![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=91.7){kind=small}
At the beginning of the article, Heller presents the view which was traditional in 19th- and early 20th-century scholarship, namely: The basic meaning of the word "nēnia" is a funeral dirge, for Festus (as read by Paulus, Paul. Fest. 163 M.) defines it thus: "Nenia est carmen, quod in funere laudandi gratia cantatur ad tibiam."
The problem is that later authors (already Horace, Ovid, and Phaedrus) use neniae (always in the plural) as a synonym of nugae -- either meaning "a trifle", or "a toy", or "children's poetry", or simply "bad poetry". (p. 217) Scholars have concluded that "something in the character of the primitive dirge must have justified, if not caused[,] these new meanings." (p. 219) In other words, scholars have assumed that the Romans must have had a low opinion of the old nenia funeral dirge, and therefore used the term to refer to trifles.
Moreover, no suitable etymology can be found for "nenia" in the meaning of "funeral dirge." Some ancient scholars, as recorded by Festus, tried to derive it from νέατον or νήτη, but "this etymology is obviously impossible". (p. 220) Another ancient etymology argued that the word was onomotapoetic, and La Ville de Mirmont has expounded this view in modern times; but we have no evidence that the Romans ever uttered the syllables nē, nē as a cry of grief. (21)
In section II (pp. 223-245), Heller reviews all uses of the word which he has found in any text from Plautus (3rd - 2nd c. BCE) through the Venerable Bede (7th - 8th c. CE). He organizes these into five groups, based on meaning.
Section III begins: "It is now clear that among all the passages using the word nenia, only about half (nos. 30-116) give it the sense of 'carmen funebre'. Moreover, many of the later passages in this group depend very closely on earlier passages, either by obvious literary imitation [...] or by repeating definitions drawn from a learned tradition [...] ." (p. 245)
p. 247: "We shall probably never understand exactly why semantic extension takes place, even in the case of modern languages and living speech. Our records are too incomplete to enable us to infer, with any degree of certainty, the reasons why one speech-form was favored at the cost of another, in situations where both would have been applicable. Such approach to plausibility is perhaps all that can be secured. In this case, however, it must be said that, if neniae in the sense of 'nugae', 'ineptiae' is an extension of the earlier usages, nenia 'carmen funebre' and nenia 'cantilena', the only discoverable critical contexts, in which the form neniae is applicable both to the old meaning and the new development, occur at a very late point. The recorded examples of the form in the apparently more recent meaning begin with Phaedrus and Petronius, but, as was pointed out in our introductory section (above, 221), the meaning 'carmina funebria' will not fit the contexts here. On the other hand, one may readily suppose that St. Jerome, having seen the word neniae in such contexts as those in Tertullian (no. 160) St. Ambrose (164), and perhaps having heard this form in actual speech as an equivalent for 'vain, idle talk', 'superfluae loquacitates', (compare the derivatives nenior and niniosus, nos. 25-259), had looked up the word in such a dictionary as that of Festus, and thus came to devise artificial contexts for neniae in which the dictionary-meaning, as well as the meaning which he perceived for this form of actual speech, was appropriate. Indeed, when we are faced by the remarkable collocation of words in Claudius Mamertus (no. 186), we must suppose that some such intrusion of learned meaning into ordinary speech had taken place. The way will then be open for us to abandon the old theory, tentatively at least, to search for more enlightening critical contexts, and to see if a more plausible account of the divergent meanings of nenia cannot be given, if we assume that some meaning other than 'carmen funebre' was central among them."
Heller notes that Petronius, and (much later) the late-4th-century Christian writer Prudentius use the word neniae to mean "playthings, toys". This must have been the Latin word corresponding to Greek παίγνια, because ludus, lusus, and ludicrum "were all more generalized and abstract in meaning". Then, this concrete word "nenia", in the abstact plural "neniae", came to be generalized to refer to childish or trivial things of any sort. (249) Heller then finds uses of this word nenia, in the concrete meaning of "toy", in Plautus.
p. 252: "It is tempting also to suppose that in popular speech the word nenia was applied to the song or lullaby of a nurse, just as the plural form neniae seems to have been used of the tales, aniles fabulae, told by nurses [...]."
"Finally, I may suggest an etymology for this word nēnia 'παίγνιον'; that is, I shall attempt to show that the form nēnia was appropriate, according to our knowledge of similar forms in Latin and other languages, for this meaning, which has now been sufficiently established. Various critics have felt that nēnia was a reduplicated form, indicating a Lallwort or nursery-word. [...] Our word nēnia 'παίγνιον' will fit very well in this class of children's words [...]."
IV
"The Greek word παίγνιον also had the specialized meaning 'play', i.e. an impromptu muse, without a plot." (p. 254) "Since this nenia [as reported in a statement by Varro] followed immediately after the laudation by a praefica, the locale of the performance was doubtless not the theater, but at some point during the pompa funebris [...]. Much other evidence shows that players and dancers did perform during the pompa at the funerals of distinguished Romans." (p. 255)
Heller then describes the burlesque nature of the dances and performances at these funerals. (pp. 255-7) "Against this background, the words attributed by Nonius to Varro are now fully intelligible. It was this comic song and dance, performed by young men, which was called nenia, much as the the jingle of boys at a play was called nenia by Horace (Epist. 1.1.63). This performance, for which tibicines and and others provided the music, was usual at a funeral, but also on other occasions, at a triumph and during the pompa circensis. It is even possible that the word nenia was applied, like the Greek παίγνιον, to stage-plays such as the Atellan farce. If this were so, such uses would have assisted in the development of the meaning 'nugae' for the plural neniae, and in the formation of the derivatives nenior 'vana loquor', and niniosus 'garrulus' [...]." (257)
261-2: "[A]s time went on, the the laudatory songs of the praeficae became more elaborate, until ultimately they defeated their own purpose, and were replaced by the prose laudatio funebris. On the other hand, as the words of the praeficae came to be regarded as inept and silly, hardly to be taken seriously [...], the distinction between the burlesques and the things they burlesqued would disappear, and the word nenia 'plaything', 'childish play' might then be applied to the laudatory song of a praefica. This is the meaning which it seems to have in Plaut. Truc. 213, and this is the meaning ascribed to it in the learned tradition. The definition given by Nonius [...] may, after all, embody the good fruits of republican scholarship. To be sure, the scholars were only half right. They should have mentioned in their definitions other meanings for the word, which they may have heard in the actual speech around them. They were excessively devoted to etymology, however, and having found what seemed to them an appropriate Greek original for the word, [...] they took the later contexts, just as modern scholars have done, as confirming their belief that nenia was ineptum et inconditum carmen, sung by the disreputable praeficae at funerals."
V
Conclusion: We have thus seen that word nenia is attested in literature with the meaning "carmen funebre". However, we argue that the original meaning of the word is "plaything" or "toy" or "play", and in this sense it was applied at an early date to the burlesque performances of amateur actors at funerals and other occasions. Then, because these performances came to be regarded silly, there was a further development in the usage of the word, such that the word and its derivatives came to mean "silly nonsense".
The usual theory is that the original meaning of the word is "carmen funebre", and the meaning "silly" or 'trifle" is derivative from this, due to the low quality of the performances. However, the problem with this theory is that it does not take into account the concrete menaning of the word as "toy", which appears not only in late classical Petronius, or Christian Prudentius, but in very early classical Plautus. And therefore, Heller concludes that his theory fits the evidence much better. (Heller says that the other advantage of his theory is that it "provides a more plausible account [...] of the early history of the ceremonies at the funeral procession, which we may now trace in some clarity to the beginning of the fourth century B.C. [...]".)
The problem is that later authors (already Horace, Ovid, and Phaedrus) use neniae (always in the plural) as a synonym of nugae -- either meaning "a trifle", or "a toy", or "children's poetry", or simply "bad poetry". (p. 217) Scholars have concluded that "something in the character of the primitive dirge must have justified, if not caused[,] these new meanings." (p. 219) In other words, scholars have assumed that the Romans must have had a low opinion of the old nenia funeral dirge, and therefore used the term to refer to trifles.
Moreover, no suitable etymology can be found for "nenia" in the meaning of "funeral dirge." Some ancient scholars, as recorded by Festus, tried to derive it from νέατον or νήτη, but "this etymology is obviously impossible". (p. 220) Another ancient etymology argued that the word was onomotapoetic, and La Ville de Mirmont has expounded this view in modern times; but we have no evidence that the Romans ever uttered the syllables nē, nē as a cry of grief. (21)
In section II (pp. 223-245), Heller reviews all uses of the word which he has found in any text from Plautus (3rd - 2nd c. BCE) through the Venerable Bede (7th - 8th c. CE). He organizes these into five groups, based on meaning.
Section III begins: "It is now clear that among all the passages using the word nenia, only about half (nos. 30-116) give it the sense of 'carmen funebre'. Moreover, many of the later passages in this group depend very closely on earlier passages, either by obvious literary imitation [...] or by repeating definitions drawn from a learned tradition [...] ." (p. 245)
p. 247: "We shall probably never understand exactly why semantic extension takes place, even in the case of modern languages and living speech. Our records are too incomplete to enable us to infer, with any degree of certainty, the reasons why one speech-form was favored at the cost of another, in situations where both would have been applicable. Such approach to plausibility is perhaps all that can be secured. In this case, however, it must be said that, if neniae in the sense of 'nugae', 'ineptiae' is an extension of the earlier usages, nenia 'carmen funebre' and nenia 'cantilena', the only discoverable critical contexts, in which the form neniae is applicable both to the old meaning and the new development, occur at a very late point. The recorded examples of the form in the apparently more recent meaning begin with Phaedrus and Petronius, but, as was pointed out in our introductory section (above, 221), the meaning 'carmina funebria' will not fit the contexts here. On the other hand, one may readily suppose that St. Jerome, having seen the word neniae in such contexts as those in Tertullian (no. 160) St. Ambrose (164), and perhaps having heard this form in actual speech as an equivalent for 'vain, idle talk', 'superfluae loquacitates', (compare the derivatives nenior and niniosus, nos. 25-259), had looked up the word in such a dictionary as that of Festus, and thus came to devise artificial contexts for neniae in which the dictionary-meaning, as well as the meaning which he perceived for this form of actual speech, was appropriate. Indeed, when we are faced by the remarkable collocation of words in Claudius Mamertus (no. 186), we must suppose that some such intrusion of learned meaning into ordinary speech had taken place. The way will then be open for us to abandon the old theory, tentatively at least, to search for more enlightening critical contexts, and to see if a more plausible account of the divergent meanings of nenia cannot be given, if we assume that some meaning other than 'carmen funebre' was central among them."
Heller notes that Petronius, and (much later) the late-4th-century Christian writer Prudentius use the word neniae to mean "playthings, toys". This must have been the Latin word corresponding to Greek παίγνια, because ludus, lusus, and ludicrum "were all more generalized and abstract in meaning". Then, this concrete word "nenia", in the abstact plural "neniae", came to be generalized to refer to childish or trivial things of any sort. (249) Heller then finds uses of this word nenia, in the concrete meaning of "toy", in Plautus.
p. 252: "It is tempting also to suppose that in popular speech the word nenia was applied to the song or lullaby of a nurse, just as the plural form neniae seems to have been used of the tales, aniles fabulae, told by nurses [...]."
"Finally, I may suggest an etymology for this word nēnia 'παίγνιον'; that is, I shall attempt to show that the form nēnia was appropriate, according to our knowledge of similar forms in Latin and other languages, for this meaning, which has now been sufficiently established. Various critics have felt that nēnia was a reduplicated form, indicating a Lallwort or nursery-word. [...] Our word nēnia 'παίγνιον' will fit very well in this class of children's words [...]."
IV
"The Greek word παίγνιον also had the specialized meaning 'play', i.e. an impromptu muse, without a plot." (p. 254) "Since this nenia [as reported in a statement by Varro] followed immediately after the laudation by a praefica, the locale of the performance was doubtless not the theater, but at some point during the pompa funebris [...]. Much other evidence shows that players and dancers did perform during the pompa at the funerals of distinguished Romans." (p. 255)
Heller then describes the burlesque nature of the dances and performances at these funerals. (pp. 255-7) "Against this background, the words attributed by Nonius to Varro are now fully intelligible. It was this comic song and dance, performed by young men, which was called nenia, much as the the jingle of boys at a play was called nenia by Horace (Epist. 1.1.63). This performance, for which tibicines and and others provided the music, was usual at a funeral, but also on other occasions, at a triumph and during the pompa circensis. It is even possible that the word nenia was applied, like the Greek παίγνιον, to stage-plays such as the Atellan farce. If this were so, such uses would have assisted in the development of the meaning 'nugae' for the plural neniae, and in the formation of the derivatives nenior 'vana loquor', and niniosus 'garrulus' [...]." (257)
261-2: "[A]s time went on, the the laudatory songs of the praeficae became more elaborate, until ultimately they defeated their own purpose, and were replaced by the prose laudatio funebris. On the other hand, as the words of the praeficae came to be regarded as inept and silly, hardly to be taken seriously [...], the distinction between the burlesques and the things they burlesqued would disappear, and the word nenia 'plaything', 'childish play' might then be applied to the laudatory song of a praefica. This is the meaning which it seems to have in Plaut. Truc. 213, and this is the meaning ascribed to it in the learned tradition. The definition given by Nonius [...] may, after all, embody the good fruits of republican scholarship. To be sure, the scholars were only half right. They should have mentioned in their definitions other meanings for the word, which they may have heard in the actual speech around them. They were excessively devoted to etymology, however, and having found what seemed to them an appropriate Greek original for the word, [...] they took the later contexts, just as modern scholars have done, as confirming their belief that nenia was ineptum et inconditum carmen, sung by the disreputable praeficae at funerals."
V
Conclusion: We have thus seen that word nenia is attested in literature with the meaning "carmen funebre". However, we argue that the original meaning of the word is "plaything" or "toy" or "play", and in this sense it was applied at an early date to the burlesque performances of amateur actors at funerals and other occasions. Then, because these performances came to be regarded silly, there was a further development in the usage of the word, such that the word and its derivatives came to mean "silly nonsense".
The usual theory is that the original meaning of the word is "carmen funebre", and the meaning "silly" or 'trifle" is derivative from this, due to the low quality of the performances. However, the problem with this theory is that it does not take into account the concrete menaning of the word as "toy", which appears not only in late classical Petronius, or Christian Prudentius, but in very early classical Plautus. And therefore, Heller concludes that his theory fits the evidence much better. (Heller says that the other advantage of his theory is that it "provides a more plausible account [...] of the early history of the ceremonies at the funeral procession, which we may now trace in some clarity to the beginning of the fourth century B.C. [...]".)
