Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 3.djvu/358

832 Prose, and almost equal'd the Beauty of Virgil's Verse.

Æneid the 3d. Verse 132.And Childrens Children shall the Crown sustain.

Virgil Translated this Verse from Homer: Homer had it from Orpheus; and Orpheus from an Ancient Oracle of Apollo. On this Account it is, that Virgil immediately Subjoins these Words, Haec Phoebus, &c. Eustathius takes notice, that the Old Poets were wont to take whole Paragraphs from one another, which justifies our Poet for what he borrows from Homer. Bochartus in his Letter to Segrais, mentions an Oracle which he found in the fragments of an Old Greek Historian: The Sense whereof is this in English; that when the Empire of the Priamidae should be destroy'd, the Line of Anchises should succeed. Venus therefore, says the Historian, was desirous to have a Son by Anchises, tho' he was then in his decrepid Age: Accordingly she had Aeneas. After this she sought occasion to ruin the Race of Priam; and set on foot the Intrigue of Alexander, (or Paris) with Helena: She being ravish'd, Venus pretended still to favour the Trojans; lest they should restore Helen, in case they should be reduc'd to the last Necessity. Whence it appears, that the Controversie betwixt Juno and Venus, was on no trivial account; but concern'd the Succession to a great Empire.