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tions between lopas' song and the traditions of didactic poetry'. But his inter-pretation remains unsatisfactory because (i) it does not account for the fact that

sun and moon form only a small part of the song and (2) it presupposes a know-ledge of remote peoples which Virgil could not expect many of his readers tohave. Nor can we take very seriously L6on HERRMANN'S uggestion that crini-tus lopas is to be identified with Maecenas, despite his disarming assurance:*Apres tout, la chose n'a rien que de naturel .

The meaning of this little vignette should surely be sought in terms of thepoem itself, its main themes, its language, and its immediate models, rather thanexternal data. In this respect the view of Viktor POSCHL s somewhat moresatisfactory3. PbSCHL suggests that the song is to be taken as a reflection of themood of love growing in Dido's heart. In that case the long nights of winterof which Iopas sings (745-6) blend with this long night of awakening passionin which Dido's daylight scruples begin to be overcome by a stronger force: etvario noctem sermone rahebat I inlelix Dido (748-9). POSCHL egards the 'toils'(labores) of the sun and the wandering moon as symbolically reflecting the des-tinies of the king and queen, an interpretation which he thinks is supported byother associations between Dido and the moon or the moon-goddess, Diana (seeI, 498-502, 6, 453-5). This view, though rejected by KRANZ4, has been re-

cently accepted by Kenneth QUINN5.POSCHL'S nterpretation, however, focuses the meaning of the passage too

narrowly upon Dido. The character portrayal of Dido is well enough handledin the main body of the narrative; and an elaborate cosmological song-evengranted that we associate Dido with the moon-does not seem to further itmuch. The literary genre to which the song belongs, its relation to the song ofOrpheus n the Argonautica, and the entire context of the song in the first bookof the Aeneid all need further consideration. We should not arbitrarily limit thesignificance of the song to the description of a single character. We must alsoretain the possibility that the episode fulfils several different, but interlockingpurposes.

II.

The surface functions of the song are clear enough. It recalls the atmosphereof the heroic age and specifically the banquet of Alcinous in the eighth book ofthe Odyssey. At such an occasion a bard was de rigueur. Obviously a complexrisque song like that of Demodocus would have been both out of proportion and

1 Ibid. 35.2 Leon HERRMANN, Crinitus Iopas (Virgile, Eneide, I, 740), Latomus 26, I967, 474-6.

The quotation is from p. 476.3 Viktor POSCHL, The Art of Vergil, trans. Gerda SELIGSON, Ann Arbor I962, I51-4.4 KRANZ (above, n. I) 34-5.5 Kenneth QUINN, Virgil's Aeneid. A Critical Description, London I968, io8.

Hermes 99,3 22


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out of place. Servius' charming explanation deserves to be quoted in this connec-tion (ad I, 742): bene philosophica ntroducitur antilena n convivio reginae adhuccastae; contra inter nymphas (ubi solae feminae erant) ait W ulcani Martisquedolos et dulcia /ata(( G. 4, 346) 1. The parallel to the Odyssey, however, is appro-priate for this 'Odyssean' section of the Aeneid, and the connection with Odys-sey 8 is especially to the point, for Aeneas will begin his version of the Apologoiin the next book-a tale not so much of fabulous myth as of history and suffer-ing2.

Yet a brief heroic or mythical tale (albeit more sober than that of Ares andAphrodite) would have served Virgil's purpose as well as this bit of natural his-tory. The song of lopas has a special formalistic function. It recalls other literarygenres, primarily of course the didactic verse of the Georgics, from which Virgilactually quotes 3. He thus reminds us of the learned and inclusive nature of hiskind of epic poetry4. He looks back to Hellenistic as well as early epic forms, toHesiod, Aratus, and Apollonius as well as to Homer. He also refers to the nativepoetic traditions of Rome, for the lines surely recall Lucretius' great work, towhich in fact Virgil pays his famous tribute in the passage of the Georgics uponwhich the song of Iopas is based (G. 2, 475-92).

The seriousness of Iopas' matter also reflects upon the seriousness of Virgil'stale and the lofty dignity of his heroes. Tyrian luxury may vaguely echo Phaea-cian soft living (cf. Odyssey 8, 246-9); but Dido and her subjects, with theirvividly remembered past sufferings, are no frivolous Phaeacians (cf. i, 628-30,especially non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco). Hence their bard's themeis lofty: he sings, as HEINZE remarks, ))von den Wundern des Weltalls und deutetihre Ratsel: fur Virgil und seine Zeitgenossen der erhabenste Stoff des Liedes((

To recognize these points, however, is still not to exhaust the significanceof the passage. Through lopas' song Virgil also gives us a sudden glimpse of alarge, impersonal frame. This frame is important, for it helps us to recognize

1 KRANZ (above, p. 337 n. I) 3I is too hasty in rejecting Servius' approach.2 For the parallels between the second half of Aen. I and Od. 6-8 see G. N. KNAUER,

Die Aeneis und Homer = Hypomnemata 7, Gottingen I964, 152-65; Friedrich KLING-NER, Virgil, Bucolica, Georgica, Aeneis, Zurich and Stuttgart I967, 408-9.

3 Cf. G. I, 138, G. 2, 478-82. One thinks also of the song of Silenus (E. 6, 3-8), thoughthe verbal parallels are not close.

4 Virgil's letter to Augustus (Macrob. Sat. I, 24, II) will serve to indicate how large atask the poet felt he was undertaking: De Aenea quidem meo, si mehercule iam dignumauribus haberem tuis, libenter mitterem, sed tanta incohata res est, ut paene vitio mentis tan-tum opus ingyessus mihi videar, cum praesertim, ut scis, alia quoque studia ad id opus mul-toque potiora impertiar. See also QUINN (above, p. 337 n. 6) 24-5.

5 Richard HEINZE, Virgils epische Technik3, Leipzig and Berlin I915, 488. KRANZ(above, p. 337 n. I) 38, with an eye to G. 2, 475 ff., suggests that for Virgil too such didacticpoetry on nature is >die ... h6chste Form des poetischen Schaffens.e Yet one must exercisea certain caution in taking such statements as that of G. 2, 475 ff. at face value. Virgil didgo on to an epic, not to another version of the De Rerum Natura.


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in the present action not merely the loves of a wandering exile and a widowedqueen, but the destiny of empires. We have already heard a great deal about

the fata of Rome and have had hints of the future course of Rome's relationswith Carthage.

Dido first appears to Aeneas under two aspects. On the one hand she is abeautiful woman (pulcherrima Dido, 496) who for a moment (but not longer)recalls the attractive and available Nausicaa of Odyssey 61. On the other handshe is the founder of a state who gives laws and directs complex operations, likeAugustus at the end of the fourth Georgic (Aen. I, 507-8; cf. G. 4, 562). Thissupra-personal aspect of their meeting is maintained in Dido's first speech toAeneas (i, 6I5 ff.). She relates a remote encounter between her father, Belus, andTeucer. The scene, like the conversation between Glaucus and Diomedes in thesixth Iliad which it suggests, has something of the glow of a glorious past. Didoand Aeneas here meet in terms of the old world: adventurous ancestors, the re-mote places of the East, the formalities of an heroic age. The song of Iopascontinues that sense of a larger frame and a larger significance to their individualpassion. The bard himself, with his long hair and 'gilded lyre', evokes the heroicpast and the values of the heroic world; and his song opens up the large panoramaof the stars, the sky, the origin of life.

III.

Jopas' song is obviously modelled in part upon the song of Orpheus in thefirst book of the Argonautica (I, 496-5I5). Orpheus' song is longer and has awider scope; but it too deals with the stars, sun, and moon (500), and it too isconcerned with origins (cf. Virgil's unde hominum genus . . . unde imber et ignes,743). Yet there are some striking discrepancies between the settings of the twosongs which illuminate Virgil's scene, and we may reasonably expect that Virgilexpected us to observe the differences.

We have already noted the heroic atmosphere in the meeting between Didoand Aeneas. This atmosphere, however, only serves as a foil for the unheroic,inactive role into which Aeneas is being drawn. Dido's banquet, with Venus inthe background, introduces the great delaying movement in Aeneas' fulfilmentof his mission. The song from which the Jopas-episode is derived, on the otherhand, comes amid the clash of spirited warriors bent on heroic deeds. No women(as yet) delay this band of restless, impatient adventurers. The mood of violentenergies and urgent activity stands out sharply against the soft impedimentsabout to entangle Aeneas.

1 With Aen. I, 494-508 cf. Od. 6, 102-8; with Aen. I, so8f. cf. Od. 6, I4g9 f. On theparallels with Nausicaa see POSCHL (above, p. 337 n. 4) 62 ff.; Brooks OTIS, Virgil, A Studyin Civilized Poetry, Oxford I963, 235; KLINGNER (above, p. 338 n. 2) 408. KNAUER(above, p. 338 n. 2) I55 with note 3 is more cautious.

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There is a second contrast with Apollonius' scene. Orpheus' song calms dis-turbing passions and averts the threat of a brawl. Its effect is the wrapt absorp-tion of the heroes in the magical charm of the music (5I2-I5):

', XOl O p?ev yopptLyya 6UMipv&3poGa axeovv MU,

TO &'04poV XiOCVT0q ?'l 7rPOUXOMTV' op7nVo,

7roVT?4 6Lcq OpOOalV b7 OUXaLV 'p[LeoVte4

But what follows Iopas' song is an intensification of the agitation and the pas-sion which are the work of Venus and Amor (748-9):

nec non et vario noctem sermone rahebatin/elix Dido longumque bibebat amorem.

The metaphorical 'drinking in' of the long draughts of love answers the realdrinking of the banqueters (736-9). This drinking, with its movement fromfestive joy (cf. laetum, 732 and laetitiae Bacchus dator, 734) to ominous fore-shadowing (infelix) thus enframes the song of Iopas. In the setting of Orpheus'song drinking also plays a prominent part (Ap. Rhod. I, 472-8), and Virgil mayhave borrowed some details from this scene (cf. Ap. Rhod. I, 472-4 and Aen. I,737-9). But the drinking in Apollonius is soon forgotten in the beauty of thesong, whereas the drinking n Virgil blends with that fatal draught of love (749)1.

IV.

The dress of Iopas points to another motif which this episode furthers. Hehas long hair and a gilded lyre: cithara crinitus Iopas / personat aurata (739-40).The hair may be simply a sign of affinity with Apollo, as commentators suggest 2.But the golden lyre is a reminder of the luxurious accoutrements of the entirebanquet. Dido reclines on a golden couch; that of her guests is covered with

purple (698-700). The ceiling is panelled with gold (726). ) Heavy with gold andjewels< is the cup from which the queen pledges her guests (728 and 739; cf.640-I). We are thus further enveloped in the atmosphere of dangerous orientalluxury with which the scene began (I, 637-42, at domus nterior regali splendidaluxu/instruitur, etc.) 3.

1 Thus the libations of 736ff. are poured to gods hostile to Dido (73I-4): see F. J.WORSTBROCK, Elemente einer Poetik der Aeneis = Orbis Antiquus 2I, Muinster i963, 86.Karl BtCHNER, P. Vergilius Maro, RE VIII A 2, 1958, I347, also calls attention to the sin-ister implications of the scene: ))Beim Festglanz mag wohl der Trinkspruch Didos auf Iunonoch an Dinge erinnern (734), die unter dem festlichen Einverstandnis schlummern ... e Seealso KLINGNER (above, p. 338 n. 2) 408.

2 John CONINGTON, P. Vergili Maronis Opera II, London I876, ad loc.3 Note also the golden trappings of Dido as she takes her place in the fateful hunt, 4,

138-9.


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More revealing for this aspect of the lopas passage is the taunt levelledagainst the Trojans in book 9 by Numanus, a young kinsman of Turnus. Hischarge includes excessive pleasure in dance and music (9, 6I4-20):

vobis picta croco et fulgenti murice vestis,desidiae cordi, iuvat indulgere choreis,et tunicae manicas et habent redimicula mitrae.o vere Phrygiae, neque enim Phryges, ite per altaDindyma, ubi adsuetis biforem dat tibia cantum.tympana vos buxusque vocat Berecyntia MatrisIdaeae, sinite arma viris et cedite ferro.

No less a personage than Ascanius avenges the insult, and the event marks hisfirst victory in battle. Here in Iopas' song with its attendant luxury and itsunRoman speculativeness in Greek science, love of music is attributed to Rome'sgreatest foe. P6SCHL observes that this is the only time that music is actuallyperformed in the Aeneid. We may add that Virgil carefully makes the Cartha-ginians rather more enthusiastic in their response than their Trojan guests, thefuture Romans (I, 747):

ingeminant plausu Tyrii, Troesque equuntur.

Numanus' charge in book 9 is allowed no factual basis in our view of the Trojans.

V.

Luxury and Dido's love are virtually inseparable, and Jopas' song also con-tributes to this fusion of the two sources of temptation. He concludes withsinging (745-6):

quid tantum Oceano properent se tingere solesHiberni, vel quae tardis mora noctibus obstet.

P6SCHL notes the connection between this description and the actual nightof love, the 'unforgettable night' which Dido >wants to repeat again andagaim 1. This night is symbolically associated with Dido's passion which unfoldsagainst nocturnal or darkened settings 2. POSCHL uggests 'a propos of 745-6,>Thewinter sun's longing for the ocean and the endless nights symbolize Dido'sfeelings, particularly the secret awakening of her desire< .

1 P6SCHL (above, p. 337 n. 4) 153. Servius took 746 as referring to summer nights (id est

aestivis, tarde venientibus). But this interpretation strains the sense of tardis, and also wouldlead us to expect aut instead of vel. The matter seems to be settled in favor of winter nights

by Lucret. 5, 699, adduced by CONINGTON ad G. 2, 482.2 E.g. 4, 8o. I23. 302-3. 522 ff. On the symbolism of light and darkness here see in gen-

eral OTIS (above, p. 339 n. 2) 77-86, especially 84-6. 235-6. 240-I.3 POSCHL (above, p. 337 n. 4) I54. See also OTIS (above, p. 339 n. 2) 240, who speaks of

the fire and torches of I, 726-7 as * a deliberate adaptation of outer d6cor to inner mood..


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The Song of Iopas in the Aeneid 343

There is, however, an even more specific association between the languageof Iopas' song and Dido's tragic love. The long winter nights which he describesforeshadow the long winter of idleness and luxury which Aeneas spends withDido (4, I93-4):

nunc hiemem nter se luxu, quam longa, fovereregnorum mmemores urpique cupidine captos.

The word luxus in 4, I93, we may recall, is also the term which Virgil uses inhis initial description of Dido's palace in I: regali splendida luxu (637). Thedisastrous consequences of this turrpis upido thus point back to the joyous,sensual setting of its beginnings.

The words in the last line of lopas' song-

hiberni, tardis, mora, and obstet(746) - all suggest the actual delays of book IV and thus subtly reinforce oneof the chief themes of this part of the narrative. Earlier in book I Venus hasguarded Aeneas against delay, mora (I, 4I4). Later, in her appeal for help toAmor, she points out that Dido is )>holding nd delaying [Aeneas] with sweetwords (blandisque moratur vocibus, 670-I). 'Delay' and 'winter' come togetherin Anna's advice to Dido early in IV: causas ... innecte morandi / dum pelagodesaevit hiems et aquosus Orion (4, 5I-2). In his warning which sets into motionAeneas' departure from Carthage Jupiter complains that Aeneas *is delaying

(moratur) among a hostile people's (4, 235). Soon after, in a simile, the bees,compared to Aeneas' men as they prepare the ships for flight, 'reprove delays'(castigant moras 4, 407). Finally, in the night before he sets sail, Aeneas has avision of a god who commands, >Burst your delaysdestiny blocks the way(( (fata obstant, 4, 440), and the fatal out-

come of the doomed love looms more irrevocable (cf. 450-I).

VI.

One final point remains to be made about the content of Jopas' song. As asong about the natural world, it forms part of the book's movement from outer


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to inner world, from the stormy, exposed sea and the strange coasts of a newland to the well-appointed palace enclosed within a city's rising walls. Yet thesafety implied in this movement is specious. These rich, sheltered halls hold asgreat a danger to Aeneas' mission as the wild seas which wrecked his ships.

Iopas sings of the order of nature, the movement of the stars and the sunand moon. Earlier we have seen this order disturbed by Juno and then restoredby Neptune and confirmed by Jupiter. The order of the natural world in book Iis an analogue to and a symbol of the social and psychological order, as the cele-brated simile which describes Neptune's calming of the waves makes clear (i,I48-56)1. Now, however, Iopas' song evokes that order of nature in a settingwhich constitutes a dangerous threat to the political order, the fata of Rome,behind which lies the authority of Jupiter, orderer of the celestial and theearthly realms. Thus the content of the song stands in an ironic tension withits setting. Here the two sides are still held together, albeit in a taut and pre-carious balance. But the later books, and specifically the full thrust of Dido'spassion in IV, will shatter the equilibrium and bring the opposing forces outinto direct, violent confrontation.

And yet the order which Jopas knows is not quite the order which Jupiterembodies. He has been taught by great Atlas (docuit quem maximus Atlas, 74I);and Atlas is a Titan, a conquered opponent of the Olympian and Jovian order.It may well be, as interpreters have suggested, that Atlas is lopas' teacher,partly because of his associations with the African mountains of that name and,more important, because he )>seems lso to have been a sort of mythical repre-sentative or progenitor of physical philosophers(( . Yet the passage in the Odysseywhich provides the earliest evidence for Atlas' knowledge of the natural world(Od. I, 52-3, o T?s OocX?kavrrc, a6rq POzM o 8ev) gives him the sinister epi-thet 6ko6cppcv, evil-minded'. In Hesiod's Theogony (5I7 -20) the story ofAtlas comes between the violent (U43pLar-) Menoitios (5I4), whom Zeus has

sent down to Erebos striking him with a smoking thunderbolt((, and Prometheus,who is constrained in his 'painful bonds' (52Iff .). Atlas himself holds up the broadheavens )under strong necessity( (xpaT?epuq V:7' &v&y 1r, 517). The song of Or-pheus in the Argonautica after which our passage is modelled, moreover, in-cludes an account of the full violence of the struggle between Olympian godsand the Titans, who were hurled down into the Ocean only )>by orce and strengthof hand(( P[n xoc' xspEPv, , 505). Later in book IV Virgil describes Atlas twice(246ff., 48I-2), once at length. His picture suggests not a poet who commands

1 On the storm and its cosmic symbolism see OTIS (above, p. 339 n. 2) 220ff., 229ff.;POSCHL (above, p. 337 nf. 4) 19ff., 24ff.

2 CONINGTON (above, p. 340 n. 2) ad loc. Cf. Diog. Laert. I, I; HEYNE ad 740; KRANZ(above, p. 337 n. I) 35-6. The reading quae in 74I favored by Servius indicates that inter-preters early felt uneasy with the passage, but this reading still does not solve the problem ofthe relation between Iopas and Atlas.


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the lore of nature or some philosophic wisdom, but a harsh outlaw (durus isVirgil's epithet) who must endure punishment and exile in a bleak, wild setting

(4, 246-5I):... iamque volans apicem et latera ardua cernitAtlantis duni caelum qui vertice ulcit,Atlantis, cinctum adsidue cui nubibus atrispiniferum caput et vento pulsatur et imbri,nix umeros infusa tegit, tum flumina mentopraecipitant senis, et glacie riget horrida barba.

More important than Atlas is the image of nature which Jopas presents. In

his song the order of the heavens appears as strangely clouded. The celestialmovements which he describes bear the taint of erratic movement and effort:hic canit errantem unam solisque labores (742). The strained quality of the lan-guage in this line has bothered many interpreters 1. Whatever the exact pheno-mena are, Virgil has chosen to emphasize the irregularities and the blemishes innature rather than its orderliness and harmony.

A further point supports this interpretation of the passage. Georgics 2, 477to 482 upon which Virgil is drawing and which he quotes in the last two linesof the song (Aen. I, 745-6 = G. 2, 48I-2) describe the violent and disruptive

phenomena of nature: eclipses of the sun and moon, earthquakes, floods or tidalwaves:

. . . accipiant caelique vias et sidera monstrent,defectus solis varios lunaeque aboyes;unde tremor erris, qua vi maria alta tumescantobicibus Yuptis rursusque n se ipsa residant,quid tantum Oceano properent se tingere soleshiberni, vel quae tardis mora noctibus obstet.

We may perhaps be justified in following P6SCHL and QUINN n the nextstep, i.e. associating these errores and labores with those of Dido and Aeneas.Yet this step is not really necessary. Even taken literally, Iopas' words give usan image of nature bedimmed by suffering and change 2.

It is commonplace to observe that the natural setting in Virgil often has asymbolical or an atmospheric significance which bears subtly, but heavily uponthe narrative itself, commenting upon it or setting it into larger perspective3.This beclouding of the celestial order in Iopas' song, I suggest, has such a sig-nificance.

1 E.g. CONINGTON (above, p. 340 n. 2) ad loc.; KRANZ (above, p. 337 n. I) 33.2 BtCHNER (above, p. 340 n. I) 1347 thus perhaps speaks too easily of 'das feste Welt-

gesetz' in Iopas' song.3 E.g. HEINZE (above, p. 339 n. I) 396-8; OTIS (above, p. 339 n. 2) chap. 3 and passim;

POSCHL (above, p. 337 n. 4) 154-6 and passim.


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unfolds, the moon seems a baleful, malevolent power as it allows the Greek fleetto slip undetected through its 'friendly silences' (2, 254-5):

et iam Argiva Phalanx instructis navibus ibata Tenedo tacitae per amica silentia lunae... 1

In the most wrenching episode of Troy's fall the heavens seem as cold, distant,and strange as the gods themselves at that moment. When the inner sanctumof Priam's palace, the political and spiritual heart of the city, lies exposed toNeoptolemus' violence, the cries of the terrified women ))strike he golden stars(((Ierit aurea sidera clamor, , 488) 2. The altar which will be desecrated with Priam'smurder stands >>underhe aether's naked axle>worships he sacred star(( sanctum sidus adorat, 2, 700).

1 Cf. 2, 735, male numen amicum; also 755, simul ipsa silentia terrent.2 A urea sidera recur at the death of Camilla, I I, 832-3. R. G. AUSTIN, P. Vergili Maronis

Aeneidos Liber Secundus, Oxford I964, ad loc. (p. I9I) comments, )>The pithet is not otiose,

for it marks the contrast between the patines of bright gold in the serene heaven and thehorror upon earth . .< That interpreters have been too little aware of this side of the Aeneidis well illustrated by Servius' comment, multi ad laqueayia referunt, which he rightly pointsout is stultum, and by CONINGTON'S remark (above, p. 340 n. 2) ad loc., >It must be admittedperhaps that the epithet . . . comes in poorly here.


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Finally, at the very end of the book, the dawn-star rises and leads in thenew day (2, 80I-2):

iamque iugis summae surgebat Lucifer Idaeducebatque iem.

Yet this morning light also confirms the reality of the night before (2, 802-3):

Danaique obsessa tenebantlimina portarurn, nec spes opis ulla dabatur.

This juxtaposition of the new day and the bleak truth of exile reflects back onthe mystery and complexity of the divine will (cf. 2, 777-8, non haec sine nu-

mine divum / eveniunt) and the human condition throughout the book. LikeAeneas who is made to see the after-effects of the sack (pueri et pavidae longoordine matres, 2, 766), we too drink in to the full the agony and horror of thedestruction of the old order, even as we are offered faint glimmers of the neworder and of the energies which will create it: cessi et sublato montis genitore pe-tivi (2, 804).

Conclusion

The song of lopas is an example of Virgil's complex, integrative art in itsrichest form. Virgil skillfully plays echoes of Homer and Apollonius off againstone another, combining the contexts of the Odyssey and the Argonautica pas-sages into a totally new setting. He uses the framework of the heroic age not onlyto reinforce the stately magnificence of the banquet, but also to contrast withthe special, unheroic dangers which Dido poses to Aeneas. Through the subject-matter of lopas' song he enlarges to cosmic proportions the imagery of fire anddarkness which pervades the closing section of book I. Literal detail, metaphor,and symbol fuse into a complex, suggestive construct which, as OTIS and POSCHLhave emphasized, is radically different from anything in the ancient epic tradi-tion.

One effect of this suggestive fusion is particularly important, namely theblending of the present night, lopas' song of winter nights, and the long, night-like winter of Aeneas' dalliance. Present and future, individual and cosmic des-tinies are thus telescoped into a single moment of poetic vision. Yet this poet'svision, as we have seen, is not necessarily pure and clear.

Simultaneously intensifying the present moment and suggesting a removedperspective, the song of lopas may well reflect Virgil's self-awareness of the poet'stask and the irresolvable dualism of the poet's position in the world of experience.The poet stands in the midst of human passions; yet he seeks to bring the limitedhuman events into contact with universal processes and to illuminate eachthrough the other. Though bound to the concrete, sensuous moment, he has in-timations of the broader order and the broader mysteries (unde hominum genus,


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I, 743) in which our existence is set. Even a singer caught in this passion-cloudedand darkened hall seeks a larger and purer understanding of the forces abouthim, although he is not able to penetrate far beyond the flaws of the beautifuland mysterious phenomena which elicit his art. If such an interpretation soundstoo Platonic', let us remember Virgil's great debt to Plato and Platonism inthe sixth book and his wish to devote the last years of his life to the study ofphilosophy.

The poet too may, like lopas, draw upon the Titanic side of experience. Hemay be as much a searcher of the unknown and mysterious (cf. 745-6) as anexpounder of known truths.

Yet the song of Iopas does, after all, remind us of a larger order, the orderover which Jupiter ultimately presides. The immediately ensuing narrative,from which Aeneas shrinks back in horror (2, I2) - he is no removed professionalsinger like Iopas who can treat his subject with unemotional neutrality2- dark-ens that order, until for a moment it flashes clear again in the 'holy fire' and theguiding star at the end of II. Here at the end of book I, however, the clarity ofthat order is still obscured and distorted by the clouds of rising passion reflectedin the enveloping atmosphere: the gold, the wine, the torches, Venus and the'burning face' (I, 7IO) of Amor. But this enframing order, however dimly Iopasevokes it, provides a measure against which we may read its momentary betrayalby the two destiny-burdened and thereby tragic lovers.

Brown University Providence, R. I. CHARLES EGAL

1 E.g. Phaedo IO9 B-iio B. Cf. Venus' power to lift from Aeneas' eyes the mists whichblind him to reality in 2, 604-23.

2 One might again compare Homer's Odysseus. Though he tells his tale as skillfully asa bard (Od. II, 368), Odysseus stands apart from the Phaeacian audience and singer in hisrelation to the material of the song and his own tale: cf. Od. 8, 72-95, 8, 52I-43, II, 374to 376, and generally C. P. SEGAL, The Phaeacians and the

Symbolism of Odysseus' Return,Arion I, 4, I962, 27-30.


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The Song of Iopas in the AeneidAuthor(s): Charles SegalReviewed work(s):Source: Hermes, 99. Bd., H. 3 (1971), pp. 336-349Published by: Franz Steiner VerlagStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4475696 .Accessed: 15/01/2013 08:15

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