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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
In this poem, ascribed to Automedon, Nicetes' way of orating is compared first to a light breeze that strikes upon the rigging of a sailing vessel and then, when the breeze has increased to a wind, to the vessel itself as it runs over open water under full sail.
1 Two eminent rhetors by this name are known, one who lived under Augustus and another, more famous, who lived under Nero or Nerva; see RE s.v. Niketes, Nos. 5, 6 (1937). There is no consensus as to which is meant here. E.g. Jacobs, F. (Animadversiones in Epigrammata Anthologiae Graecae, ii.2 [Leipzig, 1800], p. 137)Google Scholar opts for the later, Waltz, P. (REG 59–60 [1946–1947], 189)Google Scholar for the earlier, Radermacher, L. (RE, no. 6 [1937])Google Scholar inclines toward the later, Robert, L. (REG 94 [1981], 338–9, esp. 339, n. 6)CrossRefGoogle Scholar leaves it open between the two, as does Borthwick, E. (CQ 21 [1971], 434)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Gow–Page (Gow, A. and Page, D., The Greek Anthology: The Garland of Philip and Some Contemporary Epigrams [Cambridge, 1968], ii. 187)Google Scholar throws the field wide open (‘the name is common and any particular identification will remain speculative)’.
2 E.g. Jacobs (n. 1, above), p. 137, Gow–Page (n. 1, above), ii.187.
3 Casson, L., Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World2 (Princeton, 1986), pp. 230, 260.Google Scholar
4 Hecker, A., Commentatio critica de Anthologia Graeca (Leiden, 1843), pp. 344–5.Google Scholar
5 See note ad loc. He takes πρ⋯τονοι to be ‘funes a malo et velis in puppem et proram tensi’; they are ‘a malo in proram tensi’ only.
6 Gow–Page (n. 1, above), ii.187.
7 One translator produced downright gibberish: ‘forestays in sail, a light breeze going’ (Garber, F. in Jay, P., ed., The Greek Anthology [New York, 1973], p. 228).Google Scholar
8 Waltz (n. 1, above), 188.
9 Presta, A., Antologia Palatina (Rome, 1957), p. 339.Google Scholar
10 Beckby, H., Anthologia Graeca (Munich, 1958), ii.489.Google Scholar
11 Stamoules, D., ΑΝΘΟΛΟΓΙΑ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ἢ ΠΑΛΑΤΙΝΑ ΑΝΘΟΛΟΓΙΑ, ΒΙΒΛΙΟΧ, ΒΙΒΛΙΟ ΧΙΙΙ (Athens, 1968), p. 17.Google Scholar
12 Pontani, F., Antologia Palatina (Turin, 1980), iii.419.Google Scholar
13 Ebener, D., Diegriechische Anthologie (Berlin, 1981), ii.23Google Scholar: ‘die Brise auf See leicht nur die Wanten umstreicht.’ Wanten are shrouds, the lines that run from the top of a mast to the sides of the ship, not forestays.
14 Jacobs (n. 1, above), p. 137: ‘πακτώσας. antennis malo firmiter alligatis’.
15 Grotius rendered it ‘stricta carbasa’, and the translation in the Didot edition ‘carbasis firmiter alligatis’.
16 See Pollux 10.27: τῷ δ⋯ κλεῖσαι ἴσον κα⋯ τ⋯ πακτο⋯ν κα⋯ τ⋯ ⋯πιπακτο⋯ν τ⋯ς θ⋯ρας ⋯στ⋯ν… ώς… Άριστοϕ⋯νης (Lys. 265) “προπ⋯λαια πακτο⋯ν” ἤ π⋯λιν (Fr. Kock 721 = PCG iii.2.737) “ κα⋯ ⋯πιπακτο⋯ν τ⋯ς θ⋯ρας ” ἢ ὡς Άρχ⋯λοχος (ed. West, M., Iambi et elegi graeci, i [Oxford, 1971], no. 279)Google Scholar πακτ⋯σαι τ⋯ κλεῖσαι. Cf. Hipponax, West i, no. 104.19 (= P. Oxy. 2175, fr. 3.19): [τ⋯ν] θ⋯ρην ⋯π⋯κτωσα; Sophocles, Ajax 579: δ⋯μα π⋯κτου.
17 Aristophanes, Wasps 128: (of the cracks or other openings in a house) ⋯νεβ⋯σαμεν ῥακ⋯οισι κ⋯πακτώσαμεν; Herod. 2.96: (of Egyptian boats) τ⋯ς ⋯ρμον⋯ας ⋯ν ὦν ⋯π⋯κτωσαν τῃ β⋯βλῳ. C. Haldane and C. Shelmerdine, in an attempt to bring Herodotus' words in line with the archaeological evidence that on some Egyptian craft the planks were bound together with cords (CQ 40 [1990], 535–9)Google Scholar, assert, with no proof other than the passages listed in note 16 above, that πακτ⋯ω in all its appearances ‘is best taken as “fasten”, “make fast”, “bind fast”’. They then conclude that Herodotus must be using ⋯μπακτ⋯ω in the sense of ‘bind with cord’ and not ‘stop up’, i.e. caulk. Of the passage in the Wasps they say: ‘The stuffing with rags is expressed by ⋯νεβ⋯σαμεν ῥακ⋯οισι and κ⋯πακτώσαμεν is more likely to complement than to repeat this precise thought’. Whatever complementary sense κ⋯πακτώσαμεν may have, it cannot be ‘bind with cord’, for that is no way to plug holes in a wall. The scholia offer ⋯ϕρ⋯ξαμεν, ⋯πληρώσαμεν, ⋯σϕηνώσαμεν. For an unequivocal use of πακτ⋯ω in the sense of ‘caulk’, see Westermann, W. and Hasenoehrl, E., edd., Zenon Papyri (New York, 1934), no. 43Google Scholar (253 B.c.), lines 9–10: the captain of a Nile boat lists the purchase of θρ⋯α ὢστε πακτ⋯σαι τ⋯ πλοῖον; rushes could only have been used as stuff for caulking seams, not as cording for binding planks together.
18 Gow–Page (n. 1, above), ii.186.
19 Cf. nn. 7–13, above.
