BOOK I
[1:1.] Arms and the man I sing. Compare the following opening lines of great epics:—
“O goddess, sing the wrath of Peleus’ son,
Achilles; sing the deadly wrath that brought
Woes numberless upon the Greeks.”
—Iliad, Bryant’s Trans.
“Tell me, O muse, of that sagacious man
Who, having overthrown the sacred town
Of Ilium, wandered far and visited
The capitals of many nations, learned
The customs of their dwellers, and endured
Great sufferings on the deep.”
—Homer, Odyssey.
“Of love and ladies, knights and arms, I sing,
Of courtesies and many a daring feat.”
—Ariosto, Orlando Furioso.
“I sing the pious arms and chief, who freed
The Sepulchre of Christ from thrall profane;
Much did he toil in thought and much in deed,
Much in the glorious enterprise sustain.”
—Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered.
“Of man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe,
...
Sing, heavenly muse.”
—Milton, Paradise Lost.
“I, who erewhile the happy garden sung,
By one man’s disobedience lost, now sing
Recovered Paradise to all mankind,
By one man’s firm obedience.”
—Milton, Paradise Regained.
[1:1.] Troy. A city in northwest Asia Minor where the famous Trojan war took place.
[1:3.] Latian. The broad plain near the mouth of the Tiber, in Italy.
[1:5.] Juno. Queen of the gods; wife and sister of Jupiter.
[1:5.] Much.
“Much there he suffered,
And many perilles past in forreine landes,
To save his people sad from victours vengefull handes,”
—Spenser, Faerie Queene.
[1:8.] Alba. Alba Longa, a long ridge some fifteen miles southeast of Rome. The successors of Æneas reigned there until the founding of Rome.
[1:10.] Muse. One of the nine Muses. Greek and Latin poets often profess to be merely the mouthpiece of the Muses.
[1:14.] Hate.
“And in soft bosoms dwell such mighty rage?”
—Pope, Rape of the Lock.
“In heavenly spirits could such perverseness dwell?”
—Milton, Paradise Lost.
[1:17.] Tyre. Carthage was sprung from Tyre, an old and prosperous city on the coast of Phœnicia. The founders of Carthage and their descendants are termed indifferently by Virgil Phœnicians, Sidonians, Pœni, or Tyrians.
[1:19.] War’s.
“An old and haughty nation proud in arms.”
—Milton, Comus.
[1:21.] Samos. A large island off the west coast of Asia Minor. Here were the most ancient temple and worship of Juno, here she was nurtured, and here she was married to Jupiter.
[1:28.] Libya. North Africa.
[2:1.] Fate’s.
“Those three fatall Sisters, whose sad hands
Doo weave the direful threads of destinie
And in their wrath brake off the vitall bands.”
—Spenser, Daphnaïda.
“Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears
And slits the thin-spun life.”
—Milton, Lycidas.
“Sad Clotho held the rocke [distaff], the whiles the thrid
By griesly Lachesis was spun with paine,
That cruell Atropos eftsoones undid,
With cursed knife cutting the twist in twaine.”
—Spenser, Faerie Queene.
[2:1.] Saturn. An ancient Italian god of agriculture, identified later with the Greek god Cronos.
[2:3.] Argos. A city of Argolis in the Peloponnesus. One of Juno’s favorite cities. Juno’s love for Argos played the same part in the Trojan war as her regard for Carthage plays in the Æneid. It is used here poetically for the name of the people, i.e. = Greeks.
[2:6.] Paris. A son of Priam, king of Troy, who eloped with Helen and caused the Trojan war. The judgment was the award of the golden apple, prize of beauty, to Venus as against Juno and Minerva.
“Here eke that famous golden apple grew,
The which emongest the gods, false Ate threw;
For which th’ Idæan Ladies disagreed,
Till partiall Paris dempt it Venus dew,
And had of her fayre Helen for his meed.”
—Spenser, Faerie Queene.
In Tennyson’s Œnone, Juno offers—
“from all neighbor crowns
Alliance and allegiance till thy hand
Fail from the sceptre-staff.”
And Minerva—
“Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control.”
But Venus—
“I promise thee
The fairest and most loving wife in Greece.”
[2:9.] Ganymede. A Trojan prince; was carried off to Olympus by Jupiter’s eagle. He was made cup-bearer to the gods in place of Hebe, daughter of Juno.
“And godlike Ganymede, most beautiful
Of men; the gods beheld and caught him up
To heaven, so beautiful was he, to pour
The wine to Jove, and ever dwell with them.”
—Homer, Iliad.
“flushed Ganymede, his rosy thigh
Half-buried in the Eagle’s down,
Sole as a flying star shot thro’ the sky
Above the pillar’d town.”
—Tennyson, Palace of Art.
[2:10.] Danaan. Greek. Danaus, an ancient city of Argos. Conington transliterates various proper names, such as Argives, Achæans, Pelasgians, all meaning Greeks. Vergil uses the originals now to secure variety, now to meet the metrical requirement.
[2:11.] Achilles. Son of Peleus, king of Thessaly, and Thetis, a sea nymph, chief champion of the Greeks before Troy.
[2:22.] Teucrians. Teucer, an ancient king of Troy; he came to Troy from Crete. He was father-in-law of Dardanus, and is often called founder of the Trojans.
[2:23.] Pallas. Epithet of the Greek goddess Athena. Sometimes identified with the Latin goddess of wisdom, Minerva.
[2:26.] Ajax. Oïleus’ son. Had, on the night Troy was taken, assaulted Priam’s daughter Cassandra, who had taken refuge in Minerva’s temple.
[2:27.] Jove. Jupiter, chief of the Olympian gods. Son of Cronos or Saturnus. He is father omnipotent, father of gods, and king of men. The lightning and the thunderbolt, fashioned for him by Vulcan, are his weapons. The eagle is his messenger. Apparently Jupiter, the Sky-father, is the personification of the sky. Cicero quotes Ennius as follows: “This shining vault on high which all men call upon in prayer as Jupiter.”
[2:30.] Rock’s.
“caught in a fierce tempest shall be hurled
Each on his rock transfixed, the sport and prey
Of rocking whirlwinds.”
—Milton, Paradise Lost.
[2:38.] Æolia. Home of the winds,—Lipara. One of the Æolian islands north of Sicily.
[2:38.] Cavern.
“In a cavern under is fettered the thunder,
It struggles and howls by fits.”
—Shelley, The Cloud.
[2:38.] Æolus. King of the winds.
[3:2.] Bond.
“And wild winds bound within their cell.”
—Tennyson, Mariana.
[3:19.] Tyrrhene sea. Also Tuscan sea; the part of the Mediterranean which extended from Liguria to Sicily.
[3:19.] Ilion. Troy.
[3:30.] Bidding.
“Father eternal, thine is to decree;
Mine, both in heaven and earth, to do thy will.”
—Milton, Paradise Lost.
[3:36.] Rush forth.
“Nor slept the winds
Within their stormy caves, but rushed abroad
From the four hinges of the world, and fell
On the vexed wilderness.”
—Milton, Paradise Lost.
“With howling sound, high carnival to keep,
And in wild uproar all embroil both land and deep.”
—Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered.
“Then forth it breakes, and with his furious blast
Confounds both land and seas, and skyes doth overcast.”
—Spenser, Faerie Queene.
[3:38.] Fall.
“The winds, as at their hour of birth,
Leaning upon the ridged sea.”
—Tennyson.
[4:5.] Daylight.
“And tosse the deepes, and teare the firmament,
And all the world confound with wide uprore.”
—Spenser, Faerie Queene.
“The clouds their gloomy veil above them strain,
Nor suffer sun or star to cheer the view.
...
While aye descending night, with deeper shade,
The vext and fearful billows overlayed.”
—Ariosto, Orlando Furioso.
[4:9.] Æneas. Son of Venus and Anchises, hero of the Æneid.
[4:9.] Chilled.
“His bold Æneas on like billows tossed
In a tall ship, and all his country lost
Dissolves with fear; and, both his hands upheld,
Proclaims them happy when the Greeks had quelled
In honorable fight.”
—Waller, Of the Dangers his Majesty Escaped.
[4:12.] Thrice.
“Thrice happy, four times happy, they who fell
On Troy’s wide field warring for Atreus’ sons:
O, had I met my fate and perished there.”
—Homer, Odyssey.
[4:14.] Tydeus’ son. Diomedes, with whom Æneas had fought in single combat and been saved by direct intervention of Venus.
[4:16.] Hector. Son of Priam, king of Troy, and Hecuba. Hector was the bravest champion of Troy, and was slain by Achilles.
[4:17.] Æacides. A descendant of Æacus (king of Ægina and father of Peleus). Virgil applies the name to (1) Achilles, (2) Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, (3) Perseus, king of Macedonia.
[4:18.] Sarpedon. Son of Jupiter, and king of the Lycians; an ally of Troy slain by Patroclus, friend of Achilles.
[4:18.] Simois. The famous river that flows by Troy.
“And Simoïs, in whose bed lay many shields
And helms and bodies of slain demigods.”
—Homer, Iliad.
[4:23.] Stars. Hyperbole; cf.—
“The chidden billow seems to pelt the clouds;
The wind-shaked surge, with high and monstrous mane,
Seems to cast water on the burning Bear
And quench the guards of the ever-fixed pole.”
—Shakespeare, Othello.
[4:26.] Crest.
“Now quivering o’er the topmost waves she rides
While deep beneath the enormous gulf divides:
Now launching headlong down the horrid vale,
Becalmed she hears no more the howling gale.”
—Falconer, Shipwreck.
[4:33.] Syrtes. Two shallow bays on the north coast of Africa distinguished as Major and Minor,—dangerous to navigation.
[5:8.] Side-jointings.
“The chinks suck destruction. The heavy dead hulk
On the living sea rolls an inanimate bulk.”
—Shelley, Vision of the Sea.
“The sides convulsive shook on groaning beams,
And, rent with labour, yawn’d their pitchy seams.”
—Falconer, Shipwreck.
[5:11.] Neptune. God of the sea,—brother of Juno.
[5:22.] Confound.
“I heard the wrack,
As earth and sky would mingle.”
—Milton, Paradise Lost.
“While oft in whirls the mad tornado flies,
Mingling the ravaged landscape with the skies.”
—Goldsmith, Deserted Village.
[5:29.] Eurus. The east wind. It is the poet’s way to single out one wind and use it as general word for winds. One example of the use of the specific for the generic.
[5:33.] Routs.
“Thou frownest, and old Æolus thy foe
Skulks to his cavern, ’mid the gruff complaint
Of all his rebel tempests. Dark clouds faint
When, from thy diadem, a silver gleam
Slants over blue dominion.”
—Keats, Endymion.
[5:34.] Cymothoë and Triton. Lesser sea deities.
“From thy dead lips a clearer note is born
Than ever Triton blew from wreathèd horn.”
—Holmes, Chambered Nautilus.
[5:37.] Trident.
“It seem’d as there the British Neptune stood,
With all his hosts of waters at command,
Beneath them to submit th’ officious flood;
And with his trident shov’d them off the sand.”
—Dryden, Annus Mirabilis.
[6:4.] Weapon.
“Rage prompted them at length, and found them arms
Against such hellish mischief fit to oppose.”
—Milton, Paradise Lost.
[6:15.] Haven.
“It was a still
And calmy bay, on the one side sheltered
With the brode shadow of an hoarie hill;
On th’ other side an high rock towred still,
That twixt them both a pleasaunt port they made,
And did like an halfe theatre fulfill.”
—Spenser, Faerie Queene.
“And overhead upgrew
Insuperable height of loftiest shade,
Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm,
A sylvan scene, and as the ranks ascend
Shade above shade, a woody theatre
Of stateliest view.”
—Milton, Paradise Lost.
“Its uplands sloping deck the mountain’s side,
Woods over woods in gay theatric pride.”
—Goldsmith, Traveller.
“In one they find a lone sequestered place,
Where, to a crescent curved, the shore extends
Two moony horns, that in their sweep embrace
A spacious bay,—a rock the port defends;
Inward it fronts, and broad to ocean bends
Its back, whereon each dashing billow dies,
When the wind rises and the storm descends;
While here and there two lofty crags arise,
Whose towers, far out at sea, salute the sailor’s eyes.
Safe sleep the silent seas beneath; above,
Black arching woods o’ershade the circled scene:
Within, a grotto opens, in the grove,
Pleasant with flowers, with moss, with ivies green,
And waters warbling in the depths unseen;
Needed nor twisted rope nor anchor there
For weary ships.”
—Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered.
[6:25.] Cable.
“And there is a safe haven where no need
Of cable is; no anchor there is cast,
Nor hawsers fastened to the strand.”
—Homer, Odyssey.
[7:3.] Biremes. Ships having two tiers of oars.
[7:23.] Scylla. A sea-monster, residing in a cave in certain rocks, also called Scylla, between Italy and Sicily. The upper part of this monster resembled a lovely woman. About the waist was a circle of dogs or wolves; below was the tail of a dolphin. The wolves reach out and seize passing ships and drag them on the rocks. Virgil’s Scylla is adopted by Milton as a description of one of the monsters guarding the gates of Hell.
[7:25.] Cyclops. Certain giants of cannibal nature who dwelt in Sicily near Ætna. They had a single large round eye in the middle of the forehead.
[7:27.] Remembered.
“A time will come, not distantly descried,
When to remember ev’ry past dismay
Will be no less a pleasure than a pride;
Hold then courageous on, and keep, I pray,
Your noble hearts in cheer for that victorious day.”
—Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered.
[7:33.] Heart-sick.
“So spoke the apostate angel, though in pain,
Vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair.”
—Milton, Paradise Lost.
[8:15.] Ether.
“Now had the Almighty Father from above,
From the pure empyrean where he sits
High throned above all highth, bent down his eye,
His own works and their works at once to view.”
—Milton, Paradise Lost.
[8:26.] Barred.
“In vain—for rude adversity’s command
Still, on the margin, of each famous land,
With unrelenting ire his steps opposed,
And every gate of hope against him closed.”
—Falconer, Shipwreck.
[8:37.] Antenor. Nephew of Priam. After the capture of Troy, he sailed up the Adriatic Sea, established a new people called the Veneti, and founded Patavium (Padua).
[9:8.] Arms.
“And in thy tempul I wol my banur hong,
And all the armes of my companye.”
—Chaucer, Knight’s Tale.
“In my heart’s temple I suspend to thee
These votive wreaths of withered memory.”
—Shelley, Epipsychidion.
[9:13.] Piety.
“False Jupiter, rewardst thou virtue so?
What, is not piety exempt from woe?”
—Marlowe and Nash, Dido.
[9:18.] Cythera. An island south of Laconia, near which, the tradition is, Venus rose from the foam of the sea.
[9:20.] Lavinium. A city of Latium, represented as founded by Æneas and named by him for his wife Lavinia, daughter of King Latinus. It was Latinus’ promise of Lavinia to Æneas that caused the wars of the last six books of the Æneid.
[9:29.] Rutulians. A Volscian people whose chief city was Antium. They with their King Turnus were the chief antagonists of Æneas when he was trying to settle in Italy.
[9:30.] Ascanius. Son of Æneas.
[9:36.] Hector’s.
“There in stout Hector’s race three hundred years
The Roman sceptre royal shall remain.”
—Marlowe and Nash, Dido.
[10:11.] Assaracus. A Trojan king of Phrygia; he was grandfather of Anchises, hence the expression “house of Assaracus” means the descendants of Æneas. And as the Julian clan was thought to be derived from Iulus, Æneas’ son, this included Julius Cæsar and his adopted son Augustus.
[10:11.] Phthia. A city and district in Thessaly, Greece, over which, it is said, Achilles ruled.
[10:12.] Mycenæ. A famous city ruled by Agamemnon, in the Morea (southern Greece).
[10:12.] Argos. A city of Argolis, in the Peloponnesus. One of Juno’s favorite cities. So fate wills that the descendants of the Trojans shall take vengeance for the destruction of Troy on the descendants of the great Greek leaders.
[10:15.] Stars.
“He shall ascend
The throne hereditary, and bound his reign
With Earth’s wide bounds, his glory with the heavens.”
—Milton, Paradise Lost.
[10:19.] War.
“All loved virtue, no man was affray’d
Of force, ne fraud in wight was to be found:
No warre was known, no dreadfull trompets sound;
Peace universall rayn’d mongst men and beasts.”
—Spenser, Faerie Queene.
“No war, or battle’s sound
Was heard the world around;
The idle spear and shield were high up hung;
The hookèd chariot stood,
Unstained with hostile blood;
The trumpet spake not to the armèd throng,
And kings sat still with awful eye,
As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by.”
—Milton, Hymn on Nativity.
[10:20.] Vesta. Goddess of the hearth.
[10:20.] Quirinus. Name given to Romulus after he was translated from earth to heaven. Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome. Cicero tells us that after his translation, Romulus appeared on the Quirinal Hill and stated that his name as god was Quirinus, and gave instructions that a temple should be erected to him on that hill—hence the name of the hill and the palace, once home of the popes, now of the monarchs of Italy.
[10:26.] Son of Maia. Mercury, swift-winged messenger of the gods.
“The Sonne of Maia, soone as he receiv’d
That word, streight with his azure wings he cleav’d
The liquid clowdes, and lucid firmament;
Ne staid, till that he came with steep descent
Unto the place where his prescript did showe.”
—Spenser, Mother Hubbard’s Tale.
[10:28.] Dido. Daughter of Belus, king of Tyre; widow of Sychæus. According to story, she led the Phœnician colony to Carthage.
[10:33.] Punic. Carthaginian. So the three Punic wars of Rome against Carthage.
[11:17.] Ho.
“Ho, young men! saw you, as you came,
Any of all my sisters wandering here,
Having a quiver girded to her side,
And clothed in a spotted leopard’s skin?”
—Marlowe and Nash, Dido.
[11:26.] Goddess.
“Most sure, the goddess
On whom these airs attend! Vouchsafe my prayer
May know if you remain upon this island.”
—Shakespeare, Tempest.
[11:27.] Phœbus’ sister. Diana, sister of Phœbus Apollo.
[12:1.] Agenor. Twin brother of Belus and founder of Sidon, from whom Dido was descended.
[12:18.] Hope.
“Poor girl! put on thy stifling widow’s weed,
And ’scape at once from Hope’s accursed bands,
To-day thou wilt not see him, nor to-morrow,
And the next day will be a day of sorrow.”
—Keats, Isabella.
[12:33.] Woman. “Dux femina facti,”—motto on the medal in 1588, in honor of Elizabeth’s victories over the Spanish Armada. Cf. Kingsley’s Westward Ho!
[12:36.] Byrsa. A word which in the Carthaginian language meant citadel, but sounded like a Greek word meaning bull’s hide. From this confusion, apparently, arose the story that Dido cut a bull’s hide into very thin strings and so encompassed much ground for her new city.
[13:24.] Breath of life.
“So drew mankind in vain the vital air,
Unformed, unfriended by those kindly cares,
That health and vigor to the soul impart.”
—Gray, Education and Government.
[13:31.] Jove.
“The bird of Jove, stooped from his airy tour.
Two birds of gayest plume before him drove.”
—Milton, Paradise Lost.
[13:36.] Wings.
“Around, around in ceaseless circles wheeling
With clang of wings and scream, the eagle sailed.”
—Shelley, The Revolt of Islam.
“Whilst with their clang the air resounds.”
—Wordsworth, Excursion.
[14:6.] Walk.
“In gliding state she wins her easy way.”
—Gray, Progress of Poesy.
[14:18.] Paphos. A city in Cyprus.
[14:20.] Sabæan incense. Arabian frankincense.
“Sabean odoures, from the spicy shore
Of Arabie the blest.”
—Milton, Paradise Lost.
[14:37.] Bees.
“All hands employ’d the royal work grows warm:
Like labouring bees on a long summer’s day.
Some sound the trumpet for the rest to swarm,
And some on bells of tasted lilies play;
With glewy wax some new foundation lay
Of virgin combs, which from the roof are hung;
Some arm’d within doors upon duty stay,
Or tend the sick, or educate the young.”
—Dryden, Annus Mirabilis.
[15:18.] Sidon. Tyre and Sidon were the chief cities of Phœnicia. Adjectives formed from them are used interchangeably with Phœnician and Carthaginian for the sake of variety or to meet metrical requirements.
[15:37.] Tears.
“Yet tears to human suffering are due;
And mortal hopes defeated and o’erthrown
Are mourned by man.”
—Wordsworth, Laodamia.
“The Virgilian cry,
The sense of tears in mortal things.”
—Matthew Arnold, Geist’s Grave.
“Thou majestic in thy sadness at the doubtful doom of human kind.”
—Tennyson.
[16:4.] Pergamus. Troy.
[16:12.] Xanthus. A river near Troy.
[16:13.] Troilus. Shakespeare’s Troilus draws plot from Chaucer.
[16:19.] Pallas. Minerva, goddess of wisdom, friend of the Greeks.
[16:32.] Memnon. Leader of the Æthiopian allies of Troy. Was son of Tithonus and Aurora.
[16:33.] Penthesilea. Queen of the Amazons who fought for Troy. Achilles slew both Memnon and Penthesilea.
[17:6.] Diana.
“Such as Diana by the sandy shore
Of swift Eurotas, or on Cynthus greene,
Where all the nymphs have her unwares forlore [left],
Wandreth alone with bow and arrowes keene,
To seeke her game.”
—Spenser, Faerie Queene.
[17:9.] Latona. Mother of Apollo and Diana. The type of perfect mother love.
[18:10.] Orion. A hunter famous in ancient myth, armed with belt and sword, translated to the heavens as a constellation, thought to bring storms.
[19:36.] Shone.
“When sea-born Venus guided o’er
Her warrior to the Punic shore,
Around that radiant head she threw
In deep’ning clouds ambrosial dew:
But when the Tyrian queen drew near,
The light pour’d round him fresh and clear.”
—Landor.
“Not great Æneas stood in plainer day,
When, the dark mantling mist dissolved away,
He to the Tyrians showed his sudden face,
Shining with all his goddess mother’s grace:
For she herself had made his countenance bright,
Breathed honor on his eyes, and her own purple light.”
—Dryden, Britannia Rediviva.
[20:4.] Enchased.
“Like to a golden border did appeare,
Framed in goldsmithes forge with cunning hand.”
—Spenser, Faerie Queene.
[21:9.] Learning.
“Who by the art of known and feeling sorrows,
Are pregnant to good pity.”
—Shakespeare, King Lear.
“What sorrow wast thou had’st her know,
And from her own she learned to melt at others’ woe.”
—Gray, Hymn to Adversity.
[21:30.] Acanthus. A plant now called bear’s-foot, or bear’s-breech; grows in southern Europe, Asia Minor, and India. Its leaf was a common form in embroidery and sculpture, and is well known from its use in the Corinthian capital.
[21:31.] Helen. Most beautiful of women, daughter of Jupiter and Leda, was wife of Menelaus of Sparta. She was carried off by Paris as Venus’ reward to him for his decision in her favor in the question of the Golden Apple. This breach of hospitality by Paris was the cause of the Trojan war.
[22:1.] Cupid. Son of Venus; god of love.
[22:10.] Typhœan. Thunderbolts of Jove, called Typhœan because they slew the giant Typhœus at the time of the great fight for the throne of heaven between Jupiter and the Olympian gods and “the earth-born Titan brood.”
“Phœbus resigns his darts, and Jove
His thunder to the god of love.”
—Denham, Friendship.
[22:38.] Poison.
“Through her bones the false instilled fire
Did spred it selfe and venime close inspire.”
—Spenser, Faerie Queene.
[23:4.] Slumber.
“She sent the gentle sleep from Heaven
That slid into my soul.”
—Coleridge, Ancient Mariner.
[23:29.] Gazing.
“And her eyes on all my motions with a mute observance hung.”
—Tennyson, Locksley Hall.
[23:35.] Lap.
“But both Dione honored they and Cupid,
That as her mother, this one as her son,
And said that he had sat in Dido’s lap.”
—Dante, Paradiso.
[24:6.] Lamps.
“As heaven with stars, the roof with jewels glows,
And ever-living lamps depend in rows.”
—Pope, Temple of Fame.
[24:15.] Bacchus. Son of Jupiter and Semele, god of wine, and, by metonymy, used to mean wine. (Name of god for his realm, as Vulcan for fire, etc.).
“Nor the coy maid, half willing to be prest,
Shall kiss the cup to pass it to the rest.”
—Goldsmith, Deserted Village.
[24:25.] Atlas. A king of Mauretania; father of the Pleiades; he supported the heavens on his shoulders. He was skilled in astronomy. Personification of Mount Atlas.
[24:25.] Song.
“He sung the secret seeds of Nature’s frame:
How seas, and earth, and air, and active flame,
Fell through the mighty void, and in their fall
Were blindly gathered in this goodly ball.
The tender soil, then stiff’ning by degrees,
Shut from the bounded earth, the bounding seas.
Then earth and ocean various forms disclose;
And a new sun to the new world arose;
And mists, condensed to clouds, obscure the sky,
And clouds, dissolved, the thirsty ground supply.
The rising trees the lofty mountains grace;
The lofty mountains feed the savage race,
Yet few, and strangers, in th’ unpeopled place.
From thence the birth of man the song pursued,
And how the world was lost, and how renewed.”
—Dryden, Translation of Ecl. VI. Cf. Æn. VI.