The Significance of Vergil's Acidalia Mater, and Venus Erycina in Catullus and Ovid

Author(s): James J. O'Hara

Source: Harvard Studies in Classical Philology , 1990, Vol. 93 (1990), pp. 335-342
Published by: Department of the Classics, Harvard University

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/311293

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 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF VERGIL'S
ACIDALIA MATER, AND VENUS ERYCINA
IN CATULLUS AND OVID

JAMES J. O'HARA

A T Aen. 1.715-722, Vergil engages in etymological wordplay that

is thematically appropriate for its context in Book 1, and also
alludes certainly to the scene's model in Apollonius of Rhodes, and
possibly to passages in Hellenistic epigram, and Catullus, the latter in a
way that may have been noticed by Ovid.
Vergil is describing the insidious effect on Dido of Cupid, who at
Venus' request has shed his wings and disguised himself as Ascanius.
Mindful of his mother, Cupid begins to erase Dido's memory of
Sychaeus, and tempts her with love for Aeneas:

at memor ille
matris Acidaliae paulatim abolere Sychaeum
incipit et vivo temptat praevertere amore
iam pridem resides animos desuetaque corda
(719-722)

Vergil refers to Venus as mater Acidalia. In extant literature that is

securely dated before Vergil, this rare and "strangely recondite epithet"
(R. G. Austin, Aeneidos Liber Primus [Oxford 1971] ad loc.) occurs
only in one two-word fragment of Pindar, where there is no sign that it
was connected with Venus.' Servius offers two explanations for the
word. The second, cited by Lewis and Short s.v. Acidalia and by Aus-
tin ad loc., is that it refers to a fons Acidalius in Orchomenos in Boeo-
tia, in which the Graces bathe. The Graces, Servius explains, provide

I Fr. 244 Snell-Maehler: rXEip' 'Aictax(Sa. After Vergil cf. Mart. 9.13.3: nomen Aci-
dalia meruit quod harundine pingi, / quod Cytherea sua scribere gaudet acu.

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 336 James J. O'Hara

the link to Venus, since they are he

(Gratiae, quas Veneri constat esse sa
sunt). This connection of the fo
appears in some verses that Stob
unknown Hellenistic poet, Menophi

qpat6pipv Efov &rxaaav etOiioLvr

EpXotvat; np6; "OXkutov 'AmitaX

(Suppl. Hell. 558

Menophilos' date is unknown. He

have been Vergil's source for the ep
for the connection of the fountain
does not connect the fons Acidalius
vius or his sources must be credited
that the Graces' family connectio
justification for Vergil innovatively
strained efforts to explain the epith
they show that Vergil is doing some
would catch the careful reader's attention.
Commentators generally do not cite Servius' first suggestion, but it
is more plausible, in the light of growing scholarly awareness of
Vergil's interest in etymologies, and provides suitable poetic motiva-
tion for Vergil's choice of this epithet. The name, Servius says, may
come from the Greek word &dg, which basically means "arrow,"
"dart," "needle," and through the common topos of the arrows of love
comes to mean "care," "pang," "arrows of Eros," as in Timotheus
Com. 2 Kock: 'O tneportb ibS; 6 t gdtorov 'Ep;g, 16 Ki'Cptpiog ;ivay(;,
TI ppEvwov ~a;, and in Hellenistic epigram at AP 5.58.4; 12.76.2; and
16.213.2. Servius' words: 'Acidalia' Venus vel dicitur quia inicit
curas, quas Graeci &ita;g dicunt. Vergil's epithet Acidalia thus sug-
gests both curae and the arrows of Eros, and both are appropriate to the
context in Aeneid 1. The association of Venus with curae is common;
in the Aeneid her instructions to Cupid and later conspiracy with Juno
will produce curae for Dido and for Aeneas.2 On the literal level the

2 The word cura is used of Dido's feelings at 4.1, 5, 394, 488, 531, 551, 608, 639, and
652, and of Aeneas' at 4.332 and 448. Vergil often involves the word cura in etymologi-
cal wordplay: see 0. S. Due, "Zur Etymologisierung in der Aeneis," in Classica et Medi-

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 Vergil's Acidalia mater 337

suggestion of arrows recalls Vergil's model for this

Venus sends Cupid after Dido, the beginning of Book 3
of Rhodes' Argonautica where Aphrodite dispatch
Medea to fall in love with Jason. One difference betwe
as has long been noted, is that Apollonius' Eros use
bow and arrow while Vergil's Cupid doffs his weapons
insidious trick of assuming the identity of Ascanius.3
dalia brings the notion of arrows back, on one level, o
to what has been omitted from the model. The Aeneid r
elsewhere to love's arrows: in 4.1 Dido is saucia cur
care," and in the simile at 4.68-73, Dido is compar
wounded by a sagitta or harundo.4 At 1.720, Vergil'
seems to be the "mother who produces sharp curae."5

Of the influence of Hellenistic epigram and Catullus

of the epithet we must speak more hesitantly: the evi
tive, but inconclusive. One of the Hellenistic epigram
word dicix appears is AP 12.76, by Meleager, which off
ing parallel for the context of Vergil's description of C

aevalia F. Blatto ... Dedicata (Gyldendal 1973) 276-279, and D.

grounds to Augustan Poetry: Gallus, Elegy, and Rome (Cambridge
3 W. R. Johnson, Darkness Visible: A Study of Vergil's "Aene
Angeles 1976) 41-45, W. Clausen, Virgil's "Aeneid" and the Trad
Poetry (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London 1987) 142 n. 8.
4 On this simile cf. V. P6schl, Die Dichtkunst Virgils: Bild und Sym
(Berlin-New York 1977) 103-105; J. Ferguson, "Fire and Wound: th
iv. 1 ff.," PVS 10 (1970-1971) 57-63, F. Newton, "Recurrent Ima
TAPA 88 (1957) 31-43, Clausen (above, n. 3) 40-41.
5 On Vergil's proper names cf. D. O. Ross, Jr., Virgil's Elements:
in the "Georgics" (Princeton 1987) 28: "Virgil ... used no proper nam
tuitously. Every geographical designation, for instance, has ... som
etymologizing in Vergil see G. J. M. Bartelink, Etymologisering b
dam 1965 [Mededelingen der Kon. Neder. Akad. van Wetenschap
cites most earlier literature, but cf. also Due and Ross (above, n. 2)
(1973) 7-23; S. Shechter, "The Aition and Virgil's Georgics,"
346-391; H. Jacobson, "Vergil, Georgics, 3,280-81," MH 39 (1982
"Gadflies (Virg. Geo. 3.146-48)," HSCP 86 (1982) 81-85; B. W. Boy
Vergilian Word-play and Allusion," HSCP 87 (1983) 169-174; and fo
name Acontius and the Greek iKoov, see R. M. Rosen and J. Farrell,
and Gallus: Vergil Ecl. 10.52-61," TAPA 116 (1986) 252-253.

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 338 James J. O'Hara

Ei 9til t65ov 'Epo; irl6 crtep&x gjrl8&

gtrl&rc nupt43xiou; exe H6 ov &
o{~ic, aUrTv tv rtavov ervo6ivuiat,
dI Jiop;p&; i'; E9p) Zo()i0o1 i ';g "

This poem presumably was part of th

in the first century B.C., and it is on
first-century A.D. papyrus that inclu
Garland, which may indicate that i
speaker says that if Eros did not h
arrows, he would be indistinguishabl
gil calls Venus Acidalia mater, his Cu
1.689-690) and is indistinguishable
other Hellenistic epigrams praise b
either if they were to have the bow
12.78 (Meleager), and 12.75 and 77
the Berlin papyrus with 76. We m
Vergil's allusion to the word &iag; is
12.76, but Vergil may be alluding gen
indistinguishable from Eros.7

That Catullus and in particular Ca

influence on Vergil is well-known.8 C

6 A. F. S. Gow and D. L. Page, The Greek A

bridge 1965) xvii n. 1; the papyrus is Berl. klas
7 As Ovid does more clearly in the story of A

laudaret faciem Livor quoque; qualia namq

corpora nudorum tabula pinguntur Amorum
talis erat, sed, ne faciat discrimina cultus,
aut huic adde leves, aut illis deme pharetras

Cf. P. E. Knox, Ovid's "Metamorphoses" and

bridge 1986 [Cambr. Philol. Soc. Suppl. 11])
Meleager cf. D. West, The Bough and the Gat
Lecture 17]).
8 Cf. M. J. Petrini, Children and Heroes: A Study of Catullus and Vergil (diss. Michi-
gan 1987), W. Clausen, "Catullus and Callimachus," HSCP 75 (1970) 85-94 and idem
(above, n. 3) 40-60, and B. Arkins, "New Approaches to Vergil," Latomus 45 (1986)
33-42, with further references.

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 Vergil's Acidalia mater 339

learned poetic etymological wordplay on the epithe

Catullus 64 a parallel for Vergil's use of an epithet fo
gets "sharp cares." In that poem, Catullus laments
Venus has brought to Ariadne:

a misera, assiduis quam luctibus externavit

spinosas Erycina serens in pectore curas
illa tempestate, ferox quo ex tempore Theseus ...
(64.71-73)

The striking adjective spinosus, "thorny," describes th

here in Latin literature.9 The spinosae curae that
Ariadne's heart are much like the dicie'c implied b
Acidaliae. Catullus also refers to Venus by a cult name
more well-known: the cult of Venus of Eryx on S
famous, with two temples at Rome.10 Like Vergil, ho
has chosen his epithet with great care. Catullus ha
have played on the etymologies of proper names both
poem and in other poems. In 64.1-18, Catullus plays o

of the name of the ship Argo with the word apy,6;,

that demonstrates his awareness of earlier etymologi
says that he would be satisfied only with kisses as
grains of sand between the tomb of Battus and the or
tuosus. This Jupiter is Ammon, whose name is conne
sources with the word atggoo;, "sand." Catullus both sh
and stresses that there would indeed be much sand
Jupiter. In poem 36.10 ff., Catullus names cult sites o
reference to Uriosque apertos, the word apertos, "ope
to the winds," is a gloss on Urios, which transliterate
oiipto;, "windy.""1

9 Cf. TLL s.v. cura 1474. Most often spinosus, if used figuratively
is "harsh, crabbed, obscure, confused, perplexed" (Lewis and Short s
10 One on the Capitoline, one outside the Colline Gate. Cf.
(Jessen), R. Schilling, Le religion romaine de VWnus (Paris 1954)
Die Gdttin Venus in Vergils Aeneis (Heidelberg 1967) 11 n. 5, 32
has Aeneas found the temple on Mt. Eryx at Aen. 5.759.
1 For 64.1-18 see R. F. Thomas, "Catullus and the Polemics o
AJP 103 (1982) 144-154, for 7 F. Cairns, "Catullus' basia poems
(1973) 18, for 36 D. O. Ross, Jr., "Uriosque apertos: A Catulla
(1973) 60-62.

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340 James J. O'Hara

In Catullus 64, the phrase spinosas

provide the epithet Erycina with a le
it an interpretation both unique and
Sallust, Caesar, and perhaps the poet
an instrument of war: some kind of
used to ward off the enemy.12 Used
animal also known as echinus terres
the term for the spiked instrument
salient characteristic is its protective
words spinae or spinosus occur in m
ericium animal spinis coopertum;
genus animalis ... spinosi ut erici
25.1371B): hericii ... animal spino
nerans, quidquid contigerit; Euche
qui (Xivot dicuntur, ita spinoso defe
quidem possint. Varro at Sat. Men. 4
character woke up covered with hair
cumspexe atque invenisse se, cum do
Socratis calva, esse factum ericium
Jerome once compares a thorny shr
Hab. 2.3 (PL 25.1334D): rhamnus pl
Ambr. Actas Sebast. 85 (PL 17.1056
struck by numerous arrows. August
ericinus (Contra Faust. 30.1 [CSEL
In Catullus 64.72 the poet associate
as Vergil does with the epithet Acid
ericius, when used both literally an
word spinosus suggests that when C
sas (again, used only here in Latin o
characterizes Venus Erycina as spino
is playing on the resemblance betwe
Just as Jupiter Ammon is a very sa

12 Sail. Hist. fr. 3.36; Caesar Civ. 3.67.5 and

fuit custos ericius [codd.; Erucius Baehrens,
13 The first syllable of Erycina is shor
(-?u I/-?-u ), but this would not prevent ety
43, and F. M. Ahl, Metaformations: Soundpl
cal Poets (Ithaca-London 1985) 56, who cites
"soil," with a short "o," from solus, "lone," w

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 Vergil's Acidalia mater 341

produces curae for Dido and Aeneas, so too Venus Ery

cally described as a producer of "thorny cares."
Is it possible to go further and claim that the Catul
that Vergil wished the reader to recall? The exten
that have been noted between Vergil's Dido and Ca
other respects provide the larger backdrop of poe
allusion against which this example could be viewed.1
about the particular context of Vergil's Acidalia that
reader back to Catullus 64.72, but the reader who
epithet associating Venus with "sharp curae" might w
recall that another poet in the Roman Alexandrian tr
epithet for Venus so as to associate it with spinosae c
One close reader of Vergil may well have seen
between the two epithets. In the Metamorphoses Ovi
Erycina to refer to Venus as she begins to make the
she asks Cupid to shoot Dis/Pluto with an arrow so t
Persephone:

videt hunc (sc. Plutonem) Erycina vagantem

monte suo residens natumque amplexa volucrem
"arma manusque meae, mea, nate, potentia" dixit,
"illa, quibus superas omnes, cape tela, Cupido,
inque dei pectus celeres molire sagittas,
cui triplicis cessit fortuna novissima regni."
(Met. 5.363-368)

Ovid's use of the epithet is appropriate for the Sic

scene of Ovid's, however, is directly modelled on the
in which Venus asks Cupid to make Dido fall in love.
coincidence that Ovid uses Catullus' epithet Erycina a
scene in which Vergil calls Venus Acidalia.16 Ovid

14 Cf. above, n. 8. The resemblances already noted extend to the

cia cura at Aen. 4.1 is an adaptation of saucia curas at Cat. 64.250.
15 Cf. S. Hinds, The Metamorphosis of Persephone: Ovid and th
(Cambridge 1987) 133-134, citing R. Heinze.
16 Ovid also returns to Cupid the weapons that Vergil had remo
found in Apollonius; cf. Hinds (above, n. 15) on arma in Met. 5.36
In Latin poetry, Erycina is used as a substantive referring to Ven
Hor. Carm. 1.2.33, Ovid Am. 2.10.11 and Met. 5.363, and Sen. P
D. Swanson, The Names in Roman Verse [Madison 1967], and the

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 342 James J. O'Hara

that he sees both what Vergil is do

before.17

WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY

dances). The adjective refers to the mountain at Aen. 5.759 (vertice Erycino) and 10.36
(litore Erycino), Lucan 9.919 (Erycina thapsos), and Stat. Silv. 1.2.160 (Erycina templa).
Concha Erycina at Prop. 3.13.6 seems to refer indirectly to Venus. Each occurrence of
Erycina as a substantive referring to Venus is accompanied by mention either of Cupid or
of curae: Hor. Carm. 1.2.33-34, Erycina ridens, / quam locus circum volat et Cupido
.. ; Ovid Am. 2.10.11-12, quid geminas, Erycina, meos sine fine dolores? / non erat in
curas una puella satis?; Met. 5.363 (quoted in text), and Sen. Phaed. 198-200, natum
per omnis scilicet terras uagum / Erycina mittit, ille per caelum volans / proterva tenera
tela molitur manu.... A. Wlosok, "Amor and Cupid," HSCP 79 (1975) 177, notes that
Cupid shared the temple of Venus Erycina located outside the Colline Gate (cf. Ovid
Rem. 549-555).
17 As an example of Ovid adapting a Vergilian adaptation of Catullus, Thomas (above,
n. 11) 162-163 compares Ovid Am. 2.11.1 mirantibus aequoris undis with Verg. Aen.
8.91-92 mirantur et undae and Cat. 64.15 Nereides admirantes.
For comments on a draft of this paper I would like to thank Professors Stephen Hinds,
Mark Petrini, Michael Roberts, and Wendell Clausen (to whom I owe the reference to
Menophilos).

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