-
J. C. B. Petropoulos, Heat and Lust: Hesiod’s Midsummer Festival Scene Revisited
Foreword
Preface
Abbreviations
1. The Problem Stated: A Look at Hesiod’s Feast and Beyond
2. The Harvest
3. The Threshing
4. The Village of Avdemi: A Case Study in Wanton Women?
5. Enter the Cicada
6. Hesiod’s Festival Reconsidered
7. Towards a Conclusion: The Farmer and His Wife
Appendix 1. Commentary on WD 582-596
Appendix 2. On Zephyros (WD 594)
Appendix 3. On the Fountain, Sexual Mischief, and the Migration of Reapers
Appendix 4. Commentary on WD 448-452
Appendix 5. Commentary on WD 486-490
Appendix 6. Commentary on Athenaeus 8.360B = carmen populare 848 (PMG)
Appendix 7. Harvest Songs
Appendix 8. The Avdemi Songs
Table: Canicular Period
Bibliography
Appendix 5. Commentary on WD 486-490
See West ad loc. Also cf.:
486. ἦμος: looks forward to τῆμος (488), cf. on 582, above (Appendix 1).
κόκκυξ κοκκύζει: the noun κόκκυξ was derived by onomatopoeic reduplication, like τέττιξ (see on 582, above). Κοκκύζω is used of cuckoos but often of cocks crowing also: see Ussher 1973. 77 on Ecclesiazusae 31. The bird's cry, "κόκκυ" in Greek (Aristophanes Birds 505, 507), apparently was not regarded as pleasant: anon. A.P. 9.380.3.
δρυὸς ἐν πετάλοισιν: the singular πέταλον is infrequent; presumably Hesiod's cuckoo is perched high up, for the δρῦς is commonly tall, or ὑψικάρηνος (Iliad 12.132) and ὑψίκομος (14.398, etc.).
487. τὸ πρῶτον: the cry is first heard in April in Greece: Pollard, p. 43.
τέρπει δὲ βροτούς: the bird's call, though perhaps unappealing to the ear, was yet welcome because it indicated the end of winter and the return of spring: Aristotle History of animals 633a11 ἀφανίζεται δ’ ὑπὸ κύνα, φανερὸς δὲ γίνεται ἀπὸ τοῦ ἔαρος ἀρξάμενος μέχρι κυνὸς ἐπιτολῆς; Dionysius On birds 1.13 πρῶτος τῶν λοιπῶν πτηνῶν ἡμῖν τὸ ἔαρ ἀγγέλλων (cited in Thompson, p. 152).
ἐπ ’ ἀπείρονα γαῖαν: ἐπί + accusative denotes omnipresence: cf. Verdenius, p. 17 on WD 11.
489. μήτ ’ ἄρ ' ὑπερβάλλων βοὸς ὁπλήν: on the meaning of ἄρα cf. Verdenius, p. 44 on WD 49.
ὑπερβάλλω + accusative, 'overflow,’ of rivers (Herodotus 2.111); probable sense here = 'cover.’
μήτ ’ ἀπολείπων: the object is understood to be αὐτῆς (sc. ὁπλῆς). Ἀπολείπω + genitive, 'fall short of/ frequently of numbers or units of measure (LSJ, s.v. IV. 2).
490. οὕτω: temporal sense (cf. LSJ. s.v. 1.7); refers to τῆμος (498).