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The Riddles in Virgil's Third Eclogue

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

D. E. W. Wormell
D. E. W. Wormell
Affiliation:
Trinity College, Dublin
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Extract

Editors and commentators ancient and modern have not responded very well to the challenge of the two riddles which round off the contest between Damoetas and Menalcas at the end of Eclogue 3 (104–7). The first is generally regarded as impossibly difficult; the second as impossibly easy. Critics take refuge in quoting Servius' despairing statement: sciendum aenigmata haec sicuti pleraque carere aperta solutione. Yet it is most unlikely that Virgil would introduce insoluble or meaningless riddles into the Bucolica. If there is no solution the lines become pointless, even tasteless; and these are not epithets to be applied lightly to Virgil's poetry.

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Type
Research Article
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The Classical Quarterly , Volume 10 , Issue 1-2 , May 1960 , pp. 29 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1960

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References

page 29 note 1 The Eclogues of Vergil (Sather Classical Lectures, 1942), pp. 40 and 225.Google Scholar

page 29 note 2 Powell, , Collectanea Alexandrina, Euphorio f. 40 (= ΣK Theocr. x. 28).Google Scholar

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page 30 note 1 see Parke, and Wormell, , The Delphic Oracle, ii, n. 580.Google Scholar The story is found in Babrius, but it originated much earlier, and can be plausibly traced back as far as the fifth century B.C. (ibid. i. 390 and n.).

page 30 note 2 Philargyrius and the Berne Scholia attribute the first part of the story to Asconius, and the second to Cornutus.

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page 30 note 5 For a characteristically full and enter taining review of such solutions see Voss, J. H., Vergils ländliche Gedichte, i. 119 ff.Google Scholar

page 31 note 1 Martyn, J., Bucolicon Eclogae Decern (London, 1749), ad loc.Google Scholar

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page 31 note 4 Both models were no doubt hydraulically operated, cf. Manilius 4. 266–7. See Hultsch, , Zeitschrift für Math, und Phys. (1877), pp. 106ff.;Google ScholarTannery, P., Rev. de Philol. (1893), pp. 213 ff.Google Scholar, citing Pappus 8. 1026. 2–4. Tannery argues that the Posidonius of Nat. Deor. 2. 88 is not the philosopher, but a skilled craftsman; Balbus, however, refers to him as Posidonius, familiaris noster, which in the context seems decisive against this view.

page 31 note 5 Reinhardt, , P.-W., R.E. xliii. 567 s.v. Poseidonios, says: ‘Ein Stolz seines rhodi- schen Hauses war sein Uranologium, das er nach eigenen Planen hatte anfertigen lassen und das er seinem Freunde Cicero vordemonstrierte.’Google Scholar

page 32 note 1 See Parke, and Wormell, , The Delphic Oracle, ii, n. 206.Google Scholar

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