Me puer Ascanius capitisque iniuria cari, Talia dicentem iamdudum aversa tuetur, 695. The apparition of Anchises is perhaps separable from Anchises himself, as would appear from the passage just referred to; but in any case anger would scarcely suit the relation between Aeneas and his father, and Anchises' feeling at this time would doubtless be that which he is himself made to express (6. 694), "Quam metui, ne quid Libyae tibi regna nocerent!" 354.] From admonet' and 'terret' we supply some such word as "commovet." Aeneas' meaning of course is that the thought of Ascanius weighs with him. That thought, we may remember, had just Cabeen suggested to him by Mercury. put' in expressions like this is not a mere periphrasis, but is used generally where there is some question of personal loss or personal honour. Here we may think of "capitis deminutio." 355.] Fatalibus arvis' 5. 82. 356.] Interpres divom,' elsewhere applied to soothsayers (3.474., 10. 175), here is used of Mercury, the notion in each case being the same, the spokesman of the gods,' the medium between gods and See on v. 608 below. men. · 66 357.] Utrumque caput' is best taken 'mine and thine." There is the same oath in Ov. Her. 3. 107, Perque tuum nostrumque caput, quae iunximus una." Comp. also Apoll. R. 3. 151. (Aphrodite to Eros) ἴστω νῦν τόδε σεῖο φίλον κάρη ἠδ ̓ udv avτns. Some have thought of Ascanius' head, which Aeneas would couple either with his own or with his father's; but though this would agree well with 9. 300, it could not well stand in the present context. The remaining interpre. tation, Jupiter's and Mercury's, might stand in place of a better, but requires the authority of a parallel to give it positive value. 358.] Manifesto in lumine:' comp. 3. 151. Here perhaps there may be a reference to the Homeric palveola èvapyĥ. 355 360 295 There seems no reference to the super- 360.] 'Incendere' is applied to the agitation of grief as well as of anger, 9. 500. It is in the former sense that we must understand it as applied to Aeneas, though no sharp distinction is intended between the excitement which Aeneas and Dido would respectively feel in prolonging a scene like this. 361.] Sequi' may have the sense of "Si spes 'petere;' in other words it may be used of seeking a stationary object. Here erit, Epirum, sin minus, Cyzicum aut aliud quid sequemur" Cic. Att. 3. 16. however the word is probably chosen to express the difficulty of finding Italy, which seems to retire as he advances, as in 5. 629 (comp. 3. 496., 6. 61), "Italiam sequimur fugientem." Comp. also Dido's words in Ov. Her. 7. 10, "Quaeque ubi sint nescis, Itala regna sequi." 362-392.] 'Dido had kindled during She his speech, and at last breaks out. He is a traitor, savage and hard-hearted. can trust neither men nor gods. She had Let done all for him, and now he leaves her, putting her off with base excuses. She leaves him go: she will be avenged on him, and will haunt him after death. him, faints, and is carried away.' 362.] Henry is right in supposing the sense to be that she has been glaring at Aversa:' she him silently during his speech, and bursts out when he has done. 'Aversa' might be looks at him askance, but keeps her eyes on him nevertheless. neuter pl. (see on 6. 467); but it seems more natural to take it as fem. sing. Either is sufficiently idiomatic: see on G. 3. 28., 4. 370. Huc illuc volvens oculos, totumque pererrat Nec tibi diva parens, generis nec Dardanus auctor, 365 Nam quid dissimulo? aut quae me ad maiora reservo? 363.] For the conjunction of 'oculi' and lumina' in the same sentence see G. 4. 451. Pererrare luminibus ' like "obire visu " 10. 447. 364.] "Luminibus tacitis' pro ipsa tacita," Serv., rightly. Other interpretations proceed on the mistaken supposition that Dido is represented as eyeing Aeneas during her own speech, not during his. 365.] Imitated from Il. 16. 33 foll., where Patroclus reproaches Achilles for hard-heartedness. 366.] 'Cautibus' probably with 'horrens.' Virg. makes Dido indulge in those geographical recollections of which he is himself so fond. With the general sense comp. Ε. 8. 33 foll., a passage which supports those who would regard cautibus' here as a local abl. Virg. may have been thinking of Ariadne's reproaches to Theseus, Catull. 62. (64). 154. foll. (comp. Id. 58 (60).) The meaning apparently is that a rock was his mother and a tigress his nurse. Comp. the Ovidian Dido, vv. 37, 38. 368.] She asks why she should hide her feelings, as if there were likely to be any greater occasion to call forth their full force. 369.] Fletu nostro' at or in consequence of my tears; so that the expression is not quite parallel to "nostro doluisti saepe dolore" 1. 669 (note). Lumina flexit' above v. 331. 370.] Lacrimas dedit' 9. 292. 371.] I incline to Serv.'s interpretation "quid prius, quid posterius dicam ?" as against Heyne's "Annon haec extrema sunt ?" There may be more feeling in the latter, but the former is a thought to which the classical writers were partial in 375 describing emotion, as we have seen on v. 284. For the double question comp. G. 2. 256. Iam' seems to mean it is come to this,' and the repetition strengthens it. See on 2. 701. Maxuma Iuno' 8. 84. 10. 685. 372.] Aequis' is here 'just' rather than 'favourable,' as Dido obviously is bringing a charge against the gods, not simply noting them as unpropitious. In 9. 209, where the words partially recur, the context rather inclines to the other sense. It signifies little whether we make 'Saturnius adj. or subst. 373.] There is no faith in the world that one can trust.' Dido generalizes like the chorus in the Medea, v. 412, àvdpáσi μὲν δόλιαι βουλαί, θεῶν δ ̓ οὐκέτι πίστις pape, or Ariadne, Catull. 62 (64). 143 foll. With 'eiectum' comp. 1. 578, with 'egentem' ib. 599. Litore' is a local abl. Ov. M. 13. 535 has "eiectum in litore corpus." Serv. ingeniously joins litore egentem,' comparing 1. 540, 'hospitio prohibemur arenae." 374.] In parte locavi' 12. 145. 375.] We must supply some less strong expression than ‘a morte reduxi' for 'amissam classem.' The quasi-confusion, as Wagn. remarks, is quite in keeping with Dido's state of mind. Comp. Aesch. Ag. 659, dpŵμev àvboûv téλayos Alyaîov vekpois ̓Ανδρῶν Ἀχαιῶν ναυτικῶν τ ̓ ἐρειπίων, where there is not the slightest ground for altering the text. A morte reduxi' because they might have perished from want after landing. She talks of the fleet as if she deserved credit for bringing it into harbour as well as for refitting it. 376.] See v. 110. It matters little whe Nunc Lyciae sortes, nunc et Iove missus ab ipso therfuriis' be taken with incensa' or with 'feror.' 'Augur Apollo' Hor. 1 Od. 2. 32. 'Nunc' seems to mean, now, just when it is most convenient to him and most fatal to me.' As before, some other verb must be supplied from 'fert iussa per auras. 378.] Aeneas had described Mercury's appearance with every circumstance of solemnity: Dido contemptuously condenses and exaggerates the feeling in the epithet 'horrida.' Med. has 'horrida dicta,' from v. 226 (so Heyne, but Ribbeck is silent). 379.] Yes, of course the gods are busied about extricating you and entangling me.' 'Quietos' is probably the Homeric eo peîa Swovτes, but Dido has thrown into the expression a dash of Epicureanism, which would not have been possible to a Homeric personage. 380.] Te' is emphasized. I neither detain your person, nor refute your words.' Thus tua dicta' is not required. 381.] Serv. has a good note: "Satis artificiosa prohibitio, quae fit per concessionem: quae tamen ne non intellecta sit persuasio, permiscenda sunt aliqua quae vetent latenter, ut 'ventis,' 'per undas,' nomina terribilia, et sequere,' quasi fugientem." The line in fact supplies a good instance of the delicacy and (so to call it) sensitiveness of Virg.'s language, as while the words themselves in Dido's mouth and in the present context have undoubtedly the meaning which Serv. attributes to them (comp. vv. 310, 313), in another context and in the mouth of another speaker they might have indicated a prosperous voyage undertaken under good auspices. Thus "vento petiisse Mycenas" 2. 25, if it has any special meaning, points to the wind as favouring the journey. See also on v. 361 above. Some MSS. connect 'ventis' with what follows. 382.] Pia numina:' see on 2. 536. The Ovidian Dido is more lenient, vv. 61 foll. 383.] Haurire' of suffering to the full, like åvτλeî, and the old Latin 'exantlare.' 380 "Quot, quantas, quam incredibiles hausit calamitates!" Cic. 1 Tusc. 35. Waardenburg thinks there is a special reference to death by drowning; but though such a wavering between two meanings would be sufficiently like Virg., Aeneas' repeated cries on Dido would precede, not follow, his drinking the stifling wave.' It was natural that those who could not understand 'hausurum' should conjecture 'haesurum,' as Erythraeus did; but 'supplicia' presented a difficulty, which was not satisfactorily surmounted by reading 'supplicio.' Mediis scopulis' implies of course shipwreck on a rock. Dido' may either be the Greek accusative or the vocative. The latter is more probable, as Virg. elsewhere studiously avoids using any inflexion of the word, adopting Elissa' instead in oblique cases. Comp. Prop. 1. 18. 31, "resonent mihi Cynthia silvae." Ov. however, while not using any other inflexion of the word, has Dido' twice as an acc., vv. 7, 133. Cerda collects instances from the Latin poets of drowning persons calling out the names of those who were most in their minds. Comp. also Croesus' cry on Solon in Hdt. 1. 384.] Dido will haunt him like a Fury with funeral torches when she is really far away; in other words, the thought of her, angry and revengeful, will ever be present to him. The threat is from Medea in Apoll. R. 4. 385, ἐκ δέ σε πάτρης Αὐτίκ ̓ ἐμαί σ' ἐλάσειαν Ερινύες. Comp. Id. 3. 703, ἢ σοί γε φίλοις σὺν παισὶ θανοῦσα Είην ἐξ ̓Αΐδεω στυγερὴ μετόπισθεν Ἐρινύς. Dido will appear like Clytemnestra v. 472 below. Ignes' are firebrands, as in 2. 276., 9. 570. They are murky and smoky, so as to increase the horror. Thus Alecto's torches (7. 456) are "atro lumine fumantes." For 'absens' see above v. 83. According to the Greek belief the living as well as the dead had their Erinnyes, which were in fact curses personified, as Müller remarks in his Dissertations on the Eumenides, so that Virg. has not deviated from mythology in making Dido become a 385 Et, cum frigida mors anima seduxerit artus, At pius Aeneas, quamquam lenire dolentem Fury while she is yet alive, at the same 387.] Another proof (see on v. 353) that the apparition of a dead person was regarded by Virg. as separable from the spirit below. Here Dido in the shades is to hear of the effects produced on Aeneas by her spectre. The Homeric belief seems to have been that news of things above reached the shades through the newly dead or other visitors. Comp. Od. 11. 457 foll., 24. 106 foll. Haec fama' for 'huius rei fama see on 2. 170. 395 Pal. comp. 1. 175. Conlapsa' of fainting 8. 584. 392.]Thalamo,' dativus casus." Serv. 393-407.] 'Grieved as he is, Aeneas goes to look after his fleet. The Trojans quicken their preparations, and are as busy as ants.' 393.] With lenire dolentem' Forb. comp. Cic. Att. 6. 2, "Illum saepe lenivi iratum." 394.] Comp. 2. 775, "curas his demere dictis." "Averte dolorem " below v. 547. 395.] Labefactus' is applied to the weakening and softening effect of love again 8. 390. 396.] Revisit' seems to mean little more than visit.' It does not appear that Aeneas had been to the fleet before, though he gives orders about it v. 289; but this may be Virg.'s indirect way of telling us that he had. At any rate Henry can hardly be right in explaining the word with reference to Aeneas' long neglect and absence. 397.] Tum vero' implies that Aeneas' coming stimulated the crews to fresh exertions, but it does not oblige us to suppose with Henry that they had not set about the work seriously before. Incumbunt' absolutely, as in 9. 73. 398.] "Labitur uncta vadis abies" 8. 91. Ennius A. 14. fr. 2 has "Labitur uncta carina." 399.] Many MSS., but apparently none of the best, give ramos,' which Henry prefers, considering frondentis remos.' more in the style of Statius or Valerius Flaccus than of Virg. "Stringere remos" (1. 552) is however an expression of the Infabricata, fugae studio. Migrantis cernas, totaque ex urbe ruentis. same kind, being equivalent to "stringere ramos ut remi fiant." 400.] Infabricatus' seems to occur nowhere else. 401.] Henry may be right in pressing the meaning of cernere,' to distinguish, as contrasted with " videre." (See Forc., who shows that the words are sometimes discriminated, more frequently confounded.) Henry remarks that the propriety of the following comparison is much enhanced if we suppose the Trojans to be seen from a distance, as Dido herself is represented as seeing them inmediately afterwards (comp. 'cernenti' v. 408). 402.] The MSS. seem divided between 'velut' and 'veluti,' the reading of Med. being variously reported. Wagn. thinks Virg. does not use 'veluti' before a vowel. There is the same variety in the MSS. in v. 441., 6. 707. The hint of the comparison seems to be from Apoll. R. 4. 1452 foll., where the Minyans are compared to ants or flies; but Virg. goes much more into detail. A somewhat idle question about the poetical dignity of the simile has been raised by the earlier critics. Hom., as Heyne remarks, has two similes from flies, Il. 2. 469 foll., 16. 461 foll., the point of comparison in the one case being their numbers, in the other their numbers and pertinacity. Here the point is numbers, division of labour, and assiduity, much as in the simile of the bees 1. 430 foll. With the expression of this line comp. G. 1. 185. 403.] With hiemis memores comp. Hor. 1 S. 1. 35, of the ant, "haud ignara ac non incauta futuri." 400 405 410 So "comportare praedas" 9. 613. 405.] The practice of ants, to move on a single track, has been noted already G. 1. 380. Αεὶ μίαν ἀτραπὸν πάντες βαδίζουσι, Aristot. H. A. 9. 38. 'Grandia' with reference to the size of the ants, it being at the same time an ordinary epithet of grain, E. 5. 36. 406.] "Obnixus latis humeris" 9. 725. Here humeris' may go either with 'obnixae' or with 'trudunt.' 407.] They rally and coerce the stragglers. Castigantque moras' however need not stand for "castigant morantis," as 'castigo' takes an acc. of the thing as well as of the person, as in 6. 567. As usual, the last clause of the simile gives the general effect of the whole. Comp. 6. 709. 'Semita' is the callis angustus.' 408-436.] Dido sees them and is overcome with grief. She tries again what entreaty will do, and sends her sister to Aeneas, begging that he will wait a little till she has reconciled herself to parting with him, as she hopes she shall in time reconcile herself.' 408.] Henry suggests plausibly that Virg. has imitated Soph. Phil. 276 foll., where Philoctetes uses a similar apostrophe to express his emotions at finding that the Greeks. had gone away and left him in Lemnos. Tunc' was restored by Heins. from Med. and others for 'tum;' but see on G. 2. 317. 410.] Perhaps from Catull. 62 (64). 241" summa prospectum ex arce petebat." Dido's palace was in the citadel, like Priam's, 2. 760. After recovering from her prostration, she mounts the roof. 411.] Misceri clamoribus' like "gemitu miseroque tumultu Miscetur" 2. 486, comp. by Wund. |