815. legunt, 'spin.' 817-824. 'Right through the buckler, light defence for one so bold, the blade held on, right through the vest his mother wove with pliant threads of gold; and blood filled all his bosom: the soul passed sadly in flight to the underworld, and left its clay. But when Anchises' son beheld his look and face--the face so strangely pale-he groaned in pity sore, and stretched forth his hand, and his heart was touched by the sight of a son's great love.' No translation-much less comment-can adequately render the pathetic beauty of this passage, with its powerful picture of the sudden revulsion of feeling in Aeneas from wrath to pity at the death of young Lausus in defence of a father, The 'wild pathetic rhythm' of the lines (821, 822) At vero ut vultum vidit morientis et ora, Ora modis Anchisiades pallentia miris is unsurpassed in its suggestive beauty by anything that even Virgil has written the word Anchisiades being just enough to recall that love of Aeneas for his own father, which is the keynote of his sympathy for Lausus. The contrast with Turnus' savage exultation over Pallas (above 11. 492 sqq.) is of course intentional: see introduction to Book x. 827,828. laetatus, sc. es. si qua est ea cura, 'if that still claim your care-i. e. if the dead care for such things: lit. 'if you have any care for that,' ea cura being=eius rei cura, as ea signa (ii. 171)=eius rei signa. For the sentiment cp. (with Con.) Soph. El. 355 wote tậ teOvηkóti Tiμàs προσάπτειν, εἴ τις ἔστ' ἐκεῖ χάρις. 830-832, ultro, 'he even chides; ' i, e. he not only bewails Lausus, but chides his (Lausus') followers for their hesitation. 834. siccabat, 'was staunching.' 835. procul, ‘apart,' of a short distance: Mezentius, resting after battle with the enemy at hand, would not put his helmet far away from him. Cp. Ecl. vi. 16 serta procul, tantum capiti delapsa, iacebant. Other examples of the usage are not infrequent. 837, 838. Around him stand his chosen warriors: their chief all weak and panting rests his neck, with long beard streaming on his breast.' fovet, relieves or cases it by leaning against the tree trunk. For the construction of fusus barbam see on l. 133 above. 839. multum, ' often.' 841. super arma, 'on his shield. 842. The rhythm suggests melancholy. ingentem atque ingenti, cp. Homer's μéyas μeyaλworí (I1, xvi, 776); and Lucr. i. 741 magni magno cecidere ibi casu. 845. corpore inhaeret, for the constr. see on 1. 361 above. 849, 850. heu, nuno, etc., ah, now at last I feel the bitterness of death; now at last the blow strikes home!'—i. e. I despised death before, but now my end is embittered by the death of Lausus. 853-855. debueram, i. e. before this chance of death came. 'Long had Y I owed this penalty to my country and my people's hate: I ought to have yielded up my guilty life by every kind of death !' dedissem, past jussive, as iv. 678 eadem me ad fata vocasses. 857. tardat is best taken as intransitive—though his strength is slow by reason of the wound:' cp. Cic. ad Brut. i. 18 an tardare et commorari te melius esset. Servius, taking tardat in its more usual active sense, explains vis alto vulnere as=alti vulneris violentia: while others make vis=his failing strength. 881-863. Either qua or ulla seems superfluous; but perhaps the repetition heightens the improbability-' if anything whatever' (or 'at all'). spolia illa, sc. Aeneae. dolorum, 'the death-pangs of Lausus.' 867. 'He spake, and mounting to his saddle (tergo, sc. equi) took his wonted seat.' consueta is virtually adverbial. 872. Omitted by most MSS., and unnoticed by Servius; probably from xii. 668. 874. enim, here a particle of emphasis, ' Aeneas knew him right well : ' so vi. 317 Aeneas miratus enim; viii. 84 tibi enim,tibi,maxuma Iuno, Mactat. 875. May such be the will of the mighty sire of gods, and of great Apollo,' i. e. that we should fight. ille, often used in this way of Jupiter, e. g. vii. 110 sic Iuppiter ille monebat. 877. subit obvius, 'comes up to meet him spear in rest.' 880. 'I fear not death, I spare not any god'-i. e. though Jupiter and Apollo, on whom you call, come to aid you, they shall feel my spear. It is the contemptor divum who speaks; see above 1. 773. 884. umbo, Aeneas' shield, which stands against (sustinet, cp. 1. 810) the shower of darts. 885-887. 'Thrice rode he round Aeneas standing there, in circles towards the left'—i. e. keeping his shield-arm next to Aeneas. aerato is not inconsistent with aureus 1. 884: for both metals were used in the shield of Aeneas; see viii. 445. silvam, 'the forest' of darts fixed in his shield. 889. The fight is iniqua for Aeneas, as being on foot, while his opponent is on horseback. 892-894. The horse rears up and paws the air with his feet; then, throwing his rider, comes down above him and fastens him to the ground, and with bowed head and fore-leg thrust forward presses upon him.' electo, etc., two other renderings of this clause deserve notice, (1) 'falling headlong presses with his shoulder on his prostrate lord;' eiecto being dat., and armo abl. instr. But it seems most unnatural to take eiecto apart from armo. (2) 'Falls headlong to the ground with dislocated shoulder.' But the mention of such an accident to Rhaebus does not seem to the point here. cernuus, a rare word for 'head foremost,' probably connected with the root of káp-a, cer-ebrum, etc. 897. et super (stans) haec (dicit). 899. hausit caelum, 'drank in the heaven,' i. e. saw it with his eyes. This is certainly more poetical than the other interpretation, 'drew breath ;' though Juvenal's imitation (iii. 84) et nostra infantia caelum Hausit Aventinum, seems to show that he understood the phrase in this way. 901, 902. 'No sin to slay a foe; not such the thought with which I came to fight, not such the terms my Lausus made with you for me'—i. e. 'No quarter is a matter of course between us.' sio, ènì roîde (i. e. nefas esse in caede). 903. By that grace, if any there be, that is due to a conquered foe.' 906. 'Lay me in the tomb beside my son' consortem with nati. 907. haud inscius, lit. 'knowingly,' i. e. ‘calmly,' 'patiently.' Y 2 NOTES TO BOOK XI. THE death of Pallas on the one side, and of Lausus and Mezentius on the other, makes a break in the story of the war, while both sides pause to bury their dead. Aeneas raises a trophy of Mezentius' spoils; and the body of Pallas is sent home to Pallanteum, where Evander laments over it (11. 1–181). The burial scenes on either side are briefly described (11,182–224): and we are then introduced to the discords in the Latin camp, by which the Rutulian fortunes, already on the wane, are still further depressed. Latinus calls a council at Laurentum, and, after the ambassadors sent to ask aid from Diomede have reported the failure of their mission (11. 243–295), proposes to come to terms with the Trojans; a proposal supported by Drances, and opposed by Turnus in a vigorous speech, full of the insolence and violentia which will be his ruin (11. 225–444). At the alarm of the approach of Aeneas, Turnus breaks off the council and prepares for fight: and the remainder of the book is devoted to the battle between the Rutulians and Volscians on the one side and Trojans and Etruscans on the other, the chief interest centreing on the prowess of the Volscian Amazon Camilla a striking and original figure, relieving the somewhat dreary details of fighting. With her death the Rutulian cause is lost, and Turnus alone remains, to be confronted with Aeneas in the final scenes of Book XII. 1. interea, of transition to a fresh scene, as x. 1, etc. It cannot here= 'meanwhile,' as the close of Book X leaves us in the battle of the preceding day. 6 2-4. 'Aeneas, though sorrow spurred him to grant a space for the burial of his comrades, and his mind was troubled by the thought of their death, was paying Heaven's due for his victory at earliest dawn.' dare, poetical for ut det. praecipitant, trans., urge him,' an expressive word. vota deum, 'the gods' vows,' i. e. vows of which the payment is due to the gods. 5-11. In this description of a tropaeum the trunk of a tree represents the body of the slain foe. Trophies (says Mayor on Iuv. x. 133) were borrowed by the Romans from Greece, and often appear on coins, always in the shape of the trunk of a tree with a cross-bar hung with arms.' 9. tela trunca, 'headless shafts,' are the spears of Mezentius which had been shivered against Aeneas' shield. 10, 11. sinistrae, collo, the tree trunk is identified with the body of the dead warrior. The sword is suspended from the neck by a sword-belt. eburnum, with ivory hilt. 15. quod superest, i. e. (de co) quod superest. 16. manibus, ablat. instrum. My hands have made Mezentius this'— i. e. the tropaeum which you see. 18. 'Prepare (for) war in your hearts, and in hope forestall the fight;' cp. 1. 491 below (spe iam praecipit hostem). 21. metu, causal ablat. with segnis-'nor faint heart, fear-engendered, make you slow.' 23. Acheronte sub imo, 'in Acheron below;' cp. Manes sub imos 1. 181 below. For the thought cp. Hom. Il. xvi. 674-675 Evla è rapxúσOVOL κασίγνητοί τε ἔται τε Τύμβῳ τε στήλῃ τε· τὸ γὰρ γέρας ἐστὶ θανόντων. 27, 28. virtutis egentem, cp. Il. xiii. 785 οὐδέ τί φημι ̓Αλκῆς δενήσeobai. acerbo, 'untimely,' as vi. 429 (repeated here). 31. On the rhythm see Introd. p. xviii. 33. alumno, 'his charge,' to be taken with datus. 34, 35. famulum, gen. plur.; old form in -um, like Italum x. 109, Graium, x. 333. maestum orinem de more solutae, 'their hair unbound after the fashion of mourners.' For the construction see on x. 133. 36. foribus, dative after intulit. 42. cum laeta veniret, 'in her happier hour.' 47. in magnum imperium, 'to win a mighty realm.' 49-52. Mr. Storr well compares Tennyson, 'In Memoriam,' vi: 'O father, wheresoe'er thou be, Who pledgest now thy gallant son; A shot ere half thy draught be done multum captus, 'befooled by idle hopes.' fors et, 'perchance:' cp. ii. 139 fors et poenas ob nostra reposcent Effugia; Hor. Od. i. 28. 31 fors et Debita iura vicesque superbae Te maneant ipsum. The phrase literally = it is a chance, and he is making prayers.' nil iam... debentem, 'whose every debt to heaven is paid '—i. e. he is dead, and has nothing more to do with the gods. Cp. Soph. Aj. 589 (where Ajax tells Tecmessa not to adjure him by gods who have done with him), 'Αγαν γε λυπεῖς· οὐ κάτοισθ ̓ ἐγὼ θεοῖς ὡς οὐδὲν ἀρκεῖν εἴμ ̓ ὀφειλέτης ἔτι; on which Prof. Jebb remarks that 'this view of the give-and-take relation between gods and men was highly characteristic of ancient paganism :' adding (with reference to Virgil's phrase cited in illustration), 'he was dead, and so his account with the gods was closed he was quits with them; they had done their worst.' 54-57. 'Is this our return, our looked-for triumph? is this my solemn pledge? And yet not slain in flight by shameful wounds shalt thou behold thy.son; nor shalt thou, a father, pray for death, in spite of its terror, because a son yet lives' (i. e. with disgrace). pulsum='put to flight;' l'allas' wounds were all in front, showing that he had fallen honourably. sospite nato, abl. absolute. dirum funus, death, otherwise terrible, would be welcomed by the father after his son's dishonour. This is better than to take optabis funus, ' will you wish your son were dead.' |