[339, 340] The words can only mean that the spear which pierced Maeon passed on and severed the arm of Alcanor as he put it out to help his brother. Heyne is quite right in objecting to the marvellousness of such a stroke, and to the inconsistency of making Numitor draw out this very javelin to throw it back, as, if hurled with such violence, it could hardly have been dislodged; but that is no reason for supposing, as he and the later editors do, that the ‘hasta’ mentioned here is a second spear. The account of the brothers Maris and Atymnius Il. 16. 317 foll. on which this is modelled, is much less marvellous: Νεστορίδαι δ᾽, ὁ μὲν οὔτασ᾽ Ἀτύμνοιν ὀξέϊ δουρὶ Ἀντίλοχος . . . . . Ἤριπε δὲ προπάροιθε, Μάρις δ᾽ αὐτοσχεδὰ δουρὶ Ἀντιλόχῳ ἐπόρουσε κασιγνήτοιο χολωθεὶς . . . . τοῦ δ᾽ ἀντίθεος Θρασυμήδης Εφθη ὀρεξάμενος . . . . Ὦμον ἄφαρ: πρυμνὸν δὲ βραχίονα δουρὸς ἀκωκὴ Δρύψ᾽ ἀπὸ μυώνων &c. “‘Traiecto lacerto,’ quae fuerat missa retroacto lacerto” Serv., from which Peerlkamp and Ribbeck suppose that he read ‘reiecto’ or ‘at reiecto:’ but it is merely a false rendering. ‘Protinus’ onward: E. 1. 13 note. “Servare tenorem” Lucr. 4.632.
This text is part of:
John Conington. P. Vergili Maronis opera. P. Vergili Maronis Opera. The works of. Virgil. , with a Commentary by John Conington, M.A. and Henry Nettleship, M.A. London. Whittaker and Co., Ave Maria Lane;. George Bell and Sons, York Street, Covent Garden. 1876.
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