[171] Concha is probably the same as the ‘lituus’ or ‘tuba,’ being substituted for it as more appropriate to a performance on the water, and more likely to rouse the jealousy of Triton, whose instrument it was, 10. 209. Comp. Ov. M. 1. 333 foll. (too long to quote), where Triton is made by Neptune to sound on his shell a retreat for the waters of Deucalion's flood, the shell being afterwards spoken of as “cava buccina.” Emm., to whom this citation is due, also quotes Hesych. s. v. κόχλος, κόχλοις τοῖς θαλασσίοις ἐχρῶντο πρὸ τῆς τῶν σαλπίγγων εὑρέσεως, a natural supposition enough. It is in fact the rationale of the myth which attributes the shell to Triton. It is possible however, as Peerlkamp and Forb. think, that Misenus is meant really to have taken up a shell on the shore and tried his powers. ‘Personat aequora concha’ like “personat regna latratu” v. 417 below. Here as elsewhere ‘dum’ is followed by the present when the rest of the sentence would have led us to expect some other tense: see on E. 7. 6, G. 4. 560. Here there may be a rhetorical propriety in the discrepancy, the suddenness of the retribution being expressed by the intimation that it was over while the provocation was still going on.
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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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