interest, of conscious development, and of personal achievement, and that they shall be so thoroughly imbued with the lasting pleasures of literature that they will never feel themselves dependent upon the transient, unsatisfying diversions of those who know not the pleasures of the mind. If the type of our teaching changes to conform to this new ideal, and if we teach Latin in this practical, vital way, and if we take it upon ourselves to spread among the people the just claims of Latin, there is no doubt that Latin will continue to hold its own in the High School. JOSEPH P. BEHм. CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL, Syracuse, N. Y. SOME GREEK AND LATIN ETYMOLOGIES "Etymology", said the late Professor Skeat, "depends no longer upon barefaced and irresponsible assertion, but has been raised to the dignity of a science". Now it is of the nature of science to pay attention to a host of seemingly unimportant details and laboriously to examine a problem from every side before pronouncing a decision. Most sciences, besides, find it necessary to employ a system of technical terms and symbols. Consequently, as etymological writing has become more exact, it has become more difficult and less interesting to the layman. It may be worth while, then, to select a few interesting results of the detailed and technical discussions in recent periodicals. 1. ODIUM See Skutsch, Glotta 2(1910).230 ff.; Landgraf, Glotta 3(1911).51; Walde, Indogermanische Forschungen, 28(1911).396 ff.; Skutsch, Glotta 3(1911). 285 ff.; Walde, Indogermanische Forschungen 30 (1912).139 f. In only 3 of the 37 occurrences in Plautus can odium naturally be translated by 'hate'. It means rather 'disgust', as in Curculio 501: Odio et malo et molestiae, bono usui estis nulli. In this and many other places the word has a force more primitive than the meaning 'hate'. Odium, odi, etc., are ultimately akin to odor, and the more concrete meaning is, as usual, the older. The meaning 'hate' developed from the meaning 'smell' in Indo-European times, as is shown by Greek ỏdúocopal, 'hate', but in Latin the connection between the two meanings was never lost from the linguistic consciousness. Odium was always associated with odor, and that is the reason why it serves so readily as a term of abuse in Plautus and Terence. After Artemona in the Asinaria (893 ff.) has overheard her husband complain of her unsavory breath, she repells his conciliatory Iam obsecro, uxor with the words Modo . . . odium, non uxor eram. Even in Cicero odiosus is often coupled with molestus in such a way as to require the translation 'disgusting' rather than 'hateful'. 2. PONTIFEX Pontifex (see Kent, Classical Philology 8(1913).317 ff.) was connected by the ancients with pons and facere and very plausibly too, since the pontifices built and repaired the Pons Sublicius, the earliest and long the only bridge across the Tiber at Rome. It is, however, scarcely credible that so important a priestly College originated at so late a date as the bridging of the Tiber-in fact the Roman tradition puts the organization of the College two reigns earlier than the building of the bridge. Neither is it probable that the first pontifices were the builders of other bridges-say bridges over the streams that had to be crossed by the primitive Italians during their southward migration. Migrating tribes would rather ford the streams or cross on rafts. The word pons originally meant what is denoted by wáros, Sanskrit panthā, etc. In the Vedas and the Avesta the stem of these words is frequently used in a religious sense of the path between men and gods or between men and the world of the dead. In the Rigveda there is even a compound pathikrt, 'pathmaking', which is used as an epithet of several divine and semi-divine persons to indicate their services in keeping open the 'path of the gods'. Now, put in mystic phrase, that is about what the Roman pontifices did in superintending the Roman religion as a whole and seeing that both priests and laity observed the established procedure. The first element of pontifex, then, originally had the meaning of 'path between this world and the other'. The compound must have originated in very ancient times before the primitive mysticism had faded out of the Roman religion. The connection of the pontifices with the Pons Sublicius is probably due to the change in the meaning of pons. At the time when the first rude bridge was built over the Tiber it was named 'the road on piles' (since it was the only bridge, the adjective would have been otiose if pons had meant 'bridge'). Gradually, and perhaps just on account of its use in the phrase Pons Sublicius, pons gained its historical meaning; at the same time pontifices found in their name a claim to authority over the bridge. 3. SATURA See Ullman, Classical Philology 8(1913).172 ff. The connection of the word with the adjective satur has long been recognized, but the precise character of the connection has not been understood. The ancient authorities all use satura as a noun; see e.g. Festus: Satura et cibi genus et lex multis aliis legibus conferta. . . . The original meaning of the noun seems to have been the one which Festus mentions first. What the dish was appears from a passage where Diomedes derives the use of satura as the name of a literary genre, a quodam genere farciminis, quod multis rebus refertum saturam dicit Varro vocitatum. He goes on to cite from Varro's Questiones Plautinae a recipe for the farcimen or 'stuffing' (not 'sausage') which was called satura. Satura in the sense of 'stuffing' was originally the neuter plural of the adjective used substantively, but it came to be employed as a collective feminine singular, as did several other neuters in colloquial Latin'. 4. Βοώπις, Γλαυκώπις See Sturtevant, Classical Philology 7(1912).426. We have all been taught that Hera's epithet Bownes was intended as a compliment to her eyes. Consequently some scholars have interpreted Cicero's application of the word to the notorious Clodia Quadrantaria as an allusion to what he elsewhere calls her flagrantia oculorum-as if a COW was ever guilty of 'burning glances'! Surely it was never a compliment to any woman, or goddess, to call her 'ox-eyed'. Very few have had the hardihood to interpret Athena's obviously parallel epithet as 'owleyed'. In early Greek there are a number of compounds in-oy, -wy, and-wis in which the final stem has so completely lost all meaning that it is virtually a suffix; compare e.g. topwy, 'dropsy', from tdwp, dpúoy, a bird, from ôpûs, κwvwy, 'mosquito', from Kŵvos, which once meant 'sting'. Hera Boris, then, was the 'cow-goddess' and Athena yλauк@πis the 'owl-goddess', just as Poseidon os was the 'horse-god' and Apollo Xúkelos the 'wolf-god'. 5. Γοργός, Γοργώ, etc. Topyós, Topy, etc. (see Sturtevant, Classical Philology 8(1913) .337 ff.) are to be connected with yápya, a name of the black poplar, and yépyuπes=veкpol, both of which are known only from Hesychius. yépyupa, which occurs in the senses of 'underground drain' and 'dungeon', probably had originally some such force as 'grave' or 'subterranean dwelling of the dead'. The original meaning of yopyós, then, seems to have been 'dead' or 'of the dead'. From this arose the meaning 'grim', 'terrible', and then 'fierce'. A further development of the meaning 'fierce' is seen in Xenophon's Yopybs, 'hot', 'spirited', of a horse, and in Hellenistic Yoрyevoμaι, 'hasten'. The dread of malevolent spirits and in particular of the dead who dwell under ground belongs to a group of religious ideas that we have recently learned to ascribe to the indigenous Aegean culture rather than to the prevailingly Hellenic Olympian religion. It is not surprising, then, to find the base of yopybs recurring in a number of local and personal names that must belong to some language other than Greek, such as γεργίνοι in Cyprus, γέργιθες in Miletus and the Troad, and Tápyapa, a peak of Mt. Ida. The whole group of words was taken over by the Greeks from the earlier inhabitants of the Aegean lands to express ideas that were new to them, just 1 In his Geschichte der Römischen Literatur, just published, 1.423, note 1, Friedrich Leo mentions approvingly Professor Ullman's explanation of satura. C. K. as they took over the word dσáμvéos for a convenience they had never seen in their northern home. 6. Θέμις See Schulze, Kuhns Zeitschrift 42(1909).242; Fraenkel, Glotta 4(1912).22 ff. The stem-form shown by the oblique cases éμotos, etc., cannot be connected with any known suffix, and the word must therefore be a compound whose final member can scarcely be other than the root of ἵστημι. The prior member is eμ-, which is a variant of Beμepós, 'firm', 'righteous', just as we have κudi-άveipa beside κυδρός, χαλί=φρων, beside χαλαρός, etc. The original meaning of us was 'firm-standing', and it must have been a name of the goddess of justice (Homer's Oés) long before it got its more abstract force. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. E. H. STURTEVANT. REVIEWS Post-Augustan Poetry from Seneca to Juvenal. By H. E. Butler. Oxford: Clarendon Press (1909). Pp. viii+323. $2.90. In a book of over 300 pages, devoted exclusively to the poets of a century or thereabouts, it is possible to give each of them a fuller and more sympathetic treatment than is feasible in a general history of Roman literature. Professor Butler has evidently made himself fully acquainted with his material, and even "essayed the dreary adventure of reading the seventeen books" of Silius Italicus in a far from perfunctory fashion. He believes that the poets of the period have suffered greater neglect than they deserve, and has made a successful attempt "to detach and illustrate their excellences without in any way passing over their defects". It is but natural that he is obliged in some cases to 'damn with faint praise'. On the whole his criticisms are eminently just and sane. Some of the poets who come within his field, notably Martial and Juvenal, can hardly be said to have been neglected, but his treatment of these is fresh, interesting and stimulating, and his estimate of them is much more sympathetic, and in the reviewer's opinion, more just, than that of Mackail, for example. Like many other writers on Juvenal, he dwells on the satirist's failure to distinguish gradations in crimes, but this is to lose the Roman point of view and to judge such things according to modern standards. The gulf between the ancient and the modern viewpoint is illustrated if we set Suetonius's statement about Julius Caesar (Iul.49.1), pudicitiae eius famam nihil quidem praeter Nicomedis contubernium laesit, with what he says of Caesar in the next chapter pronum et sumptuosum in libidines constans opinio est. And the traditional reverence for the magistrates after they had ceased to have any real power is voiced in his grave statement (Calig 26.3), consulibus oblitis de natali suo edicere abrogavit magistratum fuitque per triduum sine summa potestate res publica. In the light of such passages we may well believe that Nero's appearance on the stage and the public performances of magistrates in the circus and the amphitheater were to a Roman greater offenses than some breaches of morality which are regarded as much more serious in modern times. It is not quite true, as Professor Butler says on page 302, that "Elsewhere (i.55-62) the 'horsy' youth is spoken of as worse than the husband who connives at his wife's dishonour". The two offenses are put side by side by Juvenal without comparison, and the youth was not merely 'horsy', but had wasted his inheritance from (presumably) respectable ancestors and had disgraced them by flaunting his shame in the public eye. Besides, some allowance must be made in satire for humor', and when "among the monstrous women of the sixth satire" we come upon "the learned lady", it is not difficult to see this element in Juvenal's illa tamen gravior, and quite unnecessary to believe that he actually ranked her lower in the moral scale than poisoners and adulteresses. The same may be said of 8.220, in scaena numquam cantavit Orestes, Troica non scripsit, although it is a question whether Nero's degradation of the dignity of the princeps was not in the eyes of a Roman of the old school almost on a par with matricide. If we deny Juvenal the saving grace of humor, we naturally find him indulging in exaggeration and "an exhausting and a depressing poet to read in any large quantity at a time". But these alleged defects of Juvenal are traditional, and as a whole Professor Butler's treatment of him is more just than that of many another critic. The characteristic features of the various poets are well illustrated by an abundance of quotations, accompanied in some cases by prose translations from the author's own hand and again by the poetical versions of others. An introductory chapter on The Decline of Post-Augustan Poetry rightly assigns the reason for the phenomenon to a general dying out of genius after the preceding brilliant era, and to a degeneracy of the Roman character, rather than to the attitude of the emperors towards literature. It may be remarked that it is by no means certain that the comedy referred to on page 5 was the work of Claudius. It is quite as likely to have been one of the literary remains of Germanicus himself; see Suet. Calig. 3.2. The lesser poets and those whose works are known only from heresay are not neglected, but chapters on The Minor Poets and on The Emperors from Vespasian to Trajan and Minor Poets give summaries and critiques of the Aetna, the tenth book of Columella, and other works of that class, as well as numerous references to writers whose works have perished. 1 See Professor F. S. Dunn's paper, Juvenal as a Humorist, in THE CLASSICAL WEEKLY 4.50-54. Juvenal and the Roman Emperors. By Helen Bell Trimble. A University of Pennsylvania Dissertation. Lancaster, Pa.: The New Era Printing Company (1912). 82 pages. In the preface to this dissertation the author declares that often poetry and satire more truly reflect popular opinion and prejudice than history, and that satire therefore is of great value in showing the underlying feeling of the time and the conditions on which popular opinion rests. On this basis the author holds that Juvenal is of great value to any study of the character of the Caesars, because he gives us the prevailing estimate of the people of his day. His views may be right or wrong, but they must be considered as the "national, Roman, imperial tradition". In the preface, also, the author takes up the question of the date of publication of the various Satires, and the date of publication of the works of Plutarch, Suetonius, and Tacitus, in order to show whether Juvenal made any use of the biographers and the historian. The author concludes that where Juvenal differs from the others he must be considered as employing different sources or else using independent judgment, and that his opinion represents the views of the people of his day. The Caesars mentioned by Juvenal include all from Julius Caesar to Domitian, except Vitellius, Vespasian, and Titus. For those mentioned all the evidence in Juvenal is collected. For Julius Caesar two references are quoted. One (10.97-98) seems to refer more naturally to Sejanus, since he has been mentioned in the lines previous and is named again in those following the passage. The other is a correct reference (10.108-113), but the author does not make a very plausible argument for connecting the word Quirites (10.109) with Caesar's employment of it in dismissing his soldiers. Does it not rather refer to the degradation of the sovereign people? There is also a mistake in a quotation from Mayor's note on Juvenal 10.109; the reference in Mayor is to Suetonius Augustus 94 and deals with a dream Cicero had about Augustus, and so does not concern Julius Caesar at all. The chapter on Augustus has but one reference from Juvenal (8.240-244). From that and from passages in Valerius Maximus, Paterculus and others the writer attempts to show that the Romans regarded Augustus with admiration because of the obstacles he had overcome "the general who overcame with difficulty all the odds of war and the elements until peace was established". The only pertinent word in the passage from Juvenal is vix (8.241) and vix is a conjecture, one of several. The value of the passage is therefore open to question. For Claudius, Nero, and Domitian the material is more plentiful and clear. The thing that strikes one in reading this dissertation is the scarcity of material in Juvenal for a study of the life of the Caesars. The characterizations given by Suetonius fill a far larger part of the book. There is very little that is important in Juvenal's references, and many of his allusions have to be interpreted by Suetonius and Tacitus. The reason for the lack of references is that the Emperors are mentioned simply by way of illustration. And so in a study of this material a chance reference may be made to mean more than was intended. As an example one might take the statement about the Chaldaean herd with which Tiberius amused himself at Capri. It may be that Juvenal is giving a different account of Tiberius's life there than is found in the Annales of Tacitus, but it may also be that to Juvenal the mention of Chaldaeo grege summed up all that was evil. And after all the material has been collected there is no way to determine how truly it reflects the popular opinion, except to compare it with the accounts of Suetonius and Tacitus; it is much the same as quoting the opinion of Bernard Shaw as representing the common opinion of the English people. Martial's Wit and Humor. By Virginia Judith Craig. A University of Pennsylvania Dissertation. Lancaster, Pa.: Steinman and Foltz (1912). This dissertation, a scientific-aesthetic analysis of Martial's ability to entertain, classifies and puts in compartments the various forms of the comic, the humorous, the witty, the ironic, and the satiric in his Epigrams. A study of this sort is apt, as its writer implies, to trouble its readers at times. Now they resent being told, when a joke is perfectly fair and aboveboard, that the point, you see, is here and depends upon such and such psychological elements. And they dislike to be made more intimately aware of M. Jourdain's inward state on being informed of the nature of prose. Thanks to her genuine appreciation of Martial and to her presentation of a sound and well written estimate of his powers and personality, Dr. Craig has done a piece of work which very adequately fulfils its purpose, and yet does not leave a reader unbearably sophisticated. A few details are open to question. The poet's more serious work is mentioned rather too disparagingly. "Now and then he shows a certain affinity with Herrick" is rather understating the truth. "The habitual THE NEW YORK LATIN CLUB GREEK The performance of Galatea, "a fantastic play with musical interruptions", given on Saturday evening, October 18, in aid of the Greek Scholarship Fund of The New York Latin Club, was a notable occasion. The audience, in point of numbers, made an impressive showing in the great Hall of the College of the City of New York, large as that hall is; in quality it was representative of the classical staffs of the Schools and Colleges in Greater New York, and included many who have no direct connection with classical matters. The play was admirably presented by students of the Erasmus Hall High School, Brooklyn. The acting was distinctly good, far better than much one sees in college dramatics. There was a finish to the acting and a poise that helped to bring out the interest. of the play itself. The costumes, particularly those of the girls, were satisfying; it is seldom one sees Greek feminine costumes so well draped. The choruses sang acceptably; their evolutions and groupings were attractive to the eye, and in some instances at least highly artistic. In the last act there was some very vigorous but no less graceful dancing by a pair of fauns, portrayed a puero et a puella. Of Mr. Harter's music, in its technical aspects, I am not competent to speak. It corresponded well to the changing moods of the play itself. Manifestly, the audience enjoyed it. Much additional interest was lent to the performance by the fact that Mr. Harter himself directed the orchestra and the singers. Professor McCrea, President of the Club, thanked all those who had taken part, and especially, Mr. Harter, who, by his genius as a musician, and his devotion as a man, had made the great success of the evening possible. The New York Latin Club is to be heartily congratulated on its good fortune in having at its command so admirable a vehicle for bringing its campaign for a Greek Scholarship Fund before the public. Other Classical Associations owe to The New York Latin Club thanks for having blazed a path for them to follow. C.K. the series of Princeton Monographs in THE LATIN LADDER Art and Archaeology. Quarto, 66 pp.; Cloth, $1.75 net. PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS by Robert W. Tunstall, Classical Master in the Tome School for Boys. It is beyond question the most practical, the most suggestive, the most helpful beginner's book in Latin yet published in this Country. Cloth 12mo, ill. 290 pp. List price, ninety cents. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY |