[577] Here as in 1. 650 Helen is spoken of in connexion with Mycenae, with which she had really nothing to do, according to Virg.'s usual habit of specifying where he merely means to generalize. ‘Mycenae’ with him is the poetical way of saying Greece, as, “acernis” v. 112 is the poetical way of saying ‘made of wood.’ At the same time in the case of Helen there is doubtless a confusion between the royal cities of the two Atridae, Sparta and Mycenae being used convertibly. ‘Patrias,’ because Tyndareus was originally king of Sparta, though he afterwards resigned his throne to Menelaus.
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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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