Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T05:21:01.584Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

BLOOD-COLOURED SWANS: HOR. CARM. 4.1.10 AND HOMER'S PURPLE DEATH*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2017

Miryam Librán-Moreno
Miryam Librán-Moreno*
Affiliation:
Universidad de Extremadura, Spain
*
mlibmor@unex.es
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In Carm. 4.1 Horace asks Venus to stop waging war against him, who is now over fifty (1–7), and suggests that she should set her aim instead on Paulus Maximus, a young and passionate nobleman who will be happy to obey Venus' orders (9–20).

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 67 , Issue 1 , May 2017 , pp. 199 - 209
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2017 

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.)

Footnotes

*

I am extremely grateful to Dr Luis Rivero García and to the editors and the anonymous reader for CQ for their kind and helpful suggestions.

References

1 Nisbet, R.G.M. and Rudd, N., A Commentary on Horace, Odes, Book III (Oxford, 2004), 344 Google Scholar.

2 e.g. Thome, G., ‘Die Funktion der Farben bei Horaz’, Acta Classica 37 (1994), 15–39, at 22Google Scholar. This is not the place to attempt a discussion of the psychology of colour in ancient times, for which see e.g. Platnauer, M., ‘Greek colour-perception’, CQ 15 (1921), 153–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rowe, C., ‘Conceptions of colour and colour symbolism in the ancient world’, Eranos 41 (1972), 327–64Google Scholar; and Harris, J.P., ‘The swan's red-dipped foot: Euripides, Ion 161–9’, CQ 62 (2012), 510–22, at 511CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On the use of purple in the ancient Mediterranean, see Dedekind, A., Ein Beitrag zur Purpurkunde (Berlin, 1898)Google Scholar; Schneider, K., ‘Purpura’, RE 23 (1959), cols. 2000–20Google Scholar; and Reinhold, M., History of Purple as a Status Symbol in Antiquity (Brussels, 1970)Google Scholar. The last reference was kindly supplied to me by the editor for CQ.

3 e.g. Aesch. PV 795, Eur. HF 692, Heracl. 215, Bacch. 1365, Rhes. 618, Ar. Av. 1065, Arist. Soph. el. 168b, Theoc. 25.130, Hor. Carm. 2.20.10, Verg. Ecl. 7.38, Aen. 7.699, 9.563, 10.192, 11.380, 11.580, G. 2.199, Ov. Her. 7.4, Met. 2.373, Prop. 3.3.39, Paus. 8.17. Latin poets used adjectives that denote a shining whiteness, such as albus, candidus, canus, candens, canens, lacteus, niueus. See Gossen, H., ‘Schwan’, RE 2.A.1 (1921), 782–92, at 784Google Scholar; André, J., Étude sur les termes de couleur dans la langue latine (Paris, 1949), 360 Google Scholar; Sauvage, A., Étude de thèmes animaliers dans la poésie latine. Le cheval, les oiseaux (Brussels, 1975), 232 Google Scholar; Schoonhoven, H., ‘Purple swans and purple snow (Hor. C. IV 1, 10 and Eleg. in Maec. 62)’, Mnemosyne 31 (1978), 200–3, at 200CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Thome (n. 2), 23.

4 André (n. 3), 360. The Black Swan (Cygnus atratus), a native species of Australia, was unknown in Europe until the eighteenth century. See Gossen (n. 3), 784.

5 Sauvage (n. 3), 232; Schoonhoven (n. 3), 200; Putnam, M.C., Artifices of Eternity: Horace's Fourth Book of Odes (Ithaca and London, 1986), 45 Google Scholar. The ὄρνις φοινικόπτερος mentioned by Cratinus fr. 121 K.–A. cannot be a swan, pace Henderson, J., ‘Pursuing Nemesis. Cratinus and mythological comedy’, in Marshall, C.W. and Kovacs, G. (edd.), No Laughing Matter: Studies in Athenian Comedy (Bristol, 2012), 1–12, at 4, 10 n. 27Google Scholar. Rather, it must be a flamingo or another similarly coloured bird ( Arnott, W.G., Birds in the Ancient World from A to Z [London and New York, 2007], 275 Google Scholar). On the other hand, purpureis cannot allude to the swan's feet, which were wrongly described as crimson by Eur. Ion 162–3 and Ov. Met. 2.375. Swan feet are, in actual fact, unmistakably black.

6 Arnott (n. 5), 182. A. Dedekind (n. 2), 164 and 173 thought implausibly that the use of purpureus pointed to the swiftness of swans on the wing.

7 Cassel, P., Der Schwan in Sage und Leben (Berlin, 1872), 61 Google Scholar; Pöschl, V., ‘Liebende Schwäne bei Horaz und später’, Humanitas 47 (1995), 531–43, at 533–8Google Scholar. On Virgil's lumine … purpureo (Aen. 6.640–1), see below, n. 45.

8 Schoonhoven (n. 3), 201.

9 Keller, O., Die antike Tierwelt (Leipzig, 1913), 2.219Google Scholar. More interpretations and emendations (currently disregarded) may be found in Lambinus, D. and Turnebus, A., Qu. Horatius Flaccus (Paris, 1604), 255 Google Scholar; Dacier, A., Remarques critiques sur les œuvres d'Horace. Volume IV (Paris, 1689), 420–1Google Scholar; Combe, C., Q. Horatii Flacci Opera. Tomus I (London, 1792), 423 Google Scholar. See also the entry for Hor. Carm. 4.1.10 in the website Repertory of Conjectures on Horace (http://tekstlab.uio.no/horace), accessed on 16 June 2016.

10 Schrier, O.J., ‘Love with Doris: Dioscorides, Anth. Pal. V 55’, Mnemosyne 32 (1979), 307–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 318–19 n. 37; Fedeli, P. and Ciccarelli, I., Q. Horatii Flacci Carmina Liber IV (Florence, 2008), 97–8Google Scholar.

11 In Hor. Carm. 4.1.10 purpureis oloribus quomodo dicitur, cum albi sint potius? sed sic purpureum pro pulchro dicere poetae adsuerunt. Cf. Serv. Aen. 1.591 purpureum pulchrum ut Horatius purpureis ales oloribus.

12 A few examples will suffice: G. Baxter, C.H. Klotz and M.C.D. Jan ap. Combe (n. 9), 423; André (n. 3), 99–100; Marzullo, B., ‘Afrodite porporina?’, Maia 3 (1950), 132–6, at 132Google Scholar; Gow, J., Q. Horatii Flacci Carminum Liber IV (Cambridge, 1955), 30 Google Scholar (‘lustrous swans’); Hollis, A.S. (ed.), Ovid Ars Amatoria Book I (Oxford, 1977), 84 Google Scholar.

13 See Fordyce, C.J., Catullus A Commentary (Oxford, 1961), 206 Google Scholar. However, Valerius Flaccus 3.422 refers by metonymy to the sea, not to salt. See Edgeworth, R.J., ‘Does purpureus mean bright?’, Glotta 57 (1979), 281–91, at 283Google Scholar; Manuwald, G., Valerius Flaccus Argonautica Book III (Cambridge, 2015), 177 Google Scholar.

14 There are serious doubts on the validity of bracchia †purpurea† candidiora niue from Elegiae in Maecenatem 1.62, the sole indisputable example in which purpureus cannot have a reddish tint. See Schoonhoven, H., Elegiae in Maecenatem (Groningen, 1980), 130–2Google Scholar; Edgeworth, R.J., The Colors of the Aeneid (New York, Paris, Bern and Frankfurt am Main, 1992), 215–16, 221–2Google Scholar. Kenney, E.J. ap. W.V. Clausen, Appendix Vergiliana (Oxford, 1966), 90 Google Scholar, who printed purpurea between daggers, believed that it was a repetition of purpura from line 60. See also Fedeli and Ciccarelli (n. 10), 97–8.

15 Edgeworth (n. 14), 260. Cf. Serv. Aen. 1.337 purpureo aut pulchro aut russati coloris, Donat. Aen. 9.235 purpura quippe nigra est cum rubore.

16 Such is the case of the Purple Gallinule (πορφυρίων: Ar. Av. 707; porphyrio: Mart. 13.78, Plin. HN 10.135), the Satyr Tragopan (Κάσπιος ὄρνις: Ael. NA 17.33) and the Kingfisher (ἁλιπόρφυρος ὄρνις: Alcm. 26.4). The bird called πορφυρίς (Ibyc. fr. 317b PMGF, Callim. fr. 414 Pf.) might be the Blue Rock Thrush, whose feathers are a vivid dark blue (Arnott [n. 5], 288). The phoenix has wings of purple and gold (Ach. Tat. 3.25.2 κεκέρασται μὲν τὰ πτερὰ χρυσῷ καὶ πορφύρᾳ). The exact species of the λαθιπορφυρίδες mentioned by Ibyc. fr. 317a3 PMGF is not known. The wings of Zetes and Calais, the sons of the North Wind, are purple (Pind. Pyth. 4.182-3 घήταν Κάλαΐν τε … ἄνδρας πτεροῖσιν | νῶτα πεφρίκοντας ἄμφω πορφυρέοις), perhaps owing to the darkness of their and their father's wings (cf. Bacchyl. 13.91-3, Ap. Rhod. Argon. 1.219-20 ἐρεμνὰς | ἀειρομένω πτέρυγας, Strabo 4.1.7). The entries for πορφύρεος and purpureus in LSJ and OLD are unfortunately of no great help.

17 According to Thome (n. 2), 22, for Horace purpureus mainly described hues in the red range (‘Horaz’ Hauptbegriff für den Rotbereich ist purpureus’). In addition to Carm. 4.1.10, Horace uses purpureus in the following lines: Carm. 1.35.12 purpurei metuunt tyranni, 2.5.12 purpureo uarius colore, 2.12.3 [sc. mare] Poeno purpureum sanguine, 3.3.12 purpureo bibet ore nectar, 3.15.15 nec flos purpureus rosae, Sat. 2.6.106 ergo ubi purpurea porrectum in ueste locauit, 2.8.11 gausape purpureo mensam pertersit, Epist. 1.17.27 alter purpureum non exspectabit amictum, Ars P. 15 purpureus, late qui splendeat, unus et alter [sc. pannus].

18 Clarke, J., Imagery of Colour and Shining in Catullus, Propertius and Horace (New York, Berlin and Bern, 2003), 130–4Google Scholar.

19 Schoonhoven (n. 3), 200.

20 Horace mentions swans in the following passages: Carm. 1.6.2 Maeonii carminis alite, 2.20.10 album … alitem, 3.28.15 iunctis … oloribus, 4.2.25 Dircaeum … cycnum, 4.3.20 donatura cycni, si libeat, sonum.

21 Thomas, R.F., Horace Odes Book IV and Carmen Saeculare (Cambridge, 2011), 92 Google Scholar.

22 Cassel (n. 7), 4 n. 16; Keller (n. 9), 216–19; Gossen (n. 3), 789.

23 Keller (n. 9), 292.

24 Nisbet, R.G.M. and Hubbard, M., A Commentary on Horace Odes, Book II (Oxford, 1978), 342 Google Scholar.

25 Desprez, J., Q. Horatii Flacci Opera (Philadelphia, 1828), 215 Google Scholar, ‘forsitan et color purpureus attribuitur cycnis Venerem trahentibus, qui ipsius Veneris est, per hypallagen’; Putnam (n. 5), 45; Thome (n. 2), 23; Fedeli and Ciccarelli (n. 10), 98; Clarke (n. 18), 131.

26 Anac. fr. 357.3 PMG πορφυρῆ τ’ Ἀφροδίτη, Phrynichus fr. 13 K.–Sn. λάμπει δ’ ἐπὶ πορφυρέαις παρῇσι φῶς ἔρωτος, Anth. Pal. 16.210.2, Ov. Am. 2.1.38 purpureus Amor, Ars am. 1.232, Rem. am. 701, Apul. Met. 5.22.5, Claud. Carm. min. 25.104. See Schrier (n. 10), 322; Clarke (n. 18), 190; McKeown, J., Ovid: Amores Volume III. A Commentary on Book Two (Leeds, 1998), 24–5Google Scholar; Fountoulakis, A., ‘The colours of desire and death. Colour terms in Bion's Epitaph on Adonis ’, in Cleland, L., Stears, K. and Davies, G. (edd.), Colour in the Ancient Mediterranean World (Oxford, 2004), 110–16, at 113–14Google Scholar. Other epithets denoting a dark purplish colour that are associated with Aphrodite are ἰοστέφανος (Hymn. Hom. Ven. 6.18, Thgn. 2.1332, Solin. 19.4, Anth. Pal. 12.91.6) and ἰοδερκής (Bacchyl. 8.1–2).

27 Sappho fr. 54 PMG, Anac. fr. 302.1–2 PMG σφαίρηι δηὖτέ με πορφυρῆι | βάλλων χρυσοκόμης Ἔρως, Anth. Pal. 5.194.6, 12.112.2, Bion, Epitaphios Adonidos 3, Sil. 7.447, Ach. Tat. 2.11.4, Dracontius, Romulus 6.78. See Edgeworth (n. 14), 217; Clarke (n. 18), 190, 279; Sens, A., Asclepiades of Samos. Epigrams and Fragments (Oxford, 2011), 233 Google Scholar.

28 Simon. fr. 585 PMG πορφυρέου ἀπὸ στόματος | ἱεῖσα φωνὰν παρθένος, Enn. Ann. 361, Catull. 45.12, Verg. Aen. 1.590–1 lumen iuuentae | purpureum, 11.819, Hor. Carm. 4.10.4, Tib. 3.4.30, Nonnus, Dion. 18.113–14. See Edgeworth (n. 14), 151; Reed, J.D., Bion of Smyrna. The Fragments and the Adonis (Cambridge, 1997), 29–31 Google Scholar; Clarke (n. 18), 275.

29 Ales not infrequently means ‘swan’. See e.g. Hor. Carm. 1.6.2 Maeonii carminis alite, 2.20.10 album … alitem, Sen. Phaed. 301 candidas ales modo mouit alas. There is a parallel for the exchange of epithets between a swan and one of its characteristics in Pratinas fr. 3 Sn.–K. (οἷά τε κύκνον ἄγοντα | ποικιλόπτερον μέλος): the swan's song has wings, just as its owner does.

30 Fedeli and Ciccarelli (n. 10), 96–7; Thomas (n. 21), 92.

31 Compare with the crimson-billed doves, sacred to Venus, in Prop. 3.3.31–2 et Veneris dominae uolucres, mea turba, columbae | tingunt Gorgoneo punica rostra lacu. Aelian's notice about the consecration of a purple dove to Aphrodite makes it unwise to believe that Claud. Carm. min. 25.104 (florea purpureas adnectunt frena columbas) and Dracontius, Romulus 6.75 (florea purpureas retinebant frena columbas) must have necessarily drawn on Hor. Carm. 4.1.10, as André (n. 3), 99 thought.

32 Edgeworth (n. 14), 217. Two further examples might be quoted, although they inhabit murkier grounds and might just be pregnant nuances rather than hypallages: Carm. 3.3.12 (purpureo bibet ore nectar) paints young Augustus’ mouth purple, a colour that denotes his youth, triumph and divinity (Thome [n. 2], 23). In Carm. 3.15.14–15 (non citharae decent, | nec flos purpureus rosae) the purple colour of the rose is linked to an old woman's closeness to the grave, given that purple is one of the traditional literary colours of death. See Brenk, F.E., Clothed in Purple Light: Studies in Vergil and in Latin Literature, Including Aspects of Philosophy, Religion, Magic, Judaism, and the New Testament Background (Stuttgart, 1999), 319 Google Scholar.

33 Clarke (n. 18), 131.

34 According to Grand-Clément, A., ‘Sophocle, le maître d’école et les “langages de la couleur”: à propos du fragment 6 de Ion de Chios’, in Carastro, M. (ed.), L'Antiquité en couleurs: catégories, pratiques, représentations (Grenoble, 2009), 63–81, at 68 and 78Google Scholar, the allusion is neither an offence against taste nor an attack on realism, but rather the colour purple hints at seduction and desire in the sympotic context in which the lines are quoted.

35 Ion of Chios, FGrHist 392 F6 Jacoby ὅμως μέντοι γε οὐκ εὖ εἴρηκε Φρύνιχος πορφυρέας εἰπὼν τὰς γνάθους τοῦ καλοῦ. εἰ γὰρ ὁ ζωγράφος χρώματι πορφυρέωι ἐναλείψειε τουδὶ τοῦ παιδὸς τὰς γνάθους, οὐκ ἂν ἔτι καλὸς φαίνοιτο. οὐ κάρτα δὴ <καλὸν> τὸ καλὸν τῶι μὴ καλῶι φαινομένωι εἰκάζειν.

36 Ion of Chios, FGrHist 392 F6 Jacoby ἀνγελάσας <δ’> ἐπὶ τῶι Ἐρετριεῖ Σοφοκλῆς ‘οὐδὲ τόδε σοι ἀρέσκει ἄρα, ὦ ξένε, τὸ Σιμωνίδειον [fr. 585 PMG] κάρτα δοκέον τοῖς Ἕλλησιν εὖ εἰρῆσθαι ‘πορφυρέου ἀπὸ στόματος ἱεῖσα φωνὰν παρθένος’, οὐδ’ ὁ ποιητὴς (ἔφη) <ὁ> λέγων ‘χρυσοκόμαν Ἀπόλλωνα’ [Pind. Ol. 6.41); χρυσέας γὰρ εἰ ἐποίησεν ὁ ζωγράφος τὰς τοῦ θεοῦ κόμας καὶ μὴ μελαίνας, χεῖρον ἂν ἦν τὸ ζωγράφημα. οὐδὲ ὁ φὰς ‘ῥοδοδάκτυλον’; εἰ γάρ τις εἰς ῥόδεον χρῶμα βάψειε τοὺς δακτύλους, πορφυροβάφου χεῖρας καὶ οὐ γυναικὸς καλῆς ποιήσειεν <ἄν>’. Compare this with Porphyrion's observation (in Hor. Carm. 1.35.11) on the contrast between the real and the literary in the use of the colour purple: purpurei pro purpurati? purpureum enim aliud est, si proprietatem adtendas.

37 Platnauer (n. 2), 158–9; Harris (n. 2), 521.

38 Schneider (n. 2), 2010; Rowe (n. 2), 336: ‘πορφύρεος, “purple”, can be applied to the rainbow, a supernatural cloud, clothes and carpets, the sea in motion, the wave of the enraged river Scamander, and to blood and death’; Irwin, E., Colour Terms in Greek Poetry (Toronto, 1974), 28 Google Scholar.

39 Il. 5.82–3 τὸν δὲ κατ’ ὄσσε | ἔλλαβε πορφύρεος θάνατος καὶ μοῖρα κραταιή, 16.334, 20.477, Il. Parv. fr. 21.5 Bernabé; cf. Ap. Rhod. Argon. 2.203–4 κάρος δέ μιν ἀμφεκάλυψεν | πορφύρεος.

40 André (n. 3), 97; Goheen, F., ‘Aspects of dramatic symbolism: three studies in the Oresteia ’, in McCall, M.H. (ed.), Aeschylus. A Collection of Critical Essays (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1972), 106–23, at 109–10Google Scholar; Nisbet and Hubbard (n. 24), 186; Brenk (n. 32), 219; Clarke (n. 18), 132; Fountoulakis (n. 26), 113–14. Compare also two passages that bring together, with varying degrees of explicitness, blood and the colour purple: Plin. HN 9.135 (laus ei summa in colore sanguinis concreti, nigricans aspectu idemque suspectu refulgens. unde et Homero purpureus dicitur sanguis) and Ach. Tat. 2.11.4–7 (καὶ τῷ στόματι τοῦ κυνὸς περιρρέει τοῦ ἄνθους τὸ αἷμα, καὶ βάπτει τὸ αἷμα τὴν γένυν καὶ ὑφαίνει τοῖς χείλεσι τὴν πορφύραν … ὁ ποιμὴν ὁρᾷ τὰ χείλη τοῦ κυνὸς ᾑμαγμένα καὶ τραῦμα νομίσας τὴν βαφὴν προσῄει καὶ ἀπέπλυνε τῇ θαλάσσῃ … τὸ αἷμα λαμπρότερον ἐπορφύρετο).

41 Il. 4.140–1 αὐτίκα δ’ ἔρρεεν αἷμα κελαινεφὲς ἐξ ὠτειλῆς. | ὡς δ’ ὅτε τίς τ’ ἐλέφαντα γυνὴ φοίνικι μιήνῃ, 17.360–1 αἵματι δὲ χθὼν | δεύετο πορφυρέῳ, Stesich. S15, 2.12 PMGF ἐμίαινε δ’ ἄρ’ αἵματι πο̣ρ̣φ̣[υρέωι, Aesch. Pers. 315–16 πυρσὴν ζαπληθῆ δάσκιον γενειάδα | ἔτεγγ’ ἀμείβων χρῶτα πορφυρᾶι βαφῆι, Bion, Epitaphius Adonidis 26–7 στήθεα δ’ ἐκ μηρῶν φοινίσσετο, τοὶ δ’ ὑπὸ μαζοί | χιόνεοι τὸ πάροιθεν Ἀδώνιδι πορφύροντο, Quint. Smyrn. 14.319 αἵματι <πορ>φύροντι θοῶς ἐρυθαίνεθ’ ὕπερθεν, Nonnus, Dion. 4.450 πορφυρέῃ ῥαθάμιγγι χιτὼν ἐρυθαίνετο Νίκης, 34.156 αἵματι πορφύρουσαν ἀναστείλειεν ἀκωκήν. See Kirk, G.S., The Iliad: A Commentary. Books 5–8 (Cambridge, 1990), 62 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Compare this with the famous purple cloth on which Agamemnon treads in Aesch. Ag. 910 (πορφυρόστρωτος πόρος), 957, 959: the cloth's colour brings to mind all the blood that has been spilled in the house of Atreus (Goheen [n. 40], 107–15).

42 Clarke (n. 18), 132.

43 Clarke (n. 18), 57, 131.

44 Pavlock, B., Eros, Imitation, and the Epic Tradition (Ithaca, 1990), 102 Google Scholar; Edgeworth (n. 14), 26–9, 36, 52–3; Brenk (n. 32), 220–3; Dyson, J.T., ‘Lilies and violence: Lavinia's blush in the song of Orpheus’, CPh 94 (1999), 281–8, at 284Google Scholar.

45 Reed, J.D., ‘A Hellenistic influence in Aeneid IX’, Faventia 26 (2004), 27–42, at 29–31Google Scholar. The association of purpureus with death in Virgil might account for the lovely expression lumine … purpureo from Aen. 6.640–1, which might describe ‘the supernatural (non-solar) illumination of the land of the dead (…) suffused with a purplish (reddish) glow’ (Edgeworth [n. 14], 287–8). The affinity of purple and red flowers with blood, death and eroticism was already present in Catullus. See Dyson (n. 44), 281, 286; Clarke (n. 18), 190–2, 300; Reed (this note), 29.

46 André (n. 3), 354; Bradley, M., Colour and Meaning in Ancient Rome (Cambridge, 2009), 190–1Google Scholar. Cf. Ov. Tr. 4.2.6 uictima purpureo sanguine pulset humum, Sil. 4.168 purpureo moriens uictricia sanguine tinguis, Stat. Silv. 2.1.41 o ubi purpureo suffusus sanguine candor, Theb. 9.883 ibat purpureus niueo de pectore sanguis. The association of death, purple and blood might explain the curious lines in Valerius Flaccus 3.178–9 frigidus orbes | purpureos iam somnus obit, which appear to be an idiosyncratic adaptation of Homer's formulaic line Il. 5.82–3 τὸν δὲ κατ’ ὄσσε | ἔλλαβε πορφύρεος θάνατος καὶ μοῖρα κραταιή (Schrier [n. 10], 319 n. 39). The connection between blushing and the colour purple is due to the onset of blood rushing onto the blushing face (see e.g. Ov. Am. 1.8.12 purpureus Lunae sanguine uultus erat).

47 Serv. Aen. 5.79 purpureosque iacit flores: ad sanguinis imitationem, in quo est sedes animae, 6.221, 6.884 purpureos flores: ut saepe [V 79] diximus, propter sanguinis similitudinem, quia aut anima est, aut animae sedes.

48 See also Ov. Fast. 6.565 flumen … | purpureum mixtis sanguine fluxit aquis. There is of course also a play on the colour terms puniceus and punicus (‘scarlet, crimson’), as the editor suggests.

49 This motif grew in importance in Hellenistic poetry, but it was Latin literature that made it into a literary code. See on that head e.g. Murgatroyd, P., ‘ Militia amoris and the Roman elegists’, Latomus 34 (1975), 59–79 Google Scholar; Estévez, J.A., ‘Milicia de amor’, in Soldevila, R. Moreno (ed.), Diccionario de motivos amatorios en la literatura latina (siglos III a.C.–II d.C.) (Huelva, 2011), 275–86Google Scholar.

50 Fedeli, P., Properzio. Il primo libro delle Elegie (Florence, 1980), 182–3Google Scholar; Fedeli and Ciccarelli (n. 10), 87, 90, 102–3; Thomas (n. 21), 85.

51 Nethercut, W.R., ‘The ironic priest. Propertius’ Roman elegies, III, 1–5: imitations of Horace and Vergil’, AJPh 91 (1970), 385–407, at 393Google Scholar believed that a similar idea underlies the surprisingly scarlet-tinged beak of Venus’ doves (Prop. 3.3.31–2 et Veneris dominae uolucres, mea turba, columbae | tingunt Gorgoneo punica rostra lacu): the adjective punicus (‘scarlet’) ‘emphasizes that the elegist engages in warfare, but the precise nature of this warfare is symbolized by the doves … as it replaces the subject of Ennius’ Annales with the gentle turmoil of Love’. See also Clarke (n. 18), 228–9.

52 Fedeli (n. 50), 69; Murgatroyd, P., Tibullus I (Bristol, 1991), 83, 263Google Scholar.

53 Thgn. 1231–2 σχέτλι’ Ἔρως … | ἐκ σέθεν ὤλετο μὲν Ἰλίου ἀκρόπολις, Eur. Hel. 238–9 ἁ πολυκτόνος Κύπρις | Δαναΐδαις ἄγουσα θάνατον [Πριαμίδαις], Eur. Hipp. 551–3 σὺν αἵματι, σὺν καπνῶι, | φονίοισι νυμφείοις | Ἀλκμήνας τόκωι Κύπρις ἐξέδωκεν, Ap. Rhod. Argon. 1.802–3 οὐλομένης δὲ θεᾶς πορσύνετο μῆτις | Κύπριδος, Ap. Rhod. Argon. 4.445–6 σχέτλι’ Ἔρως, μέγα πῆμα, μέγα στύγος ἀνθρώποισιν, | ἐκ σέθεν οὐλόμεναί τ’ ἔριδες στοναχαί τε γόοι τε, Theoc. 23.46–7 γράψον καὶ τόδε γράμμα τὸ σοῖς τοίχοισι χαράσσω ἦ | τοῦτον ἔρως ἔκτεινεν, Oppian, Hal. 4.2 ὀλοῆς τ’ Ἀφροδίτης, Anth. Pal. 9.157.2 ὁ δ’ ἀνθρώπων αἵματι μειδιάει, 3–4 οὐ θοὸν ἐν παλάμαις κατέχει ξίφος; ἠνίδ’ ἄπιστα | τῆς θειοδμήτου σκῦλα μιαιφονίης, 7–8 καὶ ταῦτ’ οὔτ’ Ἄϊδος οὔτ’ Ἄρεος, ἔργα δ’ Ἔρωτος | λεύσσομεν, οἷς παίζει κεῖνος ὁ νηπίαχος. For Latin literature, see e.g. Nisbet, R.G.M. and Hubbard, M., A Commentary on Horace, Odes, Book I (Oxford, 1970), 239 Google Scholar, Moreno, M. Librán, ‘Maldición’, in Soldevila, R. Moreno (ed.), Diccionario de motivos amatorios en la literatura latina (siglos III a.C.–II d.C.) (Huelva, 2011), 262–4, at 264Google Scholar.

54 This idea was picked up by Propertius. See Gutzwiller, K., Poetic Garlands. Hellenistic Epigrams in Context (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, 1998), 299 n. 137Google Scholar.

55 Eros is called by that epithet in Dioscorides (Anth. Pal. 12.37.2) and Marcus Argentarius (Anth. Pal. 9.221.5, 12.37.2). Ap. Rhod. Argon. 3.297 and 3.1078 had termed Eros οὖλος, which is another epithet originally used of Ares (Il. 5.461, 5.717).

56 Nisbet and Hubbard (n. 24), 129.

57 Nisbet and Hubbard (n. 24), 130.

58 Gow, A.S.F. and Page, D.L., The Greek Anthology. Hellenistic Epigrams (Cambridge, 1965), 637 Google Scholar; Reed (n. 45), 32.

59 As mentioned above, for Homer some colours in the red range are similarly able to convey both chromatic colour (‘blood-red’) and the notion that something, usually a wild animal, is a deadly killer: Hom. Il. 10.23 (δαφοινὸν δέρμα λέοντος), 2.308 (δράκων ἐπὶ νῶτα δαφοινός), 12.202 (φοινήεντα δράκοντα); cf. Hymn. Hom. Ap. 304 πῆμα δαφοινόν (the dragon Python).

60 The idea that reference to a colour may foreshadow a coming event has been proven by Edgeworth (n. 14), 52 and Harris (n. 2), 510–22, who writes regarding the ornithologically incorrect epithet φοινικοβαφῆ in Eur. Ion 162 (see above, n. 5): ‘by having Ion describe the swan's foot as φοινικοβαφῆ, “red-dipped” in 162–3, Euripides is hypallactically anticipating the potential outcome of Ion's threat’ (516).

61 Bion 2.18–19 καὶ τόσον ἄνθος | χιονέαις πόρφυρε παρηίσι, Nonnus, Dion. 4.130–2 ὡς ῥόδα φοινίσσουσι παρηίδες, ἀκροφαῆ δὲ | δίχροα χιονέων ἀμαρύσσεται ἴχνια ταρσῶν | μεσσόθι πορφύροντα, Tib. 3.4.30 et color in niueo corpore purpureus, Anth. Pal. 5.35.5–6 φοινίσσετο χιονέη σὰρξ | πορφυρέοιο ῥόδου μᾶλλον ἐρυθροτέρη, Stat. Silv. 2.1.41 o ubi purpureo suffusus sanguine candor. The contrast between the red/purple and the white in the colouring of the beloved is an amatory and epithalamic τόπος. See Fedeli, P., Catullus’ Carmen 61 (Amsterdam, 1983), 122–3Google Scholar; Soldevila, R. Moreno, ‘Descripción de la belleza de la amada’, in Soldevila, R. Moreno (ed.), Diccionario de motivos amatorios en la literatura latina (siglos III a.C.–II d.C.) (Huelva, 2011), 134–41, at 139–40Google Scholar.

62 Reed (n. 28), 213; Reed (n. 45), 29–30, 32; cf. Harris (n. 2), 518. I wish to note that Fountoulakis (n. 26), 114 had reached a conclusion very similar to the thesis of the present work in his discussion of the use of πορφύρεος in Bion, Epitaphius Adonidis 3 and 79: ‘The Homeric resonances [sc. of πορφύρεος in Bion, Epitaphius Adonidis 79] illuminate the connotations concerning the idea of youthful, violent, and bloody death, which derive from the image of Adonis’ funeral bed.’

63 Reed (n. 45), 32, 40.

64 Campbell, D.A., Greek Lyric I. Sappho. Alcaeus (Cambridge, MA, 1982), 171 Google Scholar.

65 Giesecke, A., The Mythology of Plants: Botanical Lore from Ancient Greece and Rome (Los Angeles, 2014), 49 Google Scholar. The hyacinth is present, among other flowers, in scenes that portend or contain deceitful seduction or illicit passion, such as Il. 14.348, Hymn. Hom. Cer. 7, 426, Cypr. fr. 4.3 Bernabé. On the flowery meadow as the dominion of Eros and as a metaphoric space for love, see Calame, C., The Poetics of Eros in Ancient Greece (New Jersey, 1999), 153–170 Google Scholar. On the association of the hyacinth with love, Aphrodite, and Eros, see Anac. fr. 346.7–9 PMG τὰς ὑακιν[θίνας ἀρ]ούρας | ἵ]να Κύπρις ἐκ λεπάδνων | ….] [.]α[ς κ]ατέδησεν ἵππους, Eur. IA 1298–9, Theoc. 11.26, Anac. fr. 31.1 and Calame (this note), 165.

66 Curiously, a passage from the Byzantine love-novel Hysmine and Hysminias (10.12) by Eustathius Macrembolites shares with Hor. Carm. 4.1 a few ideas and concepts: love as war (Ἔρως ἐστράτευσε καθ’ ὑμῶν, καὶ τὰς ἡμῶν καρδίας ἐπολιόρκησεν. Ἔρως τὴν ἐν ὑμῖν πορφύραν τῆς παρθενίας ἐσύλησε, καὶ κατὰ κόχλον ἡμεῖς ἀπερράχθημεν; cf. Hor. Carm. 4.1.1–2), love as a fire that burns up its victim's entrails (Ἔρως ἀφροδισίῳ πυρὶ τὴν τῆς νεότητος θέρμην ὑμῶν ἐξεπύρωσε; cf. Hor. Carm. 4.1.12), the contrast between youth and old age (καὶ γεραιὰ σπλάγχνα πατέρων ἡμῶν εἰς βάθος κατέκαυσε καὶ ἡμᾶς ἀπηνθράκωσεν; cf. Hor. Carm. 4.1.6–8). Finally, Love, after waging war successfully on the lovers, takes their virginities as if they were purple spoils (Ἔρως τὴν ἐν ὑμῖν πορφύραν τῆς παρθενίας ἐσύλησε).