SOURCE: Solmsen, Friedrich. “Aratus on the Maiden and the Golden Age.” Hermes 94, no. 1 (January 1966): 124-28.

In the following essay, Solmsen discusses Aratus's depiction of Dike, the maiden goddess of justice, and his vision of the Golden Age in the Phaenomena.

Walther Ludwig's illuminating article¹ has shown how ingeniously and with how gentle a hand Aratus appropriates Hesiodic motifs and phrases. Availing myself of Ludwig's insights, I offer a few additional observations bearing on the section about the Παθένοs (vv. 96-136).

In the opening lines of this section Aratus professes to leave his readers a choice between three opinions about the origin or identity of the Maiden, but the second of these opinions is stated in so indefinite a form (εἴτε τευ ἄλλου scil. γενεή, v. 99, which means: or whether she has a father other than Astraeus²) that the choice practically narrows down to two possibilities. We may either regard the Maiden as...