Philologus 2017; 161(2): 340342

Miszelle

Boris Kayachev*
Ciris 121: An Emendation
https://doi.org/10.1515/phil-2016-0140

Keywords: Ciris, Appendix Vergiliana, textual criticism

At 120122 the Ciris describes Nisus famous purple lock:

nam capite ab summo regis, mirabile dictu, 120

candida caesaries florebant tempora lauro
et roseus medio surgebat uertice crinis.

121 caesaries : caesarie Z | florebant H : frondebant AR : florebat K

This is what can be assumed to be the transmitted text: florebant has better
support, while caesaries, in view of the plural verb, is the lectio difficilior (if only
slightly difficilior). Two lines of approach are possible: (1)taking tempora as the
subject and accepting caesarie (Nisus temples bloomed with lush hair); (2)tak-
ing caesaries as the subject, accepting Ks florebat, and understanding tempora in
a locative sense (lush hair bloomed at Nisus temples). The former approach
would require an epithet for caesarie in place of lauro, such as Courtneys longa.1
The latter would need to produce a construction conveying a locative sense to
tempora. Heinsius tempore utroque is one option,2 but Nmethys tempora circum
may be preferable.3 I think on the whole the latter approach should be adopted:
candida caesaries blooming tempora circum would nicely match roseus ... crinis
rising medio ... uertice.

1 E.Courtney, Notes on Catullus and the Appendix Vergiliana, MD 59, 2007, 185188, at 186.
2 First published in C.G.Heyne, P.Virgilii Maronis opera, vol.4, Leipzig 21789, 114. Cf. Verg. Aen.
9.418 tempus utrumque.
3 G.Nmethy, Ciris. Epyllion pseudovergilianum, Budapest 1909, 124. Cf. e.g. Verg. Aen. 9.808

caua tempora circum, rendering Hom. Il. 16.104 . Cf. further [Theocr.] 20.23
.

*Corresponding author: Boris Kayachev, Department of Classics, Trinity College, Dublin, Dublin
2, E-Mail: boriskayachev@gmail.com

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 Ciris 121: An Emendation 341

Now, the metaphoric use of florere for lush hair is striking and seems unpar-
alleled.4 The Ciris does speak of a coma ... florens ... ostro, lock shining with
purple (382), but the metaphor is different there. This lack of close parallels
makes florebat suspect, if not entirely impossible. Lyne sensed this and conjec-
tured pendebat.5 I would suggest fluitabat:6 misreading fluitabat as floreba(n)t
may have been prompted by 110 ante alios qui tum florebat in armis, fresh in the
scribes mind. There is apparently only one parallel for fluitare used of hair,7 but
examples with fluere are more numerous.8
In fact, fluitabat not only is idiomatic (and closer to the paradosis than Lynes
pendebat), but may be particularly appropriate in the present context. At 126128
the Ciris supplies additional details about Nisus hairstyle:

ergo omnis caro residebat cura capillo, 126

aurea sollemni comptum quem fibula ritu
Cecropiae tereti nectebat dente cicadae.

The passage alludes to the ancient Attic (and in general Ionian) custom of
fastening hair with so-called , brooches in the shape of cicadas.9 Not all
particulars of this hairstyle are clear (conceivably it admitted variation, and any-
way was already out of fashion by the time of Thucydides).10 Thucydides refers to
a topknot (), and this is probably how we should imagine Nisus lock of
purple hair to be dressed (note 122 surgebat). Asius, however, speaks of hair

4 Erinn. SH 401.46 , could be relevant (if refers to grey hair

rather than grey-haired women), but, as B.Werle, Der Erzhlungsstil des pseudovergilischen
Cirisgedichtes, diss. Gttingen 1966, 10 n. 2, rightly observes, the point of Erinnas metaphor is
different. More remotely, one could adduce Hom. Od. 6.231 (=23.158)
, but the comparison is probably intended to evoke a specific quality of Odysseus hair,
either curly texture or dark colour.
5 R.O. A.M.Lyne, Ciris. A Poem Attributed to Vergil, Cambridge 1978, 151, comparing Ov. Met.
10.138139 qui niuea pendebant fronte capilli, / horrida caesaries fieri [sc. coepit]; one could add
Stat. Theb. 6.607 flauus ab intonso pendebat uertice crinis.
6 The verb is used at Ciris 491492: internodia membris / imperfecta nouo fluitant concreta calore.
7 Man. 1.835 longi fluitent de uertice crines.
8 Verg. Aen. 4.147148 fluentem / fronde premit crinem; Prop. 2.3.13 comae per leuia colla fluentes;
[Tib.] 3.4.27 intonsi crines longa ceruice fluebant; Sen. Tr. 85 per colla fluant maesta capilli.
9 For a collection of ancient references to and a discussion of their precise nature (with
relevant archaeological evidence), see A.B.Cook, Zeus. A Study in Ancient Religion, vol.3.1,
Cambridge 1940, 250254, n. 89.
10 1.6.3 ... ... -
. See the extensive comment in A.W.Gomme, A Historical Commen-
tary on Thucydides, vol.1, Oxford 1945, 101103, who in particular notes (p. 102 n. 1) that already
in later antiquity there was uncertainty about the precise character of this hairstyle.

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342 Boris Kayachev

flowing in the wind (fr. 13.45): , /

.11 While it is not quite clear exactly
what kind of hairstyle Asius had in mind, the fragment does show that the use of
was consistent with (some) hair hanging loose, and
gives fluitabat some support.
As I have extensively argued elsewhere, Apollonius Argonautica is an impor-
tant model of the Ciris.12 In particular, it does not seem unlikely that the descrip-
tion of Nisus hairstyle alludes to Apollonius portrait of Zetes and Calais (1.219
223):

, , 220


.

We may compare with tempora circum, with

mirabile dictu, with capite ab summo, and finally ...
can be paralleled with caesaries fluitabat.13

Acknowledgements: This paper was produced during the term of a Government of

Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship funded by the Irish Research Council (project ID:
GOIPD/2016/549).

11 For a discussion of the textual and interpretative problems of this difficult fragment, see J. N.
OSullivan, Asius and the Samians hairstyle, GRBS 22, 1981, 329233.
12 B.Kayachev, Allusion and Allegory. Studies in the Ciris, Berlin 2016, esp. 177.
13 The Ciris poet may well have been familiar with Varro Atacinus Argonauts, and it can perhaps
be speculated that Varro may already have used a form of fluitare to render Apollonius .
Note that Ciris 32 additur aurata deiectus cuspide Typhon appears to be alluding to fr. 132 (Hollis)
tum te flagranti deiectum fulmine, Phaethon (based on 4.597598
/ ). Cf. also Ciris 3738 purpureos inter soles et candida lunae /
sidera with fr. 113.1 inter solis stationem et sidera septem, Ciris 473 longe gratissima Delos with fr.
111.4 longe gratissima Phoebo.

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