[683] I have restored the old pointing, as against the later editors who read ‘Date, volnera lymphis abluam.’ Wagn. may be right in adducing instances in Greek like Il. 6. 340, ἀλλ᾽ ἄγε νῦν ἐπίμεινον, Ἀρήϊα τεύχεα δύω, ib. 23. 71, θάπτε με ὅττι τάχιστα, πύλας Ἀΐδαο περήσω, to show that there is a connexion between the imperative and the first person of the subjunctive, as he certainly is in quoting as parallel Anchises' words, 6. 883 (note), “manibus date lilia plenis . . . spargam . . . adcumulem . . . fungar;” but the last passage might have shown him that it is not necessary to such a connexion that ‘date’ should stand alone, unless we should there adopt, which he has not done, Gossrau's most improbable punctuation. On the contrary, a comparison of the two passages makes it, I think, highly probable that the first part of the sentence here would answer to “manibus date lilia plenis;” while ‘date volnera lymphis’ is a rhetorical inversion quite in Virg.'s manner, like “dare classibus austros” 3. 61, the water being represented as craving for the wounds which it is to wash.
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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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