CUEVA, EDMUND P., "Anth. Pal." 14.34 and Achilles Tatius 2.14 , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 35:3 (1994:Autumn) p.281 Anth. Pal. 14.34 and Achilles Tatius 2.14 Edmund P. Cueva I NCLUDED IN THE Anthologia Palatina is an oracle that is also found, with some textual variation, in the Leucippe and Clitophon of Achilles Tatius. The anthology lemma (14.34) is as follows: 1 Nilcros 1:1S 1tOAlS Ecr'd 6pa'tO~ <>paK(J)v £O"'ttv· £tTl <>' av 'EptXe6vto~ ot'to~ 6 <>paK(J)v. The versions of the birth of Erichthonius that have Hephaes­ tus as the father of the snake divinity seem to be later ac­ counts. 10 Robertson speculates that in an earlier version Pro­ metheus may have lusted after Athena and thus may have been the father of Erichthonius. 11 For our purposes it does not matter who was the father of the child, or even who the child was. The essential elements of the myth are what is important: a male attempts to rape a virgin, intercourse is prohibited, and snakes are mentioned in one way or another. The bizarre aspects of the oracle need to be decoded in terms of just these elements. Sostratus, Leucippe's father, supplies an interpretation of the oracle at 2.14.5. He claims that the descrip­ tion of Hephaestus embracing Athena is a reference to a "holy precinct where olive trees grow with gleaming branches, accom­ panied by fire that ignites spontaneously and plays abundantly along the boughs. The smoky vapors from the fire husband the plant. This is the friendly affection of fire and tree: Athena welcomes the attentions of Hephaistos" (tr. Winkler 196). A non-agricultural decoding, however, must take into account that in the original oracle (with the line not included in the text of the novel) the snake-formed Cecrops is mentioned and that there is an allusion to the attempted rape of Athena by Hephaestus. Throughout the novel, Tatius presents his characters attempting to 'read' oracles, omens, and paintings for their relevance to the action. In so doing he implies a challenge to the reader-often misleading, as Bartsch has shown-to do the same. So here, it seems likely that Tatius intended his readers to recall the mythological references contained in the epigram, including the line now missing in the present text of the novel, and then to fit them into the narrative flow. At 2.23 Satyrus, a household slave, has arranged for Leucippe and Clitophon to bring their love to fruition. Clitophon is to slip into Leucippe's room after Satyrus has drugged Conops, a slave in Leucippe's entourage; but all does not go as planned, for when Clitophon is 10 See e.g. Danais fro 2, in M. Davies, ed., Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta (Gottingen 1988) 141. 11 N. Robertson, "The Origin of the Panathenaea," RhM 127 (1985) 231-95, esp. 258-69. On the sexual nature of Hephaestus see R. Caldwell, "Haephaes­ tus: A Psychological Study," He/ios 6 {1978) 43-59. CUEVA, EDMUND P., "Anth. Pal." 14.34 and Achilles Tatius 2.14 , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 35:3 (1994:Autumn) p.281 286 ANTH. PAL. 14.34 AND ACHILLES TATIUS 2.14 about to make love to Leucippe, her mother, Panthea, is awakened by a dream in which she sees her daughter being split in two by a robber, beginning at her private part (2.23.5): £80KH 'ttvu ATIa'tT)v IH1XUtpUV EXOV'tU YUllvT)v aYHv apnuaall£vov uu'tTlt; 'tl)v 8uyu't£pu KUlKU'tU8EIl£vOV u1t'tiav, IlEaTlv avu't£Il£tV 'tTl Ilaxaip!t 'tTlV yaa'tEpa, Ka'tw8£v ap~all£vOV ano 'tTle; ai8oue;. When Panthea rushes to Leucippe's room, Clitophon is forced to flee. This episode recalls the dream (1.3.4) in which Clito­ phon sees himself grown, from the waist down, into one body with Calligone, when a woman appears who cuts the two apart. But the metaphorical rape of Panthea's dream also parallels the myth of Hephaestus and Athena in the oracle, where reference to Cecrops also anticipates the snakey-haired woman of Clitophon's dream. Thus the decoded oracle fits perfectly into the plot: Clitophon will attempt to consummate illegally his love for Leucippe just as Hephaestus had tried to have illicit sex with Athena; and the snake-haired woman who will prevent any coital activity recalls the complete original epigram. Thus the oracle is to be linked with other foreshadowing devices in the novel, such as the painting of Europa and the kidnaping of Calli gone. Similarly, the oracle, as originally preserved in the Anth. Pal. also supplies the foreshadowing of Clitophon's failed attempt at intercourse with Leucippe. The present text of Leucippe and Clitophon, however, has the oracle but omits the third line of the orignal that foreshadows the scene involving Panthea. As readers could not have been expected to be familiar with the complete text of such an obscure oracle, it seems clear that the omission of the third line is not Achilles Tatius' doing, but rather a loss in textual transmission like nOAte; in the first line, or is another of example of the apparent scribal abridgements or omissions found else­ where in the narrative.12 XAVIER UNIVERSITY, CINCINNATI May, 1995 12 Other instances are suggested by Satyrus' rather sudden appearance at 1.16.1, and 2.14.1, where Sostratus' generalship is mentioned for the first time. See also W. H. Willis, "The Robinson-Cologne Papyrus of Achilles Tatius," GRBS 31 (1990) 73-102.