confounded with Pan.
651. This divining sleep was called by the Latins, _incubatio;_ by the
Greeks, [Greek: enkoimaesis]. _Incubare dicuntur proprie hi, qui dormiunt
ad accipienda responsa_, Servius on Virg. 1. c.
655. _Intonsum_, II. 30. All the following practices were usual, on
occasions of consulting the gods in this way. The reason of them is
apparent.
662. _Somnia nigra_. Compare V. 547. Tibull. II. 1, 89, [Greek:
Melanopterygon mater Honeiron], Eurip. Hec. 71.
669. _Errantem_, IV. 261. I should here, on account of _nemori_, be
inclined to take this word in its primitive sense.--_Conjux_, Egeria.
673-676. On the 15th April, A.U.C. 724, Augustus was saluted
_Imperator.--Cyth. diem. prop. ire_. He appears here to have had Homer in
view, who gives this power to Juno, [Greek: Helion d' akamanta boopis
potnia Hrae Hempsen ep Okeanoio roas haekonta neesthai]. II. xviii. 239.
677, 678. The XV. Kal. Maias, the Hyades, called by the Latins,
_Suculae_, a cluster of stars in the head of the Bull set acronychally.
See below, V. 163, _et seq--Ubi_.. Some MSS. read _tibi.--Dorida_. Doris,
the daughter of Oceanus, wife of Nercus, and mother of the Nereïdes, is
like her daughter Amphitrite, frequently put for the sea.
679, 680. The Cerealia still continued. On the XIII. Kal. Maias, there
were horse-races in the Circus.--_Carcere_. The _carceres_ were the place
in which the horses stood, with a cord stretched before them, on the
dropping of which they started; the starting-place.--_Partitos_,
started.
681, 682. "Addebatur his ludis, hoc eodem die combustio vulpium ob vetus
damnum," Neapolis. "Die. 19, Apr. vulpes in Circensibus comburuntur."
Gierig; from which I think we are to infer that these critics, and those
who transcribe them, consider the burning of the foxes to have formed a
part of the celebration of the Cerealia in the Circus at Rome. I do not
find in any of the old Calendars that such was the case, and the
narrative of the poet would, as appears to me, restrict this practice to
the district of Carseoli. See particularly vv. 709, 7l0.--_Missae_, scil.
at Carseoli?--_Vinctis_. This is the reading of one MS. only, but that
one of the best; it has been received by Heinsius and Gierig; almost all
the rest have _junctis_; three _cinctis_; one _victis_. Five give the
line thus: _Cur. ig. taedis unctis ardentia missae_.
683. _Carseolis_, at Carseoli. One of the best MSS. reads _pars coli_,
from which Heinsius made, and received into the text, _Carseoli_. This
town was on the Valerian road, leading from Rome to the country of the
Pelignians.
684. _Ingeniosus_. _Ingenium_ is used speaking of soil and plants. _Nunc
locus arvorum ingeniis_, Virg. G. II. 177. _Arbores silvestres sui
cujusque ingenii poma gerunt_, Columella, R. R. III. 1.
685. 686. Ovid (v. 81,) was a native of Sulmo, the chief place of this
country. Compare Amorr. II. 16, I,--_Humida_. One MS. gives as a
different reading _uvida_; several have _obvia_.
687. _Solitas_. Twelve MSS. read _fidas_.
689, 690. It appears from this and other passages that Ovid, besides
consulting the Fasti and other books, was diligent in the collection of
such oral traditions, as might aid him in explaining old customs and
religious rites.
692. _Duro_, hardy, like _duri messores, juvenci, humeri_, etc. The
following is a very pleasing description of an industrious peasant and
his wife of ancient times. It would apply, without any alteration, to
many a rustic couple in modern Italy.
693. _Peragebat humum_. "Mi hi non satis placet; Codd tamen nihil
varietatis suppeditant." Gierig.
694. _Curves falcis_. "Falcis usus erat etiam ad premendas umbras ruris
opaci. Virg. G. I. 155, _et seq_. Unde apparet describi hic
diligentissimum colonum,"--Gierig. As the poet is speaking of a small
farm in a plain, I would here restrict the meaning of _falcis_, which is
placed immediately after the plough, to sickle. For _curvae_, eleven MSS.
followed by Heinsius and Gierig, read _cavae_. One of the best has _sive
citruae_.
695. _Tibicine_. The _tibicen_ was a prop set against the wall of a
house, to keep it from falling out.
703. _Extrem. conval. Sal_. In the end of a valley planted with sallows,
that is, among the sallows which grew at the end of the valley. Two of
the best MSS. read _sub valle_, which is the reading given by Heinsius
and Gierig.
704. _Cohortis. Duo erant oviaria sive cohortes; una in plano, in qua
pascebantur gallinae; altera sublimis, in qua erant columbae in turribus
aut summa villa_. Varro, R. R. III. 3, 6. The cohort was the Greek
[Greek: chortos]. It was round, as the following passage of Cato (Orig.
iv.) shews, _Mapalia vocantur ubi habitant; ea quasi cohortes rotunda
sunt.--Aves_, like the Greek [Greek: ornithes]. See on I. 455.
709-712. These lines, I think, prove the custom to have been peculiar to
Carseoli. Compare the account given in the book of Judges of Sampson
making use of foxes to set fire to the corn of the Philistines.
713. On the 20th April, the Sun enters Taurus.
714. A periphrasis of Aurora. Compare Met. xiii. 579. See Virg. aen. vii.
25. Homer calls Eos [Greek: krokopeplos], to which the _lutea_ of the
Latin poets corresponds. The _lutum_ was a plant, whose juice dyed
yellow. The Greek poet also styles this goddess [Greek: rododaktylos] and
[Greek: rodopaechus], but as far as I know, no Greek poet gives her
rose-hued horses or chariot.
715. _Duce_, etc. the Ram.
716. _Victima major_, scil, the Bull--a bad periphrasis!
717-720. In the ancient, as in the modern representations of the stellar
heaven, only the forepart of Taurus was drawn. Hence, it could not be
said whether it was a bull or a cow. Some, therefore, said, that it was
the heifer into which Io had been changed; others, the bull which had
carried Europa. In either case, it was an object of aversion to Juno.
721. On the XI. Kal. Maias, was the festival of Pales, the goddess of
shepherds, named the Palilia, and celebrated by the Romans as the
birthday of Rome, ([Greek: genethlian taes patridos]), the day of the
foundation of the city. The poet, therefore, dwells on this important day
at considerable length.--_Abiit_. The last syllable is long, on account
of the following pause. Two MSS. give _obit, exoriturque.--Palilia_.
Some MSS. read _Parilias. Palilia dicta a Pale, quod feriae ei deae fiunt_,
Varro, L. L. V. _Pales dea pastoralis est, cujus dies festus Palilia
dicuntur, nisi quod quidam a partu Iliae Parilia dicere maluerunt_,
Carisius Inst. Gram. I. p. 55. Solinus, c. 1, and the Scholiast on
Persius, Sat. I. also mention this derivation. This last quotes from
Cicero's Philippics the following passage, which is not now to be found
in them: _Palilia, quae nunc Parilia mutatis literis dicimus_. Parilia is
also the term used by all the Greek writers, except Plutarch. There is
certainly, no doubt, but that both Palilia and Parilia were in use in the
time of Ovid, and that, perhaps, many regarded the latter, which would
appear to come so naturally from _pario_, to be the true name of a
festival of spring, when every herb and tree brings forth, and beast and
bird produce their young. But still, as the name of the goddess was
always Pales, we may be quite sure that Palilia was the original name of
the festival.--_Poscor_, scil. _ad Palilia. Poscimur Aonides_. Met. v.
333. _Poscimur_. Hor. Car. I. 32. 1, to his lyre.
722. _Pales. Pales dea est pabuli, quam alii Vestam, alii Matrem Deûm
volunt. Hanc Virgilius genere feminino_ (Magna Pales) _appellat, alii,
inter quos Varro, masculino genere_. Servius on Virg. G. III. 1. This
male deity was viewed as the servant and bailiff, as it were, of Jupiter.
Serv. on Ec. v. 35. Arnobius adv. Gentes, III. p. 123. Perhaps, according
to the principle stated above, on III. 512, there was, after the usual
manner, a deity of each sex united in office.
725. _De vitulo cinerem_. See v. 637, _et seq_.
726. _Februa_. See II. 19.
727. _Palilia tam publica quam privata sunt. Et est genus hilaritatis et
lusus apud rusticos, ut congestis cum foeno stipulis ignem magnum
transiliant his Palilibus, se expiari credentes_, Varro. See also Tibull.
II. 5. Propert. iv. 1. The simple origin of this ceremony lay in the
belief of the purifying nature of fire, (see v. 785) and something
similar was practised by the people of the North of Europe in their
heathen state; as also nearly down to the present day among the Celtic
population of Ireland and Scotland. But the Romans must assign a
historical cause for this, as for all their other customs; so we are told
by Dionysius, that when Romulus was building the city, he had fires
kindled before all the tents, and made the people jump through the flames
to expiate themselves.
729. _Navalibus_. The usual comparison of a poem to a ship, and the
progress of composing it to a voyage, II. 863. Modern poetry will also
furnish instances. See, for example, Spenser's Faerie Queene, B. II. c.
xii. st. 42. "Now strike your sailes yee iolly mariners, For we be come
unto a quiet rode," etc.
731. See v. 639.
733. _Sanguis equii_, etc. This would seem to contradict the following
assertion of Solinus. _Et observatum deinceps, ne qua hostia Parilibus
caederetur, ut dies iste a sanguine purus esset_. Plutarch also says,
[Greek: En archae d' os phasin, ouden empsuchon ethyon]. But, like the
calf, whose ashes were used, this horse was not sacrificed on the
Palilia. _October equus appellabatur, qui in Campo Martio mense Octobri
Marti immolabatur, cujus cauda, ut ex ea sanguis in forum distillaret,
magna celeritate perferebatur in regiam_, Festus. The Regia here spoken
of, must have been the Atrium Vestae, see on II. 69. The blood of the
horse's tail was preserved here, along with the ashes of the calf, (v.
639,) to be used on the Palilia.
734. _Culmen_ is here the same as _culmo.--Inane_, as the beans had been
taken out.
735. _Ad. prim. crep_. [Greek: Y po nukta]. This was always done in the
evening.--_Lustra_. Several good MSS. read _lustrat_, others _lustret_.
736. The ground on these occasions was swept clean and sprinkled with
water.
739. _Caerulei fumi_. This is to be understood of the bluish smoke-like
vapour which rises from sulphur when burning.--_Viv. sulf. Vivum, quod
Graeci apyron vocant, nascitur solidum, hoc est gleba, Pliny, H. N. xxxv.
15, 50. Sulphur was of great use in purification, see above, on II. 37.
_Ipseque ter circulus travi sulfure puro_. Tibull. I. 5, 11.
741. _Maris rores, [Greek: libanotis], rosemary. This is the reading of
two of the best and ten other MSS.; some have _maris rorem_, the rest
give _mares oleas_, which Heinsius and Gierig prefer. "Lectio doctior
(says the latter,) quam ut a librario proficisci potuerit." Olives were
used in purification, Virg. aen. vi. 230, and the trees were divided into
male and female. Plin. H. N. xvi. 19. On the other hand, the _ros
marinus_, and the _herba Sabina_, are mentioned together in Virg. Culex.
402.--_Taedam, Sextum genus_ (pinus) _est taeda proprie dicta,
abundantior succo quam reliqua, liquidior quam picea, flammis et lumini
sacrorum etiam grata_. Plin. H. N. xvi. 10. See Virg. aen. vii. 71, and
above, II. 25.--_Herb. Sab_. Sec I. 343.
743. _Lib. de mil_. The people of Italy made a sweet kind of bread and
cakes of millet. Plin. H. N. xviii. 10.--_Fiscella_, or _fiscina_, a
basket made of rushes or willow twigs, Virg. G. I. 266. A basket of
millet was part of the offerings on the Palilia.
745. _Daps apud antiquos dicebatur res divina, quae fiebat aut hiberna
semente aut verna_, Festus. Hence, Heinsius would read _dapi_. Gierig
thinks the _dapes_ was the feast of the rustics themselves, of which a
pail of milk formed a part, see v. 780. Compare II. 657, and Tibull. II.
5, 99.--_Resectis_. The MSS. differ greatly, giving _relictis, paratis,
remotis, refectis_.
749. Here follows a catalogue of the transgressions, by which the
superstition of antiquity thought that the anger of the rural gods might
be provoked.--_Sacro_, scil, _in loco_. Many MSS. read _sacra_, scil.
_loca_.
755. _Degrandinat_, says Gierig, may be for the simple _grandinat_, like
_depluere_ for _pluere_. The word occurs scarcely anywhere else. Burmann
would read _dum degrandinet_, till the hail is over--a reading which I
would willingly adopt.
759. _Fontana_. One MS. reads _montana_.
761. _Labra Dianae, the _lavacra_ or bathing places of Diana and her
nymphs, alluding to the fate of Actaeon. See Met. III. 161, _et seq_.
762. [Greek: Ou themis, ho poiman to mesambrinon, ou themis ammin
Syrisden ton Pana dedoikames hae gar ap' agras Tanika kekmakus amptanetai
enti ge pikros]. Theoc. Idyll. I. 15.
769. _Referat_, etc. Compare Virg. Ec. I. 35.
770. When making cheese. Compare Tibull. II. 3. 15.
778. _Rore. Bos_, like the Greek [Greek: drosos], was used for the simple
_aqua_. See Met. III. 164, and Valken on Eur. Hipp. 121. Lenz renders _in
vivo rore_ in this place, by, _In the fresh dew of evening_! A proof of
the liability of translators and commentators to mistake the meaning of
even plain passages.
779. _Camella_. This was a kind of wooden vessel used by country-people.
780. _Sapa. Sapam appellabant, quod de musto ad medium partem
decoxerant_, Varro de vita pop. Rom. p. 240. _Sapa fit musto usque ad
tertiam partem mensurae decocto_. Plin. H. N. xiv. 9.
781, 782. See on v. 727.
783. _Turba_, scil. _causarum_.
785. _Vitium_, etc. Compare Virg. G. I. 89. _Omne per ignem excoquitur
vitium_.
786. _Duce_. The _dux ovium_ in this place is evidently the shepherd,
who, as we have seen, used to leap through the straw-fires. In the South
of Europe, the shepherds generally walk at the head of their sheep.
787-790. [Greek: To pur kathairei, to udor agnizei]. Plutarch, Q. R. 1.
791. _Aqua et igni interdici solet damnatis, quam accipiunt nuptae;
videlicet quia haec duae res humanam vitam maxime continent_, Festus. _Ad
facienda foedera aqua et ignis adhibentur; unde contra quos arcere
volumus e nostro consortio ei aqua et igni interdicimus, id est rebus
quibus consortio copulamur_, Servius on aen. vii. Banishment, we may
observe, was unknown to the Roman law; the _Interdictio aqua et igni_,
which had the effect of obliging a man to quit his country, was all that
was pronounced against him. See Niebuhr's Roman History, II. 62-64.
792. _Nova conjux_. The bride and bridegroom used to touch fire and
water.
793. _Referri_, to be represented, called to mind.
800. _Innocuum_, safe; when he was escaping from the flames of Troy.
Virg. aen. II. 632.
801. _Hoc_. Several MSS. read _nunc_ from which Heinsius made _num_. The
reading of the text, besides resting on the authority of the greater
number of MSS. is much to be preferred.
807. _Ipse locus_, etc. This very part of the poem, this very mention of
the birth-day of Rome, gives me the occasion, calls on me to relate the
origin of the city.
Gierig refers _causas_ to the enquiry which the poet had been on, and
understands it thus: "Quid ego altius causas illius ritus acccsso, cum
ipse locus, quem incolimus, aut, si ita mavis, in quo tractando jam
versor, eas mihi suppeditat?" The reading of most MSS. is _ipse locum
casus vati_ which Marsus interprets: By chance as it were, we are come to
this place, where we must treat of the origin of the city.
808. _Factis_. This is the reading of all the MSS. Heinsius conjectured
_festis_, which be introduced, most unwarrantably, into the text.
809. See III. 67.
812. _Ambigitur_, etc. See Liv. I.6, 7. _Certabant urbem Romam Remoranme
vocarent_, Ennius.
817. _Volucres_. They were vultures, to which, as they injure neither
cattle nor corn, the Romans gave great authority in augury.
821. All that follows was done in accordance with the ritual-books of the
Etruscans. A deep (_ad solidum_) round pit was dug in the future
Comitium. This pit was called _Mundus_. Into it was thrown a portion of
all necessary natural productions, and each person cast into it a little
of the earth of his native country. From this as a centre, the circuit of
the city was described, Plutarch Rom. 11.
824. _Fungitur_. Most of the old MSS. read _finditur_, which Gierig has
received. The meaning would be, the altar was cleft with the heat of the
fire, like ground with that of the sun.
825. When the _mundus_ had been made, the founder yoked a bull and a cow
to a plough which had a brazen share, and made a deep furrow, to mark the
line of the walls, those who followed him taking care to turn all the
clods inwards; when he came to the place where a gate (_porta_) was to
be, he lifted the plough and passed over it, (_portavit_).
830. _Vobis_. Twelve MSS. read _bonis_.
831. _Dominae_, "_Domina_, quae habet imperium in omnes. V. vs. 859."
Gierig. Surely it was Rome, not the earth that was to be the mistress.
Two of the best MSS. read _domitae_, which I think gives a better sense.
See v. 861.
833. _Tonitru laevo. Laeva fulmina prospera existimantur, quoniam laeva
parte mundi ortus est_, Plin. H. N. ii. 53.55. Elsewhere he says,
_Fulmina laeva prospera, quia sacrificantis vel precantis latus laewum
dextrum est ejus qui postulata largitur_.
837. _Celer_. According to Dionysius and Plutarch, Celer was one of the
companions of Romulus, and overseer of the building of the walls. In
reality he was only a personification of the Equites, who were called
Celeres. See Niebuhr, Roman History, Vol. i. 325.
843. _Rutro_. The _rutrum_ was a kind of spade, _rutrum, ut ruitrum, a
ruendo_, Varro, L. L. iv. _Rutro_, in the text, is the conjecture of
Heinsius; the greater part of the MSS. read _retro_; some _rastro_, six
_ultro_, one _ristro_. There can be little doubt of _rutro_ being the
true reading, as it is the term used by other writers.--_Occupat_. See I.
575, and Met. xii. 343.
853. Compare Hom. II. xxiv. 582, and Virg. aen. xi. 219.
855. The Romans were not called Quirites till after their union with the
Sabines. Compare Virg. aen. vi. 776.
856. Remus, a tradition said, was buried on the Remaran hill, a little
way from Rome.
860. _Nominis hujus_, i. e. _Caesaris_.
863-900. On the IX. Kal. Maias, was celebrated the festival, named
Vinalia, in honour of Jupiter, or, as some said, of Venus. Masurius
_apud_ Macrob. (Sat. I. 4,) says, _Vinaliorum dies Jovi sacer est, non,
ut quidam putant, Veneri_. And Varro (L. L. V.) _Vinalia dicta a vino.
Hic dies Jovis non Veneris. Hujus rei cura, non levis in Latio; nam
aliquot locis vindemiae primum a sacerdotibus publica fiebant, ut Romae
etiam nunc; nam Flamen Dialis auspicatur vindemiam, et, ut jussit vinum
legere, agna Jovi facit, inter cujus exta caesa et porrecta flamen
prorsus vinum legit_. According to Festus and an old Kalendar, there was
another Vinalia, called _rustica_, on the 19th August, and it is
evidently of this last that Varro speaks. Ovid seems to have confounded
the two, which Pliny (H. N. xviii. 29,) accurately distinguishes.
Perhaps, both were sacred to Jupiter, and the circumstance of a festival
of Venus falling on the vernal Vinalia, may have led to the supposition
of its being sacred to her. Plutarch (Q. R. 45,) calls it Veneralia.
866. Multa agrees with _apta_, and is equivalent to _valde_. Some MSS.
read _culta_, which Heinsius prefers.--_Professarum_. When a woman at
Rome wished to become a _meretrix_, she went before the aediles and
_professed_, that is, informed them of her intention. She was then
entered among the _togatae_, (v. 134) See Suet. Tib. 35. Tac. Ann. II.
85. The same _mutatis nominibus_ is the case at the present day at Rome,
Paris, and other cities on the continent.--_Quaestibus_. Alexis, in his
comedy, called [Greek: Isostasios], says of them, [Greek: Proton men gar
es to kerdos kai to sulan tous pelas, talla autais parerga ginetai].
869. _Sisymbria_. The _sisymbrium_, also called _thymbraeum_, was an
odoriferous plant growing in dry places.
870. The garlands of roses were bound with rushes.
871. A temple was dedicated to Venus Erycina at the Colline gate, A.U.C.
571, Liv. xl. 34. There was another temple of this goddess on the
Capitoline hill, built by the direction of the Sibylline books, and
dedicated A.U.C. 537. Syracuse was taken A.U.C. 540. Ovid, as Neapolis
observed, appears to have committed two errors here; one, in confounding
the two temples of Venus Erycina at Rome; the other, in making the
building of a temple depend on an event which did not happen till after
it had been built. Gierig defends him in the former case by saying, that
v. 873-875, are merely a passing notice of the second temple: in the
latter, his defence is, "Fortasse tamen Noster, more poëtarum, a parte
bellum Punicum secundum indicare voluit." Greater poets, however, than
Ovid, have fallen into as great errors.
874. _Eryx_. This mountain was near Drepanum, on the west side of Sicily.
There was on it a magnificent temple of Venus, the erection of which was
ascribed to aeneas and the Trojans. Virg. aen. v. 759. It is, I apprehend,
far more probable, that the Venus Erycina was the Astarte or Moon-goddess
of the Phoenicians, who was identified with Aphrodite and Venus, and that
the founders of the temple were the Carthaginians.
877, 878. The poet would here seem to intimate, that though the festival
of Venus and the Vinalia fell on the same day, they were different. See
v. 899.--_Quaeritis_. See on V. I.
879. See the last six books of the aeneis.
880. _Adorat_. One MS. has _adoptat_, which Heinsius and Gierig follow.
882. _Equo vel pede_. In horse and foot.
887. _Cato in primo libro Originum ait, Mezentium Rutulis imperasse, ut
sibi offerrent quas diis primitias offerebant, et Latinos omnes similis
imperii metu ita vocasse: Jupiter, si tibi magis cordi est nos ea tibi
dare potius quam Mezentio, uti nos victores facias_, Macrob. Sat. III. 5.
888. _Lacubus_. The _lacus_ or vat, was the vessel placed under the
wine-press, to receive the liquor that ran out.
894. _Feres_. One of the best MS. reads _feras_, which Heinsius and
Gierig receive, as it is a vow. The meaning is, that as the Rutulians had
vowed or promised the produce of the following vintage to Mezentius,
aeneas promises it, in case of victory, to Jupiter.
897. _Venerat_, etc. On account of the custom of treading out the grapes.
Met. II. 21, Virg. G. II. 8. I doubt if it was good taste to personify
Autumn in this place. _Quum satur Auctumnus quassans sua tempora ponmis,
Sordidus et musto spumantes exprimit uvas_, Columella, R. R. x. 43.--
_Sordidus_. Five MSS. read _horridus_.
898. _Vina_. Five MSS. read _vota_.
901-904. On the VII. Kal. Maias, six days from the end of the month, was
the middle of spring; the _acronych_ setting of the Ram, rain, and the
rising of the Dog, also fell on this day.
904. _Signa dant imbres_. The rains shew themselves. _Signa dare_ is the
Greek [Greek: episaemainein]. Were it not that the meaning of this
expression is so incontrovertibly shewn by I. 315, 316, one might be
disposed to understand it with Taubner, of the constellations portending
rain.--_Exoriturque Canis_. Here is a tremendous error of our poet, for,
according to Columella, Pliny, Ptolemy, and to the actual fact, the Dog
sets instead of rising at this time. Thus also, Virgil, (G. I. 217,)
_Candidus auratis aperit cum cornibus annum Taurus, et averso cedens
Canis occidit astro_. One of the best MSS. reads _occidit atque Canis_,
but I fear this is only the emendation of some one who saw the error into
which the poet had fallen.
904. _Nomento_. Nomentum was a town of the Sabine country; a road named
the Via Nomentana led to it from the Viminal gate at Rome. On the
following narrative, Gierig observes, "Similia figmenta, vv. 685 et III.
541." I do not see the necessity of supposing these to be fictions. What
was more natural than for the poet, when about to write a poem on the
Fasti, to direct his attention to things which he had not hitherto
heeded, and to inquire into the meaning of what appeared to him deserving
of notice.
906. _Candida pompa_. The persons who formed this _pomp_ or procession
were clad in white, that is, their togae were either new, or had been
scoured for the occasion. _Pompa_ is the reading of ten MSS. all the rest
have _turba_.