shades of various classes of men engaged in the pursuits and pleasures in which they delighted when living. Among these is the ancient bard Musaeus. who, by the request of the Sibyl, points out the way to the place where the shade of Anchises dwells.

629. susceptum- munus: 'finish the offering you have undertaken'; i.c. the gift of the golden branch to Proserpine.

630. Cyclopum educta caminis: 'reared by the forges of the Cyclopes.' The palace of Pluto is of iron wrought by the Cyclopes, or workinen of Vulcan.

אכן,

631. adverso fornice portas: 'the gates under the archway opposite' to The gate opens at the inner end of the arched or vaulted vestibule in front of the palace.

us.

632. Haec dona: poetic use of the plural for the singular. praecepta: 'the (divine) instructions.'

633. opaca viarum: = opacae viae. See note on I, 422.

634. foribus: the same as the portas, 1. 631.

635. aditum: 'the vestibule.' Here, as at the entrance of a temple, there

is a vase of holy water, with which the devotee must purify himself.

636. in limine: he suspends the branch on the doorpost.

637. divae: 'to the goddess'; an objective genitive.

638. Devenere locos: cf. I, 365.

640. et: connects Largior and lumine Purpureo (ablative of quality), which are used predicatively with vestit.

641. norunt: 'they (the shades) enjoy.'

642. With this passage cf. Milton's picture drawn of the same scene, Par. Lost, 2, 528 sqq. :—

'Part, on the plain or in the air sublime,
Upon the wing or in swift race contend,

As in the Olympian games or Pythian fields;
Part curb their fiery steeds, or shun the goal

With rapid wheels, or fronted brigads form.'

645. sacerdos: Orpheus, the most famous bard of the heroic period, is also, called here 'priest,' because the Grecian orgies and mysteries were first celebrated by him.

646. Obloquitur, etc.: 'strikes in accompaniment to the measures, (of the dances and songs, 1. 644) the seven distinctions of sounds,' i.e. the notes of the seven strings. The lyre of seven strings, furnishing seven open notes, is assigned to Orpheus.

647. digitis, pectine: he touches the strings with his fingers to produce a soft sound, and with the plectrum when louder notes are required.

649. melioribus annis: 'in the better times'; the ages before Laomedon and Priam.

653. currum: contracted form of the genitive plural, for curruum.

658, 659. unde — amnis: 'whence the stream of the Eridanus rolls in a swelling tide,' etc.; Plurimus: is emphatic and in the predicate. superne : 'above'; i.e. out in the world above.

660. passi: 'who have suffered.' For the construction, see note on IV, 406. 663. vitam: (human) life.'

664. merendo: 'by their services.'

667. Musaeum: Musaeus, a contemporary of Orpheus, and, like him, revered as one who had made use of poetry and music as means of redeeming men from barbarism.

674. Riparum toros: 'soft cushioned banks.' recentia rivis: 'fresh with running brooks'; watered by fertilizing steams, and therefore always green. 675. corde: ablative of place, with voluntas. fert: 'tends.'

676. tramite: ablative of place where.

677. nitentes: cf. 1. 640.

678. ostentat: Musaeus from the top of the hill shows them the pathway, and they descend on the other side, while he returns to his companions. dehinc: see note on I, 131.

679. penitus: 'far down (in the valley).'

680. ituras: 'destined to go.'

681. studio recolens: 'considering earnestly.'

682. Forte: join with the two verbs. It so happened that he was just t this time tracing out the destinies of his descendants.

684-751. Anchises receives Aeneas with an affectionate greeting, and first converses with him on the nature and condition of the innumerable spirits which are seen flitting about the river Lethe.

685. palmas utrasque: see note on V, 233.

687. exspectata parenti: 'looked for by thy father.'

688. iter durum: 'the difficult passage'; the horrors and toils of the descent. 690. futurum: 'that it would be'; i.e. that you would come; join with both the preceding verbs.

691. cura: 'my anxious hope.'

692. terras: see note on II, 654.

695. Aeneas seems to refer to such dreams and apparitions as are mentioned in IV, 353, and V, 722, of which Anchises himself has no knowledge. 696. tendere adegit: for the infinitive instead of the subjunctive with ut, see note on III, 134.

700-702. Repeated from II, 792-794.

703. in valle reducta: 'in the secluded valley'; the convalle (1. 679) in which Aeneas has found his father; a vale completely shut in by hills, and thus separated from the other parts of Elysium. Aeneas is struck with amaze.

ment at the multitude of spirits flitting about the banks of Lethe, which winds through this valley.

704. virgulta sonantia silvae: 'the rustling thickets of a forest.'

706. gentes populique: 'nations and tribes.'

709. strepit: 'murmurs'; i.e. with the hum of the vast multitude. Supply sic, correlating with velut.

710. subito: an adjective limiting visu.

711. Inscius: cf. II, 307. ea-porro: 'those far-off winding streams.' 713, 714. quibus - debentur: 'to whom new bodies are destined by fate'; bodies other than those which they have previously occupied in the world above. See ll. 748-751. The view here given by Anchises of the origin, successive states, and final destiny of souls, is probably the expression of Virgil's own belief, as derived from his study of the Greek philosophers.

715. Securos latices: 'the waters of forgetfulness.' Cf. Milton's description, 1. 131 above.

716. Has: 'these spirits'; these in particular. Anchises points out a certain portion of the multitude.

717. Iampridem cupio: these words belong equally to the foregoing line and to this.

718. Quo magis: see note on III, 377. Italia reperta: 'in the discovery of Italy'; i.e. that you have at length, after so much hardship, achieved your voyage to Italy. For the use of the participle, see note on II, 413.

719. aliquas: 'any indeed.' ad caelum: 'to the upper light'; as opposed to Hades. See note on 1. 128.

720. Sublimes: 'on high,' 'aloft'; to earth; join with ire. Cf. I, 415. 724-732. A spirit (spiritus) endowed with intelligence (mens) — i.e. a lifegiving and intelligent soul-pervades the whole world in all its parts; the soul, of which the material universe is the body. From this anima mundi emanate the individual souls of all living creatures, which are thus scintillations, as it were, from the ethereal fiery substance of the all-pervading spirit. Hence these seeds, or souls, possess a 'fiery energy' (igneus vigor) such as belongs to the ethereal or celestial substance from which they originate (caelestis origo).

724. campos liquentes: i.e. the sea.

725. Titania astra: 'the heavenly bodies'; the sun and the stars; or, as some understand, the Titanian orb,' i.e. the sun; the plural being put for the singular. Cf. IV, 119.

726, 727. Spiritus: the principle that gives vitality. Mens: the intelligence which directs. artus: 'the parts'; the members of the great material body (moles, magnum corpus) which contains the universal spirit.

728. Inde: 'from this source'; i.e. from this combination of the universal soul with the material elements — air, earth, water, and fire - just described.

729. marmoreo sub aequore: 'beneath its smooth surface'; like polished marble.

730. ollis Seminibus: 'to these seeds' of being; these sparks from the allpervading fire, or principle of vitality and thought.

731. quantum: this ethereal force manifests itself especially in man, 'so far as' the baneful influences of the animal passions do not impede its working. 733. Hinc: 'hence'; by reason of this, i.e. from the debasing union of the body with the soul, implied in the preceding clause. Fear, desire, grief, and joy were all regarded, especially by the Stoics, as weak affections contracted by the soul from the body. auras: here, 'the pure air'; the upper region of the heavens (caelum) from which they sprung.

734. clausae: sc. animae,

737. penitus: join with inolescere.

-que: 'and indeed.'

738. Multa diu concreta: 'many impurities long accumulating'; waxing with the body in growth. inolescere: sc. illis (= animis). miris modis:

' in wondrous wise,' 'strangely.' Cf. I, 354.

740-742. The punishments inflicted for the purification of souls are varied according to the nature and degree of the guilt contracted in life. Exposure to the winds suffices for one class; others must be purged beneath a great gulf of water, while the deepest infection is purged by fire.

742. Infectum scelus: 'the contracted guilt.'

743. Quisque Manes: 'we suffer each his peculiar punishments." Manes signifies: (1) the shades of the dead; (2) Hades, or the abode of the shades; (3) avenging powers of the lower world; (4) penalties inflicted by these powers. It seems to be used here in the last sense. The idea of the whole passage (11. 743-751) seems to be this: we are all punished for actual sin with penalties more or less severe, which require more or less time, according to the degree of the moral infection. Thereupon (after punishment) we are admitted to vast Elysium, and a few of us, who, by the special favor of the gods, are not destined to go again into other bodies, like these great multitudes (see ll. 713 sqq.), but are permitted to retain our identity, occupy these blissful fields until we are free from the very last traces of inbred impurity (Concretam labem). We thus become once more unmixed, ethereal, fiery essence, as at the first. But all these, to whom earthly bodies are again allotted by fate, are conducted after the lapse of a thousand years to the borders of Lethe, and prepared by its oblivious waters to enter upon that nev existence. Anchises, and such as he (pauci), who were already deified i the minds of their descendants, are represented as not subject to the fate of the great multitude of shades destined to be transformed into other men: i.e. Anchises must continue to exist as Anchises until his soul resumes its orig inal condition as a part of the universal soul. Hence there is a marked co... trast intended between pauci and Has omnes.

745. perfecto-orbe: 'the (proper) circuit of time being completed.'

747. aurai-ignem: the fire of elemental air'; unmixed ethereai fire; the same notion as in 1. 730. The Stoics believed that the soul would be restored at last to its original state; i.e. would be absorbed in the anima mundi.

748. Has omnes: this whole multitude of spirits flitting about the Lethe. mille rotam, etc.: 'have passed through the cycle of a thousand years'; have gone through the annual round a thousand times. See note on volvere, I, 9.

750. immemores: i.e. no longer remembering the upper world. supera convexa 'the vault above'; the sky of the upper world; as caelum, l. 719.

752-901. Anchises now conducts Aeneas and the Sibyl into the midst of the shades destined to enter new bodies, and points out among them the great characters who are in successive generations to illustrate the history of Rome. Having spent the time allotted to Aeneas in giving this account of his posterity, and in advising him as to his future conduct in Italy, Anchises dismisses him and the Sibyl from Hades by the ivory gate.

753. sonantem: 'murmuring.' Cf. 1. 709.

754. Possit: see note on I, 20.

755. Adversos: 'opposite'; as they approached from the opposite direction. Cf. adversum, l. 684. legere: 'to scan' or 'survey'; lit, 'to gather up' with the eye.

756. deinde: 'immediately'; i.e. after your generation shall have passed away. sequatur: 'is destined to follow.'

Cf. I, 257.

Itala de gente: they

757. maneant (tibi): 'await thee.' are to descend from Lavinia, the future Italian wife of Aeneas. 758. nostrum-ituras: 'destined to succeed to our name.' 759. tua fata: see ll. 890 sqq.

760. Ascanius (Iulus) founded Alba Longa (I, 267 sqq.); but the line of Alban kings sprang from Silvius, whom Lavinia bore to Aeneas late in life. This is the tradition which Virgil here adopts. vides: used parenthetically. pura hasta: 'on a headless spear.' The shaft of a pointless spear was the symbol of royal and priestly rank; or, according to Servius, the reward of a first military success. For the case, see H. 476, 3; LM. 629; A. 254, b; B. 218, 3; G. 401, N. 6; (H. 425, 1), N.).

761. Proxima — loca: 'holds by fate the first (earliest) place in the light (above).' By lot Silvius has precedence of all the rest in ascending into the upper world.

763. Postuma: 'youngest,' 'last.'

765. silvis: hence his name Silvius; for he was born and reared in the woods.