Francis Cairns

Ancient ‘etymology’ and Tibullus: on the classification of ‘etymologies’ and on ‘etymological markers’

Ancient ‘etymology’ is now such a well-established modern scholarly interest that a paper about it need no longer be prefaced by an account of its commonest forms or by a justification of its importance, especially in poetry – and that despite the pseudo-etymological nature of many ancient etymologies. For such matters it is sufficient to refer to what have already become the standard works on ancient etymologies and etymologising. If further explanation of the high intellectual status accorded by antiquity to etymologising seems necessary, it can be provided economically by reference to those ancient philosophical theories of language, e.g. that of the Stoics, which held that words are related to the reality (φύσις) of the things which they name, and to the close links which surviving ancient etymological treatises assert between etymology (i.e. derivations) and ‘semantics’ (i.e. meaning). The etymologies most familiar to older classical scholarship are those revolving around proper names; but even before the recent upsurge of interest in ancient etymology there was some awareness of the additional potential for common nouns, verbs and adjectives to be etymologised.

Roman lyric : collected papers on Catullus and Horace

Francis Cairns has made well-known contributions to the study of Roman Epic and Elegy. Roman Lyric assembles his substantial body of work on Roman lyric, about 30 papers published over the period 1969 to 2010 in many European and American periodicals, themed volumes and Festschriften, along with some new papers.The volume is fully indexed and contains a composite bibliography and addenda and corrigenda. Roman Lyric will make access to this body of scholarly material easier and more convenient for scholars and students of Latin poetry.

Money and the Poet: The First Stasimon of Pindar Isthmian 2

The first stasimon of Pindar Isthmian 2 has long been problematic: it appears to privilege past over present poetry and to stigmatise contemporary poets, including Pindar himself, as mercenary. This paper summarises previous solutions to this problem, none fully satisfactory, and, after modifying the logic of the first stasimon, proposes the following new solution. Pindar’s ‘past poetry’ (contrary to the view of earlier scholarship) does not consist of monodic love songs but of choric paidikal enkomia performed at low cost by amateur choruses of fellow paides, whereas his ‘present poetry’ is performed by professional choruses and musicians who were expensively costumed and trained and highly paid. The issue, then, is not the poets’ fees (for poets were always remunerated) but the high costs of contemporary choric performance. Those costs do not stigmatise Pindar as greedy, but they do further emphasise the patron’s generosity in funding Isthmian 2 and its performances.

PROPERTIUS THE HISTORIAN (3.3.1-12)?

In this book seventeen leading scholars examine the interaction between historiography and poetry in the Augustan age: how poets drew on — or reacted against — historians’ presentation of the world, and how, conversely, historians transformed poetic themes for their own ends.

Concord in the Aeneid of Virgil

One of the most neglected aspects of the Aeneid is its use of the themes of Concord and its opposite Discord. The neglect is all the more surprising since homonoia/concordia was a philosophical, religious, and political concept and slogan of growing importance from the fourth century B. C. on; and it was specifically one of the key points in the propaganda of Augustus. I t s neglect becomes almost incredible when we remember tha t contemporary Augustan interpretation of Homer s Iliad and of i ts moral content, relied heavily on the view tha t the Iliad was a study of the evil effects of discord, among both the Greeks and the Trojans, as well as between them. This is shown clearly by Horace, Epistles I 2.6 ff., esp. 15f. sedihone etc.: fabula, qua Paridis propter narratur amorern Graecia Barbariae lento collisa ditello, stultorum regum et populorum continet aestus. Anterior censet belli praecidere causam: quid Paris ? ut salvus regnet vivatque beatus cogi posse negai. Nestor componere litis inter Peliden festinat et inter Atriden: hunc amor, ira quidem co-mmuniter urit utrumque. quidquid délirant reges plectuntur Achivi. seditione, dolis, scelere atque libidine et ira Iliacos intra muros peccatur et extra. A number of valuable scholarly works have dealt with the philosophical, political, and religious aspects of Concord from the fourth century B. C. to late ant iquity.

Propertius 1, 1, 13

This couplet forms part of Propertius’ account of the sufferings of Milanion in his quest for the love of Atalanta, and specifically it narrates Milanion’s wounding by the club of one of the two centaurs who were his less civilised rivals. In line 13 the Propertian MSS offer psilli, but the emendation Hylaei of ‘Franciscus Arretinus’, which identifies the ramus as belonging to Hylaeus, one of the pair of centaurs, holds universal sway in modern texts. Despite the fact that Hylaei is not close to psilli, none of the earlier emendations, some of which are indeed closer to the transmitted text, have proved persuasive. In this situation it is the signal merit of Christoph Schubert to have brought the issue once more to notice, and to have challenged the consensus which has endowed the text of Propertius with the not altogether pleasing double elisions of ille etiam Hylaei. Schubert’s own proposal, to read Rhoeci (from the name of the

Two further reminiscences of Callimachus Aetia frr. 67–75 in Eclogue 2?

This paper argues that the known allusions to Callimachus’ “Acontius and Cydippe” in Eclogue 2 can be augmented by line 56s evocation of how Acontius’ friends regarded him as a , and by lines 58–9s glossing of an unusual, and perhaps disputed, Callimachean term, viz. .

The Learning Latin Computer Package ( LLCP )

LLCP - the acronym covers the Learning Latin Computer Package and the Learning Latin Computer Project - started as a Computers in Teaching Initiative project under my direction in April 1986. Its aim was to create PC software to support Latin parsing and metaphrasing exercises based on the course book Learning Latin: an Introductory Course for Adults by John Randall et al, which was published to coincide with the project. Learning Latin is unique among Latin courses in a number of ways: it uses only real Latin, that is, Latin by classical Latin-speaking authors, it is in essence intelligence-based rather than rote-memory based, and it was designed to lead to computer assistance. Learning Latin is aimed primarily at beginners; but it can and does function also as a rapid revision course for students who have already studied and gained qualifications in Latin al secondary or high school.

Splendide Mendax : Horace Odes III. 11

Studies of Horaces imitation of Greek lyric in his Odes have tended to concentrate on particular supposed echoes. Given that the surviving Greek texts are few and fragmentary, this method is bound often to lead to dubious and unsatisfactory results. A broader approach directed at the syntax, structure, and myths of the Odes produces, in my view, a clearer understanding of how Horace hoped to enter the canon of lyric poets ( Odes i. 1. 35 f.). This paper expounds Odes iii. 11 exempli gratia as a serious Horatian attempt to write the Latin equivalent of an early Greek lyric. It shows some of the ways in which Horace has concentrated the characteristics he observed in his predecessors and composed an ode which is a close-knit complex of Greek lyric linguistic and conceptual mannerisms.

Propertius, 2. 30 A and B

The difficulties of this poem have led scholars to employ surgery of various sorts upon it. This article attempts to show that surgery is unnecessary and that, given a fuller exegesis and a partial reinterpretation of subject-matter, the poem can be read as a single and consistent piece.