Table Of ContentMetaformatiou.s
SOUNDPLAY
AND WORDPLAY
IN OVID AND OTHER
CLASSICAL POETS
Frederick Ahl
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS
ITHACA AND LONDON
For Mary Elaine McAninch Ahl
THIS BOOK HAS BEEN PUBLISHED WITH THE AID OF A GRANT FROM
THE HULL MEMORIAL PUBLICATION FUND OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
Copyright© 1985 by Cornell University
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book,
or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without
permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address
Cornell University Press, 124 Roberts Place, Ithaca, New York 14850.
First published 1985 by Cornell University Press.
International Standard Book Number 0-8014-1762-7
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 84-23872
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Ahl, Frederick M.
Metaformations: soundplay and wordplay in Ovid
and other classical poets.
Includes index.
1. Ovid, 43 B.C. -17 or 18. Metamorphoses.
2. Ovid, 43 B.C. -17 or 18-Style. 3. Metamorphosis
in literature. 4. Play on words. 5. Classical
poetry-History and criticism. 6. Classical languages
Style. I. Title.
PA6519.M9A37 1985 873'.01 84-23872
ISBN 0-8014-1762-7 (alk. paper)
The paper in this book is acid{ ree and meets the guidelines
for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production
Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
CONTENTS
Preface 9
Abbreviations 13
Introduction: Wordplay 17
1 Political Wordplay 64
2 Repairing the Human Race 100
3 Celebrating Near Misses 124
4 Masters of Disguise 143
5 Finding Our Wings 167
6 Purposes Unseen and Words Unsaid 201
7 Nature Imitating Art 236
8 The Wolf at the River of Time 271
Afterword: Ovid and Vergil 294
Index of Passages Cited 325
General Index 331
PREFACE
GREEK and Roman writers often assumed that words which sound
or look alike are related in meaning: a pun or double entendre is not
an accident of language but evidence as to how apparently diverse
things are related. Marcus Varro, the major scholar of Roman antiq
uity-and an important writer of poetic satire-regarded etymologiz
ing wordplay as fundamental not just to Latin poetry but to language
itself. Such etymologies are generally dismissed by modern critics as
demonstrably wrong-as many indeed are in terms of modern lin
guistics. They therefore receive little attention. Even scholars who
discuss them are careful to call them "popular" or "folk" etymologies.
In short, we have ignored what ancient critics say is happening in
poetry and· have substituted our own "rules," which frequently con
tradict statements made by the ancients themselves.
My book takes the opposite approach. The issue, I feel, is not
whether the etymologies are "right" or "wrong" in any absolute sense
but the extent to which they were considered right and therefore used
in antiquity. Many leading intellects, from Stoic philosophers such as
Chrysippus and Cleanthes to scholars such as Varro and Macrobius,
clearly considered significant the various coincidences of sound and
form that we regard as fortuitous, and they freely employed these
coincidences in interpreting every branch of learning. The designa
tion "folk" etymologies is therefore not only inadequate but mislead
ing. Instead of disputing the comments of Varro and other ancient
critics about the nature of what we would call wordplay, I put Varro
to use and attempt to read Greek and Latin poetry through his eyes.
Preface II
IO Preface
The Latin text of the Metamorphoses used is Rudolf Ehwald's revi
Rather than argue a case through instances drawn at random from
sion of R. Merkel's 1888 Teubner text (Leipzig, 1915). I have made
Greek and Latin literature as a whole, I focus on a particular work, in
such extensive use of information in Franz Bomer's multivolume
the hope of demonstrating more coherently the purposes and range
commentary on the Metamorphoses (Heidelberg, 1969-1980) that I
of etymologizing and the variety of its uses in connection with other
cannot adequately acknowledge it in the notes.
forms of soundplay and wordplay. I selected a Latin rather than
I am grateful to the Society for the Humanities at Cornell Univer
Greek work because there is more undisputable evidence for Latin
sity for granting me a fellowship to finish my work during 1983-
than for Greek wordplay. Yet I have felt free to draw on Greek critical
1984, to the University of Ota go in New Zealand for the William
and poetic sources where they help.
Evans Fellowship in 1982, and to the IBM Corporation, which gave
I chose the Metamorphoses partly because modern scholars are less
me computer access through Project EZRA. I owe many thanks to
unshakable in their critical positions on this work than they are on,
scholars· at Otago: John Barsby, Elizabeth Duke, Chris Ehrhardt,
say, the ~enei~-even though the latter is more frequently cited by
Robin Hankey, Douglas Little, and, above all,John Garthwaite. I also
later Laun wnters, such as Macrobius and Isidore of Seville in discus
thank the following present or former Cornellians: Ron Basto, Mar
sions of etymologies and wordplays. The Metamorphoses se;med to be
tha Davis, Peter Kuniholm, Martha Malamud, Philip Mitsis, Georgia
a work in which we might reasonably expect to find language used in
Nugent, Andrew Ramage, and Lauren Taaffe. The Johns Hopkins
the manner of Varro and of Plato's Cratylus, since it is a poem about
University Press kindly gave me permission to reuse material from my
'.'mutated forms." "Form," in Latin as in English, refers both to phys
articles "Amber, Avallon, and Apollo's Singing Swan," AJP 103
ical shape and to grammatical inflection.
(1982): 373-411, and "The Art of Safe Criticism in Greece and
My hypothesis, then, is that Ovid accompanies his descriptions of
Rome," AJP 105 (1984): 174-208, especially in Chapters 7 and 8.
changes in physical shape with changes in the shape of the words used
Other debts are no less special. Marcia Brubeck, Gregson Davis, the
to tell the tale. Soundplay and wordplay do not simply occur in the
late Alison Elliot, Elaine Fantham, David Keller, Bernhard Kendler,
Metamorfhoses: they are the basis of its structure. The rearrangement
?f and Martin Winkler made invaluable suggestions and corrections.
matenal ~lements needed to transform men into animals or plants
The encouragement, criticism, and advice of David Armstrong, Mar
1s reflected m language itself as the letters and syllables in words are
tin Bernal, Diskin Clay, Steve Farrand, Sander Gilman, Donald
shuffled. Although my focus is on Ovid and the Metamorphoses, paral
McGuire, Eam6nn 6 Carrigain, David Owen, John Sullivan, and
lels are drawn from the work of other Greek and Roman writers
Lindsay Watson have helped me over many hurdles. But I owe my
especially Plato and Vergil. I hope the reader, on completing thi~
most profound debt to my wife, Mary, without whose sympathy and
book, will be prepared to contemplate the more extensive uses of
long-suffering this work, which I dedicate to her, would not have
sound- and wordplay in the Aeneid.
been possible.
My investigation necessarily involves discussion of texts in Latin
t?
and_ G~e~k. I have tried help the Latinless and Greekless reader by
FREDERICK AHL
cap1tahzmg t~e syll~bles m ~hich soundplay is, I suggest, occurring.
In examples mvolvmg muluple soundplays, I have used italics for a Ithaca, New York
second order of emphasis. Wherever possible, I have translated the
texts so that the double or multiple meanings of the original are
rendered by English equivalents. When I was unable to do so I
bracket~d the Latin or .G reek words immediately after the English
tr~nslat_1on, or used Latm or Greek words, bracketing the literal En
glish. Smee the translations are intended to show the effect of word
play, they are oft~n quite "free." To avoid losing a wordplay, I have
resorted on occasions to an English expression which parallels rather
than exactly renders the original. The translations, I should add, are
my own.
ABBREVIATIONS
Abbreviated references to works of ancient authors are, in general, those
used in the Oxford Classical Dictionary. When just one work survives and
there is no possibility of confusion, only the author's name is given.
ABSA Annual of the British School at Athens.
AJP American Journal of Philology.
ANRW Aufstieg und Niedergang der romischen Welt: Geschichte und Kultur
Roms im Spiegel der neueren Forschung. Ed. W. Haase and H.
Temporini. Berlin and New York, 1972-.
BMC British Museum Catalogue of Greek Coins.
CII Corpus Inscriptionum ltalicarum.
CIL Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum.
CIS Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum.
CM Classica et Medievalia.
CR Classical Review.
EPRO Etudes preliminaires aux religions orientales dans l'empire romazn.
Leiden, 1961-.
FHG Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum. Ed. Muller. Paris, 1841-70.
GR Greece and Rome.
]HS Journal of Hellenic Studies.
KAI Kanaanaische und Aramiiische lnsch-r.ften I-III. Ed. H. Donner
and W. Rollig. Wiesbaden, 1962, 1964.
Abbreviations
Kleine Pauly Der Kleine Pauly: Lexikon der Antike. 5 vols. Ed. K. Ziegler, W.
Sontheimer, and H. Gartner. Munich, 1964-75.
PBA Proceedings of the British Academy.
RE Realencyclopadie der classischenA ltertumswissenschaft. Ed. A. Pauly,
G. Wissowa, W. Kroll, and K. Mittelhaus. Stuttgart, 1894-.
REA Revue des etudes anciennes.
Metaformations
REL Revue des etudes latines.
RES Repertoire d'epigraphie semitique.
RFIC Rivista di filologia e di istruzione classica.
ROL Remains of Old Latin. 4 vols. Ed. E. H. Warmington. Loeb Classi
cal Library, London, 1935-40.
TAPA Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Associa
tion.
I.
f
INTRODUCTION:
WORDPLAY
IN
Plautus' Amphitryo-and Menaechmi, the humor-sometimes the pa
thos-of situations depends upon the identical appearance of totally
different people. When Jupiter seduces Amphitryo's wife, Alcmena,
he assumes Amphitryo's appearance, and his attendant, Mercury, as
sumes the appearance of Amphitryo's slave Sosia. In the confusion,
Sosia suffers a beating at his "own" hands and comes to doubt his own
identity, for he has met someone who is obviously himself. Similarly,
Alcmena commits adultery with Jupiter, thinking he is Amphitryo,
and accuses her husband of trying to deceive her.
Comic doubling presents a dilemma for the personae who must
cope with it. What appears to be one form represents a multiple real
ity, and it takes the participants most of the play to realize they are
living in a plural world. The two Amphitryos and the two Sosias are to
the drama as a whole what a pun might be to a phrase or sentence.
They are different realities which, by accident or design, assume the
same shape. Puns, like the disguised Jupiter, deceive because people
generally expect language, and indeed nature, not to confront them
with doubles. Puns pluralize and destabilize meaning, as Jupiter and
Mercury destabilize the world of Amphitryo and Alcmena, by under
mining people's confidence in their own perceptions. Visual or verbal
"puns" amuse the reader or the spectator who takes pleasure in
watching someone else's confusion. To add to the effect, Plautus cas
cades puns upon our ears to make all aspects of his language rein
force the effect of his dramatic, visual "doubling."
Meta/ ormations Introduction
On the other hand, the notion prevails among scholars that puns Such usage is not peculiar to Lucretius or to Epicurean and Stoic
are a low form of humor and hardly deserve the name of poetry, writers. It occurs also in the poet and scholar Marcus Varro, who
much less of serious poetry. It is all very well to detect and discuss puns regarded himself as a member of the old Platonic Academy, which,
in Plautus, but it is an altogether different matter to suggest they are according to Augustine City of God 19.1, he thought the best of all the
present in, say, the Aeneid. We have a ready-made syllogism with 288 existing or possible religious and philosophical groups. Indeed,
which to ridicule the suggestion. Vergil is a great poet. Puns are not various forms of soundplay go back to the very beginnings of Euro
the stuff of great poetry. Therefore Vergil cannot be using puns. To pean and Near Eastern literacy. Johannes Friedrich in his Extinct
banish the subject from further discussion, we cite Quintilian's obser Languages (translated by F. Gaynor, New York, 1957), comments as
vation (Inst. Or. 1.5.70) that we can scarcely refrain from laughing at follows on Egyptian hieroglyphs: "It occurred to the Egyptians very
jingling wordplay: proof absolute that such antics could not occur in early, probably way back in the initial stage of the development of the
Vergil. Consequently we rarely notice wordplays, much less look for art of writing, that a concept difficult to represent pictorially could be
them in "serious" poetry. Ifwe do see them, we often assume they are symbolized by the picture of something phonetically quite similar, but
accidental. When a word or phrase seems susceptible of more than one conceptually unrelated. This was as if we wanted to represent, say, the
meaning, we expect the scholar to decide which of the meanings is concept underlying the verb beat by a picture of a bit, or the concept of
"intended" and which "unintended." The idea that a "serious" Greek bad by the picture of a bed" (p. 10). Friedrich, we will note, italicizes his
or Roman poet might be creating a texture of wordplays, regularly contention that the words which sound alike are "conceptually unre
intending more than one meaning, is dismissed as "unthinkable." lated." For modern scholars, perhaps they are unrelated. For the
The notion of classicism itself contains a strong bias against plu ancients, however, the reverse seems to be the case: if two words (or
ralism. We seek out and praise unity, the one that underlies the "ap syllables) are phonetically similar, they either are conceptually related
parent" many. The plural, latent, paradoxical, or contradictory often or become conceptually related.
seems primitive or degenerate-raw and archaic or postclassical and
mannered. Our historians of Greek philosophy occasionally suggest
that the rejection of the Many in favor of the One indicates intellec Wordplay Outside the Classical Tradition
tual progress. Works of literature and art which cannot be explained
as the expression of a straightforward and sincere belief are "flawed" A number of European languages still have strong poetic traditions
or lacking in "structure." Above all, they are not classical-our term, requiring what amounts to alliterative wordplay. In Welsh poetry, for
we should add, not that of the ancients-unless, at the root of appar example, the rules of cynghanedd (harmony) create an association of
ent complexity, simplicity lurks. "sword," cledd, with clod, "glory." The poet who wishes to challenge
Puns and wordplays threaten simplicity, because they create, at the this association must find a way of modifying the statement. Hence
very least, a dual reality whose implications may be just as unsettling segurdod yw clod y cledd- "the glory [clod] of the sword [cledd] is its
as the visual duality of Plautus' Amphitryo, where Sosia's confidence in idleness." Gwyn Williams, who gives a convenient synopsis of the
his own identity is subverted and Alcmena is unfaithful to her hus major types of cynghanedd, observes: "Cynghanedd sain (alliteration and
band because she thinks her lover is her husband. Since puns and rhyme) is easier than cynghanedd gytsain (multiple alliteration) to at
other forms of wordplay seem incompatible with our idea of elevated, tempt in English and was much used by G. M. Hopkins. An example
classical poetry, the critic who argues that they are present faces an in English would be:-The road with its load of lads." 1
uphill battle. Still, beginnings have been made. Jane Snyder in a re Similar, though less rigorous, soundplay occurs in Irish poems of
cently published study of wordplay in Lucretius, Puns and Poetry in the Fianna cycle on the name of Fionn, which suggests the clarity of
Lucretius' "De rerum natura" (Amsterdam, 1980), observes: "When the light and the clarity of knowledge (jios). Fionn, king of the Fianna
poet uses two similar sounding names within the same context, the
reader should look to see whether he employs one word to suggest the 1. An Introduction to Welsh Poetry: From the Beginnings to the Sixteenth Century, London,
1953, p. 245; also D. Wulfstan, Septena Di.1crimina Vocum, Inaugural Lecture Series 1,
other and to imply some sort of natural association of the two things Cork, 1983, especially pp. 14-16. I am grateful to Sean 6 Coileain for help and advice
represented" (p. 92). throughout this section.
