AENEIDEA. V.* 1-2. INTEREA MEDIUM AENEAS IAM CLASSE TENEBAT CERTUS ITER FLUCTUSQUE ATROS AQUILONE SECABAT INTEREA MEDIUM AENEAS.-Contrary to the authority of the MSS., Voss reads INTEREA AENEAS MEDIUM. He is surely wrong. MEDIUM should precede AENEAS, it being less our author's object to show who it is is on his journey, than to show how much of the journey has been already performed. MEDIUM should therefore have the prominent position, and the MSS. are right. See Rem. on 2. 247. Montaigne says (Essais, 2. 10): "Le cinquième livre de l'Eneide me semble le plus parfait." The reader will be at no loss for the etiology of this, at first sight, somewhat strange opinion, if he reflect, first, that Montaigne was a Frenchman, and therefore, as may be presumed, imbued with his nation's taste (a taste which the French probably inherited from the Romans themselves) for public exhibitions; and secondly, that the celebrated Essais, from which I have quoted the above criticism, everywhere afford sufficient evidence that their author was a man wholly devoid of the elevation and tenderness of sentiment necessary for the perception and due appreciation of the nobler, grander and more pathetic parts of Virgil's writings. HENRY, AENEIDEA, VOL. III. 1 CERTUS." Recta via," Wagner (Virg. Br. En.). "Tendens, uti decreverat, eo quo volebat, in Italiam, etsi Aquilo officiebat cursui," Wagner (1861). The former explanation is erroneous, inasmuch as certus is never, not even when spoken of a spear or arrow (see below), "recta via," but always sure, certain, steady, determined, resolute, unwavering; the latter, because (see next Rem.) Aquilo is so far from being an impediment to the voyage of Aeneas, that it is the very agent which carries him on, the very instrument he uses to get on (AQUILONE SECABAT). Certus is here, as commonly elsewhere (ex. gr., Propert. 1. 19: "flectitur assiduis certa puella minis"), determined, sure, unwavering. The reference is to the uncertainties and difficulties which had beset and almost hindered his journey. Dido had done everything she could to detain him, and had failed. He had overcome every difficulty and was pursuing his journey sure, certain, and determined. In precisely the same sense (a), the precisely similar flight of Ulysses from Circe is called "certa" by Ovid, Remed. Amor. 265: "omnia fecisti, ne callidus hospes abiret: ille dedit certae lintea plena fugae" [sure, certain, and determined flight]. (b), the anger of the gods is called "certa" by Ovid, Met. 4. 573: "quem si cura deum tam certa vindicat ira" [steady, determined anger]. (c), the wind is called "certus," Caes. Bell. Afric. 1: "vento certo, celerique navigio victus" [sure, certain, steady wind]. (d), the term is applied to Publius Scipio by Silius, 4. 448: "stabat Fortunae non cedere certus" [determined not to yield to Fortune]. And (e), the well-aimed spear or arrow which goes straight to its mark is called "certa," Aen. 12. 267: "sonitum dat stridula cornus, et auras certa secat" [sure, certain, unwavering, unerring spear]. So sure and cer tain the sense of the word in this application, that the expres sion "as sure as an arrow," and in more modern times "as sure as a gun," has passed into a bye-word. Compare Ovid, Heroid. 7. 173 (the same Dido to the same Aeneas): "tempus ut observem, manda mihi; certius ibis : nec te, si cupias ipse, manere sinam' [you will travel more surely and certainly; your voyage will be more safe, sure, and certain]; and especially Lucan, 8. 187 (Pompey, in answer to the question of his pilot, whither they should sail, on leaving Lesbos after the battle of Pharsalia): "hoc solum toto . . . in aequore serva, ut sit ab Aemathiis semper tua longius oris depositum; tunc certus eram, quae littora vellem; nunc portum Fortuna dabit." Contrast the uncertain, undetermined flight of undecided bees, "at cum incerta volant, caeloque examina ludunt, "ATROS AQUILONE," To FLUCTUSQUE ATROS AQUILONE SECABAT.Servius, Wagner, and Conington. I think rather, with Forbiger and Thiel, AQUILONE SECABAT, as 2. 25, "vento petiisse." join AQUILONE with ATROS is to insist on the badness of the weather, and consequently on the difficulty with which Aeneas makes his way. On the contrary, Aeneas is, as I think, represented as making his way easily, as in full sail, with fair weather, from Carthage. The MEDIUM, the IAM, and the CERTus, no less than the SECABAT, all go to establish this view, not contradicted either by ATROS or AQUILONE, the former of which expresses no more than the ordinary dark colour of the sea when a fresh breeze, and particularly that of Aquilo [see Aul. Gell. 2. 30: "Id quoque a peritissimis rerum philosophis observatum est, Austris spirantibus mare fieri glaucum et caeruleum, Aquilonibus obscurius atriusque." Alciphr. 1. 1: we yap TOITηV TAUTηV ELXEV ο χειμων ημεραν και λάβρως κατα του πελαγους επέπνευν εκ των ακροτηρίων οι βορεις και επεφρίκει μεν ο ποντος μελαινοMEVOC, is blowing, and the latter of which expresses that the wind was of that kind which was favourable for a voyage, Aquilo (Boreas) being precisely the wind which was attended with clear weather (and so Hom. Od. 5. 296: και Βορέης αιθρηγενέτης μεγα κύμα κυλινδων), and clear weather being the sine-qua-non to the sailor, when, the compass not having yet been invented, he had no means of directing his course except sun and stars, points of headlands, lops of distant mountains, and perhaps a solitary Pharos. Compare Hom. Od. 14. 299: η δ' εθεεν Βορεη ανεμω ακραεϊ καλω. Claud. Nupt. Honor. et Mariae, 185: "clarescunt puris Aquilonibus Alpes." Ovid, Met. 1. 262 : "protinus Aeoliis Aquilonem claudit in antris, And again, ibid. 1. 328: "nubila disiecit. nimbisque Aquilone remotis, et caelo terras ostendit et aethera terris." Bibl. Sacr., Proverb. 25. 23 : “ventus Aquilo dissipat pluvias." And Virgil himself, Georg. 1. 460 : "et claro silvas cernes Aquilone moveri." And accordingly, Aen. 7. 361 (where see Rem.), Amata warns Latinus that Aeneas will desert Lavinia " primo Aquilone," the first clear weather, as soon as ever the weather is such that it is possible for him to sail, exactly as in our text he is represented as sailing from Carthage with the Aquilo. It was possible by means of tacking to make way, even with a contrary wind, in clear weather (or when Aquilo was blowing), but it was absolutely impossible to make way at all, even with a fair wind, in thick, hazy weather (or when Notus was blowing). If, in opposition to this view, and in support of the contrary |