[728] Rom. has ‘volucrum,’ but ‘ucr’ is written over an erasure. With the line generally comp. G. 4. 223 foll. The expression resembles that of several passages in Lucr., e. g. 2. 1082, “Sic hominum genitam prolem, sic denique mutas Squamigerum pecudes et corpora cuncta volantum.” The meaning here seems to be that this union of mind with matter is the cause of individual life in animals, which consist of soul and body. Heyne refers to the Stoic expressions of the ‘anima mundi’ doctrine, such as that of Posidonius, who made individual souls the sparks, ἀποσπάσματα or σπέρματα, of the πνεῦμα νοερὸν καὶ πυρῶδες.
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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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