[325] The belief that only those who had been buried could be received among the shades is as old as Hom., Il. 23. 71 foll.: comp. the story of Elpenor, Od. 11, who however does not appear to have been prevented, like Patroclus, from crossing the river, though he is the first to meet Ulysses. Patroclus is kept off, not by Charon, who, as has been remarked above, was unknown to Hom., but by the other ghosts. Heyne remarks on the humane character of the superstition, which was likely to have its effect on savage tribes. Serv. has a strange notion that ‘inops’ means unburied, “Ops” being taken mythologically for the earth-goddess. “Inhumata infletaque turba” 11. 372.
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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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