[297] Mercury's mission is rather indefinite, as Virg. can have hardly meant him actually to convene Dido and the Carthaginians as he convenes Aeneas in 4. 265 foll. There may be a confusion between the Homeric character of Hermes as the messenger of the gods and his other character as the god of eloquence and the civilizer of mankind; for which see Hor. 1 Od. 10 and Ov. F. 5. 663.—‘Demittit— pateant—arceret.’ Jahn rightly remarks that ‘ut pateant’ expresses Jupiter's charge to Mercury, ‘arceret’ his object in giving it. The former, it is obvious, would naturally come under the historic present, but it could hardly have been extended to the latter.
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John Conington. P. Vergili Maronis opera. P. Vergili Maronis Opera. The works of Virgil, with a Commentary by John Conington, M.A. Late Corpus Professor of Latin in the University of Oxford. London. Whittaker and Co., Ave Maria Lane. 1876.
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