“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.
BOOK VII
Arrival of Æneas in Latium and commencement of hostilities between the Latins and Trojans.
[150:1.] Caieta. Æneas buries his nurse on a promontory of Latium which he called after her—now called Gaeta.
[151:8.] Erato. Name of one of the Muses.
[151:14.] Tyrrhenian. The Tyrrheni were a people of Asia who had settled in Etruria, a district north of Italy. Hence used synonymously for Etrurian, Tuscan—Italian. Œnotrian is still another term.
[151:29.] Turnus. Son of Daunus and the nymph Venilia, was king of the Rutulians, a people of Latium. He led the Italian forces against Æneas, but was at last slain by Æneas in single combat, as described in the last of Book XII.
[153:19.] The eating of tables was foretold by the Harpy and Anchises, in Book III, [page 59].
[159:19.] Bellona. Goddess of war and bloodshed, an old Italian deity—sister of Mars.