AENEID THE SIXTH. VER. 1-2. "Sic fatur lacrymans: classique immittit habenas: * Baiae was reckoned formerly the port of Cumae; and that Aeneas landed there appears from Ovid's account, who says expressly that he came to the shores of Cumae, leaving Naples to the right hand and Misenum to the left: "Has ubi praeteriit et Parthenopeïa dextrâ "Aeolidae tumulum, et loca foeta palustribus ulvis "Intrat." VER. 9-12. Met. XIV. 105. "At pius Aeneas arces quibus altus Apollo "Praesidet, horrendaeque procul secreta* Sibyllae, * Antrum immane, petit: magnam cui mentem animumque "Delius inspirat vates, aperitque futura." *1 In Virgil's account of Aeneas's preparation for his descent into hell, most people are apt to confound the Priestess of the Sibyl, and the Sibyl herself together.The Priestess's name is Deïphobe, the daughter of Glaucus; which was not the name of any of the Sibyls.The Sibyl herself was a Goddess; and as such required an introductress to her: and Scipio, in Silius Italicus (lib. XIII.), has the Priestess Autonoë to conduct him to this very Sibyl.. -Virgil calls Deiphobe, generally, by the name of Sacerdos; and the Sibyl, Vates, and Dea: Silius calls Autonoë only Vates; and the Sibyl, Vates, Major Vates, Magna Sacerdos, Veri facunda Sacerdos, Docta comes Triviae, Phoebei pectoris umbra Fatidica, Cymes anus, Virgo, Sibylla, and Umbra Sibyllae.- -The Priestess comes to conduct Aeneas to the temple where the Sibyl was, ver. 35; and it is she that speaks to ver. 55: It is the Sibyl herself that speaks afterwards, from ver. 82 to 155. The Priestess appears again ver. 244; and is succeeded again by the Sibyl, from ver. 258 to the end. The whole course of the thing is thus: Aeneas puts in with his fleet near Cape Miseno, ver. 2. He sets out from thence for Cumae; and stops in the portico of Apollo's temple there, whilst Achates goes for the Priestess, ver. 13. She comes, ver. 35; and introduces him into the temple, ver. 41; where he makes his prayer, ver. 56; and has the answer from the Sibyl herself, ver. 83, etc. who orders him to search for the Golden Bough; and to bury the person, who lies dead in his fleet. He returns; and finds that person to be Misenus, ver. 162. Aeneas himself assists in getting the wood for Misenus's funeral pile, ver. 183, which, at the same time, occasions his finding the Golden Bough, ver. 187. He carries it to the Sibyl, ver. 211; and returns to pay his last rites to Misenus, ver. 232. Aeneas goes to the lake of Avernus, ver. 236, between his fleet and the city of Cumae, and is met there by the Priestess, ver. 244. They perform the sacrifice, ver. 250. The Sibyl comes, ver. 258; and leads the way, ver. 262, through the cave, to hell. ** The Sibyl's Grot, (as it is called), by which Virgil makes Aeneas descend into hell, has one opening by the Lake Avernus; and had another at Cumae: and there was a passage went all under the hill from one to the other. † Virgil makes Aeneas go quite through it, by his perpetual way of inferring things, rather than saying them directly: and then return the nearest way (ver. 900.) to his fleet, and set sail for Caieta. Ovid says expressly, that he came out at Cumae: "Talia convexum per iter memorante Sibyllâ, Met. XIV. 157. Mr. Holdsworth had some thoughts of publishing an exact map of all that part of the country that lies between Cape Miseno and Gaëta; which would be the best comment on a great part of the Sixth Aeneid, or at least help to illustrate it much better than any of the commentators have done. * Augustus shewed particular regard to the oracles of the Sibyl.-Strabo, speaking of the oracle of Jupiter Ammon in Afric, tells us that it was entirely neglected in his time: Twv Ρωμαίων αρκεμενων τοις Σιβύλλης χρησμοις και τοις Τυῤῥηνικοις θεοπροπιοις δια τε σπλαίχνων, και ορνιθειας, και διοσημειων. Lib. xvii. And Suetonius, speaking De Pontificatu Augusti, says; "Quicquid fatidicorum librorum Graeci Latinique generis nullis "vel parum idoneis auctoribus vulgò ferebatur, supra duo "millia contracta undique cremavit: at solos retinuit Sibyllinos (hos quoque delectu habito) condiditque duobus forulis "auratis sub Palatini Apollinis basi." 66 66 66 VER. 20-23. "* In foribus, letum Androgeo: tum pendere poenas Cecropidae jussi (miserum !) septena quotannis Corpora natorum: stat ductis sortibus urna. "Contra elata mari respondet Gnosia tellus." 66 * We are to consider this as a sculpture, where Crete is to be shewn at a great distance from Athens, in a farther corner of the piece, and represented in relief; the sea, in a plainer surface, lying between. The parts of the piece are very well disposed. The folding doors of the temple of Apollo on the Palatine hill, built by Augustus, were adorned in like manner with stories in relief; as we find by Propertius (lib. II. El. 29.) here alluded to. "Et valvae Lybici nobile dentis opus. 66 "Illic aspicias scopulis haerere Sorores, "Et canere antiqui dulcia furta Jovis : 66 Fores in this place cannot mean the doors of the temple, but some outward part leading to the temple: for Virgil makes his hero amuse himself with perusing the history of Daedalus carved there, whilst Achates was gone to call the Priestess. She afterwards, "vocat alta in templa:" after which it is said; "Ventum erat ad limen.' And again afterwards, "Ante "fores." These last Fores cannot be the same with the former The latter may signify properly the doors of the inner or principal part of the temple, where the oracles were given (the Sanctum Sanctorum, as I may call it); the former Fores must mean the first approach to the temple. See Georg. III. ver. 26. and Aen. I. ver. 509. VER. 24-26. "Hic crudelis amor Tauri, suppostaque furto + The Minotaur is represented in antiques as mostly human, but with the head of a bull. Mr. Dryden, in his translation of this passage, has just reversed the form of him; for he says, "The lower part a beast, a man above.” P 210 Such of the antients as describe the form of the Minotaur most exactly, agree with the antient artists. "Minoï brachia Tauri." "Theseus Stat. Achil. I, 192. "Centum urbes umbone gerit, centenaque Cretae Theb. XII, 671. Ενεμόνιο αυτην ανθρωποι αγριοι, βεκεφαλοι, κεραία εχονίες διον παρ' ήμιν τον Μινοίαυρον αναπλατίεσι. Lucian's True Hist. lib. ii. p. 407. ed. Bourdelotii, VER, 33-36. "Quin protinus omnia "Perlegerent oculis: ni jam praemissus Achates *That Virgil, by Sacerdos, means a Priestess attending on the Sibyl, is manifest by his whole account; for at Cumae the Sacerdos comes to Aeneas, and is conversing some time with him; whilst the Sibyl is within in the cell, and does not appear till the doors open. Again afterwards, at the lake Averno, the Priestess with Aeneas performs the sacrifices in the night, in the absence of the Sibyl, and then she appears; for Virgil expressly says that after the sacrifices were performed, "Ecce autem, primi sub lumina șolis et ortus, Without this distinction between the Vates and Sacerdos, that is, between the Sibyl and the Priestess, this whole passage would be very unintelligible. It is true that afterwards in hell, on the banks of Acheron, he calls the Sibyl "longaeva Sacerdos." The name of the Priestess is Deïphobe, that of the Cumaean Sibyl was Demo. Pausanias, p. 828. (ed. Khunii, 1696.) Silius Italicus imitates Virgil in this, as in many other things. The name of his inferior Priestess is Autonoë. Šee latter part of the note on ver. 237. posth. VER. 51-53. "Cessas in vota precesque "Tros, ait, Aenea? cessas? neque enim ante dehiscent *Ruaeus's interpreting Attonitae domûs" by Antri "terrifici," and supposing this epithet given to the cave, "quia "attonitos ac trepidos facit," is very unpoetical. The Poet's thought is certainly to make the house convulsed, as well as the Priestess. The parallel he makes of Death being called Pallida, quia pallorem inducit," is likewise wrong. When Horace says, "Pallida Mors aequo pulsat pede;" he must make Death personal to knock at the door; and if Death appears in person, it ought to be Pallida. 66 VER. 98-101. "Talibus ex adyto dictis Cumaea Sibylla * So Lucan, in speaking of the Priestess of Delphi, says; "Accipit et fraenos; nec tantum prodere vati, "Quantum scire, licet.". Lib. V. 176. VER. 106, 107. "Quando hic inferni janua regis "Dicitur, et tenebrosa palus * Acheronte refuso." *This lake, called Acherusia, lies between Cumae and Misenum. So Strabo describes it: Πλησιον δε της Κυμες το Μισηνον ακρωτηριον, και εν τω μεταξυ Αχερεσια λιμνη, της θαλασσης αναχυσις τις τεναίωδης. It is a different lake from the Avernus ; and Silius Italicus, as well as Virgil, speaks of it as such, lib. XII. where, after having described Avernus, he adds; "Hinc vicina palus (fama est Acherontis ad undas † Mr. Holdsworth also refers to Mr. Pope's Odyssey, B. X. note on ver. 602. That note is on the directions for Ulysses's descent to hell. "This whole scene is excellently imagined by the Poet, as "Eustathius observes; the trees are all barren, the place is upon the shores where nothing grows; and all the rivers are 66 |