A Note on Pythagoras and Ortuges, the Inventors of Elegy in Marius Plotius Sacerdos (GL VI 510 Keil)

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Kazanskaya, M. (2017). A Note on Pythagoras and Ortuges, the Inventors of Elegy in Marius Plotius Sacerdos (GL VI 510 Keil), (46), 2-12. Retrieved from http://emu.f.bg.ac.rs/lucidaintervalla/issues/46(2017).pdf
Details
Title

A Note on Pythagoras and Ortuges, the Inventors of Elegy in Marius Plotius Sacerdos (GL VI 510 Keil)

Subtitle
Author

Maria, Kazanskaya

Journal

Lucida intervalla

Volume
Issue

46

Start page

2

End page

12

ISSN

1450-6645

ISBN
DOI
URL

http://emu.f.bg.ac.rs/lucidaintervalla/issues/46(2017).pdf

Date

2017

Abstract

The passage on the elegiac meter in Marius Plotius Sacerdos’ metrical treatise (Ars 3, 3 = GL VI, 509-510 Keil) stands out among other accounts of the origins of elegy because it includes two unexpected figures, Pythagoras and a certain Ortuges, as possible inventors of the genre. Of the two, Ortuges is completely unknown to students of ancient literature, and Pythagoras is not normally associated with elegiac poetry. The article suggests that the phrase alii Pythagoram, alii Ortugen comes from a learned gloss that was interpolated into the text, replacing a much more conventional figure, Callinus of Ephesus: a reader of the treatise had noted some data pertaining to Ephesus (its alternative name, Ortygia, and one of its earlier tyrants, Pythagoras of Ephesus, a namesake of Pythagoras of Samos the philosopher). In a mangled form this note was incorporated into Sacerdos’ text by a later scribe.

Keywords

Callinus of Ephesus, Marius Plotius Sacerdos, origins of elegy, Ortuges, Ortygia, Pythagoras of Ephesus, Pythagoras of Samos