|
Explorers, Scientists &
Inventors
Musicians, Painters &
Artists
Poets, Writers &
Philosophers
Native Americans & The Wild
West
First Ladies
Popes
Troublemakers
Historians
Archaeologists
Royal
Families
Tribes & Peoples
Assassinations in History
Who
got slain, almost slain, when, how,
why, and by whom?
Go to the
Assassination Archive
Online History Dictionary A - Z
Voyages in History
When did what
vessel arrive with whom onboard and where
did it sink if it didn't?
Go to the
Passage-Chart
The Divine Almanac
Who all roamed the heavens in
olden times? The Who's Who of
ancient gods.
Check out
the Divine Almanac
|
|
The Aeneid of Virgil
Notes
|
|
NOTES TO BOOK ONE
I. 'The Lavinian shore,' the coast of Italy near Lavinium, an old
town in Latium. See also stanzas xxxv. and xxxvi.
III. Carthage was a Phoenician colony, and Tyre was the leading
Phoenician city.
Samos was an island in the Archipelago near the coast of Asia Minor.
There was a famous temple on it, dedicated to Juno, who was supposed
to take a special interest in the island.
V. 'The choice of Paris' refers to the Greek story that once when
the gods were feasting, 'Discord' threw a golden apple on the table
as a prize for the fairest. Juno, Minerva and Venus each claimed it,
but the Trojan prince Paris, who was made judge, gave it to Venus.
_Ganymede_ was a beautiful Trojan boy who was carried off to Olympus
to be Jove's cup-bearer.
VI. Ajax, son of Oileus, desecrated Minerva's temple at Troy. (Cf.
Book II. stanza liv.)
XIV. The 'son of Tydeus' is Diomedes, one of the foremost Greek
warriors in the war with Troy. Aeneas narrowly escaped being slain
by him.
For _Sarpedon_ see Book IX. stanza lxxxix. and for _Simois_ note on
Book VI. stanza xiv.
XXVI. Acestes was king of Eryx in Sicily, which was called
'Trinacria' from its three promontories. See Book V. stanzas iv. and
following.
XXVII. See note on Book III. stanzas lxxi. and following.
|
XXXII. The legend was that Antenor escaped from Troy and established
a colony of Trojans at the northern end of the Adriatic. The _Timavus_
was a small river near where Trieste now is.
XXXIII. _Patavium_. The modern Padua.
XXXV. Ascanius or Iulus is the son of Aeneas.
XXXVI. The legend was that Rhea Silvia, a priestess of Mars, bore
the twins Romulus and Remus. The two children were exposed and left
to die, but were found and nursed by a she-wolf.
XXXVIII. This prophecy refers not to C. Julius Caesar but to his
nephew Augustus, as is shown by the references to the east (the battle
of Actium) and to the closing of the 'gates of Janus.' For an account
of the latter, see Book VII. stanza xxiv.
XL. The 'son of Maia' is Mercury.
XLII. Harpalyce was the daughter of a Thracian king and a famous
huntress.
XLIX. _Byrsa_. This word, originally the Semitic word for 'citadel,'
was thought by the Greeks to be their own word _Byrsa_ meaning 'a
bull's hide.' This mistake was probably the cause of the legend given
by Virgil.
LV. _Paphos_ in Cyprus was one of the chief centres of the worship
of Venus.
LX. Priam was the king of Troy, and the Atridae were Agamemnon and
Menelaus. Achilles is described as fierce to both, because he
quarrelled with Agamemnon about a captive. It is with this quarrel
that the _Iliad_ opens.
LXII. _Rhesus_, king of Thrace, had come to help the Trojans. It had
been prophesied that if his horses ate Trojan grass or drank the water
of the river, Troy could never be taken. Diomedes (Tydides) prevented
this by capturing the horses.
LXIII. _Troilus:_ a son of Priam slain by Achilles.
LXIV. Memnon, son of Aurora, the dawn-goddess, and Penthesilea,
queen of the Amazons, came to Troy as allies. They were both slain
by Achilles.
LXV. The _Eurotas_ was a river in Laconia, and Cynthus was a mountain
of Delos. Both places were supposed to be favourite haunts of the
goddess Diana. _Oreads:_ mountain-nymphs. _Latona_ was the mother
of Diana and Apollo.
LXX. _Hesperia_, 'the western land,' means Italy.
The Oenotrian folk were an old Italian race settled in the south of
the peninsula, in Lucania. _Italus_ is an eponymous hero and was
probably invented to account for the name _Italia_. Probably
_Italia_ means 'the cattle land.'
LXXXII. This Teucer, who was a Greek, must be carefully distinguished
from the founder of the Trojans. He was a son of the king of Salamis,
and on his return from the Trojan war was exiled by his father. He
fled to Dido's father Belus, and with the help of the latter founded
a new kingdom in Cyprus.
XCVII. Bacchus was the god of wine and feasting.
NOTES TO BOOK TWO
XXII. An oracle said that the citadel of Troy would never be taken
as long as the _Palladium_, or image of Pallas, remained in it. So Diomedes and Ulysses stole the image.
XXXII. Apollo had conferred on Cassandra the gift of prophecy. But
she deceived him, and as he could not take away his former gift, he
added as a curse that no one should ever believe her.
XXXV. _Neoptolemus_ was the son of Achilles and grandson of Peleus.
XLII. _Sigeum_ is the name of the promontory which juts out into the
Hellespont from the Troad.
LV. The 'Atridan pair' were Agamemnon, king of Argos, and Menelaus,
king of Sparta, the sons of Atreus.
LVI. _Nereus_ was one of the chief sea-gods.
LXI. Andromache was the wife of Hector.
LXIII. Pyrrhus is the same as Neoptolemus in stanza xxxv.
LXXVI. Creusa and Iulus were the wife and son of Aeneas.
LXXVII. Helen is called 'Tyndarean' because she was the daughter of
Tyndarus. Paris, son of Priam, had carried her off from her husband
Menelaus, and so caused the Trojan war.
LXXXIII. The goddess Pallas (Athena) wore on her shield the head of
the snaky-haired monster Medusa, one of the Gorgons.
LXXXIV. The walls of Troy were said to have been built by Apollo and
Neptune.
CV. _Hesperia_, 'the western land,' here means Italy. The Tiber is
called Lydian from a tradition that the Lydians had colonised
Etruria.
NOTES TO BOOK THREE
X. The _Nereids_ were sea-nymphs, the daughters of Nereus. The island
mentioned is Delos, and the story referred to is that Jupiter hid
Latona, the mother of Apollo and Diana, on the floating island of
Delos, in order to shelter her from the jealousy of Juno. By means
of chains Apollo fixed Delos between the two small neighbouring
islands Myconos and Gyarus.
XII. 'Thymbrean lord.' Apollo, so called from the town of Thymbra
in the Troad, where he was worshipped.
XVI. Crete is called 'Gnosian' from 'Gnossos,' the chief town of the
island.
XVII. _Ortygia_ was the ancient name of Delos.
XXIII. The 'Ausonian shores' means Italy. For the Ausonians, see Book
VII. stanza vi.
XXIX. The Strophades were a small group of islands off the south-west
coast of Greece. The story alluded to is that Phineus, king of Thrace,
unjustly put out the eyes of his sons. As a punishment the gods
blinded him, and sent the Harpies--loathsome monsters with the
bodies of birds and the faces of women--to defile and seize all the
food that was set before him. Phineus was at last freed from them
by Zetes and Calais, the sons of the North Wind, who drove the Harpies
from Thrace to the Strophades.
For Celaeno's prophecy, see note on Book VII. stanza xvi.
XXXVI. Ulysses, the most cunning of the Greek leaders before Troy,
was king of Ithaca, and son of Laertes.
XXXIX. _Phaeacia_ means _Corcyra_, and _Chaonia_ is a district of
Epirus. Its chief harbour was Buthrotum.
XLIII. _Hermione_ was the daughter of Menelaus and Helen. Orestes
was the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. He slew his mother on
account of her treacherous murder of Agamemnon when the latter
returned home from Troy, and killed Pyrrhus for having deprived him
of his promised bride, Hermione.
XLVI. _Xanthus_ was a river that flowed near Troy. The 'Scaean Gate'
was the western gate of Troy and looked towards the sea. It was the
best known of the gates because most of the fighting took place before
it.
XLVII. Apollo was called 'Clarian' from Claros (near Ephesus), where
there was a shrine and oracle of the god.
LII. _Narycos_, or more properly _Naryx_, was a town of the Opuntian
Locri in Greece. Virgil follows the tradition that they went and
settled in the south of Italy at the close of the Trojan war.
The 'Sallentinian plain' was the land bordering on the Tarentine Gulf,
and 'Petelia' was on the east coast of Bruttium, and had been founded
by Philoctetes, after he had been expelled from Thessaly.
LV. _Scylla_ and _Charybdis_ are taken from Homer. The former was
a terrible sea-monster with six heads, and the latter a whirlpool.
Tradition fixed their abode as the Straits of Messina. Scylla dwelt
in a cave on the Italian side, Charybdis on the Sicilian.
LX. Dodona, in Epirus, was one of the famous oracles in Greece.
LXVIII. The place was called 'Castrum Minervae,' and lay a few miles
to the north of the southern extremity of Calabria.
LXXII. The Cyclops were placed by Virgil on the slopes of Aetna.
LXXIV. _Enceladus_ was one of the giants who had fought against the
gods, but Jupiter struck him down with a thunderbolt and buried him
under Mount Aetna.
LXXXVII. _Pelorus_ was the most northerly headland of the Straits
of Messina.
LXXXVIII. _Plemmyrium_ ('the place of the tides') is the headland
near the harbour of Syracuse, which was built on the island of Ortygia.
The legend which Virgil refers to relates that Alpheus, the god of
a river in Elis, fell in love with the nymph Arethusa while she was
bathing in his waters. Diana changed her into a stream, and in that
guise she fled from Alpheus under land and sea, finally issuing forth
in Ortygia. Alpheus pursued her, and mingled his waters with hers.
NOTES TO BOOK FOUR
VIII. '_Sire Lyaeus:_' Bacchus. These gods are mentioned in this
place as having to do with marriage--possibly they are invoked as
being specially the gods of Carthage.
XV. The name 'Titan' as applied to the sun is curious. Perhaps it
is a reference to the Greek tale that Hyperion, one of the Titans,
was the father of the sun.
XIX. The _Agathyrsians_ were a Scythian tribe, and the _Dryopes_ were
a Thessalian people who dwelt on Mount Parnassus, the especial home
of Apollo; Cynthus is a mountain in Delos.
XXVI. 'Ammon' was the African Jupiter.
XXIX. The 'Zephyrs' were the south-west winds, and so the right ones
to take the fleet of Aeneas to Italy from Carthage.
XXXII. Atlas was the giant who held apart heaven and earth. Virgil
identifies him with the mountains which lie in North Africa between
the sea and the desert of Sahara. Atlas was the father of Maia, the
mother of Mercury. The latter is called 'Cyllenius' from his
birth-place, Mount Cyllene in Arcadia.
XXXVIII. Mount Cithaeron, near Thebes, was famous for the revels
which took place there in honour of Bacchus.
XLIV. Phoebus (Apollo) is called 'Grynoeus' from Grynium, a city of
Aeolis in Asia Minor. He was much worshipped in Lycia, hence his
oracles are often called 'Lycian lots.'
LV. It was at Aulis in Boeotia that the Greek expedition against Troy
mustered.
LX. In this passage Virgil has in mind the _Bacchae_ of Euripides,
in which Pentheus goes mad, and perhaps the _Eumenides_ of Aeschylus,
but it is more probable that in the latter case he is merely thinking
of Orestes as he is represented in tragedy.
LXVI. _Hecate_, the goddess of the lower world, sometimes identified
with Proserpina, and sometimes with Diana. She was worshipped at
cross-roads by night.
For _Avernus_, see note on Book VI. stanza xviii.
The ancients believed that foals were born with a lump on their
foreheads. The name given to this was _hippomanes_, and it was
supposed to act as a powerful love-philtre.
LXXXII. By the 'unknown Avenger' Virgil clearly points to Hannibal.
NOTES TO BOOK FIVE
IV. Eryx was the son of Venus and Butes, Aeneas son of Venus and
Anchises, hence they are called brothers here. Eryx is the legendary
founder of the town of that name on the west coast of Sicily, near
Mount Eryx.
VI. The story was that Acestes was the son of the Sicilian river-god
Crimisus and Egesta, a Trojan maiden.
XI. The myrtle was sacred to Venus. Helymus was the supposed founder
of the Elymi, a Sicilian tribe. He was a Trojan who had migrated to
Sicily from Troy.
XVI.-XVII. The _gens Memmia_ and the _gens Sergia_ were two
distinguished Roman families who traced their descent from Trojans.
The only member of the family of Cluentius we know much about is the
disreputable person on whose behalf Cicero made a well-known speech.
XXVI. Cape Malea is the most southerly point of Laconia in the
Peloponnesus, renowned for its storms.
XXXII. _Panopea_ was one of the Nereids or sea-nymphs. Portunus was
an ancient Roman sea-god. Originally he was, as his name implies,
a god of harbourage.
XXXIII. Meliboea was a town at the foot of Mount Ossa in Thessaly.
LVI. _Alcides_, a common name for Hercules, who was descended from
Alcaeus. Hercules slew Eryx in the boxing-match referred to.
LXVIII. This refers to an incident mentioned in the _Iliad_. A truce
had been concluded by the Greek and Trojans but it was broken by
Pandarus, who shot an arrow at Menelaus.
LXXII. The meaning of this passage is very obscure. For we are not
told what the portent signified either in this or the succeeding
books. The old interpretation was that it referred to the burning
of the ships (lxxxii. and following), but it is more probable that
Virgil was thinking of the wars between Rome and Sicily.
LXXVII. The mother of Augustus was a member of the Atian family, and
this passage was evidently inserted by Virgil with the special idea
of pleasing Augustus.
LXXX. For Crete and the Labyrinth, see note on Book VI. stanza iv.
CIII. The temple of Venus on Mount Eryx was very celebrated in
antiquity. Venus is called 'Idalian' from Idalium in Cyprus.
CXII. All the names that occur in this stanza are those of sea-gods
or sea-nymphs.
CXVIII. The Roman poets placed the Sirens on some rocks in the
southern part of the bay of Naples.
NOTES TO BOOK SIX
I. _Cumae_ was the most ancient Greek colony in Campania. The
tradition was that it had been founded by immigrants from Cyme and
Aeolis and from Chaleis in Euboea. Hence its name, and the epithet
Virgil applies to it.
II. The 'Sibyl' here mentioned was the most famous of the
prophetesses of antiquity. She was directly inspired by Apollo (the
Delian seer), and dwelt in a cavern near his temple. _Trivia_ is an
epithet of Hecate. See note on Book IV. stanza lxvi.
III. Daedalus, who built the labyrinth for Minos, incurred the wrath
of the latter and escaped from Crete with his son Icarus, by making
wings. He fastened them on with wax, and Icarus flying too near the
sun, his wings melted and he fell into the Aegean. Daedalus, however,
reached Cumae in safety.
IV. On the gate were carvings representing various Cretan stories.
Androgeos was the son of Minos, king of Crete. He won all the contests
at the Panathenaic festival at Athens, whose king, Aegeus, slew him
out of jealousy. In revenge, Minos made war on the Athenians, and
forced them to pay a yearly tribute of seven youths and seven maidens,
who were devoured by the Minotaur. This monster was the offspring
of Pasiphae, wife of Minos, and a bull sent by Neptune, and it lived
in the labyrinth built by Daedalus. The tribute continued to be paid
until Theseus, son of Aegeus, went to Crete as one of the seven.
Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, fell in love with him, and helped
him to slay the monster.
XIV. _Xanthus_ and _Simois_ were two rivers which flowed through the
plain before Troy. The new Achilles is of course Turnus, king of the
Rutuli.
XV. The Grecian town is Pallanteum, the chief city of Evander's
kingdom. See Book VIII. stanza vii.
XVI. Acheron was the fabled river of the lower world. Virgil probably
had in his mind the real _Acherusia palus_, a gloomy marsh near
Naples.
XVIII. There was a volcanic lake near Cumae called _Avernus_, whose
waters gave out sulphureous vapours. It was connected by tradition
with the lower world. Orpheus, the mythical poet, so charmed the gods
of the nether world by his harp-playing, that he was allowed to take
back to the upper world his dead wife Eurydice. Castor was mortal,
but his brother Pollux was immortal; so when the former was slain
in fight Pollux obtained from Jupiter permission that each should
spend half their time in heaven, half in Hades. Theseus descended
into Hades in order to carry off Proserpine. He was kept a prisoner
there until he was rescued by Hercules (Alcides), who came down to
carry off Cerberus, the three-headed dog who guarded the entrance
(see stanza lvi.).
XXXII. Virgil alludes to the promontory of Misenum on the north side
of the bay of Naples. The legend is a purely local one. There is no
mention of Misenus in Homer.
XXXIII. 'Aornos' is a Greek word--'where no bird can come.'
XXXV. 'The Furies' mother and her sister' were Night and Earth.
XXXVII. 'Phlegethon' was the 'burning' river of the lower world.
XXXIX. The beast of Lerna is the Lernean Hydra, slain by Hercules;
the others are terrible monsters slain by various heroes.
XLI. Charon was the ferryman of the dead.
LIV. Apollo was called Amphrysian because he tended the herds of
Admetus near the river Amphrysus in Thessaly. Here the epithet is
strangely transferred to Apollo's servant.
LVII. Minos, king of Crete, became one of the judges of the dead,
in the under-world. His brother Rhadamanthus was the other. See
stanza lxxv.
LIX. For Phaedra, see note on Book VII. stanza ciii. Procris was
accidentally slain by her husband, Eriphyle was killed by her son
Alcmaeon, Evadne threw herself on her husband's funeral pyre, and
Laodamia also died with her husband. For Pasiphae, see note on stanza
iv.
LXIII. Tydeus, Parthenopaeus, and Adrastus were three of the seven
heroes who fought against Thebes. The other names are taken from the
_Iliad_.
LXXVII. The two sons of Aloeus were Otus and Ephialtes, who
threatened to assail the Immortals by piling Pelion on Ossa and Ossa
on Olympus. Salmoneus of Elis was punished for having presumptuously
claimed divine honours.
LXXX. Ixion was king of the Lapithae, and being taken to heaven by
Jupiter, made love to Juno, for which he was eternally punished.
Pirithous was his son, and was guilty of having, with Theseus,
attempted to carry off Proserpine.
XCIII. _Lethe_ was the river of forgetfulness, and those who drank
of it forgot their former life and were ready for a new one.
C.-CI. The kings mentioned in these two stanzas are the earliest
mythical rulers of Alba Longa. Numitor was the father of Rhea Silvia
(Ilia), the mother of Romulus and Remus.
CV. The Emperor Augustus was the nephew and adopted son of C. Julius
Caesar, who claimed to trace his descent back to Iulus, and so through
Aeneas to Venus herself.
CVIII. The first king referred to is Numa Pompilius, who was a Sabine
born at Cures. Tullus and Ancus were the third and fourth kings of
Rome. They can none of them be considered historical figures.
CIX. This Brutus expelled Tarquinius Superbus, the last king of Rome.
His sons tried to restore the monarchy and he ordered them to be
executed.
CX. The Decii, father and son, both died in battle, and the family
of the Drusi had many distinguished members. Manlius Torquatus was
celebrated for killing his son for disobeying orders. Camillus was
the great Roman hero of the fourth century B.C. He was five times
dictator and saved Rome from the Gauls.
CXI. Virgil is referring to Caesar and Pompey.
CXII. L. Mummius captured Corinth, and so ended the war with Greece,
in 146 B.C., and is clearly referred to here. By 'the man who lofty
Argos shall o'erthrow,' Virgil probably means Aemilius Paullus, who
won the battle of Pydna in 168 B.C. against a king of Macedonia who
called himself a descendant of Achilles.
CXIII. Cato was the famous censor of 184 B.C. who vainly tried to
check the growth of luxury at Rome. Cossus killed the king of Veii
in 426 B.C. The two Gracchi were great political reformers. The elder
Scipio defeated Hannibal at Zama in 202 B.C., and his son took
Carthage in 146 B.C. Fabricius was the general who fought against
Pyrrhus, when the latter invaded Italy in 281-75 B.C. Serranus was
a general in the first Punic war. The Fabii of renown are so many
that Anchises only mentions the most famous of them, Q. Fabius
Maximus Cunctator, the general against Hannibal.
CXV. Marcus Marcellus was a Roman general in the first Punic war.
CXVI. Marcellus was the son of the Emperor's sister Octavia, and at
the age of 18 he married Augustus' daughter Julia. He was a youth
of great promise, and was destined to succeed his father-in-law, but
he died of fever at the age of 20 in 23 B.C., amidst universal grief.
NOTES TO BOOK SEVEN
I. 'Thou too, Caieta,' that is to say, as well as Misenus and
Palinurus, mentioned in the last book. Caieta gave her name to the
town and promontory which were on the confines of Latium and
Campania.
II. 'The coast, where Circe'--Virgil identifies 'the island of
Aeaea,' the dwelling-place of Circe in Homer, with the promontory
of Circeii in Italy.
VI. 'Say, Erato:' Erato was the Muse of Love, and the invocation is
not specially appropriate in this place. But the line is an imitation
of Apollonius Rhodius iii, 1.
'Ausonia,' a poetical name for Italy. The _Ausones_ were early
inhabitants of Campania.
VII. _Latinus_ was king of the Latins, a small tribe whose chief town
was Laurentum. _Faunus_ a god of the fields and cattle-keepers, was
afterwards identified with the Greek Pan. _Picus_ was a prophetic
god. We are told by Ovid that he was changed into a woodpecker
(_picus_) by Circe, whose love he had slighted. _Saturnus_ was the
old Latin god of sowing, and was later identified with the Greek
Kronos, father of Zeus.
XII. 'Albunea': apparently refers to a wooded hill with a sulphur
spring. Probably it refers to a shrine near some sulphur springs at
Altieri, near Laurentum.
'Oenotria': originally the southern part of Lucania and Bruttium,
but Virgil uses it poetically for the whole of Italy.
XIII. See note on Book VI. stanzas xvi. and xviii.
XVI. It was not Anchises, but a Harpy who delivered this prophecy.
See Book VIII. stanza xxix. This, and other slight inconsistencies
in the _Aeneid_ are undoubtedly due to the fact that Virgil died
before he had revised the poem.
XVIII. 'Phrygia's Mother' was Cybele, the Phrygian goddess.
XXIV. 'Two-faced Janus.' Janus was an old Latin deity, god of the
morning and of gateways. He was represented as 'two-faced,' looking
before and behind. There was a double archway in the forum, called
_Janus_, which was closed in times of peace, but opened in time of
war. See stanzas lxxxi., lxxxii.
XXVIII. The Auruncans were a tribe living in Campania.
XLI. The _Syrtes_ were two great gulfs on the north coast of Africa.
For Scylla and Charybdis, see note on Book III stanza lv. The Lapithae
were a Thessalian tribe, ruled by Perithous. The Centaurs came to
his marriage feast, and at the instigation of Mars, fought with the
Lapithae until the latter were defeated. 'Diana's ire' was caused
by neglect on the part of king Oeneus of Calydon to sacrifice to her.
She sent a wild boar to ravage the country.
LXIX. 'Trivia's lake' refers to the little lake of Nemi. A famous
temple of Diana stood here, tended by a priest who was a runaway slave.
He gained his office by slaying his predecessor and held it only so
long as he could escape a similar fate. Cf. stanza ciii.
'Velia's fountains,' a lake in the Umbrian hills beyond Reate.
LXXXVII. Agylla was the original name of Caere.
XC. Homole and Othrys were mountains in Thessaly.
XCI. The Anio flows through the hills near Tibur, and joins the Tiber
close to 'Antemnae's tower-girt height.' Cf. stanza lxxxiv.
Anagnia was the largest town of the Hernici, and Amasenus was a river
of Latium.
XCIII. All these places were close to each other in Etruria, a few
miles north of Rome.
XCIV. It is probable that this passage was left unfinished by Virgil.
The simile is taken from Homer, and used here in two different ways,
the poet evidently postponing his final decision as to which he would
adopt, until he revised the poem.
XCV. Clausus, according to a legend preserved by Livy, was a Sabine
who left his own countrymen and joined the Romans. For this he was
rewarded by a gift of land on the Anio. He was regarded as the ancestor
of the Claudian family.
XCVI. The name of the Allia was ill-omened because it was on the banks
of this stream that the Gauls under Brennus inflicted a crushing
defeat on the Romans in 390 B.C.
XCVIII. The Oscans were one of the old non-Latin tribes of Italy.
Some fragments of their language still remain.
CIII. The legend was that Hippolytus, the son of Theseus, king of
Athens, was loved by his step-mother Phaedra. Hippolytus rejected
her love, and she killed herself, leaving a writing accusing him of
having tempted her. Theseus in his wrath besought Poseidon to slay
his son, and the latter sent a monster from the sea, which terrified
the horses of Hippolytus so that they ran away and killed their master.
Aesculapius raised him to life, however, and Diana concealed him in
the grove of Aricia under the name of Virbius. The Virbius in the
text is the son of this Hippolytus, also called Virbius.
CVI. Io, the daughter of Inachus, king of Argos, was loved by Jupiter,
and turned by him into a white cow in order to escape the jealousy
of Juno. The latter, however, set Argus with the hundred eyes to watch
her.
NOTES TO BOOK EIGHT
I. Both here and in Book VII. stanza lxxxvii. Mezentius is called
the 'scorner of the gods.' The meaning of this allusion is not known.
Perhaps it refers to his claiming for himself the first-fruits due
to the gods, a legend mentioned by Macrobius. See stanzas lxiii. and
lxiv.
II. 'Diomed' dwelt at Argyripa or Arpi, a city in Apulia, where he
settled with his Argine followers after the Trojan war.
VII. Pallas is the name of an old Arcadian hero. His grandson Evander
is said to have settled with his followers on the site of Rome, and
called it Pallanteum, after the Arcadian city of that name.
XIV. Hercules was the son of Alcmena and Jupiter. His worship at Rome
dated from very early times, as is shown by the legend--mentioned
by Livy--that it was established by Romulus according to Greek usage
as it had been instituted by Evander.
XVI. The olive branch was the sign--universally recognised in
antiquity--of a desire for peace.
XX. The Daunian race means the Rutulians. Daunus was the father of
Turnus. Cf. Book XII. stanza iii.
XXVII. Alcides is one of the names given to Hercules. The killing
of Geryon, the three-bodied monster who was king in Spain, and the
driving off of his cattle, was one of the famous 'twelve labours'
of Hercules.
XXXVI. The gens Potitia and the gens Pinaria were the two tribes to
which the care of the worship of Hercules was entrusted.
XXXVIII.-IX. In historic times, the Salians were the twelve priests
of Mars who kept the twelve sacred shields in the temple of that god
on the Palatine hill. Their priesthood was one of the oldest Roman
institutions, and their festival was held on March 1, the first day
of the old Roman year.
'_His stepdame's hate_' refers to the story that Juno, being jealous
of Alcmena, the mother of Hercules, sent two snakes to destroy the
latter as he lay in his cradle, but the infant hero strangled them.
_Eurystheus_ was the king of Tiryns, whom Hercules had to serve for
twelve years, and at whose command he performed his famous twelve
labours. _Pholus_ and _Hylaeus_ were two Centaurs; they were called
'cloud-born' because they were the offspring of Ixion and a Cloud.
The Cretan monster is the mad bull sent by Neptune to destroy the
land; Hercules came to the rescue and carried it away on his shoulders.
There is no other mention in ancient literature of the fight between
Hercules and Typhoeus. The latter was a hundred-headed
fire-breathing monster, who fought against the gods, and was buried
beneath Mount Aetna.
XLII.-XLVIII. Evander shows the town to Aeneas, tells him of the
former state of Latium, and points out to him the chief places of
interest. _Asylum_--Livy tells us that in order to increase the
population, Romulus offered a refuge at Rome to all comers from the
neighbouring towns. The _Lupercal_ was the sanctuary of Lupercus
('wolf-repeller'), an old Roman shepherd god. The _Capitol_ is
referred to as 'now golden,' because in Virgil's time the roof of
the temple of Jupiter Capitotinus was gilded.
L. Thetis, the mother of Achilles, persuaded Vulcan to make arms for
her son, and so had Aurora, the goddess of dawn, 'Tithonus' spouse,'
when her son Memnon went to Troy to fight against the Greeks.
LV. The island here referred to is Hiera, one of the Aeolian isles,
north-east of Sicily. It is now called Volcano. The _Cyclops_ were
originally gigantic one-eyed cannibals who lived a pastoral life
near Mount Aetna. In later legends they are described as the
assistants of Vulcan.
LVI. These three names are Greek and mean 'Fire-anvil,' 'Thunder,'
and 'Lightning,' respectively.
LXXIV. _Erulus_ is not mentioned by any other ancient writer, so we
cannot explain the allusion. _Feronia_ was a Campanian goddess.
LXXVIII. _Lucifer_, 'the light bringer,' was the name of the morning
star, which, rising just before the sun, seemed to bring the
daylight.
LXXX. The Pelasgians were a very ancient race, of whom only traces
existed in Greece in historic times. They were said to be very
wide-spread, but the tales connecting them with Italy are all
unhistoric. _Silvanus_ was an ancient Latin woodland deity.
LXXXIV. The story, as related by Livy, is that the Romans being in
want of wives, Romulus instituted games in honour of Neptune. At a
given signal, the Romans seized and carried off the Sabine maidens
who had come to see the games.
LXXXV. _Mettus_, dictator of Alba, had been called in to assist the
Romans under Tullus Hostilius. He came, but withdrew his troops in
the middle of the battle. For this treachery he was punished in the
way Virgil describes. _Horatius Cocles_ was the hero who guarded the
Tiber bridge against Porsenna of Clusium. _Cloelia_ was a Roman maiden
who had been sent as a hostage to Porsenna. She escaped by swimming
across the Tiber.
LXXXVI. The event here referred to is the invasion of Rome by the
Gauls in 390 B.C. They captured the whole of the city, except the
Capitol, which was successfully defended by Manlius, who had been
put on the alert by the cackling of a flock of geese.
LXXXVII. See note on stanza xxxviii. The _Luperci_ were the priests
of Lupercus. _Catiline_ was the author of the conspiracy of B.C. 63.
Cicero, the famous orator, was consul for that year and frustrated
the plot. _Cato_ the younger died at Utica in 49 B.C. In the Roman
writers Catiline is always the proverbial scoundrel and Cato is
always taken as the model of rigid and exalted virtue.
LXXXVIII. At the battle of Actium, in B.C. 31, the fleet of Augustus
met those of Antony and Cleopatra, and owing to the desertion of the
Egyptians at the crisis of the fight, gained a complete victory over
them.
XC. The Cyclads were the western islands of the Greek archipelago.
XCIV. The Carians lived in the south of Asia Minor, the Gelonians
beyond the Danube, and the Morini on the North Sea, near where Ostend
now is. The Dahae were a tribe of Scythians, and the Leleges were
an ancient people spread over Asia Minor.
NOTES TO BOOK NINE
I. Iris, the rainbow-goddess, daughter of Thaumas, was the messenger
of the gods. Pilumnus was an ancient Latin god, and an ancestor of
Turnus.
XI. _Ida_ was the mountain in the Troad whence the wood for the fleet
was taken. _Berecyntia_. Cybele, the mother of the gods. Originally
a Phrygian goddess, the centre of whose worship was Mount Berecyntus.
XIV. The 'brother' is Pluto, god of the lower world. To swear by the
Styx was the most dread and binding oath; it was inviolable even by
the gods.
XVIII. The reference here is to the story of how Paris, son of Priam,
king of Troy, seized Helen, the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta,
and so caused the Trojan war. Menelaus and Agamemnon were the sons
of Atreus.
XXVIII. For Acestes see note on Book V. stanza vi.
XXXIII. Assaracus was an ancestor of the Trojan race, and his
household gods would of course be the tutelary spirits of the Trojan
royal family.
LII. _Latonia_. The daughter of Leto, and sister of Apollo, Diana,
who was identified with the Greek Artemis, the goddess of the woods
and of hunting.
LXXII. 'Jove's armour-bearer' is the eagle.
LXXV. The Symaethus was a river in Sicily.
LXXVII. The 'wily-worded Ithacan' is Ulysses, the hero of the
_Odyssey_.
LXXX. _Dindymus_ was a mountain in Phrygia, the seat of the worship
of Cybele.
LXXXVI. 'The Kid-star.' The 'kids' are two little stars which first
rise in the evening towards the end of September, during the
equinoctial gales.
LXXXVII. The _Athesis_ is the modern Adige. The _Padus_ is the Po.
LXXXIX. Sarpedon was a Lycian prince who had fought for the Trojans
at Troy and been slain by Patroclus. 'Theban' here refers to the town
of Thebe in Cilicia, mentioned by Homer.
XCI. _Baiae_ was a favourite seaside resort of the rich Romans on
the bay of Naples.
_Prochyta_ and _Arime_ were two rocky islands dose to the bay of
Naples.
Typhoeus was a hundred-headed monster slain by Jupiter and buried
under Prochyta and Arime.
NOTES TO BOOK TEN
I. Olympus was a mountain in Thessaly, and was believed by the Greeks
to be the home of the gods. Hence it came to be used for 'heaven';
as in the present passage.
II. Jupiter is referring to the invasion of Italy by Hannibal in 218
B.C.
IV. Diomedes, the son of Tydeus from Aetolia, is said to have settled,
after the Trojan war, in Apulia, where he founded the city of Arpi.
The Latins, it will be remembered, had asked him to help them against
the Trojans. See Book VIII. stanza ii. And for the result of the
embassy, Book XI. stanza xxxi. and following.
VI. For the burning of the vessels at Eryx, see Book V. stanzas lxxxii.
and following. For _Aeolia_ Book I. stanzas viii. to xx. For _Alecto_
Book VII. stanzas xliv. and following.
VIII. Paphos, Amathus, and Idalium were towns in Cyprus. Cythera is
an island off the southern coast of Greece. All four were celebrated
in antiquity as centres of the worship of Venus.
XIV. The robber was Paris, who carried off Helen.
XXI. _Ismarus_ was a prince from Lydia, a district in Asia Minor,
called Maeonia in ancient times. The Pactolus was a river in Maeonia,
famous on account of the quantity of gold it washed down. The 'Capuan
town' is Capua.
XXIII. The lions are there because Cybele the Phrygian goddess,
worshipped by the Trojans on Mount Ida, was drawn in her chariot by
two lions. The figure-head of Aeneas' ship was probably an image of
a goddess, personifying the mountain.
XXIV. Mount Helicon is in Boeotia, and was sacred to Apollo and the
Muses. _Clusium_ and _Cosae_ were Etruscan cities.
XXV. _Populonia:_ a town on the coast of Etruria. _Ilva_ (the modern
Elba): an island off the coast of Etruria near Populonia.
XXVII. Cinyras and Cupavo were sons of Cycnus. The legend tells us
that Phaethon rashly attempted to drive the chariot of the sun, and
was killed by a thunderbolt from Jupiter, while so doing. Cycnus,
who was devotedly attached to him, was changed into a swan while
lamenting his death.
XXVIII. Mantua was Virgil's birthplace. Hence probably the insertion
of this tradition as to its origin. Mincius, mentioned in the next
stanza, is a Lombard river, the Mincio, and flows out from Lake
Benacus (Lago di Garda).
XXXVII. Sirius, the dog-star, whose rising was supposed to coincide
with the hot weather, is always spoken of as bringing pestilence and
trouble. The connection between Sirius and the hot weather was one
of the conventions of poetry which the Augustan writers had borrowed
from the Greeks.
LXVII. The story referred to is that of the fifty daughters of Danaus,
who were married to the fifty sons of Aegyptus, their cousins. Danaus
ordered his daughters to murder their husbands on their wedding night,
and they all obeyed except Hypermnestra, who loved her husband
Lynceus, and so saved his life.
LXXIII. Trivia here refers to Diana. Gradivus is an archaic Latin
name for Mars.
LXXVII. 'Mute Amyclae' was probably so called because the
inhabitants had been forbidden, owing to false alarms, to speak of
the approach of an enemy. But if Virgil is referring, not to the
Amyclae near Naples, but to the original Amyclae in Laconia, then
the proverbial taciturnity of those inhabiting the latter country
offers sufficient explanation. _Aegeon_ was a monster with 100 arms
and 50 heads. He is more often called Briareus.
LXXIX. In the _Iliad_ Aeneas had been rescued from Diomedes and
Achilles. Liger is taunting him with this.
NOTES TO BOOK ELEVEN
XXXI. _Iapygia_, a Greek name for the southern part of Apulia.
_Garganus:_ name of a mountain in Apulia.
See also note on Book X. stanza iv.
XXXIII. The references in this stanza are (1) to the storm which
Minerva (Pallas) raised when the Greeks set sail from Troy. (2) To
the story of Nauplius, king of Euboea, who hung false lights over
the headland of Caphareus, and so caused the wreck of the Greek fleet.
XXXIV. 'Proteus' Pillars' means Egypt, and the stories of Menelaus,
as also the adventures of Ulysses with the Cyclops, will be found
in the _Odyssey_. For _Pyrrhus_ see note on Book III. stanza xliii.
For _Idomeneus_, that on Book III. stanza xvii. Agamemnon was killed
by his wife and her lover, when he returned home at the end of the
Trojan war.
XXXV. Calydon was the ancient home of Diomedes in Aetolia.
LII. The Myrmidons were the followers of Achilles--Tydides is
Diomedes. The _Aufidus_ is a river of Apulia.
LXIX. Opis was a nymph of Diana (Latonia).
LXXXIV. Virgil is comparing Camilla to the two famous Amazons,
Hippolyte who was married to Theseus, and Penthesilea who fought for
Troy and was slain by Achilles.
CVIII. [Transcriber's note: The rhyme, the meter, and the sense of the
phrase require a word here that is missing from the published text.
Possibly "flight" or "sight" was intended by the translator.]
NOTES TO BOOK TWELVE
XI. Orithyia was the wife of Boreas the North Wind, who according
to legend was the father of the royal horses of Troy.
XXV. The two children of Latona were Apollo and Diana.
XXIX. Camers was king of Amyclae. See note on Book X. stanza lxxvii.
XLV. The story of Dolon is taken from the _Iliad_. He offered to spy
upon the movements of the Greeks if Hector would give him the chariot
and horses of Achilles. He was however captured and slain by Diomedes
(Tydides).
LII. 'Paeon': a name used of Apollo as the Healer.
LXIX. 'Cupencus' was the name given by the Sabines to the priests
of Hercules.
XCI. _Athos:_ the mountain at the extreme end of the peninsula
between Thrace and Thessaly. Mount Eryx is in the north-west of
Sicily.
XCIII. _Taburnus:_ a mountain in Samnium.
_Sila:_ a range of mountains in the extreme south of Italy.
More History
|
