[474] Concipere furias like “concipere robur” 11. 368. ‘Furiae’ = ‘furor,’ as in 1. 41. ‘Evicta’ 2. 630 note.
[475] Modum v. 294.
[476] “Exigere de aliqua re,” or “aliquam rem,” ‘cum aliquo’ is a common expression (see Forc.), apparently answering to our common phrase ‘to have it out.’ “Exigere aliquid ad aliquid,” though generally similar, seems to arrive at the result by a different process, the notion there being that of estimation by measurement. ‘Dictis adgressa’ 3. 358. Med. has ‘ac’ for ‘et:’ but Wagn. justly remarks that it is objectionable on account of ‘ac’ in the next line.
[477] Consilium voltu tegit, hides her purpose in or by her countenance, by putting on looks of hope. With the expression comp. Aesch. Cho. 738, θετοσκυθρωπῶν ἐντὸς ὀμμάτων γέλων Κεύθουσ᾽. ‘Spem fronte serenat,’ a variety for “spe frontem serenat,” ‘spem’ being a sort of cognate acc., expressing the effect of the verb. Sil. 11. 367, while imitating Virg., keeps closer to the ordinary use of the word, “tristia fronte serenat.”
[479] Eum and ‘eo’ seem awkward in dignified poetry; but they are doubtless introduced significantly, Dido not wishing to mention the name or even give him a title of any kind. Gossrau observes that the poets object to “eius” more than to any other case of the pronoun, perhaps because the quantity of the first syllable makes it more emphatic than the rest. “‘Eo solvat,’ h. e. amore in eum. Usitatior est compositio ‘solvere aliquem luctu, amore’ quam ‘solvere hominem homine.’” Wund.
[480] Oceani finem, the extreme limit set by the Ocean, which is regarded, as in Hom., as surrounding the world. Comp. 7. 225, G. 2. 122. So the poem to Messala, attributed to Virg., v. 54, “Vincere et Oceani finibus ulterius.” Homer's Aethiopians live by the Ocean, Il. 1. 423.
[481] Ultimus Aethiopum locus est like “extremi sinus orbis” G. 2. 123. The meaning seems to be, not, there is the extreme point of Aethiopia, but, there is Aethiopia, the extreme point of earth. ‘Maxumus Atlas’ 1. 741.
[482] Axem of the sky, 2. 512. Here it chimes in with ‘torquet,’ which, as Heyne says, is “ornatius quam sustinet,” expressing the diurnal motion of the heaven. The line, as Macrob. Sat. 6. 1 informs us, is altered from Enn. A. 1. fr. 37, “Qui caelum versat stellis fulgentibus aptum.” ‘Aptus’ here bears its participial sense of ‘connected with’ or ‘fastened to,’ as frequently in Lucr.
[483] Massylae the special term for the general. Both Massylians and Mauretanians were Libyans, so Virg. takes the poetical licence of substituting the one for the other. To suppose that a Massylian woman had been employed in Mauretania would be to complicate the poet's details needlessly. The general meaning evidently is that Dido had secured the services of one who had been keeper of the garden of the Hesperides.
[484] Virg. has chosen to represent the garden of the Hesperides as a temple, whether following any authority, does not appear. Perhaps he may mean no more than to translate the Greek σηκός, which means a sacred enclosure as well as a garden.
[485, 486] The meaning is that the priestess preserved the golden apples by inducing the dragon to preserve them. The dragon is induced by being fed with dainties, ‘spargens’ &c. standing in effect for “dando epulas.” Henry rightly understands ‘spargens mella papaverque’ of sprinkling the food with honey and poppyseeds, which he shows from various passages in Petronius, from Pliny 19. 8. 53, and from Hor. A. P. 375, to have been considered a great delicacy among the Romans, forming, at least in early times, part of the second course at a banquet. That ‘spargens’ means sprinkling on the food, not sprinkling on the ground as a separate and substantive article of food, he argues from a passage where Petronius says, “Omnia dicta factaque quasi papavere et sesamo sparsa.” ‘Humida’ too favours this. ‘Soporiferum,’ it must be admitted, is a very unfortunate epithet, as the object of the food cannot have been to lull the ever-wakeful dragon; it is not simply inappropriate or idle, like other epithets which Henry or others quote, but actually mal à propos. As a physical description it is accurate enough, the “candidum (our “somniferum”) papaver” being specified by Pliny as the particular kind of poppy whose seeds were so employed. All attempts to modify or evade this obvious sense must be pronounced failures: e. g. Serv.'s new punctuation, adopted by Gossrau, which connects ‘spargens’ &c. with what follows, Turnebus' fancy that the dragon required to be put to sleep occasionally that he might not break down from overwatching, Jahn's supposition that honey and poppies were strewn about to keep intruders away, and Waddel's suggestion that the priestess may have dealt with soporifics as Macbeth wished to deal with physic, throwing them to the dogs to keep them out of the dragon's way. But perhaps it may still be open to some unusually audacious critic to hint that Virg., by a strange confusion, such as might possibly happen to a great writer who never lived to revise his poem, thought of the dragon for the moment as a creature which the priestess was to subdue or elude, and so made her exercise her charming power in sending it to sleep. Medea, who, as we have seen, has been in his mind throughout the composition of this Book, sprinkles her κυκεών on the dragon's eyes (Apoll. R. 4. 156 foll.), and Virg. himself in describing an enchanter 7. 750 foll. speaks of him as one “Vipereo generi et graviter spirantibus hydris Spargere qui somnos cantuque manuque solebat.” Ribbeck, with sufficient improbability, places v. 486 after v. 517 below. ‘Sacros,’ to Juno, to Venus, or to Earth, according to different accounts.
[487] With this description of the professions and practice of the enchantress compare generally the song of the Pharmaceutria in Ecl. 8. ‘Solvere’ as in v. 479 above. Comp. the opposite expression in Greek ὕμνος δέσμιος, Aesch. Eum. 306.
[489] Changing the course of rivers and stars was a common exertion of magical power. So Medea in Apoll. R. 3. 532. ‘Fluviis’ is doubtless dative.
[490] Nocturnos might refer to the ordinary dwelling of the Manes, so that ‘nocturnos ciet’ should mean, calls up from night to day. But it seems better to take it of spirits appearing by night, which was their natural time of visiting the earth: comp. 5. 739. So “nocturnos lemures” Hor. 2. Ep. 2. 209. For ‘ciet’ many MSS., including Pal. and fragm. Vat., both a m. pr., give ‘movet,’ which Wagn. adopts. Intrinsically the two words seem on a par: in external authority ‘ciet’ is probably superior. From Ribbeck's silence it would seem that Med. had ‘movet;’ but Wagn. says nothing. In E. 8. 98 the enchanter is said “animas imis excire sepulchris.” ‘Mugire terram:’ similar portents attend the coming of Hecate 6. 256. ‘Videre’ is not unfrequently transferred from the eyes to the other senses. “Vidistin' toto sonitus procurrere caelo?” Prop. 2. 6. 49.
[491] The trees follow the enchantress as they did Orpheus. This exercise of power is not illustrated by the commentators. Perhaps we may comp. 6. 256, “iuga coepta moveri Silvarum,” and E. 8. 99, “satas alio vidi traducere messis.”
[492] For the oath comp. v. 357 above: for the pleonasm 8. 144, Soph. O. C. 750, where Meineke cites Catull. 64. (66.) 40, “adiuro teque tuumque caput,” Cic. (?) De Domo 57, “meque ac meum caput devovi.”
[493] Dido's apology, as the commentators remark, is conceived in the spirit not of legendary Carthage but of historical Rome. Serv. says, “Cum multa sacra Romani susciperent, magica semper damnaverunt.” ‘Accingier’ seems to be a metaphor from a weapon—not an unnatural one under the circumstances. The construction with the abl. is the usual one in Virg.: but here he has preferred the Greek acc. We have had the archaic form of the inf. G. 1. 454.
[494] Secreta is explained by ‘tecto interiore.’ Dido would still desire secrecy, as, though she had deceived her sister, others might suspect. The place indicated seems to be the ‘impluvium.’ ‘Sub auras’ here and in v. 504 doubtless means ‘up to the sky,’ indicating the height of the pile as Wund. explains it; but it contains implicitly the other interpretation ‘sub divo.’ Comp. 2. 512, “Aedibus in mediis nudoque sub aetheris axe,” where also we are intended to think of the ‘impluvium.’ The enchantment in E. 8 takes place in the ‘impluvium.’
[495] Arma is generally referred to the sword alone, vv. 507, 646: but see on v. 496. ‘Thalamo’ is the bridal chamber, which they had jointly occupied. Aeneas had hung up his weapon there, and would naturally not care to reclaim it under the circumstances. Wagn. well comp. the description in Eur. Hec. 920 foll., πόσις ἐν θαλάμοις ἔκειτο, ξυστὸν δ᾽ ἐπὶ πασσάλῳ, ναύταν οὐκέθ᾽ ὁρῶν ὅμιλον Τροίαν Ἰλιάδ᾽ ἐμβεβῶτα.
[496] Impius, as Taubm. remarks, alludes to Aeneas' ordinary epithet ‘pius.’ Its reference here is probably to his whole conduct to Dido, not, as Henry thinks, to the want of feeling shown in leaving his arms hung up in her very chamber. The ‘exuviae’ are doubtless articles of dress. Comp. E. 8. 91 note. The object of the enchantress there is to bring back her lover, which, as we have seen v. 479, is one of the alternatives which Dido proposes to herself. We can easily understand how the burning of the ‘exuviae’ should be supposed to conduce also to the other alternative, the extinguishing of the passion. A funeral pile is raised, with all its accoutrements (see v. 506), really to serve for Dido, but apparently for Aeneas, who is to be burnt in effigy (v. 508), as being dead to Dido. The description of the pile is parallel to that of the pile where Misenus is actually burnt, 6. 214 foll., and there the arms of the dead man are similarly placed on the top of the pile (comp. 11. 195), just as Eetion in Il. 6. 418 is burnt with his armour.
[497] ‘Superinponant’ is the reading of fragm. Vat., Med. a m. pr. &c. The common reading (Pal., Gud., Med. a m. s.) is ‘superinponas;’ but there is an unmetrical variety ‘superinpone’ found in some copies, which seems to show that the text has been tampered with. Anna would naturally require assistance, so that the plural is not inconsistent with the injunction of secrecy. In the actual narrative, v. 507, Dido is made to do these things herself, Virg. as usual caring for variety more than for apparent consistency.
[498] Again the MSS. are divided, between ‘iuvat’ and ‘iubet.’ The former is in fragm. Vat., and would appear to be intended as a correction in Med. The two words are occasionally confounded, ‘iuvat’ being sometimes written ‘iubat’ in MSS. So here Pal. has ‘iubet’ altered into ‘iubat,’ Gud. ‘iubat’ altered into ‘iubet.’ As far as sense and propriety of language go, there is here nothing to choose between them. I have followed Wagn. doubtfully. Serv. read ‘iuvat,’ explaining it “συμφέρει, hoc est, et voluntas mihi est, et sacerdos hoc praecipit.” Dido will then mean that she gratifies the natural feeling of destroying what she has so much cause to hate, at the same time that she is performing an injunction which is to lead supernaturally to a certain result. ‘Monstrat’ with inf. in the sense of ‘iubet,’ 9. 44. We shall meet the word as applied to sacrificial directions below v. 636, as we have already done G. 4. 549.
[500] Tamen, in spite of her paleness. ‘Praetexere funera sacris:’ comp. v. 172 above.
[502] For ‘concipit’ Jortin very ingeniously conj. ‘concipere’ (as Bentley on Hor. 1 Od. 1. 6, conj. “evehere” for “evehit”), so as to make ‘concipere furores’ parallel to “concepit furias” above, v. 474. “Concepit mente furores” actually occurs in this sense Ov. M. 2. 640. “Concipere aliquid” is however found elsewhere of one person realizing the intention of another. Forb. quotes Ov. M. 10. 403, “Nec nutrix etiamnum concipit ullum Mente nefas.” For ‘aut’ some MSS. have ‘haud,’ which Hand in Tursell. 1. p. 545 needlessly prefers. ‘Quam morte Sychaei’ is rightly explained by Serv. “quam quae fecit vel passa est Dido” (morte Sychaei). He also gives another interpretation, making ‘quam’ pleonastic, which has had better fortune than it deserves, having been adopted by one or two later critics. ‘Morte,’ at the death, as probably 3. 333.
[503] Iussa is here more of a participle than of a substantive, = “res iussas.” For ‘parat’ one MS. has ‘implet,’ another ‘facit.’
[504-521] ‘The pile is raised, and the relics placed on it: the priestess begins her incantations, and Dido makes her dying appeal to the gods.’
