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ORION'S CLUB. A NOTE ON GERMANICUS, ARATI PHAENOMENA 651
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2019
Extract
In lines 646–60 of his translation of Aratus’ Phaenomena, Germanicus narrates the story of Orion, the mythical hunter killed by a scorpion sent by Diana because of his attempt to rape the goddess, and then transformed into a star. In particular, line 651 describes Orion's hunting:
- nudabatque feris angusto stipite siluas.
- Type
- Shorter Notes
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- Copyright © The Classical Association 2019
Footnotes
I wish to thank the anonymous referee and Professor Bruce Gibson for their helpful comments and suggestions.
References
1 On Orion's myth in Aratus, Germanicus and other Latin translators, see my article ‘Il mito di Orione in Arato e nei suoi traduttori latini’, Latomus (forthcoming). On Germanicus’ Aratean translation, see in general Possanza, D.M., Translating the Heavens: Aratus, Germanicus and the Poetics of Latin Translation (New York, 2004)Google Scholar.
2 Cf. Aratus, Phaen. 638–9 θηρία πάντα | καρτερὸς Ὠρίων στιβαρῇ ἐπέκοπτε κορύνῃ.
3 Le Boeuffle, A., Germanicus, Les Phénomènes d'Aratos (Paris, 1975)Google Scholar; Gain, D.B., The Aratus ascribed to Germanicus Caesar (London, 1976)Google Scholar.
4 Orelli, J.C., Phaedri Aug. Liberti Fabulae Aesopiae. Accedunt Germanici Caesaris Aratea, Pervigilium Veneris (Zurich, 1832), 193Google Scholar. The parallels of Prop. 4.1.28 miscebant usta proelia nuda sude—quoted by Le Boeuffle (n. 3), ad loc.—and Sil. Pun. 8.549 gestabant tela ambustas sine cuspide cornos, quoted by Gain (n. 3), 120, do not seem decisive.
5 Housman, A.E., ‘The Aratea of Germanicus’, CR 14 (1900), 26–39Google Scholar, at 35–6 (= Diggle, J. and Goodyear, F.R.D., The Classical Papers of A.E. Housman, 3 vols. [Cambridge, 1972], 2.495–515Google Scholar, at 2.510). Housman supported his conjecture by comparing the corresponding passage in the late antique Aratean translation of Rufus Festus Avienus (Arat. 1180–2 cum sacrata Chii nemora et frondentia late | bracchia lucorum, cum siluae colla comasque | deuotae tibimet manus impia demolita est, etc.): but the parallel appears rather vague. See also the discussion of Gain (n. 3), 120.
6 Watt, W.S., ‘Eight notes on Germanicus’ Aratea’, RhM 137 (1994), 72–7Google Scholar, at 75.
7 Thiele, G., Antike Himmelsbilder. Mit Forschungen zu Hipparchos, Aratos und seine Fortsetzern und Beiträgen zur Kunstgeschichte des Sternhimmels (Berlin, 1898), 48Google Scholar. See also Leuthold, W., Die Übersetzung der Phaenomena durch Cicero und Germanicus (Zurich, 1942), 65Google Scholar.
8 See E. Saglio, s.v. Pedum, in Daremberg, C. and Saglio, E., Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines, vol. 4.1 (Paris, 1907), 368–9Google Scholar.
9 See Thiele (n. 7), 27–42 and especially 30 on Orion's figure.
10 See Thiele (n. 7), 119–21. A larger collection of examples of this iconography can be seen on the website of the Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (http://warburg.sas.ac.uk/vpc/VPC_search/main_page.php, search Orion [accessed 3 September 2018]).
11 See Housman (n. 5): ‘angustus no more means gracilis than laxus means crassus. angustus stipes is a cudgel affording insufficient room for a colony of white ants which have eaten it hollow.’
12 See Dekker, E., Illustrating the Phaenomena. Celestial Cartography in Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Oxford, 2013)Google Scholar.
13 On this aspect, after Thiele (n. 7), 45–8 and Leuthold (n. 7), 61–5, see most recently Santoni, A., ‘Aspetti della mitologia celeste negli Aratea di Germanico: a proposito di Engonasi, Orse, Auriga’, in Guidetti, F. (ed.), Poesia delle stelle tra antichità e medioevo (Pisa, 2016), 203–30Google Scholar, especially 217–26.