was a writer of elegies, and therefore Linus was his suitable patron.-divino carmine, with a divine song, i. e. who sang divinely.—pastor. There is no tradition of Linus being a shepherd; but as the poem is bucolic, and Hesiod and Gallus are shepherds, it was no great licence to make Linus one also. -68. apio amaro, parsley. Victors at the Nemeæan games, which were instituted to commemorate the death of Archemorus, were crowned with this plant, which therefore formed a suitable garland for Linus.-70. Ascraeo seni. Hesiod, a native of the Boeotian village of Ascra at the foot of Helicon. He calls him old, not on account of his years, but of the length of time that had elapsed since he flourished. Thus Horace uses senex of Lucilius (S. ii. 1, 34), and of Pacuvius and Accius (or perhaps Euripides and Sophocles), Ep. ii. 1, 56. -71. rigidas deducere ornos. Like Orpheus, but Hesiod himself boasts not of any such power.-72. His tibi, etc. With these you will sing the legend of the origin of the Gryneian grove in so high a strain, that there will be no one of his sacred groves in which Apollo will take such pride. The legend, Servius says, was the slaying of a serpent by the god; perhaps similar to the legend of Delphi. 74-81. Quid loquar. These are the words of the poet, not of Silenus.—ut, sc. narraverit, from v. 78. It was a common practice with the ancient poets to suspend the sense in this manner. Thus in Hor. S. i. 4, 63, the nominative to sit is hoc genus scribendi in v. 65. The Med. MS. for ut reads aut.— Scyllam Nisi. In Grecian mythology we meet with two persons of the name of Scylla, the one the daughter of Nisus king of Megara, who falling in love with Minos, king of Crete, cut off her father's golden lock of hair, on which the safety of himself and his realm depended. When Minos, in abhorrence of her treachery, threw her into the sea, she was changed into the bird named Ciris. The other Scylla was a monster described by Homer in the Odyssey, which took six of the crew out of Ulysses' ship as it was passing under her den. We may observe that Virgil here confounds the two. The same, as the critics observe, was done by some other Latin writers, for the Greek mythology being to, them a sub ject of which they had their knowledge only from books, it was natural enough that they should fall sometimes into the error of supposing persons with the same name to be identical. We are to recollect that they had no classical dictionaries or such-like assistants.-75. Candida, etc. The Homeric Scylla (Whelp) was so named as her tones were like those of a whelp (σÊλúλaž); she had six heads and twelve arms. Later poets (whom Virgil seems here to follow) fabled that she had been a beautiful maiden, whose lower extremities Circe, by her magic arts, changed into those of a fish, with the heads of sea-dogs round her waist.—76. Dulichias vexasse rates. Voss observes that there are two mistakes here; for Ulysses did not rule over Dulichium, which was one of the Echinades, and he had but one ship when he passed by Scylla.-78. Aut ut mutatos, etc. He also sung the transformation of Tereus, Procne, and Philomela. According to, we believe, all Greek authorities, Procne, the wife of Tereus, was changed into a nightingale; and Philomela her sister, whose tongue had been cut out, into the twittering swallow; but the Latins, perhaps on account of the name Philomela (song-loving), made the latter the nightingale. In the Georgics (iv. 511,) Virgil follows this view; here he speaks only of the transformation of Tereus.-79. Quas, etc., sc. the flesh of his son Itys. According to the story, it was Procne, not Philomela, that served him up that food. Perhaps Virgil makes Philomela the wife.-80. deserta petiverit, sc. Tereus.-ante, sc. before he sought the desert. The position of ante does not allow of its being joined with tecta. 82-86. In short, says the poet, Silenus sang all the legends that Phoebus used to sing on the banks of the Eurotas in Laconia for his favourite Hyacinthus. In the usual poetic manner, animating all nature, he says that the Eurotas heard the strains and desired the bay-trees that grew on his banks to commit them to memory, in order that he might hear them again whenever he pleased.-meditante, see on i. 2.—beatus, blessed, happy, in hearing the strains of the god.-83. laurus. This is the reading of the Medicean MS., and adopted by Voss, Wagner and Forbiger. The ordinary reading is lauros, which Jahn retains.-84. pulsae, etc., the vales re-echo to the skies the song of Silenus.-85. Cogere donec, etc. He sung on till the evening star warned the two shepherds that it was time for them to drive their sheep home to the cotes and count them. The critics, who suppose Chromis and Mnasylos to be satyrs, understand pastores in general after jussit.—86. invito Olympo, the sky itself was unwilling to lose the strains of Silenus. OBSERVATIONS. Date. The date of this eclogue also is uncertain, but probability is in favour of that of 712-14. Subject. The narrative of the historian Theopompus, which we have noticed above (on v. 18), was probably known to our poet, and the idea may have presented itself that a pleasing poem might be formed by putting into verse the supposed responses of the god, and, as the more poetic and agreeable mode, he resolved to give them a continuous form. He had an example of this kind of poetic song in that of Orpheus in the Argonautics, which he afterwards imitated in his Aeneïs; and the taking and binding of Proteus when asleep by Menelaus, in the Odyssey, which he imitated in the Georgics, suggested to him the mode in which he conducts the action of the piece. It is commonly supposed that he meant it to be a kind of exposition of the Epicurean system of cosmology, of which sect himself and the Varus to whom it is dedicated were followers; but to us there seems no necessity for this supposition. The poet, as we have said, had the song of Orpheus in view, from which his account of creation only differs by his employment of the Epicurean terms which he derived from his constant perusal of the poem of Lucretius. That Virgil himself was a follower of that philosophy is made probable by some passages of the Georgics. Characters.-Chromis and Mnasylos answer to Menelaus and his companion, and Aegle to the sea-goddess Eidothea of the Odyssey. Analogy would therefore lead us to suppose that those were two shepherds, in agreement with the narrative in Theopompus. They are throughout called pueri, the usual term for swains (i. 46. iii. 111), and v. 85 may much more naturally be referred to them than to shepherds in general. Martyn, following Lord Roscommon, is of this opinion, and he very sensibly observes on v. 20, "They were rather young shepherds than satyrs; for if they were satyrs, they would not have been so much afraid of Silenus ;" and on v. 24, "According to Servius the demigods were visible only when they thought fit. If this be the case, Chromis and Mnasylos must have been shepherds; for surely Silenus was always visible to the satyrs." We may here be allowed to observe, that we had adopted this view long before we read Martyn's notes. Heyne and all the succeeding commentators adopt the opinion of Servius, that they were two young satyrs. He adds, that they represented Virgil himself and Varus, while Silenus was their master Syro; " quibus ideo," he adds, "conjungit puellam, ut ostendat plenam sectam Epicuream, quae nihil sine voluptate vult esse perfectum." Of Cornelius Gallus we have spoken in his Life. It is very doubtful who Varus was. He is only mentioned in this place and in the ninth eclogue, from which it appears that he was a person of influence and was employed in the service of the Triumvirs in Cisalpine Gaul, and favourably disposed to our poet. The most probable supposition is that he was Alfenus Varus, who, as Servius tells us, was set over Cisalpine Gaul by Octavianus, when Pollio had been driven out of it during the Perusian war. For the fact of his having been our poet's fellow-student, see Life of Virgil. Scenery. From the mention of the cavern (v. 13) we may infer that we have here the same ideal scenery as in most of the other eclogues. ECLOGUE VII.-MELIBOEUS. ARGUMENT. WHILE the shepherd Meliboeus was occupied in securing his myrtles from the cold, his goats strayed away. As he was going in search of them he saw three shepherds, Daphnis, Corydon and Thyrsis, sitting under a tree; and Daphnis, calling to him, told him his flock was safe, and asked him to come and witness a musical contest between Corydon and Thyrsis. Though, as he says, he had more serious business to occupy him, he complied, and he here relates the contest of the swains. NOTES. 1-5. arguta ilice, the whispering holm-oak, whose leaves and branches emitted a light sound when gently moved by the breeze. Thus we have argutum nemus, viii. 22. This circumstance (if arguta be not merely an epitheton ornans) seems to indicate that it was the spring-time.-consederat, and not considerat, is the reading of all the good MSS. Perhaps in using this word the poet may have meant to indicate that Corydon and Thyrsis were sitting with Daphnis. Cf. v. 3.Daphnis. It is quite ridiculous to suppose, with Servius, that this is the Daphnis of the fifth eclogue.-2. in unum, sc. locum.-3. distentas, sc. ubera.—4. aetatibus, for the singular aetate. The Latins had great pleasure in thus employing the plural for the singular of abstract nouns. See Zumpt, § 92. V. 1. Δαμοίτας καὶ Δάφνις ὁ βωκόλος εἰς ἕνα χῶρον Τὰν αγέλαν ποκ', "Αρατε, συνάγαγον, ἧς δ ̓ ὁ μὲν αὐτῶν Εσδόμενοι θέρεος μέσῳ ἄματι τοιάδ ̓ ἄειδον.—Theocr. vi. l. Δάφνιδι τῷ χαρίεντι συνήντετο βωκολέοντι *Αμφω τώγ ̓ ἤτην πυῤῥοτρίχω, ἄμφω ἀνάβω, *Αμφω τυρίσδεν δεδαημένω, ἄμφω ἀείδεν.—Id. viii. 1. |