WHAT DID PAN SAY TO SYRINX? ETYMOLOGY IN OVID, METAMORPHOSES, I,698–712

• Authors: Neil Adkin
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In the Metamorphoses’ account of Syrinx’ transmogrification Michalopoulos’ canonical Lexicon posits two jeux étymologiques: syrinx is being duly derived from Syrinx, while at the same time Ovid is etymologizing calami from calare in the alleged sense of fundere voces. The object of the present paper is to argue that here calami is instead being etymologized as the homonymous cala mi: “loosen your vagina for me”. This is what megalophallic Pan fittingly says to virgin Syrinx, when he tries to rape her. It is also the apt etymon of the “reeds” into which she is in consequence metamorphosed. This interpretation would moreover appear to shed light on a number of problems in the text.

Keywords

EN

OVID; PAN; SYRINX; ETYMOLOGY; CACEMPHATON

Discipline

• PHILOLOGY_&_LINGUISTICS: PHILOLOGY & LINGUISTICS

• Publisher: Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Eirene. Studia Graeca et Latina
• Year: 2011
• Volume: 47
• Issue: 1-2
• Pages: 144-149

Contributors

author

Neil Adkin

• Eirene, Kabinet pro klasická studia FLÚ AV ČR, Na Florenci 3, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic