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Culex 62FF.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2013

Duncan F. Kennedy
Duncan F. Kennedy
Affiliation:
University of Liverpool
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Extract

The narrative of the Culex has scarcely begun, with a herdsman leading his goats out to pasture (42–57), when it is interrupted by a lengthy formal digression in praise of the blessings of a herdsman's life (58–97). An initial exclamation at the herdsman's felicity is followed by a complex negative enumeration of the appurtenances of wealth which are no part of his simple rural life (58ff.):

      o bona pastoris (si quis non pauperis usum
      mente prius docta fastidiat et probet illis
      somnia luxuriae spretis) incognita curis 60
      quae lacerant avidas inimico pectore mentes.
      si non Assyrio fuerint bis lota colore
      Attalicis opibus data vellera, si nitor auri
      sub laqueare domus animum non angit avarum
      picturaeque decus, lapidum nee fulgor in ulla 65
      cognitus utilitate manet, hec pocula gratum
      Alconis referent Boethique toreuma, nee Indi
      conchea baca maris pretio est, at pectore puro
      saepe super tenero prosternit gramine corpus…

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society (Second Series) , Volume 29 , 1983 , pp. 48 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s). Published online by Cambridge University Press 1983

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References

NOTES

1. The text quoted is that of Clausen, W. V. in (edd.) Clausen, W. V., Goodyear, F. R. D., Kenney, E. J., Richmond, J. A., Appendix Vergiliana (1966)Google Scholar.

2. E.g. Hor. Sat. 1.1.108ff., Carm. 3.16.17f., Epist. 1.2.56ff., 1.18.98, Tib.2.4.29. Envy was a symptom of the μεμψιμοιρία which was a favourite target of Hellenistic moralists, cf. Rudd, N., The Satires of Horace (1966) 12ff.Google Scholar, and C. A. van Rooy, ‘Horace Sat. 1.1 and 1.6 and the Topos of cardinal vices’ in (edd.) Hanslik, R., Lesky, A., Schwabl, H., Antidosis: Festschrift für Walther Kraus (Wiener Studien Beiheft 5, 1972) 302–4Google Scholar.

3. Hermathena 42 (1920) 68Google Scholar.

4. Hermes 81 (1953) 58Google Scholar.

5. Phoenix 21 (1967) 45Google Scholar.

6. On the subjective and empirical nature of values in the Epicurean system cf. de Lacy, P., TAPhA 88 (1957) 114ffGoogle Scholar.

7. lapidum refers more naturally to jewels (cf. Thes. Ling. Lat. VII 2.951. 40ffGoogle Scholar.) than to statues (Courtney, n.5 above). Fulgor seems too vivid a term to apply to the reflective qualities of marble (elsewhere, for example, it is used of plate (Hor. Sat. 2.2.5), gold (Lucr. 2.51) and weapons (Hor. Carm. 2.1.19)), and jewels were a conventional target for moralistic condemnation, cf. Hor. Epist. 1.6.18, Maec. fr. 2 (Morel), Tib. 2.4.27, Petron. 55.12 and especially Hor. Carm. 3.24.47ff. nos in mare proximum/gemmas et lapides, aurum et inutile, / summi materiem mali, / mittamus, with the same criterion of value as in Culex 65–6.

8. Except in Manilius, who has it 17 times (listed by van Wageningnen, J., Mnemosyne 47 (1919) 342Google Scholar), this use of manere is not very common, but compare for example Sil. 8.213 omnis iam placata manet … ira deorum and Claud, . IV Cons. Hon. 504Google Scholar quam fixa manet reverentia patrum. This use of manere seems to give to the verb concerned a durative sense not found in esse, suitable when the action of the verb is envisaged as having taken place in the past, with the effects of that action remaining in force to the present, cf. commendata manent in Lucr. 4.861, quoted above. The poet of the Culex uses manere very freely, cf. 38 lucens mansura, where it forms a quasi-future participle of lucere, and 141 umbrosaeque manent fagus, where it is hardly more than an equivalent to esse.

9. Bücheler, F. (RhM 45 (1890) 327Google Scholar), followed by Leo, F. (Culex. Carmen Vergilio adscriptum (1891) 39Google Scholar) and Courtney (n.5) would read a future in 64, and Bücheler, and Plésent, C. (Le Culex. Edition critique et explicative (1910) 116Google Scholar), who read manet in 66 without seeing its correct function, attribute to it a future force.

10. Cognitus … manet is strictly speaking a perfect, but by implication its sense is present, cf. n. 8 above.

11. Cups made of clay (Tib. 1.1.39f., Ov. Met. 8.668, Juv. 3.168, 10.25, 11.20, 108, Petron. 135.14) or of wood (Virg. Ecl. 3.37, Tib. 1.1.8, Ov. Met. 8. 669f.) were conventional symbols of the simple rural life in Roman poetry.

12. As I argue elsewhere (CQ n.s. 32 (1982) 377–82Google Scholar), the Hamadryads are here figures representing poetic inspiration.

13. Studia is a term often applied to a poet's process of composition. I have noted Catul. 68.26, Ov. Tr. 3.7.11, 4.1.101, 5.3.10, Pont. 2.10.11, 3.5.37, 4.2.23, 4.8.82, Stat. Silv. 1 praef., 3 praef. (bis), 4 praef., 5.3.33, Mart. 1.101.1, Juv. 7.1, 17, Claud, . Panegyr. Prob. et Olyb. 150Google Scholar.

14. Cf. Ar., Nub. 43ff.Google Scholar, Kier, H., De laudibus vitae rusticae (diss. Marburg, 1933) 4ffGoogle Scholar.

15. For example, the negative enumeration of the appurtenances of wealth which provides the syntactical structure of Culex 62ff. occurs prominently also in similar or related contexts in Lucr. 2.24ff., Virg. G. 2.461ff., Hor. Carm. 2.18.1ff., Prop. 3.2.9ff., Ov. Am. 1.3.7ff., Lygd. 3.13ff., [Sen.] H.O. 658ff.

16. Cf. Theon, apud Rhet. Graec. (ed. Spengel, )Google Scholar 2.128.16, Themistius, Or. 30Google Scholar Θέσις εἰ γεωργητέον, Libanius, Έγκώμιον γεωργίας (Vol. 8 (ed. Foerster, ). 261–7)Google Scholar, Εύγκρισις ἀγροῦ καὶ πόλεως (8.353–60).

17. This device Horace may have adapted from Archilochus, cf. Fraenkel, E., Horace (1957) 60Google Scholar. On the withholding of information as a literary device cf. Cairns, F., Tibullus: a Hellenistic poet at Rome (1979) 144ffGoogle Scholar.

18. Poetices libri septem (Lugdunum, 1561, repr. Stuttgart, 1964) 322Google Scholar, cited by J. B. Hall in his note on Claudian ad loc.