Drymoque, Xanthoque, Ligeaque, Phyllodoceque, 340 Thyest. 955 talks of "saturae vestes by an embroidered border in respect of her ostro Tyrio;" it occurs however as an epithet of a full deep colour, raro saturo colore lucet," Pliny 37. 10; purpuram, quo melior saturiorque est," Sen. Quaest. N. 1. 5. 336.] This muster-roll is studied after the list of Nereids in Il. 18. 39 foll., though the names are different in Virgil, who, with rather questionable judgment, includes landnymphs as well. A longer list of Nereids is given Hes. Theog. 243 foll., but Virgil does not seem to have borrowed anything from it. Such enumerations, as Heyne says, are common in the old poets and in their Roman imitators, especially Ovid. In the former they mark the simplicity of the chronicler in the latter they are doubtless designed to produce an appearance of verisimilitude, at the same time that Heyne may be right in speaking of them as an intentional display of learning, while the imagination is naturally captivated by the mere sound of a long succession of harmonious names belonging to mythic antiquity, as any reader of Milton can bear witness. The present line, if not actually taken from the Greek, is obviously modelled on it. 337.] Caesariem effusae nitidam per candida colla' is like " perque pedes traiectus lora tumentis," A. 2. 273, both being instances to which the common solution of the construction, as if the accusative denoted the extent to which the subject of the verb or participle is affected, cannot be applied without harshness. The hair is so distinguishable from the person that it requires nearly as great a licence to speak of the unbinding of the one as an unbinding of the other as to say that a man is passed through his feet because thongs are passed through them, the strangeness of expression in the latter case being moreover modified by the double sense of 'traiicio,' which takes an accusative indifferently of the person pierced and of the thing driven through, just as in A. 4. 137, “ chlamydem circumdata limbo," the application of 'circumdatus' to a person enveloped in a robe mitigates, not logically but rhetorically, the harshness of saying that Dido is surrounded mantle. The truth of the explanation, however, is not impeached by a few extreme instances, especially in a writer like Virgil, so that there seems no call to follow Madvig, § 237 b, in placing these and similar instances under a separate head with a rule that "the participle perf. of the passive... is used of a person who has done something to himself, as an active verb, with an accusative,”– '-a rule to which A. 2. 273 is admitted to be an exception. In such cases however it is hazardous to dogmatize either for or against an explanation, as it is often conceivable that two expressions which can be reduced without violence under the same rule were not really dictated by the same feeling, so that of two or more possible solutions each may be good for what it will most naturally explain, and no further. For the insufficiency of grammatical analysis to express the shades of meaning that may occur to a writer see note on 3. 506. 338.] I have retained this verse in brackets, on account of the convenience of preserving the ordinary numeration, though it is probably a copyist's insertion from A. 5. 826. It is apparently found in Pal., but both Med. and Rom. omit it, and the context may be said to repudiate it, as the names mentioned are all of them taken from Homer's Nereids (Il. 18. 39, Oáλɛiá te Κυμοδόκη τε, Νησαίη Σπειώ τε), whereas in the rest of the list Virgil does not borrow from Homer at all, with the exception of Clymene, whose name occurs separately from the rest, and none of the others appear to be Oceanides, except the two expressly named as such in v. 341. Ambae auro, pictis incinctae pellibus ambae, complains, will be somewhat mended by making a pause after 'Clioque,' where accordingly I have placed a comma. 342.] These nymphs are described, as in huntress costume (comp. A. 1. 323), as Serv. says, huntresses frequently becoming waternymphs and vice versa. Heyne refers to Callim., Hymn to Artemis, v. 42, where the goddess chooses nymphs for the chase out of the Oceanides. There is no need to restrict 'auro' to the zone with Forb., as these huntresses may have been equipped like Dido, A. 4. 138, "Cui pharetra ex auro, crines nodantur in aurum, Aurea purpuream subnectit fibula vestem." 66 344.] The simplest way of understanding 'tandem positis sagittis seems to be that Arethusa had just left her hunting, in which she delighted, after a long chase, and joined the company in the cavern, she being river-nymph and huntress at once. The interpretation of the Dresden Serv., quae ex venatrice in Nympham versa fuerat," if it could be established, would only make the passage less picturesque. 'Velox,' for example, is forcible when it designates a quality still called into play; tame if applied to one no longer in use. It would be possible indeed to understand it of her as a river-nymph; but the context pleads strongly for referring it to her hunting. 345.] Clymene' is named Il. 18. 47, near the end of the list. The custom of singing during spinning or weaving is as old as the Odyssey (5. 61., 10. 221); and in Theocr. 24. 76 foll. Teiresias tells Alcmena that the Argive women shall sing of her as they sit spinning in the late evening. See Forb. on 1. 293, where these and other instances are collected. In curam inanem' Serv. finds "definitio amoris :" but the next 345 350 clause seems to refer it to Vulcan's guardianship of his wife, which Mars contrived to elude. If we take 'curam' of love, 'inanem' must be understood of the requital which the husband's affection found. The reference cannot be to Vulcan's stratagem against the adulterous pair, as that was not fruitless but successful, unless 'inanem' could be made to signify the invisible nature of the net. But Virgil doubtless meant to give merely the beginning of the story, not its sequel. 347.] For Aque' Med. and others have Atque,' a common error. 348-386.] Learning from one of her attendant nymphs the cause of the noise, she bade the waters retire, that he might pass to her chamber. He walked through the caverns, and saw with wonder the sources of all the great rivers of earth. When he had reached her presence and told his grief, she ordered the feast to be spread, and after making a libation to the ocean god, began her counsel.' 348.] Carmine quo' like "quo motu," 1. 329 note, the song not having been expressly mentioned in the previous words. 349.] Devolvunt' apparently expresses the carrying down of the thread by the weight of the spindle as it was formed (Dict. A. s. v. 'fusus '). The author of the Ciris (v. 445) says "Non licuit gravidos penso devolvere fusos?" With inpulit auris Forb. comp. "aurem inpellere," Pers. 2. 21; sensus inpellere," Lucr. 1. 303. 'Iterum :' the sound had already reached Cyrene v. 333, and we are left to infer that she did not take notice at once, while the description in the intermediate lines as it were fills up the interval between the first and second appeal. 66 350.] Vitreis' prob. includes both glass-green colour (above, v. 335) and glassy brightness. Ovid (M. 5. 48) speaks of the 'vitrea antra of the nymphs. Heyne and Voss are clearly wrong in scanning it as a spondee by synizesis. Obstipuere; sed ante alias Arethusa sorores 351.] Sorores,' as Heyne remarks, is used rather widely, the nymphs being, as we have seen, of various kinds, while in v. 341 two seem discriminated from the rest as sisters. 352.] A line nearly repeated A. 1. 127, from which placidum' was introduced by some of the early editions into the present passage instead of 'flavum.' 353.] 'Et procul' is similarly placed without a verb A. 2. 42. The chamber of Cyrene was in the depth (vv. 322, 333, 361, 362), so that Arethusa, having emerged from the water, had to call from a distance. The use of the vocative of the participle, designating a person by a merely temporary attribute, is to be remarked, as being akin to those in A. 2. 283., 12. 947. 354.] Ipse,' as Aristaeus was the first object with his mother. Tibi' referring generally to the sentence. Cyrene had virtually asked "Quis stat lacrimans?" Arethusa replies "Aristaeus tibi stat lacrimans acknowledging Cyrene's interest in the answer. 'Tua maxuma cura:' "Tua cura," E. 10. 22; "mea maxuma cura," A. 1. 678. Comp. Aesch. Cho. 749, piλov & Ορέστην, τῆς ἐμῆς ψυχῆς τριβήν. 355.] Penei' is the Latinized gen. of the form Invεóc, a form apparently existing only in a doubtful reading of Theocr. 25. 15, where Meineke, after Herm., gives Mnvíov, but sufficiently supported by the analogy of such words as 'EKTÓρELOS, EKTópEos, &c. 'Genitoris' probably is merely a constant epithet of a river (comp. the Greek feeling for rivers as Kovpoтpópol), as in A. 8. 72, “tuque, O Thybri, tuo genitor cum flumine sancto. If we could suppose Peneus to have been the father of Cyrene, there would be more reason why Aristaeus should go to the source of the river to make her hear, just as Achilles cries to Thetis, stretching his hands to the deep, and is heard by her as she sits below by the side 355 360 of her old father (Il. 1. 350, 358., 18. 36, where, as here, the old god takes no part in the action): but there is no authority for such a parentage but Hyginus, Fab. 161, while Pind. (P. 9. 13) makes Cyrene the daughter of Hypseus. We must suppose then that this chamber, being the abode of the river-nymphs, was figured by Virgil as accessible from the source of any river, and that Aristaeus naturally betook himself to Peneus as the river of Thessaly. This will account also for the supposed distance of the chamber from the top of the water, and for Arethusa's specification of the place where Aristaeus is standing, by the stream of Peneus. 356.] 'Crudelem' is a predicate, as in E. 5. 23, where see note. Aristaeus' cry is supposed to be "Crudelis mater Cyrene," which is in fact the substance of what he has already said. He is crying on thee by name for thy cruelty.' 357.] Nova' is not to be understood like 'iterum,' v. 349, of a fresh access of terror, but simply of terror as a new feeling succeeding a more ordinary state of mind. So A. 2. 228, "Tum vero tremefacta novus per pectora cunctis Insinuat pavor." It will then be rhetorically equivalent to 'subitus' or 'repentinus,' by which Heyne translates it, though it may also have a sense of ' unusual,' the fear in this case being a feeling alien to a goddess, as in the passage from A. 2 it appears to have been somewhat preternatural. 359.] Ursinus comp. Il. 24. 96, àμpi δ ̓ ἄρα σφι λιάζετο κῦμα θαλάσσης. 361.] The image here is from Od. 11. 243, as Macrob. (Sat. 5. 3) points out, Пopφύρεον δ' ἄρα κῦμα περιστάθη οὔρεϊ ἴσον Κυρτωθέν, κρύψεν τε θεόν. In that passage the water is represented as deranged in order to provide concealment, so that the sense evidently is that a wave is formed swelling to the height of a mountain (a picture which we have already had in the Accepitque sinu vasto misitque sub amnem. case of the sea 3. 240), and furnishing, by 365 370 Aristaeus sees not the rivers themselves, but their sources, as vv. 364, 368 seem to imply, though there is no necessity to limit the size of the cave. 367.] "Diversa locis pro diversis locis," Philarg. Diversus' however is frequently used as an epithet of things locally separated, as in 1. 446. Phasis and Lycus are mentioned together as both belonging to Colchis. Cerda quotes Strabo 11, p. 801 B, ποταμοὶ δὲ πλείους μέν εἰσιν ἐν τῇ χώρα, γνωριμώτατοι δὲ Φάσις μὲν καὶ Λύκος. 368.] Enipeus:' Od. 11. 238, spoken of as ὃς πολὺ κάλλιστος ποταμῶν ἐπὶ yaiav inoiv. For primum' Med. gives 'primus.' Other MSS. omit or transpose 'se,' and read 'rumpit,' 'rupit,' or ' erupit.' With se erumpit' Forb. comp. Lucr. 5. 596, where he understands erumpit' actively. 369.] 'Aniena fluenta,' like "Tiberina fluenta," A. 12. 35. 364.] These pools closed in with caves seem to be the sources of the rivers. Heyne comp. A. 8. 74, "quo te cumque lacus... Fonte tenet, quocumque solo pulcherrimus exis." Sonantis,' probably with the noise of the water. Comp. A. 3. 442, 370.] Saxosus' is restored by Wagn. "Averna sonantia silvis ;" 7. 83,"nemorum from Med., Gud., and other MSS. for the quae maxuma sacro Fonte sonat.' Servius common reading 'saxosum.' The sibilahas a story, to which he thinks Virgil refers, tion, as he remarks, was doubtless intended of an Egyptian custom of dedicating certain by Virgil, as in A. 5. 866, " Assiduo longe youths to the nymphs: “qui quum adole- sale saxa sonabant." The authority of the vissent, redditi narrabant lucos esse sub ter- grammarians is divided: Philarg. recognizes ris et inmensam aquam omnia continentem, both readings; the Dresden Serv. supports ex qua cuncta procreantur." With the pic-saxosus,' saying nomen pro adverbio," ture generally comp. Plato's description while in the ordinary copies that com(Phaedo, p. 112) of the great chasm pierc- mentator expressly recommends 'saxosum,' ing the earth from end to end, into which "ne sint duo epitheta, quod apud Latinos and out of which all the rivers flow. vitiosum est," from which Wagn. suspects that he was the introducer of that reading. 6 365.] Motus aquarum' would naturally mean the heaving of water as in a storm, as in Prop. 4. 15. 31, " magnos cum ponunt aequora motus." Here however the sense seems to be the mighty flow of waters,' 'ingenti' apparently referring as much to the number of the streams as to the size of any particular river. Possibly 'motus' may also be meant to convey a notion of sound. 366.] Perhaps it would be most accordant with the context to suppose that 66 371.] So Aeneas (A. 8. 77) addresses the Tiber, "corniger Hesperidum fluvius regnator aquarum." The origin of this ancient mode of representing rivers is disputed, some thinking that rivers are compared to bulls for their violence (comp. the combat of Achelous with Hercules, Soph. Trach. 507 foll.), others for their bellowing, as Hom. (Il. 21. 237) makes Xanthus attack Achilles, μεμυκώς ήΰτε raupos, while others find the special Eridanus, quo non alius per pinguia culta similarity to horns in the spreading branches 373.] Mare purpureum :' Byron's 'darkblue sea,' Homer's aλa Toppvpósoσav or Tорpνρέŋv (Il. 16. 391, &c.). It would seem from Cic. Acad. prior. 2. 33, “Mare, Favonio nascente, purpureum videtur," and from a line of Furius Antias quoted by Gell. 18. 11, Spiritus Eurorum virides cum purpurat undas," where Gell.'s explanation is "ventus mare caerulum crispicans nitefacit," that the Romans, in applying the epithet to the sea, thought of its brightness when flushed by the wind, a picture which would agree with Catull. 62 (64). 274, 275, "Post, vento crescente, magis magis increbescunt, Purpureaque procul nantes a luce refulgent." In Greek the epithet appears rather to be applied to the darkness of the troubled sea, the ἔρεβος ὕφαλον : comp. the transferred use of Toppupw, and see Liddell and Scott s. v. There is however a passage referred to by them where the colour is discriminated as a medium between darkness and strong light: φαίνεται δὲ καὶ ἡ θάλαττα πορφυροειδής, ὅταν τὰ κύματα μετεωριζόμενα κατὰ τὴν ἔγκλισιν σκιασθῇ πρὸς γὰρ τὸν ταύτης κλισμὸν ἀσθενεῖς αἱ τοῦ ἡλίου αὐγαὶ προσβαλοῦσαι ποιοῦσι φαίνεσθαι τὸ χρῶμα ἁλουργές . . . ἐλάττονος δὲ τοῦ φωτὸς προσβάλλοντος, ζοφερόν, ὃ καλοῦσιν ὄρφviov (Aristot. De Coloribus, c. 2, §§ 4, 5). Violentior:' comp. 2. 452. "This is not the character of the Po of the present day, its velocity being diminished, perhaps on account of the elevation of its bed" (Keightley). 66 375 374.] It may be doubted whether 'pendentia pumice tecta' means 'a hanging roof of stone,' or 'a roof from which masses of stone hang,' like stalactites. Martial (2. 14. 9) has "centum pendentia tecta columnis," apparently for a roof supported on pillars, and in Lucr. 6. 195, 'speluncas... saxis pendentibu' structas," the reference seems to be to hanging stones composing the roof of the cave, so that perhaps the balance is in favour of the former view, which is also confirmed by two passages from Seneca, quoted respectively by Taubm. and Heyne, "Et si quis specus saxis penitus exesis montem suspenderit" (Ep. 41), and "hic vasto specu Pendent tyranni limina" (Herc. Fur. 719). There is the same doubt about Ov. Her. 15. 141, "Antra vident oculi scabro pendentia tofo." 375.] Inanis' is commonly explained vain, because easily remedied; but the context shows no such confidence on the part of Cyrene, and the construction of the episode seems intended to exalt the dignity of the remedy, as only to be obtained from a god, and that with difficulty. It seems rather a customary epithet, idle tears,' which have no end and do not cure distress. So "lacrimae inanes," A. 4. 449., 10. 465. 376.] Manibus,' for the hands, as if it had been 'manibus lavandis.' The entertainment is after the manner of the heroic age, e. g. Od. 1. 136 foll. (Heyne.) Parts of this and the two next lines are repeated A. 1. 701 foll. 'Ordine' apparently means in the course of their duty, as distinguished from the others who spread the table. perhaps A. 1. 703., 5. 102. 'Fontis' need mean no more than spring water, as in A. 2. 686., 12. 119; but there may be some special propriety in the use of the word here, in the chamber of waters, where the offices of the table are done by waternymphs. So 377.] Mantelia' is the spelling of the older MSS., not 'mantilia.' Yates (Dict. A. 'mantela') agrees with Heyne in supposing that these napkins were woollen, with a soft and even nap. |