“Illa tamen gravior, quae, quum discumbere coepit,
Laudat Virgilium, periturae ignoscit Elissae....”
The question whether Dido did right in choosing death, seems to have been discussed by would-be beaux esprits, as in our own day, people argue about the comparative merits of Goethe and Schiller.
[284] Sibyl. (Σίβυλλα, from Σιὸς βουλή literally “counsellor of God”) the name given to the prophesying priestesses of Apollo. Their predictions were vague and mysterious.
[285] Not only Ares the slayer, but the humble Anchises. Stephanus alludes to the love affair of Aphrodite, who according to the Hellenic myth, bestowed her favors not only on the gods, as the homicidal Ares, but also upon mortals. She showed her love for the young Trojan prince Anchises, as is well known, among the groves of Ida.
[286] The craftiness of Ulysses. Ulysses, Ulixes, (Odysseus,) the hero of the Homeric Odyssey, was considered in tradition, after Homer’s day, as the type of craft and cunning, while Homer presents him in a more ideal light.
[287] Greek blood flows in your veins. Among the Romans, the Greeks had the reputation of resembling in character the Ulysses described after Homer’s day. Next to the Orientals, they were the most hated of all the dwellers in the provinces.
[288] I will climb the capitol like the invading Gauls. The (unsuccessful) attempt to take the beleaguered Capitol by storm, made by the Gauls, as is well known, in the year 389 B.C. after they had defeated the Roman army at the little river Allia.
[289] Thetis, daughter of Nereus, lived with her sisters, the Nereids, in the depths of the ocean. She personified the friendly character of the sea, as Poseidon did its destructive and terrible one.
[290] You are the kindest master. The epithet “kind” (dulcis) is often used in this application to superiors and those in higher position. Thus Horace in the well-known first ode of the first book addresses Maecenas: O et praesidium et dulce decus meum....