[...] Voss then pointed out that Virgil noticed the allusion for his
in limo recalls the same Greek word in source
and sense, while his cecinere querelam
is a not unreasonable reminiscence of Aristophanes famous croaking,
βρεκεκεκέξ*. Virgil’s lines, then, look through the “window” of Varro of Atax to the ultimate modeL of both, Aratus (wth passing reference to Cicero and to Cicero’s model, Aristophanes); in the process Virgil corrects Varro’s omission of the signs given by frogs, and it is doubtless this fact, rather than mere respect for Varro, which motivates the otherwise close adaptation of his Latin model. [
]
*I would add that the adjective with which their croaking is modified,
ueterem, might function as a gloss on these literary frogs-
uetus comoedia being a standard term for Attic old commedy (e.g., Cic.
Leg. 2.37). Cf on these lines L.P. Wilkinson, The Georgics of Virgil (Cambridge 1969) 238-239
Virgil's Georgics and the Art of Reference
Richard F. Thomas
Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 90 (1986), pp. 171-198
@nickel: δες το «κοΐ, κοΐζω,
κοάξ (και ολόκληρο το «βρεκεκεκέξ κοάξ κοάξ») στο Liddell-Scott. Εντυπωσιακό λήμμα το «κοάξ». :))
For Modern Greek:
κοάξ κοάξ [koáks koáks] & κουάξ κουάξ [kuáks kuáks] (άκλ.) : ηχομιμητική λέξη που αποδίδει τον κοασμό του βατράχου, συνήθ. και ως βρεκεκέξ κουάξ κουάξ. [λόγ. < αρχ. κοάξ (ηχομιμ.)· κουάξ: ημιφωνοποίηση του φων.
(...χάσαμε ένα «κε»)