The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville - Pot-pourri

66 I.xxxix.19–xl.5 Isidore of Seville
19. Jeremiah first composed the threnody (threnos),
which is called ‘lament’ (lamentum)inLatin,inapoem
on the city of Jerusalem [when it was destroyed] and
on the people [Israel] when they [were destroyed and]
were led captive. After this, among the Greeks, Simonides
the lyric poet was first. It was associated with funerals
and laments, as it is today. 20.‘Epitaph’ (epitaphium)in
Greek is translated in Latin as “over the grave” (supra
tumulum), for it is an inscription about the dead, which
is made over the repose of those who are now dead.
Their life, conduct, and age are written there. 21.Awork
consisting of many books is called a poesis by its Greek
name; a poem (poema) isaworkofonebook, an idyll
(idyllion), a work of few verses, a distich (distichon) of
two verses, and a monostich (monostichon)ofoneverse.
22. Anepigram (epigramma) isaninscription,which
is translated into Latin as “a writing upon something”
(superscriptio), for is translated as “upon” (super)
and as “letter” or “writing” (scriptio). 23. An
epode (epodon)isashort ‘concluding passage’ (clausula)
in a poem. It is called epode because it is sung after the
manner of elegiac verse, which consists of a longer line set
down first, and then another, shorter, line. The shorter
ones that follow each of the longer are used as a refrain,
as if they were clausulae. 24. Thelyricpoets speak of
clausulae as cutoff verses substituted for whole verses, as
with Horace (Epodes 2.1):
Beatus ille, qui procul negotiis
(O happy he who, far from busyness),
and then a cutoff verse follows:
Ut prisca gens mortalium
(Like the first race of mortals),
and thus alternate verses in succession lack some part:
similar to the verse preceding, but shorter (i.e. iambic
trimeters alternate with iambic dimeters).
25. The grammarians are accustomed to call those
poems ‘centos’ (cento) whichpiece together their own
particular work in a patchwork (centonarius) manner
from poems of Homer and Vergil, making a single poem
out of many scattered passages previously composed,
based on the possibilities offered by each source. 26. In
fact, Proba, wifeofAdelphus,copiedaveryfullcento
from Vergil on the creation of the world and the Gospels
(i.e. Cento Probae), with its subject matter composed
in accordance with Vergil’s verses, and the verses fitted
together in accordance with her subject matter. Thus
also a certain Pomponius, among other compositions of
his leisure hours, written in his own style, composed his
Tityrus out of this same poet, in honor of Christ; likewise
he composed a cento from the Aeneid.
xl. The fable (De fabula) 1. Poetsnamed‘fables’(fabula)
from ‘speaking’ (fari), because they are not actual
events that took place, but were only invented in words.
These are presented with the intention that the conversation
of imaginary dumb animals among themselves may
be recognized as a certain image of the life of humans.
Alcmeon of Croton is said to have been the first to invent
these, and they are called Aesopian, because among the
Phrygians, Aesop was accomplished in this area. 2.And
there are both Aesopian fables and Libystican fables.
They are Aesopian fables when dumb animals, or inanimate
things such as cities, trees, mountains, rocks, and
rivers, are imagined to converse among themselves. But
they are Libystican fables when humans are imagined
as conversing with animals, or animals with humans. 3.
Poets have made up some fables for the sake of entertainment,
and expounded others as having to do with the
nature of things, and still others as about human morals.
Those made up for the sake of entertainment are such
as are commonly told, or that kind that Plautus and
Terence composed. 4. People make up fables about the
nature of things, like ‘crooked-limbed Vulcan,’ because
by nature fire is never straight, and like the animal with
three shapes (Lucretius On the Nature of Things 5.905):
A lion in front, a dragon in the rear, and in the middle,
the Chimaera itself,
that is, a she-goat. 46 With this, people intend to distinguish
the ages of man: the first, adolescence, is ferocious
and bristling, like a lion; the midpart of life is the
most lucid, like a she-goat, because she sees most acutely;
then comes old age with its crooked happenstances – the
dragon. 5.Thus also the fable of the Hippocentaur, that
is, a human being mixed with a horse, was invented to
express the speedy course of human life, because it is
known that a horse is very fast.
46 That is, the middle of the creature has the form of a shegoat.
Lucretius took the basic form of the Chimaera, and hence its
torso, to be a she-goat (capra), from the Greek , “she-goat”
or “the monster Chimaera.” Here and elsewhere Isidore uses the
word caprea,regularly meaning “roe-deer,” for “she-goat” (regularly
capra).