παρεβύσατο. Dial. Mer. xii. I. This custom of taking a bite out of the apple is a feature of the game in another place in Lucian,2 and in Alciphron. With the pianoaoa of Lucian we may compare this line, from an epigram ascribed to Petronius: oscula cum pomis mitte; vorabo lubens. Petr. Epig. 34. Another curious development of the practice of giving apples is found in the messages which were sometimes written on them. For the existence in historical times of such a custom we have no evidence; but three stories which have come down to us describing this use of the apple make it probable that it was not unknown in real life. These are the story of the Apple of Discord, which Lucian says bore the legend ἡ καλὴ λαβέτω, — the story of the apple that got Cydippe into such a coil, and the one, preserved in the scholia to the Iliad, about the maiden who fell in love with Achilles, and assisted him, by a message written upon an apple which she flung to him, to capture her native town. This last story, which is of unusual interest in that the scholiast ascribes it to Hesiod, thus making it the oldest of all the sources for our study, is as follows: Αχιλλεὺς ὑπὸ τὸν Τρωϊκὸν πόλεμον πορθῶν τὰς περιοίκους τῆς Ἰλίου πόλεις, ἀφίκετο εἰς τὴν πάλαι μὲν Μονηνίαν, νῦν δὲ Πήδασον καλουμένην, καὶ αὐτὴν σὺν ταῖς ἄλλαις ἑλεῖν. ἀπογνόντος δὲ αὐτοῦ τὴν εἰς τὸ τέλος πολιορκίαν διὰ τὴν ὀχυρότητα τοῦ τόπου καὶ μέλλοντος ἀναχωρεῖν, φασὶν εἴσω τῶν τειχῶν οὖσάν τινα παρθένον ἐρασθῆναι τοῦ ̓Αχιλλέως, καὶ λαβοῦσαν μῆλον εἰς τοῦτο ἐπιγράψαι, καὶ ῥῖψαι εἰς μέσον τῶν ̓Αχαιῶν· ἦν δὲ ἐν αὐτῷ γεγραμμένον “ μὴ σπεῦδ ̓, ̓Αχιλλεῦ, πρὶν Μονηνίαν ἑλεῖν· ὕδωρ γὰρ οὐκ ἔνεστι· διψῶσιν κακῶς.” τὸν δὲ ̓Αχιλλέα ἐπιμείναντα οὕτω λαβεῖν τὴν πόλιν τῇ τοῦ ὕδατος σπάνει. ἡ ἱστορία παρὰ Δημητρίῳ καὶ ̔Ησιόδῳ. Schol. Ven. A. on Il. Z 35.5 While it is true that the apple is here used, primarily at least, not as a love-token, but to convey a message 1 Cf. the almost word-for-word imitation by Aristaenetus (i. 25). 2 Lucian, Tox. 13. 3 Alciphron, Epist. iii. 62, 2. 4 Lucian, Dial. Mar. 5. 6 Dilthey (p. 1 1 3 *) thinks we have in Philostratus (Epist. 62, Kays.) an allusion to this story. of encouragement relative to the siege which Achilles is prosecuting, one is strongly tempted to believe that the maiden's apple was meant to bear more than one message, and to hint that another citadel was quite as near capitulation as was Monenia. 1 Cydippe's story is transmitted to us in the Heroides of Ovid, who found it in a poem by Callimachus. It is something like this: Acontius was a beautiful youth of the island Ceos. At the yearly festival, in Delos, he saw Cydippe, the daughter of an Athenian of high rank, and straightway fell in love with her. Following her to the temple of Artemis, whither she had gone, in company with her nurse, he plucked a quince, and, writing on it, "I swear by the sanctuary of Artemis to wed Acontius," flung it at her feet. The nurse picked it up and handed it to Cydippe, who read it aloud, for Nurse's benefit. By thus saying aloud the words on the quince, she became bound to marry the young Cean, for the goddess had heard her vow. Now Cydippe's father had promised her to another, and, upon her return to Athens, preparations were made for the solemnization of her marriage. When the day appointed for the ceremony came, however, Cydippe was suddenly taken sick, and the marriage had to be postponed. Twice again, the day was set, and, twice again, did Cydippe fall sick. Finally, the father appealed to Delphi, and learned that the wrath of Artemis, occasioned by the breaking of Cydippe's vow, could only be appeased by the girl's marriage to Acontius, which was, accordingly, allowed to take place. Yet another side of the wide sphere of usefulness of the apple is recorded by Horace, in the Satires ii. 3, 272 f. : quid, cum Picenis excerpens semina pomis gaudes si cameram percusti forte, penes te es? upon which Porfyrio comments: solent amantes semina ex malis orbiculatis duobus primis compressa digitis mittere in cameram, velut augurantes, si cameram contigerint, posse sperari ad effectum duci, quod animo conceperunt. I shall now consider a number of passages which must be dealt · with in determining how much the likeness of the apple to the shape 1 Imitated in one told of Ctesylla; Antoninus Liberalis, 1. of a woman's breast had to do with the part it played in courtship and marriage.1 Aristophanes has, in the Acharnians (v. 1199): τῶν τιτθίων, ὡς σκληρὰ καὶ Κυδώνια. In the Lysistrata occur the words (v. 115): τῆς ̔Ελένας τὰ μᾶλα. The scholiast explains: τοὺς μαστοὺς μῆλα φησίν. In the Ecclesiazusae (v. 901 ff.) the young man says, of the girl: Two other writers of comedy, also, make the comparison. Crates (frag. 40 Kock) has : πάνυ γάρ ἐστιν ὡρικώτατα τὰ τιτθί ̓ ὥσπερ μῆλον ἢ μιμαίκυλα. Cantharus (frag. 6 Kock) has : Κυδωνίοις μήλοισιν εἰς τὰ τιτθία. 1 For this symbolism in modern literature, cf. Goethe, Faust v. 3771 ff. FAUST. Einst hatt' ich einen schönen Traum; Da sah ich einen Apfelbaum, Zwei schöne Aepfel glänzten dran, DIE SCHÖNE. Der Aepfelchen begehrt ihr sehr, Von Freuden fühl' ich mich bewegt Dass auch mein Garten solche trägt, with the note in the edition of von Loeper (Berl. 1879), who cites "Dschami in Jussuf u. Suleika, 15 Gesang, von der Brust Suleika's: Zwei frische Aepfel, welche einen Zweig geziert; Ariost. Ras. Rol. vii. 14: Due pome acerbe e pur d'avorio fatte, Vengono e van, come onde; Konrad's Trojanischer Krieg, von der Helena: Als ob zwên epfel wünneclich, Ihr waeren dar gestecket; auch Bürger: Und suche den Baum, den Baum, Der den Apfel der Liebe dir trug." Cf. also Goethe's Der Müllerin Verrath, third stanza, and Grimm's Wörterbuch s.vv. Apfel, Frauenaepfel. 2 The scholiast says: μhλois: Taîs wapelaîs, on which Rutherford (Schol. Arist. ii. p. 550) observes that this is a known late sense of μλov. In view of the other places in Aristophanes, I feel pretty certain that the scholiast is mistaken. Coming down to Theocritus, we have, in a mime attributed to him, a dialogue in which the girl exclaims, as she repels the rude advances of her lover: τί ῥέζεις σατυρίσκε; τί δ ̓ ἔνδοθεν ἅψαο μαζῶν; and the young man replies: μᾶλα τεὰ πράτιστα τάδε χνοάοντα διδάξω. Theoc. Idyll. xxvii. 48 f. The writers of the Greek Anthology yield a few more illustrations. Leonidas of Tarentum has this line: καὶ μαζὸς, ἀκμῆς ἄγγελος, κυδωνιᾷ. 1 Anth. Plan. 182. In another place he has the word μηλοῦχον — literally, apple-sustainer' used of a strophium. In an epigram by Rufinus we read: παρθένος ἀργυροπέζος ἐλούετο, χρύσεα μαζῶν χρωτί γαλακτοπαγεῖ μῆλα διαινομένη, κτέ. Anth. Pal. v. 60. Two epigrams by Paulus Silentiarius are especially illuminating. In one, he writes : εἴ ποτ ̓ ἐμοί, χαρίεσσα, τεῶν τάδε σύμβολα μαζῶν Anth. Pal. v. 291. and that the rade means 'apples' is clear from the epigram immediately preceding, upon the same theme, and, very possibly, written for the same occasion; here apples are specified as the gift, and a comparison with the breasts is again intended: ὄμμα πολυπτοίητον ὑποκλέπτουσα τεκούσης, θηλυτέρη χαρίεσσα. μάγον τάχα πυρσὸν ἐρώτων εἰμὶ γὰρ ὁ τλήμων φλογὶ σύμπλοκος· ἀντὶ δὲ μαζῶν ὦ πόποι, ἀπρήκτοις μῆλα φέρω παλάμαις. 1 Anth. Pal. vi. 211. Anth. Pal. v. 290. An anonymous squib addressed to an old woman whose unwelcome attentions have made her troublesome to some young fellow, should probably be included here: ἄλλην δρῦν βαλάνιζε, Μενέσθιον· οὐ γὰρ ἔγωγε ἔκκαιρον μήλων προσδέχομαι ῥυτίδα· ἀλλ ̓ αἰεὶ πεπόθηκα συνακμάζουσαν ὀπώρην. ὥστε τί πειράζεις λευκὸν ἰδεῖν κόρακα; Anth. Pal. xi. 417. The curious piece of metaphorical writing that follows, reminding one strongly of the figurative language of the Song of Songs, is from the speech of Bacchus to Beroe, in the Dionysiaca of Nonnus, an epic poet of, perhaps, the fourth century of our era : “ παρθένε νῦν χρόνος ἦλθε· ποτέ τρυγόωμεν ὀπώρην; μή μοι χρυσὸν ἄγοις κομιδῆς χάριν· οὐ χρέος ὄλβου· τοῖα μάτην ἀγόρευε, καὶ οὐκ ἠμείβετο κούρη Nonnus, Dionys. 42, 297 ff. (Köchly's edition). What inferences may fairly be drawn from all this evidence? It may be held, I think, that from Aristophanes down, the comparison of breasts with apples was a familiar one. On the other hand, we must not forget that only in late writers do we find this symbolism an element in the game of sending or throwing apples, as love-gifts. What we must seek, in order to explain satisfactorily all the many |