PLANOS DE DISEÑO Y MONTAJE DE INSTRUMENTOS

The moon herself darkened as she rose at nightfall and veiled her mourning with night, on seeing her graceful namesake Selene setting breath-bereft into gloomy Hades; with her she had shared the beauty o f her light and with her death she mingled her darkness.

On the death o f a lady called Selene. It is generally accepted that the poem refers to Cleopatra-Selene, daughter o f Antony and Cleopatra, on whose marriage with Juba, king o f Mauretania, Crinagoras wrote another epigram (25 GP).

For the girl’s name Selene (and her brother, Alexander’s, “Sun”), see Plut. Anton. 3 6 T T p o a a y o p e u a a s ' t o p p e v ’ A X é Ç a v ô p o v , T f ] v 8 è K X e o T r d T p a v , è m K X T jO iy ô è TÔV pèy "H X lov, rf^y ôè ZeXf|yr|y, Dio Cass. 50.25,4, cf. Suet. Cal. 26.1. Cleopatra was bom around 40 B.C.; after her parents’ death she followed Octavian in Rome where she walked in his triumph in 29 B.C., cf. Dio Cass. 51.21,8. She was raised by Octavia, Antony’s deserted wife, and in c. 20 B.C. she married Juba II, the son o f Juba I, king of Numidia, who had been also brought tp Rome and had walked in the triumph o f Julius Caesar, after the latter’s victory over Juba I in 46 B.C., cf. Plut. Caes. 55, Ant. 87, see Gsell V III 207, 217f, Macurdy (1932) 224f, (1937) 53. Juba I I married Glaphyra in 7 B.C. and their marriage lasted until c. A D 3, i.e. between the death o f Glaphyra’s first husband and Glaphyra’s third marriage which was a brief one, as she died in 5-6 A D , see Macurdy (1932) 227, (1937) 53, 58f. Regling’s publication o f coins from El Ksar, among which some bear Cleopatra’s name, dateable to A D 11-17, puts into question the assumption that Juba was a widower when he married Glaphyra or that he divorced Cleopatra who anyway died at some time we do not know. One must suggest that either coins with the queen’s head continued to be stmck after her death, or that the couple wcr^

re-married after Juba’s separation from Glaphyra;^*^ a couple’s re-marriage is indeed not seldom attested in history, as Regling (12) observes/^ Her death is usually placed, by scholars who hold that the issue o f coins with Cleopatra’s head was posthumous, between 8 B.C and A D 12. Astronomical data for total eclipses o f the moon at its rising (àKpéoTTepos' àvréXXouaa, 1. 1 o f the present poem), point to the eclipse o f the 23^^ o f March, 5 B.C., with that of the 3^^ o f May, A D . 3 as a second candidate, see Macurdy (1937) 61f.

The poem is thematically similar to Antip. Sid. AP 7.241, on the death o f a Ptolemaic prince which was followed by an eclipse o f the moon. Cf. now also Poseid. Col. V III, 13f. Bastianini-Gallazzi Kudveov ôl ’ aoTeog fiviKa KOupTjv / TOU0 ’ UTTÔ ofjp.a TLOels* €OT€V€v ’ HeTLOjv. On the present poem Waltz suggested that the words could imply that the moon was covered by a cloud, or that “à peine est-elle sortie de 1’ ombre qu’elle y rentre, spontanément.^'' An eclipse coinciding with Cleopatra’s death, however, being a much more striking phenomenon^ is more likely to be meant by the poet, cf. the same circumstance in Antip. Sid. 7.241,7f. Moreover, the eclipse is traditionally connected with death and misfortune, cf. Od. 20.351-7, where the prophet Theoclymenus hints at the imminent murder o f the suitors, mentioning a series o f signs, among 'tVie.vv] an eclipse o f the sun (see Préaux 123-8). In an article of 1959, Mugler offered an interpretation o f the term Ka0atp€aLS“ o f the moon^^^ which demonstrates its relation to death: the Homeric terminology for closing the eyes o f a dead is oc^OaXpoug / ocrae KaOaipciv (//. 11.452f, Oû?. 11.425f, 24.294ff.); likewise, an eclipse o f a celestial body is in fact the deity behind it closing his/her eyes, as the notion o f stars “seeing” everything is common in Greek poetry (see below on Mf|rT)...6lô€). Cf. also the examples o f celestial bodies conceived as “eyes” o f the sky that Ludwig cites in his discussion of “Plato” AP 7.670 (see below on opwvupov ZeXqyqi/): Aesch. Sept. 389f. Xoprrpd ôè TTavaéXTiyGÇ /...vuktoç ôc^OoXpoç, 7tp€tt€l; o f the sun. Soph. Tr. 102, Aristoph. Nub.

285, Eur. I T 194.

Regling 11-12. Macurcfy in 1932, 228 accepted the possibility that the couple w/&*%fe-married, while in 1937, 55f., following Gsell (220ff.) he rather inclined towards the view that the coins were struck after Cleopatra’s death.

’^See further the introductory essay of Gow-Page ad loc. For coins of Juba and Cleopatra with a crescent see also Moutsopoulos 67. For fufther appearances of the moon in the form of^rescent on Greek and Roman coins, reliefs and sepulchral steles, often related to beliefs in the catasterism of the soul, see Moutsopoulos 73ff.

^^^Traditionally eclipses of the moon were attributed to magic, especially of Thessalian witches, and KaGaipeai?, “drawing down” was the term used to describe the phenomenon before the time of Democritus (cf. Schol. on Rh. 3.533). For the interpretation of the term see Mugler (1959) 5 Iff. Cf. a passage of the Anthology where the concept of the Moon’s eye occurs in combination with the eclipse (14.140,lff.)

ZeO p-dKup, fj pd TOI epya x d ô ’ ei3a8ev, dia ywaiKeç 06OcraXiKal TraiCoixji; M apaiverai o|i|ia ZeXT)i/T|9 €K p e p o T T W v , k t X .

For historical misfortunes, deaths and other calamities associated with eclipses see Préaux 125ff.

1 KQi aÙ T f| fjy X u g g v ; cf. the emphasis on the same reaction o f Selene on the death