Notes

Phaedra

Phaedra with an attendant, probably her nurse, a fresco from Pompeii, 60-20 BC

Phaeda

Nurse: Help, help! Come, help, anyone near the palace! My lady, Theseus’ wife, has hanged herself!
Chorus Leader: Alas! It is all over! The Queen is no more, caught in a suspended noose!
Nurse: Hurry! Someone fetch a double-edged sword to cut this noose about her neck!
…
Chorus Leader: She tied aloft a noose to hang herself.

Phaedra

Euripides. Hippolyte. 779

Phædra

Phædra, when spurned by her son Hippolytus.

Notes

Pallas and Arachne

Arachne

Arachne

So saying, she [Pallas] turned her mind to the fate of Maeonian Arachne, who she had heard would not yield to her the palm in the art of spinning and weaving wool. Neither for place of birth nor birth itself had the girl fame, but only for her skill. Her father, Idmon of Colophon, used to dye the absorbent wool for her with Phocaean purple. Her mother was now dead; but she was low-born herself, and had a husband of the same degree. Nevertheless, the girl, Arachne, had gained fame for her skill throughout the Lydian towns, although she herself had sprung from a humble home and dwelt in the hamlet of Hypaepa. Often, to watch her wondrous skill, the nymphs would leave their own vineyards on Timolus’ slopes, and the water-nymphs of Pactolus would leave their waters. And ’twas a pleasure not alone to see her finished work, but to watch her as she worked; so graceful and deft was she. Whether she was winding the rough yarn into a new ball, or shaping the stuff with her fingers, reaching back to the distaff for more wool, fleecy as a cloud, to draw into long soft threads, or giving a twist with practised thumb to the graceful spindle, or embroidering with her needle: you could know that Pallas had taught her. Yet she denied it, and, offended at the suggestion of a teacher ever so great, she said: “Let her but strive with me; and if I lose there is nothing which I would not forfeit.”
Then Pallas assumed the form of an old woman, put false locks of grey upon her head, took a staff in her hand to sustain her tottering limbs, and thus she began: “Old age has some things at least that are not to be despised; experience comes with riper years. Do not scorn my advice: seek all the fame you will among mortal men for handling wool; but yield place to the goddess, and with humble prayer beg her pardon for your words, reckless girl. She will grant you pardon if you ask it.” But she regarded the old woman with sullen eyes, dropped the threads she was working, and, scarce holding her hand from violence, with open anger in her face she answered the disguised Pallas: “Doting in mind, you come to me, and spent with old age; and it is too long life that is your bane. Go, talk to your daughter-in-law, or to your daughter, if such you have. I am quite able to advise myself. To show you that you have done no good by your advice, we are both of the same opinion. Why does not your goddess come herself? Why does she avoid a contest with me?” Then the goddess exclaimed: “She has come!” and throwing aside her old woman’s disguise, she revealed Pallas. The nymphs worshipped her godhead, and the Mygdonian women; Arachne alone remained unafraid, though she did turn red, for a sudden flush marked her unwilling cheeks and again faded: as when the sky grows crimson when the dawn first appears, and after a little while when the sun is up it pales again. Still she persists in her challenge, and stupidly confident and eager for victory, she rushes on her fate. For Jove’s daughter refuses not, nor again warns her or puts off the contest any longer. They both set up the looms in different places without delay and they stretch the fine warp upon them…

Pallas pictures the hills of Mars on the citadel of Cecrops and that old dispute over the naming of the land…

Arachne pictures Europa cheated by the disguise of the bull…

Not Pallas, nor Envy himself, could find a flaw in that work. The golden-haired goddess was indignant at her success, and rent the embroidered web with its heavenly crimes; and, as she held a shuttle of Cytorian boxwood, thrice and again she struck Idmonian Arachne’s head. The wretched girl could not endure it, and put a noose about her bold neck. As she hung, Pallas lifted her in pity, and said: “Live on, indeed, wicked girl, but hang thou still; and let this same doom of punishment (that thou mayst fear for future times as well) be declared upon thy race, even to remote posterity.” So saying, as she turned to go she sprinkled her with the juices of Hecate’s herb; and forthwith her hair, touched by the poison, fell off, and with it both nose and ears; and the head shrank up; her whole body also was small; the slender fingers clung to her side as legs; the rest was belly. Still from this she ever spins a thread; and now, as a spider, she exercises her old-time weaver-art.

Arachné

Elle étoit habile dans l’art de broder; mais Minerve ayant brisé le métier et les fuseaux de sa rivale, elle se pendit de désespoir, et fut changée en araignée.

Arachne

Voy. Ovide, Metam. lib. VI.

Arachne

Ovid Met. vi 5-135.

Arachne

Sur le suicide d’Arachné, voir Ovide, Métamorphoses, VI, 5.

Arachne

Arachne, the skilful spinner, who, having challenged Minerva, lost, and had recourse to the rope, Minerva changing her, later, into a spider.

Arachné

Ovide, Métamorphoses, VI, v. 5.

Notes

Licambe

Take care now, take care! For I am utterly ruthless against villains, and now toss my horns in readiness, like the son-in-law rejected by the treacherous Lycambes,¹ or the fierce enemy of Bupalus.

1. Archilochus of Paros wrote his iambics in the seventh century B.C. According to tradition, Lycambes, after promising his daughter Neobule to the poet, reneged, whereupon Archilochus attacked them with such savage invective that they hanged themselves.

Lycambe

Lycambe ayant marié sa fille au pöete Archiloque, et ne la lui ayant pas livrée, en fut puni par des vers si mordants, qu’il se pendit de désespoir. D’où Horace, Epod., od. vi, a dit:

Qualis Lycambo spretus infido gener.

Et Ovide, Ibis:

Tincta Lycambæo sanguine tela dabit.

Licambe

Belle-mère d’Archiloque; les vers satiriques de son gendre la forcèrent de se pendre.

Lycambes

Hor. Epod. vi. 13.

Licambe

Citoyen de Thèbes, que les attaques du poete Archiloque poussèrent à se pendre. Cf. Horace, Épod., VI, 13, et Épîtres, I, 19, 25.

Lycambes

Lycambes, the Theban poet, attacked by his rival Archilochus.

Licambe

Horace, Épodes, VI, v. 13 (poussé à se pendre par les attaques du poète Archiloque).

Notes

Auctolia, properly Autolyca or Anticlea, Euryclea in Homer

Odysseus meets the ghost of his dead mother in the underworld:
“In the same way I too perished and met my fate. Neither did the keen-sighted archer goddess assail me in my halls with her gentle shafts, and slay me, nor did any disease come upon me, such as oftenest with loathsome wasting takes the spirit from the limbs; no, it was longing for you, and for your counsels, glorious Odysseus, and for your gentle-heartedness, that robbed me of honey-sweet life.”

Autolia

Ou mieux Autolyca, fille d’Autolycus, et mère d’Ulysse. Elle se pendit lorsque Nauplius, pour se venger d’Ulysse qui avoit tué son fiils Palamède, lui apporta la fausse nouvelle de la mort de son fils. Elle est aussi appelée quelquefois Auticlia ou Auticlea, et Antiocha. On lit Auctolia dans l’edition de 1552 et dans les deux éditions de M. D. L.; mais ce nom n’a jamais éte grec: c’est un corruption d’Autolia ou d’Autolyca.

Autolia

Ou plutôt Autolyca, Anticlia ou Antiocha, mère d’Ulysse. Elle se pendit de désespoir en recevant la fausse nouvelle de la mort de son fils.

Auctolia

Auctolia, properly Autolyca or Anticlea, Euryclea in Homer, daughter of Autolycus and wife of Laertes. According to Eustathius, she hanged herself on hearing from Nauplius, the father of Palamedes, that her son Ulysses was dead. Homer represents her as dying on account of his long absence (Od. xi 196).

Auctolia

Autolyca, mère d’Ulysse, se pendit, d’après Eustathe, in Ody., XI, 196, lorsque Nauplius imagina, par vengeance, de lui dire qu’Ulysse, était mort.

Auctolia

Mère d’Ulysse, qui se pendit après la fausse annonce de la mort de son fils.

Notes

Bonosus

Cet empereur, qui étoit un grand buveur, et qui enivroit les ambassadeurs qu’on lui envoyoit pour en tirer la vérité, ayant été vaincu par Probus, finit sa vie en se pendant; ce qui fit dire plaisamment que c’étoit un tonneau de pendu, et non un homme.

Bonosus

Voy. Vopiscus, Vita Probi.

Flavius Vopiscus. Vita Firmi, Saturnini, Proculi et Bonosi

14. Bonosus domo Hispaniensi fuit, origine Brittannus, Galla tamen matre, ut ipse dicebat, rhetoris filius ut ab aliis comperi, paedagogi litterarii. parvulus patrem amisit atque a matre fortissima educatus litterarum, nihil didicit. militavit primum inter ordinarios, deinde inter equites; duxit ordines, tribunatus egit, dux limitis Raetici fuit, bibit, quantum hominum nemo. de hoc Aurelianus saepe dicebat: ‘non ut vivat, natus est, sed ut bibat.’ quem quidem diu in honore habuit causa militiae. nam si quando legati barbarorum undecumque gentium venissent, ipsi propinabantur, ut eos inebriaret atque ab his per vinum cuncta cognosceret. ipse quantumlibet bibisset, semper securus et sobrius et, ut Onesimus dicit scriptor vitae Probi, adhuc in vino prudentior. habuit praeterea rem mirabilem, ut quantum bibisset, tantum mingeret, neque umquam eius aut pectus aut venter aut vesica, gravaretur.

Bonosus

Bonosus, 3rd cent. A.D. Aurelian says of him that he was born to drink, not to live. He could remain sober though he drank a prodigious quantity, and he made foreign ambassadors drunk to get at their secrets. He hanged himself after being conquered by Probus, when it was said, “There hangs a cask, not a man” (Vopise. Bonosus, 14, 15).

Bonosus

Empereur romain (IIIe siècle après J.-C.) qui se pendit après qu’il eut été vaincu par Probis. Il pouvait boire prodigieusement, sans perdre son sang-froide. Voir Vopiscus, Bonosus, 14, 15.

Bonosus

Emperor of Rome, a prodigious drinker, who in despair at his defeat by Probus, chose this method of ending it all, earning for epitaph: “There hands a keg, not a man.”

Bonosus

Vopiscus, Bonosus, XIV; cet empereur romain (III^e siècle apr. J.-C.) se pendit après avoir été vaincu par Probus.

à l’exemple de

La liste suivante se trouve dans Ravisius Textor, Officina (rubriques Mortui suspendio et crice et Qui uariis modis mortem sibi consciuerunt). Paris, 1532 (voir Tiers livre, éd. Screech, n. 25, p. 339).

Notes

Hanging, Colombe, ca. 1480

Hanging detail, Colombe, ca. 1480

Hanged man

Hanged men

Car maints d’iceulx

Car plusieurs de ces larrons.

hault et court

De ces larrons

finer leur vie hault et court

La plupart de ces personnages ce sont pendus. Il se retrouvent tous dans l’Officinia de Ravisius Textor (rubruques, Mortui suspendio et cruce et Qui variis modis mortem sibi consciverunt), Paris, 1532, xxiii, et iii. C’est Pantagruel qui aurait inventé l’art de pendre les criminels !

par tel usaige

Le chanvre sert à faire des cordes pour pendre les larrons.

liste de pendus

Cette liste de pendus est presque tout entière dans Ravisius Textor, Officina, aux rubriques «Qui variis modis sibi consciuerunt» et «Cruce et suspendio mortui». In n’y manque que l’empereur Bonose (mais on le trouve à la rubrique «Vinolenti») et Léda. «Phæda, Leda» constitue une addition où le premier nom estropié (il s’agit de Phèdre) fait craindre que le second ne sout un coquille, car Léda n’a pas fini sa vie au bout d’une corde.

Notes

Oil to Trees

Pliny xviii. 24, § 37 (234).

oil to trees

Quae iniuria hominum constant secundum vim habent causas. pix, oleum, adeps inimica praecipue novellis.

Kinds of damage due to injury done by man have effects proportionate to their violence. Pitch, oil and grease are particularly detrimental to young trees.

l’huille, aux arbres

D’après Pline, XVII, 37: «Pix, oleum, adeps inimica præcipue novellis». (Paul Delaunay)

Nenuphar…

Encore une fois, la plupart de ces exemples se retrouvent dans le De latinis nominibus de Charles Estienne. Le nenufar et la semence de saule sont des antiaphrodisiaques. La ferula servait, dans l’Antiquité, à fustiger les écoliers (cf. Martial, X, 62-10).

l’Huille, aux Arbres

Pline, XVII, xxxvii, parle de la poix.

Notes

Juniperus

Plate 75

Taxus

Taxus
Taxus baccata L.
Ancient Greek: smilax
Modern French: if

the shade of yew

Pliny xvi. 10, § 25 [?]; Plut. Symp. iii. f 44 [?]

the shade of yew

Similis his etiamnunc aspectu est, ne quid praetereatur, taxus minime virens gracilisque et tristis ac dira, nullo suco, ex omnibus sola bacifera. mas noxio fructu, letale quippe bacis in Hispania praecipue venenum inest: vasa etiam viatoria ex ea vinis in Gallia facta mortifera fuisse conpertum est. hanc Sextius milacem a Graecis vocari dicit, et esse in Arcadia tam praesentis veneni ut qui obdormiant sub ea cibumve capiant moriantur. sunt qui et taxica hinc appellata dicant venena quae nunc toxica dicimus, quibus sagittae tinguantur. reperio innoxiam fieri si in ipsam arborem clavus aereus adigatur.

Moreover, not to pass over any variety, resembling these trees in appearance is the yew, hardly green at all in colour and slender in form, with a gloomy, terrifying appearance; it has no sap, and is the only tree of all the class that bears berries. The fruit of the male yew is harmful — in fact its berries, particularly in Spain, contain a deadly poison; even wine-flasks for travellers made of its wood in Gaul are known to have caused death. Sextius says that the Greek name for this tree is milax, and that in Arcadia its poison is so active that people who go to sleep or picnic beneath a yew-tree die. Some people also say that this is why poisons were called ‘taxic,’ which we now pronounce ‘toxic’ [Taxica from taxus, a yew; toxica from τόξον, a bow]. meaning ‘used for poisoning arrows.’ I find it stated that a yew becomes harmless if a copper nail is driven into the actual tree.

l’umbre de if, aux dormans dessoubs

If, Taxus baccata, L. (Junipéracée) — L’ombrage de l’if est dangereux, dit Dioscoride, surtout quand il est en fleur, ajoute Plutarque: «Ut qui obdormaint sum ea cibumve capiant moriantur», enchérit Pline, XVI, 20. Mais Pena et Dalechamps assurent le contraire, et avec raison. Les observations d’éruption miliaire rapportées en 1789 par Harmand de Montgarni ne semblent pas relever de cette cause. L’if renferme un alcaloïde, la taxine de Marmé, et un glucoside, la taxicatine de Lefebvre. Mail ils ne sont pas volatils; on n’a observé d’empoisonnements que par ingestion de druples chez les enfants ou de feuillage chez les équidés. (Paul Delaunay)

Nenuphar…

Encore une fois, la plupart de ces exemples se retrouvent dans le De latinis nominibus de Charles Estienne. Le nenufar et la semence de saule sont des antiaphrodisiaques. La ferula servait, dans l’Antiquité, à fustiger les écoliers (cf. Martial, X, 62-10).

shade of the ash tree

folia earum iumentis mortifera, ceteris ruminantium innocua Graeci prodidere; in Italia nec iumentis nocent. contra serpentes vero suco expresso ad potum et imposita ulceri opifera ut nihil aeque reperiuntur; tantaque est vis ut ne matutinas quidem occidentesve umbras, cum sunt longissimae, serpens arboris eius adtingat, adeo ipsam procul fugiat. experti prodimus, si fronde ea circumcludantur ignis et serpens, in ignes potius quam in fraxinum fugere serpentem. mira naturae benignitas prius quam hae prodeant florere fraxinum nec ante conditas folia demittere.

Greek writers have stated that the leaves of the ash are poisonous to beasts of burden, though doing no harm to all the other kinds of ruminants; but in Italy they are harmless to beasts of burden also. Indeed, they are found to be serviceable as an exceptionally effective antidote for snake-bites, if the juice is squeezed out to make a potion and the leaves are applied to the wound as a poultice; and they are so potent that a snake will not come in contact with the shadow of the tree even in the morning or at sunset when it is at its longest, so wide a berth does it give to the tree itself. We can state from actual experiment that if a ring of ash-leaves is put round a fire and a snake, the snake will rather escape into the fire than into the ash-leaves. By a marvellous provision of Nature’s kindness the ash flowers before the snakes come out and does not shed its leaves before they have gone into hibernation.