Page images
PDF
EPUB

Certicis, atque solo proceras erigit alnos.

Tum canit, errantem Permessi ad flumina Gallum y

Aanas in montes ut duxerit una sororum ;

65

Utque viro Phoebi chorus adsurrexerit omnis ;
Ut Linus haec illi, divino carmine pastor,
Floribus atque apio a crines ornatus amaro,
Dixerit hos tibi dant calamos, en accipe, musae,
Ascraeob quos ante seni: quibus ille solebat
Cantando rigidas deducere montibus ornos.c
His tibi Grynaei nemoris d dicatur origo:
Ne quis sit lucus, quo se plus jactet Apollo.

70

y The person here spoken of, is Cornelius Gallus, a native of Frioul, contemporary with Virgil, about three or four years younger than himself. He obtained the favour of Augustus, and was raised by him from a low condition, to great honours, as we are informed by Suetonius.

z Aonia was the name of the mountainous part of Boeotia; whence all Boeotia came to be called Aonia. In this country was the famous mountain Helicon, sacred to the Muses.

a Apium is generally thought to mean parsley, but Martyn is of cpinion that it means some kind of Celery.

b Ascraeo seni. Hesiod; who was born at Ascrea, in Boeotia.

c Fraxinus ornus, fig. 20.

d Grynaei nemoris. A grove in the borders of Ionia, dedicated to Apollo, by his daughter Gryno. Strabo, however, places Grynium in Æolia, and speaks of an ancient Oracle of Apollo there, and a sumptuous Temple, built of white stone.

Quid loquar, ut Scyllam Nisi, quam fama secuta est,. Candida succinctam latrantibus inguina monstris

f

Dulichias vexasse rates, et gurgite in alto

Ah! timidos nautas canibus lacerasse marinis?
Aut, ut mutatos Terei narraverit artus ;

Quas illi Philomela dapes, quae dona pararit,
Quo cursu deserta petiverit, et quibus ante
Infelix sua tecta supervolitaverit alis?
Omnia, quae, Phoebo quondam meditante, beatus:
Audiit Eurotas, jussitque ediscere lauros,

75

80,

e Ut Scyllam Nisi. This passage alludes to fables of the two, Scyllæ. Scylla, the daughter of Nisus, whose story is told in the eighth book of Ovid's Metamorphoses, and Scylla, the daughter of Phorcus, related at the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth books.

f Dulichium is one of those islands in the Ionian sea, called Echinades. It lies over against the mouth of the river Achelous, and was subject to the dominion of Ulysses.

g Tereus was a king of Thrace, and married Procne, by whom he had a son named Itys. Tereus afterwards violated Philomela, and cut out her tongue, to prevent her telling her sister Procne, his wife: she, however, divulged the secret; upon which the two sisters murdered Itys, and gave his flesh to his father to eat. When the banquet was over, they produced the head of the child, to shew Tereus in what manner they had entertained him. He, highly enraged, pursued them with his drawn sword, and was changed into a lapwing. Philomela became a nightingale, and Procne a swallow, with the feathers on its breast stained red.

Eu atas is a river, according to Strabo, which has its spring

Ille canit; pulsae referunt ad sidera valles :
Cogere donec oves stabulis, numerumque referre
Jussit, et invito processit Vesperi Olympo.

85

near that of Alpheus; for both these rivers rise near Asca, a village belonging to Megalopolis, in the Peloponnesus. They both run under the ground for some furlongs, and break out again; the Alpheus then takes its course through the Pisatis, and the Eurotas through Laconia, runs by Sparta, and passes through a small valley at Helos, and falls into the sea at Gytheum, the maritime town of Sparta, and Acrææ.

i The planet Venus, when she goes before the Sun, is called Lucifer, or the morning star; but when she follows the Sun, she is called Hesperus, or Vesper; and by us the evening star.

ECLOGA VIIa

MELIBOEUS, CORYDON, THYRSIS.

M. FORTE sub arguta consederat ilice Daphnis,
Compulerantque greges Corydon et Thyrsis in unum,
Thyrsis oves, Corydon distentas lacte capellas;
Ambo florentes aetatibus, Arcades ambo,
Et cantare pares, et respondere parati.

Huc mihi, dum teneras defendo a frigore myrtos,
Vir gregis ipse caper deerraverat ; atque ego Daphnin
Adpicio; ille ubi me contra videt: ocius, inquit,
Huc ades, o Meliboee; caper tibi salvus, et hoedi;
Et, si quid cessare potes, requiesce sub umbra;

5

10

a In this Eclogue is represented an amebean contention between two Shepherds, Corydon and Thyrsis. They are described sitting under a tree, in company with Daphnis, who seems to have been appointed to judge between them. Meliboeus happening to pass that way, in quest of a strayed goat, is spied by Daphnis, who calls him, and insists on his staying to hear the dispute.

No particular person appears to be described in this Eclogue. The subject is wholly pastoral, and Virgil's sole aim seems to be, an imitation of Theocritus. The verses of the two contending Shepherds, relate entirely to their own rural affairs, to their own friendships, or to their own amours.

Huc ipsi potum venient per prata juvenci ;

Hic viridis tenera praetexit arundine ripas

Mincius, eque sacra resonant examina quercu.b

Quid facerem? neque ego Alcippen, nec Phyllida, habe

bam,

Depulsos a lacte domi quae clauderet agnos;

Et certamen erat, Corydon cum Thyrside, magnum.
Posthabui tamen illorum mea seria ludo.

Alternis igitur contendere versibus ambo
Coepere alternos Musae meminisse volebant.
Hos Corydon, illos referebat in ordine Thyrsis.

15

20

C. Nymphae, noster amor, Libethrides, aut mili

carmen,

d

Quale meo Codro, concedite; proxima Phoebi
Versibus ille facit: aut, si non possumus omnes,
Hic arguta sacra pendebit fistula pinu.

7. Pastores edera crescentem ornate poëtam,

25

b The oak, which was a sacred tree among the Britons and the Gauls, was also accounted so among the Greeks and Romans.

CL bethrian are no other than the Muses, and they were so called from a cave in Libethrum, a mountain of Buotia, which, as well as Helicon, was consecrated to those deities.

d Who Codrus was is every uncertain; it would seen that he was contemporary with Virgil, from his being mentioned here; and that he was his friend, from his calling him my Codrus, and that he also thought him a good poet, from his giving him so honourable a distinction, next to Apollo.

« PreviousContinue »