Roland Mayer

Seneca, Medea 723

Altum gurgitem Tigris premens : what is Tigris doing? Gronovius has no remark to the point. The context however points the way to interpretation. For in the list of four rivers, two others are given some word or phrase to characterize them: Hydaspes is gemmifer and Baetis is said to give his name to nearby lands. Thus altum gurgitem premens should refer to some characteristic act or condition of Tigris, not to a unique or casual occurrence. H. M. Kingery (1908, reprinted 1966) cannot be right in saying that ‘the Tigris, noted for its swift current, is pictured here as checking its deep torrent , so as to water the plants that grow in or near its bed’;

Aeneid 8.573 and Callimachus’ Hymn to Zeus

In his final words to his son, Pallas, Evander interposes a prayer: ‘At uos, o superi, et diuum tu maxime rector Iuppiter, Arcadii, quaeso, miserescite regis…’ Of recent commentators, C. J. Fordyce alone is bothered by the reference to Evanders Arcadian origin; he reckons that it alludes to his exiled condition and so establishes a claim on Jupiters mercy. That may be so, but it is worth suggesting that this is rather a piece of Virgils Callimachean learning. For at the opening of his first Hymn Callimachus had rejected the story that Zeus was born on Crete in favour of Arcadia (6–7, 10). The Arcadian birth-place was known to Cicero ( De natura deorum 3.21,53: principio Ioues tres numerant…ex quibus primum et secundum natos in Arcadia ). Yet Cicero is less likely to be in Virgils mind than Callimachus, from whom he derived so much learned detail. Evander then is appealing to Jupiter as a fellow Arcadian, docte.