391. Ubi nunc est 390. Tam-ne patiens Tantane tam patiens nullo certamine tolli sines tanta dona tolli Dona sines? ubi nunc nobis Deus ille, magister Eryx, ille Deus nobis, Nequicquam memoratus, Eryx ? ubi faina per omnem nequicquam memoratus Trinacriam, et spolia illa tuis pendentia tectis? tuus magister? Ubi est Ille sub hæc: Non laudis amor, nec gloria cessit tua fama inclyta Pulsa metu: sed enim gelidus tardante senectâ Sanguis hebet, frigentque effetæ in corpore vires. 397. Si, si nunc illa Si mihi, quæ quondam fuerat, quâque improbus iste juventa foret mihi, quæ Exultat fidens, si nunc foret illa juventa; quondam fuerat Haud equidem pretio inductus pulchroque juvenco Venissem: nec dona moror. Sic deinde locutus, In medium geminos immani pondere cæstus Projecit: quibus acer Eryx in prælia suetus Ferre manum, duroque intendere brachia tergo. 404. Animi spectato- Obstupuere animi: tantorum ingentia septem rum obstupuere: septem Terga boum plumbo insuto ferroque rigebant. ingentia terga tantorum boum rigebant plumbo Ante omnes stupet ipse Dares, longèque recusat: ferroque insuto. Magnanimusque Anchisiades, et pondus, et ipsa Huc illuc vinclorum immensa volumina versat. Tum senior tales referebat pectore voces: Quid si quis cæstus ipsius et Herculis arma Vidisset, tristemque hoc ipso in litore pugnam? 413. Cernis ea adhuc Hæc germanus Eryx quondam tuus arma gerebat. infecta. Sanguine cernis adhuc fractoque infecta cerebro. 414. Ego suetus sum His magnum Alciden contra stetit: his ego suetus, pugnare his, dum melior Dum melior vires sanguis dabat, æmula necdum sanguis dabat vires mihi, necdum æmula senectus Temporibus geminis canebat sparsa senectus. Sed, si nostra Dares hæc Troïus arma recusat, sparsa canebat NOTES. 394. Sub: in the sense of ad. Inquit, or a verb of the same import, is understood. Non: in the sense of nec. 395. Enim: in the sense of equidem. Hebet is chilled. Tardante: enfeebling old age. 396. Frigent: fail. In the sense of torpent. 400. Moror: value-regard. Præmium non curo, says Heyne. 403. Tergo: properly the back; by meton. the hide or skin. Ferre manum in prælia: to engage in fight; a phrase. Intendere: in the sense of cingere. 406. Longè: in the sense of valde vel vehementer. Recusat: declines the fight. 407. Anchisiades: the son of AnchisesEneas. A patronymic noun. 408. Vinclorum: by syn. for vinculorum: the castus or gauntlets with which their hands and arms were bound. 409. Senior: namely, Entellus. 411. Tristem pugram. The fight is called tristem, sad or woful; because Eryx was slain. The occasion of the combat is said to have been this: Hercules having slain Geryon, king of Spain, was returning with his booty, which was a herd of fine oxen. In his way having visited Sicily, he received a challenge from Eryx to fight him with the 390 395 400 405 410 415 gauntlet. If the victory fell to Eryx, he was to have the oxen; and if he were vanquished, the island of Sicily was to fall to Hercules. Some say one of the oxen passed over into Sicily and was taken by Eryx, who refused to give it up, which occasioned the combat. 412. Tuus germanus Eryx: your brother Eryx. See verse 24, supra. 413. Fracto. This is the reading of Heyne, on the authority of Heinsius, Burmannus, and others, as he informs us. The common reading is sparso. The sense is the same with either. 414. Alciden: Hercules, who, though the reputed son of Jupiter and Alcmene, was also called Amphitryoniades, from Amphitryo, the husband of Alcmene; and Alcides, from Alcaus the father of Amphitryo. See En. vi. 801. 415. Emula senectus: envious age, not yet spread over my temples, &c. The meaning is: while old age had not yet covered his head with gray hairs. Some say, old age is here called (æmula) envious, because it is apt to envy the strength and vigor of youth, and emulate their feats in vain. But it may be called envious on account of the many evils and infirmities which it 420 Idque pio sedet Æneæ, probat auctor Acestes; Tum satus Anchisâ cæstus pater extulit æquos, Ipse gravis, graviterque ad terram pondere vasto NOTES. brings along with it, and the little comfort it yields, as if it envied man the enjoyment of life. Emula: in the sense of invida. 418. Sedet: in the sense of placet vel probatur. Auctor: the author or adviser of the combat. 419. Terga: the gauntlets of Eryx. 423. Exuit: in the sense of nudavit. 425. Innexuit: bound the hands, &c. 426. In digitos: upon their toes. Each stood tiptoe that the blow might fall with the more force. 430. Ille, melior motu: the former (Dares) is more active in the movements of his feet, and relying upon his youth; the latter (Entellus) excelling, &c. 431. Membris et mole: simply, the size of his limbs, by hend. 432. Tarda janua labant: his feeble knees totter under him trembling. Hard breathing, &c. 433. Nequicquam: in vain, because they were without effect. Vulnera: in the sense of ictus. 434. Ingeminant: they repeat. 435. Errat: moves, or passes around, &c. 424. Tum pater Æneas 425 satus Anchisâ extulit 430 435 439. Ille, velut qui op 440 pugnat molibus celsam urbem, aut sedet sub armis circum montana castella, nunc pererrat hos, nunc illos aditus, omnemque locum arte. 445 448. Ut quondam cava pinus eruta radicibus, concidit aut 437. Gravis: in the sense of firmus. 438. Modò exit: he only with his body and watchful eyes avoids the blows. Exit: in the sense of evitat vel eludit. Tela: for ictus. 439. Molibus: with batteries: engines. 441. Pererrat: in the sense of exquirit. 442. Irritus: being foiled-disappointed -baffled. 445. Elapsus cessit: simply for elabitur. 447. Et ipse gravis, graviterque: and heavy he fell heavily to the ground with his vast weight. The graviterque appears to be merely expletive. The sense is complete without it. Entellus had raised himself with the intention of giving a heavier blow to Dares, who, having observed it, slipt from the stroke. By these ineans his own natural weight, and the impetus he gave to himself, brought him to the ground. Or the gravis may refer to his unwieldy size and bulk, while the graviter refers to the violence of the shock he gave himself in missing the blow aimed at Dares. But this is rather a refinement. 448. Erymantho: Erymanthus was a fa Aut Idâ in magnâ, radicibus eruta pinus. 450. Diversis studiis Consurgunt studiis Teucri et Trinacria pubes: 461. па Pater Eneas naud passus est iras Tum pater Æneas, procedere longiùs iras, Et sævire animis Entellum haud passus acerbis : Sed finem imposuit pugnæ; fessumque Dareta Eripuit, mulcens dictis, ac talia fatur: Infelix! quæ tanta animum dementia cepit ? Non vires alias, conversaque numina sentis? Cede Deo. Dixitque, et prælia voce diremit. 468. Ast fidi æquales Ast illum fidi æquales, genua ægra trahentem, ducunt illum ad naves, Jactantemque utroque caput, crassumque cruorem trahentemque ægra ge- Ore ejectantem mixtosque in sanguine dentes, nua Ducunt ad naves: galeamque ensemque vocati Accipiunt palmam Entello taurumque relinquunt. Hic victor, superans animis, tauroque superbus, Nate Deâ, vosque hæc, inquit, cognoscite, Teucri, Et mihi quæ fuerint juvenili in corpore vires, 476. Et à qua morte Et quâ servetis revocatum à morte Dareta. Dixit: et adversi contra stetit ora juvenci, 480. Arduusque, dex- Qui donum adstabat pugnæ: durosque reductâ tra reducta, libravit du- Libravit dextrâ media inter cornua cæstus servetis ros cæstus inter me dia cornua, illisitque eos in Arduus, effractoque illisit in ossa cerebro. ossa, cerebro effracto, Sternitur, exanimisque tremens procumbit humi, bos. NOTES. mous wood and mountain in Arcadia, where Hercules slew the celebrated boar. 453. At heros non tardatus: but the hero not disabled, nor terrified by the fall, &c. By the rules of the combat, if one fell, the other was not to take the advantage of it, but allow him time to rise and return to the fight. 459. Sic: in the sense of tam, correspond ing with quam in the preceding line. Nim bi: storms. 463. Eripuit fessum Dareta: he rescued weary Dares. Virgil follows Homer throughout these games, but has varied from him in the issue of the combat, with judgment, and with an improvement of the moral. He gives his readers the pleasure of seeing an arrogant boaster humbled by an infirm old man, roused by his courage to engage in an unequal contest. Whereas in Homer, the younger and the stronger vanquishes the more feeble, which contributes nothing to the surprise or pleasure of the reader. 450 455 460 465 470 475 480 466. Non sentis alias vires: do you not perceive other strength, and the gods to be changed? Alias vires: other or foreign strength-that which you did not expect to be exerted against you, and therefore it is in vain to contend. Cede Deo. By the god here mentioned we are to understand the one by whom Entellus was aided; perhaps Eryx, whom the Sicilians had deified. 470. Ejectantem: some copies have rejertantem. Pierius prefers this. Heyne reads ejectantem; so also Heinsius and Ďavidson. 473. Superans: in the sense of lætans. 476. Revocatum: rescued-freed-delivered. 478. Donum: in the sense of præmium. 481. Sternitur: the ox falls, and trembling, &c. This verse Servius thinks a very bad one, because it ends with a monosyllable. Mr. Davidson thinks it is to be admired for that very reason. This abrupt ending of the verse, says he, is like a rub in a person's Ille super tales effudit pectore voces: Hanc tibi, Eryx, meliorem animam pro morte Daretis Invitat, qui fortè velint, et præmia ponit: NOTES. way; it forces him to stop and dwell upon the object with attention. 483. Meliorem: either, because brute victims were more acceptable to the gods than human victims; or it alludes to the second victims, which, when the first escaped, were substituted in their room, and were called meliores, better. Animam: in the sense of victimam. 434. Repono, &c. This is an allusion to the gladiators in after times, who, when their age exempted them from practising the art, hung up the arms of their profession on the doorposts of the temple of Hercules. Persolvo: in the sense of immolo. 487. Ingentique manu: Æneas may not do it with his own hand: for men are often said to do what they order to be done by others. Heyne says, magna multitudine. 488. In fune trajecto: by a rope put through the mast; trajecto per malum. Volucrem: fluttering. Ferrum: for sagittam. 491. Area galea accepit, &c. In war, and among soldiers, a helmet supplied the place of an urn to receive the lots. 492. Hippocoöntis. Hippocoön, the son of Hyrtacus. Homer says he was cousin to Rhesus, who was slain by Ulysses and Diomede in the first night after his arrival on the Trojan shore. See En. i. 469. Locus: in the sense of sors. 485 490 495 482. Super bove 488. Et suspendit ab alto malo volucrom columbam 492. Locus Hippocoöntis Hyrtacidæ exit pri mus ante omnes 495. Eurytion est tertius, tuus 500 505 506. Omnia loca 496. Pandare. Pandarus was the son of Lycaon. Homer makes him to have broken the truce (confundere fœdus) between the Greeks and Trojans, when they had agreed to put the decision of the war upon the issue of a single combat between Paris and Menelaus. Paris was rescued by Venus, when he was nearly overcome. Juno, unwilling that the disaster of Troy should so soon be terininated, urged Jupiter to bring about a violation of the truce. He employed Mi'nerva as his agent in the business. By her persuasion, Pandarus shot an arrow among the Greeks at Menelaus, which rekindled the war. The epithet clarissime, is given to him as being a distinguished archer. Homer equals him to Apollo. He was at last killed by Diomede. 498. Acestes subsedit. Acestes remained the last in the bottom of the helmet: that is, the lot of Acestes. 501. Tela: in the sense of sagittæ. 502. Sagitta juvenis Hyrtacide: the arrow of the youth Hippocoon first, &c. Stridente nervo: from the whizzing string. 503. Volucres auras: the light air. 504. Arbore mali: in the wood of the mast. 505. Timuit: fluttered with her wingsexpressed signs of fear. 506. Ingenti plausu: with loud shouts, or acclamations of the spectators. 515. Jam speculatus columbam lætam in vacuo cœlo, et plaudentem alis, figit eam sub 523. Ingens docuit hoc pòst Alta petens, pariterque oculos teluinque tetendit: 527. Ceu sæpe sidera Consumpta in ventos: cœlo ceu sæpe refixa refixa è cœlo transcur- Transcurrunt, crinemque volantia sidera ducunt. runt, volantiaque Attonitis hæsêre animis, Superosque precati NOTES. 510. Nodos et linea vincula rupit: he cut the knots, and the hempen cords, with which, being tied by the foot, &c. Mr. Pope, in comparing the games of Homer and Virgil, owns that Virgil has outdone his master by the addition of two circumstances that make a beautiful gradation. In Homer, the first archer cuts the string that held the bird, and the other shoots him as he is mounting. In Virgil, the first only hits the mark, the second cuts the string, the third shoots him, and the fourth, to show the strength of his arm, directs his arrow up to heaven, where it kindles into a flame, and makes a prodigy. 512. Fugit in notos: Notus is properly the south wind. Sometimes it is put for any wind. Here it seems to be used for the air simply; wind being only air put in motion. In nubes ac cælum evolavit, says Heyne. 513. Tum rapidus Eurytion: then intrepid Eurytion, a long time holding the arrow extended on his ready bow, &c. Servius says that Pandarus was worshipped as a hero among the Lycians. This explains the conduct of Eurytion in invoking him, in this critical moment, to direct his arrow. 520. Contorsit: the reading of Heyne is contendit. 523. Monstrum: here a prodigy, and about to be of great import, is suddenly presented to our eyes. Monstrum signifies any thing that is, or happens, contrary to 510 515 520 525 530 the ordinary course of events. It is from monstro; because prodigies were thought to be sent from heaven to signify some remarkable future event. This one presaged the burning of the fleet of Eneas. Subito. This is the common reading. Heyne, after Heinsius, reads subitum. 524. Cecinerunt: they interpreted the omens late. Servius explains sera by gravia, others by futura, and Cerdanus by tarda. The common aceptation of the word is the easiest, implying that the soothsayers could make nothing of the omen, till the event took place; and then, when it was too late to avert it, and the ships on fire, they agreed that this must have been the thing signified by the prodigy. 528. Crinem: a train of light. 529. Hæsêre attonitis: they stood with astonished minds. Ruæus says: steterunt stupefacti animo. 531. Æneas abnuit: nor did great Æneas reject the omen; but embracing joyful Acestes, &c. He accepted it, considering it to be propitious or favorable to him. He was probably led to this from its resemblance to that which shone from the head of Ascanius, his son. See Æn. ii. 680. It appears from this that the soothsayers had not yet interpreted the omen; otherwise Eneas would not have received it with joy. |