Vergil, Tops, and the Stoic View of Fate

Author(s): Robert J. Rabel

Source: The Classical Journal, Vol. 77, No. 1 (Oct. - Nov., 1981), pp. 27-31
Published by: The Classical Association of the Middle West and South
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VERGIL, TOPS, AND THE STOIC VIEW OF FATE

In Book VII of the Aeneid, the Fury Allecto goads Amata into disrupting
the proposed marriageof Aeneas and Lavinia. The queen rages throughthe
city, andthe poet likensher movementto the spinningof a child's top, a turbo:
ceu quondamtorto uolitans sub uerbereturbo,
quem pueri magno in gyro uacua atria circum
intenti ludo exercent - ille actus habena
curuatisfertur spatiis; stupet inscia supra
impubesquemanus miratauolubile buxum;
dant animos plagae: non cursu segnior illo
per medias urbes agitur populosque ferocis.
quin etiam in siluas simulato numine Bacchi
maius adortanefas maioremqueorsa furorem
euolat et natam frondosis montibus abdit....
(VII. 378-387)1
Many commentatorshave questioned both the aptness of this comparison
and, in addition, the source from which Vergil derived the analogy. Sidgwick
calls the passage "inadequateand almost grotesque.'"2 Conington's famous
remarkexpresses the feeling of many: "Heyne thinksit certainthatthis simile
is takenfrom some lost Greekpoet, a singularway of vindicatingVirg.'s taste
at the expense of his originality."3 While Heyne supposes the interventionof
some lost work of literaturebetween Vergil and Homer4-where Hector spins
like a top underthe force of a blow from Ajax (II. 14.413), a passage to which
Vergil owes nothing-Deuticke, Pascoli, and others find the immediate
predecessorin Callim. Epigr. 1.9, which speaks of childrenat play with their
tops.5 Gertrude Hirst reverses her early judgment calling the simile
"grotesque'"6and points out that such tops were among the votive offerings
presented to the child Dionysus-at least in Boeotia at the sanctuaryof the
Kabiroi. Thus she explains both the source and the appropriatenessof the
simile in terms of the reference to Bacchus or Dionysus in line 385.7 (This
attemptto redeem the simile by finding for it some definite reference to the
narrativecontext mustfail, since the portrayalof Bacchic revellersas spinningtops does not seem to be found in art or literaturebefore the Aeneid.) In
addition,Knox andFordycecontendthatthe simile is drawnnot from literature

1All quotationsof the text of the Aeneid are from R.A.B. Mynors' 1969 OCT.
2A. Sidgwick, P. VergiliMaronisOpera I (Cambridge1928) 66.
3John Conington,The Worksof VirgiPII (London1883) ad loc.
4See Chr. Gottl. Heyne, P. VirgiliusMaro III (London 1821) ad loc.
5See Paul Deuticke, Vergils Gedichte (Ziirich 1904) ad loc.; and Giovanni Pascoli, Epos
(Vergilio)2(Firenze 1963) ad loc.
6GertrudeHirst, "An Attempt to Date the Composition of Aeneid VII," CQ 10 (1916) 93.
7See GertrudeHirst, "Note on Vergil Aeneid VII.376-384," CQ 31 (1937) 65-66.

27

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28

ROBERTJ. RABEL

or cult practicesbut, unlike most of Vergil's similes, from the details of everyday life.8 In sum, modem commentatorswith few exceptions tend to dismiss
the simile as an artisticfailure and to assign the blame either to a lamentable,
unpreservedtraditionor to a spotof tastelessoriginalityon the partof the poet.
Yet several critics have discerned a web of multiple correspondences
between simile andnarrativeso complex as to proveboththe appropriatenessof
the passage and its careful integrationinto the immediatesetting. In his 1838
Berlin editionof the Aeneid, CarlThiel pointsout threedetails in which simile
andplot coincide.9 Firstof all, the size of the circle aroundwhich the boys stand
(magno in gyro, 379) reflects the immensityof the city throughwhich the mad
queen moves (immensam... per urbem, 377). Secondly, the wonderaroused
in the on-looking children (381-382) correspondsto the ardorwhich Amata
generates in the women of Laurentia(392-393). And finally, according to
Thiel, the application of forms of agere (380; 384) to Amata and the top
conveys the idea of involuntarymotionarisingfromanexternalsource. Thatis,
as the top moves in response to the lashes of the bystandersso Amata acts
unwillingly at the behest of Juno and Allecto. More recently, David West has
documented a whole host of further correspondencesbetween simile and
narrative, demonstratingan almost Aeschylean complexity of cross-references.00 For example, the top moves in gyro, atria circum (379), and Amata
calls to Bacchus: te lustrare choro (391). Nor does the twisting or circular
motion end here, for the queen laterrolls (torquens, 399) her eyes in madness.
Furthermore,the top flies (uolitans, 378; uolubile, 382) under the lash as
Amataflies forth(euolat, 387) out of the city. In addition,Allecto employs the
goads (stimulis, 405) of Bacchus and drives her from every direction. Why?
Because in the simile several boys gatheraroundone top and whip it from all
sides. Undoubtedly, Thiel and West are correct in viewing the simile as a
polished representationwell integratedinto the immediate context. Yet the
simile also has a special relevanceto a more remotepassage, and links Books
VII and I throughthe recurrenceof the image of the turbo.
Commentatorshave often noticed the many ways in which VII echoes I. In
each, Junosets in motion a cycle of disorder,first by generatinga stormat sea
which precedes Aeneas' arrivalin Africa and secondly by arousingthe Latins
to a fever-pitchof madnessafter Aeneas' receptionin his fatedhomeland. (The
structure,in otherwords, is chiastic.) Now the first cycle is accomplishedwith
the help of Aeolus andthe second with Allecto. However, no commentator,so
far as I know, has pointed out that a pun on the word turbo, meaning both
'vortex of winds' and 'top', links the top simile with the opening stormof the
Aeneid, wherethe winds fall uponthe fleet turbine(1.83) andimpedethe divine
mission of Aeneas: Amata, herself likened to a turbo, representsa further
daemonic obstacle to the dictates of fate. Yet the consequences of this inner
8See R.A. Knox, Virgil: Aeneid VII-IX (Oxford 1924) ad loc.; and C.J. Fordyce, Aeneid
VII-VIII(Oxford 1977) ad loc. Unlike most commentators,Fordyce expresses his approvalof
the simile, calling it a "vivid image."
9See Carl Thiel, P. Virgilii Maronis Aeneis (Berlin 1838) ad loc.
1oSeeDavid West, "Multiple-CorrespondenceSimiles in the Aeneid," JRS 59 (1969) 49.

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VERGIL,TOPS, AND THESTOICVIEWOF FATE

29

turbo-the emotionalturmoilof the queenwhichAllectodirectstowardthe

disruptionof Latinus'hospitality-are more far-reachingand devastatingthan

the comparativelyminor annoyanceof a stormat sea. In Book VII, as Brooks
Otis has observed: "The violent element is not simply compared to social
revolution or sedition, as was the storm in Book I; Allecto is herself the very
essence of such things.""1Following Otis, we might suggest thatthe turbo in
nature, which in Book I was like a civil war, foreshadows the internalized,
emotional turbo which becomes the cause of a civil war in VII. It seems clear,
then, that any negativejudgmentupon the artistryof the top simile ignores its
significantthematicconnectionsbothwith the local andmoreremotecontexts.
But what of Vergil's source for the simile? In the remainderof this paper, I
wish to suggest thatthe passage may be inspiredby the writingsof Chrysippus
the Stoic on fate and physical causation. Though any argumentfor such an
influence is necessarilyhypothetical, MarkEdwardshas shown in convincing
detail that Vergil frequently adapted to the Aeneid both Stoic ideas and
phraseology.12 Nor would such a derivationof materialbe withoutparallelin
the poem. For HermannFriinkel has argued persuasively that the simile at
VIII.20-25, likening Aeneas' turbulenceof mind to quivering light reflected
from water, can be traced to Stoic physics throughApollonius of Rhodes.13
For both these reasons, the hypothesisof a connectionbetween the Aeneid and
a favorite Stoic metaphoremploying a top need not be rejectedout of hand.
Accordingto Cicero in the De Fato, Chrysippusattemptedto steer a middle
course between the opinions of those philosophers who held that everything
takes place by fate through the force of necessity and those who held the
movementsof the mind, at least, to be voluntaryandnot controlledby fate (39).
Now this latter group, the proponents of a human freedom arising from
uncaused, spontaneousmotion in the mind, arguedthat if all things takeplace
by fate throughthe force of necessity, then humanbeings might as well live a
life of idleness. Employing the famous Argos Logos or 'idle argument',as a
reductio ad absurdumof fate, they maintained,for example, that if one were
fated to recover from an illness, then one would recover with or without a
doctor's help (28-29). So why call the doctor? Indeed, why do anythingat all if
the fatally determined telos be unavoidable? Chrysippus criticized this
argument(30); accordingto him, the fallaciousnessof such reasoninglay in not
observing that fate is ~p'(rjplv, 'dependentupon us'. Humanimpulse-what
the Stoics call 6pAq-q-farfrom being external to fate, is actually its prime
constituent. What Chrysippushad in mind here is best elucidated througha
summaryof his simple and elegant theory of causation.
According to Chrysippus,fate realizes its ends throughthe conjunctionand
simultaneousoperationof two kinds of causes. These he names 'perfect and
principal' causes (causae perfectae et principales, 41) on the one hand and
"Brooks Otis, Virgil: A Study in Civilized Poetry (Oxford 1964) 322.
12See Mark Edwards, "The Expression of Stoic Ideas in the Aeneid," Phoenix 14 (1960)
151-165.
13See HermannFrinkel, "Problems of Text and Interpretationin Apollonius' Argonautica,"
AJP 71 (1950) 127 n. 29.

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30

ROBERT
J. RABEL

'proximateand auxiliary'causes (causae adiuuantesetproximae) on the other.

Restrictingourselves for the momentto the sphereof humanchoice, we must
note that the 'perfect and principal' causes of all deliberate, unconstrained
activities are the various charactertraits or dispositions which embody the
humanpersonality,whereasthe externalstimuli which impingeupon the sense
organs are merely secondaryor 'proximateand auxiliary'.14 Thus, to take a
simple example, an irascible man--one disposed toward anger-will likely
seek to retaliatein the presence of one who has wronged him. In this case,
irascibility(d6pYLtXrT in Greek, iracundia in Latin) will be the 'perfect and
principal' cause of the resultingepisode of anger (dpyrj or ira) and the hated
object or focus of that emotion only 'proximateand auxiliary'.15 Therefore,
according to Chrysippus, the Argos Logos misses the point, insofar as the
impulse to call in a doctor in times of illness, though fated, stems from the
disposition of soul of the patient. Fate, in other words, does not annul the
effects of rationalor even irrationalcalculation, but ratheris only actualized
throughthem. Moreover,the Stoic theoryof causation,consistingprimarilyin
a dispositionalor tendency-statinganalysis of both physical andpsychological
events, neatly explains all activity in the universe in termsof the same simple
principles. Thus Chrysippusoften sought analogues in the realm of physical
naturein orderto illustratethe workingsof the humanmind. One of his favorite
such comparisons,employedin orderto provethe harmoniousexistence of fate
and free-will, was based upon the movement of a spinning-top. Accordingto
Cicero:
Chrysippusgoes back to his roller and spinning-top(turbinem), which
cannot begin to move unless they are pushed or struck,but which when
this has happened,he thinks, continue to move of their own nature,the
roller rolling forward and the top (turbinem) spinning round. 'In the
same way therefore,' he says, 'as a person who has pushed a roller
forward has given it a beginning of motion, but has not given it the
capacityto roll (uolubilitatem),so a sense-presentationwhen it impinges
will it is trueimpressand as it were seal its appearanceon the mind, but
the act of assent will be in our power (nostra ... in potestate = Ep'

tiv),

and as we said in the case of the roller, thoughgiven a pushfrom without,

as to the rest will move by its own force and nature ...'
43).16

(De Fato, 42-

14See F.H. Sandbach, The Stoics (London 1975) 102; also, MargaretE. Reesor, "Fate and
Possibility in Early Stoic Philosophy," Phoenix 19 (1965) 288; and A.A. Long, "Freedom and
Determinism in the Stoic Theory of Human Action," Problems in Stoicism, ed. A.A. Long
(London 1971) 181-182.
15Thismatteris discussed in detail in my unpublisheddissertation, Theories of the Emotions
in the Old Stoa (Diss. Michigan 1975) 17-25.
16Thetranslationis from H. Rackham's 1942 Loeb edition. The anonymousreferee has suggested to me anotherinterpretationof the passage. That is, perhapsthe contrastmeantis between
a roller/cylinder,which when given a push rolls straightforward,and a top lying on its side, which
will roll aroundin a circle when given an identicalpush. This is the view of the Bud6 editor: see
Ciceron, Le traite du Destin, ed. Albert Yon (Paris 1933) ad loc. Sandbach(supra n. 14) avoids
the problemby substitutinga cube for Chrysippus'top. Unfortunately,no otherancient authority
discusses Chrysippus'use of the top as an analogy, though Cicero implies that he employed it

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VERGIL, TOPS, AND THE STOIC VIEW OF FATE

31

Uolubilitas, the quality of a top or roller, provides an illuminatingphysical

equivalentof a mentaldisposition such as irascibilityin the humansoul; both
are 'perfectandprincipal'causes of theireffects; botharealso tendency-stating
expressions, licensing us to expect certainresults in the presenceof a rangeof
'proximateand auxiliary'causes. For Chrysippusfreedomdoes not requirean
element of contingencyin the universe, a breakin the eternalnexus of cause and
effect. Quite the contrary:freedomof the will consists merelyin the activation
of the psychic dispositions and the performanceof actions in accordancewith
their force and nature."7
In conclusion, let us returnto the top simile and its immediate context in
orderto determinethe extent to which the Stoic backgroundsuggested above
illumines Vergil's understanding of the freedom of the will. Now
commentatorslike Carl Thiel, the first to appreciatethe careful integrationof
simile and narrative,believe thatthe image of the top vividly conveys the idea
of Amata's helplessness and unwillingness before the force of Allecto's lash.
Michael Coffey drawsthe same conclusion: "One of the points of comparison
is that Amata is impelled by Allecto as the top is driven by a force outside
itself.""' Chrysippusand Vergil would disagree. If only we view the simile
throughthe eyes of a Stoic-as the poet perhapsintended-an importantfact
becomes apparent: Allecto furnishes merely the 'proximate and auxiliary'
cause of the queen's anger, the beginningot motion accordingto the De Fato.
For the rest, she moves in accordancewith the force of her own bitterandangry
nature.19This Vergil makes clear even before the Allecto episode:
femineae ardentemcuraequeiraeque coquebant.
(VII.345)20

ROBERT J. RABEL
Universityof Kentucky

frequently. Aulus Gellius (7.2.11) mentions only the cylinder. My preferenceis for Rackham's
interpretation;however, the theses of this paper can stand in either case.
17Chrysippus'theory is not unlike that later elaboratedby G.E. Moore: see Ethics (Oxford
1912) 84-95; also, Josiah B. Gould, The Philosophy of Chrysippus(Leiden 1971) 149-150.
S1MichaelCoffey, "The Subject Matterof Vergil's Similes," BICS 8 (1961) 71.
'9Thus Otis (supra n. 11) 324, observes that Allecto "only takes advantageof an emotion
already present."
20Thispaperwas readin Athens, Georgia, at a meeting of the SouthernSection, Classical Association of the Middle West and South in Novemberof 1980. I would like to thankthe anonymous
referee of CJ for a careful reading and several valuable suggestions.

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