DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9840#0306
252
the cretan cypresses.
[chap.
the metaphors of poetry, as an offering to living objects
of a sometimes equally idolatrous worship.
0 thou so dearly by me loved!
Thou'rt like the cypress tall,
And, in thy conversation sweet,
The words like honey fall27.
The resemblance between the beauty of the inanimate
cypress, and that of the living object of the Cretan pea-
sant's admiration, is dwelt on in other love-songs; and
I have more than once heard such an expression as
" she is tall and beautiful as a cypress.'"
The ancients seem to have perceived the same ana-
logy between the beauty of women and cypresses, when
they bestowed on those trees the name of the Graces28;
and invented a legend, according to which the virgin
daughters of Eteocles, on meeting with an untimely
death, were changed into trees which resembled them
in their beauty29. Aristaenetus compares the walk of
27 'f2 ttoXv dyaTrrpxevri fxov
to ixTTo'i crov 'vat <reX[3lvi,
Kai to po^ovafkevTO crov
/neXi fxe ijiKKap ei'rai.
2e\/3ii>i is Turkish for KuirdpLcraos, which latter word is alone used in the
every-day language of the island. '¥oX,ovafxevTo is from the Italian ragi-
onamento, and, like poX,ovdp<u, from ragionare, is of common occurrence in the
daily language of every Cretan. The phrase, fxeXi fie Xd-KKap, calls to mind
Homer, and the tiea-Topeiov evyXwacrov fieXi of Euripides.
28 geoponica, xi. 4. p. 79fl. Alttov at KVirdpLaaoi ouofia eyovm,
XaptTes fiev tiid tijV Tepipiv.
29 geoponica, 1. c. 'Et60kA.60US tie avTai Kade<TTi')Ka.<ji Treaties—yrj tie
eXeouaa to 7ra8os <puTa evdaXrj ofioia Tais Kopaii dvijice. Other traditions
are recorded hy Servius, on Aen. hi. 680. Cyparissus Telephi Alius
fuit—Alii hunc Cyparissum Cretensem puerum pulcherrimum et castissimum
fuisse—qui cum castitatem suam incorruptam tenere cuperet, relicta Creta
ad Orontem fluvium, et montem Cassum dicitur pervenisse : atque ibi in
cypressum arborem commutatus.
the cretan cypresses.
[chap.
the metaphors of poetry, as an offering to living objects
of a sometimes equally idolatrous worship.
0 thou so dearly by me loved!
Thou'rt like the cypress tall,
And, in thy conversation sweet,
The words like honey fall27.
The resemblance between the beauty of the inanimate
cypress, and that of the living object of the Cretan pea-
sant's admiration, is dwelt on in other love-songs; and
I have more than once heard such an expression as
" she is tall and beautiful as a cypress.'"
The ancients seem to have perceived the same ana-
logy between the beauty of women and cypresses, when
they bestowed on those trees the name of the Graces28;
and invented a legend, according to which the virgin
daughters of Eteocles, on meeting with an untimely
death, were changed into trees which resembled them
in their beauty29. Aristaenetus compares the walk of
27 'f2 ttoXv dyaTrrpxevri fxov
to ixTTo'i crov 'vat <reX[3lvi,
Kai to po^ovafkevTO crov
/neXi fxe ijiKKap ei'rai.
2e\/3ii>i is Turkish for KuirdpLcraos, which latter word is alone used in the
every-day language of the island. '¥oX,ovafxevTo is from the Italian ragi-
onamento, and, like poX,ovdp<u, from ragionare, is of common occurrence in the
daily language of every Cretan. The phrase, fxeXi fie Xd-KKap, calls to mind
Homer, and the tiea-Topeiov evyXwacrov fieXi of Euripides.
28 geoponica, xi. 4. p. 79fl. Alttov at KVirdpLaaoi ouofia eyovm,
XaptTes fiev tiid tijV Tepipiv.
29 geoponica, 1. c. 'Et60kA.60US tie avTai Kade<TTi')Ka.<ji Treaties—yrj tie
eXeouaa to 7ra8os <puTa evdaXrj ofioia Tais Kopaii dvijice. Other traditions
are recorded hy Servius, on Aen. hi. 680. Cyparissus Telephi Alius
fuit—Alii hunc Cyparissum Cretensem puerum pulcherrimum et castissimum
fuisse—qui cum castitatem suam incorruptam tenere cuperet, relicta Creta
ad Orontem fluvium, et montem Cassum dicitur pervenisse : atque ibi in
cypressum arborem commutatus.