Page:The Aeneid of Virgil JOHN CONINGTON 1917 V2.pdf/373

 BOOK V

Æneas sees the flames of Dido's pyre and guesses their meaning. In Sicily, he institutes funeral games to Anchises. Compare funeral games of Patroclus in 23d book of Iliad. The contest of the ships and the equestrian exhibition are wholly original, however. The burning of the fleet was part of an old Trojan legend.

99:8. Acheron's prison. The underworld.

99:14. Phaethon. The sun-god.

99:23. Talent. A weight, not coin, of silver or gold. The Attic silver talent was worth over $1000.

103:2. Feel that they are thought strong. The translation here is poor, the correct rendering being, "They can, because they think they can." Virgil's is a classical expression of the power of belief.

103:12. Portunus, a god of harbors, is here associated with the other divinities of the deep.

103:24. The royal boy. Ganymede, a favorite subject of art.

106:38. Amycus. A famous boxer of Bebrycii killed by Pollux.

107:35. Eryx. A Sicilian king, son of Venus; was killed by Hercules in a boxing contest.

113:8. Labyrinth in Crete. The Labyrinth, a maze built by Dædalus for King Minos at Gnossus in Crete to contain the Minotaur.

113:25. Solemn. Sacred festival, required each year.

117:20. Dis. Ruler of the underworld, variously called Orcus, Acheron, Erebus, Avernus. Dis, or Pluto, brother of Jupiter, is called Jupiter Stygius.