‘unmentioned and mentioned, spoken and unspoken of ’ (Hes. Op. 3–4); κα?
δκαια κEδικα‘through right or wrong’ (Solon fr. 30 and related texts), paral-
leled in Latin by per omne fas ac nefas secuturi (Livy 6. 14. 10), honesta atque
inhonesta (Tac. Ann. 2. 38); pennatas inpennatasque agnas‘bearded and beard-
less ears of corn’ (Carmen Saliare ap. Fest. p. 211 M.); nerf sihitu ansihitu,
iouie hostatu anhostatu‘principes cinctos incinctos, iuuenes hastatos inhasta-
tos’ (Tab. Iguv. VIb. 59, cf. VIIa. 13 f., 28, al.); snata asnata‘umecta non
umecta’ IIa.19, cf. 34; bennacht dé 7 andé fort‘the blessing of gods and non-
gods on you’ (Táin (I) 2043), which recalls RV 6. 22. 11 ná ya ̄ ́ádevo... ná
deváh
̇
, ‘neither a non-god nor a god’.
An especially widespread and long-lasting formula is ‘seen and unseen’.
It occurs in several incantations of the Atharvaveda, as for example in 2. 31.
2 dr
̇
s
̇tám adr ́
̇s
̇tam atr
̇ham, ‘the seen, the unseen one [worm] I have crushed’
(cf. 5. 23. 6–7; 8. 8. 15); the intention was to leave no loophole by which an
undetected worm might escape. So in the Roman prayer given by Cato (De
agricultura 141. 2), uti tu morbos uisos inuisosque... prohibessis defendas
auerruncesque, ‘that thou mayest ward off, repel, and avert distempers seen
and unseen’. In the Umbrian ritual regulations expiation is offered to Jupiter
Grabovius persei... tuer perscler uirseto auirseto uas est‘if in your sacrifice
there is any seen or unseen imperfection’ (Tab. Iguv. VIa. 28, 38, 48, al.). We
read of an Irish oath sworn ‘by all elements visible and invisible, in heaven
and on earth’.^92
Such apparently catch-all formulae were especially suited to legal or other
prescriptive language where the intention was to exclude any transgression or
oversight. It is in this spirit that Hesiod enjoins that we should not urinate
while walking, ‘neither on the road nor off the road’ (Op. 729). Sometimes it
is deemed advisable to provide for both male and female. The Hittites make a
practice of invoking ‘all gods and goddesses’; in the great prayer of Muwatalli,
after a lengthy list of deities, the Storm-god is addressed, and then ‘gods and
goddesses of the king and queen, those named and those not named, those in
whose temples the king and queen officiate and those in whose temples they
do not officiate’.^93 In RV 6. 68. 4 the phrase ‘all the gods’ is reinforced by gna ̄ ́s ́
ca náras ́ ca, ‘females and males’. Zeus in the Iliad calls on ‘all gods and all
goddesses’ to hear him, and a similar phrase was traditional in Greek prayers
and treaties.^94 In another of Cato’s prayers for farmers (De agric. 139) the
(^92) Fled Dúin na nGéd p. 1. 5 Lehmann: rátha na n-uile dúl aicsige 7 nemaicsigi 7 nách dúilfil a
nim 7 a talmain.
(^93) CTH 381 rev. iii 5–8; Lebrun (1980), 265/280. Further examples in Beckman (1999), 40, 47,
52, 58, 63, 68, 82, 86, 92, 112, 121. For a seventh-century Assyrian example see West (1997), 222.
(^94) Il. 8. 5 = 19. 101; Ar. Av. 866 f. with Nan Dunbar’s commentary. In two Eddic poems
(Þrymskviða 14. 1–4=Baldrs draumar 1. 1–4) we find the couplet ‘All the gods were together at
assembly, and all the goddesses at the debate’.
102 2. Phrase and Figure