[242] This line is wanting in fragm. Vat. and others, and is added in Med. by a later hand. Rom. however has it. Serv. does not explain it, nor does Non. quote it s. v. ‘Avernus,’ as he might have been expected to do. There is a similar line in the Periegesis of Dionysius, v. 1151, τοὔνεκά μιν καὶ φῶτες ἐπικλείουσιν Ἄορνον, rendered by Priscian, Perieg. 1056, “Unde locis Graii posuerunt nomen Aornin.” Heyne thinks it a gloss, and Wagn. and Ribbeck remove it from the text. There is nothing un-Virgilian about it: Virg. is fond of talking of the names of places, as Henry remarks (comp. e. g. 3. 693): he refers to a Greek name G .3. 148 (a common habit with his master Lucr.): and the expression ‘nomine dicere,’ to which Wagn. objects, is found v. 441 below, as is observed by Forb. On the other hand the external evidence is such as to leave the question doubtful, so I have placed the line in brackets. There is a further question whether ‘Aornon’ or ‘Avernum’ ought to be read. The MSS. which retain the line would seem generally in favour of this latter, which I have adopted: but it would seem more likely that Virg. would use the Greek word than the Latin transformation of it, which hides the etymology. Is it certain that Lucr. in talking of the etymology of ‘Avernus’ did not mean to derive it from “avis”? Possibly however Virg. may have so far complied with the Latin form as to give ‘Aornum,’ the reading of Gud. and others, adopted by Heins.
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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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