Perfide; sed duris genuit te cautibus horrens Num lacrimas victus dedit, aut miseratus amantem est ? 366.] 'Cautibus' probably with 'horrens.' Virg. makes Dido indulge in those geographical recollections of which he is himself so fond. With the general sense comp. E. 8. 33 foll., a passage which supports those who would regard cautibus' here as a local abl. Virg. may have been thinking of Ariadne's reproaches to Theseus, Catull. 62 (64). 154 foll. (comp. Id. 58 (60).) The meaning apparently is that a rock was his mother and a tigress his nurse. Comp. the Ovidian Dido, vv. 37, 38. 368.] She asks why she should hide her feelings, as if there were likely to be any greater occasion to call forth their full force. 369.] Fletu nostro' at or in consequence of my tears-so that the expression is not quite parallel to nostro doluisti saepe dolore” 1. 669 (note). Lumina flexit' above v. 331. 370.] Lacrimas dedit' 9. 292. 371. I incline to Serv.'s interpretation, "quid prius, quid posterius dicam ?" as against Heyne's "Annon haec extrema sunt?" There may be more feeling in the latter, but the former is a thought to which the classical writers were partial in describing emotion, as we have seen on v. 284. For the double question comp. G. 2. 256. Iam' seems to mean 'it is come to this,' and the repetition strengthens it. See on 2. 701. Maxuma Iuno' 8. 84., 10. 685. 372.] Aequis' is here 'just' rather than favourable,' as Dido obviously is bringing a charge against the gods, not simply noting them as unpropitious. In 9. 209, where the words partially recur, the context rather inclines to the other sense. It signifies little whether we make 'Satur nius' adj. or subst. 375 373.] There is no faith in the world that one can trust.' Dido generalizes like the chorus in the Medea, v. 412, àvdpáσi μὲν δόλιαι βουλαί, θεῶν δ ̓ οὐκέτι πίστις pape, or Ariadne, Catull. 62 (64). 143 foll. With 'eiectum' comp. 1. 578, with tem' ib. 599. Litore' is a local abl. Ov. M. 13. 535 has "eiectum in litore corpus." Serv. ingeniously joins litore egentem,' comparing 1. 540, "hospitio prohibemur arenae.' " 374.] In parte locavi' 12. 145. egen 375.] We must supply some less strong expression than a morte reduxi' for 'amissam classem.' The quasi-confusion, as Wagn. remarks, is quite in keeping with Dido's state of mind. Comp. Aesch. Ag. 659, δρῶμεν ἀνθοῦν πέλαγος Αἰγαῖον νεκροῖς Ανδρῶν Ἀχαιῶν ναυτικών τ ̓ ἐρειπίων, where there is not the slightest ground for altering the text. "A morte reduxi' because they might have perished from want after landing. She talks of the fleet as if she deserved credit for bringing it into harbour as well as for refitting it. 376.] See v. 110. It matters little whether 'furiis' be taken with incensa' or with 'feror.' 'Augur Apollo' Hor. 1 Od. 2. 32. Nunc ' seems to mean, now, just when it is most convenient to him and most fatal to me.' As before, some other verb must be supplied from 'fert iussa per auras.' 378.] Aeneas had described Mercury's appearance with every circumstance of solemnity: Dido contemptuously condenses and exaggerates the feeling in the epithet 'horrida. Med. has horrida dicta,' from v. 226 (so Heyne, but Ribbeck is silent). Scilicet is Superis labor est, ea cura quietos 379.] Yes, of course the gods are busied about extricating you and entangling me.' Quietos' is probably the Homeric eo peîa Sworтes, but Dido has thrown into the expression a dash of Epicureanism, which would not have been possible to a Homeric personage. 380.] Te' is emphasized. I neither detain your person, nor refute your words.' Thus tua dicta' is not required. 381.] Serv. has a good note: "Satis artificiosa prohibitio, quae fit per concessionem quae tamen ne non intellecta sit persuasio, permiscenda sunt aliqua quae vetent latenter, ut 'ventis,' 'per undas,' nomina terribilia, et sequere,' quasi fugientem." The line in fact supplies a good instance of the delicacy and (so to call it) sensitiveness of Virg.'s language, as while the words themselves in Dido's mouth and in the present context have undoubtedly the meaning which Serv. attributes to them (comp. vv. 310, 313), in another context and in the mouth of another speaker they might have indicated a prosperous voyage undertaken under good auspices. Thus "vento petiisse Mycenas" 2. 25, if it has any special meaning, points to the wind as favouring the journey. See also on v. 361 above. Some MSS. connect ventis' with what follows. 382.] Pia numina: see on 2. 536. The Ovidian Dido is more lenient, vv. 61 foll. 383.] Haurire' of suffering to the full, like άvīλeîv, and the old Latin ‘exantlare.' "Quot, quantas, quam incredibiles hausit calamitates!" Cic. 1 Tusc. 35. Waarden burg thinks there is a special reference to death by drowning; but though such a wavering between two meanings would be sufficiently like Virg., Aeneas' repeated cries on Dido would precede, not follow, his drinking the stifling wave.' natural that those who could not understand 'hausurum' should conjecture haesurum,' as Erythraeus did; but supplicia' presented a difficulty, which was not satisfactorily surmounted by reading 'supplicio.' Mediis scopulis' implies of course ship It was 380 385 wreck on a rock. 'Dido' may either be the Greek accusative or the vocative. The latter is more probable, as Virg. elsewhere studiously avoids using any inflexion of the word, adopting Elissa' instead in oblique cases. Comp. Prop. 1. 18. 31, "resonent mihi Cynthia silvae." Ov. however, while not using any other inflexion of the word, has Dido' twice as an acc., vv. 7, 133. Cerda collects instances from the Latin poets of drowning persons calling out the names of those who were most in their minds. Comp. also Croesus' cry on Solon in Hdt. 1. 384.] Dido will haunt him like a Fury with funereal torches when she is really far away-in other words, the thought of her, angry and revengeful, will ever be present to him. The threat is from Medea in Apoll. R. 4. 385, én dé σe máτpns Avtík2 ἐμαί σ' ἐλάσειαν Ἐρινύες. Dido will appear like Clytemnestra v. 472 below. Ignes' are firebrands, as in 2. 276., 9. 570. They are murky and smoky, so as to increase the horror. Thus Alecto's torches (7.456) are "atro lumine fumantes." For absens' see above v. 83. According to the Greek belief the living as well as the dead had their Erinnyes, which were in fact curses personified, as Müller remarks in his Dissertations on the Eumenides, so that Virg. has not deviated from my. thology in making Dido become a Fury while she is yet alive, at the same time that he agrees with the more modern conception of the absent being made present by recollection. Jahn and Wagn. (smaller ed.) revive the old interpretation, Dido following Aeneas with her funeral flames, which he will see when at sea (comp. v. 661 below, 5. 3 foll.); but this would not suit the present context, as the pile would not be lighted till Dido was dead, while it would represent the thought of death too definitely for Dido's present state of mind. She has talked of death from the first (v. 308); but the notion does not become a resolution till v. 450, and the means are not devised till v. 474. Omnibus umbra locis adero. Dabis, inprobe, poenas. Linquens multa metu cunctantem et multa parantem 390 Multa gemens magnoque animum labefactus amore, Migrantis cernas, totaque ex urbe ruentis. 390.]Multa cunctantem' like "haud multa moratus" 3. 610. 'Metu,' from fear of making things worse. Multa volentem dicere' is the reading of Med. and some inferior MSS., apparently from the parallel 2. 790, G. 4. 501. 391.] Ribbeck reads 'succipiunt' from Pal. comp. 1. 175. Conlapsa' of faint ing 8. 584. 392.]"Thalamo,' dativus casus." Serv. 393---407.] Grieved as he is, Aeneas goes to look after his fleet. The Trojans quicken their preparations, and are as busy again 8. 390. 395 400 396.] Revisit' seems to mean little more than visit.' It does not appear that Aeneas had been to the fleet before, though he gives orders about it v. 289; but this may be Virg.'s indirect way of telling us that he had. At any rate Henry can hardly be right in explaining the word with reference to Aeneas' long neglect and absence. 397.] Tum vero' implies that Aeneas' coming stimulated the crews to fresh exertions, but it does not oblige us to suppose with Henry that they had not set about the work seriously before. Incumbunt' absolutely, as in 9. 73. 398.]"Labitur uncta vadis abies" 8. 91. Ennius A. 14. fr. 2 has "Labitur uncta carina." In the present passage 'uncta' is doubtless emphatic. The ship is not only careened but launched. 399.] Many MSS., but apparently none of the best, give 'ramos,' which Henry prefers, considering 'frondentis remos more in the style of Statius or Valerius Flaccus than of Virg. "Stringere remos (1. 552) is however an expression of the same kind, being equivalent to "stringere ramos ut remi fiant." وو 400.] Infabricatus' seems to occur no where else, 401.] Henry may be right in pressing the meaning of cernere,' to distinguish, as contrasted with videre.' (See Forc., who shows that the words are sometimes discriminated, more frequently confounded.) Ac velut ingentem formicae farris acervum Henry remarks that the propriety of the 402.] The MSS. seem divided between 'velut' and 'veluti,' the reading of Med. being variously reported. Wagn. thinks Virg. does not use veluti' before a vowel. There is the same variety in the MSS. in v. 441., 6.707. The hint of the comparison seems to be from Apoll. R. 4. 1452 foll., where the Minyans are compared to ants or flies; but Virg. goes much more into detail. A somewhat idle question about the poetical dignity of the simile has been raised by the earlier critics. Hom., as Heyne remarks, has two similes from flies, II. 2. 469 foll., 16. 461 foll., the point of comparison in the one case being their numbers, in the other their numbers and pertinacity. Here the point is numbers, division of labour, and assiduity, much as in the simile of the bees 1. 430 foll. With the expression of this line comp. G. 1. 185. 403.] With hiemis memores comp. Hor. 1 S. 1. 35, of the ant, "haud ignara ac non incauta futuri." 404.] It nigrum campis agmen' is from Enn. (Ann. fr. inc. 17), according to Serv., who says it was there applied to elephants. 'Praedam convectant 7. 749. So "comportare praedas" 9. 613. 405.] The practice of ants, to move on a single track, has been noted already G. 1.380. 'Aei μíav åтpaπdv távtes Badi Covo, Aristot. H. A. 9. 38. 'Grandia' with reference to the size of the ants, it being at the same time an ordinary epithet of grain, E. 5. 36. 405 410 407.] They rally and coerce the strag glers. Castigantque moras' however need not stand for castigant morantis,' as 'castigo' takes an acc. of the thing as well as of the person, as in 6. 567. As usual, the last clause of the simile gives the general effect of the whole. Comp. 6. 709. 'Semita' is the 'callis angustus.' 408-436.] Dido sees them and is overcome with grief. She tries again what entreaty will do, and sends her sister to Aeneas, begging that he will wait a little till she has reconciled herself to parting with him, as she hopes she shall in time reconcile herself.' 408.] Henry suggests plausibly that Virg. has imitated Soph. Phil. 276 foll., where Philoctetes uses a similar apostrophe to express his emotions at finding that the Greeks had gone away and left him in Lemnos. Tunc' was restored by Heins. from Med. and others for 'tum;' but Wagn. rejects tunc' before a vowel, as perhaps I ought to have done G. 2. 368. 410.] Dido's palace was in the citadel, like Priam's, 2. 760. After recovering from her prostration, she mounts the roof. < 411.] Misceri clamoribus' like "gemitu miseroque tumultu Miscetur" 2. 486, comp. by Wund. 412.] Apoll. R. 4. 445 addresses love similarly, when Medea is about to kill Absyrtus. Part of the line we have had already 3. 56 (note). 413.] Ire in lacrimas' like "preces descendere in omnis" 5. 782, perhaps with the further notion of 'solvi in lacrimas,' which would be supported by Flor. 2. 4, "in sudorem ire," quoted by Forb. 414.] A Ne quid inexpertum frustra moritura relinquat. 415 Et perferre, soror, potero. Miserae hoc tamen unum 420 Te colere, arcanos etiam tibi credere sensus; spirit 2. 386 &c., somewhat as we talk of 'spirits. Some MSS. give animum.' 415.] Wund. rightly explains the sense to be "Ne, si quid inexpertum relinquat, frustra moriatur." Moritura' in fact expresses Dido's case as considered dependently on, not independently of, the action of the verb 'relinquat.' 'Frustra moritura' means that in that case she would die when there was no occasion for dying. 416.] As usual, Virg. tells us indirectly that Dido has Anna with her, and addresses her. It is not easy to say whether Wagn. is right in placing a question after 'litore;' but perhaps the categorical proposition is slightly preferable. Nor again is there much to choose between the old punctuation which connected circum' with the preceding words, and Markland's (on Stat. Silv. 2. 5. 12, "clausis circum undique portis "), which joins it with 'undique.' The latter however seems to be unanimously adopted by the later editors. 417.] See on 3. 356. 418. Repeated from G. 1. 304. Serv. says Probus sane sic adnotavit : Si hunc versum omitteret, melius fecisset." Germ. illustrates the custom of wreathing the vessel on departing, from Ovid and Q. Smyrnaeus, and refers to the crowning of the theoric vessel which the Athenians sent to Delos. After this line Ribbeck inserts vv. 548, 549, without any external warrant. His reasons for the change are given in a tract, "Emendationes Vergilianae" (Berne, 1858), where he complains of the lines in their original position as unconnected with the context, while admitting that this very incoherence will probably be admired by "elegantiores in terpretes," and says of the present context, "hic quidem, quo facilius beneficium illud, unicam spem suam, impetraret, criminari quamvis leviter sororem poterat, quod suis verborum inlecebris tantis turbis se obiecisset." Perhaps it will be thought a sufficient refutation of this conjecture that its author, in receiving it into the text, now says "Sed quoniam vel sic hiat oratio, non absolvisse locum putandus est poeta." 419.] The meaning must be, If I have been able (as I have) to look forward to so crushing a blow, I shall be able to bear it. Whether she had really looked forward to it, we do not know: v. 298 above, to which Henry refers, at least according to its natural interpretation, does not show it; but Dido evidently wishes it to be thought that she had. 420.] It may be almost said that 'tamen' is explained by miserae.' Though I shall conquer my grief, it will be a sore struggle: help me then by doing me this one favour.' 422.] The inf. expresses custom, as in 11. 822, Quicum partiri curas." 'Sensus' seems here to include thought as well as feeling. Cic. couples it with 'opinio,' 'cogitatio,' 'mens,' 'animus:' see Forc. 423.] Viri aditus et tempora' seems to be a kind of hendiadys for tempora viri adeundi.' 'Mollia' is doubtless meant to be supplied from mollis, though tempus' alone may be used for opportunity.' Comp. v. 293 above, where the expressions are nearly the same. The approach is called 'mollis,' because it is then that the man is mollis:' but there is also a notion of ease and delicacy in the process of approaching. So it is used of a slope E. 9. 8 (note), G. 3. 293. 424.] The older commentators thought hostis' might = 'hospes.' Dido however evidently means it in its strict sense, though it is quite possible that she may revert in thought to her former language (v. 323), feeling now that she cannot even call him hospes,' guest' having passed into stranger,' and stranger into |
