[570] From Od. 9. 136, ἐν δὲ λιμὴν εὔορμος. Virg.'s ‘Cyclopum orae’ are however not the same as Hom.'s γαῖα Κυκλώπων, which was not on the east coast of Sicily near Aetna, but by Drepanum and Eryx. ‘Ab accessu ventorum inmotus’ may possibly be an attempt to combine the two expressions ‘ventis inmotus’ and ‘ab accessu ventorum remotus.’ The similarity between ‘inmotus’ and ‘remotus’ of course amounts nearly to a jingle; but those who have followed Virg. in his plays on the different senses of the same word in poetical combinations will hardly think it impossible that he may have used one compound with the intention of reminding his readers of another, though the two are really heterogeneous. ‘Ingens’ is complained of as harsh by some of the later editors, who do not see how the size of the haven should point a contrast with Aetna, as ‘ipse’ shows that it is meant to do; Virg. however evidently intends to say that so far as the haven went, it was commodious, being sheltered and large, but that the neighbourhood of Aetna was a drawback.
[571] The following description is more or less parallel to one in Pind. Pyth. 1. 34 foll. Gell. 17. 10 reports a criticism on the two passages by Favorinus the philosopher, very unfavourable to Virg., who is blamed for confusing night and day (see on v. 575), confounding smoke and flame, and generally exaggerating Pindar's simple truth. Later critics have defended Virg.; but Heyne (Excursus 15) thinks he has studied poetical ornament rather than physical accuracy. ‘Ruina’ is commonly used of a downfall; here it stands for an eruption or throwing up, just as ‘ruit’ is said of sending up smoke G. 2. 308. Forc. remarks that ‘ruina’ sometimes means merely violent motion forward, and quotes Val. Fl. 4. 694, “e mediis sequitur freta rapta ruinis,” of Tiphys escaping through the Symplegades. See on G. 1. 105.
[572] Prorumpit active, 1. 246. Virg. follows Lucr. 6.690, “longeque favillam Differt, et crassa volvit caligine fumum,” a line which he also had in his mind in writing G. 2. 308. In the earlier passage he applies to an ordinary conflagration words borrowed from a description of an eruption; coming afterwards to write of an eruption, he recurs not only to the description in Lucr., but to the use which he had himself made of that description. Precisely the same thing may be traced lower down, v. 577, ‘fundoque exaestuat imo,’ where we shall not doubt that he was thinking of his own words in a simile about a storm, G. 3. 240, “ima exaestuat unda,” where we remember that those words form part of a sentence obviously imitated from a line in this same description in Lucr., “Saxaque subiectare et arenae tollere nimbos.” A criticism like this, which professes to detect what was passing in the poet's mind is of course liable to make discoveries which have no real existence; but when cautiously applied, it can hardly be out of place in dealing with an author like Virg., where expressions are at once so studied and so borrowed.
[574] “Flammarumque globos, liquefactaque volvere saxa” G. 1. 473. Lucr. l. c. has “extollere flammam.”
[575] Virg. distinguishes eruptions of smoke, fire, and cinders from eruptions of rocks and lava: Pindar, the smoke by day from the fire by night. ‘Viscera’ gave the hint to Sir Richard Blackmore for the description, quoted in the Treatise on the Bathos, where the mountain is represented as ‘torn with inward gripes,’ though the ‘inbred storms of wind,’ to which the ‘torturing pain’ is attributed, look as if he had been to school to Lucretius.
[576] For ‘erigit’ a few MSS. give ‘egerit,’ which Burm. prefers; but the common reading is supported by 7. 529., 9. 239, as Heyne remarks, and by the Lucretian word ‘extollere,’ while it is well adapted to express the labour of upheaving masses of rock into the air. ‘Eructans’ is Pindar's ἐρεύγονται.
[577] Cum gemitu, σὺν πατάγῳ, Pind. l. c., as ‘fundo imo’ is from ἐκ μυχῶν. Henry refines too much when he says that ‘glomerare’ means not ‘to form into a ball,’ but ‘to form a body by successive additions,’ as it is evident that both notions enter into the word, though the latter may be the more prominent here.
[578] The name of the giant who was supposed to be placed under Aetna was variously given in the legends. Pindar l. c. and Aesch. Prom. 354 make it Typhocus or Typhon, Callim. in Del. 143 Briareus. In A. 9. 716, following (though misinterpreting) Hom., Virg. places Typhoeus under Inarime or Pithecusa. ‘Semustum’ is found here in most of the MSS., including Med., which has the same form in 11. 200. See on v. 244.
[580] Comp. 1. 44, “exspirantem transfixo pectore flammas” (note). Here the mountain is made to breathe out the flames which have pierced Enceladus. ‘Ruptis caminis:’ “The sense is . . . that Aetna, while it was yet a solid mountain, was placed on the top of Enceladus, and that the flames proceeding from him burst a passage through it, ‘rumpebant caminos,’ burst and flamed through the sides of the mountain as the fire sometimes bursts and breaks out through the sides of a stove. The image is the more correct, inasmuch as the eruptions of Aetna, as well as of other volcanos, are apt not to follow the track of previous eruptions, but to make new openings for themselves through the solid sides of the mountain.” Henry.
[581] For ‘mutet’ some MSS. give ‘motet’ or ‘motat’ which Serv. prefers. We have already had the variety E. 5. 5, where we saw reason to adopt ‘motantibus.’ Here ‘muto’ seems the better word, as containing a more distinct notion of relief, not to mention that the frequentative ‘moto’ would be inconsistent with ‘quotiens.’ In Stat. Theb. 3. 594, “aut ubi temptat Enceladus mutare latus,” evidently an imitation of this passage, the MSS. do not vary, except that one of them gives “versare.” ‘Mutare latus’ also occurs Ov. M. 13. 937, where there can be no doubt about the word, as it is coupled with “moveri.” It is stronger than ‘motare latus,’ expressing not only stirring, but turning from side to side. In any case the subj. seems to be required by the oratio obliqua, though ‘mutat’ is the first reading of Pal. and Med.
[582] Caelum subtexere fumo is apparently modelled on expressions in Lucr., “subtexunt nubila caelum” (5. 466), “subtexit caerula nimbis” (6. 482).
[583] Nocte illa is read by some MSS., while some insert ‘in’ before ‘silvis.’ The Trojans disembark, like Ulysses under similar circumstances Od. 9. 150 foll., and pass the night on the land. Monstra, are the terrible and unaccountable phenomena. ‘Monstra pati’ occurs 7. 21, of suffering a monstrous transformation.
[585] The two clauses, as usual, mean the same thing, ‘nec’ being not disjunctive but copulative, as in G. 4. 198. Virg. has taken this circumstance also from Ulysses' landing in the Cyclops' territory, Od. 9. 144, Ἀὴρ γὰρ παρὰ νηυσὶ βαθεἶ ἦν, οὐδὲ σελήνη Οὐρανόθε προὔφαινε: κατείχετο δὲ νεφέεσσιν. Henry refers to a similar description in Apoll. R. 4. 1694 foll.
[587] Imitated from Enn. A. 1. fr. 64, “Cum superum lumen nox intempesta teneret.” For ‘nox intempesta’ see on G. 1. 247.
[588-612] ‘In the morning we see a ragged and emaciated man, evidently a Greek, advancing towards us. He begs us to take him with us or kill him. We reassure him, and ask his story.’
