himself, while his officers only obey orders. So Aeneas obeys ed higher authority. : 342. dulcesque...] and the dear relics of my kin I would honour Priam's lofty halls should last and (almost='for') I should (ere now) with my hand have reared a restored citadel for the vanquished.' The 'relics' are clearly the remains of Troy; colerem partly suggests incolerem. Note change of tense in manerent and posuissem. 344. manu] 'with my hand.' Almost pleonastic, but added to emphasise the idea of personal interest or exertion bestowed upon an act; cf. 6. 395. Commonly strengthened by the addition of ipse, cf. 2. 320; 3. 372; G. 3. 395; 4. 329. 345. Gryneus] He had a temple at Grynium, on the coast of Aeolia. For Apollo's connection with Lycia cf. 143 n. 346. sortes]'oracles,' often written on small tablets or lots. 347. amor] Emphatic: 'that is my love (not you).' si te... the argument is in answer to Dido's suggestion that he was only leaving her for 'alien fields,' and is this-'If Libya charms a Phoenician, may not Ausonia charm the Trojans? we too (et nos) may seek a foreign realm.' 349. quae...invidia est] 'what cause of grudging is it that the Teucrians settle...?' 'Why grudge the Teucrians a settlement?' Cf. Hom. Il. 14. 80 οὐ γάρ τις νέμεσις φυγέειν κακόν. 353. et turbida...] and his troubled ghost appals me'; turbida, i.e. with troubled aspect. 354. capitis...] 'the wrong to his dear head.' Caput can be put for a person in emotional language and so in Gk. kápa (e.g. & piλov, okλnpòv kápa, 613 infandum caput, festivum, ridiculum, lepidum caput), or in oaths which are directed against the head as the most vital part, cf. 357 and St. Matt. v. 36 'neither shalt thou swear by thy head.' 357. testor...] 'I swear by (lit. call to witness) thy head and mine.' Cf. Öv. Her. 3. 107 perque tuum nostrumque caput, quae iunximus una. 358. manifesto in lumine] Cf. 3. 151. almost in broad daylight.' = A fine half line. The phrase is 361. Italiam...sequor] Its powerful terseness is in striking contrast with the wordy rhetoric of the rest of the speech. Whether Virgil, had he revised the Aeneid, would have felt it necessary to complete the line is difficult to decide. Nothing at any rate could improve these four words thus left rugged and abrupt. 362-392. With scorn in her glance Dido cries in fury: Thou art no son of a goddess but a stone, a monster, immoveable. The gods are cruel and all is false. I saved him and his from death and now, O madness, he talks of "oracles" and "messengers of heaven"! But go, and mayest thou perish in the waves. I will haunt thee like a Fury and thy suffering shall be my solace in the grave.' She faints and is carried away by her maidens. 362. aversa]'askance.' Cf. Tennyson's imitation, Dream of Fair Women, 'But she with sick and scornful looks averse.' 363. totumque...] and lets her silent glance wander over all his form': she eyes him from head to foot with silent contempt while he is arguing. 364. If there is an Apollonius Rhodius where you are, pray look at Medea's speech 4. 365 and you will perceive that even in Dido's finest speech he (Virgil) has imitated a good deal, and especially those expressive and sudden turns, neque te teneo etc.; but then he has made wonderful improvements, and, on the whole, it is perhaps the finest thing in all poetry': C. J. Fox, quoted by Henry 2. 712. Virgil also copies Eur. Med. 475 seq., but the result is his own. 366. perfide] 'traitor.' Cf. Hom. Il. 16. 33 νηλεές, οὐκ ἄρα σοί γε πατὴρ ἦν ἱππότα Πηλεύς, 368. nam...] 'for why concealment (of my real thoughts)! or for what greater wrongs do I reserve myself (before speaking)?' For the indic. dissimulo instead of the deliberative subj. cf. 3. 88 n. 369. ingemuit] Note the change of person from thou to he which continues to 380. Many say that it expresses scorn or hate. Rather it indicates that these lines are a soliloquy; she forgets his presence and argues with herself. A great actress would, I think, so deliver them, first in tones of sorrowful regret which rises into indignation (373-375) and fury (376) but is then controlled into bitter sarcasm (376-380); after which (380) she suddenly turns upon him, bids him go, and withers him with a curse. 370. victus] 'yielding.' 371. quae quibus anteferam ?] lit. 'what shall I put before what?' Where all is hopeless, what thought, word, or deed should come first she knows not, cares not. The expression denotes utter despair. 372. haec oculis...] 'regards these things with just eyes.' Even the gods are no longer just. 373. eiectum...]'a castaway on my coast, a beggar I welcomed him...his lost fleet, his comrades I rescued from death.' Observe the three instances of asyndeton (eiectum egentem; classem socios; excepi reduxi) marking excited feeling. eiectum: a technical word for 'shipwrecked,' =éкπ€σwv. 376. nunc...nunc...nunc] Repeating in scorn the nunc... nunc of Aeneas (345, 356). Note too the scoffing recapitulation of his list of deities. 378. horrida]' awe-inspiring.' She satirises the description given by Aeneas 356-359. 379. scilicet] 'verily,' 'of a surety.' The rendering 'forsooth' gives a false impression, because 'forsooth' is always used sarcastically and scilicet is not (cf. G. 1. 493). Dido's words are intensely sarcastic, but intense sarcasm is spoilt by being too carefully labelled. ea cura...that trouble frets their repose,' i.e. trouble about Aeneas. Virgil may be thinking of Hom. Od. 5. 122 θεοὶ ῥεῖα ζώοντες, but he has chiefy in mind the gods of Epicurus as described by Lucretius (e.g. 2. 646), whose sacred everlasting calm' is never marred by thought of human sorrow. 381. i, sequere...] 'go, follow Italy, with the winds a kingdom over the waves.' sequere Italiam mocks Italiam...sequor 361; those who place a comma after ventis neglect this and spoil the rhetorical balance of the line. Servius rightly points out that, in Dido's mouth, sequere suggests fugientem (cf. 6. 61) and ventis and per undas the perils of wind and wave. seek 382. pia] 'righteous,' cf. 1. 10 n. 383. supplicia hausurum] 'that thou wilt drain the cup of vengeance.' Haurire (= åvτλeîv) is used even in prose of suffering calamity. Dido: probably Gk. acc., though elsewhere Virgil does not inflect the word: it might be voc. 384. sequar...] though far away I will pursue thee with murky firebrands and, when chill death has severed (my) limbs from soul, my ghost shall haunt thee everywhere.' Blazing torches are borne by the Furies, cf. 7. 457 where Allecto hurls atro | lumine fumantes...taedas, and with them they pursue the guilty, Cic. pro Rosc. 67 perterreri Furiarum taedis ardentibus; Suet. Nero 34 confessus exagitari se materna specie, verberibus Furiarum ac taedis ardentibus. 385. et cum frigida | mors] A purposely harsh beginning. 386. inprobe] Cf. 2. 356 n. 387. audiam...] Dido says that she will hear 'in the depths of the grave' what her ghost (umbra) does on earth. Conington takes this as showing "that the apparition of a dead person was regarded by Virgil as separable from the spirit below.' Rather, perhaps, the logic of the thing was never considered and the dead person, and the umbra, imago and Manes are spoken of indiscriminately. 388. auras] 'the day,' 'the (open) air.' 390. linquens...] Notice the stammering iteration of this line with its marked repetition of multa, three words beginning with m, and its double -antem. 391. succipiunt] For spelling cf. 6. 249 n. 392. marmoreo...] 'carry back to her marble chamber and duly place upon the couch." Note the different use of re- in referunt and reponunt, for which cf. 403 and 3. 170 n. thalamo: dat. = in thalamum, cf. 2. 19 n. 393-415. Aeneas returns sorrowing to the ships, and the shore is as busy with workers as when ants are busy laying up corn for winter. Ah, Dido, what a sight was that for thee to gaze on! Well mayest thou give way to tears and attempt a last appeal. 395. multa...] 'much groaning and his heart shaken with strong passion.' Multa cogn. acc. used adverbially, cf. 390 multa cunctantem; 3. 610 haud multa moratus. = 397. incumbunt et ... deducunt naves] incumbunt deducendis navibus, 'press on the launching of their ships.' For deduco, cf. 3. 219 n. 398. uncta]'well pitched.' 399. frondentes remos] 'leafy oars,' i.e. boughs from which to make oars. Usually they would have prepared the oars on land, now they put on board the rough material in their eagerness to be off. Poor MSS. give ramos, but frondentes ramos would not suggest the idea of 'oars' which is clearly needed. 402. ac velut...cum] Cf. 2. 626 n. Lines 402-407 are worthy of the Georgics and exhibit all their quiet humour, observation, and subtle felicity of expression. They form a fine contrast to the preceding passion. 404. it nigrum | campis | agmen] The slow and stately movement of this line is admirable. It is said to be from Ennius who was describing elephants! 405. pars grandia...] some heave on the giant grains thrusting with their shoulders, others close up the ranks and chastise delay; all the track is alive with labour.' Some are workers, others overseers who keep stragglers and loiterers up to the mark. 409. fervĕre] An older form of the verb, cf. 567; 6. 827 fulgere; G. 4. 556 stridere. For the use of the word to express busy bustle cf. G. 4. 169 fervet opus of bees, and our phrase '(the town) is in a ferment.' 298 n. 411. misceri clamoribus aequor] Cf. 2. 412. inprobe amor] 'O tyrannous love.' For inprobus cf. 2. 356 n. her love is inprobus because it compels (cf. cogis) Dido and everyone else to yield to it. For quid cogis cf. 3. 56 n. 414. animos] 'pride.' 415. ne quid] 'lest she leave aught unattempted and so die in vain'; lit. 'about (in that case) to die in vain.' If she left anything unattempted which might have saved her, she would die though she need not have done so. 416-436. Anna, they are about to embark and I must learn to bear my grief; yet, my sister, grant me one favour. He ever trusted thee; go to him and pray him—for I have never been his enemy to hear my message. Ask him one last favour-to stay until the weather is fair, and so to grant me brief respite in which to school myself to sorrow.' 416. properari] 'the bustle,' 'stir,' lit. 'that haste is being made,' cf. 6. 45 n. 417. vocat iam...] 'already the canvas invites the breeze,' cf. 3. 417 n. 418. puppibus...] Repeated from G. 1. 304, where it is a sign of joy at entering port. 419. sperare] 'expect': the only hint of her having expected such sorrow is given in 298 omnia tuta timens, but Dido's pleas are obviously unreal and merely intended to make her sister and Aeneas believe that she is becoming resigned. 420. tamen] The sense is 'I shall bear my sorrow, yet it is severe and therefore do thou help to relieve it.' 422. colere] 'made his friend.' For this inf. of custom cf. 11. 822 quicum partiri curas; G. 1. 200 sic omnia fatis | in peius ruere. 423. molles aditus...] Cf. 293. 424. hostem] Note the progress-coniunx (324), hospes, hostis. The word is emphatic: he acts like an enemy, but she, as the next lines show, has given him no cause. |