[273]
“Vestibulum ante ipsum primoque
in limine” 2. 469, where see note on the
meaning of ‘vestibulum.’ ‘Primis faucibus’
is distinguished from ‘vestibulum’
by Gell. 16. 5, who reports Sulpicius Apollinaris
as explaining it as “iter angustum,
per quod ad vestibulum adiretur;” but it
would seem more simple to understand
the two expressions as poetically equivalent.
Comp. G. 4. 467, “Taenarias fauces,
alta ostia Ditis.” Orcus, the god of the
dead, is here as elsewhere used for the
place, like Ἅιδης. Donatus remarks of
the assemblage of personified evils that
follows, “In hoc erant omnia quae cruciant
vivos aut defunctos affligunt.” Germ. refers
very happily to a bold personification
in Lucr. 3.65 foll., which not improbably
suggested this mythological picture to
Virg., and at any rate furnishes an admirable
comment on it:
“Turpis enim ferme contemptus, et acris
egestas
Semota ab dulci vita stabilique videntur,
Et quasi iam leti portas cunctarier
ante.
”
This text is part of:
John Conington. P. Vergili Maronis opera. P. Vergili Maronis Opera. The works of Virgil, with a Commentary by John Conington, M.A. Late Corpus Professor of Latin in the University of Oxford. London. Whittaker and Co., Ave Maria Lane. 1876.
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