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OI NEΩTEPOI, Poetae Novi, and Cantores Euphorionis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

N. B. Crowther
N. B. Crowther
Affiliation:
University of Western Ontario,
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Extract

These three Ciceronian references, each used only once, have given rise to a most confusing variety of interpretations. In this article I hope to show, as far as the evidence will allow, who these poets were and what sort of poetry Cicero probably had in mind.

οί νєώτєροι

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , December 1970 , pp. 322 - 327
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1970

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References

page 322 note 1 Apart from the widespread assumption that Catullus was a ‘Neoteric’ in all aspects of his poetry, mention may be made of Piwonka, M. Puelma, Lucilius und Kallimachos (Frankfurt, 1949), 278Google Scholar, who speaks of Tibullus and Propertius as ‘Neoteriker’, and of Mendell, C. W., Latin Poetry: the New Poets and the Augustans (New Haven, 1965), 17Google Scholar, who calls Lucretius a ‘New Poet’.

page 322 note 2 In Homer, Iliad I, 21 examples occur (7 proper nouns), which gives a percentage of 34 (1.1 for proper nouns). Hesiod in Works and Days has 29 (3) examples ═ 3.5 per cent. (0.4), and in the Theogony 35 (5) ═ 3.4 per cent (0.5). For Alexandrian poets I have compiled the following statistics—Apollonius, Argonautica 1: 109 (31) ═ 8.0 per cent (2.3); Aratus, Phaenomena: 126 (17) ═ 10.0 per cent (1.5); Callimachus, Hecale: 20 (4) ═ 10.0 per cent (2.0), Hymns: 57 (9) ═ 6.1 per cent (1.0); Euphorion: 20 (5) ═ 13.3 Per cent (3.3) j Moschus, Europa: 19 (9) ═ 11.4 per cent (5.4); Nicander: 30 (2) ═ 2.0 per cent (0.1); Theocritus: 77 (18) ═ 2.9 per cent (0.7).

page 322 note 3 In the Annals of Ennius (ed. Vahlen) 5 (2) examples occur ═ 0.9 per cent (0.4).

page 322 note 4 In Aratea 3 Cicero writes Orionis. Orion was often used in the genitive and accusative both in Greek and Latin at the end of a verse to form a spondeiazon, e.g. Hes. Op. 598, 615, 619; Hom. Il. 18. 486, Od. 11. 310; Arat. 232, 518, 677, 754, 755; Euph. fr. 104 (Powell); A.R. 1. 1202, 3. 745; Virg. Aen. 3. 517; Cir.535; Luc. 9. 836.

page 322 note 5 18 instances occur in approximately 7,400 lines. These figures are given on the assumption that the ‘u’ of sinuo or soluo, for example, is vocalic, hence compounds such as dissoluuntur (3. 330) or insinuatur (6. 802) are pentasyllabic rather than quadrisyllabic. Sometimes, however, depending on their position in the verse, such compounds must be quadrisyllabic (e.g. 1. 243; 3. 602; 6. 514). If such words as these are considered quadrisyllabic, the proportion of spondaic endings in Lucretius is still less than 1 per cent (i.e. 45 instances).

page 322 note 6 In 408 verses 23 examples are found (6 proper nouns) ═ 5.6 per cent. (1.5). Poem 62, however, an epithalamium, has no instances in 66 lines. Did Catullus use this metrical feature only when adapting Alexandrian poems? It is noteworthy that the Culex in the Appendix Vergiliana, like the Moretum and Dirae, does not have this spondaic ending. The Lydia has 3 (o) instances ═ 3.75 per cent, and the Ciris 9 (6) ═ 1.7 per cent (1.1). We may deduce that these two poems were written either at the time of Catullus, when such poetry may have been in vogue, or at a later date in imitation. Two instances are found in the sixteen extant verses of the Argonautica of Varro Atacinus, but he certainly did not write this work until after Cicero's remark, for it is known that the poem is adapted from Apollonius Rhodius and that Varro did not learn Greek until about 47 B.C. (cf. Jerome, , Suppl. ad Euseb. Chron. a. 1935Google Scholar).

page 323 note 1 A few instances can be found, e.g. Hermesianax fr. 7. 1. 9. and 79 (Powell); Philetas fr. 10. 1 (Powell); Callimachus, Aetia, 1, fr. 1. 31; 37. 1; 2, fr. 68 (emended); 3, frr. 63. 7, 75. 34 (Pfeiffer).

page 323 note 2 There is a possibility, despite the rarity of the feature in poetry extant from Alexandria, that Catullus was influenced by the Alexandrians in his use of the spondeiazon in elegiac as well as in hexameter poetry. The spondeiazon occurs three times in the elegiac epigrams of Catullus, i.e. 76. 15, 100. 1, 116. 3. West, D. A., ‘The Metre of Catullus Elegiacs’, CQ vii (1957), 101Google Scholar, remarks that only two of these spondeiazontes in elegiac poetry occur in ‘non-Alexandrian’ contexts, i.e. 76. 15, 100. 1. For the use of this feature in Augustan elegy, see Platnauer, M., Latin Elegiac Verse (Cambridge, 1951), 39.Google Scholar

page 323 note 3 117 examples occur in 408 verses, 7 with spondaic endings.

page 323 note 4 Elsewhere (Fam. 16. 9. 2) Cicero refers to the same wind (the wind that blew from Onchesmus in Epirus in the direction of Italy) as auster lenissimus.

page 323 note 5 Cf. Clausen, W. V., ‘Callimachus and Latin Poetry’. GRBS v (1964), 187–8.Google Scholar

page 324 note 1 Two spondaic endings occur in the six hexameters extant in Love Romance No. 11.

page 324 note 2 Cf. Catullus 35. 18. The poem may have been in galliambics, since it probably treated the worship of Cybele.

page 324 note 3 No fragments of his work are extant, but two titles have survived, the Diana and the Lydia (cf. Suet, . Gram. 11Google Scholar), where these features may have been found.

page 324 note 4 Bailey, C., Lucretius: De Rerum Natura i (Oxford, 1947), 124.Google Scholar

page 324 note 5 One instance, however, occurs in a pentameter of Catullus (116. 8).

page 324 note 6 The exact significance of νєώτєρος is uncertain, although many conjectures have been made. If Cicero was not using the term in a technical sense, it may mean little more than the younger generation of poets as compared with Cicero himself. It seems reasonably certain that Cicero thought of these poets as innovators.

page 325 note 1 e.g. by Fordyce, C. J., Catullus (Oxford, 1961), Introd., p. xixGoogle Scholar; G. C. Richards in OCD s.v. ‘Neoterici’; Schanz–Hosius, i. 286; Alfonsi, L., Poetae Novi (Como, 1945), 32.Google Scholar These critics believe that all three references in Cicero allude to poets who wrote in the manner of Catullus.

page 325 note 2 Probus and Philargyrius I ad Virg. Eel. 10. 50–1 state that Euphorion did write elegy, but their comments should be considered together with the comments of the other scholiasts on the passage who do not make such an explicit assertion. On the problem of Euphorion and elegy, the discussion of Corte, F. Della, Treves, P., Barigazzi, A., Bartoletti, V., Alfonsi, L., ‘Euforione e i poeti latini’, Maia xvii (1965), 158–76Google Scholar, is useful; cf. also Skutsch, F., RE vi. 1177 ff.Google Scholar and Schanz–Hosius, 11. i, 171–2. Jacoby, F., ‘Zur Entstehung der römischen Elegie’, Rh. Mus. lx (1905), 69–70 n. 3Google Scholar, comments: ‘Euphorion wird Elegiker, weil er von Gallus benutzt ist ’

page 326 note 1 This was also the conclusion of Crump, M. M., The Epyllion from Theocritus to Ovid (Oxford, 1931), 50 ff.Google Scholar and A. M. Duff in OCD s.v. ‘Epyllion’.

page 326 note 2 For other accounts of this legend, see the sources given by Sir J. G. Frazer, in his edition, on Apollodorus 3. 14. 4.

page 326 note 3 The Ciris also has similar subject-matter and appears to be in the manner of Euphorion.

page 326 note 4 No date can be given for his poetry, but it is referred to in the Eclogues of Virgil which were probably composed between 42–1 and 39–8 b.c. and not later than 37 b.c. (cf. Schanz-Hosius, 11. i, 37–8).

page 326 note 5 Cf. especially the scholiasts on Eel. 10. 50–1.

page 327 note 1 Unlike Cicero's other two references, this seems to be uncomplimentary. No parallels can be found for the use of the term cantor in this way, although there may be a connection with cantare as used by Horace, Sat. 1. 10. 19, when mentioning Calvus and Catullus: ‘Calvum et doctus cantare Catullum’. The Thesaurus gives examples from Plautus and Cicero under the heading: ‘ironice de iis. qui eadem semper clamant’, but interprets this example as: ‘de poetarum asseclis vel imitatoribus’.

page 327 note 2 I wish to thank Prof. E. Laughton of the University of Sheffield, who supervised the thesis from which this article is adapted, Mr. E. J. Kenney of Peterhouse, Cambridge, and my colleagues Mr. D. E. Hill and Mr. A. R. Littlewood for criticism and assistance.