tures, &c. These images are contrasted with the griefs recounted in vv. 24-27.

59. dryadas, nymphs of the grove, making their abode in trees (dpûs, oak, Eng. tree): the hamadryad was the spirit of the tree itself, born and perishing with it.

61. bonus, kindly; hence under his reign peace (otia) will prevail.

63. intonsi montes, unshorn mountains, clad in their wild forests.

64. sonant, poetically used in a causative sense, and so followed by accusative.deus, deus: the contents of the song.

65. felix, propitious.

66. duas altaria, two (which are) high altars for sacrifice to Phœbus (note on i. 44).

67. pocula, etc., these gifts are copied from Theocr. v. 53-57,— bina quotannis (§ 18, 2, c), two every year. The new milk and the rich oil show it to be in spring and autumn.

69. hilarans convivia, cheering the feast with abundant wine. 71. vina Ariusia, Chian wine, from a district Ariusia in Chios. -novum nectar, a new-found nectar, hitherto unknown to the Romans. Foreign wine was first imported about B.C. 50. — calathis, bowls.

73. saltantis, etc., i. e. the shepherds shall share the joy of the rural deities.

75. Nymphis: the nymphs were favorite divinities with the herdsmen, and their worship was connected with that of Bacchus and Ceres. Virgil seems to have had some special rites in his mind, but what is uncertain.—lustrabimus agros, referring to the festival described in the note to iii. 77.

79. Cereri: Ceres (root in creo) was an Italian earth-goddess, of far less consequence in the old mythology than Pales; but, being taken to represent the Demeter of the Greeks, she became one of the chief members of the Roman pantheon.

80. damnabis votis (compare § 50, 4, b; G. 377, r1), i. e. shall bind men to fulfil their vows, by bestowing the desired gifts.

85. hac cicuta, this pipe: the name is given from the hollow stalk of the herb hemlock.

87. docuit, see note, Ecl. i. 5.

89. non tulit, could not get.

90. nodis atque ære, brazen studs. The Latin likes to separate the noun and adjective into two nouns, thus emphasizing both (hendiadys).

ECLOGUE VI.

I. prima nostra Thalia, our earliest Muse, i. e. in his first efforts as a poet. Thalia was the muse of comic and idyllic verse; she was also represented as the patroness of agriculture, with a pastoral crook. -dignata est: deigned to sport in Sicilian verse, nor blushed to inhabit the woods. — Syracosio, i. e. Sicilian.

3. reges et prœlia, i. e. heroic strains. — Cynthius, a name of Apollo from a mountain of Delos. aurem vellit, plucked my ear, i. e. to admonish me. The ear was held to be the seat of memory; and touching it was part of the formality in summoning a witness.

5. deductum carmen, thin-spun verse; while his sheep should be fat and flourishing.

6. nunc, opposed to cum canerem: ego, opposed to those referred to in the parenthesis. super erunt, there shall be more

than enough.

7. condere, compose (put together). —quoque, this also, as well as Epic poetry.

9. tamen, still (though I am forbidden to sing your praise) your name will be found in my humble strains.

Io. nostræ myricæ, in modest contrast to nemus omne.

II. nec gratior, etc., nor is any page more dear to Phœbus, &c. Any thing, however humble, addressed to Varus is sure of Apollo's favor.

13. Chromis, Mnasyllos: two young Satyrs. These were fabulous creatures, types of the wild life of the forest. They are represented with horns, pointed hairy ears, tails, goats' legs and feet. Such symbols were held in great horror by the early Christians, and still figure in the popular pictures of devils.

14. Silenum: Silenus, one of the attendants of Bacchus, was represented as jolly, fat, tipsy, and bald, a type of good-humored but rather vulgar debauchery. This did not, however, detract from his nobler attributes, as shown in some of his statues.

15. Iaccho, a name of Bacchus, used as a cry in the Dionysiac rites of Greece.

16. tantum delapsa, only just fallen. — capiti, § 51, 2, e; G. 346.

17. attrita, well worn by constant use. — pendebat, swung. cantharus, jug, a sort of pitcher with two handles.

19. luserat, had fooled. —vincula, bands made of wreaths, not to bind him forcibly; but the prophet or bard was held, by a

sort of forfeit, to sing if caught and bound. — ipsis sertis, the very garlands which he had worn at the feast.

21. jam videnti (§ 51, 7, a; G. 343, R2), when now (awake) he sees them, she stains his brow and temples with blackberries.

23. quo, why? to what end?

24. satis est, etc., it is enough [for you] to seem to have been able, i. e. to have shown your power.

25. cognoscite, learn― hear.—huic, the nymph.

26. incipit ipse, i. e. he begins without further urging. 27. in numerum ludere, dance to the measure. – videres, you might have seen (§ 60, 2, a ; G. 252). — Faunos: Faunus (root in faveo) was a well-disposed god of nature, with prophetic powers (see Ovid, Fasti, iii. 291). The popular mythology made, however, a race of fauns, - merry and roguish dwellers in the woods, identified with the Greek satyrs as impersonations of nature, with many of the features of Shakespeare's Puck.

30. Rhodope, Ismarus (see G. iv. 461, ii. 37), local names of Thrace.Orphea, here a dissyllable.

31-40. These ten lines present the Epicurean view of the origin of things, almost exactly agreeing with the modern theories of development. At first an empty void, and in it gathered the atoms of matter, combined gradually in its four elementary forms, solid, liquid, gaseous, and ethereal.

31. canebat: for the subject of the song, compare Ovid's Metamorphoses, and the Theogony of Hesiod. Such a semi-scientific treatment of the old myths seems to have been since Hesiod a favorite form of poetic composition. —uti, how. - magnum per inane, through the vast void. This, with some of the succeeding expressions, is borrowed from Lucretius.

32. terrarum, etc., the four elements, earth, air, water, and fire (see Ovid, Met. i. 22-27).

33. liquidi, subtile or transparent: so called because composed of the finest atoms.- ·exordia, the beginnings of things.—his, abl. of origin.

34. concreverit orbis, the unhardened circle of the universe began to gather: almost a literal statement of the nebular theory of the solar system.

35. sŏlum, the solid ground. discludere ponto, to shut off in the sea depth: Nereus, "the ancient of the sea," was the deity who dwelt in the still depths, while Neptune ruled the stormy surface. ponto, loc. ablative.

36. rerum formas, the shapes of (distinct) objects.

37. stupeant: the subjunctives here are in the indirect question introduced by uti (how).

41. hinc, next.-lapides Pyrrhæ, from which the new race of men sprang, after the flood (Ovid, Met. i. 395-415).

42. Promethei: the Titan Prometheus stole fire from heaven as a gift to man; he was chained to a rock in the Caucasus, where his liver was perpetually torn by vultures (volucres).

43. Hylan: Hylas, who accompanied Hercules on the Argonautic expedition, and was borne away by fountain nymphs, enraptured by his beauty. (Notice the peculiarity of the scanning: Hyla Hylă omně sŏnāret: a is shortened in the Greek manner, but not cut off.)

46. Pasiphaen: daughter of the Sun, and wife of Minos (son of Zeus and Europa, and king of Crete), said to have madly loved a bull, and to have given birth to the monster Minotaur. The tale is a myth of the light of early spring, when the sun enters the constellation Taurus: the name Pasiphaë means, "she that shineth upon all,” i. e. the Dawn.—solatur, he consoles, i. e. sings of the stratagem of Dædalus.

47. virgo, i. e. Pasiphaë.

48. Prætides, princesses of Argos, driven mad by Here (Juno), whose worship they despised, and imagining themselves converted into heifers.

50. quamvis timuisset, however much she (the daughter of Prœtus) feared the plough, and often felt for horns on her smooth (human) forehead, sought such base alliance.

53. fultus, lying (from fulcio).

54. pallentis, pale-green, compared with the dark foliage of the ilex (holm), a sort of Italian live-oak.

55. claudite nymphæ: these lines - to v. 60 to be the wild and jealous cry of Pasiphaë.

- are supposed

56. Dictææ, from Dicte, a mountain of Crete. - claudite saltus, close the glades of the woods (that I may find his haunts).

...

57. si qua. vestigia, if by chance the stray foot-prints of the bull may offer themselves to my eyes (=“in order that,” etc.).

60. Gortynia: Gortyna was the harboring-place of the cattle of the Sun: perhaps some kine may lead him thither, by the charm of green pasture, or in following the herd.

61. puellam: Atalanta, whose fleetness of foot was beguiled by the golden apples of the Hesperides.

62. Phaethontiadas, the daughters of Phaethon (pae0wv, the Sun), who were changed into poplars (see Ovid, Met. ii. 340–366).

65. una sororum, i. e. the Muses: he sings how they met Gallus as he strayed by the streams of Permessus (near Helicon in Bootia), and led him to the sacred hill. The personal compliment comes in very suddenly among the wild tales of the old mythology. 67. divino carmine, of divine song (ablative of quality). 68. crinīs, accusative of specification.

70. Ascræo seni, Hesiod, the father of songs of husbandry, and the poet of the old cosmogony. He as well as Orpheus drew after him the listening woods.

72. Grynei nemoris, a grove of Æolia in Asia Minor, sacred to Apollo. It is said that Gallus had translated a Greek poem in praise of this grove.

73. quo se plus jactet, of which Apollo shall be more proud (quo, abl. of cause).

74. Scyllam: Scylla, daughter of Nisus, king of Megara, betrayed her father to Minos, and was changed into a seamew (ciris); Scylla, daughter of Phorcys, was transformed into the monster described in the text, "her white loins girt with barking monsters," which occupied the rocks opposite Charybdis in the Sicilian strait. quam, obj. of secuta est, and subj. of vexasse. 76. Dulichias rates, the ships of Ulysses, from which Scylla snatched six of the crew. Dulichium is a little island near Ithaca.

78. mutatos artus, the transformation of Tereus, changed to a hoopoe, while his wife Progne was changed to a swallow, and her sister Philomela (whom he had betrayed) to a nightingale (Ovid, Met. vi. 412).

79. dapes, the banquet, i. e. the flesh of his child Itys which was served to Tereus; dona, the head and hands which were shown him after he had feasted on the flesh.

81. quibus alis, with what wings she flew wretched above her own dwelling: the habit of the swallow rather than the nightingale ; though the song of the latter, “most musical, most melancholy," seems to have suggested the notion of the mother's grief.

83. Eurotas, the river of Sparta, blest in hearing the song of Apollo which he sang to Hyacinthus on its banks. — laurus, accusative plural, obj. of jussit.

85. jussit: the subject is Vesper, who bids gather the sheep and recount their number. — invito, reluctant to end the strain.