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AUTHOR: DUCKETT, ELEANOR SH TITLE: HELLENISTIC INFLUENCE.., PLACE: NORTHAMPTON, MASS DA TE : 1920 \t COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES PRESERVATION DEPARTMENT BIDLIOnRAPHICMTrROFORMTAnnFT Master Negative U Restrictions on Use: Original Malteriai as Filmed - Existing Bibliographic Record BKS/PROD Books FUL/BIB NYCG91-B75741 FIN PN DUCKETT AND TW HELLENISTIC - Cluster 1 of 1 . I0:NYCG91-B75741 RTYP:a Acquisitions Record added today NYCG-PT CC:9665 CP:nyu PC:r HMD: 010 040 043 050 100 10 245 10 260 300 600 20 650 650 LOG QD ST CSC GPC REP FRN MOD BIO CPI MS SNR FIC FSI COL BLTzam DCF:? L:eng INT: PD:1991/1920 REP: CP1:0 OR: POL: DM: RR: 2019386 NNC^cNNC e-gr — PA6826^b.D8 Duckett, Eleanor Shipley. Hellenistic influence on the Aeneidt:h[microf orm] Northampton, Mass. ,t^cl920. xi, 68 p.^c23 cm. Virgil. ^tAeneis. 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SMITH COLLEGE CLASSICAL STUDIES Number I June, 1920 HELLENISTIC INFLUENCE ON THE AENEID BY ELEANOR SHIPLEY DUCKETT, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Latin, Smith College EDITORS John Everett Brady Julia Harwood Caverno NORTHAMPTON, MASSACHUSETTS 1920 r^ HELLENISTIC INFLUENCE ON THE AENEID SMITH COLLEGE CLASSICAL STUDIES mi i#t Number I June, 1920 HELLENISTIC INFLUENCE ON THE AENEID rmNTIO AND tOUNO Wt MOMI lANTA rUSLItMINa CO. MANUPACTUNINO PUBLItHiM MfNASMA, WitCONMN BY ELEANOR SHIPLEY DUCKETT, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Latin, Smith College EDITORS John Everett Brady Julia Harwood Caverno NORTHAMPTON, MASSACHUSETTS 1920 The Smith College Classical Studies are published from time to time by the Departments of Greek and Latin of Smith College, and have for their main object the encouragement of research in classical literature, archaeology, and antiquities by providing an opportunity for the publication of studies in these fields by scholars connected with Smith College, as teachers, graduate students, or alumnae. The price of this number is fifty cents, and requests for copies should be addressed to J. Everett Brady, Northampton, Mass. h* TO M. B. McE. — 6\lyriv hbaiv dXX' kirb Bvym — I CONTENTS I. THE HELLENISTIC AGE . 1 n. THE INFLUENCE OF HELLENISTIC LIFE AND LITERATURE— A 12 in. THE INFLUENCE OF HELLENISTIC LIFE AND LITERATURE— B 38 IV. THE INFLUENCE OF HELLENISTIC TECH- NIQUE 46 PREFACE The influence of HeUenistic literature upon Vergil is no new subject, for commentators have long since exhausted their efforts in bringing to Ught every resemblance between the words of Apollonius, Theocritus, or CaUimachus, and the language of the Aeneid, Georgics, or Bucolics. It is not, therefore, to actual correspondence of letter that I now direct my attention nor primarily to the influence of Hterature upon Hterature; but rather to correspondence of spirit and manner, to the influence upon Vergil's mind and work of the HeUenistic tradition of life and thought, together with its literary expression. Vergil, as weU as other Romans, had shared the inheritance, good or evU, which Roman life had received and was stiU receiving from every part of the HeUenistic world, Greece and Macedonia, Egypt and Asia. To the general education derived from this source he could add special training in HeUenistic thought and theory: under the Greek Parthenius, he had grown famUiar with these traits of HeUenistic Ufe as they were represented in the best poets of the HeUenistic day. Further, he had drunk of the HeUenistic phUosophy as its differing Schools had offered it to him; had debated with Greek dweUers in Italy, and had finaUy looked forward to drawing from Greece herself a wider knowl- edge in which to steep his greatest work. "It is necessary," Warde Fowler reminds us in one of his studies of the Aeneid, "to msist on the fact, however obvious it may be to those who know, that in VirgU's time the Empire was almost as much Greek as it was Roman. Augustus had reunited the Greek and Roman elements, the east and the west, which for a time had been sundered under sinister Egyptian influence. Every edu- cated Roman was bUingual and Greece was his inteUectual and also his spiritual, home." It is in this indirect and spiritual, not in the verbal, influence of HeUenistic life and Uterature upon VergU that I find a reason for my work. No one as yet, I think, has adequately traced its effect upon the poet who grew up in the midst of its dominant sway, whose youth was spent in an atmosphere, as we may learn from the Ciris, the Culex, and \f, X PREFACE the Cataleptofiy surcharged with inquiries regarding phenomena both psychical and physical; combined with conscious efforts toward an understanding of the natures of men and qf things, and with efforts, equally conscious, directed toward the repro- duction of thought in fitting form. It was impossible that the man whose early training was received in such a school should fail to show in his riper work certain traces of Hellenistic influence — a keener insight into the minds of men, a greater curiosity concerning the things of Nature, and a livelier appre- ciation of art. Especially at this moment is this study of interest; for now, after much debate and argument, we have learned to recognize the Cim and the Culex as poems of Vergil's youth. ^ And so we are ready to discuss not only traces of Hellenistic art in the Aeneidy but the progression of Hellenistic art in VergU from its cruder manifestations, as revealed in the earlier poems, up to the ripened stage, where its pervasive subtlety lends richness to this latest work. In tie earlier works, written at a time when Hellenistic influences were more attractive to the poet than at any other time, the fruits, both good and bad, of this training can be distinguished most clearly. Later on, as the poet's art became more mature, the exaggerations were pruned away, the true skill was developed and enriched. It is easy to put one's finger on the Hellenistic features of the opera minora; it is not so easy to do so for theAeneid, The reason is, of course, that, while in the Culex and the Ciris this Hellenistic influence is as yet of over-great importance, in the Aeneid, while it leavens and adds spice to the whole story, yet it does not forcibly obtrude itself upon the reader. Vergil, in his later work, has so many other sources of inspiration and powers of artistic expression at his command, and has so marvellously welded them all together, that nothing Hellenistic jars upon us, or can be separated from the whole which he made his own. 1 Those of us who are willing to agree with E. K. Rand: "instead, then, of creating from Bucolics y Georgics, and Aeneid a definition of what Virgil at all times must have been, and by that definition excluding the minor poems as unworthy of him, we should accept the ancient statement and in the light of it enlarge our understanding of Virgilian qualities, thankful for the opportimity of seeing his genius mount from stage to stage": Young Virgil's Poetry, Harvard • Studies in Classical Philology, XXX, 1919, pp. 103 ff.; see also Tenney Frank, Vergirs Apprenticeship, Classical Philology, January, 1920, pp. 23 ff. PREFACE XI Furthermore, it is obviously true that our study of Hellenis- tic influence carries us but a little way in our search for the spirit of VergiL As is true with every genius, so he, of necessity, rises above each literary influence and tells the thoughts that are altogether his own: student of man, beast, and field, he gives us primarily himself. The elements which moulded and developed this spirit are drawn in infinitely deeper measure from the old Greek epic and from Greek tragedy, above all, from Euripides, than from the Hellenistic School. To his own nature, trained by these masters, Vergil owes, indeed, in the first instance many of the characteristics here discussed in connection with Hellenistic life and its literary form. The Poet himself — Man and Roman — has been revealed to us in inimitable fashion and in manifold lights by the great English students of Vergil. Yet— for all that sheds any light on Vergil is of interest — it has seemed worth while to study briefly the possible effects of this undoubted influence of Hellenistic Greece still lingering in the background of his mind. In these pages I have drawn constantly, especially in Chapter I, from Kaerst's History of Hellenistic Greece; and from Heinze's Virgils Epische Technik. The titles of other books which I have consulted or from which I have taken material are given at the end, or, for special reference, in the notes. To Professor Tenney Frank of the Johns Hopkins University I owe the gift of my subject; to Professor Florence Alden Gragg of Smith College I am indebted for many keen criticisms and apt suggestions, to Professor Mary Belle McElwain, also of Smith College, for many valuable emendations of form. Acknowledg- ment is also due to the Classical Journal of its permission to reproduce material published therein, especially much of Chap- ters II and III; and to Professor Andrew Keogh, Librarian of Yale University, of his courteous assistance in my research. Northampton, Massachusetts, January, 1920. Mi; miA CHAPTER I The Hellenistic Age With the victories of Alexander, a new manner of life starts for the Greek worid. The City State, through stasis within and federative union without, has ah-eady lost its power, and an era is estabUshed in which individual personaHty strikes the dominant note; not indeed the unreasoning personaKty of the Tyrant, but one that seeks to embody the rule of reason in its own hands. Government passes from the control of citizens incorporated in a rational union to one supreme Head, in whom aU authority is centred. In the rapid changes foUowing the death of Alexander, advancement in Ufe depends on a man's own merits; among the many struggling for highest position, the fittest survive. Supreme authority is based, not upon ancestral descent, but upon personal efficiency, which can express its wiU in personal mandates assuming for themselves the authority of the plebiscite. AU, therefore, depends upon the individual, conscious of his own capabiUty and awaiting the occasion to use it; Alexander's scheme for worid-rule, vested in himself as the TatxpacLXeOs, is succeeded by individual supremacies, and the individual, once firmly planted in power, perpetuates his rule: in Egypt the son of Lagus founds the House of the Ptolemies, in Syria and in Macedonia, after many and various Tcpix^rctat' the dynasties of Seleucus and Antigonus are established. The very possibility of disaster in these kaleidoscopic days of swift reversal of fortune makes those who hold rule doubly self- conscious of their limitations, as of their powers; they gain their place by their own might and hold it till a mightier comes upon them, as Diana's king once did at Nemi. This supreme power, then, as founded by Alexander, resting on and springing from personal achievement, soon assumed for itself the title of king in the various countries of the Hellenis- tic worid; and in the king, aU classes of life centred. Men Uved in cities named after their kmgs; they were bound, not to the State, but to the Monarch, as the pivot on which all things 1 HELLENISTIC INPLUENCE ON THE AENEID turned in a bureaucratic system which regulated them from the highest to the most humble. Land, militia, and finance were of the king's domain; intellectual and social life drew inspiration from him as patron and chief lord: he was as the Sun in the civic universe. As its Sun, he shed on others his glory, in vary- ing degrees according to their nearness to himself; the nobles of the Hellenistic Court were the king's Friends, their children, the royal aijvrpo4>oi\ and the same was true for all ranks, for the very privates in the army were his Comrades. Apart, more- over, from particular acts of gracious benignity on the part of the sovereign, he bestowed by his very position a reflected prestige upon his subjects. For by his importance, the importance, real or potential, of every man in his realm was necessarily enhanced; since the sovereign held his power through his own efficiency and the kindness of Fate, and what one man had done, other men might do. The Hellenistic world was, therefore, strongly individualistic, made up of units separately invested with a potential importance, which might at any moment be realized before the public eye. The deeds and sayings of those who at- tained to prominence were chronicled, and the writing of biographies, as a type of literature, dates from this time; their features and expressions were studied and remembered: for portraits in marble and bronze were now first commonly wrought. But, further, these units were of all kinds, as is natural; since a world which lays special stress on personality we may expect to find cosmopolitan in character; and individuals of widely different nations strove to realize their special destiny in the Hellenistic kingdoms. This widening of social limits was naturally advanced by the extension of commerce, in which Macedonians, Greeks, Iranians, Egyptians, and Semites mingled freely with one another; and the mind of Alexander had already conceived the idea of a great World-Empire embracing at least the three first named. The distinction between Greek and barbarian was becoming obliterated in practice, and a new bond of union of various nationalities was being forged, based on the common Hellenistic culture, of which a common language, the icoiv^, was the outward sign. One of the most interesting marks of this increasing value of personality under monarchical rule appears in the changed THE HELLENISTIC AGE position of women. For the first time in Greek history, woman had now a chance to show what she, too, as an individual could accomplish. And Fortune aided her in giving to the feminine side of the royal house a special importance through the extinc- tion of the dual line by the murder of Alexander's half-brother and his son; for by marriage the Diadochi sought to confirm their claims to sovereignty. Olympias, accomplice in her hus- band's assassination, slayer of the Thessalian Arridaeus and his Illyrian queen, and herself pelted to death by the relations of those she had slain: Cleopatra, sister of Alexander, publicly defending her cause before the Macedonian army: Arsinoe the "moving spirit of Ptolemy Philadelphus," and jointly acknowl- edged with him in the cult of the B^l iZtKol, as Berenice with his predecessor in that of the Saviour Gods: Laodice, "the evil genius of the Seleucid Empire" and, it seems, worshipped with her husband "Theos" — these were individuals well able to earn their own prominence. In part, the untamed blood which drove to fury Cynane and her daughter Eurydice accounted for deeds of violence. In a more civilized sphere, women were now given special honour in the society of the Imperial Court, joined schools of philosophy, undertook serious study of letters or art, wrote poetry themselves and were the main intellectual inspira- tion for the men whose poetry they read; obtained freedom of cities, undertook liturgies in Asia Minor, and in Athens called forth the gynaeconomi of Demetrius of Phalerum to stay their extravagance. A system in which promotion is based on individual merit tends naturally towards efficiency; and specialization in techni- cal knowledge was characteristic of the individuals of this time. The bureaucracy was a honeycomb of small subdivisions entail- ing special professional equipment; and in this period, guilds of tradesmen and workpeople were first formed in Egypt. The Dionysiac Guild was a similar union of specialists in art; and Kaerst has shown how this professional bent appeared in Egypt as described by Hecataeus and in Euhemerus' fabled island of Panchaea. Yet, when all is said, the Sun eclipses the stars; minor differ- ences of rank, so important in a City-State, tend to disappear when confronted with the one great distinction common to all between ruler and subject; a dull level of monotony now spread HELLENISTIC INFLUENCE ON THE AENEID over the multitude who failed to attain prominence, and from this we trace in part the pessimism of the Hellenistic age and the waning of political life. If all duties centre in the king, why should ordinary men trouble themselves? and if professional bureaucratics are paid to do the work, what responsibility devolves upon the citizen? all are but pawns in a monarch's diplomatic game. The ambitious sought to make their fortunes in the foreign world of adventure; feeling for home politics disappeared, long before the time of Polybius, who will have none of the patriotism of the City-State, the mark of a foolish and narrowminded man. The spread of the KOivrj hindered patriotism in the different regions, and the cosmopolitan fusing of races took away special interest in national affairs. Side by side, also, with subservience to monarchy lay the hatred of this yoke laid on men who had once been free. The Athenians, in gratitude for their "liberty" from the rule of Cassander's gen- eral, hailed Demetrius and his father as Gods; even in Eg)rpt, where monarchy was an established principle, the Pharaoh was forced to maintain his autocratic rule by imported military power: for his hand bound on his people heavy burdens of taxation. The private life, therefore, of this period developed to a degree unknown in the City-State. Men turned their eyes from without to within; freed from civic burdens, they now, some gladly, some perforce, gave themselves up, in steadily increasing measure, to a manifold variety of individual interests. This concentration in a narrower sphere led to a realistic view of humanity and nature, already presented to the world by Aristotle, and to an interest in the humble things of the world of every-day. Thus we reach again the same result — passion for detail — which interest in human personality has given us in realistic portrait-painting, literary sketches, and minute records such as the kit/ntJieplSes of Alexander. Scientific investigation in botany, zoology, human anatomy, fostered in its turn the habit of noticing details, however trivial; intellectual discussion, so freely promoted at this time, was compelled to take notice of the seemingly unimportant. The same tendency is true of Hellenistic art, as Helbig has shown. Science, once established, stimulated the love of novelty, which drove men to delve into hitherto unexplored regions of society. And as of society, so of THE HELLENISTIC AGE territory; Alexander's campaigns had opened up new worlds in which the adventurous and curious might travel by land and sea in search of new lore; the royal chroniclers published accounts of all they had seen and learned, and the knowledge of the Chal- daeans and the Egyptian priests was now first spread abroad. The marvels that came to light inculcated a love of the strange; and the aretalogus who entertained the company super cenam was well known in Hellenistic circles, among those who truly spent their time in little else but in telling, tracing, or inventing some new thing. The same spirit reveals itself in the art which produced the Colossus. Moreover, the current flowed in two ways; for intellectualism looks not only forward in modern scientific research, but backward to antiquity in the feeling for the past. Men of art sought the "old masters," men of litera- ture raked up old myths, men of scholarship devoted them- selves to Commentaries upon Homer, to the formation of libraries, to philological research; tradition was all-important, authorities and sources were investigated with eager zeal. In the midst of all this new stream of knowledge, it is little wonder that writers felt the need of concentration; there was no time for anything but brevity, and much information in little space was the motto of this day. As the individual turned his attention to the study, so he cultivated the emotions, of private life. The cult of friendship had already been given recognition in the Sacred Band of Thebes; it had been given official standing in the o^vrpcx^t, who were alike the counsellors of the king and his friends from early childhood; and in the o-u/x^worol, a group of philosophers admitted to the intimacy of the king's table for the enlivening of the play of argument prevalent at Hellenistic feasts. But, further, this Hellenistic age was a time especially ripe for the welding of friendship on the basis of similar intellectual thought and natural desires. Patriotism, including the many interests of civic life, had gone, and marriage was a formal institution, readily dissolved. Although the wife was supreme in her posi- tion in the home, yet this bond was commonly formed for the sake of social and official status, and brought little depth of feeling; for the latter a man turned to his friends, to associations, such as that of the Phalerean Demetrius with Theognis, and to the demi-monde. Since the world was overwhelmingly inter- 6 HELLENISTIC INFLUENCE ON THE AENEID ested in private questions, love inevitably assumed a position of paramount importance, and from being an accessory, became, itself, an end and object of study and experience. The formal- ism of the Hellenistic family, the quickened sense of feeling caused by a quickened mental curiosity, the enhanced desire to penetrate in search of adventure, led men in the direction of sentiment. In keeping with the sentimental trend of life, was the hero-worship of the bold knight-errant of chivalry, who, endowed with mighty form and noble mien, knows no superior, renders courtesy for courtesy to his equals, is terrible in revenge, yet can show generosity to those he has overcome. Such a halo of romance surrounded a line of heroes from Alexander to Pyrrhus. A world that revolves round an Imperial House must always pay more heed to pomps and pageants than a Republic; and a world that fixes its eyes on private life must care greatly for its own comfort. Hence we trace the growth of luxury at this time: in household trappings, in banquets, in dress of every kind. Men lived in a woAd of artificial culture, veneered with a suave and polished courtesy, sparkling with gold and many colours, heavy with perfume. The inevitable reaction followed upon satiety, and these pampered exquisites began to sigh for the simple pleasures of the good old days, even of primitive times. They turned with relief to the contemplation of the fair beauty of Nature, and the joys of rustic life; a reaction aided for many on the practical side, as Mahaffy notes, by the dull landscapes surrounding them in Alexandria, the centre of commercial and intellectual activity. This individualistic movement, further, touches not only politics and social life, but also religion; for with the decline of the City-State, came also the decline of the worship of the City-Gods, and in proportion as the individual grew in impor- tance, men came more and more to seek support through their own efforts rather than through the aid of deity. The old Greek gods have, therefore, little meaning for the Hellenistic age, and survive mainly in formal observances promoted by the king for his own political advantage. Alexander had given an example in this respect; he had set out for Asiatic conquest under the aegis of the Gods and heroes who had fought for Greece at Troy, and had supported his claim to world-supremacy through his THE HELLENISTIC AGE 7 acclamation as son of Zeus by the priests of Zeus-Ammon; the Seleucids, in their turn, connected their Hne with ApoUo,' the Ptolemies, with Heracles and Dionysus. In like manner the Hellenistic rulers, especially the Ptolemies, were careful to consolidate their new power by associating it with cults intro- duced under their auspices; and an attempt was made to sup- port the worship of deities hitherto unknown to the Greek worid,by the claim of the gods of Egypt and Asia that the old Greek gods were but incomplete revelations of themselves. We find, therefore, that the prevailing reUgion, Uke the life, was cosmopolitan in composition; the union of races was reproduced in the syncretism of cults. Yet, as in secular life, men of the HeUenistic worid offered honour within their king- doms to strangers on the ground of personal merit, so, in the religious worid, men paid their homage at times to strange gods, whom they believed to be invested with special powers to meet their individual need. From this we trace the growing cult of Asclepius; and the rapid spread of the worship of the Great Mother, of Mithras, Isis, Osiris, and Serapis. To these the individual fled to gain purification from his burden of sin, and his consciousness of impurity; individual initiations into a new form of worship placed him in the path of peace and offered to him a refuge from the terrors of a future life. It was these same terrors, inspired by the uncertainty of Man's ultimate fate, that led him to consult the magicians and astrologers who had entered the Hellenistic worid from Babylonia and Chaldaea, and thus to gratify as weU the impulse, springing from the consciousness of personality and pecuHar destiny, characteristic of the age. The practice of magic rested upon the behef in a general sympathy or antipathy reacting through all Nature, living and dead, in a subtle and aU-powerful relation. This creed, which found its mainspring in the dual theology of the Persians, also had its utilitarian side: for evil, in the practice of sorcery; for good, in the art of medicme. The cult of the stars was of even greater moment: for they are divine beings influenc- ing mortal lot for good or evil as they wiU; the human soul, itself wrought from fire, is united in bonds of deepest sympathy with these beings, from whom it came and unto whom, in due course of time, it shall return. So, as Cumont has shown, believed the Chaldaeans and the Persians; and their doctrines 8 HELLENISTIC INFLUENCE ON THE AENEID THE HELLENISTIC AGE gained wide currency, furthered by the translation into Greek of the sacred books of Zoroaster. The study of astrology was thus both the privilege and the proper business of the man who would rise to higher things, and Euhemerus commends the dwellers in Panchaea for their worship of the stars. These stars, once heroes of the earth, are, therefore, living personalities; and indeed personification is characteristic of the time. Among the ideas thus embodied none is more prominent than that of Tyche, who ruled the ebb and flow of Hellenistic accident. The cult of this Hellenistic Fortuna was largely due to the Uepl Hrxris of Demetrius of Phalerum, who as Ferguson remarks, "elevated this capricious goddess into the place of Zeus and his colleagues." Hellenistic also, by adoption, is the loftier view of Destiny: "from the Chaldaean doctrine of the stars and their unchanging movements sprang the belief in immutable Fate, ruling men and Gods alike." Since, then, Hellenistic gods are valued throughout their cosmopolitan variety for what they bestow upon individual man, it is not difl&cult to understand the apotheosis of Hellenis- tic rulers. The gift was, indeed, entirely welcome; Alexander, inspired by the oracle of Zeus-Ammon, had prepared the way by his exaction of the proskynesis; the Diadochi gladly cast the glamour of this worship over their absolute rule, and soft- ened the force of this rule to native-born and foreigner alike by the assertion of the monarch's divinity as an article of religious creed. The movement was greatly helped by the traditional position of the Egyptian Pharaoh and the Oriental sovereigns; yet the apotheosis derives its claim from personal merit, from the bestowal of blessings which win for the human benefactor the worship of his grateful subjects. The titles assumed by the Ptolemies and Seleucids in their cults — coyrijfi, tijepyk-njs — show the working of this claim; so rational, in fact, was the Hellenistic idea of deification that Ferguson can state "the apotheosis of Alexander was grounded in impiety, in disbelief of the supernatural altogether." Not only Alexan- der and the Diadochi, but the Greek gods themselves were once but men, who had won deity through the blessings they had given to their fellows: such is the creed which Euhemerus establishes in his island of Panchaea; similarly, in the work of Hecataeus, kings rise to godhead because they have advanced the civilization of the world in which they rule. From religion based on rationalism we come to philosophy, the refuge of those many more highly educated men for whom the City-Gods no longer were of moment, and who refused to quell their forebodings in orgiastic cults. The philosophy of the time reflected the main features of its practical life. Its schools were as various as the cosmopolitan races of the Hellenistic age; and Mahaffy well describes this feature in its ultimate develop- ment: "GraduaUy, then, at this period, not only from the influence of Rome, which required practical lessons without subtlety, but also from internal causes, from the decay of earnest faith in speculation, of earnest faith in the aims of practical life, eclecticism, the creed of weary minds, laid hold of the Hellenistic world. Carneades had not only shattered all the remaining dogmatism by his brilliant polemic, but he had laid down as his highest principle mere probability, so that there was no reason why the researches of any set of men might not contain some approximate truth. And as the doctrines might be culled from any school, so the men who taught them might hail from any country. Hellenism had been wide enough in former generations; we now seem to approach an even wider cosmo- politanism." In each sect the individual was responsible for his own progress toward the highest good, and was conscious of an individual mission to help others on his way. Personality, therefore, was a question of absorbing interest to philosophers, as to men of affairs; the head of the Peripatetic School himself takes minute pains to classify in scientific fashion the characters of the men he meets. A cosmopolitan community of ideals and interests, not kinship of blood, united all men in Zeno's State; and women, as well as men, in that indifference which assigned to both sexes a uniform dress. The Hellenistic philosopher strove to gain efficiency; for the ambition to perform with all possible ability and care one's own task in life— r^ ^avroi>— had been the teaching of philosophy from the time of Plato. In the days of loss of independence and civic rights, philosophers, too,, turned men's thoughts to private matters; dTpayfjuxrvvrj was the attitude of Epicurus and his disciples toward public life; the Sceptic could take little interest m State questions, inas- ! 10 HELLENISTIC INFLUENCE ON THE AENEID much as they represented to him only probabilities, the exact nature of which was not to be ascertained. Euhemerus and lambulus reflected the prevailing pessimism on the one hand, the desire of the unusual on the other, in their strange Utopian tales. Epicurus found highest happiness in the cult of friend- ship; Love, an ever-recurrent theme in the study of human character, from Plato onward occupied the minds and writings of every School. The Cynic despised convention and turned all his thoughts toward aurApK€ia, self-sufficing joy in the simple life ruled by Nature, contrasted with which all transient history seemed vain. The Stoic, indeed, took part in public life; but only with the consciousness that he must of necessity fall short of his ideal, the life in accord with the Law uniting and ruling every part of the universe in the great World-Harmony which is the outward expression of God. And it is in this creed of the Stoics that Hellenistic philosophy reaches its highest level, embodying as it does the character of Hellenistic life. Zeus reigns supreme over the lesser deities, who in their place find individual expression in the component parts of the World- whole; his beauty revealed in Nature is meet for worship, as Clean thes worshipped it: his word is the will of Fate. In the Harmony which is the body of Zeus all men are brethren, knit together in a common bond of universal law and order. And yet only the individual, who through the struggle of constant progress finally succeeds in identifying himself with Nature, that is, with God, can, by perfect obedience to His will, attain the goal of real satisfaction. His life is free from extravagance because Nature is essentially reasonable and has no place for artificiality or waste of energy; his advance is consciously wrought by the- continual choosing of the better thing. Divination and oracles guide his steps because of "the harmony which binds all phe- nomena, the event foretokened with the omen or word that f ore- teUs." But only few men, such as Heracles, had ever realized this ideal, and Heracles found Godhead for his reward; other men remained on the lower plane, all' classed together as fools. As, therefore, the monarch rises in his single pre-eminence, the hope of all his subjects, so the Sapiens is the hope of those who seek to rise to union with God; the final regeneration of the world lies in the reign of the Sapiens-Monarch, who shall unite his people under the law of Nature's truth. This ideal kingdom THE HELLENISTIC AGE 11 Aristotle had already foreshadowed for his pupil in his dream of City-States, each ruled by a perfect king. Alexander's World- kingdom, based not only upon Oriental precedent, but also on Stoic faith, foreshadowed to the Stoic mind the coming of that universal reign of wisdom, wherein alone the varied discords among men could be stilled in perfect harmony under the guidance of Fate, the Word of God. INFLUENCE OP HELLENISTIC LIFE AND LITERATURE 13 CHAPTER II The Influence of Hellenistic Life and Literature (A) Such were, briefly told, the main features which character- ized the Hellenistic Age; how far does their spirit yet live in the epic work of Vergil? In keeping with the stress laid in the Hellenistic world upon the individual self, is the absence in narrative poetry, Hellenistic or written under Hellenistic influence, of the child- like impersonality of the Homeric narrative, and the fresh spontaneity of Homeric characters. The poet and his people inevitably turn their thoughts inward upon themselves; the whole atmosphere is intensely self-conscious. The Ciris and the Culex show this spirit in marked degree, deepened as it is by the self-consciousness of untried youth. In the Ciris Vergil devotes a whole preface of forty-seven lines to himself, his ambitions and his doings; in the Culex ten lines of personal import precede the invocation, and the poet drags himself away at last from telling his desire for Octavius* glory, with the words — sed nos ad coepta feramur. In the Aeneidy he is still self-conscious, but he has learned to confine self-expression to a brief touch here and there, which is, after all, due not so much to the remembrance of his own personality, as of himself as the responsible poet of Rome. In the lines handed down by Dona- tus and Servius, Aeneid I, la- Id, we find a touch of personal history which Unks present to past in Vergil's life; in like manner present is linked with past in the opening of the Ciris, and present with future in that of the Culex, Ennius, also, opens his Annales with a personal touch, borrowed, we may believe, from Callimachus. There is a distinction between the admission of this element in the opening of an historical epic, and such obtrusion of his own personality as Hesiod naturally makes in beginning a didactic treatise addressed to his offending brother. At times the Hellenistic writer of epic or epyUion addresses himself, or his characters, or his readers.^ Callimachus >This is, of course, part of rhetorical tradition: Longinus, De Sublim. XXVI. 12 interrupts his story of Acontius and Cydippe to rebuke himself; Callimachus, Apollonius, and Vergil in the Ciris, address those of whom they are writing;* the Aeneid frequently shows the same practice, and passages occur in which persons mentioned in description are directly invoked. Direct address to the reader is a feature of ecphrasis found in the poetry of Apollonius and of Moschus, and in the Aeneid; the Homeric description of AchiUes' shield, on the other hand, does not contain this detail. Even more marked is the Hellenistic poet's habit of interrupting his narrative with his own reflections. Apollonius bursts into pity at the fate of the women of Lesbos, or into an indignant accusation of pitiless Love; he laments that we men ever suffer joy mingled with pain and lie at the mercy of terrors unknown. Theocritus utters his lament for the temerity of lovers or voices his thought on religion. Vergil is very sorry for Scylla: omnia, quae retinere gradum cursusque morari possent, o tecum vellem tua semper haberes! He grieves over the fall of Pallas, pities men's ignorance and folly in prosperity. A similar detail appears in the use of the single epithet, for which there is indeed precedent in Homer. Yet it is of interest to mark, in the later poets, a sympathy with their characters, shown in the selection of these epithets; it is with sympathy, I think, that Callimachus writes ctx^tXios of the victims of Artemis' wrath and of the rash Teiresias: so Apollonius of Medea; so, too, Catullus and Vergil write such words as infdix or miser heu! or visu miserabile in descriptions of their folk which come from the authors themselves.' But far more self-conscious than even the poet himself are the characters on his stage, men and gods alike. The Medea of Apollonius, Simaetha, and the Maid of the Grenfell Fragment find their Latin counterparts (if we exclude Dido) in this respect in Ariadne, Scylla, and Amata; Juno views herself objectively in the first and in the seventh Jbook of the Aeneid, as does Arte- mis in the hymn addressed to her; both Vergil and Callimachus use, on one occasion, the objective proper name instead of the first personal pronoun in such speech.' So Polyphemus in * See Jackson, Harvard Studies in Classical Pkihlogy, XXIV (1913), p. 49. * Aen. If 4Sf. Juno soliloquizes: et quisquam numen lunonis adorat praeterea, aut supplex aris imponat honorem? Nl At 14 HELLENISTIC INFLUENCE ON THE AENEID INFLUENCE OF HELLENISTIC LIFE AND LITERATURE 15 Theocritus' eleventh idyll consciously reviews his own good and bad points, and even breaks out into exhortation addressed to himself. Medea speaks of herself with pity: the heroines of the Latin epyllion do the same,** so, too, does Juno, baffled in her design, Amata in her rage, and Evander in his sorrow. Here, also, each character, in a higher or lower degree, according to his ability, is aware of the self he represents and is to realize. All depends upon individual merit; as the Hellenistic monarch, as the Roman Augustus held his rule through the merit of his success, so the Juno of the Aeneid fears for her power if unsupported by triumph visible before the eyes of her worship- pers. One of the most forcible similes of the Aeneid pictures a vast and seething multitude quelled into silence by the strength of one man's overruling personality. The same belief in a supreme destiny to be won by peculiar merit, which inspired Alexander^ and Augustus, fills the heart of Vergil's chief heroes. Tumus, relying on his own might, indignantly hurls back the reproach of Drances—'Tulsus ego?"— Aeneas bids his son look to himself,^ and bids the dying Lausus seek solace in the thought that it is the great Aeneas who has dealt the mortal stroke; the height of self-consciousness is reached in the words of this, VergiPs hero: sum plus Aeneas, raptos qui ex hoste penates classe veho mecum, fama super aethera notus. The corresponding words of Odysseus — IX, 19, 20: itfjk 'OSinrevs \aepTi6.drjs, ds ircuri, d6\ouriy iivOpcjiroun /iteXw, Kal nev K\kos ohpavbv ticei : Call. Artem. 18 f. Artemis asks of Zeus: bin hk fjLoi <^p€a iravra' t6\iv Si /not i^vriva veifMP, ^vTLPa Xps' CTapp6v yiip 8t 'Apre^ui Sxttv jcdrcuru'. 103 f. The poet narrates of Artemis: i^aTripTji 5'lra^es re Kal dp ttotI Ovfidp tetireSf tovtS K€p 'Apri/xiSoi vpp etiy. * Jackson, op. cit.j p. 49. » Mahaflfy, Greek Life and Thought,'^ 1896, p'. 33: "It may be said that he (i.e., Alexander) had full confidence in his fortune, and that the king's valour gave tremendous force to the charge of his personal companions." • So, indeed, do Hector and Ajax: but cf. with Aeneas' words those of Hector (//. VI, 479 f .) : KaL vork ris etxoi "xaTpis 7' We voKKbp 6.ntipup" U rokkfxov &pU»vTa . . . show nothing of Aeneas' burden of responsibiHty for the ful- filling of his destiny. Vergil, then, in the Aeneid, reflects both directly and indirectly, the self-consciousness of the great men of Hellenistic days, while Roman History was itself running a course resem- bling that of Hellenistic Greece in that the rule of the people was passing into the hands of one man. Here, too, in Rome the Emperor was supreme, and under his power men were levelled in uniform subjection. Within this despotism literature became the vehicle of the praise, not simply of Rome, but of the Caesar and of Rome as led by him. The Emperor promoted the cause of letters by his personality, set with a halo of glory in the centre of all, and by the material gifts which encouraged and often made possible the works of his literary circle. As the old free initiative of the Greek 7r6Xt$ had waned, so the old free spirit of the Roman RepubUc no longer breathed in the Imperial literature. nil nimium studeo, Caesar, tibi velle placere, nee scire utrum sis albus an ater homo: is very difiFerent from deus nobis haec otia fecit. The Aeneid is a Court poem, dedicated to the glory of Rome under one man's rule. Thus wrote Callimachus and Theocritus in praise of Ptolemy. But the Aeneid, like the Georgics, in so far as it concerns the Emperor, does not merely glorify him. Mahaffy notes, with regard to Callimachus, that "the adroit allusions to Ptolemy in these (i.e., CaUimachus') hymns were not mere flattery— they are intended to commend to the people of Argos, Delos, Ephesus, Cnidos, as well as to the many Greeks as- sembled at Alexandria, the benefits of a close alliance with, if not of submission to, the throne of Egypt. ''^ So we may think that Augustus hoped by the Aeneid to foster a spirit of Imperial community among his subjects of many races, as the Georgics had stimulated the lagging energy of his veterans for the tiUing of their lands. Warde Fowler sees this effort in the catalogue of Book VII; here "the Roman poet set himself to support with all his gifts the definite Italian policy of Augustus. . . . This, I think, was the poet's primary motive. "» The highest attain- ' Op. cU., p. 273. • Virgil's Gathering of the Clans, 1916, p. 28. Ml '3^ 16 HELLENISTIC INFLUENCE ON THE AENEID ment of Vergil in this direction is well summed up by Conway: "And when it is said that Horace and Vergil praised too highly and too soon what Augustus accomplished, let me suggest to you that it would be truer to say that they both dictated and inspired it. We owe it to them that for all time the notion of supreme power, the power of an actual monarch, not of a dreamland body of philosophers, was identified with transcend- ent but practical goodness, with beneficent toil, of which the whole world was the province."' In truth we have travelled far by this time from those grateful praises of a patron which the Cfdex and the Eclogues tell. Aside from this direct influence, these signs of the day are reflected indirectly in various details of Vergil's work. All the hope of the Trojans is centred in Aeneas; it is only of Aeneas that Palinurus thinks when tempted by persuasive Sleep. Aeneas sends none other, he declares, than his very Self to sue for the help of Evander; the Trojans, though longing sore for battle, may not leave their walls in the absence of their king. "There are no parties among the Trojans. They have no politics but loyalty to their prince. This means a certain lack of interest. The Trojans generally . . . 'want physiognomy.' Like the Romans under the later Emperors, they lack initiative; they are apt to be rather helpless, almost spiritless, when without their prince; and the life of the nation is summed up in the prince."^° Nor is Aeneas lacking in royal state. He is repeatedly spoken of as rex; "like an Alexander he dots the world with his foundations";" his son, "fairer than all other Trojan youths," is accompanied by the paat.\ucol iraiSes and entrusted to the care of a paedagogus}^ The land owned by Latinus {Aen. IX, 274; XI, 316)" corresponds to the royal demesne of the Ptolemies. The diplomacy for which Hellenistic kings were » "Horace as Poet Laureate" in "Falernian Grapes," ed. Rhys Roberts, 1917, p. 9. 10 Glover, Studies in Virgil,'^ 1912, p. 230. Cf. Nettleship, Lectures and Essays, 1886, Suggestions Introductory to a Study of the Aeneid, p. 103: "It is instructive to observe the similarity of language in which Aeneas is spoken of in the first and the Roman nation in the sixth book" {Aen. I, 263; VI, 851). " Glover, ibid., p. 228. 12 Aen. V, 548 f.; 569; IX, 647 flf.; cf. the "rectores imperatoriae iuventae" of Nero's day. 1* Cf. Lersch, Antiquitates Vergilianae, 1843, p. 28. INFLUENCE OF HELLENISTIC LIFE AKD LITERATURE 17 justly famed reappears in the careful ponderings of Latinus," who, as the ambassador, Ilioneus, stands before him, considers the splendid gifts, and realizes the importance of a son-in-law who shall perpetuate his race in manliness and might of conquest over all the Latin world. Not piety alone is working here. So Aeneas, with similar policy, shows kindness to the wretched subjects of Latinus. Gercke has remarked that the great War is one of kings and their quarrels, not of peoples: so the Diadochi fought for their thrones." The subjects of Latinus try to make peace (XII, 584) ; and Aeneas himself answers the envoys (XI, 113 f.): nee bellum cum gente gero: rex nostra reliquit hospitia et Turni potius se credidit armis. The honour of the king must be pre-eminent; and therefore Vergil carefully absolves Latinus from blame in transferring his support." At the same time, supreme as the kingly fame stands, Aeneas in giving the title of socii to his companions reminds us of the diplomatic friendships of the Hellenistic and the Augustan courts. Occasionally, too, here also is seen a touch of the old independence of spirit. Latinus must yield; Mezentius is dethroned; even Aeneas, as he confesses to Tar- chon, feels the instability of the aflFairs of men. We remember, in passing, the attitude of Vergil and Horace to their royal master. In keeping with this importance of individual life, is the absorbing interest of the Hellenistic poet and his successors in personal detail. To this interest we may trace in part the care with which Vergil gives us touches descriptive of the dress of his heroes, the surroundings in which they live, natural or artificial, their very form and face. The pictures of Troy's great men which comfort Aeneas on his first landing in Cartha- ginian territory are directly due to the Hellenistic custom of introducing real portraits in historical panel scenes. Dido's "As of the kmgs of Apollonius: Mahaflfy, op. cit., p. 292; Couat, La Poisie alexandrine, 1882, p. 324. " Die Entstehung der Aeneis, 1913, p. 108. *• (a) No very definite agreement had been made with Tumus regarding Lavmia; he was only wooing her, as were many others (VII, 54 f.) : (b) the oracle bade Latinus jom Aeneas, and he was a pious king: (c) the Latms forced the war: (d) he held aloof; see Gercke, op. cU., pp. 108 flf.; Heinze, VirgUs Epische Technik,* 1915, pp. 174 flf. 18 HELLENISTIC INTLUENCE ON THE AENEID palace boasts similar portraits, and its other adornments are carefully enumerated; the havens in which the Trojans land are constantly pictured, not only from delight in natural scenery, but as a background for the all-important human ac- tion therein; the gorgeous robes of Dido, the wild garb of Camilla's childhood, the splendid armour of heroes, the rustic equipment of Evander, are all in turn faithfully noted. But there is another reason for study of detail. As in Hellenistic days the transferring of the political energies of independent citizens to the controlled work of a monarchical system set free many men, who, relieved of liturgies and civic duties, even encouraged by royal munificence, devoted them- selves to study, so it was in Rome when the turmoil of Republi- can struggle gave way to the peace of an ordered land. Ptolemy established the great Museion and presided over a circle of eager scholars; Augustus founded the Library in the temple of Apollo, and called to the service of art the flower of the Gol- den Age. The result amid the Hellenistic poets was the growing up of a new habit of observation of detail, which tended to enrich and enliven all their story. Not only the beautiful, but the ordinary, even the repulsive, were examined and described in this zealous representing of reality. Herondas described the daily life of his time; Callimachus told of the poor old woman who gave welcome to Theseus in her cottage, and of the rustics who acclaimed his feat: told, in homely language, the care of Artemis for her horses and of Rhea for her new-born child. Theocritus described the daily life of Alcmene and her babes, or of Gorgo and Praxinoe. This same passion for realistic detail appeared in Hellenistic art in the conception of portraits, as that of Homer. "But when" wrote Vernon Lee "Greek art had run its course, when beauty of form had well-nigh been ex- hausted or begun to pall, certain artists, presumably Greeks, but working for Romans, began to produce portrait work of quite a new and wonderful sort. . . . And the secret of the beauty of these few Graeco-Roman busts, which is also that of Renaissance portrait sculpture, is that the beauty is quite dif- ferent in kind from the beauty of Greek ideal sculpture, and obtained by quite diflFerent means."" Of similar spirit are the ^"^"Euphorion," II, p. 24; quoted by Mrs. Strong, Roman Sculpture, 1907, p. 347. Baumgarten, Die heUen, rihn. Kidtur^ 1913, p. 449, observes "the INFLUENCE OF HELLENISTIC LIFE AND LITERATURE 19 natural backgrounds which replace the conventional settings of older Greece. The portrayal of still life and scenes of the genre type is especially associated with Hellenistic times, and in the hands of Peiraecus and his school must have widely influ- enced later work. This tendency to exactness the young Roman poet of late Repubhcan days first receives as part of his heritage from Alexandrian life and writings, then cultivates in his own life of leisurely watching of men and things. We come upon it in Catullus and in the early work of Vergil, where at times it offends us by its untimely appearance, and mars the effect of the whole. The description of birds and frogs in the Culex is scarcely poetical: et quaqua geminas avium vox obstrepit aures, hac querulas referunt voces, quis nantia limo corpora lympha fovet . . . Neither are the details of the metamorphosis of ScyUa, which remind us of the similar description that spoOs Horace's epi- logue; nor the exact definition of the spot where the culex stung the shepherd— g«a diducla genas pandebanl lumina—. In like manner Catullus spoils the picture of Ariadne's passionate misery, as she dashes wildly into the surf: mollia nudatae tollentem tegmina surae. In the Aeneid Vergil aUows us to imagine the process of a metamorphosis, or the details that add only frigid interest to the story. But his art embraces all sorts and conditions of men, and he willingly lingers in the description of simple scenes that he may bring them vividly before his readers: the stages by which the Trojans build a fire and bake their bread; the life of the country king, Evander; the play of the boys spinning their top, as they did in Alexandria in the time of CaUimachus. The fisherman Menoetes, who knew not rich gifts, recalls the toilers of the sea in Theocritus; from Apollonius comes the glimpse of the woman who rouses the sleeping embers of he r fire that even difference between the relief of the Ara Pac. Aug. and that of the Parthenon of which the Ara superficiaUy reminds one. The figures on the Parthenon frieze are ideal, those of the Ara are of men, women and chUdren of the Imperial Court mtheu: actual dress." See also Ernest Gardner, Greek Sculpture^ 1915 pp. 559 f. ' * t (( 20 HELLENISTIC INFLUENCE ON THE AENEID by night she may toil to support her needy family. The de- scriptions of scenery — framed by est Ivcus — and of dress, recall the miniatures of Hellenistic painting. Realism, however, paints the beautiful no less than the humdrum things of everyday; and here, too, the youth in Vergil is father to the man. The Aeneid sparkles with the descriptive adjective, introduced just where it may attract the eye and vivify the scene: the art is of the poet's own genius, but has been trained in ways of skill as is any power of delineation. With such trained art Catullus reproduces the moment when Clodia breaks upon his solitude as he waits :^^ quo mea se molli Candida diva pede intulit et trito fulgentem in limine plantam innixa arguta constituit solea. Vergil pictures for us Scylla, now dashing after her ball, as it runs to and fro, unconscious of her danger, her dress flying in the wind; now sick with panic, hardly daring to breathe, creeping at midnight down the stairs, scissors in hand. All is dark except the stars twinkling in the frosty sky. But the door creaks— just as Clodia's slipper did— it is all-important for the action of the poem. Examples could be multiplied: I will quote only one more picture, that of the shepherd and his flocks (C«/. 45ff.): propulit e stabulis ad pabula laeta capellas pastor, et excels! montis iuga summa petivit, florida qua patulos velabant gramina colles. iam silvis dumisque vagae, iam vallibus abdunt corpora, iamque onmi celeres e parte vagantes tondebant tenero viridantia gramina morsu. scnipea desertis haerebant ad cava ripis, pendula proiectis carpuntur et arbuta ramis, densaque virgultis avide labmsca petuntur; haec suspensa rapit carpente cacumina morsu vel salicis lentae vel quae nova nascitur alnus, haec teneras fniticum sentes rimatur, at ilia imminet in rivi prostantis imaginis undam. Already in the neoteric poets wt see the painting of colour and sound for which the Odes of Horace and the Aeneid are famous." Heinze remarks the brightness of Book V: all the earth is green and all the company is joyous to celebrate the 1* Mr. Glover first pointed out to me the force of this picture. " See Roiron, £tude sur V imagination auditive de VirgiUf 1908. INFLUENCE OF HELLENISTIC LIFE AND LITERATURE 21 games. So Catullus, by a similar repetition of descriptive adjec- tive, had vividly drawn the sea flying with foam . . . ventosum . . . aequor (LXIV, 1. 12) . . . spumis incanduit unda (1. 13) . . . candenti e gurgite (1. 14) . . . gurgite cam (1. 18); or the radiance of Peleus' home, decked for marriage rites . . . ftU- genti splendent auro atque argento (1. 44) . . . candet ebur (1. 45) collucent pocula (1. 45) . . . domus gaudet regali splendida gaza (1. 46); or the blaze of Ariadne's passion: _/^a^raw/^fl . . . lumina 11. 91, 92) . . . concepit . . . flammam (1. 92) . . . exarsit tota (1. 93). In the second pastoral scene of the Culex (11. 98- 156) we find viridem . . . museum; luco . . . virenti; viridi . . . in herha; viridi pallor e; susurrantis . . . lymphae; res on- ante susurro; aura susurrantis . . . venti; together with seven lines charged with sound: at volucres .... carmina per varios edunt resonantia cantus. his suberat gelidis manans e fontibus unda, quae levibus placidum rivis sonat acta liquorem. et quaqua geminas avium vox obstrepit aures, hac querulas referunt voces, quis nantia limo corpora lympha fovet; sonitus alit aeris echo, argutis et cuncta fremunt fardore cicadis. But while the Hellenistic spirit devoted itself to the observa- tion of life, it followed no less eagerly the study of written records; the Alexandrians have ever been reproached with their learning. Yet in itself, the love of study is excellent, and one recognizes in these scholars that same zeal for efficiency which animated all who sought to glorify their royal patron. So the young Vergil would gladly write a lofty poem of philosophy to glorify Messala, but his power is not ripe; in the Culex he promises Octavius a more worthy offering later on: posterius graviore sono tibi musa loquetur nostra, dabunt cum maturos mihi tempora fnictus, ut tibi digna tuo poliantur carmina sensu. The declaration that a task is too great for one's powers — the recusatio—is indeed part of the literary tradition of the time, inherited from Alexandria.*^* Horace delights in it. Catullus sends his gift to Allius with an apology: hoc tibi, quod potui, confectum carmine munus: ««Shorey, ed. Horace, Car. 1916, p. 162; Reitzenstein, Neue Jahrb., XXI (1908), p. 84. 22 HELLENISTIC INFLUENCE ON THE AENEID Vergil makes the same reflection: fortunati ambo! si quid mea carmina possunt, nulla dies umquam memori vos eximet aevo. The effort to attain the highest is eminently worth while for the poet who holds in his power the unique gift of mindful song. If Horace at one moment deprecates his unworthy Muse, he is usually well aware of the value of his words: non ego te meis chartis inomatum silebo, totve tuos patiar labores impune, Lolli, carpere lividas obliviones: corresponds exactly to: non ego te, Ligurum ductor fortissime hello, transierim: or: nee tu carminibus nostris indictus abibis, Oebale . . . To the desire of attaining excellence, a desire springing obviously from his own character, but stimulated by his training, is due the care with which Vergil has treated many and various subjects in his work. It is instructive in this con- nection to compare the technical details concerning the customs and armour of the tribes in Vergil's catalogue with the lack of technicality in the Homeric list :*^ to contrast his treatment of the healing of Aeneas with the Homeric tale of Glaucus, or his simile of the activity of the bees with that of the Iliad (II, 87 ff.) : to note his acquaintance with details of agriculture, astronomy, navigation;^ one might well suppose him to be a specialist in many crafts. Suetonius attests his devotion "inter cetera studia" to medicine, mathematics, and law; "eminent lawyers have admired his knowledge of their profession; agriculturists and physicians have but imitated their admiration where they ^ Cf. Ehrlich, MitteHtalietij Land und Leute in der Aentide Vergils, 1892. ^ Royds, The Beasts^ Birds, and Bees of Virgilj 1914; Prosper Meniere, Etudes mldicales sur les poites latins^ 1858, pp. 131 flf.; Jal, Virgilius Nauticus, 1861, pp. 265 ff.; Segebade, Vergil als Seemann, 1895. INFLUENCE OF HELLENISTIC LIFE AND LITERATURE 23 have each been best able to judge; as a rhetorician Macrobius prefers him to Cicero. "» "Ancient commentators," remarks Sellar, "have drawn attention ... to the exact acquaintance which Virgil shows with the minutiae of Pontifical and Augural lore."** Such scrupulous care to speak with the authority of the specialist in each sphere of knowledge is in complete har- mony with the scientific spirit of the Hellenistic world.^^ In his early efforts Vergil is full of this fresh enthusiasm for learning, and cannot, as the neoterics in general, forbear to give it us. The list of subjects, mythological and historical, which he might have chosen instead of the Cidex, the laboured introduc- tion of the story of Agave, and the fables attached to the different trees in the shepherd's resting place, all savour of Hellenistic methods. The learned epithet meets one repeatedly. At times it is simply conventional, as in Carme's laden words: Gnosia neu Partho contendens spicula comu Dictaeas ageres ad gramina nota capellas! So wrote Horace in his Odes. The Hellenistic authors loved the unusual, the fanciful, even in their words: and at times Vergil's phrasing might merit the satire of Moliere. Scylla is called "patris miseri patriaeque sepulchrum"; the sun is Hyperion, the culex is introduced as "parvulus umoris alumnus" without further naming; the nurse anxiously inquires of her charge: nam qua te causa nee dulcis pocula Bacchi nee gravidos Cereris dicam contingere fetus? The word "Ceres" of the Aeneid, on the other hand, simply replaces "bread," according to common usage. Even the Alexandrians, however, did not distribute their learned remarks at random. Mackail can write of the hymns of Callimachus as marked by a "fastidiousness, by an mstinct for rejection which almost amounts to a passion"; Catullus carefully motivates the introduction of his story of Ariadne. Throughout the Aeneid, in contrast to the earlier work, this instinct of artistic selection is to be observed. Mirmont points » Prentiee, The Philosophical Opinions of Vergil, 1859, p. 7. " Virga,» 1897, p. 374. » Even so, as every one knows, the Georgics borrowed from Aristotle, Nieander, The<^hrastus, Aratus, and Eratosthenes. i 24 HELLENISTIC INTLUENCE ON THE AENEID out cases where Vergil deliberately turns material, which in ApoUonius is of only learned interest, to the greater glory of his country: as in the tracing of the Trojan race to Crete, and the honour done to the cult of Cybele. Aetiological tales are deftly introduced: the tale of Hercules and Cacus comes naturally from Evander, as does the description of the Ludus Troiae amid the sports of Anchises' memorial games, or the story of Hippolytus which enlivens the catalogue. There are numerous scientific details, but they usually serve rather to stimulate than annoy. The name of Byrsa is traced to the buirs hide; of the Lauren tes to the laurel. The eponymous hero is sometimes mentioned: Romulus, Capys, Chaon; and the Latin name is preserved for evermore at Juno's urgent prayer. That matters of astronomy should be introduced is not surpris- ing in view of Aratus' wide influence; but, like Callimachus, Vergil brought his scientific notes into harmony with his tale. It is entirely natural that the helmsman Palinurus should scan at midnight the stars that are passing in the silent sky; that Pallas, in his bright armour, should be likened to Lucifer as it comes from the ocean and drives away the gloom; that the swing and clash of battle should remind one of the hailstorm that rises out of the west under the rain-bringing Kids. The song of lopas recalls Lucre tian philosophy; so also the descrip- tion of the shade that personates Aeneas: morte obita quales fama est volitare figuras, aut quae sopitos deludunt somnia sensus. There is matter historical: the founding of Ardea by Danae or of Patavium by Antenor, and the tracing of the lineage of various noble houses; geographical: the formation of the strait between Italy and Sicily, the accurate description of the fruitful flood of the Nile, the definite local touch which marks so many of Vergil's similes; philological: the Greek derivation of Stro- phades, the changing of Camilla's name. Alexandrian, as Apollonjus shows, is the frequent epitTiet which in Vergil marks the history of person or place. Nor does the love of the strange and novel fail to leave its mark. The Hellenistic metamorphosis appears in the tale of the changing of the ships into nymphs; in the story of Polydonis, which, with its realistic detail, savours of Hellenistic /6vTapo7ppkvas etaketL\K€ro toU d46.POLi i^iirXrjTTov roifs &p8pas." If, again, the Diadochi supported their insecure claims to royal power by marriage, we need not forget that the whole struggle of Aeneas and Turnus was centred about the hope of Lavinia's hand and her father's throne. Woman, then, was of material interest and importance in life, as she was in literature, also, from the time of Euripides. But the Hellenistic poets did not care especially to dwell on Phaedras or Stheneboeas. One of their favourite types of woman is the sylvan huntress, all pure in her simple life among woods and woodland creatures, untouched by passion of man. *» Cf. Sellar, op. cit., p. 366; and Warde Fowler, VirgU*s Gathering of the Clans, pp. 39 L: "Emphatically we may say that in the Aeneid she (Juno) represents the feminine temper, or at least some aspects of it which were well known in the last century B.C. Dr. Glover has rightly pointed out that she also in the poem stands for a false idea of empire. . . . This idea of empire is false not only because it is backed up by a great female numen, whose temper is irreconcilable with the large masculine benevolence of Jupiter, but because, with the aid of that numen, it is embodied in a woman, Dido, foreshadowing the beautiful dangerous queen of Virgil's own day." ^Op.cit.^p. 109, note 3. INFLUENCE OF HELLENISTIC LIFE AND LITERATURE 55 So Vergil painted Camilla.^ The other is the girl of royal birth wrapped in like purity,« suddenly attacked by the god of mischief— the boy and his wanton arrow. Her high birth gives poignancy to the Treptir^rcta which ensues: her faU from the happiness of innocence to the knowledge of despair. As it is constantly the untried giri who is the victim, so constantly the passion inspired by Cupid must struggle with conscience, and conscience yields to its stress. But the struggle itself is not tragic unto death: Medea's tragedy is yet many years distant at the end of the Argonautica — fiPTfaaro p^p repirpcap, 5£€lv, Tavra iiyoifi^vos dvai, xP^yo^tAuu^ara rots iivay vuaofikvoLS, & ToWijv tinroplav wape^ei KoXm Kal (rvfi(f>€p6vT(t)v irapadeiyfjArojv vonoSeTais t€ Kai 8rinay(ayoLs ... (V. 75). And Cicero carries on the tradition: cum et reprehendes ea, quae vituperanda duces, et quae placebunt exponendis rationibus comprobabis (ad Fam, V, 12, 4).« In order to point his moral intelligently and forcibly, the historian must study the origin and motive of the incidents he records:— "What is really educational and beneficial to students of history is the clear view of the causes of events" — (Polyb. VI, I); and the personality of his actors: "It is strangely inconsistent in historians ... to pass over in complete silence the characteristics and aims of the men by whom the whole thing was done, though these in fact are the points of the greatest value. . . . For . . . one feels more roused to emula- tion and imitation by men that have life, than by buildings that have none . . ." (X, 21). Livy, in his Preface, shows a similar aim; and it is conceivable that Vergil, too, was stimu- lated from this direction by the general Hellenistic desire of probing into causes, motives, and character. Parallel with the moral aim of the Hellenistic historian runs the hedonistic: the desire to please and attract. The strength of the belief in the value of this policy is best seen in Polybius. Though the most sober of historians he yet declares: "Those who are engaged on representing anything either to eye or ear can have only two objects to aim at — pleasure and profit" (XV, 36). "Either to eye or ear" — this implies the kvLpyti,a, the • See Reitzenstein, HelUnisUsche WundererzSklungen, 1906, pp. 84 ff. 52 HELLENISTIC INFLUENCE ON THE AENEID evidentia, the graphic representation based on imitation— filM^o-ts— of the living actor. This €j/dp7eta, above all, the Hellenistic writer longs to attain that he may stir the emotion of his readers. Dionysius calls it "the first of the extraneous excellences" of an historian {ad Pomp. Ill) : and well sums up its theory in his Antiquitates: ^SeraL y^p if StAwta Travrds kvBpoiTrov X€Lpay(ayovnkvrj Sla rdv X^tojj/ kirl ri tpya, Kal fiii iihvov 6xoi)ovaa tQv Xeyofjikvcavj dXXd Kal rd TrpaTrbyitva dpoxra (XI, 1, 25 ff). Admiration, anger, sympathy, are to be called forth, if the historian fulfil his work aright: Polybius strives Iva fiij fi6vop eiyjrapoKoXoWriTOSy dXXd Kal KarawXriKTiKii ylvj\Tai toIs irpoakxovaiv ilhiiiynGi% (IV, 28): "without knowing these" (i.e., the causes of catastrophes) he declares "it is impossible to feel the due indig- nation or pity at anything which occurs" (II, 56). Personal touches are to enhance the effect: "those who have gone through no such course of actual experience produce no genuine enthusi- asm in the minds of their readers" (XII, 25, h); marveUous tales of descriptions of the vagaries of Fortune may stimulate the reader's interest. "I thought it, therefore," says Polybius, "distinctly my duty neither to pass by myself, nor allow any one else to pass by, without full study, a characteristic specimen of the dealings of Fortune at once brilliant and instructive in the highest degree. For fruitful as Fortune is in change, and constantly as she is producing dramas in the life of men, yet never assuredly before this did she work such a marvel, or act such a drama, as that which we have witnessed" (I, 4). We remember Cicero's similar words: nihil est enim aptius ad delectationem lectoris quam temporum varietates fortunaeque vicissitudines {ad Fam. V, 12, 4). History, in short, may become a drama: habet enim varios actus mutationesque et consiliorum et temporum; in which the varying fortunes of the hero are to carry our hearts through the whole gamut of emo- tion: viri saepe excellentis ancipites variique casus habent admirationem, expectationem, laetitiam, molestiam, spem, timorem: si vero exitu notabili concluduntur, expletur animus iucundissima lectionis voluptate. Such is the canon laid down for the Hellenistic historiog- rapher, and its roots lie in the spirit of the Hellenistic life. Around the basic idea of Personality are grouped the laudationes^ the vituperationes which shall give practical aid to men in INFLUENCE OF HELLENISTIC TECHNIQUE 53 furthering their ends, the vivid pictures of the changing for- tunes of conspicuous characters, the portrayal of magnificence and marvel which shall awake wonder, of suffering and kindness which shall arouse sympathy and love. No less self-conscious than the Hellenistic poet is the historian in whose power lie the characters of the men he describes, and the hearts of the readers he instructs and moves to feeling at his will. The sources of these precepts lie in the movements started by Isocrates and Aristotle. To Xenophon and Isocrates, as Leo has noted, is due the introduction of the biographical epilogue, which was to be found afterward in the work of Ephorus and Theopompus. It sprang partly from the personal interest in his subject natural to an orator, partly from the interest in personality remarked above. The theory, as Heinze and Scheller point out, that history must exert a moral influence on its readers, can be traced to Isocrates.^ Oratorical training is revealed also in the care with which Ephorus and Theopom- pus, in obedience to their master, strove to vary their historical work by digressions — irapeic/Sdaets — that their readers might be duly entertained. The practices of the epideictic school of oratory and of those historiographers influenced by it are well described by Cicero — Orator 19, 65; sophistarum, de quibus supra dixi, magis distinguenda similitudo videtur, qui omnes eosdem volunt flores quos adhibet orator in causis persequi. Sed hoc differunt quod, cum sit eis propositum non perturbare animos, sed placare potius, nee tam persuadere quam delectare, et apertius id faciunt quam nos et crebrius, concinnas magis sententias exquirunt quam probabilis, a re saepe discedunt, intexunt fabulas, verba altius transferunt eaque ita disponunt ut pictores varietatem colorum, paria paribus referunt, adversa contrariis, saepissimeque similiter extrema definiunt. Huic generi historia finitima est, in qua et narratur ornate et regio saepe aut pugna describitur; interponuntur etiam contiones et hortationes, sed in his tracta quaedam et fluens expetitur, non haec contorta et acris oratio. . . . From the orator, Isocrates, then, springs a school of historiography that seeks the pleasure of its public.® Aristotle, on the other hand, starts the quest of ' Heinze, op. cU.y pp. 475 f. ■ Wachsmuth, Ueber Ziele und Meihoden der griech. Gesch. schreibungf 1897, p. 15 f. 54 HELLENISTIC INFLUENCE ON THE AENEID the individual after knowledge, first of science, then of the history of science and of scientific men; hence arises a like interest in men and manners springing from an absolutely different source from that of Isocrates' school, the desire to learn the truth rather than the desire to please. Leo cites the story of Peisistratus and the labourer, and the characterization of Peisistratus and his deeds in the noXtrcia *AdrjvaUjjv as fore- shadowing the biographical etSos: a student of Aristotle, Aristoxenus, introduced the literary biographies — /Slot — which influenced so strongly peripatetic historiography. From Aristotle, as Leo notes, sprang the method which told the irpA{€ts of an individual and allowed the fjdos which characterized him to be inferred from them. As Aristotle prescribed — 1179al8 — t6 8^a\rjdls kv toIs tpoktols be tu>v tpywv koX roO fiiov KpLverai.' kv roinois ydip t6 icbpvov — , so Theophrastus wrote his Characters, and so wrote the post-Aristotelian historians, in distinction from the Alexandrian, from Polybius, and from Suetonius, who definitely describe the ^^o$ of their individual men. Yet Aristotle was the rhetorician no less than the student of science; and to this fact is due the ultimate reconciliation between the schools of Aristotle and Isocrates in the headlong pursuit of ^uxa7a)7ia, as embodied in the writing of the peripa- tetic Duris and of Phylarchus. The arousing of emotions in the heart of the spectator is the fundamental principle of the Poetics; 4vAp7€ia, filnricnsy the working of Fortune in the TrcpiTrcrcta, the calculated effect of t6 wap&do^v, the due care that the Xcfts, eav J iradriTucii t€ Kal rfiucffj shall represent t6 irpkirovy either of circumstance, age, or sex — all these are, as everyone knows, prescribed in Aristotle's theories of art. If we turn now from the theory of these critics to the practice of the Hellenistic historiographers, we may discover traces of the principle prodesse et delectare even amid the scanty frag- ments of their writings. Concrete examples of vice and virtue appear in the work of Ephorus-Diodorus. ^^yKoiynjov and ^670$ are found in Theopompus, the follower of Isocrates (Polyb. VIII, 11 f.), who wrote a PhUippi Laudatio, and yet is vehemently upbraided by Polybius for his unrestrained vituper- alio PhUippi in the forty-ninth book of the Philippica; he also wrote a De Pietate, and told in the Philippica of extravagant INFLUENCE OF HELLENISTIC TECHNIQUE 55 living and its hapless end. Phylarchus praises Cleomenes: raOra nkv ijpXv kS^}ep6vT(as 5'd7rt(r- relv 8iu)v ArjLfjLax(^ re Kcd Meyaadkvei. ovtol y&p elcLV oi tovs 'Ej'coto- KoLras Kal tovs ^AarSfiovs Kal "Appivas laropovvTts, ^ovo^BikkyLOvs re KoX MoKpoaKeXeis koL '07rt(7do6axruXow (ch. 70). Duris falls under the like condemnation from Didymus (on Dem, col. 12, 50): U€i yap airrbv K&vravda TepaTiifaeoBai : the fragments of Phylar- chus' work contain stories of marvel after marvel. So Theopom- pus in his narrative of the Meropes ; so Euhemerus, lambulus, and Hecataeus all added a touch of ^romance and a wealth of imaginary detail in their description of far-ojff lands; Antigonus, Myrsilus, Philostephanus and others wrote Wonderbooks. Dreams, oracles, portents were found recorded side by side »• Cf . Rohde, Gr. R. p. 55. " AristoUe, A, P., 1460a. INFLUENCE OF HELLENISTIC TECHNIQUE 59 with accounts of physical phenomena; even the history of Hannibal is embellished with dreams and nightly visions of the god. Lastly, the Hellenistic historians delight in dramatic scenes. Duris, whose interest in the stage is shown by his works on tragic writers and tragedy, announces in his first book: "Ei^pos 6^ Kal QedTOfjLTos tu>v yevofikvojv TrXelcTTOv dTrcXet^^o'aj'* odre ydp fUfJLrjcecos p^TtKafiov ovSe/XLcis o(fT€ iidovfjs kv tc^ p6L&ai,y avrov 8^ rod ypL4>€i,v pjbvov eireneKifdriaav . . . MlfirjaLSy then, graphic imitation of life, is his object. Therefore he pictures vividly in his His- tories the appearance or dress of his people; no fewer than nine fragments deal with this. The story of the triumphant return of Alcibiades from exile gives a good instance of Duris' method (Plut. Ale, 32, trans. Perrin): "Duris the Samian, who claims that he was a descendant of Alcibiades, gives some additional details. He says that the oarsmen of Alcibiades rowed to the music of a flute blown by Chrysogonus the Pythian victor; that they kept time to a rhythmic call from the lips of Callip- ides, the tragic actor; that both these artists were arrayed in the long tunics, flowing robes, and other adornment of their profession; and that the commander's ship put into harbours with a sail of purple hue, as though, after a drinking bout, he were off on a revel. But neither Theopompus, nor Ephorus, nor Xenophon mentions these things, nor is it likely that Alcibiades put on such airs for the Athenians, to whom he was returning after he had suffered exile and many great adversities." Xenophon does not relate these details. Anecdotes, little touches which reveal personal character, appear in the frag- ments of the work of Duris (4, 14, 22); quotation of actual sayings in those of Phylarchus (8, 18, 40a). ^^ Tragic technique on Hellenistic lines is pointed out by Schneider in Pompeius Trogus. '^KTrXryfts is aroused by t6 " Lauckner, Die Kiinst und polit. Zide d. Monographic Sallusts uber d. Jug. Krieg, 1911, pp. 59 flf., sees in Plutarch's Life of Cleomenes a good example of Phylarchus' dramatic technique of this kind. Cf. R. Schubert, Die Quellen Plutarchs, Jahrb. fur kl. Phil., Supp. Bd., JX (1878), pp. 709 ff.,. who suspects the hand of Duris in the Life of Demetrius. Schwartz also remarks the vivid painting,"of which no modern historical novel need be ashamed," of Phylarchus, in the Life of Cleomenes (FUnf Vortrdge Uber den griech. Roman, 1896, pp. 114 ff.). 60 HELLENISTIC INFLUENCE ON THE AENEID /Lii^w5€s, as in the narrative of Lysimachus* achievements (XV, 3), of the career of Agathocles (XXII, If.), and of Mithri- dates (XXXVII, 2); by t6 kuTaSks, pictured in such pitiful stories as we have seen; by t6 irapdXcryov, the unexpected, such as the passage in XXVII, 2 : Post discessum Ptolomei Seleucus cum ad versus civitates, quae defecerant, ingentem classem conparasset, repente velut diis ipsis parricidium vindicantibus orta tempestate classem naufragio amittit; nee quicquam illi ex tanto adparatu praeter nudum corpus et spiritum et paucos naufragii comites residuos fortuna fecit. Misera quidem res, sed optanda Seleuco fuit; siquidem civitates, quae odio eius ad Ptolomeum transierant, velut diis arbitris satis factum sibi esset, repentina animorum mutatione in naufragi misericordiam versae imperio se eius restituunt. Other examples of irtpiTkrtia. are the fate of Arsinoe's sons in the midst of her marriage festivities (XXIV, 3), where we notice the poetical detail: Pro filiis saepe se percussoribus obtulit, frequenter corpore suo puerorum corpora amplexata protexit vulneraque excipere, quae liberis intendebantur, voluit. Ad postremum etiam spoliata funeribus filiorum scissa veste et crinibus sparsis cum duobus servulis ex urbe protracta Samothraciam in exilium abiit, eo miserior, quod mori ei cum filiis non licuit; and the change of fortune of Lysimachus, consequent upon his murder of Agathocles: Haec illi prima mali labes, hoc initium inpen- dentis ruinae fuit (XVII, 1). This careful noting of cause and effect Trogus shares with Livy and Vergil. To the reader, then, who compares these notes with the detailed description given by Heinze of Vergil^s workmanship, it might appear not impossible that the natural genius of the eager student, not only of men but of their ways and of their artistic devices for portraying life and manners, was streng- thened by finding either directly or through the agency of the later Roman Annalists,^' an aim and method similar to his own. The Aeneid, as Heinze shows by exhaustive detail, is a story of mental and spiritual struggle; its her6 is an example to other men who are striving to fulfil their moral destiny. Moral ^ See Zamcke, DerEinflussdergriech. Lit. auf die Entwicldung der r'om. Prosa: Comm. Ribbeckianae, 1888, p. 316. For traces of a technique in Livy somewhat similar to that of Vergil see Witte, Ueber die Form der Darstellung in Livius* Geschichtswerk, Rh. Mus.y LXV (1910), pp. 283 fif. INFLUENCE OF HELLENISTIC TECHNIQUE 61 factors, rather than external accident, decide the day; mock contests and real battles are won by strength of mind and will, lives are lost in failure resulting from motives of folly. Each character — and Vergil tries to concentrate, on a few that these may live more really — is brought home to the reader's heart by his acts, and his speeches; Vergil, like Livy,^* followed this indirect method of characterization as more dramatic and effec- tive. No man is wholly good at the start: Aeneas fights his way to perfection; no man is wholly bad: Mezentius loves his son; Latinus, for all his cowardice, will not break his plighted word. And that Vergil may win his reader, he pictures all emotions common to man: terror, surprise, wonder, pity, reverence, awe, gratitude, love. IleptTrercta falls to all the more noble characters, that we may grieve over the fate that follows upon happiness, a fate the more pathetic if it is the outcome of weak- ness of some sort: the fate that overtakes Priam and the Trojans in Troy, Aeneas in Latium, and Nisus and Euryalus on the battle-field. The narrative from beginning to end is steeped in the life given by the touch of colour; physical details of dress, of habit, of surrounding, spiritual details of mood and temperament, form the hvLpytia which enlivens the picture. At least we may say that that same spirit which animated the followers of Aristotle is seen in its height in Vergil — to work without stint that his story may be a living whole. — B— When Vergil, as every one knows, spent his day polishing and repolishing a few lines of verse, we are not to imagine that he called to his aid any handbook or textbook of Hellenistic poetry. He worked according to his own sense of what read and sounded well. But there is no doubt that his sense had been most carefully trained; the impatience with which he throws away rhetoric in the fifth poem of the Catalepton, as he after- wards rejects Alexandrian mythology in the beginning of the third Georgic,^^ shows how thorough and how general was the education in these subjects. ** Stimulated, very probably, by the Roman Annalists: Bnins, Die PersSn- lichkeit in der Gesch. sckreibung der Allen, 1898, pp. 63 fif. « See Wight Dufif, Literary History of Rome, 1909, p. 450. 62 HELLENISTIC INFLUENCE ON THE AENEID INFLUENCE OF HELLENISTIC TECHNIQUE 63 It is, however, very rash to select instances from the Aeneid (other than verbal imitations) and assert that they were defin- itely modelled after Hellenistic poetry or rhetoric; the most, I think, we can say is that Vergil's training had made him highly conscious of the possibilities of artistic diction, and that pic- torial turns of narrative (which do occur in older Greek prose and poetry) are more deliberately chosen by him, in consequence of this training, to adorn his story. For instance: Demetrius, whoever he was (according to Rhys Roberts, not Demetrius of Phalerum,but a writer, very possibly, of the first century of our era), drew up a manual De docutione,^^ containing examples of rhetorical expression culled from preceding writers — Homer, Plato, Xenophon — together with some principles as to the purpose of these expressions. A number of these examples can be paralleled by passages from the Aeneid, (1) {Dem, 7 f.). A short member represents vigour. "As a wild beast gathers itself together for the attack," wrote Demetrius, "so should discourse gather itself together as in a coil in order to increase its vigour." In Vergil, brevity expresses vigour in the swoop of the attack: Fit via vi (II, 494); in the crash of the trumpet, and in the display of the signal: classica iamque sonant; it bello tessera signum (VII, 637); brevity expresses haste in the sudden descent of night: Ponto nox incubat atra (I, 89); in the forward leap of the boatmen: Haud mora, prosiluere suis (V, 140); in the dash of Nisus: Nisus abit (IX, 386); in the distracted darting to and fro in terror of capture: Diversi circumspiciunt (IX, 416). Surprise needs words equally few: e.g., the thrill of the vision: Obsti- puit visu Aeneas (V, 90). Likewise note the emphasis secured through brevity: in the indignation of Venus: Navibus (infan- dum) amissis (I, 251); or of Juno: Quippe vetor fatis (I, 39); and in the decision of the oracle: Mutandae sedes (III, 161). (2) {Dem. 139). Arrangement: the progress from the usual to the unusual, from the concrete to* the abstract; as in Xeno- phon's words regarding Cyrus: "As presents he gives him a horse, a robe, a linked collar, and the assurance that his country should be no longer plundered." ^ Ed. and trans. Rhys Roberts, 1902; I have used this translation here. Compare Horace, Car. I, XV, 11 f.: iam galeam Pallas et aegida cumisque et rabiem parat. So Vergil: and: and: ruit Oceano nox involvens umbra magna terramque polumque Myrmidonumque dolos (II, 250 ff.); tectum augustum, ingens . . . horrendum silvis et religione parentum (VII, 170 flf.); Paeoniis revocatum herbis et amore Dianae {ib. 769). (3) {Dem, 263). Alleged "praetermission" : quid repetam exustas Erycino in litore classes, quid tempestatum regemj ventosque furentes Aeolia excitos, aut actam nubibus Irim? (X, 36 ff.)- Compare Catullus, LXIV, 116 flF.: sed quid ego a primo digressus carmine plura commemorem, ut . . . ut . . . ut . . . (4) (Dem, 50 f.). Working to a climax in phrasing: as Plato's: "when a man suffers music to play upon him and to flood his soul through his ears." Such is: quippe ferant rapidi secum verrantque per auras (I, 59). (5) {Dem. 48 f.). Cacophony: "impressive eflFect is pro- duced by a harsh collocation of words — as for example in the line: Alas 6' 6 likyar alkv k^' 'Exropt xa^oKopixrrg." Compare: insequitur clamorque virum stridorque rudentum (I, 87); and: exoritur clamorque virum clangorque tubarum (II, 313); and: monstrum horrendum informe ingens, cui lumen ademptum (in, 658). (6) {Dem. 156). Use of proverbs: "by its very nature there is a certain piquancy in a proverb." Such is given by: una salus victis nullam sperare salutem (II, 354); and: spes sibi quisque (XI, 309). ■''ui 64 HELLENISTIC INFLUENCE ON THE AENEID INFLUENCE OF HELLENISTIC TECHNIQUE 65 Nor is the use of rhetorical figures confined to any particular epoch of poetry. Though Vergil undoubtedly made deliberate use of antithesis, repetition, traductio, paronomasia and the like," examples of these can be found in Homer. So can chias- mus, and that kind of arrangement of words of which Kvic^ala gives so many interesting illustrations from the Aeneid}^ Caspari has quoted some Hellenistic illustrations,^' and such examples have caused Norden to refer the symmetrical placing of words in the Aeneid partly to Hellenistic poetry, partly to rhetoric.*^ Certainly parallels are interesting, and a few may be given here: Aen. XII, 103 f. mugitus veluti cum prima in proelia iaurus terrificos ciet atque irasci in coraua temptat; A. R. n, 1118 f. Toi)i 6* invdis KparepQ