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HERCVLEVS LABOR – LABOR LIMAE: EPIC ARITHMETIC AT VIRGIL, AENEID 8.230-2

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2016

Gottfried Mader
Gottfried Mader*
Affiliation:
Birkbeck, University of London
*
madergj@gmail.com
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Extract

A distinctive feature of Aeneid 8 is the constant interplay and fluctuation of registers, with high epic and the genus grande alternating with the lighter strains or learned allusions associated with the genus tenue. As one commentator has remarked, ‘Man darf das Buch allein schon wegen seines Reichtums an Aitien als das ‘kallimacheischste’ der Aeneis bezeichnen.’ Beyond the emphasis on aetiology—the Cacus myth in particular is presented as aition for the consecration of the Ara Maxima—the Callimachean complexion comes out also in several smaller not-so-serious or learned touches, typically at unlikely moments to infuse an element of humour in an otherwise intensely dramatic narrative. The Hercules–Cacus episode conflates high drama and low comedy as the cattle rustler's slightly ridiculous stratagem becomes a gigantic clash resonating with the primal gigantomachy. Among the rudimentary weapons of mass destruction unleashed by Hercules upon Cacus (omniaque arma | aduocat et ramis uastisque molaribus instat, 8.249-50), the hapax molaris (massive boulder, lit. millstone) echoes its Homeric equivalent μύλαξ (Il. 12.161), itself a hapax, with the recherché term then reappearing (again as hapax) at Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.59: missiles and diction are equally outlandish. When Hercules in a reprise of the celebrated Empedoclean leap plunges per ignem in pursuit of Cacus (8.256-8), an (incongruous) evocation of the Sicilian philosopher's fiery exit adds a touch of comedy at the heated moment. And from this inferno Virgil moves to Olympus, lowering the tone but raising the temperature as Venus in a domestic comedy seduces the uxorious Vulcan into preparing new armour for Aeneas: now she kindles flames of a different sort in the fire-god (8.388-92, 8.404-6) in a scene marked by witty double entendre that provides a playful contrast with the unfolding drama at Pallanteum. At moments like these, a lighter strain is audible through the epic thunder, Vergilius ludens is hard at work (or play).

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The Classical Quarterly , Volume 66 , Issue 2 , December 2016 , pp. 800 - 804
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Copyright © The Classical Association 2016 

A distinctive feature of Aeneid 8 is the constant interplay and fluctuation of registers, with high epic and the genus grande alternating with the lighter strains or learned allusions associated with the genus tenue. As one commentator has remarked, ‘Man darf das Buch allein schon wegen seines Reichtums an Aitien als das ‘kallimacheischste’ der Aeneis bezeichnen.’Footnote 1 Beyond the emphasis on aetiology—the Cacus myth in particular is presented as aition for the consecration of the Ara Maxima—the Callimachean complexion comes out also in several smaller not-so-serious or learned touches, typically at unlikely moments to infuse an element of humour in an otherwise intensely dramatic narrative. The Hercules–Cacus episode conflates high drama and low comedy as the cattle rustler's slightly ridiculous stratagem becomes a gigantic clash resonating with the primal gigantomachy.Footnote 2 Among the rudimentary weapons of mass destruction unleashed by Hercules upon Cacus (omniaque arma | aduocat et ramis uastisque molaribus instat, 8.249-50), the hapax molaris (massive boulder, lit. millstone) echoes its Homeric equivalent μύλαξ (Il. 12.161), itself a hapax, with the recherché term then reappearing (again as hapax) at Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.59:Footnote 3 missiles and diction are equally outlandish. When Hercules in a reprise of the celebrated Empedoclean leap plunges per ignem in pursuit of Cacus (8.256-8), an (incongruous) evocation of the Sicilian philosopher's fiery exit adds a touch of comedy at the heated moment.Footnote 4 And from this inferno Virgil moves to Olympus, lowering the tone but raising the temperature as Venus in a domestic comedy seduces the uxorious Vulcan into preparing new armour for Aeneas: now she kindles flames of a different sort in the fire-god (8.388-92, 8.404-6) in a scene marked by witty double entendre that provides a playful contrast with the unfolding drama at Pallanteum.Footnote 5 At moments like these, a lighter strain is audible through the epic thunder, Vergilius ludens is hard at work (or play).

So again in the monumental showdown between Hercules and Cacus as related by Evander. The duel itself (8.190-267) is framed by two segments in which the narrator links aition and subsequent celebrations (8.185-9, 8.268-75), embedding the epyllion in the larger narrative: the maximus ultor (8.201) commemorated in the eponymous altar (hanc tanti numinis aram, 8.186; hanc aram luco statuit, quae maxima semper | dicetur nobis et erit quae maxima semper, 8.271-2). An introductory Homeric formula (postquam exempta fames et amor compressus edendi, 8.184 ~ Od. 1.150, 3.67)Footnote 6 sets the tone for a grand epic narration, which then plays out according to a carefully choreographed dynamic. Cacus' appearance is preceded by a description of his lair as locus horribilis (8.190-9), where the signature emphasis on vastness and rugged savagery gives a foretaste of the monster himself (disiectae … moles, ingentem … ruinam, uasto … recessu, magna … mole).Footnote 7 The heroics and thundering hyperbole throughout the episode will justify its inclusion, in the celebratory Salian hymn, among the canonical Herculean labours (8.280-305, esp. 8.303-5, super omnia Caci | spelunca, adiciunt …);Footnote 8 but behind the gigantic Herculeus labor we also get occasional glimpses of the distinctive labor limae. Cacus is both terrifying and slightly ridiculous, with perhaps a hint of the double aspect in the line ne quid inausum | aut intractum scelerisue doliue fuisset (8.205-6), where scelus and dolus capture respectively the criminal and the more comic aspects. At any rate, his theft of the cattle and his stratagem of dragging them backwards by their tails to his cave, to leave no tell-tale tracks, replays a trick described in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes 73–8, and is closer to rustic farce than to the world of high heroics: atque hos, ne qua forent pedibus uestigia rectis, | cauda in speluncam tractos uersisque uiarum | indiciis raptor saxo occultabat opaco (8.209-11). Hercules later returns the compliment when he unceremoniously drags out the defeated Cacus—again feet first—from his cave (pedibusque informe cadauer | protrahitur, 8.264-5).Footnote 9 The game is given away when one of the stolen heifers bellows audibly from within Cacus' cave (8.217-18): evidently it had escaped Virgil's Hercules, up to this point, that eight head of cattle were missing (Livy 1.7.6 and Dionysius of Halicarnassus 1.39 have him do the arithmetic before setting off). With Cacus' cover thus blown, we reach the first peripeteia in the narrative (et Caci spem custodita fefellit, 8.218).

This initiates a vigorous counter-movement at 8.219 as Hercules' anger flares up and he races furiously to the mountain, club in hand (hic uero Alcidae …); in a paradoxical reversal, the awe-inspiring monster now himself takes to flight in naked terror (tum primum nostri Cacum uidere timentem | turbatumque oculis, 8.222-3) and seeks refuge in his impregnable lair. Then a second paradox, still more surprising: Hercules' furious surge of energy is thwarted, he literally comes up against a stone wall. An impressive terminal anaphora dramatizes the paradox of foiled effort and motion arrested (the second turning point) (8.228-32):

ecce furens animis aderat Tirynthius omnemque
accessum lustrans huc ora ferebat et illuc,
dentibus infrendens. ter totum feruidus ira
lustrat Auentini montem, ter saxea temptat
limina nequiquam, ter fessus ualle resedit.

Formally the ter sequence resembles a number of other ‘focussing’ triads, with anaphora or polyptoton (uel sim.), to highlight a noteworthy aspect.Footnote 10 But beyond that, it also touches on an old stylistic controversy around the quoted lines. Peerlkamp objected to the hypermetric enclitic in omnemque (8.228: ‘elegantius absit copula’) and other tautologies, proposed deleting verses 229 and 230, and then reading ecce furens aderat Tirynthius; omnem | lustrat Auentini montem …: this, he opined, would produce a more rapid and streamlined sequence. The repetitions lustrans/lustrat and furens animis/feruidus ira, according to Peerlkamp, are un-Virgilian; and while the opposition ter temptat/ter resedit is attractive, triple ter is without parallel in Virgil. With verses 229 and 230 deleted, the action is brisker: ‘facti celeritas magis apparet. Semel Auentini montem lustrasse sufficiebat. Unum modo esse aditum uidit. Neque opus erat montem circumire, ut ad fores speluncae ueniret. Hunc ter tentat, ter fessus resedit.’Footnote 11 His tinkering however is without manuscript authority and was rightly dismissed soon afterwards by Albert Forbiger in his edition of the Aeneid;Footnote 12 other editors too have noted that the thematic repetitions in these verses are included for their literary effect, consciously heightening drama and pathos at this critical moment in the narrative.Footnote 13 This line may be further pursued in light of Peerlkamp's objections. At the apex of his rage (furens animis, dentibus infrendens, feruidus ira) and when his efforts are most intense (omnemque | accessum lustrans, lustrat Auentini montem), Hercules is thwarted: the ter sequence neatly calibrates this retardation, with progression from feruidus ira to temptat nequiquam to fessus resedit indexing the shift from kinesis to stasis, from attempt to failure. Anaphora with ter is ‘traditional in epic contexts of attempt and failure’,Footnote 14 but here the poeta ludens goes a step further. For typically the anaphoric element ter appears only twice, as famously in ter conatus ibi collo dare bracchia circum; | ter frustra comprensa manus effugit imago (2.792-3 = 6.700-1; cf Hom. Od. 11.206-7). Peerlkamp, unwilling to countenance a departure from this schema in the Hercules passage, resorted to a drastic deletion. However, the unique use here of threefold ter is fully justified by the unique context and as a clever amplificatio: the hyperbolic attempt-and-failure sequence cannot be ‘contained’ within the traditional formula, and the ‘thrice’ trope is now literally inscribed in the verses. Virgil, in other words, aligning structure with content and using form to articulate meaning, deploys a witty ‘mimetic’ tricolon to calibrate and amplify Alcides' truly Herculean exertion—and correspondingly infuriating failure. The point here is not, as Peerlkamp insisted, the facti celeritas but precisely the protracted and ultimately ineffective effort: the impressive ‘Herculean’ triad, consciously calling attention to itself, dramatizes not only the signature Herculean effort, but also carries a hint of tongue-in-cheek melodrama.Footnote 15

This excessive amplification is consistent with the tenor and calculus of the whole episode, and is answered a few lines later by another drastic (triadic) hyperbole. With nequiquam and fessus … resedit (8.232), Hercules' frenzy briefly abates: the half-time score is 1–0 to Cacus.Footnote 16 However, the triad signals not just failure, but more particularly a pivotal and paradoxical setback before the imminent heroic rebound—and from this point the showdown resumes with even greater energy. Hercules purposefully dislodges a massive needle of flint (8.233-9)Footnote 17 to smash his way into Cacus' cavern, and in a spectacular display of his proverbial strength makes good the earlier setback (third peripeteia) (8.237-40):

… et imis
auulsam soluit radicibus, inde repente
impulit; impulsu quo maximus intonat aether,
dissultant ripae refluitque exterritus amnis.

Stylistically the resurgent energy is captured in dynamic enjambement of impellere,Footnote 18 the juxtaposition with impulsus, a kind of figura etymologica that produces an intensifying and ‘elevated effect,’Footnote 19 and in violent reverberations throughout the natural world. Here the calibrated sequence from thundering sky to river banks leaping apart to recoiling river (8.239-40)—a localized application (amnis 8.240 ~ amnem 8.204, 8.236) of the tripartite division of the universe into heaven, earth and seaFootnote 20 —amplifies the feat into an event of truly cosmic dimensions. But notwithstanding the intrinsic hyperbole, it is the suggestive counterpoint with the preceding attempt-and-failure group that gives this second triadic sequence its full force: first hyperinflated failure and frustration, with a hint of lusus embedded in the structure, then a hyperinflated ‘comeback’ and grim duel to the death. If we follow Peerlkamp, we miss both the small-scale artistry at 8.228-32 and the ‘big-screen’ epic effects. The number game on ter in particular wittily captures the Herculean effort at this crucial moment. In the ‘arithmetic’ of epic, it all adds up.

References

1 See Holzberg, N., Vergil. Der Dichter und sein Werk (Munich, 2006), 174–7, 180–7 (the quotation from 175)Google Scholar; further E.V. George, Aeneid VIII and the Aitia of Callimachus (Leiden, 1974); Tueller, M.A., ‘Well-read heroes quoting the Aetia in Aeneid 8’, HSPh 100 (2000), 361–80Google Scholar; Miller, J.F., ‘Virgil's Salian hymn to Hercules’, CJ 109 (2014), 439–63Google Scholar.

2 Holzberg (n. 1), 181: ‘In seiner Plumpheit ist der Trick des Cacus im Grunde lächerlich’; comedy is generated ‘weil Vergil einen Hirtenschwank durch Elemente der Heldensage angereichert hat und sein Erzähler Euander mit entsprechend hohem Pathos vorträgt’ (183); and id., ‘Der Böse und die Augusteer. Cacus bei Livius, Vergil, Properz und Ovid’, Gymnasium 119 (2012), 449–62, at 452–3Google Scholar. On Cacus' literary genealogy, see Buchheit, V., Vergil über die Sendung Roms (Heidelberg, 1963), 126–30Google Scholar; Labate, M., ‘In search of the lost Hercules: strategies of the fantastic in the Aeneid’, in Hardie, P. (ed.), Paradox and the Marvellous in Augustan Literature and Culture (Oxford, 2009), 126–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lowe, D., Monsters and Monstrosity in Augustan Poetry (Ann Arbor, 2015), 220–6Google Scholar; and, on the gigantomantic resonances, Hardie, P., Virgil's Aeneid: Cosmos and Imperium (Oxford, 1986), 110–18Google Scholar; Glei, R., Der Vater der Dinge (Trier, 1991), 328–9Google Scholar.

3 Holzberg (n. 1), 183.

4 On the Empedoclean allusion, cf. Hardie (n. 2), 116; Glei (n. 2), 330–1; Holzberg (n. 1), 183.

5 Holzberg (n. 1), 184–7.

6 For the epic protocol, see Bettenworth, A., Gastmahlszenen in der antiken Epik von Homer bis Claudian (Göttingen, 2004), 163–5Google Scholar.

7 Epic scale and dramatic character of the encounter are consistently reinforced by adjectives of size (tantus 186; ingens 192, 204, 241, 252, 258; uastus 193, 217, 250; magnus 199; maximus 201, 239, 271, 272; immane 225); by the polarity high–low (aerii 221; ardua 221; altissima 234; imis 237; infernas 244; barathrum 245; desuper 249; caelo 264), by affective terms (dira 194; tristi 197; feruidus 230; mirabile dictu 252; terribilis 266; laetique 268), and by strong emphasis on the visual (aspice 190; uidere 222; apparuit 241; recludat 144; ostenduntur 264; tuendo 164). See further Quartarone, L., ‘Quantity, quality, tension and transition: the dimensions of Vergil's ingens’, Vergilius 57 (2011), 3–34 Google Scholar; Smith, R.A., The Primacy of Vision in Virgil's Aeneid (Austin, 2005), 147–52Google Scholar.

8 Hardie (n. 2), 111 n. 68; Miller (n. 1), 441–7.

9 An allusion to the removal of a corpse would give the detail a humorous point (cf. Plin. HN 7.46, ritus naturae hominem capite gigni, mos est pedibus efferri).

10 Examples from Book 8 include the deictic polyptoton in Evander's preface, non haec sollemnia nobis, | has ex more dapes, hanc tanti numinis aram | uana superstitio ueterumque ignara deorum | imposuit (185–8); or the Gauls on the shield of Aeneas, aurea caesaries ollis atque aurea uestis, | uirgatis lucent sagulis, tum lactea colla | auro innectuntur (659–60; cf. 1.448-9, 4.138-9, 7.278-9, 11.774-6). On 8.564-6, see n. 15 below.

11 Peerlkamp, P.H. (ed.), P. Virgilii Maronis Aeneidos Libri VII–XII (Leiden, 1843), 103 Google Scholar.

12 Forbiger, A. (ed.), P. Virgilii Maronis Opera III (Leipzig, 1852), 121 Google Scholar: ‘Haeret autem Vir doct. primum in iterata notione omnem accessum lustrans et lustrat Auentinum montem, tum in tautologia furens animis et feruidus ira, denique in uoc. ter tribus uersibus repetito, quum alibi … semper modo iteretur; quae omnes causae non tanti sunt, ut inuitis omnibus Codd. hos uersus spurios censeamus.’

13 E.g. Ladewig, T. (ed.), Vergils Gedichte III (Berlin, 1871), 61 (ad 8.228)Google Scholar; Page, T.E. (ed.), The Aeneid of Virgil, Books VII-XII (London and New York, 1962), 217 (ad 8.230)Google Scholar: ‘emphatic repetition’; E. Paratore (ed.), Virgilio, Eneide IV (Milan, 1981), 247: ‘la sonora anaphora vuol dare tutta l'impressione dei vani sforzi compiuti da Ercole.’

14 S.J. Harrison (ed.), Vergil Aeneid 10 (Oxford, 1991), 235 (ad 10.685-6): thus (e.g.) 2.792-3; 4.690-1; 6.700-1; 10.885-6; cf. Pease, A.S. (ed.), Publi Vergili Maronis Aeneidos Liber Quartus (Cambridge, Mass., 1935), 527 (ad 4.690)Google Scholar; Bömer, F. (ed.), P. Ovidius Naso: Metamorphosen Buch I-III (Heidelberg, 1969), 309 (ad Met. 2.270)Google Scholar; N. Zorzetti, ‘Numerali’, in F. della Corte (ed.), Enciclopedia Virgiliana III (Rome, 1987), 782–8 (on ‘il cliché ternario’); Dekel, E., Virgil's Homeric Lens (New York and London, 2012), 17 Google Scholar (and curiously suggesting, at 119 n. 62, that 8.564-6 ‘is not strictly speaking a failed attempt’).

15 Triple anaphora on ter is rare. The number three has ritual significance (e.g. Aen. 6.506; Tib. 1.2.54; 1.5.14) and triple ter appears in this environment (Ecl. 8.73-5; Ciris 371–3; Ov. Met. 7.261)—but the attempt-and-failure sequence is something different. A later example at Ov. Her. 4.7-8, ter tecum conata loqui, ter inutilis haesit | lingua, ter in primo destitit ore sonus. A variant of the pattern when Evander relates his hard-fought victory over the formidable Erulus, and where the mimetic ‘three’ is again inscribed in the triad: nascenti cui tris animas Feronia mater | (horrendum dictu) dederat, terna arma mouenda— | ter leto sternendus erat (8.564-6). The number game clearly appealed.

16 Structurally this ‘Atempause’ ( Worstbrock, F.J., Elemente einer Poetik der Aeneis [Münster, 1963], 105–6Google Scholar), indexed by the ter grouping (8.230-2), is placed at the exact centre of Evander's ninety verses of direct speech (8.185-275). Such careful positioning is deliberate: cf. also the ideologically loaded aude, hospes, contemnere opes et te quoque dignum | finge deo, rebusque ueni non asper egenis (8.364-5) at the centre of the whole book (Holzberg [n. 1], 175).

17 Galinsky, G.K., ‘The Hercules-Cacus episode in Aeneid 8’, AJPh 87 (1966), 18–51, esp. at 41Google Scholar. The attempt-and-failure sequence at 8.230-2 carries a hint of uis consili expers.

18 Verbs denoting a sudden, violent or dramatic action (collapsing, grabbing, striking, shattering, uel sim.) are often thrown into relief by enjambement, as corripere (1.363, 2.217, 9.502, 12.299), dissilire (12.741), excidere (9.113, 12.424), ferire (12.730), frangere (9.413, 12.732), incidere (2.467), proicere (5.402), proterere (12.330), sternere (2.385). See further Veremans, J., De plaats van het verbum finitum in de latijnse dactylische hexameter (Brussels, 1963), 132–6Google Scholar; Worstbrock (n. 16), 164–6.

19 The quotation (with reference to Aen. 12.457) from Tarrant, R. (ed.), Virgil Aeneid Book XII (Cambridge, 2012), 210 Google Scholar. Cf. repeated concussa / concussu (Lucr. 6.289-90), though not in juxtaposition. On the figure, see Wills, J., Repetition in Latin Poetry (Oxford, 1996), 243–53Google Scholar.

20 Cf. Bömer, F. (ed.), P. Ovidius Naso: Die Fasten II (Heidelberg, 1958), 292 (ad Fast. 5.11)Google Scholar; id. (n. 14), 18 (ad Met. 1.5); Hardie (n. 2), 322–5.