Tuesday, April 01, 2014

 

Pathless Vulture

Horace, Odes and Epodes. Edited and Translated by Niall Rudd (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004 = Loeb Classical Library, 33), p. 152 (Odes 3.4.9-13):
me fabulosae Vulture in Apulo
nutricis extra limina pergulae4
    ludo fatigatumque somno
        fronde nova puerum palumbes
texere...

4 limina pergulae Baehrens] limen Apuliae
Rudd's translation on p. 153:
On pathless Vulture,12 beyond the threshold of my nurse's cottage, when as a child I was worn out with play and sleep, the legendary wood pigeons covered me with fresh leaves.

12 Mt Vulture, 15 km west of Venusia, looms over the area.
"On pathless Vulture" is not a translation of "Vulture in Apulo," so Rudd must be translating not the paradosis (Apulo = Apulian), but someone's conjecture. What is the conjecture? We need a word metrically equivalent to Apulo that means "pathless," and avio fits the bill.

This much was obvious without opening another book. A quick Google search revealed that avio for Apulo was proposed by Otto Keller, "Zu Horaz," Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 32 (1877) 327. Either Rudd's text or his translation needs to be changed, so they match.

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