Aratus of Soli | Carl Springer (essay date 1984)
Carl Springer (essay date 1984)
SOURCE: Springer, Carl. “Aratus and the Cups of Menalcas: A Note on Eclogue 3.42.” Classical Journal 79, no. 2 (1984): 131-34.
[In the following essay, Springer notes allusions to Aratus in Virgil's third Eclogue.]
In Vergil's third Eclogue the herdsman Menalcas has forgotten the name of one of the two figures carved on the drinking cups which he proposes to wager in an amoebaean singing contest with another herdsman, Damoetas. Menalcas can only remember the name of Conon, a third-century astronomer at the court of Ptolemy Philadelphus. So he asks Damoetas:
… quis fuit alter, descripsit radio totum qui gentibus orbem, tempora quae messor, quae curvos arator haberet.
(vv. 40-2)
Damoetas ignores the question, and instead describes his own cups, made by the same craftsman.
Students of Vergil have long attempted to come to Menalcas' rescue. Servius suggests Aratus,...
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