We may well be reminded also of such passages as Psalm lxxxviii. 2 foll., "For my soul is full of trouble, and my life draweth nigh unto hell.... Free among the dead, like unto them that are wounded and lie in the grave, who are out of remembrance, and are cut away from thy hand." [Cicero N. D. 3. 17 enumerates, as the children of Erebus and Night, Amor, Dolus, Metus, Labor, Invidentia, Fatum, Senectus, Mors, Tenebrae, Miseria, Querella, Gratia, Fraus, Pertinacia, Parcae, Hesperides, Somnia." -H. N.]

66

274.] Luctus' is half personified 2. 369. Ultrices Curae' seems rightly explained by Serv. of the stings of conscience. The commentators refer to the well-known passage in Juv. 13. 192 foll.

275.] "Subeunt morbi tristisque senectus, Et labor et durae rapit inclementia mortis " G. 3. 67.

276.] Malesuadus' occurs in Plaut.: see Forc. The sense is not unlike that which is sometimes borne by improbus' in Virg., e. g. 280, 356. Comp. Hom.'s language about the stomach Od. 17. 286 foll. Turpis' seems to refer to physical unsightliness. 'Ac' was restored by Heins. foret.'

277.] “Horribili visu portenta" 11. 271. "Letum' appears as if strictly speaking it ought not to have been placed before the gates of Orcus: but it

275

But

278.] As Macrob., Sat. 5. 7, points out from Il. 14. 231, čve' “Yπv úμßanto, Kaσtyhтy Oaváτolo (comp. II. 16. 682, where Sleep and Death carry off the dead Sarpedon to Lycia). A critic of this work in the "Reader finds a difficulty in the introduction of Sleep among these forms of human ill, and suggests that 'Sopor' really means lethargy. though Sleep regarded from one point of view is the restorer of nature, it is quite intelligible that it should be considered as itself a sign of the weakness which it remedies, at the same time that the suspension of consciousness, in which it resembles death, may naturally impress the imagination as an actual evil. That it is not fanciful to attribute such considerations to an ancient poet may be seen by comparing the Sophoclean rvos

Tavтоyńрws (Aut. 606), where the feeling is precisely the same, Sleep being regarded as an actual agent in human decay, though it has been lost on several of the later critics, who wish to alter the text. [In favour of the view that Sopor' means lethargy, it may further be noticed that 'sopor' means unconsciousness in general, "somnus" only sleep: that Virg. here seems to be thinking of Lucr. 3. 459 foll., "His accedit uti videamus, corpus ut ipsum Suscipere in manes morbos durumque dolorem, Sic animum curas acres luctumque metumque, ... Interdumque gravo lethargo fertur in altum Aeternumque soporem oculis nutuque cadenti:" and that Seneca probably understood Virg. in this sense when he wrote in his Hercules (690) "Taxo imminente, quam tenent segnis Sopor, Fumesque mesta tabido rictu iacens."-H N.] Mala mentis gaudia i. q. "malae mentis gaudia." [Stat. Theb. 1. 229, "mala gaudia matrum," may be imitating Virg.-H. N.] Sen. Ep. 59 thinks the epithet an improper one, as joy is always a good thing, since none but the wise can feel it. Virg. doubtless means to include evil pleasures of all

kinds, as real evils, the end of which is death. [Haec sunt quae in scelera homines ducunt: adulter quippe, latro, homicida, cum lucra et voluptatem de sceleribus capiunt, sic in mala gaudia perducuntur" Ti. Donatus. May men tis' mean passion? comp. Horace's" compesce mentem" and Virg.'s "mentem Venus ipsa dedit."-H. N.]

279.] Adverso in limine" below v. 636. Here it is merely poetical surplusage, saying, what has been said before, that these figures are at the gate fronting those who wished to enter, unless we choose to say with Serv. that war, being the chief cause of death, is placed at the threshold when the others are at the vestibule, or, what would be the same thing, that the thought is repeated in order to call special attention to the case of war. For the personification of War comp. 1. 294., 7. 607, and see Aristoph. Peace 205 &c.

280.] The Furies are mentioned below, vv. 570 foll., as carrying on their work within: so that it has been questioned why they are represented here among the guardians of the gate. It has been replied that the Furies may be distinguished from the Eumenides; that the meaning may be that they sleep here, but work elsewhere, a view somewhat favoured by the form of expression, which speaks of their chambers, not of themselves, though it would naturally stand for the Furies and their chambers; that Virg. has been inconsistent, perhaps following different legends. Either of the two latter views seems probable. Virg. however has doubtless an object in placing the Furies on the threshold, which seems to have been their seat (see on v. 563 below), and there is something of the same inconsistency in his language about the Hydra, vv. 287, 576. thalami' are chambers, compared by Heyne to the cells of the porters in some Roman houses (Dict. A. Domus,' "Ianua'). Vulcan's 'thalamus' is of gold, 8. 372, where the synizesis "aureo illustrates ferrei' here. Another ques

The

tion was raised by Serv. about the propriety of the word as applied to the Furies, thalamus' generally meaning a bridal chamber: but Cerda shows from Ov. M. 2. 738 &c. that it is attributed to maidens also. 'Discordia' had been already personified by Ennius (?) whose words are quoted by Hor. 1. S. 4. 60. So the Homeric 'Epis.

281.] Virg. represents Discord as Fury, with snakes for hair. Vipereum crinem' like "anguino capillo" Catull. 64. 193. 'Vipereus' occurs again 7. 351. 753. [Rom. has 'innixa.'-H. N.]

282.] In medio' is explained by Ti. Donatus of the "impluvium," perhaps rightly, comp. 2. 512 foll, where a baytree grows in the " impluvium" of Priam's palace. We must not however expect to be able to trace such details in the description of these vast shadowy realms. Heyne explains it "in medio vestibuli: see on v. 285. "Ramos et bracchia tendens" G. 2. 296.

283.] Opaca, ingens" 3. 619. The notion of dreams perched like birds on a tree Heyne traces to Il. 14. 286 foll.. where Sleep, taking the form of a bird, perches on one of the trees of Ida, before coming down upon Zeus. Virg. may mean that the dreams are actually in the form of birds, as Henry thinks, comp. Sil. 13. 594 foll., who, imitating this passage, represents a yew on the banks of Cocytus as peopled by noisome birds. Volgo' may go either with ferunt' or with tenere:' but the latter seems more forcible. Wagn. comp. 3. 643, "habitant ad litora volgo." In Od. 24. 12 the duos 'Oveipwr is reached before the shades. [Vulgo' Med., Rom.-H. N.]

284.] Vana' seems to mean fallacious as well as unsubstantial. Comp. the distinction between "verae umbrae" and "falsa insomnia below vv. 894 foll. "Ne vana putes haec fingere somnum 8. 42. 'Haerent' sc. somnia.' The parallels to this change of construction quoted by Wagn. Q. V. 34. 4 are mostly instances like 4. 263, where the subject of the second verb is the same as that

290

philosophical motive, intending to hint at the unreality of these terrible shapes. The words of Serv. may be worth quoting, "Harpyiaeque;' aut iam mortuas intellege, aut secundum Platonem et alios simulacra licet vivarum illic fuisse. Nam dicunt esse omnium rerum ideas quasdam, i. e. imagines, ad quarum similitudinem procreantur universa." Serv. also tells us that after these lines four others were inserted by some, who believed them to have been left by Virg., but omitted by those who revised his work. It will be seen that they are of the same quality as those quoted on 3. 201:

Gorgonis in medio portentum inmane Medusae,

Vipereae circum ora comae cui sibila torquent,

Infamesque (qu. informesque?) rigent oculi, mentoque sub imo Serpentum extremis nodantur vincula

290.] 'Hic' of time, 2. 122, &c. pidus' with formidine,' as in 9. 169. 291.] Strictam aciem' 2. 333. offer a weapon at a person is a common expression in our own older writers.

Το

292.] 'Docta,' instructed, perhaps by Hecate, v. 565 below. But the word often means little more than wise or skilful: see Forc. Tenuis vitas' G. 4. 224. Sine corpore:' see on G. 4. 475, where, as in v. 303 below, Virg. is not quite consistent with his language here.

293.] Virg.'s words are a paraphrase of Tol de σkial atoσovoi Od. 10. 495, translated by Cic. De Div. 1. 40, "ceteros umbrarum vagari modo." The kind of motion is connected with the want of substance and stability. 'Cava imagine' means more than "nube cava" 1. 516, "cava umbra" 2. 360 note, expressing not merely that the spirits are enclosed by the visible shape, but that the shape is essentially hollow, yux кal εἴδωλον, ἀτὰρ φρένες οὐκ ἔνι πάμπαν (Π. 23. 105: comp. Od. 10. 493). [Henry takes sub imagine formae' as 'presenting the appearance of a form.'

H. N.] 'Admoneat-inruat:' see on 5. 325.

294.] In Hom. Ulysses' sword operates as a real terror to the ghosts (see on v. 260 above). The legend was that Hercules drew his sword on the Gorgon when he went down to the shades, and was reassured by Hermes as Aeneas here is by the Sibyl (Apollodorus 2. 5. 12: Schol, on Il. 8. 368). Diverberet' 5. 503 note.

295-316.] Next they see the way to Acheron. Charon is there with his ferry-boat, old and squalid, but vigorous. Ghosts keep crowding to the boat: some of them are admitted, others rejected.'

.

295.] Hinc' seems to mean that it is only after passing the gate of Orcus that they see the way to Acheron. Acheron

is called Tartareus' from its dismal

associations, though it is not, like Phlegethon, v. 551, a river specially surrounding Tartarus, but apparently encompasses

the whole of the lower world. But Virg.'s conception of the four infernal rivers, as given by Hom., is very confused. Hom. says briefly, Od. 10. 513 foll.:

ἔνθα μὲν εἰς ̓Αχέροντα Πυριφλεγέθων τε ῥέουσιν

Κωκυτός θ', ὃς δὴ Στυγὸς ὕδατός ἐστιν ἀπορρώξι

πέτρη τε, ξύνεσίς τε δύω ποταμῶν ἐριδού

πων,

but he does not mention them at all when he comes to the actual journey of his hero. Virg. conducts Aeneas over the water circumstantially, but from his description we should infer that there is only one river, which, after being called Acheron or Cocytus here, turns out eventually to be Styx, v. 385. Heyne remarks with justice (Excursus 9) that the poet would have found it awkward to have to describe the passage of all three, especially as Styx alone is said to surround the lower world nine times, v. 439. Generally we may say that Virg. found the notion of a single river of death most convenient for poetical purposes, but that he wished as usual to in

troduce the various points of the legends he followed, and so he employed the names Acheron, Cocytus, and Styx, whenever the river was to be spoken of, with a dim conception of Acheron as emptying itself into Cocytus, and perhaps of Styx as the most inward of the three, and a clear one of Phlegethon as specially surrounding Tartarus. Plato gives a much more definite description in his Phaedo, pp. 112, 113, speaking of four rivers, Ocean, Acheron, Pyriphlegethon, and Styx, the last of which disappears under the earth and reappears as Cocytus, an attempt apparently to realize the picture in Hom.: and later Roman poets, as Heyne observes, Exc. 9, have introduced varieties of their own. [Undam' Nonius, p. 303.-H. N.]

296.] Acheron has here the Platonic characteristics of a marshy slough, combined with those of a rapid river. Caenum' and 'harena' are doubtless the same, as Heyne thinks. Comp. the destription of the muddy pool in Catull. 17. 10, "totius ut lacus putidaeque paludis Lividissima maximeque est profunda vorago," ib. 25, "Et supinum animum in gravi derelinquere caeno, Ferream ut soleam tenaci in voragine mula.” 'Vorago' is applied to the infernal rivers in the only other passages where it occurs in Virg., 7. 569., 9. 105., 10. 114. Hic' may be either adv. or pron., perhaps better the former.

297.] Disgorges into Cocytus,' into which Virg. evidently supposed Acheron to empty itself. Hom., as we have seen, makes Cocytus an ἀποῤῥώξ or arm of Styx.

298.] Portitor,' properly a person who collects the portoria, duties on exports and imports, or tolls (Dict. A. Portorium'); hence a person who receives toll for carrying passengers or goods, and so, as here, a ferryman, a sense which it bears Sen. De Benef. 6. 18, and in various passages of the poets, where, as here, it is applied to Charon. In later Latin it came to be used for a porter: see Forc. VOL. II.

300

We have had the word used of Charon G. 4. 502.

299.] Terribili squalore' is not to be taken with horrendus,' but forms in fact a second epithet. Charon is later than Hom., who employs only the agency of Hermes for transporting the dead to the shades (Od. 24), while the living cross the Ocean river in ships: he appears however in Aristoph. Frogs 180, &c., and was represented by Polygnotus in his paintings in the Lesche of the Cnidians at Delphi.

300.] 'Canities' for "cani," as in 9. 612., 10. 844., 12. 611. Stant lumina flamma' like "pulvere caelum Stare vident" 12. 407, comp. by Turn. V. L. 28. 32. 'Stant' expresses the fixedness of the eyes (Ti. Donatus), and the mass of the flame (Henry). His eyes are fixed orbs of fire.' The comparison of eyes to fire occurs more than once in Hom., e. g. Il. 1. 104, ooσe dé oi πupì AaureTÓWVTI ČIKTNV. Flammae' is read by many MSS., including Med. (originally). Rom., and Pal. from a correction; but the attributive gen. [now approved by Henry] would be harsh. Some copies have 'flammea,' which is approved by Heins., and might be scanned by synizesis (comp. 7. 448, “flammea torquens lumina").

301.] Charon apparently wears a scarf or chlamys, which is twisted round the shoulder (Dict. Ant. 'Chlamys,'' Nodus '). Cerda shows that this was a pilot's costume from Plaut. Mil. 4. 4. 48 foll. : "Facito uti venias ornatu ornatus huc nauclerico,