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The Zeus Hymns of Cleanthes and Aratus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 May 2015

A.W. James
A.W. James*
Affiliation:
University of Sydney
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Extract

The following notes on two well-known passages of Hellenistic epic, part of Cleanthes’ so-called hymn to Zeus and Aratus’ proem, may be of some interest as affording a detailed comparison of how the poets use, adapt and add to the traditional epic vocabulary and phraseology to convey closely related subject-matter that both belongs to and goes beyond the normal range of epic.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antichthon , Volume 6 , 1972 , pp. 28 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence 1969

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References

1 These correspond substantially with part of a paper of wider scope given under the title ‘Tradition and Originality in the Language of the Hellenistic Poets’ at the Thirteenth Congress of the Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association, August 1970.

2 Cf. T. B. L. Webster’s unsupported assertion that Cleanthes’ hymn was ‘slightly later’ (Hellenistic Poetry and Art [London, 1964], p. 36), which encourages him to speak without qualification of Cleanthes ‘echoing’ or ‘quoting’ Aratus (op. cit., pp. 37 and 216).

3 To avoid any misunderstandings over the extent of my claims to originality I wish to acknowledge at the outset major indebtedness, which goes beyond the points explicitly noted, to the following: for Cleanthes, J. Adam’s chapter on Cleanthes in The Vitality of Platonism and Other Essays (Cambridge, 1911) and the apparatus both in Powell’s, J.U.Collectanea Alexandrina (Oxford, 1925)Google Scholar and in Zuntz’s, G. ‘Zum Kleanthes-Hymnus’, HSCP 63 (1958), 289–308;Google Scholar for Cleanthes and Aratus, the relevant discussions in Wilamowitz’s, Hellenistische Dichtung, Vol. 2 (Berlin, 1924);Google Scholar and for Aratus, M. Erren’s Die Phaenomena des Aralos von Soloi (Hermes Einzelschrift 19, 1967) and the apparatus in E. Maass’s 3rd edition (Berlin, 1964).

4 RE XI (1921), s.v. Kleanthes, col. 560.

5 Op. cit. On p. 21 he gives von Arnim’s text of line 4, έκ σου γάρ γένος εϊσ' ήχου μίμ-ημα. λαχόντες, and on p. 22 with reference to the same he comments ‘bei Kleanthes ist so gut wie ausdrücklich gesagt, dass die Abstammung der Menschen von Zeus in der Teilhabe am Logos besteht’.

6 Apud Stobaeum ad loc.

7 Op. cit. 306 n. 20.

8 Op. cit. 292–3.

9 Zuntz’s hesitant suggestion (op. cit. 294), έκ σου γάρ γένος έσμέν, άνωθε νόημα λαχόντες, seems to me the reverse of helpful. Also it is not clear to me why he should object (ibid. 293) to λαχόντες with μίμημα there is no point in saying that it could not simply mean ‘wir sind’.

10 ‘Zum Hymnus des Kleanthes’, RhMus xciv (1951), 337–41

11 Although Zuntz (HSCP lxiii [1958], 291) claims that F in fact has έργα.

12 See T. A. Sinclair’s note on Works and Days 81.

13 Op. cit. 308 n. 51.

14 This refers only to the conclusion of the formal hymnal address, and does not imply that the invocation of Zeus is forgotten in the rest of the poem.

15 The practical utility of Aratus’ signs in general is rightly stressed by Ludwig, W. in his excellent article ‘Die Phainomena Arats als Hellenistische Dichtung’ (Hermes 91 [1963], 425–48),Google Scholar but he does not precisely answer the question posed here.

16 Cf. A. S. F. Gow ad loc., as abo for the general background of Aratus 1 and 14.

17 Although the date of this may be later than Cleanthes; cf. supra.

18 I am sceptical of the reminiscence of Odyssey xviii 374 and its context that W. Ludwig (op. cit. 443) sees in βώλος.

19 Op. cit., pp. 28 ff.