Vipers and Lost Youth
A Note on Old Age in Early Greek Epic
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9308799 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Christopher G Brown (Western University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 64 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 825-828 |
| Publication date | 2014-11-20 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Classical Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0009-8388 • E-ISSN: 1471-6844 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0009838814000068 |
| OpenAlex | W2126165847 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 13 |
It is well known that in early Greek epic old age was something that could be scraped off a man, and it is the purpose of this note to explore the image and to suggest a possible origin. The idea is first attested in a counterfactual conditional sentence in Phoenix's speech at Il. 9.445–6: ‘nor even if [a god] himself were to undertake to render me young and flourishing after scraping off old age ...’ (οὐδ' εἴ κέν μοι ὑποσταίη αὐτός | γῆρας ἀποξύσας θήσειν νέον ἡβώοντα ...); in a description of Medea's magical rejuvenation of Aeson in the Nostoi (fr. 7.2 Bernabé = 6.2 Davies, γῆρας ἀποξύσας); and in the account of Eos' botched attempt to make Tithonus immortal in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (223–4): οὐδ' ἐνόησε μετὰ φρεσὶ πότνια Ἠώς ἥβην αἰτῆσαι, ξῦσαί τ' ἄπο γῆρας ὀλοιόν. Nor did lady Dawn think in her mind to ask for youth and to scrape off ruinous old age. This language also occurs in Late Antiquity, and Andrew Faulkner in his commentary on the Hymn (ad loc . ) cites Greg. Nanz. Carm. 1.2.2.483 ( PG 37.616) in the fourth century a.d. and the much later Cometas, Anth. Pal. 15.37.2. So far as the imagery implicit in these passages is concerned, S. D. Olson writes, ‘old age is imagined as a scurf or patina that can be scoured off a person’. Faulkner, however, prefers a more precise reference: ‘Griffin ... relates it to the idea of old age as a skin that can be shed, as that of a snake’, and he helpfully cites Theodoros Prodromos, Carmina historica 24.18, ἀπόξυσαι τὸ γῆρας ὥσπερ ὄφις (‘to scrape off old age like a snake’)
Art · EPIC · Griffin · Hymn · Literature · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classics · History
The Origins of European Thought : About the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time and Fate
Aristophanes' Speech in Plato's Symposium
Three Homeric Hymns
The Greek Anthology
Nicander's Signature
Hands and Scribes
The "Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite" and Related Texts
Aesopic Conversations
"The Hyperboreans and Nemesis in Pindar's "Tenth Pythian
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,14 |
| Citation span | 2019 - 2019 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |