Hail, many-color'd messenger, that ne'er
Dost disobey the wife of Jupiter;

Who with thy saffron wings upon my flowers
Diffusest honey-drops, refreshing showers,

And with each end of thy blue bow dost crown
My bosky acres and my unshrubb'd down,

Rich scarf to my proud earth.

695. quae... resolveret, to disengage the struggling spirit from the close-locked limbs (subj. of purpose).

696. fato, i.e. by natural death; merita morte, i.e. by death incurred by her own guilt.

698. crinem: as a few hairs were plucked from the head of the victim before sacrifice, so the "fatal lock" must be cut from the crown (vertice) before death; cf. sacrum, v. 703.

699. Orco: dat. after damnaverat by a poetical construction as if addixerat had been used.

701. mille colores: i.e. the rainbow, which in Homer is not an attribute of Iris the divine messenger, though called by the same name. trahens, drawing out the long line of color. - sole: § 419, a (255, a); B. 227, 1; G. 409; H. 489 (431, 4); H.-B. 421.

705. in ventos: the breath was naturally identified with the life or soul; cf. animus, anima, exanimis, etc.

BOOK V.

The games in this book in honor of Anchises make an agreeable interlude in the more serious action of the poem. Many of the incidents of these games are taken directly from the account of the funeral games of Patroclus in the twenty-third book of the Iliad. The contest of ships, however, and the equestrian exhibition are features wholly

original. The incident of the burning of the fleet, variously told, was a part of the old Trojan legend. It is interesting to observe that Milton, in his wish to follow the classical models of epic poetry, represents the fallen angels as engaging in athletic games to while away the time till the return of Satan from his scouting expedition (Paradise Lost, ii. 528 ff.).

I. interea i.e. during the time of Dido's death.

medium iter : i.e.

he is well on his way; compare aequor medium, iii. 664. 2. certus: i.e. in his purpose (cf. iv. 544, 556).

3. iam conlucent: the pile built ostensibly to burn the effigy of Æneas now serves for her own cremation.

4. accenderit: § 592, 3 (341, d); cf. B. 323; G. 628; cf. H. 643 (524); H.-B. 535, 1, a; but perhaps indirect question.

5. duri, etc., but the cruel pangs of a great love betrayed (polluto, lit. desecrated), and the knowledge of what a maddened woman can do, lead the hearts of the Trojans into sad forebodings. Though they have no certain knowledge, yet they suspect the cause of the fire. ablative absolute.

amore:

6. notum § 497 (292, a); B. 337, 5; G. 664, R.2; H. 636, 4 (549, N.2); quid possit: an indirect question serving as the noun with which notum agrees.

H.-B. 252.

10. olli: § 377 (235, a); B. 188, 1, N.; G. 350, 1; H. 425, 4, N. (384, 4, N.2); H.-B. 368.

11. inhorruit, the waves grew rough with black shadows. Virgil doubtless has in mind the dark appearance of the water produced by a squall; cf. atros, v. 2, and see iii. 195.

12. ipse: even the pilot is at a loss.

13. quianam (an archaic use of quia, cf. iv. 538), ah! why?

14. paras, have in store.

15. colligere arma, to secure the rigging: i.e. to make all tight, and prepare for the gale; perhaps a military rather than nautical phrase. — validis, vigorously (lit. an adj. with remis).

16. obliquat sinus, trims the sail: they had been sailing with the wind astern (aequatis velis, iv. 587), probably from the southwest, and as the wind now comes from the west, they can no longer sail on the same course, so as to weather the Ægates islands (see Map). The ancients could probably only sail within seven or eight points of the wind (nearly at right angles with it); cf. iii. 684, note (see Fig. 31, p. 297, for their rig).

17. auctor: in its proper sense of voucher or security; here as predicate appositive: § 282, example 3 (184, ex. 3); G. 325; H. 393 (363);

H.-B. 319, i and ii. -spondeat: § 516, b (307, b); B. 303; G. 596, 1; H. 576 (509); H.-B. 580.

19. transversa, athwart our course: adverbial; § 390, c and d, N.2 (240, a); B. 176, 2, b, N.; G. 333, N.o; H. 416, 2 (378, 2); H.-B. 396, 2, a. 20. aer, etc. the ancients supposed clouds to be condensed air.

21. tantum, merely (so much as that even).

23. quōque: notice the quantity, not quoque.

24. fraterna see i. 570, note.

:

25. servata, before observed: i.e. in their former voyage.

27. iamdudum, qualifying poscere: § 466 (276, a); B. 259, 4; G. 230; H. 533, 1 (467, 2); H.-B. 485.

28. flecte viam velis (abl. of means), turn the course of your voyage (lit. turn your course with your sails, i.e. by setting them on that tack). -an: see iv. 325, note.-sit: § 444 (268); B. 277; G. 259; H. 557 (486, ii); H.-B. 517, 1.

29. quo optem: rel. clause of characteristic; § 535, a (320, a); B. 283, 2; G. 631, 2; H. 591, 1 (503, i); H.-B. 519, 2. - demittere, bring into port: cf. i. 381 and note.

32. secundi: the wind is now astern, for they have changed their course. 35. miratus, having seen with wonder.

36. adventum sociasque rates: hendiadys; cf. i. 61 (note), 636. The figure is common in English poetry; see, e.g., Paradise Lost, x. 345: "with joy and tidings fraught."

37. pelle: Virgil here, as in many other places, preserves the remembrance of the earlier civilization, in which skins were the common clothing; cf. i. 275, and Fig. 7, p. 215.

38. Egesta (or Segesta) was a Trojan maid whom her father had sent to Sicily, to avoid the doom of an oracle which commanded Trojan maidens to be cast to a sea-monster sent by Neptune to avenge the perfidy of Laomedon. Acestes (Egestus) was her son by the river-god Crimisus (Crinisus).

39. parentum: i.e. through whom he was of kin to Æneas.

40. reduces: adj., on their return.

=

42. primo cf. iii. 588 and note.

46. completur: observe the incomplete tense.

49. nisi fallor: the Roman calendar was extremely confused till the reform of Julius Cæsar; hence it is not unnatural that Virgil should attribute a doubt on the subject to Æneas. - semper acerbum, etc.: cf. Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, i. 832:

By me, so Heaven will have it, always mourned
And always honored.

51. Gaetulis, etc. : i.e. even in times of the utmost hardships and hazard. Notice the emphasis on hunc, on this day if I were passing it, etc.

52. deprensus, overtaken by it. - Mycenae: § 343, d (214, ƒ); B. 2O2; G. 361, N.; H. 440, 4 (396, vi); H.-B. 34I.

53. pompas exsequerer, etc., I would perform the solemn procession (hence the noun exsequiae, used of funeral rites). English poetry sometimes has pomp in this sense; as in Pope, Windsor Forest, vv. 273, 274:

Oh, early lost what tears the river shed
When the sad pomp along his banks was led !

55. nunc, but now as it is, opposed to the supposition in vv. 51, 52. ultro, without our agency.

56. haud equidem, surely not.

57. delati, borne to land (by favoring winds): cf. v. 29. — intramus: possibly a contraction for intravimus; § 181, a (128, a, 1); B. 116, 1; G. 131, 2, N.; H. 238 (235); H.-B. 163, 1.

58. laetum, cheerful, with more of gratitude than grief, assured as we are of divine favor.

59. poscamus ventos, let us pray for favorable winds. Some think the prayer is addressed to the winds themselves (cf. iii. 115).

60. velit, may he [Anchises] be pleased to grant that, when my city is established, I may offer him yearly these rites in temples consecrated to him. The construction is that of an object-clause after poscamus, without ut.

62. adhibete: an almost technical term for invite.

64. si when (cf. German wenn).·

=

-nona Aurora: the novemdiale

was a festival on the ninth day after death, when the days of mourning were ended (cf. Il. xxiv. 664; Bry. 843: “Nine days we would bewail him in the halls ").

66. ponam: a technical word; cf. Ecl. iii. 31.

67. qui: the antecedents are the subjects of adsint (v. 70).

68. incedit, advances proudly. — viribus: referring to wrestling.— iaculo: javelin-throwing is not one of the games which actually follow. 69. fidit: here in the sense of audet.

71. ore favete: i.e. let only auspicious words be spoken; the form regularly used for imposing silence when a religious ceremony is about to begin, because any quarreling or ill-omened expressions would destroy the sanctity of the rites. —ramis: the wreath was a regular accompaniment of all religious ceremonies..

72. materna: i.e. sacred to Venus, his mother.

73. aevi maturus (see ii. 638, note): his age is contrasted with that of Elymus and Ascanius.

76. magna, etc. cf. i. 497.

77. carchesia, bowls (cf. iii. 66; Ecl. v. 67): a vessel peculiar to Bacchus and Hercules. - Baccho: see note on lacte, iii. 66.

78. sanguine: of course of a slain victim; cf. Ecl. v. 66.

79. purpureos, gay: the ancients applied the word to a wide range of colors on the purple side of red, and so often to any bright color.

80. recepti nequiquam: cf. iii. 711.

81. animae, umbrae: for the plural cf. the use of Manes.

82. non licuit (exclamatory): cf. iv. 550 and note.

83. quicumque, whatever, but agreeing in gender with Thybrim: the expression implies a very human doubt as to his ever reaching the river, almost as if he said, "if there is any such."

84. anguis: the genius (v. 95, indwelling spirit, or tutelary divinity) of a place, especially of a tomb, is frequently typified by a serpent in ancient art (cf. Ovid, Met. xv. 389, 390). The worship of serpents is very ancient.

:

87. cui see note on olli, v. 10.—terga, squamam (objs. of incendebat) translate, changing the construction, whose skin flamed with dark-blue spots, his scales with gleaming specks, a thousand varied colors, such as the bow casts on clouds when over against the sun. - notae : by a natural inversion of ideas the marks (notae, fulgor) are said to light up the material, as it were. Cf. Milton's gorgeous description of the serpent in Eden (Paradise Lost, ix. 498–504).

88. nubibus: locative ablative.

89. iacit: the subjunctive might be expected after ceu, but here there is only a comparison, "as when," and not, as usual, a supposition, "as if"; § 524 (312); cf. B. 307, 1; G. 602; H. 584, 4 (513, ii, N.2); H.-B. 504, 3.

90. ille: the serpent; notice this common use of the pronouns to change the subject.

91. tandem: i.e. slowly. - pateras: the arrangements for libation here consisted of pocula (carchesia, so called) to hold the liquid, and a similar shallow vessel from which it was poured, patera. —lēvia: notice the quantity.

92. libavit: cf. i. 256 and note.

dapes: described in vv. 77–78.

94. hoc abl. of cause. - instaurat (a technical word, cf. iii. 62), renews, i.e. continues with fresh zeal.