Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T02:02:04.288Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Vergil, Aeneid 5.458–60

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Howard Jacobson*
Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Urbana

Extract

It appears to have gone unnoticed that the simile used by Vergil at Aeneid 5.458–60 was appropriated by him from Apollonius Rhodius.

Type
Shorter Notes
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 See e.g. Vergil's at Georgics 1.449.

2 Even Vergil's hailstorm at Aen. 9.668–71 is less focused and part of a broader simile representing turmoil and disorder. See too Aen. 10.803–10 and Georgia 4.80. Homeric ‘parallels’ are not relevant. See e.g. Il. 12.156–61, 278–89.

3 That Vergil knew well and used the Argonautica does not need demonstration. Cf. his similes: that at Aen. 6.453–4 is borrowed from Apollonius 4.1479–80; that at Aen. 6.309–10 owes more to Apollonius’ at 4.216–17 than to Homer's at Il. 6.146–7, and that at 6.707–9 owes more to Apollonius 1.879–92 than to Il. 2.87–89. Apollonius’ influence on Vergil is the topic of a forthcoming book by Dr Damien Nelis.