Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations Arts & Sciences Spring 5-15-2020 Protean Caves and Cyrenean Grottos: The Subterranean World of Vergil's Fourth Georgic Kirby Schoephoerster Washington University in St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds Part of the Classical Archaeology and Art History Commons, Classical Literature and Philology Commons, Geology Commons, Hydrology Commons, and the Speleology Commons Recommended Citation Schoephoerster, Kirby, "Protean Caves and Cyrenean Grottos: The Subterranean World of Vergil's Fourth Georgic" (2020). Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2047. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds/2047 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Arts & Sciences at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS Department of Classics Protean Caves and Cyrenean Grottos The Subterranean World of Vergil’s Fourth Georgic By Kirby L. Schoephoerster A thesis presented to The Graduate School of Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts May 2020 St. Louis, Missouri © 2020, Kirby Schoephoerster Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................................... III CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 1 CHAPTER 2 – CAVES AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE IN GREECE AND ROME ........................ 12 A. MEDITERRANEAN KARST: THEN AND NOW ................................................................................... 12 B. ANCIENT CAVES IN GRECO-ROMAN MYTH, POETRY, AND ARCHITECTURE ................................. 20 C. ANCIENT KARST AND CAVES IN GRECO-ROMAN SCIENTIFIC DISCOURSE .................................... 27 CHAPTER 3 – THE GEORGICS AND THE SUBTERRANEAN WORLD ....................................... 43 A. THE GEORGICS AND THE EPYLLION OF ARISTAEUS ....................................................................... 43 B. EVIDENCE OF VERGILIAN CAVES AND KARST ............................................................................... 52 CHAPTER 4 – CYRENE’S SPELUNCA ................................................................................................ 67 A. A HYDROGEOLOGICAL READING OF GEORGICS 4.315-386 ........................................................... 67 B. THE GEORGIC SPELUNCA AND THE IMPERIAL GROTTO ................................................................. 93 CHAPTER 5 – PROTEUS’ SPECUS .................................................................................................... 101 A. A HYDROGEOLOGICAL READING OF GEORGICS 4.387-452, 528-30 ............................................ 101 B. EROSIVE INTERACTIONS IN THE GEORGIC SPECUS ...................................................................... 122 CHAPTER 6 – ORPHEUS’ ANTRA ..................................................................................................... 127 A. A HYDROGEOLOGICAL READING OF GEORGICS 4.453-527 ......................................................... 127 B. THE GEORGIC UNDERWORLD AND ITS LINKING ANTRA ............................................................... 144 CHAPTER 7 – CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................... 148 A. IN MEDIO GURGITE: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF KARST IN THE EPYLLION OF ARISTAEUS .................. 148 B. CAVA MIRABILIA: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CAVES IN THE EPYLLION OF ARISTAEUS ...................... 151 APPENDIX OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... 156 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................................... 162 ii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I need to express my profound gratitude to Dr. Nicola Aravecchia, who eagerly agreed to advise my thesis. Thank you, Nicola, for all of your hard work, patience, and willingness to help at every stage of the (lengthy) research process. It was refreshing to work with a scholar who shares my approach to conceptualizing ideas and organizing arguments, and I enjoyed every moment of our productive meetings. Thank you for your enthusiasm, and thank you for burgeoning my passion to freely explore the ancient world. I would also like to thank my committee members, Dr. Kathryn Wilson and Dr. Jennifer Smith, for their invaluable help during the writing and defense stages of this thesis; their knowledge of ancient scholarship and modern geology respectively and their thought- provoking questions were indispensable to my research. Furthermore, I would like to thank Dr. Zoe Stamatopoulou for her unwavering support throughout my graduate school experience; her devotion to her students has been, and will continue to be, unbreakable. I would also like to acknowledge the profound support of Dr. Catherine Keane and Dr. Thomas Keeline for their open arms, warm smiles, and passion for learning that made me feel at home immediately upon my entry to the graduate program; those feelings will never leave me. To my family, thank you for all of your love and neverending encouragement, and to my partner Elizabeth Bews for your ability to keep me focused, sane, and happy not only through every stage of my thesis, but also through every stage of life that has transpired since my time at WashU. Finally, to my WashU friends, thank you for the cheerful comradery and stimulating, (mostly) scholarly discussions that I could expect on a daily basis. You made my time at WashU feel like home. Kirby Schoephoerster Washington University in St. Louis May 2020 iii For my father and mother Quod me vatibus eruditis inseruistis, sublimi feriam sidera vertice Chapter 1 – Introduction Si quis specus saxis penitus exesis montem suspenderit, non manu factus, sed naturalibus causis in tantam laxitatem excavatus, animum tuum quadam religionis suspicione percutiet. (Sen. Epist. 41.3) “If any cave, made by the deep hollowness of the rocks, holds up a mountain, a cave not built by hand but hollowed out into such spaciousness by natural causes, that cave will pierce your soul with a certain intimation of the existence of God.” Caves held a certain mystical, if not divine, significance among ancient peoples throughout the Mediterranean. William White says it best when he describes caves as essentially anthropomorphic spaces; earth’s void is interesting to humankind if it can be entered and explored.1 The Roman philosopher and natural historian Seneca (4 BCE – 65 CE) expresses a similar sentiment as he paints an interesting picture of how a Roman might perceive such a geological feature, which is quoted and translated above; caves and cave systems could exist as either man-made or natural spaces, though both are worth pondering. Seneca frames the beauty of the natural type as far superior to the marvelous abilities of the Roman engineers of his time and the aristocratic elite who commissioned caves to be built on their properties. But more importantly, the sheer sight of seeing such “openness” (laxitas) beneath a mountain, a geological phenomenon that is magnificent in and of itself, has the potential to create a sense of awe within one’s soul – a sort of proof that God exists in nature. Seneca’s statement above implies a sympathy towards nature that was quite prevalent among scholars during the early Imperial Period. The cave, much like the rivers, groves, and springs that helped the ancient Romans gain a foothold in Italy and eventually broaden their reach across the Mediterranean, held a special significance in the ancient psyche; the cave functioned not only as a place of refuge or source of life-giving waters, but it was also a place of spectacle that retained its divinity when left untouched, though the artificial embellishment of caves seems to have held a special place in ancient Roman society. 1 White 1988, 60. 1 A certain aura of mystery surrounds the nature of earth’s inner machinations. Just as in antiquity, scientists today know far less information about the insides of the earth than what lies on its surface. The simple fact that first-hand observation is blocked by soils and stone is foundational to the mystery of the subterranean world. Yet, we know, as did the ancients, that certain geological processes (e.g. volcanism, earthquakes, sinkholes, etc.) can allow humans to investigate these subterranean phenomena first-hand. The process of karstification, or the destruction of rock by means of highly soluble water, displays the earth’s hollowness, which, like the seismic processes of volcanos and earthquakes, offers humans the opportunity to explore and observe geological phenomena far below the surface by means of caves. These speleological observations are generally carried out in darkness and quietness, thus the nature of the cave as a dark, silent, and confined space has only strengthened its mystical qualities.2 In Greco-Roman antiquity, people made sense of their natural surroundings and local topographies in many ways,