[438] “Fata obstant” 4. 440, a reading which some MSS. (including an obliterated correction in Med.) and the Dresden Serv. give here, and Henry prefers. There is no force in the objection that ‘fas’ elsewhere in Virg. is spoken of as permitting, not as denying. “Fas prohibet” occurs in Ov. Trist. 2. 205, quoted by Forc., and when Virg. G. 1. 269 talks of “fas et iura sinunt” he implies that ‘fas’ may forbid as well as allow. Θέμις is the Greek equivalent of ‘fas’ (comp. Auson. Technopaegnion de Deis, v. 1, “prima deum Fas, Quae Themis est Graiis”), and is similarly used of permitting: yet we have ἀποστατεῖ θέμις Aesch. Eum. 414 in the sense of οὐ θέμις. The remainder of the line and the whole of v. 439 are repeated from G. 4. 479, 480, with the exception of ‘tristi,’ which there is ‘tarda.’ Here however there is a variant, ‘tristis . . . undae,’ found in Pal., Gud. (which has ‘unda’ a m. s.), and doubtless originally in both Rom. and Med., and adopted by Ribbeck. But the parallel in G. 4 is against it, and Serv. knew nothing of ‘undae,’ preferring ‘tristi’ to ‘tristis’ “ne duo sint epitheta.” Lastly, some inferior MSS. have ‘innabilis.’
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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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