Dant famuli manibus lymphas, Cereremque canistris 705 of the guests on the different couches. The poet here speaks in accordance with Roman custom. This people reclined at their meals On each couch there were commonly three persons. They lay with the upper part of the body reclined on the left arm, the head a little raised, the back supported by cushions, and the limbs stretched out a full length, or a little bent; the feet of the first behind the back of the second, and his feet behind the back of the third, with a pillow between each. When they ate, they raised themselves on their elbow, and mad use of the right hand. A banqueting-room generally contained three couches (Tρεiç Kλīvai), holding nine guests, and, from the number o couches, was called triclinium. 701. Dant famuli, &c. Water wa carried around for cleansing the hands of the guests previous to eating It was poured from a ewer upon the hands of the person, a basin being held under.-Cereremque canistris, &c. "And supply bread from baskets." Ceres, the goddess of husbandry, is here put by metonymy for bread. Compare ver. 177. The loaves of the ancients were gene rally circular, and more or less flat. 702. Tonsisque ferunt, &c "And bring towels with shorn nap." The mantilia here meant wer woollen, with a soft and even nap. They were intended for drying the hands after washing, and also to answer as napkins. They would be particularly needful in the latter case, as the ancients ate with thei fingers. 703-706. Intus. "In the interior of the mansion." Intus here marks the place where the culinary operations were conducted. 704 Penum struere, et flammis, &c. "To arrange the food for culinary purposes, and enlarge the auspicious influence of the Penates by means of fires at the hearth," i. e. to bring out the family-stores from the penus, and cook the viands at the hearth. The Penates presided ove the penus, or general receptacle of family-stores. They were supposed also to exercise an influence over those operations by which food was rendered more available for human purposes; operations, namely, of a culinary nature, by which the extent of their beneficial superintendence would be greatly enlarged. This idea lies at the bottom of adolere which is used here in precisely the same sense as in the Moretum o Virgil, v. 37. seq.: "Hanc vocat atque arsura focis imponere ligna Here gelidos adolere liquores means "to render the cold water more available," "to increase its usefulness," "to enlarge the sphere of its action." The same idea is involved in such phrases as adolere verbenas thura, hostiam, &c., to make the vervain, the frankincense, the victim have a more enlarged action or influence; in other words, to burn them on the altar, and thus, as it were, enlarge their sphere of action, and convert them into means of propitiating the gods. Compare Klausen's Qui dapibus mensas onerent, et pocula ponant. 710 715 720 Eneas und die Penaten, vol. ii. p. 648. See also, on this passage, Au. Gell. iv. 1. The noun penus, like specus, is found in all the three genders. 706. Qui onerent, &c. Equivalent to quibus cura est ut onerent, &c. Hence we see why the subjunctive is preferable here to the indicative. 707-714. Læta. "Joyous;" because about to be the scene of festivity. Limina is here put by synecdoche for domus. 708. Toris pictis. "On the embroidered couches." Pictis is a beautiful epithet here, meaning, literally, "painted," i. e. by the needle. Compare Æn. ix. 502. 710. Flagrantesque dei vultus. The reference is particularly to the sparkling fire of the eyes. 711. Pictum. Equivalent to circumtextum, in ver. 649. 712. Infelix Phænissa. "The unhappy Phonician (queen)." Alluding to Dido.-Pesti devota futuræ. Equivalent to amori exitiabili devota. Literally, "devoted to future destruction." 713. Expleri mentem nequit. "Cannot be satisfied in mind," i. e. cannot sate the feelings that disquiet her. 715-722. Pependit. For pependisset; and so implevit for implevisset, i. e. satiasset. 716. Falsi genitoris. "Of him who was not his parent.' Literally, "of his false parent." We have given falsi here its natural meaning. Servius explains it by "qui fallebatur," but this is extremely harsh." 717. Reginam petit. These words seem plainly to favour the idea that Æneas and the pretended Ascanius were reclining apart from Dido, and not occupying the same couch with the queen. 718. Inscia Dido, &c. "(She) Dido being ignorant how mighty a god is settling down upon her, a wretched one," i. e. is bearing down upon her with all his power. We have placed a semicolon after fovet, so as to make a new clause commence with inscia. This gives a more forcible turn to the sentence than the common pointing, namely, a comma after fovet. For insidat, Wagner prefers insideat, a verb of rest, and explains it by the peculiar position of the parties, the queen being in a reclining posture on the couch, and the boy resting upon her bosom. Few, however, will approve of this interpretation. 720. Matris Acidalia. "Of his Acidalian mother." Venus was called Acidalia Incipit, et vivo tentat prævertere amore 725 730 from a fountain of the same name at Orchomenus in Boeotia, which was sacred to her, and in which the Graces, her handmaids, were wont to bathe.-Abolere Sychæum. "To efface (from her bosom the image of) Sychæus." 721. Et vivo tentat, &c. "And strives to pre-occupy with a living love her feelings long since unmoved by passion, and her heart (long) unaccustomed to its control." Observe the force of præ in composition: to occupy with love for a living object, before the remembrance of Sychæus again becomes powerful. 66 723-727. Mensa. Here merely equivalent to dapes. There is no reference whatever to the Homeric custom of removing the tables themselves. In verse 736, Dido pours out a libation upon the table still remaining before her. 724. Crateras magnos statuunt. The crater (Gr. Konτnp, from кɛpávvvμɩ, to mix) was a vessel in which the wine, according to the custom of the ancients, who very seldom drank it pure, was mixed with water, and from which the cups were filled. The liquid was conveyed from the crater into the drinking-cups by means of a cyathus, or small ladle.-Et vina coronant. And crown the wine," i. e. deck with garlands the crater containing the liquor. Buttmann, in his Lexilogus (p. 293-4, Eng. Transl.), has very satisfactorily shown that we are not, in rendering these words, to think of the Homeric &TIOTέpeσlai noroio, “to fill high with wine," since Virgil, in that case, would have written vinoque coronant. See the editor's notes on Hom. Il. i. 470. 725. Strepitus. The noise of many voices engaged in conversation. 726. Laquearibus aureis. "From the fretted ceilings overlaid with gold." The ceilings of the Roman houses seem originally to have been left uncovered, the beams which supported the roof, or the upper story, being visible. Afterward planks were placed across these beams, at certain intervals, leaving hollow spaces called lacunaria, or laquearia, which were frequently covered with gold and ivory, and sometimes with paintings. The lychni were Grecian lamps (λúxvoi); and funalia, from funis, were torches formed of twisted ropes, smeared with wax. 728-735. Gravem gemmis auroque pateram. "A bowl heavy with gems and gold," i. e. a golden patera studded with gems. The patera was a broad and comparatively shallow bowl, used for libations, and also for drinking out of at banquets. 729. Mero. Unmixed wine was always used for libations.-Belus. Not the father of Dido, but a distant ancestor, and probably the founder of the line.-Omnes a Belo. "All his descendants." 730. Soliti. "Were wont to fill." Supply Jupiter, hospitibus nam te dare jura loquuntur, Dixit, et in mensam laticum libavit honorem, 735 740 Unde hominum genus, et pecudes; unde imber, et ignes; Arcturum, pluviasque Hyadas, geminosque Triones; implere. 731. Jupiter. Dido here offers up a prayer to Jupiter as the god of hospitality.—Hospitibus. "To those who are connected by the ties of hospitality," i. e. to both guest and host. 733. Hujus meminisse. "May hold this (same day) in their remembrance," i. e. may remember to celebrate it as often as it returns. With minores supply natu, 66 posterity." 734. Bona. "With propitious influence." 735. Cœtum. "The present meeting."-Faventes. "With favouring feelings." our 736-739. Laticum libavit honorem. "Poured out in honour (of the gods) a libation of wine." The plural, as more intensive, is here put for the singular. 737. Libato. "The libation having been made," i. e. a part of the wine having been thus poured out. With libato supply vino, or rather honore, which amounts to the same thing.— Summo tenus attigit ore. "She touched (the remaining contents of the bowl) with the tip of her lips." 738. Increpitans. The air and manner of one playfully chiding him for his apparent delay, and conveying a challenge, as it were, to drain the cup.-Impiger hausit. "Not slowly drained." Some, misunderstanding the clause that follows, incorrectly render hausit "seized," or "grasped." 739. Et pleno se proluit auro. "And drenched himself with the contents of the full golden cup." Proluere se vino is analogous to vino profundi, or madere. Compare Horace (Sat. i. 5. 16), multâ prolutus vappâ, "drenched with plenty of poor wine." 740-741. Crinitus Topas, &c. "The long-haired Iopas.' Singers at banquets generally wore their hair long, in imitation of Apollo.Maximus Atlas. Atlas, king of Mauritania, was celebrated in fable for his acquaintance with the heavenly bodies, and also for his invention of the sphere. In this way some explained the other fable of his supporting the heavens. Some editions read quem maximus Atlas, &c. "whom mightiest Atlas had taught;" but the words "Iopas cithará personat " require an accusative of the object, not of the subject. "And 742-744. Errantem lunam. "Of the wandering moon," i. e. of the path described by the moon in the heavens.-Solisque labores. of the eclipses of the sun," i. e. eclipses and their causes. 743. Ignes. "The fires of heaven," i. e. the lightning. 744. Arcturum. Arcturus is a star near the tail of the Great Bear (äρктoç, oùpa), in the con Quid tantum Oceano properent se tinguere soles Nec non et vario noctem sermone trahebat 745 Multa super Priamo rogitans, super Hectore multa: 750 Nunc, quibus Aurora venisset filius armis ; Nunc, quales Diomedis equi; nunc, quantus Achilles. Immo age, et a primâ dic, hospes, origine nobis Insidias, inquit, Danaûm, casusque tuorum, 755 Erroresque tuos: nam te jam septima portat stellation of Boötes.-Pluviasque Hyadas. The Hyades are stars at the head of the Bull, whose setting, both in the evening and morning twilight, was a sure harbinger of rainy weather. Their number is variously given; most commonly, however, as seven. The name Hyades ("Yadeç) is derived from "w, to rain.-Geminosque Triones. "And the two Bears," i. e. the Greater and the Less. The literal meaning of Triones is "the ploughing oxen," this being the name more commonly applied to the two bears by the Romans. Hence Septemtrio, and also Septemtriones, "the North," i. e. the seven stars, or oxen (triones), forming the constellation of the Great Bear, near the North Pole. 745. Quid tantum Oceano, &c. "Why the winter-suns," &c. i. e. why the days are so short in winter, and the nights so long." 747. Ingeminant plausu. "Redouble their plaudits." More poetical and elegant than ingeminant plausum.-Sequuntur. "Follow their example." 748-752. Vario noctem sermone trahebat. "Prolonged the night in varied converse." More elegant than sermonem trahebat in noctem. 750. Super Priamo. "About Priam." 751. Aurora filius. Memnon, who was slain by Achilles. Servius says that the arms of Memnon were fabricated by Vulcan, but this is a mere figment of the grammarians. Dido's curiosity was excited by Memnon's having come from the remotest East, and she was anxious merely to ascertain his particular costume. 752. Diomedis equi. The horses of Rhesus, which had been carried off by Diomede. Consult ver. 472.—Quantus. “How mighty," i. e. how great in bodily strength and in heroic valour. No allusion whatever is meant to any greatness of size. Heyne merely says, quam magnus corporis viribus et animi virtute." 753-756. Imo age. "6 Nay, come." 754. Insidias Danaûm, &c. The insidia and the casus are related in the second book, and the errores in the third. 755. Septima æstas. En. iii. 8. Vix prima inceperat æstas, et pater Anchises dare fatis vela jubebat. Here, perhaps, septima estas should not be rendered the seventh year, as commonly supposed. |