[134] Eripui has a logical, though not a grammatical relation to ‘Iamque dies infanda aderat:’ in prose, ‘at last, seeing the fatal day had already arrived, I made my escape.’ So 3. 356—8, “Iamque dies alterque dies processit et aurae Vela vocant tumidoque inflatur carbasus Austro; His vatem adgredior dictis ac talia quaeso.” ‘At last, seeing day after day was slipping by, and everything favourable for sailing, I seek an interview with Helenus.’ ‘Fateor,’ a hypocritical apology, ‘as if it were a crime to save his life,’ Trapp. ‘Vincula rupi,’ the bonds with which the victim when brought up to the altar was fastened till the moment of striking the blow. That he was actually led up to the altar appears from v. 156, unless we take ‘gessi’ there with Serv. as a rhetorical exaggeration. The general sense seems to be ‘they were in the act of getting ready the sacrifice, the salt cakes, and the fillet for my brow (“quae circum tempora essent”), when I broke away.’ The image of a victim escaping at the moment of sacrifice is not an uncommon one. Forb. quotes Sil. 16. 264, a description which seems taken partly from the present passage, partly from v. 223.
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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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