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sprinkled by a priest with lustral water from a branch of olive (for which bay was often substituted). 11. All then bade farewell to the deceased, by repeating the word vale thrice.

237. This cave lay between the Lake Avernus, on the one side, and a gloomy wood on the other, and was the opening to the world below. As the lake was surrounded by hills, it is very probable that there was some vast cave in one of these, which Virgil, guided by popular superstition, had in view. The adjacent country, indeed, is said to abound in such openings.-238. Tuta. "Fenced," i. e. rendered difficult of access. The participle of tueor or tuor.239. Impune. The exhalation from the cave, and also from the lake, killed them while attempting to fly over.- Volantes. "Flying things." Equivalent to volucres.-241. Convexa. Consult note on iv. 451.— 242. Unde locum Graii, &c. This line is generally considered spurious. In some MSS. it does not occur at all, while in others it appears written by a more recent hand.-Aornon. From ȧ, not, and ὄρνις, a bird," because no bird could fly over. Hence, according to some, the Latin Avernus. The derivation, however, is of no value.

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244. Intergit. "Pours." Invergo properly means to bend," and here describes the bending or inverting of the cup as the contents were poured out. This inverting of the cup was customary, according to Servius, in sacrifices to the gods below.-245. Et summas carpens, &c. The highest hairs were plucked out, or cut off, and thrown into the fire as primitiæ.-246. Libamina prima, i. e. as the first part of the intended sacrifice.-247. Coelo Ereboque potentem. The same goddess was Luna in the sky, Diana on earth, and Hecate, or Proserpina in the world below.

248. Supponunt cultros. Poetically for "cut the throats of the victims."-249. Pateris. The object was to let none of the sacred blood fall upon the ground. As regards the form of the patera, consult note on i. 728.—Atri celleris. Black victims were always selected for the deities below. So nigrantes terga juvencos, in line 243.-250. Matri Eumenidum. Night, who was fabled to have brought forth the Furies unto Acheron as their sire.-Magnæque sorori. "And to her mighty sister." Tellus, or the goddess of the earth. According to Servius, Night and Earth were daughters of Chaos.

251. Sterilem vaccam. "A barren cow." This was the customary offering to Proserpina. Homer calls it Boug orɛipa (Od. xi. 30).— 252. Nocturnas inchoat aras. "He erects nocturnal altars," i. e. he erects altars, and offers a sacrifice thereon during the night season. This time was purposely selected, inasmuch as the offering was to a god of the lower world. Inchoare, according to Servius, is a religious term, equivalent to facere, or erigere.-253. Solida viscera. "Entire carcasses," i. e. holocausts or whole burnt-offerings. Consult, as regards the peculiar force of viscera here, the note on book i. 211.— 254. Exta is here taken, like viscera above, for the carcasses of the victims, or in other words for the victims themselves.

256. Juga silcarum. "The wooded heights."-257. Canes... adventante Dea. Hecate, accompanied by her infernal hounds in imitation of Diana accompanied by her pack of the upper world.-258. Procul, O! procul, &c. This was the solemn preamble with which the celebration of the sacred mysteries used to be ushered in, the form of expression in Greek being, xác, έkàç ¿otè ßißnλol. By profani, on the present occasion, are meant, as Wagner thinks, the Trojans who

had accompanied Æneas thus far. The possession of the golden bough rendered Æneas himself pure, and fit to enter on his fearful journey.-260. Invade viam. "Enter boldly on thy way."-Ferrum. Servius says he had consecrated his sword, to do service against the shapes of the lower world, by having struck the victims with it in the recent sacrifice!

264. Di, quibus imperium, &c. A general invocation unto the gods of the lower world. Warburton thought that Virgil, in the description which he here gives of the lower regions meant to pourtray the sacred mysteries of Eleusis, celebrated every fifth year in the city of Eleusis, in Attica. He is ably refuted, however, by the historian Gibbon.-266. Audita. Supply a me.

268. Obscuri solâ sub nocte is equivalent to sub obscurâ nocte soli.— 269. Inania regna. All general privations, observes Burke, are great, because they are terrible-vacuity, darkness, solitude, and silence. With what fire of imagination has Virgil amassed all these circumstances at the mouth of hell! (Subl. and Beaut. ii. 6.)

270. Incertam lunam. Clouds floating through the sky, and shrouding, at intervals, the brightness of the moon. [Compare" By the struggling moonbeam's misty light."-Ode on the Death of Wolf.] -Luce maligna. Heyne: "Lux maligna, parca, infirma, ac tenuis."

273. The vestibulum did not properly form part of the house, but was a vacant space before the door, forming a court, which was surrounded on three sides by the house, and was open on the fourth to the street. The two sides of the house joined the street, but the middle part of it, where the door was placed, was at some little distance from the street. We see from this the general meaning of vestibulum in the present passage, as applied to the open space in front of the entrance to the lower world. [See Becker's Gallus. On the Roman House.]

274. Luctus. Before the entrance to Orcus are grouped, according to the poet, all the ills and calamities that infest human life, and make us wish for the grave as a place of final repose.-Ultrices Curæ. The stings of Conscience. Remorse.-275. Tristisque Senectus. Old Age is here described as sorrowing over the recollections of the past, and sighing for days gone by.-276. Metus. "Despondency." The continual apprehension of evil.-Malesuada. "That persuades to crime."-278. Consanguineus Leti. "Own brother of Death." Hom. Π. xiv. 231: Ὕπνος κασίγνητος θανάτου. Hesiod makes Death and Sleep the sons of Night (Theog. 756). [Compare "Death and his brother Sleep." Shelley's Queen Mab.]—Et mala mentis Gaudia, ì. e. the criminal lusts of the heart. Compare Voss: "Des frevelen Herzens Schwarmungen."-279. Adverso in limine. "On the very threshold itself, as it confronts the view," i. e. in the very entrance itself.

280. Ferreique Eumenidum thalami. The Furies guard the entrance, and have there their cells of iron (as rigid and unbending as their own hearts), just as in ancient mansions the gatekeeper or Svpwpós (janitor) had his station at the door of the dwelling, and near it his room or cell.

282. In medio. Supply vestibulo.-283. Vulgo is here, as Servius well remarks, equivalent to catervatim, and is not to be joined in construction with ferunt. The language of the text, it will be observed, refers merely to vain or false dreams, such as are sent from the world below. True dreams, on the other hand, says Servius, come down from the skies.

286. Supply in foribus stabulant with monstra, in rendering, omitting these words after Centauri.-Stabulant. Equivalent to habitant, but having a special reference, in its literal sense, to the idea implied in ferarum and Centauri.-287. Centumgeminus. "The hundredhanded." The Homeric Karóyxeos (İl. i. 402).—Bellua Lernæ. "The beast of Lerna." The hydra, that was slain by Hercules.— 289. Forma tricorporis umbræ, i. e. the shade of the three-bodied Geryon.

292. Docta comes. "His wise companion." Alluding to the sibyl. -294. Irruat. In our idiom we translate irruat and diverberet as if they had been respectively irruisset and diverberasset. The Latin idiom, however, is far more graphic, and paints the action at once to the eyes. Literally, "if his wise companion do not warn him, &c. he will rush upon them, and will cleave," &c.

295. Hinc via. "From this point," i. e. after passing through the vestibule and first entrance.-Acherontis. The poet calls this river the Acheron; its more usual name, in the language of fable, was the Styx. So, again, it is now a river, and presently it is described as a lake or fen.

296. Voragine. Forcellini explains the term vorago thus: Locus immensæ profunditatis, a vorando, quia in eam cadentia non emergunt, sed absorbentur.-297. Cocyto. For in Cocytum.-299. Plurima canities inculta. "An abundant, grisly, untrimmed beard."-300. Stant lumina flamma. "His eyes stand glaring (as with) flame."-302. Velisque ministrat. "And tends the sails." Velis is here the dative, and ministrat is equivalent to ministeria facit.—303. Ferrugineâ cymbâ. "In his dusky bark," i. e. his bark resembling the dark hue of iron, which it had contracted from long exposure to the murky atmosphere of the lower world, and the turbid and discolouring water. Compare line 410, where the epithet coerulea is applied to Charon's boat.-304. Cruda viridisque, &c. "A fresh and a green old age." So the Greek ὠμὸν γῆρας.

305. Huc marks the spot where Charon stood.-309. Quam multa in silvis, &c. The full form of expression would be, tam multi, quam multa in silvis, &c.-310. Gurgite ab alto. " From the troubled deep," i. e. agitated by wintry blasts.-311. Frigidus annus. "The cold season of the year."

315. Tristis, i. e. harsh and unbending in his purpose.-316. Ast alios longe submotos, &c. These are they whose bodies remained without burial, and who could not cross until they had received the rites of interment, or until they had wandered a hundred years on the banks of the stream.

319. Quo discrimine. "By what distinction."-320. Remis vada livida verrunt. As Charon himself propelled the boat, we must regard remis verrunt as merely a general expression for navigant or

transeunt.

321. Longæva sacerdos. According to the fables of poetry, the Cumaan sibyl had already lived about seven hundred years when Eneas came to Italy.-323. Cocyti stagna, &c. The Cocytus and the Styx are here put in apposition, though in reality different streams. Consult note on line 297.-324. Di cujus jurare, &c. "Whose divi

nity the gods fear to swear by and to deceive." This alludes to the Styx, not the Cocytus. If a god swore by the Styx, and broke his oath, he was deprived of nectar and ambrosia, and of all heavenly privileges, for ten whole years.

325. Inops inhumataque. "Needy and unburied," i. e. consists of those who were too poor to leave behind them the means of interment, and who have therefore been deprived of the same, as well as of those who have, from the nature of their death (shipwreck, for example, or any other accident), been without the rites of burial.326. Sepulti. "Are they who have obtained the rites of interment." -327. Nec ripas datur, &c. "Nor is it allowed him to carry them across these fearful banks," &c.-328. Sedibus, i. e. in a tomb or grave. Observe the force of the plural.

334. Leucaspim. One of the crew of the ship of Orontes; probably the pilot.-335. Simul. To be construed with rectos, not with with obruit.-336. Aquá involvens, &c. Alluding to the storm described in the first book, line 113, seqq.

337. Sese agebat. "Was making towards them."-338. Libyco cursu. "In the voyage from Carthage." Literally, "in the Libyan voyage." This expression is to be taken in a very general sense, since Palinurus was lost after the fleet had left Sicily.-339. Mediis effusus in undis. "Dashed into the midst of the waters." Compare the explanation of Wagner: "In medio, per mare Libycum, cursu effusus." Arusianus notices another explanation of this passage: "Cum in mediis undis esset, puppi effusus exciderat."

345. Canebat. "Prophesied," i. e. declared by his oracles. The allusion appears to be, not to any special prediction in the case of Palinurus, but to the general language of the response given by Apollo, iii. line 92, seqq.: "Eadem tellus (Ausonia) vos ubere læto accipiet reduces." The declaration of Neptune to Venus (v. 814) is far more definite: "Unus erit tantum, amissum quem gurgite quæret," &c. 347. Cortina. "The oracle." Consult note on iii. 92.-341. Nec me deus æquore mersit. "Nor did any god overwhelm me in the sea," i. e. bury me amid the waves. He was hurled into the sea, it is true, by Somnus, but then, as is subsequently stated, he swam to the shore, and was there murdered. Observe the employment of mersit for submersit.

352. Non ullum pro me tantum, &c. "That not any so great fear for my own self took possession of me," &c. Excussa magistro equivalent to excusso magistro, or ex quá magister erat excussus.-356. Vexit me aquâ. The helm aided him in floating along.-357. Summa sublimis ab undâ. "Raised high on the top of the surge." An imitation of the Homeric μεγάλου ἀπὸ κύματος ἀρθείς. Many connect summa ab undâ with prospexi, but this is less graphic, and less in accordance with the rhythm of the line.

358. Jam tuta tenebam. "I was now on the point of reaching a safe (landing) place."-359. Ni. "Had not." We would expect to have cum gens crudelis, &c. inraderet, or else in place of tenebam to have had tenuissem. The change, however, to ni invasisset comes in the more forcibly from its suddenness.—Madidâ cum veste gravatum, "Burdened with my wet garments." The preposition cum, according to the best commentators, is pleonastic here. Wagner compares Sophocles, Cd. Τ. 17 : οἱ δὲ σὺν γήρᾳ βαρεῖς ἱερῆς.—360. Capita aspera montis. "The rugged projections of a mountain promontory." This was that promontory of Lucania which was afterwards called by his name. Compare line 381.-361. Prædamque ignara putâsset. "And deemed me, in their ignorance, a (rich) prize."

363. Quod. "Therefore." Supply ob or propter.-365. Eripe me. He is referring specially to his uninterred remains; and it is to this

calamity of his being without the rites of burial that he alludes in the words his malis.-Terram injice. "Cast earth upon me," i. e. bury me. In ordinary cases, casting three handfuls of earth upon a corpse was equivalent to the rites of interment, and this pious duty was enjoined upon every passing traveller who might meet with a dead body lying exposed. Here, however, Palinurus requests more formal and solemn rites.-366. Portusque require Velinos. "And seek (for that purpose) the Velian harbour," i. e. the harbour of Velia, a city of Lucania near the promontory of Palinurum. Here his corpse was to be found. Virgil has been charged with an anachronism in this passage, because the city of Velia was founded at a period long subsequent to the Trojan war. But, as has been remarked by several commentators, the port in all probability existed before the town was built.

367. Creatrix. Compare viii. 534.-369. Innare. "To navigate." -371. Servius makes this refer to his past vocation as a mariner, and the toilsome and roving life connected with it. But Wagner thinks that the shade of Palinurus begs to be released from the long wanderings on the banks of the Styx, to which the unburied were always subjected. This appears to be the preferable view.

375. Eumenidum. The Furies are here named for the deities of the lower world generally; just as if the poet had called it the river of Proserpina, of Hecate, &c. Servius wrongly explains the words of the text by "circa quem habitant Eumenides," since, according to line 280, the Furies have their chambers in the entrance of Hell.-Ripam. The shades of the unburied were not allowed even to draw near to the bank on their own side of the stream. If they did, Charon drove them back. Compare line 316, seqq.

377. Cape memor is equivalent here to tene memoriâ.—378. Finitimi. "The neighbouring people," i. e. the communities dwelling in the vicinity of the spot where Palinurus was murdered.-379. Prodigiis cœlestibus. "By prodigies from on high." One of these was a pestilence, and the Lucanians were told by an oracle that, in order to be relieved from it, they must appease the manes of Palinurus. A tomb was accordingly erected to his memory, and the promontory where he swam to shore was called, after his name, Promontorium Palinurum, now Capo di Palinuro.

380. Et tumulo solemnia mittent. "And shall render annual offerings at that tomb." With solemnia supply sacra, or some equivalent term. Mittere sacra is analogous to the Greek Tμπeiv iɛpá.—381. Æternumque locus, &c. The promontory is still called Capo di Palinuro. Compare note on line 379.--382. Parumper. "For a little while," i. e. soon to return. So Doederlein, "paulo post rediturus." (Lat. Synon. i. 147.)-383. Gaudet cognomine terrâ, i. e. he rejoices in the idea that a spot is to be called after him. Cognomine is the ablative of the adjective cognominis. Many MSS. read terræ, making cognomine a noun; an easier and more usual form of expression, but on that very account less likely to be the true one. Compare the Greek mode of speaking : χαίρει ὁμωνύμῳ χώρα.

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384. Ergo. Thereupon." In the sense of deinde.-385. Charon, when he espied them, was in the act of crossing the stream; hence the expression Stygiâ ab undâ.-Jam inde. Observe the peculiar force of this combination; literally, "already from that quarter," i. e. he already espied them from that quarter where they were, when passing through the grove in the direction of the bank, and

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