Haec Proteus, et se iactu dedit aequor in altum,
Quaque dedit, spumantem undam sub vertice torsit.
At non Cyrene; namque ultro adfata timentem :
Nate, licet tristis animo deponere curas.
Haec omnis morbi caussa; hinc miserabile Nymphae,
Cum quibus illa choros lucis agitabat in altis,
Exitium misere apibus. Tu munera supplex
Tende petens pacem, et facilis venerare Napaeas;
Namque dabunt veniam votis, irasque remittent.
Sed modus orandi qui sit, prius ordine dicam.
Quattuor eximios praestanti corpore tauros,
Qui tibi nunc viridis depascunt summa Lycaei,

speech. To suppose that the head kept
murmuring on in its course down the stream
till it reached the sea, would be to suppose
the poet's imagination losing itself in mere
extravagances.

528-547.] 'Proteus ended and left him. Cyrene remained to tell him the cure as well as the cause of his loss. It came, she said, from the nymphs, who were to be appeased by the sacrifice of four of his best bulls, their bodies being left in the sacred grove. On the ninth day he was to go back to the grove, having first paid funeral honours to Orpheus and Eurydice.'

528.] ὡς εἰπών, ὑπὸ πόντον ἐδύσατο Kvμaívovтa, Od. 4. 570. In Homer Proteus departs much less abruptly than in Virgil, answering several questions from Menelaus, and comforting him after the news of his brother's death. Here it may be said that variety is secured, without any departure from prophetic custom, by confining him to a narrative of the events which led to the calamity, and leaving the rest to be said by Cyrene; but the fact still remains, that, so far as the manner of his communication is concerned, he is too much the mouthpiece of the poet, though the narrative is certainly so conducted as to excite pity for Orpheus beyond every other feeling, and so to represent to Aristaeus the gravity of the occasion. 'Iactu' expresses the mode, like "lapsu effugiunt " A. 2. 225, "cursu tendit" ib. 321.

529.] Torsit sub vertice :' " quod vulgari usu, vortice vel in vorticem, ita ut vortex fieret." Heyne. Proteus, diving to the depth, is said to wreath the water in foam under the eddy, the poet's object being to give the two images, of a body shooting down and sending up water, and of the eddy that agitates the surface. Another interpretation of 'sub vertice,' 'under his

530

535

head,' mentioned by Cerda and adopted by Trapp and Martyn, is now generally given up.

530.] At non Cyrene:' some verb, generally equivalent to dedit' and 'torsit,' must be inferred from the preceding sentence, as we might say, 'But Cyrene did not leave him thus abruptly.' See on 3. 349 and comp. A. 4. 529. Ultro adfata,' spoke without waiting to be addressed, or, as we might render it, spoke at once.

531.] Comp. Aesch. Ag. 165, ei tò μárav ἀπὸ φροντίδος ἄχθος Χρὴ βαλεῖν ἐτητύμως.

533.] For the dances of the nymphs, comp. A. 1. 498 foll.

66

535.] 'Tende' pictures the attitude of suppliance, outstretched hands with gifts in them. Tendentemque manus Priamum respexit inermis," A. 1. 487. 'Pacem,' of reconciliation with the gods, A. 3. 261, 370, &c. 'Facilis' is not an infrequent epithet of the nymphs, denoting their accessibility and placability. So "faciles Hamadryades" Prop. 3. 26. 76, “ Naiades faciles" Nemes. Cyn. 94. The 'Napaeae,' vaπaîαι, are distinguished from the Dryades, to whom they seem to have borne a general resemblance, by Col. 10. 264, Nemes. E. 2. 20.

66

536.] 'Votis,' connected with ‘dabunt,' as if he had said 'precanti.'

537.] 'Ordine dicam,' ¿nynooμai, ‘ordine' expressing ritual exactness of detail.

538.] Eximius' is said by Festus (s. v.) and Macrob. (Sat. 3. 5) to be primarily used, as here, of cattle selected for sacrifice. Donatus (on Ter. Hec. 1. 1. 9) adds that its proper application there is to pigs, egregius' being the word for oxen under similar circumstances, 'lectus' for sheep.

539.] Comp. the invocation of Aristaeus, 1. 14. The locality here agrees with his title 'Arcadius magister,' v. 283, but scarcely

Delige, et intacta totidem cervice iuvencas.
Quattuor his aras alta ad delubra dearum
Constitue, et sacrum iugulis demitte cruorem,
Corporaque ipsa boum frondoso desere luco.
Post, ubi nona suos Aurora ostenderit ortus,
Inferias Orphei Lethaea papavera mittes,
Et nigram mactabis ovem, lucumque revises;
Placatam Eurydicen vitula venerabere caesa.

with the topography of the present story,
v. 317.

542.] Elsewhere 'constituo' is used of setting the victims before the altar, A. 5. 237., 6. 244. So "statuere aram 8. 271, "statuere juvencum" 9. 627. With 'iugulis demitte cruorem' Germ. well comp. Eur. Heracl. 821 (of the sacrificers), ápἱεσαν Λαιμῶν βροτείων εὐθὺς οὔριον φόνον, a passage which Virgil may possibly have had in mind. The best MSS., including Med., read dimitte,' but the word would be less appropriate, and the variety is one which constantly recurs.

543.] Corpora ipsa,' as distinct from their blood, and perhaps from their throats. There may be some point in frondoso,' as answering to the closing up of the chamber recommended v. 303, but the discrepancy pointed out on v. 302 warns us against looking too minutely for signs of analogy.

544.] Heyne suggests that Virgil may be pointing to the Novendiale, a sacrifice performed nine days after a funeral, as perhaps he does A. 5. 64. At the same time of course he wishes to give time for the production of the swarm, though not so long as was considered necessary in actual practice (see on v. 303).

545.] Inferias,' as funeral offerings. "Viventis rapit, inferias quos inmolet umbris." • Orphei,' the Greek dative. 'Papavera:' nothing is said by the commentators to illustrate or explain this offering of poppies, in what form it was made, &c. Is it possible that the reference may be to the μλirтovтa, or honey-cake, placed by the side of the corpse, and intended probably for Cerberus, which we may assume to have been made with poppy-seed (comp. A. 4. 486., 6. 420)? Mittes: "manibus divis Inferias mit

540

545

tunt," Lucr. 3. 52, comp. by Cerda.

546.] The third Aldine edition, a recension which is supposed to have some MS. authority, and perhaps a single MS., reverse the order of this and the next line: and their disposition has been generally followed by the earlier editors, including Heyne. See however on the next verse. 'Nigram mactabis ovem:' so Aeneas (A. 6. 249 foll.) sacrifices a black lamb to Night and Earth.

547.] The genuineness of this line is disputed by Heyne and Wagn., but in one position or another it is found in all the MSS., though the difference about the order, if any really exists, may perhaps furnish a slight external ground against it. As it is commonly understood, as if it were merely an additional injunction, "praeterea Eurydicen vitula caesa placabis" (Jahn), there is certainly some awkwardness in its position after 'lucumque revises,' and without any introducing particle-an awkwardness not removed by Jahn's remark that the atonement made to Eurydice might come in as an afterthought, not being itself really a means of restoring the bees, as, if none but the physical means of restoration are taken account of, the mention of Orpheus' poppies and black sheep might be postponed as well. But the line will gain greatly in force and propriety, if we suppose it to contain an intimation from Cyrene that her son will find his bees restored, and that then he is to offer a calf as a thank-offering to Eurydice: 'you will go back to the grove ... and then, finding Eurydice appeased, you will honour her,' &c. The sacrifice of the bulls and the offerings to Orpheus have appeased Eurydice, being really offered to her as well. Possibly there may be something delicate in the discrimination of the propitiatory offerings required by the husband from the thank-offering which contents the wife; but it may be no more than one of those poetical varieties of which Virgil is so fond. Ladewig too has seen that a thank-offering is meant.

Haud mora; continuo matris praecepta facessit; Ad delubra venit, monstratas excitat aras, Quattuor eximios praestanti corpore tauros Ducit, et intacta totidem cervice iuvencas. Post, ubi nona suos Aurora induxerat ortus, Inferias Orphei mittit, lucumque revisit. Hic vero subitum ac dictu mirabile monstrum Aspiciunt, liquefacta boum per viscera toto Stridere apes utero et ruptis effervere costis, Inmensasque trahi nubes, iamque arbore summa Confluere et lentis uvam demittere ramis.

Et super arboribus, Caesar dum magnus ad altum 560
Fulminat Euphraten bello, victorque volentis

wear an unfinished air, and as containing
nothing unworthy of Virgil, if indeed we
may not assert, with Weichert, that the
single word 'oti,' v. 564, proves them to
have been written before the latter part
of the reign of Augustus. The poet had
begun with Caesar; he now ends with him,
contriving at the same time, with a self-
assertion which, however artfully veiled,
must have appeared presumptuous in one
less secure of imperial favour, to institute a
kind of parallel between the laurels which
the master of the world has been winning
in Asia with the more peaceful triumphs
which the Muse has been achieving at
Naples. It is possible that Virgil may
have taken the hint of an autobiographical
conclusion from some Alexandrine writer,
as the two extant works of Nicander, The-
riaca and Alexipharmaca, both end with a
couplet in which the writer recommends
himself by his own name to the reader's
notice. The conclusion of Ovid's Meta-
morphoses may be said to furnish indirect
evidence to the genuineness of the present
passage, as, if not actually modelled on it,
it shows at any rate that the spirit of self-
assertion which breathes in both was not
foreign to the Roman poetry of that period.
The dedicatory poem in Catullus, and the
concluding ode of Horace's Third Book, are
specimens of the same kind of feeling.
Other critics, of whom Heyne is one, have
been satisfied with rejecting the four last
lines, a view less consistent than the other,
and equally unsupported. 'Haec cane-
bam' a formula like that at the end of a
letter, "Haec tibi dictabam post fanum
putre Vacunae," Hor. 1 Ep. 10. 49. Wagn.
comp. E. 10. 70, "Haec sat erit, divae,
vestrum cecinisse poetam," which he re-
gards as the finale of the whole book of
Eclogues. Canebam super arboribus,' &c.,
like "super Priamo cogitans," A. 1. 750.
'Scribere super re' is used by Cic. Att.
16. 6. The summary of the contents of
the Georgics is more rapid and less exact
than that with which the poem opens.
Bees are omitted altogether (for we can
hardly argue with Forb. from v. 168 that
they are included in 'pecorum'), as the poet
doubtless felt that his reader was not likely
to forget them.

6

560.] The period referred to in this and the two following lines is that of Octavianus' progress in the East after the battle of Actium. The meaning is evidently that the poem was finished while these Eastern

operations, which were the work of some
time, were taking place. To conclude with
Wagn. that the whole poem was composed
during that time is to disregard probability
without any adequate gain from increased
strictness of language. See Introductory
Essay. 'Canebam dum fulminat:' the use
of 'dum' with the present in narrative is
sufficiently common, the verb in the cor-
responding clause being in the perfect, e. g.
A. 5. 605, 606, "Dum variis referunt tu-
mulo sollennia ludis, Irim de caelo misit
Saturnia Iuno," while they are engaged
in the obsequies, Juno has sent Iris,' the
whole being viewed from the present mo-
ment. Hence it is extended to cases
where the verb in the leading proposition
is in the pluperfect, as E. 7. 6, 7 (note),
the construction being a mixture of the
present and past forms of narrative, such as
frequently occurs in prose as well as in
poetry. The combination in this passage
of 'dum' with the present, and a verb in
the imperfect in the leading proposition,
is an instance of a similar mixture. The
imperfect in formulas, like those noticed
in the note on the preceding line, is in-
tended, as is well known, to place the
writer at the time when his work will be
perused by the reader. If the present is to
be explained in conformity with this usage,
we must say that it is meant to imply that
the successes of Caesar were still going on
when the composition of the Georgics was
finished, and, in the poet's view, would
still be going on when his work should be
in the reader's hands. Or we may say
that canebam' being regarded as a con-
ventional synonyme for the present, the pre-
sent is used of a time intended to be
coextensive with it. In the passage from
Livy 21. 7, quoted by Voss,
"dum ea
Romani parant consultantque, iam Sa-
guntum summa vi oppugnabatur," the in-
consistency of the tenses has a rhetorical
force, the point being to fix the mind on
the late date to which the consultations
extended, and on the early date at which
the siege began, so that what is present in
the former is placed in juxtaposition with
what is past in the latter.

561.] Fulminat,' like "fulminat Aeneas armis," A. 12. 654, where the image is that of Jupiter hurling his thunderbolts on the world. So the Scipios are called "fulmina belli," A. 6. 842, Lucr. 3. 1034. Comp. Aristophanes' well known description of Pericles (Ach. 531), йσтраπт',

P. VERGILI MARONIS GEORGICON LIB. IV.

Per populos dat iura, viamque adfectat Olympo.
Illo Vergilium me tempore dulcis alebat
Parthenope, studiis florentem ignobilis oti,
Carmina qui lusi pastorum, audaxque iuventa,
Tityre, te patulae cecini sub tegmine fagi.