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Virgil and the Wooden Horse*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Extract

In his play Dido Queen of Carthage, compassing Troy's fall, Aeneas' wanderings, and Dido's passion (with the curtain falling not on one corpse but on three), Marlowe makes his Dido say as she begs for the tale of Troy:

‘Many tales go of that city's fall,

And scarcely do agree upon one point:

Some say, Antenor did betray the town;

Others report, 'twas Sinon's perjury;

But all in this, that Troy is overcome,

And Priam dead.’

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © R. G. Austin 1959. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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Footnotes

*

A paper delivered at the Triennial Meeting of the Roman and Hellenic Societies at Cambridge, on 8 August, 1958. In preparing it for JRS, I was tempted to include some account of the representations of the Horse in sculpture or painting, or on coins, but the suggestion proved impracticable for this paper.

References

1 Servius on 11, 17; Hyginus, Fab. 108; Apollodorus, , Ep. V, 14Google Scholar; Petronius 89, 12; cf. H. Stubbe, Die Verseinlagen im Petron., 33.

2 cf. Howland, R. L., Comb. Philol. Soc. Proc., no. CLXXXIII (19541955), 15 fGoogle Scholar.

3 AP IX, 713 ff.; see Overbeck, Die Antiken Sckriftquellen zur Geschichte der bildenden Künste nos. 550 ff.

4 Studi Urbinati, Serie B. XXXI (1957), 156 ff.; I owe my knowledge of this paper to the kindness of Mr. G. W. Williams.

4a Professor F. W. Walbank has drawn my attention to Demetrius Phalereus' mechanical snail (Polyb. XII, 13, 11, κοχλίας αὐτόματος βαδίζων προηγεῖτο τῆς πομπῆς αὐτῷ, σίαλον ἀναπτύων.

4b de Columnis, Guido, Hist. Destr. Troiae XXX (p. 230, ed. Griffin, )Google Scholar.

5 Imitated by Petronius (89, 20); see Stubbe, o.c., 33; but cf. C. Robert, Die griechische Heldensage 1246.

6 Allan, J., JHS LXVI, 1946, 21 ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 e.g. Bethe, E., Rh. Mus. XLVI, 1891, 511 ff.Google Scholar; cf. R. Heinze, Virgils Epische Technik 13.

8 In Proclus' summary, see OCT Homer, vol. V, p. 107, 26; cf. Apollod. Ep. V, 15.

9 In the Tabula Iliaca; cf. Robert, o.c, 1243; Paulcke, M., De tabula Iliaca quaestiones Stesichoreae (diss. Königsberg, 1897), 82Google Scholar.

10 See E. Fraenkel, Plautinisches im Plautus 344, n. 3.

11 Carm. Lat. Epigr. 731.

12 cf. Robert, o.c., 1230 ff., Frazer on Ovid, Fasti VI, 421.

13 See Robert, o.c, 1246 ff., Bild und Lied 192 ff.; Stubbe, o.c, 34; Pearson, A. C., Sophocles, Fragments vol. II, 38 fGoogle Scholar.

14 OCT Homer, vol. V, p. 107, 23.

15 Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. I, 48; Soph. fr. 373 (Pearson).

16 Fraenkel, o.c., 67, 94; cf. Williams, G. W., Hermes LXXXIV, 1957, 447 ffGoogle Scholar.

17 Apollod. Ep. V, 19; Tryph. 510 f.

18 Tryph. 539; Qu. Sm. XIII, 40 ff.; cf. Stubbe, o.c., 34.

19 I owe these references to the courtesy of the staff of Thes. Ling. Lat. in Munich.

20 Qu. Sm. XIII, 51; cf. Robert, Heldenisage 1254.

21 cf. VI, 479 f. (with Norden's note); IX, 569 f.

22 IV, 265 f.; XI, 523.

23 Guido de Columnis XXXII (p. 250, ed. Griffin) names an Assandrus as brother of Diomede's wife Egea (Aegiale), and there is a variant Tassandrus.

24 XV (p. 143 Gr.).

25 cf. Schol. BT Eust. Il. XI, 515Google Scholar; Machaon is otherwise listed only by Hyginus (108), who follows Virgil, and he is named as having been in the Horse in a pseudo-Hippocratic work (Epp. 27, 50).

26 cf. Bethe, E., Homer III, 36, n. 5Google Scholar.

27 G. Murray, The Trojan Women 86.

28 J. E. Harrison, Mythology 43.

29 W. F. J. Knight, Vergil's Troy 114 ff.

30 Bickel, E., Rh. Mus. XCI, 1942, 19 ffGoogle Scholar.

31 Ancey, G., Rev. Arch. 4 série, XXI, 1913, 378 ffGoogle Scholar. (cf. Graves, Robert, Greek Myths II, 335)Google Scholar.

32 cf. Skeat on Chaucer, Squiere's Tale 209.

33 D. Comparetti, Vergil in the Middle Ages, tr. Benecke, 268.

34 cf. Clouston, W. A., John Lane's Continuation of Chaucer's Squiere's Tale, London (Chaucer Society), 18881890, 279 ffGoogle Scholar.

35 See Arber's reprint (English Scholar's Library), 85.

36 cf. Rostagni, A., Equos Troianus (Scritti Minori II, 2, 322)Google Scholar.

37 C. M. Bowra, From Virgil to Milton 41.