4— Composition
437 1. See above, p. 3. [BACK]
2.
[an end . . . is that which naturally follows something else . . . but is not itself followed
by anything else] (
Poetics
7.1450b 29). [BACK]
3.
We should remember the judgement of the ancient critics on the second half
438 of Sophocles'
Ajax
, schol. 1123:
[through his desire to protract
the drama after the death (of Ajax) he lapsed into bathos and dissipated the tragic
tension]. [BACK]
439 4. Conway has pointed out the significance of the curse, see above p. 115 n. 40. [BACK]
440
5.
This replaced lines 890-2, which would have had to be discarded during a
revision: see above p. 63 n.99. I cannot believe that Virgil ever conceived of having
both the Sibyl's prophecy and that of Anchises; one could hardly find another place
where he has so brutally killed one motif with another, both in the
same
form. It
seems to me most probable that Virgil started by working out the showpiece of the
whole book, Anchises' great speech, and wrote the opening scenes later, after the
change of plan. [BACK]
442
6.
Another splendid example is the enumeration of sinners who are punished in
Tartarus (6.562f.), analysed by Norden 271f. [BACK]
7.
Deuticke correctly gives the grouping as ABABA; there are some perceptive
comments on the choice and arrangement of characters in Belling,
Studien
über
die
Kompositionskunst
Virgils
in
der
Aeneis
(Leipzig, 1899) 17ff. Cima's idea (
Analecta
Latina
[Milan, 1901] 5) that the Republican heroes of the second group, 824ff., had
all made the same patriotic sacrifice as Brutus, is very far-fetched and in the case of
the Drusi, for example, the facts would have to be distorted to fit it. [BACK]
443
8.
Only Cossus actually belongs to the second group; cf. Belling, 21. The time of
Serranus cannot be established: Klebs in Pauly
RE
2.2095. [BACK]
9.
In the parallel piece to the Parade of Heroes, the description of the shield in
Book 8, it was possible to have a simpler arrangement: there it is a question of a
small number of pictures, each needing to be seen separately and to have its own
effect. There is therefore a simple division into two parts, nearly equal in length,
showing that they are intended to balance each other: pictures from the mists of
prehistory and pictures from the bright light of the present day; the first row is
rounded off with a mention of the Salii and the Luperci, the most ancient survivals
continue
of the worship of the early Romans; the other row ends with a picture of present-day
worship, Augustus' festival of victory and peace. Homer had presented a picture of
the world which was complete in itself; Virgil wants to do the same thing in a
different way: the first row of pictures is set on earth, the main scenes of the second
row are set in the
arva
Neptunia
(695) [Neptune's acres], which therefore have to be
described first in a relatively detailed way (in four lines); between the two, to
complete the picture, the
Tartareae
sedes
,
alta
ostia
Ditis
[the habitations in Tar-
tarus, and Pluto's tall gateway] are inserted, understandably briefly and only where
they concern Roman affairs (Catiline, Cato). Volkmann's hypothesis (above p. 340
n. 43) that what we see is two descriptions of the shield (626-74 and 626-9 plus
675-728), of which the second was intended by the poet to replace the first, already
runs aground on the fact that Virgil cannot possibly ever have considered repre-
senting the sea on his shield without including any people in the scene; and anyone
who knows Virgil's habits of composition will regard it as equally impossible that
444 he could ever have intended finishing his description of the shield with Tartarus (which
of course is not to be thought of as representing 'Air', as Volkmann suggests) and the
empty lines 671-4. [BACK]
10.
Why are these placed between the close neighbours Sabines and Aequi?
Surely only because Virgil believed that it would make the division into pairs more
obvious. [BACK]
11.
The Etruscan catalogue in Book 10 is divided differently: eight generals, the
first four from Etruria itself (here, too, the geographically most distant are set in the
middle), the second four (symmetry requires that
Cinyrus
or
Cunarus
[186] be the
name of a general) from outside, two Ligurians and two Mantuans. [BACK]
445
12.
Let us compare the reason for the questions: Odysseus asks out of pure
curiosity - the poet needs no better motivation to bring the stories to the hero; in
Aeneas' case what is essential always is a strong emotional interest. [BACK]
13.
It is different in the rare cases where
ensemble
scenes of people with equal
447 rights to the limelight are required; then Virgil preserves the unity of the scene by
keeping the different groups before our eyes all the time. Look at the scene of the
departure from Troy in this light: in addition to the two men, Creusa and Iulus also
had to be considered (preparation 597ff., then 651, 666, 673ff., 681ff., 710f., 723ff.,
747; it is only in 636 that one might wish that their presence were mentioned more
explicitly); or the boat-race in Book 5, which was studied from this viewpoint above
(p. 131). [BACK]
448
14.
It is true that this lack of completeness suited Virgil very well here; if he had
had Aeneas taking part in the action at the court of Latinus, the already none too
simple action would have become considerably more complicated. [BACK]
452
15.
The prediction by Neptune:
tutus
quos
optas
portus
accedet
Averni
,
unus
erit
tantum
,
amissum
quem
gurgite
quaeret
,
unum
pro
multis
dabitur
caput
(813) ['he
shall reach the harbour by Avernus, which you have chosen as his destination, and
you will mourn one Trojan only lost at sea, one life given to the depths for many'],
seems to me to be the heart of the scene. The death of Palinurus was not to be a
chance occurrence - that would have gone against Virgil's artistic principles -; if
his death, borrowing from known religious concepts, was to be regarded as a vi-
carious sacrifice, that could only be stated by the mouth of a god, so Virgil invented
continue
the scene between Venus and Neptune (Drachmann [p. 278 n. 43 above, 133] says
the same) and developed it in detail into a kind of parallel-scene to that between
Juno and Aeolus in Book 1. A difficulty which resulted from this and which Virgil
will have noticed for himself (without being able to do anything about it): the god's
guarantee had to be given visible expression, and this happens when he calms the
sea; on the other hand, Aeneas would not have set out on a stormy sea; this means
that from 763f. to 820f. no real progress is apparent. Moreover, critics keep saying
that there is a clear contradiction in the fact that Neptune speaks of only
one
sacrifice, but subsequently, in addition to Palinurus, Misenus also dies in the sea;
but, I do not understand how anyone can ignore the fact, established briefly and
clearly by Heyne, that Neptune is speaking only of the crossing to Italy (see above),
so that the death of Misenus, which happens
after
the landing, has nothing at all to
do with it. Heyne, for his part, has then objected (and others have drawn further
conclusions from it), that Aeneas and Achates are not certain to whom the words of
the Sibyl apply:
iacet
exanimum
tibi
corpus
amici
(heu nescis )
totamque
incestat
corpore
classem
(149) [the body of your friend - alas! though you know it not - is
lying lifeless, and defiling all your fleet with the taint of death], instead of immedi-
ately thinking of Palinurus: but he had died somewhere in the sea far, far away from
Cumae, and they would certainly not expect to find his body on the shore now, a
piaculum
[an expiatory offering] for Aeneas' men and for himself. For the important
thing is clearly the need for purification, not that some friend of Aeneas is still
unburied: this also removes the contradiction which Norden criticized (p. 177). [BACK]
453 16. See above p. 209ff. [BACK]
454
17.
By 'fairly important characters' I do not, for example, mean Achaemenides,
whose later disappearance struck ancient critics of Virgil as
incongruum
[incon-
gruous] (Servius 3.667, cf. Georgii), or Caieta, the nurse of Aeneas, who is not
mentioned until she dies, 7.1. [BACK]
18. Above p. 309. [BACK]
19. Cf. above p. 257. [BACK]
455 20. See Heyne ad loc . and on 10.238. [BACK]
456
21.
In these cases there is also the possibility that Virgil had Homeric analogies
in mind: at
Iliad
21.277 Achilles refers to a prophecy by his mother, that he will fall
at Troy from a shot by Apollo; this has not been mentioned earlier although there
was ample opportunity. [BACK]
22.
sic
fatur
lacrimans
classique
inmittit
habenas
(6.1) [So spoke Aeneas, weep-
ing. Then he gave his fleet rein]; an imitation, noticed long ago, of
Iliad
7.1:
[with these words] and
Odyssey
13.1:
[so he spoke]. [BACK]
23.
That this introduction is different from the recapitulations in Books 7 and 9
has been shown convincingly by Karsten,
Hermes
39 (1904) 271, causing me to
change my mind. [BACK]
457
24.
[the ability to be properly taken in at a single view] had
been laid down by Aristotle as the criterion for the length of a tragedy (
Poetics
1450b 50) and of an epic (1450a 33); it is obviously also of extreme importance for
composition and was certainly also emphasized by the later theorists of poetry. [BACK]
458
25.
I can therefore, on principle, give only limited approval to the attempt made
by Belling (in the book mentioned above [p. 365 n. 7] and in the
Festschrift
for
continue
Vahlen [Berlin, 1900] 267) to find a symmetrical structure within single books,
quite apart from Belling's misguided attempt to lay great weight on the exact
numerical equality of groups of lines. On this cf., for example, B. Helm,
Bursians
Jahresbericht
113 (1902) 44ff. [BACK]
26.
On 7-12 see p. 143f. above; in the first part, Books 1 and 4 frame the two
books of the Aeneas narrative, while Books 5 and 6 are closely connected to each
other. [BACK]
27.
Books 1-12: up to the return home, 13-24: Ithaca; in the first part, Books 1-4:
Telemachus, 5-8: from Calypso to the Phaeacians, 9-12: Odysseus' narrative; in the
second part, 13-16: up to the plan to murder the suitors, 17-20: Odysseus with the
suitors, 21-4: execution of the plan from the
[contest of the bow].
Vahlen,
Abh
.
d
.
Berlin
.
Akad
. (1886) 1, attempted to show hexadic division in the
Annals
of Ennius. [BACK]
462
28.
[monotony
quickly sates an audience and drives tragedy from the stage] (Aristotle
Poetics
24
1459b 31). [BACK]
29. Above, p. 334 n. 10. [BACK]
30. Above, p. 316f. [BACK]
31. Chapter 3, p. 332 n. 5 [BACK]
32.
He does this without pedantic exactness but aims at an almost schematic
regularity. Dreams: Book 2 Hector, 3 Penates, 4 Mercury, 5 Anchises, 7 Allecto, 8
Tiberinus. Divine apparitions: 1 Venus, 2 Venus, 3 Mercury, 5 Iris, 7 Allecto, 8
Venus, 9 Apollo, 10 Nymphs, 12 Juturna. Scenes in Olympus: 1 Juno and Aeolus;
Venus and Jupiter; Venus and Amor, 4 Juno and Venus, 5 Venus and Neptune, 7
Juno and Allecto, 8 Venus and Vulcan, 9 the Great Mother and Jupiter, 10 Assembly
463 of the Gods; Jupiter and Hercules; Jupiter and Juno, 11 Diana and Opis, 12 Juno and
Juturna; Jupiter and Juno. Prophecies about Aeneas' kingdom and his future: 1
Jupiter, 2 Creusa, 3.158 Penates, 4.229 Jupiter, 5 Acestes' shot, 6 Parade of Heroes,
7.98 Faunus, 8 Aeneas' shield, 9.642 Apollo, 10.11 Jupiter, 12.836 Jupiter. General
fighting, once in each book, see above p. 156f. Duels fought: 9 Turnus and Pan-
darus, 10 Turnus and Pallas; Aeneas and Lausus; Aeneas and Mezentius, 11 Camilla
and the Ligurian, 12 Aeneas and Turnus. Speeches by the leaders: 9 Turnus; Mnes-
theus, 10 Tarchon; Turnus; Pallas, 11 Aeneas; Turnus, 12 Tolumnius; Aeneas; this
contrasts with seven, for example, in
Iliad
15. [BACK]
33.
For example, compare the dreams of Aeneas with one another: 2.270; 3.147;
4.554; 8.26. [BACK]
34. Above, p. 78f. [BACK]
35. Above, p. 123f. [BACK]
36. Above, p. 78. [BACK]
464
37.
I am thinking mainly of the gradual and slowly prepared
[rec-
ognition] of the land destined by fate, which is described 7.107ff.; cf. Aristotle
Poetics
16.1455a 10:
[and the (recognition) in the Phineidae: for when
they saw the place they reasoned that that was where they were fated to die: for they
had been exposed there].
break [BACK]
38.
[things in Hades] (Aristotle
ibid
. 1456a 4): also the Harpies,
Allecto, the metamorphosis of the ships, the Dira etc. [BACK]
39.
Aristotle 24.1459b 13:
[for of his two poems one, the
Iliad
, is simple and involves pathos, the
Odyssey
is
complex and involves character] and, naturally,
[miraculous]. [BACK]
465 40. Above, p. 290. [BACK]
41. Above, p. 260. [BACK]
42.
I do not deny that in a few cases the striving for richness has detracted from
simplicity and clarity: for example the
[Bacchic frenzy] of Amata is spoiled
by being overworked; see above p. 150f.
break [BACK]