Corripit Aeneas extemplo avidusque refringit Nec minus interea Misenum in litore Teucri Postquam collapsi cineres et 211. Cunctantem. Cf. 1. 146. To Aeneas' eager grasp the branch seemed to resist him, and thus to indicate that the fates were against him. 212-35. Vergil here describes at some length the funeral rites. Cf. also IV. 505; III. 63. The corpse was placed upon a pile of wood called pyra or rogus (IV. 646). This pyre was built in the form of an altar with four equal sides, hence the ara sepulcri (VI. 177). The sides of the pile were frequently covered with dark leaves (215), and cypress-trees were sometimes placed before it (216). The corpse immediately after death was bathed in water and anointed with oil and perfumes (219); it was then placed on a couch or bier (feretrum, 222) on which it was carried to the pyre. The flamma quievit, 210 215 220 225 corpse was placed on the top of the pyre, together with the couch on which it had been carried, and the nearest relative then set fire to the pyre with his face turned away (224). When the flames began to rise, various perfumes were thrown into the fire (224-5); and when the pile was burned down the embers were soaked with wine (226-7), and the bones and ashes of the deceased were gathered by the nearest relatives (228), who placed them in a funeral urn. Then the persons present were thrice sprinkled by a priest with pure water from a branch of olive or laurel for the purpose of purification (229-30). On their departure they bade farewell to the dead by pronouncing the word Vale (231). On novissima verba cf. I. 219 and note. Reliquias vino et bibulam lavere favillam, His actis propere exsequitur praecepta Sibyllae. 237-42. Spenser (F. Q. I. V. 31) thus describes the "yawning gulfe of deepe Avernus hole : By that same hole an entraunce, darke and bace [low], With smoake and sulphur hiding all the place, Descends to hell: there creature never past, 230 235 240 245 That backe retourned without heavenly grace. 244. Cf. IV. 61. 245. Cf. IV. 698 and note. The victim was then consigned to the sacrifice by a sort of preliminary consecration. 247. Cf. IV. 511. 249. Velleris, 86. Aeneas matri Eumenidum magnaeque sorori Sub pedibus mugire solum, et iuga coepta moveri Dî, quibus imperium est animarum, Umbraeque silentes, 255. The above preparations and sacrifices had been made at night, and now they enter the infernal regions with the first rays of the sun. 258. Adventante dea, i. e., Hecate, who comes to open the way, as invoked in 1. 247, accompanied by her Stygian dogs, whose barking is now heard. Procul profani, addressed to Aeneas' companions. Cf. III. 405-7 and note. In Roman religious ceremonies this was the stock command to all uninitiated (profani) to take their presence from the holy rites. So Horace, to whom poetry was sacred, thus introduces his third book of Odes: Odi profanum vulgus et arceo. Virginibus puerisque canto. Hence, avaunt, 't is holy ground! 261. Animis, 131. |