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Search results for alpha,3750 in Adler number:
Headword:
*)ara/xnh
Adler number: alpha,3750
Translated headword: spider's web
Vetting Status: high
Translation: In the feminine, [it is] the web. But
a)ra/xnhs as a masculine [is] the creature; [so called] from its having narrow tracks [
a)raia\ i)/xnh].
"Three girls of an age, skilled just as a spider at weaving a narrow thread, dedicated [...]."[1]
The spider is mentioned in Hesiod[2] and in
Pindar[3] and in
Callias.[4] They also say
a)raxnika/ ["spidery things"], from the nominative
a)ra/xnhs.
Callias in
Cyclopes [writes]: "weaving their way just like a spidery [person]."[4] But
Sophocles [uses] the feminine in
Inachus: "all the weavers' things were a spider's web in weight".[5]
Callimachus [writes]: "a spider's-web work".[6]
Cratinus in
Pytinê [writes]: "you are holding your stomach in the middle of spiders' webs."[7]
Pherecrates in
Tyranny [writes]: "so spiders' webs just as for empty fig trees."[8] Nicophron in
Origins of Aphrodite [writes]: "so something spidery seems to have come into being."[9]
Greek Original:*)ara/xnh: qhlukw=s to\ u(/fasma. a)ra/xnhs de\ a)rsenikw=s, to\ zwu/+fion: para\ to\ a)raia\ i)/xnh e)/xein. trissai\ qe/san a(/likes, i)=son a)ra/xna| teu=cai leptale/on mi=ton e)pista/menai. ei)/rhtai de\ a)ra/xnhs kai\ par' *(hsio/dw| kai\ para\ *pinda/rw| kai\ para\ *kalli/a|. le/gousi de\ kai\ a)raxnika\, a)po\ th=s a)ra/xnhs o)rqh=s. *kalli/as *ku/klwyin: w(/sper a)raxniko\s th\n o(do\n proforou/mena. qhlukw=s de\ *sofoklh=s *)ina/xw|: pa/nta d' e)ri/qwn a)raxna=n bri/qei. *kalli/maxos: e)/rgon a)ra/xna. *krati=nos de\ *puti/nh|: a)raxni/wn mesth\n e)/xeis th\n gaste/ra. *ferekra/ths *turanni/di: a)=r' a)ra/xnia w(/sper tai=s sukuai=si tai=s kenai=s. *niko/frwn *)afrodi/ths gonai=s: a)=r' a)ra/xnio/n ti fai/netai e)mpefuke/nai.
Notes:
cf.
alpha 3749.
[1]
Greek Anthology 6.174.1-2 (generally attributed to Antipater of Sidon), three women dedicate spinning and weaving instruments to Pallas (Athena); cf. Gow and Page (vol. I, 12-13); (vol. II, 37-38); and further excerpts from this epigram at
alpha 3988,
eta 190,
kappa 1400,
mu 1135,
omicron 340, and
tau 38. Gow and Page note (ibid., 37) that the epigram's ascription to Antipater of Sidon is not entirely secure and that on stylistic grounds it is plausible to attribute it to the earlier epigrammatist, Antipater of Thessalonica. Instead of the Suda's Byzantine form (
mi=ton,
thread), Gow and Page read the Doric
sta/mon and note that the
Anthologia Planudea transmits
sth/mon (vol. I, 12).
[2] Hesiod,
Works and Days 777 (not Adler's "475": cobwebs).
[3]
Pindar fr. 296.
[4]
Callias fr. 2 Kock, now 5 K.-A.
[5]
Sophocles fr. 264 (= fr. 286 Radt); cf. Lloyd-Jones, who translates in the Loeb edn. of the fragments, p. 133, "And everything is loaded with cobwebs").
[6]
Callimachus,
Hecale fr. 253.
[7]
Cratinus fr. 190 Kock, now 202 K.-A.
[8]
Pherecrates fr. 142 Kock, now 151 K.-A.; again at
sigma 1334.
[9] 'Nicophron' (= Nicophon: see
nu 406) fr. 3 Kock (and K.-A.).
References:
A.S.F. Gow and D.L. Page, The Greek Anthology: Hellenistic Epigrams, vol. I, (Cambridge, 1965)
A.S.F. Gow and D.L. Page, The Greek Anthology: Hellenistic Epigrams, vol. II, (Cambridge, 1965)
Keywords: comedy; definition; dialects, grammar, and etymology; imagery; poetry; religion; trade and manufacture; tragedy; women; zoology
Translated by: Jennifer Benedict on 6 March 2002@11:33:51.
Vetted by:
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