[53] Heyne punctuates ‘Feminea tegat: et vanis sese occulat umbris;’ making ‘occulat’ nearly = ‘occulet’ and the sense, ‘let the clouds in which he (Aeneas） will hide himself be vain.’ Scarcely less strained is the explanation of Wagn., who refers ‘sese’ to Aeneas, and endeavours to get rid of the grammatical anomaly thus involved by interpreting the whole clause as = “longe illi mater erit imploranti ut sese tegat.” The natural sense of the line is, ‘to conceal him while she hides herself.’ The gods often conceal themselves in clouds (see on 10. 634). Poseidon throws a mist before the eyes of Achilles to rescue Aeneas, Il. 20. 321 foll., and Apollo (ib. 445), who saves him in a cloud, is also invisible: Τμὶς μὲν ἔπειτ᾽ ἐπόρουσε ποδάρκης δῖος Ἀχιλλεὺς Ἔγχεϊ χαλκείῳ: τρὶς δ᾽ ἠέρα τύψε βαθεῖαν. ‘Vanis’ can hardly be meant to imply that Venus' cloud shall not protect her from the spear of Turnus, which would be inconsistent with ‘longe erit;’ so we must take it in the sense of ‘deceptive.’ Schrader conj. ‘caerulea’ for ‘feminea’ and ‘ut’ for ‘et.’
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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. 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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