Friday, November 04, 2011
Pans and a Pan
Greek Anthology 6.108 (Myrinus, tr. W.R. Paton):
1 χοροπαίκτης: sporting in the choral dance, dancing merrily. Hapax legomenon.
2 Πᾶνες: Pans. The only plural occurrence in the Greek Anthology.
βούχιλος: rich in fodder, cattle-feeding. Elsewhere only in Aeschylus, Suppliant Women 540.
κράντωρ: ruler. Elsewhere only in Euripides, Andromache 508, and Greek Anthology 6.116.6 (Samius).
3 εὔαρνος: rich in sheep. Elsewhere only in Greek Anthology 7.657.9 (Leonidas).
εὐχίμαρος: rich in goats. Hapax legomenon.
4 θυηπολία: a sacrificing. Rare, first in Apollonius of Rhodes 1.1124.
Bronze statuette of Pan, from the Temple of Artemis at Lousoi in Arcadia, 5th century B.C. (Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Antikenabteilung, inv. no. Misc. 8624):
Another view of the same:
Winifred Lamb, Ancient Greek and Roman Bronzes (London: Methuen, 1929; rpt. Chicago: Argonaut, Inc., 1969), pp. 153-154:
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Ye Pans, keepers of the high mountains, ye jolly horned dancers, lords of grassy Arcady, make Diotimus rich in sheep and goats, accepting the gifts of his splendid sacrifice.For such a short poem, this contains several unusual locutions, according to A.S.F. Gow and D.L. Page, The Greek Anthology: The Garland of Philip and Some Contemporary Epigrams (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968), vol. II, p. 320. In what follows I've put the words in dictionary lemma form:
ὑψηλῶν ὀρέων ἔφοροι, κεραοὶ χοροπαῖκται,
Πᾶνες, βουχίλου κράντορες Ἀρκαδίης,
εὔαρνον θείητε καὶ εὐχίμαρον Διότιμον,
δεξάμενοι λαμπρῆς δῶρα θυηπολίης.
1 χοροπαίκτης: sporting in the choral dance, dancing merrily. Hapax legomenon.
2 Πᾶνες: Pans. The only plural occurrence in the Greek Anthology.
βούχιλος: rich in fodder, cattle-feeding. Elsewhere only in Aeschylus, Suppliant Women 540.
κράντωρ: ruler. Elsewhere only in Euripides, Andromache 508, and Greek Anthology 6.116.6 (Samius).
3 εὔαρνος: rich in sheep. Elsewhere only in Greek Anthology 7.657.9 (Leonidas).
εὐχίμαρος: rich in goats. Hapax legomenon.
4 θυηπολία: a sacrificing. Rare, first in Apollonius of Rhodes 1.1124.
Bronze statuette of Pan, from the Temple of Artemis at Lousoi in Arcadia, 5th century B.C. (Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Antikenabteilung, inv. no. Misc. 8624):
Another view of the same:
Winifred Lamb, Ancient Greek and Roman Bronzes (London: Methuen, 1929; rpt. Chicago: Argonaut, Inc., 1969), pp. 153-154:
Our account of Arcadian bronzes may be concluded by a description of the goat-headed Pan from Lousoi at Berlin...A creature of the wilds, he stands shading his eyes with one hand: the other may have held a pedum or short crook: his right leg is advanced as though he is ready to leap forward. He has a beautiful fringe of hair down his back: the hair on his body and eyelashes are most carefully engraved. Much care has also been expended on the modelling of the head, muzzle and hands: between the horns is a hole, in which some ornament could have been inserted. The surface shews flaws from defective casting: one hole, in the right shoulder, has been filled in, but not the others. The work is that of a skilled and practiced hand, evidently not that of an Arcadian, but nowhere else, save perhaps in the Homeric Hymn to Pan, has the spirit of Arcadia been so fitly embodied.Pan is shielding his eyes to look at something in the distance. I haven't seen Ines Jucker, Der Gestus des Aposkopein. Ein Beitrag zur Gebärdensprache in der antiken Kunst (Zurich: Juris-Verlag, 1956).
