John Lydus, De Mensibus (Book 1) [1] 1. Rightly, then, those who <composed accounts> of the mythical [matters] represented Cronus as doing away with his own children: they were hinting, I suppose, that time [chronos] is both father and destroyer of all those who are begotten by him. †pharygos. 2. The servants of Dionysus called their procession thriambos, from thyrsi and iambi1— that is, "jibes"—as though [the word was] thyrsiambos. Or [the word came] from throein ["to cry aloud"], according to Plutarch.2 3. The Lydians (they say) discovered wine—and not only wine, but also the fig-tree. 4. The Romans decided to call wine "mustum"—that is to say, mystês ["initiate"]. The Sardians were the first to use the term "mystery." 5. Sabinus was well-named, after his husbandry of the vine. For the name Sabinus signifies "sower" and "planter" of wine.3 6. Calabria [is called] Messapia, from Messapus. 7. Lucania [means] "very thicketed." For the Romans call a thicket a lucus [2] by way of negation—from the lack of light,4 as [we speak of] an "untimbered" forest.5 8. Evander first brought letters (the so-called Cadmeian [letters]) from Greece to Italy;6 there were not as many as there are now, for antiquity did not pass them down in that way. There were only six in addition to 10: invented later were xi and zeta and psi, for double [consonants], theta and phi and chi for aspirates, eta and omega for long [vowels].7 Of old there were five vowels, with epsilon filling the role of eta, and omicron that of omega, as is still the case even now among the Romans; their value changes only with respect to [length] of time. Later, Marcus Flavius, an Italian grammar-teacher, following the Greeks, added the remaining letters for the Romans.8 Time indeed tends to transform things. 1 Thriambos is the Greek original term later incarnated in the Latin triump(h)us, "triumph." The thyrsus was the wand carried by worshippers of Dionysus; iambi ("iambs") would be the kind of poetry implied to have been part of the celebration. 2 Plutarch, Marcellus 22, explains ovation rather than triumph; but an etymology from throein (and iambizein) is found in Cornutus, De natura deorum 30. The first explanation given is not otherwise fully attested, but Thriambos was an epithet of Dionysus. 3 I.e., combining the verb sero ('to sow') [perf. pass. ptc. satum] with vinum ('wine'). 4 John is alluding to the Latin word for light, lux (gen. lucis), as the supposed origin of the word lucus. For the famously illogical explanation, cf. Servius on Aen. 1.22 (lucus a non lucendo). 5 Cf. Homer, Iliad 11.155. 6 Cf. Hyginus, Fabulae 277; Tacitus, Annals 11.14.3-4. 7 For 16 original letters, with eight added later, cf. also Pliny, NH 7.192. 8 Here, there seems to have been confusion with Spurius Carvilius Ruga, a grammar-teacher who introduced the letter G (Plutarch, Roman Questions 54 and 59), or with Gnaeus Flavius, the clerk of Appius Claudius Pulcher (Martianus Capella, De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, 3.261), or with the "Salvius" mentioned by Isidore of 9. The Phoenicians were the first lenders and usurers, and so they contrived letters and weights and, in a word, profit; hence the poets call them shop-keepers. But let us go back to where we turned aside. 10. They refer to Geryon as "three-bodied," not because he actually had the use of that number of bodies, but because three islands which lie in the Ocean were allied to him. 11. [When] myth [relates] that Erylus,9 [a ruler] in Italy—whom Evander, the son of the prophetess Carmenta, seized and [thus] occupied his territory—[was] "three-souled" it is hinting at most [3] philosophical matters.10 For Socrates, in the Phaedo, teaches that the soul has three faculties: the mind is the charioteer, and the powers of the soul are the horses.11 Thus too the Oracles decree that one must bridle the soul: And it is necessary for one who is mortal, intellectual, to bridle the soul, so that it may not fall into the ill-fated land, but instead be saved.12 For since the nature of the universe derives from opposing forces, there is a necessity to accommodate the opposing principles to the soul which has passed through everything. Indeed, its reasoning part comes from the monad—that is, mind; its spirited and appetitive parts from the dyad—that is, matter. Even so, the Oracle teaches that the entire soul is a divine triad; for it says: …having mixed the soulish spark with the two concords, mind and divine will, in addition to which he placed a third, holy Love, the august one who mounts and connects all things.13 12. There was in Italy a certain Circe, notable for her birth and remarkable for her beauty, who fell in love with Odysseus when he was wandering in Italy with Diomedes; after being united with him, she bore him Auson, who later took power over the entire territory, and from who[se name] the western [land] was called Ausonia.14 At any rate, this Circe boasted that she was the daughter of Helios on account of her exceedingly great beauty [4], and in honor of her own father, I suppose, she was the first in Italy to celebrate a chariot race,15 which indeed was Seville (Orig. 1.4.10) as having introduced the letter K into the Latin alphabet. L. Pedroni, "'Μάρκος Φλάβιος γραμματιστὴς Ἰταλός': Un commento a Lido, De mens. I, 8-9 W," L'Antiquité Classique 73 (2004), pp. 191-202, hypothesizes that M. Flavius, Carvilius, and Salvius may all be distorted reflections of the same reform (in the 3rd cen. B.C.), with the name as given by John possibly being attributable to confusion with the Marcus Flavius who assisted Julius Caesar in his calendrical reforms (Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.14.2). 9 Spelled Erulus in some sources. 10 Vergil, Aen. 8.563-5, with Servius' commentary. 11 Phaedrus (not Phaedo), 246ab, 253cd. 12 Chaldaean Oracles fr. 113 Des Places. 13 Chaldaean Oracles fr. 44 Des Places. 14 For Auson, son of Odysseus and Circe, cf. Servius on Aen. 8.328. 15 Lit., "equestrian competition." See Humphrey, Roman Circuses, p. 94, for the connection of Circe with the origins of chariot-racing. Treatments of the symbolism of chariot-races and hippodromes such as the one offered by named circus after her. In Greece, Enyalius, the son of Poseidon, earlier conducted two-horse [chariot-races]; and Oenomaus later [conducted] four-horse [chariot-races]. This latter was king of the Pisaeans, and he put on the chariot race in the month of March, on the 24th, when the sun was at its height. He himself would wear leaf-green or leek-green, for the earth, while his opponent [would wear] blue, for the sea; and those [who lived] inland took joy in the green, while those [who lived] on the coast [took joy] in the blue. As a prize for this competition, for anyone who defeated him, Oenomaus put forward his own daughter Hippodameia—but whoever was defeated would be immediately killed. Now then, when Pelops was going to compete against Oenomaus on the basis of the agreements as specified, Hippodameia saw him, fell in love, and betrayed to him her father's tricks, whereby he used to win out over his competitors, and thus contrived for Pelops to win. And he, after winning, immediately did away with Oenomaus, married Hippodameia, and ruled over Greece for 38 years; and he called this [area] Peloponnese, from his own [name].16 But now let my discourse return to the former subject. The aforementioned Circe first began the practice of chariot races in Italy, and established there a hippodrome, of four stades in length, and one [stade] in width.17 Its middle part she made of wood, calling this [5] foundation "Euripus"—perhaps from the [Chalcidian] Euripus, and from its seven-times back-and-forth course, because indeed that [sea-passage] turns its movement to the opposite direction seven times a day.18 And also, there is a pyramid in the middle of the stadium; and the pyramid belongs to the Sun / Helios, since nearby, unshaded, [lies] that sort of altar.19 For while all the [other] light- bringing heavenly bodies produce shadow, that one alone is apart from this [i.e., shadow]. And at the ends of this Euripus, on both sides, altars were erected—three above the pyramid, [namely those] of Cronus, Zeus, and Ares; and three likewise below [it, namely those] of Aphrodite, Hermes and Selene.20 [There are] two tripods, of Helios and Selene and a woman wearing a flat bowl on her head—[this] is the Earth, who is bearing the sea. And at the conclusion of the competitions, trumpets summon the victors to their prizes; and [there are] twelve starting- machines, in imitation of the twelve signs of the Zodiac. The man who stands in the middle and holds the [starting-]signal [6] for the race is called a mapparios, from what happens regarding the business at that point: The consuls were permitted to feast beforehand in the theatre, and after their feast, to cast away the napkins [they used to wipe] their hands—in the Roman language, these are termed mappa, from which [comes] also [the term] mandulia—and the so-called mapparios picks these up and then immediately celebrates the games. And around the pyramid, which they now call the obelos, the competitors make no more than seven circuits (which [are called] spatia, that is, "stades," and missus, meaning "contests")—on account of the fact that a mile consists of seven stades, and that there are seven planetary circuits, which the Chaldaeans call firmaments, apart from that of the moon—because the "dung" of all material substance extends as far as that, according to the Oracle.21 John here below proliferated in the 6th century (cf.