[803] Super, besides: as we should say colloquially, she comes on the top of them. Camilla is an invention of the poet's, modelled on the post-Homeric Penthesilea. “Camilli” and “Camillae” were young male and female attendants on the priests, Macrob. Sat. 3. 8. See on 11. 543.
[804] Agmen et catervas ἓν διὰ δυοῖν. ‘Florentes aere’ on the analogy of [χρυσοῦ] ἄνθος Theogn. 452, as Lucr.'s “florentia lumina flammis” (4. 450) is on the analogy of the Homeric πυρὸς ἄνθος. See other illustrations in Munro's note ad l. The line recurs 11. 433.
[805] Bellatrix placed as 1. 493, where it follows a line consisting of a participial clause. ‘Non illa:’ see on 6. 593. If there is any contrast here, it is between Camilla and other maidens, implied also in ‘femineas.’ ‘Colo calathisve Minervae:’ Cerda points out that this is an imitation of
For the expression comp. Hor. 3 Od. 12. 4 foll. “tibi qualum Cythereae puer ales, tibi telas operosaeque Minervae studium aufert” &c. It matters little whether ‘colo’ as well as ‘calathis’ goes with ‘Minervae.’ For ‘calathis’ comp. Catull. 64 (66). 318 “ante pedes autem candentis mollia lanae Vellera virgati custodibant calathisci.”“τῇσι δὲ βουκολίαι τε βοῶν χάλκειά τε δύνειν
τεύχεα, πυροφόρους τε διατμήξασθαι ἀρούρας
ῥηΐτερον πάσῃσιν Ἀθηναίης πέλεν ἔργων,
οἷς αἰεὶ τὸ πάροιθεν ὁμίλεον.
”
[806] Virgo in strong contrast to ‘proelia dura pati:’ comp. 1. 493 “audetque viris concurrere virgo.” From 11. 584 foll. it would seem as if this were Camilla's first experience of war; so that we must either suppose Virg. to be inconsistent with himself, or understand ‘proelia’ of encounters with wild beasts, which is scarcely natural.
[807] “Libeat dum proelia Turno Nostra pati” 12. 570. ‘Cursuque’ &c., a sufficiently common image: see 5. 319 &c.
[808] The thought may have been suggested by πυροφόρους ἀρούρας in Apoll. R. cited on v. 805: but the four lines are imitated from Il. 20. 226 foll., of the horses of Erichthonius, where the wonder is spoken of as a fact, not as a possibility. Gossrau notices a characteristic exaggeration by Stat. Theb. 6. 561, where a runner is said to be able “emissum cursu deprendere telum.” ‘Intactae’ does not mean untouched by her feet, so that there is no occasion for Wakef.'s otherwise questionable conj. ‘infractae,’ but untouched by the sickle, standing corn. Comp. its application to unfelled woods and untrodden glades G. 3. 41. So Ov. M. 10. 654, “Posse putes illos sicco freta radere passu Et segetis canae stantis percurrere aristas,” comp. by Heyne. Some early critics, mentioned by Pier. and others, seem to have rejected the four lines on aesthetical grounds. In G. 3. 195 Virg. expresses himself somewhat less hyperbolically. ‘Volaret’ is potential, πέτοιτο ἄν.
[809] Gramina of corn, like “herba,” here however denoting not the blade but the full grown ear. Comp. its use of plants, 12. 415 &c. ‘Cursu’ may be either instr. or modal. ‘Laesisset’ is wrongly understood by Wagn. as i. q. “laesura esset,” a notion to which such passages as 2. 94 lend no colour. Virg. has chosen the pluperf. here for variety's sake, regarding the crushing of the ears as having taken place while the action indicated by ‘volaret’ was still going on; as we might say “she might fly over standing corn and not leave the ears crushed behind her.”
[810] Suspensa kept from touching the ground, as in the phrase “suspenso gradu:” see E. 2. 66. “Equi Pelopis illi Neptunii, qui per undas cursus suspensos rapuisse dicuntur” Cic. Tusc. 2. 27.
[811] Ferret iter, a mixture of “ferret se” and “tenderet iter.” The image ‘celeris—plantas’ is from Apoll. R. 1. 183, “οὐδὲ θοοὺς βάπτεν πόδας, ἀλλ᾽ ὅσον ἄκροις Ἴχνεσι τεγγόμενος”, which is a little less bold. ‘Plantas’ as elsewhere, the soles of the feet.
[812] Perhaps from Od. 2. 13, τὸν δ᾽ ἄρα πάντες λαοὶ ἐπερχόμενον θηεῦντο. Virg. may also have thought of Il. 15. 682.
[813] Prospectat, follow her with their eyes, perhaps with a notion of stretching forward to look.
[814] Pal. and Gud. have ‘attonitis haesere animis,’ from 5. 529, the latter with ‘inhians’ as a variant. The following lines, though grammatically dependent on ‘prospectat’ or ‘inhians,’ may be said to represent the talk of the people to each other: comp. 2. 121, 652. ‘Ostro’ with ‘velet.’ ‘Royal honour clothes her shoulders with purple’ is equivalent to saying that the honour of royal purple clothes her shoulders. “Purpura regum” G. 2. 495. A scarf (“chlamys”) is here meant.
[815] Honos is used in connexion with a purple robe 11. 76, of funeral decoration. ‘Levis humeros’ like “levia pectora” above v. 349. ‘Fibula,’ probably not the “acus discriminalis,” but an actual clasp, like the Athenian τέττιξ.
[816] Auro like ‘ostro,’ the clasp being of gold. Comp. 4. 138. For Lycian bows and arrows comp. 8. 166 &c. ‘Ipsa,’ distinguished from her shoulders and her hair: comp. G. 2. 297., 4. 274. The object of attraction is not the way in which she carries the quiver and the javelin, but the quiver and the javelin themselves.
[817] It is not clear whether a pike of myrtle-wood was a pastoral weapon, or whether the meaning is that the pastoral staff (E. 8. 16 note) was pointed with iron for the occasion, to make it available for war. Stat. Theb. 4. 300 (quoted by Forb.), “hi Paphias myrtos a stirpe recurvant Et pastorali meditantur proelia trunco,” leaves the question open. Camilla has been trained to the use of javelins, 11. 574. For the use of myrtle for spear-shafts see G. 2. 447, and comp. above 3. 23. Elsewhere ‘praefixus’ is used of the shaft to which the head is attached, 5. 557., 10. 479., 12. 489.
