Vergil's Leaf- and Bird-Similes of Ghosts
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3937841 |
|---|---|
| Authors | George Thaniel (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1971 |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 237 |
| Publication date | 1971-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Phoenix (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0031-8299 • E-ISSN: 1929-4883 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1087360 |
| OpenAlex | W2326596596 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
IN HIS COMMENTARY on the sixth book of the Aeneid Eduard Norden has argued that Vergil's two similes of ghosts (Aen. 6.309-312) must have been taken together by Vergil himself from the lost Catabasis of Heracles, an early epic account of Heracles' journey to the world of shades.1 An article published recently in Phoenix undertakes to review Norden's views on this matter and also to clarify the problem with new evidence.2 The purpose of this article is to reopen the whole question. Norden's thesis is as follows. The point of comparison in the two similes is primarily number (the italics are mine); the multitude of leaves and birds illustrates the great number of souls.3 However, the similes carry another connotation, for they also have to do with the nature of the objects compared. For example, the leaves of trees fall; likewise, life's bloom fades away. Two Greek poets, Bacchylides (Epinicians 5.63 ft.) and Sophocles (OT 175 ff.), have compared the souls of the dead to leaves and birds respectively. On the other hand, we find in Homer two passages which look like the two Vergilian similes, although the object of comparison in these passages (11. 6.146 ff., 3.2 ff.) is not souls, but mankind in the first case and warriors in the second. Norden asks himself whether we should assume that Vergil borrowed the leaf-simile from Bacchylides and the bird-simile from Sophocles, while glancing at the same time at Homer, but dismisses the notion as improbable. Instead, he thinks that Bacchylides, Sophocles, and Vergil found their similes side by side in the Catabasis of Heracles. Bacchylides borrowed the leafsimile, Sophocles borrowed the bird-simile, and Vergil took them both. Moreover, Norden assumes, if I am not mistaken, that the author of the Catabasis of Heracles fashioned his two similes out of the Homeric models cited above
Biology · Evolutionary biology · Linguistics and language evolution
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,08 |
| Citation span | 1974 - 2013 (40) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |