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The Batrachomachia Die homerische Batrachomachia des Karers Pigres nebst Scholien und Paraphrase. Herausgegeben und erläutert von Arthur Ludwich. Leipzig, Teubner. 1896. M.20.
Thomas W. Allen
The Classical Review / Volume 11 / Issue 03 / April 1897, pp 165 - 167 DOI: 10.1017/S0009840X00026597, Published online: 27 October 2009
Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0009840X00026597
How to cite this article: Thomas W. Allen (1897). The Classical Review, 11, pp 165-167 doi:10.1017/ S0009840X00026597
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Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/CAR, IP address: 130.88.90.140 on 05 May 2015 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW. 165
THE BATRACHOMACHIA.
Die homerische Batrachomachia des Karers the language of the poem, and by the com- Pigres nebst Scholien wnd Paraphrase. parison of the parodic epic literature from Herausgegeben und erlautert von AETHUE Hipponax downwards, of which the chief 1 LUDWICH. Leipzig, Teubner. 1896. M.20. representatives are the fourth and third century gastronomic writers Matro and JUSTICE cannot be done to this monument Archestratus. These form a terminus ad of learning in the limits of a review. The quem, in contrast to which the style of the pretty poem of 303 lines in which the fates Batr. (when purged of its Byzantine accre- of the Frogs and Mice are recounted is tions) suits well with the literary circle of furnished with 483 pages of evidence and Panyasis and Herodotus. This date appears and illustration by Prof. Ludwich of so secure that I cannot but think the Kiinigsberg, who thus makes a most weighty attempt on p. 21 to connect the epithet addition to his long list of services to fxvo/jui)(M in Plutarch with fiveiv and /j-vaTiKr/ Homer.2 The editor tells us that it is o-ioyirfi supersubtle. §§ 7-9 contain many thirty years since he began to collect just and acute observations on the literary material, and he arranges beneath his text nature and intention of the poem; much the testimony of no less than seventy-four sound and moderate criticism will be found MSS. Prolegomena, 140 pp. long and therein. § 10 accumulates evidence to divided into 40 chapters, precede the text: shew how completely the Batr., though in it is followed by 109 pages of practically its origin a pure Traiyviov, became a Byzan- unedited scholia, 10 of paraphrase, 106 of tine schoolbook. The extraordinary abund- commentary, and the book ends with two ance of MSS. from the 10th to the 16th indices verborum, one containing the vocab- centuries, the unwonted and astonishing ulary of the poem, the other that of the wealth of alternatives (both of words and scholia, the latter of which, as the author of lines), and the purely didactic character says, will be useful to the next editor of of much of the scholia, to say nothing of Du Cange. the innocent and mildly moral tendency of the verses themselves, amply demonstrate I will briefly summarise the prolegomena. this. The Batr. in fact was the most § 1 'Thiersage' and § 2 'Thierepos' treat popular and widely-read member of the in an interesting way and with breadth of series of Constantinopolitan schoolbooks, erudition the relation of the Batr. to the which included the Prometheus Vinctus, the same or similar generic compositions in Electra, the Hecuba and Phoenissae, the Greek or Northern literatures; § 3 accumu- Plutus, bits of Pindar and Theocritus, and lates and discusses the evidence for the the early books of the Iliad. Had not the title, which Ludwich fixes as parpaxo/uixM, Turk stepped in to arrest, and printing to to the omission of -fivo-; §§ 4-6 settle the eternise, this development, these few speci- age and authorship of the poem. The mens would have been all that the western traditional ascription to Pigres, brother of world knew of Hellenic verse. the Queen of Halicarnassus who made herself a name at Salamis is supported by § 11 enumerates 74 manuscripts, of which four, Barocci 50 (this is perhaps X—XL), 1 I take this opportunity—as I am not likely to publish anything on the Homeric Hymns for some Laur. XXXII. 3 (C of the Iliad), Paris months to come—to make an observation or two on suppl. grec. 690, and Escorialensis O. I. 12 the interesting discussion that has been going on in belong to the 11th century. Of the rest two are of the 12th, four of the 13th, nine of 1 regret that Prof. Tyrrell (Feb., p. 28) thinks that no one shares his confidence in the soundness of his the 14th, two 14th—15th, some forty-five of iaao, Herm. 33. The Oxford editors did what they the 15th, the remainder of the 16th. § 13— could in this sense by printing it and K&C ^fiiar' also § 34 are taken up with the establishment of (Dem. 12) in their text. classes and families among this crowd of Mr. Agar's pious prayer (p. 31) has been heard. I documents; I have read them with lively do not rely on Mr. Platt's metrical canon. But the ' analogical but unauthenticated' ovcop is likely to interest and admiration. They are a model appear in the next Oxford edition unless in the of patient and rigorous method. To the meantime Mr. Agar provides something better than a truth of conclusions like these naturally ovaap KO1 Tro\h x«PM - A place will be found for ovSi no testimony of value can be given except ere K^aei, Apoll. 53. 2 The edition absorbs L.'s Konigsberg programmes by those who have gone through the same on the same subject, 1894. process as the author, and this perhaps a NO. XCV. VOL. XI. 166 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW. reviewer may be excused. Prof. Ludwich by the extensive and explicit information (p. 56) arranges his troop into 4 classes, that we possess upon the Alexandrine and which contain respectively 4, 3, 3 and 2 pre-Alexandrine text; the Hymns are like families; the representatives of. the 1st the Batr. in their neglect by classical anti- class are Barocci 50, and Paris suppl. 690; quity, but their tradition is scanty and there of the 4th, the Florentine and Escurial are no signs that Byzantine instructors added MSS., while the 2nd and 3rd classes contain largely to their bulk. The very number of principally late copies. The editor believes lines of the Batr. varies materially in in the goodness of the older MSS. rather different copies. A well-thumbed school- than the younger (and here I imagine most book, extensively reproduced by the publish- readers will agree with him); of classes 4 ing trade, of naturally ambiguous semi-epic and 1 he prefers the 1st, and throughout style, it offered uncommon facilities for his text pays deference to the evidence of addition and alteration. The separation of Barocci 50—a beautifully-written book, these later additions from the original stock which contains mainly grammatical treatises forms the principal task of criticism on the utilised by Cramer in his Anec. Ox. but Batr. The editor with characteristic also a quantity of minor Greek verse, modesty prints two columns of text; in the among which it is to be regretted that former he puts the traditional readings Pindar, Theocritus and the Homeric Hymns selected from the MSS. mostly, though not do not find a place. invariably, according to the canons of their These sections contain a great deal of goodness already ascertained; in the second, most interesting matter bearing upon the his own reconstruction of their common peculiarities of the text of the Batr., which archetype. It is not to be supposed, nor only long familiarity with the documents does the editor anticipate, that this recon- would qualify a reviewer to appraise. I struction will satisfy the learned public in may be permitted to mention the more all points. Indeed failing papyrus, our only general qualities of impartiality, objectivity friend, these ancient documents will remain and moderation, as distinguishing the inves- to the end of time things on which we must tigation from most others of the same sort. agree to differ. Meanwhile for critics other A modified eclecticism is the editor's prin- than ' brilliant,' the one profitable principle ciple, and no other, it appears to me, unless is to abstain from conjectures that are under exceptional circumstances, is reason- imperatively ruled out by the elementary able. The accidents of time and circum- conditions of palaeography. stance are so incalculable that to regard one To criticise half the sore places in family or one MS. as the depository of all the Batr. would need a separate treatise. truth is to sacrifice the facts to 'method.' I must content myself with noticing a § 34—§ 38 treat the scholia, paraphrase and few points in the first hundred lines. glosses, over which great labour has been V. 1. apxofKvos irpunav fiovcrZv \opbv l£ spent. § 39 describes the archetype of the 'EXtKaJvos codd. irpomjs creXiSos Z. I cannot existing MSS. as the editor represents it to think Trpconjs o-tXiSos original: the word is himself. He carries back with some proba- not cited earlier than Posidippus, it is bility the Byzantine text, in its main peculiar to Z, and seems more natural to a features, to the time of Alciphron and schoolboy than a poet. Perhaps it was Herodian the grammarian. invented to meet the difficulty of apxpiicvos The constitution of the text of the Batr. irpayrov. V. 3. rp> vcbv iv SCXTOUTIV ifiaiis iirl is a very interesting question. The editor yovvam' OTJKO. ii's alteration of ftjxa into remarks with justice that there 'existirt O-qcro) seems unnecessary : the poet lays his ausser ihr kein anderes griechisches Gedicht theme upon his knee and asks for inspir- von ebenso massigem Umfange mit ebenso ation. The scholiast's paraphrase is substan- iibermassiger Verunstaltung.' The variants tially right, tjv iv TOIS £i]8A.ois iyypdi/xov KOX are of the most bewildering sort and unite \apd.TTiav ST/XOVOTL iOrjKa iv TOIS e/stois yovacrw. every known category of corruption. Mr. viov is adv. V. 8
X jj ml iv 7ro\t/to«n /}(/^| putting such additions into good hexameters c/x/xerai. dAA aye Qasraov ir/v yevtrjv ayoptvt would have been the difficulty. (3) There om. Oxf. Rom. Par.2 (three families of the is no reason why these lines should have same class). The lines are unnecessary it is undergone more metrical corruption than true, but not on that account late; they the rest. To say they resided on a margin belong to the commonest category of epic and therefore (though why ?) were damaged, variant, the dispensable supplement, eijv = is to beg the question. Such lines as oiM a-rjv is not conclusive; Aeschylus uses kavrov irore irroXifioio KaKrjv ouriipvyov avrfpr, njSu/ttos &c. for the second person, and in the loss OVK aTtitpvyev VTTVOS Saxvoiros tfwio, avOpunrov of serious epic literature between the ov SeSia Kahrep (leya aaifia
POSTGATE'S EDITION OF THE SEVENTH BOOK OF LUCAN. M. Annaei Lucani Be Bello Civili, Liber attractive for his brilliancy of epigram, and VII. With introduction, notes and so disappointing for his shallow soullessness critical appendix by J. P. POSTGATE, and redundant rhetoric, this book will be of LITT.D. Cambridge, University Press, the utmost service. The historical introduce 1896. 2s. tion gives a full and vivid account of the battle of Pharsalia, based on a comparison To those who wish to be introduced to the of the ancient authorities. The exact peculiar style of this poet, at once so learning and conciseness of the notes leave