Selections from Virgil Aeneid X: An Edition for Intermediate Students by With introduction commentary notes and vocabulary by Christopher Tanfield

Author:With introduction, commentary notes and vocabulary by Christopher Tanfield
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781501349874
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-01-17T00:00:00+00:00

260–307 The fleet of the Trojans and their allies reaches land

260 iamque – it is worth retaining the ‘-que’ in translation. habet – the subject (as of extulit in l. 262) is Aeneas. castra: The Trojans, on landing in Italy at the mouth of the Tiber, created a fortified camp there (7.157–9). This is now besieged by Turnus and is where Aeneas, Pallas, Tarchon and the Etruscan fleet are heading.

261 celsa in puppi, cf. ll. 246–7, altam … puppim. The word here may have the additional point that Roman ships often had a stern elevated above the level of the rowers, where the captain stood. clipeum is advanced by hyperbaton* – take cum deinde first. The cum is an inspired cum inversum (NLG 288.2), making the raising of the shield come out of nowhere (although we were prepared for it by l. 242). deinde means ‘at that very moment’ – ‘promptly’ (Williams) – and reinforces the cum. The dein- is scanned as a single long syllable by synizesis~. sinistrā is ablative of instrument (NLG218).

262 ardentem, by hyperbaton* postponed. It agrees with clipeum in the previous line.

262–6 The subject of the sentence is Dardanidae (l. 263), ‘the Trojans’, but the first word is clamorem, because their reaction to the flashing shield is instant. spes becomes the subject briefly, personified as if it were a rabble-rouser in their midst. The translator needs to add an ‘and’ between suscitat and iaciunt; there is asyndeton from l. 262 to l. 264 (manu is singular with the force ‘each with his hand’). The hardest word is quales, which is best rendered ‘just as’; the point of comparison (and similes* in epic tend to have at least one that is very specific) is a little elusive until, in l. 266, first sonitu and then clamore pick up clamorem of l. 262. The cranes are from Thrace, in the far north of Greece (Strymoniae … grues), and are taken to be migrating southwards away from winter, calling as they go. In similar fashion the Trojans rejoice at the relief of breaking Turnus’s siege. Notos here are not south winds but storm winds.

265 aethera is accusative, a Greek form to suit the Greek origin of the word (‘ether’ in English).

266 secundo – from sequor, with the original meaning of ‘favourable’.

267 videri is a historic infinitive, used for imperfect (NLG 335): ea videri mira is the order for translation. The Latin puts the new centre of attention first: Turnus and the Italians. It follows their gaze as they make out initially distant ships then a vast onrush covering the sea.

268 Ausoniis with ducibus in previous line. versas … puppes: here puppis means ‘stern’ since by reversing onto the beach the craft are in a position from which they can relaunch more quickly.

269 totum … aequor is an indirect statement after respiciunt; classibus is a hard ablative to classify (possibly instrumental, NLG 218) but the meaning is clear: ‘… the whole sea to be rushing on with fleets’. It is

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.