[471] Stet, a poetical substitute for the verb subst. as perhaps in Hor. 1 Od. 9. 1, “Vires ut alta stet nive candidum,” though there the addition of “alta nive” makes a difference. ‘Than if she had the fixedness of stubborn flint or a crag of Marpessa.’ Comp. the use of ‘stare’ of a statue E. 7. 32 note. Marpessa was a mountain of Paros, so that Virg. compares Dido to marble. The epithet is one of the class adverted to vol. i. pp. 7, 8. The whole picture may be taken, as Valckenaer thinks, from Eur. Med. 27 foll., where the attitude of Medea is similarly described and similarly compared: but the thought is common.
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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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