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Aeonta Tekein1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

G. W. Dyson
Affiliation:
University College, Southampton.

Extract

In his recent pamphlet on Herodotus the Historian, Friederich Focke has discussed the lion-portent which accompanied the birth of Pericles: έκ δἐ Ίππоκπἁτεоς Μεγακλἑνσ τε Ξλλоσ καὶ ᾈγαπίоτνς, ὶ;ϰλ· ίλπ ταὶ ᾽Αγαριστŋς ίхоυσα τò о;νоѵоνα. ῆ σооνικńσασί τε ξανθίππψ τῷ᾽ Απιφρоνоς καὶ ἔλκυоς éоûα είδε ὄψℓν ἐν τῷ ὕπνῳ. ἐδὁκεε δἐ λἑοντα τεκεῖṿ καὶ υετ᾽ ợλίγας ἡυἑρας τίκτει Пερικλἑα ξανθίππψ. As this is the only occasion on which Herodotus mentions Pericles by name, those critics who are concerned to show that Herodotus was ‘Pericles' man’ have made much of the passage, and have deduced therefrom that Herodotus here means to express all his pent-up admiration for Pericles, which otherwise the scope of his work did not give him an opportunity of displaying. This admiration is at least conveyed in cryptic form, and Focke, following up a hint of Nissen that Pericles is here called a lion ambiguously, combats the view that Herodotus is expressing great reverence for him; and after examining fifth-century parallels, comes to the conclusion that Herodotus was repeating (whether as a mere marvel or with some personal arrière pensée he cannot decide) a tradition that had been set afoot as a purposely ambiguous and derogatory reference to Pericles as a ‘tyrannical man of might.’ After an examination of Focke's evidence, however, I remain unconvinced. It seems possible to account for most of thes quotations which Focke makes by bringing them into line with the ordinary Greek use of leonine symbolism, which, as I shall try to show, was complimentary, not derogatory

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1929

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References

page 186 note 2 Fr. Focke, , Herodot als Historiher (stuttgartKohlhammer, 1927), pp. 29 sqGoogle Scholar. See also Cl. Rev. XLII. (05, 1928), p. 86Google Scholar. The reference to Herodotus is VI. 131.

page 186 note 3 see, e.g., Jacoby, . R.E.Suppl. II. 238, I sqqGoogle Scholar. SO How and Wells, ad loc., speak of ‘this exaltation of Pericles.’

page 186 note 4 Histor., Zeitschrift LXIII. (1889 420Google Scholar.

page 186 note 5 Focke denies the possibility of deducing from the passage, with certainty, Herodotus'own feelings towards Pericles.

page 187 note 1 Compare, e.g., Rep. 588c sqq. with 440e sq. So far as I know plato never speaks ill either of θνυός or of λέων.

page 187 note 2 E.g. Plat, . Rep. 341CGoogle Scholar.

page 187 note 3 Pax 1189.

page 187 note 4 Suidas, s.v.: Cornutus Epidrome 31Google Scholar, should be compared, compared, where, in a discussion of the attributes of Heracles we read: ὸ υἑν λἒων τὀ ἀλκιυὡτατοṿ τῶν θ·πλℓων ṿōγι, δè óπαλν τò καρτατατον τ⍵ν.

Suidas s.v.: µἠ, ρρòς λéοντα. δορκàς ἠ;ψωυαι υίχŋς –έπℓ τήν νιòων. It is rendered Possible, however, by Et. Magn., s.v. λεοντοκóυος, that the expression may have had a different connotation from that given to it by Suidas: ίλλ' ℓσωὡς ῆδоρκàς άς ίνεψγυéоυς έν τψ καθεῦδεℓν τоùς όφθαλυоùς хει και λоℓπùν ùρóνоℓαν παρéχει τоς óφθαλυоúς, έπειδή τŵν ôφθαλŵν υεℓίλων ðντων τό éπικℓνενоν δèρνα τоîςδφθαλνоîς ωκρὸτερὸν Ậστℓ, καℓ оύ δúναταℓ σκεπίσαιαύτоúς .

page 188 note 1 See Pagenstecher, , unteritalische Grabdenkmāler, pp. 51Google Scholar., and Brandenburg, , Mitt.d.Vorderasiat. Gestllschaft XIX. 2 (1914), 55 sqqGoogle Scholar.

page 188 note 2 Ed. Meyer, , Reich and Kultur d. Chetiter, p. 62Google Scholar, for the meaning and origin of the symbolism; also his index, s.v. Löwe, for examples. Brandenburg, l.c., speaking of animal reliefs on the facades of tombs in Asia Minor, remarks that the 'animals, mostly lions, have an apotropaic significance: they are the watches whose duty is to guard the grave against sacrilge. He also calls attention to Etruscan parallels.

page 188 note 3 I cannot pass these verses by, however, without making the suggestion that they derived eventually from an Orphic source. This suggestion is supported on purely internal that the prince of a court where Onomacritus and the South Italian poets Hourished (see Kern, , Orpheus, pp. I sq.Google Scholar) should have been connected with verses of Orphic origin. The stress on the inevitability of justice and retribution is found in Orphism, whose personification of Δℓκŋ seated at the side of Zeus caught, the imagination of Plato and the fourth century (see Legg.IV. 715e, and [Dem] XXV. 11), and which held that even the crimes of impious ancestors must be expiated (Kern, , Orphicorum Fragmenta, No. 232Google Scholar, with which should be compared Plat. Rep. II. 364b; to Kern's, bibliography should now be added Lagrange, Rev, Backgroue (1920) 435 n. 32Google Scholar, and Nock, Pagan Background of Early Christianity 136 n.2).

As for the first verse, the thurian Orphic tablet, p.16, line 4 (Olivieri), seems to provide a parallet, which gives practically the same sence: χαîρε παθὡν τò πίθŋυα. τò δ' оðπω πρоσθ éπεπὸνθεℓς. In this connexion it should be remembered that (1) there is no reason why the verses on these tablets should not have ben taken from an Orphic poem descriptive of the underworld; in fact, their form with its dialogue in hexameters, interspersed with catch phrases in prose, seems explicable only on some such assumption (see also Gruppe, in Rosecher, : s.v. Orpheus 1124)Google Scholar. (2) Kern, has shown in Hermes (1916)Google Scholar that the sentiment expressed on the tablets is closely bound up wit the myth of human contamination owing to the crime of the Titans. The soul in the blemish. The sentiment of the lines in Herodotus admirably fits such a situation. (3) Orphic literature was bound up with the oracle form; and notably at the court of Pisistratus the oracle-monger Onomacritus was at least living in close contact with South Italian Orphics (see above), even if the statement of Pausanias VIII. 37, 5, that Onomacritus wrote an Orphic poem himself be unreliable.

If this was the origin of this particular oracle, the λéων would form a most interesting parallel to the ἒριφоς of the Orphic tablets. Whatever the reason for it may be, the tablets with their enigmatic ἒριφоς ές γὶλα ἒπετες (or ἒπετоν) do equivalate the soul who is speaking with the animal –a striking anticipation of later Mithraism. If the lion be added to the list, this parallel becomes more striking still.

page 189 note 1 This is not to say that it is impossible to discover the sense in which the story was first invented or circulated.

page 189 note 2 This passage has never been satisfactorily explained, nor can I explain it. It seems possible to strip away the magical folk-tale motif of the dragging round the walls and the omission of a part of them which was to prove the Achilles heel of the place: and, as we have already seen, the lion in this part of the world had been credited ever since Hittite times with defensive qualities. But there still remains the concubine that gave birth to a lion. How and Wells, ad loc., suggest a local story in connexion with the god Sandon. Reinach, Salomon has explained the matter on totemistic grounds (Cultes, Mythes, et Religions, Vol. IGoogle Scholar; Les Carnassiers Androphages, P. 293).

page 190 note 1 SeeLuria, S., Bulletin de ι' Acadὸmie des sciences de l' U. R.S.S.., 1927Google Scholar. The fifth-century source in question is Antiphon the Sophist. I would not definitely assert that the passage of Artemidorns in question actually comes from Antiphon though the differentiation between two possible interpretations of such a dream, one of vague beneficiary import, the other in a more restricted sense as implying child-birth, might make it possible to attribute the treatment to the ‘genus artificiosum’ of dream interpretations. If so, the likelihood of its ultimate source being Antiphon is certainly increase, especially if my contention is correct–that the Pericles portent is really an example, also from the fifth century. of this interpretation of a lion dream. See also note 5(b), p. 192.

page 190 note 2 514.

page 191 note 1 θυυоΙδῆ and λεоντὡδŋ are an echo of Platonism; see above, p.187.

page 191 note 2 Fraenkel, , Quellen der Alexanderhistoriker, p. 303 and p. 172Google Scholar, attrubutes th passage to Clitatchus on the ground of its agreement with justin. As the story is accepted or rehandled by pseudo Callisthenes and the Alexander Romancers, this attribution is probably strengthened; for modern investigators have shown, in the words of Kroll, W.: ‘uerba eius (sc.pseudo-Callisthenis) saepe cum historicis congruunt qui a narratione Clitarchea pendent. ’Historia Alexandri Magni (pseudo Callisthenes), Vol. I. \1926], praef., p. XV.Google Scholar) See also Ausfeld, O., d. gr. Alexanderroman (Leipzig, 1907), p. 223Google Scholar.

page 191 note 3 Op. cit., p. 127; see also Berve, , d. Alexanderreich II. 286Google Scholar.

page 191 note 4 The story is found in greater or greater or less detail in (a) Alexander Romances; see e.g. psendo-Callisthenes, op.cit., p. 9 (cap. 8,2). Syrachen xc (1896). Aethiopian trans. Budge, Wallis, Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great (London 1896), Vol. II., p. 22Google Scholar. For the astrological influence see Feis, O., Archiv.f.Gesch.u.Meduzin (1919) 266sqqGoogle Scholar. (b)Other authors: e.g. Eustathius on Dionys, Perieg. 254; Steph. of Byzantium s.v.

An interesting mediaeval parallel may perhaps be mentioned. Arnald, of Villanova, . de parto operativa, fol. 127Google Scholar, states that a lion on a lead seal prevents one from feeling pain from an operation for the stone, and this ‘medicinez’ was used by pope Boniface VIII. against pain from stone (Thorndyke, , Hist. of Magic and Experimental science, Vol. II. pp. 857–8)Google Scholar. Similarly Peter of Abano tested the virtues of a like seal in gold as an antidote to pains in the intestines (Diff. 10; see Thorndyke, , op.cit., p. 899)Google Scholar. The natue of the pain against which the seal was used and the known prevalence of the Alexander Romances might lead one to suppose that Phillip's dream, as well as the astrological reasons On lion as amulet see Jahn, O., Ber, sāchs. Ges. Wiss. (1855), p. 97Google Scholar.

page 191 note 5 (a) The leonine characteristics of Alexander (for which see plut, . Movalia 186dGoogle Scholar) and the strange restriction on the ffecundity of the animal (which –although, I believe, not hitherto noticed must be a mistaken echo of the Herodotean belief that a lioness only had one cub; Hero dotus III. 108; Babr. 189 sq.; Basil, Hexaem., 9th hom., cap. 5) are not original elements in the story. (b) The method of dream interpretation employed by the Telmessians is clearly the ‘genus artificiosum’ –Aristandros, according t Plutarch, was a Telmessian–hence this may further help to support the suggestion made above (note 16) that the dream about lions and child-birth was interpreted according to this canon, and may date back to Antiphon. (c) Ausfeld conjectures that behind the name Aristophon there lies the name Aristandros. It is barely possible that Aristandros and Autiphon were mentioned here originally together, though that might explain Tertullian's reading. In any case, the mistake is not to be blamed on to hte Mss. of Tertullian.

page 192 note 1 For a parallel statement about the women's worship in those parts, see plut. Crassus 8 on the wife of Spartacus.

page 192 note 2 The paintings show animals as tattooed on arms or legs. See Cook, , Zeus. II, I, 121, and note 3Google Scholar; S. Casson, Thrace, and Epirus; Kazarow, Kulturgescü. d.Thraker.

page 192 note 3 For the use of σφρâλις in this sense see Dölger, , Sphragis (paderborn, 1911), p. 20 (for animals) and pp. 31 sqq. (for man)Google Scholar. See Clemen, Carl in the Hibbert Journal for 07 1928, p.716Google Scholar, for parallel ‘primitive’ practices which involve pictorial representation.

Keller, Otto indeed seems to have read some where a notably variant account of the lion portent Antike Tierwelt, Vol. I., p. 53)Google Scholar; ‘When the wife of Philip of Macedon was pregnant with Alexander, she ordered that her body be sealed with the picture of a lion. This is the form of the legend in Suidas, while other authorities simply speak of a dream.’ If it could be found, this alleged passago of Suidas would serve to strengthen the view suggested above; but I cannot find it, and consequently note with pleasure that Gruppe, O., in Bursian Suppl, 186. p. 144, criticizes Keller strongly for his loose methods of citationGoogle Scholar.

page 193 note 1 Lactantius, , Instil, Diu. III. 19Google Scholar; see also plutarch, , v. Mar. 46Google Scholar. The touching death-bed prayer reminds one strongly of the critical successors of Callimachus, who had a special liking for delineating the fashion of a great man's death.

page 193 note 2 Rep. 618a. sqq.; Phaidr. 248c-d. Kern, O. has received this last passage into his Orphicorum Fragmenta (No. 20)Google Scholar; but it is not meant to imply that the actual form of the grading of the lives is anything but purely Platonic. In this case only human lives are taken into account.

page 193 note 3 оφνεκα λρŵτоς оδειξεν ένì θρ κεσσιν оρωτας ᾒρρενασ, оύδè λὸθоυς πνεσε θŋλυττéρων.

Phanocles ap. Stob, . Eclog. IV. 20, 47Google Scholar.

page 194 note 1 Pape-Benseler s.v. for full name. FickBechtel (second edition). P. 190, for compound names with λéωγ-elements.

page 194 note 2 In Herodotus VII. 180 the persians, having captured their first ship, and having decided on a ceremonious slaying of a member of the crew (doubtless for religious purposes), they chose a man called Αéων. Herodotus is much exercised as to why they chose this man, and explains that he was κὶλλιστоς, which the Persians considered to be of good omen; ‘but,’ he continues, ‘perhaps he may have had name to thank in part for his fate.’ The passage has been discussed variously (see e.g. for alterntives Macanad loc.); but the simple explanation seems to be that Herodotus is pointing out that the man's name was that of an animal, a thing which may well have determined the choice made by the Persians when on the lookout for a sacrificial victim, especially as the lion in a sacral conexion was well known in Asia Minor.Ifthis is so, then we have here an example of the personal name interpreted apparently without any reference to ideas of transmigration.

page 194 note 3 A well-known parallel is the robe in Apuleius, Met. XI. 24; ‘quaqua tamen uiseres, colore dracones Indici, indici, inde gripes Hyperborei, quosin speciem pinnatae alitis generat mundus alter:banc Olympicam stolam nuncupant’.

page 194 note 4 For a discussion of the passage, see Cumont, , Les Mystères de Mithra, German trans. by Gehrich-Latte, , third edition (1923), p. 139Google Scholar; Zenstein, Reit, Hellenistischen Mysterienreligionen, third edition, p. 263Google Scholar.

page 195 note 1 My colleague, Dr. H.W. Lawton, has pointed out to me the description of a robe in Benoit de Ste. Maure, , Roman de Troie, vv, 13, 33 sqq.Google Scholar, which may possibly be a twelfth-century reference to a magical tradition which has in herited the embroidered dress of the mysteries, unless, indeed, it was merely engendered by marvellous eastern silks.

‘En Inde Ia Superior

firent un drap enchanteor

par nigromance et par merveille.

si n'a soz ciel bestes ne flors

dont l'om n'i veie portraitures,

formes, semblances et figures.

un sage poēte Indiën

qui o Calcas le Troïen

ot esté longment apis

li enveia de son païs.’.

page 195 note 2 Lambl, . vit. Pyth. 31Google Scholar.

page 195 note 3 The person speaking may actually be Musaeus (Diels, ad loc.).