Seeing the light, Part II: The reception of Aratus’s LEPTĒ acrostic in Greek and Latin literature1

Abstract

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Muses in the Sky: Lucretius’ Invocative Telestich and its Multiple Revivals in Latin Poetry

“…Robinson 2019b, esp. 291-9)-concern signposting, contextual relevance, and intertextual embeddedness (see Kronenberg (2019) 279). In the case of Lucretius' "founding" telestich, all of them are guaranteed: while the eminent structural positionas it is located in the very opening of the poem-is obvious, signposting, contextual relevance, and intertextual embeddedness (provided partly by the Aratean background and the literary contexts attached to the Muses, partly by the intertextual afterlife itself) can and will be verified as well.…”

“…3 For Lucretius' wordplays and the underlying theory of elementa, see, above all, Snyder (1980), Gale (2001), and Kronenberg (2019). For Aratus' stars as textual signs ("letters in the sky"), see Volk (2012).…”

“…For the "solar" associations possibly attached to Aratus Solensis/Soleus in Latin poetry, see Katz (2016) 80-1 and Kronenberg (2019) 287. 8 For the discovery and the interpretation of this acrostic, see Kronenberg (2019).…”

“…13 Accordingly, if the Lucretian "Venus-as-Muse," beyond its Empedoclean background, has a kinship with Aratus' catasterized Dike, 9 Programmatically, see DRN 1.144 (clara … lumina), 3.1 (clarum … lumen), 4.232 (in luce et claro candore), 5.12 (clara luce). On the overwhelming light imagery in Lucretius and its connection to his poetic program, hinting at his own name as well, see Kronenberg (2019), passim. As for Titus Lucretius Carus' backward acronym hidden in candenti lumine tinctus (DRN 5.721, "the man bathed in shining light"?…”