History of the Graeco-Latin Fable: Volume II. the Fable During the Roman Empire and in the Middle Ages 9004115838, 9789004115835

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HISTORY OF THE GRAECO-LATIN FABLE VOLUME TWO

MNEMOSYNE BIBLIOTHECA CLASSICA BATAVA COLLEGERUNT H. PINKSTER , H. W. PLEKET CJ- RUUGH, D.M. SCHENKEVELD, PH. SCHRijVERS BIBLIOTHECAE FASCICULOS EDENDOS CURAVIT C.J. RUUGH, KLASSIEK SEMINARIUM,OUDE TURFMARKT 129, AMSTERDAM

SUPPLEMENTUM DUCENTESIMUM SEPTIMUM

FRANCISCO RODRIGUEZ ADRADOS

HISTORY OF THE GRAECO-LATIN FABLE VOLUME TWO

HISTORY OF THE GRAECO-LATIN FABLE VOLUME TWO THE FABLE DURING THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND IN THE MIDDLE AGES BY

FRANCISCO RODRIGUEZ ADRADOS TRANSLATED BY

LESLIE A. RAY

This edition has been revised and updated by the author and Gert:Jan van Dijk

BRILL LEIDEN· BOSTON· KOLN 2000

Originally published in Spanish as Histmi,a de la Fucrns,also metrical)

'-'_

eupouoa. yuµVT]V OUOEV flOlKEl['-'-'-'_

A similar case is not-H. 127 "The Bird-catcher": ~

S::' ' llt,. µe,:pn ue tr1V v 11 pa.v [ v ~

[

KUtfftuXto

-

V

-

V

-

-

V

-

V

-

-

V

-

V

-

V

-

-

Not-H. 86 "The Snake and the Eagle". The significant aspect of this fable by Aphthonius is that its iambic remnants do not agree with those of the original fable by Stesichorus, partially transmitted through Aelian, NA XVII 37, whose source is Crates of Pergamon. The verses of Stesichorus may be seen in our work already cited. 7 As regards those of Aphthonius, we indicate: cruµnAa.Krvrn;a)).:f)Aotc; Eµci;covto.Kut o µEv OpaK11,tKe..,a.tpettat

]

'

''\

,

'):

(an inversion)

Not-H. 140 "The Crow and the Swan" (probably derived from the fable of the Ethiopian, H. 274): ,:ov K'll1CVov o Kopa.., - ...,- - - - ~ - - v - - - v otT)0'etc;uS::• nvat \

V

I

I

!

V

]

):

[

V

VV

'

' "Neue Fragmente ... ", cit. p. 173.

26

PART ONE - CHAPTER ONE

tOlO\ltOV[- ',!_ - "'-] proµouc;EKA.utcov Aiµvmi; Kai notaµo'ii; evo1e,:p1pE .

1t£pti\1tt£I, cf. II/ sequeexomavitPhaedrus, etc.), which show that they come from the same semiprosification; in the abbreviated beginning, which tells of the beauty competition from the rest of the tradition. This initial model must have had a closing statement like that of Phaedrus, which disappeared in AnF., where, on the other hand, there remain metrical remnants such as ]6pvErovKatCXO"trtvm I 1tpo9mµicxv[m'.ito'is]r.al;evl, the phrase cited above initially ]1tpos.ov Ma. I MiAAOv"tOi; 'autoul, etc. b) The version that has left its trace in Babrius, who represents an expansion of 24 verses: it begins with the agon of beauty proposed by Iris, it continues with a long EK(jlpacnsof the competing birds and the admiration of Zeus for the rook and concludes with a speech by the swallow uncovering the truth and the spoliation of the rook by the birds (this as in the other line). We must observe that Babrius, indeed, extends and does not agree with AnF. either in phraseology or in metre, but certainly starts from an intermediate stage of which Tetr. is the other witness. Here, indeed, the swallow takes part and it cannot be believed that it is derived from Babrius, because the initial o.AAotpioti;1tt£po'im is absent in him and the oldest, Hellenistic reference to the fable is in no less than Philodemus: aA.AO'tptotS ea.utov ntepo'ii;; on the other hand, the final ]yuµvoi; 11up~8t,is reminiscent of the ]anoyuµvro0evn of I and has no parallel in Babrius. c) The comparison of these two lines takes us back to an initial model, of which the line a) eliminates the theme of the agon instigated by Zeus and b) introduces the motif of the swallow; Babrius extends the latter, introducing Iris and making a lengthy description. This ancient version, thus uncovered, is to be found more or less well preserved in Libanius, Aphthonius and Theophylactus Simocatas: the theme of the agon(which in Libanius is called by Hermes, not

64

PART ONE - CHAPTER ONE

Iris), the theme of the birds in the fountains (as in Babrius, not in AnF.), that of the owl who begins to pull off the feathers (whence

the swallow in the second line), that of the admiration of Zeus (in Libanius, as in Babrius); and themes from the first line in AnF. and in Libanius and Theophylactus there is talk of the kingdom of the birds, the 1tpo9mµiav ihal;E[ of I corresponds (prosified) to .~v K\lptav opi~ovtE~ in Aphthonius. There is talk in all these versions of the feathers that fall, the µ0 ..A.Ovto~ 6 · autou of I corresponds (prosified) to µtAA.Ovto~ 6 · ~6ri in Libanius, there is in the latter a aAAotpt(l)V eyuµvouto that is certainly the original, etc. What is missing is the speech of the owl: undoubtedly that of the swallow is original to Babrius. That is to say, to summarize, we find an ancient line and two modified ones, one of these expanded by Babrius; the ancient one and one of the two have complementary verse, the other does not preserve it. It is likely that the line that goes from Demetrius to the primary verse passed through Diogenes the Cynic.

__.--rAnF. Y reduced verse ------.. / Demetrius

➔

Phaedrus ➔

X verse

\

reduced verse (Luc., etc.)

_-T,tr Z prose------..

Babrius

The Fable H. 119 "The Camel and Zeus" is also Cynic; it presents a more or less closely related panorama. As is known, the camel asks Zeus for horns, complaining about nature, and the god clips his ears. AnF. undoubtedly comes from the principal ancient line and preserve some remnants of verse. It is likely that in this case Avianus comes from the same model: in him we are presented with the camel travelling into the sky (referred to in Lucian), there is a closing statement that seems to have been lost outside of here and some theme that is in one of the derivative lines, the complaint about the lack of horns. There is a summary of this principal line in Aphthonius, which I think, as usual, comes from an intermediate version. In this summary there are both metrical and phraseological agreements with I:

FABLES WITH

A SINGLE PRIMARY

METRICAL

VERSION

65

the beginning of both lines could easily be derived from iomv Kaµt1A.oi; -mupov[, in Aphthonius we read 11'.Eprov iitEl t\J)(€tV, prosified in I, there is also a 1tpoacxq>EAfo-0m t&v rotwv likewise prosified in I (µipoi; Conversely, the tTJi;n1tATJutim;µtcn,acxi;of Aphn tfuv wtwv CX.q>£tA£to). thonius is a prosification of the ZEuV OE... Ea'tl µ11-cputa.

n

If this is the case, we would have to attribute to the original some fragments of the beginning of the fable in the Life as ~paOEiav EXEl tTlV aU~TJOtv,]t6.xtov au~£t(It and~ - v - ~ - v] µll £'\JprovA.uom, I 0eia. xpovoia xa.vt, Eq>TI, OtatKEt'tat (an inversion). We do not know whether this is also the case of H. 299 "The Woman and the Farmer", the famous story of the widow of Ephesus. Here we have, certainly, two very close versions in AnF. III y, o and the Life. They show complementary verse:

III y,

Life

" 6pa ruvri' 'tu; a.v ~

[- .., - - - - V

VU

- .., - ~ - .., ]npoi; 'to µv11µ' miwu EKA.m '. cxpotptrovOEni; £1tE8uµ11aev abbreviation

o

' tti; Clvupa ruv11 "I:,

[

._,- V·· - uv - -

id. id. (auvqyui; after ni;) ii fau0e, · au'tou · ,i tea11

o·

oia

FABLES WITH SEVERAL PRIMARY METRE. CONVERSIONS

79

auto~ KAaiet~; CJO(f)T)V 'tE KIXl ayaffiiv yuvaiKa Katcopu~a slight variation s:_, "), __ ' [V otav ue K/1.UUCJro - - v - - - - - otav o'OvKAO.'\lcrro (ametrical) Kouq>i~oµmtitv A'\l1t1lV (ametrical) 'tll~A.u7tl')~ KouKOU~, ious passages such as ]1t6A.eµov ]exovtEI;\)7tOll'llXV. It may be observed that, in contrast to what might have been expected, the versions of fables in the Life efAesopare barely useful for deducing with certainty binary schemes with primary metrical versions. Rather, they fit within a tradition which, in the case of each fable, starts off from a primary metrical version and only one. The significant fact is that this tradition, in the form of a semiprosified derivative, sometimes reached not only the Life, but also the authors of Byzantine collections, particularly III 6 and the mss. F and M.

1

We then restore otav OEKACXUClro tf\,; A.U1tT1(~oµm.

80

PART ONE -

CHAPTER

1WO

In the CorpusFabularumAesopicarumby Hausrath, Vol. I, 2, p. VII, we can see the list of fables that are found in certain manuscripts of III o and are absent in the rest of AnF., including those that we have just dealt with and those that we will consider. But also others. That is to say, the authors of these manuscripts added other material from various sources to the material that they took from the tradition of the AnF.; these sources included the semiprosification that had also been used as a model for the Life efAesop. All this material can also be found through our list above, on pp. 75 ff., where we rightly noted that facts such as this testify in favour of the arrival of very different ancient fabulistic material in the Byzantine Age. We will now give a summary list of fables that appear in the Life, on one hand, and in III o or M or F, on the other, showing complementary verse and also common prose: these are always derivations of a semiprosified version of a Hellenistic metrical original. It is worthy of note that, on occasions these fables are also found in the Syriac versions, which confirms the age of the source of III 0. 2 We may add that further fables of III o exist with Hellenistic metrical remnants that did not find space in the Life, while they are sometimes in other collections, namely H. 289, 290, 292, 294, 295, 296, 297. On this, sec below, pp. 435 ff. H. 298 "The Man who Hunted Grasshoppers" (in Life 99). In AnF. III we find quite complete remnants of 8 verses and in the two Syriac versions we find a summary; in the Life there is a version with complementary verse and a certain difference of subject (in AnF. the grasshopper hunter captures a cicada, which is the insect that begs; in the Life, it is a grasshopper). In spite of this, there are significant phraseological and metrical agreements. This is better preserved in M., with complete verses such as ~ypEUOEKClt 'tl]VEUA.aA.Ov ,Epn101:ptav I ·dnt')'Cl

TIOE1tpoi;aut6v· µ~ µo:t~V µ' cr'Eic;0wuc; avEATJAU0Ev,