BOOK VI
Visit of Æneas to Anchises in the world of the dead. Much of the philosophy is Stoic pantheism. The theory of the vision appears to include the Pythagorean doctrine of metempsychosis. Ulysses in Odyssey, Book XI, visited the world of shades.
[122:11.] Sibyl. Through the Cumæan Sibyl, Deïphobe, as the guide of Æneas through the lower world, Virgil exalts the use of the Sibylline Books in the Roman religion. It is interesting to note that the position given the Sibyl, as guide of Æneas, Dante in turn gives to Virgil as his own guide in the lower world.
[122:24.] Sons of Cecrops. The Athenians yearly surrendered seven youths and seven maidens to be sent to Crete to be devoured by the Minotaur, because the Athenians, through envy of his success in the public games, had murdered Androgeus, son of Minos, king of Crete, and Minos had made this the condition of peace.
[122:31.] The edifice is the Labyrinth, in which the Minotaur was confined.
[123:5.] Icarus. Son of Dædalus, who sought to escape with his father from Crete, but flew so near the sun that the wax by which his wings were fastened on was melted, and he fell and perished in the sea called from his name Icarian.
[123:35.] Dardan. Trojan. The Trojans are called by Virgil sometimes descendants of Dardanus, sometimes of Laomedon, sometimes of Anchises, again of Æneas, now Teucrians, and now Phrygians.
[123:36.] Æacides. A patronymic, applied by Virgil, now to Achilles, as here, now to Pyrrhus Neoptolemus, meaning descendant of Æacus.
[124:35.] Dorian. Greek.
[125:36.] Alcides. Hercules.
[126:10.] Cocytus. A river of the underworld.
[127:29.] Fissile. Easy to split.
[129:19.] Aornos. Greek word, meaning without birds.
[129:28.] Furies. The Furies were the goddesses of Vengeance, named Allecto, Megæra, and Tisiphonë.
[130:31.] Briareus. Giant, son of Earth.
[130:31.] Lerna. A lake and marsh near Argos in Greece. Here dwelt the Hydra, a nine-headed monster, whose breath was poisonous. Hercules finally slew it. Possibly an idealized tradition of the draining of the marsh Lerna.
[130:32.] Chimæra. A fabulous monster which breathed forth fire. In front it was a lion, in the hinder part a dragon, and in the middle a goat. The monster was slain by Bellerophon.
[130:33.] Gorgons. Three mythical women of Libya, having some resemblance to the Furies. The chief was Medusa, slain by Perseus. Her head with serpent hair was placed in the shield or Ægis of Jove and Minerva.
[134:31.] Cerberus. Three-headed dog that guarded the entrance to the underworld.
[136:10.] Minos. King of Crete; after death became one of the judges in the underworld.
[136:19.] Marpessa. The mountain in Paros which contained the famous marble quarries, Marpesian, Parian.
[138:12.] Æolus. Ulysses was descended from Æolus.
[140:20.] Ixion. Ixion was father of Pirithous, king of the Lapithæ. Examples of men who have incurred the wrath of the gods.
[141:31.] Priest. Orpheus. Legendary poet and musician. ’Twas he who so charmed Proserpine that she allowed him to lead forth from the lower world his wife Eurydice.
[142:9.] Eridanus. A river issuing from the underworld, variously identified by ancient writers with the Po, the Rhine, or the Rhone,—usually with the Po.
[143:26.] Lethe. Quaffing its waters brought forgetfulness. See [page 144].
[146:1.] Berecyntian mother. Cybele, a Phrygian goddess, worshipped as mother of the gods. So called from Berecyntus, a mountain in Phrygia, sacred to Cybele.
[146:37.] Fasces. The bundles of rods from which an axe protruded, carried by the lictor before certain magistrates when they appeared in public. Symbol of authority.
[147:5.] Drusi. A Roman family mentioned here in compliment to their descendent Livia, wife of Augustus.
[147:5.] Decii. The Decii, father, son, and grandson, solemnly devoted themselves to death, each to win a doubtful battle, in the wars of the Latins, of the Samnites, and of Pyrrhus respectively.
[147:5.] Torquatus. (T. Manlius) won his title (with a gold neck-chain) by slaying a gigantic Gaul.
[147:6.] Camillus, returning from banishment, drove back the victorious Gauls, winning back the captured standards.
[147:12.] Father-in-law and son-in-law. Cæsar and Pompey.
[147:30.] Fabii. Quintus Fabius wore out the strength of Hannibal, constantly refusing to be drawn into a pitched battle. Hence “Fabian policy” means delay.
[148:10.] Quirinus. Romulus.
[149:7.] Laurentian. Laurentum, a town on the coast of Latium, a city of King Latinus.
[149:14.] Gate of ivory.
“A recent writer has reminded us that dreams after midnight were accounted true both by the Greeks and the Romans. Hence he concluded that Virgil, in making Æneas issue by the gate of false dreams, is indicating that Æneas comes forth from the underworld before midnight. As to the time of Æneas’ stay in the lower world see lines 255, 535-539. He is in the land of the shades from dawn until nearly midnight.”—Knapp.
“By those who think this book a symbolic exhibition of certain mysteries, the legend of the Gate, with the dismissal of Æneas from the ivory one, is considered a warning that the language may not be taken literally, or understood except by the initiated.”—Greenough.
“Anchises conducts Æneas and the Sibyl to the ivory gate as the one which affords the easiest and quickest ascent to the upper world. They are thus saved the toil of ascending by the way they came, which, according to the words of the Sibyl, 128, 129, would have been a work of great labor.”—Frieze.