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HERCVLEVS LABOR – LABOR LIMAE: EPIC ARITHMETIC AT VIRGIL, AENEID 8.230-2
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 October 2016
Extract
A distinctive feature of Aeneid 8 is the constant interplay and fluctuation of registers, with high epic and the genus grande alternating with the lighter strains or learned allusions associated with the genus tenue. As one commentator has remarked, ‘Man darf das Buch allein schon wegen seines Reichtums an Aitien als das ‘kallimacheischste’ der Aeneis bezeichnen.’ Beyond the emphasis on aetiology—the Cacus myth in particular is presented as aition for the consecration of the Ara Maxima—the Callimachean complexion comes out also in several smaller not-so-serious or learned touches, typically at unlikely moments to infuse an element of humour in an otherwise intensely dramatic narrative. The Hercules–Cacus episode conflates high drama and low comedy as the cattle rustler's slightly ridiculous stratagem becomes a gigantic clash resonating with the primal gigantomachy. Among the rudimentary weapons of mass destruction unleashed by Hercules upon Cacus (omniaque arma | aduocat et ramis uastisque molaribus instat, 8.249-50), the hapax molaris (massive boulder, lit. millstone) echoes its Homeric equivalent μύλαξ (Il. 12.161), itself a hapax, with the recherché term then reappearing (again as hapax) at Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.59: missiles and diction are equally outlandish. When Hercules in a reprise of the celebrated Empedoclean leap plunges per ignem in pursuit of Cacus (8.256-8), an (incongruous) evocation of the Sicilian philosopher's fiery exit adds a touch of comedy at the heated moment. And from this inferno Virgil moves to Olympus, lowering the tone but raising the temperature as Venus in a domestic comedy seduces the uxorious Vulcan into preparing new armour for Aeneas: now she kindles flames of a different sort in the fire-god (8.388-92, 8.404-6) in a scene marked by witty double entendre that provides a playful contrast with the unfolding drama at Pallanteum. At moments like these, a lighter strain is audible through the epic thunder, Vergilius ludens is hard at work (or play).
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References
1 See Holzberg, N., Vergil. Der Dichter und sein Werk (Munich, 2006), 174–7, 180–7 (the quotation from 175)Google Scholar; further E.V. George, Aeneid VIII and the Aitia of Callimachus (Leiden, 1974); Tueller, M.A., ‘Well-read heroes quoting the Aetia in Aeneid 8’, HSPh 100 (2000), 361–80Google Scholar; Miller, J.F., ‘Virgil's Salian hymn to Hercules’, CJ 109 (2014), 439–63Google Scholar.
2 Holzberg (n. 1), 181: ‘In seiner Plumpheit ist der Trick des Cacus im Grunde lächerlich’; comedy is generated ‘weil Vergil einen Hirtenschwank durch Elemente der Heldensage angereichert hat und sein Erzähler Euander mit entsprechend hohem Pathos vorträgt’ (183); and id., ‘Der Böse und die Augusteer. Cacus bei Livius, Vergil, Properz und Ovid’, Gymnasium 119 (2012), 449–62, at 452–3Google Scholar. On Cacus' literary genealogy, see Buchheit, V., Vergil über die Sendung Roms (Heidelberg, 1963), 126–30Google Scholar; Labate, M., ‘In search of the lost Hercules: strategies of the fantastic in the Aeneid’, in Hardie, P. (ed.), Paradox and the Marvellous in Augustan Literature and Culture (Oxford, 2009), 126–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lowe, D., Monsters and Monstrosity in Augustan Poetry (Ann Arbor, 2015), 220–6Google Scholar; and, on the gigantomantic resonances, Hardie, P., Virgil's Aeneid: Cosmos and Imperium (Oxford, 1986), 110–18Google Scholar; Glei, R., Der Vater der Dinge (Trier, 1991), 328–9Google Scholar.
3 Holzberg (n. 1), 183.
4 On the Empedoclean allusion, cf. Hardie (n. 2), 116; Glei (n. 2), 330–1; Holzberg (n. 1), 183.
5 Holzberg (n. 1), 184–7.
6 For the epic protocol, see Bettenworth, A., Gastmahlszenen in der antiken Epik von Homer bis Claudian (Göttingen, 2004), 163–5Google Scholar.
7 Epic scale and dramatic character of the encounter are consistently reinforced by adjectives of size (tantus 186; ingens 192, 204, 241, 252, 258; uastus 193, 217, 250; magnus 199; maximus 201, 239, 271, 272; immane 225); by the polarity high–low (aerii 221; ardua 221; altissima 234; imis 237; infernas 244; barathrum 245; desuper 249; caelo 264), by affective terms (dira 194; tristi 197; feruidus 230; mirabile dictu 252; terribilis 266; laetique 268), and by strong emphasis on the visual (aspice 190; uidere 222; apparuit 241; recludat 144; ostenduntur 264; tuendo 164). See further Quartarone, L., ‘Quantity, quality, tension and transition: the dimensions of Vergil's ingens’, Vergilius 57 (2011), 3–34 Google Scholar; Smith, R.A., The Primacy of Vision in Virgil's Aeneid (Austin, 2005), 147–52Google Scholar.
8 Hardie (n. 2), 111 n. 68; Miller (n. 1), 441–7.
9 An allusion to the removal of a corpse would give the detail a humorous point (cf. Plin. HN 7.46, ritus naturae hominem capite gigni, mos est pedibus efferri).
10 Examples from Book 8 include the deictic polyptoton in Evander's preface, non haec sollemnia nobis, | has ex more dapes, hanc tanti numinis aram | uana superstitio ueterumque ignara deorum | imposuit (185–8); or the Gauls on the shield of Aeneas, aurea caesaries ollis atque aurea uestis, | uirgatis lucent sagulis, tum lactea colla | auro innectuntur (659–60; cf. 1.448-9, 4.138-9, 7.278-9, 11.774-6). On 8.564-6, see n. 15 below.
11 Peerlkamp, P.H. (ed.), P. Virgilii Maronis Aeneidos Libri VII–XII (Leiden, 1843), 103 Google Scholar.
12 Forbiger, A. (ed.), P. Virgilii Maronis Opera III (Leipzig, 1852), 121 Google Scholar: ‘Haeret autem Vir doct. primum in iterata notione omnem accessum lustrans et lustrat Auentinum montem, tum in tautologia furens animis et feruidus ira, denique in uoc. ter tribus uersibus repetito, quum alibi … semper modo iteretur; quae omnes causae non tanti sunt, ut inuitis omnibus Codd. hos uersus spurios censeamus.’
13 E.g. Ladewig, T. (ed.), Vergils Gedichte III (Berlin, 1871), 61 (ad 8.228)Google Scholar; Page, T.E. (ed.), The Aeneid of Virgil, Books VII-XII (London and New York, 1962), 217 (ad 8.230)Google Scholar: ‘emphatic repetition’; E. Paratore (ed.), Virgilio, Eneide IV (Milan, 1981), 247: ‘la sonora anaphora vuol dare tutta l'impressione dei vani sforzi compiuti da Ercole.’
14 S.J. Harrison (ed.), Vergil Aeneid 10 (Oxford, 1991), 235 (ad 10.685-6): thus (e.g.) 2.792-3; 4.690-1; 6.700-1; 10.885-6; cf. Pease, A.S. (ed.), Publi Vergili Maronis Aeneidos Liber Quartus (Cambridge, Mass., 1935), 527 (ad 4.690)Google Scholar; Bömer, F. (ed.), P. Ovidius Naso: Metamorphosen Buch I-III (Heidelberg, 1969), 309 (ad Met. 2.270)Google Scholar; N. Zorzetti, ‘Numerali’, in F. della Corte (ed.), Enciclopedia Virgiliana III (Rome, 1987), 782–8 (on ‘il cliché ternario’); Dekel, E., Virgil's Homeric Lens (New York and London, 2012), 17 Google Scholar (and curiously suggesting, at 119 n. 62, that 8.564-6 ‘is not strictly speaking a failed attempt’).
15 Triple anaphora on ter is rare. The number three has ritual significance (e.g. Aen. 6.506; Tib. 1.2.54; 1.5.14) and triple ter appears in this environment (Ecl. 8.73-5; Ciris 371–3; Ov. Met. 7.261)—but the attempt-and-failure sequence is something different. A later example at Ov. Her. 4.7-8, ter tecum conata loqui, ter inutilis haesit | lingua, ter in primo destitit ore sonus. A variant of the pattern when Evander relates his hard-fought victory over the formidable Erulus, and where the mimetic ‘three’ is again inscribed in the triad: nascenti cui tris animas Feronia mater | (horrendum dictu) dederat, terna arma mouenda— | ter leto sternendus erat (8.564-6). The number game clearly appealed.
16 Structurally this ‘Atempause’ ( Worstbrock, F.J., Elemente einer Poetik der Aeneis [Münster, 1963], 105–6Google Scholar), indexed by the ter grouping (8.230-2), is placed at the exact centre of Evander's ninety verses of direct speech (8.185-275). Such careful positioning is deliberate: cf. also the ideologically loaded aude, hospes, contemnere opes et te quoque dignum | finge deo, rebusque ueni non asper egenis (8.364-5) at the centre of the whole book (Holzberg [n. 1], 175).
17 Galinsky, G.K., ‘The Hercules-Cacus episode in Aeneid 8’, AJPh 87 (1966), 18–51, esp. at 41Google Scholar. The attempt-and-failure sequence at 8.230-2 carries a hint of uis consili expers.
18 Verbs denoting a sudden, violent or dramatic action (collapsing, grabbing, striking, shattering, uel sim.) are often thrown into relief by enjambement, as corripere (1.363, 2.217, 9.502, 12.299), dissilire (12.741), excidere (9.113, 12.424), ferire (12.730), frangere (9.413, 12.732), incidere (2.467), proicere (5.402), proterere (12.330), sternere (2.385). See further Veremans, J., De plaats van het verbum finitum in de latijnse dactylische hexameter (Brussels, 1963), 132–6Google Scholar; Worstbrock (n. 16), 164–6.
19 The quotation (with reference to Aen. 12.457) from Tarrant, R. (ed.), Virgil Aeneid Book XII (Cambridge, 2012), 210 Google Scholar. Cf. repeated concussa / concussu (Lucr. 6.289-90), though not in juxtaposition. On the figure, see Wills, J., Repetition in Latin Poetry (Oxford, 1996), 243–53Google Scholar.
20 Cf. Bömer, F. (ed.), P. Ovidius Naso: Die Fasten II (Heidelberg, 1958), 292 (ad Fast. 5.11)Google Scholar; id. (n. 14), 18 (ad Met. 1.5); Hardie (n. 2), 322–5.