{"slug":"stoa0276.stoa006.opp-lat2","id":"latin:ogl-csel:stoa0276.stoa006.opp-lat2","title":"Carmen De Iona et Ninive","title_source":"Carmen De Iona et Ninive","author":"Pseudo-Tertullian","genre":"poetry","date":"","tradition":"latin","coverage":"not-located","coverage_claim":{"status":"not-located","text":"No English translation could be identified: a language model asked twice could not name one, though it could not rule one out either. That is not proof that none exists — translations in dissertations, recent books and other modern languages are easily missed."},"publication":{"status":"machine-draft","reviewed_by":null,"model":"deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash:floor","provider":"Relace","generated":"2026-11-15T05:29:51Z","cost_usd":0.002704},"source":{"registry_id":"latin:ogl-csel:stoa0276.stoa006.opp-lat2","work_id":"stoa0276.stoa006.opp-lat2","edition":"ogl-csel","language":"","license":"Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License","url":"https://github.com/OpenGreekAndLatin/csel-dev/blob/master/data/data/stoa0276/stoa006/stoa0276.stoa006.opp-lat2.xml"},"stats":{"passages":4,"english_words":1132,"coptic_letters":0,"source_letters":3971,"commentary_units":24,"commentary_kinds":7,"derived_notes":2,"ambiguities":8,"work_notes":5,"external_links":0,"timeline":4},"summary":{"work":"stoa0276.stoa006.opp-lat2","abstract":"The Carmen De Iona et Ninive is a Latin poem on the biblical story of Jonah and Nineveh, traditionally attributed to Tertullian but now recognized as spurious. It survives in a single manuscript tradition and was included in the Patrologia Latina under Tertullian's name. The poem expands the biblical narrative with rhetorical elaboration, typological links to Sodom and Gomorrah, and geographical details of the eastern Mediterranean. Its date is uncertain, with linguistic and metrical features suggesting a late antique or early medieval origin, possibly between the 4th and 6th centuries. The work is anonymous and likely from a different theological milieu than Tertullian's. It influenced later medieval retellings of the Jonah story, though its direct impact was limited.","historical_context":"The poem's date and place of composition are unknown. It survives in a single manuscript tradition, often appended to works of Tertullian in early modern editions, but its authorship is now rejected. Linguistic and metrical features suggest a late antique or early medieval origin, possibly 4th–6th century, but no firm evidence exists. The poem was included in the Patrologia Latina under Tertullian's name and influenced later medieval retellings of the Jonah story, though its direct impact is limited. The attribution to Tertullian is spurious; the work is anonymous and likely from a different period and theological milieu. The poem's geographical details (Cilician shores, Tarsus) reflect late antique knowledge of the eastern Mediterranean, not necessarily firsthand. The text at 'V litoris in labio' is likely corrupt, possibly a scribal error.","significance":"The Carmen De Iona et Ninive is significant as a late antique or early medieval biblical epic that expands the Jonah narrative with rhetorical and typological elaboration. It illustrates the persistence of biblical poetry in Latin after the patristic period and its influence on later medieval retellings. The work also highlights the problem of spurious attributions in the Tertullian corpus.","timeline":[{"date":"4th–6th c.","event":"Probable composition of the Carmen De Iona et Ninive, based on linguistic and metrical features."},{"date":"Early modern period","event":"Poem included in editions of Tertullian's works, attributed to him."},{"date":"19th–20th c.","event":"Attribution to Tertullian rejected; work recognized as anonymous and spurious."},{"date":"Undated","event":"Single manuscript tradition preserved; no critical apparatus for textual variants."}],"relations":[{"work":"Book of Jonah (Bible)","relation":"Source text; the poem expands the biblical narrative with rhetorical elaboration.","key":"","label":null,"url":null},{"work":"Tertullian, Opera","relation":"Falsely attributed to Tertullian; included in early modern editions of his works.","key":"","label":null,"url":null},{"work":"Patrologia Latina","relation":"Included under Tertullian's name.","key":"","label":null,"url":null},{"work":"Pseudo-Tertullian corpus","relation":"Grouped with other spurious works attributed to Tertullian.","key":"","label":null,"url":null},{"work":"Medieval Jonah retellings","relation":"Influenced later medieval versions of the Jonah story.","key":"","label":null,"url":null}],"external_links":[],"cautions":["Date is uncertain; linguistic and metrical features suggest 4th–6th century but no firm evidence exists.","Authorship is disputed; the attribution to Tertullian is spurious and the work is anonymous.","The poem survives in a single manuscript tradition, limiting textual analysis.","The text at 'V litoris in labio' is likely corrupt; the original reading is uncertain."],"model":"deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash:floor","provider":"Relace","cost_usd":0.000468,"generated":"2026-11-15T05:29:51Z"},"links":[{"kind":"source","label":"Open Greek and Latin CSEL","url":"https://github.com/OpenGreekAndLatin/csel-dev/blob/master/data/data/stoa0276/stoa006/stoa0276.stoa006.opp-lat2.xml"}],"checks":{"work":"stoa0276.stoa006.opp-lat2","status":"pass","blocking":[],"warnings":[],"stats":{"passages":4,"translated":4,"commentary_passages":4,"commentary_units":24,"english_words":1132,"source_letters":3971,"commentary_kinds":7},"model":"deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash:floor"},"work_notes":[{"unit":"transmission","kind":"transmission","basis":"text","lemma":"","severity":"info","text":"The poem survives in a single manuscript tradition, often appended to works of Tertullian in early modern editions, though its authorship is now rejected.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":["ogl-csel"]},{"unit":"dating","kind":"chronology","basis":"background","lemma":"","severity":"info","text":"Dating is uncertain; linguistic and metrical features suggest a late antique or early medieval origin, possibly 4th–6th century, but no firm evidence exists.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":["ogl-csel"]},{"unit":"reception","kind":"reception","basis":"external","lemma":"","severity":"info","text":"The poem was included in the Patrologia Latina under Tertullian's name and influenced later medieval retellings of the Jonah story, though its direct impact is limited.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":["ogl-csel"]},{"unit":"caution","kind":"caution","basis":"text","lemma":"","severity":"caution","text":"The attribution to Tertullian is spurious; the work is anonymous and likely from a different period and theological milieu.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":["ogl-csel"]},{"unit":"sense","kind":"sense","basis":"background","lemma":"","severity":"info","text":"This edition does not provide a critical apparatus for textual variants, as the single manuscript tradition limits such analysis.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":["ogl-csel"]}],"derived_work_notes":[{"kind":"coverage","severity":"info","text":"No English translation could be identified: a language model asked twice could not name one, though it could not rule one out either. That is not proof that none exists — translations in dissertations, recent books and other modern languages are easily missed."},{"kind":"limit","severity":"caution","text":"The English is a machine draft produced passage by passage from the transcribed Coptic; no human has verified it. The commentary is model-written and cites only keys the pipeline could resolve."},{"kind":"register","severity":"info","text":"Register: poetry in Latin; the English keeps the liturgical formulae and the vocatives rather than normalising them."},{"kind":"structure","severity":"info","text":"Passages: 4 narrative."},{"kind":"caution","severity":"caution","text":"2 passage(s) are fragmentary in the source; the English bridges each break and says so in the note."},{"kind":"source","severity":"info","text":"Source edition: ogl-csel — Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License"}],"derived_structure":{"narrative":4},"term_index":[],"citations":{},"segments":[{"i":1,"ref":"p1","source":"EIVSDEM DE IONA PROPHETA.\n\nPost Sodomum et c Gomorum uiuentia funera in aeuum\net cinerum senio signata incendia poenae. et frustra solis oculis nascentia poma. et pariter facti mortem maris et salis illic:\nsi quis homo est poenam mutato corpore seruans:\npaene alios ignis superi decusserat imbres\nurbs. erat. (ut) iusti transgressio. Niniue dicta. nam quis subuersae mentis metus ? omnia uulgo\npoenarum documenta uacant. ubi possidet error. at bonus et nostri patiens et plectere serus\nomnipotens dominus nullam iaculabitur iram. ni prius admoneat durataque pectora pulset,\npraesagos agitans augusta mente prophetas. namque Niniuitum meritis mandarat Ionam\npraefari exitium dominus: sed conscius ille\nparcere subiectis et. dicta cedere poena\n\nshpplicibus facilisque bonis cessabat obire. ne uanum caneret cessura pace minarum. mox fuga consilium: si qua est tamen ista facultas\neuitare deum dominique euadere dextram. qua subter totus trepidans conpescitur orbis. an ratio est. quod agit sancto de corde prophetes V\nLitoris in labio. portu celeberrima fido. urbs oras Cilicum contra libatur Ioppe. inde igitur Tarsos properus rate scandit Ionas :\neiusdem fert acta deus; nec denique mirum,\nsi dominum in terris fugiens inuenit in undis. paruula nam subito maculauerat aera nubes. uellere sulpureo de semine conscia uenti.","english":"OF THE SAME AUTHOR ON THE PROPHET JONAH.\n\nAfter Sodom and Gomorrah, living funerals for eternity, and penalties marked by the old age of ashes, and fruits born in vain for the eyes of the sun, and the death of sea and salt made alike there: if there is any man preserving punishment with a changed body: almost other fires had shaken off the rains from above, a city was, as the transgression of the just, called Nineveh. For what fear of a subverted mind? All common examples of punishments are empty where error holds sway. But the good and patient Lord, slow to punish, the omnipotent master will hurl no wrath unless he first warns and strikes hardened hearts, stirring up prophets with august mind through presages. For the Lord had commanded Jonah to foretell the destruction of Nineveh because of their merits: but that one, mindful to spare the submissive and to yield punishment after warnings, and easy toward the good, delayed to go, lest he sing vain threats with peace about to yield. Soon flight was his plan: if indeed there is any such power to avoid God and escape the right hand of the Lord, by which the whole trembling world is restrained beneath. Or is there reason in what the prophet does from a holy heart? On the shore of the coast, a city most renowned for its faithful harbor, opposite the shores of the Cilicians, Joppa is tasted. Thence, therefore, Jonah, hastening to Tarsus, boards a ship: God carries out his deeds; nor finally is it a wonder if one fleeing the Lord on land finds him in the waves. For a small cloud had suddenly stained the air, conscious of the wind from a sulphurous seed.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[{"unit":"structure","kind":"structure","basis":"text","lemma":"Post Sodomum et c Gomorum","severity":"info","text":"The poem opens with a reference to Sodom and Gomorrah, establishing a typological link between those destroyed cities and Nineveh, framing the narrative as a moral exemplum.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"term","kind":"term","basis":"text","lemma":"uiuentia funera","severity":"info","text":"The phrase 'living funerals' is an oxymoron describing the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah turned into salt or ash, a common patristic trope for divine punishment that preserves the body as a warning.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"scripture","kind":"scripture","basis":"text","lemma":"Niniue dicta","severity":"info","text":"The naming of Nineveh directly references the biblical Book of Jonah, where the city is the target of Jonah's prophetic mission; the poem expands on the biblical narrative with rhetorical elaboration.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"background","kind":"background","basis":"text","lemma":"Ioppe","severity":"info","text":"Joppa (biblical Jaffa) is identified as Jonah's port of departure; the poem's geographical detail (Cilician shores, Tarsus) reflects late antique knowledge of the eastern Mediterranean, not necessarily firsthand.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"caution","kind":"caution","basis":"text","lemma":"V litoris in labio","severity":"caution","text":"The text at 'V litoris in labio' is likely corrupt; the initial 'V' may be a numeral or a scribal error, and the phrase may originally have read 'In litore' or similar, as the English draft suggests a coastal setting.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"reception","kind":"reception","basis":"text","lemma":"EIVSDEM DE IONA PROPHETA","severity":"info","text":"The attribution to Tertullian is spurious; the poem is now considered a late antique composition (4th–5th century) by an unknown author, often grouped with biblical epics in the Pseudo-Tertullian corpus.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]}],"ambiguities":["The opening lines may contain textual corruption, especially 'c Gomorum' (perhaps 'et Gomorum' with a scribal abbreviation) and 'V litoris in labio' where the initial 'V' is unclear.","The phrase 'ut iusti transgressio' is ambiguous: it may mean 'as the transgression of the just' (referring to Jonah) or 'as the transgression of the just city' (Nineveh)."],"confidence":"medium","notes":[]},{"i":2,"ref":"p2","source":"paulatimque globus pariter cum sole cohaesit\ndeceptumque diem caliginis agmine clusit. fit speculum caeli pelagus: niger ambitus undas,\ninficit. in tenebras ruit aether et mare surgit. nequiquam medios fluctus dum nubila tangunt. gloria uentorum quos omnis turbine miscet.\n\ndiuersus furor in profugum frendebat Ionam;\nuna ratis certamen erat caeloque fretoque. tunditur hinc illinc. tremit omnis silua sub ictu\nfluctifrago. subter concussa est spina carinae,\npalpitat antemna. stridens labor horret ab alto. ipsa etiam infringi dubitans inflectitur arbor. nauticus interea gemitus uoxque omnia temptat\npro rate proque anima: spiras mandare morantes. oblaqueare mitram. clauorum stringere nisus\natque reluctantes impellere pectore giros. pars maris interni putidum graue odore uicissim\negerit. at rapiunt (pars) merces atque onus omne\npraecipitant certantque pericula uincere damnis. sunt miserae uoces ad singula fragmina ponti. expanduntque manus nullorum ad numina diuum. quos maris et caeli uis non timet: haut minus illos\npuppibus abstrusos irato turbine mergunt. Nescius haec reus ipse cauo sub fornice puppis\nstertens inflata resonabat nare soporem.","english":"Little by little the cloud merged with the sun, and the deceived day was shut in by a host of darkness. The sea becomes a mirror of the sky: a black ring stains the waves. Sky rushes into darkness and the sea rises. In vain the clouds touch the middle of the waves. The glory of the winds, which every whirlwind mixes.\n\nA different fury raged against the fugitive Jonah; one ship was a contest for sky and sea. It is battered from here and there. Every timber trembles under the wave-breaking blow. Below, the spine of the keel is shaken, the yard-arm quivers. The creaking labor shudders from on high. Even the mast itself, hesitating to break, bends. Meanwhile, the sailor’s groan and voice try everything for the ship and for their lives: to entrust the delaying coils, to loop the halyard, to tighten the sheets with effort, and to push the struggling circles with their chests. Some of the crew alternately expel the foul, heavy-smelling bilge water. But others snatch the cargo and all the freight, hurl it overboard, and strive to overcome the perils by losses. There are wretched cries at each fragment of the sea. And they stretch out their hands to the deities of no gods. Those whom the force of sea and sky does not fear: no less do they drown them, hidden in the ships, by the angry whirlwind. The accused himself, unaware of these things, in the hollow vault of the stern, snoring, was echoing sleep with his swollen nostril.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[{"unit":"structure","kind":"structure","basis":"text","lemma":"paulatimque globus pariter cum sole cohaesit","severity":"info","text":"The storm scene is divided into two phases: cosmic upheaval (lines 1–6) and the ship's struggle (lines 7–30). The transition is marked by 'diuersus furor' (line 7), shifting focus from nature to human action.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"term","kind":"term","basis":"glossary","lemma":"spina carinae","severity":"info","text":"'Spina carinae' (line 10) refers to the keel's spine, a technical nautical term. The poet uses shipbuilding vocabulary to heighten realism, contrasting with the epic storm conventions.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"scripture","kind":"scripture","basis":"text","lemma":"expanduntque manus nullorum ad numina diuum","severity":"info","text":"This line (24) echoes the sailors' pagan prayers in Jonah 1:5, where they cry to their gods. The poet emphasizes their futility ('nullorum ad numina diuum') to contrast with Jonah's silent faith.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"background","kind":"background","basis":"text","lemma":"Nescius haec reus ipse cauo sub fornice puppis","severity":"info","text":"Jonah's oblivious sleep (lines 28–30) is a dramatic irony not in the biblical account (Jonah 1:5–6). The poet amplifies Jonah's guilt ('reus') and detachment, possibly to moralize on the prophet's disobedience.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"parallel","kind":"parallel","basis":"text","lemma":"fit speculum caeli pelagus","severity":"info","text":"The mirroring of sky and sea (line 3) recalls Ovid's description of the flood in 'Metamorphoses' 1.292–296, where the world becomes a watery chaos. The poet adapts classical imagery to a biblical context.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"caution","kind":"caution","basis":"text","lemma":"spiras mandare morantes","severity":"caution","text":"The phrase 'spiras mandare morantes' (line 15) is obscure. It likely means 'to entrust the delaying coils' (of ropes), but the syntax is strained. The text may be corrupt or reflect late Latin usage.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]}],"ambiguities":["The phrase 'spiras mandare morantes' (line 15) is ambiguous: 'spiras' could mean 'coils' (of rope) or 'spirals' (of wind), and 'mandare morantes' may be a corruption. The reading 'to entrust the delaying coils' is adopted based on nautical context.","Line 26 'haut minus illos' is likely a scribal error for 'haud minus illos' (nonetheless them), as the sense requires a negative. The translation follows the emended reading."],"confidence":"high","notes":[]},{"i":3,"ref":"p3","source":"iam tunc in somno domini formando figuram. hunc simul undisequae cogit qui munia prorae. pace soporatum placidaque quiete superbum\nincrepat inpulsans: .. Quid. ait, discrimine in isto\nsomnia more capis tantoque in turbine ponti\nsolus habes? en unda operit, spes unica diuum est. tu quoque, quisque tibi deus est, dic uota precesque\n[indigetans patrium supplex inflectito numen.] \"\nsic tum quis culpae propior, quis causa procellae. discere sorte placet. nec sors mentitur Ionam. tunc rogitant: \"Quis et unde hominum, quis denique rerum,\nquo populo, qua sede cluens?\" famulum ille fatetur\npraetimidum fidumque dei, qui sustulit alte\ncaelum, qui terram posuit quique aequora fudit;\nipsius [et sese profugum causasque reuelat. deriguere metu: \"Quid nos igitur tibi culpae? quid fore nunc, quonam placabimus aequora pacto ?\"\n\nnamque magis multoque magis freta saeua tumebant. [tunc domini uates ingestu spiritus infit:]\nEn ego tempestas, ego tota insania mundi;\nin me, inquit, uobis aether ruit et mare surgit;\nin me terra procul, mors proxima, nulla dei spes. quin date praecipitem, causam nauem que leuantes:\nunum onus hoc magnum pelago iactate uolentem.\"\nAst illi frustra nituntur uertere cursum\nin reditum; nec clauus enim torquere sinebat,\ndura nec antemnae mutari libra uolebat.","english":"Then in the lord’s sleep, while he was forming a shape, the one who performs the duties of the prow, who together with the waves drives the ship, rebukes him, drowsy in peace and calm, arrogant, striking him: “What,” he says, “in this crisis do you take up the habits of dreams, and in such a whirlwind of the sea do you alone have leisure? Look, the wave covers us; the only hope is in the gods. You too, whoever your god is to you, speak vows and prayers, [needing your father’s aid, suppliant, bend his divine will.]” Then they decide by lot to learn who is nearer to guilt, who is the cause of the storm. Nor does the lot lie about Jonah. Then they ask: “Who and from where among men, who finally among things, from what people, from what seat renowned?” He confesses he is a servant, timid and faithful to the god who raised high the sky, who placed the earth, who poured out the seas; of that same god he reveals himself a fugitive and the reasons. They stiffen with fear: “What fault, then, have we with you? What now shall we do, by what pact shall we appease the sea?” For more and much more the savage straits swelled. [Then the lord’s prophet, with inspired spirit, begins:] “I am the storm, I am the whole madness of the world; in me,” he says, “for you the sky rushes and the sea rises; in me the land is far, death is near, no hope of god. So throw me headlong, lightening the ship and its cause: this one great burden, willing, hurl into the deep sea.” But they strive in vain to turn course toward return; for the helm did not allow turning, nor did the hard yard-arm wish to change its balance.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[{"unit":"term","kind":"term","basis":"text","lemma":"undisequae","severity":"info","text":"A hapax legomenon, likely a poetic compound meaning 'wave-chaser' or 'wave-driver', describing the helmsman's role in driving the ship through the waves.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"scripture","kind":"scripture","basis":"text","lemma":"Quid ... discrimine in isto somnia more capis","severity":"info","text":"Echoes the sailors' rebuke of Jonah in the biblical account (Jonah 1:5-6), where they question his sleep during the storm, but here expanded with rhetorical elaboration.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"background","kind":"background","basis":"text","lemma":"sors mentitur Ionam","severity":"info","text":"The casting of lots to identify the cause of the storm is not in the biblical Jonah; it reflects a Greco-Roman literary motif of determining divine guilt or scapegoat, as in Virgil's Aeneid or Ovid's Metamorphoses.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"structure","kind":"structure","basis":"text","lemma":"En ego tempestas, ego tota insania mundi","severity":"info","text":"Jonah's self-identification as the storm marks a rhetorical climax, transforming him from passive fugitive to active agent of divine wrath, a shift not present in the biblical narrative.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"reception","kind":"reception","basis":"text","lemma":"deriguere metu","severity":"info","text":"The sailors' paralysis echoes a common epic trope (e.g., Virgil, Aeneid 1.92-93) and was likely familiar to late antique readers of Latin poetry, reinforcing the poem's literary ambition.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"caution","kind":"caution","basis":"text","lemma":"indigetans patrium supplex inflectito numen","severity":"caution","text":"The line is textually uncertain; the edition marks it as a lacuna or interpolation. The sense 'needing your father's aid, suppliant, bend his divine will' is conjectural.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]}],"ambiguities":["The identity of 'the one who performs the duties of the prow' (munia prorae) is ambiguous: it may be the helmsman or a specific officer; the translation assumes a generic ship's officer.","The phrase 'in me' (in me) in Jonah's speech could be read as 'because of me' or 'in my person'; the translation takes it as the latter, emphasizing his embodiment of the storm."],"confidence":"high","notes":[{"kind":"lacuna","severity":"caution","text":"The source is fragmentary here: the edition marks a break or an editorial bracket, and the English carries across it. Treat the bridge as supplied, not translated."}]},{"i":4,"ref":"p4","source":"postremo ad dominum: „Ne nos in mortis hiatum\nunam animam propter dederis, nec sanguine iusti\nrespersisse uelis, si sic tua dextera ducit.\"\nIamque illic imo exoriens de gurgite cetus,\nsquamosum et conchis euoluens corporis agmen,\nurguebat proprios concusso marmore fluctus,\npraedam sponte petens, quam celsae puppis ab arce\nprouoluentem auide limosis faucibus hausit,\nuiuentemque dapem longam percepit in aluum,\ncumque uiro caeli rabiem pelagique uorauit.\n\nsternitur aequoris unda, resoluitur aetheris umbra;\nhinc fluctus, illinc flatus redduntur amici. securamque uiam placida signante carina\nspumea caeruleo candent uestigia sulco. nautae tunc dominum laeti uenerantur eique\nsacrificant grates: fertur ratis et uates aluo:\n[nauigat et uates alio susceptus Ionas]\nnauigium fluctus secat, et sub fluctibus imis\nIona defertur anima spirante ferina. conclusus neque tinctus aquis. maris intimus exter. inter semesas carnes resolutaque putri\ncorpora digestu iam iam sua funera discens:\nin signum sed enim domini quandoque futurum\nnon erat exitii. set caeli gloria factus.","english":"Finally to the lord: “Do not give us into the gap of death for the sake of one soul, nor wish to be spattered with the blood of a righteous man, if your right hand thus leads.” And already there, rising from the deep from the whirlpool, the whale, unrolling the scaly and shell-covered mass of its body, pressed its own waves, the sea having been stirred, seeking the prey of its own accord, which from the height of the lofty stern, as it was tumbling down, it greedily gulped down with its muddy jaws, and took the living feast into its long belly, and together with the man it devoured the rage of the sky and the sea.\n\nThe wave of the sea is laid low, the shadow of the air is dissolved; on this side the waves, on that side the winds are returned as friends. And as the peaceful keel marks a safe path, the foaming tracks gleam white in the blue furrow. Then the sailors, joyful, venerate the lord and offer thanks to him: the ship is carried and the prophet in the belly: [the ship sails and the prophet Jonah, received elsewhere, sails] the ship cuts the waves, and beneath the deep waves Jonah is carried, his soul breathing with a beast’s breath. Confined and not wetted by the waters, within the sea, without the sea. Among half-eaten meats and dissolved, rotten bodies by the process of digestion, now learning his own death: but for a sign of the lord, when it would be future, it was not for destruction. But he became a glory of the sky.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[{"unit":"scripture","kind":"scripture","basis":"text","lemma":"cetus","severity":"info","text":"The whale's swallowing of Jonah (Jon. 2:1) is here elaborated with vivid physical detail, expanding the biblical account.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"term","kind":"term","basis":"text","lemma":"uiuentemque dapem longam percepit in aluum","severity":"info","text":"The phrase 'living feast' (uiuentem dapem) is a striking poetic inversion: Jonah is consumed alive, a paradox central to the narrative.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"background","kind":"background","basis":"text","lemma":"conclusus neque tinctus aquis. maris intimus exter.","severity":"info","text":"The paradox 'within the sea, without the sea' echoes patristic typology of Jonah as a type of Christ's resurrection, preserved unharmed in the whale.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"structure","kind":"structure","basis":"text","lemma":"nauigat et uates alio susceptus Ionas","severity":"info","text":"The bracketed line appears to be a variant or gloss, repeating the sense of the preceding line; it may reflect scribal uncertainty or a doublet in transmission.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"reception","kind":"reception","basis":"text","lemma":"in signum sed enim domini quandoque futurum","severity":"info","text":"The poem explicitly interprets Jonah's survival as a sign (signum) of future divine glory, aligning with early Christian typological readings.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]},{"unit":"caution","kind":"caution","basis":"text","lemma":"inter semesas carnes resolutaque putri corpora digestu","severity":"caution","text":"The description of half-eaten meats and dissolving bodies is graphic but may be hyperbolic; the text's transmission is uncertain, and some phrases may be corrupt.","cites":[],"named_sources":[],"dropped_cites":[]}],"ambiguities":["The bracketed line 'nauigat et uates alio susceptus Ionas' may be a scribal addition or variant; its relation to the main text is unclear.","The phrase 'spirante ferina' could mean 'breathing with a beast's breath' or 'with the breath of a wild animal'; the precise sense is ambiguous."],"confidence":"medium","notes":[{"kind":"lacuna","severity":"caution","text":"The source is fragmentary here: the edition marks a break or an editorial bracket, and the English carries across it. Treat the bridge as supplied, not translated."}]}]}