Book six details the visit Æneas, under the guidance of the Sibyl, to the

abode of the dead. There he meets again his father Anchises, who passes in review, as souls about to be reborn into the upper world, their heroic descendants.

So far, with the exception of Book two, which recorded the fall and sack of Troy, a theme omitted by Homer, Virgil has recorded the Odyssey or wanderings of his hero Æneas. Now in the succeeding six books is given the Iliad or wars of Æneas in Italy. As he lands, King Latinus is divinely led to promise Æneas his daughter Lavinia. But she has been betrothed to Turnus. Under Juno’s prompting then begins this tremendous duel between Æneas and Turnus. And here we note a curious likeness between Milton and Virgil. As our sympathies are aroused in the _Paradise Lost_ for Lucifer, so Turnus, “the reckless one,” looms up a figure of heroic size, doomed by the fates to die that Rome may live.

SOURCES

As Virgil’s sources for his story and indeed for no small portion of his language may be mentioned preeminently:— Homer’s _Odyssey_ and _Iliad_; Euripides, “with his droppings of warm tears”; the Greek epic poets, called the cyclic poets, as dealing with the cycle of story revolving around Troy; the Greek freedman and teacher, Livius Andronicus, who translated roughly the _Odyssey_; Nævius, who wrote on the First Punic War, tracing Carthaginian hostility back to the Æneas visit; and especially Ennius, “father of Latin literature,” who in a great epic traced the history of Rome from Æneas down. Of Virgil’s borrowings it were enough perhaps to say that, like our Shakespeare, he ennobled what he borrowed, wove it into the texture of his song—stamped it Virgilian.

THE TRANSLATION

Concerning the translation itself, we should perhaps set over against Emerson’s famous saying, “I should as soon think of swimming across Charles River when I wish to go to Boston, as of reading all my books in originals, when I have them rendered for me in my mother tongue,” that other remark of a great scholar, that “the thing for the student of language to learn is that _translation is impossible_.” Exquisitely done as is this version by Professor Conington, noble student of Virgil as he was, some faint notion of what is lost in the process might be gained by comparing a prose version of, say, Longfellow’s “Evangeline” with his hexameters themselves:—

This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight, Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic— Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.

At the very least, “the noblest measure ever moulded by the lips of man,” Virgil’s “ocean-roll of rhythm,” is lost. That indeed is not revived for us in Conington’s own poetical version, not in Dryden’s, nor in Morris’s. Of Virgil also that is true which T. B. Aldrich, charming poet that he was, wrote me anent his own early translations, “But who could hope to decant the wine of Horace?”

Yet it may be not without interest to compare some verse renderings of the initial lines:—

I (woll now) sing (if that I can,) The armes and also the man, That first came through his destinie, Fugitive fro Troy the countrie Into Itaile, with full much pine, Unto the stronds of Lavine.

—CHAUCER, _House of Fame_.

Arms, and the man I sing, who, forced by Fate, And haughty Juno’s unrelenting hate, Expelled and exiled, left the Trojan shore, Long labors, both by sea and land, he bore, And in the doubtful war, before he won The Latian realm, and built the destined town; His banished gods restored to rites divine, And settled sure succession in his line, From whence the race of Alban fathers come And the long glories of majestic Rome.

—DRYDEN.

I sing of arms, I sing of him, who from the Trojan land, Thrust forth by Fate, to Italy and that Lavinian strand First came: all tost about was he on earth and on the deep By heavenly might for Juno’s wrath, that had no mind to sleep: And plenteous war he underwent ere he his town might frame, And set his gods in Latian earth, whence is the Latin name. And father-folk of Alba-town, and walls of mighty Rome.

—MORRIS.

Arms and the man I sing, who first, By Fate of Ilian realm amerced, To fair Italia onward bore, And landed on Lavinium’s shore:— Long tossing earth and ocean o’er, By violence of heaven, to sate Fell Juno’s unrelenting hate; Much labored too in battle-field, Striving his city’s walls to build, And give his gods a home: Thence come the hardy Latin brood, The ancient sires of Alba’s blood, And lofty-rampired Rome.

—CONINGTON.

I sing of arms, and of the man who first Came from the coasts of Troy to Italy And the Lavinian shores, exiled by fate, Much was he tossed about upon the lands And in the ocean by supernal powers, Because of cruel Juno’s sleepless wrath. Many things also suffered he in war, Until he built a city, and his gods Brought into Latium; whence the Latin race, The Alban sires and walls of lofty Rome.

—CRANCH.

I sing of war, I sing the man who erst, From off the shore of Troy fate-hunted, came To the Lavinian coast in Italy, Hard pressed on land and sea, the gods malign, Fierce Juno’s hate unslaked. Much too in war He bore while he a city built, and set His gods in Latium. Thence the Latin race, Our Alban sires, the walls of haughty Rome.

—LONG.

Arms and the man I sing who first, from Troy Expelled by Fate’s decree, to Italy And the Lavinian shores, a wanderer came. Sore travail he endured by land and sea From adverse gods, and unrelenting rage Of haughty Juno: harassed, too, by war, His destined city while he strove to build And raise new altars for his exiled gods. The Latian race, the Alban fathers hence Their birth derived—hence Rome’s proud fabric sprung.

—RICKARDS.

(In hexameters.)

Arms and the hero I sing, who of old from the borders of Troja Came to Italia, banished by fate to Lavinia’s destined Sea coasts: Much was he tossed on the lands and the deep by enlisted Might of supernals, through Juno’s remembered resentment: Much, too, he suffered in warfare, while he was founding a city, And into Latium bearing his gods: whence issued the Latin Race, and the Alban fathers, and walls of imperial Roma.

—CRANE.

Sing I the arms and the man, who first from the shores of the Trojan, Driven by Fate, into Italy came, to Lavinium’s borders Much was he vexed by the power of the gods, on the land and the ocean, Through the implacable wrath of the vengeful and pitiless Juno; Much, too, he suffered in war, until he could found him a city, And into Latium carry his gods; whence the race of the Latins, Alba’s illustrious fathers, and Rome’s imperial bulwarks.

—HOWLAND.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

B.C. 98. Birth of Lucretius. 87. Birth of Catullus. 70. Virgil is born. 69. Birth of Mæcenas; Cicero is ædile. 66. Cicero is prætor. 65. Horace is born. 63. Birth of Octavius (afterward Gaius Julius Cæsar Octavianus Augustus). Cicero’s consulship and _Orations against Catiline_. 60. First Triumvirate (Cæsar, Pompey, and Crassus). 58. Cicero banished. Cæsar begins conquest of Gaul. 57. Cicero recalled from exile. 55. Virgil assumes the _toga virilis_. Death of Lucretius, Cæsar in Britain. 54. Virgil studies in Milan. Death of Catullus. Cicero edits Lucretius’ _On Nature_, and (perhaps) Catullus’ _Odes_, and begins his essay _On the State_. 53. Virgil goes to Rome: Horace is also taken there. Cicero is augur. Parthians defeat Romans at Carrhæ. 52. Cicero’s _Oration for Milo_. 51. Cicero proconsul in Cilicia. 49. Civil War. Cæsar marches on Rome, bestowing Roman citizenship on Italians north of the Po. Pompey leaves Italy. 48. Battle of Pharsalia. Assassination of Pompey. 46. Battle of Thapsus. Suicide of Cato at Utica. 45. Horace goes to Athens. 44. Cæsar assassinated: Octavius, adopted in his will, assumes his name. Cicero’s _Philippics_. 43. Birth of Ovid. Second Triumvirate (Octavianus, Antony, and Lepidus). Assassination of Cicero. Civil war with Brutus and Cassius. Horace a tribune in Brutus’ army. 42. Battles of Philippi. Death of Brutus and Cassius. 41. Confiscations by the triumvirs. Virgil introduced to Mæcenas and Octavianus. Horace returns to Rome. 40. Virgil restored to his estate. 39. Horace introduced to Mæcenas by Virgil and Varius. 37. Virgil publishes _Eclogues_. Phraates king of Parthia. 36. Antony invades Parthia. 35. Horace publishes First Book of _Satires_. 33. Phraates attacks Armenia and Media. 31. Battle of Actium. Overthrow of Antony. Octavianus visits the East. 30. Horace publishes Second Book of _Satires_ and his _Epodes_. 29. Octavianus returns from the East and celebrates threefold triumph. Temple of Janus closed in sign of peace. Virgil publishes _Georgics_. 27. Octavianus receives the title of Augustus. 26. Augustus in Spain corresponds with Virgil. 24. Horace (probably) publishes first Three Books of _Odes_. 23. Death of Marcellus. Virgil reads portions of the _Æneid_ to Augustus. 20. Expedition of Augustus to the East. Parthians restore standards taken at Carrhæ. 19. Virgil journeys to Greece. Returns with Augustus. Dies at Brundisium. Augustus directs Virgil’s friend Varius and Tucca to edit the _Æneid_. 18. Horace publishes First Book of _Epistles_. 17. The Secular Festival. Horace writes the _Secular Hymn_. 13. Horace publishes Fourth Book of _Odes_. 8. Death of Mæcenas and Horace.

VERSE TRANSLATIONS RECOMMENDED

DRYDEN; CONINGTON (Crowell, New York); WILLIAM MORRIS (Roberts Brothers, Boston); CRANCH; LONG (Lockwood Brooks & Co., Boston); CRANE (Baker & Taylor Co., New York); HOWLAND (D. Appleton & Co., New York), RICKARDS (Books I.-VI., Blackwood & Sons, London); RHOADES (Longmans); BILLSON (Edward Arnold, London).

BOOKS FOR REFERENCE

_Roman Poets of the Augustan Age_, Sellar (Oxford, Clarendon Press); _Virgil_, Nettleship (Appletons), and in his _Lectures and Essays_ (Oxford); _Classical Essays_, F. W. H. Myers (Macmillan); _Studies in Virgil_, Glover (Edward Arnold, London); _Country of Horace and Virgil_, Boissier (Putnam); _Master Virgil_, Tunison (Robert Clark & Co., Cincinnati); _Vergil in the Middle Ages_, Comparetti (Sonnenschein, London); _Legends of Virgil_, Leland (Macmillan); _Histories of Roman Literature_ by Teuffel (George Bell & Sons, London), Browne (Bentley, London), Cruttwell (Scribners, N.Y.), Simcox (Harpers, N.Y.). _Æneas as a Character Study_, Miller (Latine, Vol. IV., p. 18).

SUBJECTS FOR INVESTIGATION

(Miller, in _Latine_ for January, 1886.)

(1) Virgilian Proverbs. (2) A Word Study. (3) Fatalism in Virgil. (4) Virgil’s Pictures of Roman Customs. (5) Pen Pictures. (6) Astronomy in Virgil. (7) Virgil’s Debt to Homer. (8) Milton’s Debt to Virgil. (9) Virgil’s Gods and Religious Rites. (10) Omens and Oracles. (11) Virgil’s Influence upon Literature in General. (12) Figures in Virgil. (13) Virgilian Herbarium. (14) Detailed Account of the Wandering of Æneas. (15) The Geography of Virgil. (16) Virgil as a Poet of Nature. (17) Virgil’s Life as gleaned from his Works. [(18) The Manuscript Texts of Virgil.] (19) Virgilian Translators and Commentators. (20) Some Noted Passages—why? (21) The Platonism of the Sixth Book. (22) Dryden’s Dictum Discussed, (23) Dante—The Later Virgil. [(24) The Prosody of Virgil.] (25) Dido—A Psychological Study. (28) Æneas—A Character Study. [(27) _Testimonium Veterum de Vergilio._] (28) Virgil and Theocritus. (29) Virgil’s Creations. (30) Epithets of Æneas. (31) The Virgilian Birds. (32) Was Virgil Acquainted with the Hebrew Scriptures? (33) Visions and Dreams—Supernatural Means of Spirit Communication. (34) Night Scenes in Virgil. (35) Different Names for Trojans and Greeks and their Significance. (36) The Story of the Æneid.

VIRGIL’S ÆNEID

THE ÆNEID