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Full Moon and Marriage in Apollonius' Argonautica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

J. M. Bremer
J. M. Bremer
Affiliation:
University of Amsterdam
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Extract

There are two passages in which the poet introduces a full moon to accentuate a particular aspect of a scene in his narrative; 1.1228–33 and 4.166–71. I shall concentrate on the second. Commentators have contributed various suggestions but failed to understand the specific erotic-nuptial connotation of the full moon. The same applies to the more specialized contributions of Drogemiiller and Rose. I shall (1) first present the evidence for the nuptial associations of the full moon, then (2) apply this idea to the Apollonian passages, especially 4.166–71, and finally (3) add a remark about the special effect obtained by Apollonius here in relation to an Homeric passage (Od. 23.231–9).

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , December 1987 , pp. 423 - 426
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1987

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References

1 H. Fränkel, Noten zu den Argonautika des Apollonios (Munich, 1968),Google ScholarLivrea, E., Argonauticon liber IV (Florence, 1973)Google Scholar and Vian, F., Argonautiques tome III, chant IV (Paris, 1981).Google Scholar

2 Drogemüller, H. P., Die Gleichnisse im hellenistischen Epos (diss. Hamburg, 1956), 179–80;Google ScholarAmy Rose, Clothing Imagery in Apollonius Argonautica', QUCC 50 (1985), 38–9.Google Scholar

3 Scholia vetera in Pindari carmina, ed.Drachmann A. B., Teubner(Leipzig, 1927), iii.275. Erasmus Schmid in his 1616 edition of Pindar observed that in his day the same tradition prevailed: ‘Sane circa hoc tempus nuptiae auspicatiores per experientiam etiam hodie (my italics JMB) censentur’, quoted by Boeckh in his Pind. Epinic. (Hildesheim, 1963 = Leipzig, 1861), p. 547 ad Isthm. viii.44.Google Scholar

4 Gardikas, G. K., (Athens, 1962), 167, ad LA. 718.Google Scholar

5 Plutarch, fr. 105 Loeb ed. tome xv, p. 216 = ∑ Erga 782–4, ed. Pertusi, p. 244. According to Jacoby, Plutarch depends for this information on Philochorus; see FGH III B, Suppl. 1 (Text), 366.

6 A scholion ad Theocr. 2.10 refers to Pindar who had said in a partheneion (fr. 104 Snell & Mhler) that masculine lovers address their prayers to the sun, women to the moon. About the moon in general see Roscher, . H., ber Selene und Verwandtes (Leipzig, 1890)Google Scholar and Präaux, C., La Lune dans la pensee grecque, Acad. Roy. Belgique 2,61 (1973). Neither of the two scholars comments upon the passages in Apollonius' Argonautica.Google Scholar

7 This similarity has been pointed out to me by M. Reeve.

8 The nuptial interpretation of 4.167ff. is reinforced by 1.774–81: in that simile, too, nubile girls rapturously watch a splendid star rising in the sky (Hesperus), and one of them in particular is described as longing for the young man who will be her husband.

9 See de Jong, I. J. F.,Fokalisation und die homerischen Gleichnisse, Mnemosyne 38 (1985), 257–81, esp. 274Google Scholar

10 This switch had gone unnoticed by the commentators: Hayman 1882, Monro 1901, Stanford 1948. Fernandez-Galiano 1986 draws attention to it: ‘il v.232 indica che il paragone riguarda Odisseo...ma la similitudine si conclude in modo diametricalmente opposito: é benvenuto per sua moglie il ritornato Odisseo. Slittamenti analoghi ricorrono in altre similitudini’

11 The epithalamic quality of the Golden Fleece, here only suggested, will become luscious reality when Jason and Medea spend their bridal night on it, 4.1141–3.

12 It is of course hard to prove that Apollonius modelled his simile on the Odyssean one, and it is not vital for my argument.

13 I thank P. van Dorp for assisting me in an early stage; M. Reeve for correcting my English and for helping me to clarify my argument in part 2; and the anonymous referee of CQ for reminding me of what is now contained in notes 8 and 11.