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Pitt Press Series
P. VERGILI MARONIS GEORGICON LIBRI III. IV.
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
C. F. CLAY, Managkr
LONDON : Fetter Lane, E.G. 4
NEW YORK.: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
ROMBAY, CALCUTTA, MADRAS: MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd.
TORONTO : J. M. DENT AND SONS, Ltd.
TOKYO: THE MARUZEN-K.ABUSH1K.I-KAISHA
All rights reserved
p. VERGILI MARONIS
GEORGICON
LIBRI III. IV.
EDITED WITH ENGLISH NOTES BY
A. SIDGWICK, M.A.
' ' ' ' 1 . ,
CAMBRIDGE: AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1918
70805
First Eiition 1886 Reprinted \%()0, 1895, iS^y, 1908, 1918
••••• ••■
.! • • • . «
::♦.-.• ••
PREFATORY NOTE.
This Edition, being prepared for the use of those Students who are not far advanced in Latin, does not aim at doing more than supplying in a small compass such help to the thorough knowledge of this book as it is probable would be most useful to them. It is not intended to supply the place of a dictionary: for all students possess one, and derive much benefit from its careful use, both in becoming acquainted with the history of meanings of words, and also in the exercise of that judgment which is required to select the right meaning. On the other hand historical and mythical allusions are explained in the notes, as many students might find it difficult to make them out otherwise. Great care also has been taken to notice all the grammatical usages which might offer any difficulty, and to classify them clearly, and to enable the learner, by means of an Index, to compare similar usages and distinguish those that are different. Attention has been given, too, to Vergil's licences and peculiarities of expression, which help him so much in producing rhetorical and poetical effects. Further, in several of the harder passages and phrases, an attempt has been made to help the student in translation : for while few ancient writers are so difficult as Vergil to translate at all adequately, it is at the same time of the utmost importance, both to the literary appreciation of his poetry, and tiie advantage to be derived from reading it, that great pains should be given to translation and a high standard aimed at.
6 PREFATORY NOTE.
With the text there has not been much to do. Such differences as there are in the different copies, and they are not very many (apart from obvious and easily corrected errors), are mostly unimportant ; where the reading is really difficult to decide I have given reasons for the one preferred.
The following books have been used in the preparation of this little edition ; to whose help my acknowledgements are due ; —
Conington's Georgics, last ed.
Ribbcck's Vergil, 1859.
Heyne's Vergil, 1821.
Forbiger's Vergil, 1852.
W^agner's smaller edition, 1861.
Kennedy's School Vergil, 1876. „ Text, Pitt Press, 1876.
Papillon's Vergil, Oxford, 1882.
Ladewig's Bucolics and Georgics, 1883. For the matter of the Introduction and some of the notes I owe much to Conington's Preface, to Prof Sellar's most interesting work on Vergil, to Cruttwell's Latin Literature, and Simcox's Latin Literature, and Munro's Lucretius.
I have used, and occasionally quoted, two translations of these books: one by Lee and Lonsdale, a useful and careful prose translation ; and one by my friend Mr James Rhoades of Sherborne, in blank verse. The latter seems to me to be one of the best translations 1 know of a poet, being at once a very faithful and scholarly rendering, skilful and felicitous in expression, and of high poetic merit.
The following abbreviations are used in the notes : C. Conington. L. Ladewig,
\V. "Wagner, P. Papillon,
F. Forbigcr, K. Kennedy,
Rib. Ribbeck, H. licyne,
(LL) Lee and Lonsdale's translation, (R) Rhoades' translation.
INTRODUCTION.
For the sake of clearness it has been thought better to divide what little there is to say by way of introduction into the following heads : —
1. The form of the poem.
2. Vergil and Lucretius.
3. List of Passages imitated from Lucretius.
4. The later Georgics and Homer.
5. Principal Homeric parallels.
6. The sources of the Georgics.
7. Subject and purpose of the poem.
8. The execution of the poem.
9. Outline of Vergil's hfe.
At the end is a full index to the notes, (i) General and Grammatical, (2) of Style, (3) of Proper names, to enal)le the book 10 be used for purposes of ready relerence.
I. The form of the poem.
The Georgics belong to the class of what are called didactic poems, that is to say poems whose original or ostensible object is to give instruction. The earliest didactic poem was the Works and Days of the Greek poet Hesiod, whose date is uncertain, but who is generally assumed to have lived about the eighth century B. C,
The poem contains a great variety of precepts for the conduct of life— about right behaviour, justice, industry, the choice of a wife, the rearing of children, and above all, agriculture,
8 INTR OD UCTION.
commerce, and navigation, with a sort of calendar appended giving the best days and times to do things. The whole is written in a homely style, and tliough it gives a vivid picture of early Greek rustic life and temper and manners can hardly be said to aim at poetic treatment.
Besides Ilesiod we have another primitive but totally different style of didactic poetry in the Greek philosophic poets, of whom the most famous were Xenophanes and Parmenides of Elca, about the sixth century B.C., and Empedocles of Agrigentum, about the fifth century. These writers, like Hesiod, were not aiming primarily at poetic expression, though what remains of their works contains imaginative and impressive passages : their main object was to expound their doctrines. And as Hesiod would doubtless have written his precepts in prose, had there been such a thing as prose literature in his day: so too the philosophic poets used the hexameter verse not from any artistic motive, or to adorn their thoughts, but simply because the prose treatise was not so natural a mode of expression to them as the familiar epic metre.
But the didactic form once established, it lent itself naturally in later ages to imitation. Just as there were literary epics, imitating the form of Homer, but telling the story for a purpose, (the Aeneid, the Inferno, the Paradise Lost) so the primitive didactic poem of Hesiod or the philosophers gave rise to the literary didactic poem, which has appeared in all ages of literary revival. Thus for example the artificial literature which the Alexandrian scholars produced contained many didactic poems, such as the astronomical works Phaenomena and Diosemeia of Aratus, (which were mere metrical renderings of scientific knowledge derived from others) or the works on poisons, venomous beasts, and birds by Nicander. These two writers lived towards the beginning of the third, and middle of the second centuries B. C respectively; and to them we might add the scientific poet Eratosthenes, about the middle of the third century, from whom Vergil borrowed some of his asironomical ideas. Similarly in our own so-called Augiih>lan
INTRODUCTION. 9
age, the literary revival of Queen Anne's reign, there sprang up a crop of didactic poems ; of which the best and most famous was Pope's Essay on Man. The aim of all these was rather to achieve finish of form and brilliance of execution than to communicate or expound anything serious.
In the golden age of Rome there were three didactic poems written, all of them extremely famous, namely Lucretius' De rem in tiatura, Vergil's Georgics, and Horace's Art of Poetry. The last was written after Vergil's death, and need not concern us here : it is moreover in a class apart. The criticism which forms its subject-matter is most seriously and carefully thought out : the form belongs more to what we call vers de socidtS, full of point, vigour, vivacity and variety, but not addressed like serious poetry to the feelings or the imagination. On the other hand Lucretius' great poem amid its arid stretches of philosophic argument has oases of the most sublime and imaginative poetry. It counts for so much among the de- termining conditions of the Georgics that a special word will be said about the relations between the two poets below.
It is at any rate clear enough that there are such wide divergences between the different species of didactic poems, that the name 'didactic' tells us very little about the character of a work. The Georgics differ from the Works and Days in being a real work of art, aiming all through at beauty : while Vergil, if he was not quite as much in earnest as Hesiod in the precepts he gave, at any rate was deeply interested in rustic life. On the oilier hand, as compared with Lucretius, while he follows him in aiming at genuine poetry, and in formulating serious precepts, he addresses himself much more to the general reader, and not (as Lucretius did) to the student. He takes pains by selection of details, by episodes (such as the signs of Caesar's death, i. 466; the praise of Italy, ii. 136; the chariot race, iii. 104 ; the plague, iii. 478; and above all the tale of Or- pheus and Eurydice, iv.), and by rich adornment of every kind, to make tiic poem attractive to those who arc not specially interested in a.-riculturc. lie differs again from the Alexandrians in every way, since neither their precepts nor their art was first liand :
lo INTRODUCTION.
they wrote borrowed facts in an imitated style. And he difTcrs lastly from our i)\vn Au;^aistan didactics, inasmuch as their interest was almost entirely in the style, the subject-matter being quite secondary and usually chosen because it lent itself to epij^ram and finished exposition. In one word, when we call the Georgics 'a didactic poem' we must bear in mind that it belongs, for all its imitation of Hesiod and Lucretius, to a unique species.
2. Vergil ajid Lucretius.
'The influence' says Prof Sellar (Vergil, p. 199) 'direct and 'indirect exercised by Lucretius on the thought, the composition 'and the style of the Georgics was perhaps stronger than that * ever exercised before or since, by one great poet on the work 'of another '.
Without going fully into a large question, we may note some of the principal causes and points of this influence.
(i) Lucretius was the first great poet of Rome : the first who had used the Greek Hexameter metre with real success, so as to bring out its power, its dignity and its beauty in the Latin language ; the first writer of genius, combining high imagi- nation, poetic sensibility, deep and serious thought, originality and insight ; and his poem appeared when Vergil was about 16, exactly at the time when it was most certain to impress and inspire a gifted boy, with equal imagination and even more poetic power.
(2) Vergil's temperament as revealed in his poetry was that of a born lover of nature, delicate and imaginative and with exquisite sensibility to beauty, naturally religious and retired and meditative, and like many of the most highly gifted, with an 'undertone' of melancholy. Lucretius' poem — dealing with the productiveness of nature, the vastness of the universe, the hard struggle of life, the constant pressure and imminence of suffering and decay, the mystery of the order of things, the dark destiny of man— could not fail to leave a lasting and profound impression on him.
TjYTR on UCTION. 1 1
Thus both in the style and in the thought there was every- thing to make Lucretius' poem produce an immense effect on the younger poet. It is impossible to follow out this effect into detail ; but a few points may be noticed.
{a) In the diction, the influence is found everywhere in the Georgics. The passages where Vergil directly imitates I have collected at the end of this section : there are no doubt many more where a subtle or unconscious memory of Lucretius has determined the choice of a word or the turn of a phrase.
{b) In the metre Vergil no doubt made a gi-eat advance on all his predecessors : but it was Lucretius' poem which shewed him the way, which lifted him to a point whence that advance was possible. And the list of imitated passages will shew that the rhythm of Lucretius, with its dignity and beauty, still inspired some of the best of Vergil's verses.
{c) In the thoughts^ though Vergil was not a philosopher and though he by no means either accepted all Lucretius' beliefs or shared all the feelings which resulted from them, still the Georgics shew many deep traces, chiefly in the earlier boolcs.
In the famous passage (ii. 475) 'Me vero primum dulces ante omnia Musae &c.'the poet plainly declares that the highest honour and delight is to expound in poetry all the secret lore of nature : and that the task he had set himself, to describe the country life, was, though a happy one, still second to the other. Again besides his general reverence for his master's study and doctrine, we have special traces of the influence : in his feeling of the presence of Nature as a great and universal productive power (ii. 9, 20, 47), and of the force exercised by Love over all the animals as well as over Man (iii. 242 — 284); in the sense of a constant need for struggle on the part of man (i. 155,200), and the number of counter-influences that thwart his labours (i. 1 18) ; in the recognition that there was once a golden age when things were easier and earth was richer — an age which is past (i. 127); even in some special doctrines like the 'hidden pores ol earth' (i. 90), or the materialist explanation of the birds' weather-signs (i. 41 5)' and generally in his poetic ascription
12
INTKOD UCTION.
to inanimate things of feelings and tendencies drawn from man's nature.
There can be no doubt that in the magnificent passage at the end of the second book 'Fehx qui potuit rerum cognosccre causas &c.' Vergil intended to pay a direct tribute to Lucretius, by suggesting that the latter's work was the highest aim and achievement of the poet's art : a tribute which was all the greater as he did not name him, seeing that no other identifi- cation was possible.
3. List 0/ passages imitated from Lucretius.
Georg. iii. LUCR.
10 i. 117 qui primus amaeno detulit ex Helicone
perenni fronde coronam. 149 V. 33 asper acerba tuens.
289 i. 922 [the subject is hard: but I have a deep
love of Muses : I wish to approach the spring and pluck a chaplet, whence none have crowned themselves be- fore.]
360 vi. 626 mollisque luti concrescere crustas.
361 vi. 551 ferratos xoX.2iX\xm. orbes.
478 vi. 1138-1286 [Vergil imitates Lucretius' powerful
description of the plague at Athens.] 520 ii. 361 [the soft willows and dewy grass and
brimming streams cannot delight her.] Ceorg. iv. 223 i. 163 artnenta?ii(\uc7i\\iicpecttdes,getms omne
ferariun. 472 iv. 35 siviulacraque luce carentum.
499 iii. 455 ceu /t^f/i i/s ift ahas aeris auras.
515 ii. 146 Wquidis /oca vocihus opp/e fit.
And the following phrases : —
miseris mortalibus (iii. 66), nonne vides (iii. 103), quod superest (iv. 51), genus omne animantum (iii. 556).
jfrom Ribbeck]
INTRODUCTION. 13
4, The later Georgics and Hotner.
We have seen that the form of the Georgics, as originally conceived, and described by Vergil himself, was an imitation of Hesiod ; and that the spirit was largely that of Lucretius. The poetic influence of Lucretius is however decidedly less in the two last books than in the two first ; in spite of the fact that the powerful description of the plague with which the third Georgic closes is modelled on the elder poet's episode on the pestilence of Athens at the end of the sixth book de reruin natura. Though to the end Vergil's debt to Lucretius remains very deep, the influence of the latter is in these books beginning to be over- shadowed by that of a still greater poet (or poets), which in the Aouid becomes primary. Nothing is more notable than the great increase in these later Georgics of the reminiscences of Homer, The poet who began the Georgics with the ambition of * Singing the song of Ascra through the towns of Rome,' ends with a long episode imitated, and even largely translated, from the Odyssey.
In the section on the execution of the Georgics below (§ 8) enough is said about the attitude of Vergil and the Augustans towards Greek literature; and nothing is more natural than that the two greatest of all Greek poems, in spite of all differences of age, manner, subject, and diction, should begin to shew the place they occupied in Vergil's mind. It will be sufficient here to remark that it is chiefly in the episodes, similes, and other touches inserted to adorn and vary the ostensible subject of the Georgics, that these memories of Homer (naturally) occur. Subjoined is a list of the principal Homeric parallels, from Ribbeck and the commentators.
5. Principal Homeric parallels. Geori^. iii. HOMER. 106-1 1 1 //. 23. 360 &c. [the chariot race] 'and they lifted
their whips and smote... and swift they sped over the plain... and now the cars ran low on the rich earth, and now they soared into the air... the dust arose beneath them.'
14 INTRODUCTION.
Georg iii. Homer.
172 //. 5. 83S 'the beechen axle groaned with the
wcitjht.' 223 //. 15. 193 'and earth... and high Olympus.'
237 //. 4. 422 [ranks move like a storm at sea aris-
ing-] 357 Od. II. 15 *nor does the bright sun ever behold
them with his rays, neither when he rises to the starry heaven, nor when he sinks from heaven back to earth.' Georg. iv.
261-263 //. 14. 394 ' neither does the wave of the sea roar
so loud. ..nor so great is the noise of burning fire, ...nor does the wind so murmur in the high oaks...'
320 //. I. 351 'and many a prayer to his mother he
prayed with outstretched arms.'
333 //. 18. 35 'and his mother heard him, sitting in
the depths of the sea... and the nymphs gathered around her &c....'
361 Od. II. 243 'and the dark wave stood round him
like a mountain bent in a curve...'
387 sqq. Od. 4. 380 sqq. [the story of Proteus.]
475 Od. 11.38 'brides and youths and wayworn
elders, and tender maidens with hearts new to sorrow, and many slain with bronze spears, warriors with bloody armour...'
512 0^.16.216 'birds. ..whose young the rustics have
taken from the nest, ere ihey were fledged...'
514 Od. 19. 520 'the nightingale. ..who oft changing
pours out her rich song,bewailing her child...' 528 Od. 4. 570 ' So speaking he dived beneath the
billowy sea.'
INTRODUCTION. 15
6. The sources of the Georgics.
We have discussed briefly the influences of previous writers
on Vergil in thought and style. It remains to enumerate the
main sources from which he drew his knowledge ; and these
may be conveniently divided into prose sources and poetical
sources, which had best be given as follows in chronological
order.
a. Prose : i. Greek.
(i) Xenophon (about 444 — 357 B.C.) in his Oecono7nics (ch. 16 — 19) gives a short discussion on the nature of soils, ploughing, fallows, harrowing, sowing, preparing grain, and culture of trees. These hints concern only Georgics i and 2. In the same writer's treatise on ' Horses' there are one or two remarks which directly or indirectly may be the source of passages in Georgic 3.
(2) Aristotle (384 — 321 B.C.) in his History of Animals is evidently the authority directly for some of Vergil's state- ments about the generation of animals : especially about boars (G. iii. 255), the strange superstition of marcs being vento gravidae and flying north and south (iii. 275), the hippommies (280) and the importance of the colour of the ram's tongue (388). Also some superstitions about bees (iv. 194, 200, 219).
(3) Theophrastus (about 380—287 B.C.) wrote a work
on I'.otany which is still extant, and which Vergil uses in the
second book.
ii. Latin.
(4) M. Porcius Cato the Censor (234—139 B.C.) is the author of a still extant treatise on agriculture {de AV Riistica\ written in a curiously curt and unreadable style. In the later Georgics Cato's authority is chiefly traceable in the remarks on sheep and goats (iii. 387 sqq.) and the treatment of the scabies (440 sqq.).
(5) M. Terentius Varro of Rtafe in B.C. 37 publislicd at the age of 80 an itilcresting work in llirce Ijooks with the
1 6 INTR OD UCTJON.
saoie title as Cato's, de Re Rustica. This, for all the Gcorgic;- and especially for the third and fourth books, is far the most iin portant source of Vergil's knowledge, as will appear from the brief analysis given below ■ and as it was published just before Vergil' began to write his Georgics, it may very likely have had some influence, with Maecenas or the poet or both, in determining the choice of subject. Varro was looked up to as a great student and litterateur, and is said to have written several hundred books.
In the third Georgic, the precepts on the following points are all found in, and many obviously borrowed from, Varro's second book :— The choice of cows and horses for breeding — the feeding of brood animals — their treatment — the food and training of the young, both cattle and horses — the housing and feeding of sheep and goats — the use of goatskin — the raising of wool — dairy-farming — and (very briefly) the rearing of dogs.
In the fourth Georgic, the following points for the bee-farmet are from Varro : — the origin of bees — their domestic economy — their respect for their queen ('king') — the treatment of drones — their noises — the cultivation of flowers for bees — the best site for hives — the attractions for bees — the material of hives- fumigation — the need for killing one queen when there are two — the various kinds of queens and workers — the signs of disease — swarming, and how to direct it — the three products, wax, bee- bread, honey — stones and logs in the water near hives — tht signs of swarming — the use of 'tinkling' and 'dust-throwing'— the rules for taking comb — the cutting off of empty comb — the battles of bees.
This, it will be seen, covers nearly the whole ground of whai is really didactic in these books.
b. Poetical sources.
(6) From Hesiod is borrowed, in the first Georgic, th( passage about lucky and unlucky days, the instruction to 'sov and plough stripped,' and various phrases. In the third Georgi(
INTRO D UCTION. 1 7
the only reminiscence of Hesiod is a short passage about dogs (404 sqq.). The second and fourth Georgia owe nothing.
(7) The astronomical passage in the first Georgic (i. 233) is in substance from a scientific poem in Greek hy Eratosthenes^ mathematician and librarian at Alexandria in 3rd century B.c
(8) The Alexandrian poet Aratiis (3rd century B.C.) wrote on Astronomy in Greek {Phaenomena) and weather-signs {Dwsemeia), which supplied Vergil with hints for the passage (i. 351 — 463) about signs of storms and fair weather, drawn from the behaviour of birds and beasts and the appearance of the sun and moon. The works are extant, written in a stiff and frigid style.
(9) Nicander of Colophon, physician and poet about the middle of the 2nd century B.C., wrote a poem in Greek on 'poisonous animals' {Theriaca). The whole passage in Georgic iii. (414 — 439) where Vergil treats of snakes, is based on Ni- cander.
The same writer also wrote Georgics, and a poem on Bee- keeping (MfXto-o-oupyi/ca) which only survive in fragments. Both of these Vergil doubtless knew and probably used ; and the latter may have supplied many points for the fourth Georgic.
7. Subject and purpose of the poem.
Vergil himself describes his subject in the opening lines as being the tilling of the land, the growing of vines, the breeding of cattle, and bee-keeping. These four headings closely corre- spond to the matter of the four books. The Georgics then, (as the name imports), are a Manual for Farmers in verse : and this ostensible purpose was so far attained that the poem was referred to afterwards (e.g. by Columella the son of a Spanish farmer, about A.D. i — 70, who wrote a comprehensive treatise on agriculture) as a standard work on the subject ; and it is plain that Vergil was really interested in the practical details of agriculture, and spoke with knowledge not only derived from books but also from personal experience of country life.
But it docs not need saying that his purpose went much
G. III. IV. 3
1 8 INTRODUCTION.
further than this. Maecenas (see note on iii. 41) himself is said to have suggested to the poet the subject, and Maecenas' interest in it would naturally be twofold. As a patron of literature he desired the production of a great work of art : and as minister of Augustus he was anxious to carry out the emperor's sincere and wide reaching desire of restoring a national spirit, the old feeling of Italian unity and patriotism.
That the young poet should become the Hesiod of Rome as he had already become (in the Eclogues) the Theocritus : that he should again delight his readers with his melodious and imaginative verse, with his richly stored knowledge of the beauties of Greek literature skilfully worked in, imitated, sug- gested, in his finished and pregnant style : that he should bring to bear his deep love for the country, his practical knowledge, his poetic observation of nature, upon such a work : —
And again, that he should do something — if not to convert men from politics and plots, from luxury and vice — at any rate to turn their thoughts to purer sources of pleasure ; to remind them of the ancient love of Romans for the land, of the old farmer-heroes who went from the plough to command an army ; to sing the praise of Italy in memorable verse, to give a new stimulus, of a sincere and profound character, to the reviving patriotism ; and thus to promote the hopefulness and gratitude and salutary enthusiasm with which men were beginning to hail the Augustan era ; —
If such were the hopes that prompted Maecenas when he urged Vergil to write the Georgics, they were not unreasonable in view of the times, and in view of what the poet had already done : and certainly as far as poetical achievement went they were more than fulfilled.
8. The executio7i of the poem ^
Many critics are of opinion that in the Aeneid Vergil had set himself an impossible task, while in the Georgics he had a
' For some points in this section I am indebted 10 Mr [. II. Skrine's preface to his edition of Georgic 11. : a preface written willi taste and insight, and with many happy illustrations.
INTRODUCTION. 19
subject exactly suited to his gifts. Without entering on such sweeping judgments — which, in the case of rare works of genius are generally misleading and superficial — we may at least agree that the Georgics is a most striking and beautiful poem on what appears at first sight a rather unpromising subject. It is worth while to try and understand, in however rough and general a way, what are the qualities of workmanship that have made the 'manual for farmers' into a poem that has given delight to all readers for 1900 years.
The result is due partly to the art and partly to the spirit of the poet. Of course these two things are closely con- nected, and it is not possible really to distinguish completely between them : but we may be allowed to consider some aspects of each separately, and it will perhaps tend to clearness to do so.
In considering the art of the Georgics the first thing we have to remember is that the Augustan literature owes its in- spiration mainly to Greek. Horace's aim is to be the Roman Alcaeus and Sappho : Ovid devotes himself to naturalising in Italy the Greek Elegiac metre : Propertius makes Callimachus his model : and Vergil announces himself in the Georgics as 'singing the song of Ascra (Hesiod's birthplace) through the Roman towns.' But it is not merely that the general form of the poem is suggested by Greek ; nor that the subject and metre are borrowed from Hesiod ; far more important is the taste of literary association with which the workmanship abounds. Both the poet and those for whom he wrote were possessed with the greatness and beauty of Greek literature ; and the poem at every turn is intended to remind them of it. Sometimes this is done with a mere epithet; the 'Chaonian' acorn, the 'Lethean' poppy, the 'Acheloian' cups of water, the 'Paphian' myrtle, 'Amyclaean' clogs, 'Cretan' quiver, the 'Idaean' pitch, 'Cecro- pian' bees. More often a passing allusion or phrase touches some part of the rich and picturesque Greek mythology : 'The wagons of the Elcusinian mother' (reminding us of the tales of Demeter, the mysteries of Kleusis, the Aliienian processions to the temple of Artemis &c.); The 'prizes of wit which the sonj
2 — 2
20 INTRODUCTION.
of Theseus ordained' (reminding us of the worship of Dionysus and all llie glories of the Athenian stage). 'Till the Atlantidcs be hidden' (the story of the Pleiads); 'The Olympian palm,' (reminding us of the great gathering of Greece at Elis for the five-year festival): the power of love on man to make him 'swim the dark straits at midnight' (referring to the beautiful tale of Hero and Leander) ; and similar reference in other places to Ariadne, Alcyone, Scylla, Hylas, Chiron, Parnasus, &c. Or again common things are beautified with a more direct literary reference : if the poet mentions waierbirds^ they 'sport round Caysuian pools, in the Asian meads' : an orchard reminds him of the 'groves of Alcinous' ; the lightning strikes 'Athos or Rhodope or the Ceraunian rocks'; the wrecked sailor vows 'to Glaucus and Panopea and Melicerta son of Ino'; the gadjly suggests the tale of Juno's jealousy ; the horse reminds him ot Epidaurus, Elis, the Homeric tale of the horses of Achilles and Pollux, Erechtheus the inventor of cars, and the Lapithae of the saddle; white wool is 'such a gift as that wherewith Pan beguiled Luna' ; and last but not least a mysterious disease among bees gives occasion for the bodily transference into Vergil's poetry of the charming sea-fairy-tale of Proteus from the Odyssey.
Again quite apart from the rich literary associations, Vergil has notably the power of picturesque suggestiveness ; often all the more effective that the suggestion is given in a word. To take examples from the earlier books : — He is speaking of spices, and we see molles Sabaei, 'unwarlike Arabs'; of iron, and we see 7iudi chalybes 'the stripped forgers': the pine tree is 'doomed to witness the perils of the sea': the rich harvest is 'drawn home by tired heifers': the evening and morning sky suggest a crop of pictures, 'the timeless night,' the 'Bears fear- ing to be dipped in Ocean,' the ' Dawn's panting steeds,' ' the turning poles,' &c. So in books iii. and iv. : when he has to say 'summer' he says 'when the floor groans with heavy blows upon the grain, and empty chaff is tossed to the rising Zephyr' : the heat of noon is ' when sorrowing crickets crack the bushes with their song': the evening is the time when 'the dewy moon
INTRODUCTION. 21
frcslioir; the ghidcs, the shores echo to the kingfisher, the brakes to the warbler.' Indeed the whole poem is alive with such pictures.
Another common note of Vergil's poetic' art is connected with his deep love of nature, namely the touches of personification which abound in the poem. Of course the tendency is by no means peculiar to Vergil, but is found in all poetry : in other poets however it is often frigid, or artificial, or overloaded, whereas the particular merit of Vergil is that his touch is so light and graceful in these personifications. Thus in the earlier books the frozen land is ' hard with Boreas' breath ' : the seeds are 'due to the furrows': the South wind 'broods,' the moon's 'virgin face flushes,' the Sun 'none can call false': the apples * feel their strength,' the poor vine is * ashamed of her clusters,' the graft shoots 'know not their mother,' the buds 'are taught,' the tree 'wonders at her new leaves,' the vines in the winter ' put by the pruning hook,' the ' stealthy fire escapes to the upper leaves and reigns a conqueror,' the 'beasts are sent into the forests and stars into the sky^ So in books iii. and iv., rivers are 'rapacious,' the myrtles 'love the shore,' winter 'reins in the streams with frost,' the narcissus 'weeps,' the river Po has 'bull's head with gilded horns,' and the mountains are ' widowed of their snow.'
Further, in the third and fourth books, where the subjects (breeding and bee-keeping) might seem a little too dry or narrow for sustained poetic interest, he begins more largely to use other attractions, the episodes and the similes. Thus we have in the third book, the episodes of the horse race (with a Homeric memory) ; the battle between the bulls, written with a singularly delicate and even pathetic sympathy ; and the fine passage on the power of love over all creation. The great episode at the end of book iii., the account of the unknown plague (imitated from Lucretius) is a fine example of Vergil's power in describing dark and even horrible things, which is perhaps hardly to modern taste, though the unpleasantness is more than redeemed by the force. But nothing in all the (icorgics, and few things in any poetry, can be put above the beautiful episode at the end of
22 JNTR OD UCTION.
book iv. containing the story of Orpheus and Euryclice. Alien as this is from the subject of the Georgics' and strained and even crude as is the attempt to make it relevant, for music and patjios and pure poetic beauty it remains unsurpassed.
Again in the similes, which are in themselves mostly simple and obvious, the poet has opportunity of raising direct memories of Homer, which he always delighted to do : and the passages are (with one striking exception iii. 97) beautiful or effective pictures which must help to relieve and adorn the less interest- ing parts of the agricultural doctrine.
These are some of the most prominent points of Vergil's art, and most easily capable of being illustrated. But of course the real effect of the poem depends more on points which escape analysis : on the fitness of his diction, the vividness of the pictures, the melody, the imaginativeness, the variety, the delicacy, the impressiveness, the grace, of his phrases and lines. Towards the appreciation of these things, some aid may be found in the notes and index to these books : but in the main it must be left to each reader's ear and taste and sensibility.
A few words should however be said, secondly, about the spirit of the Georgics, which has even more to do with their permanent effect than the style. The most obvious point is the poet's love for the country. Vergil has been called ' the Rustic'* of Genius,' and one of his strongest and deepest feelings was a love for country life; not merely its scenery but all its sights and sounds; the sky, the woods, the rivers, lakes and hills, the fields, the trees and flowers, the animals down to the very insects, the heavenly bodies, the storms and winds and
' There is an old story of dubious autliority, though accepted by most commentators, that the Georgics originally ended with a panegyric on C. Cornelius Gallus, a great friend of the poet's, who had helped Augustus in subjugating Egypt : but that when Gallus fell under the Emperor's displeasure for too great independence and arrogance in his administration of Egypt, Vergil changed the end of the fourth Georgic, and introduced the episode of Aristaeus.
* Mr \ . Myers in his striking essay on Vergil, p. 126.
TNTR on UCTIOi\^. 5 j
calms, the chani^cs of the day and seasons, the varied and healthy labour, the simple and honest and hardy men and women who lived and died amongst these things. This pro- found feeling finds vent in the beautiful eulogy on rustic life in the second book
At secura quies et nescia fallerc vita, &c. (ii. 467),
in the splendid and passionate outburst
...o ubi campi Spercheosque et virginibus bacchata Lacaenis, &c.
(ii. 486).
and is closely bound up with Vergil's deep home-love for the Mantuan country and his ideal patriotism for the * Saturnia tellus' which inspire the glowing panegyric on Italy in the beginning of the same book (ii. 136 — 176). But it appears no less in numerous little touches all through the poem. It is shewn for instance in his special choice of the words felix and Inetus for plants and trees, the opening phrase quid facial laetas segetes striking the keynote : in his loving description of beautiful sights, such as the incomparable lines on the flowering walnut
Contemplator item cum se nux plurima silvis induet in florem et ramos curvabit olentcs :
or the soft retreat of the pregnant cows
saltibus in vacuis pascunt et plena secundum flumina, muscus ubi et viridissima gramine ripa, speluncacque tcgant et saxca procubet umbra
in sympathetic descriptions of animals — the horse which loves soothing words and the pat upon his neck (iii. 185), the sorrow- ing humiliation of the defeated bull (iii. 225), the power of love on all the animals (iii. 242), the beautiful bird notes (iii. 338), and all through book iv. in his treatment of the work, the feel- ings, the troubles, the delights of the bees ; in little touches of accurate painting, such as the willow {glauca canentia fronde)^ the bean {siliqtia quassanie), and the signs of storm and tine
24 INTRODUCTION.
weallicr in the first book, or the horse's elastic step {iiiellia crura riponunt), the Hzard {picti sqitalcniia terga lacerti), the cucumber or gourd {torlusque per herbnui cresceret itt ventrem ct/ctiniis), in the third and fourth ; in the lovely passage about the birth of spring (ii. 325) when all things bear and ' Heaven descends in fruitful rain into the bosom of his glad bride'; in the vivid paint- ing of shepherd life in Africa and in the cold north (iii. 350) ; and in passing phrases like divini gloria niris, tantus amor terrat., flumina afnem silvasqiie, and at liquidi fontes et stagjia virentia musco.
Still more important, perhaps, and quite as deep-lying is the poet's feeling of the beauty and dignity 0/ labour. The sadness of human life is likewise a constant feeling of Vergil's, but it is more apparent in his later work, the Aeneid; in the Georgics labour is represented rather as a bountiful provision of the gods, a sound and permanent source of happiness. Thus although in the golden age all was ease and abundance (i. 128), yet the need which gave rise to labour was in the end beneficial : ' The /a/'/^(?r himself willed it' (121); he would not have 'sloth and torpor' (124); the change produced various inventions (135) and all the arts of life (145). Though the farmer's toil is never ending {redit labor actus in orbem), still his life is supremely happy, * o fortunati nimium. ..ngricolae.' The dignity of this toil is suggested by the constant use of words meaning conquest; imperat arvis, subactis scrobibus, cogere, domare, Sec. In the same spirit we have a con amore description of the busy variety of life on wet days (i. 260) ; of the wife singing at her loom (i. 290); of the poet's visit to the garden of the old man of Corycus (iv. 132) whose happiness 'matched the wealth of kings'; in the same spirit again is the playful energy of the simile which depicts the farmer like the soldier /!«r//;/i,'- his seed, grappling the land, laying low the heaps (i. 104), and most notable of all, the passage at the end of book ii. where he contrasts the delight of the ceaseless labour of the husbandman witli the vain or disastrous energies of the courtier, the soldier, the merchant, the orator, the statesman or the conqueror (ii, 501 sqq.).
INTRODUCTION. 25
Another point (quite as significant, though less noticeable at first sight) which shews the poet's delight in his subject is the constant emergence in the Georgics of what we may call a spirit of playfulness. Vergil's delicate and ' finely touched spirit' inclined rather to pathos and to seriousness, and in the whole Aeneid we have hardly the least sparkle of humour, (though in the Iliad there is no lack of it and in the Odyssey it abounds) : but in this poem his love of the country life, and its objects and details, not unfrequently finds expression in a certain gaiety of thought or phrase which conveys to the reader a sense of his pleasure in the scenes he describes. Sometimes it is the playfulness of exaggeration: the 'rustling forest' of the lupine, the comparison (mentioned above) of the farmer's energy to a battle, the 'homes and garner' of the mouse, the weevil ' sacking' the cornbin, the ant's 'needy old age': some- times an amusing picture or turn of phrase, as the 'tiresome' goose {tinprobus), the sceleratujii frigus, the raven who ' stalks solitary on the scorched sand,' the tufa and chalk which ' claim that no other soil breeds snakes so well.' This playfulness is found also in the third book, as when he speaks of there being *no limit' to a good cow's length, of the horse's 'grief at losing and 'pride' at winning a race, of 'exhorting' the young calves while ' their mind is pliant ' [dicm faciles animt), or of the defeated bull who recovers his spirit and ' breaks camp ' (signa movef) against the foe. But far most remarkably of all is this playfulness shewn in the fourth book, when treating of the bees. He describes in a sustained vein of humorous solemnity their whole system, social, industrial, military, and political. Thus the common bees are 'the youth' or the 'quirites': the queens arc 'kings,' 'high souled leaders,' who 'reign,' and are revered with more than Oriental loyalty: the hive is their 'city,' their 'country,' their 'penates': when the bees get a wetting, it is 'Eurus plunges them in Neptune': when they do their allotted tasks they 'obey the mighty laws' or act up to the 'sure tn-aty bond': when they go out to drink 'they draw water under thv' city walls': the drones 'do not share the public burdens' {itnmunes) and must be slain : ihcy have a ' long line of
26 INTRODUCTION.
ancestry' and tlic 'fortune of their house stands sure'; and when they fight 'they make ready their arms,' 'challenj^c the foe,' 'rouse the courage of the common men' {volgi), blow the 'martial trump,' 'form close about {stipaiit) the king,' and 'tear the standards from the camp.' And lastly we are told: '■these fiery passions and fierce combats the sprinkling of a Utile dust controls and stilish
But besides the poet's love for the country, and his strong conviction of the happiness and dignity of labour, there are in the Georgics two other feelings closely blended together which furnish perhaps as much inspiration to this poem as the others. These are (i) the patriotic fueling : the love of Italy as a land of great heroes, and a glorious history, now after a centuiy of discord united under a strong and wise ruler, and with a new era of peace and greatness opening upon it : and (2) the moral feeling ; that the country life of the past, with its simplicity, its healthy labour, its home affections and purity, its hardiness, and its freedom from pettiness of spirit and degrading luxury and noxious cares, was the true school of that manliness, energy and worth, which had made Rome great.
As to the first, the patriotic feeling, there can be no doubt that Vergil was deeply imbued with it ; it is the inspiration more than any other single sentiment of the whole Aeneid, and particularly of the grand catalogue of Rome's worthies which is the climax of the sixth book. If Italy was tnagna parens frngtim (ii. 173) she was no less magna virum ; and the 'Decii, Mani, and great Camilli, and Scipios hardy in war' (169) are no less present to the poet's mind in writing the Georgics than when later he is marshalling in one grand vision the procession of heroes which makes the history of Rome. This is the spirit which animates the majestic vision of triumph at the opening of the third Georgic (22 — 32), where the poet's enthusiasm is made all the more noticeable by the very difficulty (see notes) of fitting his large phrases to the facts. The strength of this feeling too must excuse, if anything can excuse, the turgid though stately flattery of Augustus with which the Georgics open. It seems incongruous to us that a serious poet should be guilty
INTRODUCTION. 27
of such flattery : that he should gravely speak of 'Tethys buying Augustus to be her daughter's husband with the dowry of all her waves,' or the 'Scorpion drawing back his claws' to make room for the emperor as a 1 3th Zodiac-sign ; but we must in fairness remember, not only the usual conventions of courts and court-poetry, but the real enthusiasm for the new era which the poets, as well as everyone else at the time, undoubtedly felt. 'The good time was come': and we who know how largely their hopes were disappointed, must make allowance for the exaggeration which was natural when such hopes were nearly universal.
As to the second, the moral feeling, it was both in the main true and sound, and it was peculiarly natural to a poet of Vergil's sensitive and meditative spirit, brought up in the country, and plunged into the tumult, not merely of town life, but court life in the capital. The splendours, the luxuries, the pleasures of his new life did not attract him : they only made him value more highly the beauty, the spiritual rest, the healthy energies of the country. It was the latter, he felt, which pro- duced the 'brave race of men, the Marsians and the Sabines' : it was in the country that there grew up 'the youth enduring of toil and inured to scanty fare' : it was there that 'gods were worshipped and age held in honour': and there 'Justice as slie left the earth set her last footsteps.' The genuineness of Vergil's feeling is strikingly discerned if we compare him with his most gifted contemporary, Horace. There is an unmistakeable ring of satire' in Vergil's description of the busy and dazzling town life : the crowds of callers, the marble pillars, the robes mocked with gold, the statues from Corinth, the wool stained with Assyrian poison, the clear olive-oil drugged with casia : his spirit longed for what was simpler and purer. Horace too denounces wealth :
* In book iii. 526 there is a significant and characteristic touch of tlie same spirit. lie describes the dying ox, and says 'Of what avail now are his toll and service ? what, that he has turned the heavy earth with the (ilough ? And yet they never knew the baneful Mnssic wine or feasts twice replenished \ on leaves and simple grass they fare, and liear springs are their cups, <tc.
28 INTR on UCTTON.
he too speaks of the simplicity 'of Romuhis and the unshorn Cato,' praises the 'manly race of rustic warriors taught to turn the sod with Sabine spades,' compares the modern Romans unfavourably with 'Scythians of the plain and Getae' who live virtuously. But these moral sayings of the younger poet do not ring so true. They come few and far between amid in- vitations to dinner, eulogies on choice vintages, warnings to seize the passing hour for life is short, gloating memories of past enjoyments, and countless odes to Chloe, Lyce, Neaera, Lydia, Glycera, and the rest of them. To Horace the country meant his Sabine estate, or summer retreat on the bay of Naples, a place of enjoyment : to Vergil it was a natural home, the abode of beauty and pure delight, and of healthy toil, and virtue.
9. Outline of VergiVs life.
P. Vergilius Maro was born 15 Oct., B.C 70, near Mantua, a town on the Mincio in North Italy, then called Cisalpine Gaul. He had not good health, and after being educated at Cremona and Mediolanum {Milan), and studying Greek and philosophy elsewhere, he came back to live (probably) on his father's farm, until about B.C. 42. In that year Octavianus, afterwards the emperor Augustus, had defeated at Philippi Brutus and Cassius, the murderers of JuHus Caesar ; and gave lands to his victorious soldiers in various part of Italy, amongst other assignments being Vergil's farm. The poet's first acquaintance with Augustus was due to this event ; for he applied to him at Rome for the restitution of his property, and was successful. He became the friend of the rich art-patron Maecenas, the poet Horace, and the brilliant circle of literary men who were collected at the court of Augustus. The works of Vergil are not voluminous. The Eclogues are Idylls in imi- tation of the Greek poet Theocritus, and were written sometime before he was 33. The Georgics, an agricultural poem in four books, of which the form was more or less suggested by Hesiod, he wrote in the next few years, finishing them sometime
INTRODUCTION. 29
about his 40th year. The Aeneid, his great work, he appears to have begun about B.C. 27, when he was 43 years of age, at the wish of Augustus. A few years later, finding his health failing, he tried travelling ; and in the spring of 19 he was at Athens. The summer he spent with Augustus abroad, but died a few days after reaching Brundusium on his return. The day of his death was Sept. 22, and he was not quite 51. He was buried at Naples, where his tomb is still shewn, though the authenticity of it is at least doubtful.
His character seems to have been most simple, pure, and loveable ; and his poetic fame was well established even before his death.
p. VERGILI MARONIS.
GEORGICON
LIBER TERTIUS.
Te quoque, magna Pales, et te memorande canemus
Pastor ab Amphryso, vos, silvae amnesque LycaeL
Cetera, quae vacuas tenuissent carmine mente~s,
Omnia iam volgata : quis aut Eurysthea durum,
Aut inlaudati nescit Busiridis aras? 5
Cui non dictus Hylas puer, et Latonia Delos,
Hippodameque, umero<jue Pelops insignis eburno,
Acer equis ? temptanda via est, qua me quoque possim
Tollere humo victorque virum volitare per ora.
Primus ego in patriam mecum, modo vita supersit, 10
Aonio rediens deducam vertice Musas ;
Primus Idumaeas referam tibi, Mantua, palmas
Et viridi in campo templum de marmore ponam
Propter aquam, tardis ingens ubi flcxibus errat
Mincius et tenera jjraetexit harundine ripas. 15
In medio mihi Caesar erit tcmplumque tenebit
Illi victor ego et Tyrio conspectus in ostro
Centum quadriiugos agitabo ad flumina currus.
Cuncta mihi Alpheum linquens lucosque Molorchi
Cursibus et crudo dccernet Graccia cacstu. ' 20
Ipse caput tonsae foliis ornatus olivae
Dona feram. Iam nunc sollemnes ducere potnpas
Ad delubra iuvat caesosquc videre iuvcncos;
Vel scaena ut vcrsis disccdat lVonlil)Us, ul(|ue
Purpurea intexti tollant aulaea IJritanni. 25
32 F. VERGILI MARONIS _
In foribus pugnam ex auro solidoque elephanto Gangaridum faciam victorisque arma Quirini, Atque hie undantem bello raagnumque fluentem Nilum, ac navali surgentes aere columnas. Addam urbes Asiae domitas pulsumque Niphaten 30
Fidentemque fuga Parthiim versisque sagittis, Et duo rapta manu diverso ex hoste tropaea Bisque triumphatas utroque ab litore gentes. Stabunt et Parii lapides, spirantia signa, Assaraci proles demissaeque ab love geiUis 35
Nomina, Trosque parens et Troiae Cynthius auctor. Invidia infelix Furias amnemque severum Cocyti metuet tortosque Ixionis angues Immanemque rotam et non exsuperabile saxum. ' Interea Dryadum silvas saltusque sequamu^ ^ 40
Intactos, tua, Maecenas, baud mollia iussa, Te sine nil altum mens incohat; en age segnes * Rumpe moras ; voCat ingenti clamore Cithaeron Taygetique canes doniitrixque Epidaurus equorum E)t vox adsensu nemoriim ingeminata remugit. 45
Mox tamen ardentes accingar dicere pugnas Caesaris, et nomen fama tot ferre per annos, -Tithoni prima quot abest ab origine Caesar. " Sen quis Olympiacae miratus praemia palmae Pascit equos, seu quis fortes ad aratra iuvencos, 50
Corpora praecipue matrum legat. Optuma torvae Forma bovis, cui turpe caput, cui plurima cervix, Et crurum tenus a mento palearia pendent; Turn longo nuUus lateri modus; omnia magna, Pes ctiam ; et camuris hirtae sub cornibus aures. 55
Nee mihi displiceat maculis insignis et albo, Aut iuga detractans interdumque aspera cornu Et faciem tauro propior, quaeque ardua tota, Et gradiens ima verrit vestigia cauda. Aetas Lucinam iustosque pati hymenaeos 60
Desinit ante decern, post quattuor incipit annos; Cetera nee feturae habilis nee fortis aratris. Interea, superat gregibus dum laeta iuventas, Solve mares ; mitte in Venerem pecuaria primus, Atque aliam ex alia generando suffice prolem. 65
GEORGICON LIB. III., 33
'ima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus aevi iia fiigit ; subeunt morbi tristjsque senectus .. labor, et durae rapit inclementia mortis. Semper erunt, quarum mutari corpora malis : Semper enim refice ac, ne post amissa requiras, 70
Anteveni, et subolem armento sortire quotannis. Nee non et pecori est idem delectus equino. Tu modo, quos in spem statues submittere gentis, Praecipuum iam inde a teneris impende laborem. Continuo pecoris generosi puUus in arvis 75
Altius ingreditur et mollia crura reponit; Prirnus et ire viam et fluvios temptare minantes Audet, et ignoto sese committere ponti, Nee vanos horret strepitus. Illi ardua cervix Argutumque caput, brevis alvos obesaque terga, 80
Luxuriatque toris animosum pectus. Honesti Spadices glaueique, color deterrimus albis Et gilvo. Tum, si qua sonum procul arma dedere, St^re loco neseit, micat auribus et tremit artus, CoUectumque Tremens volvit sub naribus ignem. 85
Densa tuba, et dextro iactata reeumbit in armo; At duplex agitur per lumbos spina, cavatque Tellurem et solido graviter sonat ungula eornu. Talis Amyclaei domitus Poilucis habenis Cyllarus et, quorum Grai meminere poctae, 90
Martis eciui biiuges et niagni currus Achilli. Talis et ipse iubam eervice effudit equina Coniugis adventu jjcrnix Saturnus, et altum Pelion hinnitu fugiens implevit acuto. 94
Hunc quoque, ubi aut moibo gravis aut iam segnior annis Deficit, abde dome nee turpi ignosce senectae. Frigidus in Venerem senior, fiustraque laborem Ingra'tum trahit, et, si quando ad proelia ventum est, Ut quondam in stipulis magnus sine viribus ignis, Incassum furit. Ergo animos aevomqiie notabis 100
Praecipuc; hinc alias artes prolemque parentum Et quis cuirjue dolor viclo, quae gloria palmae. Nonne vides, cum praecipiti certamine campum Corripuere, ruuntque cffusi carcere currus, Cum bpcs arrcclac iuvcnum, exuUanlia(|uc haurit 105
C. III. IV. ,
34 P- VER GILI MA R ON/S
Corda pavor pulsans? illi instant verbere torto
Et proni dant lora, volat vi fervidus axis ;
lamqiie huniiles, iamque elati sublime videntur ^
Aera per vacuum ferri atque adsurgere in auras;
Nee mora nee retjuies; at fulvae nimbus liarcnac iio
ToUitur, umescunt spumis flatuque sequentum :
Tantus amor laudum, tantae est victoria cuiae.
Primus Erichthonius currus et quattuor ausus
lungcre equos, rapidusque rotis insistere victor.
Frena Pelethronii Lapithae gyrosque dedere 1 1 5
Impositi dorso atque equitem docueie sub armis
Insultare solo et gressus glomcrare superbos.
Aequus uterque labor, aeque iuvenemque magistri
Exquirunt calidumque nuimis et cursibus acrem,
Quamvis saepe fuga versos ille egerit hostes 120
Et patriam Epiruni referat fortesque Mycenas
Neptunique ipsa deducat origine gentem.
His animadversis instant sub tempus et omnes Impendunt curas denso distendere pingui, '
Quem legere ducem et pecori dixere maritum : 125
Florentesque secant herbas fluviosque ministrant Farraque, ne blando nequeat superesse labori Invalidique patrum referant ieiunia nati. Ipsa auteni macie tenuant armenta volentes, Atque, ubi concubitus primos iam nota voluptas 130
Sollicitat, frondesque negant et fontibus arcent. Saepe etiam cursu quatiunt et sole fatigant, Cum graviter tunsis gemit area frugibus, et cum Surgentem ad Zephyrum paleae iactantur inanes. Hoc faciunt, nimio ne luxu obtunsior usus 135
Sit genitali arvo et sulcos oblimet inertes, Sed rapiat siticns Venerem interiusque recondat.
Rursus cura patrum cadere et succedere matrum Incipit. Exactis gravidae cum mensibus errant, Non illas gravibus quisquam iuga ducere plaustris, 1(40 Non saltu superare viam sit passus et acri Carpere prata fuga fluviosque innare rapaces. Saltibus in vacuis pascunt et plena secundum Mumina, muscus ubi, et viridissinia graniine ripa, Speluncaeque tegant^et saxea procubet umbra, 145
GEORGICON LIB. III. 35
Est lucos Silari circa ilicibusque virentem
Plurimus Alburnum volitans, cui nomen asilo
Romanuiii est, oestrum Grai vcrtere vocantes,
Asper, acerba sonans, quo tota exterrita silvis
Diffugiunt armenta ; furii mugitibus aether 150
Concussus silvaeque et sicci ripa Tanagri.
Hoc c|Uondam nvenstro horribiles exercuit iras
Inacliiae luno pestem meditata iuvencae.
Himc quoque, nam mediis fervoribus acrior instat,
Arcebis gravido pecori,' , armentaque pasces 155
Sole recens orto aut noctem ducentibus astris.
Post partum cura in vitulos traducitur oinnis, Continuoque notas et nomina gentis inurunt, Et quos aut pecori malint submittere habendo Aut aris servare sacros aut scindeie terram 160
Et campum horrentem . fractis invei tero glaebis. Cetera pascuntur virides armenta per herbas. Tu quos ad studium atque usum formabis agrestem, lam vitulos bortare viamque insiste domandi, Dum faciles animi iyvenum, dum mobilis aetas. 165
Ac primum laxos tenui de vimine circlos Cervici subnecte ; dehinc, ubi libera colla Servitio adsuerint, ipsis e torquibus aptos lunge pares et coge gradum conferre iuvencos ; Atque illis iam saepe rotae ducantur inanes 170
Per terram et sunmio vestigia pulvere signent ; Post valido nitens sub pondere faginus axis Instrepat et iunctos temo trahat aereus orbes. Interea pubi indomitae non gramina tantum Nee vescas salicum frondes ulvanviuc palustrem, 175
Sed frumenta manu carpes sata ; n^c tibi fetac More patrum nivea ini])lebunt mulctraria vaccae, Sed tola in dulces consunicnt ubera natos.
Sin ad bclla magis siudium turmasque feroccs, Aut Alphea rotis praelabi flumina Pisae 180
Et lovis in luco currus agitare volantes : Primus equi labor est, animos atque arma vidcre Bellantum lituosque pati tractuquc gementem Ferre rotam et stabulo frenos audire sonantcs ; Turn magis atque magis Mandis gaudere magislri 1.^5
o —
3—3
36 P. VERGILJ AIARONIS
Laudibus et nlausae sonitum cervicis amare.
Atque haec iam primo depulsus ah ubere matris
Gaudeat, inque vicem det nioUibus ora capistris
Invalidus etiamque tremens, etiam inscius aevi.
At tribus exactis ubi quarta accesserit aestas, 190
Carpere mox gyrum incipiat gradibusque sonare
Compositis sinuetque alterna voluniina crurum,
Sitque laboranti similis ; turn cursibus auras,
Turn vocet, ac per aperta volans ceu liber habenis
Aequora vix summa vestigia ponat harena; 195
Qualis Hyperboreis Aqiiilo cum densus ab oris
Incubuit, Scythiaeque hiemes atque arida differt
Nubila : turn segetes altae campique natantes
Lenibus horrescunt flabris, summaeque sonorem
Dant silvae, longique urguent ad litora fluctus ; 200
Ille volat simul arva fuga, simul aequora verrens.
Hinc vel ad Elei metas et maxima campi
Sudabit spatia et spumas aget ore cruentas,
Belgica vel molli melius feret esseda coUo.
Tum demum crassa magnum farragine corpus 205
Crescere iam domitis sinito : namque ante domandum
Ingentes toUent animos prensique negabunt
Verbera lenta pati et duris parere lupatis.
Sed non ulla magis vires industria firmat, Quam Venerem et caeci stimulos avertere amoris, 210 Sive bourn sive est cui gratior usus equorum. Atque ideo tauros procul atque in sola relegant Pascua post montem oppositum et trans flumina lata, Aut intus clausos satura ad praesepia servant. Carpit enim vires paulatim uritque videndo 215
Femina, ncc nemorum patitur mcminisse nee herbae (Dulcibus ilia quidem inlecebris), et saepe superbos Cornibus inter sc subigit decernere amantes. Pascitur in magna Sila formosa iuvenca : Illi alternantes multa vi proelia miscent 2'2o
Volneribus crebris ; lavit ater corpora sanguis, Versaque in obnixos urguentur cornua vasto Cum gemitu ; reboant silvacque et longus Olympus. Nee mos bellantes una stabulare, sed alter Victus abit longeque ignotis exsulat oris, 225
GEORGICON XI£. III. 37
Multa gemens igiiominiam plagasque superbi
Victoris, turn, quos amisit inultiis, amores ;
Et stabula aspectans regnis excessit avitis.
Ergo omni cura vires exercet et inter
Dura iacet pernox instrato saxa cubili 230
Frondibus liirsutis et carice pastus acuta,
Et temptat sese, atque irasci in cornua discit
Arboris obnixus trunco, ventosque lacessit
Ictibus, et sparsa ad pugnam proludit harena.
Post ubi coUectum robur viresque refectae, 235
Signa movet, praecepsqtie oblitum fertur in hostem ;
Fluctus uti, medio coepit cum albescere ponto,
Longius ex altoque sinum trahit, utque volutus
Ad terras immane sonat per saxa, neque ipso
Monte minor procumbit, at ima exaestuat unda 240
Vorticibus nigramque alte subiectat harenam.
Omne adeo genus in terris hominumque ferarumque, Et genus aequoreum, pecudes pictaeque volucres, In furias ignemque ruunt : amor oninil)us idem. Tempore non alio catulorum oblita leaena 245
Saevior erravit campis, nee funera volgo Tarn multa informes ursi stragemque dedere Per silvas ; tum saevus aper, tum pessima tigris ; Heu male tum Libyae solis eriatur in agris. Nonne vides, ut tota tremor pertemptet equorum 250
Corpora, si tantum notas odor atiulit auras ? Ac neque eos iara frena virum neque verbera saeva, Non scopuli rupesque cavae atcjue obiecta retardant Flumina correptosque unda torquentia montes. Ipse* ruit dentesque Sabellicus exacuit sus, 255
Et pede prosubigit terram, fricat arbore costas, Atque hinc atque illinc umeros ad volnera durat. Quid iuvcnis, magnum cui versat in ossibus ignem Durus amor? nempe abruptis turbaia proccllis Nocte natat caeca serus freta ; qucm super ingens 260 Porta tonat caeli et scopulis inlisa reclamant Aequora ; nee miseri possunt revocare parentcs Nee moritura super cjudeli funere virgo. Quid lynces Bacchi variae et genus acre luporum Atque canum ? quid, (juae inbelles dant proclia cervi ? 265
70805
38 P. VERGIL! MARONIS
Scilicet ant6 onines furor est insignis equarum ;
\'X mentem Venus ipsa dedit, tiuo tcin[)ore (ilauci
Poliiiades malis nicinbra absuiiipscre quadrigae.
Illas ducit amor trans Gargara transque sonantem
Ascaniuni ; superant monies el flumina tranant. 270
Continuoque avidis ubi subdita flamma medullis,
(Vere magis, quia vere calor redit ossibus) illae
Ore omnes versae in Zephyrum stant rupibus altis,
Exceptantijue leves auras et sacpe sine uUis
Coniugiis vento gravidae (mirabile dictu) 275
Saxa per et scopulos et depressas coiiyalles
Diffugiunt, non, Eure, tuos, neque solis ad ortus,
In Korean Caurumque, aut unde nigerrimus Auster
Nascitur et pluvio contristat frigore caelum. ^
Hie demum, hippomanes vero quod nomine dicunt 280
Pastores, lentum destillat ab inguine virus,
Hippomanes, quod saepe malae legere novercae
Miscueruntque herbas et non innoxia verba.
Sed fugit interea, fugit inreparabile tempus, Singula dum capti circumvectamur amore. 285
Hoc satis armentis : superat pars altera curae, Lanigeros agitare greges hiitasque capellas. Hie labor, hinc laudem fortes sperate coloni. Nee sum animi dubius, verbis ea vincere magnum Quam sit, et angustis hunc addere rebus honorem ; 290 Sed me Parnasi deserta per ardua dulcis Raptat amor ; iuvat ire iugis, qua nulla priorum Castaliam molli devertitur orbita clivo. Nunc, veneranda Pales, magno nunc ore sonandum.
Incipiens stabulis edico in mollibus herbam 295
Carpere oves, dum mox frondosa reducitur aestas, Et multa duram stipula felicumque maniplis Sternere subter liumum, glacies ne frigida laedat Molle pecus, scabiemque ferat turpesque podagras. Post hinc digressus iubeo frondentia capris 300
Arbuta sufificere et fluvios praebere recentes, Et stabula a ventis hiberno opponere soli Ad medium conversa diem, cum frigidus olira lam cadit extremoque inrorat Aquarius anno. Hae quoque non cura nobis leviorc tuendae, gO£
GEORGICON LIB. III. %<)
Nee minor usus erit, quamvis Milcsia niai^no Vellera nuitentur Tyrios incocta rubores : - Densior hinc suboles, hinc largi copia lactis ; Quam magis exhausto spumaverit iibere mulctra, Laeta magis pressis manabunt flumina mammis. 310
Nee minus interea barbas ineanaque menta Cinyphii tondent hirei saetasque eomantes Usum in castrorum et miseris velamma nautis. Paseuntur vero silvas et summa Lycaei Horrentesque rubos et amantes* af3ua dumos : 315
Atque ipsae memores redeunt in tecta suosque Ducunt, et gravido superant vix ubere limen. Ergo omni studio glaeiem ventosque nivales. Quo minor est illis curae mortalis egestas, Avertes victumque feres et virgea laetus . 320
Pabula, nee tota claudes faenilia bruma. At vero Zephyris cum laeta vocantibus aestas In saltus utrumque gregem atque in paseua mittet, Luciferi primo cum sidere frigida rura Carpamus, dum mane novum, dum gramina canent, 325 Et ros in tenera pecori gratissimus herba. Inde ubi quarta sitim caeli collegerit hora Et cantu querulae rumpent arbusta eieadae, Ad puteos aut alta greges ad stagna iubebo Currentem ilignis potare canalibus undam ; 330
Aestibus at mediis umbrosam exquirere vallem, Sicubi magna lovis antiquo robore quercus Ingentes tendat ramos, aut sicubi nigrum Ilieibus crebris sacra nemus accubet umbra ; Turn tenues dare rursus aquas et pascere rursus 3'?5
Solis ad occasum, cum frigidus aera vesper lemperat et saltus rcficit iam roscida luna Litoraque aleyonem resonant, acalanthida dumi. Quid tibi paslores IJbyae, quid pasciia versu Prosequar et raris habitata mapalia tectis ? 340
Saepe diem noctemquc et totum ex ordinc mensem Pascitur itcjuc pecus longa in^deserta sine ullis Hospitiis : tantum campi iacet. omnia secum Aruu'iitarius Alcr agit, tectuuKjue larcuKjue Aimacjue Amyclaeumcjue canem Crcssaiiiquc pliarctram ;
/
40 P, VERGILI MARONIS
Non sccus ac patriis acer Romanus in aimis 346
Iniusto sub fasce viani cum carpit, et hosti
Ante expectatum positis stat in agniine castris.
At non, qua Scythiae gentes Maeotiaque unda,
I'urbidus et torquens flaventes Hister harenas, 350
Qiiaque redit medium Rhodope porrecta sub axein. '
Illic clausa tenent stabulis armenta, neque ullae
Aut herbae campo apparent aut arbore frondes ;
Sed iacet aggeribus niveis informis et alto
Terra gelu late septemque adsurgit in ulnas. 355
Semper hiemps, semper spirantes fiigora Cauri.
Turn Sol pallentes haud umquam discutit umbras,
Nee cum invectus equis altum petit aelhera, nee cum
Praecipitem Oceani rubro lavit aequore currum.
Concrescunt subitae current! in flumine crustae 360
Undaque iam tergo ferrates sustinet orbes,
Puppibus ilia prius, patulis nunc hospita plaustris ;
Aeraque dissiliunt ultro, vestesque rigescunt
Indutae, caeduntque securibus umida vina,
Et totae solidam in glaciem vcrtere lacunae, 365
Sliriaque inpexis induruit horrida barbis.
Interea toto non setius aere ninguit :
Intereunt pecudes, stant circumfusa pruinis
Corpora magna boum, confertoque agmine cervi
Torpent mole nova et summis vix cornibus extant. 373
Hos non immissis canilnis, non cassibus ullis
Puniceaeve agitant pavidos formidine pennae,
Sed frustra oppositum trudcntes pectore montem
Comminus obtruncant ferro, graviterque rudentes
Caedunt, et magno laeti clamore reportant. 375
Ipsi in defossis specubus secura sub alta
Otia agunt terra, congestaque robora totasque
Advolvere focis ulmos ignique dedere.
Hie noctem ludo ducunt, et pocula laeti
Fermento atque acidis imitantur vitea sorbis. 3S0
Talis Hyperboreo septem subiecta trioni
Gens effrena virum Rhipaeo tunditur Euro
Et pecudum fulvis velatur corpora saetis.
Si tibi lanitium curae, primum aspera silva I^ppaeque tribolique absint; fuge pabula laeta; 385
> GEORGICON LIB. III. 41
Continuoque greges villis lege mollibus albos.
Ilium autem, quamvis aries sit candidus ipse,
Nigra subest udo tantum cui lingua palato,
Reice, ne niaculis infuscet vellera pullis
Nascentum, plenoque alium circumspice campo. 390
Munere sic niveo lanae, si credere dignum est,
Pan deus Arcadiae captam te, Luna, fefellit
In nemora alta vocans ; nee tu aspernata vocantem.
At cui lactis amor, cytisum lotosque frequentes Ipse manu salsasque ferat praesepibus herbas. 395
Hinc et amant fluvios magis, et magis ubera tendunt Et salis occultum referunt in lacte saporem. Multi iam excretos prohibent a matribus haedos Primaque ferratis praefigunt ora capistris. Quod surgente die mulsere horisque diurnis, 400
Nocte premunt ; quod iam tenebris et sole cadente, Sub lucem ; exportans calathis adit oppida pastor, • Aut parco sale contingunt hiemique reponunt.
Nee tibi cura canum fuerit postrema, sed una Velocis Spartae catulos acremque Molossum 405
Pasce sero pingui. Nuniquam custodibus illis Nocturnum stabulis furem incursusque luporum Aut inpacatos a tergo horrebis Hiberos. Saepe etiam cursu timidos agitabis onagros, Et canibus leporem, canibus venaijere dammas; 410
Saepe volutabris pulsos silvestribus apros Latratu turbabis agens montesque per altos Ingentem clamore premes ad retia cervum.
Disce et odoratam stabulis accendere cedrum Galbaneoque agitare graves nidore chelydros. 415
Saepe sub inmotis praesepibus aut m;ila tartu Vipera delituit caelumcjue exterrita fugit, Aut tecto adsuetus coluber succedere et umbrae (Pestis acerba boum) pecorique aspergere virus, Fovit humum. Cape saxa manu, cape robora, pastor, 420 Tollentemque minas et sibila colla tumentem Deice, lamcjue fuga timidum caput abdidit alte. Cum medii nexus extremaeque agmina caudae Solvontur, tardosque trahit sinus ultimus orbes. Est etiam ille malus Calabris in saltibus anguis, 425
4-' P. VERGILI MARONIS
Siiuamea convolvens siiblato pectore terga
Alque notis longam niaculosus grandibus alvorn,
Qui, dum anines iilli lumpuntiir fontibus ct dura
Vcre niadcnt udo terrae ac pliivialibus auslris,
Stagna colit, ripisiiue habitans hie piscibus atram 430
hiiprobus ingluviem ranisque loquacibus explet;
Postquam exusta palus, terraeque ardore dchiscunt,
l''>xsilit in siccum et flammantia luniina tonjuens
Saevit agris, asperque siti atque exterritus aestu.
Ne niilii turn molles sub divo carpere somnos 435
Neu dorso nemoris libeat iacuisse per herbas,
Cum positis novus exuviis nitidusque iuventa
Volvitur aut catulos tectis aut ova relinquens
Aiduus ad solem et Unguis inicat ore trisulcis.
Morborum ([uoque te causas et signa docebo. 440
Turpis oves temptat scabies, ubi frigidus iniber Altius ad vivom persedit et horrida cano Bruma gelu, vel cum tonsis inlotus adhaesit Sudor et hirsuti secuerunt corpora vepres. Dulcibus idcirco fluviis pecus omne magistri 445
Perfundunt, udisque aries in gurgite villis Mersatur niissusque secundo defluit amni; Aut tonsum tristi contingunt corpus amurca Et spumas misgent argenti vivaque sulfura Idaeasque pices et pingues unguine cet'as 450
Scillamque elleborosque graves nigrumque bitumen. Non tamen uUa magis praesens fortuna laborum est, Quam si quis ferro potuit rcscindere summum Ulceris os : alitur vitium vivitque tegendo, Dum medicas adhibere manus ad volnera pastor 455 Abnegat et meliora dcos sedet omnia poscens. Quin etiam, ima dolor balantum lapsus ad ossa Cum furit atque artus depascitur arida febris, Profuit incensos aestus avertere et inter Ima ferire pedis salientem sanguine venam, 460'
Bisaltae quo more solent acerque Gelonus ; Cum fugit in Rhodopen atque in deserta Getarum Kt lac concretuin cum sanguine potat equino. Quam procul aut niolli succedere saepiijs umbrae Videris, aut summas carpenlem ignavius herbas 465
GEORGICON LIB. HI.
43
Extremamque sequi ant medio procumbere canipo
Pascentem et serae solam deccdere nocti ;
Continuo culpam ferro compesce, priusquain
Dira per incautum serpant contagia volgus.
Non tarn creber agens hiemem rait aequore turbo, 470
Quam multae pecuduni pestes. Nee singula niorbi
Corpora corripiunt, sed tota aestiva repente,
Spemque gregemque siniul cunctamque ab Origine gentem.
Turn sciat, aerias Alpes et Nor^ca si quis
Castella in tumulis et lapydis arva Timavi f^ -•-- '^^475
Nunc quoque post tanto videat desertaque regna
Pastorum et longe saltus lateque vacantes.
Hie quondam morbo caeli miseranda coorta est Tempestas, totoque autumni incan(iuit aestu, Et genus omne neci pecudum dedit, omne ferarum, 483 Corrupitque lacus, infecit pabula tabo. Nee via mortis erat simplex, sed ubi ignea venis Omnibus acta sitis miseros adduxerat artus, Rursus abundabat fluidus liquor omniaque in se Ossa minutatim morbo conlapsa trahebat. Saepe in honore deum medio stans hostia ad aram, Lanea dum nivea circumdatur infula vitta,
\ Inter cuTictarrtes cecidit moribunda ministros. Aut si quam ferro mactaverat ante sacerdos, Inde neque impositis ardent altaria fibris Nee responsa potest consultus reddere vales Ac vix suppositi linguntur sanguine cultri Suinmaque ieiuna sanie infuscatur harena. Hinc lactis vituli volgo moriuntur in herbis Et dulces animas plena ad praesepia rcddunt ; Hinc canibus blandis rabies venit, et quatit acgros Tussis anlicla sues ac faiicibus angit obesis. Labilur infelix sludiorum atque immemor herbae Victor equus fontesque avertitur et pede terram Crebra fcrit ; demissae aurcs, inccrtus ibidem S^mjor et ille quidem morituris frigidus, aret Pellis et ad tactum tractanti dura resistit. Haec ante cxitium primis dant signa diebus ; Sin in processu coepit crudcscere morbus,
^ Turn vcro ardcntcs oculi alciuc attractus ab alto 505
485
490
495
500
44 P' VERGTLI MARONTS
Spiritus, intcrdum gemitu gravis, imaque longo
Ilia singultu tendunl, it naribus ater
Sanguis et obsessas fauces picmit aspere lingua.
Profuit inserto latices infundeie cornu
Lenaeos ; ea visa salus morientibus una ; 510
Mox erat hoc ipsum exitio, furiisque lefecti
Ardebant ipsique suos iam morte sub aegra
(Di uieliora piis erroremque hostibus ilium !)
Discissos nudis laniabant dentibus artus.
Ecce autem duio fumans sub voinere taurus 515
Concidit et mixtum spumis vomit ore cruorem
Extremosque ciet gemitus. It tristis arator
Maerentem abiungens fraterna morte iuvencum,
Atque opere in medio defixa relinquit aratra.
Non umbrae altorum nemorum, non moUia possunt 520
I'rata movcre animum, non qui per saxa volutus
Purior electro campum petit amnis ; at ima
Solvontur latera atque oculos stupor urguet inertes,
Ad terramque fluit devexo pondere cervix.
Quid labor aut benefacta iuvant? quid vomere terras 525
Invertisse graves? atqui non Massica Bacchi
Munera, non illis epulae nocuere repostae :
Frondibus et victu pascuntur simplicis herbae,
Pocula sunt fontes liquidi atque exercita cursu
Flumina, nee somnos abrumpit cura salul>res. 530
Tempore non alio dicunt regionibus illis
Quaesitas ad sacra boves lunonis et uris
Imparibus ductos alta ad donaria currus.
Ergo aegre rastris terram rimantur et ipsis
Unguibus infodiunt fruges montesque per altos 535
Contenta cervice trahunt stridentia plaustra.
Non lupus insidias explorat ovilia circum
Nee gregibus nocturnus obambulat ; acrior ilium
Cura domat ; timidi dammae cervique fugaces
Nunc interque canes et circum tecta vagantur. 540
lam maris immensi prolem et genus omne natantum
Litore in exiremo, ecu naufraga corpora, ductus
Proluit ; insolitae fugiunt in flumina phocae.
Interit et curvis frustra defensa latebris
Vipera et attoniti squamis adstantibus hydri. 545
GEORGICON LIB. III. 45
Ipsis est aer avibus non aequus, et illae
Praecipites alta vitam sub nube relinquonL
Praeterea iam nee mutari pabula refert
Quaesitaeque nocent artes ; cessere magistri,
Phillyrides Chiron Amythaoniusque Melampus. 550
Saevit et in lucem Stygiis emissa tenebris
Pallida Tisiphone Morbos agit ante Metumque,
Inque dies avidum surgens caput altius effert.
Balatu pecorum et crebris mugitibus amnes
Arentesque sonant ripae collesque supini. 555
lamque catervatim dat stragem atque aggerat ipsis
In stabulis turpi dilapsa cadavera tabo,
Donee humo tegere ac foveis abscondere discunt.
Nam neque erat coriis usus nee viscera quis(}uam
Aut undis abolere potest aut vincere flamma; 560
Ne tondere quidem morbo inluvieque peresa
Vellera nee telas possunt attingere putres;
Verum etiam invisos .si quis temptarat aniictus,
Ardentes papulae atque immundus olentia sudor
Membra sequebatur, nee longo deinde moranti 565
Tempore contaetos artus saccr ignis edebat.
r. VERGILT MA RON IS
GEORGICON
LIBER OUARTUS.
Protiniis aerii inellis caelestia dona
Exsequar. Hanc etiani, Maecenas, aspice partem.
Admiranda tibi levium spectacula rerum,
Magnanimosque duces totiusque ordine gentis
Mores et studia at populos et proelia dicam. 5
In tenui labor; at tenuis non gloria, si quem
Nuniina laeva sinunt auditque vocatus Ai)ollo.
Principio sedes apibus staiioque petenda, Quo neque sit ventis aditus (nam pabula venti Ferre domum prohibent) neque oves haedique petulci 10 Floribus insultent, aut errans bucula campo Decutiat rorem et surgentes atterat herbas. Absint et picti squalentia terga lacerti Pinguibus a stabulis, nieropesque, aliaequc volucres, Et manibus Procne pectus signata cruentis; 15
Omnia nam late vastant ipsascjue volantes Ore ferunt dulcem nidis inmitibus escam. At liquidi fontes et stagna virentia musco Adsint et tenuis fugiens per gramina rivos, Palmarjue vestibulum aut ingens oleaster inumbret, 20 Ut, cum prima sui ducent examina reges Vere sue, ludetque favis emissa iuventus, Vicina invitet decedere ripa calori Obviaque hospitiis leneat frondentibus arbos. In medium, seu stabit iners seu prolluet umor, 25
GEO RG I CON LIB. IV. 47
Transversas salices et giandia coiiice saxa,
Pontibus ut crebris possint consistere et alas
Pandere* ad aestivom solem, si forte morantes
Sparserit aut praeceps Neptuno inmerserit Eurus.
Haec circum casiae virides et olentia late 30
Serpulla et graviter spirantis copia thymbrae
Floreat, inriguumque bibant violaria fontcni.
Ipsa autcm, sen corticibus tibi suta cavatis ^
Seu lenlo fuerint alvaria vimine texta,
Angustos liabeant aditus : nam frigore mella 35
Cogit hiemps, eadeinque calor liquefacta remittit.
Utraque vis apibus pariter metuenda; neque illae
Nequiquam in tectis certatim tenuia cera
Spiramenta linunt fucoque et floribus oras
Explent, collectumque haec ipsa ad numera gluten 40
Et visco et Phrygiae servant pice lentius Idae.
Saepe etiam effossis, si vera est fania, latebris
Sub terra fovere larem, i)enitusque repertae
Pumicibusque cavis exesaeque arboris antro.
Tu tamen et levi rimosa cubilia limo 45
Ungiie fovens circum et raras supeiinice frondes.
Ncu propius tectis taxum sine, neve rubentes
Ure foco cancros, altae neu crede j^aludi,
Aut ubi odor caeni gravis aut ubi concava pulsu
Saxa sonant vocisque oftensa resultat imago. 50
Quod superest, ubi pulsam hiemem sol aureus egit Sub terras caelumque aestiva luce reclusit, Illae continuo saltus silvasque peragrant Purpureosquc metunt llores et flumina libant Summa leves. Hinc nescio qua dulcedine laetae 55
Progenieni nidosque fovcnt, hinc arte recenies Excuduiu ceras et niella tenacia lingunt. Hinc ubi iani emissum caveis ad sidcra caeli Nare per aestatcm licjuidain suspexeris agmen Obscu;anique trahi vento miral^ere nubem, 60
Contcmplator : a(|uas dulccs et frondea semper Tecta petunt. Hue tu iussos asperge sapores, Trita melisphylla ct cerinthac ignobile gramcn, Tinnitiisque f:ie et Matris (juate cyinbala circum: Ipsac confident mcilicuiis scdibus, ipsae 65
48 P. VERGILI MARONIS
Intima more suo sese in cunabula condent.
Sin autein ad pugnam exierint — nam saepe duobus Regibus incessit magno discordia motu ; Continuoque animos volgi et trepidantia bello Corda licet longe praesciscere ; namque morantes 70
Martius ille aeris rauci canor increpat et vox Auditur fractos sonitus imitata tubarum ; Tum trepidae inter se coeunt pinnisque coruscant Spiculaque exacuunt rostris aptantque lacertos, Et circa reges ipsa ad praetoria densae 75
Miscentur magnisque vocant clamoribus hostem. Ergo ubi vcr nactae sudum camposque patentes, Erumpunt portis : concurritur, aethere in alto Fit sonitus, magnum mixtae glomerantur in orbem Praecipitesque cadunt ; non densior aere grando, 80
Nee de concussa tantum pluit ilice glandis. Ipsi per medias acies insignibus alis Ingentes animos angusto in pectore versant, Usque adeo obnixi non cedere, dum gravis aut hos Aut hos versa fuga victor dare terga subegit. 85
Hi motus animorum atque haec certamina tanta Pulveris exigui iactu compressa quiescunt.
Verum ubi ductores acie revocaveris ambo, Deterior qui visus, eum, ne prodigus obsit, Dede neci; melior vacua sine regnet in aula. 90
Alter,, erit maculis auro squalentibus ardens ; Nam duo sunt genera : hie melior, insignis et ore Et rutilis clarus squamis ; ille horridus alter Desidia, latamque trahens inglorius alvom. Ut binae regum facies, ita corpora plebis. 95
Namque aliae turpes horrent, ceu pulvere ah alto Cum venit et sicco terram spuit ore viator Aridus ; elucent aliae et fulgore coruscant, Ardentes auro et paribus lita corpora guttis. Haec potior suboles, hinc caeli tempore certo 100
Dulcia mella premes, nee tantum dulcia, quantum Et liquida et durum Bacchi domitura saporem.
At cum incerta volant caeloque examina ludunt Contemnuntque favos et frigida tecta relinquont, Instabiles animos ludo prohibebis inani. 105
GEORGICON LIB. JV.
49
<rec magnus prohibere labor : tu regibus alas Eripe ; non illis qiiisquam cunctantibiis altum Ire iter aut castris audebit vellere signa. Invitent .croceis halantes floribus horti Et custos furum atque avium cum falce saligna no
Hellespontiaci servet tutela Priapi. Ipse thymum pinosque ferens de montibus altis Tecta serat late circum, cui talia curae; Ipse labore manum duro terat, ipse feraces Figat humo plantas et amicos inriget imbres. 115
Atque equidem, extreme ni iam sub fine laborum Vela traham et terris festinem advertere proram, Forsitan et, pingues hortos quae cura colendi Ornaret, canerem, biferique rosaria Paesti, Quoque niodo potis gauderent intiba rivis 120
Et virides apio ripae, tortusque per herbam Cresceret in ventrem cucumis ; nee sera comantem Narcissum aut flexi tacuissem vimen acanthi Pallentesque hederas et amantes litora myrtos. Namque sub Oebaliae memini me turribus altis, 125
Qua niger umectat flavcntia culta Galaesus, Corycium vidisse senem, cui pauca relicti lugera runs erant, nee fertilis ilia iuvencis Nee pccori opportuna seges nee commoda Bacclio, Hie rarum tamen in dumis okis albaque circum 130
Lilia verbenasque premens vescumque papaver, Regum aequabat opes animis, seraque revcrtens Nocte domum dapibus mensas onerabat inemptis. Primus vere rosam atque autumno carpere poma, Et cum tristis hiemps etiamnum frigore saxa 135
Rumperet et glacie cursus frenaret aquarum, lUe comam mollis iam tondel)at hyacinthi Aestatem increpitans seram zephyrosciue morantes. Ergo apibus fetis idem atque examine multo Primus abundare et spumantia cogere pressis 140
Mella favis ; illi tiliae atque uberrima pinus, Qiiotque in flore novo pomis se fertilis arbos Indiieral, totidem autumno niatura tenebat. Ille etiam seras in versum dislulit uimos Kduramrjue pirum et spinos iam pruna ferentes 145
G. 111. IV. 4
50 P. VERGILI MARONIS
lamque minislniniem plaiaiuim potantibus umbras. Vcimn hacc ipse equidem spatiis exclusus iniquis riactereo atque aliis post me memoranda relinquo.
Nunc age, naturas apibus quas luppiter ipse Addidit, expediam, pro qua mercede canoros 150
Curetum sonitus crepitantiaque aera secutae Dictaeo caeli regem pavere sub antro. Solae communes natos, consortia tecta Urbis habent, magnisque agitant sub legibus aevom, Et patriam solae et certos novere penates ; 155
Venturaeque biemis memores aestate laborem Experiuntur et in medium quaesita reponunt, Namque aliae victu invigilant et foedere pacto Exercentur agris ; pars intra saepta domorum Narcissi lacrimam et lentum de cortice gluten 160
Prima favis ponunt fundamina, deinde tenaces Suspendunt ceras ; aliae spem gentis adultos Educunt fetus ; aliae purissima mella Stipant, et liquido distendunt nectare cellas. Sunt, quibus ad portascecidit custodia sorti, 165
Inque vicem speculantur aquas et nubila caeli Aut onera accipiunt venientum aut agmine facto Ignavum fucos pecus a praesepibus arcent. Fervet opus, redolentque thymo fragrantia mella; Ac veluti lentis Cyclopes fulmina massis 170
Cum properant, alii taurinis follibus auras Accipiunt redduntque, alii stridentia tingunt Aera lacu ; gemit inpositis incudibus Aetna ; lUi inter sese magna vi bracchia tollunt In numerum, versantque tenaci forcipe ferrum : 175
Non aliter, si parva licet componere magnis, Cecropias innatus apes amor urguet habendi, Munere quamque suo. Grandaevis oppida curae Et munire favos et daedala fingere tecta. At fessae multa referunt se node minores, 180
Crura thymo plenae ; pascuntur et arbuta passim Et glaucas salices casiamque crocumque rubentcm \'A pinguem tiliam et ferrugineos hyacinthos. Omnibus una quies operum, labor omnibus unus : Mane ruunt portis; nusquam mora; rursus easdem 185
GEORGICON LIB. IV. 51
Vesper ubi e pastu tandem decedere campis
Admonuit, turn tecta petunt, turn corpora curant;
Fit sonitus mussantque oras et limina circum.
Post, ubi iam thalamis se composuere, siletur
In noctem fessosque sopor suus occupat artus. 190
Nee vero a stabulis pluvia impendente recedunt
Longius, aut credunt caelo adventantibus euris ;
Sed circum tutae sub moenibus urbis aquantur,
Excursusque breves temptant, et saepe lapillos,
Ut cymbae instabiles fluctu iactante saburram, 195
ToUunt, his sese per inania nubila librant.
Ilium adeo placuisse apibus mirabere morem,
Quod neque concubitu indulgent nee corpora segnes
In Venerem solvunt aut fetus nixibus edunt ;
Verum ipsae e foliis natos, e suavibus herbis 200
Ore legunt, ipsae regem parvosque Quirites
Sufficiunt, aulasque et cerea regna refigunt.
Saepe etiam duris errando in cotibus alas
Attrivere ultroque animam sub fasce dedere :
Tantus amor florum et generandi gloria mellis. 205
Ergo ipsas quamvis angusti terminus aevi
Excipiat (neque enim plus septima ducitur aestas)
At genus immortale manet multosque per annos
Stat fortuna domus et avi numerantur avorum.
Praeterea regem non sic Aegyptos et ingens 210
Lydia nee populi Parthorum aut Medus Hydaspes
Oljservant. Rege incolumi mens omnibus una est;
Amisso rupere fidem constructaque inella
Diripuere ipsae et crates solvere favorum.
Ille operum custos, ilium admirantur et omnes 215
Circumstant fremitu denso stipantque frequcntes,
Et saepe attoliunt umeris et corpora bello
Obiectant, pulchramque petunt per volnera mortem.
His (juidam signis atqiie hacc exemjjla secuti Esse apibus partem divinac mentis et hauslus 220
Aetherios dixere ; deum namque ire per omnes 'I'errasque tractusque maris caelumque profundum ; Hinc pecudes, armenta, viros, genus omne feraruiii, Qnemque sibi tenuus nascentem arcessere vitas ; Scilicet hue reddi deinde ac resoluta referri 225
52 p. VERGTLI MARONIS
Omnia, ncc morti esse locum, sed viva volare Sideris in numerum atque alto siicfcdere caelo.
Si e^uando sedeni angustam servataque mella Thesauris relines, prius haustu si)arsus a(niariim Ora fove fumosque manu praetende sequaces. 230
Bis gravidos cogunt fetus, duo tempora niessis, Taygete simul os terris ostendit honestum Plias, et Oceani spretos pede reppulit amnes, Aut eadem sidus fugiens ubi Piscis aquosi Tristior hibernas caelo descendit in undas. 235
Illis ira modum supra est, laesaeque venenum Morsibus inspirant, et spicula caeca lelinquont Adfixae venis, animasque in volnere ponunt Sin duram metues hiemem parcesque future Contusosque animos et res miserabere fractas : 240
At suffire thymo cerasque recidere inanes Quis dubitet? nam saepe favos ignotus adedit Stelio, et lucifugis congesta cubilia blattis, Immunisque sedens aliena ad pabula fucus; Aut asper crabro inparibus se inmiscuit armis, 245
Aut dirum tiniae genus, aut invisa Minervae Laxos in foribus suspendit aranea casses. Quo magis exhaustae fuerint, hoc acrius omnes Incumbent generis lapsi sarcire ruinas, Complebuntque foros et floribus horrea texent. 250
Si vero, quoniam casus apibus quoque nostros Vita tulit, tristi languebunt corpora morbo — Quod iam non dubiis poteris cognoscere signis : Continuo est aegris alius color; horrida voltum Deformat macies; tum corpora luce carentura 255
Exportant tectis et tristia funera ducunt ; Aut illae pedibus conexae ad limina pendent, Aut intus clausis cunctantur in aedibus, omnes Ignavaeque fame et contracto frigore pigrae; Tum sonus auditur gravior tractimque susurrant, 260
Frigidus ut quondam silvis inmurmurat Auster, Ut mare soUicitum stridit refluentibus undis, Aestuat ut clausis rapidus fornacibus ignis : — Hie iam galbaneos suadebo incendere odores Mcllaque harundineis inferre canalibus, ultro 265
GEORGICON LIB. TV. 53
Hortantem et fessas ad pabula nota vocantem.
Proderit et tunsum gallae admiscere saporem
Arentesque rosas, aut igni pinguia multo
Defruta, vel psithia passes, de vite racemes,
Cecropiumque thymuin et grave olentia centaurea. 270
Est etiam flos in pratis, cui nomen amello
Fecere agricolae, facilis quaerentibus herba ;
Namque uno ingentem toUit de caespite silvam,
Aureus ipse, sed in foliis, quae plurima circum
Funduntur, violae sublucet purpura nigrae ; 275
Saepe deum nexis ornatae torquibus arae ;
Asper in ore sapor; tonsis in vallibus ilium
Pastores et curva legunt prope flumina Mellae.
Huius odorato radices incoque Baccho
Pabulaque in foribus plenis adpone canistris. 280
Sed si quern proles subito defecerit omnis Nee, genus unde novae stirpis revocetur, habebit, . Tempus et Arcadii memoranda inventa magistri Pandere, quoque modo caesis iam saepe iuvencis Insincerus apes tulerit cruor. Altius omnem 285
Expediam prima repetens ab origine faniaui. Nam qua Pellaei gens fortunata Canopi Accolit effuso stagnantem flumine Nilum Et circum pictis vehitur sua rura phaselis ; Quaque pliaretratae vicinia Persidis urguet, 290
Et diversa ruens septem discurrit in ora Usque coloratisamnis devexus ab Indis, Et viridem Aegyptum nigra fecundat harcna : Omnis in hac certam regio iacit arte salutem. Exiguus i)rimum atcjue ipsos contractus in usus 295
Eligitur locus ; hunc angustique imbrice tecti Parietibusque premunt artis ct quattuor addunt, Quattuor a ventis obli(|ua luce fenestras. 'I'um vitulus bima curvans iam cornua fronte Quaeritur; huic gcminae narcs et spiritus oris 300
Multa reluctanti obstruitur, plagis(|ue pcrem[)to Tunsa per intcgram solvontur viscera pcllcm. Sic positum in clauso linquont et ramea costis Subiciunt fragmenta, thymnm casi.isc|ue rcccntcs. Hoc geritur Zcphyris primum inpellcntibus undas, 305
54 r. VERGILI MARONIS
Ante novis rubeant quam prata coloribus, ante
Garrula quam tignis nidum suspendat hirundo.
Interea teneris tepefacius in ossibus umor
Aestuat, et visenda modis animalia miris,
Trunca pedum primo, mox et stiidentia pinnis, 310
Miscentur, tenuemque magis magis aera carpunt,
Donee, ut aestivis eflfusus nubibus imber,
Erupere, aut ut nervo puisante sagittae,
Prima leves ineunt si quando proelia Parthi.
Quis deus banc, Musae, quis nobis extudit artem ? "315 Un Je nova ingressus hominum experientia ccpit ? Pastor Aristaeus fugiens Peneia Tempe Aniissis, ut fama, apibus morboque fameque Tristis ad extremi sacrum caput adstitit amnis Multa querens atque hac adfatus voce parentem : 320 ' Mater, Gyrene mater, quae gurgitis huiiis *Ima tenes, quid me praeclara stirpe deorum —
* Si modo, quem perhibes, pater est Thymbraeus Apollo — ' Invisum fatis genuisti ? aut quo tibi nostri
'Pulsus amor? quid me caelum sperare iubebas? 325
* En etiam hunc ipsum vitae mortalis honorem,
' Quem mihi vix frugum et pecudum custodia sellers 'Omnia temptanti extuderat, te matre relinquo. 'Quin age et ipsa manu felices erue silvas,
* Eer stabulis inimicum ignem atque interfice messes, 330 ' Ure sata et duram in vites molire bipennem,
'Tanta meae si te ceperunt taedia laudis.'
At mater sonitum thalamo sub fluminis alti Sensit. Eam circum Milcsia vellera Nymphae Carpebaat hyali saturo fucata colore, ^ 335
Drymoque Xanthoque Ligeaque Phyllodoceque, Caesariem effusae nitidam per Candida coUa, [Nesaee Spioque Thaliaque Cymodoceque,] Cydippeque et flava Lycorias, altera virgo, Altera turn primos Lucinae experta labores, 340
Clioque et Beroe soror, Oceanitides ambae, Ambae auro pictis incinctae pellibus ambae, Atque Ephyre atque Opis et Asia Deiopea Et tandem posiiis velox Arethusa sagittis. Inter quas curam Clymenc narrabat inanem 345
GEORG/CO^ LIB. IV. 55
Volcani, Martisque dolos et dulcia furta,
Aque Chao densos divom numerabat amoies.
Carmine quo captae dum fusls mollia pensa
Devolvont, iterum maternas impulit aures
Luctus Aristaei, vitreisque sedilibus omnes 350
Obstipuere ; sed ante alias Arethusa sorores
Piospiciens summa flavom caput extulit unda,
Yx procul : o gemitu non frustra exterrita tan to,
' Cyrene soror, ipse tibi, tua maxuma cura,
'Tristis Aristaeus Penei genitoris ad undara 355
'Stat lacrimans et te crudelem nomine dicit.'
Huic percussa nova mentem formidine mater,
' Due, age, due ad nos ; fas illi limina divom
'Tangere' ait. Simul alta iubet discedere late
Fluraina, qua iuvenis gressus inferret. At ilium 360
Curvata in montis faciem circumstetit unda,
Accepitque sinu vasto misitque sub amnem.
lamque domum mirans genetricis et umida regna
Speluncisque lacus clausos lucosque sonantes
Ibat, et ingenti motu stupefactus aquarum 365
Omnia sub magna labentia flumina terra
Spectabat diversa locis, Phasimque Lycumque
Et caput, unde altus primum se erumpit Enipeus
Saxosuscjue sonans Hyj^anis Mysusque Caicus,
Unde pater Tiberinus, et unde Aniena fliienta, 370
Et gemina auratus taurine cornua voltu
Eridanus, quo non alius per pinguia culta
In mare purpureum violentior cffluit amnis.
Postquam est in tlialami pendentia pumice tccta
Perventum et nati fletus cognovit inanes 375
Cyrene, manibus liquidos dant ordine fontes
Germanae tonsisque fcrunt mantelia villis ;
Pars epulis onerant mensas et plena reponunt
Pocula, Panchaeis adolescunt ignibus arae,
Et mater ' cape Maeonii carchcsia Bacchi : 380
'Oceano libemus' ait. Simul ipsa precatur
Oceanum(|iie patrem rcrum Nymphasque sorores,
Cenuim (|uae silvas, centum (juae (lumina servant.
Tor Iiqui(lo ardcntem perfudit nectare Vestam,
Tcr flarnma ad summum tccli subiccta reluxit. 385
56 P. VERGILI MARONIS
Omine quo firmnns animum sic incipit ipsa:
' Est in Carpathio Neptuni gurgite vates,
' Caeruleus Proteus, magnum qui piscibus aequor
' Kt iuncto bipedum curiu metitur equorum.
'I lie nunc Ematliiae poitus patriamque revisit 390
'Pallenen; hunc et Nymphae veneramur et ipse
' Grandaevus Nereus ; novit nanique omnia vates,
* Quae sint, quae fuerint, quae mox ventura trahantur ; 'Quippe ita Neptuno visum est, immania cuius 'Armenta et turpes pascit sub gurgite phocas. 395 ' Hie tibi, nate, prius vinclis capiendus, ut omnem
' Expediat morbi causam eventusque secundet.
' Nam sine vi non ulla dabit praecepta, neque ilium
' Orundo flectes ; vim duram et vincula capto
* Tende ; doli circum haec demum frangentur inanes. 400 'Ipsa ego te, medios cum sol accenderit aestus,
' Cum sitiunt herbae et pecori iam gratior umbra est, ' In secreta senis ducam, quo fessus ab undis 'Se recipit, facile ut somno adgrediare iacentem. 'Verum ubi correptum nianibus vinclisque tencbis, 405 'Tum variae eludent species atque ora ferarum. 'Fiet enim subito sus horridus atraque tigris ' Squamosusque draco et fulva cervice leaena, *Aut acrem flammae sonitum dabit atque ita vinclis 'Excidet, aut in aquas tenues dilapsus abibit. 410
'Sed qnanto ille magis formas se vertet in omnes, ' Tarn tu, nate, magis contende tenacia vincla, 'Donee talis erit niutato corpore, qualem
* Videris, inceplo tegeret cum lumina somno.'
Haec ait et liquidum ambrosiae diffundit odorem, 415
Quo toium nati corpus perduxit ; at illi
Dulcis compositis spiravit crinibus aura,
Atque habilis membris venit vigor. Est specus ingens
Exesi latere in montis, quo plurima vento
Cogitur inque sinus scindit sese unda reductos, 420
Deprensis olim statio tutissima nautis ;
Intus se vasti Proteus tegit obice saxi.
Hie iuvenem in latebris avcrsum a lumine Nympha
Collocat, ipsa procul nebulis obscura resistit.
lam rapidus torrens sitientes Sirius Indos 425
GEORGTCON LIB. IV. 57
Ardebat caclo et medium sol igneus orbem Hauserat ; arebant herbae, et cava flumina siccis Faucibus ad limum radii tepefacta coquebant : Cum Proteus consueta petens e fluctibus antra Ibat ; eum vasti circum gens umida ponti 430
Exultans rorem late dispergit amarum ; Sternunt se somno diversae in litore phocae : Ipse, velut stabuli custos in montibus dim, Vesper ubi e pastu vitulos ad tecta reducit Auditisque lupos acuunt balatibus agni, 435
Considit scopulo medius, numerumque recenset. Cuius Aristaeo quoniam est oblata facultas, Vix defessa senem passus componere membra Cum clamore niit magno manicisque iacentem Occupat. Ille suae contra non immemor artis 440
Omnia transformat sese in miracula rerum, Ignemque horribilemque feram fluviumque liquentem. Verum ubi nulla fugam reperit fallacia, victus In sese redit atque hominis tandem ore locutus : * Nam quis te, iuvenum confidentissime, nostras 445
' lussit adire domos? quidve hinc petis?' inquit. At ille: *Scis, Proteu ; scis ipse; neque est te fallere quicquam ; *Sed tu desine velle Deiim praecepta secuti ' Venimus, hinc lassis quaesitum oracula rebus.' Tanium effatus. Ad haec vates vi denique multa 450 Ardentes oculos intorsit lumine glauco, Et graviter frend£ns^ sic fatis jira resolvit : ' Non te nullius exercent numinis irae ; ' Magna luis commissa : tibi has misenibilis Oiphcus 'Haudquaquam ob meritum poenas, ni fata resistant, 455 'Suscitat, et rapta graviter pro coniuge saevit. ' Ilia quidem, dum te fugeret per flumina praeceps, ' Immanem ante pedes hydrurn moritura puella 'Scrvantem ripas aha non vidit in hcrba. 'At ciiorus aequalis Dryadum clamore supremos 460
' Implerunt montes ; (Icrunt Rhodopeiac arces 'Alta(|uc I'ang.ica et Khcsi M.ivortia tellus 'At(iuc Getae alfjuc llehrus ct Actias Orithyia. ' Ipse cava solans aegrum testudinc amorem *Te, diilcis coniunx, te solo in litore sccuin, 465
5S P. VERGILT MARONIS
Te veniente die, te decedente canebat.
Tacnarias etiam fauces, alta ostia Ditis,
Et caligantem nigra formidine lucuni
Ingrcssus manesque adiit regemque tremendum
Nesciaque humanis precibus mansuesccre corda. 470
At cantu commotae Erebi de sedibus imis
Umbrae ibant tcnues simulacraque luce carentum, '
Quam multa in foliis avium se milia condunt,
Vesper ubi aut hibernus agit de montibus imber,
Matres atque viri dcfunctaque corpora vita 475
Magnanimum heroum,, pueri innuptaeque puellac,
Impositique rogis iuvenes ante ora parentum ;
Quos circum limus niger et deformis har'undo
Cocyti tardaquc palus inamabilis unda
Alligat et noviens Styx interfusa coercet. 480
Quin ipsae stupuere domus atque intima Let!
Tartara caeruleosque implexae crinibus angues
Eumenides, tenuitque inhians tria Cerberus ora
Atque Ixionii vento rota constitit orbis.
lamque pedem referens casus cvaserat omncs 485
Redditaque Eurydice superas veniebat ad auras
Pone sequens, — namque banc dederat Proserpina legem —
Cum subita incautum dementia cepit amantem,
Ignoscenda quidem, scirent si ignoscere Manes :
Restitit, Eurydicenque suam iam luce sub ipsa 490
Immemor heu ! victusque aninii respexit. Ibi omnis
Efifusus labor, atque immitis rupta tyranni
Foedera, terque fragor stagnis auditus Avernis.
Ilia quis et vie inquit miseram et te perdidit^ Orphen,
Quis tanttis furor 1 en item in critdelia retro 495
Fata vacant conditque fiata?itia lumina somnus.
lamque vale: feror ingenti circumdata nocte '
Invalidasque tibi tendens, heu nan tua, pahnasl
Dixit et ex oculis subito, ceu fumus in auras
Commixtus tenues, fugit diversa, neque ilium 500
Prensantem nequiquam umbras et multa volentem
Dicere praeterea vidit, nee portitor Orci
Amplius obicctam passus transire paludem.
Quid faceret? quo se rapta bis coniuge ferret?
Quo fletu manes, quae numina voce moveret? 505
GEORGICON LIB. IV.
59
* Ilia quidem Stygia nabat iam frigida cumba. 'Septem ilium totos perhibent ex ordine menses ' Rupe sub aeria deserti ad Strymonis undam
' Flevisse et gelidis haec evolvisse sub antris
* Mulcentem tigris et agentem carmine quercus; 510
* Qualis populea maerens philomela sub umbra ' Amissos queritur fetus, quos durus arator
' Observans nido implumes detraxit ; at ilia
' Flet noctem ramoque sedans miserabile carmen
'Integral et maestis late loca questibus implet. 515
* Nulla Venus, non ulli animum flexere hymenaei. 'Solus Hyperboreas glacies Tanaimque nivalem
' Arvaque Rhipaeis numquam viduata pruinis
* Lustrabat raptam Eurydicen atque inrita Ditis
' Dona querens ; spretae Ciconum quo munere matres 520
' Inter sacra deum nocturnique orgia Bacchi
' Discerptum latos iuvenem sparsere per agros.
'Tum quoque marmorea caput a cervice rcvolsum
'Gurgite cum medio portans Oeagrius Hebrus
' Volveret, Eurydicen vox ipsa et frigida lingua 525
^A miseram Eurydicen I anima fugiente vocabat,
' Eurydicen toto referebant flumine ripae.'
Haec Proteus, et se iactu dedit aequor in altum
Quaque dedit, spumantem undam sub vertice torsit.
At non Gyrene; namque ultro adfata timentem : 530 ' Nate, licet tristes animo deponere curas. 'Haec omnis morbi causa, hinc miserabile Nymphae, ' Gum quibus ilia choros lucis agitabat in altis, 'Exitium misere apibus. Tu munera supplex 'Tende petens pacem et faciles venerare Napaeas ; 535 ' Namque dabunt veniam votis irasque remittent. 'Sed modus orandi qui sit, prius ordine dicam. ' Quattuor eximios praestanti corpore tauros, 'Qui tibi nunc viridis depascimt sumnia Lycaci, ' Delige, et intacta totidcui cervice iuvcncas. 540
' Quattuor his aras alta ad dehibra dearum ' Conslitue, ct sacrum iugulis demitle cruorern ' Gorporaque ipsa bourn frondoso descre luco. ' Post, ubi nona suos Aurora ostenderit ortus, 'Inferias Orphci Lcthaca papavcra miltes 545
6o P. VERGIIJ MAKONIS GEORG. LIB. IV.
' Et nigram magtabis oveni lucunique revisens
* Placatani Eurydicen vitula venerabere caesa.'
Haud mora ; continuo matris praecopta facessit ;
Ad delubra vcnit, monstratas excitat aras,
Quattuor eximios praestanti corpora tauros 550
Ducit et intacta totidem cervice iuvencas.
Post, ubi nona suos Aurora induxerat ortus,
Inforias Orphei mittit lucumque revisit.
Hie vero subitum ac dictu mirabile monstrum
Aspiciunt, liquefacta bourn per viscera toto 555
Stridere apes utero et ruptis elTervere costis
Immensasque trahi nubes iaraque arbore summa
Confluere et leniis uvam demittere ramis.
Haec super arvorum cultu pecorumque canebam Et super arboribus, Caesar dum magnus ad altum 560 Fuhiiinat Euphraten bello victorque volentes Per populos dat iura viamque adtectat Olympo. Illo Vergilium me tempore dulcis alebat Parthenope, studiis florentem ignobilis oti, Carmina qui lusi pastoriun audaxque iuventa, 565
Tityre, te palulae ceciiii sub tcgmine fagi. "
NOTES.
[i — 4S. Invocation: Pales, Apollo, Lycaeus. The tales of old are hackneyed : I must try a new theme. I shall build a temple to my own land. I see Caesar the deity of it : games with all Greece contend- ing : processions and sacrifices : carved on the doors the victories and triumphs of Caesar : statues of his great ancestors : envy quelled. Now to the woods and glades, Maecenas; Githaeron, home of cattle, and Epidaurus of horses, and Sparta of dogs, summon me : hereafter of the name and fame of Caesar.]
1. Pales, rural deity of shepherds and flocks, whose festival (Paliiia) was kept 21st April, and was regarded as the natal day of the city. Ovid Fast. iv. 721 gives a long and lively account of it: the offerings, the peculiar purifications and celebrations, and the prayer addressed to her. She made the flocks and herds fertile in milk, wool and young.
Other writers make Pales masculine : but in V. and Ovid the name is fern.
1. Aviphrysus was a small river in Thessaly (flowing N. into Pagasaean gulf), where Apollo fed the flocks of King Admetus. According to a common account, this service was a punishment for having killed the Cyclops.
Apollo is therefore the 'Shepherd from Amphrysus'. In Theoc. XXV. 21 we have the name vo/xios 'pastoral' definitely attached to Apollo as a title.
all depends on pastor, a sjjecial use of the preposition with names. Cf. Prop. VI. 6. 37 scrvator ab Alba Auguste, which Lad. quotes. The ordinary syntax is that preps, should depend on verbs, participles, or adjectives.
Lycaei, the rustic god Pan, named from Mt Lycaeus in Arcadia the original place of his worship and home.
3. i.e. the old hero tales ('whiclnnight have charmed us with song') are too well known.
4. Eurysthea (note Greek ace. of Greek names) was the task- master of llerakles (Hercules) for whom the latter performed his celebrated twelve labours.
5. Busiris, a savage king of I'gypt who sacrificed all strangers, till Herakk's came: he was seized like the rest, but broke his bonds and blew the king.
62 VERGIL. GEORG. III.
inlaudnti, 'unblessed', a playfully ironic epithet for the cruel bar- baiian.
f). 'Who has not sung of Ilylas?' V. is thinking of the beauliful poem of 'Iheocrilus, who tolls how llylas, a lovely Argive boy, beloved of llerakles, went with him in the Argo when they sailed after the Golden Fleece. They landed in Proponlis, and 1 lylas went to the spring to fetch water: but the nymphs all loved him when they saw him, and drew him down, and he \\as never seen again.
cui, dat. of agent aftei' j^aiticipie, a Greek constr. adopted by Augustan poets, haljitae 6>V7?V oracula G. II. i6: a/Z^iiMJ- depasta Ed. i. 55: /;'(!'/ relictum A. Vi. 509: cuique repertum VII. 507. See 170.
Dclos, the sacred island, where Latona (Leto) gave birth to Apollo and Artemis.
7. Pelops, son of Lydian king Tantalus, who served him up to the gods at a feast. Demeter distracted about her lost dauglUer ate a piece of the shoulder: the rest of the gods discovered the horrid fraud, and restored Felops, filling up the missing shoulder with ivory (eburno ume7'o). Pelops became a skilful charioteer (acer equis) and entered with other suitors for the chariot race at Pisa in Elis, of which the prize was Hippodanie (usually Hippodameia) daugliter of the king. He won by bribing the driver to take out the linchpin of Oenomaus' chariot, the king having outstrijiped and slain the other wooers. Pindar tells us that Poseidon gave I'elops winged horses.
9. virum volitare per ora, 'float upon the lips of men', a bold imaginative phrase for fame, adopted from Ennius' epitaph, nemo me lacrumis decoret nee funera fletu faxit : cur ? volito vivti' per ora virum.
So again A. xil. 235 vivusque per ora feretur. [C. takes it 'flit before the face' : but V. is clearly quoting Ennius who is speaking o{ faine.\
11. Aonio was the name of a part of Boeotia, where were Mt Helicon and the spring Aganippe, the haunt of the Muses. So Lucr. i. 115 says of Ennius 'primus amoeno Detulit ex Helicone perenni fronde coronam'.
In what follows the poet promises in a fine allegorical vision here- after to write a poem in honour of Augustus. He returns in triumph from Helicon, bringing home his palms, to found by his native stream a temple to Caesar (10 — 16). There in purple clad, he will celebrate games — chariot and foot-race and boxing (17 — 20). With olive crown he will offer sacrifice, and institute stage plays (21 — 25). Carved on the doors shall be exploits of Caesar :. battles in India, Egypt, Asia — l-last and West (26 — 32). There shall be statues of his Trojan ances- tors; and Envy cowed and dreading infernal torture (33 — 39).
12. hiurnaeas palmas, 'palms of Idumaea' {S. of Judaea, where are forests of palms); a well-known badge of victory, carried by the general in the triumph.
Alantua was Vergil's birthplace, on the Mincio (15) in N. Italy.
13. 'The temjjle by the river' is .suggested by the great marble temple of Zeus at Olympia.
17. The ])oet is figuratively the prominent personage at the festival, dressed in purple like the praetor in his striped toga at his own games.
NOTES. 63
19. Greece shall leave Alpketis (the river of Elis, where Olympian games were held) and the groves of Molorchus, i.e. Neniea, a valley S. of Corinth, where Herakles was entertained by a peasant Molorchus when he came to slay the Nemean lion: and where games were held every two years.
mihi, 'for me' eth. dat. i.e. 'at my word'. The poet creates it all.
20. crudus, properly 'hard' (stem CRU- whence crttsta, criidelis, cryslallus, cruor ' clotted blood ') which is probably the meaning both here and A. v. 69. Others take it 'raw' (the secondary sense) i.e. untan- ned hide: but as the caestus was a hide-thong weighted with lead, 'hard' seems more likely.
1 1 . The sacrificer was decked with an olive wreath of clipped or trimmed leaves {tonsae).
22 — 3. iam nunc, 'even now' and iuvat ''tis sweet': he is as it were carried away by the vision of the triumph to be, and realises it as present.
poiiipa, Greek word (from iri/iirw 'to send' or 'escort') in its proper sense 'procession'.
24. ul depends on videre : 'or to see how the scene &c.'
versis discedat frontibuSy 'parts and shifts its faces' : sometimes the scene was changed by titming round (vcrsis) the panel on a pivot, some- times by parting the back (discedcU). These devices were probably rarely resorted to, according to the Greek original Custom of having the scene of the play commonly unaltered.
25. 'Inwoven Britains raise the purple curtains', an almost playful artificiality of expression, describing the slow rise of the curtain (which was drawn up, not down, to hide the stage) with savage figuves embroidered on it, as if \.he figures raised it.
Britanni a.\c simply remote barbarians.
26. Similarly there are carvings on the doors of Phoebus' temple (VI. 20) and on Dido's temple to luppiler is wrought the story of Troy {VI. 456).
26 — 33. In these lines the poet depicts the subjection by Augustus of divers nations and countries, viz. (i) India [Cangaridae], (2) Egypt {Nilum), (3) Asia, (4) Armenia {Niphaten), (5) Parthia and (6), more generally and vaguely, the East andV^^iX (utroque ab litore...divcrso ex JiOite), i.e. Europe and Asia.
The historical facts of Augustus' successes are briefly these, in chmnological order: in 42 B.C. lie defeated at Philippi the party of Brutus and Cassias,
the murderers of lulius Caesar. „ 40 ,, he was successful in a rather unimportant war in lltUy. „ 36 ,, his generals defeated Sextus Pompeius in .Sicily. „ 35-34 ,1 he carried on war against Daltnalia ending in comjjlete
subjugation. ,, 31 ,, came the great victory at Aitiuin, over Antony (whocoin- mandol the forces of the Iia>-t) and CIc(j|jalra with the (Icet of I'.gypt. In the same year he marched through .Syria and part of Asia Minor and settled the alTairs of the East, receiving the subnii sion ol various Oriental tribes.
64 VERGIL. GEORG. II J.
in 30 B.C. he marched through Egyi>t, the expedition ending in the complete surrender and the suicide of Antony and Cleopatra. „ 29 ,, he triumphed at Rome, celelirating only the victories of
Dal mat i a, Actium, and Egypt. The question here is whether Vergil means these lines to be a reference to accomplished facts, and wrote them about the time of the triumph {29 B.C.): or whether they were written earlier.
If we take them as written in 29, the poetic exaggeration is excessive, (i) Augustus had no fight with Indians at all, (3) he never 'subdued' Asia or (4) 'beat back' Niphates or (5) the Parthian: while (6) the 'double triumph over Europe and Asia' is at once exaggerated and inaccurate as describing a triumph to celebrate the victories of Dalmatia, Actium, and Egypt.
It is much more easy to believe that the passage was written while Augustus was settling the empire in 31 B.C.: just at a time when the triumphant pacification of the East, succeeding the series of victories nearer home (Philippi, Italy, Sicily, Ualmatia, Acliuui), would justify any exultation ; when the poet's vision of triumph was still partly fore- cast, and the enthusiasm was in its first fever. It will then harmonise well with IV. 561, on which see notes.
27. Gangaridae, an Indian tribe at the mouth of the Ganges. Qtiiriniis, the sacred name of Romulus, when dead and deified: the
triumphs of Augustus and his army are imaginatively depicted as 'the arms of conquering Quirinus'.
28. ntagnutn, adj. 'high', 'full'.
29. ' Pillars towering with bronze of ships' refers to the Roman custom of commemorating naval victories by columns with prows of ships projecting on each side, called rostratae coliivinae.
Such a pillar to commemorate Actium was made by Augustus probably of the bronze from the triremes themselves : so that acre is abl. of material.
30. Niphaten, a mountain in Armenia: pulstim means 'routed', 'defeated', a natural personification of a place. [There is no reason to suppose, with C, that V. mistakes Niphates for a river,]
31. vcrsis, 'backward-fired': the 'Parthian arrows', discharged while llie foe were flying, were famous.
33. utroque ab litore, Europe and Asia.
34. The marble of the Aegaean isle of Paros was always the choice material of Greek sculpture.
35. Assaraciis. son of Tros (36), mythical ancestor of Aeneas, and so of the Iitlia gens. The identification of the lulii with the des- cendants of lulus son of Aeneas was afterwards worked out in the Aeneid.
36. Apollo, called Cynthlus from Mt Cynthus in Delos where he was bom, had been hired by King Laomedon to build (with the aid of Neptune) the walls oi Troy.
37 — 39. The temple is to have a painting or bas-relief representing S|>ite driven by the Furies to punishment below, and affrighted at the sight of Cocytus, the torture of Ixion, and Sisyphus rolling his stone.
NOTES. 65
This is a highly poetic and imaginative rendering of Augustus crushing discontent and conspiracy at home, as ?6 — 34 gives his triumph over his open foes.
The Furies are connected with Cocytus again A. vi. 374 amnemque severmn Eumeniduin. Corytus 'Wailing', a river of Tartarus.
38. Ixion for offering violence to luno was punished by luppiter in Hades, being bound to a wheel that revolved for ever.
Vergil alone mentions 'snakes' as part of the horror: tortos suggests (as Servius explains) that the snakes were used for cords to bind his hands and feet to the wheel.
39. ■ immanem, 'cruel'.
saxum refers to the punishment of Sisyphus, the brigand-king of Corinth, who in Hades had to roll a stone for ever up hill, which was always falling back upon him. This stone is here boldly and expres- sively called 'unconquerable', iion exsttperabiU.
These two were stock instances of sinners tortured below (Ov. Met. IV. 459, X. 43 &c.), which explains the omission of Sisyphus' name : so A. VI. 616 'saxum ingens vol vent alii radiisve rotarum district! pendent'.
40. Dryadum, 'the wood nymphs' of the Greek mythology. sequamur, 'track', 'seek', a favourite use of V. sequere Italiam vends
A. IV. ■i,^\, sequi tabulata fer ulmos G. 11. 361.
41. intactos, 'wild': but the epithet suggests Vergil's love for the country as something 'undefiled' by man.
Maecenas had urged V. to write the Georgics : see Introduction.
42. incohal. This and not inchoat is the true classical spelling.
en age, &'C. C. takes this as an address to x\/aece?ias 'to plunge with him into the subject'. It is simpler to take it (with W. L.) as an exclamation addressed to himself.
43. He is going to treat of animals : and he expresses this imaginatively by saying he is summoned to Cithaeron (mountain on the border of Boeotia, — the land full of cattle, and the mount of wild leasts), to Taygetus (mountain of Lac(mia famous for dogs), and Epidaurus (in Argolis, the land famed for horses).
46. 'To sing the wars lA Caesar' V, here sets before him as an aim hereafter to be fulfilled, see ir. The idea was carried out in a very different shape, in the Aeneid, when the military glory of Augustus hail fallen into the background.
dicere. The iiifin. prolate is used by V. with many more verbs llian by prose writers : in fact with any verb iniiilying order, wish, eagerness, intention, refusal, &c. Thus V. has inf. with hortor, impello, adi^redior, insto, parco, ardeo, snadeo, tetido, ahrogo, Jiigio, oro, monstro, fugio, &c.
48. 7'ithonus, son of Laomedon and brother of Priam, a Trujan prince : but there is an inaccuracy in mentioning him, as he was descended from Ilus son of Tros, and was theref(jre not ancestor of Aeneas and the lulii, who came (35) from Assaracus son of Tros. The fact is that Vergil treats all the Trojan i)riiices generally as ancestors.
[49 — -fi. For horses or cattle-breeiling the mothers should be chosen with care : the points of a good cow : the proper ages, from
G. III. IV. 5
66 VERGIL. GEORG. III.
4 to lo. Always breed early, while they are young : disease, age, 'leath are always at hand, and you will always have failures among your brood.]
49. Olyvtpiacae. Olympia in Elis, the scene of the famous Olympian games, 19.
51. praecipue, 'first': let it be his chief care.
The dam should be grivi {torvits) with ugly or unwieldy {tttrpe) head, and a burly (pliu-ima) neck. The more slim and elegant head and neck would be the sign of a less strong breed.
53. palt-aria, 'dewlap', teiius, usually with abl. for gen. See Am. X. 207 latenim teniis.
The details are selected from Varro's description of a good breed of cattle (11. v.) as follows : — He says they should be 'well made, sound of limb, rather /oti!^, big, black-horned, broad-browed, eyes large and black, ears shaggy, jaws liglit shut, blunt-nosed, not humped but the back gently sloped, nostrils wide, dark lips, neck thick and long, de-wlap (palearia) drooping loiv, big body, stout ribs, broad shoulders, and long /ail reachim; to its heels, Sic'
54. nullus modus, ^ no limit^ : half playful exaggeration.
55. pes etiam, 'even the foot'. He says 'even' because in this point alone he differs from Varro anil is following some other authority.
catnuiis, 'curving in'.
58. He says tola, 'the whole body', because he has been speaking 0*" details.
59. vestigia, no need to take it as \}nQ feet (as C. is inclined to do): for in walking the tail would sweep {verrit) not the feet but iht footsteps.
60. The infin. after subs, aetas is a rather rare const, perhaps imitated from Greek where it is common : somewhat similar are modus imponere G. II. 73: tempus humo tegere G. I. 213: nullam esse rationem amittere Cic. Caec. 5 : numquid modi est eum quaerere Plant. Men. 233.
Lucina ('bringing to light'), surname of Diana as the goddess who presides over childbirth.
Note the Greek rhythm and hiatus, with the Greek word hymenaeos, as often: so A'eptuno Aegaeo A. III. 74: Parrhasio Euandro xi.
3'-
iustos, 'regular', 'proper': a not uncommon use of the word.
62. habilis, 'fit'.
64. solve, 'loose' them to mate with the cows: being kept apart and confined of course till the proper time.
pecuaria, 'herds'.
66 — 68. The connection of thought is : you must lose no time with your young cows in breeding (iiiventas, primus, suffice): disease and decay are the rule in this world. The touch of sadness is characteristic.
70. ne post amissa requiras anteveui, 'lest you should regret your losses afterward, forestall them', i.e. breed largely knowing you will have failures: repair your flock yearly with promising young cattle, to take the place of the failures.
[72 — 94. Points of a good horse: his action, spirit, shape, colour,
NOTES. 67
habits, hair, spine, hoof — hke the horses of Pollux, Mars, Achilles, or even like that into which Saturnus changed.]
73. ift spent (where we say 'in' instead of 'into'), like in niimerutn, 'in time', in orbcm, 'going the round', in versum^ 'in line'. See note IV. 175.
submtilere, 'to rear'.
The word 'submitto' is used of rearing (as a regular farmer's term), especially for breeding purposes, here expressed by in spem gentis, 'in hope of progeny', submittite tauros Eel. I. 46: pecori submittere habendo infra 1 59.
74. iam inde, emphatic with a teneris : 'from their earliest youth*.
75. gencrosi, 'high-bred'.
76. t/wllia, 'elastic': the phrase (according to Servius) is quoted from Ennius who uses it of cranes, 'mollia crura reponunt': it is the opposite of 'stiff'.
80. argiitw (properly 'clear', from argiio, stem arg-, seen in d/yyoj, argentiitn, argil/a, &c., where originally it means 'white'), a word applied to various things: — 'shrill', 'keen', 'quick', of sounds, movements, even of smells. These are the ordinary uses : but here it is exceptional, and seems to mean 'with sharp lines', 'slender': 'clean cut' (R.).
82. spadices, 'bay', said by Gellius (Latin student and antiquarian of 2nd cent. A. D.) to be derived from Greek dialectic word for 'palm', the colour being that of a date.
glaueus (applied to the willow, G. II. 13, sedge, A. vi. 416, and by Lucr. and V. to watei), 'grey'.
83. gilvus (same stem as yellow, yolk, gold), probably what we call 'chestnut', rather inaccurately.
84. micat, of quick movement: so micare digitis of the^rapid varied movement of the hands in the old game of mora. It describes the rapid changing movement of the ears when the horse is agitated.
85. collectittn ignem, 'the gathered fire', a picturesque exaggerated way of describing the excited snorts and pants of the startled beast.
87. 'The double spine' seems to mean simply that the depression in the middle of the vertebrae is visible, owing to the horse not being loo coarsely made. Varro (11. 7. 5) says 'a double spine if possible, or at any rate not protruding'. Xen. {Re Eqtiestr. i. 12) says 'the double spine is softer to sit upon and pleasanter to look at'.
89 — 94. After describing the high-bred horse, he compares it to the famous horses of song and story.
89. Castor and Pollux, twin demigod?, born of Leda in Ainyclae in Laconia, famous as tamers of horses, had been presented with two divine horses, Xanthus and Cyllarus, by Nejitune. Such is one version of the story. At Rome the equites regarded these twins as their special patrons, and the procession on horseback on 15 July ('the proud Ides when the squadron rides') was a festival three centuries old.
91. The horses of Arcs (Mars) and Achilles are mentioned in the Iliad {x\. 119: XVI. 148).
Achilli, irregular gen. from nom. Achilles. So Ulixi, A- II. 7.
93. The story was that Saturn fell in love with the Occanid
5 — '
68 VERGIL. GEORG. HI.
nymph Philyra, but being surprised by his wife Ops fled away in the form of a horse. See 550.
94. Pelion, a mountain on the east coast of Thessaly, south of Ossx
The Greek form of Greek names is very common in Latin poets, e.g. Tytiiiarida, Laocooiila, Ilectora, Ilionea, Dido, all Greek ace. in Vergil.
[95 — 122. Old horses bad for breeding and racing too. Description in vivid detail of a horse-race. Erechtheus inventor of driving : the Lapithae of riding.]
96. abde doino, most simply 'keep hid at home': don't let him out to breed among the mares.
nee turpi ii^itosce senedae it is best to take also simply ; ' favour not his inglorious age': don't allow him to breed when he is old and broken down. [Servius' way of taking it, so that nee only negatives turpi, 'his not inglorious age', is harsh and avtilicial.]
97—100. General sense: the old horse is unfit for breeding; and unfit for racing too. [Others take si quando ad proelia, &c. also of breeding (proelia metaphorical): but this would be mere repetition, and he goes on to speak at length of racing.]
100. i.e. first look to his spirit and youth.
101. artes, 'qualities', 'powers'.
prolemque parentum, 'his ancestors': it is best to take prolem a collective noun, 'the stock', not an abstract, 'the breed', though cither is possible.
102. i.e. count up among his ancestors those which have failed to win and those which have won races. The horse's 'grief at being beaten and the 'pride' of victory is a touch of the half playful ex- aggeration we have so much of in the Georgics. .See Introduction, p. 25.
103. campum corripere. rapio and corripio are common in such expressions: it is a bold and vivid way of saying 'speed over', 'scour' the plain. [For the Lucretian nonne vides see 250, and Introd. p. 12.]
105. exiiltantieujue haitrit eorda pavor pulsans, a violent and strained though forcible phrase, to suit the violent excitement it describes: 'the beat of fear pulls at their bounding hearts'.
haurit is literally 'drains', 'sucks'.
The same phrase is used again to describe the violent excitement .of the racing oarsmen awaiting the signal (v. 138), where also 102 — 3 b used again.
10^). verbere for the 'lash': abstract for concrete. So infixum vohius for the '.sword', A. iv. 68y.
108 — no. The idea is from Homer, //. xxiii. 368, where in describing a chariot-race he says 'And at times the cars ran on the rich earth, and at times bounded into the air'.
1 1 3. Ericluhonius (or shortened Erechtheus), ancient mythical king of Athens, supposed to be inventor of the four-horse chariot.
115. The Lapithae, a Tlicssalian mythical tribe, in the Pelethronian forest on Pelion, were supposed to be tiic inventors oi riding.
gyros, ' riding in a ring .
dcdere, 'gave', i.e. 'invented'.
NOTES. 6g
117. 'To gather his proud steps ', a vivid and forcible phrase of the high action of a spirited horse.
It is rather a harsh strain of language to make the rider do this, as Vergil does.
1 18. uterque, of car-drawing and riding.
119. exqtiirunt, 'seek', not (as at first sight seems easier) to draw or ride, but to breed for drawing or riding. The subsequent context is all about the breeder, and this interpretation alone makes the sense consistent and consecutive.
120. ille, the old horse, past service now, however noble his origin and great his triumphs.
III. Epirus, famed for horses, G. I. 59 palnias Epiros equa)uni: and Mycenae, the capital of 'Argos the horse- feeder', as Homer calls it.
122. A^eptunus (or Poseidon) was especially the god of horses: liippios was one of his surnames: and the Athenians spoke of him as having endowed their land with its fine horses (Soph. O. C. 712).
[123 — 137. Feed up the male, and keep the mares on scanty diet and hard exercise.]
124. pingui used as subst. 'flesh': we have similar collocations in deserta per ardua 291, plurirnus volitatts 147.
126. Jlorentes, in its literal sense 'flowery'.
127. superesse, 'to be strong enough': rather strained usage.
128. ietttnia, 'gauntness'.
129. ipsa armenla, i.e. the mares; which have to be exercised and kept on short diet, to make tliem more likely to be fertile.
133 — 4. i.e. at the threshing time, in the summer. This seems rather late for breeding.
135 — 7. 'This they do, that the fertile soil be not blunted by surfeit, nor the furrows choked and clogged, but may take eagerly the seed, and store it deep within '.
The fertility of the animals is given under the common metaphor of a field.
[138 — 156. When the cows are in calf, spare them work, give them quiet and the best grass. And that pest the gadfly of Lucania — which luno sent against Ino — you must keep ofl" your pregnant cows, feeding them in the cool of morning or evening.]
138. cadere, 'to cease', 'to sink'.
141. sit passus, 'would sufler', potential: a gentle way of saying "must not'; so non quisquam ruoneat G. i. 457.
142. fluvias iniiare rapaces, 'swim into the whirling streams' in order to drink. They must be spared all violent exertion — drawing, leaping, running, swimming.
145. prociibel, 'falls afar'. The subjunctives are the final use after the relalive ubi.
146. Silarus, a river between Campania and Lucania, flowing by the north end of the mountain Alburnus into the gulf of I'aestuui : the N.E. face of Alburnus is drained by the V'anager, which flows into tl»e Silarus.
147. volilans, 'a fly'.
aiilo...oe>triim. 'the gad-fly', or large horse-fly.
70 VERGIL. GEORG. III.
148. To say tli.it the Greeks have 'changed' the name to oestrum is a loose use of language, when he only means that 'oestius' is the Greek name for the gadlly. Seneca (quoted by L.) writes (Ep. vi. 6. •2) that this was an example of a Greek word ousting a native Roman. In fact he treats asilits as an obsolete word. L. infers that it had become so since Vergil's day. But V. was fond of old words and local words, and this may be one.
149. silvis, 'through the woods', poetic use of local abl. without prep. acerba adverbial use of ace. (internal ace.) particularly used by poets with verbs of bodily action : iona tucns, dulct ridens, miserabile insultans, acerba fretnens, immane fremens, serum canit, &c.
152. monstro, 'scourge' (R.).
The reference is to the story of lo, daughter of Inachus, of which Ovid's version is as follows [Met. I. 588) : luppiter loved lo, but fearing the jealousy of luno, changed her into a heifer. luno begged for the heifer as a gift, and handed her over to Argus (a hundred-eyed monster) to watch. luppiter sent Mercury to kill Argus, and then luno pursued the heifer lo with a gadfly.
155. pecori, armenta,... h'ldXns, usually as here after a pause : G. II. 144 tenent oleae, armetitaqite : A. I. 16 Samo : hie illius arma : ib. 405 et vera incessu patuit dea. llle ubi matrem, &c.
[157 — 178. The calves must be branded, and divided into breeding, working, sacrificial cattle. The working cattle train from the first : to bear the collar, to run together, to drag weights, first light, then heavy. The proper food for the calves: don't use all the milk.]
158. gentis, ' the st( ck ' : all careful farmers who breed must brand the young so as to see which turn out best.
159. quos malint is indirect quest, depending on the sense oi the preceding line: 'They breed them. ..[to mark] which ihey prefer to rear &c. '
submit to, 73.
pecori habendo, ' for breeding '.
In these two lines he is thinking of the males : the breeding hulls, the victims, and the draught o.xen. The rest (cetera) would be the heifers and the young oxen to be killed for meat : and these are to be sent undistinguished into the pasture.
163 — 5. The point of these lines is the half playful solemnity with which V. uses words rather more serious and elevated than would naturally be used of bullocks : studium ('service'), hortare, faciles aitimi iuvenum all illustrate this.
164. iam vitulos together : ' when but calves*.
166. circlos contracted (like pocla, pericla, &c.) from circulus: only found here.
168. ipsis e torquibus aptos iunge pares, ' yoke them in pairs, fastened by the collars themselves': i.e. don't have a real yoke, or tie their horns together, but (after each is accustomed to his own collar) tie the collars together, and train them to run evenly.
1^0. illis, dat. of agent (in imitation of the Greek use with perf. pass, and aorist) commonest after participle, regnata Lycurgo (A. III. 14), mihi iuncta manits (VIII. 169), quaesitum matri (ix. 565): but
NOTES. 7T
also after present pass., tnalis habitantur moenia Grais A. ui. 39S. See 6.
rotae inanes, 'unladen wheels': it might be an empty cart (C.) or more simply the mere framework (two axles joined by a beam), such as are used for carrying logs.
171. summo pulvere, 'in the surface-dust': the weight being so light.
172. He is thinking of //. V. 838 iii-ya. 5' l^paxe (priyivos a|w«' ^pidoavviQ, ' the beechen axle groaned with the weight '.
1 73. Umo aerens, ' bronze-plated pole ' to increase the weight.
175. vescas, 'slender': Ovid {Fast. in. 446) tells us that it was a rustic word, used to mean 'small'. So Plin. N. H. vii. 8r corpore vesco sed eximiis viribus. V. uses it again IV. 131 for poppy seed.
1 76. frumenta sala, ' the young corn ' : perhaps as Servius says, the mixture of spelt, barley, vetch, and pulse known 3i?, farrago, 205.
[179 — 208. Rules for the war-horse and race-horse. Accustom them to the noise (of arms, trumpets, &c.), train them to harness, to their paces, till they fly like the ever-swifter north wind. When well trained, feed them well : not before.]
1 79. studium, ' your desire ' : used in this line with ad bella, in the next by a more natural constr. with infin.
180. The Olympian games (already referred to 19, 49) were by the river Alpheiis in Elis, near an olive grove sacred to hippitery and not far from the site of an old city Pisa.
182. aminos atquearma: V. is fond of such combinations of abstract and concrete : sedem et secreta, Jerroque et arte, teli nee volneris auctor, &c.
183. tractuque genientem ferre retain, ' to bear the rumbling of the dragged wheel ' : tractu abl. after gem.
189. invalidwi et. Syllable lung in arsis, as often in V. inscius aevi is most simply taken (with C.) 'ignorant of life': i.e. simply 'inexperienced'.
192. fow/oji'/jj, ' regular '.
iiniutque...crurum, 'and ply with winding curves his thighs in turn ', elal)orate but expressive plirase.
193. laboranti, the 'seeming elTort' is due to the strong but repressed movement of the trained horse.
cursibus auras vocet, ' challenge the breezes with his speed ',
194. The rhythm expresses the bounding gallop when the pressure is removed.
196. Hyperborei are the fabulous Homeric people who live ' beyond the north wind '. Here it is a poetic term for ' North '. So 381. IV. 517.
densHS generally taken to mean ' strong ', ' with force concentrated ': but it is probably a poetic rendering of the look of a storm from the north, with close packed clouds : hence the north wind is himself called ' thick '.
197. differt, 'spreads': not 'scatters', 'disperses', as some lake it, because that would not make sense with .Scythiae hi ernes : for the poet must mean that the 'Scythian storms' are brought, not dispersed,
72 VERGIL. GEORG. II L
liy the north wind. In Luci. i. ^-|l ingentesque ruit naves et nithila differ/, the use is amhiguous.
ariiia, ' rainless '.
198. 'The floating (ielils ', or 'watery plains', is Lucretian for the •sea'.
201. The simile describes the storm-signs in order : first the clouds overcast the sky from the north: then 'light gusts' over the corn and the sea : then the tree-tops rustle and ' long breakers ' come in : last comes Aiptilo and yuve/>s land and sea.
202. hinc, 'afterward', 'soon': the previous description (up to the simile) having dealt with his training : now, the training over, the horse will be good for race or war — which he expresses in his usual ornate way.
Elei. See 19
203 agd, 'force , 'pour'.
204. molli, ' docile '.
esseduvi, the Celtic war-chariot, used by Gauls and Britons : it is a Celtic word. Belgae were Gauls of the north.
205. crassa farrat^ine, ' rich mash ', farrago being a compound of various kinds of fodder, mostly poorer sorts of grain.
2c6 — 7. i.e. if you give them mash before taming.
208. The lupatum freniiin (or Itipatmn merely) was a curb jagged like a wolf's jaw. Ovid and Martial also use the word as a substantive : Horace Od. I. viii. 6 has ' lupatis temperet ora frenis'.
[209 — 241. Keep both cattle and horses from the female. Descrip- tion of a fight for a cow, between two bulls. The defeated one goes away alone, and practises to renew the battle.]
209. iiiduslria, ' care ', on the part of the heifer.
2(4. satura, 'abundant', 'plentiful': i.e. where there is plenty of fodder.
216 — 7. It is better to read these lines without stop, so that the whole sense is : —
' The female with the sight of her inflames him and wastes his strength, nor suffers him to remember woods nor pasture, — and sweet indeed are her charms — and often &c.'
This use of the pronoun, grammatically superfluous, is common in Vergil for emphasis : particularly in this concessive sense with quidem, or (amen: e.g. A. V. 186 scopulofpie propinquat, nee tota tamen ille j)rior : IX. 796 nee tendere contra {ille quidein iioc cupiens) potis est... 1. 3 I-avinaque veiiil lilora, nuiltum ?7/tf...iactatus...
Otherwise, if we put a stop at herbae (with C.and others), ?/, 'even', comes in awkwardly, and the whole sentence is much less natural.
219. Sila, a large wooded range in S. of Italy reaching to the straits of Messina. The MSS. here give silva, a natural corruption : but .Si-rvius (juotes the reading Sila, and the jiassage in A. Xil. 715 — 722, which is clearly imitated and elaborated from this, makes Sila highly probable if not certain. , 222. Note the weighty sound, mass thrusting against mass.
223. longus Olymptis. Vergil is imitating Homer /[zo(fp6j"OXu|t7ros : but Homer meant the 'high mount', while Vergil's phrase is poetic for
NOTES. 73
the 'far-stretching heavens'. Olympus even in the Odyssey had ceased to be the earthly mountain : and was regularly used by after-poets for Juaven.
124. bellanies in prose would bedat. or gen. : but in poetry the use of ace. inf. is looser.
228. Note the charactenstic touch of pity and pathos in stabula aspecians.
230. All the best MSS. have feniix, which R. F. L. retain : but elsewhere /^«/jr means 'nimble', 'swift': and so Vergil himself uses '\\., pemicibiis cdis A. IV. 180 : per^ticibus ignea plantis XI. 718 : and in this book 93. The attempt to give it a new meaning ' persistent ' (per- niti) is neither suitable to the sense, the usage, or even the derivation. On the other hand the early correction /e:rw<7j: (adopted by H. F. \V. C. K. &c.) gives the sense required.
instrato, neg. adj. ' un-spread ', i.e. 'bare': the only instance of this use.
232. irasci in cornua discit (lit. 'learns to rage into his horns'), a bold and powerful phrase translated from Eur. Bacch. 743 ko.% Ktpa.% dv/xov/jievoi : it describes the lowerings and thrustings of the head, the well-known first signs of anger in a bull, 'and learns to threaten with angry horn, leaning against a tree, and vexes the winds with thrusts, and pawing up the sand prepares for battle '.
236. stgna move/, military metaphor, half playful : ' breaks camp' (R.).
238. sinum, 'the fold', a beautiful word for the long curving wave.
The unusual rhythm of these lines with the late pauses and light caesuras expresses the suspense and breaking of the wave.
24 1 . alte suhiectal, ' tosses on high '.
[242 — 283. Great is the power of love on all. The lioness : the bear, the boar, the tiger, nothing will stop a horse. What of man? He fears nor nighi nor sea nor storm. Leander will seek Hero. So the lynx, the wolf, the dog, the stag. More excited than all are the mares : tale of their being impregnated by the wind : and the superstition of the hippomaties.\
242. Notice the -que superfluous and elided before next line: Vergil often has some reason for this metrical peculiarity in the sense: e.g. G. I. 295 decotjiiit umorein suggests boiling over: A. I v. 629 pugncnt ipsi- que it<'poteS(/ue, of unending feud : G. III. 377 congest aipie robora tolas- qiie...ubiios, of the huge firewood.
145. non alio, 'no other ' than the time of pairing. 247. inforinfs, ' shaiieiess ', 'unwieldy'.
249. male erratur, i.e. 'tis ill to wander': pass, impers. of motion- verbs, a common Lat. idiom.
250. noiitie vides. See Introduction, p. 12.
251. Coii:-,truction after Vergil's manner (much developed later) is artificialised : 'odor' the scent (of the marcs) is half personified, and brings ' tile well-known whiffs ' (aurae).
254. Common poetic exaggeration : 'seizing and whirling moun- tains in their tide'. .So Ihoneus hurls ittgenti fragmine mantis A. IX. 569: the Trojan war is the 'clash of Europe and Asia' (vii. 224): Alicclo tlie jury has 'a thousand names', VII. 337, &c.
74 VERGIL. GEORG. III.
■255. Sabdliats, i.e. the boar from Sabine Apennines.
256. prosubigit, ' ploughs up in front '.
757. A/wf fl/r/«^ ;///«(-, 'on either side': durat, ' hardens ', evidently by rubbing. It was an old superstition (found as early as Aristotle Hist. An. VI. 17) that the boar dcHberately hardened his skin for battle by riibbins,' against trees and daubing himself in the mud. Pliny repeats the statement.
25S. quid, in climax, often without the verb.
259. abruptis, 'bursten': choicer word for pres. part, 'bursting', so rupto turbine A. II. 46 : XII. 451 abrupto sidere.
The whole description {a fine example of the emphatic grand style) refers to the well-kpown tale of Leander who swam every night across the Hellespont to visit the maiden Hero whom he loved: till one night he was drowned.
263. super, prep. ' on his cruel pyre ', is the simplest way of taking it : in A. IV. 308 7iec morilura tenet crudeli fiincre Dido we have a very similar line differently constructed, as often happens in V.
264. The lynx is sacred to Bacchus as being one of the wild beasts that drew his car on his Indian triumph-journey : tigers and panthers are also spoken of.
267. tnentem dedit, 'inspired'.
The story was that Glaucus, son of Sisyphus, kept racing mares at Potniae in Boeotia, which were not allowed to breed. Venus wroth with him, as having been slighted, made the mares go mad and devour him.
269. Gargara, highest peak of the famous range of Ida.
270. Ascanittm, a stream that carries the water of a lake in Bithynia into the Propontis.
275. The ancients believed that mares could be made pregnant by the wind : the most scientific of the ancients, Aristotle, says, f/ist. An. VI. 18: — 'They are said to be filled with the wind. ..and when this happens they run away from the rest of the herd... neither to the East nor West, but to the North or South '.
27y — 8. Eurus, 'Ea.st wind', Boreas, 'N. wind', Caurus {ox Corns A. V. 126), 'N. W. wind', Auster (scorcher), 'S. wind'.
Note Borean, Greek form : so Heclora, Naxon, Anchisen, Sidona,
&c.
280. ' Then it is, that what the shepherds truly call hippomanes, a foul issue, drips slowly from their groin '.
The emphasis of this line (in deinuni and vera) is controversial. The same name ' hippomanes ' was given to a tubercle on the forehead of a foal at birth, which was a powerful love charm ('nascentis equi de fronte revol.sus Et matri praereptus amor' A. IV. 515). The mare devoured it if allowed to do so, and if not went mad.
Vergil implies that the real hippomanes was this discharge from the wind-impregnated mares, which was likewise used in witchcraft. Aris- totle gives the name to both.
282 — 3. w<w<rrrt, 'stepdame', the typical poisoner. The end of this, and the next line, occur G. 11. 128. In line 283 non innoxia looks as ii the hippomanes was a poison as well as a charm.
NOTES. 75
Notice miscuerunt : so stethunt, iulennit, dedHrunt.
[284 — 294. But time is short: it remains to tell of sheep and goats.]
285. arnore, ' love ' of my theme.
286. armentis, ' herds ', of cattle and horses.
287. agitare, 'treat of.
289. animi. There is a difficulty about the explanation of this case. If it were only used in such phrases as aniens animi (iv. 203), praestans animi (XII. 19), we could explain it as the genitive of relation: the ' thing in point of which " the adj. is applied. This genitive Vergil uses a good deal, no doubt in part from the influence of Greek where it is common.
But animi is also used with verbs and participles : thus angere animi (Cic. Verr. Ii. 34), ctticiare aiiifui (Plaut. Mil. 1062, 1280, &c.), ne fallit animi (Lucr. I. 136), poidere animi (common in Cic). It is also used with a large number of adj., much more frequently than other genitives : thus, anxitis, caecus, diibitis, egregius, felix, integer, lassus, maturus, praeceps, &c.
The conclusion is strongly probable that this is a survival of the locative (well known in httmi, domi, cordi, &c.), and that it simply means 'in the mind', not 'in respect of mind' (gen.). It is just in such words as these that the locative use would become ingrained in the language, and remain, when the locative case elsewhere disappeared, and the locative meanings were rendered by the abl.
See the complete note on the word in Roby's Lat. Gram. 1321.
verbis ea vincere, 'to treat these themes with success'. The phrase is Lucretian, see Introduction.
291. Parnasiis, the muses' mountain, Castalia, the muses' spring.
292. iugis, 'over the heights', poetic local abl.
[295 — 338. Housing of sheep in winter, food and water and folds for goats, use of goatskins. Goats will come home of themselves, so their stalls should be comfortable and food good. In spring both flocks go out to pasture. In the heat, seek water and shade : later give them more water and then food again till evening.]
294. Pales, line t. There is perhaps a certain playfulness in the extra solemnity which Vergil assumes when he is going to speak of sheep and goats — the most difficult part of the farmer's breeding (288). This idea is confirmed by the stately expression Ituipiens edico in the next line.
295. edico with ace. inf. instead of ut : see on 46.
296. dum with present in the sense of /ill is rare ; cf. Ter. Ilatit. IV. 7. 5 tu hie nos dum eximus opperibere.
297. felicum, 'fern' (filix seems to be the true classical spelling). 299. podagra (irob- foot, ayp- seize), 'foot-rot'. It is usually
employed of human beings and means 'gout'.
302. vends, obviously the northerly wind, as it is 'liirned to the south' (ad medium conversa diem, 303).
303. olim should perhaps be taken with frigidus (as K.): 'when Aquarius ofttitnes cold is now sinkmg', &c.
304. Aquarius, 'the Waterer', is the sign of the zodiac so named; Uie stars which formed the constellation set in the middle of February.
76 VERGIL. GEORG. TTl.
txtrrmo inrorat anno, 'betlews the closing year', because Aquaiius was so named as l)elonjj;ing to llie rainy season, and the old Roman year ended witli F'ebruary.
305. hae, 'goats': the other reading haec not such good sense.
306. General sense : goats are equally useful, though the best sheep may be very precious.
JMilesia. The fleeces of Mihlus (rich Greek town on the coast of Caria) were famous, as were the pur[)le dyes of Tyre, magna tnutentur, 'are sold for a great price'.
307. incocta riibores, 'steeped in the dyes', the accus. being the Greek use of the ace. after a passive, which is really an elastic extension of the active objective ace. to the passive voice.
Thus the Greeks say:
Active Passive
tTiTp^iru) ffoi Trjv apxV" liriTlTpaxpai ttji' apxV"
iyypd<pu T^ 54\T<f} ^wOrj/JLara 5Atos iyyeypa/j./x^i'T) ^vvdrjiiara
This usage the Roman poets imitated, as well as the ace. after the middle, which they very likely did not distinguish from the Other. Other instances of the ace. after passive axe. fusus barbam A. X. 838: inscripti nomina regiim Eel. III. 106: per pedes traiectus lora A. II. 772 : caesariitn effusae G. IV. 337 : caertileos itnplexae crinibus anptes G. IV. 482.
308. hinc, from the goats.
310. pressis tnaniniis, i. e. at the next milking.
312. Cinyphii hirci: the goats of the river Cinyps, in the north of Africa, running into the Syrtis, were a good breed.
tondent, 'they shear', i.e. the shepherds: nom. omitted because easily supplied.
313. ttsum castroriun is illustrated by a passage in Silius Italicus (ill. 276), who describes the Cinyphii, when in camp, as 'covering their shoulders with the coarse skin of the goat'.
314. Lycaeus, mountain in Arcadia.
317. The rare rhythm of the overhanging spondee, ducitnt, expresses almost playfully the slow approach ol the she-goats heavy with milk.
320. virgea, 'of shoots': he had spoken of arbutus (301) as the food for goats.
324. Lucifer, 'the Light-bringer', was the Roman version of iftu)(r<p6pot, the Greek name for the morning-star (the planet Venus).
325. carpai/ius, used like carpere prata, carpere aelhera, carpere litora, 'let us range'. So G. IV. 311 aera carpere.
327. sitim coUei^erit, 'has gathered thirst', picturesque personifi- cation: 'the fourth hour of heaven' is ten o'clock, by which time the Italian summer sun is very hot.
330. ilignis, no doubt conduits and troughs made of ilex wood would last longest. The ilex is a common Italian tree, and the wood is hard and close.
332. lovis, the oak was sacred to Jove.
(Notice the long syllable, by stress of the foot, before vowel.)
NOTES. 77
335. tenues, 'the thin stream' whicli ran down the ilex-conduit.
337. The moon is (poetically) the source of dew.
338. 'And the shores echo the halcyon's cry, the thickets the warbler's song '.
The accusatives are a kind of extended cognate, where an allied notion is substituted for the true cognate. Similar expressions are saltan Cyclopa (Hor.), 'to dance (in character of) Cyclops', vox hominem sotiai, 'voice sounds human,' A. I. 328.
The alcyone or alcyon is generally identitied with the kingfisher ; and the author of the delightful book 'A Year with the Birds' points out that the description of the alcyon both in Pliny and Aristotle agrees with the appearance of the kingfisher.
The same authority gives reason for thinking the acalanthis is not, as traditionally translated, the goldfinch, but more probably one of the 'warblers', the reed- warbler, or sedge- warbler, or willow-wren.
[339 — 348. The immense pastures of Africa : flocks often un- slu-liered a month at a time.]
340. mapalia were the huts of the Numidians, and are thus described by Sallust {Jug. 18): 'the houses of the rustic Numidae, which they call mapalia, rather long, with curved sides, resembling the hulls of ships'.
m. raris habitata tectis is Vergilian and elaborate for 'scattered huts'.
343. hospitiis, 'shelter'.
345. Amyclae in Laconia ; the Laconian dogs were famous, as were also the Cretan archers.
These are good examples of the 'ornate' or 'literary' epithet, intended rather to remind the reader of Greek poetry than to express the actual truth. Thus the acorn is 'Chaonian', the bow 'Parthian', the myrtle 'Paphian', the poppy 'Lethean', &c. See Introduction, p. 19.
347. iniusto, 'cruel'.
hosti, dat. in relation to the whole sentence (ethic) : 'and before the foe unawares he stands in line, his camp pitched'.
[349 — 383. Par different in Scythia and tlie north. Description of a northern winter : hard frost, frozen wine, icicles on the beard, cattle and stags lost in drifts: hunting in the snow: merry life in underground caverns, with good fires, drink and games.]
349. at non, i.e. 'not thus' they do. The verb easily supplied. So G. IV. 530. A. IV. 520.
Maeotia. The sea of Azov was called Alaeotis palus.
These names .Scythian, .Macotian, Ihster (the Danube) and Khodope (the mountain range of Tlirace nearest the sea) are simply exjjressions for the North borrowed from Greek.
351. redit, 'turns': for the Khodope range has an easterly branch as well as a n(jrtherly.
axis, 'the pole', often for the north: so G. \\. 2ji quae terga obverterit axi.
.'"55- ifptt-mque aduirgit in tihias, 'heaped seven ells high' (R.). With characteristic love of variety he says the 'earth rises' with the snow.
78 VERGIL. GEORG. III.
357. pallentes, 'dim': similarly the word is often used of the under world.
359. Oceani. This passage is a Homeric imitation (Od. XI. 14, 'There is the land and city of the Kimmerioi, covered with mist and gloom : nor ever doth Eelios look on them with his beams, neither when he mounts the starry sky, nor when he returns again to tlie earth from heaven') and Oceanus has here its Homeric meaning, the river which formed the boundary round the world. So below, IV. 233, Oceani amiits.
361. ferratos orbes is explained by plaustris: the 'iron-shod' wheels and the 'broad' wains are mentioned to give an idea of the thickness of the ice that bears them.
364. utnida, i.e. which are usually so, 'the liquid wine'.
365. vertere, intrans. Vergil uses many such verbs intrans. , e.g. addo, inisceo, potto, roto, sisto, supero, tendo, urgeo, volvo, &c.
Note the perfects of habitual occurrences (gnomic, in imitation of the Greek aorist).
370. fnide nova, 'strange mass', gives the picture of the poor stags helpless, bewildered, and astonished by the new-fallen snow.
372. puniieae foniiidine pennae, 'the scare of the puri)le feather', refers to the custom of erecting at the avenues of the wood lines with gaudy fluttering feathers, to keep the game in, and drive them into the snares. This structure was appropriately called forinido, 'a scare'.
The line recurs slightly varied A. xu. 750.
373. niontetn, of snow.
377. totasque, see note on li^^. advolvere gnomic.
380. ' Mock the vine-juice with yeast and sour service-berries', presumably fermentum referring to 'beer' and the sorbis to a tliin 'home-made' wine of service. (Others take it as one dnnV., fermento et sorbis hendiadys.)
381. Hyperboreo, 196.
septem...trioni. Trio, originally said to be ter-io, a plough-ox: and the name septem triones, 'the seven oxen', was given to the constellation of the Great Bear. Hence a new word was coined Septemtrio for the 'Great Bear' or the 'North': and finally the two Bears were called gemini Triones. The true meaning of trio was of course lost.
382. Rhipaeo. The unknown and imaginary mountains in the extreme north were called 'the Rhipaean hills': afterwards when the geography became better known they were identified with hills near the source of the Tanais (Don) in Central Russia. So iv. 518.
383. vela/ur corpora, 'shroud their limbs', the Vergilian imitation of the middle voice of Greek verbs: so Aen. 11. 722 insternor pelle, 749 cingor, 'I gird myself, in. 405 velare comas, formam vertitur IX. 649, &C. &c.
See also note on 307.
saetis, 'bristles', unusual word for 'shaggy hide'.
[384 — 393. If wool is your object (sheep), beware of calthrops &c. Choose best fleeces: beware of a ram (however white) with a black tongue. Story of Pan and Luna.]
384. lanitium, ' wool -growing'.
NOTES. 79
385. lappafqtu triholique, 'burs and calthrops', prickly weeds. Notice -ijue (imitated from Homer, e. g. Ad/z7rov re KXuTto'j' re),
frequent in Vergil in this place of the line, usually before double conso- nants, as (ustusqw pluviasque, terrasque tractusque, ensemque clipeum- quf, font esq ue Jiuviosque, &c.
The prickles would tear and spoil the fleece: the over-rich food would make it coarse.
386. contimio here seems to mean 'first', as G, 1. 169. It properly means 'without break or pause'.
387 — 8. The ram that is white all over (ipse), if he is black in his tongue only (tan(um) must be rejected. Aristotle says, Hist. An. VI. 19, 'The lambs are white or black according as the veins under the ram's tongue are white or black '.
391 — 3. One story was that Pan, 'the god of Arcadia', beguiled the moon-goddess to follow him into the wood, by changing himself into a ram with a white fleece.
Vergil however seems to follow a version rather different: that he won her love by the gift of a white fleece.
39 1 . si credere dignum est. Vergil f edeems the grotesqueness of the story by these half apologetic words. So A. vi. 173 of the likewise rather grotesque tale of jealous Triton drowning Misenus, aemulus exceptum Triton, si credere dignum est, inter saxa virum spumosa immerserat unda.
[394 — 403. If milk your object (goats), instructions about food. Salt herbs make them thirsty. Milk pressed, and either sold or stored.]
396. hinc, from the salt.
398. iam excretos, 'from their birth', lit. 'a/^^rt^ when born', ex- cretus, an unusual word, from excerno, 'to put away out'. [Others less well take it from excresco. K. P. R. read etiani from one MS., which improves the rhythm: but iam is wanted for the sense.]
399. prima adverbial (as so often with adj. of position), 'from the first'.
The 'iron-pointed muzzles' prevent the kid from sucking, because naturally the she-goat objects.
401. premunt, (oT cheese.
402. 'The shepherd before dawn bears away in baskets to the town'. I follow W. L. K. in adopting Scaliger's exportans for exportant.
[If with C. we retain the latter, adit oppida pastor becomes so very harsh a parenthesis: and the corruption is easily explained by the in- fluence oi premunl, contingunt.]
It also makes better sense if we put a stop (with#IC.) at lucein, understanding premunt: there is no likelihood in the antithesis 'they press what they milk at dawn, and sell what they milk at evening'.
403. conliugunt (Vikepar^) expresses the small amount required, 'a touch of salt ' as we say.
[404 — 413. Dogs and their food: useful for hunting wild asses, hares, deers, and boars.]
404. y««riV jussive, the ordinary tense after nog.
4015. Spartae, 345. Molossian dogs (from Kpiros on N.W. coast of Greece) were also famous.
8o VERGIL. GEORG. III.
406. Whey is called 'rich' or 'fat' by an obvious metaphor.
408. He calls them iupacatos, ' rebels ', because those wiio had fought the Romans and refused to settle would be just the men to become fierce mountain brigands.
a tirgo, the attack being secret and unexpected. Hihcros, ' Spanish '.
409. With a poetic licence, Vergil speaking of Italian farming talks now of protection against the tiiicvcs of the Pyrenees, now of hunting ' the (Asiatic) wild ass.
411. volutabrum, 'wallowing-Iair'.
[414 — 439. Smells to keep off snakes: the various kinds: viper, coluber, Calabrian snake: ihe latter dangerous in hot dry weather.]
415. galbaniini was an Asiatic gum: this precept is from Nicander, see Introduction, p. 17.
chclydros, Greek word, 'water-snakes'.
417. i-a^///w, 'the daylight '.
421. colla, ace. respect.
423 — 4. The elaboration of phrase here is meant to suggest the intricacies of the beast.
' When his mid-coils and trailed tail unwinds, and the farthest spire writhes slow along'.
425 Calabria is the wild mountainous region of S. Italy.
430. atram ingluviem, 'his black maw', inglitviem properly the crop of a bird.
436. nemoris Jorso, 'a wooded ridge': imitated by Hor. 2 Sat.vx.
9'-
437 — 9. Vergil uses these phrases again in a simile, Aeneid 11. The
idea of the snake bringing up a family is all imaginary.
439. Unguis micat ore, 'quivers with his tongue in his mouth': ore local poetic abl. ; the two ablatives rather unusual.
[440 — 477. Diseases. The scab: comes from cold, dirt, wounds. Wash them: use olive-lees, sulphur and drugs: pitch, bitumen and herbs. Best of all, lance the sore. If fever comes on, bleed the sheep's foot. Signs of disease: they seek shade, lie down to eat, walk slow. Kill the diseased animal to prevent contagion. The danger of spreading plague: warning of the great Alpine disaster among sheep.]
442. allius ad vivom persedit, 'has soaked through deep to the quick', i. e. through the wool down to the flesh.
447. secundo aiinii, 'down the stream': secundus properly partici- pial, from sec-, 'to follow', and used of z. current ol vi\x or \ia.i<ix goitig with you. F* the form aintti see below note on I v. 164.
448. amurca (Greek word ifj^opyTj), 'olive-lees', a watery substance in the olive, which was strained off ihe oil.
449. spuinas argenti, 'silver scum',«a kind of slag or refuse that scums off in the meltings of ore from silver-lead mines.
vivat/ue sul/ura /da;asque, an unusual hypermeter or extra syllable, elided before next line, like 242, above, but much stronger instance. Others read et sulftva viva: but there is good MSS. authority, and .Servius, in favour of the text. A similar ending arbutus horrida Et occurs G. II. 69, also with various reading in ordinary metre.
NOTES. 81
450. Jdaeas, Ida in the iroad being famous for pines. pingties tinguiiie, 'rich' (i.e. soft) with oil.
451. scilla, 'squill': one of the bulbous plants, long used as a drug. elleboros, 'hellebore', the famous ancient herb, supposed to cure mad- ness.
graves, probably 'strong-scented'.
452. Notice the characteristic diction, the words being all rather strained and emphatic. ' Nor is there any help more potent for their troubles ',yi>r/i<«a being used of a successful chance or attempt to deal with the disease: praeseiis in a sense resembling its common use of a divine aid or interposition: A. XII. 152 si quitl praescntius audes: id. 245 signum quo non praescntius ullum.
454- tegendo, 'by hiding', i.e., if it remain hidden.
455. medicas, 'healing', 'skilled', so A. Xil. 402 medica manu. The word was doubtless originally general in sense, of any skill (connec- ted with medi-lor), and afterwards specialised to the healing art.
458. arida, the 'parched' fever, a slight transference of meaning, but natural and effective.
460. inter ima pedis, i.e. between the hoofs.
461. Bisaltae, a Thracian tribe near the river Strymon.
Geloni, a Scythian tribe N. of the Borysthenes or Dnieper, i.e. in the S. part of Russia.
462. The Bisaltian flies to Rhodope (349), the Geloni to the 'desert of the Getae\ a Scythian trii)e N. of Danube, in the modern Roumania.
463. The practice of drinking mares' milk and horses' blood is ascribed to various savages by the ancients (llor. Od. iii. 4, 24, Hom. //. XIII. 5).
466. extrentam predicative, 'and lag bchinil '.
467. solam gives the contrast with the healthy Hock. decedo with dat. ' to give way to', 'to retire before'.
468. culpam, 'the mischief, rather strained sense.
470 — I. 'Not so swiftly sweep the gusts over the sea bririging the storm, as the jilagues of cattle come swarming', tarn creber corresponds to quam multae, and the point of the simile is the quick succession of the plagues.
472. aestiva, 'summer pastures': the word is a metaphor from a camp, 'summer quarters'.
474. turn sciat...si quis...'he could tell of it,... whoso should see... ', rather a stately-poetic way of quoting his instance. As he proceeds to describe at length, there had been some time before {nunc qiioque post tanlo) a destructive cattle plague in the Tyroicse Alps [Norica) extending as far as 'limavus (a small river at the head of the Adriatic i>et\vecn Trieste and Atjuilcia, A. I. 2^4) which is called ' /apys' from the lapydes, a tribe living a little more to the west, in S. I'aiinonia.
[478 — end. Description of tlie terrible plague: The victims died at the altar: no proper entrails for omens: no strength or blood in the animals. Calves died at jiasture: dogs, pigs, horses. .Signs: could not eat or drink : cold sweat : dry skin : fever, gaspin^^ breath, bleeding at the nose. Sometimes cured with wine through funnel : sometimes made
G. III. IV. 6
82 VERGJL. GEORG. III.
worse: went mail, gnawed their own flesh. Jiulls fell dead in theact of ploughing: though their fare had been simple and wholesome. No cattle for sacrifice: no ploughing: all animals forsake their nature. Wolves fly away, timid deer ai)|iroacii, sea beasts seek shore; seals swim up the river. Snakes and birds ])erish: the wisest are at fault. It gets worse and worse: the very carcases are useless: the wool cannot be siiorn or woven: if it is worn, it brings the plague on the wearer.]
478. tnorbo cneli, 'from the infected heavens': so A. III. {37 corrupt 0 caeli tractu.
483. sitis, 'fever*, addiucerat, 'had shrivelled': so we speak of skin being 'drawn up'.
48.^. conlapsa, 'sapped', 'dissolved'.
4S7. Both victim and priests had a sacred band of white wool {iiitiila) wreathed with a white ribbon (v///a).
4(;o. !>ii/f, 'thence', i.e. from that victim.
Jiirae, the ' threads ' or fine ducts at the extremity of the liver : the appearance of these fibrae (presumably if unduly large or abnormalj was one of the worst signs in augury.
492 — 3. Emphasis on vix and ieiuna : the meagre and diseased victims had hardly any blood to shed.
496. blaiidis, 'gentle', to mark the contrast. A Lucretian epithet.
497. Note the compressed style: the line describes the cough, (tussis), \\\^ gasping {i\xA\Az.), the choking {^wg^K), and the swollen (obesis) throat.
498. Heyne, P. and others join stndiorutn atque ivimemor herbae: l)ut infelif studioniin (C. K. L. W. F. &c. ) is more like Vergil, lit. 'unlucky in respect of his efforts ', i.e. his eager exertions (in the race) which brought him glory {victor ecjuus) end in a miserable death. We may translate ' hapless for all his effort '.
499. fontcs accus. accortling to the sense: avert iturhtm'g equivalent to ' deserts'. Similarly \vc iind exeo, egredi, elabi, erumpo, evagari &c. with ace. (See Roby 112 1.)
500. incertus, 'fitful'.
ille quidem, 'a sweat that is cold when death is near ' : for the use of pron. see 2 17.
=,02. Notice the accumulation : he means ' hard to the touch ', but boln ideas are varied and expressed twice.
504. crudescere, ' grows fierce ', lit. ' hard ', of fruit &c.
506. It is the groan which in common speech is 'heavy': but V. with characteristic variation elaborates the phrase.
508. obsessas, bold word for 'stopped ', 'choked'.
510. Lenaeos latices, ' wine ', from Lenaeus name of Bacchus (\iji'6s ' winepress').
511. furiis refecti ardebant, sharply antithetic phrase: the 'new Strength ' was only the ' fire of frenzy '.
513. The prayer (to avert such ills from the good and send such nia.lness on their foes) is to point the horror f>f the dying horse devouring himself.
5 1 4. ntidis completes the horror: it suggests the mad horse drawing htack his lips and 'baring' his teeth.
NOTES. 83
518. maerentem fraterna morte, characteristic touch of sympathy with the animal : the two oxen who form the yoke are ' broliiers' ami one mourns the other.
522. electro, -fjXfKrpov, originally 'amber' (so probably in Hom.), afterwards an alloy of gold and silver fancifully named after it, from the colour. Vergil here doubtless means ' amber '.
ima solvontur latcra, 'his flanks fail under him ' (R.).
524. (ievexo, 'drooping'.
526. Massica: Massicus was a mountain in Campania, in the volcanic district, at the foot of which grew the famous Falernian wine.
527. repostae, ' renewed ', ' replenished ' : a reference to the various courses (fercula, 'trays") which formed the Roman caena. Suetonius praises Augustus for never having more than six fercula. The touch of half playful satire with which Vergil contrasts the wines and delicacies of a rich man's feast with the simple fare and life of the poor cattle is effective and even pathetic. Compare the famous passage G. II. 461 ' Si non ingentem foribus domus alta superbis &c.'
529. e-JTtraVa, ' driven '. Lucretian word of swift motion.
531. tempore non alio, ' never before ' this disastrous plague.
532. quaesitas, 'were lacking': sought for, and had to be sought for.
sacra lunonis. V. is thinking of the Argive rite, wherein the priestess of Here (luno) was drawn in a car by two white cattle to the temple. It makes no difference to the poet that the plague was in Austria.
uri were the wild cattle of Italy : ' buffaloes '.
53.^. 'The high treasury' is only a picturesque expression for ' temple ', which usually had a vault or closed chamber to keep the gifts.
536. contenta (from contendo, Lucretian word and use), 'straining'.
537. insidias explorat, characteristic variation of phrase : he means 'no prowling wolf lies in wait', but he says 'prowls his ambush', insidias being a kmd of extended cognate.
538. curior cura, the ' sharper trouble ', is of course the plague.
543. proluit, ' wasiies up '.
544. curvis late/iris from II. 216, where the poet explained that snakes found shelter in the ' winding; ' waterworn hollows of the lime- stone.
545. adslantibus, 'erect', unusual meaning. L. quotes I'iaut. Most. 324 'cave ne cad as : asta\
^^6. 'ion aequus, ' unkind ', like the common use o^ iniqtiiis. 547. The beautiful fancy of the dead bird ' leaving its life in the sky' is repeated //. V. 517.
549. artes, 'skill ', of the healing art, as the next line shews.
550. Chiron, centaur, son of Saturnus and the nymph Philyra, v. 93 (here for metrical reasons i'hill.), laiii^lil by Apollo, and renowned for sjcili in medicine, among many other accomplishments.
Afelampus, son of Ainylhaon, renowned as the fust seer and first physician.
6—2
84 VERGJL. GRORG. III.
To say these ' masters ' ccsscre, ' were of no avail ', is only an artilicial way of saying that no healing skill was of any avail.
552. Tisiphone, a Fury, who here (as A. VI. 67) executes the vengeance of the gods, a judgment from whom the plague is supposed to be.
556. Imitation of Lucretius vi. 11 44 'inde catervatim morbo mortique dabantur '.
559. ' Nor could any wash clean the flesh with water, or master it with fire ' : he means neither water nor fire could remove the taint ; but the language is highly strained, especially the word aboleo prop. ' to destroy'.
56 1 . inluT/u, ' issue '.
562. nee telas — putres, ' nor handle the rotten webs '. The whole sense is: the wool cannot be shorn (5^>i) nor woven (562) nor safely worn (563—6).
564. papulae, ' pustules '.
565. sequebatur, 'ran down'.
longo tempoie a.h\. to describe ' in the course 0/^ no long time. With moranti ace. would be usual.
566. sacer ignis, ' the holy fire ', was the name given by the Roman physicians to a red eruption on the skin, by some identified with erysipelas. In the Lucretian description of the plague, the eruption of the sacer ignis is likened to that of the plague.
BOOK IV.
[i — 7. Subject: bees, their little state, kings, people, character, pursuits, wars.]
I. aerii, ' heaven-dropt ' honey. Referring to the old superstition that the honey fell like a dew from the sky on the leaves, whence the bees gathered it.
In the golden age this honey was plentiful; and ceased to be so when the golden age ended (niellaque decussit foliis G. I. 131): but when it returns will again abound (durae quercus sudabunt roscida tnella Eel. IV. 30). The notion arose no doubt from the substance called honey-d^w, a sweet secretion of aphides much sought after by bees and wasps and ants.
3. levium rerum, 'of a little state'. There is a playful irony all through this book in the language used of bees: the poet intentionally uses the high-sounding phrases which would naturally be employed to describe human society. See Introduction, p. 25.
7. lacva, 'unfavourable', 'stern', the usual sense (si fata deum si mens non laeva A. II. 54: laevo contristat lumine X. 275, &c.), opp. dextra.
[.Servius followed by some edd. says it means the opposite, 'favourable ' : because certain signs (e.g. thunder A. il. 693) on the left were favourable: but in such places it means simply ' left '.J
[8 — 50. Choice of place for hives: sheltered from winds, beasts, lizards, birds: if there is water, let there be bridges and stones: and
NOTES. 85
fragrant herbs. Narrow opening, to avoid heat and cold: the bees themselves caulk the chinks, and may be helped lo do so. Avoid strong smells near at hand, as yews, burnt crabs, swamp-miasma: and don't choose echoing places.]
9. sit, final use of subj. after rel.
II. insultent, literally, 'trample'.
14. pinguibus a stahnlis, 'the rich stalls', playfully as above, 3. meropes, ' bee-eater ', a swift-flying insectivorous bird of the swallow kind.
15. Procne was the daughter of Pandion wife of Tereus ; she revenged herself on her husband (for violence done to her sister Philomela) by slaying and serving up to him their son Itys. The two sisters pursued by Tereus were changed into birds.
Procne in the Greek story is the nightingale, and her song is a lament for Itys: but here (and Ovid Met. VI. 669) Procne is the swallmv.
16. ipsas, the bees.
17. nidi, 'brood': the plural often used for the young in the nest: so nidis loquacibus A. Xil 475 : nidos dukes A. v. ■214.
inmitibus, ' cruel ' from the point of view of the bees.
■21. The 'kings' are what we call more accurately 'queens'.
11. vere suo, ' their own, their beloved spring', a pretty imaginative touch : so sopor suus below 1 90.
23. invitet decedere, ' tempt ihem to take refuge '.
28 — 9. ' If perchance while they linger swift Eurus splash them with rain, or plunge them in the mere'.
The last line is again playfully grandiloquent.
31. serpulla, 'thyme': Ihyinbra, 'savoury'.
All the plants are sweet and ' strong-scented '.
34. Read with the best MSS. (and R. L. P.) alvaria, as alvus is the regular word for ' hive ' in Varro, Pliny, and Columella : alvearia [usually read here : -vear- one syllable] is probably tiic wrong form, though it is found in our texts of Varro.
Properly then, almts 'the hive', alvarium the whole establishment, 'the apiary'.
36. rcmittit, ' thaws ' : //'</. rem. an accumulated expression like sublapsa referri, fixum sedet, convcrsa tulere, dectptam fefellit, sollicilain timor anxius aiigit &c.
38. /("ww/a, dactyl, the M being half consonant. So gcnufi, pariSte, SriCld. tenuia occurs i. 397, il. 121.
39. j//>(i/«ir/»/a, ' chinks ', 'crevices'.
Jiicus, 'dye', is generally understood to mean 'pollen'. fuco etfloribus, rather a bold hendiadys for ' flower-i)ollen'.
eras, ' the edges ', either of the doorway, or the other crevices.
41. Idiie, famous for pines, Ml 450.
\y fovere, 'keep snug': the root idea of the word. It is most often used u\ winulh (sol f., peclore f.), then o{ embraces, nursing, birds •iiXUn^ close : ihcii of rubbing ur luashing (230): below .|6 the idea is probably of (lo ing up tight.
4S. nre, not of 'roaslini'' to cat, but literally burning, which
86 VERGIL. GEORG. IV.
would make a far worse smell. Cral) ashes were used as a specific for certain diseases.
50. offensa, ' struck', properly of the original sound, here transferred to the echo which results. ' The echo of the voice strikes and rebounds' would be similarly inaccurate : we might say 'rebounds from the shock'.
[51 — 66. In warm weather swarms will begin ; sprinkle the place they are likely to choose with the right herb.s, and make a tinkling noise, and they will settle where you wish.]
51. quod superest, lit. 'as to the rest', i.e. 'furthermore', rather stately and formal connecting phrase. G. II. 346 : A. v. 796 (rather differently used sometimes, A. v. 691, XI. 15) : also in Lucretius.
54. tnetunt, 'crop ': rather unusual sense of the word, when what he really means is that they gather honey and pollen.
57. excttdunt, 'forge', another picturesque term : properly used of metal (excudent alii spirantia viollius aera A. VI. 847).
60. ' And marvel at the dark cloud spreading on the wind ', i.e. as the cluster flies it lengthens out.
63. melisphylla [Greek name = 'bee-plant'], 'balm'. cerintha, 'wax-flower', the name of a fragrant herb.
64. Again the playful touch of grandeur, 'Awake the tinkling sound, Shake the cymbals of the great Mother'.
Matris is Cybele, the Phrygian goddess called the Great Mother, whose worshippers (Corybantes) celebrated her with wild rites, accom- panied with drums, horns and cymbals.
65. medicalis sedibiis, 'the drugged' or 'scented resting-place' is the tree which has been rubbed with balm &c.
ipsae, ' of themselves ' as often.
Varro's description makes Vergil quite clear: They lead the swarm where they please by tinkling round them : not far off they smear a bough with bee-glue and the herbs the bees like : when they have settled, they bring, a hive smeared within with the same attractions. Var. III. 16, 30.
66. ciitiabula, 'cradle', fanciful word for the hive.
[67 — 87. Signs of battle : buzzing and hurry, and sharpening of stings and crowding: they fight obstinately and bravely. You can stop them by throwing dust.]
67 sqq. Vergil's humour in describing the doings of the bees is nowhere more delicate and effective than in this warlike passage. The apodosis to Sin exierint is dropped, and only practically resumed at 86.
69. trepidantia bello corda, ' hearts beating for the war ' sounds more natural in English, and several edd. take bello dat. : but the abl. is more like Vergil, ' with war', meaning 'with the thought ' or 'prospect of war'.
71. 'The loud trumpet's warlike ring' is the buzz of excitement.
72. By 'broken' sounds he means the rapidly changed note: opposed to a prolonged and sustained tone.
74. 'They whet their stings upon their beaks and make ready tlicir strong arms', a highly imaginative picture, the nearest approa>,h in fact being the rubbing of their Kodies with their legs which is really removing dust or anything that clings.
NOTES. 87
[To take rostris as dat. 'for their beaks' =gen., C, or 'out of their beaks', is much too artificial, and even further from the fact.]
75. praetorta, 'the general's tent ', playfully for the place where the queen is : the whole description is of course imaginary.
76. miscentiir, 'crowd', 'swarm': a favourite word of V. for any sort of confusion.
81. glandis, gen. after tantiim.
83. ipsi, ' the chiefs themselves'.
84. obnixi, Teg\i\a.rly o( Jirm pressure, here viefi/al, 'resolute'. The inf. is a stretch of construction naturally due to the unusual sense uf obnixi. See note on ill. 46.
85. subegit, vivid use of perf. indie, fc subegerit. So anteqiiain and pritisquam: antequam opprimit lux erumpamus Liv. xxii. 50: omnia experiri certumst, priusquam /irrco Ter. Andr. 311.
87. Pliny recommenils dust-throwing to stop the fighting ; Varro the throwing of water sweetened with honey {aqua tnttlsa), the bees crowding together to lick each other !
[88 — 102. Kill the beaten queen — recognisable by colour: the stronger is bright, the weaker sluggish, rough and bloated. The workers on each side are likewise different in colour.]
89. fte prodigus obsit, 'lest he be a wasteful burden', 'to prevent the harm of waste ', since the defeated queen was of no further use, and only consumed honey.
92. tneiior, long 0 before vowel in arsis.
93. ' The other squalid from sloth, and trailing dishonoured a cumbrous belly'.
Varro merely says the bright one is the better. Vergil has developed the idea.
97. Vergil plainly means that the inferior bees (which are dark and rough) are like the spittle of a dusty traveller. The coarseness of such a simile may be compared with the horrid descrijnions in the Aeneid, e.g. the drunken Cyclops 111. 623, tlie battered boxer v. 468, the mangled Deiphobus VI. 496 : which however are somewhat redeemed by tlieir force.
99. paribus, 'even': one of the beauties of insects being the symmetry of their markings.
102. ' Fit to tame the iiarsh savour of wine': the Romans were fond of a kind of w^a^made of the commoner sorts of wine mixed with honey.
[103 — 115. When they tly aimless, kill the queen: also plant crocus, thyme, pine: and place a statue of Priapus.]
103. caelo, poetic local abl. 'in the air'.
104. frigida expresses the result of t!»e verb (proleptic use) : 'leave their hives cold'.
1 10 — ' 1 1. I'riapus was the god of fertility, said to have been born of Venus at Lampsacus on the Hellespont, where he was worshipped. He was naturally the protci.tDr >.A rsW produce, and especially of gardens, where his statue stood armed with a ivilloiu cudgel to keep off thieves and birds.
I 10. After (uslos yf)U wouM expect I'riapus, which is however elaborated into tulela /Viapi, in Vergil's manner.
88 VERGIL. GEORG. IV.
funtm, 'against' thieves, a good illustration of the elastic use of the gen., which can be used to describe almost any relation between substantives.
113. tecta, ' the hives '.
1 1 4. /traces plantas, ' the fertile shoots ' of the pine trees.
[116 — 148. I should like to have sung of gardens, and all the flowers and herbs, roses, endive, parsley, gourd : narcissus, acanthus, ivy, myrtle. I remember an old Cilician gardener who prospered much on a few acres in the plants and fruit and bees he raised — but time is short.]
117. ni...traha7n...canerem. In prose we should have trakc'iein, because it is a present condition where the supposition is excluded by the facts: [I am furling my sails: were I not furling them &c.]
The pres. subjunctive properly means 'were I not to furl ' and treats the question as still open. So ^. l. 58 m facial .. .(\\x\^^^ ferant secum : Aen. II. 599 circum errant acies et ni mea cura resistat..'\?i.\x\ flammae tulerint: vi. 292 et ni docta comes. ..adrnoncat...inniat, S.c.
In all these cases the licence is taken in l>oth clauses of the con- ditional : whereas in this passage the principal verb reverts to the normal tense: just as it does in Tibull. i. 8, 21 faceret, si non acra repulsa soncnt, quoted by C.
119. 'The rose-beds of twice-blooming Paestum ' : Paestum origi- nally a Greek colony (Posidonia) on the sea in N. of Lucania, very flourishing in fifth century B.C., afterwards decayed, and in Augustan times famous only for roses. It is now known everywhere for the ruins of its two magnificent Doric temples.
120. Instead of saying 'parsley rejoices in the banks' he says 'the banks rejoice in parsley'. The variation of expression is characteristic.
122. cresceret in uentrem, a natural variation, 'swelled to a huger paunch '.
sera, adv. ace. see in. 149 : comantem, here 'blooming'.
1 25. Oebaliae, ' the high towers of Oebalia ' are Tarentum, founded by Laconians, Oebalia being a name for Laconia from a mythical king Oebalus.
[The easier reading arcis, adopted by R. P. K. L., is unknown to the old MSS. and Servius, and is doubtless an alteration.]
126. Galaesus, a deep clear river which flows S. into the harbour of Tarentum.
127. Corycus, a seaside place in Cilicia : the gardens of Cilicia were famous, and this old Cilician applied his native knowledge of gardening to a piece of waste (lelicti ruris) near Tarentum.
128. ilia, best taken with seges: 'a land not made fertile by the toil of oxen' &c., iitvencis being abl. instr. [Others take it dat. 'for the cattle', i.e. regarding the cattle as the recipients of the fertility they produce: a much harsher constr.]
'3'* premens, 'hide' 'bury'; fanciful word for ' plant': so II. 346.
vescum, 'fine' poppy seed, see note on iii. 175.
132. animis might be ' with his spirit' or 'in his heart': the plur. is rather in favour of the former. It will then be a rather unusual but effective way of saying 'he was as proiul (of his small possession) as of royal wealth '.
NOTES. 89
134. • The inf. here (and below 140) are best taken aher primus (erat understood) and not historic inf. : for all the other verbs are indie.
135. etiatnnum, ' still ', because he is speaking of the end of winter : he had the spring flowers before the spring.
137. tondebat, a long, an instance of Vergil's archaism, or fondness for old usages, as this a was in old times long. Ennius has ' ponebat ante salutem' and Plautus has it long. So A. v. 853, vii. 174, x. 383, &c. all before stops however.
For Greek rhythm with Greek word (hyacinthi) see III. 60.
142. in Jlore novo, ' in early blossom ', i.e. in the ti7ne of flowering.
143. rnatura poma (not arbos, as C.).
144 — 6. The point is that with his gardening skill, just as he had earlier flowers than others, so he could transplant trees later: the elms already grown, the pear with hard wood, the sloes with plums on them, &c.
144. in versuni, 'in line' : so the word is used [A. v. 1 19) of a line or 'tier' of oars in a trireme; for ace. see in sfevt iir. 73, below 175.
145. spines, 'the sloes', which were probably grafted with plums just as planes with apples, ashes with pears &c. 11. 70.
J 47. haec is the whole sub/ect of gardens and flowers, see 1 15.
spatiis exclttsus itiiquis, ' barred by too narrow a field '.
[149 — 218. The natures of bees: their common life, and toil: their division of tasks, for food, building, feeding the young, getting honey, guarding, — all busy like the Cyclopes. From morn to eve various toil: they know the weather and fear storms, even carrying ballast. They do not breed like other animals, but 7?W(/ their eggs: themselves shortlived, the life of the community never ends. Their loyalty and reverence to their sovereign.]
150. pro qua mercede, 'the reward for which', the reward being the natural skill and powers, naturas.
151. The Cretan story was that, as Kronos (Saturn) devoured his children, when Zeus (luppiter) was born his mother hid him in a cave of M. Dicle in Crete. The Ctiietes (afterwards priests of Zeus) clashed their weapons to drown the infant's cries, lest his father should lind him. The bees, k<l by the clashing sound (64), settled there, and fed the infant god with honey. luppiter in gratitude endowed the bees with their wisdom.
153. solae. The ancients knew very little of the other social insects (wasps, hornets, ants),
consols, usually of persons, 'sharer, ])artncr' : here of things, 'com- mon' dwellings (j^a;^(/ instead of s/m/injif).
154. iiia/^nis, 'mighty' laws, see note on 67 and Introduction, p. 25.
157. ill medium, common phrase, 'for the common store', sd in in. consulerc, dare, ccjnferre, cedcre, &c.
158. victu invigilant, 'walch o'er the gathering of food ', vidu the old contracted form of the flat, common in Vergil. So venalu invig. Atn. rx. 60.5. So we find curru, inetii, porlti, I'tc.
1^)4. stipaiil. 'jjack': the notion of force and tightness being given in the sound (jf (he unusual rhythm, a heavy spondee overhanging, see III. 317.
90 VERGIL. GEORG. IV.
165. sorU, probably old abl. like classi A. VIII. 1 1 : igniV. I. 234 : and in Lucr. common, colli, tussi, orbi, sordi, pelli, imicroni, parti, itc. See III. 447.
ad portas depends closely on custodia, a rare constr. ciiicfly with verbal substantives.
169. fervet opus, lit. 'the work is hot': i.e. 'all is busy toil'.
The passage recurs (with slight alterations) A. \. 430, as a simile for the busy labours of the builders at Carthage.
170. The original Cyclopes ('Round-eyes') were the cannibal one- eyed giant shepherds of Sicily, in the Odyssey. It was a later tradition which made them the giant forgers in the iuige foundry of llephaistos (Volcanus) in the caverns of Aetna and the volcanic Liparaeaii isles off N. of Sicily, Vergil gives a long account of the Cyclopes at work A. VIII. 415 — 453, where he uses again these lines^
173. 'Aetna groans with the anvil's wei,i,'ht' though the anvil is in the heart of the mountain. A. viii. 451 gives more accurately 'antrum'.
1 75. in numertim, 'in measured beat', idiomatic use of in with ace. ; so in morem 'duly' v. 556: in orbetn 'in a circle' viil. 673. Where there is motion the ace. is quite natural. Similar instances above are in span in. 73, in versimi IV. 144.
176. si parva...magnis, a half-grave apology for comparing the bees to these mythical giant blacksmiths.
177. Cecropias, a picturesque literary epithet 'Athenian', from Cecrops mythical king and founder of Athens. The Athenian honey of Hyinettus, a thymy hill S.E. of Athens, was famous. The motive amor habeiidi of course applies only to the bees: it is only the industry (urguet) that is compared.
179. daedala, adj. (derived from Greek 5a(5oXo5 or SatSdXeoj 'cunning', generally of work in wood, metal, or later embroidery) and a favourite word of Lucretius.
180. miilta node, 'late at night'.
183. ferrtigineits (from ferrugo 'iron rust'), a word used rather loosely, usually of any dark purple, reddish, or violet colour: I'laut. Miles wj%...ferruglneiini, nam is color thalassicus 'for that is the colour of the sea'. In G. i. 467 it seems to mean 'lurid-red': and Ovid has even viridis ferrugine barba, apparently 'sea-green'. Here it is clearly 'dark blue'.
184. qnies opcnim, ^xeslfrom labour', see no.
190. in noctem, ' far into the night ', in implying continuance into, as A. VII. 8adsi>irant aurae in noctem. So in dies 'as the days go on' and ih itnavTov in Greek.
sopor suus, 'their own slumber', 'welcome slumber', a beautiful touch: cf. vere SKO, 22.
194. V. borrows the strange idea of bees carrying pebbles (as boats have ballast) from Aristotle. Perhaps a load of pollen was mistaken for gravel or sand.
\(/i. tollunt, the heavy spondee overhanging suggests the effort, as above 164.
198. concubitu dat., 158.
NOTES. 91
200. This other quaint superstition that bees pick their eggs off flowers (also found in Aristotle) arose probably from pollen being mis- taken for eggs.
201. QuiriUs, the old name for the Roman 'citizens', with playful gravity applied to the inhabitants of the bees' commonwealth.
202. sujiciuitt, 'sup])Iy', regularly used of electing officers to fill vacancies; so G. in. 65 aliam ex alia generando suffice prolem.
204. ulh'o, lit. 'further', a favourite word of Verg. of any action beyond v/hsX might be expected: e.g. icltro compellat, affatur, increpat, &c., of the being the first to speak: ultra occurro, venio, pcto, oi coming uncalled: ultro offerre, afferre, of offering unasked. Here we might render it 'freely': they sacrifice themselves for the common weal. See 265, 530.
207. excipiat, 'awaits them' : the word is used of anything 'coming upon' a person, e.g. castes excipit A. ill. 318, cculi indulgentia exc. terras G. II. 345.
non plus septima. nonplus and non amplins often thus used idiomaii- cally as an adverb, without changing the case of the subst. So non aviplius una III, non plus quingentos, non ampliits ijtiattnor viillia.
209. 'The fortune of their house stands fast, and grandsires' grand- sires swell the roll' (P.). The rhetorical splendour of these lines is in the same half pLiyful ironic spirit wiiich abounds in this book.
210 — II. These are typical eastern nations, whose grovelling sub- mission to despots was a commonplace.
The Hydaspes is an Indian river (the Jeloum), eastern affluent of the Indus, and is called Median with a truly poetic elasticity of geogra[)liy (compare G. 11. 490), as the Hydaspes is nearly a thousand miles from NIedia proper. However if we take Medus for 'Persian' (as it often loosely is used) and remember that the great Persian empire in its best days reached to the Indus, the expression may be (poetically) justified.
213. rupere, gnomic [lerfect, used (like Greek aor.) of habit. So G. I. 49, 226, II. 24, 70, 443.
214. crates favorum, 'the ribbed combs', 'the combs' waxen trellis' (R.), a picturesque expression for the jointed look of a section of honeycomb. The word projierly means wicker or basket work, and is used to describe various things constructed with cross pieces, as a harro7u (Plin), the interlocked shields of tiie tesludo (l^ucan), a shield-framework (Verg. A. vii. 633), the ribs oi the body (Verg. A. xn. 503).
217. corpora hello obicctant, 'expose their limbs to the battle', i.e. for the queen.
[219 — 227. Hence scjme have thought bees divinely inspired: for the world-spirit is the source of all life, and underlies and informs all the world.]
In tliis passage, as C. has shewn, the poet is mixing up two quite difTirrent beliefs, (1) that bees are specially inspired witii wisdom from the gods: (so Aristotle believed when he spoke of l>ccs having tc Oilov (Gen. An. III. 10), and the skilful structure of their hive and elaborate social arrangements led nnlurnlly to the belief): (2) that there is a woild-spiril which pervades the world and
92 VERGIL. GEORG. IV.
is the source of all life (and is to be found in bees too). This belief is more fully given in the famous passage in A. vi. 724, sqq.: 'First of all heaven and earth and the liquid fields, the shining orb of the moon and the Titanian star, doth a spirit sustain inly, and a soul shed abroad in them sways all their members and mingles in the mighty frame. Thence is the generation of man and beast, the life of winged things, and the monstrous forms that ocean breeds under his glittering floor'. (From Mr Mackail's translation of the Aeneid.)
This world-spirit is of fiery or ethereal nature: hence 'the draughts of ether' which the bees inhale.
222. it'9-iasque iracticsque, this lengthening (like the Homeric i\afXTrov re K\&n6v re) is common in V., always before liquids or double consonants, aestusque pluviasqiie, liniinaque laiirusque, lappae- que iribulique, tribidaque trakeaeqiie, fontesque Jlitviosqiie, &c. See III. 385.
225. reddi...resoluta referri, accumulated, see note on 36.
227. sideris in numcriini, 'into their starry rank' (R.), rather an unusual use of njiineriis, which may be compared with in iiidlo mmiero esse Cic. De Or. 3, 56, 213: digeril in ntunertim Verg. A. III. 446: parentis nutnero Cic. Verr. 19.
[228 — 250. If you take combs, you must wash first, and smoke the hive. Two honey-harvests, spring and autumn. Their sting is bad. If you save some for the bees in winter, cut away empty combs — beetles and cockroaches &c. eat the combs : and other enemies are hornets, molhs, spiders.]
228. angustam and atcgiislatn are both read by good MSS., the latter the best supported. But angtistam is more natural.
229. relines, 'unseal', 'broach', metaphor from wine-jars, which were closed with cork or wood, plastered over with pitch (or clay). So corticem adstrictiun pice demovebit amphorae I lor. Od. III. viii. 20.
230- ora fove, 'lub' or 'wash' your mouth, evidently with water. Yo'c fovea, see note on iv. 43.
The tradition of bee-keepers given by Columella (ix. 14) was 'not to go near the bees after drinking wine, nor without washing : to abstain from all strong-smelling food, as salt fish, or salt sauces, or garlic or onions'.
sequaees, 'penetrating' smoke, to drive out the bees from the combs which are to be taken. Sequax, a vivid word used of 'pestering roes' G. II. 374, also oi fire and water.
231. _^ravidos fetus-, 'teeming produce' (R.), slightly unusual sense.
cogtint, ' they gather'. [Others make 'bees' nom. : but the bees were always at work, and V. is clearly speaking of the taking of the combs.]
232 — 5. Taygete is one of the Pleiads, and the general sense is jjlain, that the two honey-harvests are about the times of the rising and setting of the Pleiads.
The Pleiads are one of the most marked constellations ; and as the apparent morning rising (i.e. the day when they could be first seen to rjse at daybreak) was about the 28th May, and their apparent morning setting was about 9lh November, this constellation was
NOTES. 93
chosen from very early times to mark the beginning of summer (by its rising) and the beginning of winter (by its setting). These signs are noted in Hesiod, in an astronomical treatise of the 5th century, and in Julius Caesar's calendar : and no doubt all farmers' lists of days would contain the mention of them. There is no need to go closely into the question of days ; since Vergil only means that there is a spring and an autumn honey-harvest.
'The Fish' refers no doubt to the sign of the Zodiac of that name, which traditionally (though in Vergil's day no longer truly) corre- sponded to the late winter. The poet accordingly describes the Pleiades which set in early winter as 'fleeing before the Fish'. The expression is astronomically as loose as can be, but poetically sufiicient.
233. Oceani ainnes, see III. 359.
237. morsibus. Vergil forgets that bees do not bite.
238. adfixae, 'clinging': it is really the stings that cling, not the bees: but this sort of variation is quite in Vergil's manner: e.g. volsis radicibus herbae, sopitas ignibus aras, tecinsque tenet se, &c.
It was an old belief that a bee could only sting once, left the sting in, and died of it.
240. res viiserabere frattas, 'pity their shattered fortunes', i.e. and leave them honey instead of taking a full harvest. The expression has the usual half playful character : it would naturally apply to a human society.
243. stelio, 'a newt': the i is half consonantal, and the word is therefore a dissyllable. So arigtd, pariStibus, «&c.
243 — 4. The sense is, 'the combs are often eaten by newts, cockroaches, and drones': but instead of saying b/attae, the expression is elaborated into 'the crowded lairs of the light-loathing beetles' and so the grammar strained, though the meaning is clear enough.
blatta. The dictionaries give 'cockroach, chafer, moth': a little vague. The phrase 'light-loathing' and 'crowded haunts' point to the cockroach: so also Horace's remark (Sat. 11. 3, 117) that they are found in clothes-chests : and Pliny's statement [N. H. .\i. 28) that they breed in baths. [I use the popular term 'beetle' although not scientifically correct.]
244. immuuis, prop, of the citizen who does not take his share of put)lic burdens : admirable word for the drones, who eat but don t work.
245. inparibus, dat. 'ill-matched foe', because the bees cannot defeat the hornet.
246. invisa Minervae. Ovid's version of the old Greek story of the spider is as fijllows: The Lydian maitieii Arachne was so skilful in weaving and spinning that she challenged Minerva to a contest. Arachne wove a magnificent tapestry representing all the sins of the gods against women : Minerva depicted the triumphs of Ihe gods over impiety. Arachne in grief tore her work and hung herself; Minerva in pity changed her into a spider — always spinning, and always hanging. {Met. VI. i — 145.)
249. incumbttit, jiicturesque word for 'work', 'strive'. For inf. see III. 4^1.
94 VERGIL. GEORG. IV.
250. forus, like forum, properly 'a confined space': generally a gangway, jiassagc, alley : here boldly for 'a cell '.
' VVeave their garners with flowers', a fanciful and poetic version of V. 39—40.
[251 — 280. Signs of disease: colour, leanness, swarming at the door, sluggishness, low humming. Drugs to cure them : honey, gall, dry rose-leaves, must, raisins, thyme ; and the plant amellus stewed in wine.]
251. Notice the rare caesura; much more frequent in later books of Aeneid.
252. The apodosis to sivero is dropped, and only resumed 264. 255. luce carentiim, 'bereft of light', i.e. dead; a Lucretian phrase
Greek in its character. The Greeks used {i\l-Kuv 'to see'='to live', \iiirn.v (pa.0% 'to leave the light '= 'die ': and'Ai57jj=d-f5ijs, 'the dark', for the world below.
257. illae, the sick bees.
259. cont7-acto, ' cramped ', ' huddled ', transferred from the sufferer to the cold which causes the suffering. Similar uses are sceleratas stiinere poenas, cursum prospera discit religio, sagitta celeres transilit umbras, &c.
260. tractimque snstirrattt, ' a longdrawn hum ' (R.).
261 . quondam. ' ofttimes '.
262. stricitt, the older conjugation, instead of the common strideo. So V. \\zs> fei-vere A. IV. 409, /«/^<?>v VI. 826, stridere again G. II.
418, stridere and effervere iv. 556.
263. rapidus, see below, 425.
265. iiltro horiantem, 'even' cheering, 'himself cheering: see note on 204.
267. tunsum artificially with saporem: it is of course the oakgall which is bruised.
268 — 9. pingtiia., ' rich ', here means no doubt ' thickened ' : the fresh wine or must (defruta) was boiled down to make it more concentrated.
psithia is the Greek name of some unknown vine: we learn from G. 11. 93 that it was chiefly used for passum or 'raisin wine', passiis properly ' spread ' : so used of raisins dried in the sun.
270. Cecropium, i,L-e 177.
ceiitaurea, 'centaury', a bitter herb named according to Pliny (xxv. 14) because it was discovered by the Cenlaur Chiron, who was instructed by Apollo in the art of healing. It was one of the various kinds of panacea or Cure-all.
271. a/w^/////, the yellow aster.
273. caespes, usually 'a sod', 'turf, which cannot be the meaning here : it seems to be also used of « clump or root of a bushy shrub : and Vergil here uses it in this sense : many stalks and flowers (silva) from one root.
276. nexis torqiiibus, ' with chaplets twined ' 0/ it.
277. tonsis, ' cropped '.
178. Afella, a little river about 20 miles W. of Mantua, falling from the Alps into the Ollius, an affluent of the Po. This was in Vergil's own country.
NOTES. 95
[281 — 314. If the stock fail, try ihe Egyptian method: builil a liitle air-tighl chamber; beat a bullock to death, keeping the skin whole, and put the carcase with herbs into the chamber. Alter a short time a -:warm of bees will emerge from the carcase.]
281. deficio orig. with dat., in classical times was regularly used with acc. So we say ' strength fails me '.
283. The Arcadian nuisUr is Aristaeus, son of Apollo and the water-nymph Cyllene, a shepherd and skilled keeper of bees. See G. I. 14, where he is called cultor nemorum.
285. uisiticeriis, ' putrid *.
The superstition that dead bodies of animals gave birth to bees ^rose no doubt from bees buildmg in hollow skeletons of animals, when they could not find hollow trees or rocks to suit them. Compare the well-known tale of Samson and the lion's carcase.
allius &c., ' I will unfold all the tale from the first {altius, 'far back'), tracing it from its source '.
287. Catwpus, a large city on the coast of Egypt near the W. mouth of tlie Nile : called Fellaeus, because Egypt was conquered by Alexander the Great, and became part of the Macedonian Empire, of w hich Pella (not far from the head of the Thermaic gulf) was the capital.
288. slagftantem, as the great inundating river.
290. ' \Vhere the border of quiver-bearing Persia presses close'. Persia is used very vaguely, perhaps for Syria and Arabia as part of the Persian Empire.
292. Indis, the Romans knew very little of the upper Nile, and Indi is used poetically for the Aelhiopians S. of Egypt.
291 — 3 are read in various orders in liic MSS. : and the prolixity and monotonous rhythm rather point here to our having (what has happened several times in the Aeneid) different versions all niixctl up.
I have followed what seems the best order, that of Rom. MS.
294. hue arte, i.e. bee-breeding from carcases.
298. a ventis, 'on the side of, 'in the direction of, 'toward ', an idiomatic use of a. So a fronte, a latere, ab orietite, a meridie, ab decumana porta, where we say ' on ', or ' at '.
301. obstruitur, 'stopped', 'gagged'.
302. solvontur, ' mashed '.
viscera as usual is 'the flesh ' [not entrails as often construed].
306. ante </utim rubeant, the sut)j after antequiiiii in its regular use (where care is taken to do one thing before the other happens), usually classe<l witliy?«a/ subj.
309. visenda viodis miris, lit. 'to be marked in wondrous wise', a formal and antiqu.ited expression {mod tnir. Lucretian, see G. I. 477) for the sake of inipressiveness. We may perhaps simplify in translating ' marvellous to note '.
310. pedum for the ox(\'u\a.xy pedibiis, truncus being used like orbus and vacuus, naturally with abl. but also (chielly Augustan) with gen. The gen. may be justified as the Latin gen. of relation, ' in respect of: but ni) doubt the much greater u->c maile of it by Augustans (esj). Vergil) is due to the influence of Greek, where the gen. has also the ablative nie.iiiing.
96 VERGIL. GEORG J V.
311. miscenttir, 76.
aera carpunl, see ill. 325, ' take to the air ', ' range the aii '.
313. erupere, gnomic.
3 1 4. The Parthians are named as the most famous archers .. skirmishers and are naturally called leves ' nimble '.
Where Vergil got this elaborate method, involving such a . rural superstition, is not known : but the precept is given in eve. greater detail in a work called Gcoponica (' Agricultural notes '^ ascribed to a writer Florentinus about 900 A. D., who professes to gel ' ' information partly from Varro. If so Yergil may have been follow Varro, but in the latter's extant works there is nothing about it.
[315 — 381. The invention was due to Aristaeus, who lost his '•" and called the nymph Gyrene his mother to aid him. She heard ' she sate in the depths with her nymphs around her. Arethusa \ to see what the cry was, and told Gyrene. The water parted anu came down, and marvelled at the palace under water and the divers river-founts. They feasted him : and after due prayers Gyrene spoke :
315. The address to the Muses marks as usual an important break here the episode of Aristaeus : so he invokes the Gods below at the beginning of the entry to Hades, A. vi. 264 : and the Muses when Aeneas lands in Italy Vil. 37.
316. 'Whence did this new adventure of man find its source?' strained and emphatic language.
317. Aristanis, G. I. 14: above 283. His mother was the nymph Cyretie, daughter of the river-god Peneus. The river flows through a very remarkable defile, between the ranges of Olympus and Ossa, in N. Thessaly. called Tempe [T^/uttj;, Greek neuter plural].
Where the story comes from is not known. [Heyne's suggestion, that it was from the ancient cyclic poet Eumenes (adopted Ijy G. P. F. &c.), rests merely on the tradition that he wrote a ^ovyoyla, and the conjecture that this tale was there.]
319. ca/>u/ clearly the ' source ', as 368.
323. Thymbraeus, name of Apollo, from Thymbra (near Ilium) in the Troad, where was a famous tem[)le of Apollo.
326. By the ' crown of this mortal life ' he means his fame as a tiller of the soil, cultor nemorurn, and breeder.
328. te matre, 'though thou art my mother', and with thy divine power mightest have aided me.
329. felix, 'fruitful ', the original meaning, connected with stem <(>v- and fe- tus, fe- nus, fe- cundus, fe- mina: so nulla felix arbor Li v. V. 24, felices arbores Gato dixit quae fructum ferunt Fe>t. 92.
331. molire, wield, used of any effort : hewing here : driving, m. halienas A. xii. 327 : ploughing m. terram aratro G. i. 494 : hurling, fulmina m. G. i. 329.
334. Milesia, 111. 306.
This passage about the nymph is from Homer's account of Thetis //. XVIII. 34 ; —
'Achilles moaned: and his mother heard him as she sate in the depths of the sea. ..and the goddesses thronged around her...Thaleia and Kymodoke and Ncsaia and Speio...&c. '
NOTES. 97
336. Drytnoqtu : see above ill. 385, iv. 221.
337. caesariem effusae, 'with their bright locks shed'; for the ace. III. 307.
'" 338. This line is probably spuriousi, as it alone contains names Homer's list of Nereids (see above 334) : it also recurs A. V. 826 •ifce it has come hither, no doubt). 340. Liicina, G. III. 60.
342. auro, belt, quiver, buckles, hair-snood, &c. These nymphs "re huntresses clearly, like Arethusa below. 34.^. Ephyre atque. The Greek licence of open (long) vowels is naturally used in a passage of Greek names. So Khodopeiae arces "^J-'OW 461.
'<»6. This refers to the old savage tale how Mars (Ares) made faithless to her lord Volcanus (found in Odyssey vill.). ''•'' ' The phrase ' fruitless care ' will include love, anxiety, and vigilance on the part of the deluded Volcanus.
347. aqut Chao, 'and from Chaos', i.e. from»the beginning of the -Avorld.
densos, lit. 'thronging', unusual for 'countless'.
353. frustra, 'for nought', 'idly': there was a real cause for^her alarm.
359 — 361. From Homer; see Homeric parallels.
364. The scenery under the water is like that on earth: only the rivers are made to have their source there.
367. diversa locis, 'separate': /orw artificially added, lit. 'in respect of their places ', not wanted in English.
Phasis, river of Colchis, flowing into S.E. end of Euxine. Lycus, river of Pontus, flowing from hills of Armenia into the Iris and so into S. side of Euxine.
368. Enipeus, river of S. Thessaly, a feeder of the Peneius.
369. saxosusque sonans, (i) note souttd imitntion of the dashing rocky torrent: (2) the strained Vergilian use oi adj. saxosus: like iucxpUtus lacrimans, densi tela intorquent, ostendit se Je.xlra.
Hypanis, a. river of Sarmatia (S. Russia) which flows into the sea of Azov at the N.E. end of the Crimea.
Caicus in Mysia, rising in M. Temnus and flowing into the Acgaean a little .S. of Lesbos.
370. pater, the reverent title of gods and rivers.
Anio rises in Apennines E. of Rome, flows past Tibur and joins the Tiber just above Rome.
371 — 3. The Eridaiius, a fabled river of the western lands, first in Hcsiod (?), 7'heogoriy, I. 338: Herodotos (III. 115) says it flows into Oceanos in west of Europe. It was afterwards identitied with the Po, even by Greek poets (Eur. //;//■ 737). and regularly by Romans.
Vergil holds it in special honour, as the greatest river in Italy, and of his own native Lomijardy: it is the 'king of rivers' (G. I. 482) and its fount is in the abodes of the blest below (A. VI. 659).
371. 'With bull's head and both horns gilt': a double reference, complicated in Vergil's manner: (i) river-gods were regularly represented
G. III. IV. 7
98 VERGIL. GEORG. IV.
with bull's horns or heads {tauriforinis Aufidus Hor. IV. Od. 14. 25: 'Y\\^\ix\%...corniger ^\x\'\\\^ A. viii. 77), doubtless as a primitive sign of strength. (2) The sacred bull of the Roman triumphs was a white bull with gilt horns: so the great festival of the triumph, at once national and religious, is suggested by a word. Similarly the Bull (sign of Zodiac) in (7. I. 217 is Cauduiiis auratis cortiibus.
374. 'Roofs hanging with lava', Veigilian variation for 'hanging lava roofs': so pictas abide pttppes, virgulta sonaniia laiiro, immensa voluiniHi: tcrga, liquontur sanguine guttae, &c.
The relation of the subst. to the phrase is changed from the more to the less natural.
376 — I'i'O. So when the suitors feast in the Odyssey, they have first the ' golden ewer and silver basin ' to wash hands, and then platters with divers kinds of flesh.
Notice the choice language to dignify common things: water is liqiiidos fontes, a towel is tonsis mantelia villis, incense is ' Panchaean fire' : cups are carchetia, wine is nectar: hearth is yesta. So G. I. 295, II. 234, A. vii. Ill, &c.
379. Panchaea. Euhemeros, a Sicilian, a courtier of the Mace- donian king Cassander about B.C. 316, being furnished by the king with money went a long journey of w hich he wrote a narrative. He became famous for his method of treating the stories of gods and heroes as exaggerated tales of mere men. He tells of an island Panchaea near Arabia, very rich and happy. The name here practically = 'Arabian' and the phrase means 'burnt incense', Arabia being the land of spices.
adolesco,]\xstasadoleo, prop, 'to increase' or 'magnify', is used in the technical religious sense of 'to burn' or 'fire' {verbenas adolere Eel. VIII. 65 : altaria ad. A. vii. 71), so adolesco, prop, 'to grow ', is here used in a corresponding intrans. sense ' to blaze'.
380. Alaeonii. Lydia was called in Homer Maeonia, and