260 Conclamat vates, totoque absistite luco; mencement of the mysteries: comp. Hor. 3 Od. 1. 1, and see Lobeck's Aglaophamus, vol. 1, pp. 450 foll. If the words have any distinct reference here, it must be, as Wagn. points out, to the companions of Aeneas, who were not to undertake the journey with him. With 'procul este,' as used rather than 'procul ite,' comp. the use of 'abesse,' àreîvai. 260.] "Invadere viam,' exactly the opp. of evadere viam' 2. 731, is to enter upon a journey, set out," Henry. Why Aeneas is told to draw his sword does not appear. Ulysses does so, Od. 11. 48 foll., as commanded by Circe, and thereby prevents the ghosts from drinking the blood before he chooses that they should do so: but when Aeneas uses his sword vv. 290 foll. below, he is warned by the Sibyl that he can do them no harm. "Vaginaque eripit ensem" 4. 579. 262.] I Furens' the arrival of Hecate and the greatness of the undertaking having brought back the afflatus. 263.] Aequare' of keeping pace with 3. 671. 264-267.] 'Give me leave, powers of the dead, to tell the tale of what they saw.' 264.] The interposition of a special invocation is modelled on Homer's practice, e.g. before the catalogue of the ships. As the commentators have remarked, it greatly enhances the solemnity of the present passage. "Di, quibus inperium pelagi est" 5. 235. Umbrae-late' are vocatives co-ordinate with Di,' not, as they might possibly be, nominatives coordinate with inperium,' though 'loca' is perhaps rather awkward of things addressed as persons. 'Umbrae' are the ghosts, who are called "silentes " below v. 432 without a substantive. 265 as the most terrible of all. Mythologically Night and Erebus were children of Chaos, which represents the formless void out of which things came and into which they were resolved. Loca nocte tacentia late,' as the infernal regions are called "loca senta situ" below v. 462, "loca turbida" v. 534. Tacentia' was restored by Heins. from Med., Rom., and fragm. Vat. for the common reading 'silentia,' which is found in the margin of Med. 266.] Virg. professes to have obtained his information from tradition, like Hom. II. 2. 486, μeîs dè kλéos olov акоvoμev, oùdé Ti toμev. The second 'sit' is for liceat,' as in E. 10. 46, though it would be possible to understand 'fas.' 'Numine,' as in 1. 133., 2. 777 &c., seems to have its etymological sense of consent' or 'permission,' though it might also mean aid' or influence.' 267.] To disclose the secrets of the world below.' So the Sibyl in Sil. 13. 790 says of Homer that he revealed to the earth all that goes on in the shades before he had seen it, "haec cuncta, prius quam cerneret, ordine terris Prodidit.” 268-294.] As they went on in the twilight, they saw terrible monsters at the infernal gate-phantoms of all things that on earth make man's life wretched. There is also a giant elm where dreams congregate, and about the door Gorgons and Hydras and Chimaeras dire. Aeneas would have struck at them with his sword, had not the Sibyl told him they were mere spectres.' 268.] A few MSS. (including Gud. a m. p.) give obscura soli,' which, as Heyne remarks, would be the more ordinary distribution of the epithets. 'Obscurus' of persons concealed 2. 135, G. 4. 424. For solus' applied to things where persons are really thought of, comp. G. 3. 249; though in each case there is of course a Perque domos Ditis vacuas et inania regna: pellit." 270 272.] Iuppiter,' as the god of the sky, E. 7. 60. Colorem: the early commentators discuss this doctrine of the removal of colour by night. Serv. says "Hoc et videmus, et tractatur ab Epicureis, rebus tollere noctem colorum varietatem : unde et apud inferos omnia nigra esse dicuntur. Contra hos Academici una repugnant: nam squamas piscium lucere per noctem comprobatur." Comp. the exposi tion of Lucr. 2. 730-841. certain propriety in the epithet as applied ubi passim Palantis error certo de tramite 270.] Per incertam lunam' answers to 273.] "Vestibulum ante ipsum primoque in limine" 2. 469, where see note on the meaning of vestibulum.' 'Primis fauci bus' is distinguished from 'vestibulum' by Gell. 16. 5, who reports Sulpicius Apol linaris as explaining it as "iter angustum, per quod ad vestibulum adiretur;" but it would seem more simple to understand the two expressions as poetically equivalent. Comp. G. 4. 467, "Taenarias fauces, alta ostia Ditis." Orcus, the god of the dead, is here as elsewhere used for the place, like "Aions. Donatus remarks of the assemblage of personified evils that follows, "In hoc erant omnia quae cruciant vivos aut defunctos affligunt." Germ. refers very happily to a bold personification in Lucr. 3. 65 foll., which not improbably suggested this mythological picture to Virg., and at any rate furnishes an admirable comment on it: Turpis enim ferme contemptus, et acris egestas Semota ab dulci vita stabilique videntur, Et quasi iam leti portas cunctarier ante." We may well be reminded also of such 274.] Luctus' is half personified 2. 369. 275 Pallentesque habitant Morbi, tristisque Senectus, In medio ramos annosaque bracchia pandit plained by Serv. of the stings of conscience. 275.] "Subeunt morbi tristisque senectus, Et labor et durae rapit inclementia mortis" G. 3. 67. 276.] Malesuadus' occurs in Plaut.: see Forc. The sense is not unlike that which is sometimes borne by inprobus' in Virg., e. g. 2. 80, 356. Comp. Hom.'s language about the stomach Od. 17. 286 foll. Turpis' seems to refer to physical unsightliness. 'Ac' was restored by Heins. foret.' 66 277.] Horribili visu portenta" 11. 271. Letum' appears as if strictly speaking it ought not to have been placed before the gates of Orcus: but it is regarded as one of the many human ills. Labos' was restored by Heins. for Labor.' í. 278.] As Macrob., Sat. 5. 7, points out from fl. 14. 231, ἔνθ ̓ Ὕπνῳ ξύμβλητο, KаσLYVÝTY DavάToto (comp. Il. 16. 682, where Sleep and Death carry off the dead Sarpedon to Lycia). Mala mentis gaudia' 9. 'malae mentis gaudia.' Sen. Ep. 59 thinks the epithet an improper one, as joy is always a good thing, since none but the wise can feel it. Virg. doubtless means to include evil pleasures of all kinds, as real evils, the end of which is death. 279.] "Adverso in limine" below v. 636. Here it is merely poetical surplusage, saying, what has been said before, that these figures are at the gate fronting those who wished to enter, unless we choose to say with Serv. that war, being the chief cause of death, is placed at the threshold when the others are at the vestibule, or, what would be the same thing, that the thought is repeated in order to call special attention to the case of war. For the personification of War comp. 1. 294., 7. 607, and see Aristoph. Peace 205 &c. 280.] The Furies are mentioned below, vv. 570 foll., as carrying on their work within: so that it has been que why they are represented here among the guardians of the gate. It has been replied that the Furies may be distinguished from the Eumenides-that the meaning may be that they sleep here, but work elsewhere -a view somewhat favoured by the form of expression, which speaks of their chambers, not of themselves, though it would naturally stand for the Furies and their chambers-that Virg. has been inconsistent, perhaps following different legends. Either of the two latter views seems probable. Virg. however has doubtless an object in placing the Furies on the threshold, which seems to have been their seat (see on v. 563 below), and there is something of the same inconsistency in his language about the Hydra, vv. 287, 576. The thalami' are chambers, compared by Heyne to the cells of the porters in some Roman houses (Dict. A. 'Domus,' 'Ianua'). Vulcan's 'thalamus' is of gold, 8. 372, where the synizesis aureo' illustrates 'ferrei' here. Another question was raised by Serv. about the propriety of the word as applied to the Furies, thalamus' generally meaning a bridal chamber: but Cerda shows from Ov. M. 2. 738 &c. that it is attributed to maidens also. 'Discordia' had been already personified by Ennius, whose words are quoted by Hor. 1 S. 4. 60. So the Homeric 'Epis. 281.] Virg. represents Discord as a Fury, with snakes for hair. Vipereum crinem' like "anguino capillo " Catull. 62 (64). 193. Vipereus' occurs again 7. 351, 753. 282.] In medio' is explained by Donatus of the impluvium,' perhaps rightly, comp, 2. 512 foll., where a bay-tree grows in the impluvium ' of Priam's palace. We must not however expect to be able to trace such details in the description of these vast shadowy realms, Heyne explains it in medio vestibuli :' see on v. 285. "Ramos et bracchia tendens " G. 2. 296. 283.] "Opaca, ingens" 3. 619. The Vana tenere ferunt, foliisque sub omnibus haerent. notion of dreams perched like birds on a tree Heyne traces to Il. 14. 286 foll., where Sleep, taking the form of a bird, perches on one of the trees of Ida, before coming down upon Zeus. Virg. may mean that the dreams are actually in the form of birds, as Henry thinks, comp. Sil. 13. 595 foll., who, imitating this passage, represents a yew on the banks of Cocytus as peopled by noisome birds. Volgo' may go either with ferunt' or with tenere:' but the latter seems more forcible. Wagn. comp. 3. 643, "habitant ad litora volgo." Od. 24. 12 the dĥμos 'Oveípwv is reached before the shades. In 284.] Vana' seems to mean fallacious as well as unsubstantial. Comp. the distinction between "verae umbrae" and "falsa insomnia" below vv. 894 foll. "Ne vana putes haec fingere somnum 8. 42. Haerent' sc. somnia.' The parallels to this change of construction quoted by Wagn. Q. V. 34. 4 are mostly instances like 4. 263, where the subject of the second verb is the same as that of the first, but the first verb is constructed with a relative clause which is dropped in the second. One however comes tolerably near, 9. 593, "Cui Remulo cognomen erat, Turnique minorem Germanam nuper thalamo sociatus habebat." Serv. and the older commentators suppose Virg. to refer to a notion that dreams become false at the fall of the leaf. 285.] Praeterea' may be beside the dream-laded elm, which we must then suppose to be in the middle of the vestibule, or besides the shapes mentioned vv. 274 foll. Monstra ferarum' = "monstruosae ferae," as "monstra deum" 8. 698 = "monstruosi Di." The figures here are not personifications, but mythological monsters. Hom. knows nothing of them, though he makes Ulysses afraid lest Persephone should send the Gorgon's head from Hades against him Od. 11. 634: but Aristoph. Frogs 143, 277 speaks of wild beasts which have to be encountered immediately on crossing the infernal lake. 286.]Stabulant' neuter, G. 3. 224. The word is appropriate to the Centaurs. 285 Scyllae' may be meant to include the two Scyllas, as the daughter of Nisus was turned into a monster according to one legend (see on E. 6. 74), or the plural may be rhetorical, like Milton's "Hydras and Chimaeras dire." It would almost seem as if Virg. wished them to be conceived of as a monstrous race, like the Centaurs. Lucr., whom Virg. doubtless had in view, speaking philosophically, treats them as a class, "Centauros itaque et Scyllarum membra videmus, Cerbereasque canum facies," 4. 732, and again "Centauros... Scyllas et cetera de genere horum" 5. 891 foll. 287.] Centumgeminus' 'centuplex,' as 'tergeminus' 4. 510 'triplex,' 'septemgeminus' v. 801 below = 'septemplex.' The latter part of the compound has no very precise force, as is frequently the case in compounds in Greek, though the notion probably is that as 'geminus' indicates repetition, 'tergeminus' &c. may indicate a thing repeated three &c. times. 'Tergeminus' is applied by Lucr. 5. 28 to Gorgon, who had three bodies. Briareus had not a hundred bodies, but a hundred hands (Il. 1. 402 foll.), so that the expression is far from exact. Possibly however as Virg. (following Apollodorus) gives him fifty heads 10. 565 foll., he may have given him a hundred here. In Hom. there seems no reason for supposing him to have had more than one. The word is said to occur only in Val. F. 6. 118, where it is applied to the hundred-gated Thebes. Belua Lernae,' the Hydra, called "Lernaeus anguis 8. 300, "Lernaea pestis " Lucr. 5. 26. 288.] Stridens' of the Hydra, as elsewhere of serpents. The Chimaera is called 'flammis armata,' as the Parthian arrow is called "armata felle veneni ” 12. 857. Wakef., thinking the expression commonplace, ingeniously proposed animata,' which would produce a translation, though not perhaps a very Virgilian one, of Hom.'s δεινὸν ἀποπνείουσα πυρὸς μένος αιθομένοιο, II. 6. 182. The Chimaera is one of Turnus' cognizances, 7. 785 foll. 289.] The 'forma tricorporis umbrae' is Corripit hic subita trepidus formidine ferrum Geryon, mentioned again 7. 662., 8. 202. Aesch. Ag. 870 calls him rpiowμaros, and Lucr. 5. 28 talks of "tripectora tergemini vis Geryonai." Sil. uses the word 'tricorpor' twice, each time of Geryon. The words forma umbrae' (for 'formae' see on 3. 591) sufficiently indicate the spectral and unsubstantial nature of the appearances, pointed out by the Sibyl in the following lines. Some of these monsters had been actually killed, so that it was natural that they should appear spectrally in Hades; others, like the Harpies, were products of the infernal world (comp. 3. 214), and though when appearing on earth they may have had bodies, they may be supposed to be divested of them in the shades, where spirit acts upon spirit. The train of thought may be the same as that in Hom. (Od. 11. 602), where though Hercules himself is among the gods, his εἴδωλον is in the shades (comp. Shelley's Phantasm of Jupiter' in the Prometheus Unbound) or Virg. may have been influenced more or less by a philosophical motive, intending to hint at the unreality of these terrible shapes. The words of Serv. may be worth quoting, 666 Harpyiaeque aut iam mortuas intellige, aut secundum Platonem et alios simulacra licet vivarum illic fuisse. Nam dicunt esse omnium rerum ideas quasdam, i. e. imagines, ad quarum similitudinem procreantur universa." Serv. also tells us that after these lines four others were inserted by some, who believed them to have been left by Virg., but omitted by those who revised his work. It will be seen that they are of the same quality as those quoted on 3. 204: 290 295 pidus' with 'formidine,' as in 9. 169. To 291.] Strictam aciem' 2. 333. offer a weapon at a person is a common expression in our own older writers. 292.]Docta' instructed, perhaps by Hecate, v. 565 below. But the word often means little more than wise or skilful: see Forc. Tenuis vitas' G. 4. 224. 'Sine corpore' see on G. 4. 475, where, as in v. 303 below, Virg. is not quite consistent with his language here. 293.] Virg.'s words are a paraphrase of τοὶ δὲ σκιαὶ ἀΐσσουσιν Od. 10. 495, translated by Cic. De Div. 1. 40, "ceteros umbrarum vagari modo." The kind of motion is connected with the want of substance and stability. Cava imagine' means more than "nube cava" 1. 516, "cava umbra " 2. 360 note, expressing not merely that the spirits are enclosed by the visible shape, but that the shape is essentially hollow, ψυχὴ καὶ εἴδωλον, ἀτὰρ φρένες οὐκ ἔνι ráuжаν (II. 23. 105: comp. Od. 10. 493). Admoneat-inruat:' see on 5. 325. 294.] In Hom. Ulysses' sword operates as a real terror to the ghosts (see on v. 260 above). The legend was that Hercules drew his sword on the Gorgon when he went down to the shades, and was reassured by Hermes as Aeneas here is by the Sibyl (Apollodorus 2. 5. 12: Schol. on II. 8. 368). Diverberet' 5. 503 note. 295-316.] Next they see the way to Acheron. Charon is there with his ferryboat, old and squalid, but vigorous. Ghosts keep crowding to the boat: some of them are admitted, others rejected.' 295.] Hinc' seems to mean that it is only after passing the gate of Orcus that they see the way to Acheron. Acheron is called Tartareus' from its dismal associations, though it is not, like Phlegethon v. 551, a river specially surrounding Tartarus, but apparently encompasses the whole of the lower world. But Virg.'s conception of the four infernal rivers, as given by Hom., is very confused. Hom. says briefly, Od. 10. 513 foll.: ἔνθα μὲν εἰς ̓Αχέροντα Πυριφλεγέθων ΤΕ ῥέουσιν |