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Homeric Echoes in Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

R. W. Garson
R. W. Garson
Affiliation:
University of Adelaide
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Extract

The purpose of this article is to illustrate through representative examples the principal ways in which Valerius Flaccus borrowed from Homer. Earlier articles1 examined Valerius' attitude towards Apollonius and his debt to Virgil. While not nearly as numerous as the Virgilian echoes, those from Homer are unmistakable, deliberate, sometimes erudite, or with a subtle twist. A convenient classification of them may be into (a) verbal usages, (b) situations, (c) similes. Although the last merges with the previous category, it deserves separate treatment, being greatest in size as well as complexity.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , December 1969 , pp. 362 - 366
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1969

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References

1 C.Q. N.S. xiii (1963), 260–7; XiV (1964), 267–79; XV (1965), 104–20.

2 Cf. gestamen et illius aeui (6. 649) for another Homeric idea (II. 5. 303–4; 12.447–9; Aen. 12. 899–900), namely that man's physical strength has declined since heroic times. Yet here Valerius' expression shows striking independence and conciseness.

1 Cf. also Aen. 1. 326–34, although Valerius was obviously more aware of the Homeric passage.

2 For a detailed discussion of this leitmotiv see C.Q. N.S. xv (1965), 109.

1 It is clear that the Homeric influence is stronger in Valerius' similes than in any other aspect of his work. A very high proportion of them are to some extent Homeric, but as it is so often impossible to state dogmatically whether Valerius is following Homer or Virgil, I offer no statistics on this point. However, the following more general statistics may be of interest for a comparative study of similes in classical epic. Valerius has 126 similes in his 5,590 lines. The similes have an average length of just over 2 lines, and they arise from mo different contexts. Of the 126 similes 48 are taken from inanimate nature, 31 from mythology, 26 from animate nature, and 21 from ordinary human activity. Of the 100 contexts embellished with similes 51 have as their subject-matter emotions, 27 actions, and 22 are natural descriptions. (Where emotions and actions were combined I have selected what seemed to be the essential point.)

2 In 5. 304–8 Valerius borrows from Il. 10. 5–8 not only the physical details of the storm to which his hero's perplexity is likened but even translates the metaphor verbatim as magna ostia belli. However, a comparison of Arg. 6. 708–16 and Il. 17. 51–8, which it follows closely, reveals one significant alteration: in Valerius the dead hero's locks, now drenched in blood, had been tended not by himself or some unknown attendant, as in Homer, but by his mother. Effective in itself, this additional touch of pathos also adds point to the ensuing simile. In it one is, after all, expected to pity the cultivator's blighted hopes rather than the uprooted olive. Finally, a protest against Mozley's judgement (pp. xvi and xvii of V.F. in Loeb) that 6. 358–60 is ‘original to quaintness, even to transgression of good taste’. In likening the heroes tugging at Canthus' body to slaves stretching a bull's hide, Valerius has merely abridged Il. 17. 389–93. He has been frankly Homeric and in the process has invested Canthus with the aura of a Patroclus (cf. also Arg. 3. 323 and Il. 6. 429–30, where the echo of Andromache's farewell to Hector ennobles Clite for the reader and makes her gief more tragic).

1 Cf. Arg. 8. 32–5, where the simile likening Medea to a frightened dove is presumably inspired by R. Il 22. 139–42. But Valerius has altered the emphasis, which in Homer is much more on the hawk's eagerness for a kill. In Aen. II 721–4 Virgil's sole preoccupation is with the gruesomeness of the killing.

2 He seems to have it in mind in a different passage: cf. Il. 17. 136 and Arg. 1. 758 rictuque genas et lumina pressit.