Like some stout Sabine, or the sunburnt bride
Of the lithe peasant of the Apulian hills.’ Martin.
Siquidem virga populea more regionis in puerperiis eodem statim loco depacta ita brevi evaluit tempore ut multo ante satas populos adaequasset, quae arbor Virgilii ex eo dicta atque etiam consecrata est summa gravidarum ac fetarum religione.
The resemblance of the name to the word virga is probably at the root of this story.
‘An Orphic song indeed,
A song divine of high and passionate thoughts
To their own music chanted.’
Tu canis umbrosi subter pineta Galaesi
Thyrsin et attritis Daphnin harundinibus,
Namque sub Oebaliae memini me turribus arcis