WATER AND WINE AS SYMBOLS OF INSPIRATION BY N. B. CROWTHER

It has long been suggested that drinking from holy streams (or founts) in Greek and Roman poetry symbolized different approaches to poetic endeavour: Maass 1), followed by Wilamowitz 2) and Kroll 3), for example, believed that epic poets drank from Hippo- crene, elegiac poets from Aganippe. Yet the evidence for assigning specific functions to these streams will be seen to be rarely clear-cut, if at all. The related problem of the "debate" between the water- drinkers and wine-drinkers seems equally complex. Can we see the drinking from streams in Roman poetry as symbolic for the initia- tion of the poet, or acceptance by him, of Alexandrian, i.e. Calli- machean poetry? It is certainly a feature which permeates the writing of many of the major Roman poets, and therefore is of considerable importance in the literary development of these authors.

The first Greek author to speak of holy streams is , who names Hippocrene, Permessus and Olmeus on Helicon as bathing- places of the ( I ff.) 4) ; he seems also to mention a

1) E. Maass, Untersuchungen zu Properz, Hermes 31(1896), 375 ff. 2) U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Hellenistische Dichtung, II (Berlin 1924), 95. 3) W. Kroll, Studien zum Verständnis der römischen Literatur (Stuttgart 1964. First publ. 1924), 29. 4) For Hippocrene, see E. Sittig-F. Bölte, Hippokrene, RE VIII 2 (1913), 1853-57; for references to Permessus, cf. Nic. Ther, 12 ; Strab. 407, 411 ; Virg. Ecl. VI 64 ; Prop. II 10, 26 ; Stat. Th. VII 283 ; Mart. I 76, II ; VIII 70, 3 ; Claud. laus Seren. 8; Mart. Cap. 809 ; Hsch. IG VII 1855, 4 ; Paus. IX 29, 5 (Termessus); Orph. Argon. 123 (Telmessus). See E. Kirsten, Per- messos, RE XIX (1938), 869-72. For Olmeus, cf. Stat. Th. VII 284 (Hormie in MSS); Strab. 407, 411 ; Nonn. Dion. VII 236 ; Philostr. Imag. 414 K; Callistrat. ecphr. 7, 30 K. Cf. E. Kirsten, Olmeios, RE XVII (1937), 2490. See also M. L. West, Hesiod Theogony (Oxford 1966), 153 f., W. Wimmel, Kallimachos in Rom (Wiesbaden 1960), 227, V. Mumprecht, Epitaphios Bionis (Zürich 1964), 97 f. (for general references to poets and streams). 2

fourth unnamed stream 5) ; all are apparently equally associated with the Muses. Yet his symbol of inspiration is not water, but the laurel-rod given him by the Muses (vv. 29 ff.) 6). It is important to note with Hesiod that in the Theogony there is no mention of actually drinking from these streams, and that he refers to Hippocrene, Permessus and Olmeus seemingly without distinction. It is the later writers of epigrams who speak of his inspiration from holy streams: the first of them, Alcaeus of Messene of the third century B.C. states that he tasted the pure fountains of the nine Muses (A. P. VII 55). Asclepiades (or Archias) mentions the laurel-branch given by the Muses, but also the inspiring water of the Heliconian spring, Hippocrene (A. P. IX 64) 7). Antipater of Thessalonica (in an epigram on the merits of wine and water to be discussed later) also mentions the water of Helicon as inspiring Hesiod and refers to Hippocrene () (A. P. XI 24). Hippocrene (Pegasus) is also said to be the stream from which Homer drank, while Bion was inspired by Arethusa (Moschus III 76 ff.) 8). The earliest poet to speak of his own inspiration from holy streams, Pindar, is inspired by none of the above named streams, but drinks from Thebe while composing his poetry (0. VI 84-87) 9 ) . It is with Callimachus, however, that the crux of the problem seems to lie, although it is important to notice that in the frag- ments there is no actual reference to drinking water from holy

5) Cf. (v. 3). See West, op. cit., 152, A. S. F. Gow and D. L. Page, Hellenistic Epigrams, II (Cambridge 1965), 18, (who conjecture that it is Aganippe), W. J. Verdenius, Mnemos. IV 25 (1972), 227-8. 6) Cf. A. Kambylis, Die Dichterweihe und ihre Symbolik (Heidelberg 1965), 67, for the symbol of the laurel-rod. 7) The actual name Hippocrene is not mentioned (as often), but is used in this article for the stream created by the horse's hoof; cf. Arat. 216 ff. ; Paus. IX 31, 3 ; Ov. Met. V 256 ff. It is usually identified with Pegasus, but even here there is confusion; cf. [Prob.] on Georg. III 10. Pegasus will be placed in brackets after Hippocrene where the name occurs in the text, as A.P. XI 24 (infra). 8) Cf. Ov. Am. III 9, 25 f. 9) Cf. also I. VI 74 f. Drinking from streams for inspiration is said to derive from seers who drank from a sacred spring before giving prophecy. Cf. Kambylis, op. cit., 113-16, W. Berg, Early Virgil (London 1974), 152 n. 57, for references.