HF 12-29

Commentary for Hercules Furens 12-29

ferro- "with iron", metonymy, use of associated word instead of the exact noun. Probably here it refers to Orion's arrows, since he was a hunter. It is hard to see why Seneca includes Orion since he is neither a paelex of Jove nor the son of such a paelex. One story says he was born from Jove's semen (along with that of other gods) buried in the earth. If we remember that Gaea/Terra, the earth, was personified, this could mean that Juno presents this as a sort of affair. As Fitch points out, Orion was often associated with the previously mentioned Pleiades whom he supposedly chased. This along with the fact that he was a notorious attacker of the gods probably encouraged Seneca to include him.

minax- As often, this nominative adjective with an action verb may be translated as an adverb in English.

Perseus- The son of Zeus and Danae who was impregnated by Zeus' "golden shower". Thus the allusive epithet "golden".

Tyndaridae- The patronymic means "sons of Tyndareus", i.e. Castor and Pollux, who are also called the Twins (constellation Gemini) and the Dioscuri. The last name alludes to their birth from Zeus (Greek genitive Dios) and Leda. Zeus turned Leda (and himself) into a swan to fool Hera/Juno.

quibusque natis- At the birth of Apollo and Diana/Artemis, the children of Zeus and Leto, the island of Delos was supposed to have stopped floating randomly about, so stetit = "stood still". For this bit of myth, Callimachus may be the source (see here).

nec ipse...Cnosiacae gerit- Seneca alludes to Dionysus' deification, his mother Semele's deification, and the catasterism of Ariadne (the daughter of Minos from Knossos--thus by metonymy Cnosiaca), whom Dionysus wed. The point is not only did Zeus' lover and love child make it into heaven but even Dionysus' mortal paelex, Ariadne. The most influential telling of Ariadne's tale is Catullus', but Ovid's version (itself influenced by Catullus) may also be behind Seneca's allusion. The "puella" is snide. It connotes both youth and her status as the "mistress" or "girl" (a meaning often seen in Roman elegy or love poetry) of Dionysus.

tantum- meaning "only" here

ne qua- "lest any". After si, nisi, num and ne, all the ali's fall away. Thus qua equals aliqua, and it modifies pars

mundus- Munditia is neatness of appearance. Mundus as an adjective means neat, clean, elegant. Here as often mundus is used as a noun meaning "world" or "universe". The Greek word for universe is kosmos, which literally means "order" or "arrangement" and often referred to elegant physical appearance. Thus the Latin word mundus is what we call a calque. A calque is a word that is essentially a translation of a word from another language. That is, mundus did not mean "universe" until some Latin author (much earlier than Seneca) used it to translate kosmos.

sero- "late", i.e. "too late"

una...- She emphasizes that "one land", namely Thebes, has often provided offense. The allusion is to Alcmene, Semele, and Antiope, who were lovers of Zeus. The impiis may indicate further allusion to the impious daughters of Cadmus who killed Pentheus (In Euripides Bacchae).

novercam- "stepmother". In Latin, as English, stepmothers are proverbially wicked. There might be a tinge of this connotation here, though Juno would think her "evilness" justified. By the way, look out for rhetorical points that both fit and do not fit the character speaking. In the desire to make a witty rhetorical jab, Seneca (and to some extent Euripides before him) sometimes has a character say something that is out of character in order to make a point.

licet- As often even in prose, the conjunction licet (meaning "although") is postpositive, it always takes a subjunctive verb--here escendat, teneat, and occupet.

Alcmene- Greek 1st declension feminine singular, "Alcmene" the mother of Hercules. Alcmena is the common Latin nominative, but the Greek form with a long final e is needed here to fit the meter.

teneat...locum- Notice how these verbal repetitions (echoing locum in line 4 and tenent in 5) serve to round off this digression as Juno returns to the current situation--her hatred for Hercules, the latest (and according to some accounts, last) illegitimate son of Zeus.

astra...promissa- This suggests that Zeus has already promissed Hercules (natus, i.e. son of Alcmene) immortality or at least catasterism.

in cuius...- cuius refers back to Hercules (natus). The allusion here is to the myth that Zeus made the night last longer so that he could continue enjoying Alcmene before her husband returned.

ortus- acc. pl. m. literally "risings", a poetic way to refer to his conception

iubar- acc. s. n. "corona" or "brightness", the word specifically refers to the orb of diffuse light that emanates from a glowing body.

Oceano- ablative (without prep.) or locative of place where

vivaces...animus- Uncommon word order (chiasmus ABBA, synchysis ABAB) is common in poetry both for convenience (to fit meter) and for artful effect. Vivaces goes with iras and violentus with animus as you can tell by the endings. This example has Adj. A, Adj. B, Noun A, Noun B--an order which is usually called synchysis or interlocking word order by classicists, though sometimes chiasmus is used more generally for all such arrangements. Note also the alliteration of VIvaces & VIolentus. This may be understood as a sort of perverse figura etymologica. That is, through etymological word play the poet suggests a real relationship between two words of the same etymological root. Here VIolence makes Juno's anger VIvacious or full of life. The ancient authors use figura etymologica even in instances where the two words are only apparently and not really related.

tardusque...- Adj. A, Adj. B, Noun A, Noun B--synchysis again

aeterna bella pace sublata- Because of the inflexions which tell which words go together, Latin and Greek may be much more flexible in their word order even in prose, but especially in poetry. Here again we have artful word order (chiasmus of the noun-adjective ordering): Adj. 1, Noun 1, Noun 2, Adj. 2. I should point out that the word order allows the poet to tellingly juxtapose the antonyms bella and pace. Greek and Latin authors love to use word order like this to emphasize the opposition or association of two words or ideas. See 487 "unus una" for association by juxtaposition and 557 "uno tot" & 873 "segnis, properamus" for opposition by juxtaposition.

pace sublata- ablative absolute