How like the former, and almost the same!
Note VII.
Two gates the silent house of Sleep adorn;
Of polished ivory this, that of transparent horn.—P. 423.
Virgil borrowed this imagination from Homer, Odysses xix. line 562. The translation gives the reason, why true prophetic dreams are said to pass through the gate of horn, by adding the epithet transparent, which is not in Virgil, whose words are only these:
Sunt geminæ Somni portæ, quarum altera fertur
Cornea——
What is pervious to the sight is clear; and (alluding to this property) the poet infers such dreams are of divine revelation. Such as pass through the ivory gate, are of the contrary nature—polished lies. But there is a better reason to be given; for the ivory alludes to the teeth, the horn to the eyes. What we see is more credible, than what we only hear; that is, words that pass through the portal of the mouth, or "hedge of the teeth;" which is Homer's expression for speaking.
ÆNEÏS,
BOOK VII.
ARGUMENT.