Philologus: Band 121, Heft 1 [Reprint 2021 ed.] 9783112544402, 9783112544396

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PHILOLOGUS ZEITSCHRIFT

FÜR KLASSISCHE

PHILOLOGIE

Herausgegeben vom

Zentralinstitut für Alte Geschichte und Archäologie der Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR

Band 121

1977 AKADEMIE-VERLAG • BERLIN

REDAKTIONSBEIRAT: Robert Browning (London), William M. Calder III (Boulder), Aristid I. Dovatur (Leningrad), Vladimir Georgiev (Sofija), Istvän Hahn (Budapest), Jacques Heurgon (Paris), Karel Janäöek (Praha), Kazimierz Kumanieckif, Benedetto Marzullo (Bologna), Haralambie Mihäescu (Bueure§ti), Wolfgang Schmid (Bonn), Rolf Westman (Abo) REDAKTIONSKOLLEGIUM: Walter Hofmann, Johannes Irmscher, Fritz Jürß, Friedmar Kühnert, Ernst Günther Schmidt, Wolfgang Seyfarth V E R A N T W O R T L I C H E R R E D A K T E U R : Ernst Günther Schmidt Stellvertretender verantwortlicher Redakteur: Fritz Jürß Redaktionssekretärin: Dietlind Schieferdecker

BEZUGSMÖGLICHKEITEN: Bestellungen sind zu richten — in der D D R a n eine B u c h h a n d l u n g oder an d e n Akademie-Verlag, D D R - 108 Berlin, Leipziger Straße 3—4 — im sozialistischen Ausland a n eine Buchhandlung f ü r fremdsprachige Literatur oder an den zuständigen Postzeitungsvertrieb — in der B R D und Westberlin a n eine Buchhandlung oder a n die Auslieferungsstelle K U N S T U N D W I S S E N , Erich Bieber, D-7 S t u t t g a r t 1, Wilhelmstraße 4 - 6 — in Österreich a n den Globus-Buchvertrieb, A-1201 Wien, H ö c h s t ä d t p l a t z 3 — im übrigen Ausland an den Internationalen Buch- u n d Zeitschriftenhandel; den Buchexport, Volkseigener Außenhandelsbetrieb der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, D D R - 701 Leipzig, Postfach 160, oder an den Akademie-Verlag, D D R - 108 Berlin, Leipziger Straße 3 — 4.

ZEITSCHRIFT

„PHILOLOGUS"

Herausgeber: Zentralinm.il u t f ü r Alte Geschichte u n d Archäologie der Akademie der Wissenschaften der D D R . Verlag: Akademie-Verlag, D D R - 108 Berlin, Leipziger Straße 3 — 4; Fernruf 2236 221 u . 229; Telex-Nr.: 114420; Postseheckkonto: Berlin 35021; B a n k : Staatsbank der D D R , Berlin, K t o . - N r . : 6836-26-20712. Verantwortlicher R e d a k t e u r : E r n s t Günther Schmidt. Anschrift der R e d a k t i o n : Zentralinstitut f ü r Alte Geschichte u n d Archäologie, R e d a k t i o n „Philologus", Akademie der Wissenschaften der D D R , 108 Berlin, Leipziger Str. 3 — 4, Fernruf 2 2 3 6 2 6 7 . Veröffentlicht u n t e r der Lizenznummer 1297 des Presseamtes beim Vorsitzenden des Ministerrates der Deutschen Demokratischen R e p u b l i k . Gesamtherstellung: V E B D r u c k h a u s „Maxim Gorki", D D R - 74 Altenburg. Erscheinungsweise: Die Zeitschrift „Philologus" erscheint jährlich in einem B a n d zu zwei H e f t e n . Bezugspreis je B a n d 48,— M zuzüglich Versandspesen (Preis f ü r die D D R 36,— M). Bestellnummer der Zeitschrift : 1031. © 1977 b y Akademie-Verlag Berlin • P r i n t e d in t h e German Democratic Republic.

INHALT von Band 121 Seite JERZY AXEE,

Selected Notes on Cicero's " P r o

D . R . SHACKLETON B A I L E Y ,

Roscio Comoedo"

Q.

226

Mumpsimus redivivus

241

Würdigung des Dichterfreundes und Dichterpatrons bei Catull und

VINZENZ B U C H H E I T ,

Vergil

66 Un' epigrafe teosofica ad Enoanda nel quadro della teurgia caldaica .

CARLO GALLAVOTTI,

95

S. IRELAND, Sentence Structure in Aeschylus and the Position of the Prometheus in the Corpus Aeschyleum 189 KAREL

AS 7rapaxsi[I.svat (sc. -rfj

JANAÖEK,

91X00091«'.. Bemerkungen zu Sextus

Gv.b\iei)

Empiricus, P H I 2 1 0 - 2 4 1 FRITZ JÜRSS,

E.

90

Epikur und das Problem des Begriffes (Prolepse) Dido and Penelope

CHRISTIAN K O P F F ,

244

The Case of Metellus Nepos V. Curio.

B R U C E MARSHALL,

211

A

Discussion of Cicero, Verr.

I 6

and 9 and the Scholiasts Vetus Latina

B E N E D E T T O MABZULLO,

II

Macc.

(Recensio

1, 3 3

P)

106

Das Zeitalter der Heroen bei Hesiod (Werke und Tage

K J E L D MATTHIESSEN, HEINZ NEITZEL,

83

Zum zeitlichen Verhältnis vonTheogonie

(80—93)

156—173)

und Odyssee

.

.

( 8 , 1 6 6 — 177)

Ancora sulla Vita donatiana di Virgilio

E T T O R E PARATORE,

A L E X SCOBIE,

24

249

WERNER PEEK, Hesiod und der Helikon E L I S A B E T H SCHUHMANN,

176

173

Der Typ der uxor äotata in den Komödien des Plautus

Some Folktales in Graeco-Roman and Far Eastern Sources

45 1

Kritik und Information GEORG HARIG

und

J U T T A KOLLESCH,

Neue Tendenzen in der Forschung zur Geschichte der

antiken Medizin und Wissenschaft

114

EMILE DE STRYCKER, Der Nachlaß von Hermann Diels

Hermann Diels und P. Oxy.

ALFONS W O U T E R S ,

3.

137

437

146

Hermann Diels' „Colloquium über antikes Schriftwesen"

J Ü R G E N DUMMER, ZSIGMOND R I T O Ö K ,

Neue Studien zum Menschenbild des

5.

Jahrhunderts

150 264

Neue Ausgaben der Doktordissertation von Karl Marx (MEGA @ 1/1) und der Promotionsdokumente 273

E R N S T GÜNTHER SCHMIDT, HANSULRICH L A B U S K E ,

Zum Erscheinen von MEGA

(2)

IV/1

285

Miszellen GRAHAM ANDERSON, B A R R Y BALDWIN, WERNER BIEHL,

Patterns in Lucian's Prolaliae

Lucian, De Hist. Conscrib.

34:

An Unnoticed Aristotelian Source . . . .

Zur Planungsökonomie der Tetrameterszenen in Euripides' Ion

R I C H A R D GREGOR BÖHM, DOUGLAS E . G E B B E R ,

Si pater filium {terl) uenurn duit (Gai Inst. 1, 132)

Archilochus, Fragment

8

West

J . T. HOOKER, EiivSixoq in Pindar GEORGE L . H U X L E Y ,

Bagnetia (Schol. B , Od. 1.259)

313 165 301

168 298

300 316

ROBERT A . KASTER, A

Note on Catullus, c.

71.4

E. LITCCHESI, U n mot grec rare attesté en copte (Schenouté) WERNER PEEK, DAVID SANSONE,

E i n neues Euripides-Fragment? Euripides, Ion 847

308 317 306

157

Pastoral Realism and the Golden Age : Correspondence and Contrast between Virgil's Third and F o u r t h Eclogues 158

CHARLES SEGAL,

EMILE DE STRYCKER,

Eine K o n j e k t u r von H e r m a n n Diels zu Horaz A. P . 120

163

Eingegangene Druckschriften

171

Register

318

PHILOLOGUS Z E I T S C H R I F T FÜR K L A S S I S C H E P H I L O L O G I E /

Herausgegeben vom

Zentralinstitut für Alte Geschichte und Archäologie der Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR

Heft 1 197 7

Band 121

AKADEMIE-VERLAG • BERLIN EVP 18,— M 32912

REDAKTIONSBEIRAT: Robert Browning (London), William M. Calder m (Boulder), Aristid I. Dovatur (Leningrad), Vladimir Georgiev (Sofija), Istvàn Hahn (Budapest), Jacques Heurgon (Paris), Karel JanéSek (Praha), Kazimierz Kumanieokit, Benedetto Marzullo (Bologna), Haralambie Mihäesou (Buouregti), Wolfgang Schmid (Bonn), Rolf Westman (Abo) REDAKTIONSKOLLEGIUM: Walter Hofmann, Johannes Irmscher, Fritz Jürß, Friedmar Kühnert, Ernst Günther Schmidt, Wolfgang Seyfarth VERANTWORTLICHER REDAKTEUR: Ernst Günther Schmidt Stellvertretender verantwortlicher Redakteur: Fritz Jürß Redaktionssekretärin : Dietlind Schieferdecker HINWEISE FÜR

AUTOREN«

Die Autoren werden gebeten, die Manuskripte, Korrekturen und sonstige geschäftliche Post an das Zentralinstitut für Alte Geschichte und Arch&ologie, Redaktion „Philologus", Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR, 108 Berlin, Leipziger Str. 3—4, zu senden und am Schluß der Manuskripte ihre Adresse stets genau anzugeben. Der Verlag liefert den Verfassern 80 Sonderdrucke eines Jeden Beitrages unentgeltlich. Bestellungen auf weitere Sonderdrucke gegen Berechnung bitten wir spätestens bei der Übersendung der Korrektur aufzugeben; ihre Bezahlung erfolgt durch Abzug vom Honorar.

BEZUGS MÖGLICHKEITEN: Bestellungen sind zu richten — in der DDK an eine Buchhandlung oder an den Akademie-Verlag, D D R . 108 Berlin, Leipziger Straße 3—4 — im sozialistischen Ausland an eine Buchhandlung f ü r fremdsprachige Literatur oder an den zuständigen Postzeitungsvertrieb — in der B R D und Westberlin an eine Buchhandlung oder an die Auslieferungsstelle KUNST U N D WISSEN, Erich Bieber, D - 7 Stuttgart 1, Wilhelmstraße 4 - 6 — in Österreich an den Globus-Buchvertrieb, A-1201 Wien, Höchstädtplatz 3 — im übrigen Ausland an den Internationalen Buch- und Zeitschriftenhandel; den Buchexport, Volkseigener Außenhandelsbetrieb der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, DDR-701 Leipzig, Postfach 160, oder an den Akademie-Verlag, DDR-108 Berlin, Leipziger Straße 3—4.

ZEITSCHRIFT

„PHILOLOGUS"

Herausgeber: Zentralinstitut für Alte Geschichte l u d Archäologie der Akademie der Wissensohaften der DDR. Verlag: Akademie-Verlag, D D R - 1 0 8 Berlin, Leipziger Straße 3—4; Fernruf 2230221 oder 2236229; Telex-Nr.: 114420; Postscheckkonto: Berlin 350 21. B a n k : Staatsbank der DDR, Berlin, Kto.-Nr.: 6836-26-20712. Verantwortlicher Redakteur: Ernst Günther Schmidt. Anschrift der Redaktion: Zentralinstitut für Alte Geschichte und Archäologie, Redaktion „Philologus", Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR, 108 Berlin, Leipziger Str. 3—4, Fernruf 2236267. Veröffentlicht unter der Lizenznummer 1297 des Presseamtes beim Vorsitzenden des Ministerrates der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik. Gesamtherstellung: VEB Druckhaus „Maxim Gorki", D D R - 7 4 Altenburg. Erscheinungsweise: Die Zeitschrift „Philologus" erscheint jährlich in einem Band zu zwei Heften. Bezugspreis je Band 48,— M zuzüglich Versandspesen (Preis für die DDR 36,— M). Bestellnummer dieses Heftes: 1031/121/1. © 1977 by Akademie-Verlag Berlin • Printed in the German Democratic Republio.

A L E X SCOBIE

SOME F O L K T A L E S IN GRAECO-ROMAN AND F A R E A S T E R N S O U R C E S This article is intended to supplement and not supplant Berthold Laufer's 1 'Ethnographische Sagen der Chinesen', published in: Aufsätze zur Kultur- und Sprachgeschichte vornehmlich des Orients, E. Kuhn zum 70. Geburtstag gewidmet (Munich 1916) 198 — 210. Laufer dealt with the following folktales and folkbeliefs which he assumed were Graeco-Roman in origin : 1. The Combat between the Pygmies and the Cranes (pp. 200—204) 2 . 2. Centaurs and Hippopodes (p. 202). 3. Cynocephali (p. 204f.) 3 . 4. Amazons (pp. 205 —208) 4 . 5. People with eyes in their chests (p. 209). G. The three Islands of the Blessed (p. 209f.) 5 . I t is not my intention to expand Laufer's material here, nor do I wish to question his assumption that the tales and beliefs which are the subject of his 1 Laufer published two other important studies on Sino-Hellenistic folklore: Asbestos and Salamander: An E s s a y in Chinese and Hellenistic Folklore, T'oung P a o 16 (Leiden 1915) 2 9 9 — :!73; The Diamond: A Study in Chinese and Hellenistic F o l k - L o r e (Chicago 1 9 1 5 ; K r a u s repr. Xc'.v Y o r k 1967). F o r those with no knowledge of Chinese, the main sourcebook for S i n o - R o m a n relationships is still F . Hirth, China and the R o m a n Orient (Munich and Hong K o n g 1 8 8 5 ; repr. in China 1939). J o s e p h Needham's 'Science and Civilisation in China' (Cambridge 1954) also contains much material of interest to the classicist and folklorist; R . Wittkover, Marvels of the E a s t , J o u r n a l of the Warburg and Courtauld Institute 5 (1942) 1 5 9 — 1 9 7 , examines accounts of Eastern admiranda in European literature and art from the time of Herodotus onwards, b u t omits Eastern accounts of many of the same phenomena, e.g. cynocephali, monocli, and other such Wundervölker. F o r Chinese accounts of such creatures, see F . de Mély, L e De Monstris Chinois, R e v . Archéologique 31 (1897) 3 5 3 - 3 7 2 .

F o r an elaboration of Laufer's discussion, see my ' T h e B a t t l e of the Pygmies and the Cranes in Chinese, Arab, and North American Indian Sources', Folklore 86 (1975) 1 2 2 — 1 3 2 . A sequel to this article is in preparation. 2

3 See Wittkover, art. cit., and especially L . Kretzenbacher's 'Kynokephale Dämonen südosteuropäischer Volksdichtung' (Munich 1968). 4 R . Hennig, Ü b e r die voraussichtlich völkerkundlichen Grundlagen der Amazonensagen und deren Verbreitung, Zeitschr. f. E t h n o l . 72 (1940) 3 6 2 — 3 7 2 ; M. Ninck, Das Amazonenproblem, Schweiz. Monatshefte 20 ( 1 9 4 0 - 1 ) 4 0 9 - 4 1 7 ; G. Dudbridge, T h e Hsi-yu Chi (Cambridge 1970) 13 f and the literature there cited; A. V . Urusadze, Zur Herkunft des Amazonen-Namens, Philologus 120 (1976) 1 2 3 - 1 2 5 , and V . Elwin, Myths of the N. E . Frontier of India (Shillong 1958) 182-190. 5

1

J . G. Griffiths, I n Search of the Isles of the Blessed, G & R 16 (1947) 1 2 2 - 1 2 6 . Zeitschrift „Philologus", 1

2

A L E X

SCOBIE

paper are in fact of Graeco-Roman origin. The science of folklore is still very young, and questions involving a choice between diffusion or polygenesis with reference to any given tale is still a hazardous undertaking, despite the meticulous methods established by the Finnish historical-geographical school 8 . The student of international folk-literature faces problems which are almost insuperable when attempting to evaluate material which is often not only very incomplete, but which is also difficult of access because of the immense variety of languages which presents itself in the study of anyone international folktale. In what follows eight folktales are discussed which in part or whole appear to have originated in the Mediterranean basin and which are recorded for the first time in written form in Greek or Latin sources. In every tale mentioned below, the Graeco-Roman versions are attested at a much earlier date than they are known in Far Eastern sources. I am fully aware that even where there is remarkable coincidence of detail in a Western and Eastern folktale dealing with identical themes, this coincidence may be the result either of accident or the fact t h a t human nature in its basic form manifests itself in much the same way everywhere. However, the coincidences of theme, motif, and incident which will be seen in the Western and Eastern tales discussed below, will perhaps convince some readers t h a t it is highly probable, given the chronological priority of the Western written sources, that in each case we are dealing with a popular tale which originated in the Mediterranean basin and then spread eastwards. Each case must be judged on its own merits and these will naturally vary according to the state of the evidence adduced. I emphasise the obvious: none of the conclusions made about the ultimate origins of each of the eight tales can be anything but tentative and provisional.

I. Midas's Ass's Ears The earliest attested reference to the Phrygian king's ass's ears occurs in Aristophanes' Plutus, 287 where Cario exclaims to the Chorus: VYJ T O U ^ • O - S O ' J ? , MiSatc ¡LEV oOv — ijv cbx' ovou XaSTjTs. Such a brief and passing allusion to Midas' deformity presupposes that Aristophanes' audience was already acquainted with the main details of the tale which is told in full by Ovid, Metamorphoses, 11, 146—193. In this well known account, Midas expressed a preference for Pan's pipes over Apollo's lyre. Accordingly, Apollo punished the unappreciative king by endowing his head with the ears of an animal which was proverbial for its lack of musical discernment. The proverb ovoc, Xupac, which finds its earliest known illustration 6 For the history of the development of this method see J. Hautala, Finnish Folklore Research 1828—1918 (Helsinki 1969), and for a lucid exposition of the method itself, see K. Krohn, Folklore Methodology, trans. R. L. Welsch (Austin 1971). For some of Wesselski's criticism of the Finnish school, see E.M. Kiefer, Albert Wesselski and Recent Folktale Theories (Bloomington/Indiana 1947).

Some Folktales in Graeco-Roraan and F a r E a s t e r n Sources

3

on a shell plague from Ur 7 , is clear enough testimony of what the ancients thought of the ass's musical appreciation. Apollo's punishment was therefore most appropriate 8 . The first systematic attempt to collect the modern variants of this tale was made by the prolific folklorist and Indianist W. Crooke in his 'King Midas and his Ass's Ears', Folk-Lore 22 (1911) 183 — 202, which formed the basis of Lehmann-Nitsche's study (see above n. 8). Here was assembled a total of 28 variants drawn from Europe, Central Asia (2 Kirghiz, 1 Mongolian), and India (4 variants). Shortly after the appearance of Lehmann-Nitsche's work, Max Vasmer published his 'König Trojan mit den Ziegenohren' in: Zeitschr. f. Volkskunde 46 (1936— 1937) 184—188, a short discussion of Southern Slav variants of the Midas tale in which the Phrygian king has been replaced by a King Trojan, identified by Vasmer with the Roman emperor Trajan who conquered and annexed Dacia. As yet, no variant of the tale has been found in China, Japan, or the Americas. However, the recent translation of Ilyon's Samguk Yusa (Legends and History of the Three Kingdoms of Ancient Korea) 9 by Tae-Hung H a and Grafton K. Mintz contains an unmistakable variant of Ovid's Midas tale: One morning when the King awoke, he discovered t h a t his two ears had grown overnight into long f u r r y ones like those of a donkey. His grief and consternation were beyond description, b u t nothing could be done. H e was compelled to cover his head with a sort of t u r b a n which he wore waking and sleeping, so t h a t nobody ever knew his secret except t h e tailor who made t h e t u r b a n . He, of course, was given t h e strictest orders to tell nobody. F a i t h f u l servant of t h e King though he was, the tailor was continually t o r m e n t e d b y his inability to speak of this strange and unique event. Finally he became ill and was obliged to go for a rest to Torim Temple on the outskirts of Kyongju. One day he came out into t h e back garden of this temple alone and u n a t t e n d e d , peering about him wild-eyed. Seeing t h a t no-one was within earshot, he plunged suddenly into a bamboo grove nearby and shouted repeatedly a t t h e t o p of his voice, "My King has long ears like a d o n k e y ! " Then, having a t last won peace of mind, he fell dead on the spot. Ever afterward, when t h e wind blew through this particular bamboo grove, t h e sound it made seemed to say "My King has long ears like a donkey." This strange phenomenon was relayed from m o u t h to mouth until a t last it reached the King's long ears. H e was very angry and ordered the bamboos cut down and palms planted in their place. This was done and the palms grew rapidly. But when t h e wind blew through them they sang "My King has long ears . . . " dropping the last three words. The King died a t last and Torim-sa fell into decay. B u t new shoots grew u p from t h e roots of the bamboos which had been cut down and people took cuttings to plant in their gardens so t h a t t h e y could hear the song they sang, and they did likewise with the palms. I n this manner the citizens of Kyongju enjoyed the music of their bamboos and palms singing to t h e wind "My king has long ears like a donkey ... My King has long ears . . . "

7

See A. Houghton Brodrick, Animals in Archaeology (London 1972) 62, Fig. 32; for a survey of t h e history of the proverb down to modern times see H. Adolf, The Ass and the H a r p , Speculum 25 (1950) 4 9 - 5 7 ; M. Vogel, Onos Lyras (Bonn-Bad Godesberg 1977). 8 R. Lehmann-Nitsche, König Midas h a t Eselsohren, Zeitschr. f. Ethnol. 68 (1936) 294—303, theorises t h a t this detail had its origin in t h e Oriental custom of wearing „ K a p p e mit Tierohren", first mentioned by Herodotus, 7,70. This theory seems to me far-fetched and is certainly not necessary for an understanding of t h e tale itself. 9 Published by the Yonsei University Press (Seoul 1972) 125 f. 1*

4

ALEX

SCOBIE

Ilyon lived from 1206—1289, but King Kyongmun, the protagonist of the tale, ruled the Kingdom of Silla from 861 — 875. If the internal dating of the tale is trustworthy, then this Korean tale is the oldest of the written Eastern variants so far attested 1 0 . I I . The Tale of the Ass-Man The story of the metamorphosis of a man into an ass by a witch is best known to classicists from Apuleius' Metamorphoses and Pseudo-Lucian's Onos, both of which are generally assumed to be based on the now lost Greek Metamorphoses of "Lucius of Patrae" 1 1 . This tale was first studied from the point of view of world folklore by Karl Weinhold, Über das Märchen vom Eselmenschen, Sitz. d. Akad. d. Wiss. z. Berlin (1893) 475 — 488; then by Walter Anderson, one of the most methodical exponents of the Finnish geographical-historical school of folklorists, in: Roman Apuleja i Narodnaja Skazka I , published at Kazan in 1914. Volume two of this work never appeared, but in 1954 and 1958 Anderson published his most important contribution to the study of modern variants of the ass-tale: 'Das sogenannte Märchen vom Eselmenschen', in volumes 51 (pp. 215 — 236) and 54 (pp. 121 — 125) of Zeitschr. f. Volkskunde. Here Anderson assembled 24 sixteenth and seventeenth century variants, collected for the most part from German speaking parts of Europe, and attempted in the traditional Finnish manner to reconstruct the archetype of the tale. I n my 'The Ass Tale and Folklore', pp. 26—46 of my commentary on Apuleius' Metamorphoses I (Beiträge zur klass. Philol. 54, Meisenheim am Glan 1975), I suggested how the tale might have grown through a process of accretion, and pointed out that Pomponius' Atellan farce, A,sinus, might have already embodied the tale long before "Lucius of P a t r a e " elaborated it in his romance. I also discussed a T'ang dynasty ass-tale 12 which is directly related to a Kirghiz variant 1 3 reported by Anderson in his Russian work (p. 104f.). These two tales are related to an oral variant of the ass-tale first recorded by Augustine De Civ. Dei 18,18 where he reports that when in Italy, he heard reports of female inn-keepers (mulieres stabulariae) who gave their guests drugged cheese 14 which turned them 1 0 F o r a fuller discussion of this tale see my note 'A Korean Midas Tale' forthcoming in Folklore. A full examination of all the known variants of this tale (and of subsequent tales mentioned in this article) will be given in a book-length study which is in preparation. 1 1 See H. van Thiel's recent discussion in: Der Eselsroman I (Munich 1971) If. 1 3 Translated by E . D. Edwards, Chinese Prose Literature of the T'ang Period, A. D. 618—906, Vol. 2 (London 1938), 2 9 3 - 2 9 6 . 1 3 The two tales are given in full and discussed in my 'Notes on Walter Anderson's Märchen vom Eselmenschen', Fabula 15 (1974) 222 — 232. A sequel is forthcoming in Vol. 16 of the same journal. 14 Cheese was one of the ingredients of Circe's potion. This seems to have been forgotten by N. Moine, Augustin et Apulee sur la magie des femmes d'auberge, Latomus 34 (1975) 350—361. Homer, not Apuleius, is probably the ultimate source of this detail.

Some Folktales in Graeco-Roman and F a r E a s t e r n Sources

5

into asses. Augustine concludes his tale with an appropriate reference to Apuleius' romance. Since writing my prefatory essay and article, I have discovered evidence which shows, conclusively to my mind, that the Chinese and Kirghiz tales are genetically linked to three Arabic tales, the earliest of which dates from the time of Mohammed, and to a Sanskrit tale, of which the lost original has been variously assigned to periods between the first and fourth centuries. The main incidents and general situation found in all these tales may be summarised as follows. A man arrives at the dwelling of an arch-witch who tries to transform him into an ass by giving him specially prepared magic food. The man outwits the witch by tricking her into eating her own preparation and thus turns h e r into an ass. A remarkable feature of all these tales is the elaborate method used by the witch to prepare her magic meal or meal cakes. I quote this episode in full from all the relevant tales, starting with what is perhaps the best known of them all, the tale of Badr Basim and Queen Lab 1 5 as incorporated in 'Julnar the Sea-Born and her Son', Nights 739—756 of the 1001 Nights: A. Badr Basim and Queen Lab. " . . . a b o u t midnight, she (sc. Queen Lab) rose from t h e carpetbed a n d King Badr Basim was awake; b u t he feigned sleep and watched stealthily to see w h a t she would do. She took o u t of a red bag a something red, which she planted a-middlemost t h e chamber, and it became a stream running like the sea; after which she took a handful of barley, a n d strewing it on t h e ground, watered it with water from t h e river; whereupon it became wheat on t h e ear, and she gathered it and ground it into flour . . . Badr Basim . . . went in to t h e Queen, who said to him, 'Welcome and well come and good cheer to thee!' And she rose and kissed him, saying, ' I have been with m y uncle, and he gave me to eat of this Sawik.' Quoth she, 'We have better t h a n t h a t . ' Then she laid his parched Sawik in one plate and hers in another and said to him, ' E a t of this, for 'tis b e t t e r t h a n thine.' So he feigned to eat of it . . . Quoth he, 'O my lady, I bear thee no whit of malice . . . b u t eat of this my parched barley.' So she ate a mouthful . . . ; b u t no sooner had it settled in her stomach t h a n she was convulsed: and King Badr Basim took water in his palm and threw it in her face, saying 'Quit this h u m a n form and take t h a t of a dappled mule.' No sooner had he spoken t h a n she found herself changed into a she-mule . . . and he set t h e bit in her m o u t h and mounting her, rode forth." 1 6

B. The Story of Khurafa. " H e fell asleep and saw in his sleep as though she uttered a cry, a n d lo! there was a large field r a t which had come out. She said, 'Bend down t h y head!' and he b e n t it down. N e x t she said, 'Plough!' and it ploughed. Next she said, 'Thresh!' and it threshed. N e x t she summoned a hand15 The tale has often been compared with Homer's account of Odysseus and Circe: W. Crooke, Some Notes on Homeric Folk-Lore, Folk-Lore 9 (1908) 178f.; L. Radermacher, Die Erzählungen der Odyssee (Vienna 1915) 5; J . Oestrup, Studien über 1001 N a c h t ( S t u t t g a r t 1925) 68; A. Abel, Les enseignements des 1001 Nu its (Brussells 1939) U l f . ; G. E.von Grunebaum, Greek F o r m Elements in the Arabian Nights, J o u r n . Amer. Orient. Soc. 62 (1942) 290; D. Page, Folktales in Homer's Odyssey (Harvard Univ. Press. 1972) 60—62; Page, p. 124 n. 17 incorrectly refers readers to Night 510 when 751 is meant. 16 Translated by Richard Burton, Vol. 6, pp. 89—91.

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mill and it ground a cupful of sawiq. She brought it to the ghutam and said to him, 'Take it to thy master.' He brought it to me, but I used guile towards the two of them until I had made them drink the cupful, and lo! She was a mare and he a stallion." 17

C. The Version of the Fakhir. "She said, (sc. to the field rat as in B above) 'Cleave!' and it cleft. Next she said, 'Repeat!' and it repeated. Next she said, 'Sow!' and it sowed. Next she said, 'Reap!' and it reaped. Next she said, 'Thresh' and it threshed." 1 8

D. Katha Sarit Sagara (Ocean of Story) I entered the house of a certain woman to lodge, as I was worn out, and gave her money for food. She gave me a bed, and being tired I slept for some time, but then I woke up, and out of curiosity I remained quiet, and watched her, and while I was watching, the woman took a handful of barley, and sowed it all about inside the house, her lip trembling all the time with muttering spells. Those grains of barley immediately sprang up, and produced ears, and ripened, and she cut them down, and parched them, and ground them, and made them into barley-meal. And she sprinkled the barley-meal with water, and put it in a brass pot, and, after arranging her house as it was before, she went out quickly to bathe. Then, as I saw t h a t she was a witch, I took the liberty of rising up quickly; and taking t h a t meal out of the brass pot, I transferred it to the meal-bin, and took as much barley-meal out of the meal-bin, arid placed it in the brass vessel, taking care not to mix the two kinds. Then I went back again to bed, and the woman came in, and roused me up, and gave me t h a t meal from the brass pot to eat, and she ate some herself, taking what she ate from the meal-bin, and so she ate the charmed meal, not knowing that I had exchanged the two kinds. The moment she had eaten t h a t barley-meal she became a she-goat; then I took her and sold her by way of revenge to a butcher 19 .

E. Madame Three of the Bridge " . . . while his companions lay fast asleep, Chao tossed and turned . . . till suddenly, in the middle of the night, he became aware of movements in the next room. Peeping through a chink in the wall, he saw Madame Three relight her candle and take from a box wooden models of a plough, an ox, and a man, about six or seven inches high. These she set in front of the stove, on the beaten earth floor, and taking a little water in her mouth, sprinkled it over them. At once the figures began to move, the man leading the ox and the ox pulling the plough, till they had ploughed a little patch of ground . . . When this field was ready, the woman took from the same box a small packet of buckwheat seed and gave it to the little man to sow. In a few minutes the seed sprouted, grew tall, and the grain ripened. Then the little farmer harvested his crop, threshed it, and presented to his mistress seven or eight pints of buckwheat, which she ground in a little mill. When all was finished, she replaced the tiny figures in the box, and busied herself in making cakes of the flour . . . about a month later ... he (sc. Chao) put up again a t the Bridge Inn, bringing in his baggage some buckwheat cakes of the same size and shape as those which the innkeeper had made on his former visit . . . while the woman was out of the room making the tea, the guest exchanged one of his own cakes 17

D. B. MacDonald, The Earlier History of the Arabian Nights, Journ. Royal Asiatic Soc., 1924 P t . I l l July, p. 374. This tale belongs to the seventh century (p. 372). 18 Ibid., p. 375. 19 Trans. C. H. Tawney, ed N. M. Penzer, Vol. VI (London 192G) 55f. Somedeva wrote c. 1070, but states t h a t his collection is based on an earlier and larger collection made by Gunadhya known as the Brihat Katha or Great Tale the MS of which has never been found. So Tawney Vol. 1 xxxii. For a recent survey of the possible dates of Gunadhya's work, see K. Chaitanya, A New History of Sanskrit Literature (Westport 1975) 367.

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for a magic one . . . The woman accepted the offered cake, which was the magic one taken from the plate. She had scarcely set her teeth into it before she began to paw the ground and bray, and immediately turned into a fine, strong donkey. Chao saddled and mounted her, and rode off on his new steed." 20

F. Kirghiz Ass Tale "Accompanying a caravan, the poor man arrives in Cashmere and together with a friend stops a t an old lady's house. At night he feigns sleep and sees the old woman scatter grains of wheat onto the floor, and with the words 'kish, kish', summons two mice, put collars on them, ploughs the earth, and waters it with her urine. In an instant the wheat had ripened, was harvested and threshed by the mice. The poor man took these cakes for himself, and in their stead put his own — the ones with which the old woman entertained her guests on the following day, repeating in vain 'kish, kish'. And so the poor man treated her; at this words 'kish, kish', the two mice ran into her ears, she changed into an ass, and both the guests sat astride her." 2 1

Iii the light of this fresh evidence, it would seem more probable t h a t the Chinese ass-tale is not directly indebted to Augustine's tale which lacks the episode where the witch prepares her magic meal or meal-cakes. The intermediate links provided by the three Arabic tales and the Sanskrit tale in the Ocean of Story, would suggest that the Chinese tale is the easternmost link in a chain of variants which stretches from the Mediterranean basin to Honan where the so-called Silk Route began 22 . The Kirghiz variant is also in the path of the Silk Route, b u t because it was recorded in the nineteenth century it is impossible to determine its precise origin. I t could derive either from Indian 23 or Chinese sources.

I I I . The Tale of the Lamia The best known Lamia-tale of antiquity is to be found in Philostratus' heavily fictionalised biography of the thaumaturge Apollonius of Tyana, IV, 25. This tale and a large number of Eastern analogues was the subject of Nai-tung Ting's comparative study 'The Holy Man and the Snake-Woman: A Study of a Lamia Story in Asian and European Literature', published in: Fabula 8 (1966) 145 —191. The avowed purpose of this paper was "to study all the available versions as well as some of the important analogues of this Lamia story in Asia and Europe". I t does not claim to be a definitive study in Quellenforschung nor does its author claim to have discovered a prototype of the accounts of both Philostratus (who first recorded the tale in Europe) and Feng Meng-Lung (who probably first 20

Edwards, loc. cit. Cited from the English translation of Anderson's Russian text in my Fabula article. 22 Mortimer Wheeler, Rome beyond the Imperial Frontiers (Harmondsworth 1955) 186; J . I. Miller. The Spice Trade of the Roman Empire 29 B. C. - A. D. 641 (Oxford 1969) 21 If. The action of the T'ang story is set in Pien, the modern K'ai-feng-fu in Honan. 2:! For a late mediaeval Indian ass-tale which Sir Richard Burton erroneously thought was the source of Apuleius' frame-narrative, see my commentary on Apuleius, Met. 1, 35—38. 21

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published it in China) 24 . Later in his article, Nai-tung Ting observes: "Although Philostratus' account is the earliest recorded version of our Lamia-story, one may assume that the story itself was not indigenous to Greece, but imported from another country. There is no other version of this story — or e v e n a n y t a l e r e m o t e l y r e s e m b l i n g i t — in ancient or modern Greek literature ... it is also clear that even in Philostratus' time, this story never caught on, although it was well known. The first introduction of this tale, probably from somewhere in Asia, thus evidently did not arouse much immediate response." 25 Two points must be made about Nai-tung Ting's assumptions: firstly, his assertion that there is no other Greek tale 'remotely resembling' Philostratus' tale, is patently false. Dio Chrysostom, writing over a century earlier than Philostratus, devotes the whole of his Oratio V to the narration of a Lamia tale. The oration, entitled XifSuxoi; Aoyoc, tells of the sorry plight of sailors shipwrecked off notoriously treacherous Syrtes, who wandered among the sand dunes of the coast the till they were lured to their death by the bared breasts 26 of the Lamia. Dio's tale, which he clearly felt was similar to an anilis fabula when he asserts at chapter 16 that it is ou —aiSico TtXacO-ELc, is related to Philostratus' tale in that both authors refer to the ophidian characteristics of the Lamia and portray her as blood-sucking and flesh-eating 27 . I t is also worth remarking that in Philostratus' account where the action takes place at Corinth, the Lamia is called a Phoenician. This is surely to be connected with the Libyan 28 locale of Dio's tale. I t is thus conceivable, but unprovable, tha f in this respect both Dio's and Philostratus' tales derive from a common source. However, popular tales about the Lamia as a vampire, or childstealing witch figure must have existed in the Graeco-Roman world long before the time of Dio. That we have no other complete tales to parallel those of Philostratus and Dio is not altogether surprising to someone acquainted with the hostility expressed by

Art. cit., 146. Ibid., 160; italics mine; on p. 150 it is suggested that " t h e accounts of Philostratus . . . and Feng Meng-Lung are variants of the same tale, rather than spontaneous inventions completely independent of one another. Their common prototype may have been a religious and didactic tale which first circulated in West or Central Asia in the centuries immediately before or after the time of C h r i s t . . . " 2 6 Still a prominent feature of the Lamia in modern Greece and N. Africa: „Die L. haben im neugriechischen Volksmärchen so große Brüste, daß sie dieselben zur Reinigung des Backofens verwenden," Drexler, in: W. H. Roscher, Lex. d. griech. u. röm. Myth., I I , 2, p. 1820, 1. 5 3 f f . ; For Arab equivalents to Dio's Libyan Lamia, see E . Westermarck, Ritual and Belief in Morocco, Vol. 1 (London 1926) 3 9 7 - 4 0 6 . 24

25

27 According to G. Thiele, Zur Libyschen Fabel, Philologus 75 (1927) 22 n. 4, Dio's source was „vermutlich ein kynischer Polyhistor der Kaiserzeit." 2 8 „Lamia ist libyscher Herkunft (zuerst bei Euripides frg. 922 T G F 2 , wohl um ihr Wesen als barbarisch zu kennzeichnen; vielleicht Erfindung des Euripides)." Schwenn, R E , 12, 545, 24ff. See now the short discussion of F . Lo Casco, La Forma Letteraria della Vita di Apollonio Tianeo (Palermo 1974) 60f.

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Greek and R o m a n literary critics towards entertaining fictional narratives of a popular nature. Philostratus himself is apologetic about including the Lamiatale in his biography of Apollonius and excuses its inclusion on the grounds t h a t his source "Damis" told it (4, 25 ad. fin.) Dio also justifies the narration of his Lamia-tale by labouring the didactic message he tacks onto it: OUTCO SYJ x a i T O I C avwcpeXsai. (j.u&sufiaai Xóyo;) und Nacken (air/rjv), die auf große Kraft hinzudeuten schienen, gelobt hatte (134—136). Odysseus war, wie bekannt, eher breitschultrig und kräftig gebaut, aber nicht besonders groß (T 193f., 196—198.210); er war jedenfalls kleiner als die beiden Atriden (F 193.210.227.229) und Aias. Der Tadel des Euryalos kann also nur auf Größe und Schönheit, d. h. die schöne Erscheinung eines großen Menschen (vgl. xaXo? TS [ I I Y A C T S 108. Z 276) abzielen 6 . In dieser Hinsicht konnte sich Odysseus in der Tat mit dem großen und schönen (vgl. 116) Euryalos, der außerdem gewiß nur halb so alt war wie er (vgl. 408), nicht messen, obwohl er die J u g e n d k r a f t noch in sich spüren mochte ($ 136.181). Der schöne Phäake wirft dem Fremden also nicht nur Unsportlichkeit (159f.) vor, sondern tadelt mit seinem Vergleich 161—164 vor allem Wuchs (cpuv) 168), Gestalt (¡jiop9TQ 170) und Aussehen (sl8ocrio