Page images
PDF
EPUB

Sidoniam picto chlamydem circumdata limbo:
Cui pharetra ex auro, crines nodantur in aurum,
Aurea purpuream subnectit fibula vestem.
Nec non et Phrygii comites, et laetus Iulus,
Incedunt. Ipse ante alios pulcherrimus omnes
Infert se socium Aeneas, atque agmina jungit:
Qualis, ubi hibernam Lyciam Xanthique fluenta
Deserit, ac Delum maternam invisit, Apollo,
Instauratque choros, mixtique altaria circum
Cretesque Dryopesque fremunt, pictique Agathyrsi;
Ipse jugis Cynthi graditur, mollique fluentem
Fronde premit crinem fingens, atque implicat auro:
Tela sonant humeris. Haud illo segnior ibat
Aeneas; tantum egregio decus enitet ore.

140

145

150

Postquam altos ventum in montes, atque invia lustra,
Ecce! ferae, saxi dejectae vertice, caprae
Decurrêre jugis; alia de parte patentes
Transmittunt cursu campos atque agmina cervi
Pulverulenta fuga glomerant, montesque relinquunt. 155
At puer Ascanius mediis in vallibus acri

Gaudet equo; jamque hos cursu, jam praeterit illos,
Spumantemque dari pecora inter inertia votis
Optat aprum, aut fulvum descendere monte leonem.
Interea magno misceri murmure coelum
Incipit; insequitur commixta grandine nimbus;

160

137. Chlamydem circumdata. For this poetical construction of the accusative with passive verbs of dress, see Zumpt, § 458.-138. The hair was gathered up into a net of gold thread.-141. Incedunt. See A. 1, 405, 690.-142. Agmina jungit agmini se adjungit: cf. A. 2, 267.143, &c. Aeneas is compared to Apollo, when, having left Lycia (in the south-west of Asia Minor), his winter haunt (hibernam), where the river Xanthus flowed past Patara, famous for his temple and oracle, the god leads the dance from the top of Cynthus, a hill in Delos.

146. In this sacred dance join the Cretans (Cretes), the Dryopes from the south of Doris, and the Agathyrsi in Sarmatia, between the modern Niemen and Dwina, who were tattooed (picti). All these-the Agathyrsi being taken to represent the inhabitants of the far north, the Hyperborei were peculiarly connected with the worship of Apollo. Observe Cretesque, with è long by the arsis.-148. He wears his laurelcrown and diadem of gold.-149. The rattling of the quiver on his shoulders indicates the active step of the god.-154. Trans campos se mittunt. Cervi is the nominative to transmittunt, glomerant, relinquunt. -155. Glomerare agmina to form themselves into fleeing herds.'— 158. Dari (sc. sibi) = obviam fieri.

[ocr errors]

Et Tyrii comites passim, et Trojana juventus,
Dardaniusque nepos Veneris, diversa per agros
Tecta metu petiere; ruunt de montibus amnes.
Speluncam Dido dux et Trojanus eandem
Deveniunt. Prima et Tellus et pronuba Juno
Dant signum: fulsere ignes, et conscius aether
Connubiis; summoque ulularunt vertice Nymphae.
Ille dies primus leti primusque malorum
Causa fuit: neque enim specie famave movetur,
Nec jam furtivum Dido meditatur amorem :
Conjugium vocat; hoc praetexit nomine culpam,
Extemplo Libyae magnas it Fama per urbes;
Fama, malum, qua non aliud velocius ullum:
Mobilitate viget, viresque acquirit eundo:
Parva metu primo, mox sese attollit in auras,
Ingrediturque solo, et caput inter nubila condit.
Illam Terra parens, ira irritata deorum,

165

170

175

Extremam, ut perhibent, Coeo Enceladoque sororem
Progenuit, pedibus celerem, et pernicibus alis;

180

Monstrum horrendum, ingens, cui, quot sunt corpore plumae,

Tot vigiles oculi subter, mirabile dictu,

Tot linguae, totidem ora sonant, tot subrigit aures.
Nocte volat coeli medio terraeque, per umbram,
Stridens, nec dulci declinat lumina somno :

[ocr errors]

185

165. Speluncam. See verse 124.-166. Prima for primum; deinde or tum being understood with fulsēre ignes. It seems better to construe prima as an epithet of Tellus; especially on comparing this passage with A. 7, 136: Tellurem primam deorum; and to translate: Primeval Earth,' or 'Ancient Earth.' Pronuba. See verse 59.--168. Ulularunt. The ancients were said ululare even in their sacred rites; the Nymphs ・・・ ulularunt as though celebrating the sacred rites of marriage.— 170. Specie famāve, by a regard to decency or by a real sense of

honour.'

173. With this portrait of Fama compare that of Eris in Hom. I. 4, 460; also cf. Ovid, Met. 12, 39; Statius, Theb. 3, 426; Val. Flac. Aug. 2, 116; and among all the imitations by modern poets, the best is that of J. B. Rousseau in his Ode au Prince Eugène.-174. Qua; others read quo.-176. Parva metu primo, small at first through a feeling of timidity' = metuens redargui. This expression is an imitation of Hom. II. 4, 442.-177. This line occurs again, applied to Orion, 4. 10,767. Solo, the ablative of solum.-178. Ira irritata deorum (= in deos), because they had hurled her offspring, the rebellious Titans, into Tartarus.181. Virgil represents Fame as covered with feathers, and beneath every feather an eye, a tongue, a mouth, and an ear.--185. Stridens,

Luce sedet custos aut summi culmine tecti,
Turribus aut altis, et magnas territat urbes;
Tam ficti pravique tenax, quam nuncia veri.
Haec tum multiplici populos sermone replebat
Gaudens, et pariter facta atque infecta canebat:
Venisse Aenean, Trojano a sanguine cretum,
Cui se pulchra viro dignetur jungere Dido;
Nunc hiemem inter se luxu, quam longa, fovere,
Regnorum immemores, turpique cupidine captos.
Haec passim dea foeda virûm diffundit in ora.
Protinus ad regem cursus detorquet Iarban,
Incenditque animum dictis, atque aggerat iras.

190

195

Hic, Hammone satus, rapta Garamantide Nympha,
Templa Jovi centum latis immania regnis,

Centum aras posuit; vigilemque sacraverat ignem, 200
Excubias divûm aeternas; pecudumque cruore

Pingue solum, et variis florentia limina sertis.
Isque, amens animi, et rumore accensus amaro,
Dicitur, ante aras, media inter numina divûm,
Multa Jovem manibus supplex orasse supinis :-
'Jupiter omnipotens, cui nunc Maurusia pictis
Gens epulata toris Lenaeum libat honorem,
Aspicis haec? an te, genitor, quum fulmina torques,
Nequidquam horremus? caecique in nubibus ignes
Terrificant animos, et inania murmura miscent?
Femina, quae nostris errans in finibus urbem
Exiguam pretio posuit, cui litus arandum,
Cuique loci leges dedimus, connubia nostra

205

210

like an owl, whooping all night long.-189. Tum. When Aeneas was lingering in Carthage.-190. Gaudens qualifies both replebat and canebat. -191. Venisse, has come, since we have dignetur, present.-193. Hiemem, quam longa sit. How long it is, 'the livelong.' We have the full form A. 8, 86.-196. Iarbas, a Gaetulian prince (verse 326), son of Hammon, or Ammon (an Aethiopian deity, whom the Greeks identified with Zeus, and the Romans with Jupiter), and an African nymph (Garamantis, Ecl. 8, 44), was an unsuccessful suitor for Dido's hand. See verse 36. 200. Posuit, he erected a hundred temples, but previously (sacraverat) he had lighted in honour of Jupiter the fires ever burning.-202. Pingue fuit solum, referring to sacrifices; florentia limina, to festal wreaths.205. See at A. 3, 176.-206. Maurusia, a name for Mauritania, the westernmost division of North Africa. It is here used probably to denote the nation of Iarbas.-207. Lenaeum, from anvòs, the wine-press, an epithet of Bacchus.-209. Caeci, whose force is concealed,'' whose effects are unperceived.'-212. Pretio. See A. 1, 367.—213. Dare leges

6

Repulit, ac dominum Aenean in regna recepit.
Et nunc ille Paris, cum semiviro comitatu,
Maeonia mentum mitra, crinemque madentem,
Subnixus, rapto potitur; nos munera templis
Quippe tuis ferimus, famamque fovemus inanem.'
Talibus orantem dictis, arasque tenentem,
Audiit omnipotens, oculosque ad moenia torsit
Regia, et oblitos famae melioris amantes.
Tum sic Mercurium alloquitur, ac talia mandat :-
'Vade age, nate, voca Zephyros, et labere pennis;
Dardaniumque ducem, Tyria Carthagine qui nunc
Exspectat, fatisque datas non respicit urbes,
Alloquere, et celeres defer mea dicta per auras.
Non illum nobis genetrix pulcherrima talem
Promisit, Graiûmque ideo bis vindicat armis :

215

220

225

230

Sed fore, qui, gravidam imperiis, belloque frementem,
Italiam regeret, genus alto a sanguine Teucri
Proderet, ac totum sub leges mitteret orbem.
Si nulla accendit tantarum gloria rerum,
Nec super ipse sua molitur laude laborem;
Ascanione pater Romanas invidet arces?

Quid struit? aut qua spe, inimica in gente, moratur, 235
Nec prolem Ausoniam, et Lavinia respicit arva?
Naviget! Haec summa est; hic nostri nuncius esto.'

loci, while granting a district, to subject it to the general laws of the country.-215. Iarbas contemptuously compares Aeneas with the effeminate Paris, as if Dido were a second Helen (rapto potitur, verse 217). -216. Iarbas heaps up accusations of effeminacy. The perfumed hair, and the Maeonian or Lydian mitre, fastened by ribbons beneath the chin (A. 9, 616), are urged against Aeneas. The word subnixus implies the same, as if his very head needed support. For the construction of this accusative of limitation, see verse 558, and Zumpt, § 458.217. Potitur. See A. 3, 56.-218. Quippe, doubtless,' often ironical when not at the beginning of the sentence.

219. In addressing the deity, they touched the altar.—223. Pennis, 'the talaria,' at his heels.-228. Bis. Once from Diomede, and again from the victorious Greeks, when they took Troy.-229. Gravidam imperis, bearing empires in her womb;' that is, powerful nations→→→ the Latins, Etruscans, Samnites, &c. With this bold figure, cf. feta armis, A. 2, 233.-230. Teucri. See A. 1, 235, 625.-231. Proderet, transmitteret.-233. Nec = et non. Construe: super sua laude; that is, pro sua gloria. As here, Virgil sometimes separates the preposition from its case. Such collocation, however, generally occurs in elegiac verse. Molitur; that is, vult suscipere.-235. Spe, e unelided. 236. Ausoniam. See p. 140, line 27. Lavinia. See p. 61, line 6.

Dixerat. Ille patris magni parere parabat
Imperio; et primum pedibus talaria nectit
Aurea, quae sublimem alis, sive aequora supra,
Seu terram, rapido pariter cum flamine portant.
Tum virgam capit:-hac animas ille evocat Orco
Pallentes, alias sub Tartara tristia mittit;

240

Dat somnos adimitque, et lumina morte resignat.—
Illa fretus agit ventos, et turbida tranat

245

250

Nubila. Jamque volens apicem et latera ardua cernit
Atlantis duri, coelum qui vertice fulcit:
Atlantis, cinctum assidue cui nubibus atris
Piniferum caput et vento pulsatur et imbri:
Nix humeros infusa tegit; tum flumina mento
Praecipitant senis, et glacie riget horrida barba.
Hic primum paribus nitens Cyllenius alis
Constitit; hinc toto praeceps se corpore ad undas
Misit, avi similis, quae circum litora, circum
Piscosos scopulos, humilis volat aequora juxta.
Haud aliter terras inter coelumque volabat;
Litus arenosum ac Libyae ventosque secabat
Materno veniens ab avo Cyllenia proles.
Ut primum alatis tetigit magalia plantis,
Aenean fundantem arces, ac tecta novantem,
Conspicit. Atque illi stellatus iaspide fulva
Ensis erat, Tyrioque ardebat murice laena,

6

255

260

238. Dixerat. See A. 2, 621.-242. Virgam, the well-known caduceus of Mercury, with wings and entwining serpents. Orco. See at 4. 2, 398. Here the regions of Orcus.-244. Resignare generally signifies to 'unseal.' Hence it is supposed that Virgil means here, frees their eyes from death, restores to life. Others suppose it to mean, ' relaxes their eyes in the ghastly glare of death.' A third opinion seems preferable as he presides over sleep, he at last seals again in death the eyes which he has opened. See verse 438.-245. Compare with this flight of Mercury the flight of Raphael in Milton, Par. Lost, 5, 266, &c. -247. Atlantis. See A. 1, 741. The mountain-range so called, on the west coast of Africa, is here personified. Vertice. Compare humero, verse 482, and A. 8, 137. The head and shoulders of Atlas both support the globe in the works of the ancient statuaries.-251. Praecipitant. See A. 1, 234.-252. Mercury, the grandson of Atlas by his daughter Maia, is aptly represented as lighting on this spot. He was, according to the legends, born on the Arcadian mountain Cyllene (Cyllenius). - 256-258. These lines are by some of the best critics regarded as spurious. 258. Materno avo, Atlas, Maia's father. 259. Alatis plantis, referring to the talaria, verse 239.-260. Novantem, nova aedificantem.-262. Tyre, and the coast of Phoenicia generally,

« PreviousContinue »