(600)

601. ἔνδοθι Α. ἔνδοθεν

600. μέτρῳ, by measure. Having thrashed and winnowed it, ascertain the quantity, and store it away in terracotta vessels. Compare sup. v. 350. 475. The reading of one copy, ἐσκομίσασθαι, is a good one, 'get it brought into your house.' Compare v. 576.

601. ἔνδοθεν vulgo, against the digamma in Foίκου. ἔνδοθι is preserved by Cod. Gale. See on v. 523.

602. θῆτα, a head-servant; a hired farming-man, or bailiff, especially to keep the stores at home. The Ontes seem to have been farm-servants on pay, as distinct from the domestic slaves or general servants, δμῶες, who merely had their allowance of food, and were probably subordinate to the θῆτες. Homer distinguishes them, Od. iv. 644, θῆτές τε δμῶές τε. Cf. ibid. xi. 489, βουλοίμην κ ̓ ἐπάρουρας ἐὼν θητευέμεν ἄλλῳ ἀνδρὶ παρ' ἀκλήρῳ. xviii. 357, ξεῖν, ἢ ἄρ κ' ἐθέλοις θητευέμεν, εἴ σ ̓ ἀνελοίμην, ἀγροῦ ἐπ' ἐσχατιῆς; Photius, θῆτες. οἱ ἕνεκα τροφῆς δουλεύοντες, ibid. θητεύειν, μισθῷ ἐργάζεσθαι. So Hom. Il. xxi. 444, πάρ Διὸς ἐλθόντες θητεύσαμεν εἰς ἐνιαυτὸν μισθῷ ἐπὶ ῥητῷ.—ποιεῖσθαι, “ to adopt, i. e. to take into your employ; cf. inf. v. 707. He is to be ἄoικos, without a family or household of his own (cf. sup. ν. 405), that he may attend solely to your interests.—ἔριθον, γυναῖκα ἐργατικὴν, Moschop. Compare again v. 405, οἶκον μὲν πρώτιστα γυναῖκά τε. She too must be childless, for a mother with an infant at the breast is difficult to make use of, χαλεπή.—ὑπόπορτις, παῖδα ἔχουσα,

66

Proclus. The term is quaint and characteristic, otherwise we might be inclined to suspect the genuineness of this verse. It is not necessary to the context, and κέλομαι interrupts the series of infinitives used for imperatives. Schoemann indeed rejects 602-605, which may well have been inserted from some other place. Prof. Mahaffy (Hist. Lit. i. p. 108, note) has no doubt about the meaning of these disputed lines;” and he renders them thus: "When you have brought all your stores into the house, you must turn your man-servant out of it, and look out for a woman-servant (who will sleep within) who has no child to feed." I however feel great doubt if ἄοικον ποιεῖσθαι can mean ἐξοικίζειν, to dislodge or evict from a homestead.

604. καὶ κύνα, viz. to protect your stores. Virg. Georg. ii. 404, Nec tibi cura canum fuerit postrema.ἡμερόκοιτος ἀνὴρ, Hesych. ὁ κλέπτης, a nightprowling thief who sleeps by day; an expression of the same kind as φερέοιkos in v. 571. The compound occurs in Eur. Cycl. 58.

606. χόρτον κ.τ.λ. Get in not only your corn, but your hay and fodder against the winter,—συρφετὸς being the rubbish consisting of leaves, vine-clippings, weeds, twigs, &c., which in the Romance countries) are still used for feeding and littering goats and cattle, in default of grass. Photius, συρφετός, αγυρτώδης ὄχλος ἢ λόγος· ἢ ἡ ἐξ ἀνέμου (f. ἡ ἐξ ἀγροῦ) συλλεγομένη κοπρὸς καὶ

607. ἐπῃτανὸν

οι

609. ἔλθη Α. ἔλθοι EF. ἔλθῃ ἐσίδοι ΕF. ἐσίδη (η) the rest. δ' Α. δέκα ἤμ. Κ, Ald.

φρυγανώδης. (This latter epithet has reference only to fuel.)—eἴῃ for ën or ᾖ. See v. 470.

607. ἐπηετανόν. On this word as a quadrisyllable, see v. 31.-This ingathering of fodder is spoken of as a kind of supplement to the harvest operations. Between the conclusion of these and the vintage in the autumn, the slaves are to have an interval of rest, and the cattle, being no longer required, are to be loosed. Moschop. ἔπειτα δὲ τοὺς δούλους ἀνάψυξον, ἤγουν ἀνάπαυσον κατὰ τὰ φίλα γόνατα, ἵνα πάλιν ἀκμαιότεροι ἐν τοῖς πόνοις ὑπουργήσωσι, καὶ τοὺς βόας λῦσον, ἤγουν τοῦ ζυγοῦ ἀπάλλαξον καὶ τῶν ἔργων.

610. ̓Αρκτοῦρον. The operations of the vineyard were all regulated by this star; cf. v. 566, 570, where Goettling refers to Plat. Legg. viii. p. 844, D, τὴν ὥραν τὴν τοῦ τρυγᾶν ̓Αρκτούρῳ ξύν. δρομον. Here the morning rising of Arcturus is meant, after the middle of September. By Sirius, according to the scholiasts, is meant, not the star properly so called, but one in the constellation of Canis. So also he seems rather to refer to the star in Virgo, called by the Greeks προτρυγητός (or -s), by the Romans Vindemitor (Ovid, Fast. iii. 407), than to Arcturus.

611. ἀπόδρεπε οἴκαδε, a singular ellipse for ἀποδρέπων κόμιζε εἰς τὸν οἶκον (Moschop.). Cf. v. 632, ἵν' οἴκαδε κέρδος ἄρηαι. The Cod. Gale gives ἀποδρέπειν, which arose, like so many other mistakes, from ignorance of the digamma. Probably the Doric infinitive, αποδρές

(-η) the rest. 611. ἀποδρέπειν Α.

(605)

610

(610)

611. οίκαδε

οι

610. ἐσίδη Α. 612. δέκα

πεν, was the alteration in the first instance.

612. δεῖξαι ἠελίῳ. The process of drying the gathered grapes in the sun seems to have been regularly adopted by the ancients, at least in the manufacture of the more rich and sweet wines, the vinum passum, like our Malmsey Madeira. The modern practice is, to allow the grapes to hang as long as possible upon the vines. Goettling illustrates the drying of the grapes both from Pliny, N. Η. xiv. 8, and Columella, xii. 39. The drying-ground is specially mentioned in Homer, Od. vii. 123, τῆς ἕτερον μὲν θειλόπεδον λευρῷ ἐνὶ χώρῳ τέρσεται ἠελίῳ. Proclus here has a very good note. which it may be as well to present to the reader in English:-Having cut off the bunches, they laid them under the sun, in order to dry out of them, by the exposure to his rays, the thin and watery part that does not keep well; and they called this θειλοπεδεύειν. After this, they again disposed them in the shade, to ensure the contraction of the grape after the sunning, and to cure the tendency to ferment, by a counteracting coolness. The third process was to tread and squeeze out the wine, which they considered now settled and properly tempered.

613. εἰς ἄγγε ̓ ἀφύσσαι, rack off into vats or open vessels, viz. to ferment, before finally storing it in the terracotta íeo or jars. Of this process the poet speaks not. How they were finally laid up in the houses of the heroic times

614. διονύσου ΕΓΗ. Ald. aipeî the rest. the rest.

615

(615)

we know from Od. ii. 340, ἐν δὲ πίθοι οἴνοιο παλαιοῦ ἡδυπότοιο ἕστασαν, ἄκρητον θεῖον ποτὸν ἐντὸς ἔχοντες, ἑξείης ποτὶ τοῖχον ἀρηρότες. Gloss. Cod. Gale ἄντλησον.

614. Proclus :οὐκ οἶδεν ὁ “Ομηρος δῶρον Διονύσου τὸν οἶνον. This and the next three verses are in all probability a later addition. It was enough to have given directions about pouring off the wine: what is added about ploughing interrupts the prescribed series of the annual farm operations. That subject had been fully discussed and dismissed, sup. v. 492. Moreover, v. 615 is taken from Il. xviii. 485, ἐν δὲ τὰ τείρεα πάντα, τά τ ̓ οὐρανὸς ἐστεφάνωται, Πληϊάδας θ' Υάδας τε τό τε σθένος Ωρίωνος. The final verse alone is rejected by Goettling, on the ground that πλειών, ‘a year,' is an Alexandrine word. Whether it occurs elsewhere than in Callim. Hymn. Jov. 89, we know not. It is said to be from πλέος or πλεῖος, • full, meaning the completed circle of the seasons. Hesych. πλειών· ὁ ἐνιαυτός. ἀπὸ τοῦ πάντας τοὺς καρποὺς τῆς γῆς συμπληροῦσθαι. Compare δέκα πλείους ἐνιαυτούς, Theog. 636. ‘As the poet began with ploughing and the setting of the Pleiades (v. 384), so now, says Proclus, he comes back to the same subjects, and closes with the remark, that so the year will have a fitting conclusion of farming operations. It is, however, impossible to extract this meaning from the verse. Van Lennep translates, annus in operibus terra obeundis recte dispositus fuerit.' Moschopulus explains κατὰ χθονός by ἀντὶ τοῦ ἐπὶ τῶν τῆς γῆς ἔργων. But this is equally untenable. Probably the writer

intended κατὰ χθονὸς εἴη to mean, let it go beneath the earth, i. e. be numbered among things past, as in Eur. Alcest. 618, δέχου δὲ κόσμον τόνδε καὶ κατὰ χθονός ἴτω. And Goettling seems to think that eἴη must come from είμι, though he is unable to defend the word by examples or analogy. Possibly the sense on the earth' may be justified by Theog. 498, τὸν μὲν (λίθον) Ζεὺς στήριξε κατὰ χθονός. Schoemann reads κατὰ χρέος, “ ut omnis annus ad necessitatem (cuiusque operis) commodus et opportunus sit."

618. He now passes to the subject of navigation. Some precepts on so important a branch of industrial enterprise were required in a didactic poem of this scope ; though the poet avows that the sea is not a congenial element to himself, ν. 649.

Ibid. δυσπεμφέλου, stormy. Hesiod uses this word as an epithet of the sea, Theog. 440, and of a churlish person inf. v. 722. The etymology is uncertain, as also whether πέμφελος is distinct from, or another form of, πέμπελος. Homer applies δυσπέμφελος to a stormy sea, Il. xvi. 748, and Aeschylus has μοῖραν οὐκ εὐπέμπελον of the Furies, Eum. 454, who are said to be δύσπεμπτοι ἔξω, Ag. 1161. Moschopulus here explains the word by τῆς κακῶς παραπεμπούσης. The gloss in Cod. Gale is δυσκόλου. Perhaps it is from πέμφιξ, which Photius renders πνοή. Compare πομφόλυξ, ποίφυγμα, and ποἳ or πολφ (our word puff). Hence, applied to the sea, it would mean ‘frothy and bubbling;' to a man, ‘swelling with anger, pettish, ill-tempered.

96

619. On the setting of the Pleiades,

620

(620)

625. ἀέντων

621. θύουσιν γρ. θύνουσιν Α. DGI. 626. χείμαρρον G. BCGK. ἐνικάτθεο DEFHI.

(625)

624. Γερύσαι

627. Γοίκω

as the end of the sailing season, see sup. ν. 383. Goettling here has a good note:-"Magna pars Graecorum cum Boeotis stellarum imagines venationem Orionis, magni Graecorum Nimrodi, ita repraesentare putabant, ut Orio cum Sirio cane ἄρκτον, πελειάδας, (πληϊάδας, columbas,) ὑάδας, (suculas,) πτωκάδα cet. persequeretur. Hinc illud φεύγουσαι Ωρίωνα. Iones vero plaustri (ἁμάξης) imaginem cum bubulco Boote in iisdem siderum sedibus videre sibi videbantur." Virgil has a similar figure of Canis retreating before the advance of Taurus, Georg. i. 217.

621. θύουσιν, ‘rush forth, σφοδρῶς κινοῦνται, Moschop., gl. Cod. Gale πνέουσιν, ὁρμῶνται. Photius, θύειν· τὸ ὁρμᾶν. In Scut. Η. 156 and elsewhere θυνέω is used.

623. Goettling thinks this verse spurious, and with some reason. The digamma in ἐργάζεσθαι is violated by the addition of de, though this might be omitted if yn is pronounced with emphasis, as contrasted with πόντῳ. The old commentators recognise it; but Tzetzes seems to place it after v. 628. Van Lennep objects that via could not so closely follow νῆας.

624. πυκάσαι λίθοισι. Make a breakwater of stones to keep off the force of the waves. By ἀνέμων μένος he means generally the effects of wind (the rainbringing wind, Νότος) in making the

waves lash the shore. Tzetzes, μή πως ὁ σάλος αὐτὴν ἀναρπάξῃ. Goettling seems to think the λίθοι here are the same as the large stones used as anchors, and called εὐναὶ and ἕρματα in the Homeric poems, accordingly as they served to moor the ship at sea or prop it upright on shore. But πυκάσαι and παντόθεν clearly imply a number of stones collected and packed round the ship. A somewhat similar expedient saved a great ship for the whole winter, when stranded some years ago on the Irish coast. Homer appears to refer to this practice in Il. xiv. 410, χερμαδίῳ, τά ῥα πολλὰ, θοάων ἔχματα νηῶν, πὰρ ποσὶ μαρναμένων ἐκυλίνδετο, · στῆθος βεβλήκει. Which passage further proves that the stones were of no great magnitude.

626. χείμαρον, the plug; ὁ ὑπὸ τὴν τρόπιν πάσσαλος, οὗ ἐξαιρουμένου, ὅταν ὕσῃ, τὸ ὕδωρ προχωρεῖ, Proclus. This is still done in ships' boats suspended on the davits. Hence the term χείμαρος = χειμάρρους, from the torrent of water that gushed through the hole.—πύθῃ, ἤγουν σήπῃ, Mosch.

627. ὅπλα, the tackle ; πάντα ὧν δεῖται ἡ ναῦς, τὸν ἱστὸν, τὰ ἱστία, τὰς διφθέρας, τοὺς κάλους, τὰ πηδάλια, Proclus. It was the custom to remove these from the stranded ship, and deposit them in the house of the owner during the winter. They were brought into the