Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T04:33:05.555Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cornutus and the Poets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

J. Tate
J. Tate
Affiliation:
Queen's University, Belfast
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

No modern writer, so far as I am aware, has called attention to the peculiar attitude adopted by Cornutus towards Homer and Hesiod. My object in this article is to state his attitude, and attempt some account of its significance for the history of Greek allegorical interpretation of poetry.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , January 1929 , pp. 41 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1929

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 41 note 1 In the Tkcologiae Gratcae Compendium (ed.Lang, C.; Teubner, 1881)Google Scholar.

page 41 note 2 Who rejects the view that there is Stoic or any other philosophy contained in Homer (Epist. 88. 5).

page 41 note 3 Lang makes a new paragraph atΔЄîδμή apparently regarding the passage above translated as an introductory comment on Hesiod, not (as I take it) as a concluding comment on Homer. I think it clear that the treatment of Hesiod does not begin till the next sentence, πάλіν τоίνuʋ etc, where τοίνʋν performs the same function as on the other two occasions on which it appears in the treatise–namely, to mark the resumption of allegorical interpretation after a critical digression suggested by the previous allegories (c. 18 ad init., and 32 ad intt.).

page 41 note 4 The ὡςοîƖαι may be a hint that Cornutus is here developing a personal point of view not in consonance with bis Stoic authorities.

page 41 note 5 6 There is much truth in this criticism. Indeed, Professor G. Murray is saying much the same thing as Cornutus when he remarks (Four Stages of Greek Religion, p. 95) that Hesiod seems some-times to be turning allegory back into myth. Gomperz, Cf.also, G.T. I., pp. 42 and 45Google Scholar, on traces of speculative philosophy in Homer and Hesiod.

page 42 note 1 Prot. 316D-E, a passage which Maximus ofTyre (XXVI. 2; ed.obein), no doubt rightly, understands of the riddling and allegorical nature of the early poets.

page 42 note 2 This is the view of Strabo (I. 1, 10 et al.), Dio of Prusa (see LV. 9 sqq.), Maximus of Tyre (loc. at., et al.), and others.

page 42 note 3 On the Stoic view of poetry see further my article on Horace, in C.Q., 04, 1928Google Scholar.

page 42 note 4 Strabo I. 1, 10: σνƳƳοίηδ àν [τις], καì єІμνθώδη πιν πρσ;πέπλεκται τοĩς λεуоμ

page 42 note 5 Strabo I. 2, 3: τ $$; ἓξω τς αἰσθσεως κα ο ὗτος (Homer) κα ἅλλοι τɛρατολογἰας μνθικς πεπληρώκαςι

page 42 note 6 Strabo I, 2, 9: δημαγωγν κα στρατηγν τ πλθη

page 42 note 7 This passage is usually understood differently; I postpone fuller consideration of it to a future article.

page 42 note 8 Strabo I. 2, 3.

page 42 note 9 Stabo I. 2, 7: πρς πιστμην λληγορν.

page 42 note 10 Strabo I. 2, 3: τ ν τοσατην πολνμθειαν.

page 42 note 11 So Polybius in Strabo I, 2, 17 ad init.

page 43 note 1 Cf. Plutarch on Cleanthes' ‘unconvincing word-inventing,’ De Aud. Poet. 31E

page 43 note 2 Fr. 910 (von Arnim). It is adapted from Democritus (see fr. 2, Diels).

page 43 note 3 To use a phrase placed in Cornutus' own mouth by his pupil Persius (V. 7).

page 43 note 4 References in Jahn's, Persius, p. xGoogle Scholar.

page 44 note 1 Poet. 1447B (criticism of Empedocles) and 1460B.

page 44 note 2 Zur Geschichte der allegofischen Deutung Homers im Altertum by Wehrli, F. (Borna-Leipzig, 1928), pp. 56 sqq. and 94Google Scholar.

page 44 note 3 See also Ross's, note on the passage of the Metaphysics already cited (XI. 8, 1074B)Google Scholar.

page 44 note 4 Tim. 22c; Crit. 109D.