[92] Me duce like “duce te” applied by Aeneas to Apollo 6. 59. The words ‘Spartam expugnavit adulter’ are to be taken literally, not with Wagn. in the sense of “Spartanam pudicitiam expugnavit.” Juno is exaggerating as in v. 68, 78; and as, by the words ‘foedera solvere,’ she has talked as if previous treaties of peace existed between Greece and Asia, so here she represents Paris' voyage as an invasion ending in the sacking of Sparta, suggesting thereby that the sacking of Troy was but a just retribution. Virg. has worked upon the words of Hom. Il. 3. 46 foll.:—
ἢ τοιόσδε ἐών, ἐν ποντοπόροισι νεεσσιν πόντον ἐπιπλώσας, ἑτάρους ἐρίηρας ἀγείρας, μιχθεὶς ἀλλοδαποῖσι, γυναῖκ᾽ εὐειδἔ ἀνῆγες, κ.τ.λ. Indeed, he may have understood μιχθεὶς ἀλλοδαποῖσι in the sense of ‘having fought with strangers,’ and taken the ποντόποροι νῆες for a hostile fleet. The notion that Paris really stormed Sparta worked itself into the later Roman versions of the story of Troy, perhaps from a misunderstanding of the rhetorical character of this passage: see Statius Achill. 1. 20, 65; Dictys Cretensis 1—3, “expugnatam quippe domum regis (Menelai) eversumque regnum et alia in talem modum singuli disserebant:” also Dares Phrygius 10, who elaborates Il. 3. 45 foll. into great detail. Comp. also Serv. here and on 1. 526.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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