New Verses on Adonis

New Verses on Adonis Author(s): J. D. Reed Source: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, Bd. 158 (2006), pp. 76-82 Published by: Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, Bonn (Germany) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20191152 . Accessed: 05/11/2013 18:25 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, Bonn (Germany) is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 138.16.128.209 on Tue, 5 Nov 2013 18:25:56 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 76 New on Adonis Verses at least three myths the latest Oxyrhynchus that Among elegiac poem containing papyri is a fragmentary and Narcissus.1 The two that share a side (Adonis and Delos) involve metamorphoses: Adonis, Delos, show a catalogue-poem retailed in a few lines, follows another with no format; that is, one myth, transitional or framing material the possibility of a broader frame in the lost parts (this does not exclude a narrator within a larger narrative).2 This format suggests an origin in the of the poem: for example, the "catalogue Hellenistic like Hermesianax, and Phanocles, period or later: compare elegists" Alexander and curse-poetry of Aetolia of the early 3rd century B.C.E. The papyrus itself shows a It shows bad surface damage, especially in the lines on Coptic uncial hand from the 6th century B.C.E. Adonis. Its editor, W. B. Henry, notes that among the authors of metamorphosis to us by literature known are not inconsistent with the few known facts about Parthenius' Mexajiopcpcoceic the fragments 636-7 = fr. 24 Lightfoot), that work was (Supplementum Hellenisticum though we do not know whether in verse, and if so, in what metre. We have no extant passage of Parthenius that includes more than one = fr. 28 occurs in in 640 the work it came from is SH (one, elegiacs, metamorphosis Lightfoot; The relatively standard poetic diction here is unlike Parthenius' ornate, unknown). straightforward, name, or earlier) is said to (Hellenistic poetry, Theodorus style.3 Of other writers of metamorphic have included in his Mexajiopcpcoceic Adonis' mother's into the myrrh tree (SH 749), if transformation own story; Theodorus' was not Adonis' to known Ovid that he (SH 750), and Henry's poem objection was less likely than Parthenius to have been copied in the 6th century is untestable. We do not know the recherch? It is of course always possible that the new fragment attests a Mexocjiopcpc?ceic.4 an on section of other matter.5 elegiac poem metamorphosis-themed The present discussion focuses on the couplets on Adonis (from the fragmentary through opening line 6), with a view to placing this version in the known history of the myth. The papyrus does not name metre of Theodorus' but Adonis, conjunction comparanda the mention the of an alternation, story, in particular and the from blood. apparent metamorphosis Persephone, My Aphrodite are intended to trace to their earliest attestations the several motifs found here, and thus to I provide a them; that is, to suggest their history and avoid the sense of a standard myth. its preserved details to his point and of problematize text and translation are Henry's), (supplements a commentary, and finally a summary overview. Text (p]lX,OJLl8l?[ ] []0C??,l^[ ][][][][ ?'aMM 1 II and III contain P. Oxy. 4711. Plates 2 Few will the that we argument prefer for a late collection dorff argues intriguingly uncertain quite side came which 3 for example, Compare, images. are dealing with A excerpts. a di?g?ma anthologized of mythographical paper forthcoming epigrams of in SH = fr. 42 Lightfoot type. Note, by Hans incidentally, Berns that it is first. his Kavco7cixr|c epithet for Adonis 654 (Adonis may also have to do with SH 641 = fr. 29 Lightfoot; cf. below on line 5). 4 SH 752 = Suda Cleopatra wrote the Meleagrian 5 G. O. Hutchinson, as well as their attests 9 152 Adler in hexameters". A.P. SH 6.282 ZPE lengths. 753-4 attest a poet Theodorus a pre-Hellenistic and K?vaiooi: 155 (2006) In general original and densely learned"), "tightly written influenced Ovid was by this poem). poet the author in hexameters, things Whether either of these various of discusses Hutchinson especially wrote Theodorus. was SH 755-6) 71-84, "who the Metamorphoses the relationship between the narrative style explores in comparison with Ovid's is unknown. the surviving of the poem Metamorphoses on poetry including who (or the Theodori sections (which (including This content downloaded from 138.16.128.209 on Tue, 5 Nov 2013 18:25:56 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions of he the narrative, characterizes the possibility as that Verses New 11 ?A, [ ] vei?Oi <?>epce[(p?vTi. Ki)7i]pi5i oi)]vojLia ?' au tcotIocJijx? yeke 5 on Adonis n [ a]{\\aii ?' dcn?poc[i](pkocXov?0aX[^8 qnrcov. ... (?) "(?) Laughter-loving turning around name a to river ..., But... his and by means ... in alternation of his ambrosial ... to ... down below to Cypris Persephone a beautiful [?plant bloomed]." ... blood Commentary must have been mentioned 1. cp]iXo|Li?i8[: Aphrodite is her epithet from earliest here; (pi?,o|4iei?r|c with the usual form" times. M. L. West -jj|i- (Henry ad loc), which would "suggests poetic restoring - the - even form of the (the preserved suggest always nom., (p.A(ppo8ixr| compel epic line-ending, but note word would end with the fourth foot). The epithet (usually interpretable as "laughter-loving", Th. 200) is not found in other extant treatments of this myth, but cf. the smiling Aphrodite of at 109-10. Ironic here (if "laughter-loving" is the rebuke to her about Adonis Theoc. 1.95 with Daphnis' sense), before a scene of her grief. Hes. 2. ]oce?i?[: Henry, noting eXiccoo at //. 17.281-3 used of a hunted boar rounding to bay, suggests a The the verb "blood" in line 6 indicates that the boar-hunt of here, specifically participle 8^i^[?|iev-. from death of Adonis is known had a part in this version that killed Adonis (no other bloody mythology). hemistich. see Hermes 8?ii^[?|Li8VOc, with a verb ("killed, attacked" vel sim.) in the first attested around 400 B.C.E.; first certainly in the Hellenistic period: Since in existing versions Aphrodite is far away from the scene of Perhaps The myth then Karcpjoc is first possibly 124 381-2. (1996) at the boar hunt. her epithet in the foregoing line probably does not attest her presence to this line alone (the narrative concision of the rest The description of the hunt may have been confined of the fragment would support this possibility). 3. oc|uoi?ai[: This word must have denoted Adonis' two the "exchange" of him between alternation, an a rare neuter One thinks first of adverbial is and form, perhaps goddesses. a|ioi?aiov (ajuoi?aicoc Adonis' death, prosaic). The traces of the last letter are more consistent with iota than with delta, thus ruling out an one could try an adjectival form going (predicatively) adverb like ajioi?aoic. with Adonis Alternatively or the goddesses, or in some such phrase as The myth of Adonis' alternation ajioi?aiTici. ewficiv a on between Aphrodite and Persephone, based of Tammuz, goes back to evidently myth Mesopotamian = 14 In fr. Hellenistic 27 Bernab? 3.14.4 ClAnt (see [1995] 330-32). poetry the Panyassis [Apollod.] motif is exploited at Theoc. 15.136-42 (cf. TAPA 130 [2000] 336). 4. K?>7t]pi8i ?A [ ]: After the goddess's name (an inevitable supplement) Henry prints ?e??l8c[9ai]. This form is attested only by Hesych. ? 420 (?e?^eoGou- n??,eiv. (ppovxi?ew); Henry to yield a perfect inf., noting, however, that Latte ad. loc. "perhaps rightly" bold conjecture, if correct (see below for further suspects a scribal error for jLiejLi?A,8G0ai.Henry's sense the the the would suit of doubts), passage, (as in nicely balancing primary sense of caretaking a the where is with version of blood in line Adonis the erotic 6 sense6 (the Panyassis' myth, baby) corrects indicates the accentuation the hunting myth, point to indirect obviously concern to ..."); alternatively, like "it was was ordained." An infinitive would most and a love-object). in 3: that is an object of Adonis (with e.g. ?iyoDciv "they say it could be epexegetic with a verb in 3, or dependent on some expression thus that Adonis is grown discourse The entails textual problems. The traces however, reading ?e?A,ec0ai, lower end of a vertical; then a trace that is less distinct, higher, squared-off 6 For the erotic sense of uiAxo and its cognates see Sappho fr. 163 Voigt after the -pi?i constitute and rather close after the (cf. Ar. Ec. 972; also 905), Ib. PMG 217 Pk. 214, Ap. Rh. 3.4, Heliod. Aeth. 3.3.23, Aristaenet. by Pi. fr. 95) and 288, Pi. P. 10.59, A. Ch. 235, Men. Ep. s.v. cura II.B.1). Lat. cura Encomium Cf. R. Hunter, Theocritus: (TLL IV. 1474-5 Compare of Ptolemy Philadelphus (imitated 2.5. (Berkeley 2003) on Theoc. 17.46. This content downloaded from 138.16.128.209 on Tue, 5 Nov 2013 18:25:56 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions /. D. Reed 78 two are the traces of Henry's initial beta, which he does not dot); then a gap followed by a trace on the line; then a clear BA; and finally, before the large gap, the lower left-hand arc squared-off tail of lambda (cf. -?,o- in line 1). Specks follow, possibly of a rounded letter touching the right-hand the right side of this last letter or the left side of the next. The first two traces are representing first (these with the putative in extant betas inconsistent beta of a loss, through damage to the papyrus surface, of the lower horizontal runs in this text leftward and downward, slightly past the left vertical, no no damage to the papyrus of ink shows here, continuity digital image (which cutting it off at its tip). The to the tip of the left and no signs of damage the traces (which looks well preserved), surface between it is implausible is cleanly that the ink of the horizontal was trace, which squared off. Historically, removed with these results. The dotted epsilon that Henry prints between his two betas is not invited by it could as well be the lower tip of an upright as of an the papyrus; the trace on the line that represents is and the cross-stroke but visible anything (only a couple of specks can be seen there). epsilon, the unexampled, would be the only such recherch? term in this oddly formed ?e?AecOai Stylistically, straightforward poetic diction. To avoid hiatus after final iota, the first letter of the word text's basic, needs to be a consonant. Gamma or tau ruled out by the dearth of Greek words with y-?A,- or x-?A,- (and tau by the fact that no horizontal is visible at the upper left, or is provided with enough room there); rho would run too far below the line. that does answer is The two initial traces are too close together for this text's N or n. A consonant seems the kappas in 14 KaAf|v and verso fr. 1.10 compare especially should read koci (the alpha being entirely lost), followed by a word The Kai in line 7, for example, would map on to these traces well. Kai would moreover harsh, one expects a conjunction linking although asyndeton would not be prohibitively a with could be here. The word modifier Adonis going (e.g. ?ArjOeic? Persephone ?A,- (for the stout, kappa a7ce%0aip8GK8): beginning ?A,-. ease the syntax; with Aphrodite but eta does straight perhaps we not Homeric adjective sense late-attested vertical fit the traces well) ?Aoeupii (basically "solemn, dignified" In the latter case, one might think of the Persephone. sense or in the in the "grim, forbidding", "bristling") perhaps s.v. at Venus Pseudo 3; used, in verse, of the planet (LSJ or with we might be dealing with the loss of a locative expression 6(3). 129 Koechly).7 Alternatively to but the difficulty of finding expressions that match the traces, vei?Oi parallel (producing chiasmus); BA (some toponym?), line, suggests that if any such was in the text, it was in the previous particularly Manetho Likewise the main i)7i?p08v or ?v 'OAt)|i7cc? ending at the caesura before ajioi?ai-.8 at line-end. Thus, purely exempli gratia: in the previous line, e.g. 7iapa|ii|iv8i probably e.g. a^oi?ai[ov verb was ime]p0?v Tcapa|i?|xvei/ K?rcJpiSi K[a]i ?Xoc[\)pfi] vei?Oi Oepc?[q>?vTi,"he abides in alternationwith below". Cypris above and with solemn Persephone to the vei?0i: The first three, perhaps four letters are tolerably clear. The term occurs in reference at Ap. Rh. 1.63, 255 vei?Oi ya?r\c. Not found in a pentameter but cf. Underworld elsewhere, Greg. Naz. ?K KpaS?r|c. Carm. quae spectant ad alios (Migne 37.1453.10) O?y^ojiai o?pav?cov, v?i?0?v seems possible. Cf. e.g. Ov. Met. 6.399-400 inde [from the tears 5. oi)]vo|ia: No other supplement ... nomen amnis. of Marsyas' habet, Phrygiae mourners] Marsya liquidissimus to those on in epic for transition, here moving from the consequences for Adonis 5' a\>: Common earth. - or "the river", if it was already mentioned (perhaps with more detailed setting 7co?[a]|Lico: "A river" is clear; it is followed of the story). Only nOT and as an etiological motivation by a gap that is rather wide to have contained only the alpha portion of the loopy ligature used for AM in this text (cf. 3 above 7 The 29.10,71.2; for the sense 8 Such mortals is a common in the Orphic for goddesses Hymns, epithet "baneful" also Inni Orfici 303-4. (Milan 2000) ?^a?spfi in poetry, and is less suited to the traces. ceuvr| synonymous see G. Ricciardelli, here, is infrequent an expression or in heaven. would not necessarily indicate whether Adonis spends his at [Orph.] H. Persephone too strong but seems including itself, suggests time with Aphrodite This content downloaded from 138.16.128.209 on Tue, 5 Nov 2013 18:25:56 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions in the world of Verses New on Adonis 79 reads as the lower parts of the mu portion of the ligature; the than the tail of a rounded letter closely followed by, and touching, the lower left side of a round letter (cf. -?,o- in line 1). Then, detached from the foregoing by a gap, there is a broken circle that Henry reads as traces of the upper part of the omega (though the visible at least from the line on which the following letters sit for omega "arms" appear too long extending tau and is squat and hovers well above the line). Given a very wide space between in this text, which or 6 below). There follow traces that Henry last look rather less like mu in this text does noxa\io for TcoxajLico(this text, incidentally, alpha, the traces might be consistent with a misspelling or indeed for -oc or -ov; but we should at least leave open the not write the iota in long diphthongs), no river appeared in this line, and that the the semantic aptness (see below), that despite possibility = traces represent some other word (perhaps a verb with tcox- rcpoc-). name to a river will most obviously refer to the River Adonis A phrase connecting Adonis' (the in Lebanon), said to be reddened present-day Nahr Ibrahim, near Byblos stream of Adonis" to "the is in and the references Lucian D.S. 8, legend are involved 31.127 of the Adonis myth (cf. the narrative about his daughter Beroe, In the of Adonis with Byblos and its vicinity is connection 41-2).9 general, a in Greek Mythology since is at issue (cf. W. Burkert, Structure and History syncretism n. us F FGrH 828-31 earliest for in Cleitarchus 137 192 3, 1979] 3): [Berkeley Lycophr. noteworthy, and Ritual with his version in Books of Beirut, eponym blood. The yearly by Adonis' at Nonnus D. 3.109, 20.144, (riddlingly). A more is the Cilician river Aous noted as such by Henry, ("of the dawn", i.e. possibility, oc = FGrH 758 F 1, in accounting s.v. A for that river's name, says that Adonis (but alternatively gives the eponym as a Cypriot king Aous, citing Phileas of Athens); see also Panyassis the title fr. 28 Bernab? = Hesych. x\ 652 Latte, who gives Adonis oc of A [Leiden (cf. R. Matthews, 1974] Panyassis of Halicarnassus equivalent abstruse Et. Gen. "eastern"). was called Aous for this tradition an epic is known data: Parthenius, who 123).10 Further suggestive name to the river Aous the Satrachus apparently gave Cypriot 'Hoir|c, Et. Gen. loc. cit.); Nonnus D. (cf. Catull. Smyrna Cinna's connects 13.458-60 with 95.5 establish the river's identity; necessarily or title could have been left to the reader's to have (see n. 3 above), = fr. 29 = 641 (SH Lightfoot as did perhaps the myth of Adonis, treated Adonis or Setrachus the Satrachus with J. D. Morgan, Our poem did not CQ 41 [1991] 252-3). the connection between the river and Adonis through his name erudite speculation. suggests y' ??,?yov, with local inhabitants as subject. The syntax of this conjecture, is dubious; the examples he adduces use a verb meaning however, "call, address" (not just "say") with as a as direct in far as we can see, though Henry the accusative ovo|Lia (absent here object, predicate of 'A?coviv at line-end), and dative of the person or thing so called. As for the suggests the possibility :Henry y??? looks at least as much particle, y? here would have a sense close to "at least." The "gamma", however, like a tau, with the left part of the cross-stroke represented by Henry's "surplus ink (offset?) inmiddle"; tau in this text commonly 8 shows just such a bulb at the left end of the cross-stroke (cf. e.g. 6 a]?|iaxi, Arixouc, 9 xf|v, 10 rcpeoxa, etc.; for the bulb at the upper left of gamma see verso case we might most easily read x?, suggesting that another recipient of Adonis' at the flower?). Met. which Ov. 10.725-8 is The second festival, coupled with fr. 1.12, 13). In that name followed (the is followed epsilon then another vertical with perhaps some traces between. The possibilities by a clear vertical, or are An N x?tai iota, x??,?V...) by (y??i?V... yielding (referring to the rite of the unpromising. - with or one context the fit would and the for metre; Adonia), corruption might posit a haplography closely offered 9 The river at Strabo is named 16.2.19, Pliny NB. 5.19.78, Ptol. Geogr. Sozomenus 5.14.4, 2.5 (Migne 67.948), John Lydus Mens. 4.44 (64), CIL 3.178. On the legend seeW. W. Baudissin, Adonis und Esmun (Leipzig 1911) 71-3, 80-81,125; B. Soyez, Byblos et la f?te des Adonies (Leiden 1977) 47-8, 57-60. The lateM. Gabriel Debbas, formerly of Beirut, informed me that the color and compared, winter, 10 Some connection e.g., is due to "?boulements the Rio Tinto with the goddess ... du min?ral de fer brut" that wash in from the mountains at the end of the myth of in Spain. Eos is also possible in Panyassis' version, e.g. by contamination Aphrodite and Phaethon ([Hes.] Th. 986-91). This content downloaded from 138.16.128.209 on Tue, 5 Nov 2013 18:25:56 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions with 80 J.D.Reed x? x?Xzx x[? ("[he left] his name to both the river and the rite").11 The barb at the top of the first vertical after epsilon, described by Henry as a "left-pointing finial", is consistent with iota in this text (cf. e.g. 4 6 a]?|xa-). KU7c]pi?i, last visible letter on this line is a pi, followed by smudges at most of the next. letters are fairly certain. The final traces of 6. a]?jLiaxi 8' ocjLi?poc[i]cp KaX?v: The first two visible a are a this phrase then vertical that verges onto another gap. Only AMBPOC, gap, then Q followed by the apexes of the two letters after the gap are preserved; they are probably consistent with AA (the first not like other lambdas here, and alpha and delta also is hardly identifiable; the second is obviously The and a form of Ka?xSc is the most obvious reading. suggest themselves), Of all words with -tjiax-, aijxa fits the context best by far. This word, from Adonis' myth, must either relate to the reddening of the River Adonis or introduce (see below associations on Ka?xk a known blood (see on line 5 above) it. The probability of the reading Ka?,ov recommends the latter for a plant), and it will furthermore be noted that the epithet has that grew as epithet the flower if our text followed from not only of immortality, but of fragrance. One recalls in the latter connection the "fragrant anemone at Met. nectar" with which Venus blood into the 10.732 (nectare odorato), changes Adonis' in the former, the nectar and ambrosia with which deities anoint and generally the fragrance of flowers; in verso fr. 1.6 6.275.4). Note apparently ap?poxoc himself into a flower); Adonis himself has the epithet changed 41 and 55.26. Most the "ambrosial" immediately quality of the blood their dead favorites (Adonis himself in the myth of Narcissus, at Nossis AP. (possibly in [Orph.] H. proem. ajx?poxoc of the flower. might be referred not only to the fragrance, but to the perennial reappearance The flower-metamorphosis in this myth is very scantily attested before Ovid, Met. In 10.728-39. = said that the anemone grew from the blood of Adonis" I Theoc. 5.92F "Nicander Nie. fr. 65 (perhaps and anemones are also legible in the very fragmentary P. Hamb. II 201 = in his Heteroioumena)', Adonis tears for Adonis Bion Adonis 66 has Aphrodite's SH 902.16-18 the (2nd century B.C.E.).12 produce while anemone, 10.18). A Adonis' the rose (as later at Philostr. Epist. 1, Servius Auctus Eel. produces Heitsch 6.3.6-7 of the myth from a Roman-era / papyrus, A]?covi?oc with ?p?rcvoov, suit either the anemone, the "windflower" (through wordplay blood version fragmentary would [...] ?pircvoov, or the rose (with ?p?rcvoov in the atMet. 10.738-9), etymology "blowing strongly": LSJ s.v.; cf. Ovid's ... sense "very fragrant"; cf. e.g. Theoc. 18.40 cx?(pavcoc ??i) rcv?ovxac). Our text did not necessarily the identify plant. mortal being. There is firstly a of an emphatically see A. Kleinlogel, the instances in the 13 (1981) 269-72, Po?tica blood"?): pun ("bloodless discussing are about lack of which blood has The ichor cites, Iliad, (she instead). parallel Henry Aphrodite's ?i? 652-3 / cox?i?fi0?v 6r| pa x?x' aji?pocioio a?jiaxoc (pop?ovxo [Orph.] Lithica Kax?i?o|Li?vai The thing here striking is the "immortal" blood is also about a deity's blood xpa(p?pTyv pa9?|iiYY?c, "holy blood" (tep?v aijxa); this is part of the poem's (Uranus').13 Bion Adonis 22 mentions Aphrodite's and assimilation humanization of her of Aphrodite 11 fr. 387 Radt. The traces are less well is rare in the sing, in this sense; LSJ s.v. ziXoc I 6 cite Aesch. The word as far as we can tell; P. Lambrechts, not refer to actual practice, to xeX,?Tfl. Any mystic of the term would connotations en oosterse rules out the possibility de zgn. Adonismysteries (Brussels 1954) decisively mysteriegodsdiensten; griekse of Adonis "mysteries" in extant testimonia, while noting that in literary treatments Christian) (particularly suited Over of true the Adonia can that status. approach 12 The myth may go back to a Near Eastern of Adonis: counterpart H. Lewy, Die Fremdw?rter semitischen im Griechi schen (Berlin 1895) 49; J. G. Frazer, Adonis Attis Osiris, vol. 1 (London3 1914) 226; W. F. Albright, History, Archaeology, and Christian the Hellenistic 13 Humanism period: (New P. M. York C. Forbes 1964) 172-3. In Greek Irving, Metamorphosis plant-metamorphoses mythology in Greek Myths 1990) (Oxford first appear in abundance in 129. to the myth of the reddened river rather here refers the possibility that the blood recalling a its death Uranus' blood involves of the Lithica than to the flower-metamorphosis: passage illustrating metamorphosis P.E. of Byblos FGrH 790 F 1 = Euseb. into blood that recalls Philo dissolves into a stone that in water lessness again; 1.9.29, A suggestive who makes connection, the blood of Uranus, not Adonis, stain the river near Byblos (i.e. the River Adonis). The Phoenician History of Philo of Byblos: A Commentary (Leiden 1981) 211-13. This content downloaded from 138.16.128.209 on Tue, 5 Nov 2013 18:25:56 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Cf. A. I. Baumgarten, New to the dead Adonis. this new text does defacto of Hellenistic the background What be set against could Verses on Adonis 81 is to invert Bion's Adonis-cults, trope and divinize Adonis like the Adoniac eranos-societies - this of Rhodes and theCarian coast (see TAPA 130 [2000] 340 n. 101); I think also of Phanocles fr. 3 Powell as I discuss it ibid. 342-3. seems likely for a flower-metamorphosis, ?BaX[ke: Henry's conjecture a round letter, The cross-stroke the of "theta", unmistakably problems. textual though it involves a is represented short only by thetas we can usefully compare that are higher than the cross-stroke of the only other line of ink-specks in this text (recto fr. 3.2, 3; verso fr. 1.10). After the first two letters the papyrus shows a tall, blurry, other alphas: the left part of the resemble the copyist's letter that does not obviously haystack-shaped at the bottom letter lacks alpha's characteristic loop or nose (an upright letter is not ruled out); moreover we find a clearly letters) previous squared-off tip of a horizontal that would be consistent with a beta stroke going far leftward (below the line of the or delta (but a compound in v?o?- or v?o8-, in -o and followed by some disyllabic - at most - word defined, word preceded by a trochee-shaped seems ruled out). The "alpha" is followed by the edge of the papyrus with smudges, at most, of the upper part of the next letter. As to sense, the imperfect tense is less than ideal; and finally, dat. ?K too whose aijicxxi is a little odd with a verb "grew, flourished" subject is the plant (one expects necessarily at line-end, us to try ?oik? (or -?v) and read ajijiaxi 8' a?jLiocToc vel sim. in this context). The traces encourage was like his the beautiful koKov ambrosial blood" (i.e. in color) the [flower] ?oik[e, "and a(i?poc[i](p an as not the of the flower of be for felt the harsh, might growth explanation ellipsis considering at of the the flower have been indeed mentioned the introduction of the Adonis familiarity might myth; an etiology. But the horizontal beneath iota would story, motivating ... Ka?ov [cpirc?v: This phrase is used in a plant-metamorphosis poem repeatedly uses (pDiov of metamorphosed plants). Moreover, the only metrically suitable still be unexplained. at Heitsch 6.1.17 (cf. above; the to fill out the line-end, cpuxov seems the sense "plant" or "flower". But agreeing with Ka?ov, with conceivably po?ov (as in the tradition first attested in Bion).14 Ka?oc is not merely ornamental here, but as being the standing epithet of Adonis most appropriate, (first attested in Nossis AP. 6.215A, Theoc. see D. Bion J. Reed, 15.127; 1, adding Procop. Gaz. Ep. 1997) on Bion Adonis of Smyrna (Cambridge 69, Ov. Met. 10.522 remains What noun, and Aug. of Adonis Civ. 6.7 formosissimus): is a name flower. and metamorphosis Etiology metaphorical principle of of mapping the narration was much told in more leisurely and Adonis, culminating in the flower persists the sum of Adonis' nature. in a river (and/or a ritual?) and a apparently surviving as often in whose show the same combine, Ovid, Metamorphoses an end onto a beginning, measuring If change against continuity. and beauty, longer than the present fashion than the rest. We the lead-in to Adonis' death was probably fragments, a should then imagine tale of love between Aphrodite demise and its results: such a narrative would be in the in his swiftly related is of the river or version of the myth). Etiological mention style (and by Ovid's paralleled the flower or both could have introduced the story. new version of the Adonis myth, but rather several already We have not discovered here a wholly attested motifs in a new way combined is most (as is typical of the treatment of this myth, which Hellenistic commonly goes back in brief, often ornamental death in a boar hunt, which probably references). Adonis' to the late 5th century, was certainly part of the passage, as was his alternation between and Persephone, is first attested in the early 5th century but descends which from his much found Aphrodite older Mesopotamian Our text, in fact, is significant for reconciling these two counterpart Tammuz. and the hunting death), since they do not normally go together. The earliest between the two goddesses fr. 27 of his Bernab?) makes no mention (Panyassis treats him as still a child; and versions that treat his death do not commonly follow (the alternation myths version of the exchange death, 14 and evidently This supplement has also occurred to Hutchinson (n. 5 above). This content downloaded from 138.16.128.209 on Tue, 5 Nov 2013 18:25:56 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions /. D. Reed 82 elaborate on the rivalry, erotic or otherwise, it by an exchange.15 This poem did not necessarily between are over If reconstructed and Adonis. 3-4then this conceives of poem correctly, Persephone Aphrodite as foundation for the yearly rite of lamentation Adonis still alternating, implicitly laying the etiological as in Theocritus is brought out (by the paradoxical "ambrosial blood") is 15.137-42). What (somewhat or divinity: the and he has both and between the question of his mortality Underworld Heaven, shifting neither. And on earth he achieves immortality after a fashion, in earthly things that reappear every year. reminiscent of the poetic style of the 3rd century B.C.E. and An interest in etiology and geography, later, comes blood to a river named after Adonis. The flower out in the apparent reference a Hellenistic and that is first attested in the Hellenistic feature, myth our one in "catalogue example of the use of Adonis period also furnishes is also Hellenistic fr. 3 Powell. to do with fip?aaxo themselves period. early poetry": Phanocles Adonis and Delos have stories weeping recto fr. 4 ??aKpi); of the catalogues links and Kka]vcaxo); Delos' troubles also qualify for this theme (note ([?]?,o(pupaxo fr. 3 oi)?A)0p might perhaps represent a form of no\)X\)Qpr\voc). One is reminded of sorrows events in Euphorion, for example. and personal painful mythological between narrated stories close cannot together (in the Adonis poem the love story, the flower, the myths.16 differences between the emphasize elements up the common pointed same at and the time helped but have and the tragedy) J. D. Reed Ann Arbor 15 Another preserved treatments Honor from his The in our new poem share links beyond a metamorphosis. a loves his own beauty the love of (verso fr. 1.11 nJopcpfjc deity for a mortal; Narcissus a flower-metamorphosis. both All and Narcissus involve three lend c(p?X?pr|c). Adonis one will note Adonis' treatment. The stories seem to be mournful: to etiological death and The Narcissus' Thematic that grew myth in Aristid. reconcile that involves Apol. the myths Courtney of Edward 16 I owe thanks to Dirk a dispute 11.3 Geffcken, of Adonis' (Beitr?ge Obbink Cyril death over the dead Comm. and afterlife zur Altertumskunde for providing me (70.441 see Reed 161, Leipzig with between Adonis Is. 2.3 a digital his Migne), in J. F. Miller 2002), image of and Persephone is that extant the various ways in Vertis in usum: Studies lover Aphrodite On and elsewhere. et al., eds., 219-22. the papyrus, and to him their observations. This content downloaded from 138.16.128.209 on Tue, 5 Nov 2013 18:25:56 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions and Susan Stephens for