1. Among the few essays devoted specifically to the third book of the Aeneid, I have found those of R. B. Lloyd, especially valuable on matters of theme and structure (‘Aeneid III: A New Approach,’ AJP 78 [1957], 133–151Google Scholar, and ‘Aeneid III and the Aeneas Legend,’ AJP 78 [1957], 382–400Google Scholar). Cf. also Allen, A. W., ‘The Dullest Book of the Aeneid,’ CJ 47 (1951–52), 119–23Google Scholar, who sees book 3 marking the definitive break with the past as it slowly reveals the future. The conversion of Aeneas from Trojan to Roman is also a major concern of Semple, W. H., ‘A Short Study of Aeneid, Book III,’ Bulletin of the Rylands Library 38 (1955), 225–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarDi Cesare, M., The Altar and the City: A Reading of Vergil’s Aeneid (New York, 1974), 61–76Google Scholar, gives a particularly sympathetic treatment of Aeneas, ‘the wanderer,’ in book 3. Ways in which the reader is forced to see Aeneas in book 3 because of his role as narrator are discussed by Sanderlin, G. ‘Aeneas as Apprentice – Point of View in the Third Aeneid,’ CJ1X (1975–76), 53–56.Google Scholar The commentary on Aeneid 3 by R. D. Williams (ed., Vergili Maronis, P.Aeneidos: Liber Tertius [Oxford, 1962]Google Scholar) is an informative guide. In general Williams sees the book as one ‘of low tension between the two intense books, II and IV’ (p. 14; cf. p. 3). He argues that ‘The theme of book III is the gradual progress toward the desired goal [i.e. Rome], with difficulties and dangers countered by divine prophecies and encouragement’ (p. 18).

2. Among other topics that Aeneid 3 shares with the Odyssey, aside from the obvious plots centered on adventure-ridden wandering, is an emphasis on eating – ‘That eating poem of the Odyssey’ (Tom Jones Book 9, ch. 5) – which can betoken need, yearning, fulfillment, or a combination thereof.

3. The most detailed examination is by G. Knauer, Die Aeneis und Homer (Göttingen, 1964 = Hypomnemata 7), passim, especially 181–209, on the relationship of Aeneid 3 and Odyssey 12.

4. The point is made by K. Quinn, Virgil’s Aeneid: A Critical Description (Ann Arbor, 1968), 394.

5. The importance of myrtle boughs in Greek foundation ceremonies is documented by A. Steier, P.-W. 16. 1. 1181 s.v. myrtos. On the sprouting staff as marking the spot for a foundation see Eliade, M., The Sacred and the Profane (New York, 1959), 27Google Scholar. Servius (on 3. 46) refers appropriately to the sprouting cornel shaft in the legend of Romulus and Remus (re. Ovid M. 15. 561–64). Cf. also Plut. Rom. 20. 5ff.; Arnob. 4. 3; schol. on Ovid M. (p. 720 Magnus).

6. The use of procul in the initial line of the episode (13) is emphasized by Halter, T., Vergil und Horaz (Bern, 1970), 71Google Scholar. There are nine appearances of procul in Aeneid 3, a number equalled in other books of the Aeneid only by 8.

7. Aeneas’ conduct here is sensitively defended by Reckford, K. ‘Some Trees in Virgil and Tolkein,’ in Perspectives of Roman Poetry, ed. Galinsky, G. K. (Austin, 1974), 67f.Google Scholar

8. On Aeneas’ impietas here see Nethercut, W. R., ‘Invasion in the Aeneid’ G&R 15 (1968), 88f.Google Scholar

9. To describe Aeneas’ conduct Polydorus uses the word laceras (41): ‘Why, Aeneas, do you tear at my poor corpse?’ are his first words.

10. The interconnection between the stops in Thrace and Delos is discussed by Jens, W., ‘Der Eingang des dritten Buches der Aeneis,’ Philologus 97 (1948), 194–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11. At no moment in the Aeneid are the wanderers more helpless and lost than here. The point is made and developed in relation to the evolution of the epic by Boyle, A. J., ‘The Meaning of the Aeneid,’ Ramus 1 (1972), 74ffGoogle Scholar. (esp. 76).

12. In Apollonius Rhodius the name Strophades stems from the fact that the sons of Boreas there ‘turned back’ after pursuing the Harpies (Arg. 2. 296). The Harpies make their home on Crete (299). Their presence on the Strophades in the Aeneid is Virgil’s invention.

13. As well as being apestis et ira deum (3. 215), the Harpies embody malesuada Fames, one of the abstractions at Hell’s gate, ready to work on mankind (6. 276). They are the hungry creatures who work their ill through hunger. They force Aeneas to leave his booty half-eaten (semesam praedam, 244) and then curse him with the desperate future need to eat his tables (ambesas mensas, 257).

14. ‘O gods, avert such a mishap and gently save those who are pii,’ (266) prays Anchises, quoted by his son and yet reflecting a certain authorial irony. The piety of respect for the rights of others has not much engaged the thoughts of the Trojans. There is a similar irony in Polydorus’ cry to Aeneas, who is wrenching his buried body apart, parce pias scelerare manus (42). The Trojan incursion into the territory of others is a prototype of one aspect of the Trojan absorption of Italy. At Aeneid 8. 146–47 Aeneas, in his suppliant speech to Evander, so much exaggerates the resistance he has received (… gens … crudeli Daunia bello/insequitur) that the reader tends to reverse matters and contemplate what violence the Trojan arrival brings that did not exist before.

15. Charles Singleton (ed., Dante Alighieri The Divine Comedy [Princeton, 1979], 1. 2, p. 224) commenting on Inf. 13. 145, speaks of ‘the dominant theme of this canto, of rending, of tearing asunder by violence …’ Dante’s borrowings here from Aeneid 3 prove that he has caught Virgil’s tone in general and in detail. For further analysis of this canto see also Speroni, C., ‘The Motif of the Bleeding and Speaking Trees of Dante’s Suicides,’ Italian Quarterly 9 (1965), 44–55.Google Scholar

16. It is curious that the eye of Polyphemus, which Achaemenides and Odysseus’ other comrades pierce with a shaft, is later considered Argolici clipei … instar (637). Odysseus’ vengeance against the Cyclopes is seen in parellel terms to Trojan vengeance against Greek.

17. Cf. Williams (n. 1. above) on 294f. Galinsky, G. K. (Aeneas, Sicily and Rome [Princeton, 1969], 45Google Scholar, 112) has pointed out the evidence in the tradition that Aeneas met Andromache at the court of Neoptolemus. Virgil’s novel change of setting, with Andromache freed from her Greek captors and restored to a Trojan husband, makes her narcissistic brooding on the past the more noticeable. On Andromache’s escapism see Saylor, C., ‘Toy Troy: The New Perspective of the Backward Glance,’ Vergilius 16 (1970), 26–8Google Scholar and, on the episode in general, Grimm, R. E., ‘Aeneas and Andromache in Aeneid III,’ AJP 88 (1967), 151–62.Google Scholar

18. Re. Aen. 8. 81–84. Aen. 3. 390–92 = Aen. 8.43–5 and, with the change of is to hic, Aen. 3. 393 = Aen. 8. 46.

19. There is no mention of Rome itself. Thouşh the reader learns of Rome and Romans at 1. 7 and 33 and in Jupiter’s speech at 1. 234, 277 and 282, Aeneas first hears the name mentioned at 4. 234.

20. Palinurus is named at lines 202 and 513, two hundred and two lines before the end of Aeneas’ narrative at 715. The pointed balance ‘surrounds’ the Helenus episode and marks it as a new beginning.

21. Rubescebat: 3. 521 and 7. 25, two out of Virgil’s four uses of rubesco. The only other appearance of the verb in the Aeneid is at 8. 695 as Neptune’s waters off Actium redden with blood.

22. Of the two other uses of turritus in Virgil, one is at 8. 693, describing the turritis puppibus on which the Romans attacked the followers of Antony and Cleopatra at Actium.

23. Virgil’s attempts at perspective, here and elsewhere, are treated by Reeker, H.-D., Die Landschaft in der Aeneis (Hildesheim, 1971 = Spudasmata 27), 40ffGoogle Scholar. He notes the personification of the Italian landscape but does not dwell on any idiosyncracies in the description. Virgil’s sense of depth and distance here is also touched upon by Andersson, T. M., Early Epic Scenery (Ithaca, 1976), 82Google Scholar.

24. Williams (n. 1. above) on 3. 543 (p. 168).

25. They are Concordes animae at 6. 827. Virgil’s only other use of concors is at ecl. 4. 47. By contrast Discordia and discors make fourteen appearances in Virgil’s works, ten in the Aeneid. On horses in relation to a triumph see, further, Williams (n. 1. above) on 3. 537; Gransden, K. W., ed., Virgil, Aeneid: Book 8 (Cambridge, 1976Google Scholar), on Aen. 8. 714; W. Ehlers P.-W. 2. 13. 504, s.v. triumphus.

26. Virgil apparently coins her epithet, and uses it, with great suitability, only here.

27. For a more detailed analysis of Virgil’s description of Etna, see Reeker, (n. 23 above), 62ff., 159ff.

28. Cf. especially lines 39–40: gemitus lacrimabilis imo auditur tumulo et vox reddita fertur ad auris: A tearful groan is heard from the bottom of the mound and a voice in reply is carried to my ears. with 576–7: liquefactaque saxa sub auras cum gemitu glomerat fundoque exaestuat imo. And with a groan it tosses molten rocks to the skies and boils from its lowest depth.

29. Ingens (619, 658)

30. The most recent treatment of the meeting with Achaemenides is by Römisch, E., ‘Die Achaemenides-Episode in Vergils Aeneis,’ in Studien zum antiken Epos (Meisenheim, 1976), 208–27Google Scholar. His analysis is especially penetrating on the many contrasts within the episode, for example, between the need to see the stars and the blackness of Etna (p. 210) or between man and monster (p. 222). He relates the name Achaemenides to achos (p. 219). Highet, G., The Speeches in Vergil’s Aeneid (Princeton, 1972), 28fGoogle Scholar., dismisses the episode as derivative and unimportant.

31. On the proverbiality of the wealth of the Achaemenids re. Horace c. 2. 12. 21, dives Achaemenes (cf. alsoepodel3. 4, c. 3.1.44). Horace uses Perscte to mean Parthi at c. 1.2.22, 21. 15; 3. 5.4.

32. Anchises’ patriarchal act is, of course, a grand gesture of unity. We must, however, not lose sight of the fact that shortly before the end of his final speech to his son in book 6 Anchises singles out for mention the destructive actions of Aemilius Paulus against Greece during the Third Macedonian War. He will overwhelm Argos and Mycenae, says Anchises, ultus avos Troiae templa et temerata Minervae. (6. 840) Having avenged his Trojan forebears and Minerva’s defiled temple. In spite of the reception of Achaemenides, vengeance and clementia will remain opposing principles in Roman history, even in her evolving relationship with Greece. Mycenae still remains saevae in Ilioneus’ words of greeting to Latinus (7. 222).

33. Reasons for linking Achaemenides to Parthia are detailed by McKay, A. J., ‘The Achaemenides Episode: Vergil, Aeneid III, 588–691,’ Vergilius 12 (1966), 31–38Google Scholar, passim, who also discusses at length Augustus’ careful policy of forebearance in this instance (35ff.).

34. At line 639 Achaemenides addresses the Trojans as o miseri, alluding to the communality of their menace from Polyphemus and reminding the reader that Aeneas had just described him as a forma … miseranda (591). We must also recall that in the opening episode of the book Aeneas and Polydorus are differentiated when the stronger harms the weaker (41): ‘quid miserum, Aeneas, laceras? iam parce sepulto,…’ ‘Why, Aeneas, do you tear at my poor corpse? Spare me now that I am buried, …’ Sparing comes only after intervention from the tomb. Line 639 as a whole — ‘sed fugite, o miseri, fugite atque ab litore funem rumpite.’ ‘But flee, o poor creatures, flee and rend your cables from the shore.’ — also looks back to Polydorus’ double command to Aeneas (44): ‘heu fuge crudelis terras, fuge litus avarum.’ ‘Ah, flee the cruel land, flee the greedy shore.’ Singular imperative to Aeneas, unique perpetrator of hurt, is changed at the book’s end to a plural embracing all the Trojans and, ultimately, Achaemenides himself.

35. There are important differences in the treatments of Polyphemus by Homer and Virgil. These have been well discussed by Glenn, J., ‘Virgil’s Polyphemus,’ G&R 19 (1972), 47–59Google Scholar, esp. 53ff. See also Thaniel, G., ‘A Note on Aeneid 3. 623–626,’ CB 50(1973), 10–12Google Scholar; Römisch, (n. 30 above), 223, n. 18. Resonances of the figure of Polyphemus later in the epic are also traced by Glenn, J., ‘Mezentius and Polyphemus,’ AJP 92 (1971), 129–55Google Scholar.

36. We also trace the movement of at least one other Greek from his homeland to Italy during the course of book 3, namely Idomeneus. At line 122 he has deserted Crete and by lines 400–1 he is besieging the Sallentine fields in southeastern Italy. Virgil there gives him the epithet Lyctius as remembrance of his Cretan origin.

37. Ortygia is named at lines 124, 143 and 154.

38. Cf. Williams (n. 1 above) on lines 588f. (p. 181). On the parallels between the two passages see Mackail, J. W., The Aeneid of Virgil (Oxford, 1930Google Scholar), Appendix B; Jackson Knight, W. F., ‘Pairs of Passages in Virgil,’ G&R 13 (1944), 10–14Google Scholar, and K. Quinn, (n. 4 above), 61 and 132f., for a sympathetic treatment of Virgil’s intentions.

39. The first four books of the Aeneid have often been viewed by critics as a group, the first, in other words, of three major divisions in the epic. This thesis has been notably defended by Pöschl, V., Die Dichtkunst Virgils (Innsbruck, 1950), 279fGoogle Scholar., and Duckworth, G., ‘The Aeneid as a Trilogy,’ TAPA 88 (1957), 1–11Google Scholar (re. p. 4, n. 13–15, for further bibliography). Newton, F. L. in ‘Recurrent Imagery in Aeneid IV,’ TAPA 88 (1957), 33Google Scholar, touches briefly on imagery in book 1 that will be elaborated in the fourth book.

40. Anderson, W. S., The Art of the Aeneid (Englewood Cliffs, 1969), 42fGoogle Scholar., details further reasons why Dido might be moved by Aeneas’ tale.

41. Dido is also supplex at 414 and victam at 434 (cf. 1. 529 quoted above).

42. Venus first suggests the image at 1. 673. It appears again at 1. 719 and is reiterated strongly in simile at 4. 668–71: resonat magnis plangoribus aether non aliter quam si immissis ruat hostibus omnis Karthago aut antiqua Tyros, flammaeque furentes culmina perque hominum volvantur perque deorum. The heaven reechoes with great wails, even as though all Carthage or ancient Tyre were collapsing before an inrushing foe, and raging fires were swirling over the dwellings of men and of gods. The intervening simile comparing the Trojans to predator ants is a careful segment of Virgil’s design.