Virgil, Aeneid VI.

545
Author(s): R. B. A.
Reviewed work(s):
Source: The Classical Review, Vol. 35, No. 7/8 (Nov. - Dec., 1921), p. 156
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/697347 .
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156 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW
is the single divinity, alive, strong and ' Ualerent' might then be due to accommoda-
tion to the 'corfora,' while
benevolent, the god of the conquerors; 'uideres' wouldneighbouring
be the second stage of a cor-
and there are the group-divinities, ruption due to ' uidemus' at the end of the fol-
spirits of the dead, malignant and de- lowing line.
feated, whom it is yet policy to appease.
The group-divinities of Rome are II. 381.
the Lemures, the Lares, the Manes, the Perfacile est animi ratione exsoluere nobis..
Penates; the first two Etruscan, the If ' animi' be thought unsound,' simili' would
second two Latin words. As to seem preferable to 'tali' or '1farili,' since it
the character of the Lemures there is might be lost through the copyist's eye straying
no doubt. They were 'Larvae nocturnae to 'dissimili' in the preceding line. As in-
et terrificationes imaginum et besti- stances of this type of corruption Merrill's may be
cited-e.g. II. 251-2, II. 852-3 (if
arum': and they were appeased by 'nil' be adopted in 853), III. 886-7, V. 393-4
offerings of beans. The Manes are ('inter se' and 'interea'), V. 585-6, V. 775-6.
exactly described by the adjective im- from 'Animi' might then be supplied as a stopgap
were creatures a reminiscence of I. 425, I. 448, etc.
manis. They vaguely
huge and therefore terrifying: you could III. I. O tenebris tantis, 0.
not see where they began and where - tenebris tantis, Q.
E tenebris tantis, 1tali.
they ceased-a fairly accurate descrip-
tion of what we call a ghost. It was Q seems to give the truest testimony, namely
hoped, of course, that the name Manes a blank syllable. I think that the rhetorical
would reverse their character. The force of the opening of this invocation would be
methods pursued with the Lemures and considerably strengthened were we to fill the gap
with < Te, >,- the leading note in the
Manes are methods of fear. A bolder very first word,striking giving a powerful epanalepsis
'
course is to welcome such unpleasant with te sequor' (3), and a four-wordalliteration
visitors as honoured guests and to to launch the passage under way. The initial T
make them part of the family. This might well have been left to be illuminated, and
thus accidentally omitted.
I
was, believe, what was done with the
Lares and Penates. The latter were III. 617. certis regionibus omnibus haeret.
given a new name and put in charge of ' edibus . . . manibus - . . sedibus . .. re-
the larder; the former were taken out gionibus omnibus' in two consecutive lines
of the class of group-divinites and a would surely have sounded uncouth even to
benevolent Lar Familiaris created in Lucretius' ear; moreover, it seems only possible
a workable sense by the violent ex-
their place. But that the Lares were to extract ,
of supposing omnibus' to be a mascu-
not originally kindly spirits may be in- pedient
line dative.
ferred from their name. It is agreed Surely we should hesitate to credit any com-
that it is an Etruscan word, and we petent author with such a harshness. IV. 420
know the sinister character of the ceivablesuggests ' omnis obhaeret' as, at any rate, a con-
remedy. R. J. SHACKLE.
Etruscan religion. Moreover, we cannot
separate lar from the adjectival noun
larua (sc. imago) formed from it. If
the Larvae were malignant spirits of the VIRGIL, AENEID VI. 545.
same kind as the Lemures, then the
Lares also must originally have belonged discedam, explebo numerum,reddarquetenebris.
to this class. Is it possible that in the phrase explebo
F. A. WRIGHT. numerum there is a tinge of the meaning of
numerus in the sense of 'the common throng'
as we have it in Horace, Epistles I. 2.27, nos
NOTES ON LUCRETIUS. numerus sumus et fruges consumere nati?
Deiphobus obviously means that he will return
I. 357. Haud ulla fieri ratione uideres. to his place among the shades; by speaking
denique cur alias aliis praestare uidemus . . . with Aeneas and the Sibyl he has been singled
out from them, but now he will ' fill up the com-
FOR 'fieri,' the variant ' ualerent' has the re- mon throng (by rejoining it) and will lapse again
spectable authority of Q and the Gottorpian into insignificance. It is a tinge of meaning
fragment. continued, in typically Virgilian style, by the
It may perhaps be suggested that this repre- words reddarquetenebris. R. B. A.
sents an original ' ualeret' in place of 'uideres,'
in a sense similar to 'fosset' (cf I. 603, for
example).