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The Riddle of Damoetas (Virgil Ecl

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The Riddle of Damoetas (Virgil Ecl THE RIDDLE OF DAMOETAS (VIRGIL ECL. 3, 104-105) BY MICHAEL C. J. PUTNAM The amoeboean interchange between two shepherds, Menalcas and Damoetas, forms the chief subject matter of Virgil's third Eclogue. At the conclusion of their debate, as a climax of their rivalry, each proposes to the other a riddle, with a reward, tangible or otherwise, for its solution. The second riddle, that of Menalcas, seems capable of a ready explanation (106-107): dic quibus in terris inscripti nomina regum nascantur flores, et Phyllida solus habeto. Servius' answer, that the flower is the hyacinth which is said to have had a Y written on it in honor of the boy, lost favorite of Apollo, or an standing for Ajax (both of whom were technically yeges) has been followed by virtually all later critics. Concerning Damoetas' preceding riddle (zo4-zo5) : dic quibus in terris, et eris mihi magnus Apollo, tris pateat caeli spatium non amplius ulnas there has been no such happy unanimity. Since, according to Junius Philargyrius, the poet told Asconius Pedianus that he had deliberately written the lines as a crucem grammaticis, brevity at least may shield this latest gesture to the hazards of criticism from the poet's amused glance. One thing, at any rate, is certain 1). The two riddles, which 1) As has been pointed out rightly by J. J. H. Savage in a recent attempt at a solution of the riddle, The Riddle in Virgil's Third Eclogue, C.W. 47 (1954), 81-83. See also his The Art of the Third Eclogue of Vergil (55-111), T.A.P.A. 89 (1958), 142-158. More recently, D. E. W. Wormell (The Riddles in Virgil's Third Eclogue, C.Q. n.s. 10 [1960J, 29-32) finds the answer to the riddle in the famous orrery of Archimedes. The interpretations most regularly cited are to be found in Servius' note on Ecl. 3, 105. Savage, drawing on Gellius 12, 6, finds in the riddle a pun on the name Terminus. But, though the god of boundaries is associated with the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus (see Fasti 2, 669 ff.), he is not directly 151 end the singing-match, are carefully balanced by the two opening couplets wherewith the shepherds commence their debate. Once more it is Menalcas' initial verses which make this clear (62-63): et me Phoebus amat; Phoebo sua semper apud me munera sunt, lauri et suave rubens hyacinthus. Here the connection between Apollo, the hyacinth, the boy who gave his name to the flower and the final riddle of Menalcas is explicit. Damoetas' opening lines offer no such apparent link with his riddle, however. He begins (60-61) : ab Iove principium, Musae: Iovis omnia plena; ille colit terras, illi mea carmina curae. What relationship could there be between Jupiter who fills heaven and earth, makes the land fruitful and smiles benignly on the poet's work, and a space in the sky that is but three ells broad ? The key lies, I venture to suggest, in seeing exactly what the hint is in Menalcas' opening couplet which leads to a solution of his riddle. It involves taking the simple word hyacinthus and turning it both into Greek and into a proper name. If we do this same thing, working backwards as it were, with the word ulna, we may be following the one clue the poet provides. The Greek for ulna is lix£vq. As a proper name this becomes (or in its adjectival form -«, -ov), a city in Achaia mentioned by Homer and others 1). Now this place has one chief claim to fame: it is the birthplace of Amalthea, the goat who was privileged to suckle the baby Jupiter and who is regularly styled Olenian because of the town of her birth 2). The story of her elevation to the stars is told by Aratus in his description of the constellation Auriga at Phaenomena 156 ff. I quote 162-166: equated with the king of the gods himself, an equation which seems ne- cessary from Damoetas' opening lines. i) Iliad 2, 639; Pliny IV 5, 6; Strabo VIII 5, 387. 2) On the town of Olenos, its history and connection with the goat Amal- thea, see F. Bölte in RE XVII, 2, c. 2440-2441. Following a scholium to Arat. 164 for evidence, he feels certain that the goat received her name from the town. For a thorough discussion of the variations in her legend see Frazer on Fasti 5, 113 (vol. IV, 11-12). .
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