[3] The imitation of the exordium of the Odyssey continues, ‘multum ille iactatus . . multa quoque passus,’ being modelled on πολλὰ πλάγχθη . . πολλὰ δὲ ὅγε . . πάθεν: ‘ille,’ as so often in Virg., standing for the Homeric ὅγε. ‘Multum,’ &c., used to be pointed as a separate sentence; it is however evidently constructed with ‘venit,’ so that ‘ille’ is virtually pleonastic. Comp. 5. 457., 6. 593., 9. 479. Here it appears rhetorically to be equal to ‘quidem.’ ‘Iactatus’ is naturally transferred from wanderings by sea to wanderings by land. In such passages as vv. 332, 668, we see the point of transition. So 5. 627, “cum freta, cum terras omnis . . ferimur.”
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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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