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praeteriit. Cf. XIII. 444 n.Parthenopeia, i.e. of Naples. Cf. 87 n.
Aeolidae, of Misenus, son of Aeolus and trumpeter of the fleet, whose death and funeral are related Virg. Aen.VI. 160-235. The promontory named after him is still called Capo di Miseno. For the difficulty involved in laeva de parte see note in Appendix.loca . . . undis, a description of litora Cumarum. Just north of Cumae was Palus Literna (undosis squalida terris, Sil. Ital. VII. 277), south of it Palus Acherusia, and towards Baiae the deep basin of Lacus Avernus and the shallow lagoon of Lacus Lucrinus.
antra Sibyllae, a cave behind a temple of Apollo on the eastern side of the cliff on which stood the citadel of Cumae. It is mentioned by Aristotle, Mir. Ausc. 95, and is famous historically in connection with the siege of Cumae by Narses (553 A.D. ), who destroyed the cave by mining through it. The Cumaean Sibyl, identified by some with the Erythraean and generally said to have come from the east, was the most famous of the ten or twelve prophetic women known by the name. It was she who brought the Sibylline books for sale to Tarquinius Superbus, and the renown of her prophecies became yet greater from their association with Christianity. ‘In mediaeval hymnology the Sibyl, often with the title the Cumaean Sibyl, figures as the one prophetic personage in the heathen world whose utterances were deserving of universal attention. To this day in the religious processions during Holy Week at Seville, the Sibyls form prominent figures, and in the old mystery plays they were frequently introduced.’ Besides three series of paintings representing the Sibyls at Cheyney Court, Herefordshire, at Augsburg, and at Munich, the Cumaean Sibyl is represented in a fresco at Amiens Cathedral, holding a scroll on which are written lines 5-7 of Virgil's IVth Eclogue, with an inseription below recording her prediction in the eighteenth year of Tarquinius Priscus ‘‘Que Ihs-Crist seroit nay de Marie Et que partout y auroit paix (unie?).’’I have taken these particulars from the late Dr. Husenbeth's Emblems of Saints, Norwich 1882 (Appendix I. Iconography of the Sibyls, by W. Marsh). The most famous representations of the Sibyls are those at Rome by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel, and by Raffaelle in the Church of Maria S. della pace.
Averna, neuter plural, as in Virg. Aen.III. 442, Averna sonantia silvis.
tellure moratos. Cf. XIII. 125.
per ignes. Cf. XIII. 623-8.
petitis, ‘thy prayer.’ Cf. 92 n.
Elysias domos. Following Virgil, Ovid places the abode of the happy dead in the underworld, not, as Homer ( Od.IV. 563-8) and Hesiod (Op. et Di. 170-3, cf. Hor Epod.xvi.), in a distant western region (the ‘Happy Isles’ of Tennyson's Ulysses), where the life of the golden age is reproduced.regna novissima, the last of the three realms assigned to Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto.
Iunonis Avernae, of Proserpine. Cf. Virg. Aen.VI. 138.Virgil says nothing of the wood being sacred to Proserpine.
opes, its wealth of inhabitants.atavos, ‘ancestors,’ as avus and its other compounds are used. The reference is to Virgil, Aen.648-50, where Aeneas sees Ilus, Assaracus and Dardanus.senilem. Cf. XIII. 533.
iura locorum, a brief reference to the discourse of Anchises to Aeneas, Virg. Aen.VI. 713-51.
quaeque . . . bellis. Cf. Virg. l.c. 890-2.
adverso tramite, ‘up the steep path,’ ‘with the path against him,’ an expression similar to adverso flumine. In Virg. l.c. 899 Aeneas and the Sibyl pass out of the ivory gate, and the former immediately returns to the ships.
opaca crepuscula, not the twilight of evening but the ‘darkness visible’ of the cavern opening upon the lake of Avernus, and subsequently of the woods with which in early time the sides of the crater were covered, just as Virgil says of Aeneas and the Sibyl, when they enter the cavern at early dawn ( Aen.VI. 255), ibant obscuri sola sub nocte per umbram (ib. 268), which he proceeds to explain by the comparison of earthly night (ib. 270-5).
dea praesens, ‘very goddess,’ in actual presence. Cf. 727 n.
muneris esse tui, ‘to be the gift of thy bounty,’ to owe my life to you. Cf. Trist. I. vi. 6, si quid adhuc ego sum, muneris omne tui est, V. 343, Cereris sumus omnia munus.
visae, though I looked upon it close. For videre thus used of seeing that which is dangerous to approach, cf. Virg. Aen.III. 431, ib. VI. 134, and the similar use of aspicere 168. Cf. also 245 n.
templa. In Virgil ( Aen.VI. 71), Aeneas promises to build a temple in which the oracles of the Sibyl shall be kept, in allusion probably to the action of Augustus in placing the Sibylline books under the statue of the Palatine Apollo.
dignare, imperative of dignor, R. § 495.neu . . . erres. Cf. 32 n.
lux, ‘life,’ the light of life.dabatur, ‘was offered,’ ‘was to be given.’ Roby, § 1454, 3, R. § 591, 3. For the indicative mood used thus in place of a hypothetical apodosis cf. 140, and see Roby § 1574 (3), R. § 654 (3).
patuisset represents the future perfect indicative of oratio recta, just as paterer in line 141 represents a future simple, the subjunctive being required by what is virtually oratio obliqua (Kennedy, P. S. L. G. § 191, Arnold's Lat. Prose Comp. ed. Bradley, §§ 449, 474). For the tense see R. § 620.
hanc, sc. virginitatem meam.
quid optes, ‘what you will ask.’ Cf. XIII 708 n.hausti. Cf. XIII 425 n.
haberet. The mood is that of a clause dependent on another subjunctive or an infinitive, Roby § 1772, R. 758.corpora, ‘grains.’
vana, ‘weak,’ ‘futile,’ ‘ineffectual,’ “μάταιος”, of a person whose hopes, endeavours, or predictions are doomed to be disappointed or falsified. Cf. Liv. I. xxvii. 1, vanum ingenium, Virg. Aen.I. 392, ni frustra augurium vani docuere parentes, where the explanation ‘impostors’ seems quite inappropriate, Juv.iii. 159, sic libitum vano qui nos distinxit Othoni, id. XIV. 211. It may be doubted whether the word ever has the force of ‘wilfully deceiving.’ See Henry on Virg. Aen.II. 80, and compare with his explanation VIII. 722, where fallere seems to have the same alternative force as mendacem used of Sinon.
excidit ut peterem, ‘I forgot to ask,’ a consecutive subjunctive, Roby, § 1700, R. § 712 (b). For the incident compare the similar narrative of Tithonus, for whom Aurora begs the gift of immortality ( Hymn. Ven. 224):— “νηπίη οὐδ᾽ ἐνόησε μετὰ φρεσὶ πότνια Ἠὼς ἥβην αἰτῆσαι, ξῦσαι τ᾽ ἀπὸ γῆρας ὀλοιόν.”iuvenes annos, ‘young years,’ as in VII. 295. Iuvenes, being emphasised by position, has predicative force, ‘that my years should be years of youth.’ Cf. IX. 421.protinus with peterem, ‘ask forthwith,’ ‘go on to ask.’
si paterer, cf. 133 n.
terga dedit, ‘has fled.’aegra senectus. Age is often spoken of as a disease; cf. Arist. de Arist. Gen. An.v. IV. 10, “Ὀρθῶς δ᾽ ἔχει καὶ λέγειν τὴν μὲν νόσον γῆρας ἐπίκτητον, τὸ δὲ γῆρας νόσον φυσικήν: ποιοῦσι γοῦν νόσοι τινὲς ταὐτὰ ἅπερ καὶ τὸ γῆρας”.
aequem, final subjunctive, R. § 682, (a).146. For a similar definition of time cf. Fast.III. 557:— “tertia nudandas acceperat area messes inque cavos ierant tertia musta lacus.”147. [Ovid probably wrote cum me tanto de corpore parvam, but MSS., including Can.7, have de tanto me, R.E. ].
longa dies, ‘the length of days,’ ‘long years.’
cognoscet, [Vel non adgnoscet Can.7. So in II. 183, where most MSS. give iam cognosse genus piget, the Harl. 2610 gives iam genus agnoscit (l. agnosci) piget. R. E.].dile<*>isse, without se. Roby, § 1346. Cf. II. 693, III. 573, Liv.xxv. IX. 13, dicenti vix sustinere grandis bestiae onus portula aperitur. The same use, though requiring different expression in English, appears in 250.
mutata ferar. Cf. VII. 61, quo coniuge felix et dis cara ferar, Her. VI. 114, en ego Minoo nata Thoante feror, Trist, V. xiv. 4, tu tamen ingenio clara ferere meo. In all these passages ferri means, ‘to be recognised in speech,’ ‘to be known,’ ‘to pass,’ and so very little more than ‘to be,’ ‘to live.’ So it means ‘to be current,’ ‘to be extant’ in Hor. Epp.II. ii. 112, where see Wilkins's note. We may compare the similar usage of dici in Virg. Aen.VI. 106, hic inferni ianua regis dicitur (cf. XIII. 483 n.), and of appellari, vocari etc., for which see Madvig, Emendationes Livianae, p. 367. Cf. Milton, Par. Reg. II. 27, ‘plain fishermen, no greater men them call.’ See also Mayor on Juv.v. 42, and in Index s. V. laudo.nulli videnda, ‘though I can be seen of none.’
voce. According to Korn local tradition asserts that the Sibyl still exists as a voice heard in the caverns under Cumae.
Charles Simmons. Metamorphoseon XIII. xiv. The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books XIII. and XIV. Edited, with introduction, analysis, and notes by Charles Simmons. New York. Macmillan. 1899.
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