Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

282 The Solar Wheel in Greece
metathesis of names intelligible on the assumption that the Diana
in question was Diana Xnuoirtisis. That assumption is borne
ut by the wording of the poem:
Is it not infamous tli.it a prudent man
Should be seduced to worship a cut branch 1
Or call ,1 log- Diana? Ye believe
One drunk .it dawn, full-fed, and doomed to die 3 ,
Who speaks just what he thinks with feigned art
And, whilst he plays the god 4 full solemnly.
Feeds his own entrails'. Thus abominable,
He fouls his fellow-citizens wholesale,
(lathers a brotherhood akin to himself
And with them feigns a tale to adorn the god.
He knows not how his own fate to foretell'',
Yet dates to do the like for other folk,—
Shoulders the god at times, at times just
He turns himself about revolving still
drops him.
With a two-pronged stick, till you might think he were
Inspired by the godhead of the same".
'
t\r/t>iast/tvru>H l.atinontm xv| Yindobonae 1887 p.
f. 24 The chief variants are mentioned
in the following notes.
1
The manuscript reading in the first line is uiritm C. A. edd. aim., itirium B. A
marg., and in the second line talem C. B. A. edd. antt. Two hriiliant emendations have
been proposed. K. Ludwig in the Teubner text (1878) adopts his own cj. Non ignominium
est Virbium seduci prudentem et colere taleni aut Dianam dicere lignum? and
hoc 1. nonien proprium desiderari ex uerbis hisce 'colere talem aut
neque
comments :
(p. xwiv)
Dianam dicere lignum' ; adparet
uero deae nemoris numen quodlibet coniungi
potest, seJ solus deus nemoris ac uenationis Dianae similis uel eiusdem deae sacerdos,
quern esse I'irhium, antiquissimum Regem Nemorensem ac sacerdotem Dianae in nemore
Aricieiisi cultae, eodicum script ura probatur. B. Dombart keeps itiruiu, which has the
support of (' (cod. Cheltenhamensis, s. xi) our best MS., and very ingeniously cj. taleam,
'
'a cut bough or 'branch.' In favour of retaining talem is Commod. instr. 1. 14. 6 non
te pudet, slulte, tales adorare tabellas? 1. 17. 12 sed stipem ut tollant ingenia talia
quaerunt, 1. iS. is gestabant enim, et aruit tale sigillum, 2. 17. 1 fit'. CURISTIANVM
I'ai.i-.m k.ssk. The wind is, in fact, something of a mannerism in this poet.
J B. Dombart up. Arnob. ad:', //at. 6. ii coluisse... lignum ICariost (so MSS., but the
text has been corrected to Icar/os by the aid of Clem. Al. protr. 4. 46. 3 p. 35, 1 7 f.
Stahlin and Strab. 03m pro Diana indolatum.
•'
Dom'.iari atlloe.: '
peiit/tr/is ideo dicitur sacerdos Dianae Aricinae, quia cogebatur
cum eo certamen singulare inire, qui locum eius petebat.'
'
I-'. Oehler (ed. 1S47), content to follow the MSS. (d/7 C. dum B. A. edd. antt.), prints:
Seiu-r..- dum agit.
d(iuii/)it/ii, reads :
Seuere
1.. Ludwig cj. Seuere ileum agit.
B. Dombart, alter Hanssen's cj.
(divinum') dum agit. We are not elsewhere definitely told that
the priest of I liana acted the part of a god ; but cp. 14 ipsos sacerdotes colitis.
3 The MSS. have it
p