The Golden Lamp: A Homeric hapax in Virgils Aeneid
The article seeks to elucidate the poetic significance of Virgils use of the Homeric hapax lychnus. Hapax legomena being a most specific category of Homeric words, lychnus becomes to Virgils time eminently rich in various literary connotations, some of which are reflected in this new context. First of all, the single use of lychnus in Virgil (Aeneid 1, 726) is clearly referring to its only context in Homer (Odyssey 19, 34), thus contrasting. for example, Venus with Athena both of whom help their human protégés, or, rather unexpectedly, Dido with Penelope, both of whom unknowingly welcome as guests their (actual or future) husbands. Theocritus adoptation of the Homeric use of lÚcnoj (Heracliscus, 52) is likewise alluded to, with underlying juxtapposition of two heroes, Aeneas and Hercules. At the same time Virgil references the Homeric problem concerning the exact meaning of lÚcnoj: with Aen. 1, 727 noctem flammis funalia uincunt, he evidently hints at Aristonicus explanation of lÚcnoj in Homer as derivative from lÚein tÕ nÚcoj to dispel darkness, and thus applied to a torch. An alternative etymology may also be suggested (from the root luk- / leuk-), by refer- ence to Lucretius only use of lychnus (5, 295). In sum, by using the hapax lychnus, Virgil alludes not only to Gomer, but also to Theocritus, Aristonicus, Lucretius and possibly others.