Aratea of ​​Avienus

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The Aratea des Avienus is a translation of the Greek astronomical didactic poem Phainomena des Aratos by Soloi into Latin , made by the poet Avienus in the middle of the 4th century AD .

Sources and language

Avienus adheres closely to his model in the structure of the work and in the individual representations of the constellations. However, he expanded the didactic poem from 1154 to 1878 hexameters. He is not interested in additional astronomical knowledge, but in poetic and mythological jewelry. He adopts numerous star sagas (= cadastral systems ) , which can be found similarly in the Catasterismi , which are associated with Eratosthenes of Cyrene , and in the work of Hyginus Mythographus . He was also inspired by Latin poets, especially Virgil and Ovid .

There are echoes of the earlier Latin translations of Cicero and Germanicus . The language of Avienus, however, differs significantly. It is full of poetic embellishment and aims downright grandiose. Numerous archaisms and linguistic re-imprints show his endeavors to renew and preserve the traditional. While Aratos and his translators Cicero and Germanicus, according to the Proömium, objectively develop the idea that what moves in the sky is described, Avienus says:
... Nox agit et uerso ceu fixa trahuntur Olympo
The neutral Latin caelum (= sky) has replaced by Olympo (= heaven of the gods). The unusual filler word ceu is already used by the early Roman poet Quintus Ennius . He also uses new word formations, such as cetosa (= belonging to sea fish ) (verse 100).

content

Proömium

Avienus designed the Proömium differently from Aratos as an aretology for Juppiter . He is hailed as the world creator, creator of the seasons and stars. In addition, he had given people knowledge of the sky and the course of the stars. Special mediators of this knowledge are Eudoxus of Knidos and Aratos of Soloi, whose work Avienus wants to work on.

It is a syncretistic philosophical religion of late antiquity . There are echoes of many works by ancient poets and philosophers without clear quotations being able to be identified. The invocation of Juppiter is reminiscent of the Orphic Zeushymnus. Some thoughts are pre-formulated in Virgil and Ovid , e.g. B. the idea of ​​the poet's journey to heaven (verse 4) similar to Ovid ( Metamorphoses 15, 147ff.). Thoughts are also taken over from Plato , for example the guidance by Iuppiter (verses 1, 2) from Phaedrus 246e. But the Stoics also have their say. A reflection of the praise of the beauty of the sky and the stars from the Neoplatonic text of Plotinus On Nature, Sight and One (30) is found in verses 33–35.

Constellations and celestial circles

After that, Avienus closely followed his Greek model. He depicts the constellations progressing from north to south (verse 77-907), mentions the planets (verse 908-929), the celestial circles (verse 930-1012), describes the constellations of the zodiac (verse 1013-1059) and the up - and the setting of the constellations (verses 1060-1325).

calendar

From verse 1326 to 1383 the phases of the moon and the course of the sun are described as well as the calendar , which is based on these two heavenly bodies. While Aratos only vaguely speaks of 19 circles of the shining sun , Avienus names Meton as the creator of the Meton cycle , the synchronization of the lunar and solar years.

Weather sign

Up to the end of the poem, the author, closely following his template, describes events that should allow a forecast of the weather, first cloud formation, wind and sky discoloration, then plant and animal behavior. The events do not contain any superstitious elements and are in part an exact observation of nature, such as the time of the crane flight or the swarm range of the bees.

Lore

The work was less received than the more manageable translations by Cicero and Germanicus. Nevertheless, relationships and imitations can be found in the subsequent generation of poets. The text has only survived in two manuscripts, whereby the more recent Codex Gudianus 132 in Wolfenbüttel depends on the older Codex Vindobonensis Palatinus 107 (Philol. 128) from the 10th century. In 1488 Giorgio Valla and Vittore Pisani obtained the first printed edition in Venice.

Text editions and translations

  • Alfred Breysig : Rufi Festi Avieni Aratea . Teubner, Leipzig 1882 (text edition, digitized version ).
  • Gregor Fischer, Friedrich Köppner: The starry sky. Attempt to translate the Phaenomena Aratea by Rufus Festus Avienus . Komotau 1893 (German translation, part 1).
  • Gregor Fischer: The starry sky. Attempt to translate the Aratea of ​​Rufus Festus Avienus . Komotau 1896 (German translation, part 2).
  • Jean Soubiran: Aviénus, les phénomènes d'Aratos . Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1981, ISBN 2-251-11020-8 ; ISBN 2-251-01020-3 (text edition and French translation).

literature

  • Dorothea Weber : Aviens Phaenomena, an Arat adaptation from Latin late antiquity. Studies on selected games (= dissertations from the University of Vienna, vol. 173). VWGÖ, Vienna 1986, ISBN 3-85369-622-8 .
  • Kurt Smolak : Postumius Rufius Festus Avienus . In: Reinhart Herzog (Hrsg.): Handbook of the Latin literature of antiquity . Volume five: restoration and renewal. The Latin literature from AD 284 to 374. CH Beck, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-406-31863-0 , pp. 320-327.
  • Franco Bellandi, Emanuele Berti, Maurizio Ciappi: "Iustissima Virgo". Il mito della Vergine in Germanico e in Avieno (saggio di commento a Germanico Arati Phaen. 96-139 e Avieno Arati Phaen. 273–352). Giardini, Pisa 2001, ISBN 88-427-0319-2 .
  • Martin Fiedler: Commentary by V. 367–746 of Avien's redesign of the Phainomena Arats , Saur, Munich, Leipzig 2004, ISBN 3-598-77823-6 .
  • Lothar Willms: translation, philological commentary and comparative interpretation of the zodiac in Avien's Phaenomena (verses 1014-1325) (= AKAN individual writings - ancient natural sciences and their reception, vol. 8). Scientific publishing house Trier, Trier 2014, ISBN 978-3-86821-508-3 .

Remarks

  1. ↑ Dorothea Weber: Aviens Phaenomena , p. 201ff.
  2. ^ Dorothea Weber: Aviens Phaenomena , p. 200.
  3. ^ Lothar Willms: Translation, philological commentary and comparative interpretation of the zodiac in Aviens Phaenomena , p. 121.
  4. ^ Karl Ernst Georges : Latin-German concise dictionary
  5. ^ Karl Ernst Georges: Latin-German concise dictionary .
  6. ↑ Dorothea Weber: Aviens Phaenomena , pp. 2-59.
  7. ↑ Kurt Smolak: Avienus . P. 326.
  8. ^ Otto Kern : Orphicorum fragmenta , Berlin 1922, 21a.
  9. ↑ Kurt Smolak: Avienus p. 327.
  10. ↑ Jean Soubiran: Aviénus, les phénomènes d'Aratos , pp. 76–79.