Eque tuo pendet resupini spiritus ore. Hunc tu, Diva, tuo recubantem corpore sancto Funde, petens placidam Romanis, incluta, pacem. If it were not that Chaucer employs them later, in Tr. and Cr. 3. 1744-1768, we should here think of Boethius, Cons. Phil. 2. met. 8: (H) Quod mundus stabili fide Concordes variat vices; (R) Hic si frena remiserit, O felix hominum genus, In any case, however, this of Boethius seems rather to be an echo of Empedoclean doctrine, and not to designate precisely, or at least fully, the power in question here. We may now turn to certain Greek writers. As Seneca's Hippolytus is one of our sources, and as that was inspired by Euripides' tragedy of the same name, extracts from this will naturally come first (Hipp. 443-458, tr. Gilbert Murray): Nay, when in might she swoops, no strength can stem But is he proud and stubborn? From his feet flings to scorn. Aye, this is she (HI) She ranges with the stars of even and morn, Swept Kephalos to heaven away, away, For sore love's sake. And there they dwell, men say, Hath met and crushed them! Hipp. 1268-82: Thou comest to bend the pride Of the hearts of God and man, Cypris; and by thy side, In earth-encircling span, He of the changing plumes, The Wing that the world illumes, For mad is the heart of Love, And gold the gleam of his wing; Bend, when he makes his spring; In mountain and wave and stream, Or breathes in the red sunbeam; Yea, and Mankind. (H) O'er all a royal throne, The following fragment (Soph. fr. 856 Nauck), though Stobæus (63. 6) assigns it to Sophocles, is thought by Nauck to be rather Euripidean: O youths, Cypris is not alone Cypris, but by many names is she known. Now is she death, now might undecaying, now the fury of madness, now desire unaccomplished, now the voice of lamentation. In her is everything serious, quiet, tending to power. She sinks deep into the heart of all things that have life. On whom does not this goddess prey? (1) She makes her way into the shoals of swimming fish; she is in the herds that wander over the earth; her wing directs the flight of birds, and sways in beasts, and men, (J) and gods above. Which of the gods does she not overthrow in wrestling, yea twice and thrice? If to me it is lawful to say it and lawful it is to speak the truth (L) she queens it over the heart of Zeus without the aid of sword or spear. It is Cypris who brings to naught all the plans of men and gods. The next fragment, too (Eurip. fr. 134 Nauck), is pretty certainly to be assigned to Euripides, though, according to Stobæus (63. 25), it is from the Phædra of Sophocles: Eros not only assails men and women, (J) but disquiets the souls of the gods above, (H) and descends upon the sea; (L) neither can the power of Zeus himself, almighty though he be, avail to ward him off, but rather does he willingly yield and give way. The following are from Sophocles (Ant. 781, 786—790): Love, unconquered in the fight, ... (H) thou roamest over the sea, and among the homes of dwellers in the wilds; (J) no immortal can escape thee, nor any among men whose life is for a day: and he to whom thou hast come is mad. Trach. 441–3: They are not wise, then, who stand forth to buffet against Love; for (J) Love rules the gods as he will. 1 My colleague, Professor Thomas D. Goodell, also inclines to this opinion. Or, reading Bios with Both, 'immortal life'. Earlier than any of the foregoing is the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite. This runs (1-6, 36-39, 69-74), in Lang's trans.: Tell me, Muse, of the deeds of golden Aphrodite, the Cyprian, (J) who rouses sweet desire among the Immortals, (I) and vanquishes the tribes of deathly men, and birds that wanton in the air, and all beasts, even all the clans that earth nurtures, and all in the sea. Το all are dear the deeds of the garlanded Cyprian. Yea, (L) even the heart of Zeus the Thunderer she led astray; of him that is greatest of all, and hath the highest lot of honor. Even his wise wit she hath beguiled at her will, and lightly laid him in the arms of mortal women. (I) Behind her came fawning the beasts grey wolves, and lions fiery-eyed, and bears, and swift pards, insatiate pursuers of the roedeer. Glad was she at the sight of them, and sent desire into their breasts, and they went coupling two by two in the shadowy dells. Later, on the other hand, are the following: Menander, Her. 1 (Stobæus, Flor. 63. 21): ... O lady, nothing is stronger than Eros; (L) even Zeus himself, who rules all the gods in heaven, does everything as constrained by him. Lucian, Dial. Gods 12 (tr. Fowler): Aphrodite to Eros. Child, child, you must think what you are doing. It is bad enough on earth you are always inciting men to do some mischief, to themselves or one another; (J) but I am speaking of the gods. (L) You change Zeus into shape after shape as the fancy takes you; you make Selene come down from the sky; you keep Helius loitering about with Clymene, till he sometimes forgets to drive out at all. Orphic Hymn to Aphrodite (55) 1-14 (tr. Taylor): Heavenly, illustrious, laughter-loving queen, (R) 'Tis thine the world with harmony to join, (H) Whate'er the heavens, encircling all, contain, 'Rather 'Bromial', i. e. Bacchic (Gr. Bazzo10). In the following passage, Plutarch well illustrates Boccaccio's identification of light with the divine power of love (Of Love 19: Moral. 764; Morals, ed. Goodwin, 4. 293'): (A) We ourselves find that there is a great affinity and resemblance between the sun and Eros. ... For neither of them is material fire, as some conjecture. All that we profess is only this that there is a certain soft and generative heat and warmth proceeding from the sun, which affords to the body nourishment, light, and increase, whereas that warmth which comes from Eros works the same effects in the soul. And as the sun breaking forth from the clouds and after a thick fog is much hotter, so Eros, after passionate anger and jealousies are over, and the beloved one is again reconciled, grows more delightful and fervent. Moreover, as some believe the sun to be kindled and extinguished, they also imagine the same thing concerning Eros, as being mortal and unstable. A constitution not inured to exercise can not endure the sun, neither can the disposition of an illiterate and illtutored soul brook love without trouble and pain; for both are alike distempered and diseased, for which they lay the blame upon the power of the god, and not upon their own weakness. Herein only there may semm to be some difference between them, in that the sun displays to the sight upon the earth both beauty and deformity at once, but Eros is a luminary that affords us the view of beautiful objects only, and persuades lovers to cast their eyes only upon what is pleasing and delightful, and with a careless eye to overlook all other things. Elsewhere, too, Boccaccio associates light and love. Thus of Venus (Fiammetta, pp. 20-21 Moutier): Una bellissima donna s'offerse agli occhi miei, circondata da tanta luce che a pena la vista sostenea; ma pure stando essa ancora tacita nel mio cospetto, quanto potei per lo lume gli occhi aguzzare tanto gli pinsi avanti. A poco a poco fra la fulvida luce di sè le belle parti m'apria più chiare. This suggestion he might easily have obtained from the refulsit of Virgil, En. 1. 402, and especially 2. 590. That Venus is, according to one account, the daughter of Jupiter (D), he knew, at least by the time he wrote the De Gen. Deor. (11. 4), from Homer, Il. 3. 374, and Cicero, Nat. Deor. 3. 23. 59. Almost on the threshold of the Middle Ages (ca. 500 A. D.) we find a Christian poet, Dracontius, from the province of Africa, apostrophizing the Power which is at once light and love (pax elementorum) in these words (De Laud. Dei 3. 3): Luminis æterni lumen, lux, lucis origo 2 Orbis et astrorum, jubar ætheris, aeris Auctor, Pax elementorum, naturæ conditor et fons. And thus, in the same writer, Venus characterizes her son (Romulea 10 (Medea). 127-132: Mon. Germ. Hist., Auct. Antiq. 14. 183): Slightly changed. 2 Cf. Alcuin, Carm. 121. 1: Luminis fons, lux, et lucis origo. Sic blandita jubet: 'Pyrois mens ignea mundi And Amor characterizes himself Romulea 2 (Hylas). 19-27, 31-35: Mon. Germ. Hist., Auct. Antiq. 14. 133-4: Audeo, si cupias (L) ipsum flammare Tonantem, Add Dracontius, Orestes 333: (P) Emollit Cytherea trucem per prælia Martem; De Laud. Dei 1. 326-7: Solis amica nimis. ... ... (C) Tellus Similarly, Romulea 2 (Hylas). 55: Solis amata canit Clymene. There remains to mention, under this head, the 'inferno' of Filost. 75. 1: Il ciel, la terra, lo mare, e l'inferno. Parallel to this, we have in the Fiammetta (pp. 25–6 Moutier): la quale fiamma ancora già sopra terra e nell'acque saputa da ciascuno, si muove penetrando la terra, e infino al re dell' oscure paludi si fa sentire. Adunque il cielo, la terra, il mare, e l'inferno per esperienza conoscono le sue armi. But Ovid represents the god of love as subjecting even Pluto to himself (Met. 5. 366-372, 383-4): Illa quibus superas omnes cape tela, Cupido, Archiv f. n. Sprachen. CXIX. |