divulge them; when every one that was admitted, bound himself, in the most solemn manner, to keep them secret, and from the knowledge of the vulgar. Heyne observcs there is some resemblance between the mysteries and the machinery of the poet; but to consider the book as an allegory, destroys the force and beauty of the whole. Perit tandem omnis epica vis et poëtica suavitas, si res à poëta narrata ad allegoriam revocetur, says he. Those who would see the substance of the arguments on both sides, may consult M'Knight on the Epistles-introduction to the epistle to the Ephesians. monstratque SIC fatur lachrymans, classique immittit habenas : Prætexunt puppes: juvenum manus emicat ardens 5 10 7. Pars rapit sylvas, Abstrusa in venis silicis; pars densa ferarum densa tecta ferarum, Tecta rapit sylvas, nventaque flumina monstrat! At pius Eneas arces, quibus altus Apollo 10. Immaneque au- Præsidet, horrendæque procul secreta Sibyllæ, trum, secreta Sibyllæ Antrum immane, petit: magnam cui mentem animumque horrendæ procul; cui Delius vates inspirat Delius inspirat vates, aperitque futura. Jam subeunt Triviæ lucos, atque aurea tecta. Dædalus, ut fama est, fugiens Minoïa regna, Præpetibus pennis ausus se credere cœlo, Insuetum per iter gelidas enavit ad Arctos, NOTES. 1. Sic fatur. This refers to what he said Ir the two last lines of the preceding book. Onemium confise, &c. Immittit: he gives full reins to his fleet. It implies that the wind was fair, and that the ships were under full sail. This is a common metaphor, taken from the horse and his rider. 2. Euboicis: an adj. of Eubœa, an island in the Agean sea, lying to the cast of Achaia; hodie, Negropont. From hence Megasthenes, of the city of Chalcis, transplanted a colony into Italy, and built Cuma, a town in Campania. Hence, Euboïcis oris Cumarum. 4. Anchora fundabat: the anchor moored the ships. Fundabat: in the sense of tenebat. 5. Puppes: here used in its appropriate sense-the sterns of the ships. 6. Semina: the seeds-the sparks of fire. 8. Rapit: plunders the wood; for the purpose of collecting fuel. Ruæus says, colligit ligna arborum. Densa tecta, &c. is put in apposition with sylvas. 9. Arces in the sense of templum. We are informed that a temple was built to Apollo in this place, in the form of a cave, that seemed to be hollowed out of a rock. In the inmost part of this temple, was the grotto, or cell, of the Sibyl. 40. Horrendæ procul. The avenues and approaches to her cell were awful and gloomy, for a considerable distance. It is the pecuar characteristic of this Sibyl, that she 15 keeps her consultors at an awful distance, and fences the approaches to her cave with Procul, procul este, profani! 11. Cui magnam: whose great mind and soul Apollo inspires. Cui has the sense of cujus. Mens properly signifies the understanding-animus, the soul. Delius vates: Apollo. He is called Detian from Delos, the place of his birth. 13. Trivia. Trivia, a name of Diana. Aurea tecta. This was the temple built to Apollo by Dædalus. 14. Dædalus. An Athenian artist, who, having put to death Perdix, his sister's son, for rivalling him in his art, fled to Crete : where he soon incurred the displeasure of Minos, then king of that island, for assisting his wife Pasiphaë, in carrying on her amours with Taurus: and, on that account, was confined with his son Icarus in a tower. He escaped, however, by the help of wings. He flew into Sicily, according to Pausanias and Diodorus; but, according to Virgil and others, to Cuma, where he built this temple to Apollo, for conducting him safe in his flight through the airy element. 16. Enavit. There is such a similitude between sailing or swimming, and flying, that the terms which properly belong to the one, are indiscriminately applied to the other. A ship is said to fly through the liquid element, and Mercury is said to swim through the air. An. iv. 245. And Dadalus, on wings, swam to the cold north, and consecrated remigium alarum, those wings Chalcidicâque levis tandem superadstitit arce. NOTES. on which he had cut his way through the air, as oars divide the water. But what gives a greater propriety to these phrases, is, that Daedalus was the inventor of navigation by the use of sails; and that his wings were nothing else than the sails of the ship, in which he escaped from Crete. Enavil: in the sense of advolavit. 17. Chalcidica: an adj. from Chalcis, a city of Eubœa. See 2. supra. Chalcidica arce: the city of Cuma. Here Dædalus first landed in Italy; and built the temple to Apollo, which Æneas is about to enter. It is said that he first went to Sardania, and from thence to Italy. Redditus: having arrived. 20. Androgei: gen. of Androgeus. He was the son of Minos; and frequenting the public games at Athens, contracted a friendship with the sons of Pallas, brother to Egeus, king of Athens. Not having as yet acknowledged Theseus to be his son; and suspecting Androgeus to have entered into a conspiracy with his nephew to dethrone him, Egeus employed assassins to take away his life. To revenge this atrocious deed, Minos made war upon him, and forced him to sue for peace. This was granted on the condition that he should every year, or, as others say, every third, or ninth year, pay a tax of seven of their young men, and as many virgins, who were chosen by lot as victims, for the preservation of their country. Some say that Androgeus having been repeatedly victorious at the public games of Greece, excited the envy and jealousy of some persons, who procured his death. However the case may be, his death brought upon the Athenians a war with Minos, his father, then king of Crete. The death of Androgeus was represented on the gates or doors of the temple, the Athenian youth sent as an expiation for the barbarous deed, and the urn from which the fatal lots were drawn. On the opposite side arose the island of Crete-Pasaphaë, the wife of Minos-the Minotaur-the Labyrinth, and the ingenious workmen (Dædalus) explaining its mysteries to Theseus; all these were in carved work. Posuit: in the sense of ædificavit. Pendere pœnas: to make retribution or satisfaction for the crime. 21. Cecropida: the Athenians so called from Cecrops, their first king. He built the city of Athens, and called it Cecropia. 23. Gnossia tellus: Crete. Gnossia: an adj. from Gnossus, a city of that island. 24. Amor tauri. Pasiphaë, the wife of Minos, and daughter of the Sun, was fabled to have fallen in love with a beautiful bull, and to have gratified her passion by a contrivance of Dædalus, who shut her up in a wooden cow. From this unnatural connexion sprang the Minotaur, a monster half man and half bull, that fed on human flesh; and devoured the Athenian youth, whom Minos shut up in the Labyrinth. The truth of the story is this: Pasiphaë fell in love with a nobleman of the court, whose name was Taurus; and made Dædalus her confidant, who kept it concealed, and even lent his house to the lovers. Supposita furto. This refers to Pasiphaë's being shut up in the wooden cow that she might receive the embrace of the bull-substituted through artifice or contrivance in the room of a cow. 26. Inest in the sense of sculptus est. Veneris nefanda: of execrable lust. : 27. Labor domûs, &c. Ry these we are, to understand the Labyrinth. See En. v. 588. 28. Miseratus magnum: Dædalus, pitying the great love of the queen, discovers (to Theseus) the deception and intricacies of the structure, &c. Theseus, the son of geus, king of Athens, proposed to go to Crete, along with the victims, to fight the Minotaur in the Labyrinth. Ariadne, the daughter of Minos and Pasiphaë, whon Bis conatus erat casus effingere in auro. Bis patriæ cecidêre manus. Quin protinùs omnia 34. Ni Achates præ- Perlegerent oculis; ni jam præmissus Achates missus ad Sibyllam ab Afforet; atque unà Phœbi Triviæque sacerdos, Enea, jam afforet, at- Deiphobe Glauci, fatur quæ talia regi: que unà Deiphobe filia Glauci, sacerdos 40. Sacerdos vocat Teucros in Non hoc ista sibi tempus spectacula poscit Eneam talibus verbis Jussa viri, T'eucros vocat alta in templa sacerdos. nans mortale. Et talia fata, 52. Antè quàm emi- Conticuit. Gelidus Teucris per dura cucurrit Ossa tremor; fuditque preces rex pectore ab imo: Phœbe, graves Troja semper miserate labores, seris vota precesque. NOTES. Virgil here calls regina, fell in love with Theseus, and taught him how to vanquish the Minotaur, and also gave him a clew, which she had received from Dedalus, whereby he could extricate himself from the Labyrinth. It was agreed as a condition of the combat, that if Theseus killed the Minotaur, the Athenian youths should be released, and his country freed from that humiliating condition. Theseus was victorious. By the clew we are to understand the plan and contrivance of the Labyrinth. Enim: in the sense of equidem. 29. Resolvit in the sense of explicuit. 30. Caca: in the sense of incerta. 31. Icare. Icarus, as the fable goes, was the son and associate of Dædalus. He attempted to make his escape from Crete by the help of wings, but being unable to manage them with dexterity, he wandered from his way, and fell into the Egean sea, and was drowned. He gave name to Icarus, an island between Samos and Mycene. 33. Patriæ manus cecidêre. Dædalus attempted to represent the calamity (casus) of Icarus, but his grief and sorrow prevented him. He attempted it twice, and twice his hands failed; otherwise Icarus would have made a distinguished figure in the carved ark. Perlegerent omnia: the Trojans would 35 40 45 50 55 rious sculpture of the temple, had not Acha- 40. Nec viri morantur: nor do the men (the Trojans) delay to perform her sacred commands concerning offering sacrifice. Sacerdos. The daughter of Glaucus. She was the priestess, attendant upon the Sibyl, who was at this time in her cell or cave. Antrum. This is the same with alta templa in the preceding line. By this we are not to understand the temple of Apollo already mentioned, but the residence of the Sibyl-her cave, here called templum. 45. Ventum erat: they had come to the entrance of the cave, when, &c. Fata: in the sense of oracula. Est is understood with tempus. 46. Ecce, Deus: behold, the god, the god is here-Apollo. 47. Subitò non vultus: suddenly her countenance changes, and her color comes and goes. 50. Quando jam aflata est: when now she is inspired with a nearer influence of the god Apollo. Cessas: dost thou delay to go into vows and prayers? Neque: in the sense of non. 57. Qui dirêxti Dardana tela: who didst direct the Trojan darts, and the hands of Dardana qui Paridis dirêxti tela manusque Vos quoque Pergameæ jam fas est parcere genti, Regna meis fatis, Latio considere Teucros, NOTES. Paris, against the body of Achilles. It is said that Achilles was killed by Paris in the temple of Apollo, at Troy. 57. Direxti: for direxisti, by syncope. 59. Penitùs repôstas: far remote. 60. Massylum. The Massyli, a people of Africa, put for the Africans in general, or for the Carthaginians in particular. See En. iv. 483. Prætenta: lying before. Arva: the lads-country. 61. Italia fugientis: the nearer they approached to Italy, new obstructions arose, which seemed to prevent access to it, as if it fled from them. 62. Hactenus: hitherto-thus far. It is separated by tmesis, for the sake of the verse. Trojano fortuna: id est, adversa fortuna. 64. Dique Deaque omnes, quibus: ye gods and goddesses all, to whom Ilium and the great glory of Troy was offensive, it is just that you too, &c. The deities here meant were Juno, Minerva, and Neptune. Obstitit: invisa sunt, says Heyne. 68. Agitata numina: persecuted deities of Troy. 70. Instituam Phœbo: I will build to Phœbus and Diana temples of solid marble, and institute festival days, &c. Here is an allusion to the Ludi Apollinares, which were instituted in the first Punic war, and to the building of a temple to Apollo by Augustus, after his victory over Anthony and Cleopatra, at Actium. Heyne reads templum, after Heinsius. The common reading is templa. Virgil here uses the verb instituam with two nouns, when in strict propriety it can apply to one of them only. We can say, institute festivals, but it is quite another thing to say, institute a house or temple. Our language will not admit of this liberty and freedom of expression. See En. vii. 431, and Æn. viii. 410. Some copies have constituam. 71. Te quoque magna: a spacious sanctuary too awaits thee in our realms. This alludes to the shrine or sanctuary in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, where the Sibylline books were kept in a stone chest under ground. Fifteen persons, called Quindecemviri, were appointed to take care of them, and to consult them in the affairs of state. They were chosen from the Patricians, and had great influence in public affairs. It was a very easy matter to make these Sibylline books speak what language they pleased. 72. Sortes: in the sense of oracula. Dicta: in the sense of declarata. 74. Ne manda: do not commit, &c. It was the custom of this Sibyl to write her prophetic responses upon the leaves of the palm tree. Before the invention of parchment and paper, there was no better material for writing than the leaves and bark of trees. Alma: O holy prophetess. 77. Nondum patiens, &c. The meaning is this: the Sibyl was not docile and submissive (patiens) to Phœbus, and would not utter oracles according to his will, but resisted him until he had subdued her ferocious temper and formed her to his purposes by force and restraint. Excussisse: the perf in the sense of the pres. The terms here used are taken from the horse and the rider. The Sibyl is compared to the former; and Apollo, breaking her and rendering her missive and obedient to him, to the 78. Tentans, si possit Bacchatur vates, magnum si pectore possit Excussisse Deum: tantò magis ille fatigat excussiesc ricula 86. Sed et volent se non venisse eò. Os rabidum, fera corda domans, fingitque premendo. 80 Sponte suâ, vatisque ferunt responsa per auras: 83. O tu tandem de- O tandem magnis pelagi defuncte perîclis! functe magnis perîclis Sed terrâ graviora manent. In regna Lavinî pelagi! sed graviora pe- Dardanidæ venient, mitte hanc de pectore curam : Sed non et venisse volent. Bella, horrida bella, Et Tybrim multo spumantem sanguine cerno. Non Simoïs tibi, nec Xanthus, nec Dorica castra 89. Alius Achilles par- Defuerint: alius Latio jam partus Achilles, Natus et ipse Deâ: nec Teucris addita Juno 91. Cùm in egenis re- Usquam aberit. Cùm tu supplex in rebus egenis, bus, quas gentes Italûm, Quas gentes Italûm, aut quas non oraveris urbes ? supplex oraveris? Con- Causa mali tanti conjux iterum hospita Teucris; jux hospita iterum erit Externique iterum thalami. tus est tibi aut quas urbes, non tu causa tanti mali Teu- Tu ne cede malis; sed contrà audentior ito, cris; externique thalami Quà tua te fortuna sinet. Via prima salutis, iterum erunt causa. Quod minimè reris, Graiâ pandetur ab urbe. Talibus ex adyto dictis Cumaa Sibylla NOTES. The verb excutio is applied to the horse when he throws his rider. Immanis: in the sense of immaniter vel vehementer. An adjective closely connected in construction with a verb, is better rendered by its corresponding adverb. Bucchatur: furit in more Baccharum, says Rumus. 80. Faligat rabidum os: he curbs-holds in, &c. This alludes to the manner of break ing and taming horses when they are unruly and impatient of the bit. The rider curbs or holds them in by pulling up the reins. Fingitque: and forins and prepares her for the delivery of his oracles. 82. Ferunt: in the sense of emittunt. 83. Defuncte: voc. O thou, having passed through-escaped. Ruæus says, Qui evasisti. Periclis: by syn. for periculis. 84. Lavini: by apocope for Lavinii, gen. of Lavinium, a country to the east of the Tyber, so called from the city Lavinium, which Æneas built. See En. i. 2. Some read, regna Latini, which perhaps is the best reading: the kingdom of Latinus. He received Eneas, on his arrival, with hospitality, gave him his daughter in marriage, and was succeeded by him in his kingdom. Heyne prefers Lavini, and observes that it is more in the language of prophecy than Latini. 88. Non Simois tibi: neither Simoïs, nor Xanthus, nor the Grecian camp, shall be wanting to you, &c. Here the prophetess, to prepare the mind of Æneas to meet the worst, or rather the poet to do honor to his hero in overcoming such powerful opposition, gives a terrible representation of the war in which he was to be engaged in Italy, join 85 90 30 95 comparing it with the Trojan war, both as to its similitude of characters, places, and causes. Xanthus and Simoïs are the Tyber and Numicus; Turnus is Achilles; Lavinia, the daughter of Latinus, is a second Helen. 90. Natus Deâ: Turnus, a brave and warlike prince, the son of the nymph Venilia. Addita: in the sense of inimica. Ruæus says infesta; et quasi lateri semper affixa. 91. Cùm: in the sense of tum, says Heyne. Ruæus reads quem, but gives no authority for it; the best copies have cùm. Rebus egenis: in your distress-difficulty. 93. Conjux hospita. As the rape of Helen by Paris, whom she entertained in her palace at Sparta, was the cause of the Trojan war, so shall Lavinia, the daughter of Latinus, who shall receive Æneas under his hospitable roof, be the cause of a second war, by espousing Eneas after she had been promised to Turnus. Thalami: in the sense of nuptiæ. 96. Quà: the common reading is quàm, but of this it is difficult to make sense. It is not probable that the Sibyl could advise Eneas to proceed with more courage or boldness than prudence dictated, or his fortune permitted. To preserve the reading of quàm, Mr. Davidson renders the words quàm tua, &c., "The more that fortune shall oppose you;" giving to the verb sinet a turn which it will by no means bear. Heyne reads quà, taking it in the sense of qua via et ratione, vel quantùm per fatum licebit. Heinsius and Burmannus read quàm, which they take in the sense of quantum. 97. Graiá urbe: this was the city Pallanteum, where Evander reigned. See Lib. 8. |