APR 14 1QU.
THE FUSION OF STYLISTIC ELEMENTS
IN VERGIL'S GEORGICS
BY
META GLASS
Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements
FOR the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in the
Faculty of Philosophy, Columbia University
NEW YORK
1913
THE FUSION OF STYLISTIC ELEMENTS
IN VERGIL'S GEORGICS
BY
META GLASS
Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements
FOR the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in the
Faculty of Philosophy, Columbia University
NEW YORK
1913
Press of
The New Era Printing compant
Lancaster. Pa
1 ''
CONTENTS
Introduction v
I. Astronomical, Geographical and Literary Ref-
erences 1
II. Word Order 26
III. Euphonic Devices 48
IV. Analysis of Special Passages 69
V. Mental Processes 78
Bibliography 92
282306
INTRODUCTION
Inasmuch as the artistic beauty of Vergil's poetry has been
acknowledged and enlarged upon throughout the ages, there
have naturally been many attempts to reach the source of
this perfection, or at least to travel along the well-marked
paths in the poems themselves that give the seeker some
glimpses of the phases of Vergil's fancy, the sensitiveness of
his perceptions of beauty in form and color and sound, and
his unique ability to pass on these perceptions to others by
use of the various means of poetic expression. In the study
of any poet who so avowedly followed a model as did Vergil,
it is in greatest part upon these manifestations of self, the
workings of mind and of imagination, that a knowledge of
that poet depends. Under these conditions Vergil's work-
manship and what it reveals become all the more important.^
No less in the other two works than in the Georgics did
Vergil have a pattern, but for his own individuality in develop-
ing that pattern the Georgics are most fruitful. The Eclogues
were a more youthful work, in a style to a great extent aban-
doned later, while the Georgics have sufficient of the earlier
and likewise of the later development to represent his maturer
powers before they had shed any of their possibilities. The
Aeneid was never jfinished, but after seven years of writing
and rewriting the poet was content to let the Georgics go
from his hand.^ What is to be found therein must, therefore,
have had his full sanction, must have approached his ideal as
nearly as an author's work ever does approach his ideal, and
the features of workmanship traced here we have a right to
deem those that he felt most fully expressed him.
1 T. H. Wright, Style, speaks of style as an involuntary revelation of self.
2 Donatus, Vita Vergili, Chapters 22, 25.
We may believe, too, that the poet was more at home in his
material in this poem than in either of the others. The tone
of seriousness that the Georgics have as compared with the
Eclogues was surely more in accordance with the philosophical
temperament of the poet who was fully conscious of the
lacrimae reruvi, and in portraying Italy as a veritable biferi
rosaria Paesti he found his material more congenial than he
later found the wars and bloodshed that moulded the character
of Aeneas, and formed the prelude to the glories of Rome.
In the Georgics he spoke whereof he knew from daily sight and
hearing, or from the volumes of his predecessors which he had
made his own.
Because the poem is classed as didactic literature, which
gained an unwonted prominence in Alexandrian times, and
because of Vergil's use of Hesiod,^ of Aratus, of Eratosthenes,
and of Nicander,'* because of his former allegiance to Theo-
critus and the general tendency of much of Roman literature
to submit to Alexandrian influence, the extent to which Vergil
came under this influence, and the use, in so far as his artistic
expression is concerned, which he made of the knowledge
gained from this source are important points in any attempt
to estimate the poet in his art.
It is the purpose of this study to examine the Georgics
from this point of view, to investigate Vergil's use of astro-
nomical, geographical and literary allusions, his elaborations
of word-order, and his use of euphonic embellishments, and to
discover what glimpses may be gained of the personal equation
that colored his perception and imagination and, consequently,
his artistic expression.
» Servius on the Georgics, vol. 3, p. 128.
* For the sources in general, of. Karl Brandt, De auctoribus quos in com-
ponendis Georgicon libris adumbravit Vergilius.
THE FUSION OF STYLISTIC ELEMENTS IN
VERGIL'S GEORGICS
ASTKONOMICAL, GEOGRAPHICAL AND LiTERARY REFERENCES
In any study of elaboration of style among the Romans, the
question of Greek influence, whether coming direct from the
classical period, or exerted through Alexandrian scholars and
writers, naturally thrusts itself to the fore. Certain traits
do appear in Latin, in poetry rather than in prose, the counter-
parts of which are not to be found to any extent in classical
Greek, and the first inference is that the Alexandrians are
responsible for them. Aside from the genius of the two
languages, the rhetorical embellishments found in Cicero, in
Livy, in Seneca do not differ in aim, nor so very much in
means, from those used by Thucydides and the Greek orators.
But the poetry of Catullus, of Vergil, of Horace, and even
more that of the writers of elegy shows devices not found in
the lyric poets of Greece, nor to the same extent in the drama-
tists, though Euripides shows the beginning of the use of many
of the later favorite devices for securing stylistic effect.
When one speaks of Alexandrianism, probably the first
thought which rises in the mind is that of erudition, and in
looking for traits of Alexandrian influence in Latin Hterature
one most readily notes references to geography, astronomy
and literature in general, more or less familiar supposedly to
the author's public, as examples of this influence. When
Catullus introduces into so personal a song as his seventh
poem, where he pleads that Lesbia's kisses shall be as many as
the sands of the desert or the stars of the firmament, the
restriction that the sands to be counted are those of the
Libyan desert around Cyrene where silphium grows, between
the oracle of sun-baked Jupiter Ammon and the sacred tomb
of Battus of old, he is displaying learning pure and simple,
and is in so far a follower of the Alexandrian school.
So large a word as laserpiciferis may make the sands seem
more than those of an ordinary desert, and they are indeed
sands of distinguished company, but to the sincerity of feeling
that the second simile gives such elaboration is undoubtedly
hostile. If Catullus desired the almost comic touch which
the verses have for a modern reader, he has succeeded most
skillfully in attaining it, but the weight of learning and sound
in them is all the slight poem could sustain. Such a use as
this of geographical knowledge is far to seek in classical Greek
poetry. The local setting of a myth or of an actual occurrence
is common enough, though not often in a form at all elaborate.
Even in the passages grouping rather imposing geographical
names that may be quoted from the Agamemnon (281 ff.),
where the course of the fire signals that bring the news of
Agamemnon's approach is traced, and from the Prometheus,
where the hero foretells her wanderings to lo, a fellow sufferer
from the injustice of Zeus (705 ff.), the references are of the
sort that would be classed as occasioned by the narrative.
The mountain peaks named in the Agamemnon passage were
sufficiently familiar to Aeschylus' public (all were in countries
with which Athens had had intercourse for years) to give
vividness rather than vagueness to the picture, and so they
show no striving for the impressiveness which the mention of
more distant and less known regions would effect. In the
Prometheus lo's wanderings are to be largely around the
region in which Prometheus is bound, involving places quite
closely akin to the setting of the drama, but sufficiently vague
in Aeschylus' own mind to make the course almost impossible
for one to follow. Some stylistic effect is gained by each of
these passages, but there is lacking in them the sense of effort
and the flavor of learning that mark many such references in
Latin poetry.^
In astronomical references the Alexandrian influence is
even more pronounced, for the greater study devoted to the
subject in these times yielded the works of Eratosthenes and
Aratus, and thus, by uniting the science quite definitely with
poetry, made it available for the less technical poets.^ The
popularity of Aratus among the Romans before Vergil wrote
is attested by Cicero's translation of his ^atvofieva, and his
continuance in favor is proved by the paraphrase of Germani-
cus later. Vergil's own use of him'' is evidenced in the first
verse of the Georgics, where he purposes to sing quo sidere
terram vertere,^ and only a few verses farther on astronomical
science is drawn upon in the more elaborate description of
the constellations (I. 32-4) among which the deified Caesar
is to have a place. So, again, after the golden age, when man
6 In the Medea of Euripides, where the course of the Argo might entail such
references, they are quite closely connected with the story and are not elaborate.
There is mention of Chalcis, the Symplegades, Corinth, Athens and the Cephis-
sua. In the Iphigenia in Tauris the Symplegades, Taurica, Argos, Greece,
Troy and Aulis are the places named. Even in Pindar the place designated is
the home of the hero, or the scene of some definite exploit described in the myth.
The fourth Pjd;hian, which deals with the story of the Argo, does not mention
the course in detail, but says "and they came to Phasis" (375), and on the
return voyage (446-7) "they met the streams of Ocean, the Red Sea and the
race of Lemnian women."
« Mahafify, Greek Life and Thought, pp. 242-51.
' Both the ^at.v6/j.eva and the Aioffrifieia give matter used by Vergil in
Book I of the Georgics. The general knowledge of the constellations and their
order must have come from the ^aivSfieva, while the weather signs of I. 351-463
follow much of the Aioa-ij/j-eia.
8 ^aivdneva 10 ff.
Ai5t6s yap rdSe c^/tiar' ip ovpavifi iffr-^pi^ev
'AffTpa SiaKpivas iffKhj/aTo S' eh iviavrbv
''karipas, o'l kc fidXiffra T€Tvyp.4va <r7)p,alvoiev
'' K.v5p6.<nVj wpaluv 6<f>p' f/xireda irdvTa (jtiuvrai.
was with difficulty forging his way in the world, the sailor
had to give name and number to the stars (I. 138),
Pleiadaa, Hyadas, claramque Lycaonis Arcton.
With verse 204 comes the more definite division of the seasons
by the position of constellations, where Arcturus and the
Haedi and Anguis, Libra, the Pleiades, and the Crown and
Bootes all serve as signs for different phases of the farmer's
activity. Thus the zones are marked out,^ and the sun's
path across the zodiac and the moon, too, indicate days to be
chosen or shunned for varying duties. Again, after the
description of the spring storm, Vergil returns to the planets
(I. 336-7), pauses to prescribe the worship of Ceres in the
fields, and then pursues further the signs the Father has
willed the moon to give of wind and rain and fair weather.
With this description are mingled the prophecies of birds and
beasts, and the climax is reached with the sun (solem certissima
signa sequuntur, I. 439) whose pity for Rome at Caesar's
death made him hide his shining face in murky darkness.
A comparison of the truly poetic and beautiful way in which
Vergil handles the science that he borrows with the technical
and unimaginative work of Aratus^° gives but another instance
of his fine perception of the poetic possibilities of his material,
his readiness to use his learning always, but never to display
it to the detriment of artistic harmonj\
Let us note now to what extent the Latin writers before
Vergil advised the farmer to depend on knowledge of the
heavens. As one would expect, Cato gives no such guide.
He designates his seasons by primo vere,^^ per sementim,^'^ per
ver,^^ once by piro florente,^^ as also by cum uva floret,^^ per
» Eratosthenes is the source of the description of the zones and the path of
the sun. Compare K. Brandt, op. cit., p. 4.
"> Couat, La pofeie alexandrine, pp. 445 ff.
" De Agri Cultura, 50.
« lb. 61.
»Ib. 121.
» lb. 41, 161.
solstitium,^^ per vindemiam,^^ and declares : "ficos, oleas, mala,
pira, mtes inseri oportet luna silenti post meridiem sine vento
austro."^^ There is not a single star to guide in the De Agri
Cultura. Varro shows the man of learning in his designations.
He too uses piro fiorente (I. 37.5) to date a season, but his real
divisions are much more scientific. Scrofa, his mouthpiece,
notes the four seasons according to the position of the sun;
yet this is not sufiicient, and the year is divided into eight
intervals designated thus: "a favonio ad aequinoctium
vernum, hinc ad vergiliarum exortum, ab hoc ad solstitium,
inde ad caniculae signum, dein ad aequinoctium autumnale,
exin ad vergiliarum occasum, ab hoc ad brumam, inde ad
favonium."^^ The proper activities for each division are set
forth in order, and not content with this, Varro adds the
divisions of the month into waxing and waning moon, and
specifies things proper to one phase or another. In Vergil's
guidance of the farmer first by the rising and setting of the
constellations, then by the moon, and again by the sun, one
is reminded of Varro's treatment, but the poet has said
nothing of eight divisions, nor does he even run the risk of
dryness by uniform designations of the time-divisions he does
make.
In the other three books of the Georgics astronomy plays
no part at all, yet there is a similar enriching but restrained
use of geographical and literary allusions with a kindred
artistic effect. The purposes served by localizing epithets
may roughly be classed as four: (1) to state a fact the mention
of which is occasioned by the narrative, (2) to designate a
deity by the place of birth or worship, (3) to define a common
object by the place of its origin or excellence, (4) to make
specific some abstract idea. Instances of the first usage
should not be classed as means to a stylistic effect, except
»Ib. 40. 1.
»6 De Re Rustica, I. 28.
in so far as an author shows a fondness for choosing
his subject to afford an opportunity for their use. Despite
the instance of Alexandrianism cited above (page 2) from
Catullus, and his more happy use in the eleventh poem of
far-off India beaten by the eastern wave, the Hyrcanians,
Arabians, Parthians and Scythians, the region of the seven-
mouthed Nile, the land across the Alps beside the Rhine and
off to Britain's farthest edge to designate the distances to
which the affection of his comrades would bid them follow him,
Catullus' geographical allusions are oftener occasioned by his
narrative than deliberately sought. The choice of subject
matter in poems sixty-four and sixty-six is largely responsible
for the definite places mentioned, though even in these a more
general notion is made specific by this means. ^'^ To references
occasioned by t'he narrative belong the places named in the
fourth poem, though, of course, there is some choice of what
will be mentioned and what passed by. The references to
Spain in the poems touching Veranius and Fabullus (9. 6;
12. 14) and those to Bithynia just after his return from that
province are of this direct character (10. 7; 31. 5; 46. 4, 5, 6).^^
The use of names of places to designate the divinity who is
worshiped there occurs with similar frequency in Catullus and
the Georgics (some ten times in Catullus and twelve times in
the Georgics), but it is a greater favorite apparently with
Horace, who in Book I of the Odes so designates the gods some
sixteen times. The place-names so used vary little in their
probable familiarity to the public; in general they are fairly
well-known, and, though there is inherent in them the power
of a vivid picture to one who has seen the place, their use is
so frequent throughout literature, Greek as well as Roman,
that they tend to become colorless synonyms for the deity's
name. To Catullus Hymen is a dweller on Mount Helicon
»" Catullus, 64. 35-7, 75, 105, 156, 178.
»» Compare also Catullus, 29. 3, 4, 18, 19, 20; 34. 7; 35. 3, 4; 63. 2. 70, 91;
64. 5, 52, 74. 121, 172; 66. 12, 36.
because he is the son of a Muse (61. 1), for which reason also
he is bidden to leave the Aonian caves of the Thespian cliff
(61. 27-8); Venus is colens Idalium (61. 17). The deified
Arsinoe is Zephyritis because her temple was on the prom-
ontory of Zephyrion (66. 57); Trivia when not seen in the
sky is on Mount Latmos with Endymion, to whom there was
a sanctuary there." So in 36. 11-17 Venus unnamed is
identified by seven places of worship before she is called on
to mark the vow as paid :
Nunc o caeruleo creata ponto
quae sanctum Idalium Vriosque apertos,
quaeque Ancona, Cnidumque harundinosam
colis, quaeque Amathunta, quaeque Golgos,
quaeque Durrachium Hadriae tabernam,
acceptum face redditumque votum,
si non inlepidum neque invenustum est.
In Horace Venus is diva potens Cypri (I. 3. 1), Cytherea
(I. 4. 5); Clio's name iocosa imago is to reproduce
aut in umbrosis Heliconis oris
aut super Pindo gelidove in Haemo (I. 12. 5-6);
Cybele is Dindymene (I. 16. 5); Dionysus, son of Semele of
Thebes (I. 19. 2); Diana joys in the groves of Algidus or
Erymanthus or Cragos (I. 21. 6, 7, 8). Again, Venus is
regina Cnidi Paphique (I. 30. 1), and Fortuna, diva gratum
quae regis Antium (I. 35. 1).
In the Georgics Pan is the only deity in the opening invo-
cation so localized: reference is made to his haunts on Lycaeus,
at Tegea, or on Maenala (I. 16, 17, 18), while elsewhere even
the planet Mercury is called Cyllenius (I. 337), and later the
Indigites, Romulus and Vesta are given a home at Rome by the
Tiber (I. 499). Jove is the Dictaean king (II. 536). The
Muses the poet will bring from their Aonian mount (III. 11);
the master of Cyllarus is Pollux of Amyclae (III. 89) ; the love
of Parnassus of the Muses leads Vergil in their worship up its
19 Paus. V. 1. 5.
steeps and down the gently sloping path to Castalia (III.
291 fF.). The guardian of the meadow for the bees is to be
Priapus from the Hellespont (IV. Ill) ; Jove is the king in the
Dictaean cave (IV. 152), and Aristaeus' father is Thymbraeus
Apollo (IV. 323).
Both Vergil and Horace show a great fondness for identi-
fying objects with the place of their origin and for making
general ideas specific by the names of certain localities.
Sellar-" draws a contrast between Horace and Propertius along
this line: "Though Horace, for the form of his art, for some-
thing of his thought and much of his diction, goes back to
Homer and the Greek lyric and tragic poets, yet in his use of
Greek mythology as a kind of storehouse of romantic adven-
ture, and in his numerous geographical allusions, we see that
he is yielding to tastes formed and fostered by Alexandrian
learning. But if we compare Horace in these respects with
so thorough an Alexandrian as Propertius, we find that it is
the personages and tales of mythology familiar from Homer
and Pindar and the Greek tragedians, not the obscurer beings
and more artificial fancies of later creation, that live for us
again in the Odes, and that his geographical allusions are not
introduced as so much dead learning, but give new life to his
subject by names which stirred the imagination in his own
day with the thought of distant lands, or wild and wandering
tribes on the confines of the Empire, or seas, suggestive of
the enterprise of the present time and the memories of a more
adventurous past." Professor Shorey^^ classes as one of the
chief compensations that relieve Horace's plainness or par-
simony of vocabulary and imagery the use of proper names
charged with associations of mythology, history, literature
and travel. "More than seven hundred distinct proper names
or adjectives," he says, "are employed in the Odes, a sixth of
*" Horace and the Elegiac Poets, p. 147.
2' Shorey and Laing, Horace, Odes and Epodes, Introd., pp. xxiv-xxv.
the total vocabulary. The fourth book of the Golden Trea-
sury contains less than two hundred, and an equal amount of
Greek lyric presents at the most three or four hundred, mostly
persons known to the poet or gods directly invoked. In the
learned rhetoric of Lucan and Statius mythological and geo-
graphical allusion passes into the conundrum. The tact of
Horace selects just those names which will arouse pleasant
associations in the mind of the average educated man, and
which will adorn without overloading his style." Vergil in
the Georgics uses some 602 proper names,^^ ^ gj-gat many of
which involve naming an object by the name of the deity in
whose province it lies, as Ceres for grain, Bacchus for wine,
and the winds by their specific names, Auster, Zephyrus,
Boreas, etc.
In Book I of the Odes Horace in 40 cases^^ describes an
object by means of the place where it is indigenous or well
known. Vergil in the whole of the Georgics has only 82
cases.24 Thus, cranes are Strymoniae grues (I. 120); lentils,
Pelusicae lentis (I. 228); the sling is Balearis fundae (I. 309).
Dodona comes to denote the acorn because of Jove's sacred
oak groves there (I. 149). The laurel is Parnasia laurus
(11. 18) though it is planted on an Italian farm, and the
myrtle is Paphian (II. 64). Cypresses are Idaean (II. 84), and
the olive is the Sicyonia baca (II. 519). So the palm is
Olympic because it is won there (III. 49) ; the gad-fly is made
to swarm about the groves of Silarus; the Greek games are
represented by the Alpheus or by Pisa (III. 19, 180) ; to the
22 In Book I there are 145 examples; in II, 145; in III, 144; in IV, 168.
« See I. 1. 3, 10, 13, 19, 28, 34; 8. 6; 14. 11; 15. 17; 16. 9; 18. 9; 19. 6; 20. 1,
9; 22. 2; 23. 10; 24. 13; 26. 9, 11; 27. 2, 5, 21; 29. 9, 15; 31. 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12; 33.
7; 35. 7; 36. 10, 14; 37. 5, 6, 14, 20, 30; 38. 1.
2^ I. 120, 149, 228, 265, 309; II. 18, 64, 67, 84, 88, 90, 91, 96, 97, 98, 116, 117,
120, 121, 122, 126, 143, 176, 193, 197, 198, 224, 225, 437, 438, 448, 506. 519;
III.' 12, 17, 19, 33, 43-4, 49, 115, 121, 146, 147, 151, I8O2, 202, 204, 249, 255,
268. 306, 307, 312. 345, 405, 425, 450, 626, 551; IV. 41, 119, 177, 270, 283, 287,
334, 379, 380, 545.
10
tiger is given a home in Libya (III. 249), to the boar one in
SabelHan territory (III. 256); while fleece is Milesian (III.
306). The dog is Amyclean and the quiver Cretan even when
the African herdsman has them in the long stretches of the
desert (III. 345). The epithets are hardly fitting in the last
citation, but the verse that contains them both,
armaque Amyclaeumque canem Cressamque pharetram,
by its alliteration, its repeated -que, the way in which the
vowels vary round the a and e sounds must have made Vergil
deem the verse justified by its own perfection, despite its
artificial touch.^^ This is the only case of so unfitting an
epithet; in geographical allusions, as elsewhere, there is evi-
dence in Vergil of fine discrimination in the aptness and
frequency of use of such attributes.
Most arbitrary of all geographical references are those
used to make specific some abstract idea or more general
concept. They touch the preceding classification in that there
must be a certain fitness in them to their purpose, but neither
the origin of the object nor the fame of the place for it deter-
mines their choice. They are borrowings, conscious or un-
conscious, from literary sources, or they are due to associations
in the author's own experience, and their effect upon his
style is the same in either case.
We find Horace thus making specific any sea for traffic by
the Myrtoan and again by the Icarian (C. I. 1. 14, 15), and
the sea is frequently so treated. Now it is the Adriatic, on
which Horace must have suffered in view of his stormy
memory of it, now the Tyrrhenian.^^ Again, the Empire's
foes are made vivid as the Persians and Medes (I. 2. 22, 51),
or the Marsi (I. 2. 39) are used to denote a bitter foe, or the
Parthians, Scythians and Indians (I. 12. 53, 56).-^ So as
" See below pp. 48-63.
« For the general idea of the harshness of the Adriatic, cf. C. III. 9. 23. I. 33.
15. For specific seas, cf. I. 3. 15; 11. 6; 14. 20; 16. 4; 26. 2.
" Compare I. 19. 10, 12; 21. 15; 35. 40.
11
dangerous places are named Acroceraunia (I. 3. 20), the
Syrtes, Caucasus, the shores of the Hydaspes (I. 22. 5, 7, 8),
aequor Atlanticum (I. 31. 14). In the seventh Ode of the
first book famous places of the Greek world are marshalled to
give way before the delights of Tibur and the Anio. Book I
of the Odes shows in all 44 instances of such arbitrary locali-
zation.^^
In the Georgics the number is greater, but the proportion
about the same, there being 122 instances in the 2186 verses
of the four books. In the first book of the Georgics man's
food before he had learned from Ceres was the acorn of
Chaonia (I. 8), his drink the Achelous (I. 9). As the farmer
must observe where on his farm to plant grain, grapes, fruit-
trees and grass, so over the wide earth India bears one thing,
Tmolus another, while from the land of the Chalybes and
Pontus (I. 519) and Epirus come different products. So the
fruitful land is Mysia, and more specifically Gargara (I. 102).
The sailor is he who tempts the Pontus and the narrows at
oyster-bearing Abydus (I. 207). Frequently the points of
the compass are designated by the countries lying in the
desired quarter. The north is Scythia (I. 240), the land of
the Hyperboreans (III. 196), Scythia, the region of Lake
Maeotis, the Hister and Rhodope (III. 349-51), or again the
region lying beneath the Hyperborean Wain exposed to Eurus
as he comes over the Riphaean mountains (III. 381). The
south is Libya (I. 241); the east is the country of the Arabs
and the Geloni (II. 115), or the land along the Euphrates
(IV. 561). The birds that foretell rain are those that dive into
the crevices of the Caystrian meadows (I. 384); the Italian
farmer's pleasant valley is Tempe (II. 469); the poet's own
chosen haunts lie along the Spercheus and on the 'revel-
ground' of Taygetus (II. 487). The bees come forth thick as
"C.I. 1.14, 15; 2. 13, 14, 22, 39, 51; 3. 15, 20; 7. 1-11 (12 names); 8.16; 11.
6; 12. 53, 56; 14. 20; 16. 4; 19. 10, 12; 21. 15; 22. 5, 7, 8, 14, 15; 26. 2, 3; 31. 14;
33. 15; 34. 10, 11; 35. 7, 9, 40.
12
the arrows the Parthians shoot (IV. 314) ; the farmer with a good
dog fears no hostile Iberian (III. 408). In two longer passages
something of the same freedom of localization is seen — in
II. 136-76, in the praise of Italy and of the rich foreign lands
with which it is contrasted, and in IV. 365-73, in the list of
the rivers Aristaeus sees when he goes down into the halls of
his ocean mother. The choice of these rivers seems most
arbitrary, for, with the exception of the Tiber, the Anio and
the Po, named for their nearness and dearness, they are neither
great nor storied enough to justify the wonder Aristaeus feels
before them. When Cicero mentions the Hypanis (Tusc. I.
39. 94) in an illustration, he takes pains to say where it is,
and to point out that Aristotle is responsible for what he knows
about it; references to this river elsewhere are confined
largely to geographical writers. The use of the Lycus is
equally unaccounted for. Some six or more rivers bear the
name; Lewis and Short decide in favor of the one in Paphla-
gonia for Vergil's reference here, though Servius puts it in
Syria. So unidentified a stream would serve only for impres-
sive strangeness. The Caicus and the Enipeus are better
known, but when one thinks of all the larger and more famous
rivers that the poet has passed by to name these less impressive
streams, which boast not even especially musical names to
justify their choice, it would seem that he is taking some
combination of names that had elsewhere fallen under his eye,
or that he is yielding to a bit of vanity in his erudition. The
combination eludes our eye before Vergil's time, but it is
easy enough to see what must have been before Ovid when
he wrote Metamorphoses XV. 273-9 where the Lycus, the
Hypanis and the Caicus all appear serving in another guise.
The eight rivers that Vergil names are separated widely enough
to designate north, east and west, but the order of their
mention, which brings one from Chalcis to Paphlagonia, or
elsewhere, to Thessaly, to Italy, to Scythia, to Mysia and
13
back to Italy, and the fact that no southern stream is men-
tioned, do not favor the supposition that the author meant to
represent the waters from all quarters of the earth meeting
in Gyrene's halls. In the second book (136 ff.) the east is
again called on to typify the rich lands that yet can not equal
Italy. Not the forests of the Medes, not the Ganges and the
Hermus, nor Bactria, nor India, nor Panchaia deserves such
measure of praise. Here again the vague and far-off lands
are chosen, but at the same time their fame is such that they
readily give the desired effect, and the richness of sound in the
closing line,
totaque turiferis Panchaia pinguis harenis,
sums up a mass of wealth to set against Italy's charms. In
Italy itself places of fertility or beauty, or where man's work,
or where the men themselves are great, are enumerated, and
its superiority is sealed in the last verse, where Italy's son,
victorious, is turning the Indians from Rome's citadel (II.
172).
In somewhat the same fashion Vergil arbitrarily identifies
the features of the lower world just as he does the regions
above. In Lucretius we find the under-world designated by
Orcus twice (I. 115. VI. 762), by Tartarus three times (III.
42, 966, 1012), by Acheron or its adjective Acherusia eight
times (ill. 37, 86, 628, 978, 984, 1023. IV. 37, 170); there is
no mention of the Styx, of Gocytus, or of Avernus, except to
explain the physical nature of the lake and to disprove its con-
nection with the lower world. Vergil calls the region Tartarus
when he sets aside the possibility of Caesar's becoming king
there (I. 36) ; next it is the dark Styx that sees the pole of
heaven that is opposite our own (I. 243); then it is into
Tartarus that the oak sends its roots (II. 292), and fittingly
it is the noise of greedy Acheron that Nature's great poet has
put beneath his feet forever, where that poet is plainly Lucre-
tius (II. 492). It is the cruel stream of Gocytus that the
14
figure of Envy on Vergil's great temple to Caesar shall fear (III,
38), but from the darkness of Styx Tisiphone is sent up for
her cruel proj^ress among the flocks (III. 551). It is the jaws
of Hell at Taenarus that Orpheus enters (IV. 467), after which
the shades of Erebus (IV. 471) are stirred by his song, and he
goes on to see the streams of Cocytus and Styx and Death's
secret Tartarus. But it is the waters of Avernus that echo
thrice after Eurydice's recall, nor will the harbor official in
Orcus suffer Orpheus to return, though Eurydice is moving
off across the Styx (IV. 502-6). Vergil seems to have ex-
hausted all the names his language knew for the under-world,
and yet there is such skill in their use that no casual reader
would ever stop to think how the poet was varying his designa-
tions. The contrast with Lucretius' usage, as seen above,
shows the Alexandrian touch, but there is ample restraint in
the elaboration.
The frequent references to the East in both Vergil and
Horace would naturally be most effective at this time, when
its intercourse with Rome had been so greatly increased, and
even the transfer of the Empire from Rome to the East by
Antony was feared. To express the ideas of distance and
wealth no other countries had so good a claim. Even the
poets had learned since Catullus' day that Britain had not
the wealth Mamurra squandered. Where the east and
north and, in general, where distant lands are named, the
references savor of literature, sometimes even of technical
literature, but naturally, where the places are those of Italy,
the flavor is of acquaintance and experience. It is to Mantua
that Vergil would bring the palms of Palestine which he will
win by his triumph in poetry (III. 12), and he will raise his
temple to Caesar beside the Mincius whose green fields, slow-
moving bends and reed-covered banks he takes pains to
mention as a fit scene for his glorious structure. A few verses
farther on Greece, the Alpheus, and the groves of Molorchus,
15
in which are hidden the Nemean games, are but names with
no description. The Po, king of rivers, has been known to
overflow all the fields, tearing up whole forests and carrying
off herds and their stalls as well (I. 481-3). Ameria (I. 265)
yields staves, as Massicus and the Falernian fields and Amin-
nea produce wine, and Crustumeria pears (II. 88-97). Cli-
tumnus has along its banks white flocks and the great sacri-
ficial bull, who bathe in its stream and later join in the Roman
triumph to the temples of the gods (II. 146-8). So Larius,
Benacus, the Lucrine and Avernian lakes are pictured as by
one who had both seen and heard them: II. 159-64
te, Lari Maxime, teque,
fluctibus et fremitu adsurgens, Benace, marino?
an memorem portus Lucrinoque addita claustra
atque indignatum magnis stridoribus aequor,
lulia qua ponto longe sonat unda refuse
Tyrrhenusque fretis immittitur aestus Averms?^'
Mantua has the familiar touch as described in II. 198-9
et qualem infelix amisit Mantua campum
pascentem niveos herboso flumine cycnos,
and with the stretches around Tarentum it shares the following
verses II. 200-202,
non liquid! gregibus fontes, non gramina deerunt,
et quantum longis carpent armenta diebus
exigua tantum gelidus ros nocte reponet.
The gad-fly about the groves of Silarus and Albernum, green
with its oaks, torments the herds, which flee in fright from the
forests and the woods, and the air and the banks of dwindling
Tanager resound to their lowing (III. 146-51). So we know
that an eye-witness is describing the old Corycian's small
farm beneath the towers of Oebalia's citadel where the dark
Galaesus waters the yellowing fields (IV. 125-6).
29 And in my head, for half the day,
The rich Vergilian rustic measure
Of Lari Maxime, all the way.
Like ballad-burthen music, kept.
16
We find, then, the mystery that stimulates the imagination,
the association to the cultured reader, often the pleasing sound
in the names of distant places that Vergil uses knowingly to
heighten his effects. Sometimes the association seems vague
and the learning a little heavy, to the modern reader at least,
but the real and vivid pictures of things nearer home and
experience relieve the mere book learning and make one less
inclined to call Vergil's use of geography Alexandrian, at least
to the point of abuse. He has more of geographical reference
than Lucretius, but not much more than Catullus, and no
more than Horace, while they all fall short of the extent to
which Propertius was imbued with love of it. The account of
the constant and wide travel over the Empire described by
Friedlaender^° makes one realize how familiar the names of
many places even far-off would be to the Roman public,
through oflBcial happenings and the common talk of the street
without any acquaintance through literature proper. Real
literature, too, in one of its most popular forms, the comedies
of Plautus and Terence, had long before taken the privilege
of wide and frequent reference to places remote from Italy in
translations and adaptations of Greek originals.^^ The
Scythians, Hyperboreans, Dacians and Iberians were beyond
the geography of Plautus and Terence, but the East and
Africa served the same purpose even then, when the touch
was more purely Alexandrian than it became after the activi-
ties of Lucullus, Pompey, Caesar and Augustus. In the
Curculio 438-48 Curculio explains why the miles has not
come in person for the meretrix: "It is only three days since
the soldier and I arrived in Caria from India; he stayed there
to have a statue of himself set up to commemorate his exploits,
because Persas, Paphlygonas, Sinopas, Arabas, Caras,
Cretanos, Syros, Rhodiam, atque Lyciam, Perediam et
»" Friedlaender, Sittengeschichte, 8te Auflage, pp. 97-292, 2ter Toil.
" C. Knapp, Travel in Ancient Times as Seen in Plautus and Terence, CI.
PhU. II. pp. 1-24. 281-304.
17
Perbibesiam, Centauromachiam et Classiam Unomammiam,
Libyamque oram omnem, omnem Conterebromniam, dimidiam
partem nationum usque omnium subegit solus intra viginti
dies." ^2 There is the same vagueness and greatness in the list
of real places, heightened and turned broadly to ridicule in
the fictitious names.
Turning to literary allusions regardless of localization,
one finds the case quite similar. Some book-gathered infor-
mation is involved in telling the story the author has made the
subject of his poem, and here Catullus again, as in the case
of geographical references occasioned by the narrative, most
shows his Alexandrianism, if such references are to be called
Alexandrian. The subject matter of poems 64, 65 and 66 is
responsible for most of the references to literature in them,
though 64 and 66 show a few of different kinds.
Lucretius naturally deems it necessary to the exposition of
his doctrine to name and refute his predecessors in the realm
of natural philosophy, so we find references to Heraclitus
(I. 638), Empedocles (I. 716), Anaxagoras (I. 830), one to
Ennius prized as the first of * us ' who sang, who brought from
lovely Helicon a wreath of never-dying leaves, to whom the
spirit of Homer spoke (I. 117). So Democritus (HI, 371, V.
622) is quoted to be refuted, and by Bahylonica Chaldaeum doc-
trina (V. 727) Berosus^^ is meant. Otherwise the nature of
Lucretius' subject calls for the fruits of his own observation, in-
vestigation and reasoning, or that of his master, which he makes
his own, and one finds no more learned allusions, except those
that are introduced for illustration and stylistic purposes.
In Horace, Book I of the Odes, there are two poems with
themes so chosen that the underlying story is presupposed
(L 10, 15). With the theme once chosen the references are
like the greater number in Catullus 64, 65, 66 — details of the
story the poet is telling.
32 Quoted by Knapp, op. cit., p. 281.
" Merrill, Lucretius, ad loc.
18
The Georgics have the same sort of references in the story
of Aristaeus in the fourth book, with all its ramifications
touching Cyrene and the Ocean nymphs, Orpheus and Eury-
dice. Such references are not stylistic, except in so far as an
author's taste runs to such themes. Again, as with localizing
allusions, the story of some deity's activities is used to name
or describe that deity, as Lucretius uses the phrase Aeneadum
genetrix in his opening line, or as Catullus names the sun in
progenies Thiae (66. 44), or describes the Eumenides (64. 193)
as
Eumenides, quibus anguino redimita capillo
frons expirantis praeportat pectoris iras.^*
So Horace frequently designates a person: in I. 17. 22-3 where
Bacchus is Semeleius Thyoneus; in I. 19. 1-2 Venus is Mater
saeva Cupidinum, and Bacchus is Thebanae Semeles puer.
Melpomene in I. 24. 4 is the daughter of Zeus, to whom he
gave the lyre and song (Compare Hesiod, Theog. 52 ff.).
Vergil uses this means of identification in Georgics 1. 19, where
uncique puer monstrator aratri denotes Triptolemus and refers
to the story of his invention of the plough and instruction of
men in agriculture. So in the naming of the stars in I. 138
(claramque Lycaonis Arcton) the story is recalled in Lycaonis,
as in the Atlantides of Eoae Atlantides (I. 221), the Gnosia of
Gnosiaque ardentis decedat stella coronae (I. 222), the Inoo of
Inoo Melicertae (I. 437) and in Tithoni of Tithoni croceum
linquens Aurora cubile (I. 447). Again, in the phrase pastor
ah Amphryso (III. 2) a story of mythology is recalled by a
localizing epithet, but these are the only cases in the Georgics.
In a poem so full of the thought of the imminence of God,
in which the country itself is divine (I. 168), and man by toil
is to thrive under divine guidance, and dare not go about his
** Compare Aesch., Coeph., 1049. Paley quotes Paus. I. 28, 6 Trpwroj 5^
ff<f>UTiv AJirxiJXos Sp6.Kovras iirol-rfffev ofwO Ta?s iv ry Ke<pa\fj dpi^lv thai- roU
5' dyd\fia<7iv oijre tovtols iiTi<TTiv ovSiv 0o/3ep6v, oUre 6aa dWa Keirai Oewv
tQv vtroyalui'.
19
duties without first worshipping and praying (I. 338-50),
in which the phenomena of nature are elevated to the rank of
divine beings and made to sympathize with man (I. 466
ille (sol) etiam exstindo miseratus Caesare Romam) and guide
him constantly, one might expect more direct appeal to the
deities, and more occasion for mythological reference, but the
very nearness of the divine to the simple man in his simple
doings makes the more elaborate appeals unnecessary.
No opportunity is lost, however, for the association of the
commonplace with the divine. Such is the constant identi-
fication of the object with the deity who presides over it,
whereby the grain is Ceres, the vine Bacchus, and the wind
that visits the fields is a personal being with intent of good or
evil. If the association is not to be made with a divine being,
then Vergil would have it with some interesting story of
mythology or history. As a means to the same creation of an
atmosphere as that gained by the constant placing of his
adjectives before his nouns,^^ the attaching of some story
to the description of the simple duties of a farmer's day, or to
the account of the humble implements whereby those duties
are to be performed gave the poet the power of dignifying
and making interesting things which from their simplicity and
frequency are apt to become mechanical and colorless. The
number of times that Vergil has availed himself in the different
parts of the Georgics of this means of occupying the mind as
well as the hand of his ploughman points likewise to his
appreciation of its usefulness. In the first book, where there
is much talk of the ground, the homely crops of grain, lupin and
bean, the fertilizing of fields, the use of the plough, ditching
and weeding, he shows some twenty-one instances of an
added story, told or suggested, to save the subject matter from
the barren commonplace. In the second book, where the
grove, the orchard and the vine are in themselves more
35 See below, pp. 29 ff.
20
beautiful and their treatment needs less adornment, he has
only half as many cases, while to lift the breeding and rearing
of cattle to the sphere of poetry in Book III he resorts again
to some twenty stories or storied references. In the last
book, aside from the myth with which it closes, he has but nine
literary references. The story of the bees becomes a sort of
microscopic epic, with the welfare of the hive for hero, as later
"si parva licet componere magnis," the glory of Rome is the
hero of the Aeneid, and they make history themselves instead
of needing references to history to give them interest.
In Lucretius, where to enliven didactic material one might
expect frequent use of literary references, there are found in
Books I, II, III, V only twenty-one cases,^^ about the number
Vergil uses in the first book alone. In I. 464 ff. Lucretius
used Helen and the Trojan war to illustrate his theory of the
nature of ' accidents ' and time. Some of his predecessors have
spoken more truly than the Pythia from the tripod and laurel
of Phoebus (I. 739), which echoes the many references in
previous literature to the garlands of bay surrounding the
priestess. It is wdth stinging thyrsus that the great hope of
praise has struck his heart (I. 922). Phoebeaque daedala
chordis carmina (II. 505) may suggest the story of Mercury's
gift of the lyre to Apollo, but it is hardly more than a hint.
So there is reference for illustration to the Chimaera (II. 705).
Man grieves not over what happened before his day, as when
the Carthaginians came for their mighty conflict (II. 833 ff.).
Tantalus, Tityos, Sisyphus are but mythical figures corre-
sponding to states on earth (III. 981 fT,). Lumina sis oculis
etiam bonus Ancu reliquit (III. 1025) echoes Ennius, and the
next verse, the thought of the Iliad, XXI. 107 (Munro, ad loc.) ;
then come Xerxes, Scipio, Homer, Democritus and Epicurus
himself, the great of the earth gone down in death (III.
s«I. 464-5. 739, 922-3; II. 505, 705; III. 833, 981 flF., 1011, 1025, 1029,
1034, 1037, 1039, 1042; V. 22 ff., 35. 112, 326, 397, 878, 1303.
21
1025-42). Hercules with the service of his labors (V. 22 ff.)
to mankind is not to be compared with Epicurus. Again, the
truth is greater than that uttered by the Pythia from the
tripod and Phoebus' laurel (V. 112). The poet sang of the
war at Thebes and at Troy (V. 326), and Greek poets of old
sang of how Phaethon was carried astray by the horses of
the sun and cast to earth by Jove (V. 397). Centaurs are
mentioned but to be denied (V. 878), and again, as in III. 833
war is the struggle with the Carthaginians (V. 1303). The
references are few, simple and broad, to stories or facts gener-
ally known. The reader's mind is never drawn aside from the
point illustrated by the illustration.
The use of such references in Catullus and Horace is more
like Vergil's own, though those of Catullus are simple and
not so frequent. There is the story of Atalanta in the unsatis-
fying close of the second poem and a reference to the wealth of
Midas (24. 4); wine k Thyonianus (27. 7); Memmius and
Piso are opprohria Romuli Remique (28. 15). Sadder than the
tears of Simonides should be the lines sent by Cornificius
(38. 8). In 58b speed is denoted by some five persons noted
for it, a passage similar to the geographical references quoted
from the eleventh poem (page 6, above). In 74. 4 Harpo-
crates represents silence, and again in 102. 4. The Epyllion
shows Syrtis, Scylla and Charybdis as monsters who might
have given Theseus birth (64. 156) ; Athens is portus Erechtheus
in 211 and sedes Erechthei in 229, while the poplar is designated
by lentaque sorore flavimati Phaethontis in 290-1. In poem 66
bonumf acinus (27) is the slaying of Demetrius of Macedonia by
Berenice; Xerxes is the Barbara inventus (45) who cut a way
through Athos for his fleet; and hidden in the uncertain verses
52-4 is some story of Memnon's brother Emathion identified
with the ostrich, or an equally recondite allusion. Horace is
fond of references to a story, and the first book of the Odes
shows some thirty cases. Often the reference is in just one
22
suggestive name, as in 1. \2 Attalicis condicionihus , 6. 2 Maeonii
carminis, 6. 6-8 graveni Pelidae stomachum, cursus duplicis
Ulixei saevam Pelopis domum, 16. 17 irae Thyesten . . . stravere,
18. 8 Centaurea cum Lapithis rixa, 24. 13 Threicio hlandius
Orpheo, 27. 19 Quanta laborabas Charybdi, 29. 14 libros Panaeti
Socraticam et dovium, 32. 5 Lesbio civi. In other cases the
story is outHned briefly, or at least some particulars are
given,^^
In the Georgics the story attaches to all sorts of objects.
The myrtle with which Caesar's brows are to be bound in his
immortality is materna, by which Vergil gives in one simple
adjective the story of the divine source of the Julian line
(I. 28). The time when Nature decreed fixed laws for definite
regions was when Deucalion cast the stones to earth from
which the durum genus was born (I. 62). The poppy that
exhausts the field's fertility is the same that is drenched with
Lethe's sleep of forgetfulness (I. 78). The farmer must have
the implements of his work, the slow-moving wains of the
Eleusinian Mother and the simple equipment that she
gave to King Celeus when she tarried in his country and
taught men agriculture; and his winnowing fan is the fan of
lacchus in the mysteries (I. 163-6). Such implements must
be handled with a new reverence.
The unlucky days of the month are so because they are the
birthdays of Orcus, the Eumenides, and the Giants whom
Jove hurled down with his bolt. Fair weather is foretold by
the flight of the hawk and the ciris, and both story and com-
position are elaborated (I. 404-9) . So Aetna's eruption entails
the story of the Cyclops (I. 471), and Rome paid the penalty
for Troy built under the cheating Laomedon (I. 502). The
poplar is the shade tree of Heracles' crown (II. 66) ; apples are
Alcinoi silvae (II. 87). The reference to Italy's great sons,
" Compare 2. 6, 7, 17; 3. 27-36; 4. 5-8; 6. 13-16; 7. 21 £f.; 8. 14; 12. 7 ff.,
19 ff.; 16. 5 ff., 13 ff., 17; 17. 16-20; 24. 18; 27. 24; 28. 7-10, 20.
23
the Decii, Marii, Camilli, the Scipios (II. 169-70) involves a
knowledge of Roman history, and Italy herself is Saturnia tellus
(II. 173). The goats must be kept from the young vines
because of the poison in their bite, and for this very reason the
goat is sacrificed to Bacchus, whereupon there follows a
description of the celebrations at the Greek and at the Italian
festivals in his honor (II. 380-96). The Italians themselves
are called Ausonii Troia gens missa coloni, to enlarge the story
still more. There are blessings from Bacchus, and blame
to be laid at his door as well, for it was he who brought death
upon the Centaurs in their conflict with the Lapiths (II. 456-
7). So, when Vergil is paying tribute to Lucretius and con-
trasting himself, he makes a reference to a theory which
Cicero traces to Empedocles (Tusc. 1. 9: Empedocles animum
esse censet cordi suffusum sanguinem), though the notion of
the heart as the seat of the intellect was common among the
Romans whether they knew Empedocles or not.^^
In announcing his subject at the opening of the third book,
Vergil cites epic themes that are outworn, Eurystheus, Busiris,
Hylas, Latonia Delos, Hippodame and Pelops, and then in
epic strain tells of the great temple of song he will rear to
Caesar's glory later. In this passage naturally there is much
story. The references to the Greek games, by which Vergil
brings his horses in touch with Pindar's famous mules, are
begun here (II. 19); all Greece will forsake the Alpheus
and the groves of the poor shepherd Molorchus, by whose
hospitality Heracles is refreshed, to yield him the victory.
Then follow Caesar's triumphs that are to be represented on
the temple, conquered nations by the Ganges and the Nile,
Parthians and the cities of Asia, Morini and Dalmatians, and
the glory of Caesar's line no less than his own, figures of
58 Compare Cic. Tusc. I. 9. 18 Aliis cor ipsum animus videtur, ex quo
excordes, vaecordes, concordesque dicuntur et Nasica ille prudens bis consul
Corculum et egregie cordatus homo, catus Aelius Sextus. Compare also such
phrases as sapere corde, Plant. Mil. 2. 3. 65. Lucr. I. 737, V. 1107.
24
Assaracus and the Jove-descended race, and of Troy's builder,
Cynthius (III. 26-36).
From these things Cithaeron and Epidaurus call him
(III. 44), and he turns to his more immediate task of breeding
horses to win the prizes at Olympia (III. 49). The war horse
is like Cyllarus who was obedient to Pollux' reins, or the
horses of Mars and Achilles (III. 90-1) mentioned in the
Iliad (XV. 119, XVI. 148), or like the spirited steed into
which Saturn turned himself and filled Pelion with his neighing
(III. 92-94). Then follows a description of the race, and
how Erichthonius first yoked to his chariot four horses, and
the Lapiths taught fighting on horseback (III. 113-5). The
horse sprung from Neptune himself will not serve if he be not
young (III. 122); one must protect the herds from the gad-
fly which Juno made to torment Inachus' child (III. 153); the
spotted lynxes even in their wild state belong to Bacchus with
the associations of the East (III. 264), and the madness of
the mares is Venus-sent, since the time when Glaucus' horses
tore him and ate his flesh in frenzy (III. 267). If one prizes
fleece, let his rams be white, as white as the fleece Pan donned
to attract Luna (III. 391-3), as Nicander told (Servius ad
loc). When the plague had fallen upon the beasts, oxen were
sought in vain for Juno's rites, and the cars were drawn by
buffaloes ill-matched (III. 533), though Herodotus says the
priestess' sons drew the car (I. 31). The story in the verse
Phillyrides Chiron Amythaoniusque Melampus (III. 550) is
only secondary, for the imposing sound of the names would
make one despair of finding a remedy when such men had
failed. Tisiphone as the death goddess of the plague borne
along by Fear and Disease thrusts up her greedy face higher
day by day (III. 552-3), and so the death of the dumb beasts
is dignified by this goddess embodiment of terror.
There is less of the story attached to ordinary objects in
the fourth book, but here the birds are not to come near the
25
bee hives, not even Procne staining her breast with bloody
hands (IV. 15). The old Corycian, whose charming garden
Vergil saw, is dignified by the ancient greatness of his town,
founded by Spartans of the race of King Oebalus (IV. 125).
Jupiter gave the bees their praiseworthy customs, and gave
them in gratitude for their feeding him in the cave of Dicte
when they followed the songs and cymbals of the Curetes
(IV. 1 50-2) . The bees work as the Cyclopes do beneath Aetna
(IV. 17 ff.), but their dwellings are no more free from pests
than was man's granary, and Minerva's spider Arachne
builds her web across their doors (IV. 246-7). Within the
story of Orpheus, among those weeping for Eurydice is
Thrace, the land of Rhesus (though he was king after Orpheus'
day) (IV. 462) ; the Hebrus, down which Orpheus' head was
rolled, is the stream his father Oeagrus beheld (IV. 524).
The home wherein Vergil learnt the charm upon which his
fame was to rest was named for a Siren, Parthenope (IV. 564).
II
Word Order
Word order is a potent factor in the production of stylistic
effect. All sorts of shades of meaning and emotion are
possible from the different arrangements of the words in a
sentence, and much of an author's power is discernible through
a study of the relative positions of his w^ords. The position
of adjective and noun, with regard to each other and with
regard to their place in the verse, that of verbs, especially
with regard to the verse, the carrying over of words or phrases
from one verse to another for special effect, the placing of
words side by side according to the principles of likeness or
contrast, all point to conscious elaboration of word order
that throws light upon the author's artistic creed.
In general, as regards the position of noun and adjective,
the first place falls to the adjective, in prose as well as in
poetry. In Cicero's fourth Philippic the ratio is 93 : 59, and
in Livy I. 1-7, 136 : 73. This order is discussed by Herbert
Spencer in his essay on style.^^ " Ought we to say with the
French — un cheval noir; or to say as we do — a black horse?
Probably, most persons of culture will say that one order is as
good as the other. Alive to the bias produced by habit, they
will ascribe to that the preference they feel for our own form
of expression. They will expect those educated in the use
of the opposite form to have an equal preference for that.
And thus they will conclude that neither of these instinctive
judgments is of any worth. There is, however, a psychological
ground for deciding in favor of the English custom. If "a
horse black" be the arrangement, then immediately on the
" Herbert Spencer, Philosophy of Style, p. 16.
27
utterance of the word "horse," there arises, or tends to arise,
in the mind, an idea answering to that word; and as there has
been nothing to indicate what kind of horse, any image of a
horse suggests itself. Very Hkely, however, the image will
be that of a brown horse: brown horses being the most familiar.
The result is that when the word "black" is added, a check
is given to the process of thought. Either the picture of a
brown horse already present to the imagination has to be
suppressed, and the picture of a black one summoned in its
place; or else, if the picture of a brown horse be yet unformed,
the tendency to form it has to be stopped. Whichever is the
case, some hindrance results. But if, on the other hand,
"a black horse" be the expression used, no mistake can be
made. The word "black," indicating an abstract quality,
arouses no definite idea. It simply prepares the mind for
conceiving some object of that color; and the attention is kept
suspended until that object is known. If, then, by precedence
of the adjective, the idea is always conveyed rightly, whereas
precedence of the substantive is apt to produce a miscon-
ception; it follows that the one gives the mind less trouble than
the other, and is therefore more forcible."
Norden notes the same tendency for the hexameter of the
Aeneid.''° When the two bound a verse, or when they occur
in interlocked order, Norden observes that the adjective pre-
cedes in an overwhelming number of cases, and attributes the
position to care that the verse should not fall away too much
at the end. To compensate for the falling rhythm the weight
of the idea, he argues, should occupy this part of the verse,
and under normal circumstances the substantive contains the
weight. The same arrangement holds true when the noun
and attribute are separated by the verse-end, and Norden
attributes this to the fact that the substantive bears the
main idea; did this occur in the preceding verse, there would
" Norden, Comm. to Aen. VI., Anhang III. pp. 382-391.
28
be nothing, he maintains, to make the reader expect a qualifying
attribute to follow. Cases of the reversal of the position may
all, according to him, be referred to a desire for a specific
effect, and they occur generally when the attribute and not
the substantive contains the important idea.
From Norden's viewpoint— the proper balancing of the verse
as regards rhythm and content— the position of the sub-
stantive and attribute becomes almost a mechanical fixity of
the rhythmical structure. In the case of the two separated
by the verse-end, however, he does bring forward the principle
that is made the basis of the position by Spencer. According
to him economy of the reader's mental energy is the reason
why the position of the adjective before the noun is the most
reasonable and effective. The substantive, though it be
general, is conceived as a particular, and if its qualification is
not indicated to the mind before the concept is formed, there
will in the great majority of cases have to be a readjustment
of concept, and so a waste of mental energy. By the pre-
cedence of the adjective the idea is conveyed "without liability
to error . . . , gives the mind less trouble and is therefore
more forcible."
The attribute preceding the substantive is one phase of the
so-called ascending order, which Henri Weil thinks tends in
general to unity of thought expression, while the descending
order tends to analysis and particularity .« He thinks there
is closer thought connection between the substantive and its
modifier when the latter precedes than when it follows, and
in commending the French language for its elasticity of usage,
despite its avowed preference for the descending construction,
he notes that poetic epithets and those that are addressed
chiefly to the imagination are usually placed before the
substantive."" This observation in the case of the French
" Henri Weil, Order of Words in the Ancient Languages Compared with the
Modern. Translated by C. W. Super.
« Weil, op. cit., p. 61.
29
language, where the choice of ascending or descending con-
struction is not so free, yet furnishes a basis of distinction
between the two positions that may hold true for Latin, where
the choice is much freer, a distinction plainly discernible
in the Georgics as a whole.
Norden's explanation of the position does not go deep
enough. The relation between the two words involved is one
of thought rather than an artificial compensating for the
falling rhythm of the dactylic hexameter. In the iambic
verse of Horace's Epodes, where there is no falling rhythm,
the same arrangement of the adjective and noun is noted,
the ratio being 330 : 137 in 448 verses, about 2^ : 1- The
iambic verse of Catullus shows the same arrangement, though
the proportion is less, 117 : 66 in 181 verses, a little less than
2:1. This agrees very closely with the proportion in 500
verses of Ovid's Metamorphoses III, the ratio being 362 : 196,
while Aeneid II, written in descending rhythm, as are the
Metamorphoses, shows 678 : 342, a little less than 2 : 1 again.
In view of Horace's use in ascending iambic rhythm, which
excedes that of the Metamorphoses or of the Aeneid, the theory
of compensation for falHng dactyhc rhythm seems quite inade-
quate. Spencer's view gives the psychological basis for Weil's
observations, although Spencer emphasizes the advisability
of the ascending construction between modifier and substan-
tive for all cases. Growing out of the quality-concept theory
of Spencer, and, in the Georgics especially, agreeing with the
observation of Weil, is the effect of creating for the nouns, so
many of which in this poem are homely and unpoetic words,
an atmosphere of color, sound, beauty, happiness so appropri-
ate that it takes into itself as its proper support the homely
substantive when it comes, and has already invested it with a
charm which it might be difficult to add once it had come
forward in its prosaic aspect. If it was Vergil's purpose in
the Georgics not so much to write a practical manual for
so
farmers, as to invest the time-honored work of the farmer with
all the charm and interest that could be brought to bear upon
it, to sing the poetry of the simplest activities of daily life^
in an occupation being steadily more and more disregarded by
his countrymen, such a means toward elevating his subject to
the sphere of poetry as this creation of an atmosphere by the
arrangement of his words could hardly have failed to be
evolved, had not the exegencies of his meter and the proper
formation of concepts and close connection of thought already
assured it to him.
A passage illustrating the effect of this arrangement is
G. III. 286ff.:
superat pars altera curae,
lanigeros agitare greges hirtasque capellas.
hie labor, hinc laudem fortes sperate coloni.
nee sum animi dubius verbis ea vincere magnum
quam sit et angustis hunc addere rebus honorem.
He knew his task was difficult, but even in this partial index
he relied on a trusted means of securing charm, and thought it
worth while to present the soft white of lanigeros and the
picturesque shagginess of hirtas to the reader's mind before
he showed the sheep and goats, while the simple farmers must
be fortes, raised at once to a dignity often not seen in their
calling. The passage III. 322-38 shows the same means for
the creation of an atmosphere.
at vero zephyris cum laeta vocantibua aestas
in saltus utrumque gregem atque in pascua mittet,
Luciferi primo cum sidere frigida rura
carpamus, dum mane novum, dum gramina canent
et ros in tenera pecori gratissimus herba.
« Walter Pater speaks of the same qualities of charm and interest inherent
in ordinary things being recovered for Marius (Marius, the Epicurean, p. 17)
"And those simple gifts, like other objects as trivial — bread, oil, wine, and
milk — had regained for him, by their use in such religious service, that poetic
and as it were, moral significance, which surely belongs to all the means of our
daily life, could we but break through the veil of our familiarity with things by
no means vulgar in themselves."
31
inde ubi quarta sitim caeli collegerit hora
et cantu querulae rumpunt arbusta cicadae,
ad puteos aut alta greges ad stagna iubebo
currentem ilignis potare canalibus undam;
aestibus at mediis umbrosam exquirere vallem,
eicubi magna lovis antique robore quercus
ingentis tendat ramos, aut sicubi nigrum
ilicibus crebris sacra nemus accubet umbra;
turn tenuis dare rursus aquas et pascere rursua
solis ad occasum, cum frigidus aera vesper
temperat, et saltus reficit iam roscida luna,
litoraque alcyonen resonant, acalanthida dumi.
If the goatherd thought of his duties on a summer day as
Vergil has depicted them here, he was a blessed co-heir of an
almost perfect universe. Throughout the passage the adjec-
tives precede the nouns, except in the phrases ros gratissimus,
where the adjective in close junction with pecori indicates a
charm in addition to that of ros; aestibus mediis, where the
functions of noun and adjective as regards the general and
the specific are reversed (the adjective particularizing the
general concept in aestibus); and ilicibus crebris, for the
arrangement of which there seems to be no stylistic cause,
unless it be variety. In the first book the plough-share is
polished in the furrow until it flashes in the light (I. 46 attritus
splendescere vomer). So there is a hugeness of the harvest
before it comes (I. 49 immensae messes), and there is mystery
in the unbroken ground {ignotum aequor) and fickleness in the
heaven's way {varium morem), and an assurance gained by
our fathers in the cultivation of a plot (patrios cultus). In-
stances could be multiplied, for there are almost three times
as many adjectives preceding their nouns in the first book of
the Georgics as there are following them (472 : 166). Such a
large proportion, as compared with the ratio noted in Cicero
and Livy, would point to some underlying cause, not to be
found in Norden's assumption of the need of weight in the
latter half of the hexameter, but more probably in the advan-
tage of going from a less to a more specific idea, and the height-
32
ening of picturesqueness, which we discover in the poem,
whether it be conscious or not. The smaller proportion in
Ovid's Metamorphoses and in Aeneid II — where the incidents
themselves are more lively and poetic — points likewise to
Vergil's appreciation of this means of compensating for
unpoetic material.
This relative position is also true when the adjective and
substantive are put at the beginning and the close of a verse.
In the Georgics there are only four cases of this kind where
the adjective follows (II. 74, III. 83, IV. 15, 91), and one of
these shows interlocked order with another pair.
The opening and closing of a verse with attribute and
substantive occurs frequently enough for one to infer that
Vergil was conscious of its power to bind a verse together
and give prominence to the words so placed, but the number of
verses so arranged^ is not large enough to warrant calling the
usage a mannerism. Of the verses noted almost half in each
book are cases where another noun and attribute are included
between the opening and closing pair, and here the arrange-
ment has the adjective now preceding, now following, the
preference being still given to the former position. There are
lines like I. 66
pulverulenta coquat maturis solibus aestas,
or like I. 81,
efifetos cinerem immundum iactare per agros,
four of each in the first book, while the second shows ten
of the first type to one of the second, the third, seven to one,
and the fourth, eight to four. In some cases other principles
are involved in the placing, as, for example, in I. 66, quoted
above. Verse 65 reads
fortes invertant tauri, glaebasque iacentis
and the drawing of pulverulenta to the opening of the following
« In Book I. 21; in II. 22; in III. 15; in IV, 24.
33
verse makes it do duty as qualifying glaebas even more than
aestas in sense. The heat is to cook the clods until they
crumble to dust. I. 224,
invitae properes anni spem credere terrae,
may quite as well owe its arrangement to the idea of contrast
in the juxtaposition of invitae and properes as to the separation
of noun and attribute at the verse ends. I. 510,
vicinae ruptis inter se legibus urbes,
is open to the same influence, as is III. 153,
Inachiae luno pestem meditata iuvencae.
IV. 438 vix defessa senem passus componere membra
shows defessa and senem side by side, with heightened effect
from the principle of likeness rather than contrast.
There are many verses in the Georgics containing two
substantives and two attributes, and the arrangements of the
four words vary much. This use of pairs of words is but the
appearance in verse of the same tendency seen in prose that
gives the second noun an attribute because the first has one.
It belongs to the cultivation of balance, begun as early as
Gorgias in the study of artistic prose discourse.^^ Cicero's
prose is full of it,"*^ and the placing of the adjective sometimes
produces as marked rhetorical effect as is to be found in poetry.
Norden quotes^'^ Cat. 1. 1 cum ilium ex occultis insidiis in
apertum latrocinium coniecimus; Att. 7. 3 vetere instituto
vitae effugit nova pericula. Add to these Pro Sestio, 2. 5 . . .
*^ Octave Navarre, Essai sur la rhStorique grecque avant Aristote, pp. 92-
111, traces the use of metaphors, figures of harmony, word order, and repetition,
the innovations that Gorgias brought into prose from poetry, employed to a
small extent in Aeschylus and more in Sophocles. Norden attributes the usage
in Latin poetry to the influence of rhetorical prose (Comm. to Aen. VI. Anhang
III. p. 386. Fridericus Caspari, however, De ratione quae inter Vergilium
et Lucanum intercedat quaestiones selectae, p. 88, refers it to Alexandrian
poetry. See also Norden, Kunstprosa, pp. 16, 75 ff.
« Norden, Comm. to Aen. VI. Anhang III. pp. 386-7.
*'' Norden, Comm. to Aen. VI. Anhang III. p. 387.
34
priusquam docuero quibus initiis ac fundamentis haec tantae
summis in rebus laudes excitatae sunt; 3. 8 ut et illi quaestor
bonus omnibus optimus civis videretur; 7. 15 et multorum
timore intentus est arcus in me unum.
In the Georgics there have been noted the verses in which
the two adjectives occur first, separated by some word or
words from the two nouns to follow. There are many of this
type:^^ compare, for example,
III. 514 discissos nudis laniabant dentibus artus
III. 178 sed tota in dulcis consument ubera natos
I. 361 cum medio celeres revolant ex aequore mergi
IV. 417 dulcis compositis spLravit crinibus aura . . .
Modifications of this arrangement occur, where the adjectives
still precede but no verb occurs, or where one noun precedes
the verb, or where one adjective follows, etc., as in the following
instances:
I. 291 et quidam seros hiberni ad luminis ignis
I. 265 atque Amerina parant lentae retinacula viti
IV. 468 et caligantem nigra formidine lucum
IV. 488 cum subita incautum dementia cepit amantem.
Such an arrangement, in which both adjectives come before
both nouns, is b}- far the most common for a verse containing
two pairs of substantives and attributes, except for the
arrangement in which the adjective and the noun belonging
together both occur before the other pair is introduced.
Even here the two classes approach each other very closely
numerically. In Book I the number of cases of the two
types is the same, in IV there are three more of the former
type (57 : 54) ; in II and III the ratio is 43 : 65 and 42 : 60.
The reverse of this arrangement, two nouns followed by
two adjectives, is very rare, occurring in all four books of
the Georgics only twenty-two times. There is the "Golden"
type, as, II. 387
oraque corticibus sumunt horrenda cavatis
« In Bk. I, 47; Bk. II. 43; Bk. III. 42; Bk. IV. 57.
35
or HI. 386 ,,.^ ,^
continuoque greges villis lege moUibus albos,
and a variety of arrangements not strictly "Golden," as,
II 527
ipse dies agitat festos fususque per herbam
or 11. 461,
si non ingentem foribus domus alta superbis
or II. 40,
decus, o f amae merito pars maxima nostrae
or I. 476-7,
vox quoque per lucos vulgo exaudita silentis
ingens, et simulacra modis pallentia miris.
With as definite an artistic purpose behind it is the verse
that shows the interlocked order of the pairs, where the
adjective of one group and the noun of the other precede, or
vice versa. Examples are :
I. 467 cum caput obscura nitidum ferrugine texit
II 31 truditur e sicco radix oleagina ligno.
II". 89 non eadem arboribus pendet vindemia nostris
III. 254 flumina correptosque unda torquentia montis
IV 34 seu lento fuerint alvaria vimine texta
IV. 190 in noctem, fessosque sopor suus occupat artus.
Such verses are numerous,^ but in many of them, as for that
matter in all the classes, there are often other prmciples
at work as well, such as likeness or contrast, and consider-
ations of rhyme and euphony.
The last arrangement of noun and substantive within the
verse covers the cases where two pairs occur, but the first
noun has its own adjective before the other pair is begun.
Both adjectives may precede their respective nouns, as in
IV. 82 . . . -u V
ipsi per medias acies msigmbus aiis,
both may follow, as in III. 231
frondibus hirsutis et carice pastus acuta,
" In Bk. I, 22 times; II. 31; III, 22; IV, 25.
36
or one may precede and one follow, as in III. 243
et genus aequoreum, pecudes, pictaeque volucres. . .
The second type is of less frequent occurrence, while the
other two vary little in their statistics, except in the first book,
where the ratio is 24 : 17 in favor of both adjectives preceding
their nouns. In view of the great tendency of the single
adjective to precede, the frequent arrangement of the two
pairs so that one attribute follows seems a distinct concession
to artistic placing, despite the easy and natural impulse of
the mind to chiasmus.
The frequency of Vergil's use of such pairs of noun and
adjective is, as one would expect, intermediate between the
usage of authors who have almost none of it and those who
use it to excess. The arrangement is practically unknown in
Ennius, occurs rarely in Lucretius, to excess in Catullus 64,
and more often in the Bucolics and Georgics than in the
Aeneid.^°
In a different sphere of composition Plautus shows the same
sort of artistic word order .^^ Leo in an article on word order
in Plautus deals first with the position of prepositions and
nouns and groups that were, or were on their way to becoming,
fixed. But beyond this he gives instances of interlocked
order as an artistic means in Plautus' poetry, as it became
one of the most important means in the poetry of the Augustan
age. He assigns the development of this order to the tendency
of like parts of speech to juxtaposition, as also of words from
the same root, and of words from different roots with similar
" Norden, Comm. to Aen. VI. Anhang III. p. 385, where the investigation
is made for cases of both adjectives preceding the nouns. Cf . Fridericus Caspari,
op. cit., p. 88 for a table giving ratios of the proportional use of the arrangement
by Vergil's predecessors and his followers — Ennius, A. 1: 428; Lucretius, I. VI.
1:140; Cicero, Aratea, 1:13; Catullus, 64, 1:7; Vergilius, A. I, VI. 1:43; Georg.,
I : IV, 1 : 16 ; Bucolics, 1:21, Ovidius, Met. 1.1:18; Lucanus, 1.11.111.1:9; Silius,
I. 1: 13; Val. Fl. I. 1: 18; Statius, Th.. I. 1: 15.
" F. Leo, Bemerkungen iiber plautinische Wortstellung und Wortgruppea,
Gott. Nacht., 51, pp. 415-33.
37
or contrasted meaning. He quotes a case in Umbrian, and
for words of similar and contrasted meaning, the Scipio
inscription, hone oino ploirume . . . duonoro optumo. In the
ancient Latin language it is above all the pronouns which
are thus brought together, but the same principle evolves the
interlocked order of noun and adjective. In addition to the
statistics given by Caspari, there are studies of this interlocked
order of adjective and substantive which show that it is of
frequent occurrence in Horace.^^ In the elegiac poets it is
found to amount to one in five verses in Tibullus, one in four
in Propertius, and one to four in Ovid.^^ These poets even
exceed Catullus' frequent use in the sixty-fourth poem, al-
though the investigation covered more arrangements for the
elegiac poets than Caspari, following Norden, included in his
estimate for Catullus.
So far the discussion has been restricted to the verse, but
Vergil's construction is frequently " run-on "^^ and there are
many cases where the verse-end divides substantive and
attribute. Sometimes the noun is divided from one or more
adjectives, sometimes one of the more elaborate arrangements
of pairs discussed above is thus broken. Frequently in the
third and fourth books (twenty times in each), where there
are more cases (85 and 66 as opposed to 45 in I and 45 in II)
of noun and substantive separated by verse-end, do we find
the noun preceding, sometimes with other attributes in its
own verse, as,
III. 66-7 optima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus aevi
prima fugit
III. 245-6 tempore non alio catulorum oblita leaena
saevior erravit campis,
III. 425-6 est etiam ille malus Calabris in saltibus anguis
squamea convolvens sublato pectore terga.
'2 H. Eggers, De ordine et figuris verborum quibus Horatius in carminibus
U3U3 est, pp. 68-73. Also B. Born, Programm der Domschule zu Magdeburg
1891, treats special odes with reference to word order.
w Walter Gebhard, De Tibulli Propertii Ovidii distichis. See table at end.
" 175 verses, one third of the total in Bk. I are so constructed.
38
Sometimes the noun itself finishes a verse, but begins a new
clause, as,
III. 224-5 nee mors bellantis una stabulare, sed alter
victus abit longeque ignotis exsulat oris
III. 546-7 ipsis et aer avibus non aequus, et illae
praecipites alta vitara sub nube relinquunt.
IV. 53-5 illae continue saltus silvasque peragrant
purpureosque metunt flores et flumina libant
summa leves.
The last passage shows extreme separation in illae leves, and
summa separated from flumina and drawn by the principle of
likeness to leves}^ In general the noun and the adjective are
no farther apart than the limit of two verses, and they fre-
quently occupy corresponding positions in the two, as,
II. 308-9 et totum involvit flammis nemus et ruit atram
ad caelum picea crassus caligine nubem
II. 80-1 plantae immittuntur: nee longum tempus et ingens
exiit ad caelum ramis felicibus arbos
II. 458-9 O fortunatos, nimium, sua si bona norint,
agricolas! quibus . . .
(Compare I. 331-2, 476-7.)
There are cases of the interlocked order of substantive and
attribute carried across the verse-end, as,
I. 485-6 aut puteis manare cruor cessavit, et altae
per noetem resonare lupis ululantibus urbes.
I- 487-8 non alias caelo ceciderunt plura sereno
fulgura nee diri totiens arsere cometae.
IV. 268-9 arentisque rosas, aut igni pinguia multo
defruta vel psithia passos de vite racemos.
There are many cases of two adjectives in the first verse
belonging to two nouns in the second, as,
III. 506-7 spiritus, interdum gemitu gravis, imaque longo
ilia singultu tendunt, it naribus ater
I. 338-9 in primis venerare deos, atque annua magnae
sacra refer Cereri laetis operatus in herbis
II. 190-1 hie tibi praevalidas olim multoque fluentis
sufficiet Baccho vitis, hie fertilis uvae . . .
» Compare IV. 317-9, Aristaeus tristis and 322-4 me invisum.
(Compare 1. 14-15, 357-8, 371-2; II. 262-3; III. 354-5, 376-7,
442-3; IV. 127-8, 140-1.)
This naturally brings the discussion to the use Vergil makes
of single words or short phrases carried over into the succeeding
verse, followed by a marked pause. This, of course, has a
different effect from the simple run-on construction of two or
more verses, where the whole, or at least a larger part, of the
following verse is included in the original sentence. This
pause is used with various effects,^^ but the one effect inherent
in the pause is emphasis by the somewhat unexpected check
to the flow of the verse so soon after its beginning. The com-
bined effect of this emphasis with the meaning of the words
themselves so placed gives the heightened force of suddenness,
excitement, or dead check so often noted in connection with
the use of the pause.
In the Georgics examples of such words or short phrases
carried over with pause are numerous, as,
I. 107-10 et, cum exustus ager morientibus aestuat herbis,
ecce supercilio clivosi tramitis undam
elicit? ilia cadens raucum per levia murmur
eaxa ciet, scatebrisque arentia temperat arva.
Here elicit by its position indicates the sudden burst of the
water over the rocks (saxa ciet, with its pause, marking another
less striking stage in its course) .^^ In I. 126-7
ne signare quidem aut partiri limite campum
fas erat:
the position oifas erat gives heightened emphasis to the moral
right that was violated by the division and marking of fields.^^
" S. E. Winbolt, Latin Hexameter Verse, pp. 10 ff., notes the effect of
emphasis, of suddenness or rapidity, of variety in the rhythm, of tragic excite-
ment, scorn, indignation, a dead check, etc., gained in this way.
" Compare 1. 326, diluit; 333, deicit. II. 210, 283, 368, 510. III. 67, 111, 198,
277, 422, 446-7, 543. IV. 79, 173, 189, 313, 351, 410, 440, 555.
68 Compare I. 236, 456, 477; II. 16, 144, 147, 311, 406; III. 41, 101, 173, 192,
227, 259, 343, 364, 389, 508; IV. 22. 32, 61, 98, 107, 192, 204, 212, 226, 309, 356,
391, 483, 493, 515, 540, 542.
40
In I. 133-4
ut varias usus meditando extunderet artia
paulatim, ....
similar is the position of paulatim. Though the pause is not
so heavy, and is followed immediately by et, joined even more
closely to the adverb by elision, still the slow progress in
man's art of farming is dragged on by the adverb reserved to
the end of its clause and opening a new verse with quite a
perceptible pause following. It is again the same note as the
durum genus of I. 63, and the frequent labor, lahores hominum-
que boumque, and (II. 401) redit agricolis labor actus in orbem,
and again (II. 513) agricola incurvo terram dimovit aratro with
its calm slow-moving inevitable round after the varied and
turbulent business of the men who care not for the glory of
the divine country. In I. 150-3
mox et frumentis labor additus, ut mala culmos
esset robigo segnisque horreret in arvis
carduus;
carduus effectively stops progress with its prickly, clinging
shoots. There is the death of the crops and the rise of an
unruly kingdom of outlaws that tend to twine themselves into
a veritably impassable thicket with the -que's of the next
verse,
lappaeque tribolique interque nitentia culta
infelix lolium et steriles dominantur avenae.
I. 463-4 solem quis dicere falsum
audeat ?
gives by position an emphasis and bold defiance to audeat
that would force humbled credence for the miracles to follow.
So in the passage 11. 88-90
ergo non hiemes illam, non flabra neque imbres
convellunt : immota manet multosque nepotes
convellunt gives a most effective pause after the spondaic
opening to denote resistence to motion, the notion of the
slow-dragging paulatim noted above.^®
" Compare I. 241; II. 352, 381; III. 424, 506, 510, 512; IV. 196, 311, 515.
41
In many other verses where there is a similar structure the
pause serves merely a rhythmical purpose, or to give the
necessary stop for both thought and voice after two or more
run-on verses. The pause in itself need have no rhetorical
significance, though it is a valuable aid along with the other
means for various effects.
Of the phrases so carried over into a new verse verbs, or
verbs and a modifier, are of most frequent occurrence (177
out of 275 cases), doubtless because of the definite tendency
of the verb in Latin toward the last of the sentence; and
many of the cases that show no rhetorical purpose are of this
nature. It is the use of the verb in this position, however,
that often denotes suddenness or slowness of action. If a
noun, adjective, or adverb is so placed, there is an emphasis
thrown upon it that may enhance the meaning of the verb,
but more often brings into prominence some other idea.
Particularly effective is this position for a vocative, and so it
occurs frequently :
II. 96 et quo te carmine dicam
Rhaetica?
II. 41 Maecenas, pelagoque volans da vela patent!
I. 14 tuque o, cui prima frementem
fudit equum magno tellus percussa tridenti,
Neptune ;
I. 17 ipse nemus linqueps patrium saltusque Lycaei
Pan, ovium custos, tua si tibi Maenala curae.
Some importance attaches to the position of the verb as often
the most telling word of the sentence. In addition to the
tendency just noted for the verb to constitute the run-on part
of the clause, there is the balance of verbs complementary to
each other, or contrasted, for the full expression of a thought.
Such verbs are put into the prominent positions of opening
and closing a verse, an arrangement which is often chiastic,
the two subjects being thrown together within the verse. The
same position of the verbs without chiasmus appears also,
42
especially when the opening verb is brought over from the
preceding verse. Infinitives are so balanced in
I. 130 praedarique lupos iussit pontumque moveri
III. 191 carpere mox gyrum incipiat gradibusque sonare.
Thus the vivid present tenses of description are placed,
III. 232 et tempt at sese atque irasci in cornua discit
II. 503 sollicitant alii remis freta caeca, ruuntque
IV. 256 exportant tectis et tristia funera ducunt . . .
(Compare III. 375. IV. 57, 104, 157, 172, 196, 202, 311, 456.)
But there is no restriction on the tense or mode, subjunctives,
perfect indicatives, especially the shortened forms, (III. 378,
IV. 204) and gerundives being freely used. (Compare I. 149,
350, 419; 11. 62, 166, 366, 371, 418, 477; III. 137.) Sometimes
the same arrangement is made for the clause, though another
word opens the verse, I. 479,
infandum! sistunt amnes terraeque dehiscunt,
a repetition of the same device shown in the participles of the
preceding verse,
. . . et simulacra modis pallentia miris
visa sub obscurum noctis, pecudesque locutae.
As is to be expected, the verbs so placed are generally pictur-
esque ones. There seems to be no case of esse, habere, venire,
ire, though det and dicat of I. 350
quam Cereri torta redimitus tempora quercu
det motus incompositos et carmina dicat
are colorless enough. Colorless also are stat and dicit of
IV. 356
tristis Aristaeus Penei genitoria ad undam
stat lacrimans, et te crudelem nomine dicit.
So, too, is one of the pair in IV. 402
cum sitiunt herbae et pecori iam gratior umbra est.
This balance is but carried a step further when the construction
runs over two verses, and one opens and the other closes
with a verb.
43
So 11. 51-2
exuerint silvestrem animum, cultuque frequent!
in quascumque voles artis haud tarda sequentur.
II. 510-11 corripuit; gaudent perfusi sanguine fratrum,
exsilioque domos et dulcia limina mutant
is essentially the same, despite the opening corripuit brought
over from the preceding verse with heightened effect for the
preceding clause. Note also II. 294-5 quoted above and
IV. 19-20
at liquidi fontes et stagna virentia musco
adsint et tenuis fugiens per gramina rivus,
palmaque vestibulum aut ingens oleaster inumbret.
Sometimes by opening consecutive verses with verbs
attention is caught, and the same thing is true of closing con-
secutive verses with them, though this is not so frequent an
arrangement as the preceding. Thus are placed vidi and
degenerare of I. 197-8
vidi lecta diu et multo spectata labore
degenerare tamen, ni vis humana quotannis . . .
Note also the three verses I. 418-20
verum ubi tempestas et caeli mobilis umor
mutavere vices et luppiter uvidus Austris
denset erant quae rara modo, et quae densa relaxat,
vertuntur species animorum et pectora motus
nunc alios, alios dum nubila ventus agebat,
concipiunt :
and the closing verses of the first book, 513-4
addunt in spatio, et frustra retinacula tendens
fertur equis auriga neque audit currus habenas.
(Compare II. 81-2, 330-1 ; III. 433-4, 446-7, 458-9; IV. 162-4,
330-1.) Examples of consecutive verses ending with verbs are
I. 300-1 frigoribus parto agricolae plerumque fruuntur
mutuaque inter se laeti convivia curant,
II. 479-80 unde tremor terris, qua vi maria alta tumescant
obicibus ruptis rursusque in se ipsa residant,
IV. 237-8 morsibus inspirant, et spicula caeca relinquunt
affixae venis, animasque in vulnere ponunt.
44
(Compare I. 195-6; II. 266-8, 407-9; III. 501-2; IV. 225-6,
504-5, 545-6.)
There are found verses one of which opens with a verb,
while the other both opens and closes with verbs, or where
the verse with two verbs comes first and the second closes with
one, as,
II. 218-9 quae tenuem exhalat nebulam fumosque volucris,
et bibit umorem et, cum vult, ex se ipsa remittit,
quaeque suo semper viridi se gramine vestit,
IV. 514-5 flet noctem, ramoque sedens miserabile carmen
integrat, et maestis late loca questibus implet.
(Compare I. 148-9; III. 232-3; IV. 103-4.) Sometimes the
arrangement is varied by an intervening verse with no verb,
or with a verb within the verse, as,
III. 551-3 saevit et in lucem Stygiis emissa tenebris
pallida Tisiphone Morbos agit ante Metumque,
inque dies avidum surgens caput altius effert.
368-70 intereunt pecudes, stant circumfusa pruinis
corpora magna boum, confertoque agmine cervi
torpent mole nova et sim[imis vix cornibus exstant.
IV. 51-4 shows four verses balanced in pairs with closing
verbs,
quod superest, ubi pulsam hiemem Sol aureus egit
sub terras caelumque aestiva luce reclusit,
illae continue saltus silvasque peragrant
purpureosque metunt flores et flumina libant.
In comparison, however, with the elaborate interweaving
of substantives and attributes, the cases of rhetorical manipu-
lation of the verb are few. Despite the genius of the Latin
language for descriptive verbs, such a poem as the Georgics
would naturally depend more upon the nouns and adjectives
for color and richness of effect. The things Vergil is talking
of need to be raised to an unwonted dignity and liveliness,
and there is more flexibility for shades of meaning in sub-
stantive and attribute than in a verb. Note the proportion
of substantive with or without attribute to corresponding
45
verb in the expressions for a few ideas of frequent occurrence.
Cursus occurs eight times, currere four times (three times as
participle used as adjective); arafrum, thirteen times, arator,
four times, arare, four times; semen, eleven times, severe as
verb, twelve times (as substantive the participle appears ten
times); labor, thirty-four times, lahorare, once (the participle
is used as substantive).
For the position of words regardless of verse structure the
principles of likeness or contrast in the thought often seem to
be the guide. Frequently one word borrows reflected quality
from its neighbor, though the neighbor may be construed with
an entirely different word in the sentence. If Herbert
Spencer's reasoning, quoted above (p. 26) with regard to the
position of noun and adjective, is correct, such interweaving
of impressions in any language where the structure is periodic
to the extent that it is in Latin is imperative. When once
this fact is grasped, the writer has at hand a means for all sorts
of subtle shading and enriching of an impression beyond the
inherent meaning of his words and their grammatical con-
nection in the sentence. While the mind is holding qualities
and concepts in suspension, the reflected light of one upon
another will largely create the atmosphere of the picture.
So attritus and splendescere side by side heighten the impression
of gleam in I. 46
ingemere, et sulco attritus splendescere vomer.
In sol aureus astra (I. 232) the juxtaposition of aureus and
astra sheds a golden light on the twelve constellations through
which the sun moves, as nigrum and obscuro in I. 428
si nigrum obscuro comprenderit aera cornu
serve to reinforce the darkness of the sky and the mistiness
of the crescent.
Munera and supplex (IV. 534) have a natural attraction for
each other in the ideas of Roman religion. So the adjectives
46
of size tend to come together by likeness, as in IV. 366 omnia
per magna, 560 magnm ad altum, III. 238 longius ex altoque;
adjectives of similar meaning come together, as in IV. 337
nitidam per Candida, 425 torrens sitientis, II. 264 lahefacta
movens, 341 progenies duris, recalling the durum genus of I. 63.
In II. 430 this principle of likeness leads one on through all
the verse sanguineisque inculta ruhent aviaria bads with the
ideas of blood, roughness, the birds' glen turned red, until the
surprising significance is seen in bacis, and the picture is a
forest stretch aglow with brilliant berries, instead of the
wild and gory scene the mind was preparing. So in IV. 17
ore ferunt dulcem nidis immitibus escam
there is a feeling of tenderness through dulcem nidis, the ideas
of sweetness and youth joining through this same principle
of likeness, and it is a surprise to meet the following immitibus.
The new turn at the end partakes of the nature of contrast,
but the position of the words is not governed by that principle,
else dulcem and immitibus would stand side by side, and the
illuminating surprise of the picture would be lost.
To multiply examples of position from likeness would be
easy, but useless. Some one hundred and sixty have been
noted throughout the poem, while only about eighty cases of
position by contrast have been discovered.^°
I. 31 teque sibi generum Tethys emat omnibus undis
shows two cases of contrast in the placing of te, sibi and
generum, Tethys, though according to Leo's account (op. cit.,
p. 432) the tendency of like parts of speech toward each other
might account for it here, as often elsewhere. That very
tendency, however, must have some mental connectJbn
behind it, and this investigation of arrangement by likeness or
"For examples of position by likeness compare I. 43, 114, 146, 186, 301,
412, 480; II. 71, 111, 198, 362, 461, 508; III. 14, 47, 161, 185, 205, 366, 391.
422; IV, 79, 93, 133, 402, 438, et passim. For position by contrast compare
I. 32, 70, 91, 208, 224; II. 19, 199, 370, 496; III. 31, 124, 153, 162, 356, 437, 510,
651; IV. 85, 190, 263, 302, 332, et passim.
47
contrast shows that often those principles are the underlying
cause of the tendency. Pronouns, for example, come together
(the case noted chiefly by Leo for early Latin^^), but pronouns
represent parties to an action in less vivid form than their
substantives would, and the contrast of the one with the other
is all the more valuable because of the lack of vividness.
If this was the origin of the use that spread to nouns and
adjectives and even to verbs (IV. 172 accipiunt redduntque)
when once its force had been realized, a large part of the
elaboration of word placing would seem to be due to the
working of these two principles.
A comparison with the usage of Horace is somewhat enlight-
ening as to one quality of Vergil's style. H. Eggers, in a
dissertation on Horace,^^ notes some sixty-seven cases of
striking juxtaposition by contrast, without claiming that
his examples are exhaustive at all. The use of contrast gives
a sort of brilliance and sparkle to style, the contrasted words
being, as it were, the facets of an elaborately cut stone, and
this brilliance one gets in Horace to a striking extent, while
in Vergil it is harmony and the gentle flow of exquisitely fitted
ideas that give his poetry— the Georgics, at least — such a
subtle charm. Whether Horace's metres, with the shorter
verses in which there is less room for the rounding out of an
idea, taught him to depend more upon the bold arresting
strokes of contrast, or whether a difference in the nature of
the two men lay behind these varying tendencies toward
brilliancy or toward harmony it might be difiicult to determine.
What we know of Vergil's disposition, his way of life and his
tastes, and what we see in his poems would lead one to say
that there was in him an innate love of harmony, governing
both life and work. The monotonous brilliancy of Pope's
frequent antitheses would have been impossible to him.
«i See above, pp. 36, 37.
«2 H. Eggers, De ordine et figuris verborum quibus Horatius ia carminibus
usus est, pp. 54-5.
Ill
Euphonic Devices
First to be discussed under the head of euphonic devices is
alHteration, as probably the most obvious form, and certainly
that most commented on. In Latin it is traced back for its
origin to the earliest forms of the literature, the fragments of
chants, inscriptions and proverbs.^^ Saturnian verse, in the
fragments that have survived, shows alliteration in more than
half the number of verses.^* In the early poets, however,
such as Ennius, Plautus and Terence, its use, while more
cumulative, is not so frequent. Botticher speaks of a steady
decrease in its use as literature developed,®^ but even in its
decrease it is much in evidence in Lucretius^^ and in Catullus,^^
while Propertius is as greatly given to the practice as any
Latin poet later than the early period.^^ Vergil's extensive
use of alliteration in the Aeneid is discussed by Kvicala, and
"die imponirend grosse Zahl dieser Falle am besten geeignet
ist jeden etwaigen Zweifel zu beiseitigen."^^
It remains to add cases of occurrence in the Georgics, and
to show the skill rather than the frequency of its use. In the
.following study alliteration has been used to designate the
use of an identical initial sound, whether it be consonant or
6' E. WolfiBin, Uber die alliterierenden Verbindungen d. lat. Spr., 29.
He finds its origin in prose, set formulas and proverbs.
" C. Botticher, De alliterationis apud Romanos vi et usu, p. 11.
« Op. cit., p. 12.
•« Ignaz Schneider, De alliterationis apud T. Lucretium Carum usu ac vi.
•'.Ziwsa, Die eurhythmische Technik des Catullus, pp. 5-19.
" B. O. Foster, On Certain Euphonic Embellishments in the Verse of
Propertius, T. A. P. A., Vol. 40, p. 62.
" Kvicala, Neue Beitrage zur Erklarung der Aeneis nebst mehreren Ex-
cursen und Abhandlungen, pp. 293-447.
48
49
vowel. An initial sound echoed again within its own word,
or within another, is often noted for its effect upon the melody
of a passage, but the case has not been counted in the examples
of alliteration. This stylistic means is independent of Alex-
andrianism, and in Vergil's use of it there is additional proof
that he was no blind devotee of a school, but that as a work-
man who knew the value and the limitations of his tools he
was ready to avail himself of them, so far as they contributed
to the artistic expression of his thought.
His most striking characteristic in the use of alliteration is
the subtlety of the sound repetition. Several words in suc-
cession beginning with the same letter are rare, the Georgics
furnishing but twenty-two cases in the whole poem of two
thousand, one hundred and eight-eight verses. The first
book furnishes
389 et sola in sicca secum spatiatur harena
405 et pro purpureo poenas dat Scylla capillo.
Both examples occur in elaborate passages, verse 389 belonging
to an onomatopoetic description of the crow.
In some verses alliteration serves with other euphonic
means to buttress a weighty thought, as,
II. 294-5 convellunt: immota manet multosque nepotes
multa virum volvens durando saecula vincit.
Note also
II. 425 hoc pinguem et placitam Paci nutritor olivam
III. 40 interea Dryadum silvas saltusque sequamur
IV. 351 obstipuere; sed ante alias Arethusa sorores.^"
When such examples are contrasted with instances that
show three, four, or more words in alliteration, as they are
found in Plautus, Terence and Ennius the change in taste
between these poets and Vergil is striking. From the early
poets note the following examples: Plant., Mil. 226 reperi,
"Compare II. 436, 452-3; III. 65, 109, 182, 203, 344, 362, 543; IV. 208,
218, 392, 420, 432.
50
comminiscere, cedo calidum consilium cito;"^ Aul. 279 nam
ecastor malum maerore metuo ne mixtum bibam; Enn., Ann.
33 accipe daque fidem foedusque feri bene firmum; Ann. 113
O Tite tute Tati tibi tanta tyranne tulisti; Ann. 9 quae cava
corpore caeruleo cortina receptat; Enn., Trag. 41 mater
optumarum multo mulier melior mulierum;^^ Ter. Andr. 671
nisi si id putas, quia primo processit parum tibi non posse
iam ad salutem convorti hoc malum; Adelph. 133-4 si istuc
placet, profundat, perdat, pereat, nil ad me attinet; Eun. 780
Solus Sannio servat domi; 613-4 et de istac simul, quo pacto
porro possim potiri, consilium volo capere una tecum. ^^
Even in Lucretius verses with three consecutive words showing
alliteration are not rare. The first book of the De Rerum
Natura has twenty-nine cases. ^^
There are verses which show three words beginning with the
same sound when no two are consecutive. This is a still less
obtrusive repetition, and it gives to the verse as a whole a
freer and more flowing melody.
II. 154 squameus in spiram tractu se colligit anguis
III. 360 concrescunt subitae current! in flumine crustae
III. 346 non secus ac patriis acer Romanus in armis
IV. 332 tanta meae si te ceperunt taedia laudis.^^
Sometimes the repetition is spread over two verses, just as in
clause structure Vergil frequently runs over the verse-end, as,
IV. 333-4 At mater sonitum thalamo sub fluminis alti
eensit.
502-3 dicere praeterea vidit; nee portitor Orci
amplius obiectam passus transire paludem
"' For alliteration in Miles see Richard Klotz, Zur Allit. u. Symmetric bei
T. M. Plautus.
" Quoted by Botticher, op. cit., pp. 34-5.
" Quoted by A. F. Naek, De allit. serm. Lat., Rhein. Mus. 3. p. 361.
''* I. 14, 24, 28, 86, 89, 131, 163, 200, 202, 229, 234, 257, 271, 341, 411, 483.
621. 529, 586, 605, 677, 681, 725, 726, 735, 794, 813, 900, 1024. Cf. also II.
116, 130, 582, 654; III. 144, 456, 482, 747, 1040; IV. 394. 902; V. 961, 1193;
VI. 115, 213, 719-20, and Ignaz Schneider, op. cit., pp. 15-16.
"Compare I. 14, 200, 263, 424; II. 159, 276, 362; III. 185, 369, 372; IV.
91, 122, 181, 435, 453.
51
III. 425-6 est etiam ille malus Calabris in saltibus anguis
squamea convolvens sublato pectore terga.
Alliterative phrases of two words in sequence, or connected
by one of the short conjunctions, are frequent in the Georgics.
So much seemed pleasing to Vergil's ear, and he was even
willing to echo this same sound further on in the verse, or to
use the sound once and repeat it in a phrase of two words
later. Naturally the effect of this division is a harmony less
obtrusive, but more pleasing than the bolder repetition of the
words in succession. Note, as examples,
I. 76 sustuleris fragilis calamos silvamque sonantem
II. 292 aetherias tantum radice in Tartara tendit
II. 498 non res Romanae perituraque regna; neque ille
IV. 225 scilicet hue reddi deinde ac resoluta referri"
IV. 498 invalidasque tibi tendens, heu non tua, palmas."
The opening sound most often repeated in the phrases of
two words is a (24 times). ^^ Phrases beginning with c and s
are next in order of occurrence, then those beginning with
p, m, V, t, f, e, i, n, I, d. Phrases beginning with g, o, r, u also
occur, once each, but there are no alliterative phrases beginning
with b or consonantal i. The absence of the last two is not
surprising in view of the relatively few Latin words that begin
with those sounds; and in the case of h we are justified in
inferring that the sound was not considered pleasant or
elegant from the notions the ancients attached to baba,
balbus, barbarus. The onomatopoetic character of the root
is traced back through the kindred Greek /3a/3a/, ^dp^apo<;, to
the Sanskrit barbarah, always representing unintelligible or.
unpleasant sounds. ^^
'« Compare De Rerum Natura, II. 130 Commutare vitam retroque repulsa
reverti.
" Compare I. 59, 68. 93, 141, 145, 152, 221, 227, 234, 240, 313, 314, 324, 329,
336, 357-8, 439, 454, 500; II. 19, 47, 57, 103-4. 215, 247, 309, 330, 334, 377, 479;
III. 20, 34, 109, 141, 160, 213, 217-8, 306-7, 327-8. 329. 356, 483, 505; IV. 25,
64, 281, 301-2, 310, 311, 314, 319, 330. 346-7, 368, 378-9. 409-10, 560.
'8 1. 47, 129, 160. 240. 273. 338; II. 76, 280, 330, 465, 492; III. 18, 46, 197,
210, 304, 315. 439, 533; IV. 44, 83, 110, 177, 244.
"A. Walde, Latein. etymol. Worterbuch, 2teAufiage, s. vv.; Emile Boisacq.
Dictionnaire 6tymologique de la langue grecque. s. vv.
52
It is possible that alliteration as a means for catching the
attention may serve to indicate grammatical connection
between two words, as in avari agricolae (I. 47-8), or nimhorum
in node (I. 328). P>equently it seems to produce a rhetorical
effect, as when arduus by its position and alliteration with
arces (I. 240) gives the idea of steepness to the Riphaean
heights, as well as that of loftiness to the heavens above.
Oftenest the repetition is for the sake of the sound, if not
exclusively, yet paramountly. Particularly dangerous is the
assumption of grammatical connection marked by alliteration,
because naturally the words occurring in a verse are connected
grammatically, and almost any two that alliterate may be
referred to this cause. Consequently, in general, cases of noun
and adjective, or verb and subject, or verb and object, or
subject and object in alliteration have not been referred to
this class. If noun and adjective are separated at any
length, the attention caught by their alliteration will serve
to bring them together, but, if they are side by side, as in these
short phrases, no such need is felt. Besides, in a richly in-
flected language grammatical connection is so abundantly taken
care of that one should be slow in referring a euphonic device
to this cause. For the very reason that one would not look
to this agreement in sound for grammatical connection, the
prominence of the words so secured may the more readily
serve a rhetorical end, and examples of this are more frequent.
One word sheds a reflected light on the other, as in the juxta-
posed arduus arces quoted above, ^° or the two so brought
forward in consciousness are contrasted, as in agitator aselli
(I. 273)
saepe oleo tardi costas agitator aselli
vilibus aut onerat pomis
or, convivia curant in I. 301
mutuaque inter se laeti convivia curant^'. . .
«» Compare I. 51, 232, 320, 373; II. 169, 309, 376, 417, 511; III. 114;
IV. 99.
" Compare II. Ill, 253, 297, 419, 509; III. 240, 315, 431; IV. S3.
53
Dulces and densae of I. 342
turn somni dulces densaeque in montibus umbrae
by their alliteration and position rhetorically bring the sleep
and shade into closer union, and tend to make both adjectives
go with both nouns. Most alliterative phrases, however,
seem to exist for the pleasure in the sound, and one is tempted
to call some cases accidental, despite the acknowledged mini-
mum place of the accidental in the Georgics. The most that
can be said for such examples as II. 427-8
et viris habuere suas, ad sidera raptim
vi propria nituntur opisque baud indiga nostrae.
is that the alliteration between suas and sidera did not offend
the poet's ear. It certainly does not seem deliberately sought.
Such is the case with tamen tellus in 11. 418
sollicitanda tamen tellus pulvisque movendus,
nec non in II. 385, 451 and nam neque in I. 395.^^
Such pairs open or close the verse, or occupy an internal
position therein, being most frequent within the verse and
rarest at the beginning.s^ This is worthy of note in view of
Kvicala's elaborate treatment of alliteration at the verse-end
in the Aeneid.^^ Schneider in his treatment of Lucretius'
use of alliteration finds likewise that the position within
the verse is most frequent, and the words in alliteration
oftenest have the caesura fall between them.^^
A form of alliteration still more in favor with Vergil is the
combining of alliterative pairs, much as two nouns and two
82 Compare I. 111. 338. 438; II. 226, 331, 397, 434; III. 274, 363. 416, 533.
556; IV. 42, 110, 116, 174, 244.
83 Bk. I. within 18, opening 7, closing 10.
Bk. II. 42 7 14.
Bk. III. 42 5 9.
Bk. IV. 44 7 11.
84 Kvicala, op. cit., pp. 333ff.
86 Schneider, op. cit., p. 6.
54
adjectives are combined within a verse. A pair of words with
the same initial sound is followed by another pair, or, if the
pairs are broken, the sounds follow in the same order, or
reversed. There are verses like
I. 354 quo signo caderent Austri, quid saepe videntes,
I. 236 caeruleae, glacie concretae atque imbribus atris,
I. 346 omnis quam chorus et socii comitentur ovantes,
IV. 8 principio sedes apibus statioque petenda.
There seems to be no preference for one combination over
another. Sometimes one sound will occur three times and
the other twice, as
II. 130 auxilium venit ac membris agit atra venena
IV. 113 tecta serat late circum cui talia curae
I. 173 binae aures, duplici aptantur dentalia dorso
III. 101 praecipue: hinc alias artis prolemque parentum.^s
Sometimes a verse has three sounds, each occurring as often
as twice, as,
I. 123 movit agros curis acuens mortalia corda
I. 203 atque ilium in praeceps prono rapit alveus amni
III. 248 per silvas: turn saevus aper, turn pessima tigris."
This naturally leads to the cases where one or more sounds
are "run" for more than one verse, as,
I. 217-8 candidus auratis aperit cum cornibus annum
Taurus et averse cedens Canis occidit astro
I. 303-4 ceu pressae cum iam portum tetigere carinae
puppibus et laeti nautae imposuere coronas
I. 402-3 solis et occasum servans de culmine summo
nequiquam seros exercet noctua cantus.^s
More elaborate still is the interweaving of the sounds in
II. 380-4 non aliam ob culpam Baccho caper omnibus aria
caeditur et veteres ineunt proscaenia ludi
praemiaque ingeniis pagos et compita circum
Thesidac posuere, atque inter pocula laeti
mollibus in pratis unctos saluere per utres.
" Compare I. 305; II. 2, 100, 219, 480; III. 376, 434, 458; IV. 113, 187, 245
541.
"Compare I. 206; II. 14, 380; III. 448, 486; IV. 66, 148, 258.
«8 Compare 1. 326-7, 361-2; III. 52-3, 79-80, 205-6, 297-8; IV. 150-1, 409-10.
55
Here the repeated sounds are a, o, c, c, o, a, c, e, i, p, 1, p, i,
p, e, c, c, p, a, i, p, 1, i, p, u, p, u: a, o, c, prominent in the first
part, give way to p— though c has a double echo at the end
of the second verse — and the lighter vowels e and i. An
echoed / is introduced, and the a sound again, until the last
verse closes with the heavy vowel u joined with p "golden-
line-wise with an s to keep the peace betwixt them." Com-
pare
III. 199-201 lenibus horrescunt flabris, summaeque sonorem
dant silvae, longique urgent ad litora fluctus,
iUe volet simul arva fuga simul aequora verrens
where the repeated sounds are 1, f, s, s, s, 1, a, 1, f, v, s, a, f, s, v:
/ and s dominate at first, but with/ occurring once, then / giving
way, / reappearing, s growing weaker and a new sound v
appearing at the end of the passage, as the u did in the pre-
ceding instance. There are 169 cases in the Georgics of
such alliterative pairs,^^ and because of the interlocked order
and the separation of elements that are to be taken together
grammatically there is here more occasion to note the tendency
of alliteration to connect such elements,^^ although, in view of
the great number of cases where no such connection is dis-
cernible, one is inclined to call Vergil's use of this means small.
Of the two pairs one is rather frequently noun and attribute,
but the other pair may be verb and some adjective, conjunc-
tion or adverb; or verb and noun no more closely connected
89 I. 73, 116, 123, 142, 160, 189, 193, 201. 203, 206, 217, 218, 233, 236,
243, 257, 267, 268, 298, 300, 303-4, 305, 326-7, 330, 335, 343, 346, 349, 354, 361-2,
365, 388, 394, 402-3, 421, 422, 433, 461, 469, 485, 491, 501, 508; II. 2, 14, 26,
33, 41, 50, 53, 100, 102, 126, 130, 139, 148, 172, 219, 268, 277, 315, 327, 380,
402, 420, 440, 441, 450, 470, 495, 500, 512; III. 1, 16, 52-3. 62, 64, 79-80, 101,
117, 119, 143, 149, 171,180,184,205-6,208, 239. 248,252. 260.286,290.291-2,
297-8, 311, 319, 342, 345, 350, 371, 376, 381, 393, 424, 434, 448, 458, 473, 478,
486, 488, 490, 494, 506, 546, 551, 552; IV. 8, 27, 38, 45, 47, 54-5, 66, 73, 100,
102, 113, 131, 147, 148, 150-1. 161, 162. 165. 167, 168, 173, 179, 185, 187,
192. 197, 198, 232, 238, 245, 260, 297, 308, 342, 362, 364, 374-5, 385, 409-10,
429, 439, 443, 465-6, 504, 505, 515, 520, 532, 537, 541.
90 Compare p. 52.
56
grammatically than the verb with the other pair. So II. 172
imbellem avertis Romanis arcibus Indum,
in view of the separation of noun and adjective may rely
somewhat on alliteration to bring them together.^^ III. 458
cum furit atque artus depascitur arida febris
shows the verb and subject at verse ends in alliteration, while
the attribute of the subject alliterates with the object, to
which it really belongs, being a transferred epithet. The
effect is a very closely knit sentence, but this is only one
case, and from the nature of the discussion even a good many
cases could hardly prove that such connection was meant by
the author. Sound is much more probably the cause of the
alliteration because that can hardly fail to catch the ear of
any reader. In this connection it is well to recall the extent
to which the ancients read aloud. In addition to the reci-
tationes that had become so burdensome in Juvenal's time,^^
a man was commonly read to by his slave,^^ and some men,
indeed, were very particular about proper pronunciation on
the part of the reader.^^ The rapid eye reading that has
become customary with us we have every reason to believe
played a much smaller part in ancient times. The sound of
words, when it was beautiful, was surely not missed by the
ancients. Parallelism of construction is to be noticed in III. 208
verbera lenta pati et duris parere lupatis
between the alliterative infinitives, and a certain rhetorical
contrast may be got from lenta applied to the yielding close-
lying lash and lupatis, the spiked curb that does not yield.
The more obvious coupling would have joined the two adjec-
tives, but the definite meaning of the noun really incorporates
an adjective. II. 41
Maecenas, pelagoque volans da vela patenti
»' Compare I. 73, 193; II. 41, 50, 268. 440; IV. 45.
KSat. 1. 1-14; 7. 39-42.
»' Norden, Kunstprosa, p. 6.
«* Pliny, Epp. 3. 5. 12.
57
shows grammatical connection between noun and attribute,
and again a rhetorical pregnancy in volans, vela, where the
thought of flying draws the picture of the ship's sails as wings.
In I. 116 . ,.
exit et obducto late tenet omnia limo
the notion of the sticky pervasiveness of the mud may be
brought out more fully in the cross alliteration of ohdudo and
omnia, and of limo and late, an adverb which in sense is really
equivalent to an adjective modifying omnia.
All such interpretations, however, are more enticing than
convincing. Pleasure in the repetition of sound is a surer
basis of discussion, and the only one in the great majority
of cases.
In summing up Vergil's use of alliteration in the Georgics
one would note his evident pleasure in the repetition of sound,
especially of a, s, c, p, t and others in less proportion; his
large use of alliterative phrases of two words and of alliterative
pairs of words, then of one pair together echoed again by a
single sound, and lastly, his very moderate use of three con-
secutive words in alliteration. Several sounds interwoven,
echoed sufficiently, however, to make one conscious of the
play, are more in accordance with the harmonious and rather
subtle art of the poet than the bolder and more obvious repe-
titions.
Closely akin to the "running" of an initial letter is the
assonance of the vowel sounds in a phrase, or sometimes
throughout a whole verse. Such are mortalia corda (I. 123),
annua cura (I. 216), luminis ignis (I. 291), aperta serena
(I. 393), illi etiam exstindo (increased by elision I. 466),
densissima silva (II. 17), firmissima vina (11. 97), vidor in
oris (II. 171), neve flagella (II. 299), genitalia semina (II.
324), aviaria bacis (II. 430), spirantia signa (III. 34), virihus
ignis (III. 99), armenta per herhas (III. 162), Cressamque
pharetram (III. 345), horrebis Hiberos (III. 408), nigrumque
58
bitumen (III. 451), dcsertaque regna (III. 476), haustu sparsus
aquarum (IV. 229), nectar e Vestam (IV. 384), portitor Orci
(IV. 502), ig72obiUs oil (IV. 564). ^^
The opening verse of the third book shows in addition to
the alHterative pairs beginning with m and t, e, o, a as the only-
vowels of the line until the last syllable is reached
Te quoque, magna Pales, et te, memorande, canemua.
So in IV. 13, ahsint et picti squalentia terga lacerti, though
there is no alliteration, the vowels a, i, e, run throughout the
line. A most striking case of the use of light vowels repeatedly
is in the passage IV. 465-6
te, dulcis coniunx, te solo in litore secum,
te veniente die, te decedente canebat.
They have interspersed in the first verse the deeper notes
of u and o, but the second shows i and e throughout until the
last word. The sharp i and e sounds seem peculiarly insistent.
Recall the verse giving the frog's cry, I. 378
et veterem in limo ranae cecinere querellam
and the densissimus imber (I. 333), which makes the climax
of the storm scene. The very name Eurydicen seems to have
the same quality in it as it occurs in IV. 525-7
volveret, Eurydicen vox ipsa et frigida lingua
a miseram Eurydicen! anima fugiente vocabat:
Eurydicen toto referebant flumine ripae.
Discussing the effect of the e sound run Professor Foster
notes few cases in Propertius,^® "owing, doubtless, rather to
the paucity of long e sounds than to a dislike of the
vowel, for i, which is even less musical, in the opinion of
»5 Compare I. 88, 143, 220, 235, 249, 250, 263, 270, 289, 309, 333, 341.
365, 376, 378, 419, 426, 493, 498; II. 12, 46, 82, 84, 115, 144, 209, 236, 293,
276, 303, 373, 431, 464; III. 12, 151, 175, 229, 231, 260, 333, 336, 373, 377, 475,
522; IV. 17, 23, 82, 85, 90, 108, 115, 129, 135, 142, 174, 190, 212, 219, 249, 264,
284, 296, 386, 404, 407, 438, 457, 469, 484, 499.
»" Foster, op. cit., p. 43.
59
the ancients (Diony. Hal. Comp. Verb. 14, ranks the vowels
a r? CO u 0> as in our own, was frequently 'run.' " He notes three
e lines, in two of which he suggests that there is perhaps an
attempt to imitate the querulous tones of the speaker:
I. 3. 43 interdum leviter mecum desert a querebar
1. 16. 23 me mediae noctes, me sidera plena iacentem
2. 20. 29 tum me vel tragicae vexetis Erinyes, et me.
He cites some twenty-three lines where i is run, and calls
them only a sample. Liidke notes for Ovid likewise the effect
of the ae and e sounds,^^ which he groups together; he says
they are used in expressions of sorrow, mourning, longing,
uncertainty and fear. He notes many examples, among them
M. I. 707-8,
Dumque ibi suspirat, motos in harundine ventos
effecisse sonum tenuem similemque querenti.
Onomatopoeia is usually the result of all sorts of sound corre-
spondence and repetition, involving the consonants within a
word as well as the vowels and the initial sound. In addition
to the running of the e, the verse of Vergil noted above (p. 58)
as descriptive of the frog's cry is onomatopoetic as well in the
c, qu and r sounds. Siliqua quassante (I. 74) depends both
on the s and qu and upon the rise in sound from the light
vowel i to the heavy a and the fall again to the light e, to
give the dry fluttering of the pea-pod in the wind. Lupis
ululantihus urbes (I. 486) owes its sound correspondence not
merely to the more obvious u and /, but in some part to the
change from the sharper p to the more muffled b sound, and
its dying away with the light vowel.
IV. 71-2 Martins ille aeris rauci canor increpat, et vox
auditur fractos sonitus imitata tubarum
does imitate the sound of the trumpet by means of the harsh-
ness of r and c, and the preponderance of heavy vowels, aided
by the unmusical ending et vox^^ of the first verse, and by the
»' Liidke, Uber Lautmalerei in Ovids Metamorphosen.
08 See footnote, p. 70.
60
same note in frados, whence the verse goes on more musically
with only an echo of the harshness in tubarum.
I. 388-9 turn cornLx plena pluvium vocat improba voce
et sola in sicca secum spatiatur harena
is probably the most strikingly onomatopoetic passage in the
whole poem. Again heavy vowels, and c, t, r, give a hoarse-
ness of sound softened to a kind of music by the yl, while the
unusual amount of alliteration of s in the following verse and
the opening spondees correspond to the measured soft crush
of the crow's feet on the sand. The four verses I. 356-9
continue ventis surgentibus aut freta ponti
incipiunt agitata tumescere et aridus altis
montibus audiri fragor, aut resonantia longe
litora misceri et nemorum increbrescere murmur
show repetition and variation both, and a final climax of
sound in the heavy m's and w's. The passage is descriptive
of sound; five different noises are represented, the rising wind,
the swell of the sea, the dry clatter among the leaves on the
mountains, and the echo of shore mingling with the murmuring
of the woods. Ventis surgentibus has an assonance, though it
is not so striking; t is the repeated sound in the next phrase,
around which the varying and indistinct sounds of rising w^aters
cling; while the alliterative a holds the following phrase to-
gether. Then the liquids and nasals are used for the mighty
resulting sounds on sea and woods, the inherent weight of
sound in murmur making an effective climax. To be noted
also is the -scere or -sceri, which has something of the light,
rough sound of sea foam.
There are verses which, though not onomatopoetic, are
to be noted for their music. I. 28
accipiat cingens materna tempora myrto
ows its melody, perhaps, to the vowel sequence, in which a
remains through the verse, with repeated i, then e, then o,
61
and to the varying positions of m and t in the last three words.
III. 338
litoraque alcyonen resonant acalanthida dumi
has more liquids than most verses, and the first word shows
all the vowels that are played on throughout the rest of the
verse, which ends with the light i with which it began. To a
taste sensitive to these subtler and less obvious harmonies is
due the elusive music of Vergil's verse.
The union of repetition for sound's sake and for rhetorical
balance and connection is met in the use of the same stem, or
of the same ending and enclitic, or of the same word twice or
more. The same stem is repeated in
I. 463 sol tibi signa dabit. Solem quis dicere falsum
II. 275 densa sere: in denso non segnior ubere Bacchus
IV. 6 in tenui labor; at tenuis non gloria, si quem^^ . . .
The repetition of an ending and the enclitic -que, or of the
enclitic alone is much in favor and cases are numerous:
I. 153 lappaeque tribolique interque nitentia culta
I. 279 Coeumque lapetumque creat saevumque Typhoea
II. 494 Panaque Silvanumque senem Nymphasque sorores
III. 242 Omne adeo genus in terris hominumque ferarumque
(where the -que makes the verse hypermetric).^""
When whole words are repeated they are oftenest con-
junctions, adverbs and numerals. In the case of conjunctions
rhetorical balance is usually the most prominent result, but
considerations of sound must enter in; at least, the combi-
nation must not have been unpleasant to the poet's ear.
Repetition of aut, et, atque, cum, seu or sive, nee or neque are
frequent.^°^ Likewise adverbs, as non, etiam, iamque, ante,
magis, nunc, turn, semper, bis, hinc are repeated rather freely
99 Compare I. 190, 419; II. 61, 109, 327; III. 112, 118, 393; IV. 209, 215.
"o Compare I. 118, 253, 352, 371, 458, 470; II. 21, 391, 399, 456, 470, 509;
III. 108, 344, 345, 451, 473, 555; IV. 182, 222, 318, 336, 367, 370, 442.
"1 Compare I. 314, 332, 370; II. 100, 196, 298-9, 308, 348, 435, 516-7; III,
49-50, 110, 133, 211, 212, 252, 353, 358, 560; IV. 5, 25, 33, 84-5, 167, 245-6,
257-8, 401-2.
62
for balance or emphasis.^°2 Qf words of more natural strength
there are also cases of repetition, nouns and adjectives rather
than verbs. lurat (II. 437-8) and dant (II. 442) are the only
verb forms that occur in exact repetition. Densa and demet
(I. 419) and relatum and referet (I. 458) involve repetitions
of stem. Adjectives of size and number occur {centum, II.
43, IV. 383; magna, II. 173-4, 327; summa, 11. 300; omnibus,
II. 61, 109, IV. 184; quattuor, IV. 297-8; ambae, IV. 341-2;
tantus. III. 112), but few of quality (nudus, I. 299; densa,
II. 275; aequus. III. 118; tennis, IV. 6; dulcia, IV. 101).
Repetition of a noun appears occasionally, as the node
of I. 289 followed by another case of the same word in
the next verse; compare also ventus, vento of I. 431. I. 297-8
at rubicunda Ceres medio succiditur aestu,
et medio tostas aestu terit area fruges
shows both adjective and noun repeated, but they are separ-
ated in each verse.^°^
There remain a few special cases of repetition to be dis-
cussed. In I. 339-49 the proper name Ceres is repeated in
some form four times to emphasize the thought that the
religious rites prescribed are all in her honor. In the long
narration of weather signs (I. 351-471) there occur signis
(351), signo (354), signis (394), sigiia dabit (439), sigria dabit
(463), signa dabunt (471), marking the unity of the passage
in the diversity of the description. Repetition of end sound
gains some such unifying effect in the generalizing summary of
the invocation to the gods (I. 19-24); the verses begin with
dique deaeque, quique, quique, tuque. So with the passage
containing the rather unusual future imperative (II. 408-10),
the identical heavy ending gives a heightened force to the
iM Compare I, 48. 267, 305-8, 334, 341-2, 386; II. 42-3, 145-6, 150, 200,
293, 410-11, 444, 495, 514-515, 536; III. 69-70, 189, 193-4, 248-9, 294, 308,
356, 371, 396, 520-1; IV. 187, 306, 311, 411-2.
i»3 Compare I. 281-2 Ossam Ossae; II. 323-4 ver vere; 338 ver ver; III.
280-2 hippomanes; III. 410 canibus.
63
verbs that balances the emphasis gained for the adjectives
by position and repetition:
primus humum fodito, primus devecta cremate
sarment a, et vallos primus sub tecta ref erto ;
postremus metito. >
The repetition of ambae in IV. 341-2
Clioque et Beroe soror, Oceanitides ambae,
ambae auro, pictis incinctae pellibus ambae
seems to be purely for euphonic reasons, since there is nothing
known about the history of Clio and Beroe that would call for
their prominence in the group, nor for the great emphasis
upon their sistership and the fact that their ornaments were
alike. Love of alliteration must have led the poet in this
verse. The next case of repetition (I. 406-9) leads us to the
question of rhyming verses, the couplet and the quatrain,
and had best be discussed after the simpler cases of rhyme and
couplet.
In his study of Propertius Professor B. O. Foster^°^ calls
attention to the theory of Eichner^"^ regarding the fourfold
division of the elegiac distich and the use of homoeoteleuton
to emphasize the structure. He finds in these poets all the
rhyme-schemes possible to a four-line stanza. For Propertius
Professor Foster finds some 1130 rhymed verses (28% of the
whole) in books I-IV, 529 of which are hexameters, where
the rhyme occurs between the penthemimeral caesura and
the verse-end. Pentameters are likewise made to rhyme
in even more cases, and frequently the words at the caesura
rhyme with each other, while the verse-ends do the same;
or the word at the second caesura rhymes with the first verse-
end, and the word at the first caesura rhymes with the
close of the second verse. Professor Foster considers as
rhyming the same vowel sounds, or vowel and final consonant
i«< Op. cit., pp. 32-41.
105 Bemerkungen iiber den metrischen und rhythmischen Bau, sowieiiber den
Gebrauch der Homoeoteleuta in den Distichen des CatuU, Tibull, Properz und
Ovid, Gnesen, 1875.
64
if the word ends in a consonant, regardless of the initial con-
sonant of the syllable. E. Wolfflin^"^ lays down the con-
dition that two rhyming words must have an identity of one
letter or one syllable of the stem in addition to the ending
and termination. He rejects even two infinitives in -escere.
In English verse, the end-rhyme is said to involve the princi-
pally stressed vowel in the rhyming word and all that follows
that vowel. ^°^ As regards the rhyme between the syllable
at the penthemimeral caesura and at the end of the hexameter,
the very nature of the verse precludes so strict a condition,
for the only possibility is between a stressed and an unstressed
syllable. I have, then, followed Professor Foster's greater
license.^°^
In the Georgics Vergil makes but slight use of the rhyming
verse or the more elaborate distichs and quatrains. When
rhyme between caesura and verse-end is got by means of
nouns and attributes in agreement, one is tempted to call it
accidental, due to considerations of position in prominent
places rather than to sound; but again we may say that it was
not looked upon as a blemish, or so sensitive an ear as Vergil's
w^ould never have allowed it. Of rhyme between the syllable
at the penthemimeral caesura and that at the verse-end there
are 139 instances in the whole poem (in Book I, 36; II, 51;
III, 31; IV, 21). Most numerous of these are the cases of
a noun and attribute in agreement, as
IV. 41 et visco Phrygiae servant pice lentius Idae
III. 545 vipera et attoniti squamis astantibus hydri
III. 195 aequora vix summa vestigia ponat harena
III. 166 ac primum laxos tenui de vimine circlos.'"^
"* Der Reim im Lateinischen, Archiv fur lateinische lexicographic, I ,
pp. 351-2.
"' R. M. Alden. English Verse, p. 121.
"8 So Wilhelm Grimm understood rhyme in his Geschichte des Reims,
Abhandl. der Berl. Akad. d. Wiss. 1851, S. 627ff. So Norden also in Antike
Kunstprosa, Anhang I, Die Geschichte des Reims.
'»» Compare I. 15, 59, 78, 90, 96, 111, 116, 125. 155, 162, 170, 207, 218, 230,
65
Next in frequency is the rhyme between two verbs so placed,
as,
I. 202 remigiis subigit, si bracchia forte remisit
I. 479 (infandum) ; sistunt amnes terraeque dehiscunt
II. 408 primus humum fodito, primus devecta cremato
III. 126 florentesque secant herbas fluviosque ministrant.""
With difference of quantity there is rhyme between nomi-
natives and ablatives singular of the first declension, or
ablatives and neuter plurals, and datives or ablatives plural
of the first and second declensions give rhyme with nominatives
and accusatives plural in -is of the third declension, or,
again, involving difference of quantity, with nominatives or
genitives singular.
I. 191 at si luxuria foliorum exuberat umbra
I. 328 ipse pater media nimborum in nocte corusca
II. 53 nee non et sterilis quae stirpibus exit ab imis
(Compare 11. 13, 27, 320; III. 493.)
Nouns or adjectives in parallel construction rhyme, as,
I. 470 obscenaeque canes importunaeque volucres
II. 88 Crustumiis Syriisque piris gravibusque volaemis
II. 115 Eoasque domos Arabum pictosque Gelonos . . .
(Compare II. 101, 169, 293, 444; III. 315.)
There are a few examples of words not in agreement nor in
parallel construction, as,
I. 56 gramina. Nonne vides croceos ut Tmolus odores
I. 246 Arctos Oceani metuentis aequore tingi
I. 380 angustum formica terens iter, et bibit ingens (at hepthemimeral
caesura, but noticeable)
I. 413 inter se in foliis strepitant, iuvat imbribus actis
II. 158 an mare quod supra memorem, quodque adluit infra
IV. 246 aut durum tiniae genus, aut invisa Minervae
IV. 461 implerunt montes; flerunt Rhodopeiae arces.
250, 266, 273, 351, 360, 389, 394, 405, 427, 450, 487, 492, 500, 502; II. 31, 40,
54, 66, 77, 96, 106, 118, 124, 139, 142, 158, 163, 164, 171, 183, 189, 197, 199, 206,
215, 225, 237, 258, 261, 298, 313, 364, 385, 415, 419, 425, 445, 465, 466, 522, 537;
III. 7, 12, 21, 25, 41, 49, 166, 195, 271, 310, 321, 326, 380, 383, 389, 395, 398,
399, 457, 487, 492, 543, 544, 545; IV. 41, 42, 170, 235, 287, 289, 293, 377, 389,
414, 422, 429, 430, 479, 506, 518, 522, 538, 550.
"» Compare I. 182; II. 422; III. 270, 363, 417.
66
Of verses rhyming in couplets there are 75, of which 39 have
the thought broken more or less markedly before the end of
the second verse, as,
I. 368-9 sacpe levem paleam et frondes volitare caducas
aut summa nantis in aqua conludere plumas,
449-50 tam multa in tectis crepitans salit horrida grando
hoc etiam, emenso cum iam decedit Olympo . . .
In the latter case the two verses belong to different sentences."^
There are couplets, however, which do express one thought or
an integral part of a thought, as,
I. 436-7 votaque servati solvent in litore nautae
Glauco et Panopeae et Inoo Melicertae.
II. 479-80 unde tremor terris, qua vi maria alta tumescant
obicibus ruptis rursusque in se ipsa residant
IV. 504-5 quid faceret? quo se rapta bis coniuge ferret?
quo fletu Manis, quae numina voce moveret?
IV. 215-6 ille operum custos, ilium admirantur et omnes
circumstant fremitu denso stipantque frequentes."^
Of longer rhyming series there are cases of three verses, two
rhymed enclosing an unrhymed, as,
I. 319-21 quae gravidam late segetem ab radicibus imis
sublimem expulsam eruerent; ita turbine nigro
ferret hiems culmumque levem stipulasque volantis,
where the rhyme is of the slightest. In I. 419-21
denset erat quae rara modo, et quae densa relaxat,
vertuntur species animorum, et pectora motus
nunc alios, alios dum nubila ventus agebat,
concipiunt . . .
"1 Compare I. 40-1, 368-9, 344-5, 449-50, 476-7, 50O-1; II. 94-5, 168-9,
218-9, 293-4, 398-9, 439-40, 500-1, 506-7; III. 11-12, 68-9, 99-100, 248-9,
384-5, 399-400, 408-9, 488-9, 527-8, 537-8; IV. 9-10, 15-6, 34-5, 134-5, 165-6,
222-3, 230-1, 254-5, 266-7, 275-6, 280-1, 309-10, 484-5, 498-9, 518-9.
'12 Compare II. 33-34, 45-6, 91-2, 101-2, 107-8, 129-30, 228-9, 343-4,
(hypermetric -que added), 360-1, 371-2, 483-4; III. 58-9, 60-1, 68-9, 127-8,
168-9, 187-8, 300-1, 448-9; verses 411-2, 427-8, 505-6, 531-2, show rhyme, but
the phrase is incomplete at the end of the second verse; IV. 118-9, 237-8,
292-1, 468-9, 492-3, 545-6. 53-4 is incomplete. Verses 262-3 and 458-9
show difTerence of quantity.
67
the thought runs so closely over into 422 that the effect is
almost lost.
II. 243-5 shows a better case:
hue ager ille malus dulcesque a fontibus undae
ad plenum calcentur: aqua eluctabitur omnia
scilicet et grandes ibunt per vimina guttae.
(Compare II. 461-3, III. 37-9, 445-7.)
Four verses with every other one rhymed are found, as also
two sets of rhymes (abba, or abab, or aabb schemes) and two
rhymed verses enclosing two unrhymed ones.
I. 1-4 Quid facial laetas segetes, quo sidere terram
vertere, Maecenas, ulmisque adiungere vitis
conveniat, quae cura boum, qui cultus habendo
sit pecori, apibus quanta experientia parcis,
show verses two and four rhymed. 14-17 is of the abba type:
Neptune; et cultor nemorum, cui pinguia Ceae
ter centum nivei tondent dumeta iuvenci;
ipse nemus linquens patrium saltusque Lycaei
Pan, ovium custos, tua si tibi Maenala curae.
I. 406-9,
quacumque ilia levem fugiens secat aethera pennis,
ecce inimicus atrox magno stridore per auras
insequitur Nisus; qua se fert Nisus ad auras,
ilia levem fugiens raptim secat aethera pennis.
is surely to be accounted for by love of repetition (the amount
of repetition here is unusual) rather than by desire to secure
rhyme. The identity of the rhyming verse-ends destroys
the peculiar nature of rhyme. The two preceding verses,
which outline the story, are both marked by alliteration and
one shows rhyme between purpurea and capillo. Within the
quatrain quacumque is repeated in qua, Nisus twice in the
same verse, and the last verse is an exact repetition of the
first except for one word. The effect of the repetition here is
markedly rhetorical, and while the passage is the most striking
quatrain of the poem, its effectiveness is not due to rhyme."^
1" These four lines conclude the Ciris. If Vergil was the author of that poem ,
his use of the verse here is parallel to his quotation of the first verse of the first
68
We may now note repetition through many verses of
end-sounds more or less approaching regularity,"^ but the
terminations of the Latin language would rather necessitate
this, and when the passages are examined the thought phrasing
is so frequently found to conflict with any rhyming scheme
that the student is forced to the conclusion that Vergil's use
of rhyme, as it is now understood, or as it is discernible in
Propertius for instance, is of the smallest. Homoeoteleuton
within shorter phrases he does use, seen notably in the repe-
tition of the same ending emphasized by the enclitic -que, but
any division of his hexameters by means of rhyme seems care-
fully avoided.
Eclogue at the end of the Georgics. If someone else wrote the Ciris, the quo-
tation therein is a compliment to Vergil, or an attempt to mark the poem as his.
For other unconvincing cases of the quatrain compare I. 204-7, the unrhymed
verses marked by alliteration, 221-4, 415-8, 505-8; II. 5-8, 10-13, 16-19, 35-8,
49-52, 69-72, 110-13, 177-80, 362-5 incomplete, 388-91 incomplete; III.
323-6; IV. 108-11, 112-15, 329-32, 407-10. 563-6.
"« Compare I. 483-8; II. 408-15; III. 30-6; IV. 363-79.
IV
Analysis of Special Passages
A few striking passages have been chosen, the analysis of
which shows how the various stylistic means that have been
under discussion are interwoven in any one passage for the
expression of the thought.
I. 311-34:
Quid tempestates autumni et sidera dicam,
atque, ubi iam breviorque dies et moUior aestas,
quae vigilanda viris? vel cum ruit imbriferum ver,
spicea iam campis cum messis inhorruit et cum
frumenta in viridi stipula lactentia turgent?
saepe ego, cum flavis messorem induceret arvis
agricola et fragili iam stringeret hordea culmo,
omnia ventorum concurrere proelia vidi,
quae gravidam late segetem ab radicibus imis
sublimem expulsam eruerent; ita turbine nigro
ferret hiems culmumque levem stipulasque volantis.
saepe etiam immensum caelo venit agmen aquarum
et foedam glomerant tempestatem imbribus atris
coUectae ex alto nubes; ruit arduus aether,
et pluvia ingenti sata laeta boumque labores
diluit ; implentiu- fossae et cava fiumina crescunt
cum sonitu fervetque fretis spirantibus aequor.
ipse pater media nimborum in nocte corusca
fulmina molitur dextra: quo maxima motu
terra tremit; fugere ferae et mortalia corda
per gentis humilis stravit pavor: ille flagranti
aut Athon aut Rhodopen aut alta Ceraunia telo
deicit; ingeminant Austri et densissimus imber:
nunc nemora ingenti vento, nunc litora plangunt.
After the pleasures of the winter described in the preceding
verses, pleasures that yet, on the lips of an Italian, take on a
rather doubtful tone in the words (310)
cum nix alta iacet, glaciem cum flumina trudunt,
70
the passage opens very quietly with autumn weather,
the shortened days, the less oppressive heat; no note of
hardship is struck, unless it be in vigilanda, in which a
certain suggestion of anxiety is usually inherent. But the
latter half of the verse brings disaster in a rush in ruit, the
weighty imbrifennn and the monosyllable ver, an ending
unusual enough metrically to give pointed force to the ominous
danger that threatens.^^^ Two lines give the picture of the
tasseled grain, the kernels all swollen with their rich milk
among the green blades, and then the eye witness of the
storm {vidi, 318) at the moment of reaping, the stalks ready
to break, tells of the onrush of the battle of the winds, which
tears the teeming crops from their very roots and tosses them
on high. The position of the words in 319-20 is most telling
for the effect of the passage. Gravidam late segetem presents
a broad expanse of heavily laden stalks; then the contrast
between ab radicihus imis and suhlimem marks the confusion
which reaches its height in the alliterative expulsam eruerent.
Into the battle of the winds come the auxiliary forces of the
rain, one mighty marching line, and the clouds massed aloft
I's A. G. Harkness, The Final Monosyllable in Latin Prose and Poetry,
A. J. P. 31, pp. 154-74, discusses the relation of the rhythm caused by final
monosyllables to the thought. He finds that it yields a different effect in dif-
ferent authors, and concludes that its avoidance in hexameter (and he states a
steadily decreasing use of it) is due to the relation of accent and ictus. Con-
junctions and words of one syllable directly preceded by another monosyllable are
most common. In the Georgics there are 22 final monosyllables, 7 cases of est
in elision with the preceding word, 5 cases of et or nee with cum or dum\ si quis,
quae sint, aut hos, omniaque in se, et vox, said 5 where the monosyllable is pre-
ceded by a longer word, I. 181, 247, 313 ; II. 321 ; III. 255. In every one of these
there is a definite effect discernible. 1. 181 exiguus mus calls to mind the ridiculus
mus of Horace (A. P. 139), with similar comic touch; in 247 intempesta silet nox
gives a pause to the verse that well prolongs the calm and silent darkness;
in II. 321 cum rapidus Sol checks the rushing course of the sun before it enters
winter's domain; in III. 255 exacuit sus gives the same rhythm as the verse under
discussion and through ruit shows fierce and broken action, not unlike the
stormy spring of I. 313; in IV. 71 et vox, in the onomatopoetic line giving the
sound of the trumpet, represents likewise harsh and broken sound.
71
bear weather foul with darkening rain. Down crashes the
mighty firmament on high, and with its measureless waters
washes away the standing grain in all its luxuriance, the
grain for which the oxen have suffered so much labor. The
alliteration of agmen aquarum and of arduus aether gives a
certain effect of unity or organization that fits well the mili-
tary metaphor, and the sata laeta boumque labores adds a
touch of pathos to the conquest. Dihiit, with its prominent
place in the verse and the pause following it, brings one up
blankly against absolute ruin. In the same verse begin
the rapid movement and the fretful sounds of the rush of the
water,
implentur fossae et cava flumina crescunt
cum sonitu fervetque fretis spirantibus aequor,
the rough /'s and hard c's repeating themselves and gathering
in the hissing s's of the next verse in a real ebullition of sound.
As so often after a passage of sound, so here there comes a
flashing picture of the Father himself, the commander of the
forces, in the midst of the blackness of night hurling the
gleaming bolt. Following this are short disconnected sen-
tences, running from one verse into the next, and breaking a
verse with a long pause, to depict the trembling of the earth,
the flight, the humbling fear of beast and man— the god above
hurling down earth's highest strongholds with burning missile
— the doubled groaning of the winds and the driving downpour
of the rain, the mourning of the forests and the shores.
In 328 node corusca shows a placing of words on the principle
of contrast to heighten the picture, and in the sentences that
follow Vergil's fondness for the short alliterative phrase and
the no less musical assonance is plain. Note, for alliteration,
maxima motu, terra tremit, fugere ferae, and, for assonance,
mortalia cor da. In ille flagranti aut Athon aut Rhodopen aut
alta Ceraunia telo deicit the adjective beside ille covers the
presence of the god, too august for the cowering eyes below,
72
with the pure flame of awe, and the deferring of ielo to the
end of the sonorous line that crowds together earth's strongest
bulwarks, a line as mighty in sound as in sense, followed by
deicit, which begins the next verse, marks the climax of might
and the climax of ruin and despair for the mortal hearts below.
There only remains to tell the tears and the mourning of
nature. The assonant densissimus imher has in it from its
crowded light vowels and its sharp s's, the fierceness and the
clatter of the rain, while the repeated nasals of nunc, nemora,
nunc, and the less obtrusive but still effective ones in ingenti,
vento, plangunt are like a minor note of agony.
The passage as a whole shows excellently Vergil's mastery
of his tools. Rhetorical figures there are — metaphors in
lactentia frumenta and gravidam segetem; the more sustained
one of the battle of the storm, concurrere proelia, followed by
the agmen aquarum, and later by ipse pater, the divine mind
behind all this seeming violence and confusion; and the long
wail of plangunt that ends the passage: anaphora with its
consequent balance in cum messis inhorruit et cum frumenta
in viridi stipula lactentia turgent, in aut, aut, aut, strengthened
by alliteration with alta, and in nunc of the last verse : asyndeton
where the movement becomes too rapid for connectives, as,
ruit ardiius aether, implentur fossae, fugere ferae, ille flagranti,
ingeminant austri. Then euphonic means are seized upon to
emphasize, to connect, to give weight, to give movement,
and to give sound, amounting to onomatopoeia in lines 326-7
and in densissimus imher and the verse that follows it. A
noun borrows the reflected force of an adjective that belongs
to another word by having a place beside it, as in immensum
caelo, or in maxima motu, or ille flagranti, or by separation of
noun and attribute {flagranti . . . telo) the heaviest verse
of the passage is enveloped in flame before the crash, and twice
the verb is deferred to open a new verse followed by a pause
of absolute powerlessness.
73
II. 458-74:
O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint,
agricolas! quibus ipse procul discordibus armis
fundit humo facilem victum iustissima tellus;
si non ingentem foribus domus alta superbis
mane salutantum totis vomit aedibus undam,
nee varios inhiant pulchra testudine postis
inlusasque auro vestis Ephyreiaque aera,
alba neque Assyrio fucatur lana veneno,
nee easia liquid! corrumpitur usus olivi;
at seeura quies et nescia fallere vita,
dives opum variarum, at latis otia fundis
(speluncae vivique lacus et frigida Tempe
mugitusque boum mollesque sub arbore somni)
non absunt; illic saltus ac lustra ferarum,
et patiens operum exiguoque adsueta inventus,
sacra deum sanctique patres; extrema per illos
lustitia exeedens terris vestigia fecit.
As a contrast to the more impassioned passage which describes
the storm, an anal^^sis of the calmer eulogy of country Hfe
must be made to see how Vergil adapts the use of his tools to
the effective expression of his thought. Here the passage
opens with an exclamation, broken by a clause which marks
the higher knowledge of the vates, and at the same time offers
the occasion for the enumeration of blessings which is to
follow. In quibus ipsa there are two pronouns side by side
in accordance with what Leo calls the tendency of the same
parts of speech toward each other,"^ which tendency, however,
has root within the thought, and here presents the farmers and
straightway in contrast the mistress"^ who pours out from
the ground their living, her character (iustissima) and then
her identity appearing in the last two words of the verse.
From the beginning of this passage to the end of the book
there is an unusual amount of contrast, between country
115 Leo, op. cit., p. 432. See above, pp. 37, 47.
"^ Compare the frequent use of ipse, ipsa in thia sense, e. g. in Plant. Cas. 790
ego eo quo me ipsa misit; Catull. 3. 7. (see Munro, Criticisms and Elucidations
of Catullus, p. 105); Cic. N. D. 1. 5. 10 ipse dixit.
74
naturalness and city artificiality, between the philosophic
poet and the rustic singer, between the complex life of the
statesman and the simple round of the farmer's labors. In
verse 461 this contrast is begun and the intricate interweaving
of words marks the elaboration, where the adjectives and
substantives (denoted by a, a' — b, b' etc.) may be thus
represented, ab'c'cbdd'a'. All the adjectives here
signify size, while brilliancy of color and beauty find their
place in the next verse, and the qualifying attributes grow
less striking in alba lana and liquidi olivi. There is also the
use of the localizing epithet in Ephyreiacpie aera and Assyrio
teneno, one by its unusualness and the other by its distance
giving the desired effect of expensive elegance. The dis-
paraging touch is given in veneno (the pure white wool is
represented as poisoned by the purple) and in corrumpitnr,
which denotes the effect of the costly eastern perfume^^^ on
the pure smooth-flowing oil.
There has been but little alliteration so far, two pairs in
the first verse, a single initial repetition each in the next
three, a single echo of three sounds in the next two verses,
none in 464, and but one example in 465 and 466. The fine
choice and skillful placing of words, combined, of course, with
sufiicient attention to euphony to avoid the unpleasant,
produces the effect in this passage.
To describe the natural delights of country life the word
order is most simple; each noun preceded by its adjective,
except in ojpum variarum, and the attributes so chosen that,
even without their substantives, they yield an atmosphere of
peace, truth and plenty, space, freshness and softness about
the life. Euphonic devices are still but little used, except in
verse 470, where there are the favorite alliterative pairs, and
the heavy vowels to give a depth to the content.
Et patiens operum exiguoque adsueta iuventus,
"8 It cost 1000 denarii per pound, according to Pliny, N. H. 12. 19. 42 §93.
75
with its important atmosphere of endurance and restraint
estabUshed before the noun appears, brings the description
to its more sterling excellencies, culminating in sacra deum
sanctique patres. It is for these virtues that Justice lingered
last among them in her flight from earth; lustitia echoes and
rounds out the conception in iustissima tellus. Plainly the
charm of this passage does not rest upon artificiality.
The close of the poem shows a choice and placing of words
that has enabled the poet to pack with latent force these
eight verses, and a handling of sounds that supports the
thought and makes the verses sing themselves again and
again in the memory.
IV. 559-66:
Haec super arvorum cultu pecorumque canebam
et super arboribus, Caesar dum magnus ad altum
fulminat Euphraten bello victorque volentis
per populos dat iura viamque adfectat Olympo.
illo Vergilium me tempore dulcis alebat
Parthenope studiis florentem ignobilis oti,
carmina qui lusi pastorum audaxque iuventa,
Tityre, te patulae cecini sub tegmine fagi.
There is a verse and a half of plain statement ungarnished by
an adjective, with nothing noteworthy in the order, until
Vergil strikes the contrast he intends to make between Caesar's
great exploits and his own simple pursuits. Then Caesar is
great, he flashes with the brilliance of lightning as far as
a distant and deep river, whose name itself makes a round
mouthful. Without pause follow three words that tell the
whole story of his activities in the East, war, conquest and
willing subjection, the adjective giving the keynote of the
blessedness of Augustus' accomplishments, the fact that men
submit and are glad. The story spreads out in per and the
plural populos, but order reigns, and from a broad world in
order the conqueror goes on his way to the pinacle of heavenly
bliss in Olympo. It would seem impossible to crowd so much
76
of achievement and exaltation into less than three verses,
but every word tells, and seems to tell most just where it is
placed, while the very vowels of the words are deep-toned to
support the weight and majesty of the thought. From this
climax Vergil descends to his own slight sphere, shows it in
the full contrast of ignoble ease to great endeavor, but there
seems to be a note of pride in this same ease, struck when he
puts his own name to the fore, making such haste to avow his
lesser rank that one must suspect that he did not feel its
lowliness. It is the tone of 'I must confess' to something the
speaker is rather proud to own. So is begun the contrast,
each man's name standing at the head of his deeds, but
Vergil's deeds are not those of majesty, only those of charm,
an intangible thing that he must make felt in his words.
Thus, next after the identification of time and man, the
adjective didcis transports immediately to a different atmo-
sphere, where the figure of the cherishing care of a baby by
a nymph of melodious name touches the note of charm
inherent in childhood. The child himself blossoms like a
flower in his pursuits of peace, content to let glory pass, until
trifling with shepherd's songs the youth grows bold and
flaunts his own creation at the world in
Tityre, te patulae cecini sub tegmine fagi.
In the second picture, too, there is a studied placing of
words to convey the effect of charm, of contrast and of pride
that he calls bold, and one might think so were it not for
the spreading beech that covers the picture and puts it in its
true and charming place. The liquids prevail in
illo Vergilium me tempore dulcis alebat
Parthenope studiis florentem ignobilis oti;
then the deeper assonance of
carmina qui lusi pastorum audaxque iuventa
gives way to the light vowels in the next verse, which corre-
77
spond to the slight estimation Vergil would put on his achieve-
ments. There is the alliterative pair heralded by arboribus
in 460, and a similar pair echoed by tegmine in the last verse,
but the euphonic effect in this passage depends much more
upon assonance than upon alliteration, and what we have
called the peculiarly insistent e sound closes the poem.
Mental Processes
When one passes from the more obvious technicalities of
a poet's style to the endeavor to interpret thereby his mental
processes and predilections, there is a greater danger of
reading into the poet what is in the mind of the student, which
discourages categorical statement and forces one to offer a
theory rather than to state facts. The figurative terms,
however, in which a poet clothes his thought, and the salient
features of a description or a situation, by which he brings the
whole before his reader's mind, do indicate the individuality
of the poet too manifestly to be overcome by the personal bias
of the student. Just such an indication of character is inferred
for the Roman people as a whole by Oscar Weise^^^ when he
notes the wealth of metaphor from military and country life
throughout Latin literature. ^'°
In the Georgics the most striking figure is personification,
often of an informal sort, that makes vital and vivid things
that Vergil is expounding and endeavoring to raise to dignity.
Laetas segetes, for all that Cicero (De. Orat. III. 38. 135) notes
it as a rustic phrase, strikes a note of human joy in the opening
verse of the Georgics. So I. 47-8 (seges) bis quae solem bis
frigora sensit attributes sensitiveness to the fields, as 136
tunc ainos primum fluvii sensere cavatas does to the rivers.
Examples abound throughout the poem,^^^ and the personi-
"» O. Weise, Chararteristik der lutein. Spr., 3te Auflage, S. 11-15.
"" Campbell and Strong in their translation of Weise, p. 14, note that the
metaphors in Aeschylus are often taken from wild or tame animals, those of
Lucretius from nature, and those of Pindar from public games. Bacon was
fond of metaphors taken from medicine or surgery (Minto, Manual of Prose
Lit., p. 247f.).
"I Compare I. 82, 117, 124, 330. 368,449,400, 475,492; IL 57, 75, 82, 98, 240,
420, et saepe.
78
79
fication grows stronger in the third book, where the tone of
kinship between man and beast pervades the whole narrative,
and culminates in the fourth book in the treatment of the bees
as a people, with king and laws and division of labor and joys
and passions and sorrows. As a device for arousing the
reader's interest and for elevating the subject matter we
might class this as a bit of successful rhetoric, but in view of
the philosophy of being which later commended itself to
Vergil when writing Aeneid VI and that which is set forth
in Georgics IV. 221-7
deum namque ire per omnes
terrasque tractusque maris caelumque profundum ;
hinc pecudes, armenta, viros, genus omne ferarum,
quemque sibi tenuis nascentem arcessere vitas:
scilicet hue reddi deinde ac resoluta referri
omnia, nee morti esse locum, sed viva volare
sideris in numerum atque alto succedere caelo.
it means more than this and betokens a consciousness in the
poet of the unity of creation.^-^
Of the strikingly Latin figures that Weise notes from
country life and military activities there are instances in the
Georgics, though the subject matter precludes much meta-
phorical use of terms from country life. The picture of
Proteus and his sea calves is compared to the shepherd on the
mountain when his flock comes in at evening and the bleating
of the lambs rouses the wolves (IV. 433-5). The verb that
denotes the taming or breaking of animals is extended to the
122 The philosophy is put here in the mouth of quidam (219), as in Aen. VI. 724 ff .
it is assigned with more weight to Anchises as one who knows and speaks with
authority. Vergil has not seen fit to avow his own acceptance of the doctrine,
but his repetition of it in the Aeneid is usually taken as indicative of his creed,
and, on the other hand, it need not contradict the passage I. 415 ff. which is
usually interpreted as Epicurean and materialistic. Species animorum can
hardly be made to yield "the phases of their life," as Conington translates it,
but declares in animorum the spiritual side of the bird nature, and puts this in
agreement with the phases of what we call weather and what Vergil calls the
divine Jupiter. He claims for the birds no unusual prophetic powers, but a
share in the spirit communion between nature animate and inanimate.
80
elm that is broken from its wild state on the mountain to
serve as a plough (I. 169-70). Similarly all the trees must be
tamed, 11. 61 cogendae in sulcum ac multa mercede domandae.
In IV. 136 winter bridles the rivers with ice, glacie cursus
frenaret aqnanim.
Contest appears in terms of war; in the sustained military
metaphor of the storm scene analyzed in the preceding chapter
(I. 318 ff.: see above, pp. 69-72); where the husbandman
gives his orders to the fields (imperat arvis I. 99) as a general
to his force; where labor conquers everything {labor omnia
licit, I. 145); in the fire that conquers and rules through the
tree tops (victor jJerque alia cacumina regnat 11. 307); where
the vine receives commands as did the field earlier (dura exerce'
imperia, II. 370); where the bull returns to battle with his
rival (signa movet, III. 236) ; and even where there is no con-
flict, a flock of ravens is corvorum exercitus (II. 382). The
tree is too tall for an arrow in flight to o'ertop it (I. 123);
the vines are to be planted in rows like an army drawn up
on an open field (II. 277 ff.); the African herdsman carries
with him all his baggage as did the Roman soldier on the
march^'^ (III. 347) ; the poet must conquer his unpoetic theme
by his words (III, 289). Nature's contest is over with the
regions of the earth and she has imposed treaties and fixed
laws (I. 60-1 has leges aeternaque foedera certis imposuit natura
locis); and as the result of man's warfare on barren ground
the birds find themselves dispossessed of their ancient home-
steads (II. 209), a sympathetic touch from a man who shared
the same fate.
The figure of the master rather than the victor gives domin-
antur avenae (I. 154), while the other side of the picture is
seen in serviat ultima Thide (I. 30). Belonging to home life,
as do these two metaphors, are the house and barn of the
"3 Here, carrying the description farther than the comparison warrants, the
poet makes the soldiers form in line to meet a sudden foe.
81
mouse and the chambers of the mole (I. 181-3); tenera lanae
vellera of the clouds (I. 397); coquat aestas (I. 66) of the sun
drying the fresh clods of earth ; excoquitur vitium atque exsudat
inutilis umor (I. 88) of the effect of burning a field, like puri-
fication by boiling. Vesiibulum of the space before the bees'
hive (IV. 20), cunabula of the cells (IV. 66), the drone sitting
at another man's table (IV. 244 sedem aliena ad pahula) and
the funerals of the bees (exportant tectis et tristia funera ducunt,
IV. 256) are of the same kind.
The idea of motherhood is frequently used, of the crops
themselves in the storm scene (I. 315 ff.); of the older tree
from which the laurel shoots come {parva sub ingenti matris se
subicit umbra, II. 19), and again in II. 55 nunc altae frondes
et rami matris opacant; of the new field which the transplanted
seeds must recognize as their mother (mutatam ignorent subito
ne semina matrem, II. 268) ; and in the figure borrowed from
Lucretius (I. 259) of pater Aether, terra coniunx (II. 324-30).
The poet's own activity is referred to under the terms of
the games or of a voyage. The deified Caesar is to be gracious
and grant him a smooth course (I. 40 dafacilem cursum), and
Maecenas is called on to spread sails for the open sea and go
with the poet the way of the second book (II. 41 Maecenas,
pelagoque volans da vela patenti). At the opening of the third
book Vergil is at once poet, priest and victor, for he sings and
serves the temple and receives the homage of Greece, forsaking
her own games to acknowledge him the victor (III. 10 ff.).^^^
At the end of the second book the poet has covered the course
and is ready to free the steaming necks of his steeds (II. 441-2)
(Compare II. 364). Later he would like to talk of gardens
were he not drawing his sails and hastening to turn his prow
to land (IV. Ill ni .. . vela traham et terris festinem advertere
proram).
"■1 The spirit of war spreads over the earth with the speed of a chariot on a
race course (I. 512-4).
82
A like simile tells how fleeting are the things of life, which
slip back as does one who rows against a stream and for a
moment relaxes his effort (I. 201-2 non aliter quam qui adverso
vix fliimine lemhum remigiis suhigit, si bracchia forte remisit).
Again, winter makes the farmer as free from care as the
sailors who bring to port a ship hard pressed by storm and
deck its prow in thanksgiving (I. 303-4) :
ceu pressae cum iam portum tetigere carinae
puppibus et laeti nautae imposuere coronas.
The bees balance themselves with a pebble as a boat in a
tossing sea takes ballast (IV. 195 ut cumbae instabiles fiuctu
iadante saburram \ tollunt).
Often the figure comes from nature, as when the race horse
goes as the north wind sweeping things before it (III. 196-201),
and the bull returning to fight is like an overwhelming wave
that strikes the shore and raises the sand (III. 237-41).
Disease among cattle spreads faster than the whirlwind that
brings the storm at sea (III. 470), and the creatures of the sea
lie dead on the shore like shipwrecked bodies (III. 542). The
bees are as thick as hail in the air, or acorns from the oak
(IV. 80-1), and their attack is called a hard storm {duram
hiemem, IV. 239). The buzzing of the bees is like the cold
wind that murmurs in the forest, or like the noise of the sea
when the waves roll back, or like a fire roaring shut in a furnace
(IV. 261-3). The new bees come from the body of the
bullock as rain from summer clouds, or (here comes the touch
from war) as the arrows of the Parthians (IV. 312-14). In
Orcus the shades gather around Orpheus as do the birds seeking
refuge at evening or from a winter rain^-^ (IV. 474) ; Orpheus
mourns for Eurydice as the nightingale for her lost young
(IV. 511). The bees are now a cloud, and now a cluster that
hangs from a bough (IV. 60, 557, 558 obscuramque nubem —
immensas nubes — lentis uvam r emitter e ramis). Multitude is
I" Compare Aen. VI. 309-12.
83
expressed by the sands tossed by Zephyrus, or the waves of the
Ionian sea when Eurus stirs it (II. 105-8).
There are a few images that suggest the public Ufe at Rome,
as when the lasting wines are represented as rising to yield place
to the wine from Aminnea (II. 98), much as the younger men
in the senate might do to an older and worthier senator.^^e
So the white bulls beside Clitumnus bring to Vergil's mind
the picture of the triumphal procession which they may lead
to the temples of the gods (II. 148), and the theatre is to
contribute to the festivities following the poet's victory (III.
25 intexti tollant aulaea Britanni). As noted before, the
activities of the bees are pictured as those of a city state, and
metaphors from city life must enter there, but otherwise they
are few. The very phases of that life that yielded so many
common metaphors in Latin, those pointed out by Weise as
of judicial and administrative origin, were the things that
Vergil congratulated the farmer on missing (II. 501-12). He
would not thrust such thoughts before his contented country
folk, nor had they taken great hold upon his own mind. It
is the misery that one must see and can not remedy, the
courts, the forum, the soul-killing record-keeping as well as
the wearying ceremony of life, the press of state and greed of
gold and power that Vergil would be free from when he leaves
the city and answers the enticing call of the country .^^7 These
are the things that he puts from his mind and from his speech.
Belonging to none of these categories is the comparison of
the labor among the bees to that of the Cyclopes beneath
Aetna (IV. 170 ff.), and the queer description of the bee as
«« Compare Tyrtaeus, Fr. 10 — Hiller-Crusius,
irdvres 5' iv doiKOiaiv o/j-Qi vioi o'i re Kar avrbv
iLKovaiv x^PV^ 0' ''■^ 7raXai6repoi
and Eclogue VI. 68.
1" Compare Juvenal's charges against Rome in the third satire, where it is
the noise, discomfort, lack of opportunity for the Roman because of the lying
and all-absorbing Greek that would drive one to the country in very disgust.
84
dingy as the dirt covered traveller who is parched and choked
with dust (IV. 96). More bookish is the likening of bleeding
cattle during the plague to the practice of the Bisaltae, and
the Geloni, who go off to the desert and mountains and draw
blood from the horses's feet that they may mix it with milk
and drink it (III. 4G1-3).
From war, then, the home, nature, the games of Greece,
the sea, and, to but slight extent, from city life comes Vergil's
figurative language in the Georgics, indicating the strength
of the impression these had made upon him, and the fondness
of his mind to dwell on them.
No less indicative are the salient features by which he
describes a scene, or the little touches by which he reveals
his own associations with an object. The aster, whose root is
to be boiled in wine and put as food for the bees, is described
minutely, and the poet's association with it is marked by its
frequent use to adorn the altars (IV. 276 ^ae/^e deum nexis
ornatae torquihns arae). The heavy heat that lies on the
burning rocks (II. 377) is a vivid characterization of summer
that speaks of direct contact,
aut gravis incumbens scopulis arentibus aestas.'-*
So the planting time for vines is when the white bird comes,
the foe to the long serpents (II. 320). How was the wor-
shipper's attention wandering when at the libation to Bacchus
he noted the fat Tyrrhenian puffing into his ivory mouthpiece
(II. 193)?^^^ There is a whimsical touch in the picture of the
bees drying themselves on the bridge after a tumble into the
water (IV. 27 ff.), as, later, in the pinch of dust scattering
their great hosts (IV. 87).^^° The thrifty housekeeping of
"8 Note the different touch for the pleasanter heat of autumn, in II. 522,
mitis in apricis coquitur vindemia saxis.
>29 Compare Cat., 39. 11 obesus Etruscus.
130 Professor Shorey in a comment on Horace, Odes I. 28. 3 notes this verse
of the Georgics 'in exquisite symbolism' as a parallel to the three handfuls of
dust the restless spirit of the unburied sailor begs, but the bees are not dead,
only restored to their own or a new hive.
85
the mouse and the mole has the same quality (I. 181-3) and
so has the figure of the cucumber growing to its comfortable
middle-age (IV. 122 tortusque -per herbam cresceret in ventrem
cucumis). Such phrases as these are as near as the poet gets
to the humorous, but the pathetic is never very far from the
surface. It is felt in the note of hardship in man's life, the
repetition of labor, the characterization of the race as durum
genus (I. 63) and the very want that makes him master
everything, I. 145-6: labor omnia vicit \ improbus et duris
urgens in rebus egestas. If he is not constant in his efforts,
he must look on in vain at another's plenty and solace his own
hunger with the acorns of the forest (I. 158-9). There lurks
disappointment in the very nature of things. Picked seeds
degenerate and go back to their poor state (I. 198) ; compare
I. 200 Sic omnia fatis \ in peius ruere ac retro suhlapsa referri.
The birds routed from their nests in the fields by the farmers
(II. 209-10), the fields themselves unkempt and pathetic with
their tillers gone (I. 507), the fruitless oleaster wath its bitter
leaves, all that is left of the orchard and vineyard that have
been burned (II. 314), touch the same note. The defeated
bull who must leave his dominion (III. 228 et stabula aspectans
regnis excessit avitis), the ox grieving for his brother's death
(III. 518, maerentem abiungens fraterna morte iuvencum) , the
pitiful huddled mass of creatures covered with snow and
dying, III. 368-70
intereunt pecudes, stant circumfusa pruinia
corpora magna bourn, confertoque agmine cervi
torpent mole nova et summis vix cornibus exstant,
had all touched his heart. The figure of Aristaeus himself
is pathetic as he comes to reproach his mother for his fallen
state, but the most exquisite pathos of the poem is in the
Orpheus-Eurydice myth, reaching its climax in IV. 498
invalidasque tibi tendens, heu non tua, palmas.
The part that sound played in Vergil's imagery is striking
86
in the Georgics. It seems to have been to him what light and
flash and speed were to Pindar. Professor Gildersleeve says
of Pindar,'^^ "He drains dry the Greek vocabulary of words
for light and bright, shine and shimmer, glitter and glister,
ray and radiance, flame and flare and flash, gleam and glow,
burn and blaze. The first Olympian begins with wealth and
strength, the flaming fire of gold, ^^- and the shining star of the
sun. The fame of Hieron is resplendent, and the shoulder of
Pelops gleams. No light like the light of the eye, thought the
Greek, and the ancestors of Theron were the eye of Sicily, and
Adrastos longs for the missing eye of his army. So the mid-
month moon in her golden chariot flashed full the eye of
evening into the face of Heracles."
There is gleam and flash in the Georgics and color too, green
and white and gold and red and purple. How could there be
an Italian landscape without it? The visual type of imagery
is commonest, and even in persons of the so-called mixed type
it is apt to play quite a part,^^^ but the auditory imagery, to
the degree it is seen in the Georgics, indicates an unusual
sensitiveness to sound, which made that often the means of
the poet's own memory and his means of presenting that
memory to others.
Most frequently mentioned is some sound in connection with
water (9 times in the poem), the hoarse murmuring of water
as it falls over rocks (I. 109, ilia cadens raucum 'per levia
murmur \ saxa ciet), the surging of rain swollen torrents (I.
326-7 implentur fossae et cava flumina crescunt \ cum sonitu
fervetque fretis spirantihus aequor), the rising of the waters in
Lake Benacus (II. 160 fiuctihu^ et fremitu adsurgens Benace
marino), the roar of the sea as it beats against the mole and
is dashed back (11. 162-3 atque indignatum magnis stridoribus
"1 Gildersleeve, Olympian and Pythian Odes, Introd., p. xxxvi.
"2 Gold strikes one everywhere in all the odes.
W E. B. Titchener, Experimental Psychology, Qualitative Instructor's
Manual, pp. 387-93.
87
aequor \ lulia qua ponto longe sonat unda refuso), the loud
boom of the wave on the rocks of the shore (III. 239 ad terras
immane sonat per saxa), the triple sound of thunder in heaven,
the echo of the sea against the cliffs, and the parents of the
youth calling him back (III. 261-2 porta tonat caeli, et scopulis
inlisa reclamant \ aequora; nee miseri possunt revocare
parentes), the noise of the waters of the Ascanius (III. 269
illas ducit amor trans Gar gar a transque sonantem \ Ascanium),
of the sea (IV. 262 ut mare sollicitum stridit refluentibus undis),
and again of the Hypanis as it flows over the rocks (IV. 370
saxosusque sonans Hypanis).
Next in frequency are sounds in the woods; the dry crashing
in the wind (I. 357-8 aridm altis \ montibus audiri fragor,
II. 441 ipsae Caucasio steriles in vertice silva \ quas animosi
Euri assidue franguntque feruntque (assisted by the / and r
of the last two words). III. 199-200 summaeque sonorem \
dant silvae, IV. 261 jrigidus ut quondam sihis immurmurat
Auster). The grove beneath the sea in Gyrene's realm sounds
too (IV. 364 lucosque sonantis). Winds and woods and shore
are all involved in the following passages :
I. 334 nunc nemora ingenti vento, nunc litora plangunt
I. 358-9 ^^^ resonantia longe
litora misceri et nemorum increbrescere murmur
(in this passage the wind sound has appeared alone before,
then upon the mountains and here unites with both woods and
sea). In none of these places is the flash of the water or of
the leaves in the forest called to one's attention, save that the
wave that bursts against the rocks with the booming sound
began to grow white out at sea (III. 237). To announce the
irrigating stream as it comes down over the rocks there is ecce
(I. 108), but this can hardly be pushed to yield description of
the flash of water. A flash of lightning follows the noise of
the waters (I. 328), but this looks forward to the rest of the
passage and has nothing to do with the gleam of water.
In addition to wind and water and woods, tliere is tlie
whispering patch of lupin (I. 75-6 tristisque Iwpini \ sustuleris
fragilis calamos sihamque sonantem), the patter of hail on
the roof (I. 449 tarn multa in tectis crepitans salit horrida
grando), the crackling sound of fire (II. 306 {ignis) ingentem
caelo sonitum dedit, IV. 409 (Proteus) aut acrem flammae
sonitum dabit, IV. 263 nt clausis rapidus fornacibus ignis),
the whispering west wind (III. 322 at vero Zephyris cum laeta
vocantibus aestas), an echo from the rocks (IV. 49-50 aut ubi
concava pulsu \ saxa sonant vocisque offensa resultat imago).
One might expect the mention of birds to bring the sound
image, but it is not only their cries and songs, but the noise
of their wings as well that has caught Vergil's ear. He
mentions the cry of the ravens (I. 382, 413, 423), the crow
(I. 388), the owl (I. 402), song of birds in spring (II. 328)
and at evening (III. 338), the chattering of the swallow
(IV. 307), and the lament of the nightingale (IV. 510-15).
But at I. 407, ecce inimicus atrox magna stridore per auras,
Vergil has in mind the noise of the hawk's wings, and at
I. 361-2, cum medio celeres revolant ex aequore mergi \
clamoremque ferunt ad litora, the gulls' wings or possibly
their cry. Then there is the querulous note of the cicada,
III. 328, et cantu querulae rumpunt arbusta cicadae, the cry
of the frog, I. 378 et veterem in Umo ranae cecinere quereUam,
who even when he is but food for the serpent is loquax (III.
431). The cries of the wolves echo in the city, I. 486 per
noctem resonare lupis ululantibus urbes. The lowing of oxen
betokens now contentment for the farmer (II. 470), now pain
when stung by the gadfly (III. 150), now their last agony in
the description of the plague (III. 554-5). In their fight the
bulls bellow until the forests and the sky resound (III. 223),
the defeated bull goes off with a low moaning over his disgrace
(III. 226), and there is the same low tone of grief when one
ox sees the other dead at his side under the yoke (III. 517-18).
The serpents are known by their hiss (III. 421), and the bees
by their buzzing (IV. 79, 188, 216, 260, 310), which becomes a
battle shout in IV. 76 miscentur magnisque meant damoribus
hostem.
It is noise, not sights, that frightens Vergil's horse (III. 79
mnos horret strepitus), and when he travels there is a good
sohd sound from his solid hoof (III. 88 ct solido graviter sonat
ungula cornu), and it is by sound that his course in the ring
is marked (III. 191 incipiat gradibusque sonare \ compositis).
Despite the fact that Saturn is fleeing from Rhea on Mount
Pelion, because he becomes a horse, Vergil makes him neigh
(III. 94) . The first characteristic of the gadfly is acerba sonans
(III. 149). The lambs begin bleating at evening and arouse
the wolves (IV. 435).
There is the sound of arms (I. 474) that Germany hears at
Caesar's death, and the sound of arms that sets the war-horse
aquiver with eagerness (III. 83). The blast of the trumpet
men did not have to hear in the Golden Age (II. 539), but the
war-horse must learn to endure it now (III. 183), and even
the bees have learned to give a trumpet sound in time of war
(IV. 71-2). The noise of the forging of swords was once
unknown (II. 540), but the poet knows the pounding and
clashing of a forge beneath Aetna's groaning (IV. 173), and
the sound of hot metal dipped in water (IV. 172). The bees
are to be attracted by the sound of cymbals (IV. 64), as once
they were drawn to Dicte by the chants and drums of the
Curetes (IV. 151). The beechen axle clatters behind the well-
broken oxen (III. 173), and, when after the plague the men
themselves must take the oxen's place, the wains creak on
their way (III. 536). The horse must learn to love the rattle
of bits in the stable (III. 184), his master's words of praise,
and, queerest auditory image of them all, the sound of the pat
upon his neck (III. 185-6).
The description of the farmer's winter evening includes
90
sounds of the housewife's song and the whirr of the shuttle
(I. 293-4). With songs and shouts do the rustics call Ceres
to their homes (I. 346-50), the Italian spring festival is full of
laughter and song (II. 386). The man who has finished
planting his rows comes in singing over it (II. 417 canit
effectos cxtrcmus vitiitor antes), and the old Corycian comes
in grumbling against the late spring (IV. 138). There is a
strange presaging voice at Caesar's death (I. 476), and the
flocks talk (I. 478); it is the sound of Aristaeus' grief that
strikes the ear of his mother (IV. 350) among the nymphs to
whom Clymene has been telling the story of Mars and Venus.
Proteus is angry and gnashes his teeth at Aristaeus (IV. 452).
The Dryad chorus shows its grief at Eurydice's death by wails
that fill the mountains (IV. 460), and Orpheus seeks his solace
from his lyre (IV. 464). Three times is the clash of Avernus
heard as it closes on Eurydice crying aloud to him (IV. 493).
Then there is Orpheus' song among the deserted hills and the
voice of his complaining (IV. 510-20), his cry of 'Eurydice'
and its echo. Of course the whole story is necessarily full of
music. Perhaps that was one of its charms to Vergil. It
seems significant that in the last verses of the poem Augustus
flashes his glory (fulminat, 561), while Vergil sang (cecini,
566). 134
The rather subtle handling of euphonic devices noted in
the third chapter, and the large part that sound plays in
Vergil's imagery and in his memory of scenes betoken a keen
sensitiveness to this means of perception. The appeal of
sound to him is, so to speak, an outward and visible sign of
"< For a study of Vergil's association of ideas in the "sound series" see
Roiron, Etude sur I'imagination auditive de Virgile. He deduces some eight
results (pp. 631-3) showing among others that sound in Vergil is not an abstract
idea, but a sense perception objective and vigorous, is associated with the cause
that has produced it or the action which it ends; the intensity of the sound is
its most characteristic feature, and certain associations of sound are frequent
enough to be called characteriatic of Vergil.
91
the inward and spiritual harmony that shows itself in the
whiteness of his soul (Hor., Sat., I. 5. 41, Donat. Vit. ch. 11),
in the smooth and even structure of his sentences,^^^ in the
elusive melody of his verse, in the suavitas et lenocinium mirum
of his own reading voice (Donat, Vit. ch. 28), and, despite his
Roman characteristics and his patriotism, in his greater love
for peace and beauty than for contest, even with victory. It
is this harmony that keeps him from being carried away by
Roman sturdiness or Greek fancy or Alexandrian artificiality.
All the devices of the poets and the rhetoricians that have
preceded him he knows, but he is slave to none. There has
been much talk throughout this study of his use, but not
abuse, of his tools. It is the characteristic that strikes one
everywhere in the poem, the much valued restraint of Roman
character, but in Vergil's case a restraint that seems inborn
rather than acquired. One feels that his is not so much the
ars artem celandi as the ideal mingling that Lucretius ordains
for his atoms:
emineat ne quid quod contra pugnet et obstet
quominus esse queat proprie quodcumque creatur,
"5 See The Sentence Structure of Vergil, A. R. Crittenden, where by contrast
with Lucretius, Ennius and others Vergil's tendency to the associative rather
than the apperceptive type of sentence and to descending rather than ascending
structure is treated. Compare the placing of words by the principle of likeness
rather than contrast noted above (p. 45).
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93
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VITA
Meta Glass was born August 16, 1880, at Petersburg, Vir-
ginia. She was graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman's
College with the degree of Master of Arts in 1899. In 1901-4
she was instructor in German in Randolph-Macon, and in
1904-8 she was teacher of Latin in the Roanoke High School,
Roanoke, Virginia. During the years 1908-12 she was a
student at Columbia University, under the direction of Pro-
fessors George Willis Botsford, James Chidester Egbert,
Charles Knapp, Nelson Glenn McCrea, George N. Olcott,
Harry Thurston Peck, Edward Delavan Perry, James Rignall
Wheeler, Clarence Hoffman Young and Dr. Roscoe Guernsey.
In 1912 she was elected Adjunct-Professor of Latin at
Randolph-Macon Woman's College.
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