I didn't want to take up class time with this, but I still want to share with you my expertise on Latin cloud words. As Kitty can attest, I did my senior project on the different usages of nubes, nimbus, and nebula, and how they all relate to the elements. (Don't ask - I was trying to somehow connect linguistics and the elements.) What I discovered is that there is a connotational connection between different clouds and the elements, and that nebula in particular was connected with air. It makes sense - nebula is usually used for morning mist, which tends to be the most transparent of clouds. It is also connected to fog. Fog can be quite dense and impenetrable, of course, but Romans didn't realize that clouds in the sky weren't as solid as they looked, so to them even fog incorporated a lot more air than most clouds.
In reference to Publilius/Trimalchio's poetry, it makes sense to use nebula to describe transparent linen, and the connection with air also ties it in with the wind textile of the previous line. We should really imagine her in linen as insubstantial as the morning mist, and just as easily disappearing.
(I also want to point out the linguistic link between nupta-nebula, since the word nupta comes from the bride's veil, which envelops her like a cloud.)
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I have been using Stanley Lombardo's translation of the Iliad in my CL 315 Classical Epic class (first time I have ever taught from it; I highly recommend it-- you can get a good sense of his Zen-like approach to translation here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFAjkf6tk60)
I don't seem to be able to post a live link in the comment section, so you'll have to past that URL into your browser.
Lombardo's translation made me aware of how prevalent cloud/mist/rain/snow/atmospheric imagery is in the Iliad, esp. associated with the dysfunctional duo and primal parents, Zeus and Hera. Jenny's posting suggests that it may not be a coincidence that Hera/Juno is the deity in charge of both nebulae and nuptae. I suspect that if we were to read Aristophanes' Clouds, we'd have an even better sense of what kinds of semantic fields Petronius is taking us through.
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