Lygdamus: Corpus Tibullianum III.1-6 Lygdami Elegiarum Liber 9004102108, 9789004102101

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LYGDAMUS CORPUS TIBULLIANUM Ill.1-6: LYGDAMI ELEGIARUM LIBER

MNEMOSYNE BIBUOTHECA

CLASSICA BATAVA

COLLEGERUNT

J.M. BREMER. LF.JANSSEN · H. PINKSTER H. W. PLEKET · C.J. RUUGH , P.H. SCHRIJVERS

BIBLIOTHECAE FASCICULOS EDENDOS CURAVIT C.J. RUUGH, KLASSIEK SEMINARIUM, OUDE TUR™ARKT

129, AMSTERDAM

SUPPLEMENTUM CENTESIMUM QUINQUAGESIMUM QUARTUM FERNANDO NAVARRO ANTOUN (Eo. & CoMM.)

LYGDAMUS CORPUS TIBULLIANUM IIl.1-6 LYGDAMI ELEGIARUM LIBER

LYGDAMUS CORPUS TIBULLIANUM 111.r-6 LYGDAMI ELEGIARUM LIBER EDITION AND COMMENTARY BY

FERNANDO NAVARRO ANTOLIN TRANSIATED BY J.J. ZOLTOWSKI

E.J. BRILL LEIDEN· NEW YORK· KOLN 1996

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Navarro Antolin, Fernando. Lygdamus : Corpus Tibullianum III. 1-6: Lygdami clegiarum liber / by Fernando Navarro AntoJin. p. cm. - (Mnemosyne, bibliotheca classica Batava. Supplementum, ISSN 0169-8958; 154) Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral-University or Seville). Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 9004102108 (cloth: alk. paper) I. Lygdamus---Criticism and interpretation. 2. Elegiac poetry, Latin-Translations into Spanish. 3. Elegiac poetry, Latin-History and criticism. 4. Lygdamus- Translations into Spanish. 5. Elegiac poetry, Latin-Authorship. 6. Lygdamus-Authorship. 7. Tibullus-Authorship. 8. Rome-In literature. I. Lygdamus. Spanish. 1995. II. Title. III. Series. PA6497.L9A58 1995 871'.01-dc20 95-20759 CIP

Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme (Mnemosyne / Supplementwn] Mnemosyne : bibliotheca classica Batava. Supplementum. Leiden; New York; KO!n: Brill. Frilher Schrirtenreihe Reihe Supplementum zu: Mnemosyne 154. Navarro Antolin, Fernando: Lygdamus: Corpus Tibullianum III. 1-6: Lygdami elegiarum liber. - 1996 Navarro Antolin, Fernando: Lygdamus : Corpus Tibullianum III. 1-6: Lygdami elegiarum liber / by Fernando Navarro Antolin. - Leiden ; New York ; KOln : Brill, 1996 (Mnemosync : Supplcmcntum ; 154) ISBN90--04-102 I 0--8

ISSN 0169-8958 ISBN 90 04 !02 IO 8 © Cofryright 1996 by EJ. Brill, Leidm,Th, N,th,rt,,nds

Alt rightsreserved. No part of thispublicationmay be reproduced, translaud,storedin a retrievalsystem,or transmittedin a'!Yform or by any Tfll!aru, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,withoutpriorwritt.en permission .fromthepublisher. Authon'zationto photocopyitemsfor intmtal orpersonal use is granttdby E.]. Brill providedthat theappropriate fees arepaid directfyto The Copynght CkaranceCmtu, 222 RosewoodDrive,Suite 910 DarwenMA 01923, USA. Fus aresu[dectto change. PRINTED

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CONTENTS Preface ......................................................................................... .

IX

Introduction ................................................................................ . I I. The QgaestioLygda1T1£a .......................................................... . 3 2. Lygdamus and Neaera ...................................................... . 21 3. The Configuration of the CorpusTtbvllianvm..................... 25 4. The Ms. Transmission of the CorpusTtbvllianvm.............. 31 Critical Edition ........................................................................... . 41 Editioneset Commentationes in ApparatuCriticoLavdatae.............. 43 Conspectus Siglorvm....................................................................... . 49 Text ............................................................................................. .

51

Translation Into Spanish ........................................................... .

77

Commentary ............................................................................... . 91 LygdamvsI ................................................................................... . 93 LygdamvsII .................................................................................. . 147 LygdamvsIII ................................................................................ . 193 LygdamvsIV ................................................................................. . 258 LygdamvsV .................................................................................. . 413 LygdamvsVI ................................................................................. . 459 Bibliography ................................................................................ Appendix ..................................................................................... Index Avctorvm .......................................................................... Index Locorvm ........................................................................... Index Rervm ..............................................................................

. . . . .

529 551 559 570 616

PREFACE

Since J. H. Voss made a clear distinction, in 1786, between the genuine works of Tibullus (books I-II) and those wrongly attributed to him (book III), his conclusion that the last book of the Corpus 7ibullianum is not by Tibullus himself has been shared by the majority of classical scholars interested in the elegiac genre. Since Voss published his work, there has been no lack of articles and monographic studies on each of the components of book III, regarded as works with an independent literary existence from the first two books of the Corpus.The present study continues this line of research, concentrating on the short cycle of poems by Lygdamus, which was for some reason ignored in the extensive commentary by K. F. Smith (1913). My chosen method of research is philological in the fullest sense of the term: a critical edition with a commentary covering all aspects of the text. Only in this way can a work of literature be fully understood, as was well known to the pioneers in philological studies, the editors of the Renaissance, although in subsequent centuries the wise old formula of combining in one single work a critical edition and philological commentary (who better to understand a text scientifically than the commentator, and who better placed to understand the content than the editor?) has fallen into some disuse, especially in Spain. My main criterion, both in the critical edition and in the commentary, has been that of comprehensiveness. My aim has been to put together the greatest amount of information possible. The brevity of the object of study (290 11.)has enabled me to consult considerably more material than if it had been the whole of the Corpus 1ibullianum,for instance, or the epigrams of Martial: more mss. examined and more editions and commentaries consulted, both early and modern. As far as the critical edition is concerned, I am firmly convinced that, given the obvious risk of not being able to see the wood for the trees, a critica] apparatus should never aim to reflect exhaustively and ad nauseamthe whole history of the text (that is, not only mss., edd. vett. et recc.,conjectures, etc., but even phonetic variants). While I also hold that a critical editor should never overspeculate concerning

X

PREFACE

conjectures, at the risk of falsifying the tradition, it is equally true that brevity and caution are not always the most valuable weapons of a good critical editor, since excessive brevity in the interests of clarity may conceal valuable information which might have enabled the reader to judge the editor's text properly, choose rejected variants or else come up with his own conjectures; and excessive caution robs the edition of much of its attraction and deprives it of its raison d'etre, since it makes it difficult to perceive any practical results improving the text. Any new critical edition, in my view, should aspire to at least one (preferably both) of the following objectives: a) To offer a substantial improvement on previous editions, presenting a readable text, that is, one that will be of use to the simple readertranslator with no interest in questions of textual criticism, without requiring him to consult the apparatus; consequently, every attempt should be made to avoid the obelisks employed by over-cautious editors, who scar their texts with meaningless words or lines and force the simple reader to act against his will as an experienced textual critic; and b) To furnish the text with a critical apparatus as comprehensive and exhaustive as possible which will provide the reader who is interested in textual criticism with a useful tool which will enable him to opt, where appropriate, for other readings or conjec• tures than those presented, or even to make his own conjectures. What is the point of a miserly critical apparatus, generally of the 'dogmatic' editioOxoniensis type, where all too often the obvious absurdity of the only or few variants offered leaves the reader in no doubt that the best reading is that chosen by the editor? If the idea is to prevent the reader from thinking freely, the best thing would surely be to forget about the critical apparatus altogether and present just the final text. In order to provide as much information as possible, it also seemed advisable to indicate in the apparatus the auctoritas of the editors who follow this or that reading or conjecture; for the sake of clarity, I have avoided the convenient but chaotic sigla of the recc.or ltali. As for the the philological commentary, the ideal of comprehensiveness involves commenting on points of interest of all kinds (realia, literary topoiand motifs, mythology, metre, style, language, echoes, iuncturae,prose usages, ho.paxkgomena,questions of textual criticism, etc.), as well as offering the reader a poem-by-poem, line-by-line and word-by-word commentary on the Lygdamean cycle. I have also attempted to make each entry in the commentary function as a short

PREFACE

Xl

article enjoying the greatest autonomy possible, where references to other works or commentaries, and quotations from modern editors,

are, for the most part, express acknowledgement of my debt towards them rather than an indispensable complement for the understanding of the locusin question. I am sure that the reader's patience will not be overstretched by my exhaustiveness, as this is not a novel destined to be read usque ad comua, but a commentary to be con-

sulted on a particular passage, and it is my conviction that the reader will appreciate having as much information as possible at hand, and hardly have to consult the quotations from works which all too often are not to be found in his library. I have added a useful tool at the end of the work in the form of an Appendixpresenting in easily-consulted tables the readings and conjectures I have followed in the most controversial passages, as well as

those followed by the most prominent editors of the CorpusTzbullianum in the course of the present century. The present work originated as a doctoral thesis presented in the Faculty of Arts of the University of Seville in December 1993. Many of the improvements incorporated here are due to the valuable and perceptive corrections and suggestions of the members of the exam-

ining tribunal, and I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to them once again. Errors and omissions, needless to

say, are attributable to me alone. I would like to take this opportunity to state publicly how grateful and indebted I am to the co-directors of the thesis, Dr. Antonio Ramirez de Verger Jaen and Dr. Jose Solis de los Santos, mentors and friends. I should also like to express my gratitude to J. J. Zoltowski for the translation, and also for several helpful suggestions and corrections.

The publication of this book has been made possible by the financial assistance of the 'Grupo de Investigaci6n AntonioTovar'(PAI 5054 Junta de Andalucia); the 'Proyecto de Investigaci6n Ovidio:operaamatorio II' (PB92-0486 DGICYf); the 'Proyecto de Investigaci6n Corpus amatorium"(PB94- l 084 DG4CYf); and the 'Grupo de Investigaci6n Jacobo de/ Barco' (PAI 5276 Junta de Andalucia). Fernando Navarro Antolin Seville, 30th May 1995, Feast of San Fernando, patron saint of the city.

INTRODUCTION

1. THE Q.UAES1IOLYGDAMEA

Any serious attempt to study the poems of Lygdamus must necessarily take as its starting point the so-called Q.UOJJstio Lygdamea:Who is Lygdamus, when were his elegies composed, and what is his relation-

ship with Ovid? Is he an ante-Ovidian poet, is he the young Ovid, or is he post-Ovidian? The question of the date of composition of the Lygdamean elegies is by no means a trivialone, in view of the fact that the range of possible birth-dates suggested for Lygdamus covers such a wide period-and one so rich in literary milestones-as the years from 83 BC to 69 AD; or, in terms of literary acmi,from the mid 1st c. BC to the end of the I st c. AD, that is, the Golden and Silver Ages of Latin letters. In terms of the implications for the history of Latin literature, and that of the elegiac genre in particular, it is clear that there is no comparison between the importance of establishing a date

for Lygdamus and doing the same for an author like Maximianus the Etruscan, the last of the elegiac poets of Antiquity, whose chronology is also disputed. Whether we situate the latter in the middle of the 6th c. AD-the most widely-accepted dating--or else two centuries earlier or two to three centuries later is of relatively little consequence, since he is, after all, an author who is isolated in time, and variations in his dating have no serious implications. Of prime importance for the history of Latin literature, however, is the ques-

tion of whether we consider Lygdamus to be earlier or later than Ovid or, even more drastic, earlier than Tibullus, or even identify him with the young Tibullus himself, which would convert Lygdamus, as if by art of magic, into the "first elegist" and founder of the most

typically Roman literary genre (for all the claims of satire and the poet Gallus, of whom so little is known). Nor can there be any doubt that it is essential to take up some position on this question before producing a commentary and assessing the degree of originality or tradition in the literary art of Lygdamus. Natal.emprimo nostrumvidereparentes cum ceciditJawconsuluwque pari (Lygd. 5.17-18)

4

INTRODUCTION

This distich, in which Lygdamus alludes to the year of his birth, and which is almost identical to this other couplet, in which Ovid refers to his own: Editus hi.cego sum, nee non, ut temporanoris, cum ceciditfato consuluterquepari(Tr. 4.10.5-6)

has for centuries been the exclusive object of attention of those scholars who have concerned themselves with the short Lygdamean cycle, more interested in the identity of Lygdamus, and his relationship with Ovid, than in his work itself.1 The earliest commentators of the CorpusIibullianum,from ScALIGER to HEYNE, never questioned the Tibullan authorship of the Lygdamus cycle (or indeed of the rest of book III), an attribution sanctioned by the manuscript tradition. They hold that this is the work of the young Tibullus, which he somehow thought it opportune or prudent to hide 2 under the pseudonym Lygdomus. They manage to get round the chronological difficultyinvolved in the much-debated biographical distichfor if Tibullus was born in 43 BC,' then he would have been a boy of 13 when he took part in Messalla's expedition to Aquitania (31 BC)--by rejecting the pentameter as an interpolation from Ov. Tr. 4.10.6. 4 1 In studying the Lygdamean question, I have found the following works particularly useful: H. DE LA VILl..EDE MIRMONT,Lt. poite Lygdamus,Louvain, Paris 1904; A. CARTAULT, Aproposdu CorpusTibullianum.Un sieclede PhiMngiLlatineclassique, Paris 1906; M. ScHANz-C. Hosrus, Geschichteder riimischelite,atur II, Handbuch der Altertumswissenscheft VIIJ.2, Munchen 1935, pp. 185-188 (§ 282); F. W. LEVY(~ LENz), "Lygdamus", RE 13.2 (1937) 2217-2226; and, among the more recent studies, L. Ar.FoNSI, Albio Tibullo e gli autori dtl Corpus Tibullianum, Milano 1946; L. PEPE, Ttbulk,mimnt,Napoli: casa editrice Arrnanni 1948; idem, "Rassegna di studi tibulliani", Gwmakltolia•odi Filologial (1948) 159--168; ibid.,2 (1950) 172-180. 2 eg M. A MURErus, Tzhullus(Lugduni 1559) 97: "Tibullum (ipsum enim esse arbitror, qui se ficto nomine Lygdamum vocat) ... ". In addition, the identification of Tibullus with Lygdamus (Gr. A'll"yOaµtµEi~ov, e-yro o'0A1yovTEv Kehm (6th or 5th c. BC); Inschr. AJA 32 (1928) 179 ff. = Peek GV 350 = GGG 219 (3rd c. BC); AP 7.737, i'v0ao' tyro ... Ketµm; 8.60 (Greg. Naz.); Inschr. Not. Scav. 20 (1923) 49, 96 = GV 394 = GGG 406 (3rd c. AD). Equally stereotyped formulas for epitaphs are iacet hoe sepulcro(cf. Mart. 11.91.1 [with Kay 255]; CLE 495; 555; 766; 1378; 1645; 1758; cf. also Mart. 11.13.7, hoe sunt condita. .. sepulchro) or the more synthetic hie iacet(cf. Tib. 1.3.55; CLE 425; 430; 442; 508; 548; 553; 556; 586; 596; 679; 687; 732; 753; 794; 1166; 1179; 1313; 1351; 1411; 1836). dolor . . . et cura: for the combination in the context of lovesickness, cf. Ov. Ars I. 735-736, attenuantiuvenumvigilataecorporanoctes I curaque et, in magnoquifit amore,dolor; Met. 10.75 (for Orpheus once Eurydice has been lost for ever), cura et dolor animilacrimaeque alimentafaere. dolor: on the elegiac sense of this term, see the commentary on 1. 3 dolorem. cura: here equivalent in meaning to amor,but a love which causes curae;that is, "the anxiety of love". For the different senses of curain

LYGDAMVS II

191

the sennoamatmius,cf. Lygd. 1.19 (comm.). Some editors read causa, since the mss. have ea, an abbreviation for both causa and cura. Neaerae: objective genitive ("for, towards Neaera"). The combination cura Neaeraeat the end of a hexameter is modelled on the formula curapuellae/, which is particularly frequent in Ovid; cf. eg [Tib.] 3.17.1; Prop. 3.21.3; Ov. Am. 1.9.43; Her. 21.61; Ars 2.295; 3.631; Rem. 681. 30 coniugis ereptae: for the phrase, see Lygd. 2.4 ereptacomuge (comm.). causa perire: variant on the usual formula causa mortis, which appears in I. 27 (comm.). The combination causaperire(= 'pereundi'), in which an infinitive stands for a noun in an oblique case, is exceptional in archaic and classical Latin, since in similar circumstances the normal device is to use a gerund in the genitive (cf. Llv. 39.49.2, ipsum... pudor relinquendiequites... tenuit, Sen. Dial. 7.26.6, ut pudor hominibuspeccandidemeretur;Kuhner-Stegmann II. I. 737 ff.; HofmannSzantyr 374-375 [§ 203 A]; Bassols I.394-395 [§ 414-415]). However, the infinitive is occasionally attested in the classical period; cf. Verg. Aen. 2.10-11, sed si tan/us amor casus cognoscere nostros(est) I et breviterTroiaesuprernum audirelaborern;10.90-91, queucausafait consurgere in anna I EuropamqueAsiamqueetfaederasohiere farto?-,Prop. 1.1.28, sit modolibertas,queuvelitira, loqui;Ov. Her. I. I09, neemihi sun/ viresinimicos pelleretectis. This construction originates from phrases consisting of noun + verb esse (of the type consiliumest, copia est, occasWest, tempus est, etc.), which as early as the archaic period were construed with an infinitive since they implied verbs that habitually took the infinitive (cupio,decet,expedit,licet,oportet,etc.). In the post-classical period, however, this construction becomes more frequent, probably as a result of Hellenistic influence, although it remains a sporadic usage; cf. Luc. Cw. 5.463-464, Hapsogestarecarinascausapalus (es~;Sil. 4.329, trepida. .. a mentereceditvertere(= 'vertendi ') tergapudor,for the infinitive as nouncomplement, see Kuhner-Stegmann II. I. 742; Hofmann-Szantyr 351 (§ 192 b); Ernout-Thomas 269---270(§ 280); Bassols I.359 (§ 379). perire: with the hyperbolic meaning of "to die of love"; the verb is already frequently found in this sense in Plautus (eg Poen.96; 1095); cf. also Catul. 45.5, le perditeamo. .. quantumqui pote plurimumperire; I00.2 (depereunt); Hor. Od. 1.25.7, me tuo longaspereuntenoctes,Lydia, donnis;27 .12; Verg. Eel. 8.4 I, ut vidi, ut perii; I 0.10, indignocum Gallus amoreperibat,Prop. 1.4.12 (with Fedeli 144); 6.27, multi longinquo perire in amorelibenter,9.34; 13.33, es periturusamore;15.41; 2.15.13; 24.41;

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27.11; Ov. Her.4.86; 12.33, et uidietperii;Rem. 16; 21; cf. J. Svennung, CatullsBwlersprache, Uppsala I 945, p. 113; H. Heusch, Das Archaische in der SpracheCatulls,Bonn: Hanstein 1954, p. 74; R. J. Baker, "Laus in amoremori:Love and Death in Propertius", Latomus29 (1970) 670674; Pichon, p. 230 («perire ... refertur ... ad eos qui nimia cupidine uruntur»); OW pereo4.

III This elegy combines and intermingles, in a somewhat disordered manner, a series of ideas, some purely elegiac and others characteristic of moral-philosophical sermons, producing a final mix which is very Tibullan: on the one hand, the pointlessness of praying to the gods, a complete disdain for wealth and the desire to lead a simple life, free from worries of all kinds and, on the other, the sublimation of the beloved as the source of all happiness, the wish to enjoy a long life by her side and the idea that death is preferable to living without her. The "real" starting point for this elegy is Lygdamus' desire to win back the Neaera who has been taken from him. The line of thought is as follows: Lygdamus wishes to recover his beloved Neaera and in his desperation begs the favour of the gods. This leads him to stress that he is not appealing to the gods as others do, asking for riches, but in the desire that they will grant him a long and happy life together with his beloved (II. 1-10). By way of justifying this atypical conduct, Lygdamus develops the well-known Cynico-Stoic diatribe about wealth not bringing happiness, to conclude in the elegiac manner by stating that true happiness--or wealth-stems from the beloved (II. 11-32). Consequently, if the gods or fates do not deign to grant him this blessing of winning back Neaera and sharing a life of joy with her, Lygdamus, as a true elegist, opts for death (II. 33-38). The voroi;of luxury dates back to great thinkers like Plato and Epicurus, but it was later vulgarized in the diatribes of the Hellenistic period. The moral diatribe of the Cynics was transferred into verse in the poetic compositions of Cercidas (c. 290-220 BC); cf. D. R. Dudley, A HistoryefCynicism[1937] 74 ff. Roman orators were fervorous in their denunciation of extravagance of all kinds, especially luxurious villas (cf. Cato Or. Frg. 174; 185, dicerepossum, quibus villa, atqueaed,s aedflicatae atqueexpolitaemaximaoperecitroatqueeboreatque paoimentis Poenicissient,Plut. Cat. mai. 4.4). Similar ideas became part of the main current of Roman poetry in the I st c. BC (Williams, Trod. & Orig., pp. 578---619), particularly in Lucretius (cf. 2.20 ff.), the Satiresof Horace, a good number of his Odes (2.15; 18; 3.1; 24; cf. Kroll, WS 37 [1915] 242 ff.; Nisbet-Hubbard Od. II 288-289),

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COMMENTARY

and also in Virgil's Georgics(cf. 2.461 ff.), since contempt for luxury and praise of the simple life fitted in perfectly with Augustan ideology. The elegiac poets, for their part, appropriated the Stoic ideal of the simple life (paupertas)not only as a kind of programmatic justification for their renunciation of the cursus honorumand their commitment to ars gratia artis, but also as a poetic device to empha-

size the spiritual purity of their love (and their poetry) in contrast to the material nature of wealth, in particular that of the rich rivals (dwit.esamatores) who became lord and master of their elegiac beloved (avarae paella£).This ideology left no room for imagining a life of luxury in the company of the beloved. For the criticism of wealth and luxury in elegiac poetry, cf. C. E. Newlands, Criticismef Wealthin Tzhullus,Propertiusand Ovid's "Amores", Columbia University: Ph.D. Dissertation, I 980; F. Navarro Antolin, Amada codicwsa y Edad de Oro en los e/egiacos/atinos,unpublished Tesis de Licenciatura, Universidad de Sevilla 1991 (shortened version in Habis 22 [1991] 207-221). Although this elegy is very Tibullan in tone, Lygdamus, unlike the Tzhullusrusticus,offers no description of what this simple life would really involve. For the idea that "poverty in happiness is preferable to wealth in misery" from the philosophical point of view, see in particular Sen. Ep. 90.41 ff. The elegy consists of a series of 'tfuto1,some philosophical, others

purely elegiac, at first sight anarchically thrown together: the uselessness of prayer; the gods pay no attention to human affairs; operosae dwitiae; wealth does not bring happiness; death is binding on all, rich and poor alike; wealth attracts envy; the vulgusunthinkingly covet an endless number of objects; the ups and downs of treacherous Fortune (Fortunae rota);elegiac paupertas; the superiority of Amorover dwitiae; the loved one representing true happiness; he who is in love is rich;

he who is in love is a king; the e/egioca fi/icitas of a long life spent with a faithful lover; death is to be preferred to a life without the beloved (elegiac suicide). Race (ClassicalPriamel,p. 130) highlights the structure of this elegy, in which the topos 'not wealth, but love' is expressed by means of three priamels in succession (3-8; I 1-23; 29--32).

•••

LYGDAMVS III

195

1-10: a long sentence in which Lygdamus complains angrily (c,xetAtaoµ6i;)that his pleas to the gods are in vain (II. 1-2), although in them-he stresses-he is not requesting wealth (II. 3---fi),but the chance to enjoy to the very end a long life in the company of Neaera (II. 7-10). In fact, this long-term wish conceals the real immediate aim of his plea, the return of his beloved-a sinequa nonif his golden dream is to come true--although we do not discover this until I. 25 ff. As for the formulation, Lygdamus uses the typical rhetorical interrogative introduced by the formula quidprodest. . .! (or similar), the aim of which is to underline the pointlessness of a given action, here prayers to the gods, who according to Epicurean teaching have nothing whatsoever to do with human affairs. Note, too, how Lygdamus postpones the real content of his prayer or vow until ll. 7-10, with the idea of emphasizing how atypical it is when compared with the entreaties of most mortals, which are previously detailed (II. 3---fi). This is an example of the famous rhetorical device of the priamel (cf. Race, ClassicalPriamel,p. 130; Lygd. 2.1-8 [comm.]), the linguistic marker of which can be detected quite clearly: / non ut 0- 3) . . . / aut ut 0-5) ... / sed. .. ut 0- 7) ... A similar structure based on purpose clauses can be observed in a priamel in Propertius, 2.13.5-8, / non ut ... I aut ... I sed magi.< ut . .. , or another in Horace, Epod. 7.510, /non ut ... I ... I ... aut . .. ut ... I ... /sed ut ... For the rejection of wealth similarly presented (non... sed.. .), cf. Archil. 19.1 W., oUµot 't0:r{mECOto'U1toAuxpUoou µEA.tt;B. Fr. 2 l, oUJ}o&v1tcipECJ'tl oOOµat'o'UtExpucr6i;,/ o'UtExopq,UpEot t6.7tT1tEi;µ£\1£Vtcboµ(fl ical £•• Verg. O; Copa 1; Hor. 9; Tib. O; Prop. 4; Ov. 7; Lyg. I. (statistics by Bomec 255 ad Ov. M,t. 8.808). alludere: the 'emendatio' alludere("to play with") proposed by Cyllenius, and defended by S. Allen (CR 20 [1906] 455-456), would seem to be quite correct. Lygdamus transfers to the brushing of the clothes against the heels a use of the verb alluderethat was quite common in Latin literature to describe the elusive, "playful", contact of the waves as they dashed on the sand of the beach; cf. Cic. Nat. 2.100, maresic terramappetenslitoribusalludit(alluditdett.: eluditcodd., Pease 796); Catul. 64.67, omniaquaeWWtkla.psae corpore passimI ipsius antepedesfluctus salis alludebant,Sen. Oed. 267, Neptunequifluctu brevi utrimquenostrogeminusalludissoUJ; Min. Fe!. 3.3, quod(scil. aequor)vicissim nuncodpulswnrwstris puiibusadludnet jfuctus,nunc relahens . . . in seseresorberet. It was Ovid who extended this use of allndere,referring to the sea, to toes coming into contact with the water; cf. Ov. Met. 4.342, (Hermaphroditus) in alludentibusundis summapedum. .. tingit, Stat. Theb. 9.336, extremis alluduntaequora plantis(scil. Europae); and Valerius F1accus even applied it to the action of the wind caressing the tops of the trees (cf. Val.-F1ac. 6.665, summa cacuminasilvae!.enibusalluditflabris levisauster)and Seneca to the fruit-laden branches repeatedly brushing against the open mouth of the statving Tantalus, only to escape his bite each time (cf. Sen. ~- 156-157, tremensI alluditpatulisarbor hiatibus);even the geographer Julius Solinus applied it to the licking of flames (cf. Sol. 5.24, epuJames adluiJflomma).There is therefore nothing unusual about this Lygdamean usage, since the examples show (cf. 1hlL l.1697.71-1699.9) that the verb alludereis applied to any noncontinuous, intermittent brushing or contact, like that of the hem of

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the pal/a against the heels. The reading illudereshould be ruled out, in spite of the unanimity of the mss. and eds., since this verb never means "to play with", but "to make fun of, to mock" and, if accepted here, would be a 'hapax legomenon' (OW illudo la; ThIL 7.1.390.9-13). The corruption of alludereinto iiludertcan easily be explained in palaeographical terms. palla: a rectangular cloak reaching down to the heels and used in Rome as an outdoor garment by married women (matronae); cf. Non. p. 537, palla est horustaemulierisvestimtntum,id est tunicopallium; Serv. Aen. 11.576, palla proprieest muliebrisvestisdeductausquead vestigi,a.It was expressly forbidden for moetri.cesand women convicted of adultery to wear ankle-length clothing (lrmgavestis);instead, they had to wear a short tunic or a toga, often coloured, as a sign of their disgrace (vestismoetricia);cf. R. Kreis-v. Schaewen, "Palla", RE 18.3 (1949) 153-154; Bomer 215-216 ad Ov. Fasti 4.134, longa vestis; 1hLl 10.1.119.43-69. In connection with a deity or mythological hero, a reference to the full-length paila emphasizes their divine and generally foreign origins; cf. Verg. Aen. 1.404, pedesvestis(scil. Veneris) defluxit ad imos;Tib. 1.7.46 (Osiris-Bacchus),fea sed ad teneros/ureapalla pedes (with Smith 336); Ov. Her. 21(20).164 (Hymenaeus); Fasti 2.107, (Arion) induerat. .. pallom (with Bomer 89); Met. 6. 705 (Boreas); Plin. Nat. 36.29, li.berumpatrempalla velatum;Val.-F1ac. 3.718 (Jason);Stat. Tub. 11.400 and 12.312 (Po{Ynices); ThJL 10.1.120.15-29. Other notable wearers of the palla, apart from Apollo, were Hennes (cf. Stat. Tub. 7.35) and especially Bacchus (cf. Ar. Ra. 46; Prop. 3.17 .32 sup.tit.; Stat. Ach. 1.262; Sen. Her.f 475; Oed. 425). Among mortals, as a male garment its use was restricted to non-Romans, especially Greeks, or to dramatic actors, particularly those specializing in tragedy, and to singers, poets, lyre-players and seers, as a special garment in the image and likeness of Apollo Citharoedus, their divine patron; cf. Ov. Am. 2.18.15; 3.1.12; Bomer 281 ad Ov. Met. 11.166; R. Kreis-v. Schaewen, "Palla", RE 18.3 (1949) 154--155;ThIL 10.1.119.4-15. Oulside the ci,-cle of gods, heroes and artists, a man's wearing the palla was taken as a sign of effeminacy; cf. Prop. 4.9.47; Stat. Ach. 2.5; ThIL 10.1.120.2931. The term pal/,ais predominantly poetic (cf. ThIL 10.1.119.36-38). 36: a mere filler, since the mention of palla in the previous line is sufficient to inform the reader that it is Apollo who is dressed in it. Moreover, the fact that Lygdamus can catch a glimpse of the splendour of Apollo's frame when attired in a long palla can only be understood if, as is pointed out by L. Lenaz (in La Penna 363), the pal/a

324

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is transparent, since it is of course a full-length garment that covers the whole body (c( Stat. Theb. 12.537, pecwra pal/awta/atenl).In this connection it should be noted that the most fashionable transparent garments at the time of Augustus and until the 2nd half of the 1st c. AD were made of fine silk from Cos; cf. Hor. Od.4.13.13, Coae. .. purpurae;Sat. 1.2.101-102, Cois tibi paene videreest I ut nudam; Prop. 1.2.2, tenuis Coa vestemnveresinus (= 4.5.56); 2.1.5; 4.2.23; 5.23; Tib. 2.3.53-54 (with Smith 425-426); 4.29-30; Ov. An 2.298; McKeown 114 ad Ov. Am. 1.5.13-14. For denunciation of the immorality of this piece of clothing, cf. Mart. 8.68.7-8; Sen. Ben. 7.9.5; Ep. 90.20; Sen. Contr.2.7 (p. 239 Kiessl.). Dattlque: "for indeed, for truly". A reinforced form of the explicative conjunction nam, used particularly before a vowel (also before a consonant among poets from Andron. Carm. 22 and Enn. Seen. 355). It serves to offer an explanation and nonnally comes at the beginning of its phrase, although from the neotericionwards, in imitation of the Hellenistic poets, it can occasionally occupy later positions (eg Catul. 64.384 (2nd}; 66.65 (5th]). Archaic and strictly classical authors generally make little use of this particle: Hor. 16 times (Od. 3; Epod.2; Sat. IO; Ep. I); Prop. 9 (1.3.37; 20.17; 2.21.12; 25.31; 3.13.17; 20.21; 4.1.57; 109; 7.3); Tib. 2 (5.3; 7.59); however, Virgil (60) uses it profusely in the Aeneid(some 37 times; Eel. 8; Ge. 15). Ovid (46) never uses namquein his youthful erotic works (apart from 5 times in Her.) but follows Virgil in his epic poems (Met. 22; Fasti.8); in his elegiac compositions in exile he is not as strict as in his earlier years (Tr. 6; Ponto 5). Cf. Norden, Aeneis VI, Anh. 111.3, p. 403; Marouzeau, L'Ordrefks Mots Ill 107; Axelson, UnpottischeWO'rter, pp. 47 n. 4, 122 nn. 10 and 12; Kiihner-Stegmann 11.2.119; HofmannSzantyr 507 (§ 275); Ernout-Thomas 451 (§ 432) and 453 (§ 435); Bassols II. 116 (§ 122) and 118 (§ 126). in nitido corpore: nitidusbasically means "brilliant, shining" (OLD nitidus I and 2), and in this sense it functions as a Latin equivalent to Phoebus,the epithet of Apollo from the Greek period onwards, particularly appropriate for this divinity after his late identification with the sun-god (cf. Lygd. 4.21 [comm.]). In its secondary meaning, and with reference to the body, it alludes to its attractiveness, "glowing with beauty, youth or sirn." (OLD nitidus3); cf. Tib. 2.5.7 (invocation to Phoebus), nitiduspukhtrqia veni. On the meaning of nitidus, cf. Ov. Ars 3.74, peril,in nitidoquifait ore,color;Stat. SUV.2.2.10, nitidae

iuv,ni/isgratiaPollo,-,3.1.87 (with Laguna 158); Apul. Flm. 3, corpus

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325

totumgratissimum,membranitida. NlllQ, nitor and nitidusfrequently appear together with albvsand candidvs (c( Hor. Od. 2.5.18; Ov. Medic. 52; Tr. 3.10.22) and are often applied to white objects (cf. Tib. 1.4.64; Hor. Od. 1.19.5; Ov. Ma. I.6l1Hi1 I; 2.3; [Verg.] Mw. 106); Tibullus in I. 7.8 uses nitidi of the white horses drawing the chariot of Messalla

triumphator. 37-38: the lyre of Apollo Citharoedus is "of gold" from Hes. Seut. 203 (cf. also Call. Ap. 32-33; Pi. P. 1.1-2, xpuoEalpOpµty~,'An:6A.A.COV~ tcai ion:A.OKO.µ,ram(with Bomer 20-21). It is a long-established convention dating from Homeric times that objects possessed by the gods should be made of gold; cf. Williams 39 ad Call. Ap. 32-35; Gray, "Metal Working in Homer", JHS 74 (1954) I ff.; E. R. Dodds, Euripui,s.Bacduu (Oxford 1960') 145 (ad E. Ba. 553); Bomer 269 ad Ov. Met. 5.189; for examples in Latin, cf. ThlL 2.1521.66 ff. As regards inlaying with tortoise-shell (teJtudo),cf. Prop. 4.6.32, testudiruae . .. !J,rae;[Tib.] 3.8.22, testudineaPhotbtruperbt!J,ra;Philostr. lun. Im. 1.10. This adornment based on tortoise-shell inlay appears to be modem. Previously, the shell of the tortoise is mentioned in connection with the actual construction of the lyre, not as an adornment but as the instrument's sound box; in fact, according to mythical tradition, Hennes, the first to make a lyre, did so with the shell of a tortoise (xH,ui;);cf. h. Mere. 33j Bomer 297 ad Ov. Fasti 5.104; and its use to this end is still attested in the Roman period (cf. Paus. 8.54. 7, n:apExttat 6E tO nap8Ev1ov x:al Ei; A'Upai;nolrioiv xEAwvm; im'tTJ6£to't0:'tai;;Ambr. lob 4.36, testudoenimdum vWiJlute mergi.tur; ubi mortuafamt, legmen eius aptaturin usum eanendiet pi& gratiamdi.rclipinae, ut Jtptemvocumdi.rcrimina munerismodu/,antibus ob!.oquatur). Hence, by synecdoche, tlJtudo-like the Greek xO..ui;; cf. h. Mere. 25; 153; A. Fr. 320; E. Ale. 449; HF 683; Liddell-Scott 1987 s.v. xO.ui; 2--sometimes denotes the lyre itself; cf. Verg. Gt. 4.464, (OrpheUJ) eavasolaru aegrumtestudineamorem(Serv. ad loc., 'eavatestudine'periphrasi.r citharae); Hor. Od. 1.32.13-14, o decusPhoebitt dapibu.srupremiI groia testudo Iovi.r(with Nisbet-Hubbard 365); 3.11.3, tlJtudortJonartJtptemeallida nervis;4.3. I 7- I8, o tlJtudini.raureae I dulcemquaestrepitum,Pieri, temp,ras; Poet.395; Prop. 2.34.79, doctat,studine;Val.-Flac. 1.277; Sil.

326

COMMENI'ARY

11.288. Pliny the Elder (.Nat.9.11) attributes the invention of such

tortoise-shellinlays to one Carbilius Pollio, who apparently livedjust before the civil war between Marius and Sulla (according to Plin . .Nat.33.11) and they were used principally for decoration, as he tells us, kctosqueet repositoria; c[ Varro Lat. 9.47, lectos,ali.osex eborealiosex testudine;Verg. Ge. 2.463, nee variosinhiantpulchratestudinepostis (with Mynors 163); Ov. Met. 2.737-738, eboreet t.estudine cultosI ... thalamos (with Bomer 412-413); Luc. Civ. 10.120-121; Veil. 2.56.2; Stat. Siw. 2.4.11, domusrutilatestudinefulgens; Homer. Lat. 316, thalamos... testudinecult.or,Juv. 11.94--95(with Mayor); 14.308; Apul. Met. 10.34; Javol. Dig. 32.100.4, lectostestudineos pedibusinargentatos; Marquardt-Mau, Privatkben(1886) 310. Apart from the testudo,other equally exotic components became part of the rich ornamentation of Apollo's lyre, since against the background of ever-increasing luxury in Imperial Rome, vulgar gold was no longer sufficient. Thus, Ovid attributes to Apollo a lyre made of plates of ivory and precious stones (cf. Met. 11.167, dirtinctamque faiem gemmis,et dentibusIndis). On the luxurious decoration of lyres in Antiquity, cf. Hor. Od. 2.11.22, ebuma. .. cum (yra (with Nisbet-Hubbard 177 on ivory ornamentation); Rhet. Her. 4.60, uti citharoedus . .. citharamtenensexoTTIJltissimam auroet eboredistinctam. The luxurious decoration of Apollo's lyre is simply another detail of the luxury and opulence which continually surrounded this young god from the time when Callimachus defined his image for ever in his hymn to the deity (Ap. 32 ff.), an opulence about which the satirist Marsias angrily complains in Apul. Ffm. 3 (p. 4.16 Helm), quod essetet comaintonsus, et genisgrahls,et corpore giabelius,et arte multiscius,et fortuna opulmtu.r.Quid, quodet vestistextu tenuis,lactu mollis,purpuraradians? Qy.id,qUMet (yra eiusaurofalgurat, eborecandicat,gemmisvariLgat? Although the Greeks generally attribute the invention of the lyre to the young Hennes (from h. Mere. 24-61), who was then to pass it on to Apollo (cf. McKeown 19 ad Ov. Am. I.I.I 1-12), Apollo himself sometimes takes the place of Hennes as inventor;cf. Call. Del. 253 (see W. H. Mineur [Leiden 1984] ad loc.,and K.J. McKay, Erysichton: A Ca/limoch=Comedy[Leiden I 962) 166--167);Pl. R. 399d--e; Diodoru, Siculus (5.75.3, cf. 3.59.5--6) seems to suggest that Hennes reinvented the lyre after Apollo had destroyed a similar invention of his own; Paus. 9.30.1; [Plut.J De mus. 14 (l 135f-I 136a). Sometimes, in fact, mortals appear as inventors or co-inventors of this instrument, such as Orpheus, Amphion, Cerambus (Ant. Lib. 22.3), and especially Terpander. On this question, see T. Hagg, "Hermes and the lnven-

LYGDAMVS IV

tion of the Lyre. An Unorthodox Version", ~b.

327 Ost. 64 (1989) 36-

73 (especiallyp. 62 n. 96). On the construction of the tortoise-shell lyre in Antiquity, see P. Phaklares, "XO.ui;", AD 32 (1977) 218-233; P. Courbin, "Les lyres d'Argos", BCH Suppl. 6 (1980) 93-114; H. Robberts, "Reconstructing the Greek Tortoise-Shell Lyre", WorldArchaeology 12 ( 1981) 303312; D. Paquette, L'lnstrwnent de musiquedans In cirami,que de la Grice antiqlU! (Paris 1984) 145-171; A. BClis, "Apropos de la construction de la lyre", BCH 109 (1985) 201-220. In addition, the formulation of this distich has forcefully attracted the attention of scholars in that it combines in the short space of two lines the prosaic, almost technical language of the formula pendebat laeva... partewith the learned and complex style represented by the placing of the apposition (artisopus rarae)before the noun it relates to (Jyra),as well as leaving a considerable distance between the two terms. Normally the phrase in apposition goes after the noun in question. The prolepsis and the studied hyperbaton-with the subordinate term opening the distich and the term it refers to closing it, that is, in the most prominent places-have the effect of adding emphasis; cf. Hofmann-Szantyr 409 (§ 2 I 5 E). 37 artis opus rarae: "an incomparable work of art", in apposition to !Jra (cf. Liv. 5.7.3, mlleas,tam longitemporisopus, incendiumhausit, where opusalso establishes a cause-effect relationship between the noun to which it is in apposition and its genitive, as "fruit, result of"). For arsin the sense of "artistic ability", cf. Verg. Aen. 1.639, arte laborataevestes;ThLL 2.672.51---673.9. It is also frequent for an adjective-like rarushere-to reinforce this meaning; cf. Cic. Verr.4.103, ebumeaeVtctoriat. .. summ.a arte Ptrfectae;Catul. 64.50, vestir. .. mira ... arte (= Verg. Aen. 9.309); Ov. Met. 13.289, caekstiadona (scil.Achillis llmUl), artis opustantae (with Bomer 273); Liv. 34.52.5, (vasa)uulata pkraqlU!,qUlltdamexim.iae artis (= Suet. Tib. 74); Val.Max. 4.3. 7, vasaargenteamagnopondtreet exquisita arle; Curt. 5.6.5, dolnbrispretiosae artis vasa caedebant, Plin. Nat. 34.37, (opera)tantae omniaartis; Val.-Flac. 5.6, caelataquemulta arte . .. ve/amina;Suet. Cal. 22, simulacranuminum... arte praeclara. However, the phrase raraars is only found in Lygdamus. For ramsin the sense of "incomparable, of uncommon quality or beauty", cf. Catul. 69.3, nonsi illam raraelabefactes munerevestis;Prop. 1.8.42, Cynthiararamta est/;OLDrarus6. For the combination, cf. Ov. Fasti 3.820, rarumpectin£den.set opus(scil. Pallas),where opusin itself has the pregnant meaning of artisopus

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COMMENTARY

(cf. ThlL 2.673.9-26); and particularly Ov. Met. 13.289 (sup.cit.).Foe the expression arlisopus,c[ Cic. Nat. 2.57, in aperihus nostrarum arlium; Liv. 25.40.2, indt prim.uminitiummirandiGrtucarumartium opera;in a different sense Ov. Ars 1.266, arlis (sc. amatoriae)opus; 2.14, Jwc erit artis opus;Fasti 1.268, mnvicallidusartis opus (ie dolum);6.662, .ftangeret artisopus;CLE 332 (Pompeii). Apart from Ovid, this phrase is not found in other Augustan or post-Augustan poets. 38 pendebat laeva ... parte: a prosaic expression, characteristic of technical language, as if he were describing a statue. Moreover,

pars is not a habitual term to refer to a person's side (the proper term being latus),or to indicate position with reference to a particular viewpoint (the normal phrase would be U1£Va manu);cf. as the closest parallel Curt. 6.5.27, vestisnon tota... corporiobducitur: nam laeva pars ... est nuda). pendebat: "hung", with the pregnant sense of "to be in disuse, silent, inactive", as in Hor. Od. 3.19.20, cur pendtt tacitafistula cum !J,ra?, this being, as it were, the "resting position" of musical instruments like the lute and lyre which, when not being used, "hang from the belt"; for this use of penderedenoting inactivity, cf. also Hor. Ep. 2.2.15, in sea/islmuitmetv£ns p,nJentishaheno,-, Tib. 2.5.29-30, pe,ui,bat. .. in arbore... I garrula... fistula; Ov. Met. 11.475, obvertitlateripendentes

navitaremos. laeva ... parte: a rather prosaic expression which can be taken as an ablative of separation or a locative, in view of the absence of the prepositions de, ex, in. garrula ... lyra: the description of musical instruments as "talkative" first appears in Hor. Od. 3.11.5, (testudo)nee loquaxolirnneque grata, then in Tib. 2.5.30, garrula... fistula (with Murgatroyd 187), and subsequently only in poetry; cf. Manil. 5.330-331, garrula... in modulos. .. 6bia;Mart. 14.54.2, ganulasistra;14.169.1, garrulus. .. anulus (= rattle consisting of rings); cf. also Serv. Aen. 7.14, 'argutopectine' arguto,stridulo;Thl.L 6.2 1699.31-36. The "loquacity" of the strings of the lyre had already been mentioned in Luer. 4.981-982, citkarae liquidumcarmenclwrdasque loquentis auribusaccipere (cf. also Bue. Eins. 1.23, temptareloquentiajila; Apul. Met. 5.15, iubetcitharamloqui:psallitur; tihiasagere: sonaiur'J. In fact, gamdusis simply an innovative poetic personification of the now-hackneyed terms, as applied to musical instruments, sonans,"issuing sounds" (cf. Prop. 2.30.16, locus... in quo,tibia docta,sones;Stat. Ach. l.575, sonant£... citharae;2.157, Apolli.mo... jila S(IMfltia p!tctro) or the more musical canorus, "i$Stiingmelodious sounds"

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(d. Verg. Aen. 6.120, citharafalibusque canoris;9.503, aerecanoro;Hor. Od. 1.12.1 l,falibus canons;Ov. Fash3.849, tubas... canoras). C( also the commentary on I. 69 cithara. . . sorwra.In the same innovative line as garrulusis argutus;c( Verg. Eel. 7.24, arguta... fistula; [Verg.) Cu. 178; Calp. 7.12; Sil. 7.439; 13.347; 17.18; ThIL 2.557.18-23. 39--42: the moment he appears, Apollo Citharoedus as usual intones a happy song accompanied by his lyre before speaking (U. 39-40); cf. Ov. Ars 2.493-497, subitomanifistusApollo I movit inaurataepollicefila {yrae;I . . .I . . .I is mihi... dixit, but once the musical performance is over 0, 41), the felicescantusbecome tri.stia verba,serious words bearing sad news. The adversative conjunction sed underlines this contrast, the brusque transition from festive to serious, from joyful to sorrowful. However, Apollo, protector of poets, sugars his sad news (dulci. .. modo):a messenger of ill omen, he does, however, express himself with the tact with which one gives bad news to a loved one (Lygdamus = cura deum). This pair of clistichs acts as a transition formula between the pre-cedingdetailed description and the following lengthy address of Apollo. The simple original scheme-primum felicescantus,deindeseriaverba-is artlessly complicated by Lygdamus when, carried away by his learned enthusiasm for a meticulous lK(l)pacn "I know", cf. Tib. 1.9.65, at tua (scil. uxor)perdulu:it {here, too, with negative emphasis); [Tib.] 3.7.17, hinc et col/a iugodidicit submit/eretaumr;Emout-Thomas 223 (§ 243); Hofmann-Szantyr 318 (§ 178 a). fallere . .. virum: for the phrase, cf. Ov. Ars 1.310, sive virum ma»i.s .fall.ere, falk viro;3.484, est vobisvestros .fallerecuraviros;Tr. 2.46 1462, docetqueI qua nuptaepossint.falkre ah atu viros. fallere: on the elegiac use of this verb to denote the action of betraying the fidts one has promised by committing adultery, cf. Pichon, pp. 141-142. . s1 qua: 1e quaecumque.

.

63-75: after the revelation of Neaera's betrayal, and the subsequent -curse on the perfidiamuliebris,come words of encouragement and practical advice aimed at winning her back. The adversative particle

364

COMMENTARY

sed underlines this change of direction. Observe the concentric ringlike structure of the passage: ll. 63-64: preces ll. 65---66:seroitium amoris ll. 67-72: myth of Apollo and Admetus U. 73-74: seroitiumamoris 11.75-76: preces

63: misogynous topos of the fickJeness and mercurial nature of women. One source of inspiration for the misogynous musings of the present passage is undoubtedly Mercury's famous words to Aeneas in Verg. Aen. 4.569-570, varium et mutabile semperfemina; cf. also AL 914.21 R, femina naturavariumet mutabik semper;Sen. Rem. 16.3, nihil est tarn mobik quamfeminarumvoluntaJ,nihil tam vagum;Calp. Sic. Eel. 3.10, mobiliorventisfemina; Capel. 5.485; cf. Otto, Sprichwiirter,p. 231 s.v. mulier2; 1hl.L 8.1715.52 ff. As for the subject of jkcti pot.erit,it is Neaera as representative of the crudtlegenus. Ironically, Phoebus advises Lygdamus to take advantage of the positive side of the 1TIDl.5 mutabilisof women. For the formulation of the 2nd half of the hexameter, cf. Ov. Met. 2.145-146, .si mutabikpectusest tibi, consiliis...

uttrenostris. sed ftecti poterit: in elegiac poetry flecttreis the action of breaking, with entreaty or threats (cf. Prop. 1.19.24, .flectiturassiduiscerta puella minis)or with gifts (cf. Prop. 1.8.39, fumeegonon auro,non lndis facttre conchis,I sed potui binndicarminisobsequW), the resistance of a scornful lover, who ends up giving in to the man; cf. Pichon, p. 150. Catul. 64.136-137 (words of Ariadne, abandoned in Naxos), nullnne respotuitcrudelis (scil. Tluseus) jkctere mentirI consilium?, is a more than likely inspiration behind the present passage of Lygdamus, as is shown by the linguistic echo potuitcrude/is .flecttre,the protagonism of 1TIDl.5(cf. mms impia, I. 59) and the words of Lygdamus himself, when he expressly admits to having read this poem of Catullus (cf. 6.39-42). In view of this, surely I. 63 answers to the line of Catullus, inasmuch as nothing was able to sway Theseus, a man, from his decision in favour of discidium,whereas insistent entreaty is in fact capable of changing the mind of the unpredictable Neaera, who is, after all, a woman? In addition, the ctx:£tA.mcrµ6~ against the perfidiJJ muliebrisof the previous distich is simply a counterpoint to the oxetA.moµ6~of Ariadne, abandoned in Naxos, against the perfidiaet mobilitasvirorum (cf. Catul. 64.143-148).

LYGDAMVS IV

365

mens mutabilis: for the expression, cf. Cic. Tusc. 4.76, haec inconstantia muto,bilitosque mmtis. The adjective mutnbilisis known from Cicero on, but its use 'de animo humano' is first found in Verg. Aen. 4.569--570 (sup.cit.);cf. also Ov. Her. 7.51 (DidoAeneae),tu qtroquecum ventirutinammutabilisesses/;Met. 2.145- l 46, .si mutabilepectus est tibi (with Bomer 279); Fasti4.601, sed siforu tibi non est mutabilepectus,Tr. 5.13.19. illis: ie mulimbus.Possessive dative. Some early editors (edd.Jmnceps mai. 1472, Aldinae 1502 et 1515, Muretus, Ach. Statius) read, with some mss., illi (= Neaerae),which is perfectly possible, but much less attractive than the asseveration concerning the female sex in general. 64: to make Neaera (or any woman) change her mind, it suffices to implore insistently. The stance recommended, that of stretching out the arms while beseeching, is the same one as mortals adopt when praying to the gods (cf. eg Call. Del. l 07, mixu;/ "making tender"). For the expression, cf. Ov. Am. 2.2.66, quid precibusnostrismolliusessepotest, and in particular Ov. Met. 3.376, mollesadhiberepreces(cited by F1etcher 49)i ruL 8.l376.58-60j cf. also the phrases b/,andatpreces(eg Hor. Poet.395; Ov. Her. 3.30; Ars 1.710; M,t. 10.642; [Albinov.J Lw. 424; Sen. HM. f 1014; Th1L 2.2039.1(}-I I) and mollia,erba (eg Hor. Epod.5.83-84; Ov. Am. 1.12.22; 3.6.14; Sen. Dial. 3.6.3; Nat. 2.49.3; Th1L 8.1376.54--58). pectora dura: for the phrase, cf. Ov. Met. 14.693; Llv. 10.31.l lj cf. also 'e contrario' Stat. Tlub. 5.166, pectoremnlli. The metaphoric use of pectorato refer to the mind or spirit of a person is frequent in the 'serrno poeticus' (cf. Verg. Aen. 8.151, sunt nobisfartiabell.opectora; in connection with amorous sentiment, cf. Lygd. 1.20; 4.84; for more 'loci' see Pichon, p. 229). For the elegiac sense of durus,see the commentary on Lygd. 2.3. 77-80: final words of the god in which, after appealing to the trustworthiness of his oracles, Phoebus requests that the poet should trans-

p,.,,,

LYGDAMVS lV

385

mit a prophetic message to Neaera from the deity, namely: Apollo prophesies that she will marry Lygdamus; she must therefore be content and feel fortunate to have such a man for her husband, and cease her search for another. 77: appeal to the trustworthiness of oracles, as a preparatory formula for the oracle which he is about to pronounce. The formulation is defective, since there is no express indication of the prophetic divinity--presumably TTU!Oor nostra--who will vouchsafe the oracles. On the reliability of oracles, c( Ov. Ponto3.1.131, non sempersacras redduntoraculasortis. quod si: "and if ... ", "but if ... ". The neuter accusative of the relative pronoun (quod) in relation to a conditional (or temporal, or causal) clause loses its relative force completely and becomes equivalent to a conjunction, being used as a mere linking particle. Sometimes, as in the present case, it carries a slight adversative force which imposes a change of direction on the current thought and introduces a new topic, in the manner of sed or at; c( Kiihner-Stegmann 11.2.320; Hofmann-Szantyr 571 (§ 308 g fi); Emout-Thomas 439 (§ 423); Bassols Il.254-255 (§ 245). Axelson (Unpoetisch,Worte,,pp. 47-48), refutes the traditional concept of this particle as prosaic and colloquial, since elevated poetry shows no aversion to quodsi:5 times in the Aeneid,8 in the Metamorphoses (c( Bomer 315 ad Ov. Met. 2.293; 287 ad 7.350), 8 in Lucan; c( also Williams, Trad. & Orig.,pp. 760 ("qtJJ)d si is always so used by Virgil in speeches: it ... produces a contrast which is accompanied by a change in the speaking voice") and 775. Although it is true that this particle is rare in certain poets, the same also occurs in prose, where quodsiis very much favoured by Cicero, but is attested only sporarucally in Sallust and Livy. As regards the elegiac genre, this introductory expression is fairly frequent in Propertius (no fewer than 21 times; eg 3.14.33; with tmesis in 2.1.17, quodmihi si; 2.15.37; c( E. Neumann, De cottidiani semwnisapudPropertwm proprietatibus, Diss. Konigsberg I 925, p. 48), and is also found in Tibullus (1.3.53; 2.6.7), Pseudo-Tibullus (3.7.20 I; } 1.11) and in Ovid the elegist (Rem. 245 quodnisi; Tr. 1.4.17; Ponto 1.7.41; 4.8.69). vera canunt: for canerein the sense of vaticinare,c( Cic. Catil. 3.18; Hor. Saa. 25, vosqueveracescecinisse, Parau;Verg. Aen. 8.49, haud incertacano;Tib. 1.7.1, huncctcinerediemParcae,Prop. 3.4.9, ominafausta cano;Ov. Her. 21.234, a Det,phis fata canentedeo;Met. 12.455, cecinisse fatura (the same phrase in Sen. Med. 656; Nat. 2.34.2; Cl.E 1141.16; Ennod. Di.et.2.5; CSEL6 p. 432.1); Lue. Civ. 1.566; 9.577; [Albinov.]

386

COMMENTARY

Liv. 247, sic cecineredeae (Parcae);Serv. Aen. 8.656, canehat: quasi praedivinahat, nam 'canere' et dicereet divinare signjficat, 1hLL 3.27I. I2 ff. The use of cano with the neuter accusative of an adjective referring to the degree of veracity of prophecies is petfectly classical, first in Hor. Sat. 2.5.58, ludis me obscuracanendo,and Verg. Am. 8.49, haud incertacano (cf. ThI.L 3.272.5~ 17); the phrase vera canerefrom Tib. 2.5.63, veracano(cf. Ov. Ars l.30; 3.790; Val-F1ac. 2.218; Sil. 10.47; Capit. Mocr. 3.1); for falsa can.ere,cf. Luc. Civ. 5.151; for vana canere, cf. Prop. 3.6.31; Stat. Tlub. 3.646; Dracont. Romul. 8.152. For the formulation, cf. also Lygd. 4.5 vera monent (comm.). 78: introductory formula for the prophetic message. illi: scil. J,leaerat. nostro nom.ine: "in my name, on my behalf". This expression is not poetic; cf. Suet. Tib. 6.1, cumpatris nomine... epistulasipsedictaret, Tac. Hist. l .S, nequedari donativumsub nomineGalhaepromissum. dicta: in contrast with the generic verha,dictatakes on the specific meaning of ''promise, word given"; on this point, cf. Catul. 64.148, (scil. vin) dicta nihil metuere,nihil periuriacurant(dearly corresponding chiastically to I. 146, nil m1tuuntiurare,nihil promillere parcun~;Verg.

Aen. 8.643, at tu dictis,Alhane,maneres;10.246, m1a si non irritadicta putaris;Ov. Fasti.6.55, dicta.ft.dessequitur;Tr. 3.3.62; CLE 250.14 (a. 156), mea dicta(ie vota)I resolvo;ThLL 5.1.993.1 ff. The tenn dictais sometimes also applied to the prophetic words or replies of the oracula Plwebi,inasmuch as they are considered promises of the god; cf. Verg. Aen. 2.114---115, suspensi EurypilumscilatumoraculaPhoebiI mittimus,isque a4Ytishaectristiadictareporlat, Sil. 9.62,fomabis nostroPlwebeae dictaSibyl/,ae (cf. 13.SOI); for dicta in connection with the vaticiniadeorumin general, cf. also Ov. Fasti5.626, taliafa.tuiu:i dictafaisse Iovis ' ... mittite'. The word is not found in Tibullus; in Catullus and Lucretius only in the plural (never dictum). refer: vox profmafor the action of "transmitting" words; cf. OW referoSa. 79-80: oraculumPlwebiwhich Lygdamus is to transmit word for word to Neaera.

79 hoe ... coniugium: tive, as in I. 80.

ie 'cum Lygdamo coniugium'; hoe is abla-

tibi: scil. Neaerae. promittit: "prophesies to you". On the consideration of the oracles of Apollo as promises of the god, see the commentaiy on I. 78 (dicta). For the use of the verb promittere in connection with the oracula Phoebi,

LYGDAMVS IV

387

cf. Hor. Od. 1.7.28-29, certusenimpramisitApolloI ambiguamtellurenova

Salamina faturam. Delius: scil. Phoebus.This epithet is given to Apollo-as that of Deli.ais to his sister Diana from Verg. &1. 7.29 (cf. loci in 1hll., Orwm. 3.90.8-16)-because of his having been born on the Aegean island of Delos; cf. Macr. Sat. 1.17.32; Maltby, I.ALE, p. 180; see comm. on I. 50 C)nthius.Although it is attested as an adjective from the end of the republican period (cf. Cic. Vm. 1.47, Apollinem ... Delium;Verg. Aen. 3.162, Delius... Apollo;6.12, Delius... vales [ie Phoebus]; Hor. Od. 3.4.64, Delius... Apollo),its substantivized use ("the Delian") is more recent, first found in Ovid (6 times: Met. 1.454; 5.329; 6.250; 11.174; 12.598; 13.650); c( also Lygd. 6.8 (comm.); Petr. Satyr.89. I. 4, Delioprefante;Val.-Flac. 1.446; Stat. Theb. 1.628; 7.750; A,h. 1.487; Arn. 4.22; 6.12; Optat.-Porph. Cann. 3.17; Se.-v. Am. 3.85; Claud. Pm,. 2.136; Aus. 305.4 Peip«, iubmriD,/in (= 146.166 Prete; t. Ip. 322.23 v Evelyn-White); 413.13 Peiper(= 269.13 Prete; t. II p. 90.18 v Evelyn-White); several times in Marcianus Capella and Sidonius Apollinaris; Fontenrose I 443; II 454; Thl.L Onom. 3.89.75-90.4 ipse: 'emphaticus' ("he himself and no other", "he in person"). Perhaps the idea is that the oracle is "sung" straight out of Apollo's own mouth, with no need for any Pythoness: 'sponte sua', with no consultant of any kind being previously required. 80 felix hoe: the textual problem involved in the manuscript tradition (felix ac alium)was solved by Muretus (felix hoe alium;likewise Scaliger ex F). However, the text as thus restored raises serious problems of interpretation deriving from the punctuation. Does !we depend on felix or alium? Muretus took it together with alium as an ablative of comparison depending on an adjective carrying an idea of differentiation (hoealium = alium quamhunc);for this undoubtedly -colloquial expression, cf. Varro Rust. 3.16.23; Cic. Ep. 11.2.2; Hor. Ep. 1.16.20, nevepuus aliumsapienubonoque beatum;2.1.240, aliusLysippo; Sat. 2.3.208, speciesalias veris;Phaedr. 3 pr. 41, quodsi accusator alius Seianoforet, frequent too in Sen. Ep. and Apul. Met.; cf. also Ki.ihnerStegmann 11.2.467; Hofmann-Szantyr 110-111 (§ 75 ,?,us.b); ErnoutThomas 174 (§ 202); Bassols 1.127. However, this use is neither elegiac nor classical. Modem editors, following Broukhusius, prefer to interpret the Mc as dependent on filix (felix hoe = felix hoe coniugio vel caniuge); cf. Ov. Ponto4.11.22, coniugio Jelix iampotesessenovo;Met. 6.681, coniugefilix; 9.333, (Andraemon) habeturconiuge (scil. Dryope)filix; 10.422,

388

COMMENTARY

o, dixit,.felUemconiugematrem;l I .266, jelix et nato,jelix et coniugePekus (with Bomer 308); 15.482, coniug,qui (sc. Numa).felix r,ympha ducibusque Camenis(with Bomer 382); for .felix with the ablative, cf. also Hor. Sat. 1.6.52-53, felicem dicerenon !we I mt possim, casu quod U sortitus amicum;ThU 6.445.15 (.felix + ablative of person). A third, very attractive possibility is to follow Muller and T escari in taking felix hoe with the hexameter in enjambement: "this marriage is promised to you by the Delian in person / as a happy one: forbear from loving another man"; the use of felix with reference to favourable oracles and prophecies upholds this hypothesis; however, the close parallelism between 11.60 (me gaudetcastanuptaNeaerad011W) and 80 makes it advisable to consider .feii.t(= gaudeaf)as referring to Neaera. The variant on this last proposal, ipse I ft/ix: eccealium(Baehrens), has found no favour whatsoever. alium ... virum: the rival; cf. Lygd. 58 altuius. .. viri (comm.). desine velle: for the expression, cf. Catul. 73.1; Verg. Ge. 4. 448, sed tu desinevelk; Ov. Am. 1.10.64; Sen. Ben. 6.21.4; Ep. 49.2; 61.1; 81.26; Sil. 11.348; also Lygd. 4.4, desinite ... quaerereveUe. The construction dtsine+ infinitive is (together with parce+ infinitive) one of the most widely used prohibition formulas in poetiy. It devel• oped from the model rwli+ infinitive, the expression more frequent1y used by prose•writers, and is representative of the general tendency of Latin•speakers to avoid the use of the imperative in prohibitions; cf. Kiihner•Stegmann 11.1.202; Hoffinann•Szantyr 337 (§ 186 III); E,nout-Thomas 232~233 (§ 251); Bassols 1.362~363 (§ 362). Foe othec expressions of prohibition in poetiy (with parce,fage, mitte),see the commentary on Lygd. 5.6, parce nocere. velle: the use of the verb voloin the sense of "to desire a person" is not frequent in literaiy Latin. Note, however, the sexual connota• tions in Ov. Am. 2.19(20).1-2, si tibi ruinopusest servata,stulte,pueUa,I aJ mihifac serves,quo magisipsevelim; 3.4.6; Ars 1.110; 3.586 (cf. Pichon, p. 288). Cf. also Lucil. 559, aurumvishominemne.~ Mart. 6.40.4, t,empora

quidfaciunt!hanc volo,te vofui. 81: transitional line. When Apollo finishes speaking, Lygdamus awak• ens. There is a similar sequence in Ov. Met. 15.663-664, ext,emplo cum vocedeus,cum vocedeoqueI somnusahit. /dixit et: a frequent formula in epic to mark the end of a god's speech (dixi~, followed by his rapid and unexpected disappearance (the copulative et underlines the swift transition between the two consecutive actions); for its position at the beginning of a line, cf.

389

LYGDAMVS IV

Bomer 228 ad Ov. Met. 1.762; cf. eg Ov. Met. 11.783. In addition, the use of dixi, is frequent in comedy to stress the end of an intervention (cf. Pl. Aul. 682; Ter. Hee. 612; Don. ad Ter. Phorm.437, 'dixi' solentdictreperact,acausa)and it would seem that orators used to deliver a dixi to bring their speeches to a dramatic conclusion (Gr. £lP11tm;cf. Arist. Rh. III cap. 19 extr.); cf. Cic. Vm. 1.56 (Schol. p. 152 0 • (::: Lejay 50). Lyne (287-288 ad [Verg.] Cir. 455, sit satis hoe, tantum soUlmvidissemalorum)adds Ter. Ad. 867, duxi uxorem:quamibi miseriamvidi; Verg. Ge. 2.68, casu.sabies vimra marinos;[Verg.] Cir. 247-248, indignalaborumI milia visuram. 83--84: incredulity of Lygdamus (nee crediderim) with regard to the revelation of Neaera's perfidy. In the hexameter an infinitive esseshould be understood, forming a possessive dative construction with tihi. Votis contrariavota, formally moulded on Verg. Aen. 1.239,fatis contrariafata (cf. also Ov. Met. 14.301, verbadicunturdictis contrariaverbis),refers back to I. 59: the inclinations of Neaera run in a contrary direction to those of the poet. Fedeli Prop.I 158 sees an allusion here on the part of Lygdamus to Prop. 1.5.9, quodsi (pueUa) fortetuis nonestcontrariavotis/. 83 crediderim: potential subjunctive with present meaning. The perfect subjunctive as potential seems to have been quite rare in archaic Latin. Cicero extended its use slightly, using more persons: the Ist person plural and the 2nd singular appear for the first time in this author. Then its use spreads, perhaps under the influence of the Greek aorist (cf. Barratt 201 ad Luc. Civ. 5.610). It was always rare with deponents and passives. See Kuhner-Stegmann I, pp. 176 ff. In the opinion of Axelson ("Lygd. & Ovid", pp. 104-105) this crediderim is an echo of the passage of Ovid which served as inspiration to Lygdamus for 11.83-91: Fasti4.7.11-20, where Ovid says that he would sooner believe (credam,I. 11) in the existence ofmythoJogical monsters (adynata)than think that his friend, who has not written, has forgotten him. Lygdamus has transformed the Ovidian incredulity topos into one of insensitivity. The presence of the Chimaera, Scylla and Cerberus in the catalogue of mythological monsters of both authors seems to lend weight to this hypothesis, pace Buchner ("Lygdamus", p. 504), who derives the Lygdamean catalogue directly from Catul. 64.154-156, a possible influence which, moreover, is not

ruled out by Axe~on (p. 105); cf. comm. on ll. 85-94.

LYGDAMVS

rv

391

For the construction crediderim+ accusative + infinitive, cf. Verg. Ge. 2.338; Hor. Od. 2. I 3.5; Prop. 1.1.23; Ov. Ars 3.178, crediderim nymphashac egovesf.et.egi;Met. 15.259-260 (with Bomer 324); from Liv. l.55.8, also frequent in prose; 1hlL 4.1147.37 ff. votis ... vota: polyptoton; cf. Lausberg, Retoricaliteraria,pp. 118124 (§§ 640-648). Votumin the sense of cupiJitasamatoria("amorous desire") is a very common tenn in erotic poetry (cf. Pichon, p. 300). 84 crimen: legal term often applied in elegy to acts of adultery or betrayal; cf. Pichon, p. 116. pectore inesse tuo: the fairly infrequent use of iTU!sse with an ablative and no preposition can also be found in two very similar passages of Lucretius: 1.590, m{J£U/asgeneralircarpore inesse-, 3.634----635, toto sentimuscorpareiTU!sse I vita/em.rensum(both cited by Fletcher 49). Broukhusius, for his part, solved the problem by adopting the dative fonn pectoriof some mss.; this also preserves the parallelism with the tihi of the previous hexameter; cf. also Sen. Dial. 3.5.3, pectoriineese. For iTU!sse + (in) animoor similar, cf. ThU 7.1.2047.50 ff. !TU!sse is not a word belonging to elevated language: once in Verg.; Hor. 3 times (only Sat.);Tib. once (1.6.34); Prop. once; Ov. 43: Met. 3 (7.678 [with Borne, 369]; 9.688; 10.616); Fa,ti 13; elsewhere 27; Lygd. 2 (4.84; 6.49). pectore: "mind, spirit". See the commentary on I. 76.

85-94: a long period-5

complete distichs introduced by the particle nam--in which Lygdamus tries to argue the reasons for his incredulity concerning the news of Neaera's treachery: her illustrious birth and the amiable nature of her parents make such a cruel and insensitive act as treachery quite unimaginable in their daughter. However, as was made clear by Race (Classical Priamel,p. 133 n. 37), the form of expression chosen by the poet to underline his trust in Neaera is the priamel: as counterpoint to the good background and pleasant disposition of Neaera's parents, Lygdamus previously develops, in six different items, the well-known topos of "insensitivity", but in negated form. The topos of 'insensitivity', in its variant that consists in highlighting the "harshness" of an individual through the device of symbolically attributing to him non-human forebears (geographical accidents, wild beasts, mythological monsters), ultimately goes back to Hom. ll. 16.33-35, where Patroclus reproaches the spiteful Achilles for being insensitive to the pleas of the Greeks in a terrible predicament, and calls him "son" of the raging sea or steep rocks:

392

COMMENTARY

VJ1A.££i;, oUiccipu aoi \JE1tafflpi,v i.mt6ta Ilrt~,

o'UOE en~JJ.TlTI'IP" 7Aal.lrl} 6i O"t: tiK1t: 8w.aaaa ithpm t' ~)..ij»tot, &n tot v6o,; fotlv Cl1n1v~i;.

Cf. also Hom. Od. 19.163, OUy«pcbtOOpu6,;£ao-truxAO.tq,6:tou oUOe0.001t£tpTJ,;.For the commonplace "born from stone", cf. Otto, Sprichworter, p. 322 s.v. sikx 2 (1647). After Homer, this variant on the topos is only found in classical Greek literature in the Bacchae of Euripides. There the chorus of Maenads respond to the question of who fathered Pentheus (ll. 988-991):

ttet; Nisbet-Hubbard Od. I 317 also cite Anaxilas, Schol. Town. ad Ii. 6.181, o'i6E no:v6oicei.i; elvo:t ).tyoua1 ico:l.~p6.icovto: ico:A.OuµEVoc;, µEm-iv6£ o:tltOOv no:v&ic:eutplo:v X{µo:1po:v, ~ w'lli;no:p16vto:i; ~ve µU..,.,60vKo:l. toi.i;&U.01i;no:pe"ixe no:po:u0EVm;Athen. 583 e; and a significant passage in which a Christian author who has read Horace uses the allegory to warn a young man against marriage, viz. Valer. ad R'!fin. 2 (= 30.255 Migne), ChimaeramnescisessemiserqtUJd petis, et sciredebesqtUJdtriformemonstmm illud insignisuenustetur facie leonis,olentis maculetur uentrecapri,anguisinsidUturcaudauirulentae. For the representation of these monsters in the plastic arts, see the references in Austin 122 ad Vecg. Am. 6.288.

87-88: note the expressive build-up of the letter 'r', litteracanina,at the end of the hexameter (redimitustergacaterva),and of the 's' at the beginning of the pentameter in imitation of the hissing of the serpent (tressunrj,which was habitual in the Roman poets when referring to Cerberus, the watchdog at the gates of Hell, traditionally pictured as bristling with serpents (double onomatopoeia); cf. M.-P. Pieri, "Due immagini tibulliane", SIFC 45 (1973) 81 and 86. 87: the image of the back of Cerberus bristling with snakes goes back in Greek literature to E. HF 611 (and to the scholia on Hes. 7h. 311), and in Roman to Enn. Seen.415 (= 404 R. 2), angut uilWsi canis(= Sen. Apocol.13; Schol. Hor. Od. 3.11.18); cf. also Pl. R. 9.588 C; Apollod. 2.5.12, Ko:ti:t6Eto\l v(t)touno:vtofo:ivelxev O(j)e(l)v ic£q10:Mii;. Another tradition, however, places the serpents on the dog's head,

LYGDAMVS IV

399

like Tisiphone and the Furies; cf. Hor. Od. 3.11.17-18,foria/e centumI muniantangutscaputtius (scil. Ctrbm); Verg. Aen.6.419, cuivattshorrere uidensiamcollacolubris; Tib. 1.3.71-72, tum nigerin porta serpentum Cerberus ore I strider,cf. M.-P. Pieri, art. cit., p. 86. & regards the text, there is unanimous agreement that the traditional reading consanguWa is an error of transmission (only Broukhusius, Vulpius and Heyne maintain it; cf. Stat. Thtb. 2.61) and that the disfigured text must therefore be altered to canis and an adjective derived from anguis.The only argument is centered on whether to write anguineaor anguina.In support of anguina(Postgate, followed by Luck and Lee) is Catul. 64.193-194, EummiJes,quihusanguinoredimitacapilloI .frons;in favour of anguWais the fact that the mss. have consanguinea. The problem is not an easy one, since the confusion between the two adjectives also occurs in the mss. with respect to other passages (cf. Prop. 4.8.10, anguino[anguineo] ... ore;Ov. Tr. 4.7.12, oraMedustu Gorgonis anguinis [anguinei.r] cinctafoisse comis).However, anguinahas in its favour the combination with redimitusin the passage of Catullus quoted above, as well as the fact that anguineus is a much rarer adjective (only unequivocally attested in Homer. Lat. 891, anguineisClotlw lnchesisque capillis;Col. Rust. 2.9.10; 7.10.5). canis: KEpp€poi;,the dog of Hades, first named in Hes. Th. 311 (Homer mentions the dog of the underworld in /[. 8.368 and Od. 11.623---625,but without naming it), one of the monsters that guarded the kingdom of the dead, stopped the living from entering and, above all, prevented anyone from leaving (Hes. 7h. 771-773). The most frequent image of this monster was the following: three dog's heads, a tail formed by a snake, and on the back numerous erect setpent heads in place of hair (E. HF 611). Other versions attribute it with not three (belua 'iceps) but fifty heads (Hes. Th. 312, 1t€VTl1'COV-iaJCE!p«A.Ov), or even a hundred (Pi. Frg. incert.162; Hor. Od. 2.13.34, beluacenticeps), all of them furnished with sharp teeth (JCaPX,ap66ovta is the term used in B. Epin. 5.60). In some Roman poets (cf. Verg. Aen. 6.419; Hor. Od. 3.11.17-18; Tib. 1.3.71) it is these heads, not the back of Cerberus, that are bristling with snakes, undoubtedly contaminating the model of the dea anguicrinitacorresponding to Tisiphone and the Furies. Like most mythological monsters, it was the progeny of Typhon and Echidna (Hes. 7h. 311). It was chained to the gates of Hell and terrorized the souls as they entered. Hercules, with the permission of Hades, and after a fierce unarmed struggle, overpowered it and dragged it out to the upper world, as

4-00

COMMENTARY

the eleventh labour imposed by Eurystheus (Hom. It. 8.366 ff.; Od.

11.623; Frazer ad Apollod. 2.5.12; a burlesque version in Ar. Ra. 465 ff.). From the foam that fell to the ground from the mouth of the rabid Cerberus when brought up to the outer world came aconite (cf Ov. Met. 7.408-419 [with Bomer 302-303]). later, Cerberus was chained by Orpheus. For a description of Cerberus, important sources among the Greek authors are Hom. Il. 8.368; Od. 11.623-625; Hes. 1h. 310-312; 767-773; B. Epin. 5.6o-62; S. OC 1568-1578; T,. 10981099; E. H"acl. 21-25; Apollod. 2.5.12; Luc. Cat. 28; N,c. 14; D.S. 4.25-26; among Latin authors, Hor. Od.2.13.33-36; 3.l l.15-20; Verg. Ge. 4.483; Aen. 6.417-423 (with Norden 242-244; Austin 151) and Serv. ad loc.; [Verg.] Cul. 220--221, Cerberus et dirislatrantuJ. rictibusora, I anguihushincatquehinchorrentcui col/,areflexis; Tib. 1.3.71 (with Smith 257-258; Murgatrnyd 122); Ov. Am. 3.12.26; M,t. 4.450-451; 7.4-08415; 10.21-22 (with Bomer 21); SU. 13.594; Sen. Ag. 13-14; Htr.j 783-821; Stat. Theb.4.486-487; other lociin Frazer ad Apollod. 2.5.12; cf. also Grimal, Mitologia,p. 97 s.v. 'Cerbero' and pp. 247-248 s.v. 'Heracles'; Ruiz de Elvira, Mitologiaclasica,pp. 47, 238-239, 385; 'D,,LL 3.257.12-31; for artistic depictions, cf. bib!. in OCD 223 s.v. Cerberus. There are references to a dog of the undeiworld not only in Greek and Latin literature, but also in Indian, Celtic, Germanic, Armenian and Iranian texts, from which it can be deduced that this is a mythoJogical monster belonging to the common proto-Indoeuropean heritage; on this question, as well as the etymology of Cerberus,see M. Bloomfield, Cerberus, theDogof Hades,Chicago: Open Court, 1905; B. Lincoln, "The Hellhound", ]JES 7 (1979) 273-285 (with bib!. in p. 273 n. I). Cerberus as a symbol of insensitivity is a Lygdamean innovation. anguina .. , caterva: the use of catervato refer to a countless mass of animals is rare and restricted to elevated poetry (cf. Luer. 6.1092, pecudwnque catervi.s; Verg. Aen. 11.456, caterva£ ... avium[= Stat. 1heb. 9.27]; Stat. 1heb. 3.532, cateroa[aquilarum]; Ach. 1.557, ea/ma, [scil. apwn]),at least until Apuleius (cf. Met. 4.20, Thrasykonem nostrnm catervi.scanumsaeuitiumcinctum);cf. also Aus. Mos. 84, caerukojluitantes amnecatervas(pisces);Eust. 8.7 p. 953', cateroae vulturum;ThIL 3.609.4657. In addition, the combination of catervawith an adjective (anguina) instead of the usual genitive is extremely elevated in tone. terga caterva: a studied homoeoteleuton reinforcing the effect aimed at in the expressive repetition of the liUeracanina (r). On homoeoteleuton, cf. Lygd. 4.52 btlla pueUa(comm.).

LYGDAMVS IV

401

terga: poetic plural. The use of the plural where prose would employ the singular became increasingly frequent in poetry, so much so that the term 'poetic plural' is generally used to define such cases. In dactylic lines, the nominative and accusative plural of neuter nouns in place of the corresponding singulars is found quite frequent1y, no doubt metri causa.Among the most widely-used are those denoting parts of the body, such as col/a,terga,pectora,corda,ora(cf. Lygd. 5.14; 25). The origin of this poetic use may lie in a certain analogy with some 'pluralia tantum' like nares,fauces.On this question, see Lofstedt, ~ntacticaI, pp. 27 ff.; Marouzeau, Srylistique,pp. 222-223; KiihnerStegmann I, pp. 82 ff.; Norden Aen. VI, Anh. V, pp. 408-409; Hofmann-S,antyr § 26, pp. 16 ff.; P. Maas, ALL 12, pp. 479 ff.; Draeger, Histmische~ntax I, pp. 9 ff.; J. Flagg Gummere, The Neuter Pluralin Vergil,Supplement to Language, Journalof The linguisticSockty efAmema 17 (1934); Williams 63~5 ad Verg. Aen. 5.98; Austin 136 .ad Verg. Aen. 4.455; 193 ad 4.673; Barratt 7-8 ad Luc. Civ. 5.15. 88: possessive dative construction. The formulation recalls the familiar phrase tergeminus canis(cf. Prop. 4.7.52; Ov. Ars 3.322; Tr. 4.7.16); the variant trifannis... canisin Sen. Her. 0. 1202; Avien. Orb.961; cf. Stat. Theb.2.53 (with Mulder 53 ad Stat. Theb.2.31, ni deus. .. tergemirro domuissel.umina[scil. Cerbm]somno);cf. also Stat. Silv. 3.3.27, tergeminus custos.For the three heads, the three tongues and the triple bark of Cerberus, cf. also Cic. T use. 1.10, triceps. . . Cerberus; Poem.frg. 41, tricipitnn. .. canem(= Hyg. Fab. 79.3); Hor. Od. 2.19.31-32, lrilinguiI ore(with Nisbet-Hubbard 331); 3.11.20, oretrilin.gui; Verg. Aen. 6.417, latratu... trifauci;Prop. 3.18.23, canis... tria... latrantiacolla(= Ov. Met. 10.66--67, tria... I col/acanis);Ov. Am. 3.12.26, triavipereo.fecimus oracani;Her. 9.38, esurosternaper oraca1U!s; Met. 4.450--451, triaCerberus extulitoraI et treslatratussmut edidit,7.414, impletntpariter temislatratibus auras(with Bomer 304); 10.22, tema... guttura;Sen. Ag. 14, trigemina .. . col/a(with Tarrant 167); Her.j 785, tema... capit,a;796, perora.. . terna;Sil. 2.551; Jonna... trifauci;Stat. Theb. 7.783, tergeminosque mali cuswdishiatus;Fronto p. 228.26 ff. N., ei ... canitrinaslatrandifaucesac trinoshUltustrinasquedentwm fannidiMs addidisse.On the commonplace, see Eitrem, RE 11.271 ff.; H. Usener, RhM 58 (1903) 168 ff.; Frazer ad Apollod. 2.5.12; West 253 ad Hes. Th. 311-312; Norden 242-244 ad Verg. Aen. 6.417-425; hnmisch in Roscher II. I 1119 ff. The nwnber of heads of Cerberus, though usually three, can vary--as with other many-headed monsters-for poetic reasons; in the plastic arts, however, for practical reasons, their number is generally restricted to three;

402

COMMENfARY

see comm. on L 87 canis-, West 253 od Hes. 7h. 312; Frazer ad Apollod. 2.5.12; Usener, RhM 58 (1903) 169-170; H. Thiry, "La polycephalie de C«bere (ea 540----400)",µ.a1(\)A.iv6no(with Kost 520). Anadiplosis ('reduplicatio'), a special variety of epanalepsis ('geminatio'), consists in the repetition of the last member of a syntactic or metrical group at the beginning of the syntactic or metrical group immediately following (/ ... x/x ... /). The aim of the picking up of the final sound of the first group is to intensify the expression or to complete the epexegesis. Examples in Virgil are Eel. 6.20, addit se sociamtimidisquesupervenit Aegle,I Aegle,NaiaJumpulcherrima;I0. 72, vos

haecfacietismaximaGallo,I Gallocuius amortantummihi crescitin horas; Ovidian examples are Am. 2.14.38-39, ipsaperit;I ipsapent, 3.10.1920, Crettseru.ntttstts; nee.figuntomnia CretesI Grettnutritoterrasuperba love; Her. 15.154--155, ales ltfn. I Ales ltyn; Fasti 6.419-420, moenia Dardanuksnu.pernova.feceratllius; I Illus aJhucAsiaediveshabebatoper,Tr. 4.8.24-25, tempuserat.I Tempuserat,5.8.34--35, posseputa: I posseputa. On this rhetorical figure, cf. La usberg, Reuiricaliteraria,pp. 102-104 (§§ 619--622); on epanalepsis in the elegiac poets, see Platnauer, Latin ElegincVerse,pp. 33-35. On paronomasia ('annominatio'), cf. Lansberg, Rewricaliwaria,pp. 114--118 (§§ 637-639).

2: the summer season is not the best time to frequent the thermal baths. sub aestivum ... Can em.: "during the dog days". The temporal sense of sub + accusative ("around", "about") originates in the classical period, from Caes. Gall. 7.61.3, sub lucem;Civ. 1.28.3, sub noctem; cf. Kiihner-Stegmann 11.1.571; Hofmann-Szantyr 280 (§ 157 b); Ernout-Thomas 34 (§ 45); Bassols 1.260-261 (§ 270). For the combination tustivum... Ganem(Gr. cirov 01troptv~ in AP 10.12.7; 16.227.7), cf. Tib. 1.1.27, Ganistustivosortus vitaresub umbra;4.6, tustivi tempora siccaGanis!;cf. also Verg. Gt. 2.353, Ganistustifer. non adeunda: "which must not be visited, impossible to visit". The same phrase in the same place in the pentameter can be found in Tib. 1.6.22, sacraBonae maribusnon adeundaDeae,and in Ovid's Tristia; cf. Ov. Tr. 1.8.18, urbe(scil. Rama),mLO qUtuiam rumadeunda pede est, and especially Ov. Tr. 3.10. 76, heu WCO. (scil. Srythia).felicinon

tuieunda virol

LYGDAMVS V

417

Canem: ie the star Sirius(Gr . .Uiptoi;) or the whole constellation of the Dog (CanisMaieror Canitula), in which Sirius is the brightest star, and which rises at the end of July, coinciding with the hottest time of the year; c( Cic. Dw. 2.93, post solrtitiumCaniculaexorilur;Plin. Nat. 2.128, ardentissimo autemaestatistemporeexoriturCaniculaesidus sole primamparteml.umis ingredimte,qui dies XV. ante Aug. Kakndasest. Although the date on which it rises is July 19th, in practice the poets. do not concern themselves with such technical details, and tend to refer to Sirius as an elegant metonym to describe the scorching heat of July-August, the dog days. The intense heat of the dog-star and its dire consequences for mortals-------drought, fever, plagues-is a recurring literary motif; cf. Hom. Ii. 22.26-31; Archil. 63 DiehP; Verg. Ge. 2.353, hiuka siti find.it Ganis aestiferaroa;4.425-426; Aen. 3.141; 10.273-275, Sirius ardorI ille sitim morhosque ferens mortalihusaegrisI nasciluret laevoconstritatlumineaulo; Hor. Od. 1.17.I 7; 3. I 3.9-1 O; Sat. 1.7.25-26; 2.5.39; Tib. 1.1.27 (with Smith 191; Murgatroyd 54-55); 4.6 and 42; 7.21, arentescumfindit Siriusagros;Prop. 2.28A.3-4, venit enimtempus,quo torridusaestuataer I incipitet siccoferoeret.erraCane;Ov. Am. 2.16.3-4; Ars 2.231; Fasti 4.939-940; Sil. 16.99-100, cum Utiferos accendens Sirius ig,us I torretanhelantemsaevisardoribusorbem;Stat. Silv. 3.1.52-54, tempuseratcaelicum torrentissimus axis I incumhitterrisictu.rque Hyperionemulto I aceranhelant,es incenditSiriusogros(with Laguna 220221); c( also Plin. Nat. 2.107; 123; 128 (mp. cit.); 3.117; 12.58; 31.51; Cens. 18.10 p. 38.26; Isid. Orig.3.70.14; Gundel, "Sirius", RE 3 A 1(1927) 342-343; A. Le Boeuffie, Astronomie, Astrologie.Uxique Latin, Paris: Picard 1987, pp. 80-82 s.v. Canicula(§ 217); Thll, 3.250.64 ff.; 257.44 ff. 3: the traditional maxima cannot be defended. The conjecture by Scioppius (Schoppes)proxima(Paradoxae li,teraritu 16 ff.) is the most widely accepted. Confusion of maximalproximais well attested in the transmission of other authors (cf. Luc. CW. 10.408; Yell. 2.127.1; Just. 14.4.12). For the use of proximusto indicate the second level within a classification(= secundus),cf. Verg. Eel. 7.22, proximaPhoebiversibus ilkfacit, Ov. Met. 12.398, pectoraque artificumlaudatisproximaS'ignis.The Etruscan thermal baths would accordingly be the second best in Italy after Baiae, which was preferred by all, as is attested by Strabo (loc. cit. comm. on I. I). Principes ... Baiaeis the name given to it by Martial (6.42.7). Fedeli Prop. I 316 and 460 suggests another possible meaning of proxima;according to him, proximusis used here, as in Prop. 1.13.29 aod 20.6 (with Shackleton Bailey P,op.41); Calp. Sic.

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COMMENTARY

6.9---10; Quint. Deel. 3.4; Samm. 758, to denote similarity with no

idea of inferiority ("alike in all respects", "of the same worth"). Other editors, for their part, offer the most varied and outlandish conjectures: nunc aequanssacrisBaiarum munia {ymphir(Vossius); nunc

augenssacrisBaiarummunera(ymphis(Huschke); nuncantesacrasBaiarum maxima lymphas (Bach); aemula nunc sacris Baiarum maxima {ymphis (Cartault). autem: this adversative particle as a general rule occupies the second position in its clause, like the Gr. 6£, to which it corresponds. It is normally avoided in poetry, given its colloquial tone (cf. Hofmann, Lati.nfamiliar,pp. 5---6{§ 3], 46 [§ 42]). The present case, in fact, is the only testimony of the particle in the whole of the Corp.'lib.: Luu. O; Catul. 4 (eg 64.167; 66.70); Hor. 3 (Poet.53; Ep. 2.1.199 [with Brink 227-228]; 260); Tib. O; P,op. I (2.32.29); Ve.-g. 35 (Ed. O; G,. 7; Am. 28); Ov. 7 (Am. 2.2.28; He,. 3.145; Met. 6.284 [with Bomer 86]; 9.143; 495; 10.345; 14.489); cf. Kiihner-Stegmann Il.2.88; Hofmann-Szantyr 489-491 (§ 262); Ernout-Thomas 449 (§ 430 b); Bassols 11.107-108 (§ 110). Nevertheless, in certain poets (in Virgilian epic, for instance) autemappears frequently enough to question the cataloguing of this particle as "non-poetic", although it is true that its appearance occurs in very specific conditions: in conjunction with another particle or pronoun (eg ecceau.tern, ille autem;cur autem);cf. Axelson, UnpoetiscluWorter,pp. 85-86; ThJ.L 2.1576.76 ff. sacris .•. lymphis: cf. Mart. 4.57.7-8 sup. cit. and iefra l. 29, numina lympluu.Each spring or stream was considered to have its own nymph or naiad. The names of naiads of famous springs were also well known, and each had her own legend. The naiads were frequently believed to possess curing powers: the sick would drink water from the streams consecrated to them, or, though more rarely, would bathe in them (cf. Grimal 372-373 s.v.). On the 'sanctity' of rivers, streams and springs, see Waser, RE 6.2 (1909) 2776-2780 s.v. •F1ussgoetter'; E. Goldmann, "Di Novensides and Di lndigetts",CQ 36 (1942) pp. 49-50 n. 9 (bibliography); on the different groups of nymphs, cf. Ruiz de Elvira, Mitologio, cltisica,pp. 94-95. The poetic use of the tenn lympluu(= aquae)is propitiated by the sacred character of water; cf. Luer. 6.1178; Verg. Aen. 1.701; Hor. Epod. 16.48; Od. 2.3.12; Ov. Met. 2.459; 3.174; 3.451 (with Borne, 560); 4.298 i.a. In addition, in Latin popular mythology the name Lympluuwas applied to the deities of springs, who were subsequently identified with the Greek nymphs (cf. Grima!, Mirowgia, p. 325 s.v.).

LYGDAMVS V

419

In fact, according to Fordyce (307 ad Catul. 64.254), rym/Jha, originally lumpa,an Italic word for 'water', owes its written form to an etymological error that connected it with V\lµq>11; Varro, on the other hand, derives lymphadirectly, through dissimilation, from vUµq>11 (Varro Lat. 7.87), as do Paul. Fest. 120 and Prise. Gramm.2.36.22; 3.407.2; Walde-Hofmann, LEW 1.833 s.v. lumpa;Maltby, ULE, p. 355 s.v. lympha;OW lympha2; 7hIL 7.2.1942.21 ss. Baiarum: Baiae(present-day Baia) was one of the most renowned summer resorts in Antiquity and its baths were a centre of the Roman 'dolce vita'. Its reputation as a place of perdition and moral ruin, suitable for love affairs and erotic pleasure, dates back to the republican period (first in Varro Men. 44 Bilcheler, Baiae:quod non so/um innubae.fiunt communis,sed eti.amveteresrepuerascunt et multi puni puellascunt),was reinforced in the time of Augustus (cf. Prop. 1.11 passim [with Enk 99-100; Fedeli 268]; Ov. Ars 1.255-256 [with Hollis 87]), and is solidly attested in the 1st c. AD (cf. eg Sen. Ep. 51.l ff.; Mart. 1.59.l and 62.5 [with notes by Howell 245-248 and 254257]; 11.80, especially I. l, litus healat VentriraureumBaias[with Kay 236]). The attraction of Baiae lay not only in its beaches but also the coastal lakes near the resort (like the Lucrine lake and lake Avemus; cf. Howell 254-255 ad Mart. 1.62.3) as well as its hot springs; c( Prop. 3.18.2,famula Bauuumstagm,(with Fedeli 547); Ov. Ars 1.255256, quid referamBaiaspraetextaque litoraBais I et quaede calidnsulphure .fama~ aquam?;Met. 15.713, calidifontes;Stat. Sif.v.3.2.17-18, Baianosque sinus etfeta tepmtibusundis I litora;5.96, vaporiferas . .. Baias (with Laguna 387); 4.3.25--26, aestwmtis .. .I 1/mas(withColeman llO); 5.3.16917I j Flor. Epit. 1.16.4, tepmUsfantibusBaiae1 Lutrinuset Avemus1 quaedam marisotia;Fronto, Ad M. Caes.et invicem1.3.5 (p. 4.5-8 Van den Hout), Baiarumegocalidnsspecusmalo quam istasfamaculashalruarum,in quihus ignis cum sumptu atque.famo accendihlrhreviquerestinguitur. At illi ingenui vaporespuri perpehliquesun~ grati pariter et gratuiti;Str. 5.4.5-6; CLE 2039.1, cernesalutiferas sp[lendent}i ma:rmare Baias,quicalidnstust[ustan]gere .quaeris. In fact, as early as 176 BC the region of Baiae was already being visited for the curing powers of its natural sulphur-springs (Liv. 41.16). In imperial times, Baiae combined its recently-earned reputation for immorality as a fashionable holiday resort with its age-old fame as a centre for health, thanks to the medicinal baths and its hot springs (for the latter point, cf. Vitr. 2.6.2; Plin. Nat. 31.4-6; Cels. 2.17.1; 3.21.6; D. C. 48.51; £a.).The physical beauty and natural attrac-rion of the place are as well attested in ancient literature as

420

COMMENTARY

is its moral decadence; cf. Hor. Ep. 1.1.83, nullus in orbe sinus Baiispraelucet amoenis; Sen. Ep. 51.1, hlandissima litora;Mart. 4.57; 11.80.1-2, litw beatae Venerir aureum Bains, I Baias superba,ehlanda donaNaturae(with Kay 236-237, who stresses the connection of Venus with Baiae, manifest in the Temple of Venus Lucrina erected nearby). On Baiae as a place of delights and refined travels in Antiquity, cf. J. Shmatz, Bauu (1905-1906); L. Friedlander, Darsullungenaus der Sitttngeschichte Roms in der :{,eitvon Augustusbis ;:,umAusgangder Antonine 0 1' (ed. G. Wissowa: Leipzig 1922) 407 ff.; RE s.v. (Hi.ilsen); D'Arms, Romanson tlu Bay of Napks,passim(cf. index s.v. Baiae);on its famed hot sulphur baths, cf. especially D'Anns, op.cit., pp. 139-140 (with bibliography in n. 112) and Beloch, Campanim,pp. 180--189. 4: the commonplace that with the coming of spring the soil, hardened and contracted by the winter cold, expands or crumbles; cf. Hor. Od. 1.4.10, terraesolutae,Verg. Ge. 1.43-44, verenovo,... cum... putris se glatba resolvit(cf. Ge. 2.330-331). The same topos is found applied to the heat of the day contrasted with the cold of the night in Ov. Her. 2.123, SUiedie laxaturhumw, seuftigidalucentI sidera.However, some early editors (Broukhusius, Vulpius) preferred to read the line-ending hyems,following some 'ltali recentiores'. In support of this reading, see Luc. Civ. 1.17, brumarigens(J£ nesciavereremitti.Theimage of harsh winter being softened by the arrival of spring goes back to the famous line of Horace, solvituracris hinns vice veris(Od. 1.4.1). Cf. also the sense of "mild, not intense" of the verbal adjective remissus in connection with winter in Sen. Dial. 6.18.2, hiemps. .. quaeet remissa fait et brerlis.The reading hinns offers the advantage of the contrast between the seasons: summer, winter and spring. se ... remittit blllll.us: for the formulation, cf. Ov. Fasti 4.126, vereremisswager. purpureo vere: "with the radiant spring"; a Virgilian expression (cf. Eel. 9.40, hie verpurpureum) which ultimately goes back to Pindar (cf. P. 4.64, tovO:v6.µ£p~.o>r; 1«:p6.crm tot fi 00\lvm A.CY.Aiovtt tOq,6.pµcucov; Cic. Phil. 11.6 (of Domitius Appulus), at hie nupersororis filio injuditvenenum, non dedit. Note the daring hyperbaton / nee mea . . . I dextera11£C.•• , which with the enjambement ensures that the pentameter holds together. As regards the text, there is a problem concerning the word that goes with venena.The traditional phrase certavenenaof the complete mss. is in itself possible ("efficient poisons"; cf. Plin. Nat. 27.146, certiores medicinae,30.95, certa. .. medicina;i.a.), though unusual in connection with poisons rather than medicines. Some editors therefore prefer to follow other isolated ms. readings. Thus, some (Broukhusius, Vulpius, Heyne-Wunderlich, De Golbery, Luck) read taetravenma(following G 2, unus Statii, Seal. ex coni.); for the expression, cf. Luer. 4.685; [Verg.] Dir. 23; Prop. 2.24.27. This would be a variant metri

cau.Mof the nonnal phrase atravenma(cf. Hor. Od. 1.37.28,iltrum...

LYGDAMVS V

431

venenum;Verg. Ge. 2.130, atra venena[with Mynors 27]; Aen. 2.221; Ov. Htr. 9.115; Mart. 9.2.6, pullavenena; for black in connection with death, cf. I. 5 nigram . .. horam[comm.]). Others (Lachmann, Dissen, Mtiller, Baehrens, Postgate, Cartault, Ponchont, Lenz, Lee, Trankle), in the light of Prop. 2.17.14, (iuvai)sumereet in rwstrastrita(taetraPg2) venenamanusl, prefer the reading tritaof the FragmentumCuiacianum, attested by Scaliger. On the crushing of poison, cf. Pl. Phd. 117 a, 0 ru:r.'i.i; .•• ~1C£V 0.'{(l)v tOv µEUovta &oot:tvtO (fl(lpµa1eov, iv IC\lAunq,Epovta tnp1µµ£Vov; Ov. Am. 2.2.64-65, mm ad miscendacoimusI toxica;Ars. 3.465, (ilia potes~daremixta viro tritis aconitacicutis;Met. 4.504, omnia (scil. venena,cf. I. 500) trita; 14.43-44, (Circe)horrendisiefamiapabula sucisI contentet tritis Hecaufacarminamiscet;Ponto2.9.68, mixtavesunt rwstradira venma manu.The reading tritaseems preferable, since both certa,and taetrapoint to the efficacy of the poison, which would be redundant with the mortiferis. .. sucis of the hexameter. 9 mortiferis .•• sucis: technical periphrasis for venenis,parallel to sucos. .. salubris (Manil. 3.144). The poetic use of the adjective mortifer[ us] (ie mortemqfferens), though found in all periods of Latin, is certainly rare: Enn. Seen.314, mortiferum helium;Luer. 6.819, mortiferam uim;1091, mortiferom cladem;1138; Lucil. 802 M, mmtiferovulnere-, Hor. O; Verg. Aen.6.279, mmtifenun ... be/Jum; Tib. O; Prop. 3. I 3.17, mmtiftr0... lecto(the only occurrence 'latiore sensu', ie ad mortempertiruns,fanebris; cf. Fedeli Prop.Ill 425-426); Ov. Rem.26, sed tua mrtiftr0 sanguinetela carent,Ponto 3.1.26, tinctaquemortiferata.besagittamadet, in Silver Latin, Sen. Ag. 887; Med. 688; 717; 731; Oed.555;Juv. 4.113; 9.95; Manil. 4.110; Col. Rwt. 6.171; Sil. 10.142; cf. also Auson. Mos. 266; Claud. Pros. 3.237, nossena aurigamlicuit: seu mortiferilk seu Mors ipsafait; Drac. Orest.813; Maxim. 5.120; cf. 7hU 8.1517.72 ff. For this type of compound in £eror -ger, see Barratt 128 ad Luc. Civ. 5.402; A. Grenier, Eludesur la Formation et l'Emploides Composes Nominauxdans k Latin Archafque(Nancy 1912) 120-121; G. Puccioni, "L'Uso stilistico dei Composti Nominali Latini", Atti Accad.d'ltalia,Serie VII, 4, Fasc. 10 (Roma 1944) 427; J. C. Arens, "-Fer and -Ger. Their Extraordinary Preponderance among Compounds in Roman Poetry", MnmwJYIIL 3 (1950) 241-262; H. T,ankle, n;, Spmch/mnstd,s l'rop,,z (1960, H=, Einzelschr. 15) 58-59. As for sucus, its poetic use in connection with poisons and magic potions goes back to Ovid and the evil tricks of the magae Medea and Circe; cf. Her. 12 (Medea lasoni).181, sucus... veneni;Met. 7.152, L£thxai, Clv8Eµ6Evta