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BLOOD-COLOURED SWANS: HOR. CARM. 4.1.10 AND HOMER'S PURPLE DEATH*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2017

Miryam Librán-Moreno
Miryam Librán-Moreno*
Affiliation:
Universidad de Extremadura, Spain
*
mlibmor@unex.es
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Extract

In Carm. 4.1 Horace asks Venus to stop waging war against him, who is now over fifty (1–7), and suggests that she should set her aim instead on Paulus Maximus, a young and passionate nobleman who will be happy to obey Venus' orders (9–20).

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 67 , Issue 1 , May 2017 , pp. 199 - 209
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Copyright © The Classical Association 2017 

1. PURPLE SWANS: REALITY AND LITERATURE

In Carm. 4.1 Horace asks Venus to stop waging war against him, who is now over fifty (1–7), and suggests that she should set her aim instead on Paulus Maximus, a young and passionate nobleman who will be happy to obey Venus' orders (9–20).

The poet asks the goddess to visit Paulus Maximus on the wings of her purple swans (purpureis ales oloribus, 10). Swans, like sparrows and doves, were sacred to Aphrodite/Venus.Footnote 1 Nevertheless, the epithet ‘purple’ (purpureis) raised some eyebrows, from ancient commentators down to the present times.Footnote 2 For the Greeks and the Romans, the swan was, without exception, the symbol for whiteness,Footnote 3 so much so that the expression ‘black swan’ meant something that was impossible (Juv. 6.165 rara auis … nigroque simillima cycno).Footnote 4 Horace's description of the purple colour of Venus' swans remains unparalleled.Footnote 5

Several suggestions have been made in order to explain Horace's epithet. Some of them are naturalistic or ornithological in nature. From an ornithological point of view, purpureis might allude to the rusty stains that iron-rich water sometimes leaves on swans' feathers.Footnote 6 Other scholars believed that the adjective described the curious optical phenomenon whereby extremely brilliant whiteness (like that of snow) proves so dazzling as to make human eyes see purple.Footnote 7 Some scholars, on the other hand, guessed that an artistic depiction lay behind the epithet, and that Horace might have meant by it the golden-rosy tints of the swans that carry the goddess in some vase-paintings,Footnote 8 or that he might have been inspired by the non-naturalistic colours in Pompeian wall paintings.Footnote 9

None of these hypotheses has received universal or even significant support, and thus it would seem that the explanation for the curious epithet in Carm. 4.1.10 ought to be literary and rhetorical in nature, and not naturalistic or artistic.Footnote 10

With regard to literary interpretations, nearly all scholars (beginning with Horace's commentator P. Porphyrion)Footnote 11 were inclined to believe that purpureus in Carm. 4.1.10 had no colour-value at all. Rather, it meant simply ‘beautiful’ or ‘resplendent’ (pulchri, nitidi),Footnote 12 taking as their cue such parallels as Elegia in Maecenatem 1.62 (bracchia †purpurea† candidiora niue) and Valerius Flaccus 3.422 (hic sale purpureo uiuaque nitentia lympha).Footnote 13 However, it is far from certain that purpureus might at times mean simply ‘brilliant, lustrous' to the exclusion of any hue,Footnote 14 be that rosy, ruddy, reddish, purple or scarlet.Footnote 15

It is my contention that the description of the swans as purpureis must indicate the presence of a colour in the purple/dark-red range. When used to describe a bird's plumage, both purpureus and πορφύρεος signal a colouring that is wholly or partly dusky, often with a reddish or purplish cast.Footnote 16 It seems hard to believe that, out of all the possible instances from Greek and Latin literature, Carm. 4.1.10 should be the sole instance in which a bird's plumage is described as purple with no intention of pointing to colour. Furthermore, all cases in which Horace uses purpureus or poenus show that a reddish-purple tint is clearly meant.Footnote 17 For Horace, the vestments of tyrants are purple (Carm. 1.35.12 purpurei metuunt tyranni), as are the bunches of autumn grapes (Carm. 2.5.11-12 autumnus racemos | purpureo uarius colore), the blood-stained sea (Carm. 2.12.2-3 Siculum mare | Poeno purpureum sanguine), Augustus' mouth after drinking red nectar (Carm. 3.3.12 purpureo bibet ore nectar), a rose (Carm. 3.15.15 flos purpureus rosae) and a grape (Epod. 2.20 uuam purpurae).Footnote 18

Thus, it ought to be taken into consideration that purpureis in Carm. 4.1.10 might not mean just ‘shining’ without the addition of shade or colour. The epithet might seek to provoke a rhetorical effect that readers in antiquity would not fail to find surprising.Footnote 19 In point of fact, in the single other instance in which Horace mentions a swan's colour, the bird is called, to the surprise of no one, ‘white’ (Carm. 2.20.10 album … alitem).Footnote 20

Other scholars believe that purpureis alludes to Venus herself through hypallage.Footnote 21 Greek poets and artists considered swans one of Aphrodite's favourite animals, and such a link between goddess and bird grew only closer and stronger in Latin literature.Footnote 22 Just as the oxen of the Sun are as candidi as the sun itself,Footnote 23 the (silent) swan as musical as its lord Apollo,Footnote 24 or Proserpina as dusky as her dark realm (Carm. 2.13.21 furuae regna Proserpinae), so too are the swans and doves of Venus purple or reddish, like the goddess herself.Footnote 25 In fact, this was one of the explanations for the epithet put forth by ancient commentators (Schol. in Hor. Carm. 4.1.10 nitidis aut pulchris aut reginae Veneri dicatis, ut pro regno purpureos dixerit). Purpureus and πορφύρεος describe often Aphrodite/Venus and her son Eros/Cupid,Footnote 26 as well as their clothes, their instrumentsFootnote 27 and the radiant rosy look of youthful beauty,Footnote 28 over which the gods of love preside. Therefore, in Carm. 4.1.10 the goddess' swans acquire Venus' epithet (purpureis), whereas Venus herself receives the swans' denomination (ales):Footnote 29 although it is of course not strictly true that the goddess has wings, she is able to fly on the wings of her swans.Footnote 30 Similarly, the birds are purple because that is the colour of their mistress.

I wish to stress that the transference by hypallage of Venus' colouring to her favourite animals is not limited to swans. According to Aelian, doves sacred to Venus are purple precisely because that is the colour of the goddess: μίαν μὲν διαπρεπῆ τὴν ὥραν ἔκ γε τοῦ πελάγους τοῦ κομίζοντος ἐκ τῆς Λιβύης ὁρᾶσθαι ἐσπετομένην, οὐχ οἵαν κατὰ τὰς ἀγελαίας πελειάδας τὰς λοιπὰς εἶναι, πορφυρᾶν δέ, ὥσπερ οὖν τὴν Ἀφροδίτην ὁ Τήιος ἡμῖν Ἀνακρέων ᾄδει, πορφυρέην που λέγων (NA 4.2.)Footnote 31 This parallel, as far as I know, has not been mentioned in support of the hypallage explanation. It may be inferred that the appearance of purpureus in the description of the swans arises from a literary, not physical, reason, which is connected to the traditional attribution of the colours purpureus and πορφύρεος to Aphrodite/Venus and Eros/Cupid.

As for the use of purpureus in hypallage, at least one other instance can be documented in Horace: in Carm. 1.35.12 (purpurei metuunt tyranni) the poet calls tyrants ‘purple’ in an allusion to the colour of the kingly clothes they wear.Footnote 32

To sum up the preceding paragraphs, Horace may have called the swans ‘purple-coloured’ because Aphrodite/Venus and Love were associated with that hue.Footnote 33 The epithet would not denote a physical quality but rather a literary one. There is at least one celebrated precedent in which ‘purple’ was used as literary non-realistic ornamentation:Footnote 34 famously, Ion of Chios (FGrHist 392 F6 Jacoby) reported that Sophocles, noticing a young man's bashful blush, quoted a line by Phrynichus in praise of the light of love that shone on the purple cheeks of a beautiful youth (λάμπει δ’ ἐπὶ πορφυρέαις παρῇσι φῶς ἔρωτος, fr. 13 K.-Sn.). Some pedant objected to Sophocles' use of the epithet, noting that painting the youth's cheeks purple would not have a beautiful or a realistic effect.Footnote 35 Between laughs, Sophocles retorted that, as was the case with other poetic colour adjectives, such as χρυσοκόμης and ῥοδοδάκτυλος, its beauty lay in the literary resonance, not in a strict and literal adherence to reality.Footnote 36

2. THE COLOUR OF BLOOD: PURPLE IN WAR AND FUNERARY CONTEXTS

So far it has been claimed that Horace used purpureis … oloribus in hypallage. My contention is that the literary and rhetorical context in which Venus' swans are called purple has a decisive bearing on the interpretation of the epithet. I shall support my hypothesis by appealing to parallels from Greek literature, which of course Horace knew inside out.

Let us begin at the beginning, with Homer. As is well known, for Homer a few colours in the red range, such as δαφοινός, φοινός, φοινήεις, φοινικόεις could mean both ‘blood-red’ and ‘bloody, blood-covered’,Footnote 37 sometimes even simultaneously. Could the same be said of πορφύρεος? Some of the Homeric uses of this difficult colour need not concern us.Footnote 38 However, I wish to highlight that one of the primary contexts in which Homer used the adjective πορφύρεος was in the narration of a warrior's death in combat. According to an oft-repeated formulaic line, ‘purple death’ (πορφύρεος θάνατος) seized battle-fallen warriors.Footnote 39 This formula was, in all likelihood, motivated by the resemblance of πορφύρεος to the colour of spilled blood.Footnote 40 The presence of the epithet is explained by the purple-like colour of the blood rushing from the deadly wound sustained by the hero.Footnote 41 In a more general sense, Death personified is called ὁ πορφύρεος, ‘the Purple one’ (Anth. Pal. 11.13.2). According to Artemidorus, dreaming of purple flowers heralded death, given that the colour purple and death have some sort of affinity (ἔχει γάρ τινα τὸ πορφυροῦν χρῶμα συμπάθειαν [καὶ] πρὸς τὸν θάνατον, 1.77). Latin literature is not unaware of the link between blood, death and the colour purple.Footnote 42 It is not unknown to CatullusFootnote 43 or to VirgilFootnote 44 : to mention just a few examples, in Aen. 9.349 (purpuream uomit ille animam) the lifeforce of the deadly wounded warrior is stained purple, in Aen. 9.435-6 (purpureus ueluti cum flos succisus aratro | languescit moriens) Euryalus, who is in the throes of death, is likened to a purple flower, whereas in Aen. 11.818-19 (labitur exsanguis, labuntur frigida leto | lumina, purpureus quondam color ora reliquit) the purple light of youth leaves the lovely face of the dying Camilla.Footnote 45 The adjective purpureus is linked frequently to sanguis in Latin literature, more often than not in connection with Homer's formulaic line quoted above.Footnote 46 Servius confirms several times that there was a perceived link that tied death, blood and the colour purple.Footnote 47 Horace himself used the colour purple in Carm. 2.12.2-3 in order to describe the look of the blood-stained sea after the great bloodshed of a naval battle (Siculum mare | Poeno purpureum sanguine).Footnote 48

3. THE COLOUR PURPLE AND MILITIA AMORIS

To sum up the preceding points, there was a strong traditional link that joined together death in combat, spilled blood and the colour purple. Such a link was first attested in Homer and reappeared in both Greek and Latin literature.

How does this association, which was originally developed in an epic war context, relate to Carm. 4.1.10? The epithet purpureis, which describes both the swans that carry the goddess and Venus herself by hypallage, fits well within the great amatory motif of militia amoris,Footnote 49 present in the first part of Carm. 4.1.

Horace himself had used the militia amoris motif in two programmatic poems: in the recusatio from Carm. 1.6, he points out that he sings of girls' love-battles (proelia uirginum, 17), not of grand epic themes, whereas in the renuntiatio amoris in Carm. 3.26 he states that he was a glorious soldier under Venus' standards (et militaui non sine gloria; | nunc arma defunctumque bello | barbiton hic paries habebit, 2–4). Military lexicon turned to erotic use is not lacking in Carm. 4.1.Footnote 50 Porphyrion himself (in Hor. Carm. 4.1–2) had taken notice of this fact (in superiore libro ostendimus [sc. Carm. 3.26.2] allegoricos bella et militiam Veneris Horatium pro amoribus dicere). After a long truce, Venus shows her willingness to renew old love wars (intermissa, Venus, diu | rursus bella moues?, 1–2); young Paulus Maximus will bear the standard of Venus' army (late signa feret militiae tuae, 16). Within the erotic and martial context of militia amoris, purpureis would not simply allude to youth, love and beauty, the traditional domains of Venus. The funerary and martial connotations of the colour purple, first seen in Homer, would also hint at Venus' most harmful and dangerous face. Purpureis would thus refer both to the blood that is spilled figuratively in a war of love, and to the notion of Love as a metaphorical or real killer.Footnote 51 It is perhaps not otiose to mention that in the same poem Horace had called Venus mater saeua Cupidinum (5), and that her method of attacking her prospective victim will be described in such aggressive terms as torrere iecur, ‘to scorch his liver’ (12).

Complaining about the harshness and cruelty of the gods of love is an amatory commonplace attested already in archaic Greek literature.Footnote 52 The association of Aphrodite and Eros with homicide, bloodshed and death in war is well attested in classical and Hellenistic literature.Footnote 53 Horace would know it well. In the Hellenistic epigram, Meleager called love-sickness μιαιφονία, ‘murder’ (Ἔρωτος ὅρα, ξεῖνε, μιαιφονίαν, Anth. Pal. 5.215.6).Footnote 54 He also gave Ares' usual epithet βροτολοιγός (‘homicide’) to Eros (Anth. Pal. 5.180.1).Footnote 55 In point of fact, in Carm. 2.8.14 Horace called Cupido ferus, an epithet that is ‘significantly used of Mars',Footnote 56 as are οὖλος and βροτολοιγός. According to the same epigram by Meleager (Anth. Pal. 5.180), Love's mother Aphrodite is shared by fire and the sword (κοινὰ καὶ πυρὶ καὶ ξίφεσι, 4). That is the reason why she loves Ares' bloodstained arrows (Ἄρεως δ’ αἱματόφυρτα βέλη, 8). The connection between the love gods and bloodshed is acknowledged by Tibullus 1.2.41-2 (is sanguine natam | is Venerem e rapido sentiet esse mari) and by Horace himself (Carm. 2.8.14-16 ferus et Cupido | semper ardentis acuens sagittas | cote cruenta) in a passage that appears to wish to go one better on Meleager's αἱματόφυρτα βέλη.Footnote 57 Therefore, it is plausible to believe that Aphrodite's and Love's links to figurative bloodshed in a martial context were sufficiently known to the Latin elegiac poets.

In sum, Horace may be supposed to be aware of the Hellenistic association of love with blood, warfare and death in the context of militia amoris. By using purpureis, Horace might on the one hand allude to the lyric, tragic and epigramatic tradition that depicted Love as a homicide and Aphrodite as delighting in manslaughter (see above, n. 53). On the other hand, the epithet would point towards the Homeric and epic value of purple as a symbol of death in battle. This play of allusions would fit well within the mixture of erotic and funerary terms, the superposition of the amatory and the macabre, and the use of the motif of mors et amor, all of which were very frequent in Hellenistic and Neoteric poets.Footnote 58

Therefore, Venus' swans are purple because that is the colour of the goddess. Venus herself is purple-coloured because, in addition to her seductive ever-young beauty, she can prove deadly and bloodthirsty in the battle of love.Footnote 59

4. TWO GREEK PARALLELS: THE COLOUR PURPLE AS LITERARY ALLUSION

Some may no doubt wonder whether such a play of associations and transpositions based on the epic use of purpureus and πορφύρεος is believable. To show that it is, I shall provide two parallels for the similar use of a colour term by poets who may be presumed to be well known to Horace. In the first, two verbs are given a funerary and martial meaning that overlies their usual erotic connotation. In the second, the bare mention of a colour suffices to convey an array of literary allusions. Both examples take as their departing point the use of a purple or a purple-like colour, and both capitalize on their meaning in earlier epic poems.Footnote 60

I shall begin with an instance that mixes together Aphrodite's and Ares' involvement, blood, eroticism, the colour purple and death. Bion, Epitaphius Adonidis 26–7 mentions Adonis' death-wound (στήθεα δ’ ἐκ μηρῶν φοινίσσετο, τοὶ δ’ ὑπὸ μαζοὶ | χιόνεοι τὸ πάροιθεν Ἀδώνιδι πορφύροντο). I wish to call attention to the use of purple or purple-like colours to describe the blood that spurts from the young man's wounds (φοινίσσετο, πορφύροντο). Such verbs, and the images and colour they convey, belong in the sermo amatorius and are usually mentioned in the context of the amatory motif of descriptio pulchritudinis, more specifically in the description of the young beloved's reddening blush.Footnote 61 Bion's originality in handling those colour terms lies in the fact that, while they signal Adonis' youthful beauty, they also refer to Homer's famous description of the nearly fatal wound sustained by Menelaus in his thigh (Il. 4.140-1 αὐτίκα δ’ ἔρρεεν αἷμα κελαινεφὲς ἐξ ὠτειλῆς. | ὡς δ’ ὅτε τίς τ’ ἐλέφαντα γυνὴ φοίνικι μιήνῃ and so on).Footnote 62 The transposition from the erotic to the martial and back again, as well as the superposition of the sensual and the funerary in the narrative of a beautiful youth's death, was not exclusively Bion's invention. It appears, memorably, in Virgil, in particular in the deaths of Pallas, Lausus, Euryalus and Camilla. In that respect, Virgil set up an example that was faithfully followed by later epic poets.Footnote 63

My second example parallels the usage of purpureus as an implicit allusion to one of the meanings of πορφύρεος in earlier epic tradition. According to Sappho fr. 166 L.-P., Leda had found the divine swan's egg from which the Dioscouri were born (φαῖσι δή ποτα Λήδαν †ὐακίνθινον† πεπυκάδμενον | εὔρην ὤιον). The egg, which was the consequence of Zeus' rape of Nemesis, was hyacinthine in colour, a hue that Sappho herself had described as purple in fr. 15c L.-P. (ὐάκινθον … | … πόρφυρον ἄνθος). Real swan eggs are, obviously, white and not purple, as are the birds that lay them.Footnote 64 Nemesis' egg may be hyacinthine and not white on account of the hyacinth's association with deceitful seduction or furtive eroticism in epic poetry.Footnote 65

5. CONCLUSION

Purpureis ales oloribus in Hor. Carm. 4.1.10 implies a transference of Venus' colour to her swans by hypallage. The birds, and the goddess herself, are purple for two reasons. In the first place, the colour purple refers to Venus' patronage of love and youthful beauty. However, it signals also the goddess' connection to death and bloodshed through allusion to the Homeric use of πορφύρεος within the context of the amatory motif of militia amoris, with which the ode itself begins.Footnote 66 Such a play on the different traditional meanings of a colour in the purple, red or violet range was not unknown in Horace's time.

Footnotes

*

I am extremely grateful to Dr Luis Rivero García and to the editors and the anonymous reader for CQ for their kind and helpful suggestions.

References

1 Nisbet, R.G.M. and Rudd, N., A Commentary on Horace, Odes, Book III (Oxford, 2004), 344 Google Scholar.

2 e.g. Thome, G., ‘Die Funktion der Farben bei Horaz’, Acta Classica 37 (1994), 15–39, at 22Google Scholar. This is not the place to attempt a discussion of the psychology of colour in ancient times, for which see e.g. Platnauer, M., ‘Greek colour-perception’, CQ 15 (1921), 153–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rowe, C., ‘Conceptions of colour and colour symbolism in the ancient world’, Eranos 41 (1972), 327–64Google Scholar; and Harris, J.P., ‘The swan's red-dipped foot: Euripides, Ion 161–9’, CQ 62 (2012), 510–22, at 511CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On the use of purple in the ancient Mediterranean, see Dedekind, A., Ein Beitrag zur Purpurkunde (Berlin, 1898)Google Scholar; Schneider, K., ‘Purpura’, RE 23 (1959), cols. 2000–20Google Scholar; and Reinhold, M., History of Purple as a Status Symbol in Antiquity (Brussels, 1970)Google Scholar. The last reference was kindly supplied to me by the editor for CQ.

3 e.g. Aesch. PV 795, Eur. HF 692, Heracl. 215, Bacch. 1365, Rhes. 618, Ar. Av. 1065, Arist. Soph. el. 168b, Theoc. 25.130, Hor. Carm. 2.20.10, Verg. Ecl. 7.38, Aen. 7.699, 9.563, 10.192, 11.380, 11.580, G. 2.199, Ov. Her. 7.4, Met. 2.373, Prop. 3.3.39, Paus. 8.17. Latin poets used adjectives that denote a shining whiteness, such as albus, candidus, canus, candens, canens, lacteus, niueus. See Gossen, H., ‘Schwan’, RE 2.A.1 (1921), 782–92, at 784Google Scholar; André, J., Étude sur les termes de couleur dans la langue latine (Paris, 1949), 360 Google Scholar; Sauvage, A., Étude de thèmes animaliers dans la poésie latine. Le cheval, les oiseaux (Brussels, 1975), 232 Google Scholar; Schoonhoven, H., ‘Purple swans and purple snow (Hor. C. IV 1, 10 and Eleg. in Maec. 62)’, Mnemosyne 31 (1978), 200–3, at 200CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Thome (n. 2), 23.

4 André (n. 3), 360. The Black Swan (Cygnus atratus), a native species of Australia, was unknown in Europe until the eighteenth century. See Gossen (n. 3), 784.

5 Sauvage (n. 3), 232; Schoonhoven (n. 3), 200; Putnam, M.C., Artifices of Eternity: Horace's Fourth Book of Odes (Ithaca and London, 1986), 45 Google Scholar. The ὄρνις φοινικόπτερος mentioned by Cratinus fr. 121 K.–A. cannot be a swan, pace Henderson, J., ‘Pursuing Nemesis. Cratinus and mythological comedy’, in Marshall, C.W. and Kovacs, G. (edd.), No Laughing Matter: Studies in Athenian Comedy (Bristol, 2012), 1–12, at 4, 10 n. 27Google Scholar. Rather, it must be a flamingo or another similarly coloured bird ( Arnott, W.G., Birds in the Ancient World from A to Z [London and New York, 2007], 275 Google Scholar). On the other hand, purpureis cannot allude to the swan's feet, which were wrongly described as crimson by Eur. Ion 162–3 and Ov. Met. 2.375. Swan feet are, in actual fact, unmistakably black.

6 Arnott (n. 5), 182. A. Dedekind (n. 2), 164 and 173 thought implausibly that the use of purpureus pointed to the swiftness of swans on the wing.

7 Cassel, P., Der Schwan in Sage und Leben (Berlin, 1872), 61 Google Scholar; Pöschl, V., ‘Liebende Schwäne bei Horaz und später’, Humanitas 47 (1995), 531–43, at 533–8Google Scholar. On Virgil's lumine … purpureo (Aen. 6.640–1), see below, n. 45.

8 Schoonhoven (n. 3), 201.

9 Keller, O., Die antike Tierwelt (Leipzig, 1913), 2.219Google Scholar. More interpretations and emendations (currently disregarded) may be found in Lambinus, D. and Turnebus, A., Qu. Horatius Flaccus (Paris, 1604), 255 Google Scholar; Dacier, A., Remarques critiques sur les œuvres d'Horace. Volume IV (Paris, 1689), 420–1Google Scholar; Combe, C., Q. Horatii Flacci Opera. Tomus I (London, 1792), 423 Google Scholar. See also the entry for Hor. Carm. 4.1.10 in the website Repertory of Conjectures on Horace (http://tekstlab.uio.no/horace), accessed on 16 June 2016.

10 Schrier, O.J., ‘Love with Doris: Dioscorides, Anth. Pal. V 55’, Mnemosyne 32 (1979), 307–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 318–19 n. 37; Fedeli, P. and Ciccarelli, I., Q. Horatii Flacci Carmina Liber IV (Florence, 2008), 97–8Google Scholar.

11 In Hor. Carm. 4.1.10 purpureis oloribus quomodo dicitur, cum albi sint potius? sed sic purpureum pro pulchro dicere poetae adsuerunt. Cf. Serv. Aen. 1.591 purpureum pulchrum ut Horatius purpureis ales oloribus.

12 A few examples will suffice: G. Baxter, C.H. Klotz and M.C.D. Jan ap. Combe (n. 9), 423; André (n. 3), 99–100; Marzullo, B., ‘Afrodite porporina?’, Maia 3 (1950), 132–6, at 132Google Scholar; Gow, J., Q. Horatii Flacci Carminum Liber IV (Cambridge, 1955), 30 Google Scholar (‘lustrous swans’); Hollis, A.S. (ed.), Ovid Ars Amatoria Book I (Oxford, 1977), 84 Google Scholar.

13 See Fordyce, C.J., Catullus A Commentary (Oxford, 1961), 206 Google Scholar. However, Valerius Flaccus 3.422 refers by metonymy to the sea, not to salt. See Edgeworth, R.J., ‘Does purpureus mean bright?’, Glotta 57 (1979), 281–91, at 283Google Scholar; Manuwald, G., Valerius Flaccus Argonautica Book III (Cambridge, 2015), 177 Google Scholar.

14 There are serious doubts on the validity of bracchia †purpurea† candidiora niue from Elegiae in Maecenatem 1.62, the sole indisputable example in which purpureus cannot have a reddish tint. See Schoonhoven, H., Elegiae in Maecenatem (Groningen, 1980), 130–2Google Scholar; Edgeworth, R.J., The Colors of the Aeneid (New York, Paris, Bern and Frankfurt am Main, 1992), 215–16, 221–2Google Scholar. Kenney, E.J. ap. W.V. Clausen, Appendix Vergiliana (Oxford, 1966), 90 Google Scholar, who printed purpurea between daggers, believed that it was a repetition of purpura from line 60. See also Fedeli and Ciccarelli (n. 10), 97–8.

15 Edgeworth (n. 14), 260. Cf. Serv. Aen. 1.337 purpureo aut pulchro aut russati coloris, Donat. Aen. 9.235 purpura quippe nigra est cum rubore.

16 Such is the case of the Purple Gallinule (πορφυρίων: Ar. Av. 707; porphyrio: Mart. 13.78, Plin. HN 10.135), the Satyr Tragopan (Κάσπιος ὄρνις: Ael. NA 17.33) and the Kingfisher (ἁλιπόρφυρος ὄρνις: Alcm. 26.4). The bird called πορφυρίς (Ibyc. fr. 317b PMGF, Callim. fr. 414 Pf.) might be the Blue Rock Thrush, whose feathers are a vivid dark blue (Arnott [n. 5], 288). The phoenix has wings of purple and gold (Ach. Tat. 3.25.2 κεκέρασται μὲν τὰ πτερὰ χρυσῷ καὶ πορφύρᾳ). The exact species of the λαθιπορφυρίδες mentioned by Ibyc. fr. 317a3 PMGF is not known. The wings of Zetes and Calais, the sons of the North Wind, are purple (Pind. Pyth. 4.182-3 घήταν Κάλαΐν τε … ἄνδρας πτεροῖσιν | νῶτα πεφρίκοντας ἄμφω πορφυρέοις), perhaps owing to the darkness of their and their father's wings (cf. Bacchyl. 13.91-3, Ap. Rhod. Argon. 1.219-20 ἐρεμνὰς | ἀειρομένω πτέρυγας, Strabo 4.1.7). The entries for πορφύρεος and purpureus in LSJ and OLD are unfortunately of no great help.

17 According to Thome (n. 2), 22, for Horace purpureus mainly described hues in the red range (‘Horaz’ Hauptbegriff für den Rotbereich ist purpureus’). In addition to Carm. 4.1.10, Horace uses purpureus in the following lines: Carm. 1.35.12 purpurei metuunt tyranni, 2.5.12 purpureo uarius colore, 2.12.3 [sc. mare] Poeno purpureum sanguine, 3.3.12 purpureo bibet ore nectar, 3.15.15 nec flos purpureus rosae, Sat. 2.6.106 ergo ubi purpurea porrectum in ueste locauit, 2.8.11 gausape purpureo mensam pertersit, Epist. 1.17.27 alter purpureum non exspectabit amictum, Ars P. 15 purpureus, late qui splendeat, unus et alter [sc. pannus].

18 Clarke, J., Imagery of Colour and Shining in Catullus, Propertius and Horace (New York, Berlin and Bern, 2003), 130–4Google Scholar.

19 Schoonhoven (n. 3), 200.

20 Horace mentions swans in the following passages: Carm. 1.6.2 Maeonii carminis alite, 2.20.10 album … alitem, 3.28.15 iunctis … oloribus, 4.2.25 Dircaeum … cycnum, 4.3.20 donatura cycni, si libeat, sonum.

21 Thomas, R.F., Horace Odes Book IV and Carmen Saeculare (Cambridge, 2011), 92 Google Scholar.

22 Cassel (n. 7), 4 n. 16; Keller (n. 9), 216–19; Gossen (n. 3), 789.

23 Keller (n. 9), 292.

24 Nisbet, R.G.M. and Hubbard, M., A Commentary on Horace Odes, Book II (Oxford, 1978), 342 Google Scholar.

25 Desprez, J., Q. Horatii Flacci Opera (Philadelphia, 1828), 215 Google Scholar, ‘forsitan et color purpureus attribuitur cycnis Venerem trahentibus, qui ipsius Veneris est, per hypallagen’; Putnam (n. 5), 45; Thome (n. 2), 23; Fedeli and Ciccarelli (n. 10), 98; Clarke (n. 18), 131.

26 Anac. fr. 357.3 PMG πορφυρῆ τ’ Ἀφροδίτη, Phrynichus fr. 13 K.–Sn. λάμπει δ’ ἐπὶ πορφυρέαις παρῇσι φῶς ἔρωτος, Anth. Pal. 16.210.2, Ov. Am. 2.1.38 purpureus Amor, Ars am. 1.232, Rem. am. 701, Apul. Met. 5.22.5, Claud. Carm. min. 25.104. See Schrier (n. 10), 322; Clarke (n. 18), 190; McKeown, J., Ovid: Amores Volume III. A Commentary on Book Two (Leeds, 1998), 24–5Google Scholar; Fountoulakis, A., ‘The colours of desire and death. Colour terms in Bion's Epitaph on Adonis ’, in Cleland, L., Stears, K. and Davies, G. (edd.), Colour in the Ancient Mediterranean World (Oxford, 2004), 110–16, at 113–14Google Scholar. Other epithets denoting a dark purplish colour that are associated with Aphrodite are ἰοστέφανος (Hymn. Hom. Ven. 6.18, Thgn. 2.1332, Solin. 19.4, Anth. Pal. 12.91.6) and ἰοδερκής (Bacchyl. 8.1–2).

27 Sappho fr. 54 PMG, Anac. fr. 302.1–2 PMG σφαίρηι δηὖτέ με πορφυρῆι | βάλλων χρυσοκόμης Ἔρως, Anth. Pal. 5.194.6, 12.112.2, Bion, Epitaphios Adonidos 3, Sil. 7.447, Ach. Tat. 2.11.4, Dracontius, Romulus 6.78. See Edgeworth (n. 14), 217; Clarke (n. 18), 190, 279; Sens, A., Asclepiades of Samos. Epigrams and Fragments (Oxford, 2011), 233 Google Scholar.

28 Simon. fr. 585 PMG πορφυρέου ἀπὸ στόματος | ἱεῖσα φωνὰν παρθένος, Enn. Ann. 361, Catull. 45.12, Verg. Aen. 1.590–1 lumen iuuentae | purpureum, 11.819, Hor. Carm. 4.10.4, Tib. 3.4.30, Nonnus, Dion. 18.113–14. See Edgeworth (n. 14), 151; Reed, J.D., Bion of Smyrna. The Fragments and the Adonis (Cambridge, 1997), 29–31 Google Scholar; Clarke (n. 18), 275.

29 Ales not infrequently means ‘swan’. See e.g. Hor. Carm. 1.6.2 Maeonii carminis alite, 2.20.10 album … alitem, Sen. Phaed. 301 candidas ales modo mouit alas. There is a parallel for the exchange of epithets between a swan and one of its characteristics in Pratinas fr. 3 Sn.–K. (οἷά τε κύκνον ἄγοντα | ποικιλόπτερον μέλος): the swan's song has wings, just as its owner does.

30 Fedeli and Ciccarelli (n. 10), 96–7; Thomas (n. 21), 92.

31 Compare with the crimson-billed doves, sacred to Venus, in Prop. 3.3.31–2 et Veneris dominae uolucres, mea turba, columbae | tingunt Gorgoneo punica rostra lacu. Aelian's notice about the consecration of a purple dove to Aphrodite makes it unwise to believe that Claud. Carm. min. 25.104 (florea purpureas adnectunt frena columbas) and Dracontius, Romulus 6.75 (florea purpureas retinebant frena columbas) must have necessarily drawn on Hor. Carm. 4.1.10, as André (n. 3), 99 thought.

32 Edgeworth (n. 14), 217. Two further examples might be quoted, although they inhabit murkier grounds and might just be pregnant nuances rather than hypallages: Carm. 3.3.12 (purpureo bibet ore nectar) paints young Augustus’ mouth purple, a colour that denotes his youth, triumph and divinity (Thome [n. 2], 23). In Carm. 3.15.14–15 (non citharae decent, | nec flos purpureus rosae) the purple colour of the rose is linked to an old woman's closeness to the grave, given that purple is one of the traditional literary colours of death. See Brenk, F.E., Clothed in Purple Light: Studies in Vergil and in Latin Literature, Including Aspects of Philosophy, Religion, Magic, Judaism, and the New Testament Background (Stuttgart, 1999), 319 Google Scholar.

33 Clarke (n. 18), 131.

34 According to Grand-Clément, A., ‘Sophocle, le maître d’école et les “langages de la couleur”: à propos du fragment 6 de Ion de Chios’, in Carastro, M. (ed.), L'Antiquité en couleurs: catégories, pratiques, représentations (Grenoble, 2009), 63–81, at 68 and 78Google Scholar, the allusion is neither an offence against taste nor an attack on realism, but rather the colour purple hints at seduction and desire in the sympotic context in which the lines are quoted.

35 Ion of Chios, FGrHist 392 F6 Jacoby ὅμως μέντοι γε οὐκ εὖ εἴρηκε Φρύνιχος πορφυρέας εἰπὼν τὰς γνάθους τοῦ καλοῦ. εἰ γὰρ ὁ ζωγράφος χρώματι πορφυρέωι ἐναλείψειε τουδὶ τοῦ παιδὸς τὰς γνάθους, οὐκ ἂν ἔτι καλὸς φαίνοιτο. οὐ κάρτα δὴ <καλὸν> τὸ καλὸν τῶι μὴ καλῶι φαινομένωι εἰκάζειν.

36 Ion of Chios, FGrHist 392 F6 Jacoby ἀνγελάσας <δ’> ἐπὶ τῶι Ἐρετριεῖ Σοφοκλῆς ‘οὐδὲ τόδε σοι ἀρέσκει ἄρα, ὦ ξένε, τὸ Σιμωνίδειον [fr. 585 PMG] κάρτα δοκέον τοῖς Ἕλλησιν εὖ εἰρῆσθαι ‘πορφυρέου ἀπὸ στόματος ἱεῖσα φωνὰν παρθένος’, οὐδ’ ὁ ποιητὴς (ἔφη) <ὁ> λέγων ‘χρυσοκόμαν Ἀπόλλωνα’ [Pind. Ol. 6.41); χρυσέας γὰρ εἰ ἐποίησεν ὁ ζωγράφος τὰς τοῦ θεοῦ κόμας καὶ μὴ μελαίνας, χεῖρον ἂν ἦν τὸ ζωγράφημα. οὐδὲ ὁ φὰς ‘ῥοδοδάκτυλον’; εἰ γάρ τις εἰς ῥόδεον χρῶμα βάψειε τοὺς δακτύλους, πορφυροβάφου χεῖρας καὶ οὐ γυναικὸς καλῆς ποιήσειεν <ἄν>’. Compare this with Porphyrion's observation (in Hor. Carm. 1.35.11) on the contrast between the real and the literary in the use of the colour purple: purpurei pro purpurati? purpureum enim aliud est, si proprietatem adtendas.

37 Platnauer (n. 2), 158–9; Harris (n. 2), 521.

38 Schneider (n. 2), 2010; Rowe (n. 2), 336: ‘πορφύρεος, “purple”, can be applied to the rainbow, a supernatural cloud, clothes and carpets, the sea in motion, the wave of the enraged river Scamander, and to blood and death’; Irwin, E., Colour Terms in Greek Poetry (Toronto, 1974), 28 Google Scholar.

39 Il. 5.82–3 τὸν δὲ κατ’ ὄσσε | ἔλλαβε πορφύρεος θάνατος καὶ μοῖρα κραταιή, 16.334, 20.477, Il. Parv. fr. 21.5 Bernabé; cf. Ap. Rhod. Argon. 2.203–4 κάρος δέ μιν ἀμφεκάλυψεν | πορφύρεος.

40 André (n. 3), 97; Goheen, F., ‘Aspects of dramatic symbolism: three studies in the Oresteia ’, in McCall, M.H. (ed.), Aeschylus. A Collection of Critical Essays (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1972), 106–23, at 109–10Google Scholar; Nisbet and Hubbard (n. 24), 186; Brenk (n. 32), 219; Clarke (n. 18), 132; Fountoulakis (n. 26), 113–14. Compare also two passages that bring together, with varying degrees of explicitness, blood and the colour purple: Plin. HN 9.135 (laus ei summa in colore sanguinis concreti, nigricans aspectu idemque suspectu refulgens. unde et Homero purpureus dicitur sanguis) and Ach. Tat. 2.11.4–7 (καὶ τῷ στόματι τοῦ κυνὸς περιρρέει τοῦ ἄνθους τὸ αἷμα, καὶ βάπτει τὸ αἷμα τὴν γένυν καὶ ὑφαίνει τοῖς χείλεσι τὴν πορφύραν … ὁ ποιμὴν ὁρᾷ τὰ χείλη τοῦ κυνὸς ᾑμαγμένα καὶ τραῦμα νομίσας τὴν βαφὴν προσῄει καὶ ἀπέπλυνε τῇ θαλάσσῃ … τὸ αἷμα λαμπρότερον ἐπορφύρετο).

41 Il. 4.140–1 αὐτίκα δ’ ἔρρεεν αἷμα κελαινεφὲς ἐξ ὠτειλῆς. | ὡς δ’ ὅτε τίς τ’ ἐλέφαντα γυνὴ φοίνικι μιήνῃ, 17.360–1 αἵματι δὲ χθὼν | δεύετο πορφυρέῳ, Stesich. S15, 2.12 PMGF ἐμίαινε δ’ ἄρ’ αἵματι πο̣ρ̣φ̣[υρέωι, Aesch. Pers. 315–16 πυρσὴν ζαπληθῆ δάσκιον γενειάδα | ἔτεγγ’ ἀμείβων χρῶτα πορφυρᾶι βαφῆι, Bion, Epitaphius Adonidis 26–7 στήθεα δ’ ἐκ μηρῶν φοινίσσετο, τοὶ δ’ ὑπὸ μαζοί | χιόνεοι τὸ πάροιθεν Ἀδώνιδι πορφύροντο, Quint. Smyrn. 14.319 αἵματι <πορ>φύροντι θοῶς ἐρυθαίνεθ’ ὕπερθεν, Nonnus, Dion. 4.450 πορφυρέῃ ῥαθάμιγγι χιτὼν ἐρυθαίνετο Νίκης, 34.156 αἵματι πορφύρουσαν ἀναστείλειεν ἀκωκήν. See Kirk, G.S., The Iliad: A Commentary. Books 5–8 (Cambridge, 1990), 62 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Compare this with the famous purple cloth on which Agamemnon treads in Aesch. Ag. 910 (πορφυρόστρωτος πόρος), 957, 959: the cloth's colour brings to mind all the blood that has been spilled in the house of Atreus (Goheen [n. 40], 107–15).

42 Clarke (n. 18), 132.

43 Clarke (n. 18), 57, 131.

44 Pavlock, B., Eros, Imitation, and the Epic Tradition (Ithaca, 1990), 102 Google Scholar; Edgeworth (n. 14), 26–9, 36, 52–3; Brenk (n. 32), 220–3; Dyson, J.T., ‘Lilies and violence: Lavinia's blush in the song of Orpheus’, CPh 94 (1999), 281–8, at 284Google Scholar.

45 Reed, J.D., ‘A Hellenistic influence in Aeneid IX’, Faventia 26 (2004), 27–42, at 29–31Google Scholar. The association of purpureus with death in Virgil might account for the lovely expression lumine … purpureo from Aen. 6.640–1, which might describe ‘the supernatural (non-solar) illumination of the land of the dead (…) suffused with a purplish (reddish) glow’ (Edgeworth [n. 14], 287–8). The affinity of purple and red flowers with blood, death and eroticism was already present in Catullus. See Dyson (n. 44), 281, 286; Clarke (n. 18), 190–2, 300; Reed (this note), 29.

46 André (n. 3), 354; Bradley, M., Colour and Meaning in Ancient Rome (Cambridge, 2009), 190–1Google Scholar. Cf. Ov. Tr. 4.2.6 uictima purpureo sanguine pulset humum, Sil. 4.168 purpureo moriens uictricia sanguine tinguis, Stat. Silv. 2.1.41 o ubi purpureo suffusus sanguine candor, Theb. 9.883 ibat purpureus niueo de pectore sanguis. The association of death, purple and blood might explain the curious lines in Valerius Flaccus 3.178–9 frigidus orbes | purpureos iam somnus obit, which appear to be an idiosyncratic adaptation of Homer's formulaic line Il. 5.82–3 τὸν δὲ κατ’ ὄσσε | ἔλλαβε πορφύρεος θάνατος καὶ μοῖρα κραταιή (Schrier [n. 10], 319 n. 39). The connection between blushing and the colour purple is due to the onset of blood rushing onto the blushing face (see e.g. Ov. Am. 1.8.12 purpureus Lunae sanguine uultus erat).

47 Serv. Aen. 5.79 purpureosque iacit flores: ad sanguinis imitationem, in quo est sedes animae, 6.221, 6.884 purpureos flores: ut saepe [V 79] diximus, propter sanguinis similitudinem, quia aut anima est, aut animae sedes.

48 See also Ov. Fast. 6.565 flumen … | purpureum mixtis sanguine fluxit aquis. There is of course also a play on the colour terms puniceus and punicus (‘scarlet, crimson’), as the editor suggests.

49 This motif grew in importance in Hellenistic poetry, but it was Latin literature that made it into a literary code. See on that head e.g. Murgatroyd, P., ‘ Militia amoris and the Roman elegists’, Latomus 34 (1975), 59–79 Google Scholar; Estévez, J.A., ‘Milicia de amor’, in Soldevila, R. Moreno (ed.), Diccionario de motivos amatorios en la literatura latina (siglos III a.C.–II d.C.) (Huelva, 2011), 275–86Google Scholar.

50 Fedeli, P., Properzio. Il primo libro delle Elegie (Florence, 1980), 182–3Google Scholar; Fedeli and Ciccarelli (n. 10), 87, 90, 102–3; Thomas (n. 21), 85.

51 Nethercut, W.R., ‘The ironic priest. Propertius’ Roman elegies, III, 1–5: imitations of Horace and Vergil’, AJPh 91 (1970), 385–407, at 393Google Scholar believed that a similar idea underlies the surprisingly scarlet-tinged beak of Venus’ doves (Prop. 3.3.31–2 et Veneris dominae uolucres, mea turba, columbae | tingunt Gorgoneo punica rostra lacu): the adjective punicus (‘scarlet’) ‘emphasizes that the elegist engages in warfare, but the precise nature of this warfare is symbolized by the doves … as it replaces the subject of Ennius’ Annales with the gentle turmoil of Love’. See also Clarke (n. 18), 228–9.

52 Fedeli (n. 50), 69; Murgatroyd, P., Tibullus I (Bristol, 1991), 83, 263Google Scholar.

53 Thgn. 1231–2 σχέτλι’ Ἔρως … | ἐκ σέθεν ὤλετο μὲν Ἰλίου ἀκρόπολις, Eur. Hel. 238–9 ἁ πολυκτόνος Κύπρις | Δαναΐδαις ἄγουσα θάνατον [Πριαμίδαις], Eur. Hipp. 551–3 σὺν αἵματι, σὺν καπνῶι, | φονίοισι νυμφείοις | Ἀλκμήνας τόκωι Κύπρις ἐξέδωκεν, Ap. Rhod. Argon. 1.802–3 οὐλομένης δὲ θεᾶς πορσύνετο μῆτις | Κύπριδος, Ap. Rhod. Argon. 4.445–6 σχέτλι’ Ἔρως, μέγα πῆμα, μέγα στύγος ἀνθρώποισιν, | ἐκ σέθεν οὐλόμεναί τ’ ἔριδες στοναχαί τε γόοι τε, Theoc. 23.46–7 γράψον καὶ τόδε γράμμα τὸ σοῖς τοίχοισι χαράσσω ἦ | τοῦτον ἔρως ἔκτεινεν, Oppian, Hal. 4.2 ὀλοῆς τ’ Ἀφροδίτης, Anth. Pal. 9.157.2 ὁ δ’ ἀνθρώπων αἵματι μειδιάει, 3–4 οὐ θοὸν ἐν παλάμαις κατέχει ξίφος; ἠνίδ’ ἄπιστα | τῆς θειοδμήτου σκῦλα μιαιφονίης, 7–8 καὶ ταῦτ’ οὔτ’ Ἄϊδος οὔτ’ Ἄρεος, ἔργα δ’ Ἔρωτος | λεύσσομεν, οἷς παίζει κεῖνος ὁ νηπίαχος. For Latin literature, see e.g. Nisbet, R.G.M. and Hubbard, M., A Commentary on Horace, Odes, Book I (Oxford, 1970), 239 Google Scholar, Moreno, M. Librán, ‘Maldición’, in Soldevila, R. Moreno (ed.), Diccionario de motivos amatorios en la literatura latina (siglos III a.C.–II d.C.) (Huelva, 2011), 262–4, at 264Google Scholar.

54 This idea was picked up by Propertius. See Gutzwiller, K., Poetic Garlands. Hellenistic Epigrams in Context (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, 1998), 299 n. 137Google Scholar.

55 Eros is called by that epithet in Dioscorides (Anth. Pal. 12.37.2) and Marcus Argentarius (Anth. Pal. 9.221.5, 12.37.2). Ap. Rhod. Argon. 3.297 and 3.1078 had termed Eros οὖλος, which is another epithet originally used of Ares (Il. 5.461, 5.717).

56 Nisbet and Hubbard (n. 24), 129.

57 Nisbet and Hubbard (n. 24), 130.

58 Gow, A.S.F. and Page, D.L., The Greek Anthology. Hellenistic Epigrams (Cambridge, 1965), 637 Google Scholar; Reed (n. 45), 32.

59 As mentioned above, for Homer some colours in the red range are similarly able to convey both chromatic colour (‘blood-red’) and the notion that something, usually a wild animal, is a deadly killer: Hom. Il. 10.23 (δαφοινὸν δέρμα λέοντος), 2.308 (δράκων ἐπὶ νῶτα δαφοινός), 12.202 (φοινήεντα δράκοντα); cf. Hymn. Hom. Ap. 304 πῆμα δαφοινόν (the dragon Python).

60 The idea that reference to a colour may foreshadow a coming event has been proven by Edgeworth (n. 14), 52 and Harris (n. 2), 510–22, who writes regarding the ornithologically incorrect epithet φοινικοβαφῆ in Eur. Ion 162 (see above, n. 5): ‘by having Ion describe the swan's foot as φοινικοβαφῆ, “red-dipped” in 162–3, Euripides is hypallactically anticipating the potential outcome of Ion's threat’ (516).

61 Bion 2.18–19 καὶ τόσον ἄνθος | χιονέαις πόρφυρε παρηίσι, Nonnus, Dion. 4.130–2 ὡς ῥόδα φοινίσσουσι παρηίδες, ἀκροφαῆ δὲ | δίχροα χιονέων ἀμαρύσσεται ἴχνια ταρσῶν | μεσσόθι πορφύροντα, Tib. 3.4.30 et color in niueo corpore purpureus, Anth. Pal. 5.35.5–6 φοινίσσετο χιονέη σὰρξ | πορφυρέοιο ῥόδου μᾶλλον ἐρυθροτέρη, Stat. Silv. 2.1.41 o ubi purpureo suffusus sanguine candor. The contrast between the red/purple and the white in the colouring of the beloved is an amatory and epithalamic τόπος. See Fedeli, P., Catullus’ Carmen 61 (Amsterdam, 1983), 122–3Google Scholar; Soldevila, R. Moreno, ‘Descripción de la belleza de la amada’, in Soldevila, R. Moreno (ed.), Diccionario de motivos amatorios en la literatura latina (siglos III a.C.–II d.C.) (Huelva, 2011), 134–41, at 139–40Google Scholar.

62 Reed (n. 28), 213; Reed (n. 45), 29–30, 32; cf. Harris (n. 2), 518. I wish to note that Fountoulakis (n. 26), 114 had reached a conclusion very similar to the thesis of the present work in his discussion of the use of πορφύρεος in Bion, Epitaphius Adonidis 3 and 79: ‘The Homeric resonances [sc. of πορφύρεος in Bion, Epitaphius Adonidis 79] illuminate the connotations concerning the idea of youthful, violent, and bloody death, which derive from the image of Adonis’ funeral bed.’

63 Reed (n. 45), 32, 40.

64 Campbell, D.A., Greek Lyric I. Sappho. Alcaeus (Cambridge, MA, 1982), 171 Google Scholar.

65 Giesecke, A., The Mythology of Plants: Botanical Lore from Ancient Greece and Rome (Los Angeles, 2014), 49 Google Scholar. The hyacinth is present, among other flowers, in scenes that portend or contain deceitful seduction or illicit passion, such as Il. 14.348, Hymn. Hom. Cer. 7, 426, Cypr. fr. 4.3 Bernabé. On the flowery meadow as the dominion of Eros and as a metaphoric space for love, see Calame, C., The Poetics of Eros in Ancient Greece (New Jersey, 1999), 153–170 Google Scholar. On the association of the hyacinth with love, Aphrodite, and Eros, see Anac. fr. 346.7–9 PMG τὰς ὑακιν[θίνας ἀρ]ούρας | ἵ]να Κύπρις ἐκ λεπάδνων | ….] [.]α[ς κ]ατέδησεν ἵππους, Eur. IA 1298–9, Theoc. 11.26, Anac. fr. 31.1 and Calame (this note), 165.

66 Curiously, a passage from the Byzantine love-novel Hysmine and Hysminias (10.12) by Eustathius Macrembolites shares with Hor. Carm. 4.1 a few ideas and concepts: love as war (Ἔρως ἐστράτευσε καθ’ ὑμῶν, καὶ τὰς ἡμῶν καρδίας ἐπολιόρκησεν. Ἔρως τὴν ἐν ὑμῖν πορφύραν τῆς παρθενίας ἐσύλησε, καὶ κατὰ κόχλον ἡμεῖς ἀπερράχθημεν; cf. Hor. Carm. 4.1.1–2), love as a fire that burns up its victim's entrails (Ἔρως ἀφροδισίῳ πυρὶ τὴν τῆς νεότητος θέρμην ὑμῶν ἐξεπύρωσε; cf. Hor. Carm. 4.1.12), the contrast between youth and old age (καὶ γεραιὰ σπλάγχνα πατέρων ἡμῶν εἰς βάθος κατέκαυσε καὶ ἡμᾶς ἀπηνθράκωσεν; cf. Hor. Carm. 4.1.6–8). Finally, Love, after waging war successfully on the lovers, takes their virginities as if they were purple spoils (Ἔρως τὴν ἐν ὑμῖν πορφύραν τῆς παρθενίας ἐσύλησε).