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Space and Scenery in Quintus of Smyrna, Claudian and Nonnus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2014

R. F. Newbold
R. F. Newbold*
Affiliation:
University of Adelaide
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Extract

An important if limited contribution to the study of space and scenery in classical epic was made in 1976 with the publication of Early Epic Scenery: Homer, Virgil and the Medieval Legacy, by T. M. Andersson. Andersson's deliberate ignoring of the contributions of Hellenistic, Silver Age and late Greek and Latin epic are omissions which sometimes lead to distorted judgments. This article seeks to fill in part one of these gaps by examining spatial representation by three late writers of what might still loosely be termed epic.

Andersson argues that Homer has a relatively poor and primitive concept of organised, rational, visual space, wherein the composer concentrates on his characters' actions and words, rather than giving much of the background against which action occurs; topographical features and spatial relations and distances between objects and persons are often vague, arbitary or downright impossible unless surmounted (as they sometimes are) by divine intervention. Homeric emphasis is on how people feel and respond when they see something rather than on the observed scene, object or behaviour itself. Splendour, for instance, is normally conveyed not so much by elaborate description of the splendid article as by dwelling on the impression made upon the viewer. Wide or carefully sourced perspectives are rare, there being no general design within a clear framework, but a mélange of detail, very narrow, fragmentary viewpoints and insulated scenes. It is a world of kinaesthetic and emotional flux, a world orchestrated into being by sound or suggested by similes rather than painted on a broad canvas for careful scrutiny by the eye, and within which communication occurs, sometimes at impossible ranges, by noises rather than by sight. The sketchiness of Homer's description of Odysseus' house on Ithaca, for example, has caused scholars much difficulty in reconstructing its layout.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ramus , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , 1981 , pp. 53 - 68
Copyright
Copyright © Aureal Publications 1981

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References

NOTES

1. Ithaca, N. Y. Reviewed in English by, inter alios, Bolgar, R. R., TLS 66 (1977), 438Google Scholar; Segal, C. P., AJP 98 (1977), 436ff.Google Scholar; Griffin, J., CR 28 (1978), 272ff.Google Scholar; Seagraves, R., Vergilius 23 (1977), 70fGoogle Scholar.

2. Andersson, op. cit., 41 ff. does acknowledge a wider, more fully envisaged sense of space in the Odyssey compared with the Iliad, and this difference is dwelt upon by Elliger, W., Die Darstellung der Landschaft in der griechischen Dichtung (Berlin, 1975), 1ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3. See Prak, N. I., The Visual Perception of the Built Environment (Delft, 1977), 47ffGoogle Scholar; Rapoport, A., Human Aspects of Urban Form (Oxford, 1977), 9ff.Google Scholar; Jammer, M., Concepts of Space (Cambridge, Mass., 1954), 5ff.Google Scholar; Relph, E., Place and Placelessness (London, 1976), 10ffGoogle Scholar. A key article, which relates much of the above material to the practices of Greek authors, is by Perry, B. E., ‘The Early Greek Capacity for Viewing Things Separately’, TAPA 68 (1937), 403ffGoogle Scholar.

4. A History of Later Greek Literature, (London, 1932), 370Google Scholar. A question inevitably raised by such a remark is: just what debts does Quintus owe to previous authors, particularly writers of epic? Vian, F., in Recherches sur les Posthomerica de Quintus de Smyrne (Paris, 1959), 87ff.Google Scholar, argues strongly that Quintus and Virgil use common archetypes and that Quintus owes little or nothing to Virgil. My own conclusion is that in the field of pictorial technique, at least, Quintus, while he might represent a slight advance on Homer, learnt little if anything from Virgil, or for that matter from Apollonius Rhodius, although other borrowings from this author are obvious and important: cf. Carspecken, J. F., ‘Apollonius Rhodius and the Homeric Epic’, YCS 13 (1952), 23ffGoogle Scholar. and below, n.12.

5. E.g. VI 114, VII 401, 408, IX 4, XIII 28, 43.

6. See Kurman, G., ‘Ecphrasis in Epic Poetry’, Comp. Lit. 26 (1974), 1ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar. Quintus' shield descriptions stand comparison with ‘Hesiod's’ shield of Heracles. Although somewhat vague in organisation, ‘Hesiod's’ description differs from Homer's shield of Achilles in showing slightly more concern for spatial relationships and in his repeated reference to the lifelike quality of the figures on the shield.

7. Cf. the observations by Greene, T. M., The Descent from Heaven (Yale, 1963), 36ff.Google Scholar, on the slightly out of focus quality of scenes in the Iliad. Virgil's description of the sack of Troy in Aeneid II, while not lacking in sound, fury and nocturnal confusion, shows more concern for convincing, logical spatial relationships, alternation and perspectives and the filling of space by the light of flames or goddesses. From the roofs of Anchises' house (299-312) and Priam's palace (460-2) Aeneas gains overviews of the action. The account of the Greek attack on Priam's palace, the room by room retreat of the Trojan defenders and the various vistas that are described, suggest that Virgil had a very clear idea in his own mind of the physical layout of the building (435-505). Prior to his flight from Troy Aeneas has an overview of the burning city (608-23). A shooting star reveals his path through the darkness to safety (695-7): cf. Andersson, op. cit., 72-5.

8. E.g. II 603-6, III 599-601, VI 323-334, VIII 58-73, X 66-72.

9. I 295-8, trans. Way, A. S., The Fall of Troy (London and Cambridge, Mass., 1913), 25Google Scholar. Cf. VII 115-20.

10. E.g. III 668, VII 580-1, XII 176-7, 181-3. In mourning for the slain Achilles the Greek ships echo the grief of the human mourners, ‘and sighed and sobbed the immeasurable air’, III 504-7: cf. VII 255-61.

11. An example occurs at VII 410-1 (trees).

12. E.g. I 5-7, 80-7, 207-10, VII 464-71, IX 377-82. Though rarer, elaborations of sound (e.g. III 508-11) and shape (e.g. I 147-9) do occur. Cf. Otis, B., Virgil. A Study in Civilised Poetry (Oxford, 1964), 88ffGoogle Scholar. and Vian, F., ‘Les comparisons de Quintus de Smyrne’, R.Ph. 28 (1954), 30ff.Google Scholar, on the use of similes by Apollonius, Virgil and Quintus.

13. E.g. II 665-6, VIII 47-8, IX 1-2.

14. Vian (n.4 above), 114ff., 143ff., discusses the variable treatment of the presence of the Xanthus in the plain by Quintus. He believes that Quintus' description of the site and interior of Troy is fairly precise and realistic.

15. I have restricted study to De Bello Gildonico, De Bello Gothico, and De Raptu Proserpinae.

16. On the evolution and range of ancient ecphrasis, see Downey, G., ‘Ekphrasis’, in Reallexicon für Antike und Christentum, Band IV (Stuttgart, 1959), 921ff.Google Scholar, with brief notes on Claudian and Nonnus, 937ff.

17. Goth. 321-3, Rap. I 160-78, III 319-25.

18. I.e. his enthusiasm for ecphrasis leads him to depict what is living and moving in static terms and with a proliferation of painterly detail. See Cameron, A., Claudian. Poetry and Propaganda at the Court of Honorius (Oxford, 1970), 272Google Scholar. Cameron (p. 269) quotes with approval tne observation by Glover, T. R., Life and Letters in the Fourth Century (Cambridge, 1901), 224Google Scholar: ‘Virgil's method is that of suggestion; it is that of appeal to the heart, and it requires something from the reader, as music does from the listener. Claudian on the other hand leans more to painting than to music, appealing rather to the eye. Thus he lingers fondly over his work, seeking to bring before the eye the presentment of his conception by massing colour upon colour, making his picture splendid as one of Honorius' toilets. The reader sees in Claudian's case and feels in Virgil's.’

19. E.g. Rap. 169-75 (emotion), II 67-70 (way of moving, effect on observer), III 141-5 (state of mind), Gild. 484-5 (sound and movement), Goth. 366-72 (behaviour). See Christiansen, P. G., The Use of Images by Claudius Claudianus (The Hague, 1969), 133Google Scholar. On the way that metaphors and decoration tend to supplant similes and reality in Claudian, see Braden, G., ‘Claudian and his Influence’, Arethusa 12 (1979), 203ffGoogle Scholar.

20. On Claudian's penchant for devising strongly defined, self-contained heterocosms, cf. G. Braden (n.19 above), and his observations that: ‘The harmony of Venus’ world is not a resolution of contraries, but a unilateral suppression … It is Claudian who first draws so strong a line between the inside and the outside’ (pp. 220-1). I too have discussed these features in ‘Boundaries and Bodies in Late Antiquity’, Arethusa 12 (1979), 93ff., especially 105fGoogle Scholar.

21. E.g. Gild. 413, Goth. 175-93, 321-3, Rap. I 160-78, II 170-87.

22. The special quality of Elysian light is referred to by Pluto, Rap. II 282-5.

23. Lindsay, J., Leisure and Pleasure in Roman Egypt (London, 1965), 369Google Scholar. Cf. e.g. Dionysiaca XIII 482-3: ‘His bold mouth was his lance, his word a sword, his voice a shield.’ This and subsequent translations are by Rouse, W. H. D., Dionysiaca, (London and Cambridge, Mass., 1940Google Scholar).

24. E.g. I 525-34, IV 79-154, VII 177-279, XL 40-137. See Winkler, J. J., ‘In Pursuit of the Nymphs: Comedy and Sex in Nonnos' Tales of Dionysus’ (U. Texas, Diss., 1974), 1ff.Google Scholar, for a full list of references and discussion of this feature in Nonnus.

25. See Winkler (n.24 above), 38ff.

26. In XI 301-11, where the emphasis is on the colour and ingenuity of some weaving, the admiration of Dionysus is clearly present, even if not explicitly mentioned. Although at V 142-5 Hephaestus is simply reported as beholding a whole-footed son, a gratified response to the sight, viz. the manufacture of a beautiful and ornate necklace, is immediately reported, V 145-89. However, at XL 411-7 a brilliant epiphany of Heracles seems not to have any effect on the observer.

27. The fact that any part of the body decribed by Nonnus can gleam or sparkle may suggest the influence of mosaics upon his visualisations.

28. See Braden, G., The Classics and English Renaissance Poetry (Yale, 1978), 70ff.Google Scholar, on Nonnus' language, distinguished by new, elaborate, compound adjectives and energetic, violent verbs, and leading to ‘a prevalent sensation of explosions under a thickly lacquered surface’ (p. 72). See too D'Ippolito, G., Studi Nonniani (Palermo, 1964), 33ff., 51ff.Google Scholar, and Lindsay (n.23 above), 377, who notes Nonnus' obsession with epithets denoting spontaneous inner movement and defining self-growth, self-movement, self-circling or spiralling and self-fulfilment.

29. E.g. V 303-15, where the spying Actaeon is spotted by a nymph who cries out and alerts the bathing Artemis who hastens to hide her nakedness. Actaeon's hunting activities had just previously been reported as often being witnessed by Pan. Cf. the rapid shifting of focus from far to near to far again at XLII 103-7.

30. Cf. Capra, F., The Tao of Physics (Berkeley, 1975), 11ffGoogle Scholar.

31. Macrocosmically, solar systems and galaxies match the pattern of microcosmic movement. Cf. Capra (n.30 above), 90ff., Winkler (n.24 above), 97ff.

32. Or if one thinks of the world of relativity where subatoms behave both like a wave (something very big) and like a particle (something very small) depending on one's perspective: Capra (n.30 above), 67ff.

33. Cf. Ellis, H., The Dance of Life (London, 1923), 33Google Scholar: ‘The art of dancing stands at the source of all the arts that express themselves first in the human person. The art of building, or architecture, is the beginning of all the arts that lie outside the person, and in the end they unite.’

34. It is as if he intuitively understood that in the atom electrons settle in orbits in such a way that there is an optimal balance between the attraction of the nucleus and their reluctance to be confined: Capra (n.30 above), 73.

35. In fact, at this very time Christian theologians were encouraging such an attitude to nature, as a place where God's word was written, a kind of Bible-in-nature. See Glacken, C. J., Traces on the Rhodian Shore (Berkeley, 1967), 203ffGoogle Scholar. And a trend in the art of the time was to make scenes legible, to establish a pictographic convention and a ‘script for the illiterate’. See Gombrich, E. H., ‘Art and Expression in Western Art’, in Hinde, R. A. (ed.), Non-verbal Communication (Cambridge, 1972), 373ffGoogle Scholar.

36. For a failure to ‘read’ the signs on the landscape, albeit transformed beyond the inquirer's expectations, see V 388-409.

37. See Lindsay (n.23 above), 83ff., with examples.

38. As is true of the Indian expedition generally. Cf. a similar process and simile at XXII 347-53.

39. The essence of the spiral, moreover, is the movement it engenders — movement in harmony with the universe, intrinsic motivation, dancing and spinning on its own axis as distinct from staticity or linear movement that is out of harmony and balance with the universe, failing to remain in balance because external stimulation and manipulation fail to provide enduring centres of stability for energy and antagonise the immanent harmony of autonomous movement. Viewed in this light Claudian's problem of how to contain energy disappears.

40. Laban, R., The Language of Movement (Boston, 1966), 93Google Scholar.

41. Capra (n.30 above), 28ff., 162ff.

42. Cf. Bloomer, K. C. and Moore, C. W., Body, Memory and Architecture (Yale, 1977), 58Google Scholar.