meaning to sparkle' is only secondary: ore is probably a local abl.-the serpent 'flickers at' or 'from his mouth with (instrumental abl.) forked tongue.' The use of the plural linguis is probably intentional: the tongue moves so quickly that it seems several tongues. The tongue of a serpent has only two not three forks.

479. dura limina] 'the stubborn door,' Conington: limina is used loosely, and dura describes both the material of which the door was made and also the character of the resistance it offered.

480. perrumpit, vellit] The presents mark action still going on and incomplete, 'is striving to burst through...and rend' in contrast are the perfects cavavit and dedit, and at last hewing out a panel he has hollowed the stout oak, and made....'

482. dedit] Cf. 310 n. lato ore: 'with broad opening.' 483. apparet...apparent] Note the pictorial power of the repetition and also its pathos, as emphasising the profanation which the venerable palace was suffering.

484. penetralia] 'chambers': the word is used skilfully to suggest awe, being often used of the shrine of a deity, e.g. 5. 744 penetralia Vestae.

485. armatos] See 459. in limine primo: 'on the very threshold.'

486-505. Within the palace resounds with the shrieks of the women, but Pyrrhus pursues his relentless assault, and at last the gate is forced and the Greeks pour in like a flood. With my own eyes I saw the massacre which ensued and the Greeks destroying what the fire had spared.

486. domus interior] The phrase merely contrasts what is going on within the house with what is going on without (cf. 1. 637), and does not describe any particular part of the house.

Those who think that there is any difference between this phrase and domus intus 483 can of course explain of the inner apartments of the yuvaikwvîris (see plan in Dict. of Ant.).

487. miscetur] Cf. 298 n. cavae aedes: 'hollow' or 'vaulted halls,' the adjective suggesting the idea of 'echoing.' Virgil may have had in his mind the word cavaedium which seems to have been used of the opening in the roof of the atrium over the impluvium.

488. ululant] Notice that the halls themselves 'shriek'; Henry compares Soph. Trach. 205 ávoλoλvžárw dóμos; Is. xiv. 31

'Howl, O gate; cry, O city.' aurea: Sidgwick rightly notes that the epithet is added to suggest a contrast between the glory of the heavens above and the agony on which they look down.

491. vi patria] His father was Achilles.

492. sufferre valent] 'can withstand (him).' labat... : 'beneath the incessant battering the door reels'; while Pyrrhus plies his axe (bipenni 479) his followers aid him by battering the door. Henry takes ariete crebro metaphorically of the 'battering' by Pyrrhus with his axe, but it is hard to see how aries could possibly be put for an 'axe' or the 'blow of an You may use a spade to strike with, but you cannot call

axe.'

it a club.

493. emoti procumbunt cardine postes] 'wrenched from their sockets the doors fall flat.' To understand this passage it is necessary to remember that cardo in no way resembles a modern hinge' or postis a modern 'door-post.' Ancient doors were not hung on hinges but turned on two pivots, which formed part of the door itself, and of which the lower one turned in a socket in the limen or sill and the upper one in a socket in the limen superum or lintel. The term cardo can be used either of the pivot or of the socket in which it moves.

It is clear that to make a door under these conditions the first thing required is a stout post, the ends of which can be turned so as to form pivots while to the post is attached the framework of the door, which is supported by it. Hence postis, as being an integral part of the door and the most important part of it, is often put for the door itself.

Hence in batter

It is clear also that the two sockets not only serve for the pivots to turn in, but also afford all the support which the door-post' and consequently the door has. ing at a double door, if the bar (claustra 491) which fastens the two halves does not give, it is plain that the only thing to do is to wrench the posts from their supporting sockets,' when they and the doors must at once fall down.

494. rumpunt aditus] 'they burst an entrance': aditus is a cogn. acc. their 'entrance' is 'a bursting in.'

496. non sic] 'not with such violence': the words serve to introduce the simile and also mark that it can only imperfectly suggest the actual scene.

aggeribus...: 'when a great stream bursting its barriers has gone forth foaming and overpowered the resistance of its banks.' Henry compares 1 Chron. xiv. 11 'Then David

said, God hath broken in upon mine enemies by mine hand, like the breaking forth of waters.' exiit: some read exit, cf. 5. 274.

498. fertur...] 'it rushes raging on to the fields in a heap.' Observe the effect of the double alliteration here, and also the peculiar movement of the verse Fērtér | în ārvă | Fūrēns Cămălo Camposque.... cumulo: cf. 323 n.

499. vidi ipse] Cf. 5, where the words mark the trustworthiness of the speaker: here they claim the sympathy of his hearers.

furentem caede: 'mad with carnage,' or, as we should say, 'drunk with blood.'

501. centumque nurus] Priam is supposed to have had fifty sons and fifty daughters, the sons being married, and each having his marriage-chamber (quinquaginta thalami, 503) in the palace. Here therefore centum nurus refers to Hecuba's fifty daughters and fifty daughters-in-law: Virgil, wishing to describe the whole number as grouped round Hecuba, had to either speak of them as 'her hundred daughters' (centum natae) or her hundred daughters-in-law' (centum nurus), and for convenience chooses the latter, which is perfectly natural, and only seems extraordinary to us because our English word 'daughter-in-law' is so unpoetical.

per aras: among the altars,' cf. 550.

503. illi] those famous'; see the description in Il. 6. 244 πεντήκοντ ̓ ἔνεσαν θάλαμοι ξεστοίο λίθοιο κ.τ.λ.

spes tanta nepotum: in apposition to thalami: Conington renders the splendid promise of children's children.'

504. barbarico] certainly = 'Phrygian,' 'Trojan.' The adj. Bápßapos was applied by the Greeks to all nations who did not speak Greek, but more especially to the dwellers in Asia and the East, and in the phrase "barbaric gold' the suggestion of Oriental magnificence is certainly present; cf. Milton, P. L. 2. 3

'Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand Show'rs on her kings barbaric pearl and gold.' That Aeneas a Trojan should speak of Trojan gold as 'barbaric' is curious, but in strict accordance with the literary use of the word as= 'non-Greek,' e.g. the Persian messenger in Aeschylus Persae 425 speaks of the Persian host as the barbaric host,' and when Plautus (Tr. Prol. 19) wishes to say that he has translated a Greek play into Latin he writes 'Plautus vertit barbare.'

6

The epithet is taken from the Andromache of Ennius, which Virgil closely imitates here:

o pater, o patria, o Priami domus
saeptum altisono cardine templum.
vidi ego te adstante ope barbarica...

Others take barbarico auro spoliisque='gold and spoils won from barbarians.'

506-558. Perhaps you may ask for an account of Priam's death. Seeing the ruin of his city and palace, he feebly buckles on his long unused armour, but Hecuba remonstrates with him on his folly, and draws him to the altar where she and her daughters had taken refuge. Pyrrhus however suddenly appears pursuing Polites, one of Priam's sons, and slays him under his father's eyes. Maddened by the sight Priam curses him for a deed which proves him no true son of the great Achilles, and at the same time hurls at him a feeble dart. Pyrrhus in reply jeeringly bids him go and tell Achilles himself how degenerate his son is, and slays the old man at the altar.

511. cingitur] Cf. 383 n.; 'girds on (himself) the useless sword': note the different construction with cingor 520. fertur: 'is rushing,' i.e. until Hecuba draws him back.

512. aedibus...] In a Roman house there was an opening in the centre of the roof of the atrium, beneath which was the impluvium, and near this seems to have been the altar of the Penates (514). Roughly speaking, the Roman atrium with its smaller rooms opening into it corresponds to the Homeric avλń, which was an enclosed court, unroofed but surrounded with a pillared portico (528) and rooms opening into the portico, and with an altar of Zevs "EpkeLos the god of the homestead' in the centre. Virgil's description here applies fairly to either a Greek or a Roman house. nudoque...: 'and beneath the open height of heaven.'

514. complexa] ‘enfolding.'

516. praecipites...] ‘like doves driven headlong home by a black tempest.'

519. mens dira] 'monstrous thought.'

520. inpulit...] 'drove thee to gird thyself with such weapons.'

521. istis] Deictic and scornful; she points to his armour and weapons-'the time needs not such defenders, no not if my own Hector were here to aid.'

523. tandem] The word indicates impatience and anger: come hither at length' is = 'come hither, for it is high time.' omnes: emphatic, as is simul in the next line: they will all live or die together.

526. elapsus...] 'escaped from Pyrrhus' murderous sword.' 528. porticibus] Abl. of the road by which one goes: 'flies adown the long cloisters': cf. 771.

529. saucius] Note the dramatic force of the position of the adjective. infesto vulnere: 'with ever threatened wound,' i.e. with his weapon ready any moment to strike him.

530. iam iamque...] 'now, now he holds him in his grasp,' not meaning that he does actually so hold him, but that he is so close on him that every moment he seems to have caught him; cf. 12. 754 iam iamque tenet, similisque tenenti | increpuit malis of a hound hunting a deer.

premit hasta: Conington explains 'is close upon him with his spear,' but this makes the words a mere repetition of infesto vulnere insequitur, and also does not account for Priam's wrath, which is surely roused at his son being slain before his eyes. Wagner and Heyne accordingly explain premit as= percutit, transfigit 'pins' or 'pierces,' this last mortal wound just leaving Polites strength enough to stagger to his father's feet.

533. quamquam...] although hemmed in with death on every side' the expression is proverbial for being in imminent danger of death, being 'in the jaws of death,' cf. Cic. Cat. 4. 18 ex media morte reservatum; Verr. 5. 12 ex media morte eripere.

534. abstinuit] 'refrained.' voci...: ' spared (i.e. forbore to use) passionate utterance,' cf. 296 n.

535. at tibi] This use of at is very frequent in imprecations it marks a sudden outburst of words that will not be controlled-nay,' he cries, may the gods....' The pronoun is also regularly placed immediately after at to emphasise at once the person on whom the curse is imprecated, cf. Plaut. Most. 1. 1. 37 at te di omnes perdant; Catull. 3. 13 at vobis male sit.

536. si qua est...] 'if there is any righteousness in heaven,' i.e. as surely as there is righteousness in heaven. For si in appeals cf. 3. 433 n. For pietas, the 'righteousness' of the gods which redresses wrong, cf. 1. 10 n.

538. qui...fecisti] Not seeing that thou hast made,' which would be qui feceris, but direct personal address 'thou, who hast made.'