Solvite me, pueri: satis est potuisse videri. Nec tantum Rhodope mirantur et Ismarus Orphea. Satis est potuisse videri.] According to Servius, the demigods were visible only when they thought fit. If this be the case, Chromis and Mnasylus must have been shepherds; for surely Silenus was always visible to the satyrs. In numerum.] That is, to the measure of his song; they kept time with the music. Faunos.] The Fauns are rural deities; as we read in the first Georgick; -Agrestum præsentia numina Fauni. They are called Fauns a fando, because they speak personally to men. See the note on ver. 10. of the first Georgick. Parnassia rupes.] See the note on ver. 291. of the third Georgick. Rhodope.] A mountain of Thrace, the country of Orpheus, This mountain is represented as resounding the lamentations of the Dryads for the death of that poet's wife Eurydice, in the fourth Georgick. 25 30 Ismarus.] A mountain of Thrace. See the note on ver. 37. of the second Georgick. Orphea.] See the notes on ver. 454. of the fourth Georgick. Namque canebat, &c.] Silenus begins his song with describing the creation of the world, according to the Epicurean philosophy.-According to the doctrine of Epicurus, there were two principles of all things, body, and void; that is, matter, and space. The particles, or smallest parts of matter, are solid and indivisible; but by accidentally uniting, they form compound bodies. These particles or atoms, of which all visible bodies are compounded, our poet calls seeds. By the immense void, is meant the space in which these bodies are moved about, and find opportunities of uniting. Anima.] Anima seems also to have been used for air by Lucretius, in his sixth book: Ventus ubi, atque animæ subito vis maxima. Omnia, et ipse tener mundi concreverit orbis. Hinc lapides Pyrrhæ jactos, Saturnia regna, Marisque.] The poet uses the sea for water in general. Discludere Nerea ponto.] The meaning of this passage is, that the earth, by growing compact and solid, forced the waters to retire from it, and to form the seas. That is, by this means the sea was separated or distinguished, which is the proper meaning of discludere.-Nereus, a sea-god, and father of the Nereids, is here put for the waters. Pontus is used for the cavity of the sea. Novum solem.] The poet does not, as some imagine, speak according to the opinion of those who imagine the sun to perish every night, and be renewed the next morning. He only means the first appearance of the sun in the new formed world. Hinc lapides, &c.] Silenus, having sung of the first formation of the world, proceeds to mention the renovation of it by Pyrrha, Saturn, and Prometheus; and then adds some other ancient fables, wherein he shews the evil consequences that follow perturbations of the mind, 35 40 the impure passion of Hercules for Hylas, the unnatural lust of Pasiphae, the vanity of the daughters of Protus, the avarice of Atalanta, and the ambition of Phaeton. Thus, as Catrou has justly observed, it is without reason that some have blamed Virgil for connecting these stories with an account of the formation of the world.These fables are not introduced at random; for they set forth the moral doctrine of Epicurus, that we ought to avoid all perturbations of the mind. Lapides Pyrrha jactos.] See the note on ver. 62. of the first Georgick. Saturnia regna.] By the reign of Saturn, is meant what the poets called the golden age. Caucaseasque refert volucres, &c.] Prometheus, the son of Iapetus, having formed a man out of clay, animated him with the fire which he had stolen, by applying a ferula to the chariotwheels of the sun. Jupiter, offended at his audaciousness, ordered Mercury to chain him to a rock on the mountain Caueasus, where an eagle or vulture His adjungit, Hylan nautæ quo fonte relictum Ah, virgo infelix, quæ te dementia cepit! At non tam turpes pecudum tamen ulla secuta est Et sæpe in lævi quæsisset cornua fronte. is continually gnawing his liver. Hylan.] Hylas was a young lad who accompanied Hercules in the Argonautic expedition. He was lost in a fountain, where he went to draw water; whence he is said to have been carried away by a Naiad. The Argonauts called for him a long time in vain; whence it is said that an annual custom was established of calling aloud for Hylas. Naut.] The Argonauts. Quo fonte.] It was not certainly known in what particular fountain he was lost. Pasiphaen.] Pasiphae was the daughter of the sun, and wife of Minos, king of Crete. She is said to have fallen in love with a bull. Virgo.] See the note on ver. 263. of the third Georgick. Pratides.] The daughters of Prœtus, king of the Argives, having compared their beauty 45 50 to that of Juno, were afflicted with a madness, which made them fancy themselves to be cows, running about the fields, and lowing. They were cured of this disease by Melampus, who had one of them in marriage for his reward. He tells Pasiphae, that though these ladies fancied themselves to be real cows, yet they were not possessed by such a passion as hers for a bull. Falsis mugitibus.] Their lowings are called false, because they were not real cows, but only fancied themselves to be such; and therefore endeavoured to imitate the voice of those animals. Fultus hyacintho.] "Among the ancients, every one was said to be fultus by whatsoever he rested upon." Servius. Pallentes ruminat herbas.] The rumen, or paunch, is the first of the four stomachs of those animals, which are said to ruminate, or chew the cud. They Aut aliquam in magno sequitur grege. Claudite nymphæ, Dictææ nymphæ, nemorum jam claudite saltus: Si qua forte ferant oculis sese obvia nostris at first swallow their food has- Dicta.] Dicte is the name of a mountain of Crete. It seems to be put here for Crete itself. Saltus.] See the note on ver. 471. of the second Georgick. Forsitan illum.] Servius understands the poet's meaning to be, a fear lest the bull should go to Gnossus, the regal seat of Minos, the husband of Pasiphae, and a desire that he should rather go to Gortyna. Ruæus understands him to mean the very contrary; that, if the nymphs do not carefully guard the lawns, the bull may perhaps follow the cows to Gortyna. Stabula ad Gortynia.] Gortyna was a famous city of Crete, near which the famous labyrinth is still to be seen. It is now a heap of ruins, among which are 56 60 visible many columns of marble, granite, and red and white jasper. The Turks, who are now in possession of the country, have carried away the finest, and in some places set them up as gates to sorry gardens. The herds of the sun are said to have been kept near this city. Hesperidum miratam mala puellam.] Virgil here alludes to the fable of Atalanta, the daughter of Schoeneus, king of Scyros, an island in the Ægean sea. She was warned by the oracle of Apollo not to marry; and therefore she studiously avoided entering into that state. The beauty, however, of this princess was so great, that she could not avoid the solicitation of H many lovers. Being endued with great swiftness, she made this proposal to them; that whosoever could outrun her should be her husband; but if any one was exceeded by her, he should forfeit his life. Hippomenes, the son of Megareus, who was the grandson of Neptune, not discouraged by the fate of several unhappy lovers, was determined to contend for the prize. Atalanta, being pleased with his person and character, was loth to be the cause of his death, and used all the Tum Phaethontiadas musco circumdat amaræ Corticis, atque solo proceras erigit alnos. Tum canit, errantem Permessi ad flumina Gallum arguments in her power to dis- Tum Phaethontiadas, &c.]Phaetusa, Lampetie, and Lampetusa, were the sisters of Phaeton, who being reproached by Epaphus, king of Egypt, as having falsely pretended to be the son of Sol, begged of his father to permit him to drive his chariot for one day, that he might prove himself to be his son. This being granted, he guided the horses so unskilfully, that the earth began to burn, and would have been consumed, if Jupiter had not killed him in 65 stantly with a thunderbolt, and thrown him into the river Eridanus. His sisters, having sought for him a long time, at last found his body on the banks of that river, where they consumed themselves with weeping, and were turned into trees.Here Virgil calls these trees alders; but in the tenth Æneid, ver. 189. he seems to make them poplars. Tum canit, errantem, &c.] The poet, having represented the evil effects of unruly passions in these several examples, now represents the more happy condition of a wise man, who devotes himself to the quiet studies of literature. Under this character, he takes an opportunity of paying a most elegant compliment to his friend Gallus, who was a good poet. He represents him to be introduced by one of the Muses to the presence of Apollo, where the whole assembly rises up to do him honour, and Linus presents him with the pipe, which formerly belonged to Hesiod. Permessus.] A river of Bootia, rising in the mountain Helicon, and sacred to the Muses. Aonas in montes.] See the note on ver. 11. of the third Georgick. One of the Una sororum.] nine Muses, to whom the mountain Helicon was feigned by the poets to be sacred. Utque viro, &c.] It was a |