> [[mcdonald]]. *Orpheus and the Cow: Indo-European Inheritance and Virgilian Variation in Georgics 4*. [PhD Dissertation](graduate-works.md). Cornell University, 2014. > #have #nodoi #link ## Abstract > The epyllion with which Virgil concludes his *Georgics* consists of a remarkable combination of elements that coincide here and nowhere else in extant Classical literature. This dissertation participates in the ongoing debate as to whether the epyllion’s seemingly unique narrative does indeed constitute a Virgilian innovation, or whether it is rather founded on an anteceding narrative. In particular, this study focuses on Virgil’s incorporation of the aetiology of the bougonia, the process according to which bees can supposedly be generated from a bovine carcass, into his account of the fate of Orpheus. > <br> > The evidence accumulated in this dissertation leads its author to the conclusion that Virgil’s text does indeed owe something of its composition to a previously established tradition emphasizing a significant relationship between Orpheus and cows. The first three chapters endeavor to demonstrate that several instances in Greek myth and religion show traces of such an erstwhile connection between Orpheus and bovines. The instances in question are 1. a variety of contexts pertaining to the myth of Dionysus’ infanticide and subsequent rebirth, which apparently possessed special relevance in Orphic milieux, 2. the narrative of Hermes’ invention of the lyre, which appears to possess affinities with Orphic mythology and ideology, and 3. the events that occur during Orpheus’ contest with the Sirens in the Argonautic narrative. > <br> > The fourth and final chapter applies comparative evidence from Vedic India to Virgil’s amalgamation of Orpheus and the *bougonia*. Operating within the framework of Indo-European methodology, the author submits that the *Rig Veda*’s references to the supernatural activities involving a cow accomplished by the R̥ bhus, whose appellation is arguably cognate with Orpheus’ name, comprises the Indic equivalent of Virgil’s Orpheus-*bougonia* complex. This comparandum indicates that the tradition putatively providing the basis of Virgil’s epyllion was one inherited by the Greeks from Indo-European tradition. > <br> > The author’s position is that an awareness of the traditional foundation of Virgil’s epyllion both increases our understanding of how the Orpheus-*bougonia* complex reflects Orphic ideology and enhances our appreciation of the ways in which Virgil appears to have adapted the tradition on which his variations depend. ## Contents BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH iii DEDICATION iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v INTRODUCTION 1 - Virgil’s Orpheus-Bougonia Complex: A Traditional Configuration 1 - Out of Egypt? The Apis Bull and Other Near Eastern Comparanda to the Bougonia 27 - Some Methodological Remarks 38 CHAPTER 1 - Dionysus Bougenes: A Bacchic Correlate to Virgil’s Orpheus-Bougonia Complex 44 - Dionysus’ Tauriform Dismemberment 45 - Notional Transformation in the Orphic lamellae: An Initiatory Correspondent to Dionysus’ Tauriform Rebirth 57 - Dionysus’ Argive Epithet Bougenes 64 - Dionysus’ Apian and Mellic Associations 69 - Lasus of Hermione and Persephone Meliboia 72 CHAPTER 2 - Hermes Bouphonos and the Invention of the Lyre: A Homeric Correlate to Virgil’s Orpheus-Bougonia Complex 82 - Orpheus and the Lyre 82 - The Cow, the Lyre, and Bovine Symbolism in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes 89 - Mantic Maidens and the Birth of Orion: Hermes Betwixt Bees and Bovines 110 CHAPTER 3 - Boutes Overboard: An Argonautic Correlate to Virgil’s Orpheus-Bougonia Complex 116 - Odd Man Out? Orpheus among the Argonauts 116 - Boutes’ Briny Bound 121 - Apian Elements in the Boutes Episode 126 - Poetry and Rebirth: An Orphic Conceptual Cluster in the Boutes Episode 139 CHAPTER 4 - The R̥bhus Create a Cow: A Vedic Correlate to Virgil’s Orpheus-Bougonia Complex 147 - Recycling Souls: The Etymology and Semantics of Ὀρφεύς and *R̥bhú* 148 - Crafty Poets and Poetic Craftsmen: Approximating Orpheus and the R̥bhus’ Activities 156 - The R̥bhus and Their Cow 179 CONCLUSION 205 - Virgil’s Orpheus-Bougonia Complex: An Intersection of Tradition and Innovation 205 - Cryptic Cows and Bovine Imbroglios: Attaching and Detaching the Bougonia 211 - Phoenician Bees in Byrsa: The Afterlife of the Bougonia in the Aeneid 219 - Picasso, Cocteau, and Apollinaire: Orpheus and the Cow in the Visual and Verbal Arts of the Twentieth Century 221 APPENDIX A - Ὀρφεύς and R̥ bhú-: A Linguistic Assessment 236 APPENDIX B - Orpheus and the Swan: Cygnean and Cyclic Semiotics and Wordplay 251 APPENDIX C - Sun, Seasons, Sexism and So On: Further Correspondences Between Orpheus and the R̥bhus 263 WORKS CITED 278