Sea-monsters Again!
Rogueclassicism may be on to something, as I have come across yet another use of cetus. This is somewhat funny to me, as I haven't been seeking them out and, as I mentioned before, I don't recall seeing the word incredibly often in the past. This use, this time a Latin genitive, is also in reference to Jonah and is found in a speech of Christ in Book 2 of Juvencus. Here are lines 697-9:
Namque propheta cavo quantum sub pectore ceti
temporis absumpsit, terrae in penetralibus altis
progenies hominis tantum demersa manebit.
1 comment:
Sarah just pointed out to me that in the Etymology at the opening of Melville's Moby Dick he lists khtos as the Greek and cetus as the Latin words for whale, and calls the study of whales cetology.
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