Aeneas meets his dead buddies
Inde datum molitur iter. iamque arva tenebant
ultima, quae bello clari secreta frequentant.
- Inde datum molitur iter. iamque arva tenebant
- arva PL because quae (below) must be plural acc
- ultima, quae bello clari secreta frequentant.
- secreta "root" sense: set apart; from here → separate; and → secret
From there they labour at the given journey. And now they held the furthest lands, which, set apart, people distinguished in war frequented.
hic illi occurrit Tydeus, hic inclutus armis
Parthenopaeus et Adrasti pallentis imago,
hic multum fleti ad superos belloque caduci
Dardanidae, quos ille omnis longo ordine cernens
ingemuit, Glaucumque Medontaque Thersilochumque,
tris Antenoridas Cererique sacrum Polyboeten,
Idaeumque etiam currus, etiam arma tenentem.
- hic illi occurrit Tydeus, hic inclutus armis
- illi dat SG | nom PL
- occurrit +dat
- Parthenopaeus et Adrasti pallentis imago,
- hic multum fleti ad superos belloque caduci
- ad = apud (apud + acc)
- fleti...caduci
- hysteron proteron = (greek) last first
- where things are presented in the reverse of logical order
- don't use this as an argument in the HSC
- hysteron proteron = (greek) last first
- Dardanidae, quos ille omnis longo ordine cernens
- -ides greek suffix for "sun of", 1st declension
- nominative plural is -idae
- accusative plural is -idas
- Dardanidae = sons of Dardanus
- take [fleti → Dardanidae ← caduci]
- occam's razor
- -ides greek suffix for "sun of", 1st declension
- ingemuit, Glaucumque Medontaque Thersilochumque,
- tris Antenoridas Cererique sacrum Polyboeten,
- Antenoridas accusative plural, meaning sons of Antenor (from the -ides greek suffix)
- Idaeumque etiam currus, etiam arma tenentem.
- Idaeus was the chariot driver/bodygard of Priam
- pathos moment
Here Tydeus ran to meet them, here [is] Parthenopaeus, renowned in warfare, and the ghost of pale Adrastus, here [are] Trojans, fallen in war and much lamented by [the people] above, at whom he cried with sorrow, seeing all in a long line, and Glaucus and Medon and Thersilochus, and three sons of Antenor and sacred Polyboetes of Ceres, and Idaeus still holding the chariots, still holding the weapons.
circumstant animae dextra laevaque frequentes,
nec vidisse semel satis est; iuvat usque morari
et conferre gradum et veniendi discere causas.
- circumstant animae dextra laevaque frequentes,
- que can join at different levels
- words
- clauses
- que can join at different levels
- nec vidisse semel satis est; iuvat usque morari
- iuvat when used impersonally, means "it pleases/it delights"
- et conferre gradum et veniendi discere causas.
- veniendi gerund because there's nothing it agrees with
The crowding spirits stand at [Aeneas'] left and right, it is not enough to see [him] once; it pleases [them] to delay at every point and to bring the steps together and learn the cause of the journey.
Bit of pathos because all these great heroes have now died and there's nothing to do with their lives. And Aeneas
This part is ripping off the Odyssey, where Odysseus goes into the underworld and also gets a list of heroes (some of them with a flash of 'colour'). So Vergil's audience who have read the Illiad/Odyssey would get the reference. (fanfic. this is the essence of fanfiction, relying on a previous work for audiences to know the references. ig also intertextuality but mehhhhhhh)
u sure that the greeks are scared of aeneas
at Danaum proceres Agamemnoniaeque phalanges
ut videre virum fulgentiaque arma per umbras,
ingenti trepidare metu; pars vertere terga,
ceu quondam petiere rates, pars tollere vocem
exiguam: inceptus clamor frustratur hiantis.
- at Danaum proceres Agamemnoniaeque phalanges
- ut videre virum fulgentiaque arma per umbras
- ut when
- videre viderunt
- ingenti trepidare metu; pars vertere terga,
- trepidare, petiere, tollere - historical infinitives
- ceu quondam petiere rates, pars tollere vocem
- petiere = petiverunt
- exiguam: inceptus clamor frustratur hiantis.
- hiantis from hio, hiare; accusative plural. dsc/ the spirits
- the shouts frustat the people because they are literally. a shadow of their former selves & have weak whispery voices
On the other hand, the Greek chiefs and Agamemnonian batallions, when they saw the man and the weapons flashing through the shadows, trembled with great fear; a part turned their backs, just as they formerly sought [their] ships, a part raised its meager voice: the begun shout frustrates the gaping [people].
Ok so during Troy Story 1, the Greeks beached their ships by rowing them really fast so they went on to the beach. And then they used the ships as a sort of barracks, sleeping in the hulls etc. And they built ramparts on the shore around the ships. And at one point the Trojans penetrated the Greek camp and began to set fire to the ships.
Aeneas yaps to Deiphobus
494 Atque hic Priamiden laniatum corpore toto
- corpore toto abl.respect
495 Deiphobum videt et lacerum crudeliter ora,
- ora - acc.respect (greek does this, and in trying to emulate Homer, Vergil uses graecisms)
496 ora manusque ambas, populataque tempora raptis
- tempora from tempus, tempŏris: side of the head near the eye; temple
497 auribus et truncas inhonesto vulnere naris.
- (496) ora manus...tempora...naris accusatives of respect with lacerum
- vulnus - can mean either the action of wounding, or the damage done on a body. Here Brophy believes it is the action of wounding. So therefore means.
498 vix adeo agnovit pavitantem ac dira tegentem
- adeo adds emphasis to vix
499 supplicia, et notis compellat vocibus ultro:
- notis vocibus PL because meter
- laniatum ... lacerum credeliter ... populata ... raptis ... truncas ... vulnere ... dira ... supplicia - Verg dwelling on it to give you gory details of the body parts
- Also he's like deliberately being mangled on his face and hands which is like confronting. Like the body parts that Romans valued have been violated. Also if you think about normal Roman descriptions of wounds it's all like on the body. Not on the face & hands.
500 'Deiphobe armipotens, genus alto a sanguine Teucri,
- sanguine from sanguis, the adjective would be sanguineo
501 quis tam crudelīs optavit sumere poenas?
- crudelis long i by scansion so agrees with poenas instead of quis
502 cui tantum de te licuit? mihi famă sŭprema
- cui tantum [sumere] de te licuit
503 nocte tulit fessum vasta te caede Pelasgum
- NB. Pelasgi, orum masc — Pleagsus a um — Pelasgis idis masc
- Pelasgum = Pelasgorum. -um from Greek genitive plural -on
504 procubuisse super confusae stragis acervum.
- super confusae = super confused (trust) (from Ivy 2026-04-10)
505 tunc egomet tumulum Rhoeteo in litore inanem
- nb. tumuLum vs tumuLTum
- Rhoeteo - Aeneas has left Troy and moved north to this place.
506 constitui et magna manis ter voce vocavi.
- cōnstĭtŭ|(i) ēt māg|nā mā|nīs tēr | vōcĕ vŏ|cāvi
- manes, manium is grammatically PL only.
- ter voce - Roman funeral rite
- (cf Daedalus calling Icarus' name three times after he falls)
- but Rome wasn't invented yet - anachronism. Aeneas is a "proto-Roman" and behaves like a Roman but isn't a Roman in name
507 nomen et arma locum servant; te, amice, nequivi
- what does nomen et arma locum servant mean like in terms of the ritual/custom?
- arma servant: they would've either buried a set of rando armour to represent Deiphobus, or set up a Minecraft-esque armour stand on top of the burial mound.
- te amice hiatus, isn't elided
508 conspicere et patria decedens ponere terra.'
- patrius a um and patria ae F
- Brophy thinks patria is an adjective on terra because the pattern of {noun at the end of the line + adjective earlier in the line} is very common (in poetry? in hexameter?). So not
And here Aeneas sees Deiphobus, son of Priam, lacerated over his entire body,
and mutilated cruelly in his face
—his face and both his hands—and on his ravaged temples,
the ears having been snatched away, on his nostrils, mutilated with a disgraceful wound.
Aeneas barely recognised [Deiphobus]—who trembles and covers his dreadful
punishments, and, unasked, addressed [him] with a familiar voice:
"Deiphobus, mighty in war, descendant from the noble blood of Troy,
who chose to inflict such cruel punishments?
Who was allowed to do such a thing to you? Rumour told me that
on the final night, you, tired by the vast slaughter of Greeks,
lay stretched out above the pile of disordered destruction.
At this time I myself built an empty burial mound on the Rhoetean shore
and called the spirits three times with a loud voice.
Your name and some armour guard that location; friend, I, departing the fatherland,
was not able to see you and to place you into the earth.
Deiphobus yaps to Aeneas
fc = from commentary
509 ad quae [respondet] Priamides: 'nihil o tibi, amice, relictum;
- ad quae - the son of Priam replies to these things
510 omnia Deiphobo solvisti et funeris umbris.
- solvere - lit. to release, (in relation to religion) to fufill your duty. You see a lot of these on altars (?) like [insert god] solvit (past tense)
- umbris - PL for poetry, or PL
511 sed me fata mea et scelus exitiale Lacaenae
- sēd mē | fātă mĕ|(a) ēt scĕlŭs | ēxĭtĭ|ālĕ Lă|caēnae
512 his mersere malis; illa haec monimenta reliquit.
- mersere = merserunt
- illa haec elided because h is ignored for scansion
513 namque ut supremam falsa inter gaudia noctem
- ut = "how" (fc) - the question word. ut...egerimus is an indirect question introduced by nosti
514 egerimus, nosti: et nimium meminisse necesse est.
- egerimus from ago
- nosti = novisti
- meminisse from memini, meminisse (only perf. forms)
- great, this is The Line of Stupid Verb Forms
515 cum fatalis equus saltu super arduă venit
516 Pergama et armatum peditem gravis attulit aluo,
517 illa chorum simulans euhantis orgia circum
- īllă chŏ|rūm sĭmŭ|lāns eū|hāntīs | ōrgĭă | cīrcum
518 ducebat Phrygias; flammam media ipsa tenebat
- dūcē|bāt Phrygĭ|ās; flām|mām mĕdĭ|(a) īpsă tĕ|nēbat
519 ingentem et summa Danaos ex arce vocabat.
- īngēn|t(em) ēt sūm|mā Dănă|ōs ēx | ārcĕ vŏ|cābat.
At these [words], the son of Priam [says]: "nothing is left for you, oh friend;
you fufilled everything for Deiphobus and for the shades of his corpse.
But, my fate and the destructive wickedness of that Spartan woman
submerged me with these evils; that woman left these marks.
For indeed you know how we passed the final night in false joy:
and it is inevitable/necessary to remember too much.
When the fated horse came over steep Troy with a leap
and brought the armoured infantry, heavy in its belly,
that woman, imitating a choral dance, lead the Trojan women all around (the city),
celebrating rites with Bacchic cries; she, in the center, held
a large fire and called the Greeks from the tall citadel.
Helen's Revenge
520 tum me confectum curis somnoque gravatum
521 infelix habuit thalamus, pressitque iacentem
522 dulcis et alta quies placidaeque simillima morti.
- dūlcĭs ĕt | āltă quĭ|ēs plăcĭ|daēquĕ sĭ|mīllĭmă | mōrti.
- similis, simile Republican - takes genitive; post-Augustan - takes dative
523 egregia interea coniunx arma omnia tectis
- ēgrĕgĭ|(a) īntĕrĕ|ā cōn|iūnx ār|m(a) ōmnĭă | tēctis
524 emovet, et fidum capiti subduxerat ensem:
- capiti dative of disadvantage!!!!!
- BUT wouldn't be dative w/ verb cuz the verb already has an accusative
525 intra tecta vocat Menelaum et limina pandit,
- īntrā | tēctă vŏ|cāt Mĕnĕ|lā(um) ēt | līmĭnă | pandit
526 scilicet id magnum sperans fore munus amanti,
527 et famam exstingui veterum sic posse malorum.
528 quid moror? inrumpunt thalamo, comes additus una
- thalamo dative with compound verb
- also there's this "dative of motion" where in poetry sometimes poets will use the dative for "motion into something", where in prose you'd expect an accusative
529 hortator scelerum Aeolides. di, talia Grais
- Grais dative of indirect object. dat.interest is sth like "this is bad for me" or "this is
530 instaurate, pio si poenas ore reposco.
- instaurate: "second-person plural present active imperative of instauro"
531 sed te qui vivum casus, age fare vicissim,
- te referring to Aeneas again
- sed fare/age casus, qui te vivum attulerint - indirect question
- qui - kinda both interrogative relative. but more relative than interrogative. which means I win.
- I bet Mr Brophy will say qui is both interrogative or relative
- Grace and Sienna bet interrogative
- Ivy bets he says either is right
532 attulerint. pelagine venis erroribus actus
- pelagine = pelagi + ne
533 an monitu divum? an quae te fortuna fatigat,
534 ut tristis sine sole domos, loca turbida, adires?'
- ok apparently locus, when it means "a region" (as opposed to "a specific location") is neuter in the plural
At that time, I, exhausted with cares and burdened with sleep,
was held by the unlucky bed, and lying down, was pressed
by a sweet and deep quietness, most alike to peaceful death.
Meanwhile my exceptional spouse removes all the weapons from our house
and had taken away my faithful sword from my head:
she called Menelaus into the house and threw open the entrances,
obviously hoping this will be a large gift to her lover,
and that in this way her reputation of old wrongs is able to be extinguished.
Why do I wait? They broke into the bedroom; (to them,) a companion was joined together,
the descendant of Aeolus, the inciter of evil. Gods, repeat such things to the Greeks,
if I demand the punishment with my respectful mouth.
But say and tell in turn, what mishaps have brought you, living?
Do you come driven by misadventures of the driven sea
or warnings of the gods? Or what fortune harrasses you,
to approach the houses sad without sun, the troubled regions?"
commentary
This part has a bad tinge on Helen (and also a slight bad tinge on Odysseus) because the Romans didn't like them.
Sibyl tells them to shut up
535 Hac vice sermonum roseis Aurora quadrigis
- vice - a turn, as in a turn in a game. Aeneid dialogue is canonically turn-based. also "an interchange, alternation, succession"
- sermonum gen PL of sermo
536 iam medium aetherio cursu traiecerat axem;
- medium axem - lit. central axis = in modern terms, the celestial pole (fc)
- This is the point where the Earth's axis of rotation intersects the celestial sphere. Due to Earth's rotation, stars (including the sun) appears to trace out circular paths around the celestial pole. Provided you're not too close to the Earth's poles, at midday, the sun is directly above the celestial pole.
- BUT also Mr Brophy said the axem is just the path that the sun traces out, so the middle of the path is midday. so idk.
537 et fors omne datum traherent per talia tempus,
- omne datum agrees with tempus
- per talia = in this way, in that way
538 sed comes admonuit breviterque adfata Sibylla est:
539 'nox ruit, Aenea; nos flendo ducimus horas.
- nox ruit lit. "night is rushing on" = it is approaching nighttime.
- cf. Vergil uses nox praecipitat "lit. night falls" to say that night is coming to an end = it is approaching morning.
- Aenea greek vocative??? it looks so cute
- horas ducere = to waste time
540 hic locus est, partis ubi se via findit in ambas:
- mark my words Brophy is going to point out how partis and ambas are separated - 2026-04-09
541 dextera quae Ditis magni sub moenia tendit,
- Boeing 747 but its pronounced /boiŋ/
- dextera F bc agreeing with implied via from previous line
542 hac iter Elysium nobis; at laeva malorum
- malorum objective genitive with poenas
543 exercet poenas et ad impia Tartara mittit.'
544 Deiphobus contra: 'ne saevi, magna sacerdos;
- saevi imperative
545 discedam, explebo numerum reddarque tenebris.
- explebo numerum - Deiphobus left the other ghosts to speak to Aeneas, and now will return to make the crowd whole again
546 i decus, i, nostrum; melioribus utere fatis.'
- fatis ablative with verb (utere takes ablative of the thing you use)
547 tantum effatus [est], et in verbo vestigia torsit.
At this turn of the conversation, Morning with a rose-coloured four-horse chariot, (four-wheel drive)
had already passed the middle of the sky in her heavenly path,
and perhaps they could've squandered all the given time in this way
but the comrade admonished them and the Sibyl spoke briefly:
"Night falls, Aeneas, we waste time (lit. draw the hours away) in weeping.
This is the place, where the path divides itself into both parts:
the right path, which goes under the walls of great Dis,
this is the the journey to Elysium for us; but the left path
exacts the punishments of sinners and leads to impious Tartarus."
In return, Deiphobus: "Don't rage, great priest;
I will leave, I will complete the number [of ghosts] and be returned to the darkness.
Go, our dignity (= Aeneas?); make use of the better divine will."
He spoke to this extent, and turned his feet mid-speech (lit. turned his feet in the word).
commands
- pos
- imperative
- neg
- noli + infinitive (normal, prose)
- ne + imperative (poetic)