[50] Talia secum volutans. These words refer to the thought rather than to the expression: but that they are not incompatible with an actual soliloquy, appears from 4. 533, compared with ib. 553, and 6. 185, 186, compared with ib. 190.
[51] Patriam gives a poetical hint of the personality of the storms; comp. v. 540 below, G. 1. 52, note; Ov. 3 Am. 6. 40, “Nilus Qui patriam tantae tam bene celat aquae.” The notion of generation is carried still farther in ‘feta.’ ‘The home of the storm-cloud, the teeming womb of raging southern blasts.’
[52] Aeoliam appears from 8. 417 to be Lipara. The Aeolia of Hom. (Od. 10) has been supposed to unite the characteristics of Lipara and Strongyle, the latter of which appears to be assigned by Virg. (l. c) to Vulcan. Comp. also Val. F. 1. 579 foll. The Aeolus of Hom. is not a demigod, but the king of a sort of magic isle, entrusted by Zeus with the control of the winds, but passing his life in continually feasting with his queen and children.
[53] Hom.'s winds are not represented as struggling, or the object of anxious custody. When Aeolus wishes to waft Ulysses to his country, he lets the west wind blow, and ties up all the rest in a skin. Val. F., on the contrary, with questionable judgment, makes Aeolus let loose the winds whenever he finds them ungovernable. Gud. originally had ‘luctatos.’
[54] Henry (on v. 86) considers the whole picture of the winds to have been suggested by the Ludi Circenses, referring particularly to the words ‘inperio premit,’ ‘frenat,’ ‘fremunt,’ ‘carcere,’ and ‘claustra,’ and citing the imitation by Val. F. 1. 611, “fundunt se carcere laeti Thraces equi Zephyrusque,” and the description of a chariot-race in Sidon. Apoll. 1. ad Consentium, opening with “Illi ad claustra fremunt.” Against this may be urged the collocation of two of the most important words, ‘carcere’ and ‘frenat;’ inasmuch as ‘carcere frenat’ must mean ‘curbs with a carcer,’ not ‘curbs in a carcer.’ ‘Vinclis’ also appears to fix the sense of ‘carcere’ as a prison-house, and not a barrier in a race-course. Again, ‘circum claustra fremunt’ is not the same thing as “ad claustra fremunt.” The more reasonable thing seems to be to say that Virg. uses imagery principally taken from the race-horse and the prison, but without intending any one connected or uniform series of metaphors. Lucr., in a passage from which this is partly imitated (6. 189—203), compares the winds pent in a thunder-cloud to wild beasts in a cage, “in caveisque ferarum more minantur, Nunc hinc nunc illinc fremitus per nubila mittunt Quaerentesque viam circum versantur” (vv. 198—200).
[55] Here we are reminded of an earlier part of the passage just cited from Lucr., where the storm-clouds in which the winds are confined are compared to mountains (vv. 189, 190) and caverns (v. 195), “moles . . quas venti cum tempestate coorta Complerunt, magno indignantur murmure clausi Nubibus.” It is possible that the Lucretian image may have suggested to Virg. his deviation from the account in Hom. ‘Magno cum murmure:’ comp. such phrases as “cum magna calamitate et prope pernicie civitatis,” Cic. 2 Verr. 1. 24. See also Hand, Tursell. 2. p. 152, foll. ‘Montis’ with ‘murmure,’ as v. 245 shows, in spite of the passage in Lucr. ‘While the huge rock roars responsive.’
[56] It is not easy to say what or where this ‘arx’ of Aeolus is intended to be. The common notion is that it is the top of the mountain in which the winds are confined. Henry once thought it was an eminence within the cave; now he takes it of a fortress or palace in the neighbourhood. This last certainly seems the most natural meaning of the word. The citadel is the natural dwelling of a despotic governor (comp. Juv. 10. 307); in Greek history, tyrants seize it when they assume supreme power; and so here, as Aeolia is under a strong government, it is supposed to be furnished with an ‘arx,’ though the government consists in keeping the key of the prison. So in the description of the shades, Stat. Theb. 8. 21, Pluto is described as “sedens media regni infelicis in arce,” words apparently imitated from Virg., and doubtless to be understood simply as bringing out the notion of sovereignty, without any particular reference to the appropriateness of the image. It is in this ‘arx’ that Juno has her interview with Aeolus, who goes from it (though this is not directly asserted) to the dungeon, and opens the door. ‘Sedet’ expresses actual sitting, not, as Henry thinks, merely dwelling; but it has no further appropriateness than as carrying out the image of ‘arce;’ and so ‘sceptra tenens,’ the Homeric σκηπτοῦχος.
[57] Σκῆπτρα in Greek appears to signify generally the symbols of supreme authority rather than the actual sceptre. Virg. however uses it simply for ‘sceptrum,’ 7. 252, and probably this is the meaning here, though there is no special appropriateness in the image; see previous note. ‘Animos,’ like “animosi,” G. 2. 441 (note), is half physical, half mental. ‘Mollit,’ &c., as Henry observes, expresses the general effect of Aeolus' sway.
[58] Ni faciat—ferant—verrant. The present tense here, as in 6. 292., 11. 912, is substituted for the imperfect to give greater vividness, and express the greater imminence of that which is prevented or averted. ‘Faciat,’ E. 2. 44, note. Med. has ‘faciant.’ “Terrasque tractusque maris caelumque profundum,” E. 4. 51, note.
[59] Lucr. 1.277 foll. “venti . . corpora caeca Quae mare, quae terras, quae denique nubila caeli Verrunt ac subito vexantia turbine raptant.” ‘Quippe,’ as Heyne remarks, in prose would precede ‘ni faciat.’ Compare the position of ‘scilicet’ in poetry. ‘Per auras’ is equivalent to “per inane.”
[61] The distinction attempted by Wagn. between ‘hoc metuens’ here and ‘id metuens’ in v. 23, as if ‘hoc’ referred to an immediate, ‘id’ to a more distant object of apprehension, is groundless. Virg. in v. 23 would naturally use ‘id’ rather than ‘hoc,’ having just said ‘hinc populum,’ &c., and being about to say ‘his accensa super.’ Otherwise ‘hoc’ might have stood there as well as here, as in either place it would only mean ‘this which I have just mentioned.’ ‘Molem et montis’ = “molem montium.” ‘Insuper’ is rightly taken by Wund. as ‘above,’ not ‘besides.’ Comp. 3. 579, “ingentemque insuper Aetnam Inpositam.”
[62] Regemque dedit, &c., imitated from Od. 10. 21 foll. ‘Foedus’ is here nearly equivalent to ‘lex;’ as in G. 1. 60, “Continuo has leges aeternaque foedera certis Inposuit natura locis” (note).
[63] It is difficult to say whether the object of ‘premere’ is ‘ventos’ or ‘habenas.’ If the latter, which is supported by “pressis habenis,” 11. 600, ‘laxas dare’ must be taken together as equivalent to “laxare,” like “Haec ego vasta dabo,” 9. 323. Otherwise ‘dare habenas’ might stand alone, as in 11. 623, “datis referuntur habenis.” ‘Iussus,’ “a Jove.”
[64] Ad is not “apud,” as Serv. thinks, but ‘ad quem,’ &c. is equivalent to “quem allocuta est.” ‘Ad quem’ is used elliptically 10. 742. “Vocibus usi,” Lucr. 5. 1046.
[65-75] ‘She begs him to wreck the Trojan fleet, and promises him one of her nymphs as a wife.’
