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Pasiphae, mixtumque genus prolesque biformis
Minotaurus inest, Veneris monumenta nefandae;
Hic labor ille domus et inextricabilis error;
Magnum reginae sed enim miseratus amorem
Daedalus, ipse dolos tecti ambagesque resolvit,
Caeca regens filo vestigia. Tu quoque magnam
Partem opere in tanto, sineret dolor, Icare, haberes.
Bis conatus erat casus effingere in auro;
Bis patriae cecidere manus. Quin protinus omnia
Perlegerent oculis, ni iam praemissus Achates

that there was a plurality of sculptures in
the Cretan part, as there had been in the
Athenian. "Crudelis amor" E. 10. 29.
Here the epithet is meant to excite our
pity for Pasiphae as a victim, as she actually
was, the passion having been Venus' re-
venge on her for revealing the goddess'
adultery with Mars. Furto 'fur-
tim' 4. 337. Comp. 7. 283, "Supposita
de matre nothos furata creavit."

25.] Mixtum genus' is explained by 'proles biformis.'

26.] "Veneris nefandae,' nefandi amoris " Heyne. 'Monumenta,' pl. for sing., referring only to the Minotaur. The licence is one of the many metrical licences of Roman epic poetry.

27.] Forb. would make 'domus' nom. in apposition to ‘labor,' like 7. 248, “Iliadumque labor vestes:" but it is doubtless gen., probably to be explained as definitive (Madv. § 286), like opus Academicorum,' 'familia Scipionum.' The labour is that of Daedalus, not, as Heyne thought, that of the wanderers in the labyrinth. Perhaps also 'domus' is to be constructed with 'error' as in Catull. 62 (64). 115, which Virg. had in his mind, "Tecti frustraretur inobservabilis error," though the construction would not be quite the same as that with labor.' "Falleret indeprensus et inremeabilis error" 5. 591.

28.] Virg. recapitulates the heads of the story briefly, and, to one unacquainted with it, unintelligibly. Magnum reginae amorem' is not, what it would seem from the context it must mean, the passion of the queen Pasiphae, but that of the princess (comp. 1. 273: so Valerius Flaccus uses it repeatedly of Medea: see Forc.) Ariadne. Sed enim' 1. 19 note, 2. 161. 29.] Ipse: the framer of the puzzle consented to solve it. 'Dolos tecti' like "tecti error "Catull. 1. c.: comp. also 5. 590.

30.] Vestigia,' not his own footsteps,

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but those of Theseus-another instance of Virg.'s ambiguity. The expression is from Catull. v. 113, "Errabunda regens tenui vestigia filo," where Theseus is the subject of the sentence. Comp. also 3. 659.

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31.] "Opere in tali" Lucr. 6.815. On the construction sineret dolor' see Madv. § 442 a. obs. 2. Icare, haberes' is omitted by Rom. and some other MSS., Ribbeck thinks on account of the length of the line.

32.] Conatus erat,' Daedalus, whose name has to be inferred from the context, especially patriae manus.' 'Effingere in auro:" "caelata in auro facta" 1. 640.

33.] Patriae manus' like "patrius amor "1. 643. Protinus,' successively, G. 4. 1. The choice lies between regarding ‘omnia' as a dactyl, and compressing it into a spondee by synizesis: a hypermeter, which Macrob. Sat. 5. 14 talks of, is not to be entertained, as in the case of other hypermetric verses in Virg. the following line begins with a vowel. See on G. 2. 69. The hypothesis of a dactylic ending would not be impossible in itself, but becomes highly improbable in the face of the fact that of all the possible instances in Virg. some, like G. 2. 69., 3. 449, may be regarded as hypermeters; others, like the present one and 7. 237, may be resolved by synizesis. 'Omnia' then will be a dissyllable, like 'taeniis' 5. 269. Copyists sought to get rid of the anomaly by substituting omne' (actually found in Rom.), 'omnem,'' omnes,' as in 7. 237 they substituted 'precantum,' 'precantis' for 'precantia.'

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34.] Terentius Scaurus in his treatise De Orthographia contends that Virg. wrote 'pellegerent,' a form printed by Ritschl in some passages in Plautus on MS. authority. For the rhetorical use of the imperf. for the pluperf. see Madv. § 347 b. obs. 2. The plural is used because Aeneas had several companions with him: comp.

Adforet atque una Phoebi Triviaeque sacerdos,
Deiphobe Glauci, fatur quae talia regi:
Non hoc ista sibi tempus spectacula poscit;
Nunc grege de intacto septem mactare iuvencos
Praestiterit, totidem lectas de more bidentis.
Talibus adfata Aenean-nec sacra morantur
Iussa viri-Teucros vocat alta in templa sacerdos.
Excisum Euboicae latus ingens rupis in antrum,
Quo lati ducunt aditus centum, ostia centum;

vv. 13, 41, 54.

Praemissus,' sent on by Aeneas, that the Sibyl might be ready for him on his arrival at the temple. "Praemittit Achaten" 1. 644. 'Iam' probably with adforet' rather than with 'praemissus.'

35.] "Phoebi Triviaeque sacerdos" 10. 537, of Haemonides. Holdsworth and Spence (Miscellanea Virgiliana, pp. 207 foll.) distinguish between the priestess and the Sibyl, who, they say, being a goddess, required some other person to introduce worshippers to her. But their distinction is not really borne out by Virg., who must have intended the same person in vv. 46 foll. and 77 foll., a patent fact which they are compelled to deny. The Sibyl is nowhere called a goddess by Virg., as in v. 258 dea' is Hecate: she is called a priestess v. 321, as they admit. It is true, as they assert, that in Silius Italicus, Book 13, where Scipio goes down into the shades, he deals in the first instance not with the Sibyl, but with the priestess Autonoe: but Silius' Sibyl is not alive, but dead: she is like Homer's Tiresias, who drinks the blood of the victim, and then acquires the power of speech, and tells the visitor what he wishes to know. They object that Deiphobe the daughter of Glaucus was not the Sibyl's name; but there were several Sibyls, and the Cumaean Sibyl in particu. lar had several names (Dict. Myth. Sibylla '), so that Virg. may have followed some legend unknown to us, or may have thought himself at liberty to invent a name. On the whole subject see Heyne's Excursus. Glaucus, as the commentators remark, is a natural personage to be a Sibyl's father, being himself a prophetic god. 36.] Regi' of Aeneas, as in v. 55 &c. Some MSS. leave out 'fatur-regi.'

37.] Poscunt' is found in Rom., and is the earlier reading of Med. The editors think it intrinsically inferior to poscit: but there is little difference between making the time call for the thing to be

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done, and making the thing to be done call for the time. It might even be urged that as 'non' apparently goes not with 'ista' but with hoc,' the latter is here the more natural expression. 'Poscit' however is more likely to have been altered into poscunt' than vice versa, as copyists are apt to alter the number to make the verb agree with the noun immediately preceding. See Wagn. Q. V. 8. Serv. recommends 'poscit.'

38.] Intacto' by the yoke, more fully expressed G. 4. 540 (note) by "intacta cervice." The sacrifice is to Apollo and Diana.

39.] Praestiterit:' the subj. has the force of the Attic optative with av, courteously avoiding a direct and dogmatic assertion. Lectas de more bidentis' 4. 57 note. Fragm. Vat. has 'ex more.'

40-55.] They pass through the temple towards the adytum, when the Sibyl feels the power of the god, and calls on Aeneas to pray fervently, that the doors may open and the response be given.'

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40.] Sacra' is a substantive, so that 'iussa sacra' is like "iussos honores "" 3. 547, "iussos sapores" G. 4. 62. Morantur' then will mean to delay to execute, or execute slowly, as in Val. F. 7. 60, “Haud ipse morabor Quae petitis," possibly an imitation of Virg.

41.] Alta in templa:' see on v. 9. They had been standing before the gate, and now are summoned within.

42.] A description, as Henry rightly takes it, not of the temple but of the adytum, which, as at Delphi, was a cavern in the rock. Euboicae rupis,' the rock or hill of Cumae: see on v. 9. Latus rupis excisum in antrum' is a variety, as Heyne observes, for "antrum excisum in latere rupis."

43.] Aditus' and 'ostia' seem rightly explained by Henry as a sort of Virgilian hendiadys, aditus per centum lata ostia.' But it is not easy to understand what

Unde ruunt totidem voces, responsa Sibyllae.
Ventum erat ad limen, cum virgo, Poscere fata
Tempus, ait; deus, ecce, deus! Cui talia fanti
Ante fores subito non voltus, non color unus,
Non comptae mansere comae; sed pectus anhelum,
Et rabie fera corda tument; maiorque videri,
Nec mortale sonans, adflata est numine quando

these entrances were. On the whole the consistency of the description seems to require that we should understand them to be the entrances of the adytum, opening into the temple (comp. 3. 92, where the 'adytum' is opened similarly at the giving of the response): but a hundred doors communicating from one side of the temple to a cavern beyond form a picture which is not readily grasped. Meanwhile the general tenor of the narrative is well illustrated by a graphic description of a worshipper at Delphi approaching the adytum' in the Oxford Arnold Prize Essay for 1859, by my friend Mr. Bowen of Balliol College. I quote it in an Appendix to this book, as it is too long for a note.

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44.] Ruunt' expresses the general practice through these doors the responses of the Sibyl are habitually communicated.

45.] Limen,' sc. antri;' whether identical with any of these doors we are not told. The Sibyl goes into the cave (comp. v. 77); Aeneas and the Trojans remain outside. Poscere fata' is explained by what follows, v. 52. The sacrifices had been performed, but prayer was still necessary to obtain the response, and this was the time for prayer, the god having already manifested himself. The words seem to mean to ask Apollo for oracles,' 'fata' being used as in 1. 382 &c. Comp. G. 3. 456, "meliora deos sedet omina poscens," and possibly A. 3. 456, where however see note. Elsewhere, as in 7. 272 &c., the fates themselves are said 'poscere." "Tempus poscere 9.12. For the construction see on G. 1. 213. 47.] Ante fores' like ad limen.' 'Unus' = idem,' with which it is not

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unfrequently joined: see Forc. The sense is not that her countenance and colour keep changing, but that they are different from what they were before.

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48.] Comptae:' Heyne remarks that her hair would be already unbound, as the sacrifice had been made (see on 3. 370), so that Virg. must here mean that the hair stood on end or was tossed about. But

45

50

we need not press the poet so closely. Unbound or dishevelled hair was usual when a priest or prophet approached the gods: and Virg. has chosen to represent the hair of the Sibyl as becoming disordered at this particular point of the story.

49.] Rabie' with 'tument.' As the forms of the gods and of the dead were supposed to be larger than those of ordinary humanity (see on 2. 773), so the Sibyl seems to increase in stature under the divine afflatus. In less poetical language we should say that she rises to her full height, and every limb is stretched with excitement. The picture is virtually the same as that of Wordsworth's Laodamia, expecting an answer to her prayer:

"Her countenance brightens, and her eye expands:

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Her bosom heaves and swells, her stature grows."

Videri' might be regarded as a historical infinitive, with Serv. and some of the early editors: but Heyne rightly constructs it with 'maior,' as if it were a translation of μείζων εἰσιδεῖν. Wagn. comp. "niveus videri" Hor. 4. Od. 2. 59, "lubricus adspici" Id. 1 Od. 19.7. Some notion equivalent to 'facta est' must of course be supplied from the context.

50.] Sonare of a person speaking loudly, 12. 529. With the expression generally comp. 1. 328, "haud tibi voltus Mortalis, nec vox hominem sonat."

Quando' is causal rather than temporal, so that Heyne's suggestion, adopted by Jahn, to place a period at 'sonans,' and connect adflata est' with what follows, would be no improvement. With the position of 'quando' comp. 10. 366, "aspera quis natura loci dimittere quando Suasit equos." Serv. explains 'adflata' "nondum deo plena, sed adflata vicinitate numinis;" but adflare' and 'adflatus' (subst.) are terms regularly used of divine inspiration (see Forc.), like éжinveîv and its cognates.

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Iam propiore dei. Cessas in vota precesque,
Tros, ait, Aenea? cessas? neque enim ante dehiscent
Attonitae magna ora domus. Et talia fata
Conticuit. Gelidus Teucris per dura cucurrit
Ossa tremor, funditque preces rex pectore ab imo:
Phoebe, gravis Troiae semper miserate labores,
Dardana qui Paridis direxti tela manusque
Corpus in Aeacidae, magnas obeuntia terras
Tot maria intravi duce te penitusque repostas

51.] With 'propiore' comp. the use of 'praesens,' 'adesse,' of divine favour, and the cognate propitius.' 'Cessas in vota is a variety for the more ordinary use of 'cessare' with the abl., as in Cic. Sen. 5, 'neque unquam in suo studio atque opere cessavit." Forb. comp. "audere in proelia' 2. 347. We should expect the construction 'in' with acc. after a verb signifying tendency to promote an object rather than the reverse but the explanation doubtless is that the absence of such a tendency is considered to affect the object in question no less than its presence. The phrase is imitated by Sen., Medea 406, "Nunquam meus cessabit in poenas furor." "Vota precesque" 11. 158.

52.] Enim' gives the reason why he should pray fervently, and 'ante' refers to fervent prayer as implied in its opposite cessas,' Dehiscent' is used of the flying open of the doors, in accommodation to 'ora.'

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53.] The earlier commentators, following Serv., were satisfied with making 'attoni tae'="facientis attonitos." Later editors, who see that both on poetical and grammatical grounds it is to be understood strictly, the house being conceived of and endowed with human feelings, are still divided as to the force which should be given to it, Heyne and Wagn. referring it to the effect of the sudden opening of the doors, Henry to the spell-bound silence which prevents the opening, while Forb. after Süpfl understands it generally of the condition of the cave as possessed by the god. On the whole Henry's interpretation seems to give the most consistent and poetical picture. He compares a similar application of the word in Lucan 2. 21, “Sic funere primo Attonitae tacuere domus, cum corpora nondum Conclamata iacent." The Sibyl, in describing the feelings of the 'domus,' is in effect describing her own. The effect of the inspiration is to bewilder and confound her, so that she cannot at VOL. II.

55

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55.] Heins. restored 'fundit' for 'fudit,' the old reading, found in none of Ribbeck's MSS.

56-76.] Aeneas invokes Apollo as the patron of Troy and his own guide in his wanderings, praying of him, of the gods who have hitherto opposed Troy, and of the Sibyl herself, that he may at last be allowed to settle in Latium, and promising a temple to Apollo and Diana. He begs the Sibyl not to write but speak her oracle.' 56.] "O sola infandos Troiae miserata labores " 1. 597.

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57.] Dardana' in prose would be constructed with Paridis' rather than with tela:' but it is in any case emphatic, as its position shows. Achilles, the greatest enemy of Troy, had been destroyed by Apollo, and not only this, but destroyed through the instrumentality of a Trojan. The joint agency of Apollo and Paris in the death of Achilles was part of the Homeric tradition, Il. 22. 359, other stories making Paris the sole agent (Dict. M. Achilles'). In Ov. M. 12. 580 foll. Apollo, at the instance of Neptune, appears to Paris, encourages him to shoot at Achilles rather than at meaner foes, and guides his aim. Direxti:' see on 5. 786. With tela manusque,' which may be called a species of hendiadys, the notion being a single one, the hand fixing the arrow or the arrow fixed by the hand, comp. Aesch. Ag. 111, ξὺν δορὶ καὶ χερὶ πράκτορι.

58.] Obire' of surrounding, Ov. M. 5. 51, "chlamydem quam limbus obibat aureus," Forc. So A. 10. 482.

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59.] Tot' is probably to be explained from the context, and especially from v. F f

62.

Massylum gentis praetentaque Syrtibus arva,
Iam tandem Italiae fugientis prendimus oras;
Hac Troiana tenus fuerit Fortuna secuta.

Vos quoque Pergameae iam fas est parcere genti,
Dique deaeque omnes, quibus obstitit Ilium et ingens
Gloria Dardaniae. Tuque, o sanctissima vates,
Praescia venturi, da, non indebita posco
Regna meis fatis, Latio considere Teucros

So many seas as I have entered, it is time that I should rest.' 'Intravi' implies that the seas were previously unknown to him, "hospita aequora," as they are called 3. 373. 'Duce te' need not mean that Apollo showed the way, but merely that he prompted them to sail till they should reach Italy. Comp. "me duce" 10. 92. Repostas '3. 364 note. 'Penitus' is only an extension of the same notion, so that the two words="longe remotas."

60.]Massylum gentis 4. 132, 483. 'Syrtibus' is not dat. but abl., the expression being i. q. "arva quibus (dat.) Syrtes praetentae sunt." Comp. "praetexit nomine culpam" 4. 172.

61.] On a comparison of 3. 496., 5. 629, it may be doubted whether 'fugientis' is gen. sing., or, as Wagn. suggests, acc. pl. Perhaps it is more like Virg. to separate the noun from its epithet. Fugientes' is said to be the reading of eight MSS. examined by Burm. Prendimus' may be either present or perf., but the former seems rhetorically preferable. The word is meant to be graphic, expressing a physical grasp of a thing which had nearly slipped away. Comp. 12. 775, "teloque sequi, quem prendere cursu Non poterat." Wagn. (ed. mi.) seems right in exchanging the period usually placed after 'oras' for a semicolon, so as to make v. 62 a kind of apodosis. See on v. 59.

62.] Hac' separated from 'tenus,' as in 5. 603. Troiana fortuna' is said bitterly, Troy's usual fortune.' Gossrau comp. Hor. 3 Od. 3. 61, "Troiae renascens alite lugubri Fortuna tristi clade iterabitur." Fuerit,' the perf. subj. used as a past opt. or imperative. Let ill-fortune have followed us up to this point, but let her do so no longer.' The use is not quite the same as that of 'fuit' 2. 325, as here the force of the past is partially given by 'hactenus.'

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60

65

'Obstare' is here used of that which creates dislike, without any reference to active opposition. So Sil. 17.551 (quoted by Forb.), "tantumne obstat mea gloria divis?" an obvious imitation of Virg., Pers. 5. 163, "an siccis dedecus obstem Cognatis ? " "Ilium et ingens Gloria Teucrorum" 2. 325.

66.] Praescius' with gen. is found also in Val. Flaccus and Tac. (see Forc.), on the analogy of conscius,' 'inscius,' 'nescius,' &c. 'Da:' for the sense see 3. 85 (note), for the construction 5. 689. Some editions make the parenthesis to end with posco,' which Heyne rightly rejects.

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67.] It is extremely difficult to say whether fatis' is the dat., as Burm. thinks, or the abl., as Peerlkamp and Forb. contend. Either expression would be Virgilian (comp. 7. 120, "fatis mihi debita tellus," with 11. 759" fatis debitus Arruns"), and either would yield an appropriate sense, as the fates may be represented either as satisfying the requirements of others, or as having their own requirements satisfied (comp. the passages where the fates are said poscere,' 4. 614 &c.). Where the fates are identified with an individual, as here by the possessive pronoun 'meis,' they assume as it were a subordinate position (comp. 7. 293, "fatis contraria nostris Fata Phrygum"), and so may be regarded not as causing events, but as demanding their fulfilment from some other power. The question then is whether the Sibyl is here regarded as the person through whom a demand is made on destiny, or on whom the destinies of private persons make their demand. On the whole I think it must be left open, as there seems nothing in the context, in the nature of the case, or in parallel passages to incline the scale either way, though Val. F. 5. 508 (quoted by Forb.), "Non aliena peto terrisve indebita nostris," looks as if that author understood fatis' as dative. Considere' 4. 349, where as here the names of Italy and the Trojans are contrasted by way of emphasis. Rom. has consistere.'

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