Figurative uses of animal names in Latin and their ... - mura di tutti

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While the second alternative does not account for the se-
lection of the asp rather than some other species of the
snake family, still it gives additional assurance that the
metaphor arises from the similarity in shape.
SCORPIO, Gk. o-KopTTio?, A Scorpion: transf., i, An
Instrument Primarily for Shooting Arrows;
2, An Arrow; 3, A Kind of Ballista.
In striving to account for this transfer of meaning, Tertullian
has led us into a bewildering labyrinth of compari-
sons that seems irremeabile. He finds numerous likenesses
in the general complexity of both animal and ma-
chine, in the source of the danger, in the contour of the
frontal claws of the animal and the shape of the bow, in the
method of attack, and in the dangerous point of the sting
and of the arrow
Scorpii series ilia nodorum, venenata intrinsecus venula
subtilis, arcuato impetu insurgens, hamatile spiculum in
summo tormenti ratione restringens; unde (i. e. from all
of these points) et bellicam machinam, retractu tela vege-
tantem, de scorpio nominant.^^*
There is no suggestion of the naive in Tertullian's ex-
planation. It is a conscious endeavor to find points of
resemblance.
Heron has found the cause of the transfer in the general
shape of the scorpion, eiidvrova. a Tivei koX aKopiriow KoKovaiv
avo Tjj? irepl rd axHua 6iioi6Tr}To