In Buc. 3.40 Menalcas refers to Conon and a vague “quis fuit alter” who described the whole universe. Every commentary and also the ancient scholia ueronensia state that this expression could be a reference to Eudoxus, who described the universe in his Phaenomena, that were later ‘verified’ by Aratus, whose work became the standard astronomical manual from the Hellenistic Age to the Palaeologan Age. Aratus seemingly never refers to himself in the poem (even if it was very common for Hellenistic poets to include a σφραγίς in their poems); thus, probably Aratus “hides” his signature in the second verse of his work where he says the men never leave Zeus ἄρρητον (unexpressed): it like if Aratus played with the words and referred to himself in a “hidden way”, by leaving his name ‘un-expressed’ in the poem. Now, Vergil was a careful reader and was likely to understand Aratus’ word-play and his “hidden signature” in Phaen. 2 and so, when referring to Aratus, leaves his name “un-expressed”, by mentioning him with the vague formula “quis fuit alter”. This interpretation could be also supported by Buc. 3.42 where Vergil mentions the “arator”: could this be a word-play referred to Aratus as well?
Valeria Annunziata
Università ‘Federico II’ di Napoli
Tyndale House, Cambridge
Lyceum Classics Community Seminar 