An Exegetical Note on Val. Fl. 1.42 Patrias . . . Aras

Miscellanea / M. Caballero González / Mnemosyne 66 (2013) 477-483 477

An Exegetical Note on Val. Fl. 1.42 patrias . . . aras

At the beginning of his Argonautica, Valerius Flaccus presents the basis of the whole poem, namely the grounds for Jason’s expedition to Colchis and the reasons given by Pelias to his nephew for obtaining Phrixus’ Golden Fleece. The context of v. 42 is the pre-history of the Argonauts’ journey, but now told and retold according to the usurper Pelias. If the core of the Argonautica tells the story of the return of the Golden Fleece to Greece, the beginning of the poem speaks about another journey, the one that Phrixus made on the ram to flee with the Fleece from his stepmother’s plot and his sacrificial death on a holy altar:

hanc mihi militiam, veterum quae pulchrior actis, 40 adnue daque animum. nostri de sanguine Phrixus 41 Cretheos ut patrias audis effugerit aras. 42

Pelias motivates Jason’s journey by appealing to the much-discussed topic of their common blood, of the clan’s revenge, and of the stained honour of the family.1) In this paper I am only interested in the ambiguous expression of v. 42 patrias . . . aras. The thesis I would like to present is that the adjective patrias does not need to refer exclusively or primarily to Phrixus’ father, but also and better to a spatial concept of the sacrifice, i.e. to Greece.

Pelias tells Jason that Phrixus escaped2) from the patrias altars. Almost all schol- ars have interpreted this word in reference to Athamas. So too does Mozley in

1) As is well-known, the usual version of Athamas’ myth presents Phrixus as Athamas’ son and Athamas himself as Cretheus’ brother. Tiro, who has Pelias from Poseidon, will marry Cretheus and she will give birth to Jason. The innovation of Valerius Flaccus lies in making Athamas Cretheus’ son. As Langen, (1964, 25) explains, only because of these words, “possunt ita explicari, ut dicamus consanguinitate coniunctum indicari Phrixum cum Iasone et Pelia”. 2) Contino (1973, 53) notes the failure of the consecutio temporum law and corrects Valerius’ verse as Cretheus ut patrias audisti effugerit aras; he explains that Pelias uses the improper tense effugerit because he “vuole sensibilizzare gli echi lontani della fuga di Frisso”. In fact, Carrio had incorporated the reading audisti in his edition. However Samuelsson first (cf. Spaltenstein 2004, 83, where he critizes Burmann), and Liberman afterwards completely disagree with this opinion; Liberman (1997, 147, note 10) gives the following reasons: “audis est assuré contre audisti de C. par les parallèles de Virgile, Én. 6, 791 . . .; Ovide, Fastes 5, 197-198”.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2013 DOI: 10.1163/1568525X-12341218 478 Miscellanea / M. Caballero González / Mnemosyne 66 (2013) 477-483 the Loeb (“our kinsman fled from the altars of his father”), Zissos in his Oxford commentary (“Phrixus . . . once fled from his father’s altars”) and Dräger in Peter Lang (“Phrixus den väterlichen Altären entflohen ist”). Most of the commentators do not devote any attention to this expression, such as Langen, who says nothing about this verse. Spaltenstein ingeniously rejects adopting the interpretation of patrias when he studies this verse and he refers to the remarks of Val. Fl. 1.279, where Valerius speaks about the iniustas . . . aras, as we will see very soon. But even in this moment he refers only to the word aras, and not to the adjective patrias: “Le singulier iniustam aram était possible et aras est sans doute un pluriel poétique . . . plutôt que Val. imagine deux autels parce qu’il y a deux sacrifices”3) Finally, Zissos makes only a brief remark: “Phrixus’ narrow escape at the point of immolation is treated in more detail at 278-82”;4) nothing else. There are only two commentators who explain the adjective patrias. The first is Dräger, who explains the reason for Phrixus’ flight: “Athamas wollte auf Anstiften seiner zweiten Frau Ino seinen Sohn (Phrixus) aus der ersten Ehe mit Nephele an einem Altar opfern (,väterliche Altäre‘); Phrixus entfloh jedoch mit seiner Schwester Helle auf einem von Nephele gesandten Widder mit goldenem Fell, den Hermes (Mercur) ihr gegeben hatte, nach Colchis”.5) The second is Kleywegt, who says something very similar: “Phrixus, son of Athamas and his first wife Nephele, was victimized by his stepmother Ino, who nearly caused him to be sacrificed by his father (patrias . . . aras). He was saved (effugerit) by a ram sent by Nephele”.6) Both understand then patrias as “father’s”. The exception to this overwhelming majority of editors and commentators, who understand that the sacrifice was performed by Phrixus’ father, is Liberman. He translates the v. 43 precisely so: “Phrixus, qui est du sang de notre Créthée, a fui les autels de sa patrie”. So Liberman thinks that Valerius Flaccus does not indicate the executor of the sacrifice, but the place where this sacrifice ought to have been fulfilled. However Liberman does not explain why he has preferred this option against the communis opinio. In fact, in his commentary he only says: “Rapprocher de patrias . . . effugerit aras Ovide, Mét. 15.723-724. patrias . . . aras / linquit (voir la note de Bömer) et Valerius, 1, 42; 279; 379; 521”.7) However, Ovid does not in fact understand patrias in this verse in a geographical sense, but in a genealogical sense: patrias at Ovid, Met. XV.723-4 means “father’s”. In Met. XV

3) Spaltenstein 2002, 128. 4) Zissos 2008, 109. 5) Dräger 2003, 321. 6) Kleywegt 2005, 43. 7) Liberman 1997, 147, note 10.