Forgotten Stars: Rediscovering Manilius' Astronomica

Steven J. Green and Katharina Volk

Print publication date: 2011

Print ISBN-13: 9780199586462

Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May 2011

DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199586462.001.0001

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Tropes and figures

Manilian style as a reflection of astrological tradition

Chapter:: (p. 141 ) 9 Tropes and figures
Source:: Forgotten Stars
Author(s):: Wolfgang Hübner
Publisher:: Oxford University Press

DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199586462.003.0009

Abstract and Keywords

Poetry and astrology are both essentially metaphorical. The starry firmament as a whole can be understood as a sum of metaphors, since the human mind first transposes its surrounding real world up to the sky, and then this transfer from earth up to heaven is followed by a reverse movement from heaven down to earth, in which the figures and movements of the constellations are related back to human life by prognostication. Thus, subject matter and poetry are more closely related to one another in the Astronomica than in other didatic poems: figures may have astrological meaning, including mythical examples, comparison, repetition, verbal oxymoron, and nominal polyptoton, as do such tropes as—beside metaphor and its special case, hyperbole—metonymy, ambiguity, and polysemy. It is thus all the more dangerous to try to interpret Manilius without taking account of the astrological tradition that underlies his poem.

Keywords: astrology, didactic poetry, figure (rhetorical), Manilius, metaphor, trope (rhetorical)

Manilius lived in the late Augustan/early Tiberian period, at around the same time as Ovid, with whom he may be justly compared in terms of style and poetic versatility. Joseph Justus Scaliger appreciated Manilius’ style with the following words: ‘Ovidio suavitate par, maiestate superior’.¹ This judgment is appropriate not only for the philosophical passages, but also for the more distinctly astrological material.

Poetry and astrology are both essentially metaphorical. The entire starry firmament can be comprehended as a sum of metaphors, since the human mind transposes the real world that surrounds it up into the sky, and this initial transfer from earth up to heaven is then followed by a reversal from heaven down to earth, when the figures and movements of the constellations are related back to human life by prognostication.² Manilius expresses this mutual relation between mortals and the (p. 142 ) universe in an elegant verse (2.38):³ terraque composuit caelum quae pendet ab illo (‘the earth fashioned the sky on which it depends’). Note the timelessness of the present tense (pendet) in comparison with the historical act of inventing the celestial constellations (composuit).⁴

As such, poetry and its subject matter in the Astronomica—or, as Manilius terms it, the carmen and the res (1.20–4)—are more closely related to each other than in other didactic poems, not only those classified by Effe 1977 as ‘sachbezogen’ (‘straightforwardly instructional’) but even Virgil’s Georgics. It is indeed a fundamentally incomplete approach to deal with Manilius, as so often happens, without paying attention to his investment in the astrological tradition. Over the years, stylistic particularities have encouraged me on several occasions to investigate the astrological sense hidden behind them. I shall here select only a few examples, arranging them either according to stylistic tropes and figures or to astrological data. Often, different stylistic phenomena are combined, reminding us that there is no clear dividing line between tropes and figures, or indeed between individual specific phenomena.⁵

Figures

The concept of figura touches upon both stylistic and astrological phenomena.⁶ All constellations are ‘figures’, sometimes merely geometrical ones like the Triangulum, the rhombus of the Dolphin, or the square of (p. 143 )

Figure 9.1. The mixed figure of Capricorn. Codex Leidensis Vossianus lat. 79 (9th cent.), fo. 50^v. University Library, Leiden University. Reproduced by permission.

Pegasus.⁷ Moreover, the constellations form triangular, quartile, or sextile aspects within the zodiac when viewed from the central earth.

One of the strangest zodiacal signs is represented by Capricorn, the goat whose anterior part ends in a fish-tail (see Figure 9.1). Manilius (p. 144 ) emphasizes its ‘figure’—regione tuae, Capricorne, figurae (5.390)⁸—in order to indicate conformity between this sign and its first extrazodiacal companion (paranatellon), Ophiuchus (Serpentarius), which is likewise composed of two elements: a human figure carrying a snake. So figura may reveal the extreme associative and speculative relationship between the zodiacal signs and their extrazodiacal companions.⁹

Already the simple figure of enumeration can have an astrological meaning. Ptolemy uses the stylistic term ποικιλία (‘variation’) in order to proceed to an extreme individualization provoked by the five planets or the variegated series of the twelve zodiacal signs.¹⁰ Manilius often enumerates mille artes (‘thousand activities’) or innumerae artes (‘unnumbered activities’), but in the context of the zodiacal Fishes, this abundant enumeration corresponds to the extremely prolific nature of fish that astrology transferred to the complete fourth triangle composed of beings far away from human nature (Crab–Scorpio–Fishes).¹¹

(p. 145 ) Dealing with the constellation of the Arrow (Sagitta) that rises together with the Balance, Manilius gives three examples of skilful archers,¹² following the strange Sphaera barbarica invented by Teucer of Babylon (probably Babylon in Egypt).¹³ According to Manilius, Sagitta rises with the eighth degree of Libra, which was at that period commonly accepted as the autumnal point, where Hipparchus had detected the precession of the annual points.¹⁴ The prediction of archers is related to the ‘stochastic’ art, and the name of the first archer, Teucer, may have inspired Teucer of Babylon to his pseudonym.¹⁵ The enumeration of three mythical examples alludes to the name of two uncanonical constellations that rise with the Balance (perhaps only two variants of the same constellation):¹⁶ first ‘The three Heros, also named Archers’ (Τρεîς Ἥρωες οἱ καὶ Βαλλισταί), second the Trident (Greek Τρίαινα), at which Manilius had already hinted (cuspide vel triplici securum figere piscem, ‘or piercing with three-pronged spear the fish that deemed itself so safe’, 5.297¹⁷). So the number of examples—three—is of high astrological importance. They seem, by the way, to correspond to the three stars in Sagitta’s shaft listed by Ptolemy in his Almagest.¹⁸

From simple enumeration, we move to word order. When dealing with the constellation of Cepheus, under whom are apparently born budding playwrights, Manilius refers to the comedies of Menander and, in particular, his comic characters (5.472–3):

ardentis iuvenes raptasque in amore puellas

elusosque senes agilisque per omnia servos.

Burning youths and abducted maidens in love,

deceived old men, and slaves quick-witted in all matters.

(p. 146 ) We will notice here a chiasmic arrangement from active to passive (ardentis…raptas) and back from passive to active (elusos…agiles): the young men desire the girls, the old men are tricked by the slaves. As I have shown elsewhere,¹⁹ the four characters as described here could be equally reminiscent of four of the five real planets that are visually arranged in a quincunx figure in ancient diagrams (see Figure 9.2). This order is far from arbitrary, as Manilius alludes first, with the use of ardentis, to the two hot planets surrounding the central sun, namely, the well-known couple of Mars and Venus (the erotic overtones of these two planet deities are also captured in iuvenes…puellas); then, with the contrast between senes and agilis, Manilius alludes to the two planets furthest away from the sun, the old and slow Saturn and the young and quick Mercury (see Figure 9.3).²⁰ Given that in the Chaldaean system Venus ranks between the sun and Mercury, in the series of the five real planets (not counting the two luminaries, sun and moon), Saturn and Mercury represent the extreme positions of the scale: the slowest and the quickest. In both pairs the exterior planet precedes the interior one.

Figure 9.2. The comic characters of Menander according to Astr. 5.472–3. Diagram Wolfgang Hübner.

Figure 9.3. The characters of the four planets according to Astr. 5.472–3. Diagram Wolfgang Hübner.

(p. 147 )

Figure 9.4. Planetary geography according to Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos 2.3. Diagram Wolfgang Hübner.

In his Almagest, in an explanation of his theory of planetary epicycles, Ptolemy arranges the five planets in a similar way, first one single planet and then two pairs: Mercury (book 9), Venus and Mars (book 10), Jupiter and Saturn (book 11). His planetary geography could be reduced to Figure 9.4.²¹

But in Manilius one planet is missing, namely the ‘jovial’ Jupiter, the reasonable deity in his best age, exempt from all comic features. He would occupy the middle in a quincunx-figure, comparable to what we see (in another planetary distribution with Saturn in the middle) in the Carolingian Codex Leidensis Vossianus (Figure 9.5).

This kind of two-dimensional figure was well known in antiquity, and it could be read in four directions: from left to right, right to left, top downwards, or bottom upwards.²² A parallel is offered by Servius during his discussion of how the souls sink down from heaven to earth. The souls assume in each planetary sphere a different vice, and—though writing in prose—Servius adopts a similar chiastic formula (Serv. ad Aen. 6.714):²³

cum descendunt animae, trahunt secum

torporem Saturni, Martis iracundiam,

libidinem Veneris, Mercurii lucri cupiditatem,

Iovis regni desiderium.

(p. 148 )

Figure 9.5. Quincunx of the planets. Codex Leidensis Vossianus lat. 79 (9th cent.), fo. 80^v. University Library, Leiden University. Reproduced by permission.

When the spirits descend, they drag with them

the sloth of Saturn, the anger of Mars,

the sexual appetite of Venus, the desire for profit associated with Mercury,

and a longing for kingdom associated with Jupiter.

Here again Jupiter is excluded from the two chiasmic arrangements. We have to read the Manilian quartet (Figure 9.3) on the left bottom upwards and on the right top downwards to get the Servian order. So the stylistic chiasmus that we witness in both Manilius and Servius might well correspond to the astrological and mnemotechnic classification of the planets.

(p. 149 ) By another stylistic phenomenon, comparison, Homer opens within the heroic world a kind of window onto real life.²⁴ Didactic poets developed this epic form for their own purpose, as demonstrated in Claudia Schindler’s excellent thesis (2000). Manilius also employs it for the interpenetration of macrocosm and microcosm. Having already treated the melothesia (the correspondence of the zodiacal signs and the members of the human body) in book 2,²⁵ he repeats it before exposing the zodiacal geography in book 4 in the parenthetic form of an epic comparison.²⁶ In this traditional epic technique, he found a tool to embrace the world-wide ubiquity of the twelvefold structure.

There are two verses written about the messengers born under the winged Pegasus, which rise together with the equally winged Fishes (5.640–1):²⁷

nam quis ab extremo citius revolaverit orbe

nuntius extremumve levis penetraverit orbem?

Who more swiftly could fly back from the ends of the earth

as a messenger or with light foot to the earth’s end make the way?

By describing the movement back from far away, and then—by return of post—a repeat of the outward journey, Manilius adopts the point of view of somebody who first receives and then delivers a message. The repetition of the hyperbolic expression²⁸ ab extremo…orbe and extremum…orbem corresponds to the reciprocal position of the two zodiacal Fishes, called enantiodromia (crossing position) by Jung and visible in idealized form in Figure 9.6.²⁹ This depiction is a fanciful interpretation of the real configuration of the Fishes, which may be seen in Figure 9.7. (p. 150 )

Figure 9.6. The idealized enantiodromia of the zodiacal Fishes. Impression of a marble slab from Roman Egypt. From Boll 1903, Table VI, reproduced by permission.

Apart from the repetition there is an important difference between the two verbs. The verb revolaverit alludes to the winged nature of the northern fish, named ‘Swallow-Fish’ by the Babylonians,³⁰ whereas penetraverit (not rendered verbatim by Goold) corresponds to the aquatic nature of the diving southern fish. The contrast between the two verbal metaphors corresponds to the fundamental struggle (p. 151 )

Figure 9.7. The real configuration of the two zodiacal Fishes. Diagram B. van der Waerden. From Journal of Near Eastern Studies 8 (1949), p. 15, reproduced by permission.

between water, the element of winter and the Whale, and air, the element of springtime and of both Pegasus and Perseus, who defeated the Whale in a contest only recently described in the Andromeda epyllion (5.538–618).³¹

While the repetition of orbe/orbem occurs in two subsequent verses, the repetition of extremus recurs at a ten-verse interval at the end of the zodiacal year. The two last true companions of the Fishes are contrasted on both sides of the ecliptic. First there is Engonasin, today referred to as Hercules (5.647): dextra per extremos attollit lumina Pisces (‘brings forth its stars on the right simultaneously with the last portion of the Fishes’). Then there is Cetus, the Whale (5.656–7):³² laeva sub extremis consurgunt sidera Ceti / Piscibus (‘On the left, together with the last portion of the Fishes rise (p. 152 ) the stars of the Whale’). Once more the poet alludes to the fundamental struggle between the two elements representing the seasons and between North and South—which provides another argument for identifying Engonasin-Hercules with Perseus, the subduer of Cetus (otherwise omitted as paranatellon in this book).³³ So the antagonism between Perseus and Cetus corresponds to the opposition between the two zodiacal Fishes, one of whom is winged while the other is merely an aquatic being.

You may have strong reservations about all these combinations. But there is a parallel to be found in modern Manilian research. Calcante 2002: 132 tries to replace a discarded and rebutted kind of ‘Quellenforschung’ with a new semiotic approach. Dealing with the epyllion of Andromeda and the effect of her constellation that engenders cruel hangmen (5.619–30), he compares the hangman with Perseus, the saviour of Andromeda, calling him an ‘anti-Perseo’ and vice versa Perseus an ‘anti-carnefice’—without paying attention to the fact that Andromeda is a paranatellon of the two Fishes that swim in opposite directions, bound together by a band (Figure 9.6) as Andromeda is chained to the rock.³⁴ Without being aware of this, the ahistorical semiotic research works in the same manner as astrologers do.

The enantiodromia leads to verbal antithesis. In the astrological tradition, the weak stars of the zodiac are said to cause blindness by overstraining the eyes of the observer:³⁵ first of all the Cloud (Νεφέλιον, Nubecula) situated within the Crab. Manilius expresses blindness in a bold zeugmatic antithesis of two opposite verbs (4.534):³⁶ ‘everyone lives and buries himself ’ (se quisque et vivit et effert).³⁷ The Crab is the first sign of the already mentioned last triangle that is composed of beings far from human nature. Under the third sign of this triangle, the Fishes, death will no longer be ‘half ’, but definitive, as it has been (p. 153 ) described in cruel detail under the last paranatellon: the Whale (Cetus) is itself cruelly killed in the battle with Perseus.³⁸

A good example of verbal antithesis reflects a stellar configuration near the North Pole. The septentrional Dragon both separates and embraces the two Bears: 1.306 dividit et cingit.³⁹ In this formula, the two opposite verbs correspond to the well-known dialectic ambiguity of the copula ‘and’: first we have to distinguish two objects before bringing them together again.⁴⁰ As for Ophiuchus and his snake, the two verbs are not paralleled, but syntactically combined: ‘he displays the snake that embraces him’ (1.331–2):⁴¹

serpentem magnis Ophiuchus nomine gyris

dividit et torto cingentem corpore corpus.

The so-called Ophiuchus holds apart the serpent

which with its mighty spirals and twisted body encircles his own.

Here, instead of the verbal antithesis, the interpenetration of the two bodies is expressed by the noun polyptoton corpore corpus.

This figure becomes all the more forceful when the verb remains the same, and such interpenetration induces the poet to eliminate the distinction between active and passive. In the distribution of the thirty-six decani (thirds of zodiacal signs, each of ten degrees)⁴² over the twelve zodia, the two opposite signs of the solstices, Cancer and Capricorn, concede their first decanus to each other (Figure 9.8).

When Manilius comes to deal with Capricorn, he expresses the mutual interpenetration by eliminating the distinction as follows (4.351):⁴³ munus reddit Cancro recipitque receptus (‘he (Capricorn) discharges his obligation to the Crab: welcomed himself to the Crab’s domain, he welcomes the Crab to his’).

(p. 154 )

Figure 9.8. The 36 decani distributed over the twelve zodiacal signs. Diagram Wolfgang Hübner.

Once again, the same figure appears near the North Pole, in the description of the constant circular movement of the two Bears: 1.304 sequiturque sequentem (‘and she follows her pursuer’).⁴⁴ It should be added that the deponent form sequitur initiates the reciprocity, because the idea of active pursuit is expressed by a passive form. So already in the act of pursuing, she is also the object of pursuit.

As for polyptoton involving nouns, the following examples show a stronger astrological background. Like all ‘tropic’ (moveable) signs, the Crab favours trading: 4.169 orbisque orbi bona vendere (‘selling the goods of the earth to the earth’).⁴⁵ Here the polyptoton (p. 155 ) is facilitated by another typically Manilian stylistic figure, synecdoche, that is, the use either of a specific element to denote the entire object, or—as Manilius prefers—of the general term to denote the specific item (totum pro parte). The first form orbis strictly means the habitable world, whereas the dative orbi refers via synecdoche only to the inhabitants of the world.⁴⁶ Typical Manilian synecdoches of this kind have often been misunderstood or changed by inept conjecture.

Near the opposite winter solstice appears a corresponding combination of polyptoton and synecdoche under Capricorn and Cepheus, signs that create together, among other natives, comedians or comic writers who, like Menander, ‘show real life to life’:⁴⁷ 5.476 vitae ostendit vitam. Elsewhere I have demonstrated in more detail that this formula goes back to one literary and two astrological roots.⁴⁸ Literary tradition compares New Comedy to a mirror that reflects real life. The stereotype of comic characters mentioned above resembles the typology of astrological determinism. In this special case two astrological data can be added, first the system of zodiacal signs that regard (or hear) each other (see Figure 9.9).⁴⁹ In the middle of Cancer and Capricorn the parallels of regarding converge into one point, with the result that Capricorn regards itself, creating the mirror of comedy. The second astrological root is a strange constellation of Teucer’s Sphaera barbarica that, in the circle of the so-called dodecaoros, corresponds to Capricorn: the Ape (Πίθηκος), the mimetic animal par excellence.

Figure 9.9. The system of signs that are ‘regarding’ (horizontal lines) or ‘hearing’ each other (perpendicular lines). Diagram Wolfgang Hübner.

(p. 156 ) Tropes

In stylistic terms, τρόπος means ‘version’,⁵⁰ a slight distortion of the sense; in astronomy τροπή signifies the turning point of the sun within the two zodiacal signs that are furthest removed from the celestial equator, Cancer and Capricorn. Astrology designates as tropic signs also the two equinoctial signs, Aries and Libra. So the four signs of the so-called first square are all ‘tropic’, signs of change.⁵¹ Manilius translates the term τροπικός by mutare⁵² or (p. 157 ) vertere.⁵³ For the related prognostications he uses the former in different metaphors: the sailor born under Argo with Aries 4°, that is, near the vernal equinox, ‘inverts sea for land’ (mutabit pelago terras, 5.42). The merchant born under the Southern Fish and the tropic Capricorn ‘purchases at a fixed wage another’s labour and exchanges it’ (emit externos pretio mutatque labores, 5.407). Victories are also turning points. When the Romans defeated an enemy they believed that they owed their success to Jupiter Versor or Mars Versor and dressed a τρόπαιον. But Manilius goes further: the constellation of Argo causes both a victory and a defeat in sea-battles, as a former victory (Salamis) is balanced by a subsequent defeat (Syracuse): versa Syracusis Salamis non merget Athenas (‘(without this constellation) Salamis, reversed by Syracuse, will not immerse Athens’, 5.50). The metaphor versa here is facilitated by the metonymy, since Syracusis stands for the defeat and Salamis for the victory.⁵⁴

Metonymy

Synecdoche—in both directions—expresses the interpenetration of macrocosm and microcosm. It often concerns the expanded regions of the universe, earth, ocean, and heaven, and these regions are associated with three of the four astrological elements, the homonymic earth, water, and air (fire is excluded). Since Parmenides, the heaven is designated either by the mountain Olympus or by its northern πόλος⁵⁵ and the horizon by Ὠκέανος, conceived as a large river surrounding the earth.

At the beginning of the Andromeda epyllion, Manilius says that the parents ‘exposed their daughter to the wild sea’: 5.543 vesano dedere ponto. A similar idea is expressed a little later when the poet speaks of Perseus (5.575): destinat in thalamos per bellum vadere ponti (‘he resolves to enter into marriage through war against the sea’).⁵⁶ Critics (p. 158 ) have pointed out that it was not the sea, but the Whale (Cetus) to whom Andromeda was offered.⁵⁷ But this is to overlook the astrological background. The synecdoche in ponto reveals the fundamental meaning of Perseus’ struggle from the air above to the sea below, as I suggested a little earlier. The sea represents water, winter, and the South. In the same manner, the Ram, situated at the vernal equinox, which carried Phrixus and his sister Nephele across the Aegean and the Black Sea, like another Perseus, is named ponti victor (‘conqueror of the sea’, 5.21).⁵⁸ At the end of the passage about Argo, a third ponti victor is related to us: none other than Octavian, in the battle of Actium.⁵⁹

Metonymy is combined with polyptoton when the fish-tailed Capricorn engenders, together with the Dolphin, swimmers of different kinds, and finally also divers ‘looking for the treasures of the sea within the sea’: 5.431 in ponto…quaerere pontum. This expression reinforces the connection with the wet and cold element. In his corresponding chapter, Firmicus Maternus introduces the planet Saturn, which passes as humid because it moves the furthest from the sun.⁶⁰ It is more likely that Manilius replaced the planet by the stylistic metonymy than that Firmicus replaced the stylistic figure by the planet. Moreover, the Southern Fish, rising together with the beginning of Capricorn when the sun reaches the deepest point of its course, creates divers that bring up pearls from the depths of the sea. With a moralizing touch, Manilius says: oneratur terra profundo (‘the land is burdened by the treasures of the depth’, 5.405). The metonymy profundo enhances the contrast between earth and water, the two elements rivalling for the deepest position in the universe,⁶¹ (p. 159 ) and recalls the two elements that comprise Capricorn itself: earth (in the form of the goat) and water (in the form of the fish).

The ‘burdening of earth’ also agrees with the astrological hierarchy whereby water was regarded as heavier than earth. This metaphor finds its complement at the very end of the Andromeda epyllion, that is, near the vernal point in quartile aspect to the winter solstice. The story does not end with the catasterism of Andromeda, but with the defeated Whale, whose weight ‘lightens’ the sea (5.617–18):⁶²

concidit ipsa

Gorgone non levius monstrum pelagusque levavit.

A monster no less terrible than the Gorgo herself

perished and relieved the sea.

In a further sense, Andromeda is ‘lightened’ from a cruel death, and in this sense we find the corresponding metaphor at the opposite position under the Arrow, which rises with Libra 8°, the autumnal point. Alcon, the third of the three archers mentioned above, saves his son by striking a snake that had slithered across the sleeping boy. Once more, impending death is averted. As Manilius says, et pariter iuvenem somnoque ac morte levavit (‘and he (Alcon) lightened the young man likewise from sleep and death’, 5.309).⁶³ The two metaphors pelagus…levavit and morte levavit functionally form an opposition at the two decisive equinoctial points of the year.

Metaphor

As I pointed out at the beginning, metaphor is a fundamental operator of astrology. In modern literary theory we observe an inflation of this term that tends to embrace all kinds of symbolism, by metaphor of metaphor, but in this case we are really allowed to use the notion of translatio. The human mind has invented in the firmament all kinds of beings: human, animals, and soulless objects—flying, swimming, walking, running, standing, sitting, or extended. The ancients were aware (p. 160 ) that the so-called ‘fixed’ constellations move during the daily rotation. The heavenly population therefore offers poetry manifold possibilities for metaphors, and Manilius does not fail to exploit this potential.⁶⁴ Here are just a few examples. Since the air and the sky are often equated, all constellations seem to ‘fly’.⁶⁵ But when speaking about the six opposite pairs of zodia, Manilius uses the frequentative verb volitare (‘keep flying’) only for the winged signs Virgo and Pisces (2.414–15):⁶⁶

Pisces et Virginis artus

adversi volitant, sed amant communia iura.

The Fishes and the limbs of the Virgin

keep flying in opposition but cherish the bonds they share.

The opposite position suggests some difference between the two constellations, but there is also conformity, alluded to already in the former part of the sentence: the noun artus evokes parts of their bodies, their wings, as does the verb volitant. Not only is the Virgin winged, in conformity with Aratus’ goddess Dike (Justice),⁶⁷ but the two Fishes are likewise counted among the winged zodiacal signs because of the ‘Swallow-Fish’ (for which see the discussion above).

A special case is the rising of the Southern Fish, of which Manilius says, alienis finibus ibit (‘it will walk in an unusual region’, 5.395).⁶⁸ While Aratus and his translator Germanicus often use, respectively, the verbs ἰέναι and ire and composita for the movement of the constellations,⁶⁹ Manilius generally avoids them. In this case the metaphor emphasizes the constellation’s relationship to Capricorn. The Fish ‘walks’ on heaven, as if it were on land, and this corresponds once again to the hybrid figure of the ‘goat-fish’, whom he accompanies. Heaven appears to be like land, just as the rising ship Argo is ‘ (p. 161 ) drawn from the sea to heaven’ (in caelum subducta mari, 1.413; the verb subducere is the term for drawing ships on land).⁷⁰ Furthermore, Argo moves backwards, just as ships were drawn on land.⁷¹

The Southern Fish, situated below Capricorn at the winter solstice, has a rival on the northern hemisphere: the Dolphin, jumping from the water upwards to the air or sky. It procreates among other things petauristae (acrobatic jumpers) ‘landing on the ground softly as in water’ (ut liquidis ponuntur in undis, 5.443). Here, the two elements water and earth are connected by comparison instead of metaphor.

I omit special cases of metaphor such as hyperbole⁷² in order to proceed to another typical Manilian procedure, ‘interiorization’, by which I mean the poet’s transferral of real activities to internal movements of the mind. With the winter solstice under Capricorn, two extrazodiacal constellations rise: the Southern Fish (below) and the Lyre (in the North). Unlike Firmicus,⁷³ Manilius calls the Lyre Fides, a move which allows him to make clever use of a double-meaning, as fides is both a musical instrument and an instrument of torture.⁷⁴ Metaphor allows Manilius to express two different but corresponding prognostications. The divers born under the Southern Fish bring up to the surface their hidden riches (5.398–400):⁷⁵

(p. 162 ) pendentem et caeco captabit in aequore piscem

cumque suis domibus concha valloque latentis

protrahet immersus.

He will capture fish as they swim poised in the hidden depths,

and, immersed himself, will bring them forth together with the homes

of protective shell wherein they lurk.

The torturers, however, born under Fides, bring to the surface hidden knowledge (5.411–13):⁷⁶

quaesitor scelerum veniet vindexque reorum,

qui commissa suis rimabitur argumentis

in lucemque trahet tacita latitantia fraude.

There shall be born a man to investigate wrongdoing and punish the guilty,

he will get to the bottom of crimes by sifting the evidence for them

and will bring to light all that lies hidden under the silence of deceit.

By employing such a metaphor, the activities of the diver and the investigative judge are brought into close contact, as is appropriate for the two constellations on both sides of the zodiac that accompany the deepest point of the solar course.

Elsewhere Manilius expresses an interior and an exterior action with the same verb pendēre: Andromeda hangs on the rock, but ‘in her mind she is even more in suspense’, when she witnesses Perseus’ struggle against the monster: 5.607 animoque magis quam corpore pendet.⁷⁷ The poet gives here a double interpretation of the two Fishes (p. 163 ) tied by the band (see Figures 9.6 and 9.7), benefitting from the polysemy (expansion of meaning) of pendēre.

Polysemy relates to the interrelation of cosmic sympatheia, which brings together what had previously been mentally distinguished. The verb pendēre, most highly appreciated by the poet, can signify not only the acts of flying and swimming (of fish, men, or ships),⁷⁸ but also the earth, which is suspended in the middle of the universe (1.201):⁷⁹ terra quoque aerias leges imitata pependit (‘the Earth, too, in obedience to celestial laws, has hung suspended’). The ancients were always aware of the frail balance of cosmic energy. It is only during the last years of our own time that mankind has become aware of this anew.

As for birds and fish we find two corresponding expressions. The Arrow rising with Libra 8° (at the autumnal point) creates bird-catchers that snare their prey down from the air (5.296):⁸⁰ pendentemque suo volucrem deprendere caelo (‘hitting a bird in the wing of the sky that is its home’). The Southern Fish however, rising with the beginning of Capricorn at the winter solstice, creates fishermen that catch their prey upwards from the depth of water (5.398): pendentem et caeco captabit in aequore piscem (‘he will capture fish as they swim poised in the hidden depths’).⁸¹

This phraseology, which emphasizes vertical movement, corresponds to the movement downwards and upwards, according to the quartile aspect of two critical points of the sun’s course, the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice: in Libra, the sun crosses the equator down to the inferior hemisphere, while in Capricorn it begins a new ascent from the depths upwards towards the North.

We have seen that Andromeda, exposed to the monster, dangles in chains from the rock (5.552, 565, 569, 607), in parallel to the band of the zodiacal Fishes (Figures 9.6 and 9.7). But Perseus her saviour, is likewise ‘hanging, suspended from the air’ (caelo pendens, 5.593). Both lovers are thus shown in the act of pendēre. As paranatellon of the Fishes, Perseus was replaced by a strange constellation named Engonasin (‘the kneeling man’), and those born under this sign will (p. 164 ) be rope-dancers, which equally appear to be ‘suspended’ in the air.⁸² Manilius uses another elegant pun here. The rope-dancer, ‘suspended on the rope [drawn from the band of the Fishes as well] will bind his spectators to himself ’: 5.655 pendens populum suspendet ab ipso.⁸³ With this verbal polyptoton, Manilius once more transfers physical hanging to an internal suspense. The interdependence between artist and spectators, another effect of the two zodiacal Fishes, may also be an image of the interrelation between the didactic poet and his audience. Scaliger had the brilliant idea to compare this passage to a text from book 1, where the galaxis, the only of the eleven heavenly ‘circles’ which is visible, stupefies its observers, ‘causing mortals to incline their heads backwards to it’ (resupina facit mortalibus ora, 1.715).⁸⁴ This may also be compared to what Manilius says elsewhere: 4.121 pendentem…ad sidera vatem (‘the poet being in suspense towards the stars’).⁸⁵ The divine universe, too, is acting as an artist that fascinates its observers. So finally, polysemy and verbal polyptoton correspond to astrological determinism, to the fundamental interdependence that connects human beings with the universe.⁸⁶

Notes

(1) Scaliger 1655: 18: ‘poeta ingeniosissimus, nitidissimus scriptor, qui obscuras res tam luculento sermone, materiam morosissimam tam iucundo charactere exornare potuerit, Ovidio suavitate par, maiestate superior’ (‘a very ingenious poet, a very elegant writer, who was able to decorate obscure arguments with such clear language, the very morose material by such a pleasant quality, equal to Ovid in sweetness, in majesty superior’). See also Garrod 1911: lxxiv: ‘he has in addition a grace and charm, a fluency and limpidity of style which brings him near to Ovid’.

(2) Topitsch 1972: 24 and 115 ‘Projektion und Reflexion’; see also Denningmann 2005: 3–7.

(3) I generally follow the edn. and translation of Goold: Astr. 2.38: caelum trad., mundum Housman 1903–30, 1932; Liuzzi 1983; Goold 1977, 1985; Fels 1990; Feraboli et al. 1996–2001. Cf. Volk 2001: 95 n. 16; 2002: 222. For caelum, see Lühr 1969: 28 n. 3; Liuzzi 1991–7: 2.125; s 2002: 68 n. 73. On caelum and mundus in Manilius, see Liuzzi 1986: 43. Caelum here is a synecdoche meaning ‘the stars of heaven’, see below.

(4) Compare Volk in this volume who, continuing to read mundum, believes that Manilius here actually endorses the philosophical view that it is the earth which depends on heaven.

(5) I omit from the discussion the accumulation of effects in the contrasting stories of the two constellations rising with the Crab, the huge hero Orion and his little dog Procyon (Astr. 5.174–96, 197–205), which create a higher and lower stylistic level, respectively; see Hübner 2010: 2.99–114.

(6) Manilius says that the universe could hardly be described even in prose: vixque soluta suis immittit verba figuris (‘scarce allowing even words of prose to be fitted to their proper phrasing’, 1.24). This line has generated significant philological discussion. Bentley 1739, van Wageningen 1915, and Liuzzi 1991–7: 1.115 are most convincing in taking this to refer to the shapes of the constellations; see Waszink 1956: 589–90, who shows that only Manilius uses this word for the stars (TLL 6.729.40–4). Ambiguity, suggested by Volk 2002: 240–1, is less probable. Some material on stylistic figures has been collected by A. Cramer 1882: ch. 4, ‘De Manilii figuris et tropis’. Fine observations can be found in Salemme 1983: 107–46 (= 2000: 105–43), ch. 5, ‘Il realismo espressivo’.

(7) Hipparchus (apud Eratosth. Cat. 23 extr.) sees a triangular shape in the Pleiades. On the Triangulum, see Hübner 2006a.

(8) In general, the Greek word for the double or mixed signs, δίσημον, ‘of two bodies’, is translated by bicorporeus only later; in the classical period it is dismembered into two separate words, cf. Astr. 2.660 duplici…figura; see Hübner 1982: 74–7, no. 1.311, and 104–10, no. 2.21.

(9) More conventional is the circular composition Manilius employs in describing the round figure of the Crown (Corona). The poet frames the related passage with Coronae, a word which concludes the verse at the beginning and, in a punch line, at the very end of the passage: Astr. 5.253 Ariadnaeae…Coronae and 5.269 floresque Coronae.

(10) Ptol. Tetr. 4.4.9 πρὸς τὸ ποικίλον τῶν πράξεων (‘towards the variation of the activities’), cf. 2.9.19; 3.14.2; 4.9.2. Vett. Val. 1.3.45 πᾶσαι δὲ ἐν τῷ Τοξότῃ [sc. μοίραι] ποικίλαι περὶ πάντα τὰ πράγματα (‘all degrees within the Archer are manifold concerning all the activities’). More prolix Firm. Math. 3.6.26 (Venus culminating above): sicut enim in imaginibus artifex pictor liniamenta membrorum ex varia mixturarum diversitate persignat et temperatis coloribus certam corporis formam imitatione facit similitudinis corporalis, sic et stellarum coniuncta radiatio societatis consensu pariter temperata vim quandam vicissim ex coniunctis sibi potestatibus mutuatur et substantia sibi ex diverso ignium colore collata fata hominum ad picturae modum aequata societatis moderatione depingit (‘For as a painter designs in his pictures the lines of the members by a different variety of mixture, and creates, by imitation and the mixture of colours, a certain form of the body, in the same manner the combined radiation of the stars, tempered equally by consensus of participation, modifies a certain effect from the powers that are connected with it, and the substance that is joined from the different colours of the starry fires paints, like in picture, the destiny of men, by the tempered mixture of partnership’).

(11) Astr. 4.277 innumerae veniunt artes (‘there rise innumerable activities’). In the zodiacal geography, 4.805 innumeris vix complectenda figuris (‘that can scarcely be comprehended by (verbal) figures’). For the fertility of the Fishes, cf. Astr. 2.237 partu complentes aequora Pisces (‘the Fishes, filling the sea with their offspring’); 4.582 Venus instilled her fire into the Fishes (see Hübner 1982: 156–64, no. 3.321).

(12) Astr. 5.298–310: Teucer (the brother of Ajax from Salamis), Philoctetes, and Alcon (an ancient precursor of Wilhelm Tell).

(13) Boll 1903; Gundel 1949; Hübner 1975, 1995b: 1.92–3.

(14) Neugebauer 1975: 1.286–7 and 2.594–8; see also Hübner 2007.

(15) Hübner 1993: 22–3.

(16) Teucer, ed. Hübner 1995b: 1.118–9 (1.7.6) and 1.125 (1.12.10), with commentary.

(17) Differently Firm. Math. 8.12.1 tridente vel cuspide (‘with a trident or a spear’). Skutsch 1910: 632 blames an erroneous translation, but Firmicus depends on the common source (see Hübner 1975: 401–3).

(18) Ptol. Alm. 7.5 p. 72–3.14 Heiberg τῶν ἐν τῷ καλάμῳ τριῶν (‘of the three (stars) situated in the shaft’).

(19) Hübner 1984: 215.

(20) For another articulation of this antithesis, cf. Verg. G. 1.336–7 (quoted also by Sen. Ep. 88.14): frigida Saturni sese quo stella receptet, quos ignis caelo Cyllenius erret in orbis (‘where retires the frigid planet of Saturn, in what circles errs the fire of Mercury in the sky’).

(21) Ptol. Tetr. 2.3; see Hübner 1998: 99.

(22) I have collected some examples in Hübner 1989: 58–62.

(23) See also Hübner 1997: 45–81, esp. 51.

(24) Schadewaldt 1952.

(25) Astr. 2.453–65, following the tutelae of the twelve gods.

(26) Astr. 4.704–9, one of the numerous zodiacal hexasticha that contain a pair of signs in each line. For the repeated melothesia, see Hübner 1984: 237–42.

(27) For the winged Fishes, cf. Rhetorius, CCAG 7.4 (216.13): ‘in the winged signs, I mean in the first degrees of the Fishes because of (simultaneously rising) Pegasus’; see Hübner 1982: 125–6, no. 2.313.2.

(28) See Flores1966: 99. On hyperbole in Manilius, see A. Cramer 1882: 51; Müller 1903: 82 n. 20; Breiter 1907–8: 119 ad Astr. 4.262; Bühler 1959: 475–6 ad Astr. 5.222 and 494 ad Astr. 1.926; Salemme 1983: 130 (= 2000: 128), who follows Breiter. On hyperbole in general, Hunziker 1896 is still illuminating.

(29) See Jung 1978: 81–103, esp. 103; see also 96 (‘Gegensatzvereinigung’).

(30) See Bouché-Leclercq 1899: 148 + n. 2; Boll 1903: 196–7; Boll and Gundel 1924–37: 46–54, 979.

(31) Here and in later examples in this chapter I maintain that the action of the Andromeda epyllion has an astrological meaning, and that there is a strong connection between the epyllion and its outer, Piscean context; see Hübner 1984: 197–201. For a different argument for the integrity of the Andromeda epyllion in the poem, see Uden in this volume.

(32) This parallelism is all the more significant since, in other cases, the poet uses different expressions, as for the signs of the first triangle: Astr. 5.128 (Capella with Aries 30°) ultima…pars; 5.234 (Crater with Leo 30°) ultima pars; 5.365 (Cygnus with Sagittarius 30°) ter decima sub parte.

(33) See Hübner 1982: 623–34; 1984: 193–203.

(34) See Hübner 1984: 197–212; 2007: 98 and 102.

(35) See Hübner 1982: 193–6, no. 3.423.3.

(36) For the astrological explanation Manilius employs a nominal polyptoton; cf. 4.531–2 qua velut exustus Phoebeis ignibus ignis / deficit et multa fuscat caligine sidus (‘where his own fire fails, as though burnt out by the Sun’s, and darkens the signs with impenetrable fog’).

(37) Other examples: 1.253 faciatque feratque (‘furnish and receive’); 1.537 veniuntque caduntque (‘coming into view and setting’); 1.862 sequiturque fugitque (‘pursues and shuns’); 2.88 redditque rapitque (‘gives and takes away’). As an effect of the tropic Ram, 5.49 pelagus Xerxes facietque tegetque (‘Xerxes will open up a new sea and cover over the old’). See Christiansen 1908: 203–5.

(38) 5.558–681. See in greater detail Hübner 1984: 169–74.

(39) Cf. 1.452 [sc. Arctos] distingui medias claudique Dracone (‘that (the Bears) are separated and encircled by the Dragon’). More generally, 4.364–5 [sc. ratio] caelum / dividit et…sociat…orbem (‘it divides the heavens and associates the universe’).

(40) It is well known that in general the former aspect is expressed by the Latin et and atque, and the second by the generalizing -que, as in quisque, quicumque, bique, etc.

(41) In describing the two colures that cross the tropic point and the two poles, Manilius uses the same figure: 1.603 quos recipit ductos a vertice vertex (‘which are drawn from one pole and received by the other’).

(42) Astr. 4.312–62; cf. Bouché-Leclercq 1899: 217–19; Gundel1936: 246–7.

(43) More conventional is 3.16 victam quia vicerat urbem (‘conquered because of its conquest’); with an erotic touch, cf. 5.571–2 victorque Medusae / victus in Andromeda est (‘the vanquisher of Medusa was vanquished at the sight of Andromeda’).

(44) This is a Virgilian formula; cf. Verg. Aen. 11.695 (Camilla and her pursuer, compared by van Wageningen 1921: 59). Cf. the Bears at Arat. Phaen. 30.

(45) See Hübner 1982: 549–50 on Astr. 4.166 quaestus artemque lucrorum (‘acquisition and the art of earning’). Cf. 3.86 venit orbis in orbem (mostly misunderstood): ‘the circle comes back to itself (i.e. to its beginning)’. On this, see Valvo 1956: 116; she compares Asclep. 40 p. 351 cum omnia se semper et praecedere videantur et sequi (‘when all seems always to precede itself and to follow’), which recalls the already mentioned verbal polyptoton on the two Bears at 1.304, sequiturque sequentem. Note the astrological interest in the repetition of ‘merchandise’ by a distance of 180° in Astr. 4.167 merce (Cancer) and 4.252 mercem (Capricorn).

(46) Cf. 3.591 [sc. mundus] redit in terras (‘the sky comes back to earth [i.e. into the field of vision for terrestrial inhabitants]’); compare the dative at 5.104 = 5.129 terris.

(47) See Salemme 1983: 114–15 n. 11 (= 2000: 112–13 n. 10), who classifies this under ‘Influenza della retorica’, hinting at Lanson 1887: ch. 4 ‘Quam rhetorice Manilius rem astrologicam tractaverit’.

(48) For greater detail, see Hübner 1984: 187–91.

(49) See Hübner 1982: 64–72, no. 1.221. The acoustic complement under Lyra with Libra 26° depicts a solitary singer who sings only for himself: 5.336 solus et ipse suas semper cantabit ad aures (‘and, left to himself, he will ever sing to his own ears’). Manilius uses a reflexive construction, in the opposite equinox, for the Ram—2.485 consilium ipse suum est Aries (‘the Ram is his own counsel’)—and once more for Capricorn: 2.507–8 Capricornus in ipsum / convertit visus (‘Capricorn turns his gaze upon himself ’), hinting at the autarchic Augustus.

(50) Calcante 2002: 126 (on Astr. 5.121 rerumque tumultus) speaks about ‘il tropo tropico della sedizione come tempesta’ without hinting at the fact that the Hyades are rising together with the tropic Ram; see Hübner 1982: 536.

(51) Bouché-Leclercq 1899: 170–1; Hübner 1982: 74–80, no. 1.311.

(52) Cf. Astr. 2.191 mutantque in tempora signum (‘they change the sign to suit the change of season’).

(53) Cf. Astr. 3.621–2 quae tropica appellant, quod in illis quattuor anni / tempora vertuntur signis (‘which they call tropic signs, since in them turn the four seasons of the year’). Cf. also 3.666 tempora vertunt (‘they change the seasons’).

(54) Examples of metonymy and synecdoche were collected by A. Cramer 1882: 52–3. Synecdoche, in which the particular aspect stands in for the whole, is a linguistic form of magic analogy: Cassirer1922: 42–3 = 48–9; 1925: 66 and 83.

(55) Astr. 1.225; esp. the northern part of the heaven: 5.131 and 693. If one is aware of this, one may avoid unnecessary conjectures like 2.38 terra…composuit caelum.

(56) Voss 1972: 416 is right in translating ‘durch einen Kampf mit dem Meer’.

(57) See e.g. Paschoud 1982: 138 n. 54: ‘ce n’est évidemment pas la mer, qu’il va combattre, mais le monstre venu de la mer, qui n’est que le lieu du combat’. A similar metonymy misled Housman to a conjecture, accepted by some later scholars. At Astr. 5.660—pontum vinclis armare furentem (‘to equip the wild sea with chains (= nets))’—he changes furentem to furentes, thereby shifting the fury from the animals of the sea to the fishermen. The parallels given before justify the transmitted text.

(58) According to Teucr. 1.1.4, Perseus rises exactly with the vernal point Aries 8°–10°; see Hübner 1995b: 1.108–9.

(59) Astr. 5.52–3, and since the parallels of hearing converge in one point (Fig. 9.9), another reflexive idea follows: 5.55 coit ipsa sibi tellus (‘the earth comes together with itself ’—either in commerce, or in the battle of Actium).

(60) Firm. Math. 8.15.2 cum Saturni testimonio urinator erit (‘under the witness of Saturn he will be a diver’).

(61) For this rivalry, see Hübner 1984: 150–8.

(62) The translation of Goold, ‘relieved the sea of a curse’, is misleading; cf. 5.581 onus monstri (‘the weight of the monster’).

(63) This linguistic parallel enhances the observation made by Feraboli et al. 1996–2001: 2.530 ad Astr. 5.538–639: ‘due eroi del mito, Perseo e Alcone, salvano una creatura inerme prossima ad essere uccisa da un mostro’. Compare the zeugma at 4.534 (se quisque et vivit et aufert).

(64) Many examples have been collected by A. Cramer 1882: 53–5.

(65) Astr. 1.200 cum luna et stellae volitent per inania mundi (‘when the Moon and the stars wing their way through empty regions of the sky’); 1.806 terram caelumque inter volitantia pendent (‘(the planets) in their swift orbit are poised between heaven and earth’); 2.18 omnia…immenso volitantia lumina mundo (‘all the luminaries that fly through the vast heavens’). Of winged beings, cf. Cygnus (5.366 evolat), Pegasus (5.633 caelo…volabit).

(66) See Hübner 1984: 223 with n. 279.

(67) Cf. the end of her catasterism at Arat. Phaen. 134 ἔπταθ’ ὑπουρανίη (‘she flew up to heaven’).

(68) In the preceding line we read se patrio producens aequore (‘heaving itself from its native waters’): it demands effort to rise from the extreme depths.

(69) See Santini 1981: 179–80.

(70) For more detail, see Hübner 1984: 260 n. 414.

(71) Only half of Argo is represented, namely its stern; see Boll 1903: 141 and 437; Boll and Gundel 1924–37: 1005.44–1006.5.

(72) In the battle between Perseus and Cetus, Manilius first mentions the flying Perseus—5.577 concitat aërios cursus (‘he quickly cuts a path through the air’)—but in the culmination of the struggle specific mention is made of the upper region: Perseus always withdraws up to the spacious ether (5.599 laxum…per aethera ludit, ‘moves through the yielding air’). It is true that the poets confuse the two words: see Kießling and Heinze 1898 ad Hor. Carm. 1.28.5 aërias (aetherias Meineke); Pfeiffer 1932: 201; Lunelli 1969: 30; Zwierlein 1987: 283. But the context always has to be considered. In this case, Manilius emphasizes the ethereal nature of the advantageous upper region that favours Perseus’ position.

(73) Firm. Math. 8.15.3 in X. parte Capricorni oritur Lyra (‘in the tenth degree of Capricorn rises the Lyre’).

(74) This ambiguity presupposes the Latin language and cannot be drawn from the Greek source; cf. 5.416 caeruleus ‘coloured like the sky’ for the Dolphin that inhabits sea and air.

(75) There is a similar prognostication for the Dolphin that vies with the Southern Fish for the position under the winter-solstice (Firm. Math. 8.15.2 gives Capricornus 8°, the exact turning point): 5.434–5 exportantque maris praedas… /…atque imas avidi scrutantur harenas (‘they bring forth the spoils of the sea…and eagerly search the sandy bottom’). The terrestrial counterpart can be found in the first zodiologion (= set of prognostications for each of the twelve zodiacal signs) under Capricorn: 4.246 scrutari caeca metalla (‘to pry for hidden metals’), and under Cassiope with the following Aquarius: 5.525–6 [sc. Cassiope] imperat et glaebas inter deprendere gazam / invitamque novo tandem producere caelo (‘she bids them (the natives) detect the treasure in lumps of ore and finally, for all its reluctance, expose it to a sky it has never seen’).

(76) Cf. the end of the passage: 5.415 alto qui iurgia pectore tollat (‘the man who removes dissensions from the depths of the heart’). Inappropriately, Shackleton Bailey 1956: 168 glosses ‘with profound intelligence’; alto…pectore must be separative, cf. the quoted text under the Southern Fish, 5.399–400 latentis / protrahet.

(77) Housman criticizes the translation by Pingré 1786—‘son esprit agité est moins libre que son corps’—but the French scholar is defended by Paschoud 1982: 140 n. 55. Another example of this: when Pisces and Andromeda and their common chains are rising, a ‘gaoler’ is born (5.621 carceris…custos); the naked Andromeda ‘is a guardian of her own appearance’ (ipsa suae custos est illa figurae, 5.555). Nearer to the original sense comes the net of fishermen (under the Whale equally rising with Pisces): 5.662 [sc. phocas] carceribus claudent raris (‘they will confine them in spacious prisons’).

(78) See Hübner 1984: 225–7.

(79) Cf. also 3.49–50 orbem… / undique pendentem in medium (‘the terrestrial globe…/ everywhere poised in the centre’).

(80) At this point already, the fisherman follows: 5.297 cuspide vel triplici securum figere piscem (‘or piercing with three-pronged spear the fish that deemed itself so safe’). For similar examples, see TLL 10.1.1035.23–65.

(81) As for birds, cf. 4.898 in aere pendent (‘they hang in the air’).

(82) See Hübner 1984: 193–6. Here we find another exaggeration—5.654 caeli meditatus iter (‘he attempts an upward route to heaven’)—as if he were a constellation like the preceding Pegasus: 5.633 caeloque volabit (see n. 65 above).

(83) Pendens is my conjecture (Hübner 1984: 194–5); for greater detail, see Hübner 1990: 264–6. We find a similar expression in August. En. Ps. 39.9 didicit enim homo magno studio in fune ambulare, et pendens te suspendit (‘for the man learnt eagerly to walk on a rope and, hanging, put you in a state of suspense’).

(84) See Scaliger 1655: 421: ‘si vera est haec lectio, nihil elegantius potuit dici’ (‘if this reading is correct, nothing could be said with more elegance’).

(85) Pendentem…ad sidera vatem (versum del. Bentley, Housman, Goold), defended by Lühr 1969: 136–7; Flores 1993: 19 (but Manilius would have deleted the verse later); Liuzzi 1991–7: 4.96 ad loc.; Hübner 2002: 62 n. 49; Volk 2001: 88 n. 4. Cf. also 1.68 [sc. vita hominum priscorum] stupefacta novo pendebat lumine mundi (‘(the life of ancient mankind) was in suspense at the strange new light from heaven’). The idea has been christianized by August. Mag. 2 ut homines…suspendantur in deum (‘in order that mankind…be in suspense towards god’).

(86) On the significance of pendēre for Manilius, see also Uden in this volume.

Notes: