[716] Virg. has identified Pithecusa or Aenaria with the Homeric Ἄριμα (ὄρη), which he calls ‘Inarime,’ apparently mistaking Il. 2. 783, εἰν Ἀρίμοις, ὅθι φασὶ Τυφωέος ἔμμεναι εὐνάς. Homer's mountains were variously identified, some placing them in Cilicia, some in Mysia or Lydia, some in Syria, while Strabo p. 626 C says that others made them the same as Pithecusa, referring perhaps to Virg. Pindar Pyth. 1. 18 foll. had connected Typhoeus' or Typhon's punishment with Aetus, Pherecydes, cited by Schol. on Apoll. R. 2. 1210, with Pithecusa, so that the transference of the Homeric name was natural enough. For the identification of Homeric localities with Italy and its neighbourhood comp. 7. 10 note. Other legends connected these islands specially with Aeneas, Prochyta being named from a kinswoman of his, Aenaria, the place where his fleet landed. See Lewis, vol. 1, pp. 324, 325. The form ‘Inarime’ is used not only by the poets but by Pliny 3. 6. Cerda defends Virg. against the charge of ignorance in employing it, contending that Hom. probably wrote Εἰναρίμοις, and maintaining that in any case Virg. had a right to combine the words: “quod ius poeticum, si hoc non est?”
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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. and Henry Nettleship, M.A. London. Whittaker and Co., Ave Maria Lane;. George Bell and Sons, York Street, Covent Garden. 1876.
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