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Alas, Poor Io! Bilingual Wordplay in Horace Epode 11

Alas, Poor Io! Bilingual Wordplay in Horace Epode 11 In Epode 11, the iambist regretfully recalls to his friend Pettius his infatuation with a girl named Inachia. The latter name does not occur elsewhere in extant Latin or Greek except in the very next poem in the Gedichtbuch , where the iambist’s older (ex-)lover complains of his sexual endurance with Inachia in contrast to his impotence with her (12.14-6). The name may suggest an ethnically Greek or Argive woman, or the Greek noms de lit regularly adopted by Italian meretrices . 1) Yet, as some (but by no means all) commentators have noted, the name also evokes Io, the daughter of Inachus. 2) Indeed, while it appears as a proper noun only in late grammarians, as a word for the Peloponnese, 3) it is most commonly found, in Greek (Ἰνάχεια or Ἰνάχια) and Latin, as an adjective qualifying κόρη, πόρτις, iuuenca, bos , and similar words to form a periphrasis for Io. 4) This combination of Inachia’s uniqueness as a name in its own right with its ready familiarity as an epithet of Io makes it extremely likely that the latter will be brought to the reader’s mind. This association with Io may, as Mankin (1995, 196) http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Mnemosyne Brill

Alas, Poor Io! Bilingual Wordplay in Horace Epode 11

Mnemosyne , Volume 65 (4-5): 753 – Jan 1, 2012

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References (19)

Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
Subject
Miscellanea
ISSN
0026-7074
eISSN
1568-525X
DOI
10.1163/156852511X585026
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

In Epode 11, the iambist regretfully recalls to his friend Pettius his infatuation with a girl named Inachia. The latter name does not occur elsewhere in extant Latin or Greek except in the very next poem in the Gedichtbuch , where the iambist’s older (ex-)lover complains of his sexual endurance with Inachia in contrast to his impotence with her (12.14-6). The name may suggest an ethnically Greek or Argive woman, or the Greek noms de lit regularly adopted by Italian meretrices . 1) Yet, as some (but by no means all) commentators have noted, the name also evokes Io, the daughter of Inachus. 2) Indeed, while it appears as a proper noun only in late grammarians, as a word for the Peloponnese, 3) it is most commonly found, in Greek (Ἰνάχεια or Ἰνάχια) and Latin, as an adjective qualifying κόρη, πόρτις, iuuenca, bos , and similar words to form a periphrasis for Io. 4) This combination of Inachia’s uniqueness as a name in its own right with its ready familiarity as an epithet of Io makes it extremely likely that the latter will be brought to the reader’s mind. This association with Io may, as Mankin (1995, 196)

Journal

MnemosyneBrill

Published: Jan 1, 2012

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