Aeneas instat contra telumque coruscat, ingens, arboreum, et saevo sic pectore fatur : 'quae nunc deinde mora est? aut quid iam, Turne, retractas ? 900 non curşu, saevis certandum est comminus armis. 890 verte omnes tete in facies, et contrahe, quidquid sive animis sive arte vales; opta ardua pinnis astra sequi, clausumque cava te condere terra.' ille caput quassans : non me tua fervida terrent dicta, ferox: di me terrent et Iuppiter hostis.' nec plura effatus saxum circumspicit ingens, saxum antiquum, ingens, campo quod forte iacebat, limes agro positus, litem ut discerneret arvis ; vix illud lecti bis sex cervice subirent, qualia nunc hominum producit corpora tellus ; ille manu raptum trepida torquebat in hostem, altior insurgens et cursu concitus heros. sed neque currentem se nec cognoscit euntem, tollentemve manu saxumque inmane moventem ; genua labant, gelidus concrevit frigore sanguis. tum lapis ipse viri, vacuum per inane volutus, nec spatium evasit totum, neque pertulit ictum. ac velut in somnis, oculos ubi languida pressit nocte quies, nequiquam avidos extendere cursus velle videmur, et in mediis conatibus aegri succidimus non lingua valet, non corpore notae sufficiunt vires, nec vox aut verba sequuntur : sic Turno, quacumque viam virtute petivit, successum dea dira negat. tum pectore sensus vertuntur varii; Rutulos aspectat et urbem, cunctaturque metu, telumque instare tremescit; nec, quo se eripiat, nec, qua vi tendat in hostem, nec currus usquam videt aurigamque sororem. cunctanti telum Aeneas fatale coruscat, sortitus fortunam oculis, et corpore toto eminus intorquet. murali concita numquam 910 920 tormento sic saxa fremunt, nec fulmine tanti dissultant crepitus. volat atri turbinis instar exitium dirum hasta ferens orasque recludit loricae et clipei extremos septemplicis orbes. medium stridens transit femur. incidit ictus per ingens ad terram duplicato poplite Turnus. consurgunt gemitu Rutuli, totusque remugit mons circum, et vocem late nemora alta remittunt. ille humiles supplex oculos dextramque precantem 930 protendens, equidem merui, nec deprecor,' inquit ; utere sorte tua. miseri te si qua parentis 6 tangere cura potest, oro,-fuit et tibi talis 940 950 NOTES In the notes, when reference is made to a line in the same book, the number of the line only is given (e.g. cf. 229'); when the reference is to another book of the Aeneid, the number of the book is added (e.g. 'see 6. 10'). The Georgics are indicated by 'G.' and the Eclogues by Ecl.' BOOK VII 1-24. Aeneas buries his nurse, Caieta, in a place which still records her name, and then with a favouring wind sets sail in the moonlight, safely passing the palace of Circe, from which can be heard the cries of the men whom she has turned into brutes by her enchantments. 1. tu quoque] i.e. as well as Misenus (6. 234) who gave his name to the promontory of Misenum (Punta di Miseno), and Palinurus (6. 381) who gave his to that of Palinurum (C. Palinuro). For Caieta (Gaeta) on the Sinus Caietanus see Class. Dict. · 3. et nunc...] and thy glory still guards (or 'haunts') thy resting-place,' i.e. because her name, as the next clause makes clear, still marks the spot where her bones were buried. 4. si qua est ea gloria] 'if such honour be aught.' Sidgwick well says that the thought is at once stately and pathetic'; to give her name to a city in that mighty Western land,' which was to become so famous, was high honour, but the ambiguous phrase here used also suggests that, perhaps, the dead are insensible to all honours; cf. 10. 828. For signat some good MSS. give signant, but the parallelism between honos sedem servat and nomen ossa signat is clear, and Wagner's explanation of signant as 'imprimunt ei loco nomen tamquam signum quo noscatur' is unnatural. 6. aggere...tumuli] the high-piled barrow (having been) built.' 7. tendit iter velis] 'directs his course with sails ; cf. 6. 240 tendere iter pinnis. 8. in noctem] 'on into the night,' the breeze not, as usual, falling at sunset but continuing into the night. 9. tremulo] shimmering,' i.e. as it is reflected on the water; cf. 8. 22. 10. proxima] Conington explains as = 'next,' i.e. after leaving Caieta, but the word surely goes with raduntur ' closely they skirt the shores of Circe's land.' That they do pass. close' to it is clear from 15 seq. Circe was a sorceress, daughter of the Sun, who dwelt on an island (insula Circes 3. 386, which subsequently became the promontory of Circeii, Monte Circello) on the coast of Latium, and turned men into beasts by her enchantments; see Hom. Od. 10. 135 seq.; Milton's Comus 50 'Who knows not Circe The daughter of the Sun? whose charmed cup And downward fell into a grovelling swine.' 11. inaccessos] 'unapproached,' i.e. shunned by all men. Henry quotes Bontstetten, a modern traveller, to shew that Circe's grotto on Monte Circello is still shunned by the peasantry. 12. resonat] 'makes re-echo'; so only here. 14. arguto...] Cf. G. 1. 293 interea longum cantu solata laborem arguto coniunx percurrit pectine telas. The pecten is properly a comb inserted between the threads of the warp and used, by a sharp upward movement (percusso pectine Ov. Met. 6. 58), to drive the cross threads of the woof close together. But (1) the words percurrens telas are naturally used of the shuttle (radius) which runs through' or 'across the web' (Ov. Fast. 3. 819 radio percurrere telas), and (2) it is the shuttle the rapid movement of which attracts attention in weaving, and which, as it is shot backwards and forwards across the strings of the warp, sounds 'tuneful' (argutum), being constantly spoken of in Greek as the singing shuttle,' kepkis doidos Ar. Ran. 1366, and in the Anthology K. andwv, μoxπŶtis, pixáoidos etc. (see Marquardt, Privatleben der Römer 2 525, and Henry). Moreover it is clear from the imitative alliteration of the line that Virgil is endeavouring to suggest a musical sound, such as could not be produced by driving together the cross threads at intervals with the comb. That the pecten is not always used strictly of a comb is shewn by 6. 647 where it is used plectrum, the instrument with which a lyre is struck ; = 6 and it can be reasonably applied to the shuttle, which is a long piece of wood or metal with two teeth at each end so that the thread can be wrapped round it. 15. Hence could be heard the angry growls of lions fretting against their fetters.' exaudiri: historic inf., see 9. 789 n. gemitus iraeque : hendiadys, see 11. 22 n. 16. sera sub nocte] Added to suggest a sense of awe, as we might say at midnight.' 18. magnorum...luporum] The rhyming assonance is imitative of the repeated howls, cf. 16 recusantum...rudentum. In 324 the similar assonance dirarum ab sede, dearum seems to suggest awe, and dignity in 12. 649 magnorum haud umquam indignus avorum. Cf. too 10. 554 orantis...multa parantis; 11. 697 oranti et multa precanti, where the vain repetition of the prayer is mocked at; 9. 634 verbis virtutem illude superbis, where the assonance emphasizes the taunt; 10. 572 gradientem et dira frementem, suggesting terror. 19. quos...induerat Circe in vultus] 'whom Circe had clothed in the aspect of...'; cf. G. 1. 187 cum se nux plurima silvis induet in florem. 20. terga ferarum] Not 'hides' but 'backs of beasts,' terga suggesting the low horizontal position of a beast's body as opposed to the upright attitude of man. 21. monstra...talia] 'such monstrous change'; cf. Hom. Od. 10. 219, of the followers of Ulysses, τοὶ δ ̓ ἔδδεισαν, ἐπεὶ ἴδον αἰνὰ πέλωρα. 25-36. At dawn the wind drops and they row to a spot where the Tiber flows through a forest into the sea. 26. lutea] 'saffron-coloured'; Hom. Il. 8. 1 'Has KρOKÓжETλos. Bentley, who had apparently never watched the sun rise, thought the epithet inconsistent with roseis, for which he substituted croceis, and Ribbeck variis. 27. posuere] 'sank,' intransitive; cf. 10. 103 tum Zephyri posuere; Ov. Her. 7. 49. omnisque repente resedit: note the two weak caesuras, followed in each case by re-, and then the slow spondees of in lento luctantur marmore tonsae. The intention is to suggest undulating motion followed by rest. 28. lento] 'sluggish,' 'lifeless'; which no longer seem to carry the ship along. 33. alveo] A disyllable by synizesis (ovvišnous 'a sinking together"). The gen. dat. and abl. of several words are so scanned for metrical convenience; cf. 303; 7. 190 aurea; 8. |