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    Shelton 2013

    Uploaded by

    Andrea Pizzotti

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Ne Misc. Gaaon.A Poetic Language and Religion in Greece and Rome Edited by J. Virgilio Garcia and Angel Ruiz CAMBRIDGE SCHOLARS PUBLISHING apropos 16 reek version of this inherited formula itis the Titans fo are overcome. Their confinement fo the ‘place of ‘direct consequence of this formulaic diction, It is se his relationship between the elements of the myth was te oundasyof he word the place that separates chaos from the de ee cane new oer of the Olympians. This is the picture we find in Theo. where eprapos occurs both as a common noun “boundary, end? waste mythical place into which the Titans are confined. Yomally and semantically, Tariarus can be compared with Hittite anki: bots are reduplicated nouns formed from the stock elements sft formula, Beside the well-known influences of the Hittite Iluyanka fnython te story of Typhoeus, the story of Ullikummi may have supplied the motif of Tartaros as the father of Typhoeus. sation In te G and then Typhoeus wh the overcoming’ is @ Works Cited Fisk, H. 1960. Griechisches etymologisches Worterbuch. Heidelberg: Winter. Klockhors, A. 2008, Etymological Dictionary of the Hiuite Inherited Lexicon Leiden: Bil Maythofer, M. 1992, Epmologisches Worterbuch des Aliindoarischen. Heidelberg: Winter. Meier Brigger, M. 1980, “Gricchisch mérpa, néxpos.” HS 94: 122-24. Nussbaum, A, 2010. “PIE -Cmn- and Greek tpaviig ‘clear’.” In Ex Anatolia Lax: Anatolian and Indo-European studies in honor of H. os Melchert, ed. R, Kim et al., 269-77. Ann Arbor: Beech Stave ress Pave, J. 1984. Hittte Etymol l nite Etymological Dictionary. Berlin: de Gruyter. eed Worlbildung der homerischen Sprache. Berlin: de Gruyter. H. 20D1 LIV, Lesion der indogermanischen Verben. Wiesbaden Watkins, C. 1995. How to Kill . How 10 Kill a Dragon: Aspects of Indo-European weeitos New York: Oxford Univesity Press. St ML. 1966. Hesiod. Theogony, Oxford: Oxford University PFS: RELIGIOUS ETYMOLOGY AND POETIC SYNCRETISM AT ROME COLIN SHELTON UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, Los ANGELES — thst parca nek om 1 Se kext cvtigny gio ml parsan seat cus 2 rontuends, Blum label (ea don aa} 4a fhtcording to Servius, a ‘grove’ (ews) gels its name fom ‘not shining’, just like the Parcae, or fates, are so-called because they don’t spare anybody (quod mulli parcant), and a war is called a bellum because its no pretty thing (nulla re bella). He introduces these to illustrate the Principle of ‘etymology from the opposite’, or etymology kata antiphrasin ‘© pick up on Servius’s Greek technicalities. + ee Not, for instan ctymel for insance, the prominence of etymology both inthe Hlosopiclehaarlyteadions Qf Cue De Nanrn Frum and in the Religious Etymology in Rome ns. sn its opposite! In fact, the first attestation of the “grove? os ue veus porn liceat? Pechaps already then this was a prime a cof etymological foolishness.” But Servius repeats it, and on one icity, quod non Iuceat, non quod sint ibi lumina causa ee n volunt, (Servius ad Aen. 1.441) religions, ut quidam Servis asserts again that icus comes about from not shining (quod fon luceat), Others, perheps more of Quinilian’s persuasion, explain the tame by reference to the lights (lumina) that are in the grove for religious uuposes, Clearly both sides are picking up on the fact that veus sounds tke various illumination words in Latin, like /ux, Juceo, For the ancient ceéfymological tradition, observing phonic similarity between words is always the first step towards connecting them etymologically. A very ‘equent pattem in ancient etymology derives the name of a place from what sin that place * So, why does Servius prefer Iicus a non lucendo? ‘The difference between this etymology and its alternative is in the Semantics they use to link the grove with illumination. The fact that one needs artificial lumina there points to a deeper truth about the grove: itis a ple almost pretematurally dark. According to Seneca, it is the darkness “ Bhymology hata amiphrasnis relatively infrequent in the Roman etymological tal Teeny cer we fi are’ De Lng Ltn 5:18 eet the etymology calun < celare, At DLL 5.117 vallum are Ling stg” 257 isthe derivation of Porta Mucionis from musi. Se® _ Colin Shelton a of the fucus that gives it its/numinous’ quali between Iueus and the fvc- Words is taken as difference between alternatives tests in det that which excludes light Now what happens when this et consider the passage that Servius is the etymology, Aeneid 1.437: ity! The phonic connection self-evident, it seems, andthe tecing the truer semantic link— tymology is used in poetry? To start, ‘commenting on when he introduces 0 fortunati, quorum iam moenia surgunt! Aeneas ai, et fastigia suspcit urbis, infer se saeptus nebula (mirabile dicty) pet medios, miscetque uiris neque cemitur ull Lucus in urbe fuit media Ietissimus umbeae, «quo primum iactati undis et turbine Poeni efadere loco signum, quod regia funo ‘monstrarat, caput acris equ; sie nam fore bello egregiam et focilem uictu per saecula gentem. Lucus and wmbrae frame line 441, in a familiar pater of etymological wordplay. Umbra invokes the absence of light, and so the audience is Primed to consider the grove's non-shining associations, The passage accesses the vocabulary of speaking (ait, dictu) and antiquity (primum, per saecula) and sign interpretation (signum, monstrarat), and so invites an ctymologizing interpretation, Themes of visual perception are especially ‘active in this passage, for Acneas sees all, and remains unseen! There is a contrast inherent, though, in the shady grove, where one Sees litle, and the portentous grove where one sees the future. What this Passage accomplishes so elegantly is the demonstration of both aspects of the grove at once. It is an appropriate place to see the future, because itis uminous. It is numinous because it is obscure. This is, a5 it were, the tension that inheres in the etymological considerations of Iueus. No red Soul imagine a grove as anything but dark, but when thinking of grove ‘is not inappropriate to think of revelation, for that is itself a kind of ae unetsee Epis Moral 41.3 Si tbs occurrert vets arboribus t sola Giitidinem agressis frequens tues et cunspectum eel “denetete> ramon tora ais protegentin summoves il procera sae e sere Ice ratio mbrae in qperto tam dens te i i With sveh » high burden of etymological markers here, O'Hara 1936, 128 is Fxus0s overcautious in not wholeheartedly endorsing the Omologizng here cligious Bymotogy in Rome 10 Religious Ey opposite of obsourity. Iijumination peaks in from the Jucws etymology, but Ponyplemus. The dominant tone here is ridiculous, but etymology adds some disturbing overtones. aii sim quan on toe como mor ‘See ponaan wena tetas over coma pia 10 ae ee omeese, teas, obra.) emai bamen mi one sd intr iu int Qu? Nonbac omnia magmas SF eisa sl unen ules obs (Ml 1SRADAS) RSIS) Polyphemus Jeads into what he thinks are his physical charms with terms of uiterance and knowledge (narrare, mescio) and. also. vision (adspice). Te passage is rich in repetition, and potyptoton as the Cyclops strives for expression of maximal extent with his limited vocabulary.'® He says hei attractive because dense hair covers his body, or rather ut fucus ‘obumbrat “casts it nto shadow, like a grove’. The pair of terms provides a link to the iucus < fuceo etymology, and there are echoes of the semantic complex it relies on asthe passage continues. The word lumen commonly means ‘eye’ but here is other, perhaps more basic meaning, ‘light’, has a place in its interpretation. The double meaning is extended, in further pposition tothe hirsute shadows when the Cyclops compares his eye 10 the sun, And perhaps there is an oxymoron in comparing this eye at the same time to & clipeus ‘shield’ since some in the etymological tradition Aetive this word dd tod x-6yan, that is from “conceal” or even ‘steal. ‘ay aso be worth noting that what Aeneas sees in the grove i the femplia of ‘uno, Stgen 1975, 199 interprets the passage witha view to Varro'setymolO8Y ‘enplum from teor. See Ling 7.9. The description of the cemplum has extensve Telit, nd ers < aes, clase figura etymologica Itis also curious 1 9% tow the whole descriptive sequence ffom lines 438 — 449 is framed by Aeneas =~ Retype: lipiter. Jovem; corpare .. corpora: tmpe »» turpis; Sol Sele oe et ie ean crl Bao Se Sl eae 2 ‘al by eye hi genes eas, 2 syn fe ee Yaron 68 tol et godt Sebi el quod soa a cet, ut er eo ht De Natura Deorum 2.68 cum sol dens sit uel quia solus eon ime ie a Gum est exortus obscuratis omnibus Solus SPAT. gp cian ad den lipewm dix, qui magnitudine corpus feral pets dts ext bd 08 dy. sido of Seville Onigines 18.121 CPO Misa Colin Shelton ct Polyphemus’s self-description does not settle on m of light, but the etymological glimmer in luc and feo RES ss and in elipeng s ggess a eye into the semantics of ‘alongside the mention of the I not see the concealed traps caus unity 10 these opposites. Drawing th conealen has a vaguely dsqucting ee sin who srs all. Polyphems, of engsr oa of Odysseus, and then he will see nothing atall when his eye is stolen The eyology Ici @ non hens works gS asi of oppostes. This Kind ef opto sepa on 8 PO cotepntl elect in poetry, whee diffrent mesages oar happens then i the Ficus and is etymological verones apne ma soundplay of sacral language? a oe iguage? There is a virtuosic example in Seneca’s la quae montes cas .montibus coleris dea in melius minas, ‘© magna siluas inter et Iueos dea,

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