Accingunt omnes operi, pedibusque rotarum O patria, o divûm domus Ilium, et incluta bello the gates of ancient cities were very small, little larger than our modern doors; and that the walls, which were high, were carried across over the gates, so that there was no division of the wall, but only a hole or opening in the undivided wall, where the gates stood. By the expression' dividimus muros,' therefore, we are to understand that the Trojans enlarged the gate so as to make a complete division of the wall, that is, by breaking down that part of the wall over the gate on which the continuity of the wall depended." 243. Substitit. To stumble on or even touch the threshold on entering or leaving a house was considered an ill omen. In Ovid (Met. X. 452) this ill omen is connected with the direful hooting of the owl: 235 240 245 Ter pedis offensi signo est revocata, ter omen Funereus bubo letali carmine fecit. Again (Trist. I. III. 55) he bewails his ill luck : Ter limen tetigi, ter sum revocatus, et Indulgens animo pes mihi tardus erat. O quotiens ingressus iter mihi tristia dixi 244. Caecique furore. Cf. Catul lus, LXIV. 197 : Cogor inops, ardens, amenti caeca furore. 247. "The prophecies of Cassandra " has passed into a proverbial expression for unheeded warnings. Thus Young (N. Th. IX. 133): But, like Cassandra, prophesies in vain. 241. O patria, 238. - 246. Cassandra, 77. 247. Teucris, 106. - 248. Quibus esset, 177. Vertitur interea caelum et ruit oceano nox, 250. Imitated in part from Ennius: Vertitur interea caelum cum ingentibu' signis. 255. Silentia lunae. This has been understood in two opposite ways, - the moon quietly shining, or there being no moon as yet; for that the moon did rise appears from 1. 340,- in the one case the silence, in the other the darkness, being assumed as favorable to the undertaking. CON. 257. Extulerat. But cf. VI. 517, where it is related that Helen, on that fatal night, had signalled the Greeks with a torch, under the pretence of leading a band of Trojan women in Bacchic revels. 250 255 260 265 264. Fabricator Epeus. Cf. Homer (Od. XI. 648): When into the wooden steed, Framed by Epcius, we the chiefs of Greece Ascended. 265. Invadunt The horse had been placed on the citadel (1. 245), and they must go through the city to meet their friends at the gate. Compare this line with Ennius: Nunc hostes vino domiti somnoque sepulti. Somno vinoque sepultam. Con. compares Aen. III. 630; VI. 424; IX. 189: Somno vinoque soluti procubuere. And Lucretius I. 133: Morbo adfectis somnoque sepultis. 251. Terramque polumque, 222.- 257. Cum extulerat, 182. 258-9. Danaos et pinea claustra, 221, 231. Tempus erat, quo prima quies mortalibus aegris light, 270 275 Clothed with transcendent brightness, 268. Vergil excels in his night pieces, | From him, who, in the happy realms of which it will be of great interest to the reader to collate and compare. Young's Reign of Night will fitly prepare the mind for the ensuing passage (N. Th. I. 18): Night, sable goddess! from her ebon throne, In rayless majesty, now stretches forth Her leaden sceptre o'er a slumb'ring world. Silence how dead! and darkness how Nor eye nor list'ning ear an object finds; An awful pause! prophetic of her end. 270-1. In like manner Homer appeared to Ennius: In somnis ibi visus Homerus adesse poeta. 270-3. For the whole fight between Achilles and Hector, cf. Il. XXII. 166510; also Aen. I. 483 and note. 274. This line is copied verbatim from Ennius. Milton has this passage in mind when Satan thus addresses Beelzebub (P. L. I. 84): If thou beest he-but oh, how fallen! how changed 270. Hector, 67.-273. Lora, 113. 275-6. Hector had slain Patroclus, the friend of Achilles, to whom Achilles had lent his own armor. These scenes are narrated at length in the latter part of the sixteenth and the first part of the seventeenth book of the Iliad. For the description of Hector's heroic deeds, see the twelfth and fifteenth books of the Ihad. These two lines (275-6) picture Hector in the height of his success, as those just preceding (272-3) picture him in his fall. Squalentem barbam et concretos sanguine crines, 280 285 295 296-7. Vestam aeternumque ig nem. Vesta was a deity presiding over the public and private hearth. A sacred fire, tended by Vestal Virgins, always burned upon her altar. The worship of Vesta represented the most ancient, as well as the purest part of Rome's religion. Says Lanciani: "The origin of the worship of Vesta is very simple. In prehistoric times, when fire could be ob tained only from the friction of two sticks of dry wood, or from sparks of flint, every village kept a public fire burning day and 292. Si possent, 199. Diverso interea miscentur moenia luctu, Et magis atque magis, quamquam secreta parentis night, in a central hut, at the disposition of each family. The care of watching the precious element was intrusted to young girls, because girls, as a rule, did not follow their parents and brothers to the far-away pasture-grounds, and did not share with them the fatigue of hunting or fishing expeditions. In course of time, however, this simple practice became a kind of sacred institution, especially at Alba Longa, the mother country of Rome; and when a large party of Alban shepherds fled from the volcanic eruptions of the Alban craters into the plain below, and settled on the marshy banks of the Tiber, they followed, naturally, the institutions of the mother country; and the worship of Vesta-represented by the public fire and the girls attending to it was duly organized at the foot of the Palatine hill, on the borders of the market-place (forum).” Propertius (V. IV. 69) seems to imply with Vergil that this fire was brought intact from Troy : Nam Vesta, Iliacae felix tutela favillae. 300 305 304-8. Vergil enlarges upon Homer, who thus figures the distant roar of battle (Il. IV. 570 seq.): As when the winter streams Rush down the mountain-sides, and fill, below, With their swift waters, poured from gushing springs, Some hollow vale, the shepherd on the heights Hears the far roar. Spenser evidently has Vergil's destructive mountain torrent in mind (F. Q. II. XI. 18): Like a great water-flood, that, tombling low From the high mountaines, threates to overflow With suddein fury all the fertile playne, And the sad husbandmans long hope doth throw Adowne the streame, and all his vowes make vayne; Nor bounds nor banks his headlong ruine may sustayne. 298. Luctu, 143.-300. Recessit, 202, 1). — 302. Somno, 130. |