dig. 1.12.1.10 metalli poena), would go less well with ostendens. chaos ostendens: Servius is probably being too rigid when he criticizes the succession of -ca ca- in Verg. Aen. 2.27 Dorica castra, as causing ‘cacenphaton’. If the Roman ear was really offended by such repetition, Valerius must have caused considerable earache, for the phenomenon occurs again and again in the Argonautica: cf., in book 2, (I only give the more remarkable instances) 150 manus ustoque, 230 saeva valet, 369 metus usque, 411 acu currusque, 459 morsu super, 465 multa tamen, 527 arma manu, 609 gemitu tulit, 631 arva vadis. See

79

COMMENTARY

further Austin on A e n . 2.27, Pease on A e n . 4.47, Norden on A e n . 6.88, Börner on M e t.

2.97.

87ff. mox etiam pavidae temptantem vincula matris/ solvere praerupti Vulcanum vertice caeli/ devolvit vincula: if we are to believe Homer, it would have taken a Houdini to untie these chains: έκ δέ ττοδοΐιν/ άκμονας ήκα δυω, ττερί χερσί δέ δεσμόν ϊη λα / χρύσεον άρρηκτον (//. 15.18ff.). praerupti . . . vertice caeli: ‘from the top of the steep heavens’. For heaven’s ve rte x cf. e.g. 3.487, Verg. A e n . 1.225f. (Jupiter) v e rtic e c a e l i / c o n s titit, and for its steepness Stat. T h e b . 3.262 c a e l i . . . a b ru p ta . The wording recalls Catullus’ description of Prometheus in 64.297

pen den s e

v e rtic ib u s p r a e r u p tis .

devolvit: ‘rolled down’, d e v o lv e r e is rare, both in poetry and in prose: the only writers to use the verb more than twice are Livy, Seneca, Curtius, Silius and Apuleius. Valerius has it again in 235. The whole phraseology (p ra eru p ti, ve rtice, d e v o lv it) evokes the image of someone rolling a snowball down a mountain, rather than that of one god flinging another from heaven to earth. 89ff. ruit ille polo noctemque diemque/ turbinis in morem, Lemni cum litore tandem/ insonuit. polo: ‘through the sky’ (in view of

n o c te m q u e d ie m q u e ) ,

rather than ‘from the

sky’ (Mozley). noctemque diemque: where Homer had contented himself with one day only, cf. II. 1.592f. ττάν δ’ ήμαρ φερόμην, αμα δ’ ήελίω καταδύνη/ κάτπτεσον έν Λήμνφ. is less frequent than most expressions meaning ‘(a) night and (a) day’. Outside Valerius it is found only four times: cf. Verg. A e n . 5.766, n o c te m q u e d ie m q u e

Germ.ylraf. 434, Sii. 4.811,15.576. For doubled - q u e see on 14 v e lu m q u e fr e tu m q u e . turbinis in morem: ‘like a whirlwind’, cf. Verg. D a r d a n iu s ,

to rr e n tis

aquae

tu rb in is in s ta r . . . h a s ta .

vel

tu rb in is

A en.

a t r i / m o r e fu r e n s ,

In Man. 3.360f.

10.602ff. d u c t o r / 12.923f. v o l a t a tri

s ta n tis e r it c a e li sp e c ie s , la te r u m q u e

the phrase means ‘like a top’. in m o r e m + gen., ‘like’, occurs from Vergil onward (cf. especially A e n . 11.615f. e x c u ssu s A c o n t e u s / fu lm in is in m o r e m ) , d e m o r e + gen. in 8.32 is a Valerian

m e a t u / tu rb in is in m o r e m r e c ta ve rtig in e cu rre t

innovation.

80

COMMENTARY

cum: there is no need to read dum with Schenkl, as all subsequent editors except Giarratano and Kramer do: this is a case of inverted cum without any change of subject or tense. These cases are rare, but they do exist, cf. Ov. Met. 10.479f. (Myrrha) per . . . novem erravit redeuntis cornua lunae,/ cum tandem (!) terra requievit fessa Sabaea. Bömer ad loc. compares Verg. Aen. 11.783 and Ov. Met. 10.472, but these passages do involve a change of both subject and tense. By postponing cum Valerius avoids a spondaic disyllable in the fourth foot: see on 74 et. insonuit: ‘fell with a thud (on)’, cf. 3.78f. hasta . . . transtris/ insonuit, 6.365f. galeae . . . insonuit quae lapsa solo, Verg. Aen. 12.365f. velut Edoni Boreae cum spiritus alto/ insonat Aegaeo, al. 9Iff. vox inde repens ut perculit urbem ,/ acclinem scopulo inveniunt miserentque foventque/ alternos aegro cunctantem poplite gressus. repens: the adjective is rare in epic poetry. Valerius has it only here and in 478, it does not occur in Ovid’s Metamorphoses or Lucan and is found only once in the Aeneid. Statius and Silius offer four examples each. perculit: ‘hit’, as in [Sen.] Oct. 72f. vox en nostras perculit aures/ tristis alumnae, or perhaps ‘upset’ (cf. Cic. Ver. 3.132 haec te vox non perculit, non perturbavit?). acclinem scopulo inveniunt: there is an ellipse of something like ‘they (i.e. the Lemnians) take a look and . . .’. acclinis (also in 1.147 and 3.533) is rare and mainly poetic. Here Valerius may be thinking of Verg. Aen. 10.835, where we find the wounded Mezentius arboris acclinis trunco. Two lines down he takes care of himself: ipse aeger anhelans/ colla fovet. miserentque foventque: miserere (alicuius) is otherwise restricted to archaic language (Enn. Ann. 162 Sk., seen. 182 Joe., Lucr. 3.881), but Morel’s miseretque (64) gives an awkward change of subject and destroys the rhyme. fovere can be used for all kinds of medical treatment (cf. OLD 3). Here it means more generally ‘to look after, tend’, cf. e.g. Apul. Met. 7.13 illam thalamo receptam commode parentes sui fovebant. alternos aegro cunctantem poplite gressus: a clear echo of Verg. Aen. 12.386 alternos longa nitentem cuspide gressus (of the wounded Aeneas). Cf. also Sil. 1.554f. Valerius is the first to construe cunctari with an accusative (‘to hesitate over’). Statius has the construction several times: cf. Theb. 3.719 magnos cunctamur . . . paratus, 7.If. ea cunctantes Tyrii primordia belli . . . Pelasgos,

COMMENTARY

81

11.268 p u g n a s c u n c ta n te m E te o c le a (but T h e b . 1.410f. and 6.626f., adduced as parallels by Langen ad loc. and by Smolenaars on T h e b . 7.1, have little to do with it). f o v e n t . . . c u n c ta n te m recalls Verg. A e n . 8.388 (Venus) c u n c ta n te m a m p le x u m o lli f o v e t (sc. V o lc a n u m l), where, however, c u n c ta n te m refers to Vulcan’s indecision with regard to Venus’ request and f o v e r e is of a somewhat more intimate nature. For a e g ro . . . p o p l i t e cf. Verg. A e n . 5.468 g e n u a a e g r a tr a h e n te m (of Dares, beaten up by Entellus). Line 93 is a Silver Line: see on 6f. For the framing of a line by attribute and noun (a lte r n o s - g re ssu s) see on 18. Understandably, the metrical pattern of this line, ssss, is rare in Latin hexameter poetry: in this book there are only three other instances of it (414, 442, 487), and in the whole of the Argonautica no more than just over 50 (see Duckworth 1967, 147, Garson 1968, 377). In this particular case the pattern suits the context perfectly, but we should not forget that it was Vergil’s idea. 94ff. hinc, reduci superas postquam pater adnuit arces,/ Lemnos cara deo, nec fama notior A etne/ aut Lipares domus. hinc: ‘hence’, ‘therefore’, with L e m n o s c a r a d e o . reduci superas . . . adnuit arces: Valerius seems to have in mind Verg. A e n . 1.250 n os, tu a p ro g e n ie s, c a e li q u ib u s a d n u is a r c e m . The a rc e s s u p e r a e are the ‘heavenly heights’. Valerius often has arx in this sense: cf. 1.498, 4.73, 5.163, 304, 7.84f. s e r e n a / a rc e (= se re n o c a e lo : see Langen ad loc.). In 2.444 and 3.481 it rather means ‘zenith’, but the distinction may be thought arbitrary. r e d u c i is used proleptically: ‘so that he could return home’. pater: cf. Horn. II. 1.578. According to Hesiod, Hera 'Ήφαιστον κλυτόν οΰ φιλότητι μιγεΐσα/ γείνατο, καί ζαμένησε και ήρισεν ώ τταρακοίτη (T h . 927f.). Lemnos cara deo: cf. Horn. O d . 8.283f. (Hephaestus) εισατ’ ϊμεν ές Λήμνον, έϋκτίμενον Ίττολΐεθρον,/ ή οΐ γαιάων πολύ φιλτάτη έστίν άττάσεων. The spondaic disyllable in the first foot receives full emphasis (cf. Norden, Comm, on A e n . 6, pp. 435f.). Other instances in this book are 123,283, 381. nec fama notior Aetne: Thilo rather rashly conjectured f l a m m e a g r a tio r (pr. LXXXVII), failing to notice the mental leap that Valerius makes: Lemnos was dear to Vulcan > this turned the island into a cult place > as such it is a match for Mt. Etna and Lipare. Compare Hypsipyle’s description of her island in Stat.

COMMENTARY

82

T h e b . 5 .5 5 1 n e c illa S a m o f a m a D e lo v e s o n a n t i / p e i o r e t in n u m e r is q u a s s p u m if e r a d s ilit A e g o n .

With

f a m a n o tio r

compare Verg.

Sen. T ro. 224. Lipares domus: the connection group of islands north of Sicily (2.133f.) and Callimachus (D ia n . rather late. In fact, ours seems

A e n . 2 .2 1 1 T e n e d o s, n o tis s i m a f a m a / in s u la ,

between Vulcan and Lipare, the largest of a (cf. Plin. N a t. 3.92), is as old as Theocritus 46ff.), but references in Latin literature are to be the first (cf. Sii. 14.55ff., Iuv. 13.44f.

te r g e n s / b ra c c h ia V o lc a n u s L ip a r a e a n ig ra t a b e m a ) .

Vergil locates the god on a smaller island between Lipare and Sicily (A e n . 8.416ff.), known from other sources as Hiera (Thuc. 3.88.3), formerly Thermessa (Str. 6.2.10). For the genitive cf. Verg.

A en.

10.51f.

e s t A m a th u s ,

a tq u e C y th e r a / I d a lia e q u e d o m u s ( I d a lia e d o m u s

e s t c e ls a m i h i P a p h u s

could be nominative plural, but

this seems less likely). 96ff. has epulas, haec templa peracta/ aegide et horrifici formatis fulminis alis/ laetus adit Cf. Stat. T h e b . 5.50f. L e m n o s , u b i ig n ifera f e s s u s r e s p ir a t a b A e t n a / M u lc ib e r . has . . . haec: ‘here . . . here’, cf. 335 h a e c a n tr a v id e tis , 656ff. ‘h ic p o r t u s ' in q u it

‘m ih i te rrita t h o s t i s , / h a s

a c ie s s u b

n o c te

terga vides, m e u s h ic ra tib u s q u i p a s c itu r ig n is .’

1.15ff. (Carthage)

quam

lu n o

f e r tu r

terris

refert,

haec

versa

P e la sg u m /

In Valerius’ model, Verg.

m a g is

o m n ib u s

A en.

u n a m / p o s th a b ita

we find the adverb h ic . peracta aegide et horrifici formatis fulminis alis: reminiscent of Verg. A e n . 8.426ff., where the Cyclopes, Vulcan’s employees, are working on a thunderbolt for Jupiter (426-32) and an aegis for Pallas (435-8). Valerius does not mention the chariot for Mars (433f.). For thunderbolt and aegis mentioned together cf. also 4.520f. f u lm in a . . . a e g id a q u e ille (i.e. Jupiter) g e r e n s. Mart. 9.20.9f. a t te co lu isse S a m o , h ic illiu s a r m a , / h ic c u rru s f u i t ,

p r o te x it su p e ru m p a t e r e t tibi, C a e s a r , / p r o ia c u lo e t p a r m a f u lm e n e t a e g is e r a t.

peracta aegide: for the aegis, the magical shield of both Jupiter and Pallas (cf. Horn.//. 15.308ff. and V e r g . A e n . 8.435ff. resp.) see Fordyce o n A e n . 8.354. p e r a g e re ‘to complete’, with something tangible for its object, is relatively rare, but cf. Plin. N a t. 16.213 u tp o te c u m t o ta A s i a e x s tr u e n te C X X a n n is p e r a c tu m s it (sc. te m p lu m E p h e s ia e D ia n a e ) , Suet. C a l. 21 d e s tin a v e r a t e t . . . al. horrifici: cf. Verg. A e n . 8.431

M ile ti D id y m e u m p e ra g e re ,

h o rre n d u m . . . fu lm e n ,

fu lg o r e s . . . te rrific o s (h o r r ific o s

Sil. 9.478 h o r r id a f u lm in a .

Rd),

A e tn a

39

COMMENTARY

83

Before Valerius, who has it three times (cf. 518, 3.423), this almost exclusively poetic compound is only found in Cicero ( A r a i.), Lucretius (who also employs the rare adverb h o rrific e ), Lucan (once in each) and Vergil (three times). With h o rri- Valerius also has h o rrifer (5.306, al.) and h o rriso n u s (2.583, al.), and with -fic u s lu c ti- (3.292, al.), lu stri- (3.448, a hapax), m o n stri- (6.153), regi- (2.652), sa c ri- (4.110, al.), te tri- (1.29, al.) and v u ln ific u s (1.420). fo rm a tis: cf. Verg. A e n . 8.426f. h is in fo r m a tu m m a n ib u s ia m p a r te p o l i t a / f u lm e n e ra t.

fulminis alis: thunderbolts are sometimes described as having wings, symbolizing their speed (Langen wrongly equates them with the r a d ii of Verg. A e n . 8.429, where see Fordyce). Cf. e.g. Ar. A v . 576 τττερόεντα κεραυνόν, 1714 τττεροφόρον Διός βέλος, Verg. A e n . 5.319 f u lm in is o c io r a lis, Sil. 8.476, Claud. R P 2.229. Valerius mentions them again in 6.55f. n e c p r im u s ra d io s, m ile s R o m a n e , c o r u s c i / f u lm in is e t ru tila s s c u tis d iffu d e ris a la s.

laetus adit: perhaps from Verg.

A en.

8.543f. (Aeneas)

h e s te r n u m . . . la re m

p a r v o s q u e p e n a t i s / la e tu s a d it.

98ff. contra Veneris stat frigida semper/ ara loco, meritas postquam dea coniugis iras/ horruit et tacitae Martem tenuere catenae. At long last the reader’s patience is rewarded: it turns out that it was the love affair of Venus, Vulcan’s wife, with Mars that prompted the Lemnians, in ill-advised sympathy with their favourite god, to neglect her worship. Apollonius and Statius limit themselves to a mere reference to this neglect, cf. 1.614f. and T h e b . 5.57ff. resp. (see the introductory note). stat . . . loco: s ta r e lo c o usually means ‘to stay where one is’ (cf. e.g. 3.121 s ta t . . . lo c o to ru s (i.e. has not been removed by the servants), Verg. G . 3.84 {e q u u s ) s ta r e lo c o n e sc it, Luc. 1.145, Stat. T h e b . 8.529). Here the connotation rather is ‘without being looked after’: Venus’ altar is just standing ‘there’. Renkema conjectured f o c o (25f.), but a f o c u s is not what he claims it to be, the ‘summa pars arae ad recipiendum ignem excavata’. frigida . . . ara: ‘cold altars’ are often mentioned as a symbol of neglected worship: cf. e.g. Ov. M e t. 1.372ff. (Deucalion and Pyrrha) f le c tu n t ve stig ia s a n c t a e / a d d e lu b r a d e a e , q u o r u m f a s tig ia t u r p i / p a lle b a n t m u s c o s ta b a n tq u e sin e

a ra s

8.277f. s o la s s in e tu re r e l i c t a s / p r a e te r ita s c e s s a s s e f e r u n t L a to id o s (after which Diana’s revenge is described!), F a s t. 2.564, 3.727f., Apul. M e t.

4.29

sa cra

ig n ib u s a ra e ,

d iffe ru n tu r,

te m p la

d e fo rm a n tu r, p u lv in a r ia p ro fe ru n tu r,

c a e r im o n ia e

n eg le g u n tu r; in c o r o n a ta s im u la c r a e t a r a e v id u a e fr ig id o c in e re f o e d a ta e .

In 331 things are back to normal again: p r im a

V en eris c a le t a r a iu v e n c a .

84

COMMENTARY

The famous story of Venus and Mars is as old as Homer (Od. 8.266-369), an^ references to it abound in antiquity, cf. e.g., as far as Latin literature ij, concerned, Verg. G. 4.345f. curam . . . inanem / Volcani, Martisque dolos et d u lc / furta, Ον. Am. 1.9.39f., Ars 2.561-92, Met. 4.171-89, Tr. 2.377f., Sen. Phaed 124ff., Stat. Theb. 2.269ff., Silv. 1.2.59f., Mart. 5.7.7f., Iuv. 10.313f. Plato was not amused (R. 3.390c). As soon as Venus found out that it was Sol whom she had to thank for her humiliation, she started to meditate on revenge, and before long her vindictive glance rested on Aeetes, Sol’s son, and Medea, Sol’s granddaughter: cf. 6.467f. diva . . . iam pridem sponte requirens/ Colchìda et invisi genus omne exscindere Phoebi (with Langen’s note). meritas . . . iras: either neutral, ‘the anger she had incurred’, cf. Luc. 8.134f. saevi cum Caesaris iram / iam scirem meritam servata coniuge Lesbon, Tac. Ag. 4.1 iis . . . ipsis virtutibus iram Gai Caesaris meritus, or, more probably, with a moral overtone, ‘the anger she had deserved’, cf. 4.526 donec erunt divum meritae mortalibus irae, 7.484f. an me mox merita morituram patris ab ira/ dissimulas? But it is not always easy to draw the line. For the line-ending coniugis iras cf. Verg. Aen. 2.572. horruit: cf. Ov. Pont. 2.7.55 quis non horruerit tacitam quoque Caesaris iram? tacitae: ‘satis audacter hoc loco poeta notionem taciti transtulit ad ea, quae oculis occuluntur, cfr. ad 1.479’, says Langen (although tacitum . . . mare in 1.479 surely refers to the soundless penetration of the seawater into the ship). It is true that usually the chains’ invisibility is stressed (cf. Horn. Od. 8.280f. (δέσματα) ήΰτ’ άράχνια λεπτά, τά y’ ον κέ τις οΰδε ϊδοιτο,/ ούδέ θεών μακάρων, Ον. Ars 2.577f. Mulciber obscuros lectum circaque superque/ disponit laqueos; lumina fallit opus, Met. 4.176ff. extemplo graciles ex aere catenas/ retiaque et laqueos, quae lumina fallere possent,/ elimat), and tacitus does sometimes mean ‘invisible’ (cf. Calp. Eel. 5.74 taciturn . . . virus, Stat. Silv. 2.3.5 tacitis radicibus, Mart. 13.60.2 tacitas . . . vias), but in all these cases the invisibility results from the fact that the things involved are underground, underwater, under the skin etc., whereas in the case of the chains that fettered Mars and Venus, it was their gracilitas that made them invisible. This is not to say that Langen must be wrong (Valerius has a tendency to go one better), but why should Valerius not simply mean that the chains made no sound (for tacitus so used cf. e.g. Tib. 1.6.12 cardine . . . tacito)? After all, the naughty couple would hardly have considered entering the bed if the whole place had been clanking with the sound of metal. Martem: and herself, of course.

COMMENTARY

85

10If. quocirca struit illa nefas Lemnoque merenti/ exitium furiale movet; quocirca: only here in Valerius, and on the whole veiy rare in poetry: the only poets to use the word before Valerius are Vergil (once), Horace (three times, and then only in the satires and epistles), Grattius (once) and Manilius (three times); it is absent from Statius and Silius. For the occurrence in poetry of this and other words meaning ‘therefore’ see Axelson 80, n.67. struit. . . nefas: cf. in e . trag. 240 str u u n t so ro re s A t t i c a e d ir u m n e fa s. In this sense of ‘to devise, contrive’ the verb often has a negative ring, as again in 3.585f. lu c tu s u c c e n s u s a c e r b o / q u id s tr u a t A l c id e s (cf. Verg. A e n . 8.15), 617 S c y th ic is str u e re m c u m fu n e r a terris, 6.727f. i s t a s / u t str u e re m p u g n a s , but there are exceptions: cf. e.g. Stat. S ilv . 5.1.16 se ra q u id e m ta n to stru itu r m e d ic in a d o lo ri.

merenti: ‘videlicet ex sententia Veneris’ (Langen). For m e r e n s ‘guilty: cf. Verg. A e n . 2 .2 291. s c e lu s e x p e n d isse m e r e n t e m / L a o c o o n ta f e r u n t (A e n . 2.585f. s u m p s is s e m e r e n t i s / la u d a b o r p o e n a s is another parallel if m e r e n tis is a genitive), m e r itu s is used similarly, cf., in Valerius, 1.726, 797, 2.213, 3.390, 4.754. exitium furiale: ‘mad destruction’, cf. Ov. M e t. 6.657 fu r ia li c a e d e . As a matter of fact, in 104ff. Venus will be described as a Fury. In 6.670 and 7.254 Valerius uses the adjective again, in the sense of ‘maddening’. movet: cf. Prop. 3.22.32 e x itiu m n a to m a tr e m o v e n te s u o . 102ff. neque enim alma videri/ tantum ea, cum tereti crinem subnectitur auro/ sidereos diffusa sinus; eadem effera et ingens/ et maculis suffecta genas pinumque sonantem/ virginibus Stygiis nigramque simillima pallam. Sometimes Venus is a Jekyll, sometimes she is a Hyde: ‘for she hath not only a gracious aspect w hen. . .; it is the same goddess th a t. . .’ (Mozley). I follow Mozley and Courtney in adopting Madvig’s ta n tu m , for o ’s ia m tu rn. Thilo, who keeps ia m tu rn, explains (pr. XXIII) ‘Venerem tum non tam almam fuisse videri, qualis esset cum . . . crinem subnecteret’, but c u m is not = q u a lis e s se t c u m . Besides, although n e q u e e n im ia m may mean ‘for no longer . . .’, and n e q u e e n im tu m ‘for then not . . .’, n e q u e e n im ia m tu m is not ‘for then no longer’, but ‘for not already then’, which makes no sense here. This interpretation, finally, fails to explain e a d e m . Kramer and Ehlers adopt not only Madvig’s conjecture, but also Sudhaus’ e a d e m , for e a c u m . This, however, gives an unpleasant stop after ta n t( u m ) . Besides, effe ra etc. should contrar' with a lm a v id e ri, not with te re ti etc. For a (long) list of other conjectures see Giarratano’s app. crit.

86

COMMENTARY

With the whole passage Stat. Theb. 5.61ff. should be com pared: (V en u s) £> λ ? ) / ι or. veterem centumque altaria linquens/ nec vultu nec enne prior solvisse mg ceston et Idalias procul ablegasse volucres/ fertur; erant certe media quae ^ in umbra/ divam alios ignis maioraque tela gerentem/ T artareas in te r r/ic^ ^ volitasse sorores/ vulgarent. neque enim: for neque enim/nec enim see on 2f. With the ‘b e m e r k e n s ^ .^ < Synaloephen’ (Norden, Comm, on Aen. 6, p. 454 infra) in neque enim compare those in 3.210 neque enim ignea cedunt, Verg. Aen. 6.52 neque e

coite dehiscent. alma videri: ‘gracious to behold’. Supply est, as with effera in 104: vide^ not an historical infinitive (Summers, Langen), but an epexegetic one (Thilo pr. XXIII, Leo 963f.), cf. (probably) 225 ingentes . . . videri, where see no te, V eru. Aen. 6.49 maior . . . videri,’ Hor. Od. 4.2.59 niveus videri. Stat. Theb. 5.40 >nO«rself bos : Ov. Her. 1.5ff. „ utinam ten, cum Lacedaemona Casse petebat,/ o b n L (cf 144 below) insanis esse, aduMer atpdsi/ non ego deserto toaassem

fighi* L , / non J e n e r tardos àe re,tea dies:/ nec mbu quaerent, spatiosam f a lle r e n o c te m / la s s a s s e t v id u a s p e n d u la te la m a n u s .

longo. . .penso: d.Aen. 8.41 If. (quoted on 136ff.). ,, ( , ? 7 on mulcent; for mutcere ’to make (conditions) easier' cf. OLD 3b (e.g. Sd, 12.220

Aonio plectro mulcere labores). , , insomnia: ’sleeplessness'. Valerius uses the word in thts sense V.6). For the other meamng of in s o m n iu m , Vision, dream (Gr. aw im o ),

.

104

COMMENTARY

Verg. A e n . 4.9 q u a e m e s u s p e n s a m in s o m n ia te r r e n ti, 6.896 f a l s a . . . in s o m n io (with Pease’s and Austin’s note resp.). In Statius’ version of the story the women seek comfort with each otherT h e b . 5.82ff. su b n o c te d i e q u e / a d s id u is a e g r a e in la c r im is s o la n t i a m i s c e n t / c o n lo q u ia .

141f. huic dea cum lacrimis et nota veste N eaerae/ icta genas (. . . inquit) The first two words remind us again of Allecto and Amata, cf. A e n . 7.3461· h u ic d e a ca e ru leis u n u m d e c r in ib u s a n g u e m / c o n ic it, but the dressing up comes from A e n . 5.6l8ff. (Iris) in te r m e d ia s s e s e h a u d ig n a r a n o c e n d i / conicit et fa c ie m q u e d e a e v e s te m q u e r e p o n i t ; / f i t B e ro e , T m a r ii c o n iu n x lo n g a e v a Dorycli (cf. 149 below). In 6.478f. Valerius has Juno play a similar trick on Medea: v ir g in e a e v e n it ad p e n e tr a lia s e d i s / C h a lc io p e n im i ta ta s o n o f o r m a q u e s o r o r e m . In 7.210ff. it is Venus’ turn: e c c e to r o V e n u s im p r o v is a r e s e d i t , / s ic u t e r a t m u t a t a deam m e n ti ta q u e p ic tis /v e s tib u s e t m a g ic a C irc e n T ita n id a virg a .

dea: which she was, cf. A e n . 4.195 h a e c p a s s i m d e a f o e d a v ir u m d if f u n d it in ora, Stat. T h e b . 3.431. According to Hesiod, θεός in» tìs έστι καί αΰτή 764), and Aeschines tells us that she even had an altar in Athens (1.128; cf. id. 2.145, and compare Paus. 1.17.1). cum lacrimis et nota veste Neaerae: c u m probably governs both la c r im is and n o ta veste. For c u m la c r im is cf. e.g. Cic. S e s t. 68 h u ic . . . t o t a o b v i a m c iv ita s cu m la c rim is g e m itu q u e p r o c e s s e r a t, Stat. T h e b . 3.687f. c u r tu a c u m la c r im is . . . lim in a n o c te p e t a m , and for c u m v e s te Cic. V a t. 31 q u is in f u n e r e f a m i l i a r i c e n a v it c u m to g a p u lla ? , Verg. A e n . 6.645 T h r e ic iu s lo n g a c u m v e s te s a c e r d o s . Elsewhere Valerius has in v e s te (1.839, 3.406) or v e s te alone (3.432). icta genas: ‘beating her cheeks’. For the retained accusative see on 103 c r in e m su b n e ctitu r, and cf., with the same verb, Ov. A m . 1.12.4 a d lim e n d ig ito s restitit (O p .

ic ta N a p e .

This has often been considered a strange way of expressing one’s grief, and many conjectures have been made to get rid of ic ta , such as f i c t a (Zinzerling, coll. Stat. T h e b . 10.639), p i c t a (Bulaeus, but we do not need Indians), s e c ta (Heinsius; cf. Ov. H e r. 5.72), la e s a (Wakefield; cf. Thilo’s app. crit.) and s c is s a (Postgate 1900; cf. Luc. 2.37). Change, however, is unnecessary, for although sorrow is usually accompanied by the beating of the b r e a s t (cf. e.g. Verg. A e n . 1.481 tu n sa e p e c to r a p a l m i s ) and the te a r in g of the cheeks (VF 8.7f. (Medea) c r in e m q u e g e n a s q u e . . . c a r p s it), one may of course beat oneself where one chooses to, and Alcyone, for one, beats her head in Ov. M e t. 11.681 p e r c u tit ora

COMMENTARY

105

manu (the sequel is more traditional: lanìatque a pectore vestes/ pectoraque ipsa ferit; nec crines solvere curat,/scindit). 142ff. ‘utinam non hic tibi nuntius essem,/ o soror, aut nostros inquit £prius unda dolores/ obruat, utinam non: cf. 1.113, 7.135, 8.439, and see KS 1.192.2, Sz. 331. nuntius: this, unparalleled, use of nuntius for nuntia has little to do with that of deus when a goddess is involved (pace Langen): in these cases deus should be translated ‘God’ or ‘Heaven’ (cf. Strand 103f.; see also Austin on Aen. 2.632, Fordyce on Aen. 7.498). I rather subscribe to the hypothesis of Schenkl (SB 273n.) and Courtney (1965, 15 If.), to the effect that Valerius took nuntius (‘message’) in Verg. Aen. 11.896f. interea Tumum in silvis saevissimus im plet/ nuntius et iuveni ingentem fert Acca tumultum as messenger (anticipating Acca) and saw no reason why he should not use the word in the same way. I do not agree with Ehlers that this is ‘für einen "native speaker" mit dem Wissen eines VF . . . nicht eben wahrscheinlich’ (Lustrum 137): Servius was a native speaker, and he possessed a certain amount of knowledge, yet he comments on the Vergilian passage: ‘multi volunt alium nuntium intellegi, Accam vero postea venisse, sed melius est, ut ‘nuntius’ de Acca dictum intellegamus . Ehlers himself refers in his app. erit, to Roster’s explanation (‘Valerius hat in bewusster Anlehnung an die Vergilstelle nuntius im Sinne von "Botschaft” verwendet’), but whichever way one looks at it, a woman is not a message. As for conjectures, Burman’s esset found some support (J.A. Wagner, Thilo (pr. XXIV)), but utinam non hic tibi nuntius esset is rather clumsy Latin. soror: either literally, cf. 6.479 (Juno) Chalciopen imitata sono formaque sororem (sc. Medeae), or as a term of endearment, as in Verg. Aen. 11.823 Acca soror (Camilla to Acca, ex aequalibus unam (820)). aut: or, now that I am here as a messenger. nostros . . . dolores: ‘the causes of our grief, i.e. ‘our husbands’. For dolor so used cf. e.g. Verg. Aen. 10.507 o dolor atque decus magnum rediture parenti. prius: before their arrival will prove that I am right. obruat: cf. 8.13 tumidis utinam simul obruar undis!, Ον. Her. 7.78, and especially id. ib. 1.5f. o utinam tum, cum Lacedaemona classe petebat,/ obrutus insanis esset adulter aquis! (for the sequel see on 140 longo mulcent insomnia penso). 144ff. in tali quoniam tibi tempore coniunx/ sic meritae, votis quem tu fletuque requiris,/ heu furit et captae indigno famulatur amore.

COM MENTARY

106

in tali. . . tempore: just when you need him most. sic meritae: “who have deserved so well of him’, cf. Verg. p ro c u l

in d e

fu g a m

tr e p id i

c e le r a r e

r e c e p to /

s u p p lic e

A en.

s ic

3.666f.

m e r ito

nos

(i.e.

Achaemenides). In 6.733ff. d e n t t a m e n o r o / u n u m illu m m i h i f a t a d ie m , q u i f a l l a t A c h i v o s /s ic m e rito s Valerius uses the words in m a la m p a r t e m . votis quem tu fletuque requiris: compare, with the simplex, 5.505 longis qu aesitam C o lc h id a v o tis , and, with r e p o s c e r e , 3.601 illu m o m n e s la c r im i s m aestisqu e re p o sce re vo tis.

is perhaps best translated ‘you want to have back’, the ablatives, as in the passages quoted above, denoting the way in which this desire is expressed. furit: with love, as so often, cf. e.g. 5.425 P h a s is a m o r e f u r e n s , 7.315, Verg. A e n . 4.68f. u ritu r in felix D i d o t o ta q u e v a g a t u r / u r b e f u r e n s . captae indigno fa m u la tu r amore: ‘in shameful love, he is his captive’s servant’. requiris

Valerius makes use of two topics: the s e r v itiu m a m o r is , the condition of being the slave of one’s lover or of Love (cf. e.g. [Tib.] 3.12.9f., Prop. 2.13.36, and see Nisbet-Hubbard on Hor. O d . 1.33.14, R.O.A.M. Lyne, Servitium Amoris, CQ 29 (1979) 117-30), and ‘the love for one’s slave’ (cf. Nisbet-Hubbard’s introductory note to Hor. O d . 2.4). Here the twain meet: Codrus has fallen in love with his slave (or so Fama tells Eurynome) and has been enslaved by her. The paradox is even more marked in Sen. A g . 175 a m o r e c a p t a e c a p tu s (of Agamemnon and Chryseis). is in all probability dative, with f a m u l a t u r (cf. Cat. 64.161 q u a e t i b i ù c u n d o fa m u la r e r s e r v a la b o r e ) , f a m u l a r i is a rare verb: before Valerius, who has It only here, it occurs once in Cicero, Catullus, Publilius Syrus, Valerius Maximus and Lucan, and twice in the elder Pliny. Statius manages to use the word as many times as all his predecessors together (eight times). With in dign o . . . a m o r e compare 131 tu r p i . . . c u p id in e . The expression is Wirgilian: cf. E e l. 8. IS c o n iu g is in d ig n o N y s a e d e c e p t u s a m o r e , 10.10 in d ig n o c u m c a p ta e

® aUus a m o re p e r ib a t.

U7ff. iamque aderunt, thalamisque tuis Threissa propinquat,/ non forma, non colus, non laude pudoris/ par tibi, iamque aderunt: cf. 131 a d f o r e ia m , Verg. A e n . 2 .6 6 2 i a m q u e a d e r it m u lto ^ a m i d e sa n g u in e P y r r h u s . The words sound threatening, like approaching ^°°tsteps in a horror film. Salamis . . . tuis Threissa propinquat: cf. 132 c a r a s . . . Tflressas. For T h reissa (Gr. Θρήύτσα) cf. Verg . A e n . 1.316, 11.858, al.

to r is

in d u c e r e

COMMENTARY

107

non forma, non arte colus, non laude pudoris par tibi: beauty, skill and chastity, what more could a man ask for? For p a r combined with anaphora of n o n cf. Liv. 27.16.1 n o n a n im o , n o n arm is, n o n a r te b elli, n o n v ig o re a c v irib u s c o rp o ris p a r R o m a n o T a re n tin u s erat.

forma: Sabellicus’ emendation of the mss. reading f a m a is almost certainly correct (cf. 1.100 f a m a V-1523: f o r m a ω): in this context f a m a could only mean ‘reputation’ or ‘fame’, and in either case the word would be redundant, the former being covered by la u d e p u d o r is , the latter by 149 m a g n i p r o le s p r a e c la r a D o r y c li. Besides, f o r m a finds support from Horn. II. 1.114f. έττεί oh έθέν έστι χερείων,/ οΰ δέμας ουδέ φυήυ, ουτ’ cip φρένας οΐτέ τι έργα (adduced by Langen) and Ον. H e r. 6.81ff. (Hypsipyle to Jason!) A r g o lid a s tim u i: n o c u it m ih i b a r b a r a p a e le x (cf. 153 below)// n o n e x s p e c ta ta v u ln u s a b h o s te t u l i . / n e c facie m e r itis q u e p la c e t, s e d (cf. 150 below) c a r m in a n o v i t / d ir a q u e c a n ta ta p a b u l a f a lc e m e tit.

arte colus: ‘the art of the distaff, i.e. of spinning. Cf., in a similar context, Prop. 3.20.7f. e s t tib i f o r m a p o te n s , s u n t c a s ta e P a lla d is a r t e s , / s p le n d id a q u e a d o c to f a m a re fu lg et a v o .

Valerius only has fourth declension forms of

c o lu s

(6.445

a lia s . . . c o lu s,

644f.

s u p r e m a s . . . c o lu s ).

149f. nec magni proles praeclara Dorycli,/ picta manus ustoque placet sed barbara mento. magni proles praeclara Dorycli: cf. Verg. A en . 12.347 a n tiq u i p r o le s b e llo p r a e c la r a D o lo n is , and compare Luc. 8.410f. p r o le s ta m c la r a M e t e l l i / s ta b it b a r b a r ic o c o n iu n x m ille s im a le c to , involving a similar contrast. This Doryclus has walked right out of Aeneid 5, one of Valerius’ models: cf. 620 (Iris) f i t

647. p r a e c la r u s is rare in epic poetry, occurring only here in Valerius, four times in the Aeneid, three times in Statius’ epics, and not at all in Ovid, Lucan or Silius. B eroe, T m a rii c o n iu n x lo n g a e v a D o ry c li,

See also Axelson 60. picta manus ustoque placet sed barbara mento: ‘but a barbarian with tattooed hands and chin is in favour with him’. picta manus: ‘with tattooed hands’, rather than ‘with painted hands’, tattooing being the Thracian type of body decoration (cf. e.g. Hdt. 5.6 το μέυ έστίχθαε εύγενές κέκριται, το δε άστικτον άγεννές (i.e. among the Thracians), Phanocl. 1.25 (the Thracians) άς άλόχους έστιζον, Cic. O ff. 2.25 b a rb a ru m , e t e u m q u id e m . . . c o m p u n c tu m n o tis T h r a e c iis), and painting the British type (cf. Langen ad loc.). Vergil probably uses the verb in the same sense in G . 2.115

108

COMMENTARY

pktos . . . Gebnos (a Scythian people) and Aen. 4.146 picti . . . Agathyrsi (a Scythian or Thracian people). See further C.P. Jones, Stigma: Tattooing and branding in Graeco-Roman antiquity, JRS 77 (1987) 139-55, especially 145f. The retained accusative (see on 103 crinem subnectitur) is fairly common with this particular participle, especially in Vergil: cf. G. 4.13, Aen. 7.796, 9.582, 11.777. Uncommon is the ablative in VF 5.609 (gens) picta pharetris. manus ustoqne: for the ‘cacenphaton’ see on 86 chaos ostendens. usto . . . mento: “with a tattooed chin’, a unique meaning of the verb (OLD 2d), but see Jones, op. dt. 153f., for some possible instances of inurere so used. The Thracian women must have looked much like Martial after his visit to the disreputable barber Antiochus (11.84.13ff.). placet sed: cf. Ov. Her, 6.83 (quoted on 147ff.). sed is postponed to the fifth place, which is very remarkable indeed, but cf, with sed enim, Verg. Aen. 2.163f. impius ex quo/ Tydides sed enim etc. Valerius postpones the word to the fourth place in 4.484 and 6.653, and to the third in 3.194,4.544,5.554,7.160 and 8.318. For the metrically convenient postponement of connective particles see Austin on Aen. 4.33 (‘introduced by the neoterici . . ., in imitation of Hellenistic usage’), Williams on Aen. 5.5, Norden, Comm, on Aen. 6, pp. 402ff. For Valerian practice see also on 53 et, 181 aut, 278 nam, 437 at; other connectives postponed by Valerius are nec (third in 1.521 and 7.482) and ast (second in 5.548, 6.197 and 8.255). I have not included the widespread postponement to the second place of sed, et, nam and nec. barbara: as a noun first in Prop. 4.3.44. Cf. VF 8.148, 251. 151f. ac tamen hos aliis forsan solabere casus/ tu thalamis fatoque leges meliore penates; The thought recurs in Stat. Theb. 5.137f. (Venus to Polyxo) age aversis

thalamospurgate maritis./ ipsafaces alias melioraquefoedera iungam. ac tamen: not at tamen: see A.E. Housman, CQ 16 (1922) 88, n.l. aliis . . . thalamis: aliis is Heinsius’ emendation of the mss. reading tales, which is redundant after hos, whereas thalamis is in sore need of some sort of modification (cf. also Theb. 5.138, quoted above). forsan: seven times in Valerius, as against fors and forsitan twice, and fortasse once. See also Axelson 31f. solabere: for solari aliquid aliqua re, ‘to find solace for x in y’, cf. e.g. Verg. Aen. 10.829 hoc tamen infelix miseram solabere mortem, Mor. 30 agresti . · ■

109

COMMENTARY

saun, soUuar voce m o r e , and see Austin on A m . 1.239, Nisbet-Hubbard on Hor. 257 ■ . . . leges melioie penates, cf. Ov. Πν nHer feto e ■ 11105 nubite felices Parca meliore sorores.

153ff. m e tua m atiis egens d a m n a ta e paelice p n d es/ « a n to a t quam iam m iseros transversa tu en tem /leta lesq u e dapes infectaque pocula cem

Like an experienced torturer Fama brings op the subject of E n t e n t e s C“

re"'. . exanima.: ‘shatters me', cf. O n A it. 11.6.4 » n e - n e « * . e,

im b e c iite corporism .esanim o, , damnata . . . paelice: paelice has been ^ V -l. 19.20: ‘miserabilis propter paehcem),

“causal ablative (TLL agent (Langen, who jnt0

supplies mom' with — a), as an paelex is e ith e r which somebody or something is reduced ( ’ . , die form nor the state into which Eurynome's children are « ab.Uve denoting ‘that in favour of which "

~

»86, 333; but it is their wives w hoare (all 8

^

^

favour of a concubine, not them ch· >· mean condemned to a rival wife (Mozley).

^

meaning of ^ n r e (OLD , * ctat

5) the ablative usually denotes a fate, a — Silv. 5.1.136 maesta . . . comam damnare cupres ,

^

^

^

n0, simply

iK to L n t a l

Paeike in Mart. 6^1.7pm.qunm meus « ^ ^ « l e u n t u e pocula cento: quam iam miseros transventa menmm le 9^ ^ - 9«flm (sc. podicem ) tam miseros ( · neenon letales dapes et infecta pocula cemo.

> Hypsipyle>s lying tale t0 P

Jasonm AR 1.813ff. lex wju automatically become after The noverca (which is what the p ^ be ^ incarnation 0f Eurynome’s departure) was, is, and p ro b ab j 1 * her . ressible evil. Especially the foul look she gtves he ^ ^ ^ „ mge to poison them are proverbial. For 8 m ven:aB u s om its noverca me intueris?, Sen. Con. 4.6 quid alterum ( -P f« , and compare Eur. Med. 92f. (Medea’s nurse, s p e a k n * tf her onM foster child) ^ ydp eKov itqmt »νροημέηην/ tourS ( .e. Medea s Children), I

u Spoosiownv. Her toxicological interests a

Verg. G. ,1 2 8 pocniu si

- *

q u id a m d u o s f ilio s s u b n o v e r c a a m is it, d u b i

^

r

e

Ϊ *

—

“

COMMENTARY

110 su n t,

Ον.

H e r.

12.188,

M e t.

1.147

lu r id a te rrib ile s m is c e n t a c o n i t a n o v e r c a e ,

Iuv.

6.133f., and elsewhere. For a more elaborate portrait of the n o v e r c a see the last part of Juvenal’s sixth satire, and for her appearance in declamations see S.F. Bonner, Roman Declamation, Berkeley 1949, 25, 37, 80, 112, 115 (cf. Vessey 1985, 330, n.15). See further M.J.G. Gray-Fow, The wicked stepmother in Roman literature and history: an evaluation, Latomus 47 (1988) 741-57. transversa: an adverbial accusative, cf. 1.38 tr a n q u illa tu e n s , 47 s a e v a g e m e n te m , 2.555 to r v a tu e n s , 3.229 a c e r b a f r e m e n s (for the accusative singular so used see on 453 f le b i le ) . For this particular adverbial accusative cf. Verg. A e n . 5.19f. tra n sv ersa f r e m u n t . . . v e n ti, al., for tu e r i with an adverbial accusative Lucr. 5.33, Cic. A r a l. 1 66 , al., and for adjective a n d verb Verg. E e l. 3.8 tran sversa tu e n tib u s h ircis. See further Norden on A e n . 6.467, KS 1.280 Anm. 4, Sz. 40. Apart from our passage, the OLD (tu e o r 1) gives three instances of tu e r i with an adverbial accusative a n d an accusative of the direct object, but none of them seems to have been interpreted correctly: Cic. A r a i . 166 a d v e r s u m c a p u t h u ic H e lic a e tru c u le n ta tu e tu r probably means ‘opposite him (i.e. Auriga) Helice’s head has a ferocious look’ (cf. Arat. 161f.), in Verg. A e n . 4.362 t a li a d ic e n te m ia m d u d u m a v e rsa tu e tu r, a v e r s a is probably nominative, and, finally, in VF 1.38f. tu m iu v e n e m tr a n q u illa tu e n s n e c f r o n t e t i m e n d u s / o c c u p a t , iu v e n e m goes with o c c u p a t, rather than with tu e n s (cf. 2.555f.). Passages that are parallel, but are not mentioned by the OLD, are Stat. T h e b . 4.606 d ir u m . . . tu e n s o b liq u a n e p o te m and 11.396 h o s tile tu e n s f r a tr e m . Cf. also, with other verbs, Verg. G . 3.226 m u lta g e m e n s ig n o m in ia m , 499f. v ic to r e q u u s . . . p e d e t e r r a m / c r e b r a fe r it. letales . . . dapes: compare Stat. S ilv . 5.2.77ff. tib in e illa n e f a n d a / p o c u l a le ta le sq u e m a n u c o m p o n e r e s u c o s / e v a lu it? (with 80 n o v e r c a s ) . The adjective (again in 4.508) is mainly poetic; in prose it does not occur before Seneca. infecta . . . pocula: cf. Verg.

G.

2.128 (quoted above), [Tib.] 3.5.9f.

n ec m ea

m ortiferis in fe c it p o c u l a s u c i s / d e x t e r a n e c c u iq u a m tr ita v e n e n a d e d i t.

We find d a p e s and p o c u l a again mentioned together in 194 and 4.454f. 156. scis simile ut flammis simus genus; Note the hissing s and i sounds. For the notion ‘you know how women are’ cf. e.g. Verg. A e n . 5.6 n o tu m . . . fu r e n s q u id f e m i n a p o s s i t . Ον. M e t. 14.384 l a e s a . . . q u id f a c ia t, q u id a m a n s , q u id f e m i n a , d isc e s.

scis . . .

ut: cf. e.g. Verg.

A en.

12.143ff.

s c is

ut

te

c u n c tis

unam

. . .

COMMENTARY p r a e tu le r im

c a e liq u e lib e n s in p a r te lo c a r im .

Stat.

111 S ilv .

1.2.65f.

‘s c is ut, m a te r ,'

a i t ‘n u lla m ih i d e x te ra s e g n i s / m i l i t i a ’.

156f. adde cruentis/ quod patrium saevire Dahis. ‘Moreover, raging is inborn in the bloodthirsty Dahae’. ad d e . . . quod: see on 59f. cruentis . . . Dahis: the Dahae (Gr. Δάαι, Δΰαι, Δάοι) lived near the Caspian Sea and were known for their cruelty (cf. Sol. 15.5). Actually they were Scythians, not Thracians, but Thracians, Scythians, Sarmatians and the whole lot are constantly mixed up by poets, and Valerius is no exception. For c ru e n tu s ‘bloodthirsty’ cf. 6.654f. la p s o . . . c r u e n t u s / a d v o l a t A e s o n id e s (with Langen’s note); for the adjective as such see on 27ff. patrium: cf. Stat. T h e b . 11.32f. E u r y m e d o n , c u i . . . p a tr i u m . . . a g ita re tu m u ltu s , where, however, the adjective has a slightly different meaning (‘inherited from his father’). 157f. iam lacte ferino,/ iam veniet durata gelu. lacte ferino . . . durata: ‘hardened by (living on) wild beasts’ (i.e. mares’) milk’, cf. Verg. A e n . 11.570ff. n a ta m . . . a r m e n ta lis e q u a e m a m m is e t la c te f e r i n o / n u tr ib a t (a hendiadys). For la c fe r in u m cf. also Ov. F a s t. 3.53, T r. 3.11.3. Several Scythian and other peoples made a habit of drinking horse’s milk (Homer mentions the ΊτπτημολγοΙ γλακτοφοτγοι (II. 13.5f.), and Herodotus tells us that the Massagetae were γοίλακτοττότοα (1.216)), horse’s blood (cf. 5.585 b e lla to r is e q u i p o ta n te m c e rn e cru o re s, Hor. O d . 3.4.34 la e tu m e q u in o sa n g u in e C o n c a n u m ) or a concoction of both (Verg. G . 3.463 ( G e lo n u s ) la c c o n c r e tu m c u m sa n g u in e p o t a t e q u in o , Sen. O e d . 470, Plin. N a t. 18.100, Stat. A c h . 1.307f.). durata gelu: Thrace was proverbially cold and its inhabitants proverbially hardened. For the expression cf. Stat. A c h . 2.107f. d u r a ta . . . m u l t o / s o le and compare Verg. A e n . 9.603f. d u r u m a s tir p e g e n u s n a to s a d f lu m in a p r i m u m / d e fe r im u s (i.e. we Italians) s a e v o q u e g e lu d u r a m u s e t u n d is , VF 6.335ff., Sil. 4.226f. In Ov. H e r. 6.105f. Hypsipyle writes to Jason: n o n p r o b a t A l c im e d e m a te r tu a g e lu q u e c u tis ,

c o n s u le m a tr e m - / n o n p a te r , a g e lid o c u i v e n it a x e nurus.

158ff. sed me quoque pulsam/ fama viro, nostrosque toros virgata tenebit/ et plaustro derepta nurus.’ sed: all this time I have been talking about you, but. . .

112

COMMENTARY

me quoque pulsam: this

pattern, with two disyllables preventing the coincidence of ictus and accent in the fifth foot, is not very frequent (See Kösters 54ff„ Garson 1968, 379, and Austin on A e n . 1.199, with literature). 7'he only other instances in this book are 358 e t s im u l u n d is , 384 h a e c u b i d i c t a atiQ 540 a c s im u l ip si. Really exceptional are lines ending with disyllabic worqS) preceded, not by a monosyllable, but by another disyllable, as 1.841 lu c e t v i a lcite (cf. Verg.A e n . 11.143). For this type of line-ending see Williams on A e n . 5.731. V o x p u ls a m cf. e.g. Tac. A n n . 4.3 p e l l i t d o m o S e ia n u s u x o r e m A p i c a t a m . fama: ironie ( p a c e Vessey (1985, 331)). nostros . . . toros . . . tenebit: cf. Ον.

M e t.

9.146

dum

l ic e t

et

n o n d u ,n

th a la m o s te n e t a lte ra n o stro s.

virgata . . . nurus: ‘some striped lady’. The reference is not to the Thracians’ tattoos (Burman, J.A. Wagner, Langen, Mozley and others: they may have been tattooed, but they were not zebras), but to their striped clothes (thus first Turnebus (1.14)): as was the case with the to r q u e s of 112 (where see note), Valerius attributes to the Thracians something which is better known to us as being typically Gallic/Celtic (cf. Verg. A e n . 8.659ff. a u r e a c a e s a r ie s o llis (i.e. the Gauls) a tq u e a u re a v e s t i s / v irg a tis lu c e n t sa g u lis, tu m l a c te a c o l l a / a u r o in n ectu n tu r, Prop. 4.10.43f., Sil. 4.154f„ both quoted on 112 to r q u e s ). Discussing these v e s te s v irg a ta e , H. Blümner (Die römische Privataltertümer, München 1911, 253, n.2) mentions Verg. A e n . 8.660, Sil. 4.155 and our line, as well as Ον. A r s 3.269 ( p u e lla ) p a l l i d a p u r p u r e is ta n g a t s u a c o r p o r a virg is, on which he comments: ‘v irg a e heissen die Streifen’, which is no doubt correct (see also Brandt ad loc.; contra Langen, who interprets v irg a e as n o ta e ) . For n u ru s see on 107ff. plaustro derepta: ‘pulled down from her waggon’. For the nomadic existence of the Dahae cf. e.g. Sen. T h y . 370 s p a r s o s . . . D a h a s , Luc. 7.429, and for that of the Scythians in general Find. fr. 94.4f. Bowra νομάδεσσχ γάρ ε ν Σκύθαις άλάταν στρατών/ ös άμαξοφόρητον οίκον ο ν ττέιταταυ, Hdt. 4.121, Hor. O d . 3.24.9L S c y t h a e , / q u o r u m p la u s t r a v a g a s rite tra h u n t d o m o s , Sen. H F 533. d e r e p ta (Vossius), ‘pulled down’, is preferable to d ir e p ta (reec.), ‘torn away’ (ω has d ir e c ta ): cf. PL M e n . 870 s e d q u is h ie e s t q u i m e c a p i llo h in c d e c u rru d erip it? , Tac. A n n . 1.20 (Aufidienus Rufus) q u e m d e r e p tu m v e h ic u lo s a r c in is g ra v a n t.

Lines 157, 158 and 159 have the same metrical pattern ( d s d s ) , which is very characteristic of Valerius: see Duckworth 1967, 92ff., 142 (Vella’s defence of our author (1982-3) fails to convince). Other instances in this book of three

COMMENTARY

113

metrically identical lines in succession are 228-30, 232-4, 419-21, 505-7, 522-4, 570-2, 576-8 and 606-8, and of four 178-81 and 551-4. Even more striking are 3.281-5 and 8.202-6 (in both cases five times d s d s ) . 160f. sic fata querellas/ abscidit et curis pavidam lacrimisque relinquit. Valerius probably has in mind Verg. A e n . 4.388ff. (Dido) h is m e d iu m

d ic tis

s e r m o n e m a b r u m p it e t a u r a s / a e g ra f u g it . . . , / lin q u e n s m u lta m e tu c u n c ta n te m e t m u lta p a r a n t e m / d ic e re .

abscidit: a variation on Vergil’s

In Stat. T h e b . 3.87f. e t ia m m e d ia o rsa l o q u e n t i s / a b s c id e r a t p le n u m c a p u lo la tu s , the only other instance of a b s c in d e r e so used, Maeon’s words are almost literally ‘cut’ short by the sword in his side! curis pavidam lacrimisque relinquit: cu ris and la c rim is are probably ablatives, rather than datives (contra Burman and Langen): cf. Nisbet-Hubbard on Hor. O d . 1.28.33 p r e c ib u s n o n lin q u a r inultis·. ‘Heinze . . . takes p r e c ib u s in u ltis as dative and compares phrases like "leaving somebody to his tears"; b u t th e s e a re n o t L a tin p h r a s e s ’ (italics mine). With la c rim is the adjective is then used by zeugma for something like a e g ra m (cf. 3.283); with cu ris p a v i d a m compare 113 a n x ia a b r u m p it.

cu ris.

Line 161 is framed by two verbs, for which pattern see Norden, Comm, on A e n . 6, pp. 392f. Other instances in our book are 162 (!), 169, 170 (again remarkable), 175, 233, 323, 446, 466, 543, 567. Incidentally, one would like to know what ‘Neaera’ would have answered, had Eurynome asked her how she knew all this. 162f. transit ad Iphinoen isdemque Amythaonis implet/ Oleniique domum furiis; Fama does her rounds, like a postman. transit: cf. PI. S t. 437 ia m h e rc le eg o p e r h o rtu m a d a m ic a m tr a n s ib o m e a m . ad Iphinoen: who will later convey the women’s invitation to the Argonauts to enter their town (326f.). isdem . . . implet . . . domum fiiriis: cf. Verg. A e n . 11.448 m a g n is . . . u rb e m te rro rib u s im p le t.

For the framing of a line by two verbs (tra n sit

- im p le t )

see on 161.

163ff. totam inde per urbem / personat ut cunctas agitent expellere Lemno,/ ipsi urbem Thressaeque regant. totam inde per urbem personat: cf. Verg. A e n . 12.608 h in c to ta m in felix v u lg a tu r f a m a p e r u r b e m .

COMMENTARY

114

personat ut: ‘she shouts out, how’. The construction with u t is new; w e find p e r so n a re + A .c .I . in Cic. C a e l. 47, Liv. 3.10.10. Valerius has the verb again in 3.528. agitent erqrellere: for

+ inf., ‘to plan to’, cf. PI. R u d . 935af. m a g n a s res h ie agito in m e n t e m / in stru ere , Verg. A e n . 9.186f., al. The subject is not specified, but we can guess. Thressae: see on 13 If. regant: short, it would seem, for re g ere a g ite n t. a g ita r e

165ff. dolor Iraque surgit;/ obvia quaeque eadem traditque auditque neque ulli/ vana fides. dolor iraque surgit: ‘grief and anger swell’. For the former cf. Sen. T h y . 944 n u lla su rgen s d o lo r e x c a u s a , for the latter Verg. A e n . 10.813f. s a e v a e i a m q u e a ltiu s i r a e / D a r d a n io su rg u n t d u c to r i. Cf. also VF 4.254 o d i a a s p e r a s u r g u n t. F or the juxtaposition of the two words cf. 8.264, and compare 3.384, 8.290. For the rare metrical pattern of 165 see on 71. obvia quaeque eadem traditque auditque: o b v i a q u a e q u e (cf. Stat. T h e b . 12.220f.) is subject, e a d e m object: ‘and all as they met one another passed on and heard again the same story’ (Mozley). Cf. Iuv. 6.408ff. (of the woman who knows w hat is going on in the world) f a m a m r u m o r e s q u e illa r e c e n t i s / e x c ip it a d p o r ta s , q u o s d a m f a c it; isse N i p h a t e n / in p o p u l o s . . . q u o c u m q u e in triv io , c u ic u m q u e e s t o b via , n a rrat.

traditque auditque: cf. Stat.

A ch.

1.482

h a e c G r a ta e c a s tr is ite r a n t tr a d u n tq u e

coh ortes.

is Pius’ correction of cù’s tr a h it-. Vossius, who reads r e tr a h it with C, has an amusing note: ‘h.e. r e p e tit. Belgae plane similiter dicunt "vertrekken, verhalen".’ tra d it-

For doubled -q u e see on 14 v e lu m q u e f r e tu m q u e . neque ulli vana fides: v a n a F-1503: u n a ω; cf. 7.539 also Fera 250.

van a

Maserius:

una

ω. See

comes from Verg. A e n . 4.12 c r e d o e q u id e m , n e c v a n a fid e s , g e n u s esse d e o r u m (‘and my belief is not unfounded’), but u lli adds an element of subjectivity: ‘and to no-one did her belief s e e m unfounded’; ‘supple vid etu r, omnes certum ac exploratum crediderunt, nec esse vanum quod audierunt’ (Pius; cf. Kleywegt (ANRW) 2482). Mozley’s ‘nor was any disbelieved’ is not possible. n e q u e . . . v a n a f id e s

COMMENTARY

115

167ff. tum voce deos, tum questibus implent,/ oscula iamque toris atque oscula postibus ipsis/ ingeminant lacrimisque iterum visuque morantur. deos . . . implent: for im p le r e with an acc. personae see on 126. In this case, however, it could be argued that d e o s stands for ‘heaven’ (cf. 6.726 h is c a e lu m q u e s tib u s im p le t, V e r g . A e r i. 9.480). oscula iamque toris atque oscula postibus ipsis ingeminant: a traditional feature of farewell scenes, cf. e.g. AR 4.26f. (Medea) κύσσε δ’ έόυ τε λέχος καί δικλίδας αμφοτέρωθεν/ σταθμοί)«; (which Valerius imitates in 8.6ff.), Verg. A e n . 2.490 (the Trojan women) a m p le x a e . . . te n e n t p o s ti s a tq u e o s c u la fig u n t, 4.659f. (Dido) o s im p r e s s a to ro ‘m o r ie m u r i n u l t a e , / s e d m o r ia m u r ’ a it. Likewise, Rutilius Namatianus found it hard to leave his beloved Rome: 1.43f. cre b ra r e lin q u e n d is in fig im u s o s c u la p o r t i s : / in v iti s u p e r a n t lim in a s a c r a p e d e s .

Io, transformed into a cow, only had the banks of the river Inachus to kiss good-bye: 4.373 u ltim a turn p a tr i a e c e d e n s d e d i t o s c u la rip a e . oscula . . . oscula: for the repetition cf. 1.245 d e u s . . . d e u s , 3.144 f e r r o . . . f e r r o , 271 d e u s . . . d e u s, 4.217 f u g a . . . f u g a , 664 p a v o r . . . p a v o r , 6.708 sa n g u in e . . . sa n g u in e , 738 g a le a m . . . g a le a m , 7.311 q u e s tu . . . q u e s tu . Here, with in g e m in a n t, the device is especially effective, ipsis: it is one thing to kiss one’s bed, but another to kiss the doorposts, ingeminant: the verb occurs first in Verg. G . 1.333, where it is used intransitively. For its meaning here, viz. ‘to give (etc.) again and again’, cf. Verg. A e n . 5.433f. m u lta viri n e q u iq u a m in te r s e v u ln e ra i a c t a n t , / m u lta c a v o la te r i in g e m in a n t (also with the dative), and especially Stat. T h e b . 5.594f. in g e m in a t m is e r a o s c u la t a n t u m / in c u m b e n s . Valerius has the verb again in 4.328, where it means ‘to repeat’ (words), and in 7.195 (used intransitively). He also employs g e m in a r e (4.343) and c o n g e m in a r e (see on 200ff.). lacrimis . . . iterum visuque morantur: a variation on Verg. A e n . 4.649f. (Dido) p a u l u m la c r im is e t m e n te m o r a t a / in c u b u itq u e to ro d ix itq u e n o v is s im a v e r b a . Dido pauses ‘in tearful thought’ (Williams), the Lemnian women do so ‘with a tearful (last) look’. The ablatives are easier to translate than to label, ite ru m is ‘for the umpteenth time’. For the framing of a line by two verbs (in g e m in a n t

- m o r a n tu r )

see on 161.

170f. prosiliunt nec tecta virum thalamosque revisunt/ amplius; Cf. A e n . 7.394 (the Latin women, incited by Amata) d e s e ru e re d o m o s . Stat. T h e b . 5.99f. (the Lemnian women) o m n e s / e r u m p u n t tectis. prosiliunt: ‘ipso asyndeto abruptoque sermone poeta subito et fortiter captum

116

COMMENTARY

consilium mulierum indicavit, quae mentis ira abreptae amplius non cunctentur’ (Langen). Compare 5.558 h a u d m o ra , p r o s iliu n t. nec . . . amplius: ‘no longer’. Valerius uses a m p liu s only with a preceding negative (seven times), or in questions where the negation is implied (3.662f., 7.493). For the use of the word in poetry see Hàkanson 1986,43. tecta . . . thalamosque: cf. 6.455L h in c V en eris th a la m o s s e m p e r q u e r e c e n tia s e r t i s / te c ta p e tit.

For the framing of a line by two verbs

(p ro siliu n t - r e v is u n t)

see on 161.

171ff. adglomerant sese nudisque sub astris/ condensae fletus acuunt ac dira precantur/ coniugia et Stygias infanda ad foedera taedas. Cf. Stat. T h e b . 5.100ff. s u m m a s . . . a d P a lla d o s a r c e s / im p e tu s : h u c p r o p e r e s tip a m u r e t o rd in e n u l l o / co n g esta e.

adglomerant sese: Langen falsely accuses Valerius of negligently taking over the verb a d g lo m e ra re from Vergil without the matching dative: true, Valerius does not construe the verb with a dative (not here, nor in 197, 499 or 3.87), but neither did Vergil in A e n . 12.457L d e n s i (!) c u n e is s e q u is q u e c o a c t i s / a d g lo m e ra n t, where c u n e is c o a c tis must be ablative (‘in serried ranks’, Williams). Outside Valerius the verb is extremely rare: it is found twice in Vergil ( A e n . 2.341, 12.458) and Silius (5.238, 15.150), once in an unknown author (cf. Paul. F est. p.26M), and only occasionally in later Latin. nudis . . . sub astris: Langen’s comment (‘sine exemplo dictum videtur’) is rather surprising, in the light of Verg. A e n . 2.512 n u d o . . . s u b a e th e r is a x e . Cf. also VF 8.454f. e a d e m . . . s u b a s t r i s / s o la m o v e t. condensae: ‘close-packed’, ‘huddled together’, like Hecuba and her daughters in Verg. A e n . 2.515ff. a lta n a c ir c u m . . . c o n d e n s a e e t d iv u m a m p le x a e s im u la c r a se d e b a n t. This is the third time in a few lines that we are invited to compare the fate of the Lemnian women with Vergil’s Trojan women (see on 168f. o s c u la ia m q u e toris a tq u e o sc u la p o s ti b u s ip sis in g e m in a n t and 171 n u d is . . . s u b a stris), which is the more remarkable, seeing that in the description of the night to come the Lemnian women will again and again be likened, not to the Trojan women, but to their aggressors, the Greeks, the role of the victim being played by the Lemnian men. a favourite adjective of Lucretius’, who has it seven times. After him it becomes rare. fletus acuunt: the TLL (1.462.1 Iff.) compares Verg. A e n . 12.108 A e n e a s a c u it M a r te m (‘sharpened his warlike spirit’, Williams) and Statius’ difficult p e r v ig ile s a c u u n t su sp iria q u e s tu s ( T h e b . 2 .3 3 6 ), and the OLD lists our passage under a c u o c o n d e n su s is

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4 ‘to stimulate, stir up, intensify (actions, emotions, or qualities)’, but the meaning seems rather to be ‘they make their weeping shriller’, ‘they start to weep more piercingly’: cf. Stat. Theb. 8.345f. acuit . . . tubas . . . Tisiphone (under OLD 2), Sol. 1.111 (metus vocem) acuit, Macr. Somn. 2.4.3, and compare the use of acutus in Cat. 63.24 acutis ululatibus and elsewhere. dira precantur coniugia: ‘they pray for disastrous marriages’, i.e. that the marriages may be disastrous (for the partners involved), cf. Verg. Aen. 12.242f. foedus . . . precantur/ infectum (‘they pray for a cancelled treaty’, i.e. that the treaty may be cancelled), Stat. Ach. 1.681 verum Calchanta precantur (‘they pray for a truthful Calchas’, i.e. that Calchas may be truthful). For dira cf. e.g. Cic. A tt. 10.8.7 non (sc. fuisset) tam dirus ille dies Sullanus callidissimo viro C. Mario. Stygias . . . taedas: the women pray that these ‘weddings’ may be accompanied, not by ordinary torches (cf. 5.443 taedae . . . in nocte iugales, 8.284), but by ‘Stygian’ ones, torches, that is, as are carried by the Furies (see on 102ff.). For the thought cf. Ov. Her. 6.45f. at mihi nec Iuno nec Hymen, sed tristis Erinys/ praetulit infaustas sanguinolenta faces, ll.lOlff., [Sen.] Oct. 23f. illa, illa meis tristis Erinys/ thalamis Stygios praetulit ignes, 593ff. infanda ad foedera: ‘for (i.e. to accompany) these monstrous unions’. For infanda foedera cf. 5.219f. ventum ad furias infandaque natae/ foedera·, for foedera and taedae mentioned side by side cf. Verg. Aen. 4.338f. nec coniugis umquam/praetendi taedas aut haec in foedera veni Looking back on what she has achieved, Fama may be proud of herself. 174-95. Phase two: Venus, disguised as Dryope, incites the women further and persuades them into doing ‘something great' in the night to come. When their husbands arrive, the women give them what seems to be a warm welcome, but in fact they cannot wait to proceed to action. 174f. Has inter medias Dryopes in imagine maestae/ flet Venus et saevis ardens dea planctibus instat Vergil’s Iris/Beroe served not only as a model for Fama/Neaera (see on 115f.), but also for Venus/Dryope: cf. Aen. 5.618f. ergo inter medias sese haud ignara nocendi/ conicit, and compare Iris’ exclamation o miserae, quas non manus . . . Achaica bello/ traxerit ad letum patriae sub moenibus! (623f.) with Venus’ words in 176ff. below. Cf. also Aen. 7.397f. ipsa (sc. Am ata) inter medias flagrantem fervida pinum /sustinet (see, again, on 115f.).

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Note that Valerius does not bother to say where the real Dryope was (the real Beroe was away sick: Aen. 5.650f.). Dryopes in imagine maestae: cf. 4.391f. in imagine prisca/ ibat agris Io. The normal expression is sub imagine. Stat. Silv. 5.3.289 somni . . . in imagine and Theb. 3.528 has rere in imagine Thebas, adduced by Langen as imitations of our passage, seem to have little to do with it. flet Venus et saevis ardens dea planctibus instat: dea picks up Venus in a Vergilian way, cf. Aen. 1.411f. at Venus obscuro gradientis aere sa ep sit,/ et multo nebulae circum dea fudit amictu, 69Iff. at Venus Ascanio placidam per membra quietem / inrigat, et fotum gremio dea tollit in a lto s/ Idaliae lucos. Compare VF 5.35ff. non tulit Aesonides (Aesonius Ehlers) geminis flagrantia cernens/ corpora cara rogis, sed pectore ductor ab im o / talia voce gemit. Far more striking are 3.25-10 muneribus, primas coniunx Percosia vestes/ quas dabat et picto Clite variaverat auro, where the proper name comes second, and 6.429ff. cum luno Aesonidae non hanc ad vellera cernens/ esse viam nec sic reditus regina parandos/ extremam molitur opem, where things are complicated by the fact that regina is embedded in the participle clause. See further Kleywegt (ANRW) 2462f. planctibus instat: ‘keeps on beating her breast’, planctibus is probably ablative (instore being used ‘laxius, c. respectu indulgendi, perseverandi sim.’ (TLL VII-l.2001.36ff.)), like vocibus in Cic. Arat. Progn. 219ff. saepe etiam pertriste canit de pectore carm en/ et matutinis acredula vocibus in sta t,/ vocibus instat et adsiduas iacit ore querelas (cf. Avien. Arat. 1760 innumero si cantu graculus instari, both are quoted by the TLL) and like plausibus in Stat. Theb. 7.18f. credas bello rediisse, tot instant/ plausibus (interpreted as dative by the TLL (VII-1.2002.82); the TLL does not mention our passage at all). The OLD does not seem to recognize this particular use of instare + abl.: Cic. Arai. Progn. 220 is put on a par (s.v. 7) with, for instance, Ov. Fast. 2.805 instat amans hostis precibus pretioque minisque, where, however, the ablatives are purely instrumental, and one will look in vain for the two passages from Valerius and Statius. planctus, ten times in Valerius, is not found before Valerius Maximus and Seneca (who loved the word, as did Statius). For the framing of a line by two verbs (flet - instat) see on 161. 176ff. primaque ‘Sarmaticas utinam fortuna dedisset/ insedisse domos, tristes habitasse pruinas,/ plaustra sequi, vel iam patriae vidisse per ignes/ culmen agi stragemque deum.

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Langen’s comment (‘Dryope falsa optat, ut ipsa sit inter Thracias mulieres, quae antea Sarmaticas domos et plaustra habitaverint, tum autem novae futurae sint coniuges virorum Lemniorum’) is a little too sophisticated: ‘Dryope falsa’ merely wishes that she lived somewhere far away, or, for all she cares, that she had witnessed the ruin of her country (‘for war it is anyway’: 179f.). The first part of this wish comes straight from Luc. 1.25 Iff., where the unfortunate inhabitants of Ariminum sigh: m e liu s, F o rtu n a , d e d i s s e s / o r b e s u b E o o s e d e m g e lid a q u e s u b A r c t o / e r ra n te sq u e d o m o s , L a t i i q u a m c la u s tr a tu eri, the correspondence being almost one-to-one: compare F o rtu n a , d e d is s e s with f o r tu n a d e d is s e t; o r b e s u b E o o s e d e m with S a r m a tic a s . . . d o m o s ; g e lid a . . . s u b A r c to with tristes . . . p r u in a s ; erra n tes . . . d o m o s with p la u s tr a . For the second part cf. V e t g - A e n . 5.623f. (quoted on 174f.). primaque: for the ellipse of a it see Langen on 1.174. insedisse: Valerius may have in mind Verg. A e n . 10.59

n o n s a tiu s cin e res

p a tr ia e in se d isse s u p r e m o s ?

tristes habitasse pruinas: triste s Ph. Wagner 1864: triste sq u e naUie)

nihilpraeter nives pruinasque et silvas habent. plaustra sequi: ‘to follow the caravan’, in a waggon of her own, o coqtse^ n0t on foot. The Sarmatians were nomads, like the Scythians (see on 16o piaUStro derepta)·, cf. e.g. Ov. Tr. 3.10.34, 3.12.29f., Mela 2.2 (Sauromatae) quia pr0 SgdibuS plaustra habent dicti Hamaxobiae, Tac. Ger. 46.2 Sarmatis . . · tu piaUStro equoque viventibus. vel iam patriae vidisse per ignes culmen agi stragemque deum, or to have Seen the height of our home town being driven through the flames, the destruction of the gods’; ‘ordo est: vel iam vidisse culmen patriae agi p er ignes et (vidisse) stragem deum, hoc est arcem regiam et templa deorum (siv^ {0tam urbem) incendio consumi. Agi ferri per ignes ττοιητικωτάτη phrasis (Bentle^ jn a letter to Burman: see Haupt 1860, 550f). The ‘phrasis’ is unparalleled, bw the Latin does not seem impossible (nor, in my view, does the English to be driven through the flames’), and Bentley’s interpretation is certainly better than the other two existing: 1. Kramer takes per ignes agi as ignibus rapi, comparing Sen. Med. l47ff a{to cinere cumulabo domum;/ videbit atrum verticem flammis agi/ Malea, which, even if it means ‘. . . Malea will see the black roof being attacked by the flarnes , rather than ‘. . . Malea will see a black column (of smoke, cf. Hor. Od. 4.1 if.) being driven (cf. Verg. Aen. 8.257f.) by the flames’, has no bearing 0n our passage, because per ignes is not the same as ignibus. 2. Others, more spectacularly, take per ignes culmen agi as per culmen ignes agi: thus Zinzerling (using the term ‘hypallage’), Schenkl (SB 273n.), Leo (964, coll. Prop. 3.4.18 subter captos arma sedere duces = subter arma captos duces sedere and Copa 4 ad cubitum raucos excutieris calamos = ad raucos calamos cubitum excutieris), Housman (in his additional note on Man. 1.245), and recently Courtney and Ehlers, both referring to ‘Housman 1.245 cum addendis . What Housman discusses there, is the phenomenon of ambiguously placed prepositions, such ‘ut primo adspectu ad aliud nomen pertinere videantur, these prepositions being placed either between an attribute and its noun, and followed by a word it could, but does not, govern (e.g. Hor. Od. 4.1.19f. Albanos prope te lacus/ ponet marmoream sub trabe citrea (= te prope Albanos lacus), Man. 2.905 medium post astra diem (= astra post medium diem)), or before (attribute and) noun, again followed by a word it could, but does not, govern. To this category, according to Housman, belong the Propertius and Copa passages quoted above (though with regard to Copa 4 he retracted his view in the additional note), as well as Culex 205 in fessos requiem dare comparat artus (I am not at all

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convinced, however, that this stands for comparat dare fessos artus in requiem) and Verg. Aen. 2.278f. vulnera . . . illa gerens, quae circum plurima muros/ accepit patrios (but who would be deceived by this word order?). When we try to fit our passage into Housman’s categories, it becomes rapidly clear that it does not fit into either of them. It differs from the passages of the first category in that the preposition (per) is not immediately preceded by the attribute (patriae), but by the intruder vidisse, and from those of the second in that the attribute precedes the preposition. Besides, here, for once, the attribute is not an adjective, but a noun in the genitive, which does not do much to help the reader on the right track. Far more important, however, is that our passage would be the only one in all extant Latin literature where the ambiguously placed preposition (per) and its noun (culmen) would be distributed over two successive lines. Valerius’ word order is sometimes puzzling, but this would be positively criminal. If Bentley’s interpretation is thought unacceptable after all, one might consider reading ait for agis (ω: agi Vat, B-1474): ‘or to have seen the height of our home town amidst/through the flames,’ she says ‘and the destruction of the gods.’ A verbum dicendi is not strictly necessary (see on primaque), but of courseit would not be unwelcome either. For the confusion cf. 8.131 and 333, where V has ait instead of (correct) agif, for ait coming inafter several lines cf. 380, 6.269, and compare Verg. Aen. 11.24; for per cf. Verg. Aen. 6.490 ut videre virum fulgentiaque arma per umbras. patriae . . . oilmen: not ‘my father’s house’ (Mozley), but ‘the height of our home town’ (‘arcem’ Bentley; ‘άκρόττολιν’ Courtney). For this meaning of culmen cf. 5.645f. ego cara Mycenes/ culmina, virgineas praeder si Cecropis arces. Stat. Silv. 1.1.64, 2.7.60, Sil. 3.510 summum . . . Iovis . . . culmen (i.e. the Capitoline Hill). Cf. also 306 below: arcem nata petit. stragem . . . deum: ‘the destruction of the gods’, i.e. of their temples and/or statues. 179f. nam cetera belli/ perpetimur. This is rather exaggerated. cetera belli: for the partitive genitive after the neuter plural of an adjective, used substantially, cf. 3.212 omnia noctis, 6.301 belli diversa, and see KS 1.433, Sz. 53. For its occurrence with this particular adjective cf. e.g. Liv. 27.20.3, Tac. Ann. 13.6 num proelia quoque et oppugnationes urbium et cetera belli per magistros administrari possent, anquirebant.

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1801 mene ille novis, me destinat am ens/ servitiis? urbem aut fugiens natosqUe relinquam? mene . . . me: cf. 8.44 Iff. mene, optime quondam / Aesonide, me ferre preces ef supplicis ora/ fas erat?, 467 mene aliquid meruisse putas, me talia velle?, compare V erghe«. 4.314 (Dido to Aeneas) mene fugis? novis . . . servitiis: ‘Dryope’s’ position as a slave would be something ‘ne\v> not so much because hitherto she has been a free woman as because it js unusual for slaves to serve their ex-husbands. Before Valerius, the plural of servitium seems to occur only in Sen. Tro. 909f durum et invisum et grave e st/ servitia ferre. It is not found in Statius, but Silius has it twice, remarkably enough within the space of six lines: in 13.8g4 and 889. aut: the word is sound, the drift of these lines being ‘do you really think that I will let him make me his slave or that I will leave everything that is dear t0 me?’ Arntzen’s aufugiens (ap. Schenkl 1883), though not impossible (for the uSe of the verb in poetiy cf. Lutat, poet. 1.1, Cic. Arat. 202, Prop. 1.9.30, where editors, without sufficient cause, it would seem, usually prefer Bolt’s a fuge to the mss. reading aufuge), is therefore unnecessary. Frieseman’s an fugiens ;s even wrong, in suggesting a dilemma that is not there: Venus/Dryope does not for a minute contemplate the possibility of becoming either a slave or an exile. aut is postponed to the second place. Langen compares 4.103, 448, 5.453 and (to the third place) 5.164, 8.168. For this mannerism see on 150 sed. For the repeated metrical pattern of lines 178-81 (four times dsds) see on 158ff. 182fF. non prius ense manus raptoque annabimus igne/ dumque silent ducuntque nova cum coniuge somnos/ magnum aliquid spirabit amor?’ ense: for ensis/gladius see on 66ff. rapto . . . igne: cf. Aen. 5.660 (the Trojan women, incited by Iris/Beroe) rapiunt. . . focis penetralibus ignem. dum . . . silent: i.e. when they are asleep (as the sequel shows); cf. Ov. Am . 1.6.55f. urbe silent tota, vitreoque madentia rore/ tempora noctis eunt. ducunt . . . somnos: cf. Verg. Aen. 4.560 (Mercury to Aeneas) nate dea, potes hoc sub casu ducere somnos? ‘The word [i.e. ducere] suggests the length and soundness of Aeneas’ sleep’ (Austin). Pease ad loc. compares Prop. 1.14.9 mecum trahit illa quietem. (non) magnum aliquid spirabit amor?: ‘will our love not breathe something great?’, i.e. something warlike, cf. Verg. Aen. 9.186f. (Nisus to Euryalus) aut

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pugnam aut aliquid iamdudum invadere magnum/ mens agitat mihi. For spirabit cf. Lucr. 5.392 spirantes . . . bellum, Cic. Att. 15.11.1 Martem spirare (under OLD 6b ‘(w. acc.)’; the OLD lists our passage under 6a ‘(w. adv. or internal acc.)’, but magnum aliquid seems to be an ordinary accusative). Prop. 2.15.53 nobis, qui nunc magnum spiramus amantes (‘who are now in high spirits’) may have been at the back of Valerius’ mind. 184f. tunc ignea torquens/ lumina praecipites excussit ab ubere natos. Things are now becoming unpleasant, though not nearly as unpleasant as in Statius, who has Polyxo say, pointing to her children: quattuor hos una, decus et solacia patris,/ in gremio, licet amplexu lacrimisque morentur,/ transadigam ferro saniemque et vulnera fratrum/ miscebo patremque super spirantibus addam (:Theb. 5.125ff.). Damsté (1885) and Summers take offence at the presence of breast-fed babies here and in 203, in the light of 139 tardi . . . belli, but nothing prevents us from assuming that the men have now been away for a year or so, in which case the babies may very well be three to six months old, young enough at least to be at the breast. Note, incidentally, how quickly ‘Dryope’s’ love for them (181) has flagged. tunc ignea torquens lumina: cf. Aen. 7.448f. (Allecto) tum flammea torquens/ lumina. excussit ab ubere natos: excutere ab (again in 8.82 dulces excussit ab arbore somnos) is rare, but cf. Lucr. 6.687f. ab ollis/ excussit calidum flammis velocibus ignem. The line-ending is Vergilian, cf. G. 3.178 ubera natos, Aen. 3.392, 5.285, 8.45. Cf. also 203 below: ubere nati. 186f. ilicet arrectae mentes, evictaque matrum/ corda sacer Veneris gemitus rapit. ilicet: for this word, originally meaning ‘you may go’ (from ire licet, cf. scilicet, videlicet), but later used as a synonym of ilico, ‘at once’, see Fordyce on Aen. 7.583, S. Timpanaro, Per la storia di ilicet, RFIC 41 (1963) 323-37. Valerius has it again in 3.58,730 and 4.451. arrectae mentes: ‘their minds are aroused’, an echo of Aen. 5.643f. (after Iris/Beroe’s speech) arrectae mentes stupefactaque corda (!)/ Iliadum. Cf. also Sii. 2.295. arrigere (in Valerius only here and in 213) is a favourite verb of Vergil’s, who has it 22 times. In prose it is rare, with the exception of Sallust.

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evicta: ‘overcome, persuaded’, cf. Val. Max. 6.5, ext.3 ad ultimum popup precibus evictus. matrum: “women’: see on 79ff. sacer Veneris gemitus: the women’s minds are aroused, their hearts overcome, and Venus’ sacer gemitus does the rest. sacer does not mean ‘horrendus’ (Langen on 1.798; in fact sacer never means ‘horrendus’) or ‘accursed’ (Mozley), which is applicable neither literally (‘under a curse’) nor metaphorically (‘damned’): Venus’ groan is sacer, because Venus is a goddess and because everything connected with a god may be called sacer, even if there is little ‘divine’ or ‘sacred’ about it: cf. e.g. Stat. Theb. 1.642 sacras ita vocibus asperat iras, “with these words he aggravates the divine (i.e. the god’s) anger’ (Heuvel: ‘ira quoque, ut omnia, quae ad deos pertinent, sacra vocatur’). 187ff. aequora cunctae/ prospiciunt simulantque choros delubraque festa/ fronde tegunt laetaeque viris venientibus adsunt. With these and the following lines compare Stat. Theb. 5.186ff. tum domibus fusi et nemorum per opaca sacrorum/ ditibus indulgent epulis vacuantque profundo/ aurum immane mero, dum quae per Strymona pugnae,/ quis Rhodope gelidove labor sudatus in H aem o,/ enumerare vacat, nec non, manus impia, nuptae/ serta inter festasque dapes quo maxima cultu/ quaeque iacent; dederat mitis Cytherea suprema/ nocte viros longoque brevem post tempore p a cem / nequiquam et miseros perituro adflaverat ig n i/ conticuere chori. aequora . . . prospiciunt: cf. Ov. Her. 10.49 (Ariadne to Theseus) mare prospiciens in saxo frigida sedi. In Luc. 8.47f. Cornelia, on the lookout for her husband Pompey, is thus apostrophized: prospiciens fluctus nutantia longe/ semper prima vides venientis vela carinae. simulant . . . choros: the phrase simulare chomm/-os occurs three times in Latin literature, the other two instances being Verg. Aen. 6.517f. (Helena) chorum simulans euhantis orgia circum/ ducebat Phrygias (listed by the OLD under 6 ‘to imitate, simulate’) and Stat. Ach. 1.319f. (Thetis to Achilles) hasne inter simulare choros et bracchia lu d o / nectere, nate, grave est? (under 2b ‘to simulate (an action), pretend to perform’). The OLD does not mention our passage. One wonders what people have to do in order to ‘imitate’ a dance, or to ‘pretend’ to dance, and it would rather appear to me that the expression means the same thing in all three writers, viz. ‘to dance and to pretend x’: in our passage x = ‘to be glad’, in the Aeneid ‘to be enthusiastic’ (in its literal sense), and in the Achilleid ‘to be one of them’ (i.e. Lycomedes’ daughters).

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delubra . . . festa fronde tegunt: ‘they cover the temples with festal foliage’ (garlands, wreaths and the like). Cf. Verg. Aen. 2.248f. nos (i.e. the Trojans) delubra deum miseri, quibus ultimus esset/ ille dies, festa velamus fronde per urbem (for the Lemnian men, too, ille dies ultimus eratl). laetae: Svith smiling faces’ (Mozley, a nice translation). 190ff. iamque domos mensasque petunt, discumbitur altis/ porticibus, sua cuique furens festinaque coniunx/ adiacet, discumbitur: for the impersonal passive see on 13 insurgitur, and cf., with this particular verb, 8.255 gramineis ast inde toris discumbitur, Cic. Ver. 1.66, Verg. Aen. 1.700, al. furens festinaque: festina has been suspected (infesta Courtney, Ehlers and others, with E; funesta Schenkl; instincta and festiva Heinsius, the latter with some mss. support), but I do not see why the women should not be ‘raging and impatient’ (cf. 6.472 levis et festina cupido, OLD festinus 2), the women’s impatience being further stressed by the double asyndeton (petunt, discumbitur, porticibus, sua). Before Valerius, who has it six times (also in 3.341, 4.470, 6.325 and 7.187) the adjective is extremely rare (once in Sallust, Vergil and Ovid). adiacet: ‘lies, reclines beside’; compare, with the simplex, Stat. Theb. 5.192 (quoted on 187ff.). In Apul. Met. 10.34 adiacentem lateri meo . . . mulierem the people concerned lie in bed. 192ff. inferni qualis sub nocte barathri/ accubat attonitum Phlegyan et Thesea iuxta/ Tisiphone saevasque dapes et pocula libat,/ tormenti genus, et nigris amplectitur hydris. The Lemnian women resemble Furies, just like Venus (104ff.). Cf. also 227f. tantum oculos pressere viri, velut agmina cernant/Eumenidum. Valerius combines two parts of Vergil’s description, in Aeneid 6, of the sinners in the underworld, viz. 601ff. quid memorem Lapithas, Ixiona Pirithoumque?/. . . Furiarum maxima iuxta/ accubat et manibus prohibet contingere mensas and 617ff. sedet aetemumque sedebit/ infelix Theseus, Phlegyasque miserrimus omnis/ admonef, cf. also Stat. Theb. 1.712ff. torva Megaera/ ieiunum Phlegyan subter cava saxa iacentem/ aeterno premit accubitu dapibusque profanis/ instimulat, sed mixta famem fastidia vincunt. It has been argued that the Aeneid text used by Valerius (and Statius) apparently exhibited the lines in the order -601, 616-620, 602- (cf. L. Havet, RPh 12 (1888) 145, J. Perret, L’ordre de succession des vers

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dans Énéide 6.602-20, RPh 58 (1984) 19-33). This is possible. On the other hany there is no reason why Valerius (and Statius) should not have transferred tQ Phlegyas and Theseus the punishment which Vergil had allotted to Ixion an whereas Theseus (together with Pirithous!) had attempted to abduct Proserpin^ from the underworld (cf. Verg .Aen. 6.393ff.). inferni . . . barathri: cf. Verg. Aen. 8.244 infernas . . . sedes, 245 immane barathrum. For barathrum see on 85f. accubat: also at the beginning of Aen. 6.606. Compare Statius’ aetemo . . . accubitu (Theb. 1.714). iuxta: from Aen. 6.605 (likewise at the end of the line). For the anastrophe of disyllabic prepositions in Valerius see Langen on 1.151. See also Pease on Aen. 4.255, Williams on Aen. 5.370. Tisiphone: Vergil more vaguely speaks of Furiarum maxima (Aen. 6.605). In Statius it is Megaera who makes Phlegyas lose his appetite (Theb. 1.712). For the spelling of this Fury’s name see Hall on Claud. RP 1.40. saevas . . . dapes et pocula: strictly speaking, it is not the meals and drinks that are cruel, but Tisiphone’s treatment of her victims. Similarly, in Stat. Theb. 9.300 ibitis aequoreis crudelia pabula monstris it is not the food that is cruel, but the fate of the people involved. The Harpies were not a whit better than Tisiphone: cf. 4.454f. diripiunt verruntque dapes foedataque turbant/ pocula. For dapes and pocula mentioned together cf. also 155 above. libat: ‘nibbles and sips’, cf. e.g. Verg. Aen. 5.91f. (anguis) inter pateras et levia pocula serpens/ libavit . . . dapes (food), Ecl. 5.25f. nulla . . . a m n em / libavit quadripes (drink). tormenti genus: ‘her way of torturing them’. The phrase comes from Vergil’s description of the equally sadistic Mezentius in Aen. 8.485ff. mortua quin etiam iungebat corpora vivis/ componens manibusque manus atque oribus ora,/ tormenti genus. For the accusative ‘in apposition to a sentence’, an idiom, as far as Latin is concerned, not found before Sallust and Lucretius, see Fordyce on Aen. 8.683, KS 1.247ff„ Sz. 429f. nigris amplectitur hydris: this seems enough to make one go off one’s food. Snakes belong to the traditional outfit of the Furies, being either entwined in their hair (perhaps first in Aesch. Cho. 1049f. ττεΊΓλεκτανημέναι/ ττυκνοίς

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δράκουσιυ; cf. e.g. 4.413 abruptis excussi crinibus hydri, Iuv. 7.69f. si Vergilio puer et tolerabile desset/ hospitium, caderent omnes a crinibus hydri; see also Smith on Tib. 1.3.69), or simply held in the hand (cf. e.g. Eur. El. 1345 χεψοδράκουτες, with Denniston’s note, Stat. Theb. 1.112f. tunc geminas quatit ira manus: haec igne rogali/ fulgurat, haec vivo manus aera verberat hydro). Valerius probably has the latter in mind. For the other attributes of the Furies torches, black mantles and whips - see on 102ff. and 214f. resp. hydris is, in view of 4.413, Stat. Theb. 1.113 and Iuv. 7.70 (all quoted above), in all probability from hydrus, not from hydra. Cf. also Ov. Met. 4.801 Gorgoneum crinem turpes mutavit in hydros, Luc. 9.673 protenti crinibus hydri. For amplectitur cf. Verg. Aen. 5.86 (anguis) amplexus placide tumulum (followed by libavit. . . dapes in 92). 196-215. Phase three: Venus herself, escorted by thunder and lightning, swoops down on Lemnos. Her cry makes the earth shudder, and Fear and Discord, Anger and Treachery, Frenzy and Death hurry towards her. She rushes into one o f the houses, and when she comes out again she is seen to carry a gasping head in her hand. Then she forces the women to follow her example. 196ff. Ipsa Venus quassans undantem turbine pinum/ adglomerat tenebras pugnaeque accincta trementem/ desilit in Lemnon; ipsa Venus: and no longer Dryopes in imagine. Note that Valerius has said nothing of Venus’ departure from Lemnos, somewhere after 187 (or, for that matter, of her descent to the island somewhere before 174). For this kind of breviloquentia see Langen 8f. quassans undantem turbine pinum: Venus the Fury, cf. 105f. (Venus) pinum . . . sonantem/ virginibus Stygiis . . . simillima, where see note (also for pinus ‘torch’). Valerius has in mind Aen. 7.397f. (Amata) ipsa inter medias flagrantem fervida p inu m / sustinet. For quassans . . . pinum cf. Verg. Aen. 9.521f. quassabat Etruscam/ pinum . . . Mezentius. Langen takes undantem ‘de motu flammarum undulato’, comparing Verg. Aen. 12.672f. ecce autem flammis inter tabulata volutus/ ad caelum undabat vertex turrimque tenebat, Sil. 9.446 undantes . . . flammas (cf. OLD 4), but a torch, though not much use without a fire, is not the same thing as a fire, and the words quassans and turbine (‘in a whirling motion’) rather point to the meaning ‘waving’ (OLD 5), as in PI. Epid. 436 suam qui undantem chlamydem quassando (!)

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facit, Verg. Aen. 5.146f. nec sic immissis aurigae undantia lora/ concussere iugis: Venus’ torch “waves’ like a gymnast’s ribbon. adglomerat tenebras: the amount of smoke produced by the torch must have been considerable. For the verb see on 171ff., and cf. Verg. Aen. 8.254f. (Cacus) glomerat . . . sub antro/ fumiferam noctem commixtis igne tenebris, Stat. Theb I. 350f. plurimus Auster/ inglomerat noctem tenebrosa volumina torquens. pugnae . . . accincta: ‘girt up for the fight’, “ready to fight’, cf. Verg. Aen. II. 706f.te. . .pugnae. . . accinge pedestri. desilit in Lemnon: cf. Ον. Met. 1.673f. patria love natus ab arce/ desilit i'n terras. 198f. nimbis et luce fragosa/ prosequitur polus et tonitru pater auget honoro, luce fragosa: ‘perhaps the most original phrase in Latin literature for lightning and the thunder that follows it’ (Garson 1970, 183). The exact meaning of the rare adjective fragosus (three times in Valerius: cf. 621, 4.261) is often difficult to pin-point. In our passage its meaning must be ‘crashing’ (compare the use of fragor in Verg. Aen. 2.692f. subito . . . fragore/ intonuit laevum, Liv. 21.58.5, and elsewhere), though the OLD takes a different view (‘full of breaks, rough, uneven, rugged’). In 621f. Parium . . . infame fragosis . . . vadis (as in Verg. Aen. 7.566f. fragosus/ dat sonitum saxis et torto vertice torrens) the reference seems to be to sound as well, but again the OLD disagrees: ‘having its flow broken up by rocks’ ("prob."). In 4.261f. Maleae velut arce fragosa/ turbo rapax, finally, both ‘rough, rugged’ (OLD) and ‘sturmumbraust’ (Langen) seem possible. prosequitur polus: personified heaven sends Venus on her way, and the clouds, thunder and lightning are its ‘parting gifts’ to her; cf. e.g. Liv. 37.7.15 venientis regio apparatu et accepit et prosecutus est rex. tonitru pater auget honoro: ‘the pomp of her father’s thunder lends her glory’ (Mozley); cf. OLD augeo 5. honorus is not found before Valerius (who has it again in 4.342f. vatis honoro/ carmine), and the adjective always remained rare, Statius and Tacitus being the only other classical authors to use it more than once. It usually means ‘honorific’, as here, but “worthy of honour’ in Stat. Theb. 5.40 maior . . . et honora videri. Note the alliteration of p in 199ff.: prosequitur - polus - pater - pavidas - per -primus -pontus - palus - parìterque.

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200£f. inde novam pavidas vocem furibunda per auras/ congeminat, qua primus Athos et pontus et ingens/ Thraca palus pariterque toris exhorruit omnis/ mater et adstricto riguerunt ubere nati. Valerius has in mind Aen. 7.513ff. (which in its turn owes a good deal to AR 4.129ff.) (Allecto) pastorale canit signum comuque recurvo/ Tartaream intendit vocem, qua protinus om ne/ contremuit nemus et silvae insonuere profundae;/ audiit et Triviae longe lacus, audiit amnis/ sulpurea Nar albus aqua fontesque Velini,/ et trepidae matres pressere ad pectora natos, both passages describing the reactions, to a Fury’s vox, of inanimate nature (‘pathetic fallacy’) and of mothers and their children. Compare also the sequel in 204ff. {accelerat Pavor . . . ut . . . signum . . . dedit Mavortia coniunx) with Aen. 7.519f. ad vocem celeres, qua bucina signum/ dira dedit, . . . concurrunt. Then, in Valerius as in Vergil, all hell breaks loose. Statius imitates both Vergil and Valerius in Theb. 1.114ff., cf. especially 115f. (Tisiphone) fera sibila crine virenti/ congeminat and 121f. ipsa suum genetrix . . . gremio . . . Palaemona pressit. Cf. also VF 5.165ff., Verg. Aen. 3.672ff„ Stat. Theb. 11.66ff. For the first two lines of our passage cf. also Verg. Aen. 9.110ff. hic primum nova lux oculis offulsit et ingens/ visus ab Aurora caelum transcurrere nimbus/ Idaeique chori; tum vox horrenda per auras/ excidit. novam . . . vocem . . . congeminat: ‘again and again she makes a strange cry ring’ (Mozley). Valerius has congeminare five times (again in 534f. ictus/ congeminat, 4.71 congeminant . . . fragorem, 6.378f. securem/ congeminans, 512f. paeana . . . congeminant), but outside the Argonautica the verb is very rare. The only instances before Valerius are PI. Am . 786 (where it is used intransitively), Verg. Aen. 11.698 {securim) and 12.714 {ictus). Valerius, then, is the first to use the verb with a sound as its object (cf. also Stat. Theb. 1.115f., quoted above), but we find synonymous ingeminare already so used in Verg. G. 1.4 lOf. liquidas corvi presso ter gutture voces/aut quater ingeminant. See also on 169 ingeminant. pavidas . . . per auras: even the air is frightened (as is the sea in 4.405 dant pavida alta viam). furibunda: for adjectives in -bundus see E. Pianezzola, Gli aggettivi verbali in -bundus, Florence 1965, E. Risch, Gerundivum und Gerundium, Berlin 1984, 81-92. Other Valerian examples are moribundus (5.175, 6.273), pudibundus (1.809, 7.303), queribundus (7.126) and treme-/tremibundus (4.180, where, however, Heinsius’ fremebunda is tempting, 6.168). primus Athos: ‘primum Athonem clamore Veneris exhorruisse non inepte dicitur, cum montibus potissimum omnis sonus repercutiatur’ (Langen).

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There is no follow-up after primus, but change (pulsus Peerlkamp (on Ae>r 7.518); pressus Köstlin 1880; tum, instead of the first et, Courtney (1965, 154; cf Ehlers’ app. crit.)) seems unnecessary: the whole area shudders, starting with Mt. Athos. Cf. perhaps Verg. Aen. 2.263 primus . . . Machaon: all the heroe$ mentioned leave the Wooden Horse, starting with Machaon. T otAthos see on 75f. ingens Thraca palus: this ‘Thracian marshland’ does not exist, except in Valerius’ phantasy, who took both elements (Thraca and palus) from two, rather similar, Vergilian passages and combined them into the phrase as we have it: the adjective Thraca comes from the noun Thraca in Aen. 12.334f. (when the horses of Mars rush before the winds) gemit ultima p u lsa / Thraca pedum (followed by: circumque atrae Formidinis ora/ Iraeque Insidiaeque, dei comitatus, aguntur, compare 204ff. below), and palus from Aen. 7.701f. (when swans returning from their pastures start to sing) sonat amnis et Asia longe/ pulsa palus (i.e. the river Cayster and the surrounding Lydian marshland). Emendation (pavet Pierson ap. Schenkl 1883; salit Madvig; plagas Sandström; angens Köstlin 1880) is therefore unnecessary. Later we find adjectival Thracus in Gell. 19.12.7 homo Thracus, Apul. Apol. 26 Thraci generis; for substantival Thracus cf. Gell. 19.12.6, Amp. 6.4. adstricto riguerunt ubere nati: the OLD (6b) takes adstringere here to mean ‘to benumb, grip, chill’ (of fear), as for instance in [Sen.] Oct. 862 horrore vinctum trepidus astrinxit rigor, which would make Valerius say: ‘their mothers’ breasts becoming numb, the children grew rigid’. This is possible, but at least as good, if not better (because more forceful), is ‘grasping their mothers’ breasts, the children grew rigid’ (cf. 1.282 adstrictis ut sedit comibus Helle, OLD 2), a reversal of the usual situation (cf. AR 4.136ff. άμφί δέ τταισίν/ νηττιάχοις, ο'ί τέ σφιν int’ άγκαλίδεσσιν ϊανον, . . . χεϊρας βάλον άσχαλόωσαι, as well as Verg. Aen. 7.518 and Stat. Theb. 1.121f., both quoted above). As a m atter of fact, S seems to have read ubera nato (ubera nati VL: ubere nati Vat, B-1474), but I doubt whether adstricto riguerunt ubera nato is correct Latin (for: ‘as they (the mothers) grasped the children, their breasts stiffened’). riguerunt: with fear, cf. Verg. Aen. 3.307f. magnis exterrita monstris/ deriguit visu in medio, Stat. Theb. 9.36, and compare the use of rigor in 3.263 tenet exsangues rigor horridus artus, [Sen.] Oct. 862 (quoted above). For the line-ending ubere nati see on 184f. 204ff. accelerat Pavor et Geticis Discordia demens/ e stabulis atraeque genis

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pallentibus Irae / et Dolus et Rabies et Leti maior imago,/ visa truces exserta manus, ut prima vocatu/ intonuit signumque dedit Mavortia coniunx. Personification of abstractions is as old as Homer (cf. II. 4.440 ΔεΙμος, Φόβος, Έ ρις) and Hesiod (cf. Th. 21 Iff., the catalogues of the children of Νύξ and Έ ρις), and it is employed very frequently by Roman poets. Cf. especially Verg. Aen. 6.273ff. (the description of the entrance to Orcus’ realm, with 280 Discordia demens), 12.335f. (see on 201f. ingens Thraca palus), Ον. Met. 4.484f. (Tisiphone) egreditur . . . domo; Luctus comitatur euntem/ et Pavor et Terror trepidoque Insania vultu, Petr. 124.252ff., in particular 257 Letum . . . Insidiaeque et lurida Mortis imago. Statius imitates our author in Theb. 7.47ff., describing the sentinels of Mars’ house: primis salit Impetus amens/ e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes/ exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant/ Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum./ innumeris strepit aula Minis, tristissima Virtus/ stat medio, laetusque Furor vultuque cruento/ Mors armata sedet. As usual, Statius goes one better (Impetus, Nefas, Minae and Virtus are not in Valerius), but those personifications that do appear in Valerius recur in Statius, though not always under the same name: compare 204 Pavor - 49 Metus; 204 Discordia - 50 Discordia·, 205 Irae - 48 Irae; 206 Dolus - 50 Insidiae; 206 Rabies - 52 Furor; 206 Letum - 53 Mors. Note also how Statius imitates the pattern of 204f. Geticis Discordia demens/ e stabulis in 47f. primis. . . Impetus amens/ e foribus. For some more personifications of this kind cf. Sen. HF 689ff., Stat. Theb. 3.424ff., 4.66If., 5.73f., 10.558f., Sii. 2.548ff., 4.325, 436ff., 13.581ff., and compare Cicero’s enumeration of the children of Erebus and Nox in ND 3.44. See further Langen ad loc., Austin on Aen. 6.273ff., Smolenaars on Stat. Theb. 7.47-54. Pavor: as a poetic personification first in Ov. Met. 4.485 (quoted above). According to Livy (1.27.7), Tullus Hostilius dedicated shrines to Pallor and Pavor, but see Ogilvie ad loc. In 3.89f. Valerius mentions Terror and Pavor as Mars’ horses, which seems to be based on a misunderstanding of Horn. II. 15.119f. (Ares) lttttous κέλετο ΔεΙμόυ τε Φόβου τε/ ζευγυύμευ, where Deimos and Phobos are Ares’ attendants (or even his sons), rather than his horses (cf. Hes. Sc. 463f.). For a full-scale description of Pavor cf. Stat. Theb. 7.108ff., with Smolenaars’ introductory note to 105-45. Discordia demens: fromme«. 6.280 (see above). Cf. also Sii. 9.288. Personified Discordia is first found in Enn. Ann. 225 Sk. (= Hor. Sat. 1.4.60). She also appears in Statius’ version of the story: cf. Theb. 5.73f. Odia aspera ubique/ et Furor et medio recubat Discordia lecto.

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Geticis . . . e stabulis: Discord lives among the Getae, a Thracian tribe, which, like all Thracians, had a special bond with Mars and with war, cf. e.g. 5.618 Geticis veniens Gradivus ab antris, 7.645f., Verg. Aen. 3.35 Gradivum . . . patrem, Geticis qui praesidet arvis, Hor. Od. 2.16.5, Ον. Pont. 1.7.12, and see Shreeves 115-8, 136, n.14. As a Thracian she must have heard Venus’ ciy (cf. 200ff.) and as a devotee of Mars she cannot have hesitated long to follow the Mavortia conium (208). For stabulis (Discord does not have a decent home) cf. 5.151 vos stabulis, Macrones, ab altis. atrae . . . genis pallentibus Irae: the Irae have a gregarious nature, cf. e.g. 5.146, Verg. Aen. 12.336, Stat. Theb. 2.287, 7.48, Sil. 4.436f. But Ira also works on her own (e.g. VF 5.137). atrae and pallentibus do not really contradict each other, ater, as so often, being used emotively (‘gloomy’, ‘horrible’). The adjective is similarly applied to Timor (Verg. Aen. 9.719), Luctus (Sen. HF 694), Invidia (Stat. Silv. 4.8.16f.) and Planctus (Sil. 2.549f.). The Irae are appropriately provided with pale cheeks: cf. Stat. Theb. 2.545f. pallentia . . . ira/ ora, 3.564, 5.263f., 10.692f., and compare our ‘pale with rage’. Cf. also Seneca’s description of the Furies in Ag. 759ff., especially 762-4 turgent ■ . . pallentes genae/ et vestis atri funeris/ exesa cingit ilia. Dolus: mentioned as one of the children of Erebus and Nox in Cic. ND 3.44. According to Pliny (Nat. 35.138), Aristophon was lauded for a painting featuring Priamus, Helena, Credulitas, Ulixes, Deiphobus and Dolus. Rabies: a newcomer in the ranks of personifications, but as Furor (Verg. Aen. 1.294) and Insania (Ον. Met. 4.485) madness had been personified before. Leti maior imago: cf. Petr. 124.257 L etum . . . et lurida Mortis imago. The line-ending comes from Verg. Aen. 2.772f. ipsius umbra Creusae/ visa (!) mihi ante oculos et nota maior imago (cf. also 640 below, Iuv. 13.221). Death towers above them all. Personified Letum is perhaps first found in Enn. seen. 109f. V. pallida Leti nubila tenebris/ loca (but see Jocelyn p.255f.). Valerius has it again in 8.74 nunc age maior ades (sc. Somne) fratrique simillime Leto. visa truces exserta manus: ‘(who was) seen to have her cruel hands thrust out’, so as to be able to move them freely, cf. Ov. Fast. 2.321f. tunicarum vincla relaxat,/ ut posset magnas exseruisse manus. For the retained accusative see on 103 crinem subnectitur, and cf., with this particular verb, Verg. Aen. 11.648f. A m a zo n / unum exserta latus pugnae. Stat. Theb. 4.235, and especially Claud. RP 3.376f. pernix invadit utramque/ cincta

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sinus, exserta manus, armata bipenni. For videre with a perfect participle used predicatively cf. OLD video 8. Death’s hands are as cruel as death itself: cf. 1.714f. trucis discrimina leti/ mille. ut prima: = ut primum. Cf., with cum, 1.765f. cum prima per altum / vela dedit, 7.90f. cum prima tuis pro moenibus arma/ induimus, 172f. cum primos adgressa es flectere sensus/ virginis. In his note on Man. 1.226 Housman refers to the last of these passages and to Verg. Aen. 11.573f. ut . . . pedum primis infans vestigia plantis/ institerat, which is much easier (‘the first steps’). vocatu intonuit: vocatus is a very rare noun, occurring only twice before Valerius: cf. Verg. Aen. 12.95f. numquam frustrata vocatus/ hasta meos (‘call’), Cic. de Orat. 3.2 senatus frequens vocatu Drusi in curiam venit (‘summons’). Valerius seems to combine these two nuances: cf. 200 vocem and 208 signum resp. For intonuit cf. e.g. Verg. Aen. 6.605ff. Furiarum maxima . . . intonat ore, Plin. Nat. 8.150 (canis) ingenti . . . latratu intonuit. See also Austin on Aen. 1.90, Norden on Aen. 6.607. Mavortia coniunx: which she was, according to one tradition (cf. West on Hes. Th. 933), but in this case ‘Mavortiam coniugem Venerem poeta non sine acerbitate dixit, quia ab eius cum Marte consuetudine tota haec calamitas initium ceperat’ (Langen). For Mavortia coniunx, instead of Mavortis coniunx, cf. e.g. Verg. Aen. 3.487f. Andromachae. . . coniugis Hectoreae. 209f. hic aliud Venus et multo magis ipsa tremendum/ orsa nefas gemitus fingit vocesque cadentum hic aliud Venus et multo magis ipsa tremendum orsa nefas: Valerius makes use of two Vergilian passages, Aen. 2.199f. hic aliud maius miseris multoque tremendum/ obicitur magis (the preamble to another horrible story, that of Laocoon) and 7.386 (Amata) maius adorta nefas maioremque orsa furorem. multo (only here in Valerius) is rare in epic poetry. See also Hàkanson 1986, 55. gemitus fingit vocesque cadentum: fingit must mean something like ‘she caused a sound as of . . .’ (Mozley). There seems to be no exact parallel for fingere so used (dat gemitus fictos in Ον. Met. 6.565 means ‘groans insincerely’), but then, the situation is not very commonplace either. We are probably not supposed to ask how Venus did the trick. The juxtaposition of gemitus and voces recurs in 240f.

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21 Iff. inrupitque domos et singultantia gestans/ ora manu taboque sinus perfu.\a recenti/ arrectasque comas ‘meritos en prima revertor/ ulta toros, prem it ectv» dies.’ inrupit . . . domos: the plural is strange, because the sequel suggests th:\ Venus had entered only one house. singultantia . . . ora: ‘a head still throbbing’ (Mozley). In Verg. Aen. 9.33? sturn caput ipsi aufert domino truncumque relinquit/ sanguine singultantem it the rest of the body which singultat. For singultantia ora cf. Stat. Theb. 8 752f Sii. 1.388, where, however, the heads are still on their respective shoulders. Hardly less revolting is Statius’ description in Theb. 5.236f. Alcimeden etiamnum in murmure truncos/ ferre patris vultus. tabo . . . sinus perfusa recenti arrectasque comas: ‘having her garment and her bristling hair drenched with fresh gore’. There is no need to suspect arrectas . . . comas (arrectis . . . comis Peerlkamp (on Aen. 10.726), Schenkl, Langen, Courtney (cf. Ehlers’ app. erit.); arrecta coma Bährens, Mozley): Venus’ hair stands on end and is drenched with blood For the retained accusatives see on 103 crinem subnectitur, and cf. with perfundere, Verg. Aen. 2.221 (Laomedon) perfusus sanie vittas atroque veneno (tabum and sanies do not differ much in meaning), al. The verb is often used in gory contexts: cf. also Cat. 64.399, Verg. G. 2.510, Liv. 30.28.5. tabo . . . recenti: cf. 4.749t ilium (i.e. Amycus) in sanie taboque recenti/ vidimus, and compare Vergil’s description of Cacus’ lair in Aen. 8.195ff. semper . . . recenti/ caede tepebat humus, foribusque adfìxa superbis/ ora virum tristi pendebant pallida tabo (where human heads are handled roughly too). arrectas . . . comas: either as a sign of excitement, as in Verg. Aen. 10.726ff. (leo) gaudet hians immane comasque arrexit et haeret/ visceribus super incumbens; lavit improba taeter/ ora eruor, or as a sign of anger: cf. Sen. Dial. 3.1.4 irascendum eadem signa sunt: . . . horrent ac surriguntur capilli. For the verb as such see on 186f. meritos en prima revertor ulta toros: Venus seems to have become Dryope again (cf. Bornmann 47). For meritos . . . ulta toros, ‘having taken revenge on, having punished, the guilty bed’, cf. Luc. 8.102f. (Julia) civilibus armis/ nostros ulta toros (i.e. of Pompey and Cornelia). Stat. Theb. 5.122 (Procne) ulta . . . thalamos is different (‘who avenged her marriage’). For meritus ‘guilty’ see on 101 merenti. For the ellipse of ait see Langen on 1.174. premit: either intransitive: ‘is at hand’ (cf. Hyg. Fab. 7.3 cum . . . partus premeret, OLD premo 10b) or with ellipse of nos: ‘urges us to action’ (OLD 11).

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214f. tum verbere victas/ in thalamos agit et cunctantibus inserit enses. verbere victas: the women had clearly lost something of their former eagerness. Together with torches (105), black mantles (106) and snakes (195), whips are part of the Furies’ regular outfit (and Venus is a Fury here: cf. 104ff., 196). Cf. e.g. 4.412f., 7.149, 8.20, Verg. Aen. 6.570f. sontis ultrix accincta flagello/ Tisiphone quatit insultans, Ov. Ib. 181 hic tibi de Furiis scindet latus una flagello. in thalamos: apparently (and remarkably) the women had not gone to bed together with their husbands. cunctantibus inserit enses: ‘she thrusts swords into their hands as they hesitate’. gj’s invenit, which was kept by Burman, Thilo, Bury, Giarratano, Kramer, Courtney and others, is perhaps not impossible (‘she finds swords for them as they hesitate’), but I cannot help feeling that cunctantibus should contrast with the following verb, the choice being between Heinsius’ ingerit (so also Schenkl, Langen, Mozley and Ehlers) and Herelius’ inserit (so also Harles, Bährens and Hàkanson (1973)). ingerit, ‘forces upon them’ (cf. 7.651 si ipse (sc. Aeetes) sibi (sc. Iasoni) terga ingerat ultro), is possible, but inserit is probably what Valerius wrote: cf. Stat. Theb. 5.229Ϊ. (Lycaste, one of the Lemnian women, hesitates to kill her brother Cydimos) cum saeva parens iam coniuge fu so / adstitit impellitque minis atque inserit ensem (inserit Ρ1ω, Garrod, Hill: ingerit P1mg., Klotz-Klinnert), Svhen her cruel mother . . . thrusts the sword into her hands’ (not ‘into her’: cf. 467, where Lycaste is still in the land of the living). Cf. also Tac. Ann. 2.31 prensare servorum dextras, inserere gladium. As for other conjectures, Koch’s induit (1865) and Strand’s inicit (82) will not do, because these verbs never have swords or the like as object (arma induere, as in Ov. Am . 2.18.2, and arma inicere (Stat. Theb. 4.189) are of course much easier), whereas Reuss’ cunctantibus invehit enses (1899) is not Latin. For ensis /gladius see on 66ff. 216-41. Where do I start my tale of horror? Will somebody help me! - The Lemnian women spread death and destruction, they murder their fathers, sons, brothers and husbands, some of them sleeping, others wide awake, another group bums down the houses and lies in wait for those who try to escape, while still others take care o f the Thracian captives.

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Lines 216-9, with their rhetorical questions and exclamations, serve introduce the ghastly story to be told in 220-41, in the same way that th$ apostrophe of Hypsipyle in 242-6 is an introduction to the account of th^ rescue of Thoas by his daughter in 247-305. For this type of authorial intervention see G. Williams 1978, 234f. The function of these lines is not unlike that of invocations of the Muses; cf., in Valerius, 3.14ff., 212ff, 5.217ff„ 6.33ff. and 515f. 216f. Unde ego tot scelerum facies, tot fata iacentum / exsequar? This is the first in a long series of reminiscences of Vergil’s account of Troy’s last night: cf. Aen. 2.361f. quis cladem illius noctis, quis funera fa n d o / explicet aut possit lacrimis aequare labores? Cf. also [Sen.] Oct. 157 quis tot referre facinorum formas potest?. Stat. Theb. 10.273f. quis numeret caedis, aut nomine turbam/exanimem signare queat? scelerum fades: ‘forms of crimes’, as in Verg. G. 1.505f. tot bella per o rb e m / tam multae scelerum facies, Aen. 6.560. In 8.312 at tibi quae scelerum facies, Medea, tuorum? Valerius uses the phrase somewhat differently: ‘but Medea, how did your crimes appear to you?’ (cf. Kleywegt (ANRW) 2485). Statius imitates Valerius in Theb. 5.206f., where he has Hypsipyle say: quos tibi (nam dubito) scelerum de mille figuris/ expediam casus? exsequar: Valerius uses the verb only here and in 5.222f. ante dolos, ante infidi tamen exsequar astus/ Soligenae, which lines follow immediately upon an invocation of the Muses (see above). Compare also the opening lines of Vergil’s fourth Geòrgie: protinus aerii mellis caelestia d o n a / exsequar. 217f. heu vatem monstris quibus intulit ordo!/ quae se aperit series! vatem: applied by Valerius to himself, as in 439 and 3.217 (an invocation, see above); cf. also Verg. Aen. 7.41 (another invocation). For the word’s original meaning and later development see Nisbet-Hubbard on Hor. Od. 1.1.35. monstris quibus: the interrogative is placed after its noun, as in 4.438 novimus • · . divis geniti quibus (sc. sitis). For monstra ‘atrocities’ cf. 248 tota . . . iam sparsis exarserat insula monstris, 3.29, 261, OLD 5. intulit: it is the story that controls the poet, not the other way round. A late parallel for inferre so used is Paneg. 4(10).27.1 (321 A.D.) quoniam me ad Urbis commemorationem fors quaedam intulit, non rerum ordo deduxit. ordo: sc. rerum, ‘the succession of events’, i.e. as told until now, as in the Panegyric passage quoted above. In 5.680 illum etenim talis rerum manet,

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accipite, ordo and in Vergil’s famous maior rerum mihi nascitur ordo (Aen. 7.44) the succession of events still has to be told. se aperit: ‘reveals itself (to the mind’s eye), cf. Verg. Aen. 7.448 tanta . . . se facies aperit, Curt. 4.7.11 ut aperuere se campi alto obruti sabulo, where, however, the facies and the campi reveal themselves to real eyes. Valerius very rarely elides a long monosyllable before a short syllable: the only other example in the Argonautica is 5.390 te animos (cf. Verg. Aen. 1.455, 12.439). See further Kösters 37ff. series: we have to supply rerum again, as in Stat. Theb. 1.7 longa retro series, which, incidentally, is not the only similarity between our passage and the opening lines of the Thebaid: compare also the rhetorical question in 216f. with 1.4ff., and 217 exsequar with 1.9 expediam penitusque sequar. 218f. o qui me vera canentem/ sistat et hac nostras exsolvat imagine noctes! The first part of this exclamation is a rather curious echo of Verg. G. 2.488f. o qui me gelidis convallibus Haem i/ sistat!, where sistere means ‘to put, place’, whereas in our passage the meaning of the verb is ‘to bring to a standstill, stop’: Valerius wants someone to stop him vera canentem (pace Kleywegt (ANRW) 2483, n.37), or at least he says he does, just as Lucan, in 7.552ff., pretends that he does not want to describe the final stage of the civil war: hanc fuge, mens, partem belli tenebrisque relinque,/ nullaque tantorum discat me vate malorum,/ quam multum bellis liceat civilibus, aetas./ . . . / quidquid in hac acie gessisti, Roma, tacebo (quod non). canentem: Valerius also applies this verb to his poetic activities in 1.1, 11 and 5.224 (after 222 exsequar). o qui . . . hac nostras exsolvat imagine noctes!: the poet prays that he be set free from the ‘image’ of the horrors he is about to describe, an image which haunts him during the nights: cf. 3.362f. at non inde dies nec quae magis aspera curis/ nox Minyas tanta caesorum ab imagine solvit. Langen compares Sil. 2.562f. ipsa meum vidi lacerato funere nostras/ terrentem Murrum noctes et dira sonantem. To our taste this certainly is a bit much, but Valerius’ age may well have thought otherwise. For exsolvat cf. e.g. Verg. Aen. 4.652 m e. . . his exsolvite cutis. Langen distinguishes four groups of women in the story of the massacre about to be told: one group (1) that finds the men asleep (221b), another group (2) that is armed with torches and swords and burns the houses together with the men (222-3a, 235b-8), a third group (3) that finds the men awake but too

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frightened to do anything (223b-35a), and finally a group (4) that butchers the Thracian captives (239-41). I agree with Langen that there are four groups, also that the first group kills men who are asleep and that the fourth group murders the captives, but I cannot say I find his distinction of groups 2 and 3 very convincing, and that for several reasons: a. the opposition of groups 1 and 3 on the one hand and group 2 on the other is unnatural, to put it mildly, b. the women described in 235b-8 cannot be the same as those mentioned in 222-3a (cf. 235 aliae), and c. quosdam (223) is not the same as pars. The four groups are rather the following: group 1 finds the men asleep (221b), group 2 finds them awake but too afraid to act (222-35a, or perhaps only 222-8, with 229-35a describing the fate of both 1 and 2), group 3 burns down the houses (235b-8), and group 4 deals with the Thracian captives (239-41). The corresponding scene in Statius (Theb. 5.207-40) is a little longer, but much more gruesome. Cf. also Theb. 10.277ff. (with 279 vina, 281 sopor). 220L Invadunt aditus et quondam cara suorum/ corpora, invadunt aditus et . . . corpora: Meyncke’s artus (1867) appealed to Bährens and is mentioned by Courtney and Ehlers in their app. crit., but the syllepsis is not unattractive, and aditus takes us back to the point where we left the scene (215 in thalamos). For invadere + aditus cf. Tac. Hist. 3.71 tum diversos Capitolii aditus invadunt, and for invadere + corpora Ον. Met. 14.779f. corpora victa sopore ( ! ) / invadunt portasque petunt (compare Am . 1.9.21 saepe soporatos invadere profuit hostes). quondam cara: a touching note. cara . . . corpora: cf. 5.35f. non tulit Aesonides (Aesonius Ehlers) gemmis flagrantia cernens/ corpora cara rogis. 221ff. pars ut erant dapibus vinoque soporos,/ pars conferre manus etiam magnisque paratae/ cum facibus quosdam insomnes et cuncta tuentes, ut erant: ‘just as they were’ (the men, that is). For the expression cf. e.g. Ov. Met. 11.59f. (Apollo) in lapidem rictus serpentis apertos/ congelat et patulos, ut erant, indurat hiatus. Fast. 5.455f. inde domum redeunt sub prima crepuscula maesti,/ utque erat, in duro procubuere toro, and compare Liv. 42.52.4 sicut erant. Stat. Silv. 2.1.157 qualis erat. dapibus vinoque soporos: ‘drowsy with eating and drinking’, a variation on a theme: cf. Verg. Aen. 2.265 invadunt (!) urbem somno vinoque sepultam (with Austin’s note), 3.630 (Cerberus) expletus dapibus vinoque sepultus, Liv. 1.7.5 cum

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eum cibo vinoque gravatum sopor oppressisset, 8.16.9 perpulit imperatorem ut vino epulisque sopitos hostes adgrederetur. For dapes and vinum/vina mentioned together cf. 1.137f., 3.120. In the sense of ‘sleepy, drowsy’ soporus is not found before Valerius, and after him only very rarely. Cf., however, Stat. Silv. 2.3.29f. laevam . . . soporae/ Naidos aversa fertur tetigisse sagitta (‘it is said that she touched the left hand of the drowsy Naiad with the back of her arrow’), where Krohn’s soporae (M has soporem) seems preferable to the alternative, laevum . . . soporem (‘the untimely sleep’), recently defended by Van Dam, and printed by Courtney. Cf. also Ven. Fort. Mart. 1.191 languida colla levans oculosque ex morte soporos. Elsewhere the word is translated ‘sleep-inducing’ or the like, as in Verg. Aen. 6.390 umbrarum hic locus est, somni noctisque soporae. The distinction, however, is a modern one. There is nothing ‘active’ or ‘passive’ about the word itself, it simply means ‘sleep-’, and sometimes ‘sleepy’ is a better translation, sometimes ‘sleep-inducing’ (Norden, for instance, translates Vergil’s noctis soporae with ‘schlaftrunkene Nacht’). Compare somniculosus (OLD: ‘given to sleep, sleepy, lethargic’, b: ‘producing drowsiness’), and English ‘sleepy’: a Sleepy Hollow chair is not sleepy at all, but very much sleep-inducing. pars conferre manus etiam magnisque paratae cum facibus quosdam insomnes et cuncta tuentes: = pars, etiam conferre manus paratae magnisque cum facibus, (invadit) quosdam insomnes et cuncta tuentes. The word order (magnisque paratae for paratae magnisque) is remarkable. Langen refers to his note on 1.284, but the passages mentioned there are all of a different kind. Exactly parallel is 621f. Parium . . . infame fragosis/ exsuperant Pityamque vadis, where Pityamque vadis stands for vadis Pityamque. Bury and Courtney place a comma after paratae (‘prepared to fight and for great deeds’), but I cannot say that I like the change from paratae + inf. to paratae + dat. very much. pars conferre manus etiam . . . paratae: cf. Verg. Aen. 5.108 pars et certare parati. etiam is a bit odd, because there is no reason why conferre manus paratae (and magnis cum facibus) should not apply to the first group as well: all the women must have been prepared to fight, because no one knew in advance which of the men would be sleeping and which would lie awake. Later this preparedness would prove to be unnecessary: those who were asleep were an easy prey, and those awake petrified with terror. magnis . . . cum facibus: ‘equipped with huge torches’. For cum so used cf. Cic. Caec. 64 non fuerunt armati, cum fustibus et cum saxis fuerunt.

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The presence of these torches is somewhat puzzling, not because the women already carried swords (Bährens pr. XXVIII), but because we do not hear what they do with them (they do not use them as firebrands: cf. 235f. diras aliae qcj fastigia taedas/iniciuni). quosdam insomnes et cuncta tuentes: from Verg. Aen. 9.344f. (Euryalus) Fadutn . . . Herbesumque subit Rhoetumque Abarimque/ ignaros; Rhoetum vigilantem et cuncta videntem (where one of the two Rhoeti is probably wrong). quidam is very rare in epic poetry, with the exception of Ovid’s Metamorphoses: it is absent from the Aeneid and from Statius’ epics, and it occurs only once in Valerius, and twice in Lucan and Silius. See also Axelson 75. 224£ sed temptare fugam prohibetque capessere contra/ arma metus, Valerius may have in mind Ον. Met. 3.46f. sive illi tela parabant/ sive fugam, sive ipse timorprohibebat utrumque. metus prohibet, followed by an infinitive, comes from Verg. Aen. 6.807 metus Ausonia prohibet consistere terra? temptare fugam: cf. Ov. Met. 11.77 exsternata fugam frustra temptabat, and compare VF 1.803f. temptata. . . effugia. prohibetque: actually, the connective belongs to capessere, not to prohibet. Similar are 1.846f. has pater in sedes aetemaque moenia n a tu m / inducitque nurum (= nurumque inducit). Stat. Theb. 7.418f. Perseos effigiem maestam exorantque Mycenae/ confusum Iunonis ebur (= eburque exorant). See also Langen on 1.844 (= 843). metüs: the final short syllable is lengthened in arsi, before the caesura, as in 3.199 opus artemque (cf. Strand 88ff.), 234 sanguis exuberet, 4.188 subiit absentis, 5.164 impulerit imas, 6.305 genitor inquit, 612 abiit hibernus, 8.259 impediit hymenaeos. Six of these cases reflect the original prosody: 3.234 sanguis, 4.188 subiit, 5.164 impulerit, 6.305 genitor, 612 abiit and 8.259 impediit (where, moreover, we find a Greek line-ending; cf. e.g. Cat. 64.20). metüs in our line and opüs in 3.199 do not, but they do have precedents in Vergil: cf. e.g. Aen. 2.563 domüs. Doubtful cases are 6.152 saevus honor (sonor Sudhaus) and 6.571 brevibus ereptus in annis (brevibusque Samuelsson). For Vergilian practice and for literature on this subject see Austin on Aen. 1.308 and 4.64, Norden, Comm, on Aen. 6, pp. 450ff. Vergil has over 50 examples. Cf. Norden 452: ‘Je mehr sich nach Vergil der lateinische Hexameter von dem griechischen und dem nach homerischem Muster geformten ennianischen freimachte, um so mehr trat die Lizenz zurück, um schliesslich ganz zu verschwinden’.

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225£ adeo ingentes inimica videri/ diva dabat, notaque sonat vox coniuge maior; ingentes. . . videri diva dabat: just like herself (cf. 104). (eas) videri ingentes could be an A.C.I. (‘made them seem huge’; for the construction cf. Stat. Theb. 3.37f. motus . . . Cithaeron/ antiquas dedit ire nives), but it is more likely that ingentes is predicative with dabat (cf. 4.659f. bis fragor infestas cautes adversaque saxis/ saxa dedit, with Langen’s note), and videri epexegetic with ingentes (see on 102 alma videri): ‘made them huge to look upon’. Cf. also Sii. 7.59 If. maiorem surgere in arm a/ maioremque dedit cemi Tirynthius, where dedit seems to govern a mixed construction. nota . . . sonat vox coniuge maior: ‘their voice rings louder than the wife they knew’ (Mozley), i.e. than their wife’s voice as they knew it: a comparatio compendiaria. For this phenomenon, which is as old as Homer (cf. II. 17.51 κόμοα Χοφίτεσσιν όμοίοχ), see Mayor on Iuv. 3.90f. vocem angustam, qua deterius nec/ille (i.e. a cock) sonat (the other way round), KS 2.566.10, Sz. 826. For maior ‘louder’ cf., in similar contexts, Sii. 3.699 maior nota iam vox prorumpit in auras, Tac. Hist. 5.13 maior humana vox, and compare the expression magna voce. The adjective is used predicatively (see on 455f.). In Verg. Aen. 2.772f. ipsius umbra Creusae/ visa mihi ante oculos et nota maior imago it is not Creusa’s voice, but her shape, that is nota maior. 227f. tantum oculos pressere viri, velut agmina cernant/ Eumenidum ferrumve super Bellona coruscet, tantum oculos pressere viri: ‘all the men did, was to close tight their eyes.’ There is a lacuna in ω after pressere, which has been variously filled. I have adopted viri, the suppletion of the editio princeps which was kept in print until Carrio came up with metu (the reading of C). Despite its improbability, after 225 metus, this in its turn held its ground for a long time, until Thilo took over Burman’s manu (Burman himself, incidentally, hesitated between viri and manu). Thilo was followed by all subsequent editors except Bury, who reads ,rei (an ugly conjecture of his own), and Courtney and Ehlers, who print a lacuna. manu is wrong. Burman defends it as follows: ‘sic oculos premere dextra, vel manu, saepe occurrit, cum a cognatis morientibus clauduntur, hic ipsi rem videntes desperatam et vim, cui resisti nequibat, manum oculis opponebant’, but the very idea that the Lemnians, in the absence of caring relatives, make this melodramatic gesture themselves verges on the ridiculous. Our starting-point should rather be the fact that the line as it stands, with the lacuna, is perfectly understandable and, in fact, exactly what we want: the

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men are too afraid to attempt an escape or to take up arms, and so they just close their eyes tight, which is what people do when something terrible draws near and there is no way out (except of course when one’s name is Hercules: cf. [Sen.] HO 1753ff. cum . . . iam vultum m inax/ appeteret ignis, lamberent flammae caput,/ non pressit oculos). The only thing this line could use, is a nominative plural referring to the men (the last plural, ingentes, referred to the women) and, if possible, beginning with v- (which would account for its omission before velut). This makes viri not a bad guess. For premere so used cf. also 1.757f. leo . . . rictu . . . genas et lumina pressit, Luc. 8.615. velut agmina cemant Eumenidum: from Verg. Aen. 4.469 Eumenidum veluti demens videt agmina Pentheus. Again (cf. 19 Iff.), the Lemnian women are compared to Furies. For the exaggerated agmina (there were only three Furies) see Langen ad loc., Austin on Aen. 6.572. For velut with the subjunctive see KS 2.453.6, Sz. 675. Other Valerian examples are 4.686f., 7.213, 607L, 8.455ff. ferrumve super Bellona coruscet: ‘or (as if) Bellona brandished her sword over their heads’; cf. [Sen.] HO 13 Ilf. me stricto p e ta t/ Bellonaferro. Bellona was the Roman goddess of war. In 296 B.C. a temple was vowed to her by Appius Claudius Caecus (cf. Liv. 10.19.17). It was erected in the Campus Martius, near the Circus Flaminius, and its position outside the pomerium made it a suitable place for the senate to receive people who were not allowed to enter the city. For this temple see further Ov. Fast. 6.201-8. Here, as in 1.546 and 3.60, Bellona clearly is her original self, a war goddess, but 7.635f. qualis ubi attonitos maestae Phrygas annua M atris/ ira vel exsectos lacerat Bellona comatos is one of those passages that bear witness to her identification with the Cappadocian goddess Ma, who was brought to Rome under Sulla and whose rites much resembled those of the Magna Mater. For this Bellona cf. Tib. 1.6.43-56 (with Smith’s note). For Furies and Bellona mentioned together cf. Verg. Aen. 8.701ff., Sen. Ag. 8Iff., Petr. 124.255f., Sii. 4.436ff. ferrum . . . coruscet: transitive coruscare is Vergilian (Aen. 5.642, 8.661, 10.651, 12.431, 887, 919). Elsewhere Valerius uses the verb intransitively: cf. 1.703,4.670, 5.304. 229f. hoc soror, hoc coniunx propiorque hoc nata parensque/ saeva valet. In itself this need not mean more than that the men who had come back from Thrace were attacked by all kinds of relatives, and lines 230-2 even seem to

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confirm this interpretation, but the words are more likely to imply that no member of the male population was spared, which, indeed, is substantiated by the sequel, as well as by the parallel stories in AR 1 and Stat. Theb. 5. Unlike Apollonius (618f.), Valerius and Statius give no reason for the ‘total war’, but in the Thebaid the reader is at least prepared for it by lines 148ff. and 159ff., whereas here it rather comes out of the blue. The beginning of 229 calls to mind Verg. Aen. 1.47 et soror et coniunx. For the triple anaphora of hoc cf. Aen. 5.73f. hoc Hefymus facit, hoc aevi maturus Acestes,/ hoc puer Ascanius. hoc . . . valet: for valere with an internal accusative cf. e.g. Ov. Her. 8.6 cetera femineae non valuere manus. propior: ‘closer of kin’, cf. e.g. Cic. Quinci. 97 per ipsius coniugem et liberos, quibus propior P. Quinctio nemo est. saeva valet: for the ‘cacenphaton’ see on 86 chaos ostendens. 23Off. prensosque toris mactatque trahitque/ femineum genus, immanes quos sternere Bessi/ nec Geticae potuere manus aut aequoris irae. The pattern ‘having survived all kinds of dangers, x meets an unexpected end’ is topical. Meyncke (1867) compares Soph. El. 95ff. ττατέρ’, δν κατά μέυ βάρβαρον α ία ν / φοίυιος ’Άρης οΰκ έξένισεν,/ μήτηρ δ’ ήμή χώ κοιυολεχής/ Αϊγισθος σχίζουσι κάρα φονίω ττελέκει, where we find the femme fatale again. Cf. also id. Tr. 1058ff., and especially [Sen.] Oct. 41ff. en qui Britannis primus imposuit iugum,/ ignota tantis classibus texit freta/ interque gentes barbaras tutus fu it/e t saeva maria, coniugis scelere occidit. In other cases the end is not brought about by a woman, but still unexpected, as in Hor. Epod. 16.3ff. (cf. Fraenkel, Horace, 50, n.3), Verg. Aen. 2.196ff. capti . . . dolis lacrimisque coactis/ quos neque Tydides nec Larisaeus Achilles,/ non anni domuere decem, non mille carinae, 12.544f. occidis, Argivae quem non potuere phalanges/ sternere nec Priami regnorum eversor Achilles, Luc. 10.454ff. Cf. also Rhet. Her. 4.66 (Rome) quam dolis malitiosa Kartago . . . labefactare non potuit, eam patimini nunc ab homunculis deterrumis proteri atque conculcari? Statius imitates Valerius twice in his Lemnian episode: cf. Theb. 5.172ff. miseri, quos non aut horrida virtus/ Marte sub Odrysio aut medii inclementia ponti/ hauserit (where, as in our passage, the dangers of both Thrace and the sea are referred to), 305ff. mactatque trahitque: perhaps an echo of Verg. Aen. 9.339ff. impastus ceu . . . leo . . . manditque trahitque/ molle pecus. For doubled -que see on 14 velumque fretumque.

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mactare meaning simply ‘to kill’ is quite common. Cf. especially Luc. 10.37^ crudelem . . . toris dominam mactemus in ipsis/ cum quocumque viro, where tj^ situation is not dissimilar to ours. See further Fordyce on Aen. 7.93. For the repeated metrical pattern of lines 228-30 (three times dsds) see 158ff. femineum genus: cf. Verg. Aen. 9.142, Sen. Phaed. 687; for the adjective ^ such (also in 1.318,4.603,5.627) see Austin on Aen. 2.584. immanes . . . Bessi nec Geticae . . . manus: like the Getae (see on 204ff.), the Bessi were a Thracian people, and a tough one at that: Ammianus calls them ^ gens durissima (27.4.11), and Pompey must have been glad to have them on his side (cf. Caes. BC 3.4.6). See further Heeren 63f. For the juxtaposition of the two tribes Langen compares Ov. Tr. 3.10.5 and 4.1.67. Suppression of the first nec (‘neither the Bessi nor the G etae’) is not found ip poetry before Valerius, and perhaps not in pre-Valerian prose either: KS (2.562) mention Cic. Q.fr. 3.1.18, Cael. Fam. 8.13.2, Liv. 5.12.5, Veil. 2.45.1, Val. Max. 6.9, ext.7, in all of which passages neque or nec is usually added by editors (see also Sz. 517). What is rather remarkable, given the rareness of the phenomenon, is that Valerius omits the first nec again in 6.518f. cuius vibrantem comminus hastam/ cernere nec galeam gentes potuere minantem. 233£f. it eruor in thalamis et anhela in pectore fum ant/ vulnera seque toris misero luctamine trunci/ devolvunt, it eruor in thalamis: it Sabellicus: his ω. Unlike most of their predecessors, Courtney and Ehlers keep the reading of the mss., but I do not see how this can possibly be correct: his cannot be a dative, for even if his cruor (sc. est) in thalamis is Latin for ‘their blood is in the chambers’ (which I doubt), the emphasis on ‘their’ would be preposterous (who else’s blood could it be?); nor can it be an ablative, again because of the emphasis (Valerius does not mention the presence of other things in other thalami), his must have arisen from a misunderstanding of the run of lines 230ff.: someone took immanes in 231 to start a new sentence, could not, as a result, make anything of it, and therefore changed it to his. For it cruor cf. 6.723f. largus . . . cadentum/ it cruor, Verg. Aen. 9.433f. volvitur Euryalus leto, pulchrosque per artus/it cruor. anhela in pectore fumant vulnera: anhela is translated ‘bubbling’ by Mozley, and interpreted as ‘reeking’ by the OLD (2b), but in the absence of close parallels for either of these meanings, I would prefer to take it as ‘causing breathlessness’, with the TLL (II.67.61ff.; cf. OLD 3), or else consider this to be

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a case of enallage, for anhelo in pectore (anhelo was in fact conjectured by the editio princeps and enjoyed quite some popularity). For fumant, ‘steam’, cf. e.g. Verg. Aen. 8.106 tepidus . . . eruor fumabat ad aras, Stat. Theb. 11.81. For the framing of a line by two verbs (it - fumant) see on 161. se . . . toris . . . trunci devolvunt: trunci is either adjectival (‘mutilated, they roll themselves from their beds’), or substantival (‘trunks roll themselves from the beds’, which sounds even more ghastly). For devolvunt cf. Ov. Met. 7.574 corpora devolvunt in humum, Sen. Ep. 99.16 lectulo devolvuntur, for the verb as such see on 87ff. misero luctamine: ‘in a pitiful struggle’, i.e. to get away. luctamen is a very rare word: before Valerius, who has it again in 3.39 and 6.5 lOf. saevam misero luctamine versant/ congeriem (of people buried half-dead under a pile of corpses), it occurs only twice, once in Vergil (Aen. 8.89 remo ut luctamen abesset) and once in the Aetna (375f. saepe . . . congeries claudit . . . vias luctamine ab imo, where see Goodyear). The prose word is luctatio. For the repeated metrical pattern of lines 232-4 (three times ddds) see on 158ff. 235f. diras aliae ad fastigia taedas/ iniciunt adduntque domos; The throwing of torches to the roofs of houses is traditional: cf. Verg. Aen. 2.478 flammas ad culmina iactant (of Troy), 8.491 ignem ad fastigia iactant (of Mezentius’ palace), 9.568 ardentis taedas alii ad fastigia iactant (of a Trojan stronghold; the model of our passage), Stat. Theb. 10.528f. pars ad fastigia missas/ exsultant haesisse faces (of Thebes). Less traditional is the expression inicere ad. In fact, it occurs only here and in Rufin. Hist. Mon. 7, p.411A iniecta manu ad cervices suas. The construction with the dative is the usual one: cf. e.g. Liv. 25.39.3 pars semisomnos hostes caedunt, pars ignes casis stramento arido tectis iniciunt, pars portas occupant ut fugam intercludant, a passage strikingly similar to ours. For Valerius’ sometimes remarkable combinations of verb and preposition see Kleywegt (ANRW) 2469f. It is, incidentally, only now that we learn that at least some of the women had not gone inside. diras . . . taedas: cf. 8.399 tam dira incendia, Stat. Silv. 4.6.79 dira . . . Romuleis portantem incendia tectis. addunt . . . domos: addunt and, to a lesser extent, domos have often been suspected, but the text is sound: the women ‘destroy not only their husbands, but their homes also’ (Summers). Cf. 1.824f. te, puer, . . . visa pallentem morte

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parentum/ diripiunt adduntque tuis, and, even more, Verg. Aen. 2.659ff. si . . periturae . . . addere Troiae/ teque tuosque iuvat, where the order is reversed^ Of course, the absence of a dative in our passage makes things less easy, bu* the context makes it sufficiently clear to what, or rather to whom, the houses are ‘added’. 2361£ pars ignibus atris/ effugiunt propere, sed dura in limine coniunx/ obsidet et viso repetunt incendia ferro. pars: of the men, this time. Bährens, who could be very unimaginative, inserted pars inde virorum/ consumpta in somno flammis between domos and pars, but, as Langen remarks, ‘quid altera parte factum sit, sua sponte apparet, quare non opus erat id addere’. ignibus atris effugiunt: the ablative is usually considered to be separative (Langen compares PI. Mer. 660 patria hac effugiam; cf. also Lucr. 2.44f. timefactae religiones/ effugiunt animo pavidae, 4.4If.), but it might equally well denote ‘the space through which’, as probably in Stat. Theb. 10.95L ipse profundis/ vallibus effugiens . . . amnis. Cf. also 413 below: mediis refugit pater anxius umbris. For the line-ending ignibus atris cf. Verg. Aen. 11.186, Ov. Fast. 2.561, Luc. 2.299,3.98, Stat. Theb. 6.81. See also Pease on Aen. 4.384. propere: rare in epic poetry (in Valerius only here and in 5.426), with the exception of Silius. See also Hàkanson 1986, 48. dura. . . coniunx: cf. Verg. Aen. 10.44L obsidet: Valerius probably has in mind Ov. Met. 4.488ff. monstris exterrita coniunx,/ territus est Athamas tectoque exire parabant:/ obstitit infelix aditumque obsedit Erinys, where we find exactly the same situation: people trying to get out of their house, and a Fury (cf. 227f. above) preventing them from doing so. Note, however, that Valerius, while taking over the verb obsidere, gave it the meaning of obstare, ‘to stand in one’s way, form a barrier’. For this meaning of the verb, not recognized by the OLD, cf. Sii. 1.200f. (in the east Africa is bounded by the Nile; in the northwest) Europes videt arva . . .; ultra obsidet aequor/ nec patitur nomen proferri longius Atlas, where ultra obsidet aequor to all appearance means ‘beyond that, the ocean stands in its way, forms a barrier’ (Delz takes Atlas as subject of obsidet, but I do not see what Atlas obsidet aequor should mean). Cf. also Verg. Aen. 2.485 (of the Trojans, who are also trapped like rats) armatos . . . vident stantis in limine primo (shortly after 478 flammas ad culmina iactant).

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239f. ast aliae Thressas, labem causamque furoris,/ diripiunt; ast: in early Latin the word introduced the second clause in a protasis (cf. e.g. Lex Reg. (Font. iur. p.14) si parentem puer verberit, ast olle plorassit, puer divis parentum sacer esto), but at least from Vergil and Horace onward (earlier instances are more or less doubtful) it is used as a synonym of at. A remarkable use of the word is made by Cicero in Leg. 3.10f., where it repeatedly introduces a single protasis (‘but if . . and by Livy in 10.19.17 Bellona, si hodie nobis victoriam duis, ast ego tibi templum voveo, where it is the apodosis which is thus introduced. Valerius has the word 17 times, always before a vowel, usually before a pronoun or ubi (12 times), sometimes before a noun (3 times). All this is in accordance with classical rule, but 8.255 ast inde and 363 ast inter are not: ast followed by an adverb or a preposition is not found before Valerius. For Vergilian practice and for literature on this subject see Austin on Aen. 2.467, Norden on 6.316, Fordyce on 7.308. See also KS 2.88.12f., Sz. 489. Thressas: see on 13If. labem: ‘the cause of the disaster’ (OLD 2b). In 3.377 causas labemque docebo the word simply means ‘disaster’, causas and labem forming a hendiadys. furoris: furoris Carrio: furorum Vat, B-1474: furorem ω. Carrio’s correction was adopted by all subsequent editors, until Bury switched over to furorum. He was followed by Kramer, Courtney and Ehlers. furorum may seem preferable, because paleographically closer to furorem, but if furorem is due to the inadvertence of a scribe, who, having written three accusatives in a row, unthinkingly added a fourth, the word may equally well conceal furoris. Indeed, the odds are that that is what Valerius wrote, causa furoris being found again and again (cf. Verg. Aen. 5.788, Liv. 28.27.11, Ov. Met. 14.16, Fast. 4.246, al.), whereas causa furorum does not occur elsewhere. diripiunt: ‘tear to pieces’, like maenads. Cf. PI. Mer. 469 Pentheum diripuisse aiiunt Bacchas, Ov. Met. 3.731, lb. 597f. Valerius uses the verb similarly in 1.813 and 825. 240f. mixti gemitus clamorque precantum/ barbarus ignotaeque implebant aethera voces. mixti: cf. Luc. 3.540 innumerae vasto miscentur in aethere voces, Stat. Theb. 8.722 clamorem Aonii miscent gemitumque Pelasgi. gemitus . . . voces: as it was in the beginning: cf. 210.

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242-305. What can I say that is worthy of you, Hypsipyle, the only one pious among so many sinners? - The princess hastens to her father, king Thoas, ami hurries him along to the temple of Bacchus, where she hides him under the god’s statue. The next morning Hypsipyle disguises Thoas as Bacchus and places hiin u· a chariot, after which they leave the city and make for the woods. There t!ie old man remains for a few days, until Hypsipyle, realizing that this solution can only be temporary, entrusts him to the sea, in a mouldered boat. Nevertheless· Thoas safefy reaches the land of the Tauri, where he is appointed priest of Diana. The introductory apostrophe of Hypsipyle in 242-6 balances lines 2 \ 6-9. Valerius thus neatly opposes the two sides of the picture. For apostrophe in Valerius see on 79ff. 242ft Sed tibi nunc quae digna tuis ingentibus ausis/ orsa feram , decus ef patriae laus una ruentis,/ Hypsipyle? Cf. Verg. Aen. 9.252t (Aletes to Nisus and Euryalus) quae vobis, quae digna, viri, pro laudibus istis/ praemia posse rear solvi?. Stat. Theb. 3.102ff. (another apostrophe) quo carmine dignam,/ quo satis ore tuis famam virtutibus addam ,/ auguramate deis? quae. . . orsa feram?: orsa Heinsius: ora ω. ora itself is perhaps not impossible (cf. Man. 2.57 nostra loquar, nulli vaturn debebimus ora, where editors usually read orsa with Dulcinius), but in view oi the possible ambiguity of the phrase ora feram (cf. Verg. Aen. 3.490 sic oculos, sic ille manus, sic ora ferebat) and of the fact that Valerius has orsa ferre in 5.470 tedia miranti propius tulit orsa tyranno (compare Verg. Aen. 7.435f. hic iuvenis vatem inridens sic orsa vicissim/ ore refert, 11.124), I am inclined to side with the majority of editors since Thilo (only Bury and Kramer keep ora). orsa feram may simply be a periphrasis for dicam, just as dicta ferunt in 4.330 is one for dicunt (for other periphrases with ferre see Langen’s overwhelming note on 282 below), but perhaps Valerius considers the words he is about to utter as a reward to Hypsipyle for courage shown (cf. Verg. Aen. 9.252f., quoted above; forferre so used cf. Aen. 1.603ff. di tibi. . . praemia digna ferant). orsa, “words’, occurs first in Verg. Aen. 7.435 (quoted above). Valerius uses it in the same sense in 5.470 (also quoted above), but in 1.20f. nunc nostra serenus/ orsa iuves, 5.195 and 291 it means ‘undertakings’, as perhaps already in Verg.Aen. 10.632 in melius tua. . . orsa reflectas!

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digna tuis ingentibus ausis: a second reminiscence of the Nisus and Euryalus episode: cf. Aen. 9.296 (Ascanius to Euryalus) sponde digna tuis ingentibus omnia coeptis. For ingens ausum cf. 4.295 ingentis conscius ausi, 5.313f. quod primum ingentibus ausis/ optavistis, Ov. Met. 7.178, al. Daring (cf. 264 audacia, 280 ausi) and pietas (see on 249 pias armata manus) are Hypsipyle’s main characteristics. decus et patriae laus una mentis: ‘the sole glory and renown of your falling country’. The application of decus to persons is as old as Plautus (himself linguae Latinae decus: Gell. 19.8.6), cf. As. 655 custos erilis, decu’ popli, thensaurus copiarum, and frequent in poetry and prose alike. With his nine instances Valerius is no exception: cf. 1.56 (the rather bare i, decus), 114, 2.611, 3.523, 4.162 (coupled with gloria), 630, 5.378, 8.37. Here he may have in mind Verg. Aen. 11.508f. (Turnus to Camilla) o decus Italiae virgo, quas dicere grates/ quasve referre parem? Cf. also Sen. Tro. 766 (Andromache to Astyanax) o dulce pignus, o decus lapsae domus. laus is much less frequently so used, but cf. Ov. Pont. 4.6.9 Fabiae laus, Maxime, gentis. In Eleg. Maec. 1.18 we find the same combination as here: tu decus et laudes huius et huius eras. patriae . . . mentis: Lemnos is falling to min. For this metaphorical use of mere, cf., with patria, Luc. 9.385, Sen. Oed. 73, Ag. 611. See also Nisbet-Hubbard on Hor. Od. 1.2.25L quem vocet divum populus mentis/ imperi rebus? 244ff. non ulla meo te carmine dictam/ abstulerint, durent Latiis modo saecula fastis/ Diacique lares tantique palatia regni. For the third time in a few lines Valerius uses the Nisus and Euryalus episode: cf. Aen. 9.446ff. Fortunati ambo! si quid mea carmina possunt,/ nulla dies umquam memori vos eximet aevo,/ dum domus Aeneae Capitoli immobile saxum/ accolet imperiumque pater Romanus habebit. The similarities are self-evident (‘song’, ‘time’, ‘Rome’), but it should be noted that Vergil’s modesty with regard to the power of his song (si quid . . . possunt) has made way for self-assurance on Valerius’ part, who, on the other hand, by substituting modo (‘provided that’) for dum (‘as long as’) seems to show less confidence in the idea of Roma aetema than the maestro. For the topic cf. also Hor. Od. 3.30.7ff. usque ego postera/ crescam laude recens, dum Capitolium/ scandet cum tacita virgine pontifex, Ov. Am . 1.15.25f. Tityrus et fmges Aeneiaque arma legentur,/ Roma triumphati dum caput orbis erit, Luc. 9.980ff. (with 984 durabunt), Stat. Theb. 10.445f., Sil. 4.397ff.

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O n ly here and in the dedication does [V alerius] sp ecifica lly identify himself a* a R om an p oet addressing a R om an audience’ (S h reeves 119). non u lla . . . te . . . abstulerint . . . saecula: for abstulerint cf. Lucr. 1.4671

quando ea saecla hominum . . . irrevocabilis abstulerit iam praeterita aetas, Mart. 11.69.7 non me longa dies nec inutilis abstulit aetas: as a literary figut® H ypsipyle w ill never die. Cf. also Liv. 28.29.4 auferat omnia im ita oblivio. A s so often in poetry, the future p erfect is hardly d istin gu ishab le from a sim ple future: cf. 4.241 manserit (follow ed by feres in 2 4 2 ), 5.207 defuerint, 7.95

defuerit, 274 viderit, 339 videris. Two relevant V erg ilia n exam ples are Aeri. 9.28 lf. me nulla dies tam fortibus au sis/ dissimilem arguerit and 10.333f. non ullum (sc. telum) dextera frustra/ torserit in Rutulos. S ee further KS 1.147A S z.323. The distribution o f ulla and saecula over th e m ain and su bordin ate clause resp· is striking and not easily paralleled, but Sandström ’s L atii . . . fasti, with commas around saecula, adopted by C ourtney and m en tion ed by E h lers in his app* crit., only shifts the problem , because the resulting w ord ord er w ou ld b e equally unparalleled. m eo te carmine dictam: cf. V erg. G. 2.95 quo te carmine dicam? durent Latiis m odo saecula fastis: ‘provided that th e cen tu ries w ill last on (ί·β· w ill continue to b e recorded on) th e L atin calendar’. F or th e thought cf. Luc. 3.309 comprensa est Latiis quaecumque annalibus aetas. F or fa sti Latii cf. Luc. 2.645, Sil. 16.131, al. I lia c i. . . lares: ‘the Trojan g od s’, rather than ‘th e h om es from Ilium founded’ (M ozley). The gods brought by A eneas from Troy to Italy are u su ally referred to as

penates (cf. Verg. Aen. 1.68 Ilium in Italiam portans victosque penatis, al.), hut V ergil him self m entions the Lar Pergameus in Aen. 5.744. C f. a lso Luc. 9.99If· Aeneae . . . mei, quos nunc Lavinia sed es/ servat et Alba, lares, S tat. Silv. 4.5.2 qua prisca Teucros Alba colit lares. For Iliacus used in this connection cf. Ο ν. Fast. 1.527f. iam piu s Aeneas sacru

et, sacra altera, patrem/adferet; Iliacos accipe, Vesta, deosl, 4.7 7 f. palatia: ‘palaces’. The Palatium, Palatine H ill, w as th e site o f th e house of Augustus (cf. Suet. Aug. 29.3, 57.2) and o f th ose o f la ter em perors, and so the word cam e to m ean ‘im perial residence, p alace’, first, it w ou ld seem , in our passage, and then in Statius (Silv. 1.1.34, 4.1.8). It has b e e n argued, by K· Z iegler (R E 18.2A.7.64ff.), S. Viarre ( Palatium , p alais, R P h 35 (1 9 6 1 ) 241-8) and others, that the word is already so used by O vid, b u t in ea ch o f th e passages

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adduced (Ars 3.119, Met. 1.176, Tr. 1.1.69, 3.1.31, 4.2.3, Pont. 2.8.17) the translation ‘Palatine’ is unobjectionable. 2471 Inruerant actae pariter nataeque nurusque/ totaque iam sparsis exarserat insula monstris; inruerant: cf. Verg. Aen. 2.757 inruerant Danai et tectum omne tenebant. The pluperfect takes us back to where we were before the apostrophe and so performs the same function as aditus in 220, where see note. actae: cf. 215 agit. pariter nataeque nurusque: ‘daughters and daughters-in-law side by side’. The two groups are not chosen at random: they are representatives of the second generation, just like Hypsipyle. Doubled -que (see on 14 velumque fretumque) is often used to link words for relatives: cf., in Valerius, 1.150 natosque patresque, 739 natumque nurumque, 6.127 natusque parensque, 7.101 natamque patremque, 8.141 matresque nurusque. Cf. also Stat. Theb. 5.200f. (the Lemnian episode) vigilant nuptaeque nurusque/ in

scelus. For pariter -que -que cf. 8.2 pariter furiaeque minaeque, 281, Ον. Fast. 2.437

pariter nuptaeque virique, and see Börner on Met. 5.267. tota . . . iam sparsis exarserat insula monstris: ‘the whole island had become aflame with atrocities scattered far and wide’. The OLD lists this instance of exardescere under 4b ‘(of events) to break out, flare up’, together with, for instance, Cic. Lig. 3 bellum subito exarsit, but a separate sub-section, headed ‘(w. abl.) to become aflame (with)’, would have been better: compare on the one hand Tac. Hist. 2.66 proelium atrox arsisset (under

ardeo 8 ‘(of emotions, disturbances, etc.) to be or become violent, rage, flare up’), and on the other Verg. Aen. 7.643f. quibus Itala . . . terra . . . arserit armis (under ardeo 9 ‘(of countries, situations, etc.) to be disturbed or upset, be in a turmoil (with war, etc.)’). Perhaps the literal meaning of the word also glimmers through (cf. 235ff.). For monstra ‘atrocities’ see on 217f.; for the ‘Golden Line’ 248 see on 6f. For the story of Hypsipyle and Thoas, now about to be told, cf. Stat. Theb. 5.240-95. 249ff. illa pias armata manus Tuge protinus urbem / meque, pater, non hostis,’ ait ‘non moenia la esi/ Thraces habent: nostrum hoc facinus; ne quaere, quis auctor.

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pias annata manus: together with courage (see on 242 digna tuis ingerii ausis), pietas will prove to be Hypsipyle’s most salient characteristic (cf. ^55 piorum, 264 piis, 310 piae, 411 pios). At this point, however, the epithfig .s somewhat premature, in the light of fuge. . . me and 252 dubiae. . . mentis. Valerius must be hinting at pius Aeneas, who also rescued his father, can>;ne him into safety on umeri pii (Prop. 4.1.44). At the same time he does S(w borrowing from the strange Polydorus episode in Aeneid 3: cf. 41f. (Polydoruj* Aeneas) iam parce sepulto,/ parce pias scelerare manus, 44 heu fuge . terras, fuge litus avarum. For the retained accusative see on 103 crinem subnectitur. meque: emphatically at the beginning of the line. non moenia laesi Thraces habent: ‘it is not the Thracians who, becal)se wronged, have seized the city walls’, an echo of Verg. Aen. 2.289L (H ector {0 Aeneas) ‘heu fuge, nate dea, teque his’ ait ‘eripe flam m is./ hostis habet mur0s> Cf. also VF 3.45 hostis habet portus. For laesi cf. e.g. Liv. 5.27.7 qui, nec laesi nec lacessiti a nobis, castra Ronui,ia . . . oppugnarunt. Bährens’ laeti appealed to Mozley, but laesi is essential: t)le Thracians at least had reasons to be hostile. facinus: Ovid, Lucan and Statius did not mind using the word, but in the otl|er epic poets it is extremely rare: Valerius and Silius have it only once, and Vet-gj] not at all. ne quaere, quis auctor: ‘don’t ask me who is behind all this’. In the Theb;'c;c; Hypsipyle does give Thoas an account of what has happened, trepido ordine, hllt an account nevertheless (5.244f.). For ne quaere cf. Verg. Aen. 6.614. ne followed by an imperative is an archaism, introduced into epic by Vergil, and after him very common in the genre (thirteen times in Valerius). In prose it is very rare, but cf. e.g. Liv. 3 . 2.9 ne timete. See further KS 1.202.1b, Sz. 340d. quis auctor comes from Verg. Aen. 2.150 (Priamus to Sinon) quo molem hanc immanis equi statuere? quis auctor? For the ellipse of sit see on 66ff. 252f. iam fuge, iam dubiae donum rape mentis, et ensem / tu potius, miserere, tene.’ The repetition of fuge and the anaphora of iam serve to underline the thought “when you still have the chance’. For anaphora as a closure device at the end of a speech see Barich 29, with n.46, who compares 1.566, 723f., 2.298f., 422,

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3.271f., 4.242f., 5.515f., 647, 6.486, 548f., 597, 7.75f., 290, 386f., 485f., 8.54, 284, 44 If. dubiae donum rape mentis: ‘seize the gift of a wavering mind’. Hypsipyle still hesitates between killing her father and letting him escape. Burman compares Hor. Od. 3.8.27 dona praesentis cape (v.l. rape) laetus horae. ensem tu potius, miserere, tene: miserere has been objected to because of the recurrence of the word in 256 and/or its meaning here (Courtney and Ehlers adopt Heinsius’ miser, oro; see further Giarratano’s app. crit.), but I have no doubt that the word is sound. The repetition aptly stresses Hypsipyle’s pietas both towards her biological father Thoas and towards Father Bacchus, and the outburst itself is very much in place too: Hypsipyle begs Thoas to hold her sword, so as to prevent her from doing something against her nature. Besides, the whole phrase seems to be intended as a (curious) echo of Verg. Aen. ΥΙΠΊΉ. Faune, precor, miserere . . . tuque optima ferrum/ Terra tene (Turnus’ prayer when Aeneas’ spear has become stuck in the root of the oleaster sacred to Faunus). For the juxtaposition of parenthetic miserere and a second imperative cf. Aur. Fro. 2.1 v.d. Hout cura, miserere,. . . omnem istam. . . valetudinem depellere. For ensis /gladius see on 66ff. 253ff. tunc excipit artus/ obnubitque caput tacitumque ad conscia Bacchi/ templa rapit exdpit artus: ‘she catches his body’ (as he falls). Things have become too much for the old king, and he has fainted. The reaction is conventional: cf. 1.348f. sic ait. ille (i.e. Jason) suo conlapsam pectore matrem/ sustinuit magnaque senem cervice recepit, Verg. Aen. 4.391f. suscipiunt famulae (sc. Dido) conlapsaque membra/ marmoreo referunt thalamo, 8.583f., and, with excipere, Ov. Her. 2.130 linquor et ancillis excipienda cado, Luc. 5.799. We find both excipere and artus in Ov. Met. 10.186, 12.423, but in these passages dying persons are concerned. Note that Valerius, very characteristically (cf. Langen 8f.), does not mention the fainting itself. obnubit . . . caput: apparently to disguise him (cf. Ov. Met. 4.93ff. Thisbe/ egreditur fallitque suos adopertaque vultum/ pervenit ad tumulum), but one wonders whether the trick would have worked, if they had been seen by anyone. obnubere is a very rare verb: before Valerius it is confined to Varro (L. 5.72), Cicero (Rab. Perd. 13, in the formula caput obnubito, arbori infelici suspendito),

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Livy (1.26.6, 11, in similar formulae) and Vergil {Aen. 11.77 arsuras . · . comas obnubit amictu). Valerius himself has it again in 5.97 and 7.584. ad conscia Bacchi templa: which was the obvious place to go, as Bacchus was Thoas’ father: cf. AR 4.424ff., Ov. Her. 6.114f., Stat. Theb. 5.266. According to Homer {II. 7.467f.), Lemnos was a wine-producing country. conscia, ‘privy1, is proleptic: ‘templa tum demum conscia fiunt, cum pater et filia introierunt’ (Langen). For conscius applied to things cf. e.g. 410 servati genitoris conscia sacra, Ov. Her. 19.180 fac modo polliciti conscia templa colas, and see Shreeves 68ff. rapit: ‘hurries along’; cf. 288f. huc genitorem . . . praecipitem silvis rapit, 649. Statius uses the same verb in the same context in Theb. 5.34ff. ilia ego . . . raptum quae sola parentem/ occului. For Ov. Met. 6.598 germanam . . ■ rapit see on 265ff. 255ft primoque manus a limine tendens/ ‘exime nos sceleri, pater, e t miserere piorum/ rursus’ a it Hypsipyle is standing on the threshold of the temple, stretching out her hands towards the god’s statue. manus . . . tendens: the gesture of the supplex: cf., in Valerius, 1.80 tendens . . . pias ad sidera palmas, 3.327, 6.304, 7.270, and see Börner on Met. 3.404, 6.279. exime nos sceleri: ‘save, exempt me from this crime’, i.e. from killing my father, cf. Quint. Inst. 4.2.74 {eos) semper . . . eum habuisse animum . . . ut occidere patrem non possent, neque enim iure turando opus fuisse, si alioqui hoc mentis habuissent, nec sorte, nisi quod se quisque eximi voluerit (i.e. from killing their father). This prayer, which recalls Myrrha’s in Ov. Met. 10.32If. di, precor, . . . hoc prohibete nefas scelerique resistite nostro, is somewhat unexpected, as lines 253ff. had given the impression that Hypsipyle was already determined to save Thoas. pater: Bacchus this time; cf. e.g. Enn. seen. 120 Joe., Verg. G. 2.4 pater o Lenaee, Hor. Od. 1.18.6 Bacche pater. See further Lucil. 19ff., Langen ad loc., Bömer on Met. 13.669. miserere piorum rursus: ‘have pity again on thy faithful servants’. Many words have been spent on rursus: J.A. Wagner saw an allusion to some unknown benefaction conferred by Bacchus on Thoas, somewhere in the past, Burman to the rescue by Bacchus of Thoas’ mother Ariadne, and Langen despairingly suggested pronus (others again oddly connect rursus ait).

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The three commentators seem to have made the same mistake, in that they concentrated on one meaning of rursus (‘again’ in the sense of ‘in repetition of an action, a second time’, OLD 3), without contemplating the possibility of that other meaning of the word (‘again’, ‘in reversal of a situation or process, so as to restore things as they were before’, OLD 2), which must be its meaning here: seeing death and destruction all around her, Hypsipyle has come to the conclusion that the gods in general, and their ‘own’ Bacchus in particular, have turned away from them, and she therefore asks him to have pity again. 257f. tacita pavidum tunc sede locavit/ sub pedibus dextraque dei; tacita . . . sede: in view of what evidently was Valerius’ model, Verg. Aen. 2.525 (Hecuba) sacra longaevum in sede locavit (i.e. on the altar), sede is ‘spot’, rather than ‘shrine’ (Mozley). The words are explained by sub pedibus dextraque dei. For the expression cf. 5.333 tacitis in sedibus. sub pedibus dextraque dei: from Verg. Aen. 2.2261 (Laocoon’s snakes, seeking protection) saevae . . . petunt Tritonidis arcem,/ sub pedibusque deae clipeique sub orbe teguntur. As in the Aeneid passage (cf. Servius ad loc.), sub first means ‘at’, and then ‘under’: Thoas is sitting on the ground (or on the plinth of the statue), at the feet of the god, and under his (outstretched) right hand. 258f. latet ille receptus/ veste sacra. ‘There he hides, sheltered under (the folds of) the sacred robe’, which seems to be hanging down from the god’s right hand. As 265f. patii . . . vestes . . . Lyaei/ induit shows, Valerius is not thinking of a sculptured robe, but of a real one, like the peplos put on Athena’s statue in the Parthenon during the Panathenaea (cf. Happle 26, n.l). Compare Prop. 4.1.117f. victor Oiliade, rape nunc et dilige vatem ,/ quam vetat avelli veste Minerva sua! (the story of Ajax and Cassandra). For receptus, ‘sheltered’, cf. OLD recipio 1, and compare receptus 3 (‘a place for shelter, refuge’). 259f. voces chorus et trieterica reddunt/ aera sonum fixaeque fremunt in limine tigres. Cf. Ov. Met. 9.782ff. visa dea est movisse suas (et moverat) aras,/ et templi tremuere fores imitataque lunam / cornua fulserunt crepuitque sonabile sistrum (after Telethusa’s prayer to Isis, with 780 miserere duarum), Sil. 17.41ff. fremitus

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. . . leonum/ audiri visus subito, et graviora per auras/ nuUa pulsa manu

sonuerunt tympana divae (after Claudia’s prayer to Cybele). The musical instruments starting to play of their own accord (also in Ovid and Silius), the roaring of the animals (also in Silius), the voices of the chorus (only here), it all symbolizes Bacchus’ promise to help Hypsipyle and Thoas (c£ aim

fausto. . . omine in Met. 9.785). chorus: this is unexpected and rather difficult. T he word cannot refer ft Bacchus’ retinue of maenads (cf. e.g. Prop. 3.17.22, Ov. Met. 11.86), not only because there would be little supernatural about m aenads making themselves heard, but also, more importantly, because the whole point of the operation is that it is executed in secret, without any witnesses. Courtney subscribes to Renkema’s view (26f.) that Valerius does not mean real maenads, but statues of maenads, and of satyrs (see also Kramer’s app. eft) This may be the correct interpretation, although in that case I would prefer to think of satyrs alone (compare the Satyr in the tem ple of Vesta in Tarentum (Cic. Ver, 4.135), and the Marsyas by Myron, as well as the one on the Forum Romanum (Hor. Sat. 1.6.120)). But perhaps we should not ask too many questions and leave the whole thing a mystery (cf. Schenkl’s ‘unsichtbarer Chor’ (SB 365)). Waardenburg’s tholus (ap. Schenkl 1883) was adopted by Dureau, Bührens, Langen and Mozley, but, unlike cymbals and tigresses, a tholus, either ‘the round temple’ (Mart. 1.70.10) or ‘the domed roof, where offerings were suspended (iSIt Verg. Am. 9.408), is not something typical of Bacchus, and the word does not go very well with voces reddunt. trieterica . . . aera: ‘the triennial bronzes’, i.e. the (bronze) cymbals used during the triennial (we would say *biennial’) festival o f Bacchus on Mt Cithaeron. For the adjective cf. e.g. 623f. Ogygii . . . trieterica Bacchi/ sacra, Verg. AtR· 4.302f. trieterica . . . orgia (with Pease’s note), Ov. Met. 6.587 sacra · · ·

trieterica Bacchi (for the context see on 265ff.), and compare Eur. Ba. 132# χορεύματα . . . τριετηρίδων,/ a is χαίρει Διόνυσος. See also Pease on Cic. 3.58. Valerius has transferred the adjective from the festival itself to object used during the festival; Langen aptly compares Aristonous 1.37 τρ ιετία φαναΐς, ‘the triennial torches’, i.e. the torches carried during etc. Valerius mentions these cymbals again in 266, 5.78 and 6.141. They also featured at other festivals, notably that of Cybele: cf. e.g. Prop. 4.7.61, Hor. Oi· 1.16.8. reddunt: ‘give out, produce’ (OLD 16b), as in 1.209 vox reddita tandem. & also, for the statues (?), Tac. Ann. 2.61 Memnonis saxea effigies . . . vocale*

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sonum reddens, and for the musical instruments Hör. Ars 348 neque chorda sonum reddit. fixae . . . frem unt in limine dgres: ‘the fixed tigresses at the entrance roar’. With Heinsius’ fictae, ‘sculptured’, the contrast would have been more marked, but fixae is enough to suggest that the tigresses were statues, not real ones (cf. Sulp. Sev. Dial. 2.3.7 eodem in loco stabantfixa simulacra). For fremere used of the roar of tigers cf. Stat. Theb. 7.584. Vergil applies it to the roar of a wolf (Aen. 9.60) and a lion (Aen. 9.341). Cf. also fremitus . . .

leonum in Sii. 17.41 (quoted above). Bacchus’ tame tigers (or rather, tigresses), symbols of the victory of civilization over barbarity, are first mentioned in Verg. Eel. 5.29ff. Daphnis et

Armenias curru subiungere tigris/ instituit, Daphnis thiasos inducere Bacchi/ et foliis lentas intexere mollibus hastas; cf. also Aen. 6.805, Hor. Od. 3.3.13ff., Ov. Met. 3.668f. quem (i.e. Bacchus) circa tigres simulacraque inania fyncum/ pictarumque iacent fera corpora pantherarum, Sen. Phaed. 755, Stat. Theb. 4.657f. effrenae dextra laevaque sequuntur/ lynces et uda mero lambunt retinacula tigres, 7.564ff., M art 8.26.8. Austin (on Aen. 6.805) refers to J.M.C. Toynbee, Animals in Roman Life and Art, London 1973, 70 for a Saragossa mosaic featuring these animals. The reading tigres, however, is not entirely certain. Scribes seem to have had some trouble with what Valerius wrote (Va has tygues, Vb tygers, S zygues, L

tygres), and Schmiedeberg’s lynces, a more exotic word, and one more likely to have been misread, should not be ruled out altogether (it was adopted by Kramer and Mozley). For Bacchus’ lynxes cf., apart from Ov. Met. 3.668 and Stat. Theb. 4.658 (both quoted above), Verg. G. 3.264 lynces Bacchi variae. Prop. 3.17.8, Ον.

Met. 4.25,15.413. 261ff. regina u t roseis A uroram surgere bigis/ vidit et insomni lassatas turbine tandem/ conticuisse domos, regina u t . . . A uroram surgere . . . vidit: from Verg. Aen. 4.586f. regina e

speculis ut primam albescere lucem/ vidit (cf. A R 3.828f.), following on 585 Aurora. Cf. also Aen. 12.595 regina ut tectis venientem prospicit hostem. In Aeneid 4 (Dido) and 12 (Amata) regjrna means ‘queen’, in our passage ‘princess’, which, however, is common enough (Latin does not have a separate word for ‘princess’): cf. Verg. Aen. 1.273 (R hea Silvia; cf. Servius ad loc.), 6.28 (Ariadne), Stat. Ach. 1.662 (Deidamia), [Sen.] HO 355 (Iole), and, in Valerius, 5.373 and 7.444 (Medea). Similarly, Valerius applies rex in 1.174 to prince Acastus, son of king Pelias.

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For surgere cf. Verg. Aen. 4.129 Oceanum interea surgens A urora reliquit. roseis . . . bigis: Dawn’s ‘rose-coloured carriage-and-pair’ com es from Vergil too: cf. Aen. 7.25f. aethere ab a lto / A urora in roseis fu lgebat lutea bigis. Her two horses are traditional; A en . 6.535f. roseis A urora qu a d rig is/ iam mediteli aetherio cursu traiecerat axem may seem to b e an excep tion to the rule, he* there Dawn has been given a lift by the sun. The moon and the night had bigae as w ell (cf. 295 and 3.211 resp.). For the sun’s chariot see on 34f. H yperionius. . . currus. et insomni lassatas turbine tandem conticuisse dom os: ‘and that the bouset, wearied by the sleepless hurricane, had at last fa llen silen t’: the second part of the A.C.I. is as original as the first part was conventional. insomni turbine refers either to the w om en them selves, w ho, without taking rest, rush into the houses and out again, lik e a hurricane (for turbo applied to A whirling crowd cf. Sil. 15.626f. m it acer a p e rtis/ turbo equitum p o rtis), or to the ‘sleepless’, unremitting, turmoil they bring about (cf. e.g. Sii. 1.41 turbine. · * saevo venientum . . . cladum ). turbo certainly d o es n ot m ean ‘orgiastic dance, which is how the OLD (4) takes it (what orgiastic dance?). The word is a favourite o f Silius’, who has it no less than 56 tim es. conticuisse domos: the expression evidently appealed to Statius: cf. Theb. 5.310 (the same episode) conticuere dom us, 6 A 5 t datum qu otiens intercisoque tumultu/ conticuit stupefacta domus. 2 6 3 t stabilem quando optim a fa cta / dant anim um m aiorque p iis audacia coeptis, One of Valerius’ sententiae, m ost o f which, including 4.622 saepe acri potior prudentia dextra, 744 certa fid es animis, idem qu ibu s in cid it hostis and the one at issue (with certe for quando), found their w ay to th e m edieval anthologies (see on 43ff.). Note the psalm -like repetition o f ideas: anim us stabilis - audacie’, optim a facta - p ia coepta. Juvenal’s women were o f a different breed: cf. 6.94ff. iusta p e r ic li/ si ratio est et honesta, timent pavidoque g ela n tu r/ pectore n ec trem ulis possu nt insistere plantis:/fortem animum praestant rebus quas turpiter au den t. A firm and daring mind may be attendant on good d eed s, luck often is not, according to Statius: cf. Theb. 10.384f. invida fa ta p iis e t fo rs ingentibus auris/ rara comes. stabilem . . . animum: cf. Cic. Fam . 5.2.10 n ec in te, u t scribis, 'animo fid m obili’, sed ita stabili, ut . . . . The adjective is rare in ep ic poetry: Valerius has it only here, it is absent from O vid’s M etam oip hoses, and it occurs only twice in the Aeneid, four tim es in Lucan and on ce in S tatiu s’ ep ics and Silius.

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optima facta: from Verg. Aen. 10.791 tua . . . optima facta, i.e. of Lausus, who attempted to save his father Mezentius. audacia: used in bonam partem (OLD 1). The word is rare in poetry, with the exception of comedy: Valerius has it only here, and it is for instance completely absent from Vergil, Horace, Lucan and Silius. Only Ovid (nine times) and Statius (six times) use it to some extent. 265ft serta patri iuvenisque comam vestesque L yaei/ induit et medium curro locat aeraque circum / tympanaque et plenas tacita formidine cistas. Only in Valerius does Hypsipyle save her father by disguising him as Bacchus, herself acting like a maenad, but the idea was not his own. Two of the elements, the rescue and the pseudo-maenad, came from Vergil’s description of Amata in

Aen. 7.373fh, cf. especially 385ff. in silvas simulato numine Bacchi/ . . . / evolat et natam frondosis montibus abdit, and compare 273 rapitur . . . per urbem with Aen. 7.384 per medias urbes agitur, and 269 pampineamque quatit ventosis ictibus hastam with Aen. 1396 pampineasque gerunt incinctae pellibus hastas. All three elements (the rescue, the pseudo-maenad and the dressing-up) feature in Met. 6.587ff., where Ovid relates how Procne, at the sacra trieterica Bacchi (587, cf. 259f.), dons the maenads’ attributes and pretending to be under Bacchic influence goes to Philomela, germanamque rapit (598, cf. 254f.) raptaeque insignia Bacchi/

induit (cf. 266) et vultus hederarum (cf. 268) frondibus abdit, after which she takes her sister home. Just as interesting, if not more so, is the story of Iphigenia’s rescue of Orestes and Pylades from the hands of . . . Thoas (cf. 300ff. below), as told by Euripides in IT. Compare especially the pretended necessity of the cleansing, with seawater, of Artemis’ βρέτας, supposedly polluted by Orestes (1040ff.), with 275f. below. For similar tricks cf. Hdt. 1.60 (the disguise of a certain Phye as the goddess Athena, Ίτρήγμα εΐιηθέστατον, έγώ ευρίσκω, μακρώ), Suet. Dom. 1.2, Tac. Hist. 3.74, Flav. los. BI 4.11.4 (Domitian disguised as a follower of Isis; see Burkert 7, n.4), App. BC 4.47, Val. Max. 7.3.8 (the story of the plebeian aedile M. Volusius; see ibid.). See also W.-H. Friedrich, Philologus 94 (1941) 145f. serta: garlands were not only worn by Bacchus’ followers (cf. e.g. Ov. Met. 4.7), but also by the god himself: cf. especially Stat. Theb. 5.268L (I, Hypsipyle)

adgnovi (sc. Bacchum): non ille quidem turgentia sertis/ tempora nec flava crinem destrinxerat uva. iuvenis . . . comam: ‘the hair of a youth’, apparently a wig: cf. Eur. Ba. 831 κόμην μέι> έττί σώ κρατί ταναόν έκτευώ. F or Bacchus’ eternal youth cf.

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e.g. Eur. Ba. 453ff. (with Dodds’ note), Tib. 1.4.37 solis aeterna r. , 1773 Sen. Phaed. 754 Phoeboque iuventas, Ov. Met. 4.18 tu puer aeternus, rasi· j - i > intonsa iuvenis perpetuum coma (compare VF 1.411f.)· . vestes . . . Lyaei: the ones under which Thoas had been hiding g previous night (258f.). See also Dodds on Eur. Ba. 821 and 833. For Lyaeus (‘the loosener’), one of Bacchus’ cult-titles, see Jocelyn ° n seen. 121, Bömer on Fast. 1.395. Apart from Lyaeus (also in 1.411 an Valerius uses Iacchus (1.140, metonymically for Svine’), Liber (1.56 > 3^ (6.755) and Thyoneus (1.726). Ovid has a whole catalogue of titles in Met.

‘

induit: for Valerius’ use of this verb see on 19f. medium curru locat: sc. eum. aera: the ones mentioned in 260. tympana: like cymbals, tympana (‘tambourines’ or ‘kettledrums ) were part a ^ parcel of all orgiastic worship, including that of Bacchus: cf. e.g. ur. a. (Dionysus speaking) τήμττανα, 'Ρέας τε μητρός έμά 0 ευρήματα, Od. 3.15.10, Ον. Met. 11.17, and, in Valerius, 7.304. We find the two types of musical instruments also coupled in Cat. 64.261 plangebant aliae proceris tympana palm is,/ aut tereti tenuis tinnitus aere ciebant, Ov. Met. 4.29f. impulsa . . . tympana palm is/ concavaque aera sonant (Bacchus). Compare Lucr. 2.618f. tympana tenta tonant palmis et cymbala circum / concava. Cat. 63.21, Ov. Fast. 4.183f, Apul. Met. 8.30 (Cybele), plenas tacita formidine cistas: ‘the cists, full of secret awe’. The cista (Gr. κίστη) was a box, originally made of wickerwork, in which the sacred objects (Ιερά, orgia, sacra, secreta) of a god, usually Bacchus, were kept: cf. e.g. Theocr. 26.7 Ιερά . . . έκ κίστας ττεττοναμευα χερσίν έλοισαυ, Cat. 64.259f. pars obscura cavis celebrabant orgia cistis,/ orgia quae frustra cupiunt audire profani, Tib. 1.7.48 levis occultis conscia cista sacris, [Sen.] HO 59«, Apul. Met. 6.2 tacita secreta cistarum, 11.11 cista secretorum capax penitus celans operta magnificae religionis. See also Austin onAen. 4.301 sacris. The cists mentioned here are said to be full, not of orgia or sacra, but of tacita formido, ‘secret awe’, i.e. ‘secret and awe-inspiring things (for tacitus ‘secret’ cf. Sen. Tro. 843 sacris gaudens tacitis Eleusin, Apul. Met. 6.2, quoted above). Note the studied structure of the main clause: Valerius first mentions the three articles put on Thoas, then Thoas himself, in the middle of the chariot and of the sentence, and then the three attributes put around him.

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268f. ipsa sinus hederisque ligat famularibus artus/ pampineamque quatit ventosis ictibus hastam. Now it is Hypsipyle’s turn to dress up. hederis . . . famularibus: ‘with the ivy of a famula’. The maenads are Bacchus’ famulae, ‘servants’ (compare Hör. Ars 239 custos famulusque dei Silenus alumni, Stat. Theb. 9.794 Thyias Echionio genetrix famulata Lyaeo), and so the ivy they wear may well be called famularis, an adjective more frequently used in connection with ‘real’ servants (e.g. Cic. Tusc. 1.116 veste famulari). The association of the ivy with Bacchus is as old as the Homeric hymns (26.1 κισσοκόμην Διόνυσον) and soon became a topic: cf. e.g. Pind. Ol. 2.27, Eur. Ba. 81, Ov. Met. 6.599 (quoted on 265ff.), Fast. 3.767 cur hedera cincta est? hedera est gratissima Baccho (with Bömer’s note). -que: actually, the connective belongs to artus, not to hederis·, cf. Langen on 1.844 (= 843). pampineam . . . hastam: ‘a vine-leafed spear’, i.e. a thyrsus, ‘a wand tipped with a fir-cone, tuft of ivy or vine-leaves (orig. concealing a spear-point), carried by worshippers in the rites of Bacchus’ (OLD s.v. thyrsus 1). hasta is reminiscent of this original spear-point. For the use of the word in this particular context cf. e.g. 6.136, 7.304, Verg. Eel. 5.31 foliis lentas intexere mollibus hastas, Ov. Met. 3.667 pampineis agitat velatam frondibus hastam. Likewise, Euripides speaks of a κίσσινον βέλος (Βα. 25, where see Dodds), and Statius of a redimitum missile (Ach. 1.612). The spear-point itself is mentioned in Cat. 64.256 harum pars tecta quatiebant cuspide thyrsos, Sen. Phaed. 755. The adjective pampineus (also in 5.79) is not recorded before Vergil, pampinea hasta comes from Aen. 7.396 pampineasque gerunt incinctae pellibus hastas (see on 265ff.); cf. also Ov. Her. 13.33. quatit: which was the thing to do with a thyrsus: cf. e.g. Cat. 64.256 (quoted above), Tac. Ann. 11.31, and probably Hor. Od. 1.18.Ilf. non ego te, candide Bassareu,/ invitum quatiam, where see Nisbet-Hubbard, who compare Eur. Ba. 80ff. άνά θύρσον τε τινάσσων . . . Διόνυσον θεραπεύει. ventosis ictibus: Svith blows in the wind’. The words call to mind Vergil’s description of the bull preparing for the fight in G. 3.233f. ventos . . . lacessit/ ictibus, et sparsa ad pugnam proludit barena. Cf. also Aen. 5.376f. (Dares) alterna . . . iactat/ bracchia protendens et verberat ictibus auras. The adjective is not elsewhere so used. For the framing of a line by attribute and noun (pampineam - hastam) see on 18.

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27Qff. respiciens teneat virides velatus habenas/ ut pater, in nivea tum eant cornua mitra/ et sacer ut Bacchum referat scyphus. respiciens . . . ut: ‘looking round to make sure that . . rather than ‘looking round and seeing how . . .’. For this use of ut cf. Cato Agr. 5.5 (the vilicus) prius (i.e. before he goes to bed) villam videat clausa uti siet, et uti suo quisque loco cubet et uti iumenta pabulum habeant (where videat uti means ‘should have a look to make sure that’, rather than ‘should take care that’), and compare that of ne in PI. Mil. 955 circumspicedum ne quis nostro hic auceps sermoni siet, Var R. 2.10.1 cum circumspiceret, nequid praeterisset. It would appear from these instances that this use of ut and ne after verbs of looking (proprio sensu) was rather colloquial. virides . . . habenas: the reins are green because they are made of, or covered with, green (Hor. Od. 3.25.20 viridi . . . pampino) vine-shoots: cf. Verg. Aen. 6.804f. qui pampineis victor tuga flectit habenis/ Liber. velatus: ‘in his robes’ (Mozley), i.e. the ones mentioned in 265. in nivea tumeant ut comua mitra: ‘that the horns swell in the snow-white mitra’. in nivea . . . mitra: the mitra was a head-dress, worn by women (both in Greece and in Rome) as well as by oriental people, and best translated ‘headcloth’ and ‘turban’ resp.; cf. H. Brandenburg, Studien zur Mitra, Münster 1966, 128 (of the women’s mitra): ‘die zur Frauenhaube aufgebundene Mitra, die das Kopfhaar völlig bedeckte’, and 61 (of the mitra of oriental people): ‘eine turbanähnliche Kopfbedeckung . . ., die aus einem Tuch zusammengebunden wird’. For the equation of the mitra with the equally oriental tiara, first attested in Vergil (cf.Aen. 4.216f., 9.616) see Brandenburg 63f. The mitra is often associated with Bacchus and his followers: cf. e.g. Soph. OT 209 TÒv χρυσομίτραν τε κικλήσκω, Eur. Ba. 833 έττί κάρα δ’ εσται μίτρα (with Dodds’ note), Str. 15.1.58, Prop. 3.17.30, 4.2.31 cinge caput mitra, speciem jurabor Iacchi, Sen. Phaed. 756 mitra cohibens cornigerum caput, Oed. 413, Stat. Theb. 9.795, Ach. 1.617, 715, and see Brandenburg 133-48. Brandenburg argues convincingly that Bacchus’ mitra was a turban, not a headband, as is sometimes believed (139, n.6). The one at issue is white, the colour of ceremony (cf. e.g. 1.385palla. . . alba, as worn by the seer Mopsus). There is a monosyllabic lacuna in ω between pater and nivea, and the most likely candidates for the position are Bährens’ in (thus Langen, Buiy, Giarratano and Mozley) and Kramer’s e (thus Courtney and Ehlers), et (C, B-1498), which was still kept by Thilo and Schenkl, gives the wrong sense. The choice is not easy, but the nature of the mitra makes in seem preferable. Cf. also Sen. Phaed.

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756 (quoted above), the natural interpretation of which is that the horns are tucked away under the mitra. tumeant: cf. [Sen.] HO 552 (Jupiter) cum fronte subita tumuit (i.e. when he became a bull), Nem. Eel. 3.36 flava . . . maturo tumuerunt tempora comu (of Bacchus), and compare Stat. Theb. 5.268f. (I, Hypsipyle) adgnovi (sc. Bacchum): non ille quidem turgentia sertis/ tempora nec flava crinem destrinxerat uva. cornua: for Bacchus’ horns, symbols of animality and strength, first mentioned in Soph. fr. 959.2f. Pearson ò βούκερως/ ’Ίακχος, cf., in Valerius, 1.726f. Bistonas ad meritos cum cornua saeva Thyoneus/ torsit (with Langen’s note), 5.79, 7.302, and see Dodds on Eur. Ba. 100, Nisbet-Hubbard on Hor. Od. 2.19.29, Börner on Fast. 3.499f. The horns in question are not very likely to have been fetched from the ‘props’ room’, like the other articles, and we should probably conclude that Bacchus himself has been at work here. sacer ut Bacchum referat scyphus: ‘that the sacred scyphus calls Bacchus to mind’. The scyphus, a large cup with two handles, is Herculean rather than Bacchic (cf. Verg. Aen. 8.278, Macr. Sat. 5.21.16 scyphus Herculis poculum est, ita ut Liberi patris cantharus), but in Aleman (fr. 56 Page), for instance, we find χρύσιον άγχος έχοισα, μέγαυ σκύφου (of a maenad), and according to Pliny (Nat. 35.111), Ariston painted a satyr, cum scypho coronatus. For referat cf. OLD 19, and, in Valerius, 4.36 If. primae referentem cornua Phoebes/ indomitamque bovem, where, however, things are reversed: there a totum (Io turned into a cow) calls to mind a pars of something else (the horns of the young moon), whereas in our passage a pars (Thoas’ scyphus) calls to mind a totum (Bacchus). 272ff. impulit acri/ tum validas stridore fores rapiturque per urbem / talia voce canens: impulit . . . validas . . . fores: cf. 1.609f. tum validam contorto turbine portam/ impulit Hippotades (see Kleywegt 1989, 431ff.), Verg. Aen. 7.620ff. tum regina deum . . . morantis/ impulit ipsa manu portas, et cardine verso/ Belli ferratos rumpit Saturnia postis. Of course, Hypsipyle would never have managed to open these ‘strong doors’ without divine help. acri . . . stridore: ‘with a harsh grating’. The stridor made by doors turning on their hinges (Verg. Aen. 7.621 cardine verso) is traditional: cf. e.g. Pac. trag. 133, Verg. Aen. 1.449 foribus cardo stridebat aenis, 6.573 tum demum horrisono

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stridentes cardine sacrae/ panduntur portae, 7.613, Ov. Met. 11.608 ianua n ec verso stridorem cardine reddit, Ciris 222, Luc. 3.154f., Sil. 3.692f., Sept, poet23.3 stridula. . . limina, . . . cardimi tumultus. rapitur . . . per urbem: from Aen. 7.384 (Amata) per medias urbes agitur (se£ on 265ff.). Statius has Hypsipyle say: ferimur per devia vastae/ urbis (Théb5.248f.). Unlike agitur in the Aeneid passage, rapitur probably has middle force: ‘rushed along* (OLD 8a). talia voce canens: cf. 5.37 talia voce gemit, Verg. Aen. 1.94 talia voce refert. 274£ linque o mihi caede madentem,/ Bacche, domum. caede madentem: ‘drenched with slaughter’, ‘dripping with gore’. The expression is not very original: cf. Ov. Met. 1.149f. caede madentes . . . terras, 13.389, 14.199, Sen. Dial. 4.35.5, [Sen.] Oct. 823, Mart. 9.70.4, Iuv. 4.154, Claud. 15.181. Other Valerian instances are 1.225, 5.454 and 6.415 (compare sanguine madere in 3.391, 4.754 and 6.708f.). Cf. also Cat. 64.368 alta Polyxenia madefient caede sepulcra. Statius did not content himself with the phrase, but went one better: Theb. 5.255 epulas. . .in caede natantis. domum: ‘temple’, cf. e.g. Liv. 3.17.5 augustissimam illam domum Iovis optimi maximi. 275f. sine foedatum te funere pontus/ expiet et referam lotos in tem pla dracones.’ Hypsipyle pretends that ‘Bacchus’ should be purified from his uncleanness, by means of seawater. For the use of seawater in these matters see Platnauer on Eur. I T 1193 θάλασσα κλήζει -πάντα τάνθρώιτωυ κακά (for this model of Valerius’ see on 265ff.), and R. Parker, Miasma: pollution and purification in early Greek religion, Oxford 1983, 226f. The use of water in general is discussed by Bömer on Fast. 2.35, and by Frazer on Fast. 2.45 (cf. e.g. Verg. Aen. 2.718ff. me bello e tanto digressum et caede recenti/ attrectare nefas, donec me flumine vivo / abluero). Closely related are the annual purifications of various gods and goddesses, the best known of which being that of Cybele, whose stone was washed every year in the Almo, a tributary of the Tiber: cf. e.g. 8.239f., Ov. Fast. 4.337ff. (with Frazer’s note). sine . . . expiet: parataxis after sinere is common, both in poetry and, from Livy onward, in prose, especially with the imperative (cases like Tib. 1.2.25a nec

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sinit occurrat are rare). Another Valerian example is 4.635 dem sinite amplexus. See further KS 2.2281 For expiet cf. Sen. HF 9181 nate, manantes prius/ manus cruenta caede et hostili expia. foedatum . . . funere: ‘polluted by the slaughter’. In what seems to have been Valerius’ model, Verg. Aen. 2.5381 qui nati coram me cernere letum / fecisti et patrios foedasti funere vultus, the noun either means the same thing or ‘corpse’ (cf. Servius ad loc.). Cf. also Liv. 3.18.10 multi exsulum caede sua foedavere templum. dracones: probably the snakes inside the cistae mentioned in 267. Cists and snakes feature on the so-called cistophori, coins minted in Asia from 133 B.C. onward. ‘Dieselben zeigen einen runden Korb, unter dessen gehobenem Deckel eine Schlange herausschlüpft’ (RE 3.2591.68fl); in RE 3.2592.11ff. a silver dish is mentioned ‘mit Darstellung einer Bakchantin, die den Deckel der C[ista] aufhebt und die hervorkommende Schlange füttert’. Clemens of Alexandria gives an inventory of the contents of cists in his Protrepticus (2.22.4): all sorts of cakes, pomegranates, poppies etc., and . . . δράκων, δργιον Διονύσου Βασσάρου (compare 2.12.2, 16.2). See also Wankel on Dem. 18.260 τούς δφεις τούς τταρείας and κιττοφόρος/κιστοφόρος. Snakes are also otherwise linked with Bacchus: cf. e.g. Eur. Ba. 101, 698, Cat. 64.258, Hor. Od. 2.19.19, Avien. Orb. Terr. 1369, Claud. 24.367. Alternatively, dracones may mean ‘dragons’, here introduced as Bacchus’ draught animals (thus Burman); compare 1.68, 7.120, TLL V-l.2063.50ff. 277f. sic medios egressa metus; facit ipse verendam/ nam deus et flatu non inscia gliscit anhelo. medios egressa metus: ‘she got past the dangers in between’, i.e. between the temple and the woods, not ‘through the terrors about her path’ (Mozley), which would require per. The dangers Hypsipyle exposes herself to are the reactions of the onlooking women. Until now the reader had been under the impression that the women had fallen asleep after the tiring night (263 conticuisse domos), but our passage proves him wrong: they watch the small procession, make way (cf. 4Ilf. stant saeva paventum/ agmina dantque locum) and let themselves be deceived (compare 282 semel orgia fallunt). For metus ‘danger’ cf. 1.31 anteire metus, 5.360, Ον. Met. 4.111 loca plena metus (with Bömer’s note). Langen’s interpretation of metus as ‘res vel loci horribiles’, referring to the silent evidence of the massacre, is in itself not

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impossible (cf. 4.181 varii pro rupe metus, and compare S ta t Theb. 5.248ffii where Hypsipyle and Thoas work their way through heaps of dead bodies), but the nom-clause forbids this: Hypsipyle cannot b e said to get past all kinds of terrifying things because Bacchus makes her awe-inspiring. Transitive egredi appears relatively late in poetry (first in Luc. 5.510f. tentcà . . . egressus). In prose it is as old as Caesar (BC 3.52.2). nam is postponed to the fourth place, as in 4.709; it is postponed to the third in 4.158 and 8.139 (where Ehlers reads iam, with Heinsius). F or this mannerism see on 150 sed, flatu . . .

gliscit anhelo: Hypsipyle’s ‘panting breath’ betrays the god’s

presence. Cf. Verg. Aen. 6.48ff. (of the Sibyl) pectus anhelum . . . , adflata

numine quando/ iam propiore dei. For anhelus applied to breath cf. SiL 12.144 spiramine anhelo, al. gliscere, 'to swell’, here seems to be used both literally (Hypsipyle expands her chest; cf. OLD 1) and metaphorically (Hypsipyle becomes elated). For die latter meaning cf. 3.631f. tali mentem pars maxima fla tu / erigit et vana gliscit

praecordia lingua, and, with an animate subject, Stat. Theb. 8.755t (iydees) gliscit . . . tepentis (se. capitis)/ lumina torva videns, 12.639, al. Cf. also Ttolp· com. 191 gliscorgaudio. For this rare verb (not, for instance, in Catullus, Horace, Tibullus, Properfe Ovid and Lucan, and only once in Vergil (Aen. 12.9)) see C. Moussy, Les sens de

glisco, RPh 49 (1975) 49-66. Valerius has it again in 3.632 (quoted above) and 5.371f. Mum (i.e. Sirius) tanto non gliscere caelo/ vellet ager. non inscia: Hypsipyle is fully aware of the fact that the god is upon her, unlike Dido when she held Ascanius/Cupid in h er lap: interdum gremio p *

inscia Dido/insidat quantus miserae deus (Verg. Aen. 1.718f.). For the litotes cf. 5.3,6.317, V e rg h e« . 10.907, Ον. Met. 8.66, al. 279t iamque senem tacitis saeva procul urbe rem otu m / occulerat silvis, tacitis . . . silvis: Amata, too, hid her daughter Lavinia in the woods 7.385ft; see on 265ft). For the expression cf.Aen. 7.505. saeva procul urbe remotum: the city is ‘cruel’, because its inhabitants are. & 3.655 duro saevae sub rege Mycenae. The juxtaposition of tacitis and saeva is effective. occiderat* cf. Stat. Theb. 5.34ft (Hypsipyle speaking) ilia ego . . . raptum

sola parentem/ occului. Syncopated (plu)perfect forms of occulere are not found before Valerius, b0* they are later (cf. e.g. Amob. Nat. 5.33 occiderunt, schol. Germ. Bas. &

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occulìsset, 102.13), and I can think of no reason why Valerius should not have been the first to use one. Besides, both with Heinsius’ occultat and with Thilo’s occuluit (‘fort, recte’, Ehlers), the only conjectures worth mentioning, the indispensable pluperfect is lost. 280f. ipsam sed conscius a u si/ nocte dieque pavor ffaudataque turbat Erinys. conscius au» . . . pavor: ‘terror prompted by the awareness of having done a bold thing’. Very similar is Stat. Theb. 1.402f. fraterni sanguinis . . . conscius

horror, ‘horror, prompted by the awareness of having killed his brother”. Cf. also VF 4.295 (Pollux) territus ipse etiam atque ingentis conscius ausi, where ingentis conscius ausi explains territus, and compare Verg. Aen. 11.809ff., where a wolf, occiso pastore magnove iuvenco, is said to become frightened,

conscius audacis facti. nocte dieque: before Valerius, who has it again in 8.416, this expression is confined to Laevius (once) and Ovid (four times). fraudata . . . Erinys: Hypsipyle is not only troubled by her own fear, but also by the Fury, whom she has ‘cheated’ of the victim that was hers by right. Here the Fury seems to be a destructive force, rather than the punisher of wrongdoing she usually is. Cf. e.g. Verg, Aen. 7.324ff. Allecto . . ., cui tristia

bella/ iraeque insidiaeque et crimina noxia cordi (with Fordyce’s note), Stat. Theb. 5.302f. (after the massacre) iam manus Eumenidum captasque refugerat arces/ exsaturata Venus. It could be argued, however, that she does play her usual role, but that, in this case, it is not the guilty she seeks to punish for what they have done, but ( Umwertung aller Werte) the only innocent one for 'What she has not done (cf. Thuile 98). See further E. Wüst, R E Suppl. 8.112.20ff. 282ff. non similes iam ferre choros (semel orgia fallunt)/ audet, non patrios furtis accedere saltus,/ e t fuga diversas misero quaerenda per artes. In order to get to her father (for instance to provide him with the necessities of life; cf. Happle 27, with n.2), Hypsipyle must either repeat her maenad act, or visit the woods in secret. However, she does not have the courage to do either and consequently has to think of a way of getting Thoas off the island. similes . . . ferre choros: ‘to perform the same dances’ (not ‘to join the dances of her companions’, Mozley). We did not know that Hypsipyle had been dancing during the procession, but we cannot be much surprised to hear that she had.

ferre is not ‘quasi offerre deo’ (Langen): the expression (again in 5.239) is a periphrasis for χορεύω (compare agere chorus in Culex 116), just as ferre gradus

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(5.395) is one for gradi, and ferre fugam (4.644, 7.297, 8.5) one for fugere. p QJ. other such periphrases see the second half of Langen’s extensive note; this On0 was perhaps suggested to Valerius by the phrase ferre pedem (as in Verg. s · 1.11 ferte simul Faunique pedem Dryadesque puellae, Hor. Od. 2.12.17 ferre pedem . choris). (semel orgia fallunt): ‘only once can the (sham) ritual deceive’. F or thought cf. Petr. 102, where Encolpius, refusing to be wrapped up as a piece Gf luggage (so as to be able to leave Lichas’ ship unnoticed), exclaims: an quia /,oc genusfurti semel. . . feliciter cessit? orgia often denotes the sacred rites of Bacchus: cf. especially Verg. Aen. 6.517f. (Helena) chorum simulans euhantis orgia circum/ ducebat Phrygias, where Helen’s dancing is as insincere as Hypsipyle’s here. audet: for the emphasized spondaic disyllable in the first foot see on 95. H ere the emphasis is enhanced by the pause that follows. However, the sequence fallunt/ audet, with both verbs being followed by a pause, makes for a rather jerky rhythm. non patrios fiirtis accedere saltus: ‘nor to visit her father’s woods in secret’. This is the reading of ω, but for accedere (B-1474: accendere ω; cf. 1.285 discedere M2, B-1498: discendere ω). It was printed in all editions (with the exception of those of Carrio and Alardus, who kept accendere, together with C’s silly patriis bustis), until Courtney (1965, 154), finding fault with the plural furtis, suggested patrios furiis accendere saltus (‘to set the woods ablaze in a Bacchic frenzy’, coll. 3.590, Verg. Aen. 7392). This was then picked up by Shackleton Bailey, who additionally changed patrios to paribus (‘quales in urbe accenderat’). Ehlers adopts both conjectures and reads paribus furiis accendere saltus. I am afraid that I do not see what is wrong with either furtis or patrios: furtum is exactly the word needed here (‘secret action’, preferably undertaken by night; cf. 660, Sil. 7.135f. nocturna parat caecae celantibus umbris/ furta viae), and the plural refers to Hypsipyle’s having to visit the woods more than once, if she wants to keep her father alive. And as for patrios, I cannot say that I find patrii saltus a very unnatural phrase for ‘the woods where her father was hiding’. et: the line of thought is: Hypsipyle dare not go to the woods again, and so she must think of something else. Sabellicus’ at, Schenkl’s set, and Strand’s adversative interpretation of et (71ff.) are therefore unnecessary, as is the assumption of a lacuna between 283 and 284 (Bährens, Langen). Vossius’ est (fuga) sounds too much like the beginning of an εκφρασις.

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fuga diversas . . . quaerenda per artes: this seems to be a conflation of fuga quaerenda, ‘she must find a way of escape’, and fugam diversas per artes quaerit, ‘she thinks of various methods of escape’ (cf. 6.438 varias circumspicit artes). For quaerere fugam cf. 5.355 quaere fugam, precor, et tutos circumspice saltus. 285ff. visa ratis saevae defecta laboribus undae,/ quam Thetidi longinqua dies Glaucoque repostam/ solibus et canis urebat luna pruinis. ratis: Valerius has forgotten that the Argo was the only ship. The same thing will happen to him again in 520 and 658 (661). Cf. also 7.260ff. Apollonius makes Thoas escape in a λάρναξ (1.622); Statius speaks of a robur curvum (Theb. 5.287). saevae defecta laboribus undae: “worn out by the action of the savage waves’. For labor so used cf. 618 adversi longus labor . . . aevi, where see note. Different is Silius’ pelagi . . . labores (3.58), ‘the sea’s hardships’, i.e. its tides (compare 14.348, Verg. G. 2.478). The use of defectus as a synonym of confectus is not attested before Ovid; Valerius has it again in 463, 489 and 7.116. For the ablative cf. e.g. Germ. Arat. 65 effigies. . . defecta labore, Apul. Met. 4.4 viae spatio defectus. quam . . . longinqua dies . . . solibus et canis urebat luna pruinis: Vhich the long days with their suns and the moon with its white hoarfrosts scorched’. urere can be used of the burning effect of both heat (OLD 4) and cold (OLD 4c). Valerius combines the two, as does the psalmist in Ps. 120.6 per diem sol non uret te neque luna per noctem. Mozley’s translation of longinqua dies as ‘passing time’ is not impossible (cf. Enn. Ann. 406 Sk. longinqua dies (a genitive) . . . aetas), but ‘x with its (warm) suns, and the (nocturnal) moon with its frosts’ rather suggests that x is ‘the long day’ (cf. Geli, pr.4 longinquis per hiemem noctibus) or, as a collective plural, ‘the long days’. For the gender oidies see on 5 If. For canis . . . pruinis cf. Verg. G. 2.376 frigora . . . cana concreta pruina, Hor. Od. 1.4.4, Col. 10.74. T hetidi. . . Glaucoque repostam: ‘dedicated to Thetis and Glaucus’. The former is a Nereid; for the latter, a Boeotian fisherman who later became a sea god, see Börner on Met. 13.904-14.74, Frazer on Paus. 9.22.6f. We find them also coupled in 1.188ff., where Ancaeus sacrifices a bull to Neptune, the Zephyrs and Glaucus, and a heifer to Thetis. It is Glaucus who, together with the Nereid Cymothoe, saves Helle as she threatens to drown in what was to become the Hellespont (cf. 604f.).

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This dedication of a ship to sea gods reminds one of Catullus’ phaselus ροβ®' cf. especially its closing lines (4.25ff.) nunc recondita/ senet quiete seque dedicò

tibi,/ gemelle Castor et gemelle Castoris. In his introductory note to this pò®10 Fordyce compares AP 6.69 and 70, two epigrams accompanying the dedication^ a ship to Poseidon. With repostam (lit ‘laid down’) compare ponitur in Tib. 1.1.13f. quodcumqM

mihi pomum novus educat annus,/ libatum agricolae ponitur ante deo. For fte syncopated form cf. 4.713 repostae, and compare 4.186 imposta. See also Nord*® onAen. 6.24. Note the symmetrical structure of line 286. 288£ huc genitorem altae per opaca silentia n octis/ praecipitem silvis rapit d sic maesta profatur altae per opaca silentia noctis: ‘through the dark silence of the deep night’, enallage (the night is dark, not the silence), but not necessarily a double otto (thus Austin on Vergil’s famous ibant obscuri sola sub nocte per umbram (A&1·

6.268), Ehlers 1985, 343), for although silence may be called ‘deep’ (cf. e.g. Verg· Aen. 10.63 alta silentia. Ον. Met. 1.349), so may the night: cf. 3.730f. nox · ·· alta, 6.14, Ον. Am. 3.5.46, al. opaca silentia is not found before Valerius, who has it again in 7.389 ($ Sedul. Carni. Pasch. 4.219). For the pattern cf. Verg. Aen. 2.255 tacitae per amica silentia hmae, Ov. Md· 7.184 mediaeper muta silentia noctis. silvis: either ‘through the woods’ or ‘from the woods’. rapit: there he goes again (cf. 254f. taciturn . . . ad conscia Bacchi/ tempto

rapit). sic maesta profatur: cf. Luc. 2.337.

profari is as old as Livius Andronicus (poet. 11 (12)), with whom it means t0 warn of, and Ennius (Ann. 576 Sk.), who gave it its usual meaning of ‘to spea^ out’. Valerius has it again in 3.200,534 and 7.476. Note the alliteration of p in these and the next four lines: per - opocO '

praecipitem - rapit - profatur - patriam - pube - pro - pro - possum - p u 0 ' parens - possum - periclis. 290L ‘quam, genitor, patriam, quantas modo linquis in an es/ pube domosi genitor some repetitions (cf. 288 genitorem) are effective, some are not. Th*s one is not.

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quantas modo linquis inanes pube domos!: ‘how great only recently were the houses that you now leave devoid of men!’ All editors from Heinsius onward adopted the Aldine conjecture quanta, until Summers saw that it is incompatible with modo. After that, quanta was never heard of again. For quantas modo. . . domos cf. Liv. 2.6.2 ex tanto modo regno,

inanis + abl. is very rare. Before Valerius it is only found in Cic. Att. 2.8.1 mila . . . abs te . . . epistula inanis aliqua re utili et suavi venerat, and after him not again until Tertullian. The normal case is the genitive. 291f. pro dira lues, pro noctis acerbae/ exitium! pro . . . pro: the interjection expresses utter grief; cf. especially [Sen.] HO 1419 (Hyllus speaking, on the fate of his parents Hercules and Deianira) pro lux

acerba, pro capax scelerum diesi dira Ines: ‘dreadful plague’. The expression comes from Ovid {Met. 7.523, 15.626), where the plagues are literal ones. Here the noun is used metaphorically (‘destruction’), as in 3.246 si tanta lues seros durasset in ortus and 6.399f. diram

. . . retorquent/ in socios non sponte luem. Cf. also Luc. 1.645, Sil. 12.385 dira inde lues, caeduntque caduntque. noctis acerbae: cf. Verg. Aen. 5.49f. (Aeneas speaking, on the anniversary of the death of his father) dies . . ., quem semper acerbum . . . habebo, [Sen.] HO 1419 (quoted above), and compare Cic. Plane. 101 o flebilis vigilias, o noctes acerbas! 292f. talin possum te credere puppi,/ care parens? possum tantis retinere periclis? ‘Dubitat Hypsipyle, quid de duobus malis eligat, an patrem rati tam vetustae et lacerae credere audeat . . . an vero retinere in Lemno, tantis periclis ibi quoque apparentibus’ (Burman). The answer to both questions is of course a whole-hearted ‘no’, but with the first option Thoas at least has a chance to survive. talin possum te credere puppi?: a variation on Verg. Aen. 12.874 talin possum

me opponere monstro? For credere cf. Hor. Od. 1.3.5f. navis, quae tibi creditum/ debes Vergilium (‘one is meant to think of a valuable object deposited with a friend for safe keeping’, Nisbet-Hubbard), and compare Verg. Aen. 5.850 Aenean credam . . .

fallacibus auris? Statius’ Hypsipyle uses the verb commendare (Theb. 5.289).

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The mss. reading reddere (‘give over, hand over’, OLD lid ) is perhaps not impossible (cf. Eleg. Maec. 1.42 ignibus hostilis reddere ligna ratis), but the passages quoted above argue strongly for credere, as conjectured by the editio tertia. For the confusion between the two verbs cf. 8.437 (credidit fi/, B-1498: reddidit ω). tantis . . . periclis: ablative of attendant circumstances ( in the face of such great dangers’); cf. e.g. Vtrg.Aen. 5.639 nec tantis mora prodigiis, 11.295. 294. solvimus, heu, serum Furiis scelus.

‘Alas, I am paying my crime, with delay, to the Furies’; ‘heu ipsa quoque, quamquam sero, pendo Furiis debitum scelus parricidii’ (Kramer pr. LXXI). Hypsipyle still ‘owed’ a crime to the Furies (cf. 281 fraudata . . . Erinys), and, as Thoas’ chances seem to be practically nil, she has every reason to believe she is ‘paying’ it now. The remarkable expression scelus solvere was imitated by Statius: in Theb. 5.628 the same Hypsipyle, on seeing that her pupil Opheltes has been killed by a snake (while she was busy recounting her story to the Argives), exclaims: exsolvi tibi, Lemne, nefas, Ί have paid thee, Lemnos, the crime I owed’ (Mozley); cf. 489facinus. . . reposcunt. Furiis is Pius’ correction of o>’s impossible furtis. It was adopted by all editors from Heinsius onward, until Thilo (preceded by Heinsius’ ‘codex regius’) conjectured furti, which in its turn found favour with most subsequent editors. Kramer, Courtney and Ehlers, however, returned to Furiis. furti scelus, ‘the crime of my trick’ (‘furtum . . . intellego callidum illud commentum, quo Hypsipyle subduxit . . . patrem irae Lemniadum’, Thilo pr. LXXXVIII), has the advantage of giving scelus solvere the expected meaning ‘to pay for a crime’ (cf. Ter. Ad. 164, Ov. Fast. 5.304, and compare Verg. Aen. 2.229), but Hypsipyle cannot possibly have called her ruse a scelus, or, for that matter, &nefas (Theb. 5.628). serum: Hypsipyle’s ruse was merely a stay of execution (or so she thinks). Cf. Tib. 1.9.4 sera tamen tacitis Poena venit pedibus (with Smith’s note), and especially Hor. Od. 1.15.191 (Nereus to Paris) tamen, heu, serus adulteros/ crines pulvere collines, ‘alas, though late, yet sometime you will smear your adulterous locks with dust’, where heu does not express ‘Nereus’s grief at the tardiness of Paris’s punishment’ (Nisbet-Hubbard), but his grief at the punishment itself, which will come anyhow: in other words, heu belongs to the whole sentence, not to serus alone. The same goes for our passage, where Hypsipyle bewails the

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‘crime’ she is forced to commit, not, of course, its tardiness. To avoid misunderstandings, heu should be placed between commas in both passages. 294f. adnue votis,/ diva, soporiferas quae nunc trahis aequore bigas, adnue votis: ‘grant my prayers’; cf. Paul. oral. 2 adnuendo . . . votis meis. Ον. Met. 12.205f. iam voto deus aequoris a lti/ adnuerat, Fast. 5.329, Pont. 2.8.51, al. diva: i.e. the moon, divine through her identification with Diana: cf. Cic. ND 2.68, Cat. 34.14ff. (the hymn to Diana) tu Lucina dolentibus/ luno dicta puerperis,/ tu potens Trivia et notho es/ dicta lumine Luna. There was a temple of Luna on the Aventine Hill, but her cult was insignificant (cf. Bömer on Fast. 3.883). For prayers to the moon cf. Verg. Aen. 9.403f. (Nisus) suspiciens altam Lunam sic voce precatur: / ‘tu, dea, tu praesens nostro succurre labori, Ov. Her. 17.61 (Leander’s letter to Hero) hanc (i.e. the moon) ego suspiciens faveas, dea candida’ dixi, Stat. Theb. 10.364L (Dymas) maesto conversus ad aethera vultu/ sic ait: ‘arcanae moderatrix Cynthia noctis . . .’. In our case the choice of the moon is rather arbitrary: Hypsipyle does not need her illumination, as Nisus, Leander and Dymas did (see Servius on Aen. 9.407, and cf. Her. 17.77L, Theb. 10.370ff.), and of course she cannot know that as Diana (301f.) this diva will grant her prayer. soporiferas quae nunc trahis aequore bigas: “who now pullest thy sleep-bringing chariot out of the sea’. At this very moment (nunc) the moon is rising above the horizon (in 288 all was still pitch-dark). soporiferas: the adjective occurs first in Verg. Aen. 4.486 soporiferum . . . papaver. For its connection with the night cf. Ov. Met. 11.586 soporiferam Somni . . . aulam, Luc. 3.8 soporifero . . . somno, Stat. Theb. 12.291 soporiferas . . . umbras, Sil. 7.287 soporiferae noctis. Poets of the Silver age were extremely fond of compounds in -fer and -ger, even more so than those of the Augustan period: cf. J.C. Arens, -Fer and -Ger. Their extraordinary preponderance in Roman poetry, Mnem. 3 (1950) 241-60. Other instances with -fer in Valerius are astri- (6.752), auri- (5.637), ensi(3.406), flammi- (1.4, al.), gemmi- (5.447), horri- (5.306, al.), igni- (8.342), leti(1.192, al.), luci- (5.370, al.), lucti- (3.454), monstri- (2.498, al.), nubi- (2.506, al.), ostri- (1.456), paci- (4.139), pesti- (4.594), saxi- (5.608, a hapax), signi(1.337), somni- (7.247), turi- (6.138) and velifer (1.126). trahis aequore: the moon is said to do what is actually done by her horses. The words cannot mean ‘drivest . . . across the ocean’ (Mozley): trahere does

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not mean ‘to drive’, and, even if it did, the moon can only be said to drive ^ chariot ‘out of/into the sea’ or ‘across the sky’, not ‘across the sea’. bigas: just like Dawn (cf. 261) and the night (3.211), the moon drove a pair horses; cf. Var. Men. 92 Lunae bigas, Man. 5.3 quadriiugis . . . Phoebus equis ^ Delia bigis, al. For the sun’s chariot see on 34f. Hyperionius. . . currus. 296£ non populos, non dite solum, non ulla parenti/ regna peto: patria lie^^ decedere terra. These lines echo two Vergilian passages, Aen. 11.790f. (Arruns to Apollo) ri0n exuvias pulsaeve tropaeum/ virginis aut spolia ulla peto and 12.189f. (A ene^, oath to the Italians) non ego nec Teucris Italos parere iubebo/ nec mihi re§^a peto: paribus etc., where we find the same phrase regna peto, and the s a ^ e adversative asyndeton following it. dite solum: ‘rich soil’; cf. Mela 2.1 regio ditis admodum soli. Sen. Phoen. 608. Unlike dives, the contracted form seems to have had three endings (m asculi^ dis, feminine ditis, and neuter dite), though the evidence is very meagre: dis js found only twice, in Ter. Ad. 770 and in Carm. de fig. 87 (fourth century A.D.) and so is dite (here and in Carm. poet. min. 5.87.6 mare purpureo murice dìte rubet), whereas ditis in Priap. 75.2 is only a conjecture. Writers clearly h;1(j some qualms about using the nominatives singular (and the accusative singular neuter) of this adjective, perhaps because, as back-formations from the oblic;ue cases (cf. Leum. 448f., with Zus. a), they were considered to be artificial (the other cases are all well attested in late republican and/or early imperial times with the exception of ditibus, which is not found before Curtius). Cf. als0 Priscian, G.L. 2.248.16ff., according to whom Naevius used the neuter form Samnite (poet. 38 (59)). dis is on the whole less frequent than dives, but the historians Livy (12:10) and Tacitus (16:11) preferred it, as did, for instance, Terence (6:1) and Mela (10:1). Valerius has dis 6 times, as against dives 7 times. non ulla . . . regna: Enk (Prop. 1, p. 59) was wrong to see an echo of Prop. 1.14.23f. non ulla verebor/ regna vel Alcinoi munera despicere: the words combine non. . . ulla (peto) (Aen. 11.790f.) and non. . . regna (peto) (Aen. 12.189f.). patria . . . decedere terra: cf. Verg. Aen. 4.305f. (Dido to Aeneas) sperasti. . tacitus. . . mea decedere terra? 298f. quando ego servato mediam genitore per urbem / laeta ferar? quando hic lacrimas planctusque videbo?’

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‘Exoptat Hypsipyle, ut iam adsit tempus, quo aperte ipsi laetari liceat, quod patrem servaverit (servato genitore depends on laeta), ceterae autem mulieres scelera sua lamententur’ (Langen), quando. . . quando: for anaphora as a closure device see on 252f. servato. . . genitore: cf. 410 servati genitoris conscia sacra. lacrimas planctusque: for the juxtaposition cf. Stat. Ach. 1.943f. iam te sperabunt lacrimis planctuque decorae/ Troades. For planctus see on 174f. 300ff. dixerat, ille procul trunca fugit anxius alno/ Taurorumque locos delubraque saeva Dianae/ advenit. trunca . . . alno: the ship is ‘mutilated’, stripped of its tackle: cf. Sen. Ag. 503ff. haec lacera et omni decore populato levis/ fluitat nec illi vela nec tonsae manent/ nec rectus altas malus antemnas ferens,/ sed trunca toto puppis Ionio natat, Iuv. 12.79. From Lucan onward (Verg. G. 1.136 and 2.451 are borderline cases) alnus is used metonymically for ‘ship’, whether made of alderwood or not. In 1.203 pressam regibus alnum, 637 and 3.536 Valerius applies the word to the Argo (which was made of pinewood). For other words for ‘ship’ in Valerius see on 48 pinum. anxius: that seems to be putting it mildly. Taurorum . . . locos delubraque saeva Dianae advenit: the story now takes an unexpected tum: Thoas, king of Lemnos, becomes Thoas, king of the Tauri, an identification not found before Valerius and after him only in Hyginus (Fab. 15, 120). According to Immisch (Roscher 5.814.42ff.), this mythopoeia goes back to Sophocles’ Chryses, and Preller-Robert (2.3.854, n.4) hold that Valerius was preceded by Euripides in his Hypsipyle, but there is not a shred of evidence for either of these suppositions. In the land of the Tauri (the Crimea) strangers were sacrificed to Artemis, and it was during the reign of Thoas that Iphigenia, the then priestess, was to kill Orestes and Pylades. Instead, however, she saved them, by using a ruse similar to that by which Hypsipyle saved ‘her’ Thoas (see on 265ff.). delubra . . . saeva Dianae: Diana’s cruelty reflects on her shrine (‘enallage’ would be too rigid a term). In 6.73 it is Diana herself who is provided with this epithet: in saevae lucos. . . Dianae. For the prosody of this goddess’ name see on 6f. advenit: the accusative of direction is rare with this verb, but cf. Verg. Aen. 1.388 Tyriam qui adveneris urbem, Stat. Theb. 1.643f. non missus . . . tuos supplexve penatis/ advenio.

COMMENTARY According to Apollonius (1.623ff.), Thoas reached Oinoie (later called Sikinos), where he was dragged ashore by fishermen, whereas Statius has him land on Chios, of which island he became king again (Theb. 5.486f.). See further Vian, N.C. on AR 1.625. 302£. hic illum tristi, dea, praeficis a ra e / ense dato; tristi . . . arae: cf. Ov. Tr. 4.4.73 (Orestes and Pylades) protinus evincti

tristem ducuntur ad aram, and compare Pont. 3.2.66 (Iphigenia) invita perciens tristia sacra manu. dea: for apostrophe in Valerius see on 79ff. praeficis: cf. Verg. Aen. 6.117f. (Aeneas to the Sibyl) nec te / nequiquam lucti

Hecate praefecit Avernis, 564. The verb is rare in epic poetry: it does not occur elsewhere in Valerius or the Aeneid, and not at all in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Statius’ epics or Silius. Like Valerius, Lucan has it only once. Cf. also Ov. Ton/. 3.2.65 praefuerat templo multos ea (Le. Iphigeneia) rite per annos (which is, incidentally, more in accordance with the usual division of tasks: on the one hand the king, on the other the priestess, not, as in our passage, one priestking). ense dato: to Thoas of all people! For ensis/gladius see on 66ff. 303. mora nec terris tibi longa cruentis: tibi: Diana, that is, not Thoas. cruentis: cf. Ov. Tr. 4.4.74 (Iphigenia’s tristis ara) quae stabat geminas ante

cruentafores; for the adjective as such see on 27ff. 304f. iam nemus Egeriae, iam te ciet altus ab A lb a / Iuppiter et soli non mitis Aricia regi. A Roman excursion: the Tauric Artemis will be transferred to Aricia, near Alb* Longa, where Egeria’s sacred grove awaits her. As it happens, there is no connection whatsoever betw een the Tauric Artem1* and ‘Diana Nemorensis’, but the bloody ritual characteristic of both cults (s®6 below) probably caused the latter to become identified with the former (R® 5.330.1ff.); cf. Ov. Met. 14.331 Scythicae stagnum nemorale Dianae (with Bömtf** note), Luc. 3.86 qua sublime nemus, Scythicae qua regna Dianae, Str. 5.3.12, Sol*

2. 11. According to Servius (on Aen. 6.136; cf. his note on Aen. 2.116), Orestes *PoSt occisum regem Thoantem in regione Taurica cum sorore Iphigenia . . . fag*1 et Dianae simulacrum inde sublatum haud longe ab Aricia collocavit’. Servius is

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first to mention Orestes explicitly as the founding father of the Roman cult, but allusions to this are much older: cf. Ov. Met. 15.489 sacra . . . Oresteae . . .

Dianae. nemus Egeriae: Egeria was a nymph associated with a stream in Diana’s grove: cf. e.g. Verg. Aen. 7.762ff. Virbius, insignem quem mater Aricia m isit,/ eductum

Egeriae lucis umentia circum/ litora, pinguis ubi et placabilis ara Dianae, 774f. Trivia Hippolytum . . . nymphae Egeriae nemorique relegat, Ov. Met. 15.487ff., Fast. 3.261 (an apostrophe of Egeria) nympha, mone, nemori stagnoque operata Dianae (with Bömer’s note), 275. For nemus applied to this particular grove cf. Verg. Aen. 7.775, Ov. Fast. 3.261, Luc. 3.86 (all quoted above), Stat. Silv. 3.1.56 Aricinum Triviae nemus, and compare Ov. Ars 1.259 suburbanae templum nemorale Dianae, Met. 14.331 (quoted above), Fast. 6.59 nemoralis Aricia, Luc. 6.75. Its fame was such that Nemus alone came to suffice as a designation: cf. Cic. Att. 6.1.25, 15.4a (4.5) L. Caesar ut veniam ad se rogat in Nemus. Hence, too, Aricia’s m odem name, Nemi. te d e t altus ab Alba Iuppiter: Diana’s grove was situated near Alba Longa and the Mons Albanus (cf. Luc. 3.86f. qua sublime nemus, Scythicae qua regna

Dianae,/ quaque iter est Latiis ad summam fascibus Albam, Str. 5.3.12 μετά δέ tò

’Αλβανόν ’Αρικία έστί -πόλις). On the latter the worship of Iuppiter

Latiaris took place: cf. Luc. 1.198 residens celsa Latiaris Iuppiter Alba. The RE has an elucidating map of the region (1.1310). For ciet, ‘calls, summons’, cf. 1.750f. iam te in lucos pia turba silentum/

secretisque ciet volitans pater Aeolus arvis, Lucr. 4.576, al. The literal meaning of altus is predominant here (Jupiter is seated high on the Alban Mount): cf. Luc. 1.198 (quoted above), and compare Ov. Met. 15.866 qui . . . tenes altus Tarpeias Iuppiter arces. The metaphorical one (‘exalted, mighty’; cf. e.g. 1.662f.) is only secondary. soli non mitis A rid a regi: ‘Aricia, kind but to her king’. The priest of Diana Nemorensis, the rex nemorensis, was a runaway slave who obtained the office by killing his predecessor, and who held it until he himself was killed by another fugitive stronger than he (and so on, and so forth): cf. Ov. Ars 1.259f.

suburbanae templum nemorale Dianae/ partaque per gladios regna nocente manu, Fast. 3.27 lf. regna tenent fortes manibus pedibusque fugaces,/ et perit exemplo postmodo quisque suo, where see Frazer and Börner, Stat. Silv. 3.1.55f. iamque dies aderat profugis cum regibus aptum/ fumat Aricinum Triviae nemus, Suet. Cai. 35.3, Str. 5.3.12, Paus. 2.27.4. See also C.B. Pascal, Rex Nemorensis, Numen 23 (1976)23-39.

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For mitis in this connection cf. Sil. 4.366f. quos miserat altis/ Egeriae £enìtffs immitis Arida lucis, 8.362 immite nemus Triviae·, mitis + dat. (again in 7,3 ?\0X . . . ruit soli veniens non mitis amanti) is first found in Tibullus (1.4.53) a Livy (21.20.8). 306-10. Hypsipyle returns to the city and is proclaimed queen by the other women. 306f. Arcem nata petit, quo iam manus horrida m atrum / congruerat Morning has broken, and when Hypsipyle returns to the city she finds ^ other women assembled in a meeting. manus horrida matrum: ‘the grim, dreadful band of women’, rather than < „ «in unkempt throng of women’ (Mozley): cf. e.g. Hor. Od. 3.4.50 fidens iuventuS horrida bracchiis (the Titans), [Sen.] HO 495 Herculis clava horridi, 550, 580. j?QJ. matres “women’ see on 79ff. In Stat. Theb. 5.190 Hypsipyle refers to her fellow countrywomen as a m anus impia. congruerat: ‘had come together’, a rare meaning of an unpoetic verb (only jn Valerius (twice) and in comedy: once in Plautus and three times in Terence) Valerius is the first to give congruere in this sense an animate subject; cf. aiSo 6.58f. linguis . . . adversus utrimque/ congruit . . . serpens, Hyg. Mun. Castr. \2 turba ibi congruat (third century A.D.), al. The verb is used in the same sense but with an inanimate subject, in Vitr. 7.8.2 (guttae) inter se congruunt et una confunduntur, 8.3.2, Sen. Nat. 7.19.1 congruere iudicat stellas, al. 307ff. rauco fremitu sedere parentum/ natorumque locis vacuaeque in moenibus urbis/ iura novant. rauco fremitu: for fremitus denoting the noise and hubbub made by a crowd cf e.g. Sen. Con. 9, pr.5 illic (i.e. on the forum) inter fremitum consonantis turbae intendendus animus est, Quint. Inst. 10.3.30 contionum fremitus. Here it is called raucus, ‘harsh, raucous’, an adjective often applied to high-pitched sounds, such as made by birds (Lucr. 6.75 If. raucae/ cornices, Verg. Aen. 11.458 rauci . cycni), cicadas (Verg. Eel. 2.12f.) and monkeys (Ov. Met. 14.100): the word is clearly not intended to be very flattering. Cf. also Ov. Met. 5.678, where Pierus’ daughters are said to have retained their rauca garrulitas after their metamorphosis into magpies. sedere parentum natorumque locis: the new M.P.’s have already taken their seats.

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vacuae . . . in moenibus urbis: ‘in the empty city’. For moenia (urbis) ‘city’ cf. 1.477, 753, 2.394, 3.63, 7.374, 380. This use of the word is as old as Plautus (cf. True. 2) and occurs several times in Vergil, cf. e.g. Aen. 2.328f. arduus armatos mediis in moenibus astans/ fundit equus. Statius imitates Valerius in his version of the story: Theb. 5.31 lf. magnae. . . in moenibus urbis/nos tantum. iura novant: which is what parties do as soon as they have a majority. For the expression cf. Ov. Ars 2.42 sunt mihi naturae iura novanda meae. In Apollonius the women look after the cattle and the fields and wear the men’s arms (1.627f.), but they keep aloof from politics. 309f. donant solio sceptrisque paternis/ ut meritam, redeuntque piae sua praemia menti. Cf. Stat. Theb. 5.320ff. his mihi pro meritis ut falsi criminis astu/ parta fides, regno et solio considere patris/ supplicium datur. solio sceptrisque paternis: from Verg. Aen. 10.852 (Mezentius) pulsus ob invidiam solio sceptrisque paternis. In the Thebaid Flypsipyle is given the throne too (see above), but not her father’s sceptre, which she had burned on a pyre, together with his arms and clothes, in an attempt to throw dust in the other women’s eyes and make them believe that she had done her ‘duty’ as well (5.313ff.). ut meritam: the women proclaim Hypsipyle queen ‘as being deserving of it’, i.e. because they assume that she has not failed in her duty (which is quite understandable, as Thoas is nowhere to be seen); compare Statius’ his mihi pro meritis (see above). For ut so used cf. Cic. Orat. 151 vocalium concursio, quam . . . ut vitiosam fugit Demosthenes, OLD 10; another Valerian instance may be 5.269ff. ipsumque ut . . . spem . . . serentem/ ense petit (-que ut Sudhaus: qui ω: quin Balbus). redeuntque piae sua praemia menti: ‘and so a fit reward is the share of filial love’. There seems to be no close parallel for this use of redire, but the affinity with OLD 12 ‘(of inheritances, properties, etc.) to devolve or revert (to)’ cannot be denied, reddunt, the reading of some of the recc., would make the women consciously reward Hypsipyle’s pietas, which is something they definitely do not. For sua, ‘due’, cf. Verg. Aen. 1.461 sunt hic etiam sua praemia laudi, 3.469 sunt et sua dona parenti. Incidentally, one would rather have expected this ceremony to have taken place immediately after the massacre (as in Statius’ version, where Hypsipyle saves Thoas in one go).

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311-92. The Lemnian women see the Argonauts drawing near and decide, wit!1 an eye to the threatening extinction o f the population, to give them a cordid welcome. Having received them, Hypsipyle shows her guests around the island and gives them a banquet, during which she falls in love with Jason. - Bad weather compels the Argonauts to postpone their departure, but they grow t0 enjoy their stay so much that even fair winds cannot persuade them to leave Lemnos. However, when Hercules has given vent to his irritation, Jasod immediately orders that preparations be made for sailing. 311f. Ecce procul validis Lemnon tendentia rem is/ arm a notant; Cf. AR 1.633 οτ’ έγγύθι νήσου έρεσσομένην ϊδον ’Αργώ, Stat. Theb5.335ff. ecce (!) autem aerata dispellens aequora prora/ Pelias intacti late subit hospita ponti/pinus; agunt Minyae. Like Valerius, Statius does not specify how much time has elapsed since Hypsipyle’s accession to the throne, but it seems fair to suppose that the gradual change in the women’s behaviour, as described in Theb. 5.326ff., took at least some days or even weeks. At first sight, Valerius’ presentation suggests that the Argonauts arrive while the meeting of 306ff. is still going on, but cf. 313 concilium . . . vocat. In Apollonius the Argonauts arrive in the year following on that in which the men were murdered (1.610). validis Lemnon tendentia remis arma: ‘armed men making for Lemnos with vigorous stroke of oar’. ‘Iam longius progressus Valerius ibi quoque arma scribit, ubi agitur aliquid ab viris, qui arma habent, sed non opera armorum’ (Langen, coll. 6.582 quot . . . unus equos, quot funderet arma. Stat. Theb. 3.708, 4.394; cf. also Plin. Nat. 2.167 ex Indico mari . . . pars tota vergens in Caspium mare pemavigata est Macedonum armis). Similarly, in Stat. Theb. 5.347f. Hypsipyle telis Adrastus that she and the other women mistook the Argonauts for Thracia bella (cf. R. Jakobi, Hermes 116 (1988) 228f.). arma certainly does not refer to the shields hung along the sides of the Argo (thus Renkema 27, comparing, i.a., 1.339, 496): shields do not row. For validis . . . remis cf. 4.689, Verg. Aen. 5.15, 10.294, and compare VF 1.369 valida . . . tonsa; remis takes us back to where we were before the long digression on the Λήμνια κακά: cf. 77 certatim remis agitur mare. notant: ‘notice’, cf. 3.99,4.389, 6.206, OLD 13. 312f. rapitur subito regina tumultu/ conciliumque vocat.

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Compare the reactions of the Arcadians in Verg. Aen. 8.107ff. when they see the Trojans coining: ut celsas videre rates atque inter opacum/ adlabi nemus et tacitos incumbere remis,/ terrentur visu subito (followed, in llOf., by: Pallas . . . rapto. . . volat telo obvius ipse; cf. 313f. below). rapitur subito . . . tumultu: probably ‘is carried away by sudden panic’, rather than ‘is carried along by the sudden panic’ (of the other women). Statius has: nos Thracia visu/ bella ratae vario tecta incursare tumultu (Theb. 5.347Q. regina: now ‘queen’ (see on 261ff.). concilium . . . vocat: cf. 1.212f. aequoreos vocat ecce deos Neptunus et ingens/ concilium, as well as Verg. Aen. 10.2, Ov. Met. 1.167 (in both cases conciliumque vocat at the beginning of the line), Stat. Theb. 5.98 (Polyxo) concilium vocat. Prose has concilium advocare or convocare (both are found in Cic. Vat. 18). Apollonius has the Lemnian women hold a meeting on the next morning, when the Argonauts have already landed (1.653ff.). 313ff. non illis obvia tela/ ferre nec infestos derat furor improbus ignes,/ ni Veneris saevas fregisset Mulciber iras, non illis. . . derat furor: ‘they did not lack the mad longing to . . .’. Valerius is the first to use furor (de)est + inf. in this sense; cf. 4.562 furor his (i.e. the Cyaneae) medio concurrere ponto. Stat. Theb. 8.595 magno furor est in sanguine mergi, 9.25ff. (cases like Ov. Ars 3.172 quis furor est census corpore ferre suos?, where furor is subject complement, are of course different). However, the infinitive is frequent with other nouns: usually est is involved (cf. e.g. Verg. Aen. 10.715 non ulti est animus stricto concurrere ferro, KS 1.743f., Sz. 351), but sometimes we find its opposite deest, as in Luc. 7.669f. nec derat robur in enses/ire duci, Sil. 13.303f. quis leto avertere poenas/ defuerant animi. The OLD (desum 2) confuses the infinitives in Luc. 7.670 and h.l., which do not depend on derat, but on robur/furor, with those in Sii. 7.497f. pascere nec Poenus . . . furorem/ derat and Tac. Hist. 4.80 neque ipse deerat adrogantia vocare offensas, which do depend on the verb (in its sense of ‘to fail to . . .’). The TLL saw things better (V-l.788.68f.). For furor improbus cf. Sii. 6.525 furor improbus Euri. The repetition of / and r (also ferre, infestos, derat) serves to underline the women’s hostility. obvia tela ferre: cf. Verg. Aen. 9.56f. obvia ferre/ arma, and compare Sen. Oed. 90f. adversus. . . Gigantas obvias ferrem manus. infestos . . . ignes: ‘hostile firebrands’. For the expression cf. Liv. 31.30.7, Stat. Theb. 10.42.

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ni Veneris saevas fregisset Mulciber iras: ‘(and that is what they would have done) if Mulciber had not broken Venus’ savage anger’. The ellipse is quite common, cf. e.g. 6.739f. (Perses) ibat . . . in medii praeceps incendia belli,/ ni prior adversis Pallas vidisset ab armis (‘he was rushing right into the fire of War (and would have gone on), had not . . .’), Verg. Aen. 8.522f. multa . . . dura sito tristi cum corde putabant,/ ni signum caelo Cytherea dedisset aperto (‘they were pondering many things (and would have continued to do so), had not . . .’). We find it in prose as well, especially in Tacitus (e.g. Ann. 11.10 recuperate Armeniam avebat, ni a Vibio Marso. . . cohibitus foret). See further KS 2.404f. For frangere iras cf. Sen. Phoen. 186f. iras, temporum haut ipsa mora/fractas. The name Mulciber seems to derive from mulcere, although there is some doubt as to the original object of this activity: cf. on the one hand Paul. Fest. ρ.144\ι Mulciber Vulcanus a molliendo scilicet ferro dictus, mulcere enim mollire . . . est, and on the other Macr. Sat. 6.5.2 Mulciber est Vulcanus quod ignis sit et omnia mulceat ac domet; see also Börner on Fast. 1.554. Here a word play seems to be intended, Vulcan being called Mulciber, because he mulcet Venus (cf. OLD mulceo 2). In Apollonius, too, the initial aggressiveness of the Lemnian women (1.634ff.) eventually comes to nothing (638f. άμηχανίη δ’ εσχοντο/ δίφθογγοι, τοϊόυ σφιν έττί δέος ήωρεΐτο), but, unlike Valerius, Apollonius does not explain the sudden change in their behaviour. Statius differs from both Apollonius and Valerius by having the women actually attack the Argonauts (Theb. 5.376-97). In doing so he may be following Sophocles, in whose Λήμνιαι the two parties fought a μάχη ισχυρά: cf. schol. AR 1.769-773. The same scholiast informs us that the women of Aeschylus’ Ύψι-ιτύλη refused to give the Argonauts permission to land on Lemnos until they promised to have intercourse with them. 316. tunc etiam vates Phoebo dilecta Polyxo (. . .ait) vates: Valerius’ Polyxo is a seer, unlike Apollonius’, who is merely Hypsipyle’s aged, ‘withered-footed’ nurse (1.668f.). Her advice, however, is the same: ‘grab your chance’ (compare 322ff. below with AR 1.675ff.). Statius’ Polyxo, on the other hand, is an old she-devil who goads the other women into the murder of the men and so performs the same function as Fama and Venus in Valerius. Phoebo dilecta: like all seers (and physicians, for that matter: cf. Verg. Aen. 12.391 Phoebo ante alios dilectus Iapyx). 317£f. (non patriam, non certa genus, "("sed maxima ta e ta e 'f/ Proteaque ambiguum Phariis f e f ab antris/ huc rexisse vias iunctis super aequora phocis;

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‘About whom there is no certainty as to her native country and parentage, ( . .) that the ever-changing Proteus directed his course hither from the Egyptian caves, over the waters, in his seal-drawn chariot’. These are tantalizing lines. Ehlers, who reads sed maxima cete (C) in 317, and Pharii se patris (LC) in 318, defends these readings as follows (Lustrum 127f.; I quote him in full): 1. Das Versende cete ist durch Vergilben. 5.822 (immania cete) und Dracontius pom. 7.148 geschützt. Dracontius nimmt in den Versen 145-54 deutlich auf Valerius’ Passage Bezug, so dass cete hier sicher scheint. 2. certa regiert die beiden Akkusative des Sachbezugs (Graeci) patriam und genus. Der folgende Acl hängt gleichfalls von certa ab (maxima cete - phocis). Also ist kein den Acl regierendes verbum dicendi zu konjizieren, sondern aus der Gegenüberstellung non certa - sed zu ergänzen. Das Gefährt der polyxo - Delphine als Zugtiere, Proteus als Lenker, Robben als Floss - bereitet der Vorstellung keine Schwierigkeiten. Damit ist auch das se als Objekt geschützt. 3. Wenn man einmal auf die Vorstellung, patris beziehe sich auf den Vater der polyxo, sie widerspreche sich damit selbst, verzichtet, wird man durch z.B. Martial 9.35.7 (Phario . . . love) darauf geführt, dass mit den antra Pharii patris nur die Höhlen, aus denen Proteus kommt, gemeint sein können, Pharius pater also nur eine Metonymie für Ägypten ist. The following objections to all this can be raised: Ad 1.: a. the ‘Versende’ of ω is taetae, not cete, and Dracontius’ model was definitely Vergil; b. the reference first to the cete and then to Proteus is odd, not to say irreverent; c. although cete can denote all sorts of sea-animals, those connected with Proteus happen to be seals (cf. Horn. Od. 4.404, 446, 452). This makes 317 cete - 319 phocis awkwardly repetitive. Ad 2.: Ehlers apparently takes se as object of rexisse, but what about vias then? Proteus and his cete cannot both ‘have directed Polyxo’ and ‘have directed their course’ to Lemnos. Ad 3.: reading Pharius pater, one does not immediately think of the meaning ‘Egypt’. I think we can be fairly sure that Valerius did not write cete (in more or less recent times also adopted by Thilo (pr. XLIIIf,), Bury and Giarratano) or Pharii se patris, but then what did he write? With regard to 318 most editors believe, and I agree, that Phariise should not be read as Pharii se, but as Phariis e, and that the e conceals some expression meaning ‘it is said’ (e.g. est rumor (Caussin)), or, which I would prefer, ‘she

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asserts’ (e.g. effatur (Burman)). Certainty, however, is beyond reach, a n d the lonely e should be obelized. As for taetae in 317, those editors who do not dagger it (or read cete) usually take it to be the garbled vocative of either Ceto or Tethys, introduced as Proteus’ wife and Polyxo’s mother. Thus we find on the one hand te, m axim a Ceto (Heinsius), sed te, vaga Ceto (Schenkl), sed te, anxia Ceto (Bährens), and on the other te, maxima Tethys (Burman), or, more correctly, te, maxima Tethy (Bon, B-1474, Mozley). Proteus and Ceto/Tethys are not presented elsewhere as a married couple, but this is in itself no prohibitive objection against reading Ceto or Tethy: Ceto’s traditional husband Phorcys bears quite some resem blance to Proteus (cf. 3.726ff.), and Hyginus, for one (Fab. pr.6), makes Tethys and Polyxo mother and daughter (the father is Oceanus). But, what we want to be to ld is not that Proteus and whoever his wife was had come from Egypt to Lem nos, but that he had brought Polyxo with him. Attempts have been made to m ake room for Polyxo in these lines, but they were not very successful: Ehlers reads se in 318, but his construction is impossible (see above), Bährens’ vexisse suam (for rexisse vias) is very unattractive, and so are Liberman’s alternative suggestions sed maxima cete/ Proteaque ambiguum Phariisque hanc fertur ab antris/ huc rexisse vias and s. m. c ./ Proteusque ambiguus Phariisque haec fertur ab antris/ h. r. V. (1989, 114). I would say that the closing words of 317 conceal a reference to Polyxo in some form or other (perhaps a se lurks behind sed; Bury suggested se et maxima cete), or that the line which Thilo and K ram er suppose fell out between 317 and 318 contained such a reference. If the former, which I prefer, sed maxima taetae should be obelized; if the latter, -\taetaej will do. non patriam, non certa genus: certus with an accusative of respect is not found elsewhere, but genus is more than once so used with other adjectives (and pronouns), both in poetry (e.g. Verg. Aen. 5.285 Cressa genus, 8.114 qui genus) and in prose (e.g. Tac. Ann. 6.9 clarigenus). See also on 106 simillima. For the thought cf. (also in parenthesis) Verg. Aen. 11.340f. genus huic materna superbum/ nobilitas dabat, incertum de patre ferebat. Protea . . . ambiguum: the sea god and seer Proteus was able to transform himself into various animals, and even into fire or water (cf. Horn. Od. 4.417f., Verg. G. 4.406ff.), hence his epithet ambiguus, ‘of unsettled form’, for which cf. Ov.Met. 2.9Protea. . ■ambiguum, Sil. 7.436 ambiguus vates. Phariis . . . ab antris: Proteus lived on Pharos (Horn. Od. 4.354ff.), the small island off the Egyptian coast that was famous for its lighthouse. For his caves cf. Horn. Od. 4.403 κοιμάται òtto σττέσσι γλαφυροίσιν, Verg. G. 4.429f. cum Proteus consueta petens e fluctibus antra/ ibat.

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The adjective (again in 1.644, 4.408 and 7.113) is first found in Tibullus (1.3.32) and was a favourite of Lucan’s, who has it no less than 37 times. It usually means ‘Egyptian’, by synecdoche. hue: Proteus’ journey from Egypt to Lemnos is not mentioned elsewhere, but according to one tradition he once travelled from Egypt to Pallene (cf. Lyc. 115-27), so there was a Greek connection. For another version, which made Pallene his homeland, cf. Call. SH fr. 254,5f. (with R.F. Thomas, CPh 81 (1986) 319), Verg. G. 4.390f. (Proteus) nunc Emathiae portus patriamque revisit/ Pallenen. rexisse vias: as Langen remarks, the normal expression for ‘to direct one’s course’ is not regere vias, but derigere iter or the like (cf. e.g. Plane. Fam. 10.11.2). However, the use of simplex pro composito is no real problem, and as for vias, Valerius has in mind Verg. Aen. 3.694f. Alpheum fama est huc Elidis am nem / occultas egisse vias subter mare (note especially the element of uncertainty (fama est), huc, and the phrase subter mare, the opposite of Valerius’ super aequora). rexisse vias certainly does not mean ‘(that Proteus) directed her course’, which is how Bury takes it: Polyxo was not locked up in a labyrinth, like Theseus (cf. OLD rego 2), nor was she blind or otherwise disabled. iunctis . . . phocis: a remarkable team. In Vergil’s Georgies Proteus is the herdsman of Neptune’s seals (4.394f.; cf. Horn. Od. 4.385f., 404), whereas ‘fishes and a yoked team of two-footed horses’ (4.388f.), i.e. Ιτπτόκαμ'ΐτοι (‘seahorses’), are his means of transport. Valerius combines these data and makes Proteus drive in a seal-drawn chariot. super aequora: the words belong to rexisse vias, and their position between iunctis and phocis is somewhat awkward. 320f. saepe imis se condit aquis cunctataque paulum/ surgit ut auditas referens in gurgite voces) saepe imis se condit aquis: cf. Ov. Met. 11.255 dixerat haec Proteus et condidit aequore vultum. Note, however, that Proteus belongs to the sea, whereas Polyxo only takes a dip for consultation. surgit: ‘rises to the surface’, cf. Luc. 3.703f. se per vacuos credit dum surgere fluctus,/puppibus occurrit. ut auditas referens in gurgite voces: not ‘as one reporting words she had heard . . .’ (Mozley), which makes no sense, but ‘reporting words, presented as having been heard . . .’. For ut so used cf. Cic. Inv. 1.27 narratio est rerum gestarum aut ut gestarum expositio. Quint. Inst. 5.11.6.

COMMENTARY Köstlin’s et (1880), adopted by Langen, makes referem subordinate to ait ^ 322. This does give a better flow, but its corollary is that the parenthesis shou^ stop after 319, which in its turn means that saepe has to be removed. Tlvjc seems a bit too much to ask; apart from this, Köstlins own septenis (1889) Bährens’ haec, adopted by Langen, are far from convincing. gurges is used in its weakened sense of “waters’. Henry’s note on A en. remains a must. 322ff. “portum demus’ ait ‘< u u —> haec, credite, puppis/ advenit et levi0f Lemno deus aequore flexit/ huc Minyas. portum demus: cf. Ov. Her. 2.107f. (I, Phyllis) quae tibi, Demophoon, longis erroribus acto/ Threicios portus hospitiumque dedi. There is something missing in 322, either before or, less probably, after ha,;c (for the lengthening, in that case, of the final syllable of ait see on 2^5 metüs). Summers’ (ait) fatis, ‘through the agency of fa te , adopted by Kramer and Mozley and mentioned by Courtney and Ehlers in their app. crit., is good (cf. 445f. Thessala . . . tunc prìmum puppis . . . fatis Sigeo litore sedit, 3.64 fatis extrema in proelia tendit, 4.741), but I am not convinced that it is what Valerius wrote and therefore prefer to print a lacuna, with Courtney and Ehlers. Cs (haec) hospita, which was still read by Langen and Giarratano, does n0t seem possible. At least, none of the usual meanings of hospes/hospita (‘of a guest’, ‘received as a guest’, ‘foreign’) is applicable here, and the adjective never seems to mean ‘good, well-meaning’. 5.385f. nos hospita p u b es/ advehimur (Jason to Medea), which might suggest itself as a case in point, probably means ‘strangers are we, who have sailed hither’ (Mozley), though it could be objected that Medea had guessed as much. credite: in parenthesis and without mihi, as in Stat. Theb. 5.139L (Polyxo speaking) hoc fenum stratis, hoc, credite, ferrum / imposuit. levior. . . deus: ‘God, in a less oppressive, milder, mood’. For levior Langen compares Hor. Od. 1.18.9 Sithoniis non levis Euhius, Ον. lb. 207f. nec ulla/ commoda nascenti stella levisve fuit (in Sen. Ag. 605 contemptor levium deomm, also adduced by Langen, the adjective means ‘fickle’). Heinsius’ melior, adopted by Bährens and Mozley, is clearly unnecessary. For deus, ‘God’, ‘Heaven’ (rather than ‘Venus’ (Maserius) or ‘Cupid’ (Burman)), see on 142 nuntius. For the thought cf. Verg. Aen. 4.45f. (Anna to Dido) dis equidem auspicibus reor et Iunone secunda/ hunc cursum Iliacas vento tenuisse carinas.

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Apollonius does not mention divine intervention in so many words, but, as Fränkel remarks (90), ‘der hellenistische Leser unsres Epos . . . wird eine Manipulation des Wetters durch irgend einen Gott sogleich vermutet haben, und er war seiner Sache sicher sobald er aus Vs. 65 lf. ersah dass am folgenden Morgen ein Nordwind die Weiterreise unmöglich machte’ (compare 356ff. below). Minyas: see on 15f. For the framing of a line by two verbs (advenit -flexit) see on 161. 324£ Venus ipsa volens dat tempora iungi,/ dum vires utero matemaque sufficit aetas.’ For this advice of Polyxo’s cf. AR 1.681-5, 694-6. Venus ipsa volens dat tempora iungi: ‘Venus herself willingly gives an opportunity to unite’. Thilo was the last editor to accept the mss. reading tempora: Schenkl, Bährens, Langen, Bury, Giarratano, Kramer and Mozley all read corpora with Burman (who also suggested pectora), Courtney reads foedera with Markland (cf. Courtney, pr. LVI), whereas Ehlers prefers Castiglioni’s tempore. Recently, however, Strand took up the cudgels for tempora (82f.), and, with Hàkanson (1973) and Scaffai (ANRW 2386), I believe he was completely right to do so. dare tempus/tempora + inf., ‘to give an opportunity to’ (do something), may not be found elsewhere, but expressions like dare copiam + inf. (Strand compares Cat. 64.367f,, Verg. Aen. 9.484) and dare potestatem + inf. (cf. e.g. Verg. Aen. 3.670, 7.591) are, and so is dare tempus/tempora + gen. (3.651 dum iura dares, dum tempora fandi, Ter. Hec. 44 agendi tempu’ mihi datumst). And so, all Valerius is doing is combine the two existing constructions into dare tempora + inf., which surely is a conflation of a very harmless kind. For volens cf. 4.483f. nec casus ab alto,/ ipse volens nostris sed vos deus appulit oris (in a similar context). iungi, ‘to unite’ (sexually), is not infrequent in Ovid, cf. e.g. Ars 1.453 hoc opus, hie labor est, primo sine munere iungi. utero: before Valerius (who has it again in 424) uterus in the sense of “womb’ is, as far as poetry is concerned, largely confined to comedy, Ovid and Seneca (the only other instances are Hor. Od. 3.22.2, Prop. 4.1.100 and Man. 5.464). Vergil uses the word nine times: five times of the belly of the Wooden Horse, three times of that of an animal, and once of Scylla’s. materna . . . aetas: ‘maternal age’, i.e. child-bearing age. The phrase, and indeed the whole line, is a variation on Luc. 2.338 dum sanguis inerat, dum vis matema.

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sufficit: this goes less naturally with materna aetas than it would have witf, Lucan’s vis materna (cf. Caes. BG 7.20.11 nec iam vires sufficere cuiusquam nec ferre operis laborem posse). 326L dicta placent, portatque preces ad litora Grais/ Iphinoe; dicta placent: cf. Ov. Fast. 2.736, and compare Met. 14.496 dicta placent pauci^ This is exactly Apollonius’ ευαδε . . . σφu>/ μύθος (1.697L), but the absence in Valerius of an equivalent for έυ . . . άγορή ιτλήτο θρόον (697) m akes h(s description of the women’s reaction rather colourless. portat . . . preces ad litora Grais Iphinoe: Apollonius had given Iphinoe the same role (1.702ff.), but he has her deliver the message in oratio recta (713ff.). For portat . . . preces ad litora Grais cf. Verg. Aen. 1.633f. (Dido, having welcomed Aeneas) sociis ad litora m ittit/ viginti tauros, 695f. dona C upido/ regin portabat Tyriis. Valerius will make ample use of this episode in what follows (see the various notes below). For portare so used cf. e.g. Verg. Aen. 9.312 multa patri mandata dabqt portanda, Ov. Met. 2.743f. qui iussa per auras/ verba patris porto. Valerius has the verb no more than seven times (Lucan only twice), but his contem poraries Statius and Silius make frequent use of it (37 and 59 times respectively). With 19 instances, Vergil occupies a position in between. See further Axelson 30f. Valerius always has Graius and Grai, never Graecus/ Graeci. For the practice of other writers see Austin on Aen. 2.148, Börner on Met. 7.214, Housman on Luc. 9.38, Axelson 5 If. 327f. nec turba nocens scelerisque recentis/ signa movent, tollitque loci Cytherea timorem. ‘And the guilty throng and the traces of the recent crime do not upset them (supply eos with movent), and/because Cytherea takes away the terror of the place’. That the ‘guilty throng’ does not upset the Argonauts is not very surprising (people with a past do not necessarily show that they have one). W hat is surprising, is that the traces of the massacre (blood on the walls, burnt-down houses etc.) fail to disconcert them, not only at their arrival, but throughout their long stay, unless what Valerius means is not that Venus makes the Argonauts immune to the traces of the crime, but that she actually removes these traces. sceleris. . . recentis signa: cf. Sen. Ag. 948 signa caedis veste maculata gerit.

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loci . . . timorem: ‘the terror of the place’ (Ehlers’ loco is a misprint). For timor so used cf. e.g. 5.525 dolet . . . Scythiae petiisse timores, Ον. Met. 10.29 haec loca plena timoris. Cytherea: the island of Cythera, south of the Peloponnese, was sacred to Aphrodite/Venus (cf. 8.229). Hence her surnames Κυθέρεια (first in Horn. Od. 8.288), Κυθήρη (Anacreont. 14.11), and, in Latin, Cytherea (first in the Aeneid and in Horace’s Odes, and in Valerius again in 7.189 and 8.235), Cythereia (Ον. Met. 4.190, al.), Cythereis (Ον. Met. 4.288, al.) and, much later, Cythere. See also Austin on Aen. 4.128, Börner on Fast. 3.611. These two lines are all that is left of Apollonius’ elaborate description in 1.721-856 of Jason’s arrival in the city, with the famous mantle-εκφρασις (721767) and the charming star-simile (774-81), his conversation with Hypsipyle (793841; but see below), his return to the shore and the entry of the other Argonauts into the city (842-56). On the other hand, it should be noted that the tour of the island (332ff.) and the banquet (341ff.) are new in Valerius. 329ff. protinus ingentem procerum sub nomine taurum/ deicit, insuetis et iam pia munera templis/ reddit et hac prima Veneris calet ara iuvenca. Cf. AR 1.857ff. ανήκα δ’ άστυ χοροΐσι καί είλατήνησι γεγηθει/ καττνώ κνισήεντι, ττερί/ττλεον εξοχα δ’ άλλων/ αθανάτων 'Ήρης via κλυτόν ήδέ καί αΰτήν/ Κύττριν άοιδήσιν θυέεσσί τε μειλίσσοντο, Stat. Theb. 5.449f. tunc primus in aris/ignis. protinus ingentem procerum sub nomine taurum deicit: after Cytherea in 328 this means that Venus herself sacrifices a bull, and to avoid this nonsense (advocated by Köstlin (1889)) modern editors do one of three things: a. they postulate a lacuna between 328 and 329 (Thilo, Bährens, Langen, Bury, Giarratano, Kramer and Mozley), b. they take these lines to be a first draft, later to be elaborated (Schenkl SB 284f.; on this subject see my article ‘Valerius Flaccus and the last file’ in Ratis omnia vincet), or c. they adopt Pierson’s change (2.6.201) of sub to dux (Courtney and Ehlers). To start with the last solution, I would not go so far as to say, with Schenkl, that Pierson’s conjecture ‘nicht auf den Namen Kritik Anspruch machen [kann]’, but the error strikes me as very unlikely. Moreover, Jason is surely not the right person to make sacrifices (cf. Verg. Aen. 1.632, where Dido, after her invitation to Aeneas, divum templis indicit honorem), let alone to restore the worship of Venus. No, Hypsipyle must be the subject of deicit (for a woman, and a queen at that, slaughtering a victim cf. Verg. Aen. 4.57ff.), which leaves us with options a. and b. A lacuna is of course always possible, but the fact that

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lines 331 and 332, immediately below, are as disconnected as 328 and 329 strongly supports Schenkl’s hypothesis of a first draft. We can of course little more than speculate what the final version would have looked like, K, · * Uut it seems fair to suppose that it would have included a word of welcom« by Hypsipyle to the Argonauts, as well as an invitation to stay, and perhaps some kind of explanation for the absence of men on the island (cf. Happle 52, Br0 n.49), like the one given by Hypsipyle in AR 1.793-833, though undoubtedly t at such length. In Statius the women actually confess their crimes to the Argonauts: nec superum sine mente, reor, placuere fatentes (Theb. 5.452). procerum sub nomine: ‘on behalf of the noblemen.’ nomine alone is ^ common in this sense (OLD nomen 14), cf. e.g. Cic. Att. 1.16.16 Antonio tu0 nomine gratias egi. In 590 and 3.608 the proceres are the Argonauts minus Jason (cf. also Ov. i j er 6.99), but here and in 5.385f. nos hospita pubes/ advehimur, Graium proceres tua tecta petentes (Jason to Medea) the word denotes all the Argonauts (com pare 346f. below: Aesonides - alii proceres). deicit: with the sole exception of schol. Germ. Bas. p.93, the use of deicere in sacrificial contexts is confined to Valerius (also in 1.189ff. tibi . . . et Z e p h y r Glaucoque bovem Thetidique iuvencam/deicit Ancaeus). insuetis . . . templis: ‘it must be assumed that since the massacre of the nien there had been a cessation of religious observances’ (Mozley). pia munera: ‘gifts of due sacrifice’; cf. e.g. Cat. 68.79 pium . . . cruorem, pjQr Od. 3.23.19f. mollivit aversos Penatis/farre pio, Tib. 2.2.3 pia tura. reddit: cf. Hor. Od. 2.17.30f. reddere victimas/aedemque votivam memento. et hac prima Veneris calet ara iuvenca: ‘and this is the first heifer to warm Venus’ altar’ (contrast 98f. Veneris stat frigida semper/ ara loco). This heifer must be one of the pia munera just mentioned. Still, hac (SL) is a bit odd, and perhaps we should read reddidit ac (ac V), or reddit et hic (‘on this occasion’). Von Barth and Courtney had their qualms too: the former (on Stat. Theb. 5.449) suggested hinc, the latter (‘v.c.’) reddid et hac etc. For calet cf. e.g. 8.260 sacra calentia, Verg. Aen. 1.416f. (Paphos) ubi tempklm illi (i.e. Venus), centumque Sabaeo/ ture calent arae sertisque recentibus halant, Ov. Met. 13.590 calituras. . . ignibus aras. According to Burman, Venus ‘sanguine non credebatur placari, sed ture et mero’, coll. Hor. Od. 1.19, but the last line of this very ode, mactata veniet lenior hostia, surely refers to blood sacrifice (cf. Nisbet-Hubbard ad loc.).

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332f. ventum erat ad rupem, culus pendentia nigris/ fumant saxa iugis coquiturque vaporibus aer. ‘They had arrived at a cliff, whose overhanging rocks and ridges were black with smoke, the air being scorched by vapours.’ ‘They’ are Hypsipyle and the Argonauts, who are given a tour of the island by their hostess and now arrive at Vulcan’s forge, from which smoke and vapours issue. For the sudden transition see on 329ff. The lines are modelled on two Vergilian passages, viz. Aen. 6.42ff. excisum Euboicae latus ingens rupis in antrum . . . ventum erat ad limen (where the Sibyl and the Trojans arrive at The Cave) and Aen. 8.416ff. insula Sicanium iuxta latus Aeoliamque/ erigitur Liparen fumantibus ardua saxis,/ quam subter specus et Cyclopum exesa caminis/ antra Aetnaea tonant (the description of Vulcan’s forge on the island of Hiera). For Valerius’ use of these passages see also notes below. ventum erat: for the impersonal passive see on 13 remis insurgitur, and cf., with this particular verb, Aen. 6.45 (quoted above); compare ventum in VF 5.219, 404. ad rupem: in itself this could mean that the company have halted before a precipice, but videtis in 335 makes it more likely that they are standing at the foot of a cliff. cuius pendentia nigris fumant saxa iugis: probably a complicated way of saying cuius pendentia saxa et iuga fumo nigra sunt. In any case, nigris iugis does not depend on fumant (nigris vaporibus or something like it would of course have been different) or on pendentia (Luc. 1.435 cana pendentes rupe Cebennas is not a parallel: the Cevennes may very well be said to ‘overhang’ with their cliffs, i.e. have overhanging cliffs, but rocks do not ‘overhang’ with ridges). Ehlers’ solution of a (double) enallage (= cuius pendentia iuga nigris saxis fumant) strikes me as a bit academic. For nigris (i.e. with smoke issuing from the forge) cf. 7.647f. (qualis) niger ex antris rutilique a fulminis aestu/ cum fugit et Siculo respirat in aequore Cyclops. coquitur . . . vaporibus aer: the forge emits hot vapours, which ‘scorch’ the air. For coquere so used cf. Sii. 1.258 medius coquit aethera fervor, and for the ‘hot vapours’ (the distinction made by the OLD between vapor 1 “vapour’ and 2 ‘heat’ cannot always be maintained) Sen. Phaed. 102f. qualis Aetnaeo vapor/ exundat antro. 334ff. substitit Aesonides atque hic regina precari/ hortatur causasque docens ‘haec antra videtis/ Vulcanique’ ait ‘ecce domos: date vina precesque. substitit Aesonides: cf. V erghe«. 11.95 substitit Aeneas, 12.491.

COMMENTARY regina precari hortator; just like the Sibyl (see on 332f.) in >len. 6.5 If. ‘cessaS in vota precesque,/ Tros' ait ‘Aenea? cessas?’ (compare also the line-ending Vo(a precesque with vina precesque in 336 below). The mild rebuke conveyed by tj,e repeated cessas in the Aeneid is absent from our passage, but then, Jason does not know as yet that he is in the vicinity of a god, whereas Aeneas did (cf 45 deus ecce deusf). causas . . . docens: cf. 3.377 ‘dicam’ ait ‘ac penitus causas labemque doceb0 ’, Ov. Fast. 5.392. haec antra videtis Vulcanique . . . ecce domos: look, here you see Vulc^n’S cave, his horne’. Vulcani belongs άττό κοινού to both antra and domos'. Vulcan s home cave. For domos cf. Aen. 8.422 Volcani domus, and for antra Aen. 8.419 antra Aetnaea (for Valerius’ use of this passage see on 332f.), as well as Stat. Theb. 5.87 antra dei fumantis (the same episode), Silv. 3.1.13If. nec maior ab antris/ Lemniacis fragor est (the same island), Iuv. 1.8f. For haec, ‘here’, see on 96 has. . · haec. date vina precesque: in Aen. 8.275 Euander had said something similar to bis Trojan guests: communem . . ■ vocate deum et date vina volentes. Unlike Vergil, however, Valerius does not go on to describe the actual ceremony. For dare preces cf. Ov. Pont. 4.9.129f. nostras . . ., sollicito quas damus ore, preces. 337. forsitan hoc factum taceat iam fulmen in antro; ‘Perhaps a forged bolt is now lying silent in this cave’, i.e. ‘perhaps Vulcan has already finished his bolt, which is now lying silent in this cave’ (forsitan fulmen iam fecit, quod nunc in hoc antro tacet). However, nox dabit ipsa fidem etc. (338f.). forsitan: see on 151 forsan. taceat: Ehlers mentions Parrhasius’ iaceat (adopted by Courtney) and Thilo’s lateat in his app. crit., but the notion ‘silence’ is indispensable. 338£ nox dabit ipsa fidem, clausae cum murmura flammae,/ hospes, e t incussae sonitum mirabere massae.’ nox dabit ipsa fidem: ‘night itself will give you proof (when you will hear the sounds of the forge in action). ipsa is rather otiose, but Sandström’s mox . ■ ■ ipse deprives us of the topic of Vulcan working at night: cf. Aen. 8.414ff., where work is in full progress when Vulcan visits his employees the Cyclopes medio iam noctis abactae/ curriculo

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(407f.), and compare VF 4.286ff. pervigil ut c u m / artificum notat Aetna manus et fulmina Cyclops/ prosubigit, pulsis strepitant incudibus urbes, 5.140f. nocte sub extrema clausis telluris ab antris/pervigil auditur Chalybum labor. For fides ‘proof cf. OLD 4. clausae . . . murmura flammae: ‘the rumble of the confined flames’. The flames are ‘confined’ (cf. Mart. 14.61.1) in the furnace (cf. Aen. 8.421 fornacibus ignis anhelat) and make a low, rumbling noise; for this kind of murmur cf. e.g. Lucr. 1.122Ì. Aetnaea minantur/ murmura flammarum rursum se colligere iras. cum: by postponing the word Valerius avoids a spondaic disyllable in the fourth foot: see on 74 et. hospes: which is how Dido addresses Aeneas inAen. 1.753. incussae sonitum . . . massae: ‘the sound of beaten ore’. For this part of the process cf. Verg. G. 4.170f. ac velati lentis Cyclopes fulmina massi*/ cum properant, 174f. illi inter sese magna vi bracchia tollunt/ in numerum, versantque tenaci forcipe ferrum (reproduced in Aen. 8.452f.). incussae is the perfect participle of incutere, used as a synonym of percutere: cf. 5.550 crebrior incussit mentem pavor, where the verb is used metaphorically, Plin. Nat. 9.92, Avien. Orb. Terr. 817, OLD lc, and compare Luc. 6.403 in formam calidae percussit pondera massae (adduced by Burman). incussae, then, is unobjectionable. However, Latin happens to dispose of a confusingly similar verb, incudere (perfect participle incusus), with a confusingly similar, and very appropriate, meaning, viz. ‘to hammer’ (cf. Verg. G. 1.274f. lapidem . . . incusum, Pers. 2.52, and perhaps Apul. Apol. 14; cf. also Non. p.523M massa malleis cuditur), and Maserius’ incusae (adopted by Bury) deserves serious consideration. After all, the beating of metal was done on an incus. Note the jingle clausae cum murmura flammae - incussae sonitum mirabere massae. 340f. moenia tum viresque loci veteresque parentum/ iactat opes. Cf. Verg. Aen. 4.74f. (Dido) media Aenean secum per moenia ducit/ Sidoniasque ostentat opes urbemque paratam, as well as Ov. Met. 13.632ff. hunc (i.e. Aeneas) Anius . . . temploque domoque recepit/ urbemque ostendit delubraque nota duasque/ Latona quondam stirpes punente retentas, which lines are followed by the description of a ritual (cf. 329ff. and 336 above) and a banquet (cf. 341ff. below). From these lines onward the story of Hypsipyle and Jason is largely modelled on that of Dido and Aeneas as told in Aeneid 1 and 4: Vergilian are especially the (preparing of the) banquet in 34 Iff. (cf. Aen. 1.637ff.), Hypsipyle’s eager

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questions to Jason (351ff.; cf. Aen. 1.750ff., 4.77ff.), the bad weather preluding the romances of the Argonauts and the Lemnian women (356ff.; cf. Aen. 4.160ff.) the reprimand by Hercules, with Jason’s subsequent reaction (375-92; compare Mercury and Aeneas in Aen. 4.265-95), and, finally, Hypsipyle’s reaction on seeing the Argonauts’ preparations for departure, followed by her speech to Jason (400ff.; cf. Aen. 4.296ff.). moenia . . . viresque loci: if vires is ‘strength’ here, the words probably constitute a hendiadys (‘the strong walls of the place’), or perhaps vires loci refers to Lemnos’ citadel (cf. 306). Alternatively, vires could be taken more vaguely as ‘resources’ (thus the OLD (26), but Ov. Met. 7.508 is not a good parallel). J.A. Wagner’s ‘agri ubertatem’ is too specific. Note that in Aen. 4.74 (quoted above) moenia means ‘the buildings of the city’, iactat: ‘mentions proudly’, ostentat in Aen. 4.75 may have the same connotation of pride, but not necessarily so. opes: “wealth’, as in Aen. 4.75 (rather than Austin’s ‘power’). Note the “wachsende Glieder’: 1. moenia, 2. vires loci, 3. veteres parentum opes. 34If. mediis famulae convivia tectis/ expediunt; Tyrio vibrat torus igneus ostro. A combined echo of Aen. 1.637ff. at domus interior regali splendida luxu/ instruitur, mediisque parant convivia tectis:/ arte laboratae vestes ostroque superbo etc. (which in its turn owes a great deal to Cat. 64.43ff.) and 701f. famuli. . . Cererem. . . canistris/ expediunt. Cf. also Lucan’s description of Cleopatra’s palace in 10.122ff. fulget gemma toris, et iaspide fulva supellex/ felix quondam genus, invida donec/ Laomedonteos fugeret Fortuna penates. α has nos Ili veteris quondam genus etc. (non sili L), ‘once we were the race of old Hus’, but of course Hesione and her people are still the race of old Ilus. What one expects to be told is that the race of old Ilus was once happy, until things changed for the worse. For this reason Slothouwer conjectured felix, for veteris (‘we are the race of Ilus, once happy, until’ etc.), and he was followed by Thilo and all subsequent editors. I have no doubt that Valerius did write felix (cf. Verg. Eel. 1.74 ite meae, felix quondam pecus, ite capellae), but I fail to see how the word could have

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become veteris. According to Thilo (pr. LVIII), ‘nimirum e [2.580] supra versum aliquis adscripserat veteris, quod a stupido librario in ipsum versum deductum est’, but why should anyone have written veteris over our line? Not to mention the fact that in 580 the mss. reading is not veteris, but veteres. Hence my suggestion that we keep veteris ànd adopt felix and assume that two hemistichs dropped out between veteris and felix, the contents of which may have been something like “we are descendants of old Ilus, o f whom you may have heard, once a happy race, until’ etc.; cf. Verg. Aen. 1.375f. nos Troia antiqua, si vestras forte per auris/ Troiae nomen iit etc. Kramer suggests that two hemistichs fell out after genus (see his app. crit.), but I do not see what the sequel to nos Ili veteris quondam genus could have been. Hi: father of Laomedon, grandfather of Hesione, and founder of Ilium. Note that Hesione mentions her genus, but not her nomen (468). Kramer suggests that she may have done so in the lacuna, but a switch from genus to nomen and then again to genus seems unlikely. invida . . . Fortuna: it is not always easy to tell whether fortune is personified (Fortuna) or not (fortuna), but in this case the presence of invida leaves little room for doubt. For the expression cf. Sen. HF 524 o Fortuna viris invida fortibus (one of those platitudes of the Senecan choir), Claud. 5.194. donee: lines rarely end with conjunctions (cf. Norden, Comm, on Aen. 6, pp. 400ff.). In fact, this is the only instance of such a line-ending in book 2. For this particular conjunction cf. 4.309, 8.292, Verg .Aen. 11.201. Purely temporal donee (OLD 1) followed by a subjunctive (fugeret) is already found in Lucretius (4.997), but it remains rare until Tacitus. Another Valerian example is 1.842 (5.685, 8.87, 190 and 383 all belong to OLD 2). Laomedonteos fugeret Fortuna penates: for the four-word line cf. Verg. G. 1.502 Laomedonteae luimus periuria Troiae, Ον. Met. 11.196 Laomedonteis Latoius adstitit arvis. For the framing of a line by attribute and noun see on 18. 475ff. principio morbi caeloque exacta sereno/ temperies; arsere rogis certantibus agri,/ cum subitus fragor et fluctus Idaea moventes/ cum stabulis nemora. Hesione goes on to describe the effects of the ‘flight’ of Fortuna, viz. the outbreak of a plague (475f.) and the coming of a sea monster (477ff.). The sea monster occurs in all versions of the story, but the plague was optional: before Valerius it is mentioned by Diodorus Siculus (4.42.2), but not by any other

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writer, and after him by Hyginus and Apollodorus, but not, for instance, by Tzetzes. Hesione, understandably, does not say anything about who sent the sea monster or the plague. Valerius himself informs us in 497 that Neptune was responsible for the former, in agreement with all other writers, but he is silent about the sender of the plague. It may have been Apollo (thus Apollodorus, and perhaps Hyginus (see Rose ad loc.)), but it may equally well have been Neptune, as ip Diodorus Siculus (4.42.3). principio morbi caeloque exacta sereno temperies: a υστέρου ττρότερον: first the mild climate is driven from the clear sky, then follow the diseases. Valerius is drawing on the opening lines of the plague descriptions in Lucr. g (Athens), Verg. G. 3 (Noricum) and Ov. Met. 1 (Aegina): cf. Lucr. 6.1138 haec ratio . . . morborum et mortifer aestus, Verg. G. 3.478f. hic quondam morbo caeli miseranda coorta est/ tempestas totoque autumni incanduit aestu (compare morbo caeli . . . / tempestas with Valerius’ morbi caelo . . . / temperies), Ov. Met. 7.528f. principio (!) caelum spissa caligine terras/ pressit et ignavos inclusit nubibus aestus. exacta . . . temperies: to be replaced by aestus: cf. the three passages quoted above, as well as Luc. 1.646f. an tollit fervidus aer/ temperiem? temperies occurs first in Hor. Ep. 1.16.8. For exacta cf. Sil. 15.251 Aurora ingredieris terris exegerat umbras. arsere rogis certantibus agri: a variation on Verg. Aen. 11.208f. tunc undique vasti/ certarim crebris conlucent ignibus agri, but arsere is bolder than conlucent. Hesione does not say for whom the pyres were meant, but we can guess. cum subitus fragor: Ehlers adopts Ph. Wagner’s turn (1863), as did Schenkl, Bährens, Bury and Courtney before him, and at first sight this has the advantage of giving principio a follow-up. However, a ‘then’ is by no means necessary (Ovid’s principio in Met. 7.528, for one, stands on its own); what is more, if, with Thilo, Langen and others, we place a semicolon after temperies (as I think we should, in order to avoid an unpleasant asyndeton in 476), a ‘then’ is even unwanted. Besides, inverted cum followed by subito or a form of subitus (found again and again in Valerius (cf. 1.641, 4.384, 490, 6.715, 7.564, 8.56, 177)) is the turn par excellence to describe something surprising, terrible, etc.; cf. especially Verg. Aen. 2.679f. talia vociferans gemitu tectum omne replebat,/ cum subitum dictuque oritur mirabile monstrum, followed in 681 by manus inter maestorumque ora parentum (cf. 481 below: amplexus inter planctusque parentum), Sen. Phaed. 1006ff. (Hippolytus) habenis lora permissis quatit,/ cum subito vastum tonuit ex

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alto m are/ crevitque in astra (and enter the monster that stood model for Valerius’). What Hesione says, then, is: ‘it all started with diseases and heat; (as a result) the country was burning with rivalling pyres, when all of a sudden . . (for inverted cum after a perfect tense cf. 4.384 (with subito), KS 2.340). fragor could refer to the noise made by the sea monster (cf. 501 fulmineus quatit ora fragor, 7.529), but the creature should rather bide his time until ecce in the next line, fragor denoting the crashing sound of the fluctus: cf. 529 ponti . . . fragor, 3.404, Verg. Aen. 1.154 pelagi. . .fragor. fluctus Idaea moventes cum stabulis nemora: cf. 519 (when the monster draws near) intremere Ide. Valerius has in mind Verg. G. 1.482f. (the Eridanus) campos . . . per omnis/ cum stabulis armenta tulit (cf. Aen. 2.498f.), but the stabula are probably no longer ‘stalls’, but ‘lairs’ (of wild animals): cf. Cat. 63.52f. ad Idae tetuli nemora pedem ,/ ut aput nivem et ferarum gelida stabula forem. 478f. ecce repens consurgere ponto/ belua, monstrum ingens. ecce: announcing the arrival of a monster, as in Verg. Aen. 2.203 (Laocoon’s snakes), Ov. Met. 4.706 (Perseus’ adversary). repens: see on 91ff., and cf., with ecce, Stat. Theb. 10.160f. ecce repens superis animum lymphantibus horror/ Thiodamanta subit. consurgere ponto belua: Valerius, Ovid, Manilius and Seneca all vary on the same theme: cf. Met. 4.689f. immenso belua ponto/ imminet, Man. 5.579f. gravidus iam surgere pontus/ coeperat, Phaed. 1015 consurgit ingens pontus. For consurgere with a separative ablative cf. e.g. Ov. Met. 7.344 toro tempted consurgere. For the historic/descriptive infinitive see on 47 trepidare. belua, monstrum ingens: cf. Verg. Aen. 3.657f. Polyphemum . . .,/ monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens. Cf. also Sen. Phaed. 1047 ingens belua. 4791 hanc tu nec montibus ullis/ nec nostro metire mari. ‘You must not measure it by any mountain you know or by our sea’ (metire is imperative). Ehlers takes this to be a comparatio compendiaria (‘montes belua montium ut mare belua maris’), and so do Courtney and Leo (958), but the words surely have to be taken literally (thus J.A. Wagner, Langen, Mozley): pour le besoin de la cause Hesione presents the monster as being more massive than any mountain existing (compare 5221 below) and more spacious than the sea (cf. [Sen.] HO 259

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palude tota vastior serpens). By ‘our sea’ Hesione means the waters off the Sigean shore. metire: for metiri + abl. ‘to measure by’ (in its literal sense) cf. OLD 1. Cf also, with ad, Petr. 75.10 quotidie me solebam ad ilium (sc. candelabrum) metiri. 48Qff. primaeva furenti/ huic manus amplexus inter planctusque p a re n tu m / deditur, hoc sortes, hoc corniger imperat H am m on,/ virgineam dam nare anim arr, sortitaque L ethen / corpora, crudelis scopulis me destinat urna.

The consultation of an oracle is a common feature of all versions of the story but there is some disagreement as to its answer. In most cases Laomedon is ordered explicitly to sacrifice his daughter Hesione to the sea monster (thus Hellanicus, Ovid (Met. 11.21 If.), Apollodorus and Tzetzes), but Diodorus Siculus and Hyginus have different accounts: the former tells us that the Trojans had to select one of their children by lot, which then fell on Hesione (4.42.3), whereas according to the latter, Apollo iratus ita respondit: si Troianorum virgines ceto religatae fuissent, finem pestilentiae futurum·, then, cum complures consumptae essent et Hesiones sors exisset, Hercules and Telamon passed by, and the rest we know. Valerius obviously does not join the majority, but what he does is less clear. Langen believes that our author is giving, not one of the other two versions (‘Diodorus Siculus’ and ‘Hyginus’), but both, ‘postea (i.e. if he had lived to finish the work) alteram utram deleturus’; 480ff. (primaeva - deditur) would then represent the line followed by Hyginus, and 482ff. (hoc - uma) the one followed by Diodorus Siculus (corpora, in Langen’s view, being a poetic plural). This, now, would be a very unusual ‘Doppelfassung’, and the interpretation ignores the fact that the hoc-clause is most naturally taken to be explanatory of the primaeva-clause: a group of youths was handed over to the sea monster, because the oracle of Hammon ordered virgineam damnare animam sortitaque Lethen corpora. This, it should be noted, is not merely a repetition of the primaeva-clause: a manus primaeva can be composed of boys and/or girls, and virgineam etc. is necessary to specify the sex of the victims; corpora now becomes an ordinary plural, virgineam animam being a collective singular. Up to corpora, then, there is no reason to assume that Valerius’ version is not the same as Hyginus’. The only problem is the final clause, crudelis scopulis me destinat uma. According to Langen, Valerius should have added ‘p ost alias (vel tale quid)’, but is it not understandable from Hesione’s point of view that she only focuses on her own misery?

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One last word on manus. This can only mean what it says, viz. that a group (not a series) of girls was handed over to the sea monster. Perhaps we have to look at it this way, that a group had been selected for the purpose, and that, one by one, its members were summoned from the waiting room, so to speak, primaeva. . . manus: compare Werg. Aen. 7.382 impubes. . .manus, primaevus, first in Cat. 64.401 primaevi funera nati, is a rare adjective. Valerius has it again in 652 and 6.570. furenti: cf. 7.528 vacuo furit ore per auras (the snake that guarded the Golden Fleece), 581 cunctatus paulum subito furit (one of Jason’s bulls). The juxtaposition with primaeva is effective. amplexus inter planctusque parentum: cf. Verg. Aen. 2.681 manus inter maestorumque ora parentum, preceded in 680 by cum subitum . . . oritur . . . monstrum (cf. 477 above: cum subitus fragor). For planctus see on 174f. deditur: cf. Man. 5.514-543f. una malorum/ proposita est merces, vesano dedere ponto/ Andromedan, teneros ut belua manderet artus. The verb, only here in Valerius, is very rare in epic poetry. It does not occur in the Aeneid or Statius’ epics, only once in Lucan, and three times in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Silius has six examples. hoc sortes, hoc corniger imperat Hammon: a hendiadys for ‘hoc sortes Hammonis cornigeri imperant’, ‘thus orders the oracular response of horned Hammon’ (contra Langen, who makes sortes refer to the oracle of Apollo Patareus in Lycia, coll. Verg. Aen. 4.346). Hammon/Ammon was an Egyptian god, identified with Zeus and Jupiter, whose oracle in the Libyan desert enjoyed great fame (cf. Pease on Cic. Div. 1.3, ND 1.82). It was he who ordered that (the Ethiopian girl) Andromeda should be punished for the sins of her mother (Ov. Met. 4.670f.), but he has no business whatsoever in the story of (the Trojan girl) Hesione. Indeed, outside Valerius the oracle is either Apollo’s (thus Diodorus Siculus and Hyginus) or it remains unspecified. For comiger, a stock epithet of Hammon, see Börner on Met. 5.17 comiger Ammon. For compounds in -ger see on 416 armiger. virgineam . . . animam: cf. Verg. Aen. 2.118f. sanguine quaerendi reditus animaque litandum/ Argolica, which turns out to be Sinon, whom Calchas destinat arae (129; cf. 484 below). damnare: sc. ‘to death’, cf. 1.787 damnati . . . tauri, Verg. Aen. 12.727 (probably), Stat. Theb. 8.26.

COMMENTARY sortita . . . Lethen: ‘that obtained the underworld by lot’. For this use of sortiri cf. 3.71 excubias sortita manus, OLD 3. Lethe, the underworld river stands for the underworld as a whole, as for instance in Stat. Theb. 8.9X Acheron (OLD 2) and Styx (OLD 2b) are used similarly, crudelis. . . urna: cf. Ον. Met. 15.44 immitem. . . in urnam. Valerius has in mind Verg. Aen. 6.18ff. tum pendere poenas/ Cecropidae iussi (miserum!) septena quotannis/ corpora natorum; stat ductis sortibus urna (note also corpora at the beginning of the line). v scopulis me destinat: ‘destines me for the rocks’, an echo of Verg. A en. 2.129 (see above, on virgineam . . . animam). Perhaps something of the original meaning of destinare, ‘to fasten down’ (OLD 1), also glimmers through (coronare Nisbet-Hubbard on Hor. Od. 2.7.20). V P 485ff. verum o iam redeunt Phrygibus si numina, tuque/ Ole ades auguriis promisse et sorte deorum,/ iam cui candentes votivo ia gramine p a scit/ cornipedes genitor, nostrae stata dona salutis, iam redeunt Phrygibus si numina: contrast 473f. invida d o n ec/ Laomedonteos fugeret Fortuna penates. Langen compares Sil. 8.235 redeunt divi. si . . . tu . . . ille ades auguriis promisse et sorte deorum: ‘if you are he who has been promised by the omens/predictions and the oracle of the gods’ This reference to auguria and a sors deorum, foretelling the coming o f a rescuer (compare 4.460f. (Phineus)), is unique to Valerius. promisse is remarkable, because it stands, not for qui promissus es, but for qui promissus est. Cf. also Verg. Aen. 6.791 hìc vir, hic est, tibi quem promitti saepius audis. iam cui candentes votivo in gramine pascit cornipedes: cf. Claud. 28.182 nec iam cornipedem Thybri.no gramine pascis. candentes . . . cornipedes: these ‘white cornipeds’ are the immortal horses given by Zeus to Laomedon’s grandfather Tros as a compensation for the loss of his son Ganymede: cf. schol. 11.20.146 (= Hellanicus, FGrHist 4 F 26) (Laomedon) μισθόν έκήρυξε τ qi τό κήτος άνελόντι τους άθανάτους ϊτπτους δώσειν, οΰς Τρω'ί Ζευς duri Γαυυμήδους εδωκεν. Like Hellanicus, Valerius presents the horses as Laomedon’s reward for whoever would come to Hesione’s rescue. In other writers the offer is meant for Hercules only, but then, Valerius skips the traditional meeting of Laomedon and Hercules before the fight (the same goes for Hyginus). Substantival comipes is first found in Seneca (Phaed. 809) and Lucan (4.762, 8.3), but the adjective is as old as Vergil: cf. Aen. 6.591 (where Norden compares

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Ar. Ra. 230 κεροβάτας Πάι>), 7.779. Valerius has the word only here, in marked contrast to Statius (17 instances) and Silius (34 instances). votivo in gramine: a textbook example of enallage. Contrast Hor. Ep. 1.3.36 pascitur in vestrum reditum votiva iuvenca. For the rare metrical pattern of 487 see on 93. nostrae stata dona salutis: ‘the reward that has been fixed for my rescue’. For dona salutis cf. Avien. Arai. I l l custoditae referens pia dona salutis. status (from sistere) rarely has participial force, but cf. Stat. Theb. 11.380 nempe fidem et stata foedera rupit, and compare, in legal language, PI. Cur. 5 si statu’, condictus cum hoste intercedit dies. Fest. p.314M, Gell. 16.4.4. 489f. adnue meque, precor, defectaque Pergama monstris/ eripe, namque potes; adnue: ‘say Yea’ (Mozley); cf. 5.199, and especially 7.497 (Jason to Medea) respice ad has voces et iam, precor, adnue, coniunx. me . . . defectaque Pergama monstris eripe: ‘deliver me and worn out Troy from the monster’, monstris is a poetic plural, as in 3.512ff. (Juno, speaking of Hercules) Phrygiis ultro concurrere monstris/ nempe virum et pulso reserantem Pergama po n to/ vidimus. Cf. also Sen. Phaed. 122 (Daedalus) qui nostra caeca monstra conclusit domo (the Minotaur). For defecta, ‘worn out’, see on 285ff. For Pergama, originally denoting the citadel of Troy, but later simply meaning ‘Troy’, see Bömer on Met. 12.445. namque potes: (I am asking this favour of you) ‘for you can’ do it. Valerius has borrowed this prayer formula from Vergil: cf. Aen. 6.365f. (Palinurus to Aeneas) eripe (!) me his, invicte, malis: aut tu mihi terram/ inice, namque potes, 6.116f. (Aeneas to the Sibyl) gnatique patrisque,/ alma, precor (!), miserere (potes namque omnia . . .), with Norden’s note. Valerius also has it in l.lOf. (addressed to Vespasian) eripe me populis et habenti nubila terrae,/ namque potes (not: sancte pater, cf. Kleywegt 1986, 318f.), where eripe turns up again, as in 7.241 (Medea to ‘Circe’) sed magis his miseram, quando potes, eripe curis. The Greek equivalent is δύνασαι yap (e.g. Call. Del. 226). 490ff. neque enim tam lata videbam/ pectora, Neptunus muros cum iungeret astris,/ nec tales umeros pharetramque gerebat Apollo.’ Hesione’s last words function on two different levels: as spoken by the girl they are meant to flatter Hercules, but as written by Valerius they are an allusion to how it all started (cf. Horn. II. 7.452f., 21.441ff.). neque enim: an explanation of an explanation (namque potes). For neque enim/nec enim see on 2f.

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lata . . . pectora: cf. Sen. P h aed. 808 (H ip p olytu s) M artis belligeri pectort latior. For H ercules’ broad chest cf., im plicitly, 1.434f. N eptunus m uros cum hungeret astris: ‘w hen N ep tu n e join ed the walls to the stars’. T he hyperbole is q uite com m on, cf. e.g . V erg. A en . 2.460f. turrim . . .sub a s tr a / eductam , 4.89 aequata . . . m ach ina ca elo , and, w ith fungere, Liv. £34.7 p e r iuncta caelo tuga, Sil. 3.624 (D om itian ) iunget n ostro templorum cuhmm caelo. Cf. also Stat. Theb. 7.99 m a esta . . . p erp etu is so llem n ia iungim us astris. For V alerius’ reasons for writing m uros cu m , and n ot cum m uros, see on 31ft; cf. also V erg .^ en . 5.597 Longam m uris cum cingeret A lb a m . n ec tales um eros pharetram que gereb at A p o llo : ‘nor did A pollo have shoulders and such a quiver*. T he ob ject o f gerere is som etim es a weapon (‘t® bear’), som etim es a part o f the body (‘to h ave’), and som etim es both: cf. VergA en . 1.315f. (V enus) virginis o s h abitu m que gerens e t virginis a rm a / Spattutöfo 12.472 (Juturna) cuncta gerens, vocem que e t corpus e t arm a M etisci. tales um eros: also adm ired in 7.108, w here th ey are Jason ’s, pharetram : A p ollo’s attribute p a r excellence. H ercu les u ses his in vain in h» fight with the sea m onster (521f.).

4931 auxerat h aec locu s e t fa cies m aestissim a c a p ti/ lito ris e t tumuli càelun>4f,e quod incubat urbi, auxerat: the place etc. ‘had len t strength, w eigh t to ’ H esio n e’s words; cf. & · H er. 3.30 auxerunt blandas grandia don a preces. facies m aestissim a capti litoris: ‘the in ten sely sad lo o k o f th e captured shore’· capti is striking, but, as L angen says, ‘captu m

littu s est, quod occupatur *

m onstro, quasi urbs ab h oste’, tumuli: those o f the victim s o f the plague. incubat: the hot, p estilen t sky is ‘lying o n ’ th e tow n lik e a thick woolk® blanket. For incubare so used cf. V erg. A en . 1.89 p o n to nox incubat atm, Qu* 9.4.18, Sen. O ed. 47. C loser, how ever, are, w ith incum bere, 1.682ff, LuCf‘ 6.114 Iff. (im ortifer aestus) p en itu s veniens A eg yp ti fin ib u s o r tu s / . . . / incubi tandem popu lo Pandionis om ni (th e A th en ian p la g u e), Stat. S ilv. 3.1521 temp# erat caeli cum torrentissim us a x is/in cu m b it terris. 4951 quale laborantis N em ees iter aut E ry m a n th i/ v id it e t infectae miserat·0 flum ina L em ae. The gloom y sight rem inds H ercules o f th e roads to N em ea (w here he bad the lio n ) and Erymanthus (th e boar), and o f ‘th e w aters o f th e tainted I ti® (w here h e had d efea ted the hydra). F or th ese th ree ‘L abours o f Hercules’ (P*

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first, fourth and second), all very similar to the one he is about to perform, see Bömer on Met. 9.197,191f. and 69ff. resp. The first and last of the Labours mentioned recur in 3.511f., where Juno sighs: quam Nemeen tot fessa minis, quae flumina Lem ae/ experiar? (flumina Burman: belua ω; Ehlers adopts Columbus’ ugly bellave); cf. also 1.34ff., 374f., 8.125f. In Aen. 6.802f. Vergil presents an anthology that is only slightly different from the one at issue: fixerit aeripedem cervam licet, aut Erymanthi (!)/ pacarit nemora et Lemam tremefecerit arcu. laborantis Nemees iter: ‘the road to suffering Nemea’. For iter with a genitive of direction cf. Verg. Aen. 2.359f. mediae . . . tenemus/ urbis iter (with Austin’s note), Prop. 2.1.20, Vitr. 1.5.2 portarum itinera, al. Another Valerian example is 1.793 da placidae mihi sedis iter, where iter means ‘access’. The Greek form Nemee is not found before Valerius (also 3.511 Nemeen, but 8.125 Nemeae). infectae . . . flamina Lemae: the line-ending comes from Verg. Aen. 12.518f. (Menoetes) piscosae cui circum flumina Lem ae/ ars fuerat. The phrase most naturally means ‘the waters of the Lerna’ (cf. Langen ad loc.; for the river Lerna cf. Str. 8.6.2, Stat. Theb. 4.172 amnis torpens et ferro caerula Lema), but perhaps Vergil (cf. Conington-Nettleship ad loc.) and Valerius mean ‘the rivers of (the district) Lerna’. infectae is apposite, because the air of Troy had also been “infected’ by the plague; compare Verg. G. 3.481 (miseranda tempestas) corrupit. . . lacus, infecit pabula tabo. 497-549. Hercules fights and defeats the sea monster. 497ft Dat procul interea signum Neptunus, et una/ monstriferi mugire sinus Sigeaque pestis/ adglomerare fretum, Cf. 3.726ff. dat procul interea toto pater aequore signum/ Phorcys et immanes intorto murice phocas/ contrahit antra petens. Neptune is like a starter at the races, with the monster, the only contestant, getting off to a flying start (una). monstriferi mugire sinus: the bellowing ascribed to the gulf actually comes from the monster it carries. The same goes for Sen. Phaed. 1025f. en totum mare/ immugit, which in its turn is based on Ov. Met. 15.508ff. cumulus . . . immanis aquarum . . . visus . . . dare mugitus. In the Hippolytus story the monster is a bull (Phaed. 1036, Met. 15.511), which makes the use of immugire

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and mugitus in Seneca and Ovid easier, but then, mugire is used of other animals as well (of a lion in Cat. 63.82). Before Valerius, who has it again in 5.43 and 221, monstrifer is confined to Seneca (Phaed. 688) and Lucan (2.3, 5.620 monstriferos agit unda sinus, Valerius’ model). For compounds in -fer see on 295 soporiferas. For the thought cf. Sen. Phaed. 1019f. nescioquid onerato sinu /gravis unda portat. Note how both the m (‘that, as it were, "mooing" letter’, Quint. Inst. 12.10.31) and the u of mugire are redoubled in monstriferi and sinus resp. For the historic/descriptive infinitives mugire (also in Verg. Aen. 6.256, 8.215) and adglomerare see on 47 trepidare. Sigea . . . pestis: the sea monster is the ‘plague of Sigeum’, just as the hydra, the lion, and the boar (cf. 495f.) were the ‘plagues’ of their respective haunts: cf. Lucr. 5.26 Lernaea . . . pestis. Ον. Her. 9.61 pestis Nemeaea, Sil. 3,3g pestis. . . Erymanthia. adglomerare fretum: the monster ‘collects the waters into a mass’. Stat. Ach. 1.59 illi spumiferos glomerant a pectore fluctus (adduced by Langen) would be a fine parallel, if we could be sure that fluctus is what Statius wrote (editors read cursus with P). As it is, we have to content ourselves with Ov. Met. 15.251 tellus glomerata cogitur unda. For the compound see on 17 Iff. Seneca’s Phaedra has undarum globus in 1031. 499fr cuius stellantia glauca/ lumina nube tremunt atque ordine curva trisulco/ fulmineus quatit ora fragor pelagoque remenso/ cauda redit passosque sinus rapit ardua cervix. Valerius goes on to describe the monster’s terrifying physique: its flashing eyes, its awful mouth, its long neck, and its curved body ending in a tail. stellantia . . . lumina: ‘starry eyes’, i.e. eyes that have the brightness of stars (‘ardentia, blitzende’, Langen). Cf. Ov. Met. 1.722f. excipit hos (i.e. Argus’ eyes!) volucrisque suae Saturnia pennis/ conlocat et gemmis caudam stellantibus implet, Sulp. Sev. Ep. 2.3 vultu igneo, stellantibus oculis. glauca . . . nube tremunt: ‘flicker beneath a blue-green cloud’, glauca nube probably refers to the sea-spray hovering over the monster’s eyes (but the ablative is remarkable): with this ‘cloud of blue-green water’ (lit. ‘blue-green cloud’) we may compare the ‘cloud of dust’ of, for instance, Liv. 22.43.10; for glaucus, the colour of the sea, cf. e.g. Lucr. 1.719, Ciris 452. Mozley’s ‘beneath a blue-grey film’ does not seem possible. In Seneca’s Phaedra the monster’s eyes relucent caerula insignes nota (1041). It is tempting to see in glauca nube an echo of caerula nota (nube, like nota,

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referring to ‘spots’ in the monster’s eyes), but the only meaning of nubes approaching ‘spot’ at all is ‘cloudy patch’ (OLD 4d), which is not close enough. For tremunt cf. Ov. Ars 2.721 aspicies oculos tremulo fulgore micantes. atque ordine curva trisulco fulmineus quatit ora fragor: ‘and whose mouth with its three curved rows is shaken by a crash as of lightning’. ordine curva trisulco: ‘with its three curved rows’. If asked, Pacuvius would probably have found a compound adjective to express the same thing, à la repandirostrus and incurvicervicus (trag. 408). ordine trisulco, ‘triple row’ (or rather ‘three-forked row’), does not immediately suggest a triple row of teeth, but the combination with curva, the right word for the horseshoe shape of a set of teeth (compare Ov. Am . 2.2.26 curva theatra), helps. The use of trisulcus as a synonym of triplex (cf. Valerius’ model, Ov. Met. 3.34 triplici stant ordine dentes (of Cadmus’ dragon)) is very remarkable: in Verg. G. 3.439 (= Aen. 2.475) the adjective is naturally applied to a snake’s tongue. Its meaning in Var. Men. 577 trisulcae fores, pessulis liberatae, dehiscunt is disputed. fulmineus . . . fragor: ‘a crash as of lightning’. For the fragor coming from a monster’s mouth cf. 7.529, Sen. HF 795f. (of Cerberus) vocis horrendae fragor/ per ora missus tema-, for the fragor of lightning (or rather: thunder) cf. Verg. Aen. 2.692f. subito. . . fragore/intonuit laevum, Liv. 21.58.5. fulmineus usually means ‘of lightning’ or ‘fast as lightning, destructive as lightning’ etc. Its meaning here, ‘as of lightning’, is very rare, but paralleled at, and perhaps borrowed from, Petr. 89.39f. (of the eyes of Laocoon’s snakes!) fulmineum iubar/ incendit aequor. quatit ora: cf. Verg. Aen. 5.199f. creber anhelitus artus/ aridaque ora quatit. Statius seems to imitate our author in Theb. 12.790 femineus quatit astra fragor. pelagoque remenso cauda redit passosque sinus rapit ardua cervix: Langen comments: ‘Motus monstri similis est ei, quo in terra angues vel vermes loco moventur. Sinuatur corpus vel contrahitur, ita ut capiti et cervici immotis posteriores partes cum cauda admoveantur, tum hae loco manent et caput cum collo promovetur . . . [Valerius] fingit bestiam voluminibus corpus iam sinuasse, tum cauda redit, i.e. rursus pervenit in eum locum, ubi propria eius sedes est, ad extremum corpus, sed hoc non fit motu ipsius caudae, verum eo quod caput promovetur: passos sinus rapit ardua cervix’. Langen is certainly right about the first half of the sentence (pelagoque - redit), but I am not sure that the second half (passosque - cervix) describes the same movement as the first. It might, passos sinus meaning ‘until they (i.e. the curves) lie extended’, with prolepsis, but passosque - cervix could also very well describe the next movement: after

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the tail has ‘returned’ to its starting point (so that the coils lie flat), neck sweeps the extended curves along’. nditur For pandere so used cf. Cic. Arat. 701 (449) cum caudaque omnis iam p ^ Hydra, and for sinus id. ib. 48 (Draco) conficiens . . · sinus e corpore ^ Verg. G. 3.424, al. The expression pandere sinus has a different meaning m Aen. 8.712 and elsewhere. ctora Cf. also Vergil’s description in Aen. 2.206ff. of Laocoon s sna es P quorum inter fluctus arrecta iubaeque/ sanguineae superant undas, pa pontum/pone legit sinuatque immensa volumine terga. m visi pelagoque remenso: from Verg. Aen. 2.181f. pelagoque remenso/ i ? aderunt, where see Austin. Valerius has the verb again in 3.227 fluviis e remensa (a bold phrase). r r 3 79 of the ideal ardua cervix: the line-ending comes from Vergil too ( · > horse). Cf. also Hor. Sat. 1.2.89, Sii. 1.204 (of Atlas). In Senecas ae r messenger says of the sea monster: opima cervix arduos tollit toros (1042). 503«. illam incumbentem per nulle volumina pontus/ prosequitur laten adsultans trepidisque ruentem/ litoribus sua cogit hiems. illam: sc.pestem. . . incumbentem: Sc. pomo·, cf. Verg. Aen. 2.205 (Laocoon's snakes) «cum ba pelago. , j .. per mille volumina: “with its thousand coils’; per is halfway between mo and ‘instrumental’. For the rare metrical pattern of 503 see on 367. ; prosequitur: the sea ‘escorts’ the monster, like the wind escorts t e in Verg. Aen. 3.130 prosequitur surgens a puppi ventus euntis ( - 5.7 Sen. Phaed. 1033f.pontus. . . suum . . . monstrum sequitur. lateri adsultans: perhaps an echo of Germ. A r« . 299 « t a t a t a r i deptensM spuma carinae. Before Valerius, who has it only here, the verb is con Germanicus (once), Seneca (once: Dial. 5.25.3 inrilus ingemi scopaio fluctus adsultai) and the elder Pliny (five times). . trepidisque ruentem litoribus sua cogit hiems: and its own storm rushing forward, to the fearful shore'; cf. Sen. Phaed. 10311 undanan globus . . . litori invexit malum. , „ .... sua hiems is the storm caused by the monster itself: cf. Stat. Ach. . . sa . . . hiemes classis pmmota saosgue/ Mollii fluctus, possibly an mutation of our passage. Note .ha. proprio iempesias in Sen. Phaed. 1008«. nuUus tnspua, saio/

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ventus, quieti nulla pars caeli strepit/ placidumque pelagus propria tempestas agit refers to the sea’s ‘own storm’. For cogere ‘to drive’ cf. OLD 11 (e.g. 1.65f. sese odiis immania cogi/ in freta) and l ib (e.g. Cic. Inv. 2.98 vis ventorum . . . in Rhodiorum portum navem coegit), and add, perhaps, Stat. Theb. 5.12f. rauca . . . decedunt agmina N ilo,/ quo fera cogit hiems (quo Vollmer, Garrod, Klotz-Klinnert: cum Ρω; cogit P: ponit ω; Hill now reads cum fera ponit hiems). cogere with a dative of direction seems to be unprecedented (stabulis in Verg. Eel. 6.85 cogere . . . ovis stabulis is probably ablative). Other remarkable Valerian examples are 523 deferre . . . vallibus, 561 iunctis . . . venis, 5.9f. robora . . . portant . . . arae and 6.84 abruptus pelago Tyra. For literature on this subject see Williams on Aen. 5.451 it clamor caelo. With the ‘fearful’ shore compare 5.430 trepidum . . . amnem, Verg. Aen. 6.800 trepida ostia Nili, Stat. Theb. 11.256 trepidae. . . valles. ruentem may come from Man. 5.586 ipsi metuunt montes scopulique ruentem. 505ff. non fluctibus aequis/ nubiferi venit unda Noti, non Africus alto / tantus ovat patriisque manus cum plenus habenis/ Orion bipedum flatu m are tollit equorum.

The monster’s ‘own storm’ causes waves bigger than those of the south wind, and it is mightier than the south-west wind or Orion when he upheaves the sea. The structure of the sentence is well-balanced: the monster’s storm corresponds to the winds Notus (1) and Africus (2), the waves it causes are compared to those brought about by the Notus (1) and Orion (3), whereas the storm’s exultation is compared to that of the Africus (2) and Orion (3). For the two bad weather winds Africus and Notus mentioned side by side cf. e.g. Hor. Od. 1.3.12ff. nec timuit praecipitem Africum . . . nec rabiem Noti, and for Orion and Notus id. ib. 1.28.21f. me quoque devexi rapidus comes Orionis/ Illyricis Notus obruit undis. Valerius has in mind Sen. Phaed. 101 Iff. non tantus Auster Sicula disturbat freta/ nec tam furens Ionius exsurgit sinus/ regnante Coro, saxa cum fluctu tremunt/ et cana summum spuma Leucaten ferit. Cf. also Plin. Nat. 9.13 (of the fights between whales and ores) spectantur ea proelia ceu mari ipsi sibi irato, nullis in sinu ventis, fluctibus vero ad anhelitus ictusque quantos nulli turbines volvant. This is the first in a series of no less than three similes involving the sea monster; for the other two cf. 515ff. (a comparison with another wind, the Boreas), 522f. (Mt. Eryx).

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nubiferi venit unda Noti: the genitive is remarkable, but cf. Luc. 5.572 Cori veniet mare. For nubifer, ‘cloud-bringing’ (of winds), cf. Ov. Her. 3.58 nubiferis . ■ ■ Notis, Luc. 2.459 nubifero . . . Euro, Stat. Theb. 1.193, Sil. 10.322, Avien. Orb. Terr. 1109. In 4.599 and 8.214 Valerius applies the word to mountains (‘cloud-cappecj>. cf. Ov. Met. 2.226, al.). For compounds in -fer see on 295 soporiferas. For the fluctus of an unda cf. 4.725f. ovat: the Africus is personified, as winds often are. Cf. also Stat. Theb. 9.488 amnis ovans. patriisque manus cum plenus habenis Orion bipedum flatu mare tollit equorum: or Orion, when, his hands full of his father’s reins, he upheaves the sea with the breathing of the two-footed horses’. The idea of Poseidon, Orion’s father (cf. Hes. fr. 148a M.-W., Apollod. 1,4.3, VF 1.647, 4.122f.), driving his chariot over the sea is familiar to us (Hom. //. 13.23ff., Verg. Aen. 1.147, 5.817ff.), and so is that of the setting of the constellation Orion, in November, marking the beginning of stormy weather (Verg. Aen. 4.52, Hor. Od. 1.28.21f.), but Orion joyriding in his father’s car, and upheaving the waves with it, seems to be a Valerian innovation. -que: ‘or’ (see on 79ff.). -ve (Markland, Schenkl) is unnecessary, manus . . . plenus: for plenus with an accusative of respect cf. 1.298 pleni oculos, Verg. G. 4.180f. (the young bees) multa referunt se nocte . . ■ crura thymo plenae, Luc. 8.752. See also on 106 simillima. For the repeated metrical pattern of lines 505-7 (three times ddds) see on 158ff. Orion: with Ό-: see on 62f. bipedum . . . equorum: the so-called Ιτπτόκαμττοι, creatures that were half­ fish, half-horse. The phrase comes from Verg. G. 4.389 (where they are Proteus’), imitated in Ciris 395 (where they are Leucothea’s). For Poseidon’s Ιτπτόκαμττοι cf. e.g. Str. 8.7.2, Stat. Theb. 2A5ii.,Ach. 1.59f. flatu: cf. Stat. Silv. 1.1.20f. (Mars’ horse) nec tardo raptus prope flumina cursu/fumat et ingenti propellit Strymona flatu. tollit: cf. 1.601 (Boreas speaking) nec mihi libertas imis freta tollere harenis, OLD 8b. 509ff. ecce ducem placitae furiis crudescere pugnae/ surgentemque toris stupet immanemque paratu/ Aeacides pulsentque graves ut terga pharetrae. ecce: the camera switches from the monster to Hercules, as seen through Telamon’s eyes.

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Valerius construes stupet (‘is amazed, astonished’) first with an A.C.I., then with an accusative + predicative participle and ditto adjective (supply ducem with surgentem and immanem), and finally with an uf-clause. The first and second of these constructions are not uncommon (the A.c.I. from Verg. Eel. 6.37 onward, the accusative first in Verg. Aen. 2.31), but the one with ut is new. ducem: perhaps ‘leader’ (cf. 468 ductor, where see note), but more probably ‘hero’. For the latter meaning, not recognized by the OLD, cf. e.g. 5.99 Odrysius dux (Orpheus). placitae furiis crudescere pugnae: ‘growing fiercer with the frenzy of the chosen battle’ (Mozley). Valerius is the first to use crudescere of persons (cf. Stat. Theb. 2.717, Sii. 4.449, 14.555); before him Vergil had applied the verb to diseases (G. 3.504) and battles (Aen. 7.788, 11.833). Compare the use of crudus ‘fierce’ in Ov. Tr. 5.3.8 crudis. . . Getis and elsewhere. furiis echoes Verg. Aen. 8.219f. hic vero Alcidae furiis exarserat atro/ felle dolor (before his fight with Cacus). surgentem . . . toris: ‘swelling (lit. ‘rising’) as to his muscles’; toris is ablative of respect. For surgere so used cf. Pers. 3.95 surgit . . . tibi lutea pellis (pace Harvey), and especially Sii. 5.312ff. (where a lion watches a bull preparing for the fight!) nunc ferus alta/ surgentes cervice toros, nunc torva sub hirta/ lumina miratur fronte ac iam signa moventem/ et sparsa pugnas meditantem spectat barena. Hercules’ muscles were proverbial: see Langen on 1.253 conspicuus . . . toris Tirynthius. immanem . . . paratu: ‘impressive in his outfit’. Before Valerius, who has it again in 651, paratus is rare, with the exception of Ovid (seven instances). Tacitus uses the word no less than sixteen times. Note the careful structure of this line, with stupet being flanked by the two complements surgentem and immanem, each with their own ablative. pulsentque graves ut terga pharetrae: ‘and how the heavy quiver bangs against his back’, which is what quivers do in epic: cf. e.g. Livius Andronicus (?) in Maur. 1937 pressa . . . iam gravida crepitent tibi terga pharetra, Verg. Aen. 4.149 tela sonant umeris (with Pease’s note), Stat. Theb. 4.269 terga Cydonea corytos harundine pulsat. 512f. ille patrem pelagique deos suaque arma precatus/ insiluit scopulo Hercules crosses himself before the fight begins. sua . . . arma precatus: cf. Verg. Aen. 10.773f., 12.95f. nunc, o numquam frustrata vocatus/ hasta meos, nunc tempus adest. Closely related is the swearing

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of an oath on one’s weapons, as in 3.707ff., Aesch. Sept. 529 δμιηισι δ’ αιχμήν ήυ εχει, AR 1.466ff. insiluit scopulo: Perseus does the same thing, though at a later stage, in Ov. Met. 4.73 Iff. Elsewhere Valerius has insilire + acc. (4.683 insiliunt pariter scopulos, 8.132f.), but the construction with the dative is at least as common (Ov. Met. 8.142, 367, 12.345f. tergo . . . Bianoris a lti/ insilit, al.), and there is no need to read scopulos with Heinsius. 513f. motumque e sedibus aequor/ horruit et celsi spatiosa volumina monstri. ‘And he shuddered at the sea, stirred up from the bottom, and at the huge coils of the towering monster’. Subject of horruit must be Hercules (contra Langen), aequor horruit, ‘the sea became rough’, would of course be no problem, but volumina monstri (sc. horruerunt) would (‘the monster’s coils became rough’?). For (Hercules) aequor horruit cf. Hör. Epod. 2.6 (miles) neque horret iratum mare. sedibus: cf. 530 a sede maris, Verg. Aen. 1.84f. (venti) incubuere morì totumque a sedibus imis/una Eurusque Notusque ruunt. spatiosa volumina: spatiosus is first found in Mor. 35 (of Scybale’s enormous feet) and Ovid (15 instances, among which Met. 3.56 spatiosi corporis hostem (Cadmus’ dragon)). See further Korn on 4.244 spatiosa . . . pectoris ossa (of Amycus), the only other example in Valerius. For spatiosa volumina cf. Luc. 3.505 (of smoke!). 515ff. qualis ubi a gelidi Boreas convallibus H ebri/ tollitur et volucres Rhipaea per ardua nubes/ praecipitat, piceo necdum tenet omnia caelo,/ "j"illa simul ~j~ molem horrificam scopulosaque terga/ promovet ingentique umbra subit; ‘Even as when the north wind rises from the valleys of the cold Hebrus and sends the clouds flying over the Rhipaean heights, not yet holding everything under a pitch-black sky, (so) does (the monster) move its dreadful mass and rocky back forward, drawing nearer with its huge shadow’. The comparison with Boreas applies, not to Hercules (Thilo (pr. LXXXVIII), Langen and others), but to the monster as described in 518f. (thus, for instance, Burman, Ph. Wagner 1863, Schenkl (SB 362) and Kramer): the monster promovet its bulk, just as the north wind praecipitat the clouds, and it draws near (but has not yet arrived) with its huge shadow, just as the wind holds the world (but not yet the whole world) under a pitch-black sky. ‘Das kommende Seeungeheuer

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wird mit dem kommenden und noch nicht den ganzen Himmel mit Wolken überziehenden Boreas verglichen’ (Ph. Wagner). Although he drew the wrong conclusion by applying the simile to Hercules, Langen’s objection to the absence of something like talis, sic, haud aliter in the main clause is valid, and illa simul should probably make room for one or the other, the more so because simul defies explanation: it cannot refer all the way back to Hercules’ actions in 512ff., nor can it link molem horrificam and scopulosa terga, ‘quia hae duae res non diversae sunt’ (Langen). a gelidi . . . convallibus Hebri: Valerius combines Verg. G. 2.488 gelidis convallibus Haemi (‘the cold glens of the Haemus’, a mountain-range in Thrace) and Aen. 12.331 gelidi. . . flumina . . . Hebri (‘the waters of the cold Hebrus’, a river in Thrace). Burman’s Haemi is unnecessary, tollitur: cf. 7.157f. (Juno) tenues sublimis in auras/ tollitur, OLD tollo 4a. volucres . . . nubes praecipitat: volucres is predicative (‘sends the clouds flying’), rather than attributive (‘hurls the flying clouds’, Mozley). With Boreas . . . praecipitat compare Ov. Met. 2.185 praecipiti. . .Borea. Rhipaea . . . ardua: a mythical mountain-range, situated somewhere in the far north (first mentioned by Aleman (fr. 90 Page PMG)) and naturally linked with the north wind Boreas; cf. also 7.562f., Stat. Theb. 11.114f. Courtney, Ehlers and others spell Rhip-, but V has Riph- (also in 5.558, 602, 6.33, 119, 7.562; compare the mss. readings in Verg. G. 1.240, 3.382, 4.518), and this may well have been what Valerius wrote. See also Hall on Claud. RP 3.321. For substantival ardua cf. e.g. 3.695 celsi . . . ardua montis, Verg. G. 3.291 Parnasi deserta perardua, Stat. Theb. 2.63 ardua Cirrhae. piceo. . . caelo: see on 115f. necdum tenet: this corresponds to subit in the simile (see above), and necdum should certainly not be replaced with Thilo’s nox turn (coll. 1.617), adopted by Schenkl, Bährens, Langen, Courtney and Ehlers. For tenet cf. Luc. 5.413f. fortius hibemi flatus caelumque fretumque,/ cum cepere, tenent, 9.118 tenens. . . pelagus Eurus. molem horrificam: see on 27ff. and 96ff. resp. scopulosa . . . terga: the monster’s back is not ‘mountainous’ (Mozley), but ‘rocky’, i.e. ‘covered with rocks’: cf. Enn. seen. 113 Joe. scrupeo investita saxo (of the sea monster threatening Andromeda). Jocelyn compares PI. R. 10.611d, where the former nature of the sea god Glaucus is said to have become almost unrecognizable, ύττό τοϋ τά τε τταλαιά τον σώματος μέρη τά μέυ έκκεκλάσθαι, τά δέ συντετρίφθαι καί ττάυτως λελωβήσθαι ϋττό των

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κυμάτων, άλλα δέ ττροσττεφυκέναι, δστρεά τε καί φυκία καί ττέτρας. Statius imitates our author in Ach. 1.55 scopulosa. . .cete. ingenti . . . umbra subit: cf. Verg. Aen. 10.540f. (Aeneas vs. the priest Haemonides) lapsum . . . superstans/ immolat ingentique umbra tegit, where the literal interpretation (Svith his huge shadow’) is definitely preferable to the metaphorical one (‘in the deep night’, viz. of death). Valerius liked the combination ingens umbra: cf. 3.99,5.175, 6.235, 8.33. For subit cf. Man. 5.595. 519£ intremere Ide/ inlidique rates pronaeque resurgere turres. The impact of the monster’s approach on land and shore is tremendous: Mt. Ida shakes to its foundations (cf. 477f.), ships are dashed against the rocks, and (Troy’s) towers tilt forward and come up again. As Köstlin (1891) saw, the lines echo Horn. II. 20.59f. ττάντες δ’ έσσείοντο ττόδες ττολυτάδακος ’Ίδη?/ καί κορυφαί, Τρώων τε πόλις καί νηες 'Αχαιών (after Poseidon has caused an earthquake), which secures the much suspected rates (ratis B-1498, arces nonnulli apud Pium, trabes Gronovius (1.18), vadis Beck, putes Löhbach 1869 (with Iden and pronasque), altae Ehlers (app. erit.)). Cf. also Sen. Phaed. 1048ff. talis (i.e. like the sea monster) extremo m ari/ pistrix citatas sorbet aut frangit rates./ tremuere terrae. For the existence of other ships than the Argo see on 285 ratis. intremere Ide: from Verg. Aen. 3.581f. intremere om nem / murmure Trinacriam, where see Williams for the unusual elision (cf. also, in Valerius, 5.42 ubi Idmon, 145 sine armis, 680 accipite ordo, 6.522 corporaque atris). inlidi . . . rates: sc. ‘against the rocks’; cf. Verg. Aen. 5.206 inlisaque prora pependit, Liv. 22.20.2, al. pronaeque resurgere turres: these words have also been suspected (proramque infligere terrae Ph. Wagner 1863, proraque resurgere tunsa Schenkl; recumbere Beck, Reuss 1899, adopted by Courtney; rupes Burman, puppes van Lennep (ap. Schenkl 1883)), but buildings, especially towers, do sway dangerously when there is an earthquake, and this is what Valerius is trying to express, first by pronae, ‘tilted forward’ (not ‘olim praecipitatae’ (Thilo pr. XXXIV)), and then by resurgere. Claudian may be imitating our author in RP 2.152f. ecce repens mugire fragor, confligere turres/ pronaque vibratis radicibus oppida verti. For the historic/descriptive infinitives intremere and resurgere see on 47 trepidare. 521f. occupat Alcides arcum totaque pharetrae/ nube premit.

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The combatants face each other and the fight begins. occupat Alcides arcum: ‘Hercules grasps his bow’; cf. 3.168 occupat os barbamque viri, Luc. 8.670 spirantia . . . occupat ora (Pompey’s severed head), [Sen.] HO 858 occupa ferrum ocius. Ehlers reads arcu, with Columbus, but occupare aliquem with a weapon in the ablative (cf. e.g. Verg. Aen. 9.768ff.) means ‘to eliminate someone (with the weapon indicated) before he is able to eliminate you’, and Hercules is doing very little eliminating as yet. totaque pharetrae nube premit: (sc. illam) ‘and attacks it with the whole cloud of his quiver’. Castiglioni’s totamque has the advantage of giving premit an object, but it leaves nube rather bare, and totaque should be kept (cf. also Stat. Silv. 1.2.74f. hunc egomet tota quondam (tibi dulce) pharetra. . . fai). A nubes of missiles (unqualified by velut, as it still is in Liv. 21.55.6 and 38.26.7) is first found in Luc. 2.262 caeca telorum in nube\ compare OLD nimbus 4. In our passage pharetra stands for the arrows it contains. This is bold, but not as bold as Statius’ iaculantum nube in Theb. 9.120. For premit cf. Verg. Aen. 8.248f. insueta rudentem (sc. Cacum )/ desuper Alcides telis premit. 522f. non illa magis quam sede movetur/ magnus Eryx, deferre velint quem vallibus imbres. non illa magis quam sede movetur magnus Eryx: = non illa magis sede movetur quam magnus Eryx (sede movetur). The monster’s sedes is the sea; for the sedes of a mountain (and for the simile as such) cf. Ov. Met. 11.554ff. nec levius, quam siquis Athon Pindumve revulsos/ sede sua totos in apertum everterit aequor,/praecipitata cadit (sc. unda). movetur is the reading of the editio secunda (moventi ω). Langen, Bury and others read moverì with the editio tertia. This may seem closer to moventi, but movetur finds support from Verg. Aen. 6.470f. nec magis incepto vultum sermone movetur/ quam si dura silex aut stet Marpesia cautes. For magnus Eryx cf. Ov. Ars 2.420 altus Eryx, Rem. 550 celsus Eryx, and especially Luc. 2.665f. maris Aeolii medias si celsus in undas/ depellatur Eryx. deferre . . . vallibus: deferre with a dative of direction is not found before Valerius (cf. Stat. Theb. 7.784f. accipe laurus,/ quas Erebo deferre nefas), but deicere, for instance, is: cf. B. Hisp. 24.3, Luc. 3.691, al. See also on 504f. trepidis. . . litoribus. . . cogit. velint: potential.

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524. iam brevis et telo volucri non utilis aer. The distance between the monster and Hercules is too short now for the latter to make profitable use of his arrows. Commentators compare Liv. 24.34.6 hi, qu{Q spatio missilibus opus est, procul muro tenebant naves, Flor. Epit. 2.19 (4.9.6) donec absumpto iactus spatio adimeret usum sagittarum. In 3.161f., too, Hercules discards his bow and arrows, switching over to his club: nec pharetram aut acres ultra Tirynthius arcus/ exercet, socia sed disicìt agnina clava. telo volucri: cf. Verg. Aen. 11.858 volucrem. . . sagittam. aer: ‘space’, as in 1.495ff. oculis . . . sequuntur/ scuta virum, donec iam celsior arbore pontus/ immensusque ratem spectantibus abstulit aer, Lucr. 4.274, Stat. Silv. 5.2.7. For the repeated metrical pattern of lines 522-4 (three times dsds) see op 158ff. 525f. turn vero fremitus vanique insania coepti/ et tacitus pudor et rursus pallescere virgo. ‘Then indeed there were groans, a realization of the madness of the vain enterprise, a silent feeling of shame, and the girl turning pale again’, rursus pallescere virgo is rather loosely attached to the triplet fremitus, insania, pudor. tum vero: ‘a favourite Virgilian connective in vivid narrative’ (Fordyce on Aen. 7.519). The same goes for Valerius, with whom we find it again in 576, 3.576f. (turn vero et pallor et amens/ cum piceo sudore rigor), 6.469, 7.475, 631, 8.295 (cf. tunc vero in 6.613). Vergil has hic vero in Aen. 8.219f. hic vero Alcidae furiis exarserat atro/felle dolor (before his fight with Cacus), vani. . . insania coepti: compare Sii. 12.405 vani conamina coepti. ‘insania hic notat temeritatem, qua negotium ingens adgressus perficere non videbatur posse, quod est insani hominis’ (Burman). For insania so used cf. e.g. Cic. Lue. 54 quod velle efficere non mediocris insania est-, here insania is short for ‘the realization of the madness’. Langen explains insania as insanus furor, coll. Verg. Aen. 12.667, but this seems impossible with the genitive vani coepti. tacitus pudor: cf. 4.201 taciti. . . metus, 5.567 tacita. . . ira, OLD tacitus 5. rursus pallescere virgo: the idea came from Manilius: cf. 5.587ff. infelix virgo, . . . quae tua tunc fuerat facies! quam fugit in auras/ spiritus! ut toto caruerunt sanguine membra! For the historic/descriptive infinitive (the seventh in the Hesione episode: cf. 457, 478, 498f., 519f.) see on 47 trepidare. 527f. proicit arma manu, scopulos vicinaque saxa/ respicit.

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proicit anna manu: from Verg. Aen. 6.835 proice tela manu (cf. Stat. Theb. 3.643 proicite arma manu), but Valerius also has in mind Aen. 8.220 rapit arma manu (of Hercules, before his fight with Cacus). More or less redundant manu is found again and again in Valerius. See also Fordyce on Aen. 7.621. For the ‘cacenphaton’ in arma manu see on 86 chaos ostendens. respicit: not ‘bethinks him o f (Mozley), but ‘looks round at’ (OLD 2), to see if there is anything that suits him. In Verg. Aen. 12.896 Turnus saxum circumspicit ingens (which he then uses as a missile!). Perseus, too, conspexit scopulum (Ον. Met. 4.731), but he used the rock in question as a vantage point, not as a weapon. 528ff. et quantum ventis adiuta vetustas/ impulerit pontive fragor, tantum abscidit im i/ concutiens a sede maris. ‘And as great a piece as age, helped by the winds, or the crashing sea might push over, such a piece does he, wrenching and tugging, break off from the bottom of the sea’. The wording of these lines comes from Luc. 3.470f. rupes quam vertice montis/ abscidit impulsu ventorum adiuta vetustas (which in its turn goes back to Verg. Aen. 12.684ff.), but the idea of having Hercules dislodge a rock came from Verg. Aen. 8.233ff. (the fight with Cacus again). impulerit: Thilo’s impulerat, which appealed to Schenkl, Bährens, Langen, Mozley and Ehlers, does not only detract from Hercules’ performance by making him merely finish the work prepared by the elements, but it is also difficult with pontive (not: pontiqne). For the potential subjunctive cf. 1.318f. femineis tantum illa furens ululatibus obstat,/ obruat Idaeam quantum tuba Martia buxum (also in a comparison), and, in the perfect tense, 3.55, 89. Cf. also Stat. Theb. 2.718f. nec magis ardentis Mavors hastataque pugnae/ impulerìt Bellona tubas. For impellere ‘to push over’ cf. e.g. Luc. 6.36f. exstruitur quod non anes impellere saevus. . . queat. ponti . . - fragor: ‘the crash of the sea’ (for fragor so used see on 475ff.) stands for ‘the crashing sea’, so there is no need to interpret fragor as Vis frangendi’ (TLL VI-1.1233.51), a meaning of the word elsewhere only found in Ser. Samm. 949 (third century A.D.). sede: see on 513f. 530f. iamque agmine toto/ pistris adest miseraeque inhiat iam proxima praedae, iam que. . . iam proxima: Hercules has to make haste. agmine toto: cf. Verg. Aen. 2.212L illi agmine certo/ Laocoonta petunt, 5.90f. (anguis) agmine longo . . . serpens, where agmen denotes the onward gliding

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movement of the snakes. However, toto is harder than certo or longo and perhaps Valerius has agmen ‘host’ at the back of his mind (cf. e.g. Verg ' Aen 11.906f. sic ambo ad muros rapidi totoque feruntur/ agmine). pistris: strictly speaking some kind of large fish (possibly the sawfish) feut more often used in the vaguer sense of ‘sea monster’. Elsewhere the w0rd jS pistrix (e.g. Verg. Aen. 3ATI, Sen. Phaed. 1049) or pristis (e.g. Verg. Aen. 5 \\6 10.211; cf. Greek ττρίστις). Indeed, the Aldina conjectured pristis, but forms of pistris are found in Avien. Arai. 809, 825, Serv. Aen. 3.427, and in some Qf the mss. of Germanicus’ Aratea (356,360,361, al.), and pistris may just be sound. Later, the sea monster became the constellation Cetus (‘Whale’), also known as Pistrix (Cic. Arai, passim) or Pristis (cf. especially Man. 1.356 Andr0fnedan vastos metuentem Pristis hiatus (compare Valerius’ inhiat)). praedae: cf. Man. 5.592. 532ff. stat mediis elatus aquis recipitque ruentem / Alcides saxoque prior surgentia colla/ obruit mediis elatus aquis: ‘high amidst the surrounding waters’ (cf. 513 insiluit scopulo). Perhaps Valerius has in mind Verg. Aen. 6.23 elata mari . . . Cnosia tellus. recipit: ‘awaits’. Valerius is using recipere as a synonym of excipere (cf. Verg. Aen. 11.517 tu Tyrrhenum equitem conlatis excipe signis). For the hne-ending recipitque ruentem cf. Verg. Aen. 9.727 alios secum includit recipitque ruentis (where recipit means ‘lets in’). obruit: ‘crushes’, cf. 4.160 tua cur Amycus caestu nondum obruit ora?, OLD 3b. The word breaks the tension built up in the last words of the previous line, surgentia colla. The finale of Lennon and McCartney’s ‘A day in the life’ may come to mind. 534f. hinc vastos nodosi roboris ictus/ congeminat. ‘Then he delivers one tremendous blow after another with his gnarled club’. Hercules ends the fight in style, with his own specific weapon, the club. vastos . . . ictus congeminat: cf. Verg. Aen. 12.713f. tum crebros ensibus ictus/ congeminant, and compare Aen. 5.457 nunc dextra ingeminans ictus, nunc ille sinistra; for the verb as such see on 200ff. Bührens altered vastos to validos, and he was followed by Mozley, but cf. Verg. Aen. 5.198 vastis tremit ictibus aerea puppis, Luc. 3.655, Sen. Nat. 2.20.3. nodosi roboris: for Hercules’ robur, his oak-wood club, cf. 1.634, Verg. Aen. 8.220f. (Hercules, before his fight with Cacus) rapit arma manu nodisque

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gravatum/ robur. For robur nodosum (again in 8.298) cf. Ον. Met. 12.349, and compare Stat. Theb. 2.619. 535f. fluctus < ΟΌ—> defertur in imos/ iam totis resoluta vadis. There is something missing before or after defertur, or perhaps before fluctus. Ehlers mentions praeceps defertur (Vat, B-1474) and defertur belua (C) in his app. crit. For the latter cf. Man. 5.608 tandem confossis subsedit belua membris; for the elision in belua in imos cf. 5.198 condita inani, Verg. Aen. 11.154 gloria in armis. Other possibilities are donee (Sudhaus, Kramer) and tandem (cf., again, Man. 5.608); pistris, whether before fluctus (Ha, Bury) or after it (Parrhasius), is less likely, in view of 531. fluctus. . . in imos: cf. Verg. Aen. 5.239 imis sub fluctibus, [Tib.] 3.7.74. defertur: see on 135. The word echoes deferre in 523. iam totis resoluta vadis: short for iam resoluta et fusa/extenta totis vadis ‘already slackened and lying outstretched all over the bottom of the sea’: cf. Verg. Aen. 6.422f. (Cerberus) immania terga resolvit/ fusus humi totoque ingens extenditur antro. Cf. also AR 4.149ff. oy’ (i.e. the snake that guarded the Golden Fleece) ή δη / οϊμη θελγόμενος δολι,χήν άνελύετ’ άκανθαν/ χηγευέο«; σττείρης, μήκυνε δέ μυρία κύκλα. Other monsters that ended their lives outstretched are Amycus (4.320f.) and Python (Stat. Theb. 1.568f.). Langen has an extremely unconvincing note. For vadum/vada ‘bottom of the sea’ cf. 4.725 freta versa vadis, Verg. Aen. 1.126, OLD 3. See also on 25ff. Manilius has the monster sink too (5.608f.), but: summas . . . iterum remeavit ad undas/ et magnum vasto contexit corpore pontum. 536f. Idaeaque m ater/ et chorus et summis ulularunt collibus amnes. ‘And the Idaean mother and her band and the rivers on the hilltops shouted with joy’. According to Strand (84), ‘Langen’s idea that ulularunt is an expression of joy and relief is quite preposterous’, because, Strand goes on, ‘the sea monster was sent against Hesione by Neptune . . ., and since rivers are his subjects, they participate in the lamentations. Cybele being a natural deity is here appropriately included as the event takes place at Sigeum, near Ida, the centre of her cult’. This, however, is turning things upside down: first mentioned are not the rivers, but Cybele and her band of worshippers, who have every reason to raise a shout of joy, now that their territory is safe at last (only recently Mt. Ida, ‘their’ mountain, had been shaking to its foundations (519; cf. also 477f.)).

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Valerius has in mind Verg. Aen. 4.168 summo . . . ulularunt vertice Nymphae (at the ‘marriage’ of Dido and Aeneas). Cf. also Ov. Her. 7.95f. (Dido to Aeneas) audieram vocem; nymphas ululasse putavi-/ Eumenides fatis signa dedere meis. if, as is often supposed, ulularunt in the Aeneid passage is meant to be ambiguous, then either Valerius did not realize it, or he did, but assumed that his readers would understand what he meant. The same would go for Ovid. For ululare/ululatus used in contexts of joy cf. also Ov. Met. 3.528 Liber adest, festisque fremunt ululatibus affi, Luc. 6.261 laetis ululare triumphis. Stat. Theb. 5.729, 9.178; for the use of these words in ‘Idaean’ contexts cf. 3.232, Cat. 63.24, 28, Maec.poet. 6(5). Idaea . . . mater: cf. Cìc. Ver. 5.186, Lucr. 2.611, Verg. Aen. 9.619f., al. For Cybele’s (many) other names cf. I ’LL VIII.442.3ff. chorus: of Cybele’s worshippers, the Corybantes, as for instance in Cat. 63.30 viridem citus adit Idam properante pede chorus, Verg. Aen. 9.112 Id a ei. . . chori, Prop. 3.17.35f., 4.7.61f., Sil. 17.20, Iuv. 6.512. Strand (84) rather perversely interprets ‘the crowd of nymphs in her company’. amnes: either ‘the river gods’ (Amnes; cf. 1.106), or, preferably, ‘the (personified) rivers’ (amnes; cf. 7.391, 8.209f.). Is Valerius thinking of Aen. 4.164 ruunt de montibus amnes (followed, in 168, by: summo. . . ulularunt vertice Nymphae)? 538f. protinus e scopulis et opaca valle resurgunt/ pastores magnisque petunt clamoribus urbem. These shepherds seem to have been caught unawares by the sudden arrival of the sea monster and to have sought shelter on the spot. In Euripides’ Andromeda shepherds come to Perseus with various kinds of refreshments after his successful fight with the monster (fr. 146 Nauck ττας δέ -ποιμένων ερρει λεώς,/ δ μέν γάλακτος κί,σσινον φέρων σκύφος/ πόνων άναψυκτήρ’, δ δ’ αμπέλων γάνος; cf. also Philostr. Im. 1.29.3). e scopulis: hopeful heads can be seen popping up ‘from among the rocks’. Courtney reads speculis with Castiglioni, and Ehlers mentions stabulis (R 1; cf. also Delz 98) in his app. crit., but I do not see what is wrong with scopulis. Besides, neither speculis nor stabulis makes as nice a pair with opaca valle as scopulis does. opaca valle: cf. Ov. Fast. 6.327 in opacae vallibus Idae. For the combination of adjective and noun cf. Hor. Ep. 1.16.5f. resurgunt: cf. Stat. Theb. 1.100 (Tisiphone) Maleae de valle resurgens.

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540f. nuntius hinc socios Telamon vocat, ac simul ipsi/ horrescunt subitoque vident in sanguine puppem. While Telamon is still busy relating what has happened, the Argonauts see the results with their own eyes as a pool of blood reaches their ship. Valerius has in mind Verg. Aen. 5.664ff. nuntius Anchisae ad tumulum cuneosque theatri/ incensas perfert navis Eumelus, et ipsi/ respiciunt atram in nimbo volitare favillam. For àc simul ipsi see on 158 me quoque pulsam. horrescunt subitoque vident in sanguine puppem: cf. Verg. Aen. 6.710 horrescit visu subito. 542ff. nec minus in scopulos crudique cacumina saxi/ emicat Alcides viuclisque tenentibus aufert/ virgineas de rupe manus aptatque superbis/ arma umeris. in scopulos crudique cacumina saxi emicat: cf. Man. 5.613 (Perseus) ad cautes pervolat altas. Like Ovid’s Perseus, Hercules makes straightway for the girl. In Manilius Perseus takes a bath first (5.612). crudi: ‘rough’. For this rare meaning of the word cf. Luc. 3.507 crudae putri fluxerunt pulvere cautes (interpreted differently by the OLD s.v. 2). cacumina saxi: cf. Sen. Tro. 1080 alta rupes, cuius in cacumine etc. (Zwierlein reads fastigio with Lange, in order to avoid an iambus in the fifth foot, but see Costa on Sen. Med. 512), Curt. 5.3.17 rupes abscisas . . . in quarum cacuminibus etc. emicat: a vivid verb, expressing a sudden, flashing movement. Langen compares Verg. Aen. 6.5f. iuvenum manus emicat ardens/ litus in Hesperium, 12.326f. saltu . . . superbus/ emicat in currum. vinclis . . . tenentibus aufert virgineas de rupe manus: Valerius has in mind Man. 5.614 (Perseus) solvit . . . haerentem vinclis de rupe puellam', aufert de rupe corresponds with solvit de rupe and is in order, but vinclis tenentibus is no improvement on haerentem vinclis, because it saddles aufert with two complements. Österberg’s interpretation of virgineas de rupe manus as ‘virginis manus ad rupem adstrictas’ (19) is very unlikely. For vinclis . . . tenentibus cf. Man. 5.573 felicis . . . vocat, teneant quae membra, catenas. For the framing of a line by two verbs (emicat - aufert) see on 161. aptat . . . superbis arma umeris: a combination of two Vergilian passages, to wit Aen. 8.721f. dona . . . populorum a ptat. . . superbis/ postibus and 9.364 haec . . . umeris nequiquam fortibus aptat (cf. also VF 8.126). The arma Hercules now dons again are the bow and the quiver he threw away in 527.

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545f. regem inde petens superabat ovanti/ litora tu ta gradu,

superabat . . . litora: a shore, especially a safe shore (tuta), is not an obstncje that has to be negotiated (OLD supero 1 and lb), nor something one has to 0 1088ff.). Cf. also Aen. 2.320f. For the identity of Laomedon’s wife see Apollod. 3.12.3 (with Frazer’s note) As for his ‘little son’, in theory this could be any of the five sons mentioned by Homer in II. 20.237f. (Tithonus, Priamus, Lampus, Clytius and Hicetaon), but Valerius is undoubtedly thinking of Priamus (cf. 571). 552f. iam maestus equos, iam debita posci/ dona gemit. Others would perhaps be glad to have their daughter back, but Laomedon js rotten to the core, and he is presented as such right from the start. For the wording cf. Ov. Met. 11.213f. (Hercules) promissa . . . munera dictos/ poscit equos. gemere + A.c.I. is rare but classical (first in Cic. Phil. 13.23 (prose) and Hor, Ep. 1.15.7 (poetry)). 553f. pars aerii fastigia muri/ cingit et ignotis iuvenem mirantur in armis, pars . . . cingit et . . . mirantur: again a reminiscence of Aeneid 2, the story of Troy: cf. 3 If. pars stupet innuptae donum exitiale Minervae/ et molem mirantur equi. Ehlers’ miratur is a misprint. For cingere meaning ‘to stand in a circle on’ cf. Verg. Aen. 10.121f. miseri stant turribus altis/ nequiquam et rara muros cinxere corona, 11.475f. tum muros varia cinxere corona/ matronae puerique, where, however, a war is going on. Cf. also VF 6.484f. (‘Chalciope’ to Medea) at cetera muros/ turba tenet fruiturque virum caelestibus armis. aerii fastigia muri: ‘the summit of the sky-high wall’. In this sense (cf. also 8.113) aerius/aereus occurs from Cat. 64.240 onward. For the line-ending cf. Stat. Theb. 11.356 Ogygiifastigia muri. ignotis. . . in armis: they had never seen a Greek before. For the repeated metrical pattern of lines 551-4 (four times dsds) see on 158ff.

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555f. illum torva tuens atque acri lubricus astu / rex subit e t patrio fatur m ale laetus am ore:

illum: with subit, rather than with tuens\ compare l,38f. tum iuvenem tranquilla tuens nec fronte timendus/ occupat. torva tuens: from Verg. Aen. 6.467 (of Dido’s animus). Cf. also Sen. Thy. 706, [Sen.] HO 240. For the adverbial accusative see on 154 transversa. acri lubricus astu: ‘slippery with keen cunning’, i.e. ‘slippery and full of keen cunning’. For lubricus applied to persons who are ‘as slippery as an eel’ cf. Verg. Aen. 11.716 nequiquam patrias temptasti lubricus artis. acer astus is unparalleled, but we may compare Flor. Epit. 1.33 (2.17.15) Viriatus . . . vir calliditatis acerrimae; astu with an adjective (cf. also 1.492 astu . . . pavido) is first found in Ovid (Met. 4.776) and Livy (35.14.12). One understands Valerius’ desire to portray Laomedon as a crook, but acri lubricus astu does not square with his speech of 557ff., which is not so much characterized by slipperiness or cunning as by bluntness, astus is more in place in 5.541 (of Aeetes’ quasi-friendly words to Jason). subit: ‘approaches’, with an overtone of treacherousness, as in Stat. Theb. 10.721 fraude patrem tacita subit. Quint. Inst. 4.5.5 fallendus est iudex et variis artibus subeundus. astu goes with lubricus, but astu . . . subit seems to be intended as an echo of Verg. Aen. 10.522 ille astu subit, at tremibunda supervolat hasta, where the words mean ‘ducks skillfully’. Cf. also Gratt. 256f. thoes commissos . . . leones . . . subiere astu, Stat. Theb. 9.149. male laetus: ‘hardly happy’, although one would have expected otherwise from a loving father (patrio amore), male is to non as English ‘hardly’ is to ‘not’, the one an understatement, the other a plain statement. For this use of male see Nisbet-Hubbard on Horace’s famous digito male pertinaci (Od. 1.9.24), Börner on Fast. 1.559; to the references given there add M. Morani, Sull’ uso di lat. male = ‘non’, Glotta 56 (1978) 305-11. 557ff. ‘m axime G raiugenum , quem non Sigea p eten tem / lito ra nec nostrae m iserantem funera T ro ia e / appulit his fors ipsa locis,

Laomedon’s first words are polite (maxime Graiugenum), but the sequel (‘it was not commiseration that brought you here, but sheer chance’) is of a bluntness Valerius should not have attributed to Laomedon (the same goes for 563f.): when one is thinking of luring someone into one’s house, with the object of killing him (567ff.), one goes about it in a different way. Apart from this, the alternation polite-blunt is unnatural.

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maxime Graiugenum: cf. Verg. Aen. 8.127 (Aeneas to Euander) opti^ Graiugenum. Graiugena is first found in Pacuvius (cf. Cic. ND 2.91); Graiugenum is the usnal form of the genitive plural, but Lucretius has Graiugenarum in 1.477. V a le ry has the word once more, in 6.389; for other compounds with -gena in V aleriy see on 17f. quern non Sigea petentem litora nec nostrae miserantem funera Troiae: to be taken together: “who did not come to the Sigean shores out of pity for’ etc. Sigea. . . litora: see on 445f. miserantem: cf. Verg. Aen. 1.597 (Aeneas to Dido) o sola infandos TroiQe miserata labores. funera Troiae: ‘the destruction of Troy’, as brought about by the sea monster In Lucr. 5.326 and Hor. Od. 1.8.14f. the same words refer to the destruction 0f Troy. quern . . . appulit his fors ipsa lods: contrast 445f. Thessala Dardaniis tunc primum puppis harenis/ appulit et fatis Sigeo litore sedit. In 4.483f. nec casus ab alto,/ ipse volens nostris sed vos deus appulit oris (Phineus speaking) casus and deus stand in the same opposition as fors and fatis in our episode. Valerius may have in mind Verg. Aen. 1.375ff. (Aeneas to Dido again) nos . . forte sua Libycis tempestas appulit oris. fors should be spelt with a small / (most editors), rather than with a capital p (Courtney and Ehlers). 559ff. si vera parentem/ fama Iovem summique tibi genus esse Tonantis,/ noster ades iunctisque venis. The repetition of ideas in these lines is remarkable: ‘if Jupiter is your father if you are a descendant of the supreme Thunderer’; ‘then you are one of us then you have come to your kinsmen’. The «'-clause is not necessarily impolite, si vera. . . fama: cf. Verg. G. 4.42 si vera est fama, Aen. 3.551. summi . . . tibi genus esse Tonantis: the expression alicui genus est alicuius seems to be unparalleled. It may either be a variation on alicui genus est ab aliquo (cf. Verg. Aen. 6.123 et mi genus ab love summo) or a conflation of this and aliquis genus est alicuius (‘is the offspring of; cf. VF 1.411f. quern fama genus non est decepta Lyaei/Phlias). On September 1, 22 B.C., Augustus dedicated a temple to Jupiter Tonans on the Capitoline hill (Fast. Amit. (CIL 1, p.244), Aug. Anc. 4.5., Suet. Aug. 29.1), which, according to Suetonius (Aug. 29.3), he had vowed after a narrow escape from death by lightning during his Cantabrian expedition of 26-5. Soon Tonans became

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one of Jupiter’s most popular epithets; cf., in Valerius, 3.299, 4.119, 428, 474, 529. For the combination with summus cf. Luc. 2.34. See further M. Beller, Juppiter Tonans. Zur Tradition des Bildes vom numinosen Donnergott, in: Festschrift H. Rüdiger, Berlin 1975, 14-39, id. Jupiter Tonans. Studien zur Darstellung der Macht in der Poesie, Heidelberg 1979, W. Schubert, Jupiter in den Epen der Flavierzeit, Frankfurt 1984, 174-200. iunctis: ‘to kinsmen’, cf. OLD iunctus 2, iungere 7c. venire with a dative (personae) of direction seems to be unprecedented (cf. Stat. Theb. 9.889f. neu tu subitus neve arma tenenti/ veneris)·, compare the use of ire in Prop. 1.15.8 ut formosa novo quae parat ire viro and elsewhere. See also on 504f. trepidis . . . litoribus. . . cogit. 56 If. sator unus et idem / stirpis honos, quamquam longis disiungimur oris, sator unus: ‘we have one and the same father’: Laomedon was the son of Ilus, son of Tros, son of Erichthonius, son of Dardanus, son of Zeus. Similarly, in Verg. Aen. 8.134ff., Aeneas goes out of his way to show to his host Euander (whom he had addressed earlier as optime Graiugenum: cf. 557 above) that they have a common ancestor in Atlas. sator, a title of Jupiter as the father of gods and men (first in Pac. trag. 295; cf., in Valerius, 1.505), is here used of the (fore)father of individuals (whose name happens to be Jupiter): cf. Stat. Theb. 12.559 satorEumenidum. idem stirpis honos: ‘we are of the same glorious descent’. Valerius has archaic honos ten times, as against honor nine. For the practice of other writers cf. TLL VI-3.2916.16ff. quamquam longis disiungimur oris: ‘although we are separated by long coastlines’. The words clearly echo Verg. Aen. 1.252 (Venus to Jupiter) Italis longe disiungimur oris (note, incidentally, 253 honos, 254 sator), but the ablative is no longer separative, but instrumental. An exact parallel is longis terns in Aen. 3.383 longa procul longis via dividit invia terris. 563f. quot mihi post lacrimas, post quanta piacula patrum / serus ades! Cf. Verg. Aen. 2.282ff, (Aeneas to Hector, in a dream) quae tantae tenuere morae? . . . ut te post multa tuorum / funera, post varios hominumque urbisque labores/ defessi aspicimus! That is how one speaks to one’s friend, but not how one addresses the rescuer of one’s daughter. Besides, serus ades lacks the mild tone of quae tantae tenuere morae? piacula patrum: piacula, ‘expiatory offerings’ (cf. OLD piaculum 2), refers to the girls that had been sacrificed to the sea monster before Hesione’s lot came

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out of the um (480ff.). patres sometimes means ‘parents’ (cf. E. Fahnestock, M.g Peaks, A vulgar Latin origin for Spanish padres meaning ‘father and mother> TAPhA 44 (1913) 77-86), but in this case ‘fathers’ is perfectly in order (contra Langen). serus ades: rather careless after noster ades in 561. 564. quam parva tuis iam gloria factis! ‘How slight now is the glory of thy deeds’ (Mozley). Laomedon has saved the bluntest of his remarks for the end (after which he has the cheek to invite Hercules into his palace). For parva . . . gloria cf. Verg. Aen. 11.430f. nec parva sequetur/ glorìa delectos Latio et Laurentibus agris. There is no need to read gratia with Weichen (1813) and Shackleton Bailey. 565f. verum age nunc socios fraternis moenibus infer;/ crastina lux biiuges stabulis ostendat apertis.’ Cf. Verg. Aen. 10.241ff. (the nymph Cymodocea to Aeneas) ‘surge age et Aurora socios veniente vocari/ primus in arma iube, et clipeum cape quem dedit ipse/ invictum ignipotens atque oras ambiit auro./ crastina lux . . . ingentis Rutulae spectabit caedis acervos./dixerat (cf. 567 below). verum age nunc: in Sil. 7.310 the three words go together, nunc having ‘reduced temporal force’ (OLD 6): ‘but, come on now’. In our line it is rather verum and age which go together (cf. 8.41, Verg. Aen. 11.587, 12.832), nunc being opposed to crastina lux. fraternis moenibus: Laomedon and Hercules have the same sator (561) and are therefore, in a way, ‘brothers’, fraternus never simply means cognatus (pace Langen): in the passages adduced by Langen on 1.163 the word means ‘of a frater patruelis (cousin)’. crastina lux: from Aen. 10.244 (quoted above). Cf. also Aen. 8.170f. (Euander to Aeneas) et lux cum primum terris se crastina reddet,/ auxilio laetos dimittam opibusque iuvabo. biiuges: as a noun, biiugis (also in 6.413) occurs first in Sen. Phaed. 1101, as an adjective in Verg. G. 3.91. The alternative form biiugus (7.218) is first found in Lucr. 2.601 (the adjective) and Verg. Aen. 10.399 (the noun). Between 565 and 566 Ehlers reads ut tibi, servata statui quae munera prole, (565A), as did all editors before Thilo, with the exception of Lemaire. 2.565A is one of five lines (the others are 1.45, 7.579-80 and 8.463A) which are found in one branch of the mss. tradition (L and its descendants) but are absent from

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the other (a = VS), and for the authenticity of which Ehlers makes a vigorous plea in his ‘Untersuchungen’ (pp. 47-66). As for the line in question, according to Ehlers (56f.) it removes three ‘leichtere Schwierigkeiten’: 1. ‘Der harte Übergang zwischen 565 und 566 verschwindet durch die syntaktische Verknüpfung von 565 mit 566 durch das ut in 565a’. 2. ‘In den Versen 565 und 566 fehlt ein Hinweis darauf, wem die Pferde gezeigt werden sollen: das vermisste tibi bringt 565a’. 3. ‘Im Vers 566 ist das ostendat nicht richtig zu erklären . . .; durch das ut in 565a ist ostendat notwendig’. It would appear to me that there are no difficulties to be removed (the ‘harsh transition’ comes from Aen. 10.243f., Valerius’ model; we do not ‘miss’ a tibi for a moment; ostendat means ‘let . . . show’ (Mozley)), and that line 565A rather creates difficulties. One is ut, ‘nam ut Herculi equos ostenderet, quos filiae servatae praemium constituerat, non erat cur Laomedon socios Herculis in urbem venire vellet’, as Thilo rightly remarks (pr. XLIX). The other is the ablative absolute servata prole, which makes Laomedon say ‘the reward I fixed after the rescue of my daughter’, instead of ‘the reward I fixed for the rescue of my daughter’ (cf. Thilo’s ‘quos filiae servatae praemium constituerat’, and compare 488 nostrae stata dona salutis). Unless I am very much mistaken, line 565A is an interpolation, and a rather clumsy one at that, not by Niccoli, the writer of L, himself (L has quam (quae M2, B-1474)), but by someone before him who perhaps wished to give the subjunctive ostendat something to depend on. If I am right in this, and if this line, and the other four (for I think that they have to be treated as a set, and 8.463A, for one, cannot possibly be Valerian; cf. my article ‘Valerius Flaccus and the last file’ in Ratis omnia vincei) are indeed interpolations made by someone before Niccoli, Ehlers’ stemma needs revision. In that case L is not a son of ω, but a grandson, whose father introduced these five lines (and, I would suggest, put 1.56, 2.273-5, 3.404 and 6.228 in their right place) and bequeathed them to L (a variation on Courtney’s suggestion that the interpolations and adjustments were made in an intermediary ms., not between ω and L, but between V and L: cf. Ehlers, Untersuchungen 83). 567ff. dixerat haec tacitusque dolos dirum que v o lu tat/ corde nefas, clausum ut thalam is som noque gravatum / im m olet ereptaque luat responsa pharetra.

The truth comes out: Laomedon intends to kill Hercules, though not, as we had been led to expect, because of his attachment to his horses, but because of

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an oracle that foretold the twofold destruction of Troy through Hercules’ arrows (57QE). Laomedon’s plan to kill Hercules seems to be unique to Valerius: the king usually simply refuses to give up the horses (Diodorus Siculus (4.32.1), Ovid, Apollodorus, Tzetzes; cf. also Horn. II. 5.638ff.), or, a variation on the same theme, substitutes mortal horses for the immortal ones he had promised (Hellanicus), in both cases much to his detriment. Another variant is found in Diod. Sic. 4.42.7 (contrast 4.32.1!), where Laomedon and Hercules seem to part as the best of friends, the latter announcing that he will come back later in order to collect his reward (similarly Hyginus; cf. also 574ff. below). But when Hercules does return, Laomedon appears to have changed his mind, for he now refuses to keep his part of the bargain, with the same disastrous consequences (4.49.2ff.). tacitus . . . dolos dirumque volutat corde nefas: three Vergilian passages seem to have crossed Valerius’ mind here, to wit Eel. 9.37 id quidem ago et tacitus, Lycida, mecum ipse voluto, Aen. 4.533 (Dido) secum . . . ita corde volutat and 563 (Dido) dolos dirumque nefas in pectore versat: tacitus comes from Eclogue 9, volutat and corde from Aen. 4.533, and dolos and dirum nefas from Aen. 4.563 (volutat and corde moreover being variations on versat and in pectore resp.). Cf. also Sii. 8.176f. For the framing of a line by two verbs {dixerat - volutat) see on 161. clausum ut thalamis somnoque gravatum immolet: Valerius is overdoing things a little: one understands the advantage of a murderer over his victim when the latter is ‘overpowered by sleep’, but it is hard to see what is gained by shutting him up in his chamber first. Perhaps Valerius was influenced by Diod. Sic. 4.49.3, where Laomedon imprisons Hercules’ envoys Telamon and Iphiclus. For the line­ ending cf. Verg. Aen. 6.520, and especially Ov. Met. 5.658f. hospitio recipit somnoque gravatum/ adgrediturferro. ut is not ‘how’ (Mozley), but explains dolos and nefas: cf. 3.29ff., Verg. Aen. 1.657f. at Cytherea novas artis, nova pectore versat/ consilia, ut faciem mutatus et ora Cupido/pro dulci Ascanio veniat etc. ereptaque luat responsa pharetra: ‘and to avert the oracle by seizing the quiver’. For luat cf. Liv. 10.28.13 (Decius to his father) datum hoc nostro generi est ut luendis periculis publicis piacula simus, OLD 3 ‘to avert (by expiation)’. Against the objection that our passage does not involve expiation, the use of immolare with its sacrificial connotations may be put forward in mitigation. Still, Bährens’ et rapta ludat (eraptaque luat ω: ereptaque luat P, B-1474), adopted by Kramer,

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Mozley and Courtney, remains a possibility, and perhaps more than that: ‘to baffle the oracle’ (cf. OLD ludo 9). Ehlers (Untersuchungen 57, n.36) suggests that luere stands for its compound diluere, but the latter is only found with ‘charges’ or ‘arguments’ as its object. H. Beikircher’s entirely different interpretation of luere as ‘to make come true’ (WS Beiheft 5 (1972) 36) is impossible (‘um . . . den Spruch auf eine für Troia harmlose Weise in Erfüllung gehen zu lassen, erwägt der König den schlauen Ausweg, dass dem Wortlaut des Orakels nicht nur dann Genüge getan sein müsse, wenn die Stadt dem Bogen ausgeliefert werde, sondern vielleicht auch dann, wenn­ umgekehrt der Bogen der Stadt überantwortet werde’). 570f. namque bis Herculeis deberi Pergama telis/ audierat References to the twofold destruction of Troy through Hercules’ arrows, first by Hercules himself, on Laomedon’s refusal to give up the horses (from Horn. II. 5.638ff. onward), and later, during the Trojan war, by Philoctetes (cf. 1.391ff.), to whom Hercules had bequeathed his weapons on his ‘deathbed’, are as old as Pindar (Isthm. 5.36). Cf. also Soph. Ph. 1439, Prop. 3.1.32 Troia bis Oetaei numine capta dei. Sen. Tro. 136 (Troy) bis . . . pharetras passa Herculeas, and compare Ον. Met. 9.232 regna. . . visuras iterum Troiana sagittas. Herculeis: the adjective is first found in Verg. G. 2.66. Valerius has it eleven times. deberi: i.e. by fate, as in Verg. Aen. 8.374f. dum bello Argolici vastabant Pergama reges/ debita. Pergama: see on 489f. audierat: Valerius may have in mind Verg. Aen. 1.19f. progeniem sed enim Troiano a sanguine duci/ audierat Tyrias olim quae verteret arces. 571f. Priami sed quis iam vertere regnis/ fata queat? ‘But who can now change fate for the good of Priam’s kingdom?’, an allusion to the second and final destruction of Troy. Priami . . . vertere regnis fata: vertere is not used as an equivalent of avertere (contra Langen and others), but means ‘change’: cf. e.g. Verg. Aen. 11.287 versis lugeret Graecia fatis. regnis may be sound, as a dativus commodi, but I would not like to bet against regni, conjectured by Poggio (cf. Ehlers, Untersuchungen 118) and adopted by most editors before Thilo: ‘change the fate of Priam’s kingdom’ (regni could easily have become regnis between the line-endings telis and lustris).

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iam: iam? ‘now?’ and non iam ‘no longer’ are two sides of the picture, and both usages (and not just the second) should have found a place under OLD iam lc, just as 3d deals with iam in interrogative clauses meaning ‘already?’ and iam in negative clauses meaning ‘not yet’. For our iam cf. e.g. 8.242, Verg. Aen. 1.459f. quis iam locus, . . . Achate,/ quae regio in terris nostri non plena laboris? queat: quire, rare in the Aeneid and Ovid’s Metamorphoses (two and three times resp.), becomes more frequent in Silver epic (Valerius has 7 instances, Silius 10, Statius 16 in the Thebaid), though not in Lucan (3). 572f. manet immotis nox Dorica lustris/ et genus Aeneadum et Troiae melioris honores. Valerius allows us a glimpse of the course of history. Mozley comments: ‘Fated is the night wherein the Greeks will sack Troy (nox Dorica), as a result of which the followers of Aeneas (genus Aeneadum) will found a mightier Troy in Rome (Troiae melioris honores)’. manet immotis . . . lustris: a conflation, it would appear, of Verg. Aen. 1.283 veniet lustris labentibus aetas (followed by: cum domus Assaraci Pthiam clarasque Mycenas/ servitio premet ac victis dominabitur Argis) and Aen. 7.314 immota manet fatis Lavinia coniunx. Cf. also ^4en. 1.257f., VF 5.87. nox Dorica: ‘the night of the Greeks’, i.e. the night of the destruction of Troy at the hands of the Greeks. Dorica recc.: turica a: àurica L. The phrase is condensed, but not more so than Stat. Theb. 4.133 nox Danai (the night of the murder of Danaus’ sons-in-law at the hands of their wives) or id. ib. 7.543 nox vestra (compare the use of dies in Cic. Sest. 77 illo Cinnano atque Octaviano die and elsewhere). Doricus (simply ‘Greek’) occurs frequently in connection with the Trojan war: cf. e.g. Verg. Aen. 2.27 Dorica castra. Sen. Ag. 612 cum Dardana tecta Dorici raperetis ignes (note also the sequel: non illa bello victa, non armis,/ ut quondam Herculea cecidit pharetra), and compare Culex 335f.flamma. . .Doris. I do not quite understand why Kramer and Courtney print obelized -fturicaj (surely turica is not so far removed from Dorica), and I do not understand at all why Ehlers adopts Politian’s terrible conjecture duria (‘wooden’), comparing Aur. Viet. Or. 1.7, Donatus on Ter. Ad. 752, Auson. 452.3, Gloss. Verg. ed. Hagen D 285 p.508 and Fest. p.82M (Untersuchungen 58, n.38), and explaining nox duria as ‘nox qua Graeci durio equo usi Troiam invadunt’ (app. erit.). I can only repeat what Kleywegt had to say about this in his review of Ehlers’ edition (1988, 204f.): ‘[duria is out of the question,] nicht nur wegen der, wie E. selbst (Praef.

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ΧΧΠΙ) sagt, "doppelten Metonymie", sondern vor allem weil durius kein lateinisches Wort ist. Grammatikerzeugnisse besagen in dieser Hinsicht bekanntlich nichts, und die Überlieferung bei Ausonius ist schwach; gegenüber Troico dort (347.VIII.6 Prete) wäre Dorico (hPc: dorio) ganz natürlich. Valerius hat nur Neologismen des ‘produktiven’ Typus; es ist doch völlig abwegig, anzunehmen dass er als einziger ein rein griechisches Wort nur transskribiert hätte, und das in einer Wendung, die man nicht einmal mit "die hölzerne Nacht" paraphrasieren könnte, sondern eher mit "la wooden nuit", für "die Nacht des hölzernen Pferdes". Ausserdem liegt es nicht auf der Hand, eine Adjektivform auf -ia zu postulieren, wenn die Manuskripte nur in der Endung -ica einig sind’. For the repeated metrical pattern of lines 570-2 (three times ddss) see on 158ff. et genus Aeneadum: cf. Verg. Aen. 1.565 quis genus Aeneadum, quis Troiae (!) nesciat urbem?, and compare Aen. 1.26ff. manet (!) alta mente repostum/ iudicium Paridis spretaeque iniuria form ae/ et genus invisum et rapti Ganymedis honores (0.

574f. ‘nos’ ait ‘ad Scythici’ Tirynthius ‘ostia ponti/ raptat iter. The direct speech is interrupted twice, once by the verbum dicendi, and once by its subject. This is not uncommon: for some other Valerian examples cf. 3.143f, 377f, 5.129. nos . . . raptat iter: this is uncommon (‘our journey hurries us along’). Not dissimilar is 3.624 vos via. . . urget. ad Scythici . . . ostia ponti: ‘to the mouth of the Black Sea’. For pontus/Pontus Scythicus see on 379f. (cf. especially Stat. Theb. 6.328 Scythici . . . ad ostia Ponti). Tirynthius: see on 373f. 575f. mox huc vestras revehemur ad oras/ donaque dicta feram.’ For the idea cf. Diod. Sic. 4.42.7, Hyg. Fab. 89. In 4.58f. Hercules, finding himself abandoned by his comrades, does make ready to fetch his reward, but the gods have other plans with him (4.60ff.). dona . . . dicta: cf. Ov. Met. 11.213f. (Hercules) promissa . . . munera dictos/ poscit equos. feram: Ί will take with me’, cf. OLD fern 35. 576f. tum vero plura vocatis/ adnuit ille deis.

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In his despair Laomedon starts to promise Hercules all kinds of things, as if if were a matter of 'how much’, turn vero: ‘then indeed’. For this connective see on 525f. plura. . . adnuit: sc. ei. vocatis. . . deis: Laomedon even goes so far as to swear an oath. 577f. promissa infida tyranni/ iam Phryges et miserae flebant discrimina Troiae. Langen’s note (‘satis audacter poetica visione usus Valerius iam tum Phryges imminentia mala praevidisse fingit’) is mistaken: the Trojans know their king, and they take it for granted that this, too, will turn out to be one of his promissa infida, leading to discrimina. promissa infida tyranni: promissa tyranni recurs in 4.58f. (Hercules) iter ad Teucros atque hospita moenia Troiae/ flexerat Iliaci repetens promissa tyranni, where promissa means ‘things promised’, rather than ‘promises’. For infidus used of actions (and the like) cf. e.g. Liv. 21.52.7 infida multa facinora, Plin. Nat. 2.117 infida hospitia. In 5.222 and 7.102 Valerius applies the word to Laomedon’s doppelgänger Aeetes. For the repeated metrical pattern of lines 576-8 (three times ddss) see on 158ff. The present instance is the more remarkable because of its proximity to 570-2 (also three times ddss). 579-626. The Argonauts resume their journey and sail through the night. The next morning Helle surfaces before their eyes, telling Jason not to despair, and asking him to reassure her brother Phrixus, who lies buried in Colchis, that he need not worry about her. In reply Jason prays to Helle for a safe passage through her waters. - Catalogue o f places passed by. [Lüthje 85f., Adamietz (1976) 40f.] The middle section of this episode forms part of a triptych (not in Apollonius Rhodius) about Phrixus and Helle (cf. 1.278ff., Orpheus’ song of P. and H., and 5.192ff., Jason at the tomb of P. and H.), the three panels being interconnected, not only by their theme, but by several echoes as well: compare 1.278f. redimitus tempora vittis/ Phrixus with 2.588 vittata . . . Helle, 2.593f. (Helle to Jason) fatis . . . simillima nostris/ fata with 5.194 (Jason to Phrixus) pares tecum mihi . . . labores, and 2.61 lf. (Jason praying to Helle) with 5.194ff. (Jason praying to Phrixus and Helle). For the ‘loose end’ (Jason never delivers Helle’s message to Phrixus!) see my article ‘Valerius Flaccus and the last file’ in Ratis omnia vincet.

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With Helle’s appearance to the Argonauts compare that of the nymph (and former ship) Cymodocea to Aeneas in Verg. Aen. 10.219ff., based in its turn on Cat. 64.14ff. (the appearance of the Nereids t o . . . the Argonauts). 579ff. Panditur hinc totis in noctem carbasus alis/ litoraque et veteris tumulos praelabitur Di/ Dardaniumque patrem. panditur . . . totis . . . carbasus alis: cf. Verg. Aen. 3.520 velorum pandimus alas. Williams ad loc. compares Aen. 3.124 pelago . . . volamus, 1.224 mare velivolum, Hes. Op. 628 νηός -πτερά (probably ‘sails’, but perhaps ‘oars’: see West ad loc.), and few would hesitate to take Vergil’s velorum alas as ‘flying sails’ (and similarly totis alis in our passage as ‘full-winged’), were it not for Servius’ reference to Sallust’s et parvis modo velorum alis remissis (Hist. ine. 12), where alae must denote some part of the sails, perhaps the reefs (cf. OLD ala 3). Still, not all is lost: ala may have been a nautical term and at the same time have been used poetico more. In his note on Aen. 3.557 Servius comments, rather austerely, on this use of carbasus for ‘sail’: carbasus . . . genus lini est, quod abusive plerumque pro velo ponitur. in noctem: ‘für eine Fahrt bis in die Nacht’ (Kleywegt (ANRW) 2474). litoraque et veteris tumulos praelabitur Di Dardaniumque pattem: ‘and it glides past the shore and old Ilus’ tomb and the Dardanian father’. ‘Subiectum praelabitur verbi est carbasus proprie, sed nimirum cum carbaso etiam navis ipsa praelabitur; dico propter supervacaneas Baehrentis coniecturas [tumulus . . . Ili Dardaniusque pater}’ (Langen). Mozley, unconvinced by Langen, followed in Bährens’ footsteps. O ld Ilus’ tomb’ (veteris Maserius: veteres ω) comes from Homer (II. 11.166 ’Ίλου σήμα τταλαιοϋ Δαρδαυιδαο; cf. also 11.371f.), and Dardanium patrem stands metonymically for tumulum Dardanii patris (cf. e.g. Vergil’s famous ardet/ Ucalegon (Aen. 2.311f.)). This ‘Dardanian father’ must be Dardanus, either as the ‘(great-grand)father’ of Ilus, or, more probably, as the ‘father’ of Troy (cf. Verg. Aen. 8.134 Dardanus, Iliacae primus pater urbis et auctor). Still, Dardanius pater is a strange periphrasis for Dardanus, and Barnes’ Dardanidumque patrem (370, n.64; ‘the father of the Trojans’, cf. Verg. Aen. 2.242, al.) is worth considering (but perhaps we may compare Ov. Met. 14.232, where Aeolius tyrannus stands for Aeolus). For Dardanus’ tomb Barnes refers to Lyc. 72f., with the scholiast on 73. tumulos . . . Di: for the poetic plural cf. e.g. Prop. 4.7.54, Mart. 9.30.5, and see on 10 Dolopeia busta. Note, however, that our passage does involve a second tomb.

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praelabitur: elsewhere, when used in this sense, praelabi has rivers as its subject (Verg. G. 3.180, al.), but cf., with synonymous praeterlabi, Verg. Aen. 3A l i (Helenus to Anchises) hanc (i.e. Ausonia) pelago praeterlabare necesse est. Cf. also Aen. 6.873f. quae, Tiberine, videbis/ funera, cum tumulum (!) praeterlabere recentem. 581£t vigili simul omnia ludo/ festa vident; hinc unda, sacris hinc ignibus Id e / vibrat et horrisonae respondent Gargara buxo. The Trojans are seen to make merry and bring sacrifice, celebrating the death of the sea monster and the rescue of their princess (cf. Ov. Met. 4.753ff.). vigili . . . ludo: the adjective is transferred from the people to their activities; cf. Stat. Silv. 1,2.196 vigiles . . . questus, OLD vigil2· lb, and compare VP 3.359 pervigili planctu, 5.141 pervigil. . . labor. Valerius may have in mind Verg. Aen. 9.166L noctem. . . insomnem ludo. omnia . . . festa vident: compare (and contrast) 7.249f. infesta . · . cerno/ omnia. hinc . . . hinc: the Argonauts do not leave the coastal waters until 584, and so, for the moment, they have the undo, the (open) sea, on their left, and Mt. Ida on their right. Ehlers’ hic is a misprint. sacris . . . ignibus . . . vibrat: both the sea and Mt. Ida ‘flicker’ with ‘the fire of sacrifice’ (Mozley). For Valerius’ use of vibrare in this particular sense see on 66ff.; unda ignibus vibrat is a normal expression (cf. e.g. 8.306f. vibrata . . . flammis/ aequora, Luc. 5.446), Ide ignibus vibrat is a little bolder. For ignes sacri cf. Ilias 34, [Sen.] HO 79 If. horrisonae respondent Gargara buxo: ‘Mt. Gargara answers the dreadful sound of the flute’. The boxwood flute belonged especially to the orgiastic worship of Cybele, the Idaea mater of 536: cf. e.g. 1.319, 3.231, Verg. Aen. 9.6191 buxus . . . Berecynthia Matris/ Idaeae, and see Bömer on Met. 3.533, Tarrant on Sen. Ag. 689. The sound it produced seems to have been particularly unpleasant (cf. also Claud. RP 22611. seu te Phrygiis in vallibus Id a e/ Mygdonio buxus circumsonat horrida cantu). horrisonus is first found in Lucretius (5.109) and Cicero {Arat. 13, Tuse. 2.23 (a translation of Aeschylus)); Valerius has it again in 7.149. Other compounds with -sonus in Valerius (see also Norden on Aen. 6.573) are aegi- (3.88, a hapax), aeri- (1.704, al.; not before Valerius), armi- (1.74) and undisonus (1.364, al.); for compounds with horri- see on 97 horrifici.

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For respondent cf. Cic. Arch. 19 saxa atque solitudines voci respondent. For Gargara see on 358ff. 584ff. inde ubi iam medii tenuere silentia ponti/ stridentesque iuvant aurae, Phrixea subibant/ aequora et angustas quondam sine nomine fauces. Cf. AR 1.926£f. ένθα σφιν λαιψηρός αη νότος, Ιστία δ’ ουρώ/ στησάμενοι κούρης Άθαμαντίδος αίττά ρέεθρα/ είσέβαλον. ubi . . . medii tenuere silentia ponti: a variation on Verg. Aen. 5.8 ut pelagus tenuere rates (,silentia ponti standing for pontum silentem); for tenere so used cf. also VF 4.6f. Minyae . . . alta tenent, 7.129. The silence of the medius pontus, the ‘mid-sea’, contrasts with the earlier noise. As subibant in the main clause shows, the Argonauts’ stay on mid-sea was only of very short duration. stridentes . . . aurae: ‘whistling breezes’, stridere and stridor are usually found in bad weather contexts (cf. e.g. 1.640, Iuv. 4.58; Prop. 3.7.47, Mart. 7.36.5), but in Stat. Ach. 2.20, where Achilles leaves Scyros Noto stridente, the weather seems fine. iuvant: compare Liv. 28.17.12 (Scipio) tranquillo mari plurimum remis, interdum et leni adiuvante vento, in Africam traiecit, Ov. Ars 2.514, Mart. 10.30.13. Phrixea . . . aequora et angustas quondam sine nomine fauces: an epic periphrasis for ‘the Hellespont’. Phrixea . . . aequora: the adjective Phrixeus, for which there seems to have been no Greek equivalent, is first found in Ov. Her. 6.104. Valerius has it seven times (cf. 1.391, 5.632, 6.150, 8.75, 119, 267). For this particular combination cf. Stat. Theb. 6.542f., and compare Sen. Ag. 565 Ionia iungi maria Phrixeis, Luc. 6.56, [Sen.] HO 776. angustas . . . fauces: cf. 3.7 per angustae . . . freta . . . Helles, Ov. Met. 11.195 angustum. . . pontum Nepheleidos Helles. quondam sine nomine: not (one is tempted to say: of course not) ‘once without fame’ (Langen and others), but ‘once without name’, i.e. before it was called ‘Hellespont’, after Helle: cf. Ov. Fast. 3.869f. dicitur infirma comu tenuisse sinistra/ femina (i.e. Helle) cum de se nomina fecit aquae, Luc. 9.956. For a similar idea cf. VF 4.346f., 419f. (Io and the Bosporus). 587f. ecce autem prima volucrem sub luce dehiscens/ terruit unda ratem, vittataque constitit Helle, ecce autem: ‘the formula . . . marks an unexpected disruption of action in progress’ (Austin on Aen. 2.203). Valerius also has it in 1.686, 5.618, 6.575, 8.32.

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For the present instance cf. especially Verg. Aen. 6.255 ecce autem primi sub limina solis et ortus. prima . . . sub luce: ‘at daybreak’, cf. 7.539 puniceo . . . sub ortu. For this use of sub see KS 1.570.2, Sz. 279. volucrem . . . dehiscens terruit unda ratem: ‘a gaping of the waves scared the flying ship’. Valerius has unda dehiscens also in 1.623f. antemna . · · laevo/ prona dehiscentem cornu cum sustulit undam, the storm scene based on that of Aeneid 1 (with 106f. his unda dehiscens/ terram inter fluctus aperit). Cf. also Verg. Aen. 5.142f., Sen. Ag. 499. For volucer applied to a ship cf. Ον. Met. 7.460 volucri freta classe pererrat. vittata . . . Helle: Helle is still wearing the woollen bands (vittae) which she had on her head when she was about to be sacrificed: cf. 7.57, and compare 1.278f. redimitus tempora vittis/ Phrixus, as well as Ον. Fast. 3.86 If. et soror et Phrixus velati tempora vittis/ stant simul ante aras iunctaque fata gemunt. For other human victims thus attired see Austin on Aen. 2.133 circum tempora vittae (of Sinon). Before Valerius, who also has it in 1.385, the adjective vittatus is confined to Ovid (Am. 1.7.17, lb. 77), Lucan (1.597) and Pliny (Nat. 7.110). 589f. iam Panopes Thetidisque soror iamque aurea laeva/ sceptra tenens. These lines anticipate the information given in 605ff.; cf. also 1.50 magni numen maris . . . Helle, 5.199 diva maris. Stat. Ach. 1.23f. Valerius does not follow the tradition that made Helle Poseidon’s wife (cf. Börner on Fast. 3.852). iam Panopes Thetidisque soror: Helle has become the sister of the Nereids Panope and Thetis. The latter is the more famous of the two; for the former cf. e.g. 1.134f. hanc (i.e. Thetis) Panope Dotoque soror . . . prosequitur, Verg. Aen. 5.825 laeva tenet Thetis et Melite Panopeaque virgo, Horn. II. 18.45, Hes. Th. 250 (the two earliest catalogues of Nereids). For the two alternative forms Panope (Πανόττη) and Panopea (Πανόττεια) see West on Hes. Th. 250. laeva: Langen remarks that the sceptre is sometimes held in the left hand, sometimes in the right. This seems to cover the whole range of possibilities. 590f. dum sternit aquas, proceresque ducemque/ aspicit et pladdis compellat Iasona dictis: dum - aquas is the subordinate clause and proceresque - dictis the main clause. All editors except Kramer, Courtney and Ehlers read turn with Carrio, but the first -que most naturally forms a pair with the second (‘noblemen and leader alike’; see on 14 velumque fretumque), whereas turn would, most unnaturally, link

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sternit and aspicit (a comma before dum (Ehlers) leads to the same result; read therefore a full stop with Kramer and Courtney), stemit: ‘makes level’, cf. e.g. 3.605, Verg. Eel. 9.5T,Aen. 8.89. proceres: see on 329ff. placidis compellat Iasona dictis: an epic line-ending: cf. 7.451, Ov. Met. 8.787, 12.585, and especially Luc. 10.175 linigerum placidis compellat Acorea dictis. Helle uses dicta placida (cf. 5.533, 6.458), because she realizes that her sudden appearance has scared the Argonauts. 592£f. ‘te quoque ab Haemoniis ignota per aequora terris/ regna infesta domus fatisque simillima nostris/ fata ferunt. te quoque: both Helle and Jason had been forced to leave home by members of the hostile royal house, the regna infesta domüs, of Aeolus (cf. 6.548 Aeoliae . . . domus), the former by Ino, Aeolus’ daughter-in-law, the latter by Pelias, Aeolus’ grandson. Valerius has in mind Verg. Aen. 1.628f. (Dido to Aeneas) me quoque per multos similis fortuna labores/ iactatam etc. For first foot dactyls consisting of three words (te quoque ab) see on 127 vade age et. ab Haemoniis . . . terris: i.e. from Thessaly; cf. 5.262, 6.18, and see on 351ff. Ehlers’ Haemoniae is a misprint. ignota per aequora: a topic in Argonautic contexts: see Börner on Met. 6.721 per mare non notum. regna infesta domus: ‘the hostile royal house,’ literally ‘the hostile reign of the house’. The expression is perfectly intelligible and emendation quite unnecessary (regni Köstlin 1880: regum Summers; domo Heinsius: bonis Markland: domu Bährens: domi Renkema). According to Langen, ‘domus . . . pendet a substantivo fata’, but this is not the kind of traiectio Valerius likes tq trouble his readers with (see on 16f.). fatis . . . simillima nostris fata: contrast Verg. Aen. 7.293f. fatis contraria nostris/fata Phrygum. 594f. iterum Aeolios fortuna nepotes/ spargit et infelix Scythicum gens quaeritis amnem. iterum Aeolios fortuna nepotes spargit: ‘again fortune grandchildren’, a conflation, it would appear, of ‘fortune grandchildren (i.e. you, Jason, and me, Helle)’ and ‘again grandchild of Aeolus’ on his way’ (cf. [Sen.] HO 979 alias in me)).

scatters Aeolus’ scatters Aeolus’ fortune sends a urbes sparge (sc.

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Jason was Aeolus’ great-grandson (through Cretheus and Aeson), whereas Phrixus and Helle were Aeolus’ grandchildren (through Athamas, Cretheus’ brother). Most of the older editors (and more recently Mozley) read penates with C, but ü)’s nepotes is unobjectionable. et infelix Scythicum gens quaeritis a m n em : ‘and (the result is that) you . . .’. The ‘Scythian river’ is the Phasis (597); cf. 1.2f. (Argo) Scythici . . ■ Phasidis oras/ ausa sequi. 596f. vasta super tellus, longum (ne defice coeptis)/ aequor, et ipse procul, verum dabit ostia, Phasis. Jason still has a long way to go, but his arrival in Colchis is certain. Valerius is thinking of Helenus’ prophecy in Verg. Aen. 3.374ff.: cf. 377f. quo tutior hospita lustres/ aequora et Ausonio possis considere portu, 38 Iff. Italiam . . . longa procul longis via dividit invia terris. Note that lines 616ff. below come from the same Vergilian passage (414ff.). vasta super tellus: ‘an enormous stretch of land still remains’, viz. the whole of the north coast of Asia Minor. super is short for superest, in its sense of ‘to remain to be dealt with’ (OLD supersum 6; cf. e.g. Verg. Aen. 5.615f. tot vada fessis/ et tantum superesse maris). In this it differs from the other passages under OLD super2· 4, where the meaning is ‘to remain as a residue’ (cf. OLD supersum 4). vastus is more than just ‘vast’: ‘its basic implication is that of an emptiness or desolation which appals or repels the beholder’ (Fordyce on Aen. 7.302). For vasta . . . tellus cf. 3.404f. arva . . . vasta, Verg. Aen. 10.57 tot . . . maris vastaeque exhausta pericula terrae. longum. . . aequor: the wet counterpart of vasta tellus. ne defice coeptis: the OLD lists this instance of deficere under 9b ‘(w. dat.) to fail (in behaviour towards)’, together with Verg. Aen. 6.196 dubiis ne defice rebus and Liv. 1.24.7 illis legibus populus Romanus prior non deficiet (cf. TLL V1.336.55ff.). In our passage a case could be made for the dative, in view of the alternative construction with ad in Ov. Met. 8.492 deficiunt ad coepta manus, but I am not sure about the other two passages: dubiis rebus in the Aeneid may well be ablative (‘now that things have become critical’; cf. Servius ad loc.), whereas Livy’s legibus deficere might belong to OLD 10 ‘to become disaffected’ (cf. Val. Max. 6.6, ext.2 deficere nostra amicitia noluerant). For ne with an imperative (ne defice also in 4.592) see on 249ff.

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598f. hic nemus arcanum geminaeque virentibus arae/ stant tumulis; Cf. Verg. Aen. 3.301ff. sollemnis . . . dapes et tristia dona/ ante urbem in luco falsi Simoentis ad undam / libabat cineri Andromache manisque vocabat/ Hectoreum ad tumulum, viridi quem caespite inanem/ et geminas, causam lacrimis, sacraverat aras. hic nemus arcanum: compare Vergil’s in luco; our grove will prove to consist of a ring of poplars (5.185). arcanus is one of those words whose meaning one should not wish to pin-point at all costs; here it is almost ‘sacred’, cf. especially Sii. 1.666 fontes et stagna arcana Numici (the river near which, according to one tradition, Aeneas lay buried). hie . . . geminae . . . virentibus arae stant tumulis: ‘here stand twin altars on green burial-mounds’. These ‘twin altars’ are probably those of Phrixus and Helle. The geminae arae of Aen. 3.305 were consecrated to Hector alone (see Williams ad loc.), and ours, similarly, could both be Phrixus’, were it not for the plural tumulis: two altars for one person are one thing, but two burial-mounds are quite another. In fact, there were two mounds in Colchis, one for Phrixus (5.185), and one, a cenotaph, for Helle (5.198). With virentibus compare viridi in Aen. 3.304. 599f. hic prima pia sollemnia Phrixo/ ferte manu cinerique, precor, mea reddite dicta: prima . . . sollemnia Phrixo ferte: not, as Mozley translates, ‘pay the first rites to Phrixus’ (Phrixus had already been dead for some time), but ‘first, bring ritual offerings to Phrixus’ (cf. 3.435f. vincula solvere monstrat/ prima pedum, ‘he orders them first . . .’, followed by 437 hinc). The words echo Verg. Aen. 6.380 statuent tumulum et tumulo sollemnia mittent. Cf. also Aen. 3.301 sollemnis . . . dapes. C’s celeres hic prima piacula Phrixo/ ferte manu looks very much like a conjecture, and a poor one at that: celeres is a stop-gap, and piacula (cf. Verg. Aen. 6.153) is simply the wrong word, cineri: frommen. 3.303. Cf. VF 5.96f. mea reddite dicta: ‘convey my message’, cf. 1.440 nuntia verba ducis populis qui reddit Echion (compare 4.734f., 7.543f.). Elsewhere reddere dicta means ‘to answer’ (e.g. 8.445, Lucr. 4.461, Ον. Met. 8.717). Langen comments (on 601): ‘hic quaerat quispiam, cur Helle non, simulatque Phrixus in Colchorum terram advenit, haec fratri apparens aperuerit, sed longum post tempus alius mortuo nuntiare iubeatur. Poeta id non curavit, cum arriperet occasionem, qua felix navigatio Iasoni portenderetur.’ As I see it, Valerius was

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not so much concerned with giving Jason the guarantee of a safe journey as with construing his triptych (see the introductory note). 601ff. "non ego per Stygiae, quod rere, silentia ripae,/ frater, agor; frustra vacui scrutaris Aventi,/ care, vias. Two variations on a theme, both ending with vocative (frater, care) + disyllable (agor, vias) + caesura at the beginning of the next line. For the thought cf. [Sen.] HO 1963f. (Hercules to Alcmene) non me gementis stagna Cocyti tenent/ nec puppis umbras furva transvexit meas (but: praesens ab astris, mater, Alcides cano (1972)), and compare Verg. Aen. 5.733ff. non ego per Slygiae . . . silentia ripae . . . agor: in other words Ί am not dead and unburied’. For the fate of this category of the deceased cf. Verg. Aen. 6.325ff. haec omnis, quam cemis, inops inhumataque turba est;/ . . . / centum errant annos volitantque haec litora circum;/ tum demum admissi stagna exoptata revisunt, 374f. See also Nisbet-Hubbard on Hor. Od. 1.28.23, R. Lattimore, Themes in Greek and Latin epitaphs, Urbana 111. 1942,199ff. agor probably means ‘wander’ (Mozley): compare Verg. Aen. 6.337 ecce gubernator sese Palinurus agebat (who belonged to the inops inhumataque turba). quod rere: like Ovid, Lucan and Silius, Valerius only uses ‘Vergilian’ forms of reti, to wit reor, reris/rere, rebar and the participle ratus (Vergil in addition has rebare and rear); Statius, on the other hand, also employs such rare forms as remar (Theb. 10.702) and imperative rere (Hieb. 3.528). See further A. Yon, Ratio et les mots de la famille de reor, Paris 1933,14ff. For the notion 'it is not as you think’ (with reris/rere) cf. 1.164L, Verg. Aen. 7.436f., Stat. Theb. 7.195f. frustra: 10 times in Valerius, as against nequiquam 14 times, which is about the same ratio as in Vergil (29:41). Conversely, Statius, and to an even greater extent, Ovid and Lucan, prefer frustra to nequiquam (Statius 25:18, Ovid 79:17, Lucan 18:3). Silius has no predilection for one or the other (22:23). For the practice of other writers see the table in TLL VI-l.1429.58ff. See also Austin on Aen. 2.770. vacui . . . Aventi: the underworld is vacuus, ‘insubstantial’, because it is inhabited by ghosts. Langen compares, i.a., Verg. Aen. 6.269 per . . . domos Ditis vacuas et inania regna, Stat. Theb. 11.302, Claud. RP 1.20 vacui. . . Avemi. scrutaris: scrutari, ‘to search (out)’, is absent from Vergil and occurs only once in Valerius, Ovid (Met. 15.137) and Silius (7.273). Lucan and Statius, on the other hand, offer 6 and 14 instances resp.

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603£ neque enim scopulis me et fluctibus actam/ frangit hiems: fluctibus actam is clear (‘driven along by the waves’; compare fluctibus acti/actos in Verg. Aen. 1.333, 7.213, also at the end of the line), but scopulis actam is difficult (contrast vento acti in Aen. 1.333), and it seems as if Valerius has telescoped neque enim scopulis me frangit hiems (cf. Sil. 6.525f.) and neque enim me fluctibus actam frangit hiems. In any case, frangit is a true present, not a ‘praesens pro perfecto’, or whatever one would like to call it (contra Thilo pr. XXIV): compare (and contrast) Palinurus’ fate as described in Verg. Aen. 6.362 nunc me fluctus habet versantque in litore venti. neque enim: for neque enim /nec enim see on 2f. 604f. celeri extemplo subiere ruentem/ Cymothoe Glaucusque manu, celeri . . . subiere . . . manu: ‘came under me with swift hand’, i.e. ‘quickly held out their hands under me’ (subire manu is used similarly in 7.460 Ule manu subit et vim corripit omnem). Cf. Ον. Fast. 2.471 (Venus, holding the little Cupid in her lap) prosiluit, pisces subiere gemelli. extemplo: for this word, seven times in Valerius, see Austin on Aen. 2.176. Cymothoe Glaucusque: for the Nereid Cymothoe cf. e.g. Verg. Aen. 1.144, Prop. 2.26.16, Horn. II. 18.41, Hes. Th. 245. For Glaucus see on 285ff. 605ff. pater ipse profundi/ has etiam sedes, haec numine tradidit aequo/ regna nec Inois noster sinus invidet undis."’ Helle had not only been saved from drowning, she had even (etiam) been given the ‘Hellespont’ as her dwelling-place (sedes) and kingdom (regna). pater ipse profundi: cf. 4.571 pater ipse maris, Ον. Met. 11.202 cum . . . tridentigero tumidi genitore profundi, luv. 13.81 pater Aegaei Neptune. numine . . . aequo: not ‘willing justly’ (Mozley), which is not for Helle to decide, but ‘willing favourably’. For this meaning of aequus cf. e.g. Hor. Od. 1.28.28f. aequo/ ab love, and see Housman on Man. 4.174. nec Inois noster sinus invidet undis: ‘and our waters do not envy Ino’s waves’. After Athamas (Helle’s father) had killed his son Learchus in a fit of madness, Ino (Helle’s stepmother) fled from home with her other son Melicertes and threw herself (and him) from the cliffs of the Isthmus of Corinth. Like Helle, however, they were saved by Nereids and lived happily ever after, Ino under the name of Leucothea, and her son under that of Palaemon. For this story cf. Ov. Met. 4.416ff., Fast. 6.485ff. (both with Bömer’s note), Apollod. 1.9.2, Hyg. Fab. 4 and 5, Paus. 1.44.7f., 9.34.7, and compare Eur. Med. 1284ff. Valerius refers to it again in 8.21ff.

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For Inois . . . undis cf. Sen. Phoen. 23 Inoa mpes, Stat. Silv. 4.3.60 Ιηοι^ . . . Isthmos. The adjective occurs first in Verg. G. 1.437 Inoo Melicertae Valerius also has it in 1.280 and 521. 608f. dixerat et maestos tranquilla sub aequora vultus/ cum gemitu tulit, ut patrii rediere dolores. Her own account reminds Helle of the grief of her father Athamas (patrii dolores), and sadly she disappears from the Argonauts’ sight. For the wording cf. Sii. 6.101f. hic iuvenis maestos tollens ad sidera vultus/ cum gemitu lacrimisque simul, perhaps an imitation of our passage. sub aequora vultus . . . tulit: cf. Ov. Her. 20.177f. numquid . . . imprudens vultus ad tua labra tuli?, Stat. Theb. 5.528, 9.668f., VF 1.263. For the repeated metrical pattern of lines 606-8 (three times dssd) see on 158ff. gemitu tulit: for the ‘cacenphaton’ see on 86 chaos ostendens. ut patrii rediere dolores: ‘as her father’s grief came back to her (mind)’. For redire ‘to come back to the mind’ (OLD 8c), without animo, menti or the like, cf. 4.187 hospitis hic primum monitus rediere Dymantis, Sen. Med. 129f. scelera te hortentur tua / et cuncta redeant (interpreted differently by Costa). For the line-ending rediere dolores cf. Ov. Her. 13.29 ut rediit animus, pariter rediere dolores, where rediere simply means ‘returned’. 610. tum pelago vina invergens dux talibus infit: pelago vina invergens: ‘tipping wine upon the sea’. The expression vina invergere comes from Verg. Aen. 6.244, but the ritual is based on another Aeneid passage, viz. 3.525ff. turn pater Anchises magnum cratera corona/ induit implevitque mero, divosque vocavit/ stans celsa in puppi:/ ‘di maris et terrae tempestatumque potentes,/ ferte viam vento facilem et spirate secundi’ (compare Jason’s prayer in 611f., with 612 viam, in second position, and secundo, in last position). talibus infit: ‘thus began (to speak)’; cf. 1.666 hac pelago libat latices et talibus infit, 8.414, Verg. Aen. 10.860, Sii. 16.139, al. The verb, first in Enn. Ann. 385 Sk., is almost exclusively poetic: before Apuleius the only prose writer to use it is Livy (three times, all in the first decade). Valerius transitivizes it in 7.258 haec infit, where see Langen. 6111 ‘undarum decus et gentis, Cretheia virgo,/ pande viam cursuque tuos age, diva, secundo’,

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For the prayer cf. Verg. Aen. 3.528f. (quoted above). Cf. also VF 4.420f. iuvet nostros nunc ipsa (sc. Io) labores/ immissisque ratem sua per freta provehat Euris. undarum decus: cf. 3.522f. nymphas,/ undarum nemorumque decus, Verg. Aen. 12.142 (Juno to Juturna) nympha, decus fluviorum, and see on 242ff. Cretheia virgo: usually Cretheus is Aeson’s father (and Jason’s grandfather), Cretheus’ brother Athamas being the father of Phrixus and Helle (cf. e.g. AR 3.356ff.). In Valerius’ pedigree, and in his only (see Langen on 1.41), Cretheus is Athamas’ father, and consequently Phrixus and Helle’s grandfather. pande viam: ‘open up a path’ (until now the Hellespont had been virgin territory); compare Tac. Hist. 2.4 postquam pandi viam et mare prosperum accepit. cursu . . . tuos age, diva, secundo: Valerius has in mind Verg. Aen. 10.255 Phrygibus . . . adsis pede, diva, secundo (Aeneas to Cybele, after the speech by the nymph Cymodocea: see the introductory note). Incidentally, only here in Valerius is age not combined with a second imperative or a subjunctive, meaning ‘come on’. 613ff. immittitque ratem mediasque intervolat urbes,/ qua brevibus furit aestus aquis Asiamque prementem/ effugit abruptis Europa immanior oris. immittitque ratem: ‘sc. in fretum angustum’ (Langen). Valerius follows the direct speech with -que, instead of something like turn, to indicate Jason’s hurry. medias . . . intervolat urbes: Valerius is thinking of towns like Abydos and Sestos (cf. 1.285, AR 1.931). intervolare occurs only six times in all extant Latin literature, first in Col. 8.10.1 (of thrushes), then in Valerius (here and in 5.27) and Statius (Theb. 2.539, also with the accusative) and, much later, in Ammianus Marcellinus (22.8.14) and Paulinus of Nola (Ep. 13.14). Livy has intervolitare in 3.10.6. qua brevibus furit aestus aquis: ‘where the race boils with its narrow waters’ (Mozley). For brevis applied to the Hellespont cf. e.g. Ov. Her. 17.174, 18.142 (Leander to Hero and vice versa), Luc. 9.957f. non Asiam brevioris aquae disterminat usquam/ fluctus ab Europa. Valerius probably took furit aestus from Verg. Aen. 1.107 furit aestus harenis\ cf. also Aen. 3.419 (quoted on 616ff.). qua . . . Asiam . . . prementem effugit . . . Europa: ‘ut minor terra longe maiorem’, says Langen, but perhaps this is simply one way of expressing the small distance between the two continents. For the thought cf. Luc. 9.415 (of the Straits of Gibraltar) unde Europa fugit Libyen. For the opposition (ef)fugere premere cf. Verg. Aen. 1.467 hac fugerent Grai, premeret Troiana iuventus.

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abruptis . . . immanior oris: ‘[abruptae orae] immaniorem adspectu Europam exhibent, cum litora Asiae sint planiora et amoeniora’ (Burman). Note that abruptis is not only ‘steep’, but also looks forward to 618 abscidit: compare Pljn Nat. 5.141 donec Asiam abrumpat Europae (mare). For abruptis . . . oris cf. Plin Ep. 9.39.5 abruptissimis ripis. 616ff. has etiam terras consertaque gentibus arva/ sic pelago pulsante, reor, Neptunia quondam/ cuspis et adversi longus labor abscidit aevi/ ut Siculum Libycumque latus, stupuitque fragore/ lamis et occiduis regnator montibus Atlans. Valerius ‘supposes’ (reor) that Europe and Asia were once linked, but, like Sicily/Italy and Libya/Gibraltar, had become separated in the course of time by the impact of the sea. In fact, scientists had already come up with this explanation (cf. e.g. Plin. Nat. 5.141, quoted above), and reor is a bit conceited. Valerius has in mind Verg. Aen. 3.414ff, (of the Straits of Messina) haec loca vi quondam et vasta convulsa ruina/ (tantum aevi longinqua valet mutare vetustas)/ dissiluisse ferunt, cum protinus utraque tellus/ una foret: venit medio vi pontus et undis/ Hesperium Siculo latus abscidit, arvaque et urbes/ litore diductas angusto interluit aestu. Compare 616 has . . . terras with 414 haec loca, 616 arva - 418 arva, 617 quondam - 414 quondam, 618 longus labor . . . aevi 415 aevi longinqua . . . vetustas, 618 abscidit - 418 abscidit, 619 Siculum Libycumque latus - 418 Hesperium Siculo latus. Vergil’s ferunt is better than Valerius’ reor. conserta . . . gentibus arva: ‘fields consisting of peoples strung together’. For conserta cf. Verg. Aen. 3.467 loricam consertam hamis auroque trilicem, Gratt. 403 sacris conserta monilia conchis, OLD consero2 3. Unlike the lorica and the monilia, however, the fields in question did not merely ‘consist o f things (in this case: peoples) ‘strung together’, but were actually ‘strung together’ themselves. In Sulp. Sev. Dial. 1.17.6 cuius (i.e. of the Nile) ripas frequentibus monasteriis consertas utraque ex parte lustravi, quoted as a parallel by the TLL (IV.416.4ff.), it seems as if consertus, the participle of ‘our’ conserere, has been confused with consitus, the participle of homonymous conserere ‘to sow, strew’ (cf. Verg. Aen. 3.127 crebris. . . freta consita terris, where see Henry). pelago pulsante . . . Neptunia . . . cuspis: two ways of saying the same thing, the one prosaic, the other poetic. For pelago pulsante (note the alliteration of p) cf. e.g. Ov. Fast. 6.496 (of the Isthmus) una . . . pulsatur terra duabus aquis. Ovid was the first to use cuspis of Neptune’s trident (Met. 12.580); for Neptunia cuspis cf. Luc. 7.147, Stat. Theb. 7.813f.

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reon parenthetic, as in 5.320 (Valerius avoids puto as being too casual; the same goes for Vergil, Lucan, Statius and Silius). See also on 601 rere. adversi longus labor . . . aevi: ‘the continuous action of hostile time’; note the symmetrical alliteration, labor aevi comes from Verg. Aen. 11.425f. multa dies variique labor mutabilis aevi/ rettulit in melius, where, however, the phrase rather seems to mean ‘the toil of time’. For its meaning here cf. perhaps Stat. Silv. 5.1.228f. nil longior aetas/ carpere, nil aevi poterunt vitiare labores; cf. also 285 above: ratis saevae defecta laboribus undae. ut Siculum Iibycumque latus: sc. abscidit, not, as might appear at first sight, from each other (like the terrae and arva of 616), but Sicily from Italy, and Libya from Gibraltar: see Langen on 1.588. stupuitque fragore: cf. Stat. Theb. 8.346 stupet insolito clangore Cithaeron. For fragor meaning ‘a noise of breaking’, as distinct from ‘a noise as of breaking’ (both under OLD 2), cf. e.g. Lucr. 6.136 dant sonitum frondes ramique fragorem, Liv. 1.29.4 fragor tectorum quae diruebantur. . . audiebatur. -que is virtually = cum (parataxis for hypotaxis). Ianus: ‘commemoratione Ioni videtur poeta indicare voluisse, has mutationes factas esse eo tempore, cum Ianus in Italia regnaret’ (Langen). For ‘old king Janus’ cf. Werg. Aen. 7.180, Ov. Fast. 1.245ff. (with Bömer’s note). King Janus and Mt. Atlas have sometimes been considered an odd couple, but Valerius is not only thinking of Atlas the mountain, but also of Atlas the man (compare Verg. Aen. 4.246ff.). occiduis regnator montibus Atlans: ‘Atlas, king of the western mountains’; cf. Iuv. 11.23ff. ilium . . . qui scit quanto sublimior A tlas/ omnibus in Libya sit montibus. For regnator applied to mountains and the like cf. Verg. Aen. 8.77 (the Tiber) corniger Hesperidum fluvius regnator aquarum, Apul. FI. 6 (the Ganges) eois regnator aquis, Auson. Epigr. 28.1 (the Danube) Illyricis regnator aquis. For the construction with the dative (ablative?) cf. perhaps also Verg. Aen. 2.556f. (of Priamus) tot quondam populis terrisque superbum/ regnatorem Asiae (unless populis terrisque goes with superbum (thus Austin)). occiduus is not attested before Ovid. For the meaning “western’ cf. Ov. Fast. 1.314 praeceps occiduas ille subibit aquas, Luc. 3.294 occiduis . . . Mauris, al. Valerius has the adjective only here and in 5.615 (‘setting’). 621ff. iam iuga Percotes Pariumque infame fragosis/ exsuperant Pityamque vadis, transmissaque puppi/ Lampsacus,

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A short catalogue of places passed by (see the introductory note to 6-33) based on AR 1.93 Iff. Δαρδανίην δέ λιττόντες έττπτροσέβαλλον Άβύδω,/ Περκώτην δ’ έττί τή καί Άβαρυίδος ήμαθόεσσαν/ ήιόνα ζαθέην τε τταρήμειβον Πιτύειαν. Cf. also Arg. Orph. 484ff. Apollonius’ Περκώτη, Άβαρν'ις and Πιτύεια are all situated on the Hellespont (cf. 935 διήνυσαν ' Ελλήσποντου), Πιτύεια (or Πιτύα) being an old name for Lampsacus (cf. schol. AR 1.932-3b; Langen maintains that the scholiast is wrong, pointing out that according to Strabo (13.1.18) and Pliny (Nat. 5.141) Lampsacus’ former name was Πιτυοΐσσα/Pityusa, but ζαθέην in AR 1.933 must refer to the well-known connection between Lampsacus and the god Priapus (cf. 623ff. below)). Valerius, who mentions both Pitya and Lampsacus, apparently misunderstood his predecessor’s learned reference. What is more, the addition of Parium seems to show that he had no clear conception of the geography of the region: Parium and, in its vicinity, (another!) Pitya were situated much further east, near the entrance to the Propontis (cf. Str. 13.1.15, Steph. Byz. s.v. Πιτύεια). See further Delage 90ff. iuga Percotes: Percote is already mentioned by Homer (II. 2.835). Cyzicus’ wife Clite originated from there: cf. 3.25-10. Parium . . . infame fragosis . . . Pityamque vadis: = Parium infame fragosis vadis Pityamque. For the word order cf. 222f. conferre manus . . . magnisque paratae/ cum facibus, which stands for conferre manus paratae magnisque cum facibus. Still, the present instance is much easier. Pity(ei)a, like Percote, appears in the second book of the Iliad (829), and so does Parium, if Pliny’s identification of this town with Homer’s Adrasteia (828) is correct (Nat. 5.141). Parium is not mentioned elsewhere as being notorious for its shoals, and the idea of introducing these shoals may have come from Verg. Aen. 3.706 vada dura lego saxis Lilybeia caecis (preceded, in 698, by exsupero: see below). For the tricky adjective fragosus (‘booming’, Mozley) see on 198f. For vada in Valerius see on 25ff. infamis (cf. Hor. Od. 1.3.20 infamis scopulos Acroceraunia, Liv. 21.31.8 infames frigoribus Alpes) is rather rare in poetry and occurs only here in Valerius. exsuperant: ‘they sail past’, from Verg. Aen. 3.698 exsupero praepingue solum stagnantis Helori (in another periplus). Here the verb is somewhat awkward with iuga, in combination with which it might be mistaken for ‘they surmount’ (cf. Verghe«. 11.905, Stat. Theb. 2.557). transmissa: ‘is travelled past’. For this use of tra(ns)mittere cf. Curt. 10.2.1

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X XX navibus Sunium transmittunt, Sil. 15.164ff. puppes . . . Ligurum . . . citatis/ litora tramittunt proris, al. 623£f. Ogygii quam nec trieterica Bacchi/ sacra neque arcanis Phrygius furor invehit antris/ sed suus in Venerem raptat deus. Neither Bacchus’ festival nor the Phrygian frenzy (of Cybele) can induce the inhabitants of Lampsacus to meet in ‘mysterious caves’ (i.e. caves surrounded by mystery, where mysterious things happen, etc.): the town is only interested in Priapus, its own god, the god of sex (cf. in Venerem). For this connection between Lampsacus and Priapus cf. e.g. Cat. fr. 1.2, Priap. 55.6, Ov. Fast. 6.345 Lampsacos hoc animal solita est mactare Priapo, Tr. 1.10.26 te, ruricola, Lampsace, tuta deo, Mart. 11.16.3, 51.2, and compare Verg. G. 4.111 Hellespontiaci . . . Priapi', see also Börner on Fast. 6.341. Not very far from Lampsacus there was also a town called Priapus. Ogygii . . . trieterica Bacchi sacra: ‘the triennial (we would say ‘biennial’) festival of Ogygian (i.e. Theban) Bacchus’. trieterica Bacchi sacra comes from Ov. Met. 6.587; see also on 259f. For the adjective Ogygius, derived from Ogygus, mythical king of Thebes, cf. Paus. 9.5.1, and see Heuvel on Stat. Theb. 1.328. Valerius has it only here and in 8.446f. qualem Ogygias cum tollit in arces/ Bacchus. It is absent from Vergil and Silius, Ovid and Lucan have it once, in both cases as an epithet of Bacchus (cf. Her. 10.48 and 1.675 resp.), whereas Statius offers no less than 27 examples. Phrygius furor: ‘the Phrygian frenzy’, i.e. the frenzy inspired by Cybele, the Phrygia mater (Verg. Aen. 7.139, Ov. Fast. 2.55, al.). For furor used in this context cf. e.g. 3.233, Cat. 63.92, Mart. 4.43.8. quam . . . suus in Venerem raptat deus: perhaps Statius had these lines in mind when he wrote suus excit in arm a/ antiquam Tiryntha deus (Theb. 4.146f.). For in Venerem cf. Verg. G. 3.64 mitte in Venerem pecuaria primus. 625t illius aras/ urbe super celsique vident velamina templi, illius: the genitive of ille occurs more or less frequently in Valerius (13 times), Vergil, Ovid and Statius, but it is avoided by Lucan and Silius. urbe super: ‘over the city’. Local super + abl. meaning ‘over’, as distinct from ‘on’, is rare, but cf. Lucr. 6.516, Hor. Od. 3.1.17; another Valerian example is 3.60. For the anastrophe cf. 3.109, 6.88, 525, and see on 193 iuxta. celsi . . . velamina templi: ‘the coverings of the high temple’, velamina has been suspected (molimina, fundamina Heinsius: fastigia Burman: gestamina Bährens: caelamina Kurtz), but without good cause: velamina are things quae

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velant, and on festive occasions temples velantur fronde, vittis and the like. Qf, 188f. delubra . . . festa/ fronde tegunt, where see note, Prop. 4.9.27 devia puniceae velabant limina vittae. Strand 87f. The OLD interprets velamina as ‘curtains’ (velamen b), but this seems less likely. 627-64. The Argonauts leave the Hellespont, enter the Propontis and reach the peninsula o f Cyzicus, where they are welcomed most cordially by its homonymous king. [Happle 79-134, Garson (1964) 267-72, Fränkel 124-40, Burck (1970), Lüthje 86f., 92-113, Adamietz (1976) 42-6, Vian 28-38, Burck (1979) 222] The frame-work of Valerius’ ‘Cyzicus episode’ (2.627-3.458) is essentially the same as Apollonius’ (1.936-1152): 1. arrival, stay and departure of the Argonauts - 2. accidental return to the peninsula and subsequent fight with the Cyziceni, who mistake their former guests for their arch-enemies, the mysterious ‘Pelasgians’ - 3. ritual - 4. second and final departure. There are some differences too, and even quite significant ones (Valerius, for instance, omits the fight between the Argonauts and the ‘Earthborn’ (AR 1.989-1011); on the other hand, his description of the fight between the Argonauts and the Cyziceni is about four times as long as his predecessor’s), but these relate to book 3 and are therefore not the present commentator’s concern. What is, is the question why Valerius did not transfer the whole episode to book 3 (which he could have done without making the second book disproportionately short), but preferred to allot the opening scene (welcome and banquet) to book 2. The answer must be that he wished to call to the reader’s mind the end of Aeneid 1 (hence, too, the many reminiscences of this Vergilian passage in lines 649ff. of our book), ‘which is also the prelude to a tragedy culminating in the death of the host’ (Barich 138). The result of this procedure, rather than its ‘Grundgedanke’ (Lüthje 88), is that, as far as the Argonauts are concerned, book 2 remains essentially carefree, in marked contrast to the following book, book 3. Adamietz (42f.) compares 4.733-end, where the Argonauts receive a warm welcome from Lycus, king of the Mariandyni, after which book 5 opens with the deaths of Idmon and Tiphys. For Valerian book division in general see Adamietz 116ff., with n.10 for literature on the practice of other epic poets. Note that this is the second reception, after the one on Lemnos, that has been modelled on the closing lines of Aeneid 1. This, however, has nothing to do with carelessness on Valerius’ part. On the contrary, it is the very background of the

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similar welcome that brings out more clearly the difference in the roles played by the Argonauts on both occasions: saviours on Lemnos, destroyers on Cyzicus. 627f. Rarior hinc tellus atque ingens undique caelum/ rursus et incipiens alium prospectus in orbem. Line 627 is a variation on Verg. Aen. 5.8f. nec iam amplius ulla/ occurrit tellus, maria undique et undique caelum (after the Trojans’ departure from Crete), which in its turn is based on Horn. Od. 12.403f. Cf. also Lucr. 4.434, Ov. Tr. 1.2.23. rarior hinc tellus: Valerius probably means, that as the Argonauts leave the Hellespont and enter the Propontis, the land to left and right begins to recede and thus to show more space in between. There seems to be no exact parallel for rams so used, but we may compare Vergil’s use of rarescere in Aen. 3.410f. ubi . . . angusti rarescent claustra Peiori, ‘[when] the headlands of the narrow strait of Pelorus begin to show space between them’ (Williams). See also Henry ad loc. ingens undique caelum: where Vergil had contented himself with undique caelum alone. rursus: as it was before the Argonauts entered the Hellespont. incipiens alium prospectus in orbem: as they sail into the Propontis, the Argonauts begin to see, just as we would put it, ‘another world’. For the thought cf. 4.424 nova cuncta vident. prospectus is rare in epic poetry: it occurs twice in the Aeneid (1.180f. Aeneas ■ ■ . om nem / prospectum late pelago petit, 8.254), not at all in Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Lucan, once in Valerius and Silius, and twice in Statius. 629f. terra sinu medio Pontum iacet inter et Hellen/ ceu fundo prolata maris; Like Apollonius (1.936ff.), Valerius starts his episode with an εκφρασις on Cyzicus, a peninsula in the Propontis, connected to the Phrygian mainland by a narrow isthmus. For the geographical ecphrasis, very frequent in epic poetry, see Austin on Aen. 2.21, Börner on Met. 3.28, 11.229. For other examples in Valerius cf. 1.579ff., 8.217ff. The opening line of our ecphrasis is modelled on that of a Vergilian one, viz. Aen. 3.73 sacra mari colitur medio gratissima tellus (Delos), preceded by terraeque urbesque recedunt in 72 (cf. 627 above: rarior hinc tellus). Cf. also Aen. 3.104 Creta Iovis magni medio iacet insula ponto. sinu medio Pontum . . . inter et Hellen: i.e. medio sinu, qui est inter P. et H. (‘in the middle of the gulf that lies between the Pontus and the Hellespont’),

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rather than sinu, qui medius est inter P. et H. (‘in the gulf that lies halfway between the Pontus and the Hellespont’): cf. Vergil’s mari medio and medio ponto, and Valerius’ statement that the isthmus was a long one (631). Note that ‘between the Pontus and the Hellespont’ is somewhat unbalanced for ‘between the Bosporus and the Hellespont’ (or ‘between the Pontus and the Aegean’). inter is often placed between the nouns it governs (for Valerius see Kleywegt 1986, 328). The presence of an intruder (iacet) between the first noun and inter is less common, but cf. e.g. Culex 23 saltus feror inter et antra. Helle for Hellespontus is not found elsewhere. Langen compares 3.7 per angustae . . . freta . . . Helles, which is perhaps better explained as a case of enallage. ceu fundo prolata maris: ‘as it were cast up from the bottom of the sea’ (Mozley). For the thought cf. Man. 4.637f. tot . . . emergentia p o n to / litora, inaequalis Cycladas Delonque Rhodonque etc. proferre here expresses an upward movement; cf. Stat. Ach. 2.2 Oceano prolata dies, and compare Phaed. 1.2.17 una (sc. rana) tacite proferì e stagno caput. For ceu in poetry see Van Dam on Stat. Silv. 2.3.4. 630f. namque improba caecis/ intulit arva vadis ‘For it thrust its presumptuous fields into the hidden shoals’. Valerius must be explaining (namque) what happened when the land was ‘as it were cast up from the bottom of the sea’, but his words are not crystal-clear: it seems as if he has conflated two ideas, a. ‘the land thrust its fields into the sea’, and b. ‘the land is surrounded by hidden shoals’. improba . . . arva: both here and in 1.510f. non improba legi/ divitis arva plagae the meaning is probably not so much ‘enormous fields’ (Langen) as ‘presumptuous fields’, with enallage: in our passage the personified land has acted presumptuously, in 1.5 lOf. Sol denies having been presumptuous in his choice of land. caecis . . . vadis: cf. Verg. Aen. 1.535F cum . . . Orion/ in vada caeca tulit, and compare Aen. 3.706 vada dura lego saxis Lilybeia caecis. For vada in Valerius see on 25ff.; Cyzicus’ shoals are mentioned again in 3.43 ut notis adlapsa vadis (the fateful return of the Argo). For the ‘cacenphaton’ in arva vadis see on 86 chaos ostendens. 631f. longoque per aequora dorso/ litus agit. per S, edd. from Thilo onward, except Ehlers: sub L, Ehlers, edd. before Thilo: om. V.

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Whatever the original situation may have been, in historical times Cyzicus was a peninsula connected to the Phrygian mainland by an isthmus that was flooded, from time to time, by the sea: cf. AR 1.938f., Prop. 3.22.1f. Cyzicus, . . . Propontiaca qua fluit isthmos aqua, RE s.v. Kyzikos, Delage 93ff., F. Vian, L’isthme de Cyzique d’après Apollonios de Rhodes (1.936-941), REG 91 (1978) 96106. Valerius refers to this isthmus as a litus, which the peninsula ‘drives in a long ridge across the waters’ (per aequora). With the reading sub aequora the litus would slope down from a position above the water surface where it leaves Cyzicus, to a position under the water surface where it reaches the mainland. This is not inconceivable (cf. AR 1.938f.), but litus is odd for something partly underwater, and, to put it mildly, sub aequora suggests a vertical movement, not an almost horizontal one. According to Ehlers (Untersuchungen 72), Cyzicus is not a peninsula at all, but an island, dorsum meaning ‘ford’: Von einer Furt aber kann man sagen, sie ziehe sich wie ein Rücken unter dem Meeresspiegel dahin’. This, however, makes litus even more problematic and, as I see it, would require sub aequore (‘unter dem Meeresspiegel’), not sub aequora (‘unter den Meeresspiegel’). As for the confusion in the mss. tradition, what happened is probably the same, mutatis mutandis, as what happened in 346: Niccoli, the writer of L, found a lacuna in his examplar and, looking for a preposition to fill it, hit upon the wrong one. The writer of S found the same lacuna and was more fortunate. dorso: cf. Verg. Aen. 1.110 (of the ‘Arae’) dorsum immane mari summo, Petr. 89.29f. celsa qua Tenedos mare/ dorso replevit, Stat. Ach. 1.448f. rupibus expositis longique crepidine dorsi/Euboicum scandens Aulis mare. agit: the geographers’ word: cf. Mela 1.81 (of the Taurus) qua dorsum agit, 89, 3.46. 632f. tenet hinc veterem confinibus oris/ pars Phrygiam, pars discreti iuga pinea montis. ‘One part holds ancient Phrygia with a common boundary (in plain English ‘borders on ancient Phrygia’), the other the pine-covered ridges of the split mountain’. With pars . . . pars we should supply ‘of the isthmus’ (Langen), rather than ‘of the peninsula’: the latter would be difficult both with the second pars and with nec procul in 634, which can only mean ‘not far from the isthmus’. hinc: not picked up by a second hinc, but the redoubling of pars is something of a compensation. discreti . . . montis: ‘of the split mountain’, i.e. Mt. Dindymon (cf. 3.19, AR 1.985) or Didymus (Plin. Nat. 5.142), so called, according to the scholiast on AR

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1.985, διά tò διδύμους μαστούς έν αύτώ άνήκειν (compare Sil. 17.2q gemino . . . Dindyma monte), although Strabo states explicitly that it w^s μονοφυές (12.8.11). For the allusiveness cf., perhaps, Hor. Od. 2.19.18 separa^ . . . in iugis (the two peaks of Mt. Parnassus? See Nisbet-Hubbard ad loc.). Actually, the isthmus does not border on Mt. Dindymon, which occupies the northern half of the peninsula, but on the Mount of Bears (AR 1.941) in the southern half (cf. RE s.v. Dindymon). iuga pinea: cf. 3.521 laevi iuga pinea montis, Verg. Aen. 11.320 celsi plagQ pinea montis. 634f. nec procul ad tenuis surgit confinia ponti/ urbs placidis demissa iugis. ‘Not far (from the isthmus), near the boundary with the shallow sea, there rises a city, sloping down from the gentle ridges’. Apollonius locates the city on the isthmus and in the plain (1.947f.); according to Strabo, τής . . . ττόλε^ το μεν έοτιν έν έταττέδω, το δε ττρός δρει (12.8.11). tenuis: ‘shallow’ (cf. Verg. G. 1.68 tenui . . . sulco, OLD 4c), rather than ‘narrow’ (OLD 4), which would be difficult with longo dorso (631). surgit: cf. Mela 1.117 ultra surgit mons Riphaeus, OLD 7. confinia: a bit awkward after confinibus in 632. placidis: ‘gentle’, in the sense of ‘sloping down gently’. I do not know of any parallel for placidus so used, but we may compare Tacitus’ use of mollis in Ger. 1.2 molli et clementer edito montis Abnobae iugo. Cf. also Liv. 38.20.4 terrenos et placide acclives ad quendam finem colles. demissa: cf. Verg. Ecl. 9.7f. qua se subducere colles/ incipiunt mollique iugum demittere clivo. The juxtaposition with surgit is not unattractive. 635£ rex divitis agri/ Cyzicus. Cf. AR 1.948f. έν δ’ ήρως ΑΙνήιος υΙός ανασσε/ Κύζικος. Valerius has in mind Verg. Aen. 3.80 rex Anius (also after a geographical ecphrasis). Cf. also VF 4.99ff. proxima Bebrycii panduntur litora regni,/ pingue solum et duris regio non invida tauris./ rex Amycus. divitis agri: cf. Verghe«. 7.262, al. For dives/dis see on 296f. 636f. Haemoniae qui tum nova signa carinae/ ut videt, ipse ultro primas procurrit ad undas Haemoniae . . . nova signa carinae: it is not quite clear what signa, ‘distinguishing marks’ (OLD 3), refers to. Burman understands ‘totam navis speciem . . ., unde dignoscitur ab aliis’, but this seems too general. Perhaps the

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word refers to the paintings applied to the sides of the Argo (1.129ff.); cf. OLD signum 12c. For the adjective Haemonius see on 35 Iff. ipse ultro: Valerius’ Cyzicus acts hospitably because that is his nature, Apollonius’ does so because an oracle told him to (1.969ff.). The two words often reinforce each other: cf., in Valerius, 4.555, 6.309f., 7.640f., 651. primas procurrit ad undas: just like Phineus in book 4: ubi iam Minyas certamque accedere Phineus/ sentit opem, primas baculo defertur ad undas (433f.). Cf. also 7.496 ad primos procumbit Graecia fluctus. 638f. miraturque viros dextramque amplexus et haerens/ incipit: miraturque viros: cf. V erg. Aen. 8.161 mirabarque duces Teucros. dextramque amplexus et haerens: Valerius obviously has in mind Verg. Aen. 8.124 (Pallas) dextramque (sc. Aeneae) amplexus inhaesit and 558f. (Euander) dextram complexus euntis (sc. Pallantis)/ haeret, but whose hand does Cyzicus hold between his as he begins to speak? For the pattern cf. also Aen. 5.852 clavumque adflxus et haerens. 639f. ‘o terris nunc primum cognita nostris/ Emathiae manus et fama mihi maior imago, manus and imago are vocatives, and we should read a comma after imago (Courtney, Ehlers), not a full stop (all previous editors), nunc primum cognita: until now he had only heard of them (fama). Emathiae manus: ‘Thessalian band’. Emathia, properly the name of (a district of) Macedonia (first in Horn. II. 14.226), later came to denote neighbouring Thessaly as well (first in Cat. 64.324 Emathiae tutamen (of Peleus)). The mss. have Aemathiae, which Bury corrected to Emathiae. Courtney and Ehlers follow him, Giarratano, Kramer and Mozley do not. fama mihi maior imago: the Argonauts are more impressive ‘than rumour’, i.e. than rumour had led Cyzicus to expect. For the line-ending cf. 206, Verg. Aen. 2.773, Iuv. 13.221. I do not know whether Valerius aimed at any special effect, but the fivefold repetition of -ma- in 640 is certainly remarkable: Emathiae mamis et fama mihi maior imago. 641ff. non tamen haec adeo semota neque ardua tellus/ longaque iam populis impervia lucis eoae,/ cum tales intrasse duces, tot robora cerno.

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lin e 642 is problematic, but this does not affect our understanding of the rest of the passage: ‘apparently this land of ours is not so remote after all (641 non - tellus), now that I see that you have made your way through to us (643 cum cemo)’. The wording comes from Verg. Aen. 9.248ff. (the Trojan Aletes to the gods) non tamen omnino Teucros delere paratis,/ cum talis animos iuvenum et tam certa tulistis/ pectora, ‘apparently you do not intend to destroy the Trojans after all, now that you have etc.’. Williams ad loc. takes cum in a Virtually causal sense’ (cf. Sz. 624). I would prefer to postulate an ellipse, in Vergil as in Valerius, of something like ‘apparently’ in the main clause. Now for line 642. This is perhaps best explained as ‘nor, apparently, are the inaccessible regions of the dawn any longer far away for mankind’ (cf. Kramer’s app. erit.), impervia being used as a noun and governing lucis eoae, while longa stands for longinqua (cf. 7.564, 8.299, OLD longus 6). This is not easy, but the alternative of trying to elicit some noun from longaque or impervia, to be construed with lucis eoae, does not appeal to me: the latter does not seem to lead to anything even remotely satisfactory (inter via Madvig: impar via Damsté 1885: in iter via Ellis 1900: impendia Damsté 1921: via pervia Courtney, app. crit.), whereas the former results in an extremely misleading hyperbaton: with Burman’s nec loca iam populis impervia lucis eoae, for instance, one naturally combines lucis eoae with populis (cf. Verg. Aen. 8.686 victor ab Aurorae populis, Luc. 6.52), not with loca·, the same goes, mutatis mutandis, for regnaque (Thilo), oraque (Koch 1865) and zonaque (Ellis 1886). adeo: to be taken with ardua as well. semota: semotus, ‘distant, remote’, does not belong to the epic vocabulary: Valerius has the word only here, and it is not found at all in Vergil, Ovid, Lucan, Statius and Silius. ardua: the steepness of Cyzicus is totally irrelevant, but Apollonius’ αΐ/ιτεΐα (1.936) secures the mss. reading (abdita Bährens). Mozley’s ‘hard to attain unto’ is impossible. impervia: impervius is extremely rare: before Valerius, who has it again in 4.711, the word occurs only once, in Ov. Met. 9.106; after him it is confined to Tacitus (Ann. 3.31, 15.43), Quintilian (Inst. 12.11.11) and some later writers. Note that its meaning here is not so much ‘impassable’ (OLD) as ‘inaccessible’; cf. Claud. 7.53 ratibus. . . impervia Thyle, and compare OLD pervius 2. eoae: for the quantity of the e- see on 72ff. tales . . . duces, tot robora: talis . . . tam in Aen. 9.249 (see above) was relevant, Valerius’ tales . . . tot is less so: Cyzicus’ conclusion that his land was

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not so remote after all would have been equally valid if the new arrivals had been dwarfs. For duces applied to the Argonauts cf. 1.101, 262, 5.575, Sen. Med. 233 ducem . . . ducum (of Jason). Compare Verg. Aen. 7.107 Aeneas primique duces, 8.120 Dardaniae. . . duces. robora in the sense of ‘strong, mighty men’ seems to be a Valerian innovation (cf. 1.553, 5.569). Catullus had called these same Argonauts Argivae robora pubis (64.4), ‘the hard core of Argive manpower’. 644ff. nam licet hinc saevas tellus alat h orrida g en tes/ m eque frem ens tumido circum fluat o re P ro p o n tis,/ vestra fides ritusque pares et m itia cu ltu / his etiam mihi corda lo d s.

nam: this is not strictly logical. Cyzicus had reached the conclusion that his land was not so out of the way as he thought. He did not say, though this is what nam suggests: ‘our land is not so out of the way as to belong to the uncivilized world’. Valerius seems to have in mind Verg. Aen. 1.567f. (Dido to the Trojans) non obtunsa adeo gestamus pectora Poeni,/ nec tam aversus equos Tyria Sol iungit ab urbe (compare non . . . adeo in 641 above), with its implication that living in a remote corner of the earth goes hand in hand with lack of civilization. hinc: either ‘to the north’, on the peninsula proper, where Apollonius situates the Γηγευέες (1.942ff.), or ‘to the south’, on the mainland. The words tellus alat seem to argue strongly in favour of the former, but the plural saevas gentes leaves room for some doubt. Shackleton Bailey misses an inde to pick up hinc, and remarks that ‘meque could well be spared to make room’ (cf. Ehlers’ app. crit.), but hinc . . . inde would create an unwanted balance: Cyzicus does not have savage peoples ‘on this side’ and ditto waters ‘on that’: there are savage peoples on one side only, the rest (circumfluat) is water. saevas. . . horrida: rough people always seem to live in rough countries. alat: cf. Vergil’s famous words illo Vergilium me tempore dulcis alebat/ Parthenope (G . 4.563f.), OLD alo 3b, and compare altrix 3. Greek τρέφω and τροφός are used similarly (cf. e.g. Lycurg. 47 and Pind. Pyth. 2.2 resp.). fremens tumido . . . ore Propontis: Mozley translates ‘thundering Propontis with its tossing estuary’, but whether the estuary of the Propontis tosses or not is of no concern to Cyzicus. The king rather thinks of the Propontis as a wild animal that roars tumido ore, “with raging mouth’ (cf. OLD tumidus 4).

COMMENTARY circumfluat: cf. Ον. Met. 13.779 utrumque latus (se. collis) circumfluit aequoris unda. The verb is rare in poetry (only here in Valerius). Note that both 644 and 645 ‘end’, if one may put it that way, in Silver Lines (see on 6f.): saevas tellus alat horrida gentes - fremens tumido circumfluat ore Propontis. vestra fides ritusque pares et mitia cultu his etiam mihi corda lods: ‘we share your idea of fides, we have similar rites, and here too do I find hearts gentle through civilization’. vestra fides: i.e. we can be relied upon, we are (to use an anachronism) no Carthaginians, with their Punica fides (Sali. Tug. 108.3, al.). ritus . . . pares: ritus not infrequently means little more than “way of life’ (cf. e.g. Plin. Nat. 2.190 ritus molles), but here the word clearly has its primary meaning: Cyzicus contrasts favourably (647f.) with the Tauri and their sacrum, and with the Bebrycian king Amycus, who has ‘no respect for any ritus whatsoever’ (4.146f.). mitia cultu . corda: cf. 4.590f. toto non ullus litore P onti/ mitior (sc. ‘than Lycus’: see the introductory note), 740. For cultus ‘civilization’ cf. Verg. Aen. 8.315f. gens . . . virum . . . , / quis neque mos neque cultus erat, OLD 9b; mitia cultu is the opposite of Verg. Aen. 5.730 (gens) aspera cultu, where, however, cultus means Svay of life’, rather than ‘civilization’, and the ablative is one of respect, and not one of cause. 647f. procul effera virtus/ Bebrycis et Scythici procul inclementia sacri.’ The allusions are a. to Amycus, the king of the Bebrycians who made a habit of hurling his guests from the cliffs or battering them to death (cf. 4.99-113), and b. to the Tauric ritual (cf. Ov. Pont. 3.2.45 est locus in Scythia, Tauros dixere priores) of sacrificing strangers to Artemis. procul: not geographically, but ‘far (from connection or association with someone or something)’ (OLD 5). Cf. e.g. Tac. Ann. 15.48 sed procul gravitas morum aut voluptatum parsimonia. effera virtus: Amycus has pushed his virtus in the wrong direction. Langen compares Sil. 1.58 improba virtus, Stat. Theb. 11.1 virtutis iniquae. Cf. also Theb. 4.319, 9.6. inclementia: a rare word. Before Valerius, who has it again in 7.416, it is only found in Vergil (G. 3.68, Aen. 2.602). The first prose-writer to use it is Tacitus (Ann. 4.42).

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649f. sic memorat laetosque rapit, simul hospita pandi/ tecta iubet templisque sacros largitur honores. From this point onward Valerius intersperses his account with reminiscences of the closing lines of Aeneid 1 (see the introductory note). For the lines at issue cf. 63 If. sic memorat; simul Aenean in regia ducit/ tecta, simul divum templis indicit honorem. Valerius will use the same passage again in 4.738f. (Lycus!) Aesoniden omnemque in regia turbam / tecta trahit. laetos . . . rapit: the enthusiasm is mutual. For rapit, stronger than Vergil’s ducit, see on 253ff. hospita pandi tecta iubet: cf. Prop. 4.9.34 pandite defessis hospita fana viris. largitur: largiri is rare in epic poetry. The verb occurs only once in Valerius, Vergil and Silius, and not at all in Ovid and Lucan. Statius is something of an exception with five instances (three in the Thebaid, two in the Silvae). honores: ‘(sacrificial) offerings’; cf. honorem in Aen. 1.632. See also Pease on Aen. 4.207. 65 Iff. stant gemmis auroque tori mensaeque paratu/ regifico centumque pares primaeva ministri/ corpora; pars epulas manibus, pars aurea gestant/ pocula bellorum casus expressa recentum. Valerius leaves it to the reader to infer that Cyzicus hurried the Argonauts along to his palace. He is more explicit in 4.738f. (cf. Aen. 1.63 If.). The final scene of Aeneid 1 is well represented in our lines: the ‘hundred servants of equally youthful body’ form a variation on the centum pares aetate ministri of 705, the decorated cups recall 640ff. caelata . . . in auro/ fortia facta patrum, series longissima rerum/ per tot ducta viros antiqua ab orìgine gentis, and gemmis auroque echoes both 655 duplicem gemmis auroque coronam and 728f. gravem gemmis auroque . . . pateram. Nor is this all as far as Vergilian echoes are concerned: Valerius also has in mind G. 4.378f. pars epulis onerant mensas et plena reponunt/ pocula (with 380 carchesia: cf. 655 below) and Aen. 6.603ff. lucent genialibus altis/ aurea filiera toris, epulaeque ante ora paratae/ regifico luxu. stant: simply ‘stand’ with mensae and ministri. The same may go for tori (gemmis and auro then being ablatives of material), but in this case the meaning ‘to be thick or solid (with)’ seems to play a part as well: cf. OLD sto 5b, especially Plin. Pan. 52.1 sedes auro staret aut ebore. paratu regifico: cf. Claud. 5.340. For paratus applied to the appointments of the dinner table cf. Ov. Met.

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4.763f. pulchro . . . instructa paratu . . . convivia, 8.683, Iuv. 14.13; for the word as such see on 509ff. regifico comes from Aen. 6.605 (see above), which, in fact, is the only occurrence of the adjective before Valerius (though Ennius has the adverb regifice in seen. 91 Joe.). For compounds with -ficus see on 97 horrifici. pares primaeva ministri corpora: ‘a convention’ (Austin on Aen. 1.705 pares aetate (see above)). Burman compares Tac. Ann. 15.69 decora . . . servitia et pan aetate, and Langen refers to Sen. Ep. 95.24; cf. also id. ib. 119.13. Contrast Lucan’s description of Cleopatra’s staff in 10.127f. tum famulae numerus turbae populusque minister./ discolor hos sanguis, alios distinxerat aetas (cf. also 122 fulget gemma toris). primaeva corpora could be accusative of respect with pares (‘equal as to their . . .’; cf. Sii. 2.638 cuncta pares), but it is far more likely that the words are nominative, standing in apposition to pares ministri. For interlaced word order of this type (ABAB) cf. Verg. Eel. 5.71 vina novum . . . Ariusia nectar, Ov. Pont. 2.1.31 clara . . . pictas insignia vestes. Mart. 10.30.1 temperatae dulce Formiae litus (all three in J.B. Solodow, HSPh 90 (1986) 148f.), Sen. HE 14 clara gemini signa Tyndaridae (compare Hor. Od. 4.8.31). For primaeva corpora cf. Verg. Aen. 10.345 fidens primaevo corpore Clausus, Luc. 6.562, Sil. 10.493,646f.; for the adjective as such see on 480ff. aurea . . . pocula bellorum casus expressa recentum: ‘golden cups having the fortunes of recent wars stamped on them’. casus is a remarkable accusative: it cannot be labelled ‘retained’, because expressa has passive, not middle, force, but ‘of respect’ will not do either, because the cups are not ‘stamped as to the fortunes of recent wars’. Perhaps we should call it a ‘Greek accusative of reference’, which is how Coleman labels nomina in Verg. Ed. 3.106f. inscripti nomina regum . . . flores, ‘flowers having the names of kings written on them’ (cf. Soph. Tr. 157f. δέλτου έγγεγραμμέυην/ ξυνθήμαθ’). Valerius has another example with exprimere in 1.398f. casus . . . tuos expressa, Phalere,/ arma geris (cf. also Tac. Hist. 3.74 aram . . . posuit casus suos in marmore expressam), and two with the comparable verb caelare: 1.402 caelata metus alios gerit arma Eribotes, 6.53f. caelata . . . gestat/ tegmina dispersos trifidis ardoribus ignes (cf. Plin. Nat. 33.155, $XaX.Ach. 1.852f.). The ‘recent wars’ are those fought with the Pelasgians (see below). 655ff. atque ea prima duci porgens carchesia G raio/ Cyzicus ‘hic portus’ inquit

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‘jjoihi territat hostis,/ has ades sub nocte refert, haec versa Pelasgum/ terga yides, meus hic ratibus qui pasdtur ignis.’ ea prima . . . porgens carchesia: the pocula of 654 (a general word) now appear to be carchesia; for this type of drinking-cup see Bömer on Met. 7.246. prima does not imply that Cyzicus porgit other things later on, but stands for primum. Syncopated porgere (for porrigere) is largely confined to comedy and epic, though some of Livy’s mss. have porgentes in 29.16.6, and porgentium in 30.21.7. Valerius probably has in mind Werg.Aen. 8.274 pocula porgite dextris. Graio: see on 326f. hie: in view of has - haec - hie in the next lines, this is probably the adjective (with hostis), rather than the adverb. Still, the adjectives, at least the first three of them, are best translated ‘here’ (as in 96 and 335): ‘here the enemy is terrorizing our harbour, here he is coming back with his troops, under the cover of night, here you see the backs of the fleeing Pelasgians, and this fire, devouring the ships, is mine.’ Descriptions of decorated cups are as old as Theocritus (1.29ff.). For some other examples cf. Verg. Eel. 3.36ff., Ov. Met. 13.681ff. (a crater), Stat. Theb. 1.540ff. (a patera), 6.53 Iff. (a crater). portus: despite the fact that Apollonius provides Cyzicus with no less than three harbours, the καλός/Καλός λι,μήν (1.954), the χυτός/Χυτός λιμήν (987, probably identical with the ‘city harbour’ of 965), and the ‘Thracian harbour’ (1110), this is probably a poetic plural, as in 3.45 hostis habet portus (after Ali. puppis. . .portu. . . refertur amico). ades . . . refert: cf. Verg. Aen. 12.185f. cedet Iulus agris, nec post arma ulla rebelles/Aeneadae referent ferrove haec regna lacessent. Pelasgum: a typically Valerian simplification of Apollonius’ reference to Cyzicus’ enemies as the ‘Pelasgian Macrians’ (cf. 1.1023f.); compare Hyg. Fab. 16.2 (Argonautae) quos Cyzicus hostes Pelasgos arbitrans esse etc. Apollonius situates these Macrians in the vicinity of Cyzicus (1.1112f.), but it is not quite clear why he calls them ‘Pelasgian’: see usefully Levin 93, n.2, with literature, meus: sc. est. ratibus: ‘ships’, pace Langen (‘rates . . . hoc loco propria sententia scripsit Valerius’) and Mozley (‘rafts’): there is no indication in the text that these vessels were rafts, and without it it is hazardous to interpret ratis as ‘raft’ in poetry. Besides, the Argonautica does know of other ships besides the Argo (see on 285 ratis).

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pascitur: cf. Ον. Am. 3.9.41f. tene . . . flammae rapuere rogales,/ pectoribus pasci nec timuere tuis?, OLD 6b. 659ff. subicit Aesonides: ‘utinam nunc ira Pelasgos/ adferat et solitis temptet concurrere furtis/ cunctaque se ratibus fundat manus: subicit Aesonides: ‘Aeson’s son put in . . subicere followed by direct speech is rather prosaic (cf. Var. R. 1.7.2, Sail. Hist. 3.48.14, Liv. 35.14.11). In fact, this seems to be the first example in poetry (cf. Stat. Ach. 1.545f.), although Verg. Aen. 3.313f. vix pauca furenti/ subido, followed by direct speech in 315, comes close. Cf. also 4.755 excipit Aesonides (after the welcoming speech by Lycus, Cyzicus’ doppelgänger: see the introductory note). utinam nunc ira Pelasgos adferat: full of dramatic irony, because the Argonauts, whom Cyzicus will mistake for his arch-enemies after their accidental return to the peninsula, are sometimes referred to as Pelasgi as well (‘Thessalians’ or, more generally, ‘Greeks’): cf. 5.116, 474, 682. ira adferat is rather bold, but Heinsius’ efferet is unnecessary, et . . . temptet concurrere: ‘and induce them to engage in battle’. Classical is temptare aliquem ut (cf. e.g. Cic. Clu. 176). In fact, temptare aliquem + inf. seems to be unparalleled, and perhaps we should read temptent (subject ‘the Pelasgians’) with some of the recc. solids . . . furtis: i.e. under the cover of night (cf. 657). Langen compares Sii. 17.90 furtum armorum tutantibus umbris. Cf. also id. 7.135L nocturna parat caecae celantibus umbris/furta viae. s e . . . fundat: cf. 1.610 fundunt se carcere laeti, OLD fundo 6. 66 lf. arma videbis/ hospita nec post hanc ultra tibi proelia noctem.’ Irony reaches a climax here: Cyzicus will see the Veapons of his guests’, but they will be used against him, and the coming battle will be his last . . . because he will die in it. Valerius still has in mind Verg. Aen. 12.185f. nec post arma ulla rebelles/ Aeneadae referent (see on 657 ades. . . refert). arma . . . hospita: hospes/hospita meaning ‘of a guest’ is not found before Valerius. proelia: probably accusative (with videbis), rather than nominative (sc. erunt). 663f. sic ait hasque inter variis nox plurima dictis/ rapta vices nec non simili lux postera tractu.

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Valerius winds up with a last reminiscence of Aeneid 1: cf. 748f. nec non et fiio noctem sermone trahebat/ infelix Dido. has . . . inter . . . vices: ‘amid such interchange’. The ellipse of something like sgrmonum (cf. Verg. Aen. 6.535 hac vice sermonum) is remarkable, but variis dictis leaves no room for doubt as to the nature of the ‘interchange’. For inter s0 used cf. e.g. Verg. Aen. 6.513f. ut supremam falsa inter gaudia noctem/ egerimus, nosti. variis. . . dictis: a variation on Vergil’s vario sermone. nox plurima . . . rapta: conversation is so animated, that the greater part of tjie night is ‘hurried along’. Langen compares Sii. 4.485 iamque dies rapti cursu rißvoque labore, where we should perhaps read varioque with Ξ (vanoque ωΟι: yiavoque Livineius). Cf. also Hor. Od. 4.7.7f. a lm u m /quae rapit hora diem. nox plurima must be short for pars plurima noctis (cf. Luc. 9.456 pars plurima terrae), but I do not know of any parallel for plurimus so used, multa nox, as in Ck. Sen. 46 convivium . . . quod ad multam noctem . . . vario sermone producimus, is different (‘until late in the night’). nec non simili lux postera tractu: either ‘sc. rapta (est/ or ‘sc. fuit’, lux postera simili tractu fuit amounting to lux postera simili modo tracta est, ‘and the following day was ‘drawn out’ in the same way’; cf. Aen. 1.748 (quoted above), 6.537 fors omne datum traherent per talia tempus (after 535 hac vice sermonum). Note how the similar line-endings of 663 and 664 accentuate the idea that night and day were spent in the same way: variis nox plurima dictis - simili lux postera tractu. nec non is Vergilian. According to Fordyce (on Aen. 7.521), ‘simple’ nec non (as opposed to nec non et) is rare in Vergil, but his total number of four should be corrected to thirteen. Ours is the only example in Valerius, and it owes its existence to the model passage, Aen. 1.748f. For lux postera see Lyne on Ciris 349.

EDITIONS y^te: the following list only includes editions that have been used and/or mentioned in the commentary. Borgna 1474 (editio princeps) pjgj-ence 1481 (?) (editio secunda) B0lPgna 1498 (editio tertia) jun(ina, Florence 1503 juntina, Florence 1517 (reprint of 1503) A. jdaserius, Paris 1517 A. Maserius, Paris 1519 I B, Pius, Bologna 1519 AlcJma, Venice 1523 L, ßalbus, Complutum 1524 L. Carrio, Antwerp 1565 L. Carrio, Antwerp 1566 j i ) . Zinzerling, Lyons 1617 L. Alardus, Leipzig 1630 p, ßurman, Leiden 1702 p, Burman, Leiden 1724 Tb· Chr. Harles, Altenburg 1781 J. A· Wagner, Göttingen 1805 A. Dureau Delamalle, Paris 1811 N, E. Lemaire, Paris 1824-5 G. Thilo, Halle 1863 K. Schenkl, Berlin 1871 E. Bährens, Leipzig 1875 P. Langen, Berlin 1896-7 Bury, London 1900 (Corpus Poetarum Latinorum, ed. J.P. Postgate) C. Giarratano, Milan 1904 O. Kramer, Leipzig 1913 J.H. Mozley, London 1934 (revised in 1936) E. Courtney, Leipzig 1970 W.-W. Ehlers, Stuttgart 1980

J.B.

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SAMENVATTING Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica, waarschijnlijk geschreven tussen 75 en 85 n.Chr., behandelt in 8 boeken de tocht die Jason en zijn makkers op last van koning Pelias ondernamen om het Gulden Vlies uit het verre Colchis te halen. Het eerste deel, dat doorloopt tot in boek 5, beschrijft, na een inleidend eerste boek, de heenreis en is sterk episodisch van aard. Zo valt boek 2 in acht delen uiteen: na enige overgangsverzen (1-5) volgen een beschrijving van het eerste deel van de route (6-33) en een schildering van de eerste nacht die de Argonauten op zee doorbrengen (34-71). De dan volgende ‘Lemnische episode’ (72-427) maakt het leeuwedeel uit van dit boek. De eerste helft van deze episode (-310) gaat, verrassend genoeg, in het geheel niet over de Argonauten, maar over de slachting die de Lemnische vrouwen, kort voor hun aankomst, onder de mannelijke bevolking van het eiland hadden aangericht, dit weer voorafgegaan door een uitgebreide beschrijving van de keten van gebeurtenissen die hiertoe had geleid. De tweede helft (311-) behandelt aankomst, verblijf en vertrek van de Argonauten. Na een tussenstop in Samothrace (428-44) landen de Argonauten vervolgens op de kust van Troje, waar Hercules, een van hen, de koningsdochter Hesione van een wisse verslinding door een vervaarlijk zeemonster redt (445-578). Deze episode vormt het tweede hoofdbestanddeel van boek 2. Hierna vervolgen de Argonauten hun weg door de Hellespont, waar Helle, de naamgeefster van deze zeeèngte, Jason een boodschap meegeeft voor haar broer Phrixus in Colchis (579626). Boek 2 sluit af met een beschrijving van de ontvangst van de Argonauten door Cyzicus, koning van het gelijknamige schiereiland in de Propontis (627-64). Wat Apollonius Rhodius voor Valerius Flaccus was voor de stof, was Vergilius voor hem waar het gaat om taalgebruik, motieven, vergelijkingen etc. Valerius kent zijn Vergilius en hij laat dat merken ook. Om slechts enkele voorbeelden te geven: Venus’ optreden in 115w., waar zij Fama opdracht geeft de Lemnische vrouwen op te stoken tegen hun mannen, en de tenuitvoerlegging van dit bevel door Fama in 135w. zijn volledig gebaseerd op de handelwijze van Juno en Allecto in Aeneis 7, en op die van Juno en Iris in Aeneis 5, terwijl de beschrijving van Fama zelf (deels) gemodelleerd is op die van Vergilius in Aeneis 4. En dat niet alleen: het aantal verbale echo’s loopt in de tientallen. In dit soort gevallen laat de imitator-aemulator zieh niet van zijn slechtste kant zien. Gebruik makend van meerdere modellen maakt hij immers iets nieuws. Minder op dreef is Valerius wanneer hij maar één Vergilius-passage als uitgangspunt neemt. Zo is de beschrijving van het onthaal dat Jason op Lemnos wordt bereid, van

SAMENVATTING Hercules’ vermaning aan het adres van Jason, wanneer deze zieh het dolce far niente wat al te lang laat welgevallen, en van het afscheid van Jason en Hypsipyle wel heel erg eenzijdig gebaseerd op het verhaal van Dido en Aeneas. Deze navolging gaat zelfs zo ver, dat op een gegeven moment van Hypsipyle wordt gezegd dat zij ‘niet langer’ afwijzend Staat tegenover het huwelijksbed. Dat wordt in Aeneis 4 ook van Dido gezegd, maar Hypsipyle heeft geen Sychaeus gehad! Over het algemeen is dat evenwel niet de manier waarop Valerius te werk gaat: òf hij kiest zieh meerdere modellen en gaat daar zo mee aan de slag dat er iets nieuws ontstaat (een goed voorbeeld is de Hesione-episode in 445w., waarvoor Valerius materiaal gebruikt van niet minder dan vier voorgangers: Vergilius, Ovidius, Manilius en Seneca), òf hij vaart op eigen kompas, bijvoorbeeld in 38w., de charmante beschrijving van de eerste nacht op zee (ge'imiteerd door Statius). De commentaar houdt zieh uitvoerig bezig met deze zaken: waar is Valerius origineel, waar slaagt hij erin iets nieuws te creeren uit bestaand materiaal, en waar was zijn bewondering voor, met name, de maestro te groot. Een tweede accent ligt (uiteraard) op de filologie. Valerius Flaccus is geen gemakkelijke schrijver, en dit heeft er in de afgelopen eeuwen toe geleid dat letterlijk honderden conjecturen alleen al op boek 2 zijn losgelaten. In de commentaar wordt geprobeerd het kaf van het koren te scheiden (waarbij blijkt dat de tekstoverlevering vaak het koren is, en de conjecturen het kaf), mede aan de hand van (veel) parallelplaatsen. Daarnaast wordt (ook: uiteraard) aandacht besteed aan de interpretatie, wederom met gebruikmaking van (veel) parallelplaatsen. Tenslotte wordt ook Valerius’ eigen taalgebruik onder de loupe genomen, en vergeleken met dat van zijn voorgangers. In meer dan een opzicht is er dus eigenlijk sprake van een klassiek commentaar.

CONTENTS Note to the reader

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Commentary

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Bibliography

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Samenvatting

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