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Opening Doors Again

Opening Doors Again MISCELLANEA OPENING DOORS AGAIN In my note on Parmenides B 1, 17-8 in this journal, IV 30 (1977), 287-8, I forgot to refer to K. J. McKay, Door Magic and the Epiphany Hymn, CQ N.S. 17 (1967), 184-94, who discusses Callim. H. 2, 6 in connection with Hom. Epigy. XV 3-5 and other texts. I further forgot to refer to L. Taran, Gn. 49 (1977), 659 n. 21, who argues (i) that "if he had wished to have the doors open spontaneously, such an important feature would not have been unsaid", and (2) that "the dramatic situation, with the Heliades persuading Dike to unbolt the doors, presupposes that Dike herself opens them". It may be answered (I) that the addition of would be superfluous once is rightly understood as a reflexive form, and (2) that the dramatic situation requires Dike to unbolt the doors, but not necessarily to open them. Mention might also be made of a construction devised by Hero of Alexandria (Pneu>n. I 38) such that, on lighting a fire on the altar, the doors of the temple open spontaneously (see the illustra- tion in M. R. Cohen-I. E. Drabkin, A Source Book in Greek Science, Cambridge, Mass. 1958, 329, or in G. E. R. Lloyd, Greek Science after Ayistotle, London 1973, 104). As Hero himself declares in the introduction to his Pneumatics, the purpose of such gadgets was to 'produce astonishment and wonder' (for mechanics used to produce cf. F. Krafft, Ant. u. Ab. 19, 1973, 6 ff.). This wonder would be even greater if the general public believed the automatic opening of the doors to be due to the presence of the god. J. G. Landels, Engineering in the Ancient World (London 1978), 202, argues that this construction belongs to the category of "miniature scale models-play-things of the idle rich, which could not have had any widespread influence on the general public who are most unlikely to have seem them". He compares I 12 and 39, II 3 and 21, but these passages do not necessarily point to a miniature scale. It is true that at I 38 Hero uses the terms ?<xtc7xo<; and ?3c??,imcos, but a small temple and a small altar need not be miniature ones (they apparently have to be small because the subterranean construction requires them to be collocated on the same base). However that may be, even the 'idle rich', who no doubt were acquainted with the belief about opening doors, will have derived a special pleasure from that association. ZEIST, Homeruslaan 53 W. J. VERDENIUS http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Mnemosyne Brill

Opening Doors Again

Verdenius, W.J.
Mnemosyne , Volume 33 (1-2): 175 – Jan 1, 1980
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 1980 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0026-7074
eISSN
1568-525X
DOI
10.1163/156852580X00334
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

MISCELLANEA OPENING DOORS AGAIN In my note on Parmenides B 1, 17-8 in this journal, IV 30 (1977), 287-8, I forgot to refer to K. J. McKay, Door Magic and the Epiphany Hymn, CQ N.S. 17 (1967), 184-94, who discusses Callim. H. 2, 6 in connection with Hom. Epigy. XV 3-5 and other texts. I further forgot to refer to L. Taran, Gn. 49 (1977), 659 n. 21, who argues (i) that "if he had wished to have the doors open spontaneously, such an important feature would not have been unsaid", and (2) that "the dramatic situation, with the Heliades persuading Dike to unbolt the doors, presupposes that Dike herself opens them". It may be answered (I) that the addition of would be superfluous once is rightly understood as a reflexive form, and (2) that the dramatic situation requires Dike to unbolt the doors, but not necessarily to open them. Mention might also be made of a construction devised by Hero of Alexandria (Pneu>n. I 38) such that, on lighting a fire on the altar, the doors of the temple open spontaneously (see the illustra- tion in M. R. Cohen-I. E. Drabkin, A Source Book in Greek Science, Cambridge, Mass. 1958, 329, or in G. E. R. Lloyd, Greek Science after Ayistotle, London 1973, 104). As Hero himself declares in the introduction to his Pneumatics, the purpose of such gadgets was to 'produce astonishment and wonder' (for mechanics used to produce cf. F. Krafft, Ant. u. Ab. 19, 1973, 6 ff.). This wonder would be even greater if the general public believed the automatic opening of the doors to be due to the presence of the god. J. G. Landels, Engineering in the Ancient World (London 1978), 202, argues that this construction belongs to the category of "miniature scale models-play-things of the idle rich, which could not have had any widespread influence on the general public who are most unlikely to have seem them". He compares I 12 and 39, II 3 and 21, but these passages do not necessarily point to a miniature scale. It is true that at I 38 Hero uses the terms ?<xtc7xo<; and ?3c??,imcos, but a small temple and a small altar need not be miniature ones (they apparently have to be small because the subterranean construction requires them to be collocated on the same base). However that may be, even the 'idle rich', who no doubt were acquainted with the belief about opening doors, will have derived a special pleasure from that association. ZEIST, Homeruslaan 53 W. J. VERDENIUS

Journal

Mnemosyne – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 1980

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