Corripit hic subita trepidus formidine ferrum.
Aeneas, strictamque aciem venientibus offert,
Et, ni docta comes tenues sine corpore vitas
Admoneat volitare cava sub imagine formae,
Irruat, et frustra ferro diverberet umbras.

290

Hinc via, Tartarei quae fert Acherontis ad undas.
Turbidus hic caeno vastaque voragine gurges

295

Aestuat atque omnem Cocyto eructat harenam.

Portitor has horrendus aquas et flumina servat
Terribili squalore Charon, cui plurima mento
Canities inculta iacet, stant lumina flamma,
Sordidus ex umeris nodo dependet amictus.
Ipse ratem conto subigit, velisque ministrat,
Et ferruginea subvectat corpora cymba,

Iam senior, sed cruda deo viridisque senectus.
Huc omnis turba ad ripas effusa ruebat,
Matres atque viri, defunctaque corpora vita
Magnanimûm heroum, pueri innuptaeque puellae,
Impositique rogis iuvenes ante ora parentum:
Quam multa in silvis autumni frigore primo
Lapsa cadunt folia, aut ad terram gurgite ab alto

300

305

310

299. Charon. He is thus described by Dante (Inf. III. 83):

An old man, hoary with the hair of eld.

309-10. This is a favorite simile for a multitude.

Homer (l. II.) has :

Numberless as the flowers and leaves of spring.

and

In number like the sands and summer leaves.

297. Cocyto, 100.-299. Squalore, 140.

Quam multae glomerantur aves, ubi frigidus annus
Trans pontum fugat et terris immittit apricis.
Stabant orantes primi transmittere cursum,
Tendebantque manus ripae ulterioris amore.
Navita sed tristis nunc hos nunc accipit illos,
Ast alios longe submotos arcet harena.
Aeneas, miratus enim motusque tumultu,

Dic, ait, o virgo, quid vult concursus ad amnem?
Quidve petunt animae? vel quo discrimine ripas
Hae linquunt, illae remis vada livida verrunt?
Olli sic breviter fata est longaeva sacerdos :
Anchisa generate, deûm certissima proles,
Cocyti stagna alta vides Stygiamque paludem,
Dî cuius iurare timent et fallere numen.

Haec omnis, quam cernis, inops inhumataque turba est;
Portitor ille Charon; hi, quos vehit unda, sepulti.
Nec ripas datur horrendas et rauca fluenta
Transportare prius, quam sedibus ossa quierunt.

Ariosto (Orl. Fur. XVI. 75):

So many,

That I could count each leaf with greater

ease,

When autumn of their mantle strips the trees.

Tasso (Ger. Lib. IX. 66):

Not leaves in woods, when autumn's first night-frosts

315

320

326

Shelley (Revolt of Islam, I. IV.): Countless and swift as leaves on autumn's tempest shed.

326-30. Note again Addison: "I must not pass over in silence the point of doctrine which Virgil hath very much insisted upon in this book: that the souls of those who are unburied are not permitted to go over into their respective

Nip their sear'd beauty, in such numbers places of rest, until they have wandered

e'er

Heap the low valleys.

Milton (Par. L. I. 302):

a hundred years upon the banks of the Styx. This was probably an invention of the heathen priesthood, to make the

Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the people extremely careful of performing proper rites and ceremonies to the memory of the dead."

brooks

In Vallombrosa.

316. Submotos, 234.-324. Numen, 125.

Centum errant annos volitantque haec litora circum;
Tum demum admissi stagna exoptata revisunt.
Constitit Anchisa satus et vestigia pressit,

Multa putans, sortemque animo miseratus iniquam.
Cernit ibi maestos et mortis honore carentes
Leucaspim et Lyciae ductorem classis Oronten,
Quos simul a Troia ventosa per aequora vectos
Obruit Auster, aqua involvens navemque virosque.
Ecce gubernator sese Palinurus agebat,
Qui Libyco nuper cursu, dum sidera servat,
Exciderat puppi mediis effusus in undis.
Hunc ubi vix multa maestum cognovit in umbra,
Sic prior alloquitur: Quis te, Palinure, deorum
Eripuit nobis, medioque sub aequore mersit?
Dic age. Namque mihi, fallax haud ante repertus,
Hoc uno responso animum delusit Apollo,
Qui fore te ponto incolumem, finesque canebat
Venturum Ausonios. En haec promissa fides est?
Ille autem Neque te Phoebi cortina fefellit,
Dux Anchisiade, nec me deus aequore mersit.
Namque gubernaclum multa vi forte revulsum,
Cui datus haerebam custos cursusque regebam,
Praecipitans traxi mecum. Maria aspera iuro
Non ullum pro me tantum cepisse timorem,
Quam tua ne, spoliata armis, excussa magistro,

334. Cf. I. 113.

337. Palinurus. Cf. V. 860.

345. Apollo canebat. No such prediction of Apollo is elsewhere mentioned; Neptune had, however, distinctly said to

330

335

340

345

350

Venus that one of the crew should be lost.

353. Excussa magistro. Cf. I. 115. The present expression is a variation for excusso magistro, the ship being regarded as taken from the man, rather than the man from the ship.

342. Nobis, 101.351. Maria aspera, 125.

Deficeret tantis navis surgentibus undis.

Tres Notus hibernas immensa per aequora noctes
Vexit me violentus aqua; vix lumine quarto
Prospexi Italiam summa sublimis ab unda.
Paulatim adnabam terrae; iam tuta tenebam,
Ni gens crudelis madida cum veste gravatum
Prensantemque uncis manibus capita aspera montis
Ferro invasisset, praedamque ignara putasset.
Nunc me fluctus habet, versantque in litore venti.
Quod te per caeli iucundum lumen et auras,
Per genitorem oro, per spes surgentis Iuli,
Eripe me his, invicte, malis: aut tu mihi terram
Inice, namque potes, portusque require Velinos;
Aut tu, si qua via est, si quam tibi diva creatrix
Ostendit neque enim, credo, sine numine divûm
Flumina tanta paras Stygiamque innare paludem
Da dextram misero, et tecum me tolle per undas,
Sedibus ut saltem placidis in morte quiescam.
Talia fatus erat, coepit cum talia vates:
Unde haec, o Palinure, tibi tam dira cupido?
Tu Stygias inhumatus aquas amnemque severum
Eumenidum aspicies, ripamve ininssus adibis?

355

360

365

370

375

Quickly, and give me entrance through

the gates

Of Hades; for the souls, the forms of those

Who live no more, repulse me, suffering

not

That I should join their company beyond
The river, and I now must wander round
The spacious portals of the House of
Death.

358-61. Tenebam — ni invasisset, 199.

Desine fata deûm flecti sperare precando;
Sed cape dicta memor, duri solacia casus.
Nam tua finitimi, longe lateque per urbes
Prodigiis acti caelestibus, ossa piabunt,

Et statuent tumulum, et tumulo sollemnia mittent,
Aeternumque locus Palinuri nomen habebit.
His dictis curae emotae, pulsusque parumper
Corde dolor tristi; gaudet cognomine terra.

Ergo iter inceptum peragunt fluvioque propinquant.
Navita quos iam inde ut Stygia prospexit ab unda
Per tacitum nemus ire pedemque advertere ripae,
Sic prior aggreditur dictis, atque increpat ultro:
Quisquis es, armatus qui nostra ad flumina tendis,
Fare age, quid venias, iam istine, et comprime gressum.
Umbrarum hic locus est, Somni Noctisque soporae ;
Corpora viva nefas Stygia vectare carina.
Nec vero Alciden me sum laetatus euntem

376. Dante quotes this passage to the shade of Vergil (Purg. VI. 28):

It appears that thou deniest,

O light of mine, expressly in some text,
That orison can bend decree of Heaven;
And ne'ertheless these people pray for

this [i. e. sanctification ]
Might then their expectation bootless be?
And he to me:

My writing is explicit,
And not fallacious is the hope of these,
If with sane intellect 't is well regarded;
For top of judgment [i. e. the supreme

decree of God] doth not vail itself, Because the fire of love fulfils at once What he must satisfy who here installs him.

380

385

390

And there, when I affirmed that propo-
sition,

Defect was not amended by a prayer,
Because the prayer from God was separate.

The idea of prayer as unavailing against fate is seen in the words of the Chorus to Creon (Sophocles, Antigone):

Pray thou for nothing then: for mortal

man

There is no issue from a doom decreed.

381. The place is still called Punta di Palinuro.

388-391. Thus Charon repulses Dante (Inf. III. 88):

And thou, that yonder standest, living soul,

Withdraw thee from these people, who are dead!

381. Palinuri, 85.