At 08:48 PM 11/18/99 -0800, Gregory Hays wrote:
>Whatever else is going on here, there is surely an allusion to another
>headless body lying on a shore--that of Pompey (hence 'ingens,' hinting at
>'magnus'). So Servius ad loc. "Pompei tangit historiam," continuing "quod
>autem dicit 'litore', illud ... respicit quod in Pacuvii tragoedia
>continetur: Priami corpus ad litus tractum." DS adds a couple of less
>plausible interpretations of 'litore,' which obviously bothered ancient
>readers too.

1. Perhaps litus merely refers to the shore of the harbor, Sigeum, which
Aeneas can see from his house (see Aen. 2.312: "Sigea igni freta lata
relucent").

2. What do people make of the Pompey reference here? I find myself partial
to a notion which I shall crudely express as "the Fall of Troy = the End of
the Republic" (with the implication in book 3 that you can't back).

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David Wilson-Okamura    http://virgil.org              [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Macalester College      Virgil Tradition: discussion, bibliography, &c.
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