Successive Similes in Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica 4. 682–688

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Successive Similes in Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica 4. 682-688

Anastasia V. Kotova

St. Petersburg State Academy of Veterinary Medicine,

St. Petersburg, Russian Federation

This article tackles a string of similes in Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica 4. 682-688. To secure the possible sources of what seems to be a successive simile, I discuss the semantic complexity of the expression detorquet in ilia, the syntactic function of invito and cornu, and the problem of interpretation of Vulcanius ardor. Building on several scholars' opinions on the meaning of de- torquet in ilia and coercere (v. 683) I suggest that there are two successive actions to this simile: a man tames the bull and then yokes a pair of them; accordingly, ilia stands for the man's, not the bull's groin. Invito cornu is taken as an ablative of means. An overview of scholarly opinion on the interpretation of Vulcanius ardor allows it to conjecture that it is the work going on in Vulcan's forge, the activity resulting in waves and roar. The list of possible sources of the second simile is supplemented by the passage from the Aeneid, 3. 554-557. The phenomenon of successive similes is absent in Virgil's Aeneid, but can be found in Homers Iliad (8. 455-483). By contriving such strings Valerius Flaccus refers both to Homer and further develops this technique in his own way. Keywords: Roman epic poetry, Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica, successive similes.

As is well known, Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica is based on a long literary tradition culminating in the Aeneid. Still, in some aspects it differs noticeably from its immediate models, that is both from Apollonius of Rhodes and Virgil. In particular this applies to the use of similes. Among literary devices characteristic of an epos this one is of special importance, since it allows to greatly amplify the individual mode of expression. Hence epic poets increase the quantity of tertia comparationis, develop the imagery, unite similes in groups etc. Typical for Valerius Flaccus' approach are similes that follow one another. The phenomenon is absent in Virgil, but can be observed in the Iliad (e. g. 8. 455-483) which of course is extremely rich in similes of all kind. Thus, in making suchlike groups Valerius might have followed Homer, but he seems to develop the technique in his own way.

Two successive similes woven into the Symplegades episode (Arg. 4. 682-688) are telling. In the first one Juno and Minerva preventing the rocks from clashing together are compared to a man yoking his bulls, vv. 682-685:

... hic <Iuno>praecepsque ex aethere Pallas insiliuntpariter scopulos: hunc nata coercet,

hunc coniunx Iovis, ut valido qui robore tauros sub iuga et invito detorquet in ilia cornu.

“Hereupon Juno and Pallas together swiftly leap from the sky on the rocks; the daughter checks

this one, the spouse of Jove -- the other, as one who with mighty strength [brings] the bulls beneath the yoke, and by the unwilling horn bends them to his side.”

The syntactic linking of sub iuga and the exact meaning of detorquet in ilia require an adequate interpretation. The latter is generally explained the way J. H. Mozley has it in a note to his translation: “the heads must be forced downwards till they are turned towards their bellies”.4 P. Murgatroyd conveys this idea as follows: “as ilia can denote groin, guts and side, the head is brought down in the process of yoking, either straight down towards the belly, or wrenched to the side”.5 However, the simile is likely to relate successive actions: one tames each bull to then yoke a pair of them. This finds a parallel in Arg. 7. 587-596: the bull is tamed, then both bulls are yoked.6 It's highly doubtful, further, that sub iuga is linked to detorquet. Detorquere sub iuga is not attested elsewhere and yoking does not exactly match the semantics of the verb. Accordingly, one could suggest that sub iuga depends on the elliptically omitted predicate, this most probably being coercet of v. 683, with a very slight semantic shift; cf. OLD s. v. 5: “to keep under physical control... (horces etc.)”. Similarly, cogo in 7. 596 describes the yoking of the fire-breathing bulls: cog- itque trementes / sub iuga aena toros.

G. Liberman in his recent translation renders yoking and turning the bull's head as separate actions and interprets the latter as bringing down the resisting head to an angle of rotation.7 M. Pindemonte explained invito detorquet in ilia cornu in much a similar way: by turning one horn up and the other down the animal's head is bent to the iliac area; in this posture the upper part of the neck becomes weak, so the bull is then forced to be yoked.8 The question is, whose ilia are meant. In my opinion, a bull's groin is here out of range, being too far from the horns, whereas that of a man who stands next to the bull forcing its head to bend close e. g. to his right side turns to be entirely appropriate. The anatomic term is perhaps chosen to make the picture more accurate. In fact, holding a bull from behind by its horns and bending its head down so that its head almost touches its master's groin is a veterinary practice for fixating the animal,9 and rodeo cowboys take similar actions. successive similes flaccus argonautica

Concerning the syntactical arrangement of invito cornu, various suggestions were made, starting from Giovan Battista Pio who as early as 1519 explained it as retrectante servitium jugi.10 P. Murgatroyd takes invito cornu to be “an ablative absolute with concessive force or an ablative of instrument/means”.11 G. Thilo conjectures invitum12 which obviously links the adjective to cornu. Though that would nicely suit the interpretation given above, I do not think it necessary to alter the transmitted text: the ablative of means is perfectly explainable. Note that in any case a hyperbaton emphasizes “the horn” by which the bull is grabbed.

The simile is thus constructed as a hysteron proteron and has two tenors and two vehicles: both the goddesses and the bull-tamers employ much force and overcome resistance. An additional semantic link between the tenor and the vehicle is cornu which in certain contexts applies to the rocks (= “peak”: TLL III5i). The picture is drawn from the point of view of those playing an active part. Presumably, Valerius Flaccus' source was the Symplegades episode of the Argonautica by Apollonius Rhodius (2. 598-600):

“And then Athena kept the strong stone with her left hand, with her right one pushed [the ship] through to rush. And she, like a winged arrow, rushed high in the air”

The lexical parallels are fairly evident (аутеапаае -- coercet; петррс; -- scopulos; атфаррс; -- valido). Valerius Flaccus supplements Juno, Jason's guardian-goddess. This is explained as a means (1) to develop the character of Jason; (2) to make the number of goddesses equal to the number of rocks; (3) to improve on the description of Apollonius in which Athena “holds one rock back with one hand and pushes the Argo through with the other”. Clearly, Valerius emphasizes the great difficulty of holding the rocks, stresses the force used for restraining them. To my mind, this alone could provide the motive for introducing the second helper. Another source is Ov. Her. 6. 97, pointed out by U. Gartner, a verse from Hypsipyle's letter to Jason: Scilicet ut tauros, ita te iuga ferre coegit (“As known, she made both the bulls and you be yoked”) Despite easily discernable lexical overlapping, the locus is related not to the Symplegades simile but to the passage from book 7, where Jason yokes the fire-breathing bulls (the same is true of v. 10: Isse sacros Marti sub iuga panda boves; and v. 32: Narrat aenipedes Martis arasse boves).

In the second element of the simile string, 4. 686-688, the Clashing Rocks, being restrained, are compared to the “Vulcan's heat”:

inde, velut mixtis Vulcanius ardor harenis verset aquas, sic ima fremunt fluctuque coacto angitur et clausum scopulos super effluit aequor.

“Then, just as Vulcan's heat disturbs the waters mixing them with sands, so the depths roar and the locked space [sc. between the rocks] is compressed by the collected wave, and above the rocks the water flows out”

The tenor and vehicle are related with boiling in the depths of the sea, churning water with sand, and a roar; tertia comparationis are water turbulence and noise. Now the simile is presented from an inverse point of view, the Symplegades playing an active part. Vulcanius ardor (also attested in Sil. Pun. 9, 608 meaning quite simply the flame of fire) is mostly interpreted as referring either to volcanic action in general or to underwater eruption in particular. However, the result of any eruption is the release of debris, ash and the outpouring of magma which are not mentioned here. A. Augoustakis convincingly explains ardor as the heat of Vulcan's forge. To be sure, the god is represented as a smith in both Roman and Greek traditions, and the fire is indeed indispensable for the forge just like water and sand (that creates an additional parallel between the tenor and the vehicle). Yet, in my opinion, it is the work itself that makes waves and a roar.

Several sources of the simile are discussed in literature. Augoustakis cites Apoll. Rhod. 3, 1299-1304, where the fiery breath of bulls is compared to the fire in a forge:

“As when bellows from good skin move quickly near the furnace with holes, kindling a destructive fire, or hold their breath, and then a terrible noise from the fire arises when it rushes from the depths, so two bulls, exhaling the rapid flame from the mouths, roared.”

Both similes refer to the forge, and there are lexical correspondences between them (nup, фЛАуа -- ardor; Ppopoq, брабєиу -- fremunt; veioGev -- ima). The idea of a noise is present, but the idea of turbulence, reflected in the verses of Flaccus, is absent in Apollonius, and the contexts are different. Another probable source is Aeneid 7. 462-465, cited by P. Hofman Peerlkamp and F. Spaltenstein. It describes the wrath of Turnus:

...magno veluti cum flamma sonore virgea suggeritur costis undantis aiini exsultantque aestu latices, furit intus aquat fumidus atque alte spumis exuberat amnis,

“As when the flame from [burning] brushwood is made with strong noise under the walls of the boiling cauldron, and the liquid boils from the heat, the steaming water rages inside and puffs high foam”.

There are a lot of parallels (veluti -- velut; flamma, aestu -- ardor; magno sonore -- fremunt; latices, aquai, amnis -- aquas, fluctu, aequor; intus -- clausum; alte -- super), and the tertia comparationis are similar, but the contexts differ. W. C. Summers argues for Od. 12. 237-239, where Odysseus passes through Scylla and Charybdis. Here is the passage in extenso, vv. 237-243:

“When she [sc. Charybdis] spewed out water like a cauldron on a strong fire, she frothed, boiling, and the foam rose to the top of both cliffs. But when she again swallowed the salty water of the sea, the whole seemed to boil inside, the rock roared around terribly, from below the ground seemed black from the sand.”

This impressive list of possible sources can be further supplemented by one more passage from the Aeneid, 3. 554-557, comparable to the above-cited Homer verses. It depicts the water disturbance off the coast of Sicily:

tum procul e fluctu Trinacria cernitur Aetna, etgemitum ingentem pelagi pulsataque saxa audimus longe fractasque ad litora voces, exsultantque vada atque aestu miscentur harenae.

“Then Trinacrian Etna can be seen from the water in the distance, and we hear a strong sound of the sea, hitting the rocks and the sounds [of the waves] crashing against the coast in the distance, the waters are disturbed, and the sands are mixed with the waves.”

Again, there is a number of lexical correspondences (fluctu; gemitum -- fremunt; pelagi, vada -- aquas, aequor; saxa -- scopulos; miscentur harenae -- mixtis harenis). Even though Virgil's text contains no simile, the ideas of noise and waves are accentuated, and the scene, like in Homer, is the sea.

To sum up, the imagery (forge, roaring noise) and a somewhat specific vocabulary link Flaccus' simile to Apollonius; lexical crossings and tertia comparationis refer it to Aeneis 7; it displays most obvious similarities with the Odyssey locus and Aeneis 3. Consequently, there is hardly any doubt that Valerius Flaccus, at least in this simile, did not rely on any single model, but creatively used all epic sources at his disposal. The two successive similes analyzed above can be schematically presented in the following pattern (S -- tenor, O -- vehicle):

This makes it clear that the second simile is a continuation of the first one, since the water turbulence and the roar are the result of the Symplegades' opposition to the efforts of the goddesses. We can note the semantic variation of the vehicles: in the first simile it is an agricultural image, while in the second it is a mythological one. It is noteworthy that by using vehicles belonging to diverse semantic groups the poet does not emphasize the different qualities of the tenor (as one would expect) but adds artistic diversity to the image of the Symplegades.

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