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Remembering Ovid: The Io Episode in Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 May 2015

P.J. Davis
P.J. Davis*
Affiliation:
The University of Tasmania, [email protected]
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Extract

The insertion of the story of Io into Book 4 of Valerius' narrative of the Argonauts' voyage to Colchis follows a familiar pattern, for here we have an apparently irrelevant digression, delivered by a figure of authority, which experienced readers of Roman epic will expect to encapsulate some of the poem's key issues. Some will think of Evander's tale of Hercules and Cacus in Aeneid 8 or of Adrastus' account of Apollo and Coroebus in Thebaid 1. And then there is Lucan's version of the struggle between Hercules and Antaeus in Pharsalia 4. Theoreticians will invoke the concept of ‘mise-en-abîme’, because Valerius' inclusion of this standard epic device creates semiotic expectations.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antichthon , Volume 43 , 2009 , pp. 1 - 11
Copyright
Copyright © Australasian Society for Classical Studies 2009

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References

1 As we might expect, Lucan presents an unusual variation on the model. F.M. Ahl, Lucan: An Introduction (Ithaca 1976) 94, rightly notes that the episode ‘verges on parody‘. To begin with, his narrator is not a figure of authority but a rudis incola (4.592).

2 Defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as ‘(a term denoting) self-reflection within the structure of a literary work‘.

3 For convenience I will call the play's author ‘Aeschylus’. The author's identity does not concern me. For earlier Greek versions see Mark Griffith (ed.), Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound (Cambridge 1983) 189. Griffith notes treatments by Hesiod, Acusilaus, Bacchylides, Aeschylus’ Suppliant Women and Sophocles' Inachus. See also Moschus, Europa 37-62. The most prominent Roman version before Ovid seems to have been Calvus' Io.

4 A search of the PHI disk suggests: (1) that Ovid uses que in this way 45 times in all, and (2) that Valerius Flaccus was the only poet to adopt this innovation (4.387, 474, 6.305).

5 Statius uses it twice in Thebaid 4, at 117 and 711. A search of the TLO reveals that the word occurs only twice in extant Greek, in a Sophoclean fragment and at Ap. Rhod. 1.125.

6 Barchiesi, Alessandro, Ovidio, Metamorfosi, vol. I (libri I-II) (Milano 2005) 216Google Scholar, notes: ‘I’ azione si sposta bruscamente dall' Argolide in Egitto, mentre non viene sfruttato il motivo, già importante in Eschilo, delle peregrinazioni di Io attraverso il Mediterraneo.'

7 Aesch. PV 733, 840; Val. Fl. 4.347,419.

8 For this see Griffith (n. 3) 219.

9 Boyle, A.J., ‘Valerius Flaccus: Introduction’, in Boyle, A.J. and Sullivan, J.P. (eds), Roman Poets ofthe Early Empire (Harmondsworth 1991) 270–7Google Scholar; Zissos, Andrew, ‘Valerius Flaccus’, in Foley, John Miles (ed.), A Companion to Ancient Epic ed (Maiden MA 2005) 503-13, at 507Google Scholar.

10 For the text of Valerius I have used Valerius Flaccus, Gaius. Argonautiques, ed. Liberman, Gauthier (Paris 2002–2003)Google Scholar. I have also consulted C. Valeri Flacci Setini Balbi Argo-nauticon Libri Octo, ed. Langen, P. (Berlin 1896)Google Scholar; Valerius Flaccus, Gaius, Argonautica, ed. Mozley, J.H. (London 1936)Google Scholar; Valerius Flaccus, Gaius. Argonauticon Libri Octo, ed. Courtney, E. (Leipzig 1970)Google Scholar; Gai Valeri Flacci Setim Balbi Argonauticon Libros Octo, ed. Ehlers, Widu-Wolfgang (Stuttgart 1980)Google Scholar; Valerius Flaccus, Gaius. Argonautica / die Sendung der Argonauten, ed. Dräger, Paul (Frankfurt am Main 2003)Google Scholar.

11 Courtney, Ehlers and Dräger read morantem at this point. Given that Valerius goes on to describe Hercules' wrenching away of Prometheus' chains, morantem makes little sense (moror does not mean ‘end’). Langen and Mozley print mouentem because of the parallels cited by Langen from Book 5. Liberman resorts to obeli. Spaltenstein, François, Commentaire des Argonautica de Valerius Flaccus (Livres 3, 4 et 5) (Brussels 2004) 426Google Scholar, prints Watt's attractive suggestion leuantem. I adopt this reading in the translation.

12 Aricò, Giuseppe, ‘… ignotas iubet ire vias: Die Io-Geschichte bei Valerius Flaccus‘, in Eigler, Ulri and Lefèvre, Eckard (eds), Ratis omnia vincet: Neue Untersuchungen zu den «Argonautica» des Valerius Flaccus (Munich 1998) 285-92, at 289Google Scholar: ‘An diesem Punkt bedarf es wohl nicht allzu großer Phantasie, um zwischen den bei Valerius Flaccus berichteten Geschichten der Io und der Argonauten einen Vergleich zu ziehen: sowohl die eine als auch die anderen befinden sich auf einer langen und gefährlichen Wanderung und sehen sich ermüdenden Wanderung und sehen sich ermüdenden Prüfungen gegenüber, die ihre körperliche und geistige Widerstandskraft beeinträchtigen.’

13 Adamietz, J., Zur Komposition der Argonautica des Valerius Flaccus (Munich 1976) 41Google Scholar. Hershkowitz, Debra, Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica: Abbreviated Voyages in Silver Latin Epic (Oxford 1998) 72Google Scholar, favours a different kind of explanation, arguing that ‘the repeated transformations in the Argonautica's account of Io emphasize the multiple repetitions of the story itself throughout the literary tradition.’

14 For discussion of the personification of Argo see Davis, Martha A., ‘Ratis audax: Valerius Flaccus' Bold Ship’, Ramus 18 (1989) 46–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 It is noteworthy that Aricò (n. 12) mentions the Io-Medea connection only in the last paragraph of his chapter and does not pursue its implications.

16 I follow the arrangement proposed by Manuwald, Gesine, ‘Die Bilder am Tempel in Kolchis’, in Eigler, and Lefèvre, (n. 12) 307–18Google Scholar.

17 For Orpheus as ‘Odrysian’ see 1.470, 5.99.

18 Aricò (n. 12)291.

19 For a list of shared motifs see Barnes, W.R., ‘The Trojan War in Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica’, Hermes 109 (1981) 360-70, at 363Google Scholar.

20 For Valerius' use of allusion to the Trojan War see Barnes, (n. 19), and Zissos, Andrew, ‘Reading Models and the Homeric Program in Valerius Flaccus's Argonautica’, Helios 29(2002) 69–96Google Scholar.

21 Catul. 11.7; Virg. Aen. 6.800; Stat. Silv. 4.1.6.

22 Met. 2.255, 5.234. The only other occurrence of the phrase is in Pomponius Mela 2.62.4.

23 Cf. the comment of Albrecht, Michael von, Roman Epic: An Interpretive Introduction (Leiden 1998) 273Google Scholar: ‘Passages like the sudden appearance of Mercury or of Tisiphone show that Valerius expects his readers to know Ovid's story.’

24 Val. F1. 4.13f.

25 Virg. Aen. 4.90-128.

26 Val. F1. 6.417. For this interpretation of cingula see Wijsman, H.J.W., Valerius Flaccus Argonautica, Book VI. A Commentary (Leiden 2000) 187Google Scholar.

27 For this interpretation see Manuwald (n. 16) 313.