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Rufinus, AP v 60
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 October 2013
Extract
- παρθένος ἀργυρόπεζος ἐλούετο, χρύσεα μαζῶ
- ν χρωτὶ γαλακτοπαγεῖ μῆλα διανομένη
- πυγαὶδ᾿ ἀλλήλαις περιηγέες εἱλίσσοντο
- ῦδατος ὑγροτέρῳ χρωτὶ σαλευόμεναι
- τὸν δ᾿ ὑπεροιδαίνοντα κατέσκεπε πεπταμένη χείρ
- οὐχ ὅλον Εὐρώταν ἀλλ᾿ ὅσον ἠδύνατο.
An interesting poem, though not without its difficulties. Eurotas in the last line has traditionally been regarded as an obscene synonym for the female genitals. Sir Denys Page, however, challenged this in his recent edition of Rufinus. Other matters of language and style are also worth discussing for the light that they may throw on the techniques of a late Greek epigrammatist. Hence the following analysis takes the form of a commentary.
The subject of the poem is a girl bathing. Page claims that it has no parallel in the Anthology. That overlooks the adumbration of this same theme by Antiphilus (AP v 307) instructive, in that it describes Leda bathing in the Eurotas.
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- Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1980
References
1 The Epigrams of Rufinus (Cambridge 1978) 91–2.
2 Page makes out a convincing case for a late date. See one or two additional remarks below in support. For completeness' sake, it may be noticed that Page was unaware of Dryall, J. M., The Poems of Rufinus (Ottawa 1974)Google Scholar, in which (7) it is asserted without argument that Rufinus was ‘an Ionian of the second century before Christ’.
3 E.g. v 255 (silver knee); v 272 (silver neck); xii 72 (silver shoulders).
4 AP v 48; cf. v 90 (also by Rufinus) for Thetis' distinctive feet.
5 Page claims the usage for AP v 27 and v 48, both serious poems; also for AP xii 93 (Rhianus).
6 Though not necessarily so, since Strato's poem is a light-hearted comment on traditional epithets and poetic formulae.
7 The full meaning is emphasised in Ovid's, imitation (Met. xiii 796)Google Scholar: mollior et cygni plumis et lacte coacto; cf. Theoc. xi 20–6. The Theocritean flavour may be enhanced by recollecting that Polyphemus is there in the role of a komast, with the sea-shore as his mistress's threshold; cf. Cairns, F., Generic Composition in Greek and Roman Poetry (Edinburgh 1972) 145Google Scholar.
8 Ar. Lys. 82; cf. Ath. xii 554c for competitions in pygal beauty between girls.
9 Migne, , PG xlv 676Google Scholarb; xlvi 609b.
10 Notice also ὑπєροιδέω in Galen (xix 71 Kühn).
11 Homer, Od. v 374Google Scholar; Nonn. x 169–70.
12 AP ix 86 (Antiphilus) and Opp. Cyn. iii 414. For the employment of swimming in a sexual sense, cf. Henderson, J. J., The Maculate Muse (Yale 1975) 161–6Google Scholar. Conceivably there is also a hint of female masturbation in Rufinus' lines (cf. Henderson 221–2).
13 E 3709 (Adler); cf. Eustath., Od. 1478. 39Google Scholar.
14 A referee pointed out that despite scholarly usage the verb єὐρυτιάω is unknown to LSJ.
15 Il. ii 514; Pind. P. iii 34; Soph., Trach. 1219Google Scholar; Ar. Nuh. 530 (with Dover's n.).
16 Having asserted that the reference is to the male organ, the lexicographer subjoins a quotation from AP vii 531 (not 551, as Adler) by Antipater on the subject of Thermopylae, where the Eurotas is mentioned but undeniably without obscene allusion.
17 For a clear instance, see Apul., Met. ix 12Google Scholar; cf. Verg., Aen. iii 427Google Scholar; Ov., Am. iii 12. 21Google Scholar.
18 ‘Hellenistische Epigramme’, Eranos lxv (1967) 38–9, reproduced in L' Epigramme Grecque (Geneva 1967) 344–5. One item of substance can be added to the discussion of AP xii 161 by both Giangrande and Gow—Page. The imperfect ἔϕαινє is used of the girl's revelation. Gow—Page found this tense ‘disconcerting’; Giangrande defends it as ‘descriptiv’. In fact, the identical tense and phrase (ἔφαινє μηρόν) occur in the Oeneus of the tragedian Chaeremon (Ath. xiii 608b). The context is of girls exposing their charms through torn and scanty clothing. Similarity of theme and language suggests a common poetic tradition.
19 A register of such names (in some cases used of the anus) is furnished by Hsch. s.v. ‘Aristodemos’. Cf. Henderson (n. 12) 147–8 for refs.
20 Where Page (unlike other edd.) is surely wrong in printing it with a small m.
21 The Melian Gulf, for instance, is applied to the anus, the Isthmos to the vagina; cf. Henderson (n. 12) 135–6, 149, and passim (at 135 n. 142, he adduces the names Rhodope and Rhodocleia from a poem of Rufinus, , AP v 36Google Scholar, as examples of obscene word-play).
22 Another factor may well be the common use of water as symbol and scenery in erotic poetry; cf. Segal, C. P., Landscape in Ovid's Metamorphoses, Hermes Einzels. xxiii (Wiesbaden 1969) 23–33Google Scholar.
23 Od. xiii 412; cf. the discussion in Ath. xiii 566a.
24 See AP v 307 (Antiphilus) on a picture of this episode.