NOTE on GREEK ANTHOLOGY XIV 24 Greek Anthology XIV 24. Thou Seest Me ... Dionysus. a Double Womb Bore Me, and My Father Presides
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NOTE ON GREEK ANTHOLOGY XIV 24 Greek Anthology XIV 24. Thou seest me ... Dionysus. A double womb bore me, and my father presides over memory. He first generated me, a merciless creature carrying a beast, and having slain the dear son of my sister the fawn, I no longer carry a beast, but the sky, and sea, and earth, and the holy company of the gods ever imperishable. I Paton remarks that the riddle is obscure, but that the last lines evidently refer to a panther, which on losing its last syllable (ther-beast) becomes pan (the universe). I should like to suggest two alterations, one in the Greek, the other in the English translation above. For .. gcov I should suggest I and instead of Paton's words 'having slain the dear son of my sister the fawn', I should submit 'Having slain the dear son of my sister's fawn'. May not the answer to the riddle be 'MAN'? Man is A16vuaoq - the human Dionysus-in that, like the god, he has two mothers; for Dio- nysus is 'Bimatris' (Ovid. Met. 4, 1 2 ) an epithet ridiculed by Martial (5, 72 ) . Prometheus, according to one legend, produced man out of water and earth (Ovid ?Vlet. i, 80). If Prometheus is man's father, water and earth are man's two mothers. Prometheus (Hor. Odes I 16, 13) gave man some of the qualities of every beast. Hence in a riddle man may be playfully termed 'Pan-ther'. Prometheus has claims to be one who presides over memory. He himself says, in Aeschylus, that he invented for men 'the combining of letters where- with to hold all things in memory' (P. V. 46o-i, in the translation of H. Weir- Smith). That the natural prey of the panther may be a fawn is suggested by `nap8aaceS 't'e:Good rrpox«8wv (h. Ven. 71). The phrase 'fawn's son' may be used to represent the deer, and the Elaphebolia or the 'Shooting of the deer' was the great festival of Artemis. An interesting link with Dionysus is the fact that his greatest Athenian festival, the Great or the City Dionysia, fell in the month Elaphebolion, named after Artemis' festival. Artemis was Dionysus' sister, since they had a common father, Zeus. Man being a Dionysus, assumes the right to call Artemis sister. When the 'panther', man, slays its natural prey, Dionysus' sister's deer-such a deer as the one whose slaying gives its name to Artemis' festival-a is re- moved. The removal of '-ther' from 'Panther' leaves 'Pan', the Universe. 340 II Two things in the preceding paragraphs may appear unusual. The first is that a fawn should be termed 61¡p, and the second is that earth and water should be presented as 'mothers' of man. whose first meaning is 'beast of prey' seems to be strangely used of a fawn or its offspring. However, 0ip came eventually to mean any living creature, being used of dolphins (Arion 1, 5) and of vermin (Aristophanes Av. io64). In the Greek Anthology, the word is applied to many types of creature. Mosquitoes are in G.A. V 131. In G.A. XIV 19, is used of a louse. In XIV 43, 8uw are mentioned, namely a dog and a bull. The word being capable of such wide application, especially in enigmas of the Greek Anthology, it is perhaps not too much to claim that fawn can be termed a Earth and water may appear to be strange examples of motherhood, especially if man is claimed as their offspring. Earth, at least, is granted equally remarkable motherhood elsewhere. In G.A. XIV 23, the epigram preceding this, an earthen vessel is called 'a son of earth', uL6q. Other queer examples of motherhood appear in the Greek Anthology. The least surprising instance is perhaps in XIV 31, where gTp6q a thigh, is said to be the second mother of wine--a reference to Jupiter's thigh and Dionysus. In XIV 40 night and day are not only sisters but mothers of each other. (v. also XIV 41). In XIV 55, the union of an elephant and a goat is said to have produced a clyster, 'a child made of good leather and white-tusked'. In XIV 61, a tree is the mother of pitch, and fire its father. Two of the four elements recognised by the ancients, namely earth and fire, are therefore allowed in the enigmas of the Greek Anthology to enjoy the status of parents of rather surprising children. May they not be joined by a third, water? University College of the West Indies A. G. CARRINGTON MONA,Jamaica QUID SIGNIFICET "APOCOLOCYNTOSIS" Viginti quattuor annis abhinc in his actis 1) quid mea sententia Senecae in Claudium mortuum saturae titulus proprie sibi velit exposui. Demon- strasse mihi videbar-nec non hodie videor-non verti ioci cardinem in similitudine quadam vocum q.s. &'1tOxo).,oxú'J't'(i)cnc;et sed translatis verbis uti Senecam in principem sibi invisum ea poena, quae &.1tOpcx.cpiX'JL8(i)O'?C; diceretur, absurdius in maius aucta. Quin etiam afferendis compluribus fabulis ex recentissimis temporibus usque ad ipsam antiquitatem deinceps ascendentibus probare conatus sum exstitisse comoediam graecam, Menan- dri ni fallerer, quae reapse maritum nescio quem tali poena in adulterum faceret utentem. Omnia illa repetere supersedeo; satis sit lectorem ad dictam disputationem revocasse. Varie, ut fit, de interpretatione a vulgata tantopere discedente viri docti 1) Mnemos. IIIa Ser. 1 (1934), 1-27. .