NOTES
ON
ÆNEÏS, BOOK I.
Note I.
The realms of ocean, and the fields of air,
Are mine, not his.—P. 237.
Poetically speaking, the fields of air are under the command of Juno, and her vicegerent Æolus. Why then does Neptune call them his? I answer, Because, being god of the seas, Æolus could raise no tempest in the atmosphere above them without his leave. But why does Juno address to her own substitute? I answer, He had an immediate power over the winds, whom Juno desires to employ on her revenge. That power was absolute by land; which Virgil plainly insinuates: for, when Boreas and his brethren were let loose, he says at first, terras turbine perflant—then adds, Incubuere mari. To raise a tempest on the sea, was usurpation on the prerogative of Neptune, who had given him no leave, and therefore was enraged at his attempt. I may also add, that they who are in a passion, as Neptune then was, are apt to assume to themselves more than is properly their due.
Note II.
O virgin!——&c.
If, as you seem, the sister of the day,
Or one at least of chaste Diana's train.—P. 244.
Thus in the original—
O quam te memorem, virgo————
An Phœbi soror, an nympharum sanguinis una?
This is a family compliment, which Æneas here bestows on Venus. His father Anchises had used the very same to that goddess when he courted her. This appears by that very ancient Greek poem[99], in which that amour is so beautifully described, and which is thought Homer's, though it seems to be written before his age.