previous next

[594] Henry remarks with considerable taste, that the simile of the dolphins was almost required after that of the labyrinth, to bring out the conception of lively motion after that of lifeless artistic mechanism. There is a simile from dolphins in Apoll. R. 4. 933, where their gambols are dwelt on more in detail: “ὡς δ᾽ ὁπότ᾽ ἂν δελφῖνες ὑπ᾽ ἐξ ἁλὸς εὐδιόωντες
σπερχομένην ἀγεληδὸν ἑλίσσωνται περὶ νῆα,
ἄλλοτε μὲν προπάροιθεν ὁρώμενοι, ἄλλοτ᾽ ὄπισθεν,
ἄλλοτε παρβολάδην, ναύτῃσι δὲ χάρμα τέτυκται.
”

But Virg. has perhaps shown judgment in not describing their movements after having been so minute in representing the evolutions which he compares to theirs: he does little more than name them, and leaves his readers who have seen them to fill up the picture for themselves. For a similar instance of judicious reticence see on G. 3. 237. ‘Delphinum similes:’ apparently a solitary example of the use of ‘similis’ with a gen. in Virg. ‘Maria humida’ like “humida stagna” 12. 476.

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.

The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Places (automatically extracted)

View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.

Download Pleiades ancient places geospacial dataset for this text.

hide References (2 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (2):
    • Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 4.933
    • Vergil, Georgics, 3.237
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: