[704] The introduction of Apollo as a combatant is in the Homeric spirit, and perhaps actually suggested, as Heyne thinks, by Il. 16. 700 foll., where however Apollo has no weapon but a shield. Propertius in his poem on the battle of Actium (El. 5. 6) makes Apollo the priucipal figure, which is itself a compliment to Augustus, who wished to be considered the som of the god. It is needless to say that such a deux ex machina is much more in place in a quasi-symbolical picture than in a narrative poem: still, we may question the propriety of making Apollo at once decide a battle where the other Olympian deities were already engaged on the side of Rome.
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John Conington. P. Vergili Maronis opera. P. Vergili Maronis Opera. The works of. Virgil. , with a Commentary by John Conington, M.A. and Henry Nettleship, M.A. London. Whittaker and Co., Ave Maria Lane;. George Bell and Sons, York Street, Covent Garden. 1876.
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