eros ludens: apollonius' argonautica 3, 132-41

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Eros Ludens: Apollonius' Argonautica 3, 132-41Author(s): Mary Louise B. PendergraftSource: Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici, No. 26 (1991), pp. 95-102Published by: Fabrizio Serra editoreStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40235981 .Accessed: 23/02/2015 16:37

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Mary Louise . Pendergraft

Eros Ludens: Apollonius' Argonautica 3, 132-41

The third book of Apollonius' Argonautica opens with a remarkable scene that captures its reader's imagination, for it displays many of the most appealing characteristics of this Hellenistic epic. Hera and Athe- na arrive at Aphrodite's house hoping to enlist her assistance in their plan for Jason to acquire the golden fleece. This plan requires that Eros cause Medea to fall in love with Jason: in other words, the prize is to be won by craft, charm, and stealth - not by martial prowess1. The poet prsents their embassy in a delightful scene conflating several disparate yet typically Apollonian lments: the mighty Olympians play roles closely akin to those found in the bourgeois comdies of manners of Theocritus' Adoniazusae or Herodas' Mimiambs; the fi- gures of Aphrodite and Eros hve become subtle allgories of the psychology of desire; the language is replte with telling allusions to Iliad and Odyssey; perhaps we even hear echoes of an Orphie Theogony2. Amid this farrago, one item commands special attention: the golden ball with which Aphrodite bribes her spoiled and willful son Eros when she seeks to win his aid for the proposed scheme. Apollonius describes the ball in some dtail (although, as we shall see, commentators find it difficult to agre on its appearance and construction) in Aphrodite's speech to her son, as follows:

I will give you the beautiful toy of Zeus, which his dear nurse Adrasteia made for him while he was still a child in the Idaean cave, a well-rounded sphre. You'd get no finer one from the hands of Hephaestus. Its circles are wrought of

1. D. N. Levin, , Riv. Fil. Istr. Class. 98, 1970, p. 17; Amy Rose,

Clothing Imagery in Apollonius's Argonautica, Quad. Urb. 50, 1985, pp. 29-44. 2. Ch. Rowan Beye, Epic and Romance in the Argonautica of Apollonius, Carbondale and Edwardsville 1982, pp. 125-28; M. Campbell, Echoes and Imitation ofEarly Epic in Apollonius Rhodius, Leiden 1981, pp. 42-44; A. W. James, Apollonius Rhodius and His Sources: Interpretive Notes on the Argonautica, Corolla Londiniensis 1, 1981, pp. 59- 86; T. M. Klein, Apollonius Rhodius, vates ludens: Eros' Golden Ball (Arg. 3, 115-50), Class. World 32, 1980-81, pp. 223-25; P. G. Lennox, Apollonius, Arg. 3, 1 ff. and Homer, Hermes 108, 1980, pp. 45-73; M. L. West, The Orphie Poems, Oxford, 1984, pp. 127-28, 131. In his commentary (Hildesheim 1983), Campbell remarks a propos of this passage, Cypris* attempts at child-discipline are pitiful (p. 18).


96 Mary Louise . Pendergraft

gold, and around each one twofold rings whirl in a circle. The seams are hidden, and a dark blue spiral runs over them all (3, 132-40).

Furthermore, this marvelous ball, when thrown, leaves a gleaming trail, like a shooting star ( 3, 140-41).

Students of th poem hve long suspected that this toy is not merely a child's plaything. While they recognize that its significance is far greater than the brief description might suggest (th bali never actually appears in the poem), they characterize it differently. Accordingly, we are told that the ball represents either th earth, th universe or Planetenkreise und Sonnenkugel; or that its ornamention has sans doute une signification astronomique3. Two associations hve quite properly led them to recognize the ball's importance. First, in the visual arts, a ball associated with the adult Zeus regularly symbolizes his power over th universe4. Second, Adrasteia, the nurse who gave it to him, frequently represents th inevitability of fate that her name implies5. A third association will remove any doubt about the weight we must accord this symbol, and that is the following fact.

Apollonius is alluding to a contemporary didactic poem, Aratus* Phaenomena, in a fashion that makes it certain that the bail represents the spherical cosmos. Recognizing this allusion clarifies two further issues. First, it sheds light on the much-debated question of the ball's physical appearance. Next, and more importantly, the implications of Eros' control of the bail taken on startling - even alarming - force.

In the Phaenomena Aratus gives poetic life to the enumeration and description of the constellations found in Eudoxus' prose work of the

3. Proposers of each explanation include, respectively, West (op. cit. n. 2) p. 33 n. 99; George W. Mooney, The Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius, Amsterdam 1964 (reprint of Dublin 1912) p. 231, and M. M. Gillies, The Bail of Eros (. Rhod. III. 135 ff.), Class. Rev. 38, 1924, pp.50-51, and Apollonius Rhodius: The Argonautica, Book III ', Hildesheim 1975 (reprint of Cambridge 1928) p. 19; Tmpel, RE I (1893) 407 s.v. Adras- teia; Francis Vian, Apollonius de Rhodes: Argonautica, Chant III, Paris, 1961, p. 41. To this last remark, E. Livrea responds that it is semplicemente ornamentale (review of Vian's 1980 dition in the Bud sries, Gnomon 54, 1981, pp. 19-20). 4. Karl Sittl, Der Adler und die Weltkugel als Attnbute des Zeus in der griechischen und rmischen Kunst, Leipzig 1884, pp. 45-48; . . Cook, Zeus, New York 1964 (reprint of Cambridge 1914), vol. I, pp. 41, 46-47, 51-52, 754; vol. II, pp. 95, 578, 948; vol. III, p. 948; Alois Schlchter, Der Globus: seine Enstehung und Verwendung in der Antike, ed. Friedrich Gisinger, Berlin and Leipzig 1927, (STOIXEIA 8) pp. 87-88. 5. H. Posnansky, Nemesis und Adrasteia: eine mythologisch-archologische Abhand- lung, Breslauer Philol. Abhandl. 5, 1890, pp. 68-91, esp. p. 69 for Argonautica passage, p. 82 for etymology of name; Tmpel, loc. cit.; Cook, op. cit. vol. I, p. 269 and n. 1; West, op. cit. p. 195; Otto J. Brendel, Symbolism of the Sphre: A Contribution to the History ofEarlier Greek Philosophy, Leiden 1977, translate! Maria W. Brendel, p. 79 and n. 36.


Eros Ludens 97

same name. The constellations in turn serve as indicators of th loca- tions of th circles, th theoretical zones of th celestial sphre - for of course in this era th universe was generally conceived of as a finite sphre6. We know these circles today: th celestial equator; th Tro- pics of Cancer and of Capricorn, marking th sun's apparent location at th summer and winter solstices; th ecliptic, th sun's apparent annual path across th sky. Aratus describes th circles in th following passages:

Four circles lie as though spinning... They are without breadth and ail fitted to one another: for two correpond to two in size (462-68). He does not name these circles, but it becomes clear, as he catalogues the constellations through which each one passes, that the smaller pair are those we would cali the Tropics of Cancer (480-500) and of Capri- corn (501-10), and the first of the larger pair, which lies between them, is the celestial equator, also called the equinoctial circle because the sun appears to cross it at the equinoxes (511-24). Now the axis holds these circles parallel, he continues, the axis at right angles in the middle of them ail. But the fourth is fixed at an angle to both [i.e., obliquely both to the three parallel circles and to the axis]. The Trop- ics hold it at either end, and the middle circle cuts it through the middle. Not otherwise would a man skilled in the handicrafts of Athe- na join these whirling hoops... They cali this circle the Zodiac (525- 44). This circle is also called the ecliptic, for clipses can occur only when the moon passes through it.

The two poets do not simply share a description of a striped sphre; on the contrary, Apollonius takes pains to recali the Phaenomena passage through verbal echoes:

(Argon. 3, 136-38) corresponds to (Phaen. 530): both sphres rival the handiwork of the two di- vine patrons of the crafts;

(Argon. 3, 135) recalls , (Phaen. 530, 476);

(Argon. 3, 138) echoes Phaen. 4017; the ball's trail, like that of a star, suggests Aratus' description of

shooting stars at Phaen. 926-27; the allusion hre to the narrative of Zeus* Cretan infancy recalls

Phaen. 30-35, 162-64.

6. O. Hultsch, RE II.2 (1896) ce. 1833, 1853 s.v. Astronomie; Th.-M. Martin, Astrono- mia, in Dictionnaire des antiquits grecques et romaines, ed. Ch. Daremberg et E. Saglio, Paris 1877, vol. I, pp. 487-89. 7. Some editors hve commented on this Aratean cho: Gillies, in his commentary, op. cit. p. 41; Anthos Ardizzoni, Apollonio Rodio: Le Argonautiche, libro III, Bari 1958, p. 124; R. L. Humer, Apollonius of Rhodes: Argonautika, Book III \ Cambridge 1989, pp. 112-14, in the course of a good discussion of the passage.


98 Mary Louise . Pendergraft

Apollonius knew th Phaenomena well and frequently made use of typically Aratean collocations or neologisms8. In the prsent passage he deliberately recalls the earlier poem, and he evokes in particular Aratus' description of the heavenly circles. Interpretive use of contemporary poetry is as characteristic of the Hellenistic writers as is their knowledge and use of Homer, for instance, or their delight in ecphrasis - a delight evident in the passage we are now discussing. Although few poets were creative researchers of the caliber of Eratos- thenes, many nonetheless gave vidence of a keen interest in the natu- rai sciences, as well; Callimachus, for example, alluded to current dis- coveries in ophthalmology and obstetrics in his poems9. In a similar spirit Apollonius recognized that behind Aratus' description lies a spcifie and tangible device, and he expected his readers, through his allusions, to recognize that object as well10. In fact, we modem readers still know a good deal about what this device was and how it looked.

Ancient astronomers as well as teachers and students of astronomy regularly used physical models of th universe to aid in their discussion of its appearance. These globes came to represent the study of astronomy so well that their prsence in an artistic reprsentation ser- ved to identify an individuai as an astronomer or at least a student of the heavens: Samian coins pictured Pythagoras with one, as did Bithy- nian coins, Hipparchus; a mosaic portrait identifies Aratus by means of a globe as well11. Eudoxus himself is said to hve elaborated Thaes' simple globe to produce the earliest sort, the - solid sphre (Cicero, de Republica, 1, 22). These were globes of wood, pla- ster, or mtal on which were painted or inscribed the constellations and the celestial circles12. The globe carried by the Atlas Farnese be-

8. G. Boesch, De Apollonii Rhodii elocutione, Diss. Berlin, Gttingen 1908, pp. 51-54. 9. H. Opperman, Herophilus bei Kallimachos, Hermes 60, 1925, pp. 1432; Glenn W. Most, Callimachus and Herophilus, Hermes 1908, 1981, pp. 188-96. 10. For Apollonius* interest in astronomy see Patricia Lou Prosser Bogue, Astronomy in the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius, Diss. University of Illinois, 1977. I owe this rfrence to my colleague, Prof. John L. Andronica. 11. Coins: Cook, op. cit., vol. I, pp. 54-56; mosaic: Brendel, op. cit. p. 14. 12. Schlachter-Gisinger, op. cit. pp. 14-14, 32-33, hve conveniently summarized the citations from ancient authors. See too W. H. Rscher, Ausfhrliches Lexikon der griechischen und rmischen Mythologie, Hildesheim and NY 1977 (reprint of Leipzig and Berlin 1924-37), vol. VI, pp. 1048-49; Hultsch, op. cit.; Martin, op. cit.; George Thiele, Antike Himmelsbilder, Berlin 1898, p. 48; Germaine Aujac, Le sphrope, ou La mcani- que au service de la dcouverte du monde, Revue d'Histoire des Sciences 23, 1970, pp. 94-95.

Eudoxus' fragments, and presumably his globe and its successors, include some circles that Aratus omitted: the arctic and antarctic circles - the always visible and the always invisible rgions - and the two colures. Fr. 64a and b (arctic), 65 and 66 (tropic of Cancer), 69, 71 (equinoctial circle), 74 (antarctic), 76-78 (colures) (d. F. Lasserre, Berlin 1966).


Eros Ludens 99

longs to this group. The authors of ancient introductions to th Phae- nomena take it for granted that their readers will have such a globe at hand, for they frequently comment that a given circle is marked in red wax, or that another is marked in white, or that th instructor must rotate th globe in such or such a direction13. As late as th seventh Century A.D., a certain Leontius wrote instructions for constructing an Aratus globe that would represent the content of th poem more accurately than those available to him14.

But astronomers also had available an armillary sphre, constructed of hollow rings of mtal or reed, the of the eleventh and sixteenth books of Geminus' Isagoge15. It had the same pedagogi- cal function as the solid globe, and included at least the five parallel circles we listed before, as well as the ecliptic and colures16. The latter are great circles that pass, respectively, through the ples and the points at which the sun crosses the tropics (the solsticial colure), and through the ples and the points at which the sun crosses the equator (the equinoctial colure). Geminus' is our earliest description of such a sphre, and is to be dated at the earliest to the second half of the first Century B.C. - well after our poems17. But Tannery believes that Hip- parchus (mid-second Century B.C.) used a version of the armillary sphre, and that it may have been a Century old in his day. Certainly rudimentary forms of the astrolabe, suited for observing the position of the sun at either the solstices or equinoxes were available for Era- tosthenes and Archimedes, and a true spherical astrolabe may well have existed in the first half of the third Century, a dating that would place its use very close in time to the composition of at least Argonau- tica, if not of Pbaenomena18 .

13. Anonymus I, p. 95, Isagoga bis Excerpta, pp. 329-30, in E. Maass, Commenta- riorum in Aratum reliquiae, Berlin 1958 (reprint of 1898). See too Schlachter-Gisinger, op. cit. pp. 21-25. 14. Text in Maass, op. cit. pp. 559-70. 15. It is similar in appearance to th device thatr Ptolemy describes in Almagest V, which he calls the

. But unlike Geminus' armillary sphre, Ptolemy's

spherical astrolabe was adapted for a functional, rather than descriptive, purpose: to dtermine precisely the location of a given star. O. Neugebauer, A History of Anent Mathematical Astronomy, New York, Heidelberg and Berlin 1975, pp. 581, 871 ; Id., The Early History of the Astrolabe: Studies in Ancient Astronomy IX, Isis 40, 1949, pp. 240-56 = Astronomy and History: Selected Essays, New York 1983; Schlachter-Gisinger, op. cit. pp. 46-47; Kauffmann, RE II.2 (1896) ce. 1798-1802 s.v. astrolabium-, Paul Tan- nery, Recherches sur l'histoire de l'astronomie ancienne, New York 1976 (reprint of Paris 1893) pp. 50-53, 70-76; A. Rome, L'astrolabe et le mtoroscope d'aprs le commentaire de Pappus, Annales de la Socit Scientifique de Bruxelles 47.2, 1927, pp. 77-102. 16. 16.10-11 (ed. and trans. G. Aujac, Paris 1975). 17. Aujac, op. cit. pp. xix-xxix; Neugebauer HAMA (op. cit.) pp. 581-82, would place it a Century later still. 18. Tannery, op. cit. pp.74-76; for more detailed descriptions and illustrations of thse tools, see Martin, op. cit. vol. I, pp. 487-89.


100 Mary Louise . Pendergraf t

A third choice that may have been available is one described by Ptolemy that combines features of both the solid and armillary sphres. In his globe, rings are fitted onto a solid globe (Alm. 8, 3).

Which sphre, then, should we imagine as the model for Eros' toy? Despite Apollonius* detailed description of its appearance, how it was constructed remains unclear. As a resuit commentators have described balls resembling both the solid and the armillary sphres, although they don't recognize the similarities their images bear to the astronomer's tool. Mooney's paraphrase represents the most widespread understanding of its construction: The ball seems to have been made of a number of separate circlets of gold, - these are the - which were kept in position by two rings encircling them on the outside - the

. The joinings of the kykla and apsides were

concealed by the spiral of blue. He could easily be describing an especially elegant armillary sphre. Gillies, on the other hand, im- agines that the description refers rather to the external dcoration of a ready-made cloth or skin ball, not unlike a Eudoxan solid sphre: pairs of golden semicircles - - are stitched to be ball to mark off stripes - - and th blue spirai runs perpendicular to those stripes, covering the joins of one semi-circular apsis to the other19. The emphasis in each passage on a globe comparable to the handiwork of the gods suggests something new and remarkable. If the solid globe does stem from Eudoxus' day, let alone Thaies', it was a Century old by this era20; if the armillary sphre had yet been de- veloped, it was still quite new. So my inclination is to accept Mooney's picture of the bail as made of golden hoops or rings21.

Whether we picture Eros' toy as a solid or a ringed sphre, with the astronomical background in place we can suggest with some certainty the number and arrangement of its rings or stripes. The kykla represent the five parallel circles: the equator, the two tropics, the Arctic and Antarctic circles. The two-fold rings, the apsides, fitted around them would be the two colures. The dark blue spiral is then the zodiac. Apollonius tells us that the joinings are hidden, and indeed the zodiacal circle touches or covers some criticai junctures: the two

19. Mooney, op. cit. p. 321; Gillies, op. cit. p. 19. 20. I see no reason to doubt its familiarity to Eudoxus. As A. Le Boeuffle comments, the title of another dition of Eudoxus' Phaenomenay Enoptron - Mirror - may derive from the fact that the constellations see by a viewer of a globe, who looks from outside, are mirror images of those seen by a terrestrial observer. Hence, he continues, arose the frquent confusion of left and right in ancient descriptions: Recherches sur Hy gin, Rev. d'Et. Lat., 43, 1965, p. 227 n. 3. 21. Otto Lendle describes a toy bail similar in construction to Ptolemy 's ringed, solid globe: Die Spielkugel des Zeus (Apoll. Rhod. Arg. 3, 137-140), Hermes 107, 1979, pp. 493-95.


Eros Ludens 101

points at which th equinoctial colure intersects th equator, and th two points at which th solsticial colure intersects th tropics. As th bali rotates, th zodiac appears to describe a spirai running within th space bounded by th two tropics. Eros' bali of gold and blue is more restrained in color than at least th solid globes. We recali th red and white wax of th commentaries, and Ptolemy himself stressed th need for contrasting color for clarity on thse sphres. He mentions in particular that th background should be a dark color like th night sky (?)22 and th constellations, (gold?)23.

When we realize that th marvelous toy, once Zeus's and now Eros', represents a model of th cosmos, we can feel only shock at th farreaching implication of th scene: th universe is but a bauble used to bribe a spoiled child. Now, Apollonius did not create th figure of Eros with a bali, but he did give it an almost unprecedented significance. When Anacreon pictures him as a ballplayer (Fr. 302 Page) or a dicer (Fr. 325 Page - th game at which he is cheating Ganymede in Argon. 3) he plays with th lives of individuai men: he is ruthless, perhaps, but not of universal relevance24.

Eros does play a cosmic role in some other contexts: in Orphie writings he has a cosmogonie function25. He holds th globe in artistic reprsentations as well: on Roman coins, on gems, and on small bronzes - ail, apparently, dating later than our poem. These traditions imply a belief in th creative power of Eros, of love as a guiding force in the world, a notion reminiscent of Empedocles' or Lucre- tius' Venus. They portray, in short, the force of attraction, of fertility and life, ruling the cosmos26.

22. On the history of this multivalent adjective, see Eleanor Irwin, Colour Terms in Greek Poetry, Toronto 1972, pp. 79-110. 23. Ptolemy, Syntaxis Mathematica 8.3 (ed. J. L. Heiberg, Leipzig 1898); Schlachter- Gisinger, op. cit. p. 32. 24. Lennox, op. cit. p. 64, n. 42. 25. This connection may be especially important in relation to our passage for several reasons, and it prsents a promising avenue of investigation, but one that I think lies outside th narrow focus of this paper. 1 : Balls are included among the sacred imple- ments of Orphie rites. 2: The legend of Zeus's Cretan infancy found in Phaenomena and Argonautica (as well as Callimachus' Hymn to Zeus), traditionally derived from Epimenides' Cretica, may in fact stem from an Orphie Theogony (West, op. cit. pp. 127-31). 3: Apollonius* Orpheus sings a theogony with lments known from other Orphie writings (Arg. I. 496-511). Brendel, op. cit. p. 79; West, op. cit. pp. 45-53; Cook, op. cit. vol. II, pp. 373, 927. 26. Schlachter-Gisinger, op. cit. pp. 87-88; Cook, op. cit. vol. I, p. 52, vol. II, pp. 1045-47. In sharp contrast with this notion appear the Erotes of later coins and statuettes, who resemble nothing so much as modem greeting-card Cupids as they cheerfully and decoratively perform a wide variety of tasks with no apparent philosophical significance at all (Cook II pp. 1048 ss.).


102 Mary Louise . Pendergraf t

Radically diffrent is the character Apollonius gives to his Eros. This deity evokes no awe or rvrence; rather, he is simply a most unpleasant child. His mother complains of his temper, his shamel- essness, his wickedness; she can win his coopration only through bribery (3, 90-99). Greedy, suspicious, and heartless, he laughs at Ganymede's distress at being cheated; he is wheedling and impatient; distrusting even his mother, he counts his dice before entrusting them to her (3, 114-30, 145-55)27. Yet our investigation has made it clear that we must take him seriously, since his toy is nothing less than the universe. The dosest parallel to such a figure is none of those we have mentioned, but rather Alcibiades* notorious shield device, where Eros wielding Zeus's thunderbolt provoked outrage by its arrogance28. We can appreciate the response of Alcibiades' contemporaries by compar- ing Apollonius* vignette to Aratus' Phaenomena, a comparison he in- vites through his deliberate vocation of this source for his heavenly globe. From Zeus let us begin is the famous phrase that opens the poem; we all dpend on him in every way; for indeed we are his off spring. The Stoic poet also stressed the regularity and predictability of the stars and their movements; their reliable pattern, the visible form of the celestial sphre, is clear vidence of Zeus's providential care for his cratures: he, kindly to mankind, gives us sure signs29. Apollonius transforms this lofty and reassuring symbol by presenting the cosmic orb as a plaything for a selfish and ptulant boy. The fate of the universe, as well as of individuals, is controlied neither by Adras- teia the invitable nor by a providential father-god; events are not fixed or predictable; rather, everything is subject to the love-god's self-gratifying whims. The figure of Eros ludens has become an em- blem that well represents the non-traditional and anti-heroic ethos of the Argonautica.

Wake Forest University Winston-Salem N.C., USA.

27. Cf. Beye, op. cit. pp. 127-28. 28. Plutarch, Alcibiades 16; Athenaeus 534e. 29. Phaenomena 5-13; the predictability of the weather has the same significance at 732, 740-77. An earlier version of this paper was prsente! at the annual meeting of the Amer- ican Philological Association in 1984. My apprciation is extended to Prof. . L. Brown, in whose seminar on Hellenistic poetry I fist was introduced to th idea underlying this paper.


Article Contentsp. [95]p. 96p. 97p. 98p. 99p. 100p. 101p. 102

Issue Table of ContentsMateriali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici, No. 26 (1991), pp. 1-192Front MatterIl figlio dell'Amazone: biologia e mito [pp. 9-29]Valerio Flacco e l'Apollonio commentato: proposte [pp. 31-46]The Janus Episode in Ovid's Fasti [pp. 47-64]How Textual Conjectures Are Made [pp. 65-91]Corpo MinoreEros Ludens: Apollonius' Argonautica 3, 132-41 [pp. 95-102]De ciri, tonsillis, tolibus, tonsis et de quibusdam aliis rebus [pp. 103-173]I "Saturnia regna" nell'elegia 1,3 di Tibullo [pp. 175-187]Lucano, Bellum civile 7, 825-846 [pp. 189-192]

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