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The naming of Thrasyllus in Apuleius' Metamorphoses1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
Extract
It is usually assumed that Apuleius gave one of his characters the name ‘Thrasyllus’ because of its etymological connection with θρασ. Indeed it is singularly appropriate and Apuleius himself draws attention to the fact: Thrasyllus, praeceps alioquin et de ipso nomine temerarius… (Met. 8.8). However, it does not follow that a name with such an etymological significance can have no other connotations: in this note I suggest that there is a further frame of reference behind ‘Thrasyllus’ and that Apuleius may have expected his readers to realize this.
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References
2 Hanson, J. A., Apuleius Metamorphoses II (Cambridge, MA, 1989), 60Google Scholar, n. 1;Walsh, P. G., The Golden Ass (Oxford, 1995), 258Google Scholar, n. 8.1.
3 Besides, given the plethora of other, more common, names with this particular etymological significance, eg. Θρασβουλος, Θρασυκλς, Θρασμαχος, and Θρασυμδης (see Fraser, P. M. and Matthews, E. [edd.], Lexicon of Greek Personal Names [Oxford, I 1987, II 1994, III 1997]Google Scholar ), it is pertinent to ask, ‘Why Thrasyllus?’
4 For a fuller exposition of the extent of Apuleius’ debt to his literary predecessors, especially Vergil, see Finkelpearl, E. D., Metamorphosis of Language in Apuleius (Michigan, 1998)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, ch. 6.
5 By Finkelpearl (n. 4), 117, and by Westerbrink, A. G., ‘Some parodies in Apuleius’ Meta-morphoses’, in Hijmans, B. L. and Van Der Paardt, R. Th. (edd.), Aspects of Apuleius’ Golden Ass (Groningen, 1978), 70Google Scholar, where he provides a useful table comparing the elements of the respective stories. However, neither is entirely accurate.
6 Another element of Apuleius’ game of allusion is possibly the fact that, while it is not clear in the Herodotean tale what happens to the boar after Adrastus has failed to hit it, Apuleius has Thrasyllus kill his boar facili manu (8.5).
7 We can infer from Lucian, Iupp. Conf. 12 that Second Sophistic readers were expected to be familiar with the story of Adrastus. It also seems to have been used by Achilles Tatius at Leucippe and Cleitophon 2.34 where Menelaus explains the reason for his exile.
8 For what we know of Adrastus, his dates, his works, and his considerable influence, see Moraux, P., Der Aristotelismus bei den Griechen 2 (Berlin, 1984), 294–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9 As Dillon, J. M., The Middle Platonists (London, 1996 2), 397Google Scholar, puts it: ‘the whole work is essentially a compilation from these two immediate sources’. See Heath, T., A History of Greek Mathematics 2 (Oxford, 1921), 238–44Google Scholarpassim, and Barker, A., Greek Musical Writings 2 (Cambridge, 1989), 209–29Google Scholar, for the nature of Theon's debt to them.
10 See Hiller, E., ‘De Adrasti Peripatetici in Platonis Timaeum commentario’, RhM 26 (1871), 582–9.Google Scholar
11 Maass, E. (ed.), Commentariorum in Aratum Reliquiae (Berlin, 1898).Google Scholar
12 s.v. A 4695 (1.439 Adler): ’αχιλλεὺς σττιος, ’αλεξανδρες,γρψας τᾰ κατᾰ Λευκππην κα κλειτοøντα καλλα ρωτικᾰ ν βιβλοιςδλγο κατᾰ πντα ὃμοιος τοῖς ρωτικοῖς. For an analysis, see Vilborg, E., Achilles Tatius; Leucippe and Clitophon. A Commentary. Studia Graeca et Latina Gothoburgensia XV (Göteborg, 1962), 7–9.Google Scholar It is not doubted that the περ σøαρας and the Intr. ad Aratum are the same work. See Diels, H., Doxographi Graeci (Berlin, 1879), 18.Google Scholar
13 See Plepelits, K., ‘Achilles Tatius’, in Schmeling, G. (ed.), The Novel in the Ancient World (Leiden, 1996), 388–90.Google Scholar
14 Unless Achilles, who may have come from the same city as Ptolemy (see n. 15 with text), knew of his work before it was published.
15 Compare Maass (n. 11), xvii-xviii, with the unanimous testimony of the Suda and the MSS.
16 See S. J. Harrison, ‘Apuleius’ Metamorphoses’, in Schmeling (n. 13), 493.
17 See, for instance,Tarrant, H., Thrasyllan Platonism (Ithaca, NY, 1993).Google Scholar
18 In Hermann, C. F., Platonis Dialogi 6 (Leipzig, 1853)Google Scholar . Thrasyllus was also credited with arranging the works of Democritus into tetralogies (D.L. 9.45).
19 See Apol. 36, for example, where Apuleius reveals a wide knowledge of the learned literature of Aristotle, Theophrastus, Eudemus, and Lycon on fish.
20 John Lydus (Mens. 73; Ost. 3, 4, 7, 10, 44, 54) refers to Apuleius on astronomical matters, some of which passages are collected in Beaujeu, J., Apulée: Opuscules philosophiques et fragments (Paris, 1973).Google Scholar
21 Cassiodorus records a treatise De Musica (Inst. 2.5.10 = De Musica 10). The same writer also records a translation of Nicomachus of Gerasa's ’αριθμητικ εἰσαγωγ by Apuleius (Inst. 2.4.7 = De Arithm. 7), as does Isidorus of Seville (Etym. 3.2). Nicomachus’ work shows marked similarities to that of Theon (documented in D'ooge, M. L. et al., Nicomachus of Gerasa, Introduction to Arithmetic [New York, 1926]Google Scholar, ch. 2), and the translation of the former indicates an interest on Apuleius’ part in such handbooks and can only increase the probability that he read the latter.