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On Trajection of Words or Hyperbaton
J. P. Postgate
The Classical Review / Volume 30 / Issue 5-6 / August 1916, pp 142 - 146 DOI: 10.1017/S0009840X00010428, Published online: 27 October 2009
Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0009840X00010428
How to cite this article: J. P. Postgate (1916). On Trajection of Words or Hyperbaton. The Classical Review, 30, pp 142-146 doi:10.1017/S0009840X00010428
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Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/CAR, IP address: 128.122.253.212 on 24 Apr 2015 142 THE CLASSICAL KEVfeEW e ejus Callimachus in suo poemate est of the words /M»X°? " F px usus exordio; sive vulgare, quo Cre- being mutilated from KaXXt/tago?. He tenses fallaces - appellabantur, sive also suggests that Callimachus, who [Migne has sine by a misprint] furto appears to be the oldest authority for alieno operis in metrum rettulit.' the story, may have got it from Euhe- I cannot enter here on the question merus; a view which receives strong whether the Xprja/iol or the Mivwi was support from Cicero, De Nat. Deor. I. the. origin of the words in the Syriac 119, ' Ab Euhemero autem et mortes et commentaries; but surely Mr. Nicklin sepulturae demonstrantur deorum'; and cannot be right in his forced repunctua- that the account of the wounding of tion of Diogenes Laertius, by which he Zeus by the boar, for which this Syriac would show that the MH<<»9 rj 'PaSd- commentary is apparently the only fiavffvs was written in verse. The order authority, was a confusion .with the of the words seems quite decisive myth of Adonis; and that the state- against him, and in favour of Gress- ments of the Syriac writers are of post- mann. Nor can I here try to trace to Clementine origin. He also thinks that which work the several fragments belong it is certain from Clement, Strom. I. (see Diel, Frag. Pre-Socr. p. 493). xix. 91, that he cannot have known the But who was the Cretan poet regarded lines attributed to Minos; for in quoting by them as a prophet, ' who was thought Acts xvii. 22-28 he mentions Aratus by some to be Maxenidus'? (Ishodad only. I must leave this question to on Titus i. 12). ' It is a confusion with those who have studied the relations the letters that make Epimenides,' says between the Syrian and the Greek Dr. Rendel Harris; but I am bound to theologians. But I may perhaps be say that two eminent Syriac scholars in allowed to express a doubt' whether Oxford, whom I consulted, cannot see these quotations ought to be written any great resemblance between this back into hexameters at all, even as word and Epimenides when written in pseud-epigrapha. This raises a wider Syriac. But Professor Margoliouth has question; and I only set out to show made an interesting suggestion. Find- that the position of Dr. Rendel Harris ing that the MS. of Ishodad which he and Mr. Nicklin is difficult to maintain, possesses gives the name as MKSNNIDUS, and that the lines which they have he conjectures from Clement, Protrept. printed are not a genuine fragment of II. 37, Zijrei aov rbu Aia . . . 6 Kprj? the philosopher Epimenides. croi Sir)yij ON TRAJECTION OF WORDS OR HYPERBATON. INTELLIGENCES trained from the out- 343 ' ab Hyrcanis Indoquealitorest/Mw'1 set to regard the succession of words as a severe but wholesome shock. How the ultimate arbiter of their construc- desperately this shock is resented the tion, to expect the subject to precede attempts at its emendation show: Phasis its verb and the object to follow it, to Withof and uulsos Schrader for siluis, tie the prepositional phrases which now do duty for cases to the words that 1 Like Professor Conway in his article ' On the Interweaving of Words with Pairs of they define or determine, and to con- Parallel Phrases,' Classical Review, xiv. (1900) form to all the other rigid conventions PP- 357 sQQ-t I use italics to show the corre- of expression which an absence or a spondences of the words in question, not the paucity of inflexions involves, and by punctuation marks employed by Madvig Adver- saria 2 p. 71 and others after him, with their this training of necessity habituated to misleading modern associations. The effect view order as the basis of syntax, receive of such marks is not to reunite the separated from such a line as that of Lucaii VIII. words but to disjoin the rest. THE CLASSICAL REVIEW 143 Indorum limite for Indoque a litore Bur- Ovid Met. 2. 524 ' Argolica quod in ante man. Exact parallels to our disturbing Phoronide fecit' for ante in or Phoronide passage may be found in Ovid Met. 8. 9 3 1 'inter honoratos medioque in uertice ante, Prop. 3. 4. 18 'et subter captos canos,' Manilius 1. 429 ' discordes uultu arma sedere duces' but not Prop. 3.1. 4, permixtaque corpora partus' (with as some think, because of *'. It may be Housman's note), and again in Lucan noted that in these trajections the 5. 800 ' fertur ad aequoreas et se pros- limitation of vi. (below) is generally ternit karenas.' observed. Collections of such dislocations of Hi. Copulating and contrasting con- order have been made at various times.1 junctions introducing coordinated sen- But no classification, so far as I know, tences may be postponed.—This is so has been attempted. I propose there- common that it excites no surprise, fore to state briefly the conditions or except with que or ue whose enclitic restrictions to which they appear in character and the accident that in Latin general to conform. texts they are printed as an appendage In doing so I shall not take account to the preceding word make the licence of arrangements of words in single sen- appear greater than in the case of et or tences, such as the separation of con- aut. How frequent, for metrical con- nected words or the inversion of the venience, is this postponement in the members in pairs of corresponding pentameters of Tibullus and Ovid we words (chiasmus), that we find strange are all aware. but which are an integral part of the iv. Relatives and conjunctions intro- rhetorical machinery of Latin speech, ducing accessory or subordinated sentences although such arrangements are some- may be postponed.—This is common times included under Hyperbaton.2 enough, even in prose, with certain con- Further I shall for the most part deal junctions, especially cum. So also with with trajections by which a word or quod, si, ne, quoniam, etc. The extent of word-group is moved not merely from postponement does not seem to matter, the place but also from the' clause or provided the main verb does not precede sentence where we expect to find it. the conjunction. So the prose writers i. The prime condition of hyperba- and, in general, the poets. An excep- ton is this : that to a mind accustomed tion in Ovid Her. 3. 19 ' si progressa to regard the import of inflexions and forem caperer ne nocte timebam ' where to consider sentences as wholes, the also nocte belongs to the si clause, Mad- construction, and therefore the sense as vig I.e. determined by the construction, must To come to connected clauses or sen- be obvious, or, in other words, there tences. must be no real ambiguity. If this is v. In airo KOVVOV constructions, such not the case, as it would seem to be in e.g. as we have in comparisons, a noun an insignificant minority of instances, or verb may, contrary to expectation, the liberty of trajection has been appear in the subordinate instead of in abused. the principal member of the expression. Within single sentences we may next Ov. Her. 12.26' quam pater est illi, tam note as specially disturbing to our mihi diues erat.' In Hor. S. 1. 3. 9 sq., notions of propriety a passage which I have already fully ii. The appearance of prepositions at discussed in the Classical Review, xv. some distance from their cases.*—Copa (1901) 303 ' saepe uelut qui | currebat 2 1 fugiens hostem,' currebat appears in the 4 ' ad cubitum raucos excutiens calamos,' place of currit, i.e. ' saepe currebat uelut qui currit.' 1 E.g. Professor Housman has several copious vi. Adjacent single words or indivisible ones in his notes on Manilius and elsewhere. phrases may exchange places and so 2 E.g. in Kiihncr's Lateinische Grammatik, get just outside their own clauses or ed. Stegmann, vol. ii., pt. 2, pp. 618 sqq. 3 Their immediate postposition as in Lucr. sentences. The frequent variation in 1. 841 'ignibus ex' is a different matter and the succession of words connected •does not concern us here. syntactically, as noun and attribute, 144 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW verb and object, doubtless facilitated this trajection. Catullum' and Silius Italicus 11. 459 sqq. 'sed quos pulsabat Rhipaeum ad Lucan 5. 321 ' hie fuge si belli finis 3 placet ense relicto,' i.e. ' fuge, hie ense Strymona nerui \ auditus-sttpcris-auditus- relicto,' 3. 679 'hostilem cum torserit monibus-Orpheus | emerito fulgent clara 3 Z inter sidera caelo' where the phrase exeat hastam,' 7. 685 sq. ' quamque 3 1 fills a whole line. fuit laeto per tres infida triumphos tam vii. Words which are obviously in misero Fortuna minor,' 1. 14 ' hoc close syntactical connexion may be moved 3 1 still further apart if they occupy corres- quem ciuiles hauserunt sanguine dextrae.' 3 X ponding positions in the verse. Hor. S. 1. 5. 72 ' paene macros arsit For the hexameter in addition to dum turdos uersat,' 2. 1. 6o'quisquis Lucan 8. 343 and the parallels already „ 3 1 adduced see Manilius 1. 262 ' ut sit erit uitae scribam color,' ib. 3. 211 ' Aiax idem mundi primum quod continet immeritos cum occidit desipit agnos.' arcem,' Lucan 9. 232 sq. ' nam quis erit finis si nee Pharsalia pugnae \ nee Pom- Virg. Aen. 2. 303 sqq., ' arrectis auribus 3 1 peius erit.' ib. 636 sq. is similar but adsto I in-segetem ueluti cum flamma easier ' hoc habet infelix cunctis impune furentibus Austris | incidit . . . stupet Medusa | quod spectare licet.' inscius . . . pastor.' The sense re- For the pentameter see Catullus 66. 18 quires ' adsto ueluti, in segetem cum, ' non ita me diui vera gemunt iuerint," etc., stupet pastor.' Lucretius 3. 843 Ovid Tr. 1. 8. 24 'supremo dum licuit- 2 I que die,' id. F. 1. 263 sq. ' inde, uelut ' et si iam nostro sentit de corpore post- nunc est, per quem descenditis (inquit) quam | distracta est,' 5. 177 'natusenim I arduus in ualles et fora cliiius erat.' debet quicumque est uelle manere | in viii. Sometimes an obviously unfinished uita' and many other places, from expression is interrupted by the inter- amongst which I cite two I had ex- position of a word or indivisible phrase. plained by hyperbaton before I had 3 1 Lucan 7. 33 ' tu velut-Ausonia uadis. formulated this limitation, Catullus 66. 3 1 moriturus in urbe,' ib. 797 sq. ' ac yj sq. ' dum uirgo quondam fuit omni- bus expers | unguentis' (Classical Philo- ne-laeta furens scelerum spectacula per- logy 3. 257 sqq.} and Ter. Andr. 971 sq. dat I inuidet igne rogi miseris,' Statius 3 Thcb. 9. 135 sq. ' uidit quamquam un- 'num ille somniat | ea quae uigilans 1 dique cvebrae j Hippomedon ante-ora- uoluit ?' (ib. 10. 263 sq.), uigilans be- minae '; cf. Ovid Met. 4. 436 sq. ' nouique 2 I longing to somniat. I qua-sit-iter, manes Stygiam quod Within a sentence also the simple ducat ad urbem, | ignorant' This interchange of two words will often licence is in principle the same as restore a normal order. So in Horace Ennius's ' saxo cere comminuit brum ' cartn. 3. 4. 19 sq. ' ut premerer sacra which is perverse enough, but wholly I lauroque collataque myrto' and Tibul- clear of ambiguity. 2 1 The chief subject, if in the nomina- lus I. I. 24 'io messes et bona uina tive, may be thus deferred. So in the date.' Allow the shift, and there is hyperbaton which I have argued nothing remarkable in the reference of should be restored to Propertius 2. 32. the attribute to both the nouns. So 33 sqq., where the construction is some- with a genitive Lucan 8. 367 sq. 'illic what complicated by an a-tro KOIVOV- 3 1 ' ipsa Venus quamuis corrupta libidine et laxas uestes et fluxa uirorum \ uela- Martis | nee minus in caelo semper menta uides.' honesta fuit | quamuis Ida Rhea pas- The expression ' indivisible phrase' torem dicat amasse | atque inter must be construed with some liberality. pecudes accubuisse deam,' that is ' ipsa As examples take Horace S. 1. 10. 19 2 Venus ... in caelo semper honesta. ' nil praeter Caluum et doctus-cantare fuit nee minus (in c. s. honesta fuit). THE CLASSICAL REVIEW 145 Rhea quamuis Ida' etc. American If uolucres means ' birds,' then uolucres Journal of Philology 17 pp. y] sqq. is corrupt, because in 984 Lucretius ix. Lastly there are cases where has said 'nee Tityon uolucres ineunt words belonging grammatically to the Acherunte iacentem' and if birds do not latter of two connected sentences or words tear the giant, still less do they tear the are placed in front of the former, for the lover. But uolucres does not mean sake of emphasis.—So in coordinated ' birds'; it is the adjective epithet sentences Terence Ad. 917 '. tu Mas of curae, as anxius is that of angor. abi et traduce,' Manilius 4. 534 ' se Says Lucretius ' There is no Tityos quisque et uiuit et efferV In both cases prostrate in Acheron and devoured by a normal order would have been less birds of prey. The real Tityos is the effective. In Lucretius 3.196 ' namque man with us who is prostrated by love papaueris aura potest suspensa leuisque or other passions ' — for ' in amore I cogere ut ab summo tibi diffluat altus iacentem' compare Tibullus 2. 5. 109 aceruus' papaueris has for the same sqq. 'et mihi praecipue, iaceo cum reason been moved from the subordinate saucius annum [ et (faueo morbo cum to the principal clause. iuuat ipse dolor) usque cano NemesinT These are the chief points observable —' and whose breast is torn by winged in the treatment of hyperbaton by anxieties.' For the image in uolucres Latin poets ; and in the consideration compare Hor. carm. 2. 16. 11 sq. ' curas of particular instances they ought none laqueata circum | tecta uolantis' and of them to be excluded from our view. Theognis 729 sq. (ppovTiBes uvOpdnrnv The same passage may combine more xp TTepa TTOIKIX' eypvaa | /j.vpo/J-evai than one kind of displacement as several tyXV? eivexa KCU fiiorov. Lucretius has of the examples' already given will framed his sentence with great art; but show; and the explanation of any single comprehension has been thrown off the displacement need not necessarily be track by the addition of the clause single. The order adopted by the writer atque exest anxius angor which, like those may be dictated by more than one con- of which specimens are quoted under sideration. The analysis of particular ix., has no effect upon the main con- passages must be left to the student. struction ' quem uolucres curae in But two of the harsher hyperbata may amore iacentem lacerant aut alia quauis •with advantage be examined here. scindunt cuppedine.' Neglecting the Juvenal 3. 309 : parenthetical insertion, uolucres and curae in the following line are seen to be qua fornace graues, qua non incude catenae ? in corresponding positions (vii.). Com- This verse is a rearrangement of ' qua pare for their separation raucis—cicadis fornace, qua incude non catenae graues?' Non has been moved in front in Verg. Eel. 2. 12 sq. ' at mecum raucis of incude (vi.) and graues has been tua dum uestigia lustrp | sole sub placed in the first half of the hexameter ardenti resonant arbusta cicadis.' so as to correspond with catenae (vii.). Of all the users or abusers of hyper- Apropos of Juvenal the hyperbaton baton Ovid, true to the character which propounded with some hesitation by the elder Seneca Rhet. Contr. 2. 2. 12, Mr. Housman at 4. 115 sq. ' caecus gives of him, is, as Madvig /. c. and adulator dirusque a ponte satelles dignus Munro on Lucr. 3. 843 have said, one Avicinos qui mendicaret ad axes' will of the most licentious. The sense lae a case where vi. has been at work to however even with him is usually per- spicuous, provided that the words are move a ponte, already mentally figured 1 as in front of the dignus qui clause, still read and not simply surveyed. So in further from mendicaret. Am. 3. 5. ir-14 ' candidior niuibus turn The second passage, Lucretius 3. 992 1 sqq., is one on which I and others have ' Man darf auch eins nicht vergessen: der rOmische Dichter konnte auf ein Publikum von wasted our pains: Horern rechnen und ein sinngemasser Vortrag sed Tityos nobis hie est, in amore iacentem ist oft der beste Kommentar/ R. Hildebrandt, •quem uolucres lacerant atque exest anxius angor Beitrdge zur Erklarung des Gedichtes Aetnay «aut alia quauis scindunt cuppedine curae. p. 28. NO. CCLIX. VOL. XXX. 146 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW cum cecidere recentes, | in liquidas non- Horace marks the prominence of his dum quas mora uertit aquas; | candidior mea in Ep. 2. 2. 20 sqq. ' dixi me pigrum quod adhuc spumis stridentibus albet | proficiscenti tibi, dixi | talibus officiis et modo siccatam lacte reliquit ouem.' prope mancum ne mea saeuus | iurgares We may not unreasonably disapprove ad te quod epistula nulla rediret.' of the separation of candidior and lacte ; But the feeling for rhythm and re- but to call it an obscurity is to ignore gard to the balance of speech-groups the candidior niuibus of the preceding had much to do with producing hyper- couplet. Four lines further down baton. In its milder forms trajection a 1 of words was recognised by the ancients ' atque iterum pasto pascitur ante cibo' themselves as a legitimate stylistic we have a licentious change in the device, Cicero Orator 230, Quintilian meaning of the verb and a false Inst. 8. 6. 65; and Professor Conway chiasmus; but the sense is perfectly has rightly drawn attention to this side obvious to one who has read the * re- of the matter in the paper already cited uocatas ruminat herbas' of the previous Classical Review I.e. p. 358a. line. It may be added that here too Rome A word in conclusion on the causes followed in the wake of Alexandria; or motives of hyperbaton. One of these is a reaching after emphasis. Examples Callimachus fragm. 445 ovS' odev oiBev of this have already been given and more might be added. Ovid Ibis 3 sq. 68 eve 1 0PI)TO<; avrfp, Theocritus 29. 3 ' nullaque quae possit scriptis tot milibus Kr/ya> fiev TO SOME CRUCES IN VIRGIL RE-CONSIDERED. Eclogue i. 69. This passage also disposes of Coning- A PAPER by Mons. L. Havet in Revue ton's objection 'that aliquot would de Philologie, vol. xxxviii. (1914), reopens naturally distribute aristas, whereas the the discussion of a classical difficulty. equivalent to messis is the plural aristae, Meliboeus, resigning himself to exile, not the singular arista.' indicates the end of the earth by four Seneca's authority is peculiar in points (Africa, Scythia, the Oaxes, literary questions which have to do with Britain), and then adds a half-despairing the Augustan writers, because of his hope of future repatriation : father's extraordinary lifetime. Old Seneca was only about fifteen years en umquam patrios Iongo post tempore finis pauperis et tuguri congestum caespite tec- junior to Virgil; he might have been tum, familiar with the first, and any sub- 69 post aliquot mea regna videns mirabor sequent, editions of Virgil's works, and aristas ? with the earliest generation of com- M. Havet begins by remarking that mentators. All this fund of firsthand ' for Servius and all the ancients aristas information, recorded in his phenomenal means messes,' particularising Claudian. memory, he represented to his sons. This is rather a misleading selection : if I find it impossible to pass by Seneca's it were merely an opinion held by testimony in favour of aristas=messes. scholars who lived 400 years later than And this word once established in Virgil, it would not be of decisive, though meaning, the weak point is defined. It still of considerable, importance. But is aliquot. Aliquot aristas 'several it is clear from an imitation in Troades 76 summers' is, as M. Havet (and others) that Seneca so understood Virgil: have argued, a shocking bathos for et Sigeis trepidus campis Virgil. But I cannot sympathise with decumas secuit messor aristas. his opinion that mirabor is unmeaning.