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Metrum 5

If the world at large is so harmoniously governed, B. complains (lines 1- 24), why are human affairs alone the toy and sport of arbitrary Fortune (lines 25-48)?

Meter: Anapestic dimeter ( u u - u u - u u - u u -), with diaeresis between the metra. As usual, the short syllables may be contracted or the long ones resolved (except the last), so the actual schema is W M W M W M W -. But Boethius does not mix contractions and resolutions in the same metron, nor does he have more than three fully contracted feet in a line. Another way to express this would be that dactyls may replace anapests except that there are no dactyls in the last foot and dactyls and anapests may not appear in the same metron. A spondee may appear in any foot, but there may be no more than three spondees in a line.


conditor: in later Latin usually "creator."


perpetuo . . . solio: "an enduring throne." nixus: < nitor , "rest upon."


ut: governs through line 12. pleno . . . cornu: a way of saying that the moon is full. lucida: modifies luna (line 7).


fratris: i.e., Phoebus (the sun); final syllable closed before diaeresis. obvia: "opposite" (with dative), modifies luna (line 7).


condat: "dims."


Phoebo propior: "closer to Phoebus" i.e., as day nears.


Hesperos (evening star) and Lucifer (morning star) are the names given to whatever planet (usually Venus or Jupiter) shines brightest at dawn and at dusk. B.'s point in these lines is that the same planet can be evening star now, and morning star a few weeks from now.


algentes . . . ortus: "chilly risings." Hesperos: Greek nominative form, "[as] the evening star." Lucifer: "[as] the morning star."


Winter and summer. frondifluae: "leaf-flowing"; a word not otherwise attested in surviving Latin authors, perhaps coined (on Greek models) by Boethius himself.


agiles: since in ancient time-reckoning there were twelve hours of daylight and twelve hours of darkness every day, in every season, then in summer the night hours would seem unusually swift. nocti: dative of reference (with force of a genitive: see on 1P4.36).


Fall and spring.


Zephyrus: "the west wind."


Arcturus: "Bear-watcher" (hence the aptness of vidit ), prominent in the evening sky in early spring.


Sirius: the "dog-star"; it rises just before dawn in the hottest part of summer, whence we speak of the "dog days." segetes: < seges , "cornfield."


stationis: "post," a military term.


respuis: "you refuse," takes complementary infinitive ( cohibere ).


debita: nominative singular, modifies poena and takes a dative.


nocentes: nominative.


crimen iniqui: a monometer (one metron).


ipsis: sc. nocentibus .


gaudet: The subject is effectively fortuna (29), but a better reading (cf. Gruber) is gaudent ; subject is then drawn from ipsis (37).


homines: in apposition with pars . fortunae salo: this second metron consists of a spondee plus a cretic ( - - - u -).


quo: the antecedent is foedere (48).


firma: imperative < firmo .

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  • Commentary references from this page (1):
    • Boethius, De consolatione philosophiae, 1.m5
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