Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T18:09:01.043Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Valerius Flaccus the Poet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

R. W. Garson
R. W. Garson
Affiliation:
University of Adelaide
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Details of poetical expression have received only incidental mention in my earlier articles on Valerius Flaccus. The purpose now is to fill this gap by outlining what has struck me most forcibly about Valerius' use of language and metre. This is offered not as a final assessment, were such a thing ever possible, but rather as a supplement or epilogue to what has already been published, with the emphasis on aspects unnoticed or not elaborated by others.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , May 1970 , pp. 181 - 187
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 181 note 1 But contrast Valerius' original way of saying that a garment was dyed crimson at 5. 512: Taenarii chlamydem de sanguine aeni.

page 182 note 1 See CQ N.S. xiv (1964), 267–72.

page 184 note 1 I owe to Mr. A. J. Gossage of King's College, University of London, the interesting parallel from Statius (Theb. 4. 705 f.), where the Nile is refluus at a time of drought, i.e. it sinks down in its bed. While there is no suggestion that refluus or refluens can mean ‘sinking down’, it is possible that the visual effect of ‘flowing back’ is one of the sinking down of the water level. This would basically support Langen's explanation of the simile, and indeed make it fit the sinking down of the serpent's neck quite admirably.

page 184 note 2 Could the monotony here be deliberate, echoing Medea's repetitive, somniferous spells ?

page 184 note 3 Arg. 4. 688 clausum scapulas super effluit aequor and 4. 665–6, quoted above, come to mind also as having a suitably watery sound. See CQ N.S. xv (1965), 114 (footnote).

page 185 note 1 Cf. also undo laborantes praeceps rotat ac fuga ponti / obuia (4. 656–7), describing the turmoil of the sea.

page 185 note 2 The psychological progression in this soliloquy is outlined in CQ N.S. xv (1965), 110 (bottom). Far from casting all his speeches in the same mould, Valerius strives for . Medea's sentences tend to be simply-constructed and staccato, e.g. sis memor, oro, mei, contra memor ipsa manebo, / crede, tui (7. 477–8), or ne crede, pater, non carior ille est 1 quem sequimur; turnidis utinam simul abruar undis (8. 12–13). Realizing that she is not being honest with herself, Medea breaks off in line 13, and with girlish incoherence of thought suddenly wishes she were dead. At 8. 108, she ends her speech with iamque omne nefas, iam, Spero, peregi. Here Valerius combines her staccato utterance with palillogy (for the irony, see CQ N.S. xv (1965), 109). Aquites' plea for his life reflects his frenzied spirit: ‘te’que ‘per hanc, genitor’ inquit ‘tibi si manet, oro / canitiem,...’ (6. 305–6), while in date fallaci pudibunda senectae / exitia indecoresque obitus (1. 809–10), Aeson's impressive polysyllables show an old man mustering all his strength to heap a final curse on the tyrant responsible for his death. Other remarks about speeches in the Argonautica occur in the following places: CQ N.S. xiii (1963), 262 (footnote) (Jason's cry before engaging the Doliones in battle); 265–6 (the rival speeches of Telamon and Meleager; here there is an erratum, which I noticed too late for a correction to be made: the oath at Aen. 12. 206 ff. belongs to Latinus, not to Aeneas); xiv (1964), 274 (the crafty appeals of Fama and Venus at Lemnos); 275 (Hypsipyle's farewell); 276 (Pelias' grief at Acastus' joining the expedition).