Locus amoenus in the Life of Aesop: Mirroring (re)birth and death

Grammatiki Karla

p. 99-107


Texte intégral

1The Life of Aesop is a fictional biography of the famous fabulist, written by an anonymous author in the first century BC or at the beginning of the Christian period.1 As early as the first chapter of the Life, two paradoxes can be observed.2 Even though the text is a biography, the narrative does not begin, as one might expect, with the birth of Aesop. The hero is already an adult when he is introduced. Subsequently, rather than emphasizing the eloquence of Aesop, the narrator of the Life refers to the protagonist as a mute.

2The prologue (Chapter 1) states that Aesop is a slave due to chance (τὴν μὲν τύχην). His origin is in Phrygia and he is extremely ugly. A list of his physical features is then given. The prologue concludes as follows: “Worse than this, he had one other defect, even greater than the overall disharmony of his bodily appearance: he was dumb and could not utter a word.”3 In chapter 2, Aesop appears in person. We are told that on account of his ugliness, he was sent to join ploughmen in the fields. The first episode of Aesop’s life, partly tragic and partly humorous, occurs in this rural setting (chs. 2-3).4

3 Aesop’s life changes drastically when one day, while at work in the fields, he meets a priest of Isis,5 who is lost and asks him for directions. When Aesop sees her dressed in the clothes of a goddess, being pious, he bows to her (θεοσεβὴς ὑπάρχων προσεκύνησεν).6 He takes great care of her, leading her in the shade, offering her a meal of bread and olives and wild cabbages (ἄρτον καὶ ἐλαίας, καὶ ἄγρια λάχανα), giving her water to drink, and then providing directions for the rest of her journey. The priestess, formerly alone, and now grateful for the generosity and piety of Aesop, prays to Isis and begs that the goddess reward Aesop with the gift of “speech” (λαλεῖν). Isis hears (ὑπήκουσεν) the request. Chapters 6, in which Aesop sleeps in an idyllic setting, and 7, in which Isis and the Muses appear before him, describe in detail how Aesop acquired his voice and his power to compose tales in Greek.7

4The episode recorded in Chapter 6, in which Aesop sleeps, has been explored from a variety of religious, sociological, narrative, intertextual perspectives.8 My chief goal in this paper is to examine the narrative function of the plants/trees and birds in the locus amoenus where Aesop’s sleeps and subsequently to determine the ritual poetics of this scene.

5In Chapter 6, the text that forms the focus of our examination in this article runs as follows, with Aesop talking to himself: “I am allowed two hours’ rest by my overseer. I’ll take my rest now and sleep while it’s hot.” He chose a pleasant spot, green and secluded, a shaded grove of trees surrounding a blanket of green grass and all sorts of flowers, encompassed by a brook. Aesop threw his bag down beside his mattock, and using his sheepskin for a pillow, stretched out on the grass and took his rest. The brook echoed the rustling of the branches of the trees round about. As a sweet, gentle wind began to blow, the verdant limbs gently moved and wafted a cool breeze over him, creating in the many blossomed wood a fresh and restful spot. The hum of cicadas in the branches filled the air, and a chorus of many different kinds of birds could be heard. While a nightingale lamented, the olive branches sang back in sympathy, and the slenderest branches of the pine trees fluttered in the wind, mimicking the blackbird. And Echo, the imitator of voices, uttered her responsive sounds in harmony. All of these voices conspired to lull Aesop into a deep and blissful sleep.

6The description of the location where Aesop takes his nap paints a typical setting for the incubation that follows (ch. 7).9 It is a very hot day, presumably in summer.10 The spot where the miracle occurs displays the typical features of a sacred mystical location. The description of the setting emphasizes first appearance and then sound. The location is described as εὐθαλέστερον καὶ ἀπαρενόχλητον, δενδρώδη καὶ κατάσκιον. All types of flowers in bloom spread everywhere (χλοερᾶς βοτάνης παμποίκιλον ἄνθος) and on this mattress of flowers Aesop falls asleep. This potent image evokes an atmosphere of mysticism: the sound of the river, of the soft wind in the leaves, of the cicada, the chirping of various birds, the nightingale, the branches of the olive-tree, the wind through the branches of the pine tree that resembles the song of the blackbird, even the sound of echo. The mixture produced by all these sounds is a “delightful whisper” (εὐμελὲς ψιθύρισμα).11

7In short, we have the description of a locus amoenus, a paradise, a location somewhere between the human and the divine worlds and this description prepares the ground for the entrance of the deities and the miracle they will shortly perform.12 The goddess Isis accompanied by the Muses appears where Aesop has fallen asleep and arranges for Aesop’s cure. She immediately orders the Muses to bestow on him “perfect speech” (τὸν ἄριστον χαρίσασθε λόγον) and she “removed from Aesop’s tongue the impediment that had prevented him from speaking, and gave him back his voice” (ch. 7).

8The description of the topography reproduces nearly all the conventions of the locus amoenus.13 There is the idealizing description of an idyllic-bucolic landscape, where a human being is surrounded by numerous natural elements. Thus, the soft aura (μαλακοῦ πνεύματος ὄντος [ἀνέμου] εὐφόρου, ed. Papathomopoulos),14 the sound of a river (ὁ ποταμὸς ἤχει),15 the shaded grove of trees, a variety of birds (ποικίλων ὀρνέων) and in particular the reference to the nightingale and the cicadas,16 many different trees (δενδρώδη, ἐλαίας, πίτυος) and flowers (εὐθαλέστερον, χλοερᾶς βοτάνης παμποίκιλον ἄνθος), meadows and sleep are all conventions of the locus amoenus in the texts of Greek and Roman literature.17

9Even though most of these elements own their place in the narrative through convention, the author strengthens their presence by also giving them a narrative function. At the same time, in promoting a link between nature and the religious context and in particular with the goddess Isis, he continues a pattern that dominates the introductory chapters.18

10The depiction of the location is complemented by a “resounding image”. The repeated mention of the elements of nature, such as the sound of the river (ὁ ποταμὸς ἤχει), the wind (μαλακοῦ πνεύματος ὄντος [ἀνέμου] εὐφόρου, ed. Papathomopoulos), and the coolness of the breeze (κατέπνεεν αὔραν ἡδέαν καὶ προσηνῆ) create a mystical atmosphere. In particular, the wind and the breeze are tied to the names and qualities of the goddess Isis, as given in the text of the Hymns of Isidorus (ed. Vanderlip): πνοιαὶ ἀνέμων (1.10), βορέου… ἡδυπνόου… ἢ Εὔρου πνωιάς… (3.21-22), καὶ πνοιαὶ ἀνέμων (4.13).19

11The presence of the river running by a temple is a frequent feature of such descriptions. In antiquity, springs and rivers were significant markers of liminality, since their origin in the depths of the earth endowed them with chthonic connotations.20

Mirroring the (re)birth of Aesop

12It is clear that in the description of the locus amoenus many words and phrases refer to the qualities of the goddess Isis, given that they feature in hymns and songs of praise linked to the worship of the goddess.21 Aesop sleeps in an idyllic pastoral landscape endowed with ample vegetation (χλοερᾶς βοτάνης παμποίκιλον ἄνθος ἐπηύξανεν). The association between Isis and Earth/Demeter is well attested and widely known.22 In several hymns to the goddess and in demotic papyri, emphasis is laid on the relationship between Isis/Demeter and the Earth (Osiris is identified with the water and Isis with the Earth). “She lets the grass grow… in fact, Isis is identified with the field herself”.23 Perhaps this is the reason why the lush vegetation is mentioned three times, and why Aesop lies on the ground (προσκλίνας) and places his tunic under his head as a pillow, before falling asleep.24

13Furthermore, χλοερὰ βοτάνη is linked with another characteristic feature of Isis, attested in Egyptian and Greek sources alike, her ability to grant new life.25 See for example the following fragments: … καὶ [ζωὴν] / [ἀπὸ] θανάτου καὶ γένεσιν ἀπ [ὸ φθορᾶς];26 αὐξήσεως καὶ φθορᾶς καὶ γεννήσεως καὶ φθίσεως κυρία.27

14In essence, then, the emphasis on green grass (χλοερᾶς βοτάνης παμποίκιλον ἄνθος, ταῖς βοτάναις προσκλίνας, χλοερὰ τιναχθέντα φυτά) fulfills a symbolic function and foreshadows/mirrors the birth of the fabulist and the rebirth28 of Aesop as the protagonist of the Life. In fact, this locus amoenus is the place where Aesop passes from one phase of his life to another one, the location in which his metamorphosis occurs. In this place Aesop acquires not merely the ability to speak but full-fledged eloquence, both of which are linked to the miracle performed by Isis and the Muses.29 This episode signals for Aesop the beginning of his real existence in the Life30 and, as such, it corresponds to the episode describing the birth of the protagonist that is usually found at the opening of every text of the genre of novelistic biography.

15Thus Chapter 6 describes the setting in which the initiation31 of Aesop is to happen, where Aesop will pass from one life-stage to another. On this view the introductory section of the Life (ch. 1-16) represents a typical “rite of passage”32 or “rite of institution”.33 Aesop passes through all three stages of an initiation process, namely, separation, transition, incorporation. At the opening of chapter 2, we are told that: “Since his master considered him to be thoroughly loathsome, and thus singularly unsuited for affairs in town, he sent him to the country to labor there on his estate” (τοῦτον ὁ δεσπότης κατὰ πάντα στυγητὸν ἔχων καὶ ἀποίητον τῇ πολιτικῇ ἐργασίᾳ, ἔπεμψεν εἰς τὸν ἀγρόν). In ch. 6 and afterwards, during and after the incubation, the narrative makes it obvious that his confinement to the fields is a form of marginalization, a transitional phase in the life of the hero. This marginalization is a prerequisite for what comes next: the epiphany of the goddess Isis and of the Muses and the miracle. Finally, Aesop’s incorporation into society presumably takes place in chapter 16, when he returns to town: “Upon returning to the city, the dealer took Aesop to the slave market” (εἰσιὼν δὲ εἰς τὴν πόλιν εἰσήγαγεν αὐτὸν [scil. τὸν Αἴσωπον] ἐν τῷ σωματεμπορίῳ).34

16The repeated use of the phrase “χλοερὰ βοτάνη”, rather than being merely fortuitous, is hence related to symbolisms both religious/ritual and literary. Upon his initiation into the worship of Isis, Aesop is born again, thus beginning a new life as an “inventor of fables” (εὑρετὴς λόγων),35 and this new life is the subject of his biography, the text entitled Life of Aesop.36

Mirroring the death of Aesop

17Other plants mentioned in Chapter 6 include the olive and the pine, which are included because of the soothing sound produced by the wind passing through their branches and foliage. The olive tree is one of the trees typically found in sacred places, such as temples. There was the olive tree situated west of the Parthenon,37 and, to take two typical examples given by Pausanias (2.11.6; 3.23.7), those located in two shrines of Asklepios, one at Titane and the other at Epidauros Limera.38

18The pine tree (πίτυς) is similarly associated with the myth of Pitys, the homonymous nymph, who in her efforts to escape Pan was transformed into a tree.39 In another myth, that of Marsyas, the pine is described as an “unlucky tree”: “as legend made it a pine-tree from which Marsyas was hung (ἐκ πίτυος κρεμᾶσθαι)”.40 The association of Aesop with Marsyas is also present in the Life, in chapter 100. When Aesop builds a temple to the Muses in Samos, at the center of the temple he fails to place a statue of Apollo. Apollo’s anger is thus provoked (ὁ δὲ Αἴσωπος θύσας ταῖς Μούσαις ἱερὸν κατεσκεύασεν στήσας μέσον αὐτῶν ἑαυτοῦ μνημόσυνον, οὐκ Ἀπόλλωνος. Ὁ Ἀπόλλων ὠργίσθη αὐτῷ ὡς τῷ Μαρσύᾳ, ch. 100). Aesop resembles Marsyas in many respects. For example, both are Phrygian, both challenge Apollo, and both use the Muses as mediators.41

19Furthermore, the pine tree also features as an “unlucky tree” in the myth of Attis, the Phrygian counterpart of the Phoenician Adonis and the Egyptian Osiris. At the time of death, Attis is transformed into a pine tree.42

20Religion and mythology also stand behind the mention of the cicada, the nightingale and of echoes. Cicadas in Greek literature are linked to the Muses and they are often termed the favorites of the Muses. The cicada’s link with the Muses and Apollo is first explicitly stated in the exquisite aetiological myth which we find in Plato’s Phaedrus 259c:43

The story is that once upon a time these creatures were men —men of an age before there were any Muses: and that when the latter came into the world, and music made its appearance, some of the people of those days were so thrilled with pleasure that they went on singing, and quite forgot to eat and drink until they actually died without noticing it. From them in due course sprang the race of cicadas, to which the Muses have granted the boon of needing no sustenance right from their birth, but of singing from the very first, without food or drink, until the day of their death: after which they go and report to the Muses how they severally are paid honour amongst mankind, and by whom.44

21The cicada myth shares common features with the Life of Aesop. Both the cicadas and Aesop are protected by Muses, they sing and speak, they are reborn in a new life and they die. Aesop identifies himself with the cicada in Chapter 99, in which, in order to save his life, he narrates a fable concerning cicadas to Croesus.

22The much-mourning nightingale (πολύθρηνος ἀηδών) is connected with the myth of Philomela and Procne:45 In Greek myth Tereus pursues his wife Philomela and her sister Procne after raping Procne, and cuts out Procne’s tongue to prevent her from revealing his crime. In the Greek version, Procne is transformed into a nightingale and Philomela into a swallow.46

23The myth of Echo is also closely associated both with the Muses and with violent death. It is concisely narrated by Longus, Daphis and Chloe 3.23:

… One of the Nymphs had a daughter called Echo, mortal as she came of a mortal father, but beautiful as she came of a beautiful mother. She was nursed by the Nymphs, and taught by the Muses to play the pipes and the flute, tunes to be accompanied by the lyre and tunes to be accompanied by the harp, every kind of song. So when she blossomed into the flower of virginity, she danced with the Nymphs and sang with the Muses. She shunned all males, men and gods, for she loved virginity. Pan was angry with the girl, for he was jealous of her music and had failed to win her beauty. He cast a madness on the shepherds and goatherds, and they tore her limb from limb, like dogs or wolves, and scattered her limbs, still singing, over all the earth. For love of the Nymphs, Earth hid all her limbs and kept their music, and now, by will of the Muses, she emits a voice and mimics everything, just as the girl once did: gods, men, musical instruments, animals. She even mimics Pan playing his pipes…47

24In introducing mythological etiologies for the pine, the cicada, the nightingale and Echo the author foreshadows the tragic death of Aesop. Initially, all these myths are connected to charismatic voice or song. Aesop’s insulting decision to put up a statue of himself, rather than one of Apollo, in the shrine at Samos functions within a similar context (ch. 100).48 When Aesop visits Delphi, he insults the people of Delphi by calling them the descendants of slaves. The people of Delphi therefore accuse Aesop unjustly and condemn him to be executed by being thrown off a cliff, as is fitting for a temple robber, a huckster, and a blasphemer (ch. 132). In the end, the hero who did not deserve to die is exonerated and restored to fame (just as occurs with the heroes in the myths of the pine, the cicada, the nightingale and Echo), and this eventually will lead to Aesop’s heroization and worship (ch. 142).

Conclusions

25The plants, the trees, the birds and the whole natural world in general, as described in chapter 6, are associated with the cult of Isis and the Muses, whilst also symbolically displaying Aesop’s future. They indicate the forthcoming rebirth and the new life of the hero, or rather antihero, whilst also foreshadowing his death at the end of the narrative. Both events, his rebirth and his death, are associated with the divine. Rebirth comes as a consequence of Aesop’s respectful treatment of Isis, as a result of which he is initiated into the cult of the goddess, and then receives grace and is cured by Isis and the Muses. Likewise, Aesop’s death is presented as the outcome of an act of irreverence towards Apollo.

26Throughout the description of the locus amoenus in which Aesop sleeps, the author of the Life employs a ritual vocabulary (trees/plants, the water element, birds), material with religious, ritual, and mythological associations that have a distinct poetic charge, that is, a set of ritual poetics that serves the goals of literary prose. Like interdependent parts of a single system, the religious, mythological and literary aspects of the novel continually interact with each other, thus creating through osmosis a unique atmosphere of mysticism that is perfectly suited both to the hero and the reader of the novel.49

Notes de bas de page

1 On the date of the Life, see Perry (1936), p. 24-26; Perry (2007), p. 5; La Penna (1962), p. 270- 271; Adrados (1999), p. 647-652, 659-660; Karla (2001), p. 8-9 (an overview); Jouanno (2006), p. 14-22.

2 Jedrkiewicz (1989), p. 158-159, 182, sees the whole Life of Aesop as an exemplum of the “tragic paradox”.

3 καὶ πρὸς τούτοις ἐλάττωμα μεῖζον εἶχε τῆς ἀμορφίας τὴν ἀφωνίαν, ἦν δὲ καὶ νωδὸς καὶ οὐδὲν ἠδύνατο λαλεῖν (ch. 1). My research rests mainly on version G — ed. Ferrrari (2005) —, given that this version seems to be closest in terms of form and content to the archetype of the Life. On this issue, see Karla (2009). The English translation of the passages comes from Wills (1997), p. 178-224.

4 Some of his fellow-slaves have eaten the figs that were to be delivered to their master and then blame Aesop, who, unable to speak, cannot defend himself. Fortunately Aesop manages to prove his innocence thanks to his resourcefulness and denounces those who accused him falsely. The episode closes with the follow moral tag: “A person who connives in an evil scheme against another will often find later that he has brought it upon himself” (ch. 3).

5 ἱεροφόρος τῆς Ἴσιδος in version G: see Bonelli and Sandrolini on this in Ferrari (1997), p. 67, n. 12. In the manuscripts of the Westermanniana version—ed. Perry (2007)—, all details of the visitation of the priestess of Isis (ch. 4) have disappeared. Firstly, instead of the priestess of Isis, there is a singular masculine in mss. PW (ὁ ἱερεὺς τῆς Ἴσιδος) and a plural masculine in mss. MO, that is, the priests of the goddess Isis (οἱ ἱερεῖς τῆς Ἴσιδος) or sacerdotes in the Latin translation (Lolliniana), which makes no reference to the goddess. The variant οἱ ἱερεῖς τῆς Ἀρτέμιδος appears in mss. λSB. Secondly, in ch. 7, the goddess, who appears alone without the Muses and realizes the miracle, is Tyche (Τύχη mss. MλSB) or Philoxenia (Φιλοξενία mss. PWO), Deus in the Latin translation. On this issue see Perry (1936), p. 12, n. 11; la Penna (1962), p. 268-270; Totti (1985), p. 56-59; Jedrkiewicz (1989), p. 88-89; Holzberg (1992), p. 45, n. 59; Pervo (1998), p. 92, n. 68; Robertson (2003), p. 249; Jedrkiewicz (2009), p. 176, n. 23.

6 On Isiac footprint-votives, see Takács (2005), p. 361-366; Alvar (2008), p. 326-327.

7 It must be noted that Isis is “popularly regarded as a deity responsible for the invention of writing, but also language in general”, and that the Heliconian Muses are the “goddesses of articulate speech, and consequently literature”: Dillery (1999), p. 268, 271, 277-278. On the significant role of Muses in the Life, see Dillery (1999), p. 274-278; Robertson (2003), p. 250-251, 253-258; Jedrkiewicz (2009), p. 181-183; 187.

8 Mignogna (1992); Dillery (1999); Robertson (2003); Finkelpearl (2003); Hunter (2007); Avlamis (2011).

9 On the “incubation” of Aesop, see Karla (2014), p. 87-88. On the definition of incubation see Ehrenheim (2015), p. 18-21.

10 On lighting see Ries, Ternes (2002). On midday as the hour of epiphany in particular, see Petridou (2015), p. 210-214.

11 On the use of ψιθύρισμα in this passage see Hunter (2007), p. 51.

12Der Ort wird keinesfalls vom Menschen ‚gewählt’, er wird nur von ihm ‚entdeckt’; anderes ausgedrückt, der sakrale Raum offenbart sich ihm auf die eine oder andere Weise”: Eliade (1994), p. 425. On epiphanic landscapes and interstitiality, see Petridou (2015), p. 196-198.

13 See the study by Schönbeck (1962) who takes into consideration the following texts: Hom. Od. 5.55-73; Od. 7.112-132; Sapph. fr. 5/6 (Diehl); Soph. OC 16-18, 668-693; Pl. Phdr. 230 b-c; Theocr., Id. 7.131 sq.; Id. 5.31-34, 45-49; Verg. Ecl. 5; Horat. epi. 1.16.1-16.

14 See Schönbeck (1962), p. 18.

15 Ibid., p. 20-21.

16 Ibid., p. 36-37.

17 Ibid., p. 15-60, in particular p. 57.

18 Karla (2014).

19 See also Bricault (1996): ποταμῶν καὶ ἀνέμων καὶ θαλάσσης κυρία (p. 62), δρόσος (p. 22). On Isis as the Dew and the Good North Wind, see Kockelmann (2008), p. 61-62. In view of the identification of the goddess with the North Wind, provided that we accept that the description of the idyllic setting is linked to the qualities and names of the goddess, then it is reasonable in this case to accept the correction of Papathomopoulos (εὐφόρου), rather than the suggestion of Post, Ζεφύρου (the ms. G has the reading ἐφόρου).

20 Mylonopoulos (2008), p. 66-67.

21 In my previous article, Karla (2014), I argue that the introductory narrative of the Life (chs. 1-9) is structured around the goddess Isis, who is the motivating agent for the entire plot, and that the author skillfully uses religious elements drawn from the worship of Isis, in order to establish a firm connection between Aesop and Isis and the texture behind the narrative of the introduction.

22 See Grandjean (1975), p. 52-53; Solmsen (1979), p. 8-25; Bricault (1996), p. 20-21; Dousa (2002), p. 153-156. On the connection of Isis with the earth in particular, see Bricault (1996), p. 18-19; Kockelmann (2008), p. 63. See also the LSJ s.v. χλόη as adjective for Demeter.

23 Kockelmann (2008), p. 63 and n. 262.

24 The participle προσκλίνας is perhaps related with klinai, on which suppliants slept. On incubants sleeping on klinai, see von Ehrenheim (2015), p. 92-94. In particular Aesop is “using his sheepskin for a pillow” (τὸν μάνδικα καὶ τὴν μηλωτὴν πρὸς κεφαλὴν θέμενος). On incubants sleeping on sheepskins or in general on the skin of a animal, see von Ehrenheim (2015), p. 88-92.

25 Witt (1971), p. 25-35; Burkert (1987), p. 18. See also… καὶ [ζωὴν] / [ἀπὸ] θανάτου καὶ γένεσιν ἀπ [ὸ φθορᾶς] Pap. Soc. It. 1290, 13-14, ed. Totti (1985), p. 19; αὐξήσεως καὶ φθορᾶς καὶ γεννήσεως καὶ φθίσεως κυρία P.Oxy. XI 1380, 194-196 quoted by Bricault (1996), p. 15.

26 Pap. Soc. It. 1290, 13-14, ed. Totti (1985), p. 19.

27 P.Oxy. XI 1380, 194-196, quoted by Bricault (1996), p. 15.

28 “Rebirth involves becoming a new being, a metamorphosis that makes it possible for the initiand to enter into a new reality —Fick (1992)—, set in a new physical or imaginary realm, where he enters into communion with the divinity to whom he is bound, a communion that attests to the depth of his commitment” —Alvar (2008), p. 218-219. On this issue, see Eliade (1961).

29 On Isis as the “best-qualified divinity for regenerating Aesop” see Jedrkiewicz (2009), p. 177 with references.

30 On the initiation of Aesop see Dillery (1999), p. 279; Jedrkiewicz (2009), p. 196.

31 Finkelpearl (2003), p. 42 speaks of a “pseudo-initiation”. On initiation spaces, see Calame (1992).

32 The term was created by Arnold van Gennep (1909). The interpretation of ancient myths and literary narratives from this perspective produces very interesting interpretations. See for example Padilla (1999); Yatromanolakis and Roilos (2004). For a comprehensive specialist study on the Greek novel see Lalanne (2006).

33 On this alternative term see Alvar (2008), p. 218, n. 43.

34 For a different interpretation of these movements in space, see Avlamis (2011), especially p. 90-95.

35 On Isis’ ability to empower her devotees through the gift of words see Finkelpearl (2003), p. 41; Hunter (2007), p. 43-46. In the last article Hunter associates this Isis episode with the story of the invention of human language.

36 The description of the bucolic landscape, the emphasis on the word χλοερός, the mention of πίτυς (the pine tree) and echo evoke another literary rite of passage, that of Chloe, as described in Longus’ Daphnis and Chloe. On Chloe’s rite of passage see Lalanne (2006), p. 136-145.

37 Mylonopoulos (2008), p. 68.

38 Birge (1994), p. 238.

39 March (2014), s.v. Pitys ( “Pine-tree”), p. 403 with reference to Lucian, Dial. D. 2; Nonn. Dion. 2.108, 118, 42.258-66). The same myth is mentioned in Longus, Daph. & Chl. 1.27.

40 Hunter (1983), p. 13. On Marsyas as mythological figure, see March (2014), s.v. Marsyas (p. 299- 300).

41 Pausanias (2.7.9) linked the river Marsyas with the river Asopus in mainland Greece. On the connection between Marsyas and Aesop, see Perry (1936), p. 15; Dillery (1999), p. 271; Compton (1990), p. 346, in which it is noted that Socrates (like Aesop) is also compared to a satyr (Symp. 215e). On Aesop and Apollo see La Penna (1962), p. 279-280; Nagy (1999), p. 302-303, 306-307; Jedrkiewicz (1989), p. 94-99; Robertson (2003), p. 263-265; Jedrkiewicz (2009), p. 172-173; 188- 192; 194-196.

42 Ov. Metam. 10.103-105; Ov. F. 4.223-244. March (2014), s.v. Cybele, p. 141-142, esp. 142: “In another version, Attis was in love with a wood nymph, Sagaritis, whom Cybele killed in a jealous rage by cutting down the tree in which she lived. Mad with grief, Attis once again castrated himself. He died at the foot of a pine tree, and from his blood violets grew. Some say that he was transformed into a pine, and that this tree was made sacred to him.” On the legend of Attis, see also Vermaseren (1977), p. 88-92.

43 Davies (1986), p. 122. On this myth in Plato, see Isebaert (1985), p. 210-213.

44 English translation by Hackforth (1952), p. 117.

45 The song of nightingale is linked with the songs of lamentation. On this issue, see Loraux (1998), p. 57-65 (on p. 59 there is a reference to Eur. Her. 1021-1023, where the murder of Itys is presented as “a sacrifice to the Muses”); Calame (1998a), p. 338, n. 16 with references.

46 Arnott (2007), p. 1. On the story of the Nightingale see also Forbes irving (1990), p. 99-107, 248-249; March (2014), s.v. Tereus, p. 462-463.

47 Translation by Morgan (2004), p. 101. See also the myth at Non. Dion. 2.117-19; Ov. Metam. 3.356- 510. March (2014), s.v. Echo, p. 170.

48 In Chapter 123, too, the king of Babylon, Lycurgos, represented Aesop with the Muses, rather than Apollo with the Muses ( “Lycurgos then commanded that a golden statue be erected of Aesop with the Muses, and held a great festival in honor of Aesop’s wisdom”).

49 I would like to thank my colleague Prof. Sophia Papaioannou (Athens) for her diligent proofreading of this paper.


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