Accademia Editoriale

Notes on Catullus and the Appendix Vergiliana

Author(s): Edward Courtney
Source: Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici, No. 59 (2008), pp. 185-188
Published by: Fabrizio Serra Editore
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40236370
Accessed: 25-02-2016 12:41 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/
info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Fabrizio Serra Editore and Accademia Editoriale are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 189.101.120.213 on Thu, 25 Feb 2016 12:41:57 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 EdwardCourtney
Notes on Catullus and the Appendix Vergiliana

Catullus
roseisut hi[n]clabellisson<us ed>itus abiit
geminasfdeorumf ad auresnoua nuntiareferens
(6374-75)
speech of Attis reaches the ears of Cybele. In 74 (not that
it affects my point) in déférence to Diggle, «md» 57, 2006, 103 I
adopt Froehlich'ssupplément. In 75 the great and manifest absurdityof
«the twin ears of the gods» has justly raised much suspicion, but every
word except that obelized is perfectlyblameless (certainlygeminasis), so
emendation should try to limit itself to that word. Some emendators
have indeed attempted to do this, but all their attempts (e.g. Lachmann's
matrisand Riese'sand Munro'sdeaeturn)are open to obvious objections;
my attempi is deaeusque,in which usquesuitablyunderlines the distance
which the sound has to traversebetween Attis and Cybele. How could
this havebeen corrupted?This way :when de(a)eusque was understood as
deusque,'and god\ and this made no sensé, it was altered to something
which provided a veneer of sense, enough to satisfy Friedrich,Kroll,
Mynors, Quinn, Goodwin, Thomson among modern editors (but not
Goold), though it was repeatedly pointed out that deurnministrain 68
constituted no parallel. The galliambics of this poem admit élisions
which would be counted harsh in dactylic mètres: 5 ila acuto(a certain
emendation), 32 tympanoAttis, 70 algidäIdae, 85 seseadhortans.

ClRIS
sed neque Maeoniaepatiunturcrederechartae
nec malusistorumdubiiserroribusauctor.
(62-63)
The authoris arguingagainstthe views of those who identify the Megar-
ian with the Homeric Scylla. 63 as transmittedgives the opposite of the
sense required,which is most simply restored by altering nec to et; the
corruption will be due to nequein thè preceding line. The sense is now
that the source of the misguided theory is unreliable;one would like to
know what auctorthe poet had in mind. As for the discussion in Lyne's
commentary,it is sufficient to quote the last sentence of his note, «My
last suggestion, that thè text may be lacunose as well as corrupt, may
be tantamount to an admission that I am on the wrong track».

«md» · 59 · 2007

This content downloaded from 189.101.120.213 on Thu, 25 Feb 2016 12:41:57 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 i86 EdwardCourtney

66-69(Whetherthe motherof the HomericScyllawas Crataeisor Echidna)

siue necutraparensatquehoc in carminétoto
inguinisest uitium et Venerisdescriptalibido
(68-69)
These Unesreferto those who interpretedthe Homeric Scyllain allegori-
cal terms, but it is absurdto say that this version permeates the whole
Odyssey (hoccarminé).Alter tototo tecte,which will suitably denote an
allegorical meaning 'underlying'the surface narrative.
candidacaesarieflorebanttemporaflaurof
(121)

This line describesthe hair of Nisus which surroundedhis purple lock,

and, as in thè line of Catullus discussed above, every word in it seems
innocent except the last, which is due to scribal recollection of three
Unes of Vergil ending in temporalauro(Aen.3.81,5.246 and 539). If we
simply replace \aurowith an adjective for caesarie,we shaUhâve a Une
perfectly formed in the style which this poet émulâtes, with adjectives
and nouns in the pattern aBAb and a verb in the middle. From ElUs'
old ocT I learn that M. Kreunen, Prolegomenain Cvrin(diss. Utrecht
1882),which I hâve not seen, proposed \arga,but good paraUelsfor this
are hard to find; the best is Silius 7.601togumquecomae,brought to my
attention by Professor A. J. Woodman. My own suggestion is longa;ci.
Ovid, Met. 1.450longoquedecentiacane / tempora.For candidusapplied
to the white hair of old âge see old, s.v. 4b, and for temporain relation
to hair at the temples Verg. Aen. 5.416temporibus geminiscanébatsparsa
senectus,Mart. 10.83.3temporibus... comatis(the long hair at the temples
is combed back to cover a bald crown), as well as Ovid quoted above.
There is also Prop.2.18.31-32 si caeruleoquaedamsua temporafuco / tinxerit,
which cornes in a poem chastising Cynthia for dyeing her hair blonde,
though its exact interprétation is not quite clear.
378-380(Scyllatriesto reconcileNisus to thè idea that she shouldmarrythe
hostile Minos,but his resolutioncannotbe shaken);
tantaest in paruofiduciacrinecauendi.
'fiducia cauendi makes a very odd phrase' Lyne; Goold in the Loeb
Vergil, reproducingthè rendering of his predecessor Fairclough,trans-
lates 'confidence in warding off perii', which is a distinctly loose ren-
dering. Lyne refers to old, s.v.fiducia 3b for four instances foUowedby
a gerund or gerundive, all of which are patently irrelevant,but also to
Livy33.14.5 fiduciamactedecernendi,which is much doser because, unlike
fiduciamimpetrandi,it does not imply a verbal form Uke
e.g. Livy 37-35-2.
fidit se esseimpetraturum.

This content downloaded from 189.101.120.213 on Thu, 25 Feb 2016 12:41:57 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Notes on Catullusand the AppendixVergiliana 187
However, this parallelstill does not confer sensé on thè combination
in the Ciris ('confidence about taking précautions'!). I suggest that it
should be <ne>gandi («confidence in refusing her request»), corrupted
through haplographyafteraine, with the remnant read as candi.Wood-
man adduces Quintü. (?) Deci. Min. 265 (p. 99.13Ritter)fiducia negandi
(there meaning «denying», not 'refusing').
uos ego, uos adeo, uenti, testabor,et aurae,
uos, f numantinafsi quae de gente uenitis,
cernitis?illa ego sum cognatosanguineuobis
Scylla(quod 0 salualiceatte dicere,Procne).
(407-410)

408 numantana saipsisse atque ipse mutasseuideturG. quae Bothe, qui coàâ.

Scylla appeals to non-human witnesses of her sufferings.What do we

need in 408?First,mention of birds, since otherwise neither those who
are being invoked nor the reader will know who or what is being in-
voked. Second, an indication that not just all birds are in question, but a
spécifie dass of them, namely those who hâve sufferedmetamorphosis
from human form (a foreshadowing by the poet of Scylla's eventual
fate), and in particular,since uos 408 and uobis409 must hâve the same
référence, Procne and Philomela, for whom this poet adopts or invents
the version that they were actuallyrelated to Scylla (see Lyne on 200 f.).
It is therefore likely that humana(originally suggested by Leo, whose
discussionin Ausg.kl. Sehr.2.127-128is perceptive)was présent in this line
(cf. 198 uosqueadeo,humanosmutataecorporisartus). It is also likely that
qui should be altered to the feminine, since even if it were generalising
masculine it would most inappropriatelyinvite thoughts of Tereus. Ail
that leads to the conjecture uos, auium humana,'you who among the
birds corne from the human race1;auiumwill be partitivegenitive. The
corruption could hâve been caused by haplography, thus: a<uium>
humana,and then this will hâve been read as 0 numana.I wonder if the
interpolatorof this hadjuv. 8.11Numantinosin mind (I am assuming that
G's original readingwas merely a slip), unless as well as the haplography
there was also a dittography thus: a<uium> human[tin]a.

Catalepton
quis te in terrisloquituriucundiusuno?
Clio f nam certet candidanon loquitur.
(4.9-10)

In correspondencethè late ProfessorW. S. Watt and I discoveredthat we

had each independently conjectured tarn(so Casaubon)grate;he then
noticed this reading printed in Goold's Loeb édition but not attributed

This content downloaded from 189.101.120.213 on Thu, 25 Feb 2016 12:41:57 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 i88 EdwardCourtney
to any source, and indeed with no indication that it is a conjecture.
Neither of us could trace it to a source; can anyone help?
(referringto Hippodamiaand Oenomaus)
saepe animamgeneripro qua paterimpiushausit,
saepe rubrof similisf sanguinefluxithumus;
regianon Semele...
(9.31-33)

similis seems to be due to Semele,but though this explanation removes

any need to restore something graphically similar, one does hanker
after something that would give more reason for the scribe's eye to
wander, and would add more to the sensé, than Sabbadini'spro qua. I
suggest that miserimight hâve enough letters in common with Semele
to provide some sort of justification, and find support in Ovid Ibù 367-
368 (also referringto Oenomaus)
ut qui perfusammiserorumsaepe procorum
ipse suo melius sanguinetinxithumum.
Charlottesviïle, Virginia

This content downloaded from 189.101.120.213 on Thu, 25 Feb 2016 12:41:57 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions