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46
"caesa iungebant foedera porca," may employ porea in this manner,
inasmuch as the commentators mentioned as quidam by the
interpolator of Servius, explain porea on the ground of euphony.52
Perhaps the quidam mentioned in the interpolation of Servius are
Quintilian and Porphyrio, the commentator on Horace. The latter
says :53
"Adtende feminino genere agnam maluisse dicere quam agnum
secundum illud Vergilianum: 'Et caesa iungebant foedera porca';
nescio quid enim quaedam eloquutiones per femininum genus
gratiores fiunt."
Quintilian's words are (Inst. VIII, 3, 19):
"Quaedam non tam ratione quam sensu iudicantur; ut illud,
'caesa iungebant foedera porca,' fecit elegans fictio nominis; quod
si fuisset porco, vile erat."
These three explanations of the feminine form in -a on the
ground of euphony are good as far as they go,s< but they hardly
account for Yarra's mention of the offering of an agna to Jupiter
at the auspicatio vindemiae or for what Gellius writes of the sacrifice
of a capra to Vediovis. Once more it becomes necessary to
fall back on epicenes.
First 0 f all it must be pointed out that there are certain words
which, though not strictly of the epicene class, in that they admit
both genders, are nevertheless often employed in the epicene
manner described by Varro,5s namely, in a vague, general sense
referring to either or both sexes. Their gender is arbitrarily
chosen, being sometimes masculine, sometimes feminine, but there
is no thought of sex in the writer's mind.
"Serv. Interpol. ad Aen VIII, 641: "Quidam 'porcam' euphoniae gratia
dictam volunt".
... C. I, 4, 12.
.. Serviu himself (ad Aen VIII, 641), after recognizing that ritualistic
observance called for porco, gropes about in a maze of explanations for the
use of the feminine: "Falso autem ait 'porca': nam ad hoc genus sacrificii
porcus adhibebatur. Ergo aut usurpavit genus pro genere ut 'timidi
venient ad poctda dammae', cum has dammas dicamus, item supra (631)
lupam cum artis sit 'hie' et 'haec' lupus. Aut certe illud ostendit, quia
. . . " From this point on see note 8 above, which also notes the unreliability
of this passage in questions of ritual.
.. L. L. IX, 55. See ahove p. 40.