Etymologies. 33 



away the stories of the origin of the Myrmidoues (Aen. 2, 7), 

 the strange birth of Orion (Aen. )., 535), and of Minotaurus 

 (Aen. 6, 14), the she-wolf that suckled Romulus and Eemus 

 (Aen. 1, 273), etc. 



In any language foreign words are especially liable to cor- 

 ruption, cf. Paul. p. 13, 'Alumento pro Laumedonte a vete- 

 ribus Romanis necdum adsuetis Graecae linguae dictum est. 

 sic Melo pro Nilo, Catamitus pro Ganymede, Alphius pro 

 Alpheo dicebatur'. See also Paul. p. 6 (v. Alcedo); p. 31 

 (v. Catamitum); p. 89 (v. Melo). If a language could repre- 

 sent ravufj.rjdri<s by Catamitus, lenO.T) by Stimula, it is not sur- 

 prising to find its ancient commentators offering numerous 

 popular etymologies for its proper names — and especially for 

 names of foreign origin — as they manfully tried to assign 

 meanings to these unintelligible words by deriving them from 

 words of similar sound. Many of these explanations are 

 obviously suggested by well known peculiarities of climate, 

 product, or character. 



Finally may be mentioned one or two examples of a ' per- 

 verse ingenuity', which discovers a certain appropriateness 

 in the names of some of the actors in the Aeneid. Not con- 

 tent with the statement on Aen. 12, 391, "lapix, aptum nomen 

 medico; nam laaOat Graeci dicunt curare," Servius has two 

 curious comments on Achates' name, on Aen. 1, 174 and 

 1, 312. For these see the first word in the following list. 



Achates, Aen, 1, 312, diximus quaeri, cur Achates Aeneae sit 

 comes. Varia quidem dicuntur, melius tamen hoc fingi- 

 tur, ut tractum nomen sit a Graeca etymologia. «/'>? enim 

 dicitur sollicitudo, quae regum semper est comes. 

 Aen, 1, 174, adlusit ad nomen. nam achates lapidis spe- 

 cies est : bene ergo ij)sum dicit ignem excussisse. unde 

 etiam Achatem eius comitem dixit. 



AcHEEON, Aen. 6, 107, quasi sine gaudio. 



Acid ALIA, Aen. 1, 720, Acidalia Venus dicitur vel quia inicit 

 curas, quas Graeci cixcdag dicunt, vel certe a fonte Acidalio 

 qui est in Orchomeno 



