Aeneid - Book X
- Thread starter AoM
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If we ever got a decent Aeneid movie/miniseries, I imagine this bit would have to be changed (at least have them be dead already). But probably easier just to excise it entirely.
____________________Sulmone creatos
quattuor hic iuvenes, totidem quos educat Ufens,
viventis rapit, inferias quos immolet umbris
captivoque rogi perfundat sanguine flammas. (517-20)
____________________Sulmone creatos
quattuor hic iuvenes, totidem quos educat Ufens,
viventis rapit, inferias quos immolet umbris
captivoque rogi perfundat sanguine flammas. (517-20)
Love these Italic names, my favorites in all Latin lit. Ufens and Arruns.
Dardanides contra furit: Anxuris ense sinistram
et totum clipei ferro deiecerat orbem (545-6)
So, all the MSS read ferro, but Harrison says ferro and ense can't both refer to his sword here. He reads terrae, which he thinks provides a nice contrast with caelo below (and isn't too in conflict with deturbat terrae, since that's 10 lines later). Also, some people conjecture ecce for ense, but apparently Virgil never uses ecce with a pluperfect.
While not exactly the same situation, I remembered this bit earlier:
proxima quaeque metit gladio latumque per agmen
ardens limitem agit ferro (513-4)
Granted, there are two separate verbs, but both ablatives are referring to Aeneas' sword.
Though I'm not at all against reading terrae, tbh.
et totum clipei ferro deiecerat orbem (545-6)
So, all the MSS read ferro, but Harrison says ferro and ense can't both refer to his sword here. He reads terrae, which he thinks provides a nice contrast with caelo below (and isn't too in conflict with deturbat terrae, since that's 10 lines later). Also, some people conjecture ecce for ense, but apparently Virgil never uses ecce with a pluperfect.
While not exactly the same situation, I remembered this bit earlier:
proxima quaeque metit gladio latumque per agmen
ardens limitem agit ferro (513-4)
Granted, there are two separate verbs, but both ablatives are referring to Aeneas' sword.
Though I'm not at all against reading terrae, tbh.
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I agree ... I also think it's a bit of a long shot to expect terrae instead of ferro when there is no manuscript to support that reading. The verse doesn't seem sufficiently broken to require a conjecture in the first place.
 Tongue.gif "(1) Tongue out :p")
I nearly said metri gratia, because that phrase happens to scan as iambic pentameter, but, Googling it, I saw that the translation isn't overall metrical. Then, why, indeed...
Even in meter, it would probably have been possible to find a way to preserve the repetition...
Even in meter, it would probably have been possible to find a way to preserve the repetition...
Repetition is sometimes frowned upon on stylistic grounds, but it can be an effective rhetorical/poetic device when used well.
People sometimes misjudge the quality of a repetition and wrongly do away with it, thinking "repetition = bad" and no further. Maybe this is what happened here. Just a hypothesis, of course.
People sometimes misjudge the quality of a repetition and wrongly do away with it, thinking "repetition = bad" and no further. Maybe this is what happened here. Just a hypothesis, of course.
I don't know if I'd call it a pet peeve, but I despise translating according to whim, yes.
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This is one of the verses that I think Vergil would have have revised if he had had the chance (probably just my stupid opinion 
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