[223] It seems better, on a comparison of E. 8. 85, to understand “est” after ‘mugitus’ than to supply “tollit,” with Wagn. and Forb.; but the point is very doubtful. It signifies little whether we make ‘mugitus’ nom. sing. or pl.; but ‘qualis’ is said to be better supported by MSS. and grammarians, so the sing. seems the more probable, though in these matters the weight of external evidence must be very slight. The early commentators rightly remark on the propriety of the simile of the bull, as suggesting the sacrifice in which Laocoon was engaged by a kind of tragic εἰρωνεία. The simile is partially imitated from Il. 20. 403, where the bull is being offered to Poseidon. For a victim to escape from the altar, or to bellow when struck, was a bad omen, as we learn from Paulus Diaconus (ap. Cerdam). Cerda refers to Ov. M. 7. 597, “mugitus victima diros Edidit,” and Livy 21. 63, “immolanti ei vitulus iam ictus e manibus sacrificantium sese cum proripuisset, multos circumstantis cruore respersit.” See also v. 134, note.
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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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