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A NOTE ON CIRIS 118

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2021

Włodzimierz Olszaniec
Włodzimierz Olszaniec*
Affiliation:
University of Warsaw
*
w.olszaniec@uw.edu.pl
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Abstract

This note offers a new emendation in the Ciris. The author suggests that the text of line 118 should read: deicere et indomita Minoa retundere mente.

Keywords

Ciristextual criticismemendation
Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 71 , Issue 2 , December 2021 , pp. 898 - 899
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association

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Footnotes

I am grateful to Professor M. Szymański and to the anonymous referee for CQ for their comments on an earlier draft of this note.

References

1 The uncertain dating of the Ciris is an obvious obstacle to a textual critic. In this regard, I am inclined to follow von Albrecht's view: the poem (which cannot be ascribed to Virgil) is written in the neoteric manner and a late, post-Virgilian, date can be supported only if we postulate ‘either the backwardness of some poetic dilettante or the duplicity of an accomplished forger’: M. von Albrecht, History of Roman Literature. From Livius Andronicus to Boethius with Special Regard to its Influence on World Literature, 2 vols. (Leiden / New York / Cologne, 1997), 1.708 and n. 1. For the bibliography on the Cirisfrage, see von Albrecht (this note) and Kayachev, B., Allusion and Allegory: Studies in the ‘Ciris’ (Berlin and Boston, 2016), 1 nCrossRefGoogle Scholar. 3.

2 I am using the translation of Fairclough, H. Rushton, Virgil, Aeneid VII–XII; Appendix Vergiliana (Cambridge, MA, 1918), 451–2Google Scholar with slight modifications.

3 Lyne, R.O.A.M., Ciris: A Poem Attributed to Virgil (Cambridge, 1978), 150Google Scholar. Ter. Haut. 945–6 (ut eius animum, qui nunc luxuria et lasciuia | diffluit, retundam), adduced by Lyne, is only seemingly a parallel since it is about suppressing bad qualities rather than about overcoming good ones.

4 Sillig, I., Publii Virgilii Maronis quae vulgo feruntur carmina Culex Ciris Copa Moretum. Recensuit et Heynii suasque observationes addidit Iulius Sillig (Leipzig, 1832), 223Google Scholar.

5 Kayachev, B., ‘Ciris 118’, Eos 105 (2018), 123–6, at 125–6Google Scholar.

6 Lyne (n. 3), 150. To these parallels one can also add: Plaut. Cas. 252 domuisti animum and Hor. Carm. 2.2.9 latius regnes auidum domando spiritum. It is worth noting that Lucan uses the terms mens and indomitus close together and in a similar context at 3.303–5 tamen ante furorem | indomitum duramque uiri deflectere mentem | pacifico sermone parant: the citizens of Massilia try to turn aside (deflectere) the untameable rage (furorem indomitum) and the stern heart (duram mentem) of Caesar who is about to attack their city, similarly to the Megarians who are certain that they can repel the assault by Minos. Finally, it is perhaps not accidental that the author of the Ciris himself uses the verb domitare in line 135 when referring to Cupid's ability to tame wild animals: the Megarians remain with an ‘unconquered spirit’ towards Minos’ aggression, but the daughter of their king, Scylla, will be ‘subdued’ by the god of love.

7 In line 132, Minoa was restored by Lachmann (the manuscripts read si non). Why this conjecture should be accepted is explained by Lyne (n. 3), 156.