NOTES TO BOOK EIGHT
[I.] Both here and in [Book VII. stanza lxxxvii.] Mezentius is called the 'scorner of the gods.' The meaning of this allusion is not known. Perhaps it refers to his claiming for himself the first-fruits due to the gods, a legend mentioned by Macrobius. See [stanzas lxiii. and lxiv.]
[II.] 'Diomed' dwelt at Argyripa or Arpi, a city in Apulia, where he settled with his Argine followers after the Trojan war.
[VII.] Pallas is the name of an old Arcadian hero. His grandson Evander is said to have settled with his followers on the site of Rome, and called it Pallanteum, after the Arcadian city of that name.
[XIV.] Hercules was the son of Alcmena and Jupiter. His worship at Rome dated from very early times, as is shown by the legend—mentioned by Livy—that it was established by Romulus according to Greek usage as it had been instituted by Evander.
[XVI.] The olive branch was the sign—universally recognised in antiquity—of a desire for peace.
[XX.] The Daunian race means the Rutulians. Daunus was the father of Turnus. Cf. [Book XII. stanza iii.]
[XXVII.] Alcides is one of the names given to Hercules. The killing of Geryon, the three-bodied monster who was king in Spain, and the driving off of his cattle, was one of the famous 'twelve labours' of Hercules.
[XXXVI.] The gens Potitia and the gens Pinaria were the two tribes to which the care of the worship of Hercules was entrusted.
[XXXVIII.-IX.] In historic times, the Salians were the twelve priests of Mars who kept the twelve sacred shields in the temple of that god on the Palatine hill. Their priesthood was one of the oldest Roman institutions, and their festival was held on March 1, the first day of the old Roman year.
'His stepdame's hate' refers to the story that Juno, being jealous of Alcmena, the mother of Hercules, sent two snakes to destroy the latter as he lay in his cradle, but the infant hero strangled them. Eurystheus was the king of Tiryns, whom Hercules had to serve for twelve years, and at whose command he performed his famous twelve labours. Pholus and Hylaeus were two Centaurs; they were called 'cloud-born' because they were the offspring of Ixion and a Cloud. The Cretan monster is the mad bull sent by Neptune to destroy the land; Hercules came to the rescue and carried it away on his shoulders. There is no other mention in ancient literature of the fight between Hercules and Typhoeus. The latter was a hundred-headed fire-breathing monster, who fought against the gods, and was buried beneath Mount Aetna.
[XLII.-XLVIII.] Evander shows the town to Aeneas, tells him of the former state of Latium, and points out to him the chief places of interest. Asylum—Livy tells us that in order to increase the population, Romulus offered a refuge at Rome to all comers from the neighbouring towns. The Lupercal was the sanctuary of Lupercus ('wolf-repeller'), an old Roman shepherd god. The Capitol is referred to as 'now golden,' because in Virgil's time the roof of the temple of Jupiter Capitotinus was gilded.
[L.] Thetis, the mother of Achilles, persuaded Vulcan to make arms for her son, and so had Aurora, the goddess of dawn, 'Tithonus' spouse,' when her son Memnon went to Troy to fight against the Greeks.
[LV.] The island here referred to is Hiera, one of the Aeolian isles, north-east of Sicily. It is now called Volcano. The Cyclops were originally gigantic one-eyed cannibals who lived a pastoral life near Mount Aetna. In later legends they are described as the assistants of Vulcan.
[LVI.] These three names are Greek and mean 'Fire-anvil,' 'Thunder,' and 'Lightning,' respectively.
[LXXIV.] Erulus is not mentioned by any other ancient writer, so we cannot explain the allusion. Feronia was a Campanian goddess.
[LXXVIII.] Lucifer, 'the light bringer,' was the name of the morning star, which, rising just before the sun, seemed to bring the daylight.
[LXXX.] The Pelasgians were a very ancient race, of whom only traces existed in Greece in historic times. They were said to be very wide-spread, but the tales connecting them with Italy are all unhistoric. Silvanus was an ancient Latin woodland deity.
[LXXXIV.] The story, as related by Livy, is that the Romans being in want of wives, Romulus instituted games in honour of Neptune. At a given signal, the Romans seized and carried off the Sabine maidens who had come to see the games.
[LXXXV.] Mettus, dictator of Alba, had been called in to assist the Romans under Tullus Hostilius. He came, but withdrew his troops in the middle of the battle. For this treachery he was punished in the way Virgil describes. Horatius Cocles was the hero who guarded the Tiber bridge against Porsenna of Clusium. Cloelia was a Roman maiden who had been sent as a hostage to Porsenna. She escaped by swimming across the Tiber.
[LXXXVI.] The event here referred to is the invasion of Rome by the Gauls in 390 B.C. They captured the whole of the city, except the Capitol, which was successfully defended by Manlius, who had been put on the alert by the cackling of a flock of geese.
[LXXXVII.] See note on [stanza xxxviii.] The Luperci were the priests of Lupercus. Catiline was the author of the conspiracy of B.C. 63. Cicero, the famous orator, was consul for that year and frustrated the plot. Cato the younger died at Utica in 49 B.C. In the Roman writers Catiline is always the proverbial scoundrel and Cato is always taken as the model of rigid and exalted virtue.
[LXXXVIII.] At the battle of Actium, in B.C. 31, the fleet of Augustus met those of Antony and Cleopatra, and owing to the desertion of the Egyptians at the crisis of the fight, gained a complete victory over them.
[XC.] The Cyclads were the western islands of the Greek archipelago.
[XCIV.] The Carians lived in the south of Asia Minor, the Gelonians beyond the Danube, and the Morini on the North Sea, near where Ostend now is. The Dahae were a tribe of Scythians, and the Leleges were an ancient people spread over Asia Minor.