John the Lydian — On November

Mischa Hoooker has sent me a further chunk of John the Lydian, which again is seasonable.  This is the first English translation of John the Lydian, On the Roman Months, (De Mensibus) book 4.  The manuscript is increasingly damaged towards the end of the text, and the translation indicates damage with <> accordingly.

 A version of the text in Microsoft Word is here: JohnLydus-November.  All this material is public domain: do whatever you like with it, whether for personal, educational or commercial use.

John Lydus, De Mensibus (Book 4)

[164]

NOVEMBER

144. Cincius, in his [work] On Festivals, says that among the ancients, November was called Mercedinus, [1] that is, “Remunerative.”  For in it, the hired laborers would contribute the profits of the past cycle to the [land]-owners, as further returns were coming in in turn.  It was called [165] November later, from the number [nine]—for it is ninth from March.

145.  An oracle from the Sibylline [Books] declared that the Romans would preserve their kingdom just so long as they took care of the city’s statues.  And this oracle was in fact fulfilled; for when Avitus, who was the last to reign over Rome, dared to melt down the statues, thereafter it was the kingdom of Italy.[2]

146.  The Colchians, who are also called Lazoi, are the Alaïnoi.

147.  Marius the Great, while making war upon the Cimbri and the Teutones, saw in a dream that he [would] overcome the enemy if he sacrificed his own daughter to the “Evil-Averting” [gods]—and, preferring his fellow-citizens to his natural instincts, he did this, and overcame the enemy.[3]

Erechtheus, the leader of Attica, also did this, persuaded not by a dream but by an oracle, and he defeated his foes.[4]

…the maiden…the kindness of the daimon…the <hammer> she went past every habitation and to those…she roused, according to Var<ro> the Roman.[5]

It is said that <something similar> hap<pen>ed to the Lace<daem>onians…<according to> Aristeides,[6] who, in the fi<fth [?] [book]…> says:  When…this [166] <plague was oppressing Lacedaemon, <with ma>ny perishing, the Pythian god gave an <or>acle that <t>he disease <would cease> if every year, a yo<uthful and noble> maiden were <sa>crificed to the <“E>vil-Averting” god<s>.  <And> as the lawless supers<tition> was thus practiced <ever>y autumn, it happened at one time that <the lot fell> to Helen, and Tynda<re>us brou<g>ht his daugh<ter, adorn>ed <with g>arl<an>ds, to the altars.  When h<e> was beginning the <la>wless <sac>rifice, an eagle swooped down and snatched the ki<ng>’s sword, <and> released it <nea>r a certain white heifer.  And his bodyguards, <fo>llowing af<ter>, and becoming eyewitnesses of what had happened, led <th>e cow to Tyndareus.  And he, marvelling at Providence, ceased from <th>e m<urd>erous custom, and, sacrificing the he<if>er, brought relief from the suffering of the plague.[7]

148.  On the fourth and third days before the Nones of November,[8] in the temple of Isis, [is] the con<cl>usion of the festivals.  And there was also celebra<ted> the one called Drepan…—<a>t which festival, Metrodorus says the Sout<h wind> blows.  And it seemed good to the multitude to go unwashed until the end, as they say, in order to escape from disease.

On the ei<ghth> day before the Id<es of No>vember,[9] honors for Dem<eter> and <Eilith>yia were performed by the women.  Eilithyia <is the> ove<rseer> of <t>hose who are giving birth, <so t>ha<t the on>e, as Plut<arch> says, may <make> t<wo> in <simi>lar fashion <to> itself.[10]  And they say that Artemis is <also su>ch, [167] for those who are p<reg>ant, in their suffering.  But accordi<ng to th>e arithmetical ac<count>, Artemis <i>s the one who produces the birth-proc<ess> that moves toward completeness / evenness [eis to artion][11] and for this purpose hurries to c<ome> forth.  Therefore, <too>, the myth is told that Apoll<o>, when he was being <b>orn from Le<to>…when he had been displayed, she, serving the mother as midwife, sh<owed[?]>…to the same forth-………herself and Apo<llo>………[12]

149. <On the seventh day before the Ides of Novem>ber[13]………ten………is said to be placed underneath………according to the <Egy>ptian Hermes, who in the so-called “Perfect Discourse” speaks as follows:  “But the souls that have gone beyond the rule of piety, when they are freed from the body, are handed over to the daimons and move down through the air [as though] launched from a sling, down to the fiery and hail-filled zones, which the poets call Pyriphlegethon and Tartarus.”[14]  Hermes, for his part, [is speaking] only about the purification of souls; but Iamblichus, in the first [book] of his work “On the Descent of the Soul,” also mentions their restoration, allotting the area above the moon as far as the sun to Hades, with whom he says the souls that have been purified stand—and that it [i.e., the sun] is Pluto; and the moon is Persephone.  That [is what] the philo<sophers> [say.]  But the sacred rites of the festival were performed with words of praise at the unquenchable fire of He<stia, concerning which Porphy>ry s<ay>s the foll<owing>:  “By this sacrifice welcoming the visible heavenly gods, and bestowing undying honors on them through fire, they would also preserve undying fire in the temples for them, on the grounds that it was most exactly like them.”[15]

<Eu>doxus say<s> winter[16] [begins] from this day.

150. On <t>he following day,[17] [there is] a memorial of Remus and Romulus.[18]  When Amu<lius>, being tyranically dispos<ed> <toward Numit>or, <killed his> son, and <comm>anded that his daughter be a prie<stess>.  <And> when she <gave birth, as they s>ay, to Ares’ [offspring], he [i.e., Amulius] orde<red the inf>ants to be thrown into the sea.  But when his bod<ygua>rds <expo>sed them on the banks of the Tiber, a sh<e-wol>f approa<ch>ed them and offered <to> them her teats.  A sh<eph>erd, who had been watching this, to<ok> up the children and reared them as his o<wn>—and they founde<d> Rome.  The same [story can be found] also in Zopyrus of <Byzantium>…

151.  Beginning from the fifteenth of November, and all through December, the Romans would be idle, [169] being engaged only in festivities, because of the shortness of the days.

152. On the seventh day before the Kalends of December, Democritus says the sun enters Sagittarius.

It seemed good to the Romans to call beans faba, from the [term for the] West wind—when it begins to blow, this sort of plant naturally starts to sprout.  And in their [language], the West wind is called Favonius.[19]  Hence also March [is called] Zephyrites,[20] and similarly January [is called] Monias, from the monad,[21] and October, Sementilius, from the seed[22]—as antiquity has handed it down.  For the year, as established by Numa, begins from January, while the [year established] by Romulus [began] from March.  And the chronological beginning [established] by Numa is in harmony with the beginning [established] straightway by Romulus.  For indeed, Romulus began to rule in the spring, [23] but he carefully observed the month of Mars; and Numa, watching for the sun’s being in the midst of Capricorn, seems to have been in agreement with Romulus—for Capricorn is the exaltation of Mars.[24]


[1] Cf. Plutarch, Numa 18.2; Julius Caesar 59.4.
[2] Avitus was emperor 455-456.  For the (melting and) selling the metal from bronze statues, and the consequent discontent with Avitus, cf. John of Antioch, Historia Chronikê, fr. 202.
[3] Cf. Ps.-Plutarch, Greek and Roman Parallel Stories [Parallela Minora] 20 (310d 5-10).
[4] Cf. Ps.-Plutarch, Greek and Roman Parallel Stories [Parallela Minora] 20 (310d 1-5).
[5] Cf. Ps.-Plutarch, Greek and Roman Parallel Stories [Parallela Minora] 35 (314d).  Here in particular, the full text of Ps.-Plutarch will help to explain the references: “When a plague had gained a wide hold on the city of Falerii, and many perished of it, an oracle was given that the terror would abate if they sacrificed a maiden to Juno each year. This superstitious practice persisted and once, as a maiden chosen by lot, Valeria Luperca, had drawn the sword, an eagle swooped down, snatched it up, and placed a wand tipped with a small hammer upon the sacrificial offerings; but the sword the eagle cast down upon a certain heifer which was grazing near the shrine. The maiden understood the import: she sacrificed the heifer, took up the hammer, and went about from house to house, tapping the sick lightly with her hammer and rousing them, bidding each of them to be well again; whence even to this day this mystic rite is performed. So Aristeides in the nineteenth book of his Italian History.” (tr. F. C. Babbitt, LCL)
[6] As Wuensch points out, Aristodemus, not Aristeides, is cited by Ps.-Plutarch as the source for this story.
[7] Cf. Ps.-Plutarch, Greek and Roman Parallel Stories [Parallela Minora] 35 (314c 5-11).
[8] 2 and 3 Nov.  This would correspond with the Hilaria of Isis (celebrating the recovery of the parts of Osiris’ body) on the 3rd of Nov., as mentioned on the Calendar of Philocalus.
[9] 6 Nov.
[10] In this sentence, I am using the supplements suggested by Hase, printed in Wuensch’s apparatus.
[11] Cf. De Mensibus 2.7, discussing the second day of the week (Monday):  “Hence, she is called Artemis, from the even [artios] and material number [i.e., the number 2].”
[12] At the end of this section, the remnants are so scanty that little detailed sense can be made of the odd letter or word preserved.  The story, however, appears to be that Artemis helped Leto bring forth Apollo (as in Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1.21).
[13] 7 Nov.
[14] Cf. De Mensibus 4.32.  For the Hermetic text cited, cf. Asclepius 28 [Nock-Festugière, Corpus Hermeticum, 2:334, printing John Lydus’ quotation as a parallel to the extant Latin translation]:  But if, on the other hand, [the highest daemon] sees [the soul] besmeared with the stains of misdeeds and befouled by vices, he casts it down from above to the depths and hands it over to the frequently quarreling squalls and twisters of air, fire, and water, so that, with eternal punishments, it may be buffeted and forever driven in different directions by the material currents.”  Lactantius, Divine Institutes 7.18.3, refers to the Asclepius as the “Perfect Discourse,” just as John Lydus does here.
[15] Porphyry, De Abstinentia 2.5—the text of Porphyry, however, reads “we too preserve the undying fire…”
[16] Alternatively, “stormy weather.”
[17] 8 Nov.
[18] T. P. Wiseman, Remus:  A Roman Myth (1995), p. 136, suggests some connection here with the Ludi Plebeii.
[19] John gives the Greek letter beta in the transliteration of both faba and Favonius.
[20] From zephyros, the Greek word for the West wind.
[21] I.e., the number one, as being the first month.
[22] Lat. semen, as John pointed out in 4.135.
[23] Alternatively, “set the beginning [i.e., of the year] in the spring.”  Interpretation is difficult because the Greek word archê can mean either “beginning” or “rule”; here, the beginning of the year has been the main issue, but if that is the only point again (i.e., the year began in March), the next part of the sentence follows illogically and redundantly.  As translated above, John Lydus is presumably referring to the Spring date of Rome’s foundation (21 April—see, e.g., Ovid, Fasti 4.807ff) and hence, the beginning of Romulus’ reign.
[24] Cf. De Mensibus 4.34.

Share

GCS 27 – Methodius – *is* online!

Andrew Eastbourne writes to point out that the Bonwetsch edition of Methodius, GCS 27, is actually online at Internet Archive here.  Yet I couldn’t find it this afternoon!

This is very, very good news!

Share

A. C. Swinburne on dealing with trolls and other internet low-lifes

Quite by accident I stumbled over the following interesting passage[1], by which we all might profit:

The attitude which Swinburne took up and, except for a few spasms of irritation, steadily maintained was one of great dignity.  The best statement of it is not in any surviving correspondence of the time but in a letter written later to Watts-Dunton, who had very properly reported some libel to him.

His position, and none could have been wiser, was this.  He wished to be acquainted with any allegation so dishonouring that self-respect would necessitate its definite refutation; but for the rest, he preferred to remain in ignorance of libels.

For the weakness which led Byron to catalogue the infamies attributed to him, Swinburne expressed contempt; at the weakness which, after 1870, left Rossetti’s peace of mind at the mercy of every hostile scribbler, he expressed astonishment.  And towards worthier opponents he was prepared to exhibit magnanimity.

It may be natural for us to be upset when we are the target of vicious and venomous personal attacks.  But it is surely unwise for us to allow this to happen.   Let us cultivate a due contempt for the anonymous and malicious scribbler, such as the great men of past times had to do.

Share
  1. [1]A study of Swinburne, (1926) p.29

First impressions of Abbyy Finereader 11

Finereader 11 looks quite a lot like Finereader 10.   So far, it seems very similar.  Once nice touch is that when it is reading a page, a vertical bar travels down the thumbnail.

But I have already found an oddity.  I imported into it the project that I am currently working on in Finereader 10 — part of Ibn Abi Usaibia — and it looks really weird!  All the recognised text is spaced out vertically!  The paragraph style is “bar code”, and no other styles are available. 

Here’s what I see when I open it:

Opening a Finereader 10 project in Finereader 11

Not very useful, is it?  But when I minimise the image, and increase the recognised panel to 100% size, it looks like this!

Finereader 11 – zoomed version of recognised text

There seems to be no rhyme or reason for the massive gaps between lines.  And here is the very same project in Finereader 10:

Finereader 10 image of same document

Weird.  Doubtless there is some setting to persuade FR11 to behave, but it isn’t obvious what.  This does NOT happen when I recognise the page again in FR11.  The style gets set to “Body Text (2)”, in this case. 

And … when I do Ctrl-Z, and revert the recognition, it goes back to the weird appearance above.  But … this time, a bunch of other styles are available, and if I change to BodyText2, that is what I get.  But on the next page … once again, Barcode is the only style. 

This must be a bug, I think.  It means that Abbyy’s testers have not tested importing documents from FR10 sufficiently.  What it means is that you can’t upgrade projects once you start them.  Well … I try to keep my projects small, and break up large documents into small chunks, so I shan’t mind.  That would seem to be the workaround.

One good feature that is new, is that it remembers where you were in the document last time.  All previous versions always opened the document at page 1.  I got quite accustomed, indeed, to placing a “qqq” at the point where I stopped, so I could find it again next time.  No need in FR11, it seems.

Also FR11 comes bundled with “PDF Transformer 3”.  This suggests that the latter product was bought in, to beef up the rather unremarkable PDF handling in Finereader.  I’ve not tried this yet, tho.

Share

More on literary sources for Isis

I’ve continued to collect ancient literary sources about Isis.  I have a set of working notes (in no particular order) here.  There seems to be a lot of wild talk around about Isis too.

Today my objective was to discover the attitude of Augustus to the cult.  I have read unreferenced claims that Augustus described the cult as “pornographic” — but have yet to find a source for this.  But I did eventually locate the source that showed that he pushed the cult outside the pomerium, not in Tacitus, as several books claim, but in Cassius Dio.

But there is still a lot to do.

Share

A list of GCS volumes online

Ages ago the PLGO group compiled a list of GCS volumes online.  This vanished recently, as I discovered when I went looking for it.  A version still exists in ScribD, but, you know, I don’t find stuff in ScribD that accessible.

Rather than go without, I have transcribed the list and placed it on a page on this blog here.

Updates are welcome.

UPDATE: I have just been through Internet Archive using terms such as “eusebius werke” and “origenes werke” and filled in most of the gaps before 1923.  Methodius is one of only two gaps (of course it would be one that I want to look at).  It seems that the people at IA have been very busy, bless them!

Share

OCR: Omnipage and Finereader

Scanning and OCR is on my mind at the moment.  A new version of Abbyy Finereader — version 11 — is out.  Since I have some 750 pages of Ibn Abi Usaibia to do, any improvement in accuracy is welcome, however slight. 

Originally I did my OCR using Omnipage.  It is many years since I was led (by Susan Rhoads of Elfinspell.com) to look at Finereader 5.  This was immensely superior, and I have never used any other product since.  But I see that Omnipage 18 is now out.  Stirred by a bit of curiosity, I’ve been wondering what this would be like.

Finereader is not without its faults.  Foremost among them, for what I want to do, is that it cannot make a PDF searchable without making the PDF much, much larger, messing with the images, and so forth.  This is so bad, in fact, that I use Adobe Acrobat Pro 9 for that task, despite the much inferior OCR.

Omnipage seems to be aware of the issue, and a look at their site suggests that they realise that a lot of this activity goes on.

I decided, therefore, to buy both and see what they’re like.  I will let you know!

But … software vendors are thieves and robbers!  If you go to the Abbyy site, the cost of a downloaded upgrade to Finereader Pro 11 is “€ 89 / £ 65 (download)”.  The full version is “€ 129 / £ 99” — and if you want just the download, it’s exactly the same price, despite the fact that it costs them less!  But go to Amazon.co.uk, the complete boxed set is just £63.16 — less than the upgrade.  Needless to say, that’s what I ordered.

Omnipage are no better.  Go to the Nuance site, and Omnipage 18 (standard version) is £79.99, whether download or boxed.  Again they swindle the download users.   But go to Amazon.co.uk, and the complete boxed set is £46.90!

I didn’t buy the Omnipage Pro version, but stuck with the standard one.  It’s a lot more money, and I wasn’t convinced that I’d use the extra features — especially since I don’t know if the OCR is any good at all.  Here a trial version would have helped — Finereader make trial versions available online.  This is smart marketing on their part, because magazine reviews of such a specialised area of software are invariably useless.

My current interest in Russian texts of Methodius means that I was interested to see that Omnipage offer a separate Russian version.  Finereader used to have a specific “Cyrillic option” version — indeed I owned a copy, back in the FR5 days — but this seems to have vanished from their product list.  Kudos to Finereader: Russian support is included in the main product!  I only wish their obscure “fraktur” recognition module was included too!  This recognises old “Gothic”-style typefaces, and some of us would find it handy.  But I could only find it in their SDK for Linux.  And it doesn’t seem that you can even buy the latter off-the-shelf.

Share

From my diary

I’ve been making a bit of progress on Methodius today.  I learned from an academic that no published text of most of the Slavonic Methodius exists.  The manuscripts are 15th century or later, as we already knew; and I suspect that the Russian volumes (from 1877 on) are simply updated versions of these.   A couple of other interesting details when I get permission to post them.

I’ve also been looking at the 1930 edition and translation of On freewill by A. Vaillant in the Patrologia Orientalis 22.  Vaillant tells us that the Slavonic is so literal that you can see the Greek behind it; and indeed even the marginal corrections in the exemplar!  As a result, his edition is a little confusing: he prints the Slavonic; opposite it he prints a Greek text, his own reverse translation from the Slavonic; and underneath a French translation made from what he believes the Greek was.  He checks the Greek against the surviving Greek fragments.

If there is no published Slavonic text, we might have to make do with translating some Russian versions into English.  But I would hesitate to spend money on translating a translation — it doesn’t make sense.  It would be better, surely, to obtain a manuscript reproduction and translate from that.

Share

More on Methodius

My posts on the works of Methodius in Old Slavonic here and here have attracted a wealth of learned comment, for which many thanks.

Mikhail Vedeshkin kindly left links to online Russian resources about Methodius.

Here you can find a few works of Methodius translated into modern Russian.

http://mystudies.narod.ru/name/m/methodius.htm

“The feast of 10 virgins or about virginity”
http://mystudies.narod.ru/library/m/methodius/virgins/000.htm

“About the freedom of will or against the Valentinians”
http://mystudies.narod.ru/library/m/methodius/advalent.htm

“About Resurrection or against Origen”
http://mystudies.narod.ru/library/m/methodius/resurr.htm

“About creation or against Origen”
http://mystudies.narod.ru/library/m/methodius/creation.htm

Thanks to Google translate, I learn a little more from the first link.    It lists works of Methodius in Greek and Slavonic.  Then it continues:

Translations into Russian from these languages.

Methodius, bishop of Patara. His collected works // Trans. ed. Е. Lovyagin. – St. Petersburg, 1877.  The same: 2d ed. – St. Petersburg, 1905.

Some published Arch. Michael (Chub) in the collection “Theological Works» (№ №. 2, 3, 10, 11)

The existence of the Lovyagin book (in two editions) is new and useful.  I’m not quite sure whether the Old Slavonic text is printed, or just a Russian translation.  Nor am I sure where a copy of these volumes might be found.  I have a feeling from Google that “E. Lovyagin” might be “Evgraf Lovyagin”, of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy.  This rather dodgy-looking site tells me:

1822 – 1909), Professor of St. Petersburg Theological Academy. Major works: “On the merits of St. Athanasius to the church in the fight against Arians” (St. Petersburg, 1850) and “On the relation of the classical writers of the Bible on the outlook of Christian apologists (St. Petersburg, 1872, dissertation). His articles theological, , . prepared editions of the monuments of Christian literature, . part in the original text, . with Russian introductions and explanations, . part in the translation from the original text, . as well as the execution of transfers are listed by Professor AI,. Garden in the article: “Professor E.I. Lovyagin “(” Christian Herald “in 1909,” 15, (obituary Lovyagin).

I find, indeed, that a search for “Lovyagin” in COPAC produces results, and Evgraf Ivanovitch (Евграфа Ловягина) does indeed seem to be our man.  Sadly none of the results are the Methodius volume.  A search in the LOC catalogue for “Lovyagin” produced no results at all!  Nor did a search at the BNF.  I wonder, perhaps, whether there is some other way of anglicising his name?

The page continues with a useful overview of all the works, and with some references.

Writings that have come down to us only in short fragments.

Lovyagin, 1877, p.252-259.  Against Porphyry, and On the martyrs.

There are then two more works, which the page labels as probably apocryphal, on Palm Sunday and on the Presentation of the Lord.  These are given from the 1905 edition of Lovyagin (p.161-170) and the 1996 “Library of the Fathers and doctors of the Church. Creation St. Gregory the Miracle Worker and St. Methodius bishop and martyr. – M. Palmer, 1996” (Библиотека отцов и учителей Церкви. Творения св. Григория Чудотворца и св. Мефодия епископа и мученика. – М.: Паломник, 1996.) which must be a reprint as regards Methodius.

This is a rather splendid site, and with a great number of texts in Russian, including Euthymius Zigabenus, Epiphanius’ Panarion — neither of which we have in English. 

I would draw attention to this page, or rather the Google translate version here, where the site author, the excellent Sergei Pavlov, asks for help in locating copies of various patristic texts in Russian.  (There is an email address there too, in bitmap form of course).  It doesn’t seem as if he has a copy of the Lovyagin book(s). 

I realise that I don’t know of a reliable source for Russian books in PDF form (or, indeed, any other).

In other news I have had an email back from one of my enquiries, telling me of a British professor of Slavicist studies, who might be able to help with a translation or know someone who can.  I will wait until I have the text in my hands before contacting him.

Share

Hunting for publications of Methodius in Old Slavonic and Russian

The comments to my article yesterday on the Works of Methodius are very useful.  Commenter “Maureen” has tracked down what look very like publications in Russian of some of the smaller works — precisely the ones that I want to get hold of.

I’ve never tried to get hold of material in Russian, and of course I don’t speak it.  I wonder how best to do so.   A few PDF’s seem definitely called for!

Today I have to go on a journey, so I can’t do more right now, but I shall think about this.

UPDATE: I have now identified an anglicised name for the journal in which the text appears, and a location where I can get copies.  See the comments to the Works of Methodius post for details.

I realise that all this may seem a little dry.  But the details of how I worked out, from a string of Cyrillic characters, where to find a journal in a language I don’t read, might be of general utility.  And having the details online may save me some trouble when I get confused looking for it in the stacks in a week or two!

Share