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

48
ferunt mortem. ^^^ That is, not, ' because they cause death,'
but, 'because they use small delicate points as an instrument
of death.'
The Greek technical name for the machine, /caraireXrai
ofu/8e\e«? ,
' sharp-missiled catapults,' supports the deriva-
tion of Vegetius, since the weapon of the catapult is pri-
marily the arrow. In fact, ofv/3e\e«, emphasizing the
point, is directly in line with the tradition of the sagas
which furnish clues for the explanation of the effectiveness
of ancient Greek archery. " There is no doubt whatever
that the primitive inhabitants of Greece poisoned their
arrow-heads. The very word for poison, to^ikov, means
' belonging to an arrow.' And many myths tell of the in-
curable and burning pains caused by arrows. The arrows
of Heracles in Hesiod {Aspis, 132) 'had on the front of
them death and trickling drops.' "^^^
The prominence of the erect tail, together with the gen-
eral shape of the body, and the belief in the deadly results
of the sting, ensured the selection of the scorpio for the
transfer instead of the bee, whose aculeus makes men yell
apis aculeum sine clamore ferre non possumus.^^^
The metaphor in scorpio did not always proceed laxis
habenis. Isidore is quite explicit on the subject, inform-
ing us that the term may be applied to the arrow alone,
whether it is discharged from the bow or from the catapult
Scorpio est sagitta venenata arcu vel tormentis excussa,
quae dum ad hominem venerit, virus, qua figit, infundit;
unde et scorpio nomen accipit.^^*
While the transfer is assigned in this passage to the
stinging rather than the stinger, we can again account for
the statement through a confusion between cause and effect.
In later times the term scorpio became synonymous with
^*®
onager: Scorpionis quem appellant nunc onagrum. . .
In this instance, the similarity is between the erect caudal
''" Veg. iv, 22.
"'° Murray, The Rise of the Greek Epic, p. 120.
^' Cic. Tusc. ii, 22.
Isid. Orig. xviii, 8, 4.
Amm. xxiii, 4, 4.
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