Great
work, Brennos. Thank you very much. I'll be sure to incorporate some of this discussion in the book (and mention your
help!), as the arguments against Acheloos are certainly interesting and worthy of mention. Your translation makes perfect sense of the text.
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Brennos Translation:
Bold texts are my (Brennos') personal observations or comments(1) Refers to the footnote (1) in the text
[P.123 L.1-5] means lignes 1 to 5 on the original text page 123.Please note that a “Boeuf” is an ox and not a bull which is a “Taureau”.
Important: For simplification, I will use the term MFB for what the author calls “a complete body of an ox with a human face and two horns”.p.123
[P123 L.1-5]
The interpretation of the MFB as being the representation of Achélous is widely but wrongly accepted. Pighius (1) and Carrera (2) are the only authors that have given the correct explanation regarding the signification of the MFB.
[P123 L.6-10]
MFB as Achélous interpretation is comforted by the
work of Abbé Ignarra who :
-> has « modified » (
i guess has badly interpreted or analysed or translated) the Trachiniennes tragedy of Sophocle (3)
-> pretends that Achélous is not only the god of the Etolian river but the god of all the rivers (4).
Arguments of the author against the view that MFB is Achélous :
[P.123 L. 11-13]
1° The correct « translation/interpretation » of the Sophocle text is the one of Isaac Casaubon who is more “competent”
[P.123 L. 14-18]
2° The poets have given the name of Achéloss to all drinking waters because it was the name of the
king who has first mixed the water with the wine (5) but it is not a reason to give the name of Archélous to all the rivers.
[P123 L. 18 to P124-L.19]
This third argument is what I’ve called the “stability of the iconography” argument but I was probably not clear enough [P123 L. 18- 21]
When a certain way of representing Achélous is first adopted on ancient monuments (including coins), then it cannot be modified afterward. Particularly in all the
area of the Achélous river.
[P123 L. 22- 25]
The Peoples (the Oenades), that live near the Archélous river mouth, have coins on which the
type is : bearded old
head on a neck
and not on a full body and the horns are almost horizontal.
[P123 L. 26- 28]
On the coins of Thyraeum the
head is beardless and there is a single horn (6).
[P124 L.1- 4]
On several coins of
Magna Graecia, we could see several different representations of a MFB (that one pretends being Archélous) and in
Sicily there are representations with only half of the body (1)
[P124 L.5- 12]
If one has to choose which of those different representations is Achélous, then we should definitely take the one used on the Thyraeum coins with a single horn due to the mythological story. All the others representations that differ from this precise
type (
Neapolis, Nola etc…) are not a representation of Archélous.
[P124 L.13- 17]
Explains the well known mythological fable[P124 L.18- 19]
Hard to conciliate the presence of the
victory above the MFB with the fable where Achélous is the loser.
[P124 L.20- P.125 L.19]
The author gives the arguments against MFB as being the Minotaur, as it is nowadays obvious, I don’t translate it.[P125 L.20- 23]
The coins that have a MFB
type, come from
Campania and the proximity
area. The naturally fertile soil has been made even more fertile by agricultural works.
[P125 L.23- 25]
It is therefore quite natural to believe that people have adopted this symbol to express their gratitude.
[P126 L.1- 2]
Varron qualifies the ox as the friend of the
men in the agricultural works. He calls it “servant of
Ceres” (1)
in fact the expression “ministre de cérés” has here the same sense as a priest "ministre" of the Christ in the Christian religion. I translate it as “servant” but it is probably not the exact word ( i don't know if I'm clear )
[P126 L.3- 8]
Columelle says that trying to kill an ox is a crime as important as trying to kill a
man (2) . Elien (3), Stobée (4), Pline (5) and Valere-Maxime (6) give examples of punishment inflicted for having killed an ox. This proves how the ox was venerated by the ancient
Romans. The ancient
Romans were not allowed to immolate an ox to
Ceres (7) but this law has not always been respected.
[P126 L.9-12 ]
An important sentence hard to translate If we
had wanted to represent the symbol of
agriculture and, at the same time, make known the importance of the ox (
regarding agriculture), we should agree that we would not be far from the spirit of the allegory in chosing an ox with a human
head.
[P126 L.13-17 ]
This is the likely reason why inhabitants from
Neapolis, Nola and other Campanian cities have chosen the MFB
type for their coins. To conclude, we can name our
Cameo : Symbol of
agriculture.
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All this being said, I think
his interpretation of the poets' use of
Achelous is incorrect, especially when considering new evidence on the Homeric texts which place emphasis on
Achelous as the original god of all water, which is supported by the Derveni papyrus. Also, the
orthographic argument Achelous=King that mixed water and wine, Archelous=river, is not correct when we examine the original sources (literature and
epigraphy). All this is discussed in the upcoming book and it's really interesting stuff.