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The transmission and reception of Graeco-Roman mythology in Anglo-Saxon England, 670–800

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Michael W. Herren
Michael W. Herren
Affiliation:
York University, Toronto
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Extract

Rhetoricians, orators, and public speakers of all stripes, if asked the question, which Greek or Roman deity they should invoke in case of need, would surely answer ‘Hermes’ or ‘Mercury’. Members of this profession who also read early Latin-Old English glossaries might therefore be surprised to learn that the deus oratorum was none other than Priapus! This came as good news to me as one who occasionally looks for novel ways to arouse an audience. However, as I reflected further on the meaning of Épinal Glossary 10v32, my expectations wilted. Oratorum must be a simple error for hortorum, ‘of gardens’. Priapus may be fecundus, but he is not facundus.

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Research Article
Information
Anglo-Saxon England , Volume 27 , December 1998 , pp. 87 - 103
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998

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References

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65 There is as yet no complete critical edition of this work. The Old English glosses only are ed. Pheifer, , Old English Glosses.Google Scholar For the complete glossary one must still consult Goetz, G., Corpus Glossariorum Latinorum, 7 vols. (Leipzig, 1881–1923) V, 337–401Google Scholar. There is a diplomatic edition by Schlutter, O. of the Épinal copy only (cited below, p. 98, n. 67Google Scholar), and a facsimile edition by Bischoff, B. et al. , The Épinal, Erfurt, Werden and Corpus Glossaries;, EEMF 22 (Copenhagen, 1988).Google Scholar

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69 See Philippson, E. A., Germanisches Heidentum bei den Angelsachsen, Kölner Anglistische Arbeiten 4 (Leipzig, 1929), 113–23.Google Scholar (I wish to thank Roberta Frank (Toronto) for this reference.)

70 CLA II, no. 122; Ker, N., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford, 1957), p. 49 (no. 36).Google Scholar

71 I follow the edition of Lindsay, W. M., The Corpus Glossary (Cambridge, 1921)Google Scholar. There is an older edition by Hessels, J. H., An Eighth-Century Latin—Anglo-Saxon Glossary Preserved in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (MSN°. 144) (Cambridge, 1890)Google Scholar. For the position of this glossary in the complex of Old English glossaries, see Pheifer, , Old English Glosses, pp. xxviii–xxxi.Google Scholar

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75 CLA X, no. 1585.

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79 See esp. Lapidge, ‘Beowulf’, as well as Lendinara, P., ‘IlLiber monstrorum e i glossari anglosassoni’, L'immaginario nelle letterature germaniche di medioevo, ed. Cipolla, A. (Milan, 1995), pp. 203–15.Google Scholar

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83 Ibid. pp. 81–2.

84 Ep. IX, to Nihthard, ed. Tangl, M. et al. , Bonifatii Epistulae, Willibaldi Vita Bonifatti (Darmstadt, 1968), p. 26.Google Scholar

85 Ep. XIII, ed. Tangl, et al. , p. 50.Google Scholar

86 I am grateful to the Killam Foundation and the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Council of Canada for providing leave time and support money to enable me to carry out the research required for this paper.