Monday, June 13, 2016
Vomit
Richard Jenkyns, Virgil's Experience. Nature and History: Times, Names, and Places (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 373, n. 88 (discussing the Latin verb vomit at Vergil, Georgics 2.462):
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Latin 'vomo' is seldom well translated by English 'vomit'; the English word is perhaps always unpleasant, but 'vomo' can be neutral, even impressive. The passages leading into the amphitheatre were called `vomitoria'; in Ennius (Ann. 453 Sk) Tiber 'vomit' its waters into the sea (two comparisons already made by Macrobius (Sat. 6.4.3) in discussing this very passage). 'Vomo' is used by Lucretius of Etna's fiery eruption (1.714) and at Aen. 8.681 of the flames breaking from Augustus' joyful temples at Actium. The poet's suavity here in the Georgics lies in choosing a word which does not have to be disagreeable.Note the misprint in Jenkyns, op. cit., p. 372, quoting Vergil, Georgics 2.472—the last word of the line should be iuventus, not iuvantus:
Labels: typographical and other errors
