On the Archaic Meaning of the Word filum in Apuleius

Svetlana S. Dubova

doi:10.21638/11701/spbu20.2017.203

Authors

Svetlana S. Dubova Saint Petersburg State University; 7/9 Universitetskaya nab., St. Petersburg, 199034 Russia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu20.2017.203

Abstract

The paper discusses how the meaning ‘appearance, figure’ of the Latin word filum was developed in the pre-classical writers’ works and how the meaning in question was revived in the texts of later authors, especially in the writings of Apuleius. The present meaning is typical of Lucretius, as in his poem On the Nature of Things he regards bodies as an interweaving of atoms and describes them with terms from the weaving field. It was Lucretius whom Apuleius referred to speaking about the nature of daemons: fila corporum (De deo Soc. 11). The use of the word filum regarding human appearance could have developed as a metaphorical transfer from clothing to its owner. For the post-classical period writers this meaning was already unusual, and the word filum was often supplemented by the explicative words corporis or oris. The author makes an assumption that the word filum in reference to the human appearance enjoyed popularity in the post-classical literature due to its archaic color. A significant number of the same type expressions with the word filum in the given meaning (bono filo, decente filo, filo virginali etc.) are also pointing to the fact that these expressions were idiomatic.

Keywords:

archaic vocabulary, Apuleius, Lucretius, Latin idioms, weaving metaphors

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Bailey C. (ed., transl., comm.) Titi Lucreti Cari De Rerum Natura libri sex. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1947.

Charpin F. (ed., transl.) Lucilius, Satires. Tome III. Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 1991.

De Vaan M. Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages. (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7). Leiden and Boston, Brill, 2008.

Dunsch B. (comm.) Plautus’ Mercator: a Commentary. PhD Thesis, University of St. Andrews, 2000.

Ernout A. (ed., transl.) Plaute, Tome IV: Maenechmi — Mercator — Miles Gloriosus. Paris, Les Belles Lettres, ⁸1992.

Ernout A., Meillet A. Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latin. Paris, Librairie C. Klincksieck, ³1951.

Gaide F. Primigénius et les oiseaux (Pétron, Sat. 46). Latomus 1993, 52, 2, 386–388.

Giussani C. (ed., comm.) T. Lucreti Cari De Rerum Natura libri sex. Vol. I. Torino, Ermanno Loescher, 1896.

Krauss F. B. The Human Element in Latin Inscriptions. The Classical Weekly 1928, 21, 161–163. https://doi.org/10.2307/4389141

Krenkel W. (ed., transl.) Lucilius: Satiren. Zweiter Teil. Berlin, Akademie-Verlag, 1970.

Lackenbacher H. Filum. Thesaurus Linguae Latinae 1926, 6, 1, 760–764.

Lackenbacher H. Zur Etymologie von filum. Glotta 1922, 12 (1/2), 127–137.

Liu J. Collegia Centonariorum: The Guilds of Textile Dealers in the Roman West. Leiden and Boston, Brill, 2009.

Marković D. The Rhetoric of Explanation in Lucretius’ De rerum natura. Leiden and Boston, Brill, 2008. https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004167964.i-178

Schmeling G. with the collaboration of Setaioli A. (comm.) A Commentary on the Satyrica of Petronius. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2011.

Schubert P. Κωντοναίτωρ: a Ghost Word. Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 1988, 75, 173–174.

Snyder J. M. The Warp and Woof of the Universe in Lucretius’ “De Rerum Natura”. Illinois Classical Studies 1983, 8, 1, 37–43.

Walde A. Lateinisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch. Heidelberg, Carl Winter’s Universitätsbuchhandlung, ²1910.

Walde A., Hofmann J. B. Lateinisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch. Heidelberg, Carl Winter’s Universitätsbuchhandlung, 1938.

Warmington E. H. (ed., transl.) Remains of Old Latin, Volume III: Lucilius; The Twelve Tables. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1938.

Weyman C. Studien zu Apuleius und seinen Nachahmern. SBAW 1893, 2, 321–392.