[372] The thought seems to be from Od. 11. 330 (comp. ib. 3. 113 foll.). The words ‘prima repetens ab origine’ are repeated from G. 4. 285, where the object of ‘repetens’ (“famam”) is expressed, not as here left to be implied from the context. ‘If I should tell my story throughout, beginning at the first.’
[373] Macrob. Sat. 3. 2 fancies that ‘annalis’ is used with singular propriety, the “annales maxumi” at Rome being made by the Pontifex Maxumus, with which character Virg. is supposed to imply that Aeneas is invested. Virg.'s love of recondite half-allusions to traditions which he does not expressly adopt is unquestionable; but where, as here, there is no more than a possibility of such a reference, we may perhaps make the question one of poetical taste, which here would certainly seem to exclude anything of the sort. The word doubtless has a propriety of its own, but it is merely as suggesting the notion of a minute and rather tedious narrative.
[374] ‘Conponat.’ The MSS. authority is divided between ‘conponet’ (Med., Gud.) and ‘conponat’ (Rom., Pal., the latter however altered into ‘conponet’), ‘conponet’ being further supported by quotations in Macrob., Priscian, Nonius, and other early writers. The question is argued in favour of the future indicative by Forb. against Wagn., who in his large edition supports ‘conponat,’ but in his smaller edition tacitly admits ‘conponet.’ ‘Vacet,’ implying that the condition will not happen, separates this passage from such as “Si fractus illabatur orbis Impavidum ferient ruinae” (Hor. 3. Od. 3. 7), where it is implied that the condition may very conceivably happen, as Wagn. remarks. In the only strictly parallel passage quoted, Cic. Tusc. 5. 35. 102, “Dies deficiet, si velim paupertatis caussam defendere,” there is the same variety of reading as here. Being thus left to decide between the authority of MSS., which in a case like this proves little, and what would seem to be the propriety of language, I have preferred ‘conponat.’ ‘Clauso Olympo,’ closing the gates of heaven through which the day issues. Comp. the expression “porta caeli” G. 3. 261. Weidner refers to Il. 5. 749 foll. ‘Conponat,’ ‘would lay the day to sleep.’ Comp. G. 4. 189, “Post ubi iam thalamis se conposuere.”
[375] Troia with ‘vectos.’ See Madv. § 275. ‘Per auris iit,’ passed through your ears and so entered your mind. A similar expression is found Lucr. 1.417, where, though the thought is different from that in the present line, it bears a strong resemblance to that in the lines immediately preceding. The whole passage is worth quoting, as showing the variety of small obligations which Virg. has incurred to his predecessor, now borrowing thoughts without words, now words without thoughts:—
With the sense generally Weidner comp. Od. 15. 403, εἴ που ἀκούεις.“Usque adeo largos haustus e fontibu' magnis
Lingua meo suavis diti de pectore fundet,
Ut verear ne tarda prius per membra senectus
Serpat et in nobis vitai claustra resolvat
Quam tibi de quavis una re versibus omnis
Argumentorum sit copia missa per auris:
Sed nunc ut repetam coeptum pertexere dictis.
”
[376] Diversa per aequora vectos may merely mean ‘over various seas,’ as in v. 756, “Omnibus errantem terris et fluctibus;” or we may take it with Heyne as ‘out of our course.’ He quotes Od. 9. 261 (which Virg. doubtless had in view, as the entire passage shows), Οἴκαδε ἱέμενοι, ἄλλην ὁδόν, ἄλλα κέλευθα Ἤλθομεν: but the other sense of ‘diversa’ might be sup ported from the previous lines, Ἡμεῖς τοι Τροίηθεν ἀποπλαγχθέντες Ἀχαιοὶ Παντοίοις ἀνέμοισιν ὑπὲρ μέγα λαῖτμα θαλάσσης.
[377] Forte sua is an adaptation of the phrase ‘sponte sua’ to the nature of the weather. The tempest drove us hither by mere accident without any purpose of ours. Contrast Ilioneus' language to Latinus 7. 213 foll., especially “consilio” v. 216.
[378] Od. 9. 19, Εἴμ᾽ Ὀδυσεὺς Λαερτιάδης, ὃς πᾶσι δόλοισιν Ἀνθρώποισι μέλω, καί μευ κλέος οὐρανὸν ἵκει.
[380] Some inferior MSS. which Burm. and Heyne follow, omit ‘et.’ The line would then run “Italiam quaero patriam; genus ab Iove summo,” ‘My country is Italy which I am seeking; my descent is from Jove.’ Retaining ‘et,’ we must of course couple ‘genus’ with ‘patriam.’ ‘I am on my way to Italy my country, and to my forefathers, sprung from Jove,’ referring not to his own descent from Jove through Venus, but to that of his nation through Dardanus. Comp. 3. 129, “Cretam proavosque petamus,” and see 7. 240 foll. Rom. has ‘Iove magno.’
[381] Serv. considers ‘conscendere aequor’ to be said of physically climbing the sea,—“secundum physicos, qui dicunt terram inferiorem esse aqua, quia omne quod continetur supra illud est quod continet.” It would be more natural to suppose that the poet referred to some commoner appearance or sensation such as the elevation of the horizon or the rising of the wave; “climbing ever up the climbing wave” (Tennyson). ‘Conscendo’ however is so completely appropriated as a technical term for embarking, being used in that sense even without an accusative, that we can hardly avoid giving it such a meaning in a connexion like this. Here as elsewhere (see on G. 2. 364) it seems that Virg. while he secured the sense ‘embark’ by the use of ‘conscendo,’ arranged his words so as to give him the advantage at the same time of some other ideas, of which that of climbing the wave just mentioned may have been one, and the notion opposed to “demittere” (“quove magis fessas optem demittere navis” 5. 29), whether of actual ascent or of effort, may have been another. ‘Navibus’ constructed as in 10. 213, “ter denis navibus ibant.”
[382] Serv. thinks there is an allusion to the legend that Aeneas was led by the star of Venus to Italy: see note on 2. 801. ‘Fata,’ oracles. Comp. 3. 444, “quae rupe sub ima Fata canit;” and 4. 345, “Sed nunc Italiam magnam Grynaeus Apollo, Italiam Lyciae iussere capessere sortes.” The oracle itself is given 3. 94 by Apollo at Delos.
[383] Undis Euroque with ‘convolsae,’ not, as Serv. suggests as an alternative, with ‘supersunt.’ The two however come virtually to the same thing, as the meaning seems to be ‘survive the strain of wind and wave.’
[384] Ignotus, in a land where I am unknown, far from friends. ‘Libyae:’ he profits by Venus' information that he is in Africa, and contrasts it with the better known parts of the globe.
[385] Nec plura querentem passa should be taken together, not ‘interfata querentem.’ There seems to be a confusion between “nec plura queri passa” and “nec amplius querentem passa.”
[387-401] ‘Venus assures him of a welcome from the queen, and also of the safety of his missing ships.’
