Ast ubi digressum Siculae te admoverit orae
Ventus, et angusti rarescent claustra Pelori,
Laeva tibi tellus et longo laeva petantur
Aequora circuitu; dextrum fuge litus et undas.
Haec loca vi quondam et vasta convulsa ruina --
Tantum aevi longinqua valet mutare vetustas —
Dissiluisse ferunt, cum protinus utraque tellus
Una foret; venit medio vi pontus et undis
Hesperium Siculo latus abscidit, arvaque et urbes
Litore diductas angusto interluit aestu.
Dextrum Scylla latus, laevum implacata Charybdis
WORDSWORTH, Ep. & El. Poems, III. O'er the lit waves every Aeolian isle From Pithecusa to Pelorus
Howls, and leaps, and glares in chorus. SHELLEY, Ode to Liberty, XIII. 414. The nearness of Sicily to Italy, the shortest distance being only about two miles, gave rise to the belief among the ancients that the two were once united. The volcanic nature of the region would also favor this belief. Thus Vergil, in this passage, and Ovid, (Met. XV. 290-292):
mythological creations have a physical basis better illustrated than in these fabulous monsters. In Scylla, snatching
Obsidet, atque imo barathri ter gurgite vastos
Sorbet in abruptum fluctus, rursusque sub auras
Erigit alternos et sidera verberat unda.
At Scyllam caecis cohibet spelunca latebris,
Ora exsertantem et naves in saxa trahentem.
Prima hominis facies et pulchro pectore virgo
Pube tenus, postrema immani corpore pistrix,
Delphinum caudas utero commissa luporum.
Praestat Trinacrii metas lustrare Pachyni
up ships and dragging them upon the
rocks, while her dogs bay loudly, we
have simply a fanciful picture of the
dangerous reefs on the Italian (dextrum)
side, on which the sea is always dashing
with loud roarings; while in insatiate
Charybdis we have simply the dangerous
whirlpools which fill the channel on the
Sicilian (laevum) side. For Homer's de-
scription, cf. Od. XII., 73 seq. (Bryant's
translation, 1. 100 seq.). So in Falconer
(Shipwreck, III.):
Not half so dreadful to Aeneas' eyes
The straits of Sicily were seen to rise,
When Palinurus from the helm descried
The rocks of Scylla on his eastern side,
While in the west, with hideous yawn
disclosed,
His onward path Charybdis' gulf opposed.
Vergil makes further mention of them
in Ecl. VI. 75 seq.; Aen. I. 200; III.
555-567.
Ovid gives the following description: Scylla latus dextrum, laevum irrequieta Charybdis
Ficta reliquerunt, aliquo quoque tempore
virgo. Met. XIII. 730-734. More vivid than all is the description in Schiller's fine ballad Der Taucher, where the Diver plunges into Charybdis. The passage is probably suggested by Vergil, as it is said that Schiller never saw the spot himself:
And it bubbles and seethes, and it hisses and roars,
And the spray of its wrath to the welkin up soars,
And flood upon flood hurries on, never
And it never will end, nor from travail
be free,
Like a sea that is laboring the birth of
a sea. - (Bulwer's Trans.)
421. Ter. "Thrice a day," as Homer
says (Od. XII. 122):
She gives it forth, and thrice with fearful whirl
Cf. also Aen. III. 566, where the Tro
Infestant; vorat haec raptas revomitque jans seem to have tarried all day in the
Illa feris atram canibus succingitur alvum,
Virginis ora gerens, et, si non omnia vates
whirlpools of Charybdis. Finally, at sunset (cum sole) they escape to the neighbor ing coast of Sicily, near Aetna.
Cessantem, longos et circumflectere cursus,
Quam semel informem vasto vidisse sub antro
Scyllam et caeruleis canibus resonantia saxa.
Praeterea, si qua est Heleno prudentia, vati
Si qua fides, animum si veris implet Apollo,
Unum illud tibi, nate dea, proque omnibus unum
Praedicam, et repetens iterumque iterumque monebo:
Iunonis magnae primum prece numen adora;
Iunoni cane vota libens, dominamque potentem
Supplicibus supera donis: sic denique victor
Trinacria fines Italos mittere relicta.
Huc ubi delatus Cumaeam accesseris urbem
Divinosque lacus et Averna sonantia silvis,
Iusanam vatem aspicies, quae rupe sub ima
Fata canit, foliisque notas et nomina mandat.
435-40. It is of the utmost importance | While celestial wisdom is like that other
to propitiate Juno, for she it is who is opposing all the efforts of the Trojans to reach their promised land. For the causes of her wrath, cf. I. 25-28 and note. 444. Foliis mandat. Dryden has this passage in mind (Hind and Panther, 1. 1780 seq.):
For he concluded, once upon a time,
He found a leaf inscrib'd with sacred
rhyme,
Whose antique characters did well denote
The Sibyl's hand of the Cumaean grot.
Young beautifully compares the Sibyl to worldly wisdom:
In pompous promise from her schemes
profound,
If future fate she plans, 't is all in leaves,
Like Sibyl, unsubstantial fleeting bliss!
At the first blast it vanishes in air.
Sibyl, whose story is told in connection with Tarquin II. :
As worldly schemes resemble Sibyl's leaves,
The good man's days to Sibyl's books
In price still rising as in number less,
Inestimable quite his final hour.
N. Th. V. 360.
Dante beautifully compares the evan-
escent impressions of the mind to the
Sibylline leaves:
Even thus upon the wind in the light
Were the soothsayings of the Sibyl lost.
Par. XXXIII 65.
For a further passage upon the Sibyl,
cf. Aen. VI. 42 seq.
Quaecumque in foliis descripsit carmina virgo,
Digerit in numerum, atque antro seclusa relinquit.
Illa manent immota locis, neque ab ordine cedunt;
Verum eadem, verso tenuis cum cardine ventus
Impulit et teneras turbavit ianua frondes,
Numquam deinde cavo volitantia prendere saxo,
Nec revocare situs aut iungere carmina curat:
Inconsulti abeunt, sedemque odere Sibyllae.
Hic tibi ne qua morae fuerint dispendia tanti,—
Quamvis increpitent socii, et vi cursus in altum
Vela vocet possisque sinus implere secundos,-
Quin adeas vatem precibusque oracula poscas
Ipsa canat, vocemque volens atque ora resolvat.
Illa tibi Italiae populos venturaque bella,
Et quo quemque modo fugiasque ferasque laborem
Expediet, cursusque dabit venerata secundos.
Haec sunt, quae nostra liceat te voce moneri.
Vade age, et ingentem factis fer ad aethera Troiam.
Quae postquam vates sic ore effatus amico est,
Dona dehinc auro gravia sectoque elephanto
Imperat ad naves ferri, stipatque carinis
Ingens argentum, Dodonaeosque lebetas,
Loricam consertam hamis auroque trilicem,
Et conum insignis galeae cristas que comantes,
Arma Neoptolemi. Sunt et sua dona parenti.
Addit equos, additque duces;
Remigium supplet; socios simul instruit armis.
Interea classem velis aptare iubebat.
456. Aeneas follows this advice, VI. 74-76.
453. Fuerint, 204.454. Increpitent, 202, 2).-457. Canat, 169.460. Venerata, 195. -461. Liceat, 175. - Te, 118.
Anchises, fieret vento mora ne qua ferenti.
Quem Phoebi interpres multo compellat honore :
Coniugio, Anchise, Veneris dignate superbo,
Cura deûm, bis Pergameis erepte ruinis,
Ecce tibi Ausoniae tellus; hanc arripe velis.
Et tamen hanc pelago praeterlabare necesse est;
Ausoniae pars illa procul, quam pandit Apollo.
Vade, ait, o felix nati pietate. Quid ultra
Provehor, et fando surgentes demoror austros?
Nec minus Andromache, digressu maesta supremo,
Fert picturatas auri subtemine vestes
Et Phrygiam Ascanio chlamydem, nec cedit honori,
Textilibusque onerat donis, ac talia fatur:
Accipe et haec, manuum tibi quae monumenta mearum
Sint, puer, et longum Andromachae testentur amorem,
Coniugis Hectoreae. Cape dona extrema tuorum,
O mihi sola mei super Astyanactis imago.
Sic oculos, sic ille manus, sic ora ferebat;
Et nunc aequali tecum pubesceret aevo.
Hos ego digrediens lacrimis adfabar obortis:
Vivite felices, quibus est fortuna peracta
Iam sua; nos alia ex aliis in fata vocamur.
476. Bis erepte. Reference is here made to the former destruction of Troy under Laomedon, by Hercules. Cf. II. 642, and Inductive Studies, 63.
477. A repetition of the thought in 1. 381 seq.; they are here directed to sail to the nearest point in Italy, and then coast along the shores of southern Italy to Sicily.
493. To Aeneas, a wanderer upon the
face of the earth, whose destined country ever evades his grasp (1. 496), they are supremely blessed who have a settled home. So much does he emphasize this blessing, that to him those who possess it seem to have worked out their com plete destiny (1. 493). So also does he count the Carthaginians blessed because their walls are already building (I. 437).
475. Coniugio, 136.477. Tibi, 108.487. Sint, 174. 489. Mihi, 102. -
491. Pubesceret, 209.
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