Virgil, Aeneid 3

567 Pages·2006·9.91 MB·English

by  Nicholas Horsfall

VIRGIL, AENEID 3
MNEMOSYNE
BIBLIOTHECA CLASSICA BATAVA
COLLEGERUNT
H. PINKSTER • H. S. VERSNEL
nM. SCHENKEVEill • P. H. SCHRUVERS
S.R. SLINGS
BIBLIOTHECAE FASCICULOS EDENDOS CURAVIT
H. PINKSTER, KlASSIEK SEMINARIUM, OUDE TURFMARKT 129, AMSTERDAM
SUPPLEMENTUM DUCENTESIMUM SEPTIMUM TERTIUM
NICHOLAS HORSFALL
VIRGIL, AENEID 3
VIRG IL, AENEID 3
A COMMENTARY
BY
NICHOLAS HORSFALL
BRILL
LEIDEN· BOSTON
2006
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-PubHcation Data
A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISSN 0169-8958
ISBN-lO: 9004148280
ISBN-13: 978 90 04 14828 4
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CONTENTS
Preface................................................................
IX
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XUI
Ad lectorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xlv
Bibliography .......................................................... xlviii
Text. .................................................................. .
Commentary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Appendix 1. Virgil's sources for the Cumaean Sibyl; the evidence
ofbk.6 .............................................................. 477
Latin Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 481
English index ......................................................... 497
Index of names ....................................................... 511

PREFACE
Writing commentaries on the Aeneid becomes not so much a habit, as
a passion; I am most grateful to Messrs. EJ. Brill for their continued
encouragement from bk. 7, though bk. 11, to bk. 3. Plans for Aeneid
2 are in hand. I am delighted that this preface gives me a chance
to thank those who have helped me face the distinctive problems of
bk. 3. But first, tribute should be paid to two new tools of research,
first, to Prof. Joseph Farrell's splendid initiative in making available
on line La Cerda's commentary and secondly to the CD-ROMs of
TU, which have transformed the laborious consultation of that work;
for common words, and particularly for earlier letters of the alphabet,
where material often appared to be sorted, if at all, by the strangest
criteria, the natural choice too often seemed to be to skip it and hope
that you did not miss something important thereby. Consultation, now
transformed, has become the work of seconds, and I hope to be able to
show here that in practice the TU contributes, if anything, even more
than has previously been allowed to the commentator's work.
This commentary was written, by choice, two hundred miles north
of Edinburgh; that was primarily for personal reasons, rather than as
a comment upon the facilities for research on Virgil anywhere else.
Some bibliographical enquiries were undertaken in Oxford; unfortun-
ately much postwar ordering of series there occurred at a time when
classical studies in the USA and Italy (in particular) were at a rather
low ebb. As a result, numerous journals, particularly from Italy, are
unavailable. AIdo Lunelli has been extremely generous in sending me
photocopies from Padova, as has Jim O'Hara from the USA. The hunt
for scholarly books has moved into a new Oargely positive, exciting,
beneficial) phase in the age of the on-line catalogue, and I discover that
mere geographical isolation is little or no handicap to the commentator.
The occasional discovery that some long-sought book or pamphlet
proves on arrival to be near worthless should not surprise and vex as
much as it does.
Many scholars and friends have been remarkably helpful in send-
ing one or two items or in answering specific questions: Cynthia Kahn
x PREFACE
(UArizona), at 389-393, faced with a pig of an interlibrary search,
responded swiftly with a trufHe of obscure erudition. Gerhard Binder
(Bochum), Niklas Holzberg (Miinchen, Suerbaum's invaluable biblio-
graphical successor), S. Casali (Roma 2), Anna Chahoud (UCD),
S. Kyriakidis (Thessaloniki), Tony Woodman and John Miller (UVa.),
Sallie Spence (UGa.), Marco Fernandelli (Trieste), Barbara Boyd (Bow-
doin), Stephanie West (Oxford), Christine Walde (Basel), H.-P' Stahl
(Pittsburgh), A. Traina (Bologna) and Michele Lowrie (NYU) have
been generous with publications and photocopies, while Jan Brem-
mer (Groningen) and Paola Ceccarelli (L' Aquila and KCL) have kindly
advised me on points of Greek religion. Julia Budenz' kind attention to
the translation has been most welcome.
I am most grateful to Woldemar Gorler for his undiminished willing-
ness to discuss with me curious points of Virgilian idiom and obscur-
ities of the poet's thought. To Margaret Hubbard and Jim O'Hara I
am extremely grateful for their comments on parts of the ms .. Matthew
Carter (now Colgate University) had not finished his Oxford thesis on
Aen. 3 when he discovered that I was writing a large commentary on the
same book, but we ended up reading all of each other's work in a spirit
of marked cordiality-not incompatible with amused disbelief on both
sides at times. He has, though, made noble efforts to update me con-
ceptually, as have Jim O'Hara, Sallie Spence and Michele Lowrie. Here
and there, I think they will see that I have eventually got the message,
and there are points where I suspect that modern critics have actually
not gone far enough. I have thoroughly enjoyed being the target of this
campaign of updating, though I admit I jib at much new terminology.
My commentary on Aeneid 7 roused strange passions in a couple of
reviewers, but despite the obloquy received, I must decline to aban-
don 'synaloepha' for the common and misleading 'elision'. Compet-
ent reviewers, and readers, will know why. It is unlikely that Eduard
Fraenkel was the only teacher who explained to my generation why
'synaloepha' was the proper term to use. This commentary, like its
predecessors, is not aimed primarily at the undergraduate reader, so
there is no pedagogic reason for avoiding technical language. Reviewers
of Aeneid 11 could have used stronger language in complaining of the
number of wrong references; no excuse but perhaps some explanation
to say that it is far harder to correct on a screen; here, I have reverted to
paper. In response to criticism, I have also reduced the amount of bold
type, and have continued to try to simplifY and clarifY cross-references
and bibliographical short-cuts.