[Milton-L] Thanks for Help with terminology sought

[Harold Skulsky]

Dear Professor Bellinger:

"Erroneous there to wander and forlorne" (PL 7.20) is surely a hyperbaton and epiphrasis, with the quasi-copulative verb "wander" inserted between its two predicate complements "erroneous" and "forlorne" (NB: not functional adverbs but out-and-out adjectives; this is a latinate construction Milton is quite fond of); "and forlorne" comes in as an afterthought.

But does "wander" apply to its complements in the same sense? If so, then we don't have zeugma of the interesting kind (figura sententiarum). Let's see. 

The etymological sense of "erroneous" yields a redundancy ("to wander wandering")--and hence readily gives way to the derivative sense "prone to error."  The etymological sense of "forlorn" ("forsaken") is perfectly right for the Bellerophon myth; Bellerophon's foiled (and vaguely Satanic) plan of intruding on Olympus earns abandonment by Zeus. "Wandering" as cognitive vulnerability ("erroneous") is one thing--and bad enough; wandering as a (Cain-like) unlimited punishment ("forlorne") is quite another--and infinitely worse. 

What the narrator fears is that his ambition to write cosmic history, though it seems to be underwritten by Urania (Muse of Heaven = Holy Spirit), may turn out to be a sin of presumption far worse than Bellerophon's, and that he (the narrator) will be condemned to repeat that sin by compounding the "error." In this context, I tend to think the hyperbatic verb's relation to its two complements is Janus-faced (see previous paragraph). So (with misgivings) I vote for zeugma in the semantically interesting sense. 

So yes: hyperbaton, epiphrasis, zeugma. Unless I turn out to be . . .  in error. 

(By the way, the "Aleian plain" that Bellerophon is condemned to roam in is a Homeric pun on Gk. "alaomai" = "wander"; "be banished.")

Cheers,
HS