2— The Wanderings of Aeneas
83 1. Cf. also Sabbadini, Studi critici sulla Eneide (Lonigo, 1889) 107.
85
2.
W.H. Roscher,
Studien
zur
vergleichenden
Mythologie
der
Griechen
und
Römer
I:
Apollo
und
Mars
(Leipzig, 1873) 82ff.;
Ausführliches
Lexikon
der
gr
.
und
röm
.
Mythologie
(Leipzig, 1884-1937) I.440f.
3. Strabo 6.257.
4.
This is clear from Statius
Silv
. 4.8.47
tu
,
ductor
populi
longe
migrantis
,
Apollo
[thou, Apollo, leader of a people migrating far].
5.
A similar idea seems to underlie Euripides
Helen
147, where Teucer wishes to
learn from the prophetess Theonoe


ship with a favourable wind to sea-girt Cyprus, where Apollo decreed that I should
found a city].
86
6.
So Schüler,
Quaestiones
Vergilianae
(Diss. Greifswald, 1883) 8ff., rightly,
even though he does not support his conclusions with adequate reasoning;
contra
,
Conrads (
Quaest
.
Vergil
., Trier, 1863) and Georgii (
Über
das
dritte
Buch
der
Ae
-
neide
in
Festschrift
zur
4.
Säkulärfeier
der
Univ
.
Tübingen
[Stuttgart, 1877] 65ff.)
had previously argued that it was the earliest of the books; similarly Kroll (op. cit.
[in ch. 1 n. 102] 157ff.). Sabbadini, who agreed with Schüler in
Studi
Critici
105ff.,
later modified his view in
Il
primitivo
disegno
dell
'
Eneide
(Turin, 1900) 30ff., in
which he argues that Book 3 was written at the very beginning, in a simple narrative
form, but was re-worked at a later stage and put into the mouth of Aeneas; I do not
need to add anything to what Helm has said against this hypothesis (
Bursians
Jahresberichte
113 [1902] 50). For the rest, I hope that the exposition of my own
view will make it unnecessary to engage in polemic against other individuals - for this
reason too I do not defend my view against Karsten,
Hermes
39 (1904) 259f.; I will
only say that he has unfortunately more than once misunderstood me and argued
87 against statements which are far removed from my own position. Gercke in his book
Die
Entstehung
der
Aeneis
(Leipzig, 1913) has recently revived Conrads' thesis and
suggests that Book 3 was written after 7 and 8, and indeed after the whole of the
second half of the
Aeneid
, while still being the earliest of the books in the first half
(apart from a preliminary sketch for 4). In my view, not only is Gercke's interpreta-
tion of individual details highly debatable, but I also believe that the method which
he uses in this case and throughout the whole of his book is wrong. It is futile to argue
step by step when his standpoint is so completely different from my own (Gercke
almost entirely ignores the artistic considerations, whereas I consider them to be of
essential importance); I therefore refrain here as elsewhere from arguling with him,
and refer to my detailed review of his book which will shortly appear in the
Anzeigen
der
Göttinger
Gesellschaft
der
Wissenschaften
(117 [1915] 153-71).
break
88
7.
It is worth mentioning that the same idea occurs in Ovid's letter from Dido:
certus
es
. . .
quaeque
ubi
sint
nescis
Itala
regna
sequi
['are you determined . . . and to
seek the Italian kingdoms, when you do not know where they are'] (
Heroides
7.9);
non
patrium
Simoenta
petis
,
sed
Thybridas
undas
. . .
utque
latet
vitatque
tuas
ab
-
strusa
carinas
vix
tibi
continget
terra
petita
seni
['it is not the Simois of your
homeland you seek, but the waters of the Tiber . . . and the land you seek is so hidden,
so remotely avoiding your ships, that you will hardly reach it as an old man'] (ibid.
145). In Book 3 Aeneas also once (500) mentions Thybris as his destination; at that
point, his knowledge of the name is totally inconsistent with the plan of the book;
for it cannot be merely by chance that Helenus mentions neither Thybris (which
does not appear at all elsewhere in Book 3) nor Latium nor Laurentum in his
prophecy: at 389 he says mysteriously
secreti
ad
fluminis
oram
[by the shore of a
remote river]. Of course there can be no question of the information being deliber-
ately conveyed

instance: that device is used to avoid tiresome narration or recapitulation of earlier
events, which cannot be the case here. Thus when Thybris is mentioned at line 500 I
can only regard it as an oversight on the part of the poet, who had not completely
cleared his mind of his earlier idea. I am not convinced that the passages in Books 1,
4 and 6 which mention Latium and the Tiber are the result of the same oversight,
since in those books there is no indication that Aeneas does not know the where-
abouts of his new home.
89
8.
In Creusa's speech the definite indication of the distination could easily have
been omitted;
matre
dea
monstrante
viam
[with my goddess mother showing the
way] in Book 1 is a piquant addition to the scene, but does not affect its essential
content; in Book 4 Apollo of Delos might just as well have appeared.
9.
Comparison of the similar lines 1.530-3 and 3.163-6 also shows that Book 3
was written after Book 1; the reference to
fama
is as suitable in the mouth of
Ilioneus as it is awkward in the mouth of the prophesying Penates; therefore the
lines in Book 3 were taken from Book 1, which had already been composed. I do not
agree that the reverse can be proved by the line
terra
antiqua
,
potens
armis
atque
ubere
glebae
(1.531 = 3.164) [an ancient land with might in her arms and in her
fertile soil] (Kroll,
Neue
Jahrbücher
vol. 11 [1908] 522 n. 3): in order to ward off
the suspicion that the Trojans have planned a raid on Libya (527f.), Ilioneus is
anxious to make Dido understand their real destination, and so has good reason to
praise the land in which they hope to gain a new kingdom (this contrast with the
sedes
paratae
[a place awaiting us] in Sicily is hinted at in line 557 and would
probably have been made explicit when the half-line 534 was completed).
90
10.
Hinc
Dardanus
ortus
,
huc
repetit
iussisque
ingentibus
urget
Apollo
Tyrrhe
-
num
ad
Thybrim
et
fontis
vada
sacra
Numici
(240) [in it Dardanus was born, and to
it we are recalled by Apollo who presses us onwards by his peremptory decrees
towards Etruscan Tiber and the holy spring-water of Numicus]: these lines are fully
consistent with the references in Books 2, 4, 5 and 6.
11. Paus. 10.10.6:

had answered him with an impossibility].
91
12.
It is true that an attempt has been made (by Fulda,
Fleckeisens
Jahrbuch
155
[1897] 213f.) to reconcile the versions in Books 3 and 7: he argues that Aeneas, not
continue
completely reassured by Helenus' comforting words about Celaeno's oracle, turned
to Anchises, who, on his deathbed, gave him the true and undeceptive oracle of
Apollo; the poet leaves the reader to deduce this from his narrative, in other words

to pass over this suggestion in silence, but since not only Karsten (op. cit. n. 6,
262f.) but also the author of a recently published Würzburg dissertation (V. Hensel-
manns, Die Widersprüche in Vergils Aeneis [Aschaffenburg, 1914]) accepts Fulda's
interpretation, I will explain why I find it completely untenable: (1) there is no point
or meaning in the alleged addition: Helenus' prophecy loses its value and import-
ance if Aeneas does not believe in every word of it but continues in doubt and 'in
this difficulty' turns to his father. Moreover, this does not get him any further: the
enigma, how devouring ones tables could possibly be a precondition for founding a
city, remains unsolved. The fear of starvation remains, and even if Anchises speaks
positively ( tum sperare domos . . . [then you may hope for a home]) and Celaeno
negatively ( non ante quam . . . [not until]) this takes him no further forward than
Helenus, who had said clearly enough ( nec tu mensarum morsus horresce futuros :
fata viam invenient [394-5] [and be not appalled by the fear of gnawing your tables:
Destiny will find a way] that Celaeno's condition will not stand in the way of his
reaching the end of his journey. (2) The cases of Virgilian

in silence] which I cite in Part II ch. 3.11 and to which Karsten appeals, are quite
different from this: there, the fact which has not been mentioned can be inferred in
toto from the narrative itself; whereas here the most important thing, that Aeneas
remained anxious despite Helenus' reassurance, and that Anchises finally calmed him
92 down, is only a hypothesis based on a combination of this passage with the narrative
in Book 3, and no reader who does not know Book 3 is going to imagine in Book 7
that something has happened previously without being mentioned. (3) From the
artistic point of view it would be impossible to understand why, if Celaeno's
prophecy had already been composed, Virgil did not return to it in Book 7 instead of
introducing Anchises: there can be no doubt that the portent is much more effective
when it proves that the enemy's threat is hollow than when it fulfils the prediction of
a friend. That is why Helenus' speech deliberately leaves the meaning of Celaeno's
threat unexplained: it only assures them that fata viam invenient [Destiny will find a
way].
13.
So Fabius Pictor: Cauer,
Die
römische
Aeneassage
von
Naevius
bis
Vergil
(
Fleckeisens
Jahrbuch
Suppl. 15 [1887] 104ff.).
14.
Thus Dion. Hal. 1.56. Varro
De
Ling
.
Lat
. 5.144
hinc
post
XXX
annos
oppidum
conditum
Alba
;
id
ab
sue
alba
nominatum
;
haec
e
navi
Aeneae
quom
fugisset
Lavinium
,
XXX
parit
porcos
[hence after 30 years the town of Alba was
founded: this was given its name from a white sow which after fleeing from Aeneas'
ship to Lavinium, bore 30 piglets] (cf.
Res
Rust
. 2.4.18):
ex
hoc
prodigio
post
Lavinium
conditum
annis
XXX
haec
urbs
facta
propter
colorem
suis
et
loci
naturam
Alba
Longa
dicta
[as a result of this portent this city was built 30 years after the
foundation of Lavinium and called Alba Longa because of the colour of the sow and
the character of the place]. Here
quom
fugisset
Lavinium
[after fleeing to Lavinium]
should perhaps be interpreted in accordance with Dionysius, 'the place where Ae-
neas subsequently founded Lavinium'; in which case Dionysius follows the version
continue
of the tradition represented by Varro.
93 15. In Fabius Pictor; according to Dionysius op. cit. it was


glade] or according to others


senting one of his country's gods]. The situation with these

same as in Virgil: Aeneas, overcome by anxiety, has gone to sleep in the open air on
the future site of Lavinium, to which the sow has led him.
16.
Line 46,
hic
locus
urbis
erit
,
requies
ea
certa
laborum
[this spot shall be the
place for your city, and there you shall find sure rest from your toils] (= 3.393, as
43-45 = 3.390-392) is lacking in M and P, and in R and later MSS it is doubtless
interpolated from Book 3, as is shown by the sense, quite apart from these facts
concerning the textual tradition. R and later MSS are inclined to insert interpolations
from parallel passages, as can be demonstrated elsewhere: cf. 2.76, 4.273, 528,
9.121, 10.278, 872, 12.612f., but this particular interpolation may also have been
prompted by the way in which line 47 is loosely attached to the previous line by
ex
quo
, which can easily be taken as temporal in sense [from which time], as by Heyne
and Norden 197, or as
ex
hoc
prodigio
[from this portent] by analogy with Varro's
words cited in n. 14 above.
96
17.
His
accensa
super
iactatos
aequore
toto
Troas
. . .
arcebat
longe
Latio
,
multos
-
que
per
annos
errabant
acti
fatis
maria
omnia
circum
(1.29-32) [such were the
causes of her fury: and so it was that the Trojans were tossed in storm over all the
ocean; and still she kept them far from Latium, wandering for years at the mercy of
the fates from sea to sea about the world].
18.
Mene
incepto
desistere
victam
nec
posse
Italia
Teucrorum
avertere
regem?
(37-8) ['I, vanquished? I, to abandon the fight? Lacking even the strength to keep
Troy's prince from making Italy?'].
19.
Una
cum
gente
tot
annos
bella
gero
(47) [I have been making war for all
these years on a single clan]: this, however, also includes the Trojan war.
97
20.
Sabbadini (op. cit. 27) considers these lines to be a later interpolation spun
out of 8.60ff.: he has not produced any convincing arguments on this point, nor
indeed for his entire hypothesis that the prophecy should be reduced to an original
nucleus (374 to 395; 410 to 413; 429 to 432; 462ff.). The landing at the Promuntu-
rium Minervae 531ff. is alleged to be inconsistent with the command of Helenus at
381-3: surely far more so with lines 396ff., which Sabbadini 28 strangely misunder-
stands. He says that the 89 lines of the prophecy do not agree with its description as
pauca
[a few] at 377: but what he says there is
pauca
e
multis
,
quo
tutior
hospita
lustres
aequora
[only a few of many truths, that you may voyage the more safely
over foreign seas], and in fact Helenus does omit a lot, e.g. Polyphemus, the burning
of the ships, the death of Palinurus. He speaks only of
things
which
it
is
useful
for
98
Aeneas
to
know
in
advance
, so that he can act on them. Therefore he says nothing,
for example, of the death of Anchises or, consequently, of the visit to the Under-
world, which is closely connected with Anchises' death according to Book 6 as we
have it: and when Aeneas says
nec
vates
Helenus
,
cum
multa
horrenda
moneret
,
hos
mihi
praedixit
luctus
,
non
dira
Celaeno
(3.712) [Helenus the seer never foretold this
grief to me among all his many dread warnings, nor did foul Celaeno], his words do
continue
not express surprise that he had not been told of it, but simply say that the loss of his
father was a greater sorrow than all those that had been prophesied. Helenus also
says nothing of the sea-storm and the forced landing in Africa - not, as Karsten (op.
cit. 289) suggests, because when Virgil was writing Book 3 he had not yet planned
the narrative of Book 1 and Book 4, but because Aeneas can do nothing to avert that
disaster, except to appease Juno where possible, as Helenus advises him to (433f.);
in this advice and in the reason that Helenus gives for it I see an unambiguous
reference to the sea-storm. That Helenus is not more explicit at this point is quite
sufficiently motivated by lines 379f. as far as the content is concerned, and artisti-
cally simply by the fact that it would only spoil the effect of the narrative in Book 1
not to imagine Aeneas and his men as surprised by events.
100
21.
Henselmanns (in the dissertation referred to in n. 12 above, 30f.) argues that
Aeneas and his men did not really want to settle in Thrace: 'Thrace was visited by
their neighbours the Trojans only as a
hospitium
[a 'stop-over'] (cf. 3.15.61), and
Book 3 (18ff.) says that a city was founded there merely to provide a historical
explanation for Aenos in Thrace or for Aenea in Chalcidice.' How can it be
only
'as
a
hospitium
' (which Virgil does not say) and at the same time the foundation of a
city? Why should Aeneas found a city, since he can hardly have done it to provide a
historical explanation for the Thracian Aenea? When, after the discovery of Poly-
dorus' murder, Aeneas consults the Trojans, like a consul asking the senate for its
sententia
[opinion], their verdict is
scelerata
excedere
terra
(3.60) [to leave this
wicked land], showing that they had previously intended to remain there. Hensel-
manns' objection 'that for such a nearby and familiar country to be the promised
land lies clearly outside the range of such (!) prophecies, which generally refer to
some distant, unknown locality' only holds good on the assumption that Creusa's
prophecy has already been made: but the whole plan of Book 3 excludes this
possibility. In what follows I shall disregard the misunderstandings and errors of this
dissertation.
102 22. Serv. on 3.148. Dion. Hal. 1.67.
23.
The geographical details are as vague here as for the foundation in Thrace,
for which see below.
mox
et
Leucatae
nimbosa
cacumina
montis
et
formidatus
nautis
aperitur
Apollo
(274-5) [presently there appeared the cloud-capped headland
of Leucate, and Apollo's temple which seafarers hold in dread] - that can only be
the temple of Apollo on the southernmost tip of Leucas -
hunc
petimus
fessi
et
parvae
succedimus
urbi
(276) [being weary, we head for this place and go up to the
little city]: by
urbs
(a) Virgil either meant the city of Leucas, or else (b) he assumed
the existence of a city of Actium and thought it was controlled by Apollo Leucatas,
or else (c) he meant Anactorium; in any case, even if he had a clear picture of it in
his own mind, he did not think it important to create such a picture in the reader's
mind. Servius' interpretation of it as Ambracia is improbable in the extreme.
24.
This motivation (and
de
Danais
victoribus
[taken from the victorious
Greeks] on the dedicatory inscription) relies on the reader's awareness of the con-
trast, that at the very place where Aeneas celebrates with games
medios
fugam
tenuisse
per
hostes
[that they had safely escaped their enemies], his greatest de-
scendant set up the Agon [games] in memory of his greatest victory.
103 25. Dion. Hal. 1.51. break
104 26. Varro ( de familiis Troianis ) in Serv. on 2.166.
27.
According to Varro's account, the cult statue of the Nautii (the
simulacrum
aeneum
Minervae
,
cui
postea
Nautii
sacrificari
soliti
sunt
[the bronze statue of
Minerva, to which the Nautii subsequently used to sacrifice], Festus 178 ed. Mueller
[Leipzig, 1880] 166) would have to be the Palladium, although the official view,
also represented by Varro himself in the
Antiquitates
(Wissowa,
Hermes
22 [1887]
40), was that the Palladium was among the
sacra
Vestae
[sacred objects of Vesta]. If
Virgil had followed the former account, he would have been denying the existence
of the
Palladium
Vestae
. On the other hand, it is obvious that he could hardly accept
the notion that there were two Palladia, which was plainly an emergency explana-
tion invented by those who included the Palladium among the
sacra
rescued from
Troy. The only course open to him was to say nothing about it.
105 28.


to me to bring up in my palace, fearing that Troy would be taken] Hecuba 1133 =
hunc Polydorum . . . infelix Priamus furtim mandarat alendum Threicio regi , cum iam
diffideret armis Dardaniae cingique urbem obsidione videret (49ff.) [when the hap-
less Priam, realizing that Troy was condemned to a long siege, had begun to lose
faith in Trojan arms, he had secretly entrusted Polydorus . . . to the care of the King of
Thrace]; furtim [secretly] and auri cum pondere magno [with a heavy store of gold]
echo Hecuba 10:

me my father secretly sent much gold]; dum fortuna fuit (16) [in the days of her
prosperity] = 1208

29.
In recent works one occasionally reads that Lutatius Catulus had an account
of the foundation in Thrace similar to Virgil's; this error goes back to Heyne, who
quoted (excursus 1 to Book 3) as from the
Historiae
of Q. Lutatius what comes in
the
Origo
gentis
Romanae
9 shortly after a quotation from 'Lutatius', but is actually
of course from Virgil.
30. See also Norden 166.
31.
There is, for example, the murder of Pyrrhus by the Delphians in Eurip.
Andr
. 1128ff., or that of Achilles himself by the Trojans (schol. Eurip.
Tro
. 16), or
of Leucippus by the companions of Daphne, Parthen. 15.
106
32.
A more distant parallel is the metamorphosis of the Heliades (Ovid,
Met
.
2.359f.) where bleeding results from an attempt to free their bodies from the bark
during the transformation. In the story of Eurypylus (ibid. 8.762), the only parallel
known to Servius, the bleeding of the tree is probably a detail added by Ovid; it does
not appear in Callimachus.
33.
At 7.81 and 270
monstra
is used of the
prodigia
, which at 58 are called
portenta
deum
.
34.
For an account of Aeneas as founder of Aineia and Ainos see Schwegler,
Römische
Geschichte
(Tübingen, 1853-8) I.301 n. 7. Virgil is apparently thinking of
Ainos, because that is where Polydorus' burial-mound was to be seen (Plin.
N
.
H
.
4.11, 43); but
procul
[far off] in line 13, the mention of Lycurgus and the name
107

might lead one to think rather of Aineia. Against Ainos, Servius (on line 16) objects
that it already occurs in Homer ( Iliad 4.520), and therefore it cannot have been continue
founded by Aeneas, which is why Virgil avoids the name. The Aeneas legend had
been linked with Chalcidice since very ancient times, whereas Aeneas as the
founder of Ainos is known only to Pomponius Mela (2.2.8); one should not rely on
Servius'
Aenum
constituit
ut
multi
putant
[he founded Aenus, as many people
believe], and it is not impossible that he was influenced by Virgil, just as Virgil is
indubitably the source for Ammian. Marc. 22.8 (
Aenus
qua
diris
auspiciis
coepta
moxque
relicta
ad
Ausoniam
veterem
ductu
numinum
properavit
Aeneas
[Aenus
which was started under dire auspices and presently abandoned, and Aeneas under
divine guidance hastened to ancient Ausonia] and the
Origo
gentis
Romanae
9.4.
35.
69ff.: they depart
ubi
prima
fides
pelago
placataque
venti
dant
maria
et
lenis
crepitans
vocat
auster
in
altum
[as soon as we could trust the ocean, when winds
offered us smiling seas and the whisper of a breeze invited us onto the deep]: this is
most naturally taken as referring to the beginning of the sailing season in the spring,
since there has not been any mention of a previous storm which has now calmed
down (as at 5.763). Also
litora
complent
[they crowd to the beach] in 71 shows that
the Trojans are thought of as living in the new city.
108
36.
There are many individual phrases that are clearly reminiscences of the
Greek, most of them already noticed. In Aeneas' first speech
quis
te
casus
d
e
i
e
c
-
t
a
m
c
o
n
i
u
g
e
t
a
n
t
o
excipit
(317) [what has fate done to you since you fell
from the high estate of such a great husband] reminds us of Hector's words to
Andromache (
Iliad
6.462)


husband to ward off the day of slavery]. Andromache begins by saying how fortu-
nate Polyxena is, to have escaped slavery by death: similarly in Euripides Tro . 630
she says of Polyxena:


happier fate than mine, although I live] and 677:



Don't you think the death of Polyxena a lesser evil than mine?]; in his account of her
fate Virgil may have had in mind the account that Andromache herself gives in the
prologue to Euripides' play of that name (see Conington on 328); me famulo famu -
lamque Heleno transmisit habendam (329) [he passed me on to be mate to Helenus,
two house-slaves together], differs on a point of fact: this is to characterize Pyrrhus
as the man who disposes of his slave-girl with the total arbitrariness of a master.
With the question ecqua tamen puero est amissae cura parentis (341) [can the child
remember the mother whom he lost?] compare Hecuba's question about Polydorus

(Eurip. Hec . 92). Reminiscences of Telemachus' visit to Sparta ( Od . 4.130, 149;
15.125f.) are woven into her parting words at 486ff.: see the commentators.
109
37.
There are clear indications in the Andromache scene and the subsequent
meeting with Helenus that these episodes were unfinished, quite apart from the
half-lines at 316 and 340 - the latter is the only one in the
Aeneid
in which the
sentence is even left incomplete. Thus Virgil certainly wrote line 348,
et
multum
lacrimas
verba
inter
singula
fundit
[talking with many tears at every word], and was
of course able to do so despite
laetus
[joyful] in 347, but on the other hand I doubt
continue
whether the line would have remained in this form if it was to follow immediately
after 344f. Again, the reception and hospitality given to the
Teucri
(which Virgil
writes at 352 instead of the usual
socii
[my men], because
socia
urbe
[a city of
friends] follows) might perhaps have been revised, although there is no justification
for the objections raised against
illos
[them] in 353, since Aeneas is here indeed
speaking of the
populus
[people], to whom Helenus gives a great feast
porticibus
in
amplis
[in a spacious colonnade], just as at the reception in Dido's palace only the
proceres
[leaders] are present, while the
populus
feasts on the shore (1.633). In
general, as so often happens, scholars have used the established fact that the scenes
have not received their final polish to make quite unjustified criticisms that greatly
overshoot the mark (for example, Georgii op. cit. 76ff.).
Hector
ubi
est?
(312)
['where is Hector?'] has been criticized, but it is magnificent; after all, if the dead
are appearing, Andromache thinks, then it is Hector above all that she may expect to
see. (Dante felt the beauty of this passage, as is shown by his imitation in
Inferno
10.58f.) Equally unobjectionable are the questions that Aeneas asks at 317ff. He
says explicitly -
incredibilis
fama
(294) [an incredible rumour] - that at first he
could not believe the rumour that Helenus and Andromache were ruling in Chaonia;
and the assertion that he would not have landed on Pyrrhus' shores unless he
had
believed it is quite arbitrary: it is clearly stated that he heard this rumour only after
he had landed. The assumption that Aeneas gave an account of Creusa's fate which
has fallen out of the text (Ribbeck) is just as mistaken as the assumption that Virgil
on revision would have given a better reason for Andromache's knowledge of
Creusa (Georgii); we have seen again and again in Book 2 that Virgil was no pedant
in these matters. It is also obvious that Virgil does not mean that Andromache put
one question after another without waiting for an answer, as 337ff. implies if we
take it literally; but who would seriously expect the poet to give us Aeneas'
answers? In the departure scene, Helenus' speech to Anchises comes very awk-
wardly in the middle of the list of gifts; I should be surprised if nobody has yet
suggested putting lines 472-81 before 463: this would at least be preferable to the
violent surgery that others have inflicted on the whole of this passage. The warning
at 477-9 has quite rightly been criticized: Helenus had already said all this in much
greater detail. Or should Anchises be supposed not to have been present when the
prediction was delivered in the temple of Phoebus? In fact, Virgil has completely
110 ignored Anchises throughout the whole of this scene, just as he remained in the
background during the questioning of Apollo on Delos. That is perfectly under-
standable: Anchises, the crippled old man, never acts independently, but only
advises or commands, or prays as the head of the family (265, 528), here
stans
celsa
in
puppi
[high on the quarter-deck], as at 2.699:
se
tollit
ad
auras
adfaturque
deos
[raising himself and looking upwards he prayed to the gods]. But Virgil felt that,
since he was after all the head of the family, he should not be completely ignored
throughout the extended Helenus scenes, and he therefore inserted lines 472-81 as
an afterthought; in fact Helenus did not actually have anything important to say to
Anchises, and so the advice in 477ff. is, in my view, merely temporary padding.
Virgil introduced Anchises again as the supreme commander, without realizing that
after 356ff. special arrangements for the departure were no longer necessary. 482
should follow 471, or even better 469 - perhaps 470f. were inserted only to provide
continue
a basis for what follows: the guest-gifts are given at the moment of departure,
whereas the provision of men (the
duces
are, as Wagner has already perceived, the

[lackeys], who could not be called duces ), horses, sailing equipment and weapons
had probably been seen to earlier. The arms of Neoptolemus are reserved for Ae-
neas; it is a kind of compensation for the defeated hero that he is now able to wear
the armour of his enemy.
38.
Virgil was also thinking of Phineus' prediction in Apolloniu 2.311: hence
prohibent
nam
cetera
Parcae
scire
Helenum
farique
vetat
Saturnia
Iuno
(379-80)
[the rest the Fates do not allow Helenus to know, and Saturnian Juno forbids his
prophesying] =


whatever is pleasing to the gods, I will not conceal']. Apollonius gives a more
personal reason for the withholding of information by the prophesier (see Hensel,
Weissagungen in der alexandr . Poesie [Diss. Giessen, 1908] 27): Phineus is still
being punished for having once revealed too much of Zeus' decrees to mankind.
Virgil could not accept the idea that Zeus begrudged mankind full knowledge of the
future,

knowledge of the will of the gods] (Ap. Rhod. 2.316); he prefers to motivate it
mythically, on the grounds of Hera's enmity.
39. See above p. 46.
111 40. See above p. 45.
112
41.
To a certain extent, the ground for Achaemenides' description of Poly-
phemus has been prepared by the description of a natural horror: all through the
night after they have landed, Aeneas' men hear the roaring of Etna and see its fires,
without realizing where these terrifying phenomena come from.
42.
Dion. Hal. 12.22. We need not discuss here whether the Lycophron scholia
are right to see Odysseus in the Nanos mentioned at
Alexandra
1244, with whom
Aeneas forms an alliance in Etruria (cf. Geffcken,
Timaios
'
Geographie
des
Westens
,
Phil
.
Untersuch
. 13 [Berlin, 1892] 44).
43.
It is clear from the name Achaemenides that he did invent him: a Greek
writer - and any source would necessarily have been Greek - would hardly have
given a companion of Odysseus this characteristically Persian name; the Roman
poet may have been led astray by its similarity to Achaeus.
44.
This emotional interest sharply differentiates the scene from the narrative in
Apollonius 2.1092ff., the rescue of the sons of Phrixus by the Argonauts. On the
surface the resemblance is unmistakable, and Virgil may have received the initial
impulse for his creation from this passage: like Achaemenides, the sons of Phrixus
are helplessly marooned on an island which is haunted by dangerous creatures (the
birds of Ares); the dialogues also run very similarly to those in Virgil. But there is
113 no connection between the birds of Ares and the shipwrecked men -- the encounter
might just as well have taken place on any other island - nor does Apollonius
attempt to extract any pathos from the situation in which the sons of Phrixus find
themselves. Furthermore, the dramatic effect is spoilt by the fact that the reader is
told in detail beforehand what the Argonauts later learn from Argus. Compare in
particular Virgil's description of Achaemenides' arrival with the dry words of
continue
Apollonius


first].
114
45.
The ethos of Aeneas' parting words to Helenus and Andromache is indeed
the ethos of the whole book:
vivite
felices
,
quibus
est
fortuna
peracta
iam
sua
;
nos
alia
ex
aliis
in
fata
vocamur
(493-4) [live, and prosper, for all your adventures are
past. We are called ever onwards from destiny to destiny].
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