>> >>Aeneid VI.90-92 > >I wouldn't regard this as an example of anacolouthon,
Then how about Aeneid VI.119-123: si potuit manis accersere coniugis Orpheus Threicia fretus cithara fidibus canoris, si fratrem Pollus alterna morte redemit itque reditque uiam totiens. quid Thesea, magnum quid memorem Aliden? et mi genus ab Ioue summo. None of the commentaries that I have seen call this an example of anacoluthon. H. E. Butler's gloss on 119 goes: "The apodosis comes in 123 _et mi genus ab Ioue summo_, _quid ... Alciden?_ being parenthetical". But I find that unconvincing. "If Orpheus ..., if Pollux ..., I too ...": what sort of a conditional sentence is that? Some of the translators render the passage with an anacoluthon in English. Harington's is very striking. Seamus Heaney's too: If Orpheus could call back the shade of a wife through his faith In the loudly plucked strings of his Thracian lyre, If Pollux could redeem a brother by going in turns Backwards and forwards so often to the land of the dead, And if Theseus too, and great Hercules ... But why speak of them? I myself am of highest birth, a descendent of Jove. The Lonsdale and Lee translation (a 19th cent crib) also has one: If Orpheus could summon the spirit of his bride, strong in his Thracian lyre and tuneful strings; if Pollux ransomed his brother by dying for him in turn, and so often goes and comes back along the path,---why should I speak of mighty Theseus, why of Alcides? my descent also is from sovereign Jove. I don't believe for a minute that _et mi genus ab Ioue summo_ is the apodosis answering the protasis of the two _si_ clauses. As Heaney's punctuation suggests, and likewise Lonsdale and Lee's, it's a continuation of the thought begun by the anacoluthonic (is there such a word?) _quid Thesea_ or _quid Thesea magnum_. Simon Cauchi [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub
