Alessandro Schiesaro

Aratus'Myth ofDike
1. It is widely recognized that an interprtation of Dike's
katasterismos in lines 96-136 of th Phainomena of Aratus
should be based on an exploration of th similarities between
this passage and its Hesiodic antcdent1. Although I have no
objection in principle to this methodological strategy, I must
note that it has often yielded rather mechanical results. There
seems to be a strong tendency in most of th rcent work on
this (rather neglected) topic, to read Aratus' passage as simply
an unimaginative re-assemblage of various components of th
stylistic and ideological offerings of th Erga, and to play down
th fact that th katasterismos of Dike is itself an Aratean cration. A similar hazard is th contagious inclination to consider
any narrative insertion into an otherwise descriptive poem as a
self-contained aitiological digression only tenuously connected
to th agenda of th work as a whole. This impulse is of course
especially seductive in th case of th Phainomena^ where th
small number of th 'digressions' in no way strengthens th
impression that they might bear wide-ranging structural significance.
Part of th problem lies on th overall interprtation of th
Phainomena - a work th cultural importance of which is
obscured, at least to our perception, by both its subject matter
I would like to thank Anthony Bulloch, Andrew Dyck, Marco Fantuzzi and Richard Hunter for their help and encouragement. But they do not necessarily agree
with everything I say, and ali errors that remain are undoubtedly mine.
1. I list th main contnbutions to th problem in chronological order: G. Kaibel,
Aratea, Hermes 29, 1894, pp. 82 ff.; K. Schtze, Beitrge zum Verstndnisder
Phainomena Arats, diss. Leipzig 1935, pp. 35 ff., 43 ff.; W. Ludwig, Die
Phainomena Arats als hellenistiche Dichtung, Hermes 91, 1963, pp. 425 ff.; F.
Solmsen, Aratus on th Maiden and the Golden Age, Hermes 94, 1966, 124 ff.; B.
Gatz, Weltaltery goldene Zeit und sinnverwandte Vorstellungen, Hildesheim 1967,
pp. 58 ff.; M. Erren, Die Phainomena des Aratos von Soloi, (Hermes Einzelschriften 19), Wiesbaden 1967, pp. 36 ff.; B. Effe, Dichtung und Lehre, (Zetemata
69), Mnchen 1977, pp. 53 ff.; G.O. Hutchinson, Hellenistic Poetry, Oxford 1988,
pp. 223-4.

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10

Alessandro Scbiesaro

and th highly technical prcision of its style. It may be possible

to obviate th danger of telescoping Aratus between his influential archaic model on th one hand, and th successful reelaboration of th Myth in Latin poetry, if we direct our attention towards a functional interprtation of its intertextual
dimension and th significance of th Myth in th texture of th
poem.
I would like to address first th issue of what exactly becomes of th Erga text in th Phainomena. In particular, I will try to
show that th currently dominant criticai view which considers
th passage as an imitation of th Hesiodic myth of the ges2, is
reductive, and limits to a considrable extent an organic understanding of the passage in its original context. At a second stage
I will address the two most significant lments of Aratus'
myth, and establish their implications in terms of the overall
fonction of the passage. Finally I will attempt to establish some
connections between this interprtation of the Myth and other
aspects of the philosophical and ideological discourse of Aratus' own time.
2. Aratus begins (line 97) his own 'myth of the ges' by giving
pride of place to the Parthenos Dike which in th Erga appears
in the moral section which follows th Nightingale Tale and
,
explains its importance:
(256). This rfrence to the Erga cornes before the
introduction of th Myth in line 100 (
/)
which takes after Op. 106 ( ',
and signais more explicitly the begin)
of
the
'Hesiodic'
section
of the Phainomena. This inverning
sion of the narrative squence of the Erga could easily be explained away as a trait of Hellenistic poetic dottrina, but I
would like to reserve judgment on this point and entertain the
possibility that Aratus has actually attempted a more sophisticated project than a rather superficial, if technically admirable,
patchwork. The intricate net of rfrences and allusions that
mark the Dike passage seems consistent with the hypothesis

2. Together with some altrations, and some additions from other sections of the
Erga (especially the description of the Just City) and, to a lesser extent, of the
Theogony. Cf. the bibliography quoted above, n. 1.

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Aratus' Myth of Dike

11

that Aratus read lines 105-273 of th Erga as an organic whole,

taking th Nightingale Tale and its immediate sequel as a development of th myth of th ages (th Tale, in fact, transfers
th idea of injustice and consquent punishment - i.e. the
reason for the dcadence of races - to the contemporary world).
Hesiod says that the fifth ge - the iron ge in which we are
unfortunately bound to live - will be destroyed (180 ff.) amidst
violence, disorder and pain: the moral lesson of the Nightingale
Taie is that Justice ought to be respected in human relations.
Another significant lment of structural diffrence between
th two texts can be detected in some aspects of the narrative
technique of Aratus' passage. The prominence of Dike as a
character and the dramatization of her actions are new and distinctive features of the Pbainomena. In the description of the
Golden Age (lines 101-114) th focus is evenly balanced between Dike and the men: she accomplishes a greater number of
- 105
- 107
- 113
actions (102
vs. 108
111 )
but a careful alternation of
lines referring to Dike and to the men reinforces the prdominant image of mutuality and Community. The conflict that
takes place in the Silver Age (lines 115 ff.), on the other hand, is
underlined by the fact that ail the actions hve Dike as subject,
and that men are quoted only as receivers of her disdainful reproach or as expressing a rather passive sorrow for her departure (128 ).
In the last section the emphasis is on
the negative deeds of the bronze ge men, that lead to the
permanent flight of the goddess: she is portrayed very briefly almost in reversai of th preceding scene - as
(133),
and then when she leaves ('
134)3.
The most significant Aratean innovations are to be found in
respect to the structure of the Myth of the Ages itself. In the
Hesiodic version there are five races, ail of them - but the
fourth - named after a mtal, and ail - but the first and the
fourth - guilty in diffrent ways. The fifth - the Iron Age - is
the worst of ail, but is doomed to an even worse end since Zeus
will finally destroy it. The prophecy in lines 180 ff. portrays the
terrible end of the Iron Age in an unknown but certain future.
Aratus, however, retains only three races, gold, silver, and

3.

Gatz cit., p. 63 tries to show a chiastic arrangementof the whole passage.

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12

Alessandro Schiesaro

bronze. There still is a prophecy, but this is uttered to th men

of th Silver Age by Dike herself , who announces th coming of
a worse race, th bronze one: th prophecy, therefore, is
already fulfilled in th narrative, and in this context th silver
race is only an intermediate stage where th rejection of Dike
and th values she embodies can be dramatized.
The prophecy contained in th Phainomena is not only
structurally diffrent from Hesiod's but also entails a diffrent
moral problematic. The succession of races in th Erga is invitable, and there is no pause before th demise of a given race. In
th Pbainomena, on th other hand, Dike explains with her
own words a moral rule based on men's responsibility. Their
(121) attracts th reproach and threats of Dike, and
causes her indignant flight towards th mountains; when their
behaviour becomes even worse, in th following gnration,
she has no choice but to make good her threat and abandon th
Earth. Dike's explicit threats and reproaches (121:
before she actually dparts seem to sug...)
gest that those men could redress their behaviour and avoid a
further dtrioration of their relationship with th goddess.
However implicit, this suggestion would represent another significant point of contact with th Nightingale tale, since it
would transfer into a mythical setting th crucial thme of th
myth itself : that men, by their choices, can indeed affect th
pattern of dcadence which Hesiod's myth of th ages presented in a completely predetermined and unalterable manner.
The limination of th other races, and th transposition of
th whole myth into th past, together with th structural lments I hve already noted, ail seem to point in the same direction: Aratus prsents to his reader a moral pattern the essence
of which is the respect or the lack of respect for Dike. What
Hesiod had elaborated in two closely connected squences, the
apparently chronological Myth of the Ages, and the Nightingale ainosy is transformed into a single, compact moral narrative
which prsents in clear-cut terms (and an equally perspicuous
syntactic arrangement) the contrast of two radically opposed
bioi which are defined by the acceptance or the rejection of
Dike.
This does not amount to saying -pace Gatz4 - that the Parth4.

Gatz cit., p. 63.

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Aratus' Myth of Dike

13

enos Dike pisode in Aratus hat weder den historischen

Aktualittsgehalt noch den Wahrheitsanspruch Hesiods. Von
der Gegenwart ist nicht die Rede. Quite the opposite. If we
admit that Aratus has purposely reversed the order of importance of the parts of Hesiod's narrative - a fact which I hope is
now clear enough - we are entitled to infer that it is precisely a
moral lesson relevant to the prsent that Aratus wishes to impart to the reader, and the Myth of Dike is a parable for the
reader of the Phainomena. The Myth, as Aratus molds it, explains why we can no longer enjoy the prsence of gods on
Earth, why we have to cope with evil and pain: something happened in the past, a fault has been committed. But there is a
positive side to this version of th tale, i.e. that we can and must
still follow Dike, who is now up in the sky and looks upon us
and our deeds, a source of permanent moral admonition. Aratus found useful hints in this direction in Hesiod when he recognized the close connection between the Myth and the Tale,
but he substituted for the paratactic order of the epic poet a
tightly-knit single pisode.
If this generai interprtation of the main features of Aratus'
Myth is correct, we can better understand the significance of
other dtails of the passage. Probably the most debated is the
prsence of agriculture in Aratus' Golden Age, which is described in terms very close to a passage of th Erga 225 ff.). To
Norden's opinion that this was the hallmark of a Stoic
conception5 Wilamowitz6 retorted rather harshly that the explanation is simpler and implies no philosophical assumptions:
the stars have always been in existence, and so the various activities in which they act as leaders of the human race must have
always existed. Recently, Solmsen7 has argued that placing the
Hesiodic agricolture in the golden age...is the boldest and final
integration of Hesiodic motifs and at the same time his (se.
Aratus') most eloquent act of homage. Being a moral lesson
valid forever, the Myth of Dike must provide a realistic pattern,
and the prsence or absence of agriculture seems again to reinforce the sharp contrast between the two Aratean Cities, the
5. E. Norden, Jahrb. f. class. Philol. Suppl. 19, 1893, 426.
p.
6. U. v. Wilamowitz-Moellendorf, Hellenisticbe
Dichtung in der Zeit des Kallimacbos, Berlin 1924, vol. 2, pp. 265 ff.
7. Solmsen cit., p. 125.

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14

Alessandro Scbiesaro

just one, where Dike reigns and guarantees a happy life, and th
unjust one, th reign of hybrisywhere Dike is nothing but harsh
punishment.
The issue is not wheter Aratus' contemporaries were not
ready for th idealization of agricolture8, but that a moral paradigm in which Justice and Injustice face each other would be
deprived of didactic utility if it did not take into account one of
th basic lments of human life, work, which is considered a
naturai component of human life from th very beginning, not
a punishment, but a fruitful and rewarding activity9. The limited importance attributed to factors that earlier and later
texts make prominent shifts th main focus of th story onto
th fundamental opposition between Justice and Violence.
3. The central importance assumed by Dike as a character in
th whole story makes it even more important to focus on the
lments that Aratus provides for her identification. According
to the Theogony (901 ff.), Dike was the daughter of Zeus and
Themis, and therefore the sister of - among others - Eunomia
and Eirene: she is not a star. AH the stars are Astraios' daughters (Th. 382), and Aratus establishes the identification between
Astraea and Dike with a rfrence to this common paternity.
of line 99, however, alludes
The rather elliptic tag
to the traditional connection between Dike and Zeus, a connection which, as we shall see, retains great importance in this context.
Both the innovation in respect to the most common version
of the myth, and the allusion to it, seem to signal relevant
strategie choices with rather complex interpretive consquences. Deprived of her lawful father, Dike loses in part her traditional aspect, but acquires new characteristics, the most remarkable of which is certainly the ear of grain that she carries in
her hand10. This is not a standard attribute of Dike, but, as the
8. ibidem.
9. The value of work is in this respect similar to Hesiod's description of the Tust
City (Op. 225 ff.).
10. Or, if we read ,
in both hands:
M I. The singular is supported by the actual form of the star, and by the texts of Germ. 97 {fulget spica
manu), Avien. 286 {protentata manu), and th VII Century AD Aratus Latinus
(manu fer entern).

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15

Aratus* Myth of Dike

scholiast remarks11, of Demeter12. This seemingly puzzling

connection between Dike and Demeter can be explained by
taking into account not just th common denominators that
Dike and Demeter share, but also th spcifie characteristics of
Demeter herseif. Demeter symbolizes and protects agricolture
and prosperity , but in the account of the progress of civilization
she is credited with the cration of laws as well. The closest
parallel with our passage is offered by a few Unes (18-21) of
Callimachus' Hymn to Demeter:
,

,
,
,

The most striking feature is certainly the mention of

which is considered the first explicit allusion in extant
,
Greek literature13, to the etymology of ,
a rather
common epithet of Demeter, and can be compared with Aratus'
(107). The connection between Dike
and Demeter has at the same time a generic force, in so far as it
'Upgrades*Dike to the rank of a major divinity14, and a more
spcifie one, that is, th transference of some characteristics of
Demeter
to Aratus' Dike. Both the emphasis on the
of
Dike, and the possible connections belaw-giving activity
tween her and Demeter in this and other respects hve failed to
attract the attention of modern Interpreters, while they constitute in fact the most original characteristics of Aratus' Dike.
Their overall importance, and their thematic significance, warrant further investigation.
4. In the Golden Age Dike lived on Earth with men and women
alike, acted in a very friendly way towards them, and sung her
11. Cf. sch. p. 126.
12. Kaibel cit., pp. 85-6.
13. Cf. Hopkinson's note on Cali. 6, 18.
14. Dike, as far as we can see, is never invoked as
(112), while Deeither tout court or with the indication of a particular
meter herself is often ,
group: cf. C.F.H. Bruchmann, Epitheta deorum quae apud poetas Graecos leguntur, Leipzig 1896 [Rscher Supplement], pp. 76.

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16

Alessandro Schiesaro

laws. Accordingly, men did not know strife, contention, or din

of battle, nor th dangers of navigation: not Nature, but Dike
and their own work in th fields (i.e. their being active and just)
satisfied ali their needs. Men of th silver race, on th other
Dike had to reproach them and announce
hand, were :
that a far worse race would eventually spring from them, a race
to which
and death would bring great sorrows. And
this is exactly th way th men of th bronze race lived, having
discovered th brazen sword, killed th ox that helped them in
their agricultural works, and ventured out onto dangerous seas.
Apart from th more traditional rfrence to agriculture and
navigation, it is important to stress that Aratus chooses to portray th opposition between th good and th bad race almost
exclusively in terms of justice and war. Violence is th main
feature of th bronze race, twice emphasized by th author
through th fulfilled prophecy which, as we have already seen,
is itself a significant dviation from th Hesiodic model. The
rfrence to navigation in line 110 does not appear in th
prophecy nor in th description of th Bronze Age, thus confirming th hypothesis that its traditional character is not central in Aratus' own perspective. What is constantly stressed is a
clearcut opposition between justice and injustice, peace and
war, tranquillity and violence.
The prominence of these social and politicai characteristics in
th two models that Aratus depicts is consistent with his reading of Erga 105-273 as a cohrent unit, and in fact provides a
crdible explanation for th transference of rfrences which we
have so far observed. This conflation bestows on th Myth of
Dike one of th features it most prominently lacks. The Nightingale story, and th moral section which follows it, have an
explicit addressee, twice referred to at crucial points of th
'
narrative, first at line 202 (
at
line
248 ( ,
and
),
again
Both passages stress the notion that
).
must obey Justice, enforce justice, and be right and
15
honest judges who apply .
15. Rcent studies on the actual social position of the

include P. Milieu,

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AratHs' Myth of Dike

17

The interpolation of spcifie dtails taken from th Tale and

its immediate squence into the Myth of Dike adds to the
generic moral validity of the Aratean Myth i.e., that justice is
a more spcifie connotation, which we
superior to violence
might well define {lato sensu), 'politicai'. Aratus fully exploits
and ,
the Hesiodic opposition of
using it as th ultimate distinction between a just, orderly, prosperous and peaceful society and a society overwhelmed by violence, sdition and
misery, while at the same time making it clear, through stylistic
and Substantive features, that any possible residue of the chronological pattern from the Hesiodic Myth should be replaced
by a gnomic, atemporal opposition of conflicting models of
morals and politicai life.
This is not, to be sure, so much a rfutation of Hesiod, as it is
a careful reading of a crucial section of th Erga and a more
explicit reworking of suggestions already prsent in that text.
Aratus requires of his reader an interactive reading with the
Hesiodic text that enriches his own new Myth with important
dtails. The gnomic force of this myth acquires a further layer
of significance through the vocation of a spcifie royal audience which the myth of the ges did not have, and provides a
framework for understanding some possible implications of the
story of Dike. Aratus does not limit himself to a passive vocation of the Hesiodic model, but exploits its suggestions in order
to create a new moral tale whose ultimate significance I would
now like to explore.
5. As we move away from the analysis of textual features, and
try to investigate the overall function of the new Aratean myth,
I would like to prsent a few Unes of intersection between the
most interesting features of the myth and two ideological and
philosophical discourses where some of Aratus' concerns (both
those explicitly stated, and those which we have retrieved by

Hesiod and His World, Proc. Camb. Philol. Soc. n.s. 30, 1984, pp. 84-115, and G.
Zanker, The Works and Days: Hesiod's Beggar's Operaf, Bull. Inst. Class. St.
London 33, 1986, pp. 26-36, esp. 29 ff.

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18

Alessandro Schiesaro

intertextual reading) seem to be echoed with a sometimes surprising degree of similarity.

The first of thse connections leads us, before venturing outside th text, to another prominent passage of th Phainomena,
in fact th only other significant narrative portion of th poem.
The Myth of Dike balances and compltes th initial Proem to
Zeus, whose strong Stoic overtones cannot be overlooked. The
geneaological relationship between Dike and Zeus, as we have
remarked at th beginning, is kept alive in th elliptic spcification offered at line 99, but th connections between th two
passages run deeper. The Proem is an invocation to Zeus as a
symbol of eternai Justice and order of th Universe16. The
whole passage can usefully be compared with th Hymn to
Zeus17 by Cleanthes, th Stoic philosopher contemporary with
Aratus, in which Zeus is invoked as Ruler of th Universe, and
his identification with th Law is repeatedly stressed18. Later in
th Phainomenay th story of Dike compltes th Proem by
showing that God points out to men not only th way in which
they should earn their living - a concept which is exposed
already in lines 5-6 - but also th moral mie they must follow.
The connection between th two passages, and, again, th
invitation to read them as a diptych rather than autonomous
entities, guarantees that th search for th philosophical implications of th Myth of Dike is encouraged by th text itself,
and not by th modern critic's knowledge of a substantial
amount of biographical information about th author himself.

16. For a generai outline of th Stoic theory of Justice and Law, see F. Sandbach,
The Stoics, London 1975, pp. 16 ff. On th Stoic inspiration of Aratus' proem: G.
FriedrichLeo... dargebracht, Berlin
Pasquali, Das Promium des Arat, in
1911, pp. 113 ff. (= Scritti filologici, I, Firenze 1976, 130 ff.); . Effe,
-Eine Stoische esiod-Interpretation in Arats Phainomena, Rhein. Mus. 113,
1970, pp. 167 ff.; G. Luck, Aratea, Am. Journ. of PhiloU 97, 1976 ff.; Effe cit., p.
54.
17. Cf. A.W. James, The Zeus Hymns of Cleanthes and Aratus, Antichthon 6,
1972, pp. 28 ff.
18. Cf. lines 2 31 and 35, where this idea is most evident. But it is also useful to
read the last line of th poem, where is repeated again that Zeus is himself the
.

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Aratus9 Myth of Dike

19

The fundamental importance of Law and Justice in the kosmos

is stressed by all the Stoic philosophers, with no great chronological diffrences, as Cicero clearly points out in acad. pr. 2,
126 (S VF 1, 154): Zenoni et reliquis fere Stoias aether videtur
summus deus, mente praeditus, qua omnia regantur. Human
and
are in accordance with a naturai Law, with the ,
an
idea
that
is
of
are
therefore
,
paramount importthey
ance in the volution of Hellenistic thought in generai (D.L. 7,
88 = SVF 1, 162), being the first step on which the concept of a
will eventually rest (Philo, de Joseph, p. 2,
world-wide
46 M. = SVF 3, 323). This theory accords the Law a centrai role
in the life of the universe: Chrysippus, author of a
,
condenses its implications in the well-known statement that

(SVF3, 314).
By investing Dike with this central and unique role in his
work, and also by bestowing on her many features of Demeter,
Aratus seems to rephrase key moral concerns of th Erga in
terms more consistent with the Stoic view of the organizing
principle of the world and human life19. Again, the connection
is invited in the text itself by a dtail which is not paralleled in
similar passages, i.e. the explicit mention of the fact that in the
Golden Age men and women alike met in the agora (102 ff.).
This particular can best be explained in rfrence to non19. It is worth remembering that among the fragments of Chrysippus (280-206)
we find an allegorical interprtation of Dike Parthenos, and also a detailed description of how pictores retoresque antiquiores used to portray her, trying to express
her qualities (SVF 3, pp. 197-8 = Gell. noct. att. 14, 4). This kind of interprtation
must be connected with a more generai phenomenon that is attested for more than
one Stoic philosopher (SVF 1, 456), that is the production of exegetical works on
both Homer and Hesiod that were mainly focused on the allegorical understanding
of their epic poems (on this issue see now the important article by A.A. Long,
Stoic Readings of Homer, in: R.D. Lamberton-JJ. Keaney, eds., Homer's
Ancient Readers, Princeton 1992, pp. 41-66). We hve six fragments of Zeno's
(SVF 100, 103, 104, 105, 167, 276), and we know that Perseus,
the Stoic scholar who went to Pella along with Aratus, wrote something of this
kind at least on Homer (SVF 1, 456). As far as Aratus is concerned, the scbolia to
the Phainomena themselves openly dclare that we must read some parts keeping in
mind the fact that
(p. 123 Martin).

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20

Alessandro Schiesaro

literary issues. Stoic thinkers, and especially Zeno20, stressed apparently for th first time - th idea that men and women
should be equal members of th politicai community. The ideai
model presented by Aratus thus seems to include at least
another dtail which had considrable importance in contemporary politicai philosophy, and to point rather clearly to its
realistic implications21.
6. At this stage I would like to explore th possibility that certain lments in th text intersect with a field of politicai discourse. Once again I should stress that th necessity to devote
some attention to this aspect of th Myth seems to be prompted, indeed required, by th text itself, namely by a dtail of
Aratus' Golden Age which is very surprising and very important. Aratus mentions th existence, at that time, of
a term22with a rather explicit politicai overtone which
,
be
fruitful to connect with some ancient ideological and
might
philosophical reflections on th nature of power.
The four extant Vitae Arati claim that Antigonus Gonatas king of Macedonia - met th poet in Athens several times, and,
once settled in Pella as king in 276, invited him to his court
along with some other prominent figures of th cultural lite,
as, for example, th philosopher Perseus. The Vitae add that
Aratus composed th Phainomena at th king's invitation, as

20. D.L. 7,33.

21. It is well known that women played a very significalit role in th Thesmophora in generai. Cf. L.R. Farnell, The Cults ofthe Greek States, Oxford 18961909, voi. 3, pp. 175 ff.; M.P. Nilsson, GriechischeFeste von religiser Bedeutung,
Leipzig 1906, pp. 313 ff.
22.
is a very rare adjective, so rare, in fact, that Grotius wondered, in
the apparatus of his valuable dition (Syntagma Arateorum, Lugduni Batavorum
1600, p. 4 of the notes-section) whether it should not be changea into the more
common quivalent .
It appearsto be used in four extant Hellenistic texts:
A.R. 1, 783 and 3,606, A.P. 9,334, 3 (Perseus, IV-III b.C), and Cali. fr. 228, 70-72
/ ...
/
Pf., another famous katasterismos:
[
[
In all the passages its social connotation is clear (cf.
...*
.
[]
also Vian's interesting note on A.R. 3, 578, vol. 3 p. 76 n. 1, and p. 128). Cfr. R.
Schmitt, Die Nominalbildung in den Dichtungen des Kallimachos von Kyrene,
Wiesbaden 1970, p. 129 n. 5.

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Aratus* Myth of Dike

21

the royal patron spurred th poet to render in poetry the prose

treatise of Eudoxus. The reliability of parts of this vidence is
strongly doubted23, and I will therefore try to proceed in my
interprtation without relying on it.
We are fortunate enough to possess a certain amount of interesting information about the personality of Antigonus, who
reigned from 283 to 239: the most interesting is to be found in a
section of the Varia bistorta (2, 20) written by Aelian (AD 170235), an author who is himself known for his Stoic orientation.
In Aelian's text the famous dfinition of royalty as
is part of an articulate theoretical model in which two
diffrent rgal behaviours - personified by Antigonus and his
son Demetrius - are contrasted. The father is
and ,
and .
the son, his exact opposite,
Mildness and lack of arrogance make Antigonus a king
and ,
a man who really deserves his title, a
whose qualities are exactly opposite to those of tyrants.
For Antigonus, the essence of royalty lies in a just and moderIt is in this context
ate attitude towards his subjects ().
is placed. The
that the dfinition of royalty as
to
the
himself
which
he
considers
Law,
subject
king
regards as a
he
swears
to
be
its
slave. Or at least he
superior principle, and
prtends to do so: being a king means respecting Dike and
Nomos and applying them on Earth24.Although Aelian writes
several centuries after th events he relates, it is generally agreed
that the theory I hve briefly outlined above represents a rhetorical and ideological framework25 largely consistent with
what we know about Antigonus' own professed Stoic inclina-

23. On the vitae Arati and their reliability see Schtze cit., pp. 33 ff. and F. Susemihl, Geschichte der griechischen Literatur in der Alexandrinerzeit, Leipzig 1891,
vol. 1, pp. 284 ff.
24. The best interprtation of this formula is provided by H. Volkmann,
als ehrenvoller Knechtsdienst gegenber dem Gesetz, Philol. 100, 1956, p. 52.
25. On the connections between Stoicism and ideology, excellent generai remarks
in B.D. Shaw, The Divine Economy: Stoicismas Ideology, Latomus 44, 1985, pp.
16-54.

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22

Alessandro Scbiesaro

tions, and in fact applicable in a rather generai fashion to several

other Hellenistic rulers. A sens of justice and respect for th
conquered peoples constitute for Antigonus - judging from his
politicai activity - th essence of his royal mission: what we
know of his policy regarding th autonomy of th conquered
poleisy for instance, provides a factual confirmation of thse
theoretical models26.
A comparative approach upholds this connection between
th Myth as a whole and thse aspects of politicai life. The rduction of th number of races from five to three initiated by
Aratus will be carried further by Catullus, who in poem 64
limintes an intermediary stage and speaks of two races only.
In this way he obtains a forceful and indignant opposition between a Golden past - where th theoxenia which he inherits
from Aratus plays a considrable rle - and a corrupt prsent27.
In Catullus, to be sure, there is nothing like th explicit Aratean
&u ,
and th whole point seems exactly to be that no
moral principle enlightens any more th life of contemporary
society.
If Catullus and Aratus both exploit th rduction of th five
Hesiodic races as a means for conveying new thoughts, it is
remarkable that th latter does not resort to a simple deprecano
temporis. The pattern, as we hve seen, continues to be placed
in th past, not simply because it is mythical, but it is meant to
show an atemporal moral (and, by implication, politicai) set of
choices. The ideai life of society is identified with a mythical
model in which th laws, inspired by th God who guarantees
their everlasting validity, are an act of concern and care towards
th people, and in which Justice prsides over th organization
of life and work. The rejection of this model, by contrast, implies th fall into violence and anarchy.
26.

A. Giovannini, Le Statut des cits de Macdoine sous les Antigonides, in

Thessaloniki 1973, vol. 2, pp. 465-72. Antigonus himself is
,
the heir of that Antigonus I Monophthalmus who, in 314, emphatically declared
the freedom of Greece, and stated that ail the Greeks were ,
,
(Diod. 19,61,3).
27. A. Pennelli, La narrazione commentata: studi suWepilliolatino, Pisa 1979, pp.
88 ff.

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Aratus' Myth of Dike

23

Aratus has embodied in this passage, so evidently diffrent

from the rest of the Pbainomena, the allegory of an ideai society, in which a just king, who is respectful of divine laws, acts in
a nontyrannical way and is able to give th people he rules
peace and prosperity. Although less explicit, Aratus' strategy is
comparable to the last part of Callimachus' Hymn to Zeus,
where th King of gods is praised for his choice of kings on
earth, and great importance is given to the rle of Justice in the
activity of the king (unes 80 ff.). Numerous Hesiodic rminiscences (lines 81-2, cfr. Op. 219 and 265) mark a common rfrence to a peculiarly attractive model.
Aratus clbrtes a mythical model of peace and prosperity
- to men from the sky . It is not
that is still prsent possible to hve gods on Earth because of our ancestors' faults,
but it is at least possible to follow their model: the king, god on
Earth, must enforce in his reign the Justice that brings peace
and prosperity. The return of Astraea will become in Latin
poetry a favourite way to express admiration and praise for a
ruler, as the 4th Eclogue, and even more Statius' Silvae2* show.
In Aratus Dike does not return, but she symbolizes the reign of
prosperity and justice that wise kings can guarantee on earth.
7. I would like to make some final remarks concerning two
issues which I briefly mentioned at the beginning of the essay,
namely, the consquences of this interprtation of the Myth of
Dike for the rest of the poem, and the importance of this text in
the later reelaboration of the Myth of Dike.
Human figures, if we except scanty rfrences to an unknown 'you' who is supposed to be interested in the stars, are
surprisingly absent from the Phainomena. Even in Nicander's
Theriaca there is at least a brief rfrence to a human addressee,
Hermesianax (lines 1-3). The prsence of an addressee is a standard feature of didactic texts, it is indeed one of the fundamental lments for establishing the didactic agreement between author and reader. The absence of such a prominent

28.

A list in Gatz cit., p. 230.

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24

Alessandro Scbiesaro

character is conversely very evident in th Phainomena. If th

assumption that th intertextual reading invited by Aratus connects directly th Myth of Dike with th Nightingale Tale and
its explicit addressees, we can rescue th poem from its isolated
position and connect it, for instance, with Callimachus' homage
to Berenice or Theocritus Idyll 17, which is addressed to
Ptolemy II Philadelphus, who reigned in approximately th
same years as Antigonus Gonatas.
The implicit dedication of th work to a ruler, displaced from
th beginning of th poem to an apparently digressive, but very
prominent context, gives a more complex meaning to th whole
poem, and strengthens th impression that th clbration of
th order of naturai phenomena should be read as a metaphor
for th stable organization of human activities guaranteed by a
caring ruler.
After proving, I hope, that this text is remarkably interesting
in its own right, I feel less hsitant to conclude by briefly mentioning one aspect of its influence on later authors. From th
vantage point of Latin Literature, Aratus' reinvention of th
myth of Dike should be credited with at least two extremely
important innovations. The first one is th explicit reshaping of
th myth of th ges as an atemporal moral paradigm which
entails ethical choices still largely available to modem men.
This factor could hardly be overemphasized, especially since
much rcent criticism of the Saturnian paradigm in Virgil's
Georgics reaches debatable conclusions based on a strictly chronological interprtation of the Hesiodic myth, as if Aratus (and,
one might add, J.P. Vernant)29, had not existed. The second
factor, not less important, is th declared politicai implications
of the myth in the context of a didactic work. In both respects
Aratus' passage turns out to be a very important stage for the
interprtation of Hesiod and for the exploration of the connections between traditional myths and contemporary concerns.
Princeton University
29. J.P. Vernant, Hesiod's Myth of Races: An Essay in StructuralAnalysis, and
Hesiod's Myth of Races: A Reassessment, translated in Myth and Tbought
Among the Greeks, London-Boston 1983, pp. 3-32 and 33-72 respectively.

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Aratus*Myth of Dike

25

Appendix
Some interesting parallele for th idea that Justice and wealth - namely, food, i.e. grain are associated as an encomiastic motif can be
found in iconographical reprsentations. In Roman coins the figure of
Dikaiosune/Aequitas with a balance in the right hand and an ear or
two of grain in the left is very common. In a similar pattern, the goddess holds in her left hand a whole cornucopia. These coins are ail
dated to the imprial period1, from Augustus onwards. I hve found
no prcdent examples of exactly the same kind, although a more
thorough investigation could likely be more fruitful. What I hve
actually found are a number of Macedonian coins in which the ear of
grain is represented on one face of the coin, while the other carries the
portrait of the ruling king. The number of coins dating to the reign of
Antigonus Gonatas is extremely meagre2 (and many of them are discan be also referred to Antiputable because th genitive '
gonus III Doson, king from 229 to 221), and I can give only a few
examples of such coins minted by Macedonian kings either before or
after Antigonus Gonatas, but some of them are certainly indicative
enough3.
Once again, we see that the overall meaning of the passage is consistent with a certain amount of external vidence that points in a spcifie
direction, i.e., to th politicai features of a king whose program, had it
to be expressed in a ready-to-use slogan, would certainly hve been
the not very original 'Peace and prosperity', because the notion of

1. Cf. UMC s.v. Dikaiosune, vol. 3, pp. 386 ff.

2. A generai survey of Antigonus' coinage in Seltman, cit., pp. 219 ff.
3. These are the examples I hve been able to gather.
- B.V. Head, Historia nummorum, Oxford 19112, p. 225:
(1) drachm: [obv.] head of young Herakles in lion-skin; [rev.] ,
eagle on fulmen, caduceus, eagle's head, bulTs head, ear of grain.
- B.V. Head, A Catalogue of the Greek Coins in the Bntish Museum. Macedonia,
etc., London 1879:
(2) p. 15 no. 61: [obv.] head of Zeus; [rev.] eagle, ear of grain (168-146 ca.);
(3) p. 97 nos. 6 ff.: (obv.] Herakles; [rev.] grain or grape (Philip II);
(4) p. 132 nos. 14-5: [obv.] Hermes; [rev.] grain, grape or rose (400-350 ca.)
(5) p. 130 no. 1: [obv.] ear of grain; [rev.]
(450-400 ca.); cf., for later coins, p.
49 [50 s.] Amphipolis - an Athenian colony - has the ear of grain as civic symbol:
cf. Head, Catalogue cit., p. 46 nos. 19-20, and L. Anson, Numismata Graeca, London 1912, part III, nos. 1155-6.
For Demeter and grain in a coin, Head, Catalogue cit., p. 92 no. 29 (post 168).
For examples from Egypt with a similar pattern, Ch. Seltman, Greek coins, London
19552, pp. 242-3.

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26

Alessandro Schiesaro

and ,
covers much of th concepDike, at once opposed to
tual space that we divide between 'justice' and 'peace'.
Other features of th rule of Macedonian kings are worth a brief
mention. The Antigonids, who liked to be considered primi inter
pares, had a much more cautious attitude than other Hellenistic kings
towards divine identifications4. Nevertheless Antigonus himself, after
th victory of Lysimachia in 277, did favour his identification with
Pan, as some coins show5. It is interesting, in this connection, that
Aratus is reported to hve written a Hymn to Pan designed as an act of
praise of his patron on this same occasion6. Antigonus' father Demetrios Poliorcetes, who reigned from 306-283, received divine honours7
when he entered Athens in 291 : he was regarded as Dionysus, and his
companion Lanassa as Demeter*; an explicit connection between th
arrivai of Demetrios and th goddess Demeter is established in th
ot
ithyphallic hymn that th Athenians dedicated to th king:
/
/
*
/
'
(Athen, deipn. 6, 253 d-f).
There are also Egyptian instances9 of th identification between a
queen and Demeter, certainly for Arsinoe II and Berenice II, and
probably also for Arsinoe I, Brnices I and Cleopatra III. The latter
is also identified with Dikaiosune in papyri dated to the end of the II
Century; it is probable that this identification was eased by th usuai
identification of the queen with Isis, that is Demeter10: and in the
scholia to Aratus there is an explicit association between Isis, Demeter
and Dike11.

4. J.L. Tondriau, Demetrios Poliorcetes, Neos Theos, Bull, de la Soc. Royale

d'Arch. d'Alexandrie 38, 1949, p. 4.
5. Cf. Seltman cit., p. 223.
6. Susemihl cit., p. 289 and n. 16. Cf. Achilles p. 78 Maas and Anonymous II p.
148 Maas.
7. . Scott, The Dification ofDemetrius Poliorcetes, Am. Journ. of Philol. 49,
1928, pp. 137 ff. and 217 ff.
8. Tondriau cit., p. 11.
9. J.L. Tondriau, Princessesptolemaques compares ou identifies des desses,
(II le - 1er sicles avant J.C.), Bull, de la Soc. Royale d'Arch. d'Alexandrie 37,
1948, pp. 12-33.
10. C. Praux, Le monde hellnistique, Paris 1978, vol. 1, pp. 211 ff. The identification of Demeter with Isis is attested by Hdt. 2.59, who thinks that th cult of
Demeter is of Egyptian origin: cf. P.M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria, vol. 1, p. 199,
and notes, vol. 2, p. 335.
11. In Egypt, however, the religious association of the pharaon with Maat, the
goddess of justice, truth and cosmic order, was standard (Praux cit., ibidem).

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