[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).
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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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