an adj. which has a bad sense, it intensifies the bad sense, cf. Hor. Od. 1. 17. 25 male dispari 'very ill-matched'; Sat. 1. 3. 31 male laxus calceus 'abominably loose.' 736. avia cursu sequor] 'I hurriedly pursue a pathless course'; cursu lit. 'at a run,' see 323 n. 737. regione] 'direction,' the original meaning of the word, which is from rego 'I direct,' cf. Liv. 21. 31 recta regione iter instituit. 738. heu!...incertum] The disjointed sentences mark vividly the tumult of his feelings. 'Alas! poor wretch my wife-torn from me by fate did Creusa halt?-or did she wander from the path or sit down weary ?—I know not.' Misero is an ethic dative, and seu makes resedit an alternative to erravit (as Kennedy rightly notes), the second question being a double one, 'did she (either) wander...or sit down?' With Editors agree in placing a comma after substitit and a comma after resedit, thus making only one sentence, incertum (est) being the principal sentence and fato...substitit and erravitne ...resedit dependent clauses in oblique interrogation. this punctuation however it is quite impossible to explain the use of the indicatives substitit etc. instead of the subjunctive, and an instead of ne would be required in the second clause. 741. nec...] She was lost, but he never cast a glance or a thought behind him: this is expressed by saying I neither looked back for her lost or cast a thought behind me.' 742. tumulum] The temple would stand on 'a mound.' antiquae refers rather to the temple than to the goddess, cf. 713. 743. hic demum] here and here only,' 'here and not before' 6. 154 n. 744. fefellit] She was missing and so 'deceived her companions' a person deceives his companions who gives them the slip and is absent when supposed to be present. : 745. deorumque] For the hypermetric line cf. 4. 558 n. 750. stat] 'I am resolved'; 'my purpose is fixed,' cf. 660 n. 751. caput] 'my life.' 752-795. First I return to my home but find it in flames: then I make for the palace of Priam and the citadel, where I find the Greeks guarding the spoil in the sanctuary of Juno. Recklessly I cry aloud repeating Creusa's name, and am rushing wildly on, when suddenly her ghostly form appears and bids me ccase my vain search and press on my journey to that far land where a happier fate at last awaits me; 'fear not for me' she said, 'I shall not become a captive, for the mighty Mother of the gods commands me to abide here in her service.'. Thrice I attempted to embrace her, but her figure eluded my grasp and disappeared. Then I return to my comrades. 754. lumine lustro] 'scan with my eyes.' = 755. animos] This word in the plural is usually = 'spirit,' 'courage' (cf. 451, 799), but here is merely heart.' There is good authority for animo, and it is impossible to say whether animosimul or animossimul is original. 756. si forte...] 'if haply-if haply-she had returned home'; his thought is put in oratio obliqua: he would say 'I will go to my house if haply she shall have returned thither': this becomes 'I returned (refero is historic present) to my house if haply she had...,' cf. 94 n. si forte if haply' is frequently used as here'in the hope that possibly': the repetition of the words indicates that he dwells fondly on the hope and at the same time feels that it is only a poor one. 765. auro solidi] 'solid with gold,' i.e. of solid gold. 770. ingeminans] 'redoubling,' 'repeating' the name 'Creusa.' 771. tectis furenti] 'rushing madly among the houses'; for construction of tectis cf. 528 n. 773. nota maior imago] Like the gods (cf. 591 n.) the dead are of more than human size, cf. Juv. 13. 221; Ovid, Fast. 2. 503 pulcher et humano maior, of Romulus appearing after death. 774. stetĕrunt] Note the quantity; 3. 48; 679 constiterunt; Ecl. 4. 61 tulerunt. Lucretius shortens this syllable frequently, cf. Munro, Lucr. 1. 406. 777. non...sine numine] Litotes: 'not without the will' is= 'most certainly by the will.' Cf. 5. 56 n. 779. fas aut ille...] Fas is here almost-fata (cf. 6. 436 fas obstat) and describes that immutable 'law' which even the gods obey, and of which the decrees of Jupiter are the utterance. ille seems applied to Jupiter almost as a title (see Con. here and 7. 110), cf. Plaut. Most. 2. 1. 51 ita ille faxit Iuppiter, and it might be explained as deictic, the speaker pointing upward to the sky. In 7. 110 however sic Iuppiter ille monebat it occurs in ordinary narrative, and this seems to show that the use of the word, though originally deictic, had become conventional. 780. exsilia...et aequor arandum] Arandum goes strictly with aequor and loosely with exsilia as conveying the general meaning of passing over' or 'through '-'long years of exile (must thou traverse), and vast expanse of sea must thou plough.' 781. Lydius] Because the Etruscans were supposed to have originally come from Lydia (Herod. 1. 94) and the Tiber is regularly called 'Tuscan (Tuscum Tiberim G. 1. 499) as flowing along the border of Etruria. 782. arva inter opima virum] amid rich ploughlands of (sturdy) husbandmen.' Each word is carefully chosen by a poet who loved the soil of his country and saw in the restoration of its old homesteads carefully tilled by sturdy yeomen the great hope of renewed national greatness: arva from aro is strictly used for fields carefully cultivated by the plough as opposed to great tracts of land only used for pasture; opima indicates that they were kept in prime condition, fat and fertile; virum suggests the old yeomen farmers, each owning his own farm (as opposed to the slave-gangs on great estates), who once had formed the backbone of the Roman armies. Virum goes with arva='lands worked by husbandmen,' and the phrase recalls the Homeric ěpya åvôpŵv. To take opima virum rich in men' (cf. dives opum 22) is less natural, see Henry, who in forty instances quoted in Forcellini finds opimus used thirty-eight times absolutely and twice with abl. leni agmine is from Ennius A. 177 quod per amoenam urbem leni fluit agmine flumen. 783. res regnum regia] Notice the rhetorical alliteration : 'riches, royalty and a royal bride.' 784. parta tibi] 'is won for thee': prophecy sees and describes the future as already present. lacrimas Creusae: 'tears for Creusa,' lit. of Creusa,' i.e. which the loss of Creusa causes, cf. 413 n. 786. servitum ibo] 'shall go to be a slave,' cf. Hor. Od. 1. 2. 15 ire deiectum advance to overthrow.' 788. sed me...] The 'great Mother of the gods' is Cybele, who was specially worshipped at Pessinus in Phrygia, but also on Mount Ida and was therefore favourable to the Trojans. She is often identified with the Earth 'the great mother of all things.' Virgil purposely uses ambiguous words here in describing what becomes of Creusa. 792. Cf. Od. 11. 206, of Ulysses and his mother's shade, τρὶς μὲν ἐφωρμήθην, ἑλέειν τέ με θυμὸς ἀνώγει, Wordsworth's Laodamia, 'Forth sprang the impassioned Queen her Lord to clasp; Again that consummation she essayed; But unsubstantial Form eludes her grasp As often as that eager grasp was made.' collo dare bracchia circum] An elegant variation of the ordinary circumdare bracchia collo; clearly collo dare are to be taken together and circum is adverbial. 794. volucri somno] Sidgwick explains as winged sleep,' but surely the ghostly form of Creusa, which flies away, is compared, not to 'sleep,' but to a form seen in sleep, a vision of the night'; cf. Job xx. 8 'He shall fly away as a dream and shall not be found; yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.' 796-804. I find my comrades joined by a miserable throng of other fugitives, who are eager to follow me to any land. The dawn was just breaking and as there was no hope left of doing any good by remaining, I proceed with my father to the mountains. 798. exsilio] 'for exile,' Dat. of Purpose, cf. 1. 22 venturum excidio 'will come for a destruction.' 799. animis opibusque parati] 'ready with heart and wealth'; they had made up their minds to follow him and also made preparations for doing so by collecting such treasures as they could. Some word like ire must be mentally supplied after parati. 800. deducere] A technical word for conducting a colony: lit. 'to lead down,' i.e. from the mother-city to the place chosen. ' velim = oîπep av ẞoúλwμaι.' Howson. 6 803. opis] i.e. of affording help: Troy was irretrievably lost. BOOK III 1-12. We build a fleet in the harbour of Antandros and set sail at the first commencement of summer. 1. res Asiae] 'the fortunes of Asia': Troy is regarded as holding the sovereignty of Asia, i.e. of that part of Asia Minor which lies along the coast of the Aegaean (cf. 2. 557 where Priam is called regnatorem Asiae). The phrase is a stately one and the intention is to afford a strong contrast between the former greatness of Troy and its present fall, cf. below superbum Ilium and Neptunia Troia. 2. inmeritam] 'guiltless': Paris alone had sinned, but the innocent suffered with the guilty. visum superis: 'it was the pleasure of heaven'; this use of visumedožev is common, cf. 2. 428 dis aliter visum; Hor. Od. 1. 33. 10 sic visum Veneri. 3. humo] 'from the ground': the city had been burnt to the ground, and long afterwards the smoke continues to rise from the ground. Virgil rhetorically speaks of the ashes as still smoking when Aeneas sets sail, for this must be the force of the change from the past cecidit to the present fumat. Neptunia Neptune-built.' Having been reared by a god the city might have been thought indestructible. It was not so, however, for the story was that Laomedon, having induced Neptune and Apollo to build the walls of Troy, cheated them of their promised reward and so brought upon it their everlasting hatred (cf. Hor. Od. 3. 3. 21 destituit deos | mercede pacta Laomedon), cf. 248 n. 4. diversa exsilia] The words can only mean 'places of exile lying far apart,' cf. 1. 376 diversa per aequora and commonly diversi loci: so we might speak of 'banishment to the ends of the earth.' The phrase, like desertas terras and 7 incerti quo fata ferant, must not be examined in the light of what actually befell the fugitives or of Creusa's definite and cheering |