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Observations on the First Book of Lucan
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
Extract
The mistranslation by Mr. J. D. Duff of nox ubi sidera condit as ‘where night hides the stars’ is also the interpretation of many commentators from Sulpitius in the last decade of the fifteenth century to Lejay in the last decade of the nineteenth. Lucan is clearly speaking of East and West in 15, of South in 16, and of North in 17–18. How can night be said to hide the stars in the West? Burman saw the difficulty and expressed himself thus: ‘…dubito, an recte dicatur, nox condere sidera, id est, Stellas, quae sole cadente prodeunt, et se spectanda praebent, obscurare et occulere: neque nunc occurrit alius ex veteribus locus, unde ita locutos fuisse Poetas appareat. Nox enim adveniens prodit sidera, praecipitans uero, aurora adveniente, potest recte dici condere, et quasi auferre ex oculis hominum sidera.’ Burman then was tempted to understand sidera as the sun, but could not parallel this use of the plural, although he admitted the use of sidera solis. He cited Ouid. Met. 14, 172–3 caelumque et sidera solis / respicio, as did Haskins, who took the same view with hesitation. Ezra de Clerq van Jever in his Specimen Selectarum Observationum, which he published at Leiden in 1772, definitely understood sidera as the sun, though he could parallel only sidus in the singular from Ouid. A.A. 1, 723–4 aequoris unda / debet et a radiis sideris esse niger. But, it may be said, these Ovidian passages are such that no ambiguity is possible, and are not quite relevant to Lucan's phrase.
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References
page 55 note 1 See Sen, . Thyest. passim, including 793–5 cur, Phoebe, tuos rapis aspectus? / nondum serae nuntius horae / nocturna uocat lumina Vesper, e.q.sGoogle Scholar.
page 56 note 1 The deletion of omnia…concurrent is also approved by Professor Fraenkel, Eduard in Gnomon 2 (1926) p. 507Google Scholar.
page 56 note 2 Compare the not uncommon use of ignes = ‘heavenly bodies’, as at Verg, . Aen. 2, 154Google Scholar.
page 56 note 3 Cf. Verg, . Georg. 4, 425–8 iam rapidus torrens sitientis Sirius Indos / ardebat caelo, et medium sol igneus orbem / hausemt: areoant herbae, e.q.s., where igneus does not merely describe a condition of the sun, but implies the heat that he brings to bear on the earth, and so = igniferGoogle Scholar.
page 57 note 1 Farnaby's false view was not original, and was practically that of Micyllus in the quarto edition of 1551 published at Frankfurt. Another view, which is found in the Commenta Bernensia (Usener, p. 25), has held some sway since the time of Omnibonus Leonicenus, whose commentary was first published at Venice in 1475. and is to the effect that tertia Cynthia means the third month. It has persisted down through the centuries to . MrSamse, R. in Phil. Woch. of 9th 10, 1920, pp. 981–2Google Scholar, and M. Bourgery.
page 57 note 2 Cf. Camille-Flammarion, Astronomic Populaire (Paris, 1905) pp. 129–131 for a good account of la lumière cendrée, and in addition an article accompanied by an excellent photograph and entitled Le Clair de Terre stir la Lune byGoogle ScholarCamille-Flammarion, Gabrielle in L'Illustration of 20th 07, 1935, p. 396Google Scholar.
page 58 note 1 Cited in the Loeb translation of Aratus by G. R. Mair p. 441 n.
page 58 note 2 Commentariorum in Aratum Reliquiae (Berlin, 1898): itaque in tertia (luna) si tota in circuitu uideris undique pallidiorem, magis et tunc tempestas eritGoogle Scholar.
page 58 note 3 The Latin Dual and Poetic Diction (Oxford, 1923) pp. 3–4Google Scholar.
page 58 note 4 Mr. Housman on p. xlv of his edition of Manilius V adds to these two references Ouid. A.A. 1, 410 mergitur Haedus.
page 59 note 1 Les Sources de Lucain (Paris, 1912), especially pp. 23Google Scholar sqq.
page 59 note 2 Edition, pp. xlix–1.
page 59 note 3 Pichon, op. cit. p. 26Google Scholar, n. 2.
page 59 note 4 Is it necessary to alter Alpem to Albim at 481 with van Jever or bellis to Belgis at 463 with Bentley? Protests have been registered against such readiness in emendation byHeitland, in an article entitled Prof. Housman, Bentley, in C.R. xv (1901) pp. 78–80Google Scholar and Stewart, H. in C.R. xxvi (1912) p. 184Google Scholar. In spite of . MrHousman's, spirited response to the former in the same issue of the C.R. pp. 129–31Google Scholar, I feel that it is dangerous to emend inaccuracies in Lucan merely because they are inaccuracies.
page 59 note 5 For the sluggishness of the Arar contrasted with the violence of theRhodanus, cf. Caes. B.G. 1, 12Google Scholar, 1; Sil. 15, 503–4; Claud, , in Rufin. 2, III, in Eutrop. 2, 269Google Scholar, Pan. Diet. Man. Theod. Cons. 52–3; and our own author at 1, 433–4 and 6, 475–6.
page 60 note 1 Cf. Caesar, B.G. 7, 36Google Scholar, 2 castris … in monte positis mediocribus circum se interuallis, and 7, 46, 3 Galli … supcriorem pasrtem collis … densissimis castris compleuerant.
page 61 note 1 Mr. Duff's refuge is to translate literally ‘each man makes shipwreck for himself’.
page 61 note 2 On this passage Wetstein, as valuable to the present age as he was to Richard Porson, cites corresponding loci from Achilles Tatius, Galen, the Anthology, Euripides and Phaedrus.
page 61 note 3 Introduction to the edition of Haskins (London, 1887) p. xc.
page 61 note 4 The locus classicus for the description of the axis of the universe and of the world in Latin poetry is Manil. 1, 275–93.
page 62 note 1 Ouid, . Met. 15, 783Google Scholar, Plin, . N.H. 2, 57Google Scholar, Iul. Obseq. 76, 125.
page 62 note 2 This use of mutare is clearly seen in Verg, . Ecl. 4, 44Google Scholar (ipse aries) iam croceo mutabit uellera luto.
page 63 note 1 I am extremely grateful to Professor J. F. Mountford for the thorough and careful help which he kindly gave me in the revision of this article.