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Agmina Furiarum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2011

J. H. Waszink
J. H. Waszink
Affiliation:
Leiden, Holland
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Extract

Agmina of the Furiae are twice mentioned in the Aeneid, viz., IV 469 Eumenidum veluti demens videt agmina Pentheus and VI 571–572: torvosque sinistra / intentans (sc, Tisiphone) anguis vocat agmina saeva sororum. The use of agmen in this context is surprising, because Virgil, and the Augustan poets in general, retain the classical conception of three Furiae; Virgil mentions Tisiphone, Allecto and Megaera, and Ovid speaks about poenarum … deae triplices (Metam. VIII 481). It is only in the Silver Age — the first instances are to be found in Seneca's tragedies and in Valerius Flaccus — that a greater number of Furiae comes to be mentioned; originally this is an evident imitation of the two passages under discussion (cf. e.g. Sen. Med. 960–961: cui cruentas agmen injernum jaces / intentat with Aen. VI 572) but gradually it becomes clear that a greater number of goddesses of punishment and revenge is meant.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 56 , Issue 1 , January 1963 , pp. 7 - 11
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1963

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References

1 On this cf. Rapp, art. Furiae (Roscher I, 1559–1564), 1564; Waser, art. Furiae (R.E. VII, 308–314), 312.

2 In his commentary on Aen. VI Ed. Norden does not give any comment on 572 agmina.

3 Apart from this, Serv. Dan. ad IV 469 gives two other explanations, viz., vel quia plures furiae putantur and the comment already quoted by Pease: vel quia furiosis pro tribus plures videntur. We have already observed that the latter does not apply to VI 572. As to the former, it is quite improbable on account of the fact that the Augustan poets stick to the older tradition (cf. the beginning of this paper); moreover, Virgil speaks of agmina saeva sororum, clearly meaning only Allecto and Megaera.

4 It is surprising that most modern commentators of the Aeneid either offer no comment at all (for instance, Heyne and Henry; as to Norden, cf. n.2) or limit themselves to quoting Servius. I found the following explanation in the edition by J. G. Cooper (1845): “They may be called agmina, bands or troops, on account of their complicated rage; or these may only be the principal ones, and might have others under their command.” As to the latter explanation, cf. n. 3.

5 A number of passages betraying the influence of Varro is mentioned by Norden in his commentary on Aen. VI (cf. the index s.v. Varro), as also by Heinze in Vergils epische Technik and by Heyne (especially in his famous excursus). However, many more Varronian etymologies (as, for instance, Camilla-Casmilld) and allusions to Varronian theories could be collected from both the Aeneid and the Georgics.

6 The Use of Classical Latin Authors in the Libri Manuales (T.A.P.A. 55 (1924), 190–248Google Scholar), 219 (nr.157).

7 Notes on Some Unpublished Scholia in a Paris Manuscript of Virgil (T.A.P.A. 56 (1925), 229–241)Google Scholar; cf. also id., The Scholia in the Virgil of Tours, Bernensis 165 (Harvard Stud, in Class. Philol. 36 (1925), 91–164Google Scholar), 100–102.

8 Savage, op. cit., 239.

9 Cf. Savage, op. cit., 230–240, and my observations in Gnomon 34 (1962), 445Google Scholar

10 Cf. the end of this paper — We may compare the derivation of Carmentis from carmen (cf. Thes. I.L., Onom. s.v., and Wissowa, Rel. und Kult., 221, n.4). Since this etymology is found in Ovid, Fasti I 462, we may take it for certain that it was mentioned by Verrius Flaccus, and probably also by Varro. For the traces of Varro’s theories and etymologies in the Fasti, cf. especially F. Bomer’s full commentary. A good instance is furnished by the discussion of the three possible explanations of Quhinus in II 475–480, on which cf. Elizabeth C. Evans, The Cults of the Sabine Territory, 212–213. For a further discussion of this explanation of the name Carmentis, cf. Jong, L. L. Tels-de, Sur quelques divinités romaines de la naissance et de la prophétie (thesis Leiden, Delft, 1959)Google Scholar, ch. I.

11 Cf. Norden ad loc.

12 Cf. Waser, op. cit., 311, and Rapp, op. cit., 156 (the latter scholar gives a more exact treatment of the relevant passages).

13 Cf. Thilo in the preface of his edition of Servius, XVI.

14 Servius's explanation serpentium agmina quos pro comis habent may be based on Aen. VII 329, whereas the idea of snakes interwoven in the hair of the Furies is found in Georg. IV 482.