Part 24 (1/2)

and apparently to some symbolical representation in the art of the Augustan Age in the words which follow-

Furor impius intus, Saeva sedens super arma et centum vinctus aenis Post tergum nodis, fremet horridus ore cruento(483).

After this digression the action proceeds according to Homeric precedents.

Mercury is sent to Dido, as Hermes is sent to Calypso in the fifth book of the Odyssey. Then follows the meeting of Venus with Aeneas and Anchises, the picturesque and poetical features of which scene are suggested by a pa.s.sage in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, describing the meeting of the G.o.ddess with Anchises. The Trojan heroes pa.s.s on to Carthage concealed in a mist as Odysseus makes his way to the city of the Phaeacians. The pictorial representation of the events of the Trojan war on the walls of the temple of Juno is suggested partly by the pictorial art of the Augustan Age, and partly by the song of the bard in the eighth book of the Odyssey, celebrating the

?e???? ?d?ss??? ?a? ???e?de? ???????.

So too the later banquet in the palace of Dido is suggested partly by the feast in the hall of Alcinous, partly by the magnificence of Roman entertainments in the Augustan Age, such as those referred to in the lines of Lucretius-

Si non aurea sunt iuvenum simulacra per aedes, etc.

Finally, the device by which Venus subst.i.tutes Cupid for Ascanius is borrowed from the Argonautics of Apollonius; the introduction of the various suitors of Dido is suggested by the part which the suitors of Penelope play in the Odyssey; and the request of Dido to Aeneas to recount his past adventures owes its origin to the similar request made by Alcinous to Odysseus.

It is in the first book that Virgil adheres most closely to his Greek guides; yet even in it we observe many traces of modern invention, which give a new character to the representation. The thought of Italy in the immediate future-

Est locus, Hesperiam Graii cognomine dic.u.n.t, Terra antiqua, potens armis atque ubere glaebae; Oenotri coluere viri; nunc fama, minores Italiam dixisse ducis de nomine gentem(484)-

and the remoter vision of the 'altae moenia Romae' remind us that we are contemplating no mere recast of a Greek legend, but a great national monument of the race which during the longest period of history has played the greatest part in human affairs. The old G.o.ds of Olympus appear on earth once more, and now with all the attributes of Roman state, as 'princ.i.p.alities and powers' contending for the empire of the world, and as instruments in the hands of destiny for the furthering of the great work which was only fully accomplished by Augustus.

In the recital of the fall of Troy, which occupies the second book, Virgil is said by Macrobius to have adhered almost verbally(485) to the work of a Greek poet, Pisander, the author of a poetical history of the world from the marriage of Jupiter and Juno down to the events contemporary with the poet himself. There seem to have been three Greek poets of that name, and the only one of them who was likely to have treated at any length of the events of that single night recorded in the second Aeneid is said to have lived after the time of Virgil. It seems impossible that any earlier poet could have a.s.signed so much s.p.a.ce as that demanded by the statement of Macrobius to the personal adventures of Aeneas. We are on surer ground in recognising the debt which Virgil owed to the account of the wooden horse in the Odyssey, to some of the lost plays of Sophocles, which told the tale of the treachery of Sinon and of the tragic fate of Laoc.o.o.n, and to some of the lost Cyclic poems and the ????? p??s?? of Stesichorus. The vision of Hector to Aeneas reminds us of that of Patroclus to Achilles; but in this resemblance we recognise also the difference between the poem founded on personal and that founded on national fortunes. The care which summons the shade of Patroclus to the couch of his friend is the care for his own burial; the care which brings Hector back to earth is the care for the salvation of the sacred relics of Troy in view of the great destiny which awaited them. There is more of human pathos in the vision of Patroclus; more of a stately majesty in that of Hector. And as in other pa.s.sages where Virgil wishes to produce this effect, we note that he avails himself here of the language of Ennius,-

Hei mihi, qualis erat.

So too, near the end of the book, where the shade of Creusa gives to Aeneas the first intimation of his settlement in a western land,-

Et terram Hesperiam venies, ubi Lydius arva Inter opima virum leni fluit agmine Thybris(486),-

the same antique a.s.sociations are appealed to(487). So also in describing the destruction of the palace of Priam, Virgil is said to have imitated the description by Ennius of the destruction of Alba(488). And that feeling of ancient state and majesty with which the memory of Troy is invested in such lines as

Urbs antiqua ruit multos dominata per annos(489),

had been first expressed in the 'Andromache' of the older poet.

Among the sources which Virgil used in the third book were probably the prose accounts of the late Greek historians, who rationalised the traditions of the various settlements of Aeneas which grew out of his a.s.sociation with the wors.h.i.+p of Aphrodite. But the whole suggestion of sea-adventure, and still more of the incidents arising out of the visit to the land of the Cyclops, is due to the Odyssey, while the events connected with the landing in Thrace and in Epirus owe their origin to the Hecuba and Andromache of Euripides. But, on the other hand, the exact geographical knowledge displayed in it imparts a thoroughly modern character to the book; and one pa.s.sage at least (as has been shown by a writer in the Journal of Philology)-the description of the voyage round the eastern and southern sh.o.r.es of Sicily-is so minutely accurate in detail as to give clear indication of being drawn from the personal experience of the author. Again, the frequent mention of Italy in the book, the speech of Helenus which announces the old traditional omen of the white sow, the direction as to the mode of performing religious ceremonies which the Romans should observe in all future times,-

Hac casti maneant in religione nepotes,-(490)

and the trophy raised by Aeneas on the sh.o.r.es of Actium, help to remind us of the modern meaning which Virgil desired to impart to his representation of antique manners.

The fourth book, in which Virgil deserts the guidance of Homer for that of the Alexandrine epic, is intended to give the most pa.s.sionate human, as distinct from the pervading national, interest to the poem. But the tragic nature of the situation arises from the clas.h.i.+ng between natural feeling and the great considerations of State by which the divine actors in the drama were influenced. The death of Dido gives moreover a poetical justification for the deadly enmity which animated the struggle between Rome and her most dangerous antagonist. The fifth book follows the old tradition-as old at least as the time of Thucydides-which represented Trojan settlements as established in Sicily. The account of the foundation of Segesta by the followers of Aeneas, and the story of the burning of the s.h.i.+ps by the Trojan women, may have been told by Timaeus; and it was natural to ascribe to her son the building of the famous temple of Venus Erycina. But the greater part of the book is occupied with an account of the funeral games in honour of Anchises, which, with modifications to suit the changed locality, reproduce the games which Achilles celebrated in honour of Patroclus. But the account of these games serves the purpose of giving some individuality to three of the most shadowy personages in the poem by establis.h.i.+ng their connexion with three ill.u.s.trious Roman families, and to flatter Augustus by a.s.signing an ancient origin to the Ludus Troiae,-a kind of bloodless tournament of n.o.ble youths exhibited in the early years of his reign,-and also, by the invention of a fabulous ancestor, to add distinction to the provincial family of the Atii, which was more truly enn.o.bled by the great personal qualities of the Emperor's mother, Atia.

With the landing in Italy the narrative a.s.sumes greater independence. The various localities introduced and the traditions connected with them, the usages or ceremonies peculiar to Italy which admit of being referred to an immemorial past, the mere Italian names of Latinus and Turnus, Mezentius and Camilla, are able to evoke national and sometimes modern a.s.sociations.

Thus the introduction of the c.u.maean Sibyl into the narrative affords the opportunity of reminding the Romans of the importance a.s.signed to the Sibylline prophecies in their national counsels; and the impressive ceremony of the opening of the gates of war enables the poet to appeal to the patriotic impulses of his own age, in the lines-

Sive Getis inferre manu lacrimabile bellum Hyrcanisve Arabisve parant, seu tendere ad Indos Auroramque sequi Parthosque reposcere signa(491).