BOOK I
Arms and the man I sing. Compare the following
opening lines of great epics:—
“O goddess, sing the wrath of Peleus’ son,
Achilles; sing the deadly wrath that brought
Woes numberless upon the Greeks.”
“Tell me, O muse, of that sagacious man
Who, having overthrown the sacred town
Of Ilium, wandered far and visited
The capitals of many nations, learned
The customs of their dwellers, and endured
Great sufferings on the deep.”
“Of love and ladies, knights and arms, I sing,
Of courtesies and many a daring feat.”
—Ariosto, Orlando Furioso.
“I sing the pious arms and chief, who freed
The Sepulchre of Christ from thrall profane;
Much did he toil in thought and much in deed,
Much in the glorious enterprise sustain.”
—Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered.
“Of man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe,
...
Sing, heavenly muse.”
“I, who erewhile the happy garden sung,
By one man’s disobedience lost, now sing
Recovered Paradise to all mankind,
By one man’s firm obedience.”
—Milton, Paradise Regained.
Troy. A city in northwest Asia Minor where the
famous Trojan war took place.
Latian. The broad plain near the mouth of the
Tiber, in Italy.
Juno. Queen of the gods; wife and sister of
Jupiter.
Much.
“Much there he suffered,
And many perilles past in forreine landes,
To save his people sad from victours vengefull handes,”
Alba. Alba Longa, a long ridge some fifteen miles
southeast of Rome. The successors of Æneas reigned there
until the founding of Rome.
Muse. One of the nine Muses. Greek and Latin
poets often profess to be merely the mouthpiece of the
Muses.
Hate.
“And in soft bosoms dwell such mighty rage?”
“In heavenly spirits could such perverseness dwell?”
Tyre. Carthage was sprung from Tyre, an old
and prosperous city on the coast of Phœnicia. The founders
of Carthage and their descendants are termed indifferently
by Virgil Phœnicians, Sidonians, Pœni, or Tyrians.
War’s.
“An old and haughty nation proud in arms.”
Samos. A large island off the west coast of Asia
Minor. Here were the most ancient temple and worship
of Juno, here she was nurtured, and here she was married
to Jupiter.
Libya. North Africa.
Fate’s.
“Those three fatall Sisters, whose sad hands
Doo weave the direful threads of destinie
And in their wrath brake off the vitall bands.”
“Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears
And slits the thin-spun life.”
“Sad Clotho held the rocke [distaff], the whiles the thrid
By griesly Lachesis was spun with paine,
That cruell Atropos eftsoones undid,
With cursed knife cutting the twist in twaine.”
Saturn. An ancient Italian god of agriculture,
identified later with the Greek god Cronos.
Argos. A city of Argolis in the Peloponnesus.
One of Juno’s favorite cities. Juno’s love for Argos played
the same part in the Trojan war as her regard for Carthage
plays in the Æneid. It is used here poetically for the name
of the people, i.e. = Greeks.
Paris. A son of Priam, king of Troy, who eloped
with Helen and caused the Trojan war. The judgment
was the award of the golden apple, prize of beauty, to Venus
as against Juno and Minerva.
“Here eke that famous golden apple grew,
The which emongest the gods, false Ate threw;
For which th’ Idæan Ladies disagreed,
Till partiall Paris dempt it Venus dew,
And had of her fayre Helen for his meed.”
In Tennyson’s Œnone, Juno offers—
“from all neighbor crowns
Alliance and allegiance till thy hand
Fail from the sceptre-staff.”
And Minerva—
“Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control.”
But Venus—
“I promise thee
The fairest and most loving wife in Greece.”
Ganymede. A Trojan prince; was carried off
to Olympus by Jupiter’s eagle. He was made cup-bearer
to the gods in place of Hebe, daughter of Juno.
“And godlike Ganymede, most beautiful
Of men; the gods beheld and caught him up
To heaven, so beautiful was he, to pour
The wine to Jove, and ever dwell with them.”
“flushed Ganymede, his rosy thigh
Half-buried in the Eagle’s down,
Sole as a flying star shot thro’ the sky
Above the pillar’d town.”
—Tennyson, Palace of Art.
Danaan. Greek. Danaus, an ancient city of
Argos. Conington transliterates various proper names, such
as Argives, Achæans, Pelasgians, all meaning Greeks. Vergil
uses the originals now to secure variety, now to meet the
metrical requirement.
Achilles. Son of Peleus, king of Thessaly, and
Thetis, a sea nymph, chief champion of the Greeks before
Troy.
Teucrians. Teucer, an ancient king of Troy;
he came to Troy from Crete. He was father-in-law of
Dardanus, and is often called founder of the Trojans.
Pallas. Epithet of the Greek goddess Athena.
Sometimes identified with the Latin goddess of wisdom,
Minerva.
Ajax. Oïleus’ son. Had, on the night Troy was
taken, assaulted Priam’s daughter Cassandra, who had
taken refuge in Minerva’s temple.
Jove. Jupiter, chief of the Olympian gods. Son
of Cronos or Saturnus. He is father omnipotent, father of
gods, and king of men. The lightning and the thunderbolt,
fashioned for him by Vulcan, are his weapons. The
eagle is his messenger. Apparently Jupiter, the Sky-father,
is the personification of the sky. Cicero quotes Ennius as
follows: “This shining vault on high which all men call
upon in prayer as Jupiter.”
Rock’s.
“caught in a fierce tempest shall be hurled
Each on his rock transfixed, the sport and prey
Of rocking whirlwinds.”
Æolia. Home of the winds,—Lipara. One of
the Æolian islands north of Sicily.
Cavern.
“In a cavern under is fettered the thunder,
It struggles and howls by fits.”
Æolus. King of the winds.
Bond.
“And wild winds bound within their cell.”
Tyrrhene sea. Also Tuscan sea; the part of the
Mediterranean which extended from Liguria to Sicily.
Ilion. Troy.
Bidding.
“Father eternal, thine is to decree;
Mine, both in heaven and earth, to do thy will.”
Rush forth.
“Nor slept the winds
Within their stormy caves, but rushed abroad
From the four hinges of the world, and fell
On the vexed wilderness.”
“With howling sound, high carnival to keep,
And in wild uproar all embroil both land and deep.”
—Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered.
“Then forth it breakes, and with his furious blast
Confounds both land and seas, and skyes doth overcast.”
Fall.
“The winds, as at their hour of birth,
Leaning upon the ridged sea.”
Daylight.
“And tosse the deepes, and teare the firmament,
And all the world confound with wide uprore.”
“The clouds their gloomy veil above them strain,
Nor suffer sun or star to cheer the view.
...
While aye descending night, with deeper shade,
The vext and fearful billows overlayed.”
—Ariosto, Orlando Furioso.
Æneas. Son of Venus and Anchises, hero of the Æneid.
Chilled.
“His bold Æneas on like billows tossed
In a tall ship, and all his country lost
Dissolves with fear; and, both his hands upheld,
Proclaims them happy when the Greeks had quelled
In honorable fight.”
—Waller, Of the Dangers his Majesty Escaped.
Thrice.
“Thrice happy, four times happy, they who fell
On Troy’s wide field warring for Atreus’ sons:
O, had I met my fate and perished there.”
Tydeus’ son. Diomedes, with whom Æneas had
fought in single combat and been saved by direct intervention
of Venus.
Hector. Son of Priam, king of Troy, and Hecuba.
Hector was the bravest champion of Troy, and was slain by
Achilles.
Æacides. A descendant of Æacus (king of Ægina
and father of Peleus). Virgil applies the name to (1) Achilles,
(2) Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, (3) Perseus, king of Macedonia.
Sarpedon. Son of Jupiter, and king of the Lycians;
an ally of Troy slain by Patroclus, friend of Achilles.
Simois. The famous river that flows by Troy.
“And Simoïs, in whose bed lay many shields
And helms and bodies of slain demigods.”
Stars. Hyperbole; cf.—
“The chidden billow seems to pelt the clouds;
The wind-shaked surge, with high and monstrous mane,
Seems to cast water on the burning Bear
And quench the guards of the ever-fixed pole.”
Crest.
“Now quivering o’er the topmost waves she rides
While deep beneath the enormous gulf divides:
Now launching headlong down the horrid vale,
Becalmed she hears no more the howling gale.”
Syrtes. Two shallow bays on the north coast of
Africa distinguished as Major and Minor,—dangerous to
navigation.
Side-jointings.
“The chinks suck destruction. The heavy dead hulk
On the living sea rolls an inanimate bulk.”
—Shelley, Vision of the Sea.
“The sides convulsive shook on groaning beams,
And, rent with labour, yawn’d their pitchy seams.”
Neptune. God of the sea,—brother of Juno.
Confound.
“I heard the wrack,
As earth and sky would mingle.”
“While oft in whirls the mad tornado flies,
Mingling the ravaged landscape with the skies.”
—Goldsmith, Deserted Village.
Eurus. The east wind. It is the poet’s way to
single out one wind and use it as general word for winds.
One example of the use of the specific for the generic.
Routs.
“Thou frownest, and old Æolus thy foe
Skulks to his cavern, ’mid the gruff complaint
Of all his rebel tempests. Dark clouds faint
When, from thy diadem, a silver gleam
Slants over blue dominion.”
Cymothoë and Triton. Lesser sea deities.
“From thy dead lips a clearer note is born
Than ever Triton blew from wreathèd horn.”
—Holmes, Chambered Nautilus.
Trident.
“It seem’d as there the British Neptune stood,
With all his hosts of waters at command,
Beneath them to submit th’ officious flood;
And with his trident shov’d them off the sand.”
—Dryden, Annus Mirabilis.
Weapon.
“Rage prompted them at length, and found them arms
Against such hellish mischief fit to oppose.”
Haven.
“It was a still
And calmy bay, on the one side sheltered
With the brode shadow of an hoarie hill;
On th’ other side an high rock towred still,
That twixt them both a pleasaunt port they made,
And did like an halfe theatre fulfill.”
“And overhead upgrew
Insuperable height of loftiest shade,
Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm,
A sylvan scene, and as the ranks ascend
Shade above shade, a woody theatre
Of stateliest view.”
“Its uplands sloping deck the mountain’s side,
Woods over woods in gay theatric pride.”
“In one they find a lone sequestered place,
Where, to a crescent curved, the shore extends
Two moony horns, that in their sweep embrace
A spacious bay,—a rock the port defends;
Inward it fronts, and broad to ocean bends
Its back, whereon each dashing billow dies,
When the wind rises and the storm descends;
While here and there two lofty crags arise,
Whose towers, far out at sea, salute the sailor’s eyes.
Safe sleep the silent seas beneath; above,
Black arching woods o’ershade the circled scene:
Within, a grotto opens, in the grove,
Pleasant with flowers, with moss, with ivies green,
And waters warbling in the depths unseen;
Needed nor twisted rope nor anchor there
For weary ships.”
—Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered.
Cable.
“And there is a safe haven where no need
Of cable is; no anchor there is cast,
Nor hawsers fastened to the strand.”
Biremes. Ships having two tiers of oars.
Scylla. A sea-monster, residing in a cave in certain
rocks, also called Scylla, between Italy and Sicily.
The upper part of this monster resembled a lovely woman.
About the waist was a circle of dogs or wolves; below was
the tail of a dolphin. The wolves reach out and seize passing
ships and drag them on the rocks. Virgil’s Scylla is adopted
by Milton as a description of one of the monsters guarding
the gates of Hell.
Cyclops. Certain giants of cannibal nature who
dwelt in Sicily near Ætna. They had a single large round
eye in the middle of the forehead.
Remembered.
“A time will come, not distantly descried,
When to remember ev’ry past dismay
Will be no less a pleasure than a pride;
Hold then courageous on, and keep, I pray,
Your noble hearts in cheer for that victorious day.”
—Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered.
Heart-sick.
“So spoke the apostate angel, though in pain,
Vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair.”
Ether.
“Now had the Almighty Father from above,
From the pure empyrean where he sits
High throned above all highth, bent down his eye,
His own works and their works at once to view.”
Barred.
“In vain—for rude adversity’s command
Still, on the margin, of each famous land,
With unrelenting ire his steps opposed,
And every gate of hope against him closed.”
Antenor. Nephew of Priam. After the capture
of Troy, he sailed up the Adriatic Sea, established a new
people called the Veneti, and founded Patavium (Padua).
Arms.
“And in thy tempul I wol my banur hong,
And all the armes of my companye.”
“In my heart’s temple I suspend to thee
These votive wreaths of withered memory.”
Piety.
“False Jupiter, rewardst thou virtue so?
What, is not piety exempt from woe?”
Cythera. An island south of Laconia, near which,
the tradition is, Venus rose from the foam of the sea.
Lavinium. A city of Latium, represented as
founded by Æneas and named by him for his wife Lavinia,
daughter of King Latinus. It was Latinus’ promise of
Lavinia to Æneas that caused the wars of the last six books
of the Æneid.
Rutulians. A Volscian people whose chief city
was Antium. They with their King Turnus were the chief
antagonists of Æneas when he was trying to settle in Italy.
Ascanius. Son of Æneas.
Hector’s.
“There in stout Hector’s race three hundred years
The Roman sceptre royal shall remain.”
Assaracus. A Trojan king of Phrygia; he was
grandfather of Anchises, hence the expression “house of
Assaracus” means the descendants of Æneas. And as the
Julian clan was thought to be derived from Iulus, Æneas’
son, this included Julius Cæsar and his adopted son Augustus.
Phthia. A city and district in Thessaly, Greece,
over which, it is said, Achilles ruled.
Mycenæ. A famous city ruled by Agamemnon,
in the Morea (southern Greece).
Argos. A city of Argolis, in the Peloponnesus.
One of Juno’s favorite cities. So fate wills that the descendants
of the Trojans shall take vengeance for the destruction
of Troy on the descendants of the great Greek
leaders.
Stars.
“He shall ascend
The throne hereditary, and bound his reign
With Earth’s wide bounds, his glory with the heavens.”
War.