Aeneid 1.55-56: The Winds

Illi indignantes magno cum murmure montis/circum claustra fremunt
"They (the winds) angrily roar around the bolts with the great murmur of a mountain."

In lines 1-7, Vergil, without mentioning Aeneas by name, introduced us to the theme of the hero in exile, punished on land and sea by an enraged goddess. He then invoked the Muse to help him understand the reasons for Juno's anger, and in the process praised the 'pietas' (1.10) of the still unamed hero. Lines 12-33 provided us with the reasons for her anger, with much of the focus on the city of Carthage, which looms larger over Roman history as well as Vergil's Aeneid.

At line 34-35, Vergil finally directs our attention to the Trojans, but still without mention of Aeneas by name. There we learn they are sailing happily and energetically away from Sicily, and that they have just barely passed beyond the visual field of Sicily.

Vix e conspectu Siculae telluris in altum/vela dabant laeti et spumas salis aere ruebant.

But before hearing anything else about the Trojans, we are taken back up to Juno and her anger, as we observe her speaking to herself about the insults she has suffered, and traveling to Aeolia, where she seeks out Aeolus and the winds under his control. Vergil, before describing the conversation between Juno and Aeolus, describes the winds in this way:

Illi indignantes magno cum murmure montis/circum claustra fremunt

The winds are bolted within the cavern, they are resentful, and they are roaring and rumbling in their eagerness to break free from Aeolus' control. The power of the winds that will soon attack the Trojans, who are happy and just beyond sight of Sicily, is more than the destructive power to which all sailors are vulnerable. These winds are caught up in a complex political, even sexual, dynamic involving gods, lesser deities, humans, and the natural world. The winds are personified, but naturalized as well. They are resentful (like people) but rumble and roar (like winds). They are in a natural space (a cavern) but bolted in, like prisoners. When they do attack the Trojans, their power will be natural, supernatural, and symbolic of the historical, military, religious, philosophic, and sexual forces which Aeneas must negotiate throughout the entire poem.

This sentence provides us with a great example of Vergil's poetic style. 'montis' meaning 'mountain' refers both to the physical location of the cavern and, metaphorically, to the size of their rumbling. Grammatically, it is in the genitive case (translate: 'of a/the mountain) and if you had to come up with a nice, literal translation, you would translate it after 'claustra' in the next line (around the bolts of the mountain). But given its proximity to 'murmure,' its position at the end of the line, and the alliterative connection to the previous prepostional phrase (note the repeated 'm' sounds in 'magno cum murmure montis'), it is hard not to take it also with 'murmure' and translate it 'with a great, mountainous murmur' - in other words it is used metaphorically to describe the size of their rumbling.

Finally, notice how this line demonstrates that Vergil's Latin, in spite of its distance in time and space from us, is so closely linked to English: indignantes (indignant), magno (magnify etc.), cum (= con, cf. convene, etc.) murmure (murmur), montis (Montana, etc) circum (circumnavigate, etc.), claustra (claustrophobia, closet, close), and fremunt (which is related to the Greek word from which brontosaurus derives).

Aeneid 1.36: aeternum servans sub pectore vulnus

"[Juno], preserving an eternal wound beneath her chest..."


The story begins: Aeneas and the survivors of the Trojan War are sailing to Italy. They leave Sicily in good spirits (laeti, l. 35), when Juno, whose reasons for being angry at the Trojans were catalogued in the previous lines, looks down from above, reflects upon the injustice of the Trojans' progress and how this is an insult to her position and divine power, and sets in motion events that lead to the Trojans shipwreck and arrival in Carthage. The line above is a participial phrase - there are no finite verbs - which, like most participial phrases, acts as a big adjective, giving us more information about Juno. This information is crucial to our understanding of the Aeneid as a whole. Juno has been wounded with an eternal wound, she feels it deeply and physically, and yet the reason that she feels it eternally is because of her own desire for preserving it. Some questions to ask ourselves: What does it mean for a divine force to be wounded? Can we think of other examples of divine powers in literature with eternal wounds? How does this compare with modern views of divine powers? What about mortals - do we know anyone who feels, and actively preserves, deep wounds? Finally, is there anything odd about this language, where a divine, immortal power is described in such physical terms - suffering a wound (a physical metaphor for emotional pain) beneath her chest?



One stylistic note, before looking at the words. aeternum modifies vulnus, which is the object of the participal servans and the two words - adjective, noun - frame the phrase as whole. Vergil's habit of using words to frame phrases and clauses can help you to translate his poetry- eventually your eyes will get used to looking ahead to the closing element of the frame, and you will learn to think of the unit as a whole, almost like a building block to the larger structure. But notice what else Vergil is able to accomplish with the frame - by putting aeternum at the beginning and the word it modifies, vulnus, at the end, he creates a word picture which helps us to visualize the size of the wound. aeternum is felt over the space of the phrase, and this reinforces the intensity of the wound.



Now to the words: each word in this phrase comes up frequently in English. The preposition sub, meaning 'beneath, under', is found in hundreds of compound English words - subatomic, submarine, subpar, etc. Derived from the adjective aeternum, , everlasting' , are eternal, eternity. It is actually a contracted form of aeviternus, with the root aevum- referring to uninterrupted, never-ending time, and is related to such English words as eon and ever (though not via Latin). The noun pectus, pectoris means 'chest' and is the source of the pectoral, ''relating to the chest.' From the noun vulnus, vulneris, we get vulnerable, vulnerability and, less commonly, vulnerary, which refers to something, such as an herb, that heals wounds. Finally, the participle servans, comes from servo, servare, to save, keep, protect, (not servio, servire, 'to serve). Whereas servo, -ire is the source of the verb serve, the noun, servant, and the adjective servile, from servo, -are, we get preserve (to keep alive), preservation, observe (to pay heed to, to watch), observatory and reserve (to keep back, save for future use), reservation.

Aeneid 1.33: Tantae molis erat Romanam condere gentem.

"It was such a massive task to establish the Roman race." This famous line sums up the previous lines about the struggles Aeneas suffered at the hands of Juno and states the larger theme of the entire poem - the founding (condere) of Rome and, since Rome is more than a geographical location, the founding of the Roman race. The word, condere, is the infinitive of condo, which is a combination of the preposition com (when not used in a compound, we know it as the preposition cum, meaning with) and the verb stem do, meaning 'to bring' or 'to place.' Therefore condere, most literally, means 'to bring together,' frequently in the context of bringing, or joining, something together into a whole.

This offers great insight into the mindset of the Romans from Vergil's perspective. 'Founding' or 'establishing' Rome involves taking incomplete elements at bringing them together into something perfect. To what extent does Vergil view this as a process that is capable of ever being completed perfectly? How might this be similar to or different from the mindset of present-day nations?

By the way, the verb stem do- does not seem to be related to the very common Latin verb do, dare, (to give), with its many English derivatives (donate, donor, vendor, condone, trade, tradition, perdition, etc.), but in fact is cognate with the English word, 'do' (to make, or put), and is related to the Latin verb facio, ere (to do or to make). English words related to condo, ere, include abscond (to put away, i.e. to put out of sight, conceal secretly) and recondite (something that is obscure, or has a hidden or profound meaning, with re here meaning (away from)). English words like credit, credible, creed etc. come from cre-do, meaning 'to put faith in something, to trust.'

Aeneid 1.31-32: multosque per annos errabant

And they (the Trojans) were wandering for many years. There are many English words derived from each of these words: multiple, multitude, permanent, perpetual, persevere, persist, err, error, annual, annuity, perennial, etc.

accendo, accendere, accendi, accensus - to kindle, set on fire

Aeneid 1.29-31, his accensa super iactatos aequore toto/Troas,.../arcebat longe Latio (in addition, inflamed by these things, she was keeping the Trojans far away from Latium, as they were being thrown over the whole sea). cf. candidus, white, clear, bright. Eng. incendiary, inflammatory, something used for setting property on fire. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays: Heroism, 18.Coarse slander, fire, tar and feathers and the gibbet, the youth may freely bring home to his mind and with what sweetness of temper he can, and inquire how fast he can fix his sense of duty, braving such penalties, whenever it may please the next newspaper and a sufficient number of his neighbors to pronounce his opinions incendiary.

sperno, spernere, sprevi, spretus, to sever, separate, remove; to despise, scorn, spurn

Aeneid 1.26-27, 'manet alta mente repostum/iudicium Paridis spretaeque iniuria formae/et genus invisum et rapti Ganymedis honores' (there remains stored away in her deep mind the judgment of Paris and the injury resulting from her beauty having been spurned, and the hated race and the glory of Ganymede, having been snatched away). cf. parcus, sparing, spare, scanty, small, slight. Related to Eng., spurious, lacking authenticity or validity in essence or origin; of illegitimate birth. cf. John Milton, Samson Agonistes, l. 390

A Canaanite, my faithless enemy.
This well I knew, nor was at all surprised,
But warned by oft experience. Did not she
Of Timna first betray me, and reveal
The secret wrested from me in her highth
Of nuptial love professed, carrying it straight
To them who had corrupted her, my spies
And rivals?In this other was there found
More faith, who, also in her prime of love,
Spousal embraces, vitiated with gold,
Though offered only, by the scent conceived
Her spurious first-born, Treason against me?
Thrice she assayed, with flattering prayers and sighs,
And amorous reproaches, to win from me
My capital secret, in what part my strength
Lay stored, in what part summed, that she might know;

volvo, volvere, volui, volutus, to roll, to turn over in the mind, to ponder

Aeneid 1.22, 'sic volvere Parcas' (thus rolled the Fates). cf. many Latin compounds (advolvo, circumvolvo, convolvo, devolvo, evolvo, involvo, obvolvo, pervolvo, provolvo, revolvo, subvolvo, supervolvo) and voluto (to roll), volubilis (rolling, whirling), rapid, volumen (a roll, volume). Eng. voluble, marked by a ready flow of speech, fluent. T. Roosevelt, Through the Brazilian Wilderness: We wandered through the wide, dusty streets, and along the narrow sidewalks. It was a hot, still evening; the smell of the tropics was on the heavy December air. Through the open doors and windows we caught dim glimpses of the half-clad inmates of the poorer houses; women and young girls sat outside their thresholds in the moonlight. All whom we met were most friendly: the captain of the little Brazilian garrison; the intendente, a local trader; another trader and ranchman, a Uruguayan, who had just received his newspaper containing my speech in Montevideo, and who, as I gathered from what I understood of his rather voluble Spanish, was much impressed by my views on democracy, honesty, liberty, and order (rather well-worn topics); and a Catalan who spoke French, and who was accompanied by his pretty daughter, a dear little girl of eight or ten, who said with much pride that she spoke three languages—Brazilian, Spanish, and Catalan! Her father expressed strongly his desire for a church and for a school in the little city.

bellum, -i, n. war, warfare

Aeneid 1.21, 'hinc populum late regem belloque superbum/venturum excidio Libyae' (from this place there would come a people widely ruling and arrogant in war for the destruction of Libya).
cf. bellicosus, -a, -um, adj., warlike. Eng., bellicose, warlike in manner or temperament. The Encyclopedia of World History, 91: The tribune M. Livius Drusus proposed a comprehensive program that included a grain bill, a colony bill, mixed senatorial-equestrian juries, and, most important, Roman citizenship for the now desperate and bellicose Italian allies. United opposition voided Livius's laws, Livius himself was assassinated, and the Italians prepared for a war of secession against Rome.

arx, arcis, f., citadel, fortress, height, peak, summit

Aeneid 1.20, 'Tyrias olim quae verteret arces' (which would some day overturn the Tyrian citadel). cf. arceo, ere, to shut up, enclose, prevent from approaching; coerceo, to enclose something on all sides, to restrain, confine. Eng., coerce, to force to act or think in a certain way by use of pressure, threats, or intimidation; compel. Elana Schor article (LaHood: ‘About Everything We Do Around Here Is Government Intrusion’) in Streetsblog on Ray Lahood's speech before the National Press Club: Asked if his emphasis on livable communities was, as Will's column argued, a veiled effort to "make driving more torturous" and "coerce people out of their cars," LaHood was unbowed. "It is a way to coerce people out of their cars," he said, observing that few people enjoy spending an hour behind the wheel to travel to work or run an errand. While every community cannot be redesigned to coax more residents onto transit or bikes, he added, the encouragement of those opportunities is important. See: http://www.streetsblog.org/2009/05/21/lahood-about-everything-we-do-around-here-is-government-intrusion/

sanguis, sanguinis, m., blood, race, stock, family

Aeneid, 1.19-20, 'Progeniem sed enim Troiano a sanguine duci/audierat Tyrias olim quae verteret arces' (for she (Juno) had heard that a race would be drawn from Trojan blood which would some day overturn the Tyrian citadel). cf. sanguisuga, blood-sucker, leech. Eng. sanguine, of the color of blood; having the temperament and ruddy complexion formerly thought to be characteristic of a person dominated by this humor; passionate; cheerfully confident; optimistic. P. B. Shelley, The Cloud, l. 31-38. The sanguine sunrise, with his meteor eyes,/And his burning plumes outspread,/Leaps on the back of my sailing rack,/When the morning star shines dead,/ As on the jag of a mountain crag,/Which an earthquake rocks and swings,/An eagle alit one moment may sit/In the light of its golden wings.

tendo, tendere, tetendi, tentus: to extend, pull tight, direct, aim for

Aeneid 1.18, 'iam tum tenditque fovetque' (even now [Juno] aims for, and cherishes [the hope that Carthage will rule over the nations]). cf. intentus, -a, -um (fr. intendo, -ere), attentive to, intent upon, waiting for, eager. Eng., intentional, something done deliberately. Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, 13. 232:
My tread scares the wood-drake and wood-duck, on my distant and day-long ramble;/They rise together—they slowly circle around./I believe in those wing’d purposes,/And acknowledge red, yellow, white, playing within me, / And consider green and violet, and the tufted crown, intentional;/And do not call the tortoise unworthy because she is not something else; And the jay in the woods never studied the gamut, yet trills pretty well to me;/ And the look of the bay mare shames silliness out of me.

colo, -ere, -ui, cultus, to till, tend, take care of, inhabit, care for

Aeneid, 1.15-16: quam Iuno fertur terris magis omnibus unam / posthabita coluisse Samo (Carthage ... which alone Juno is said to have cherished more than all the lands, with even Samos regarded as inferior). cf. colonus, a tiller of soil, a farmer. Eng. cultivate, to improve and prepare land for crops, to till. Willa Cather, One of Ours - Book One: On Lovely Creek, ch. 12: BETWEEN haying and harvest that summer Ralph and Mr. Wheeler drove to Denver in the big car, leaving Claude and Dan to cultivate the corn. When they returned Mr. Wheeler announced that he had a secret. After several days of reticence, during which he shut himself up in the sitting-room writing letters, and passed mysterious words and winks with Ralph at table, he disclosed a project which swept away all Claude’s plans and purposes.

terra, -ae, f., earth, ground, land

Aeneid 1.13-15, 'Karthago ... quam Iuno fertur terris magis omnibus unam ... coluisse' (Carthage ... which alone Juno is said to have cherished more than all the lands). cf. terrestris, -e, of or belonging to the earth or to the land. Eng., terrestrial, of or relating to the earth or its inhabitants. Thoreau's Journal, 25-May-1851: Men will pay something to look into a traveling showman’s box, but not to look upon the fairest prospects on the earth. A vista where you have the near green horizon contrasted with the blue one, terrestrial with celestial earth. The prospect of a vast horizon must be accessible in our neighborhood. Where men of enlarged views may be educated. An unchangeable kind of wealth, a real estate.
See The Blog of Henry David Thoreau, Monday, May 25, 2009. http://blogthoreau.blogspot.com/2009/05/terrestrial-with-celestial-thoreaus.html

asper, -pera, -perum, adj. rough, sharp, fierce

Aeneid, 1.13-14, Karthago ... dives opum studiisque asperrima belli (Carthage ... rich in resources and very fierce in the pursuits of war). cf. asperitas, unevenness, roughness. Eng. exasperate, to make very angry or impatient; annoy greatly; to increase the gravity or intensity of. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, ch. 34: WHEN they were gone, Elizabeth, as if intending to exasperate herself as much as possible against Mr. Darcy, chose for her employment the examination of all the letters which Jane had written to her since her being in Kent.

caelestis, adj. in the sky, heavenly, divine

Aeneid, 1.11, tantaene animis caelestibus irae? (do divine minds have such great anger?). cf. caelum, heaven, air, sky. Eng. celestial, of or relating to the sky or the heavens, supremely good, sublime. Robert Louis Stevenson, A Child's Garden of Verse and Underwoods,

The Celestial Surgeon
IF I have faltered more or less
In my great task of happiness;
If I have moved among my race
And shown no glorious morning face;
If beams from happy human eyes
Have moved me not; if morning skies,
Books, and my food, and summer rain
Knocked on my sullen heart in vain:
Lord, thy most pointed pleasure take
And stab my spirit broad awake;
Or, Lord, if too obdurate I,
Choose thou, before that spirit die
A piercing pain, a killing sin,
And to my dead heart run them in!

doleo, -ere, -ui, -itum, to suffer pain, to grieve, to lament

Aeneid 1.9, quidve dolens regina deum .../impulerit (or, suffering what grief , did the queen of the gods drive ....). cf. dolor, -oris, m. pain, sorrow, grief. Eng. dolorous, marked by, or exhibiting, sorrow, grief, or pain.

William Wordsworth, Imaginative Regrets, l. 4
DEEP is the lamentation! Not alone
From Sages justly honoured by mankind;
But from the ghostly tenants of the wind,
Demons and Spirits, many a dolorous groan
Issues for that dominion overthrown:
Proud Tiber grieves, and far-off Ganges, blind
As his own worshippers: and Nile, reclined
Upon his monstrous urn, the farewell moan
Renews. Through every forest, cave, and den,
Where frauds were hatched of old, hath sorrow past--
Hangs o'er the Arabian Prophet's native Waste,
Where once his airy helpers schemed and planned
'Mid spectral lakes bemocking thirsty men,
And stalking pillars built of fiery sand.

numen, numinis, n. a nod of the head; the will or power of the gods; divinity

Aeneid 1.8-9, quo numine laeso (with what offense to her (Juno's) divinity..?). cf. nutus, a nod of the head, downward motion, command. Eng. numinous, filled with or characterized by a sense of a supernatural presence. Routledge Encylopedia of Philosophy, p. 174, re Otto Rudolph: 'He held that numinous experience - experience of the uncanny that is strongest and most important in cases in which it seems to its subject to be experience of God - is unique in kind.'

moenia, ium, n. plural: defensive walls, city walls, city enclosed by walls

Aeneid, 1.7, altae moenia Romae (the walls of high Rome), cf. munio, ire, to build a wall, to erect or raise fortifications. Eng., munition, war materiel, especially weapons and ammunition.
George Chapman, trans. of The Odysseys of Homer, 6.408-19:

On whose either side/ A fair port stands, to which is nothing wide/ An enterer's passage; on whose both hands ride/ Ships in fair harbours; which once past, you win/The goodly market-place (that circles in/ A fane to Neptune, built of curious stone,/ And passing ample) where munition,/ Gables, and masts, men make, and polish'd oars;/ For the Phaeacians are not conquerors/By bows nor quivers; oars, masts, ships they are/ With which they plough the sea, and wage their war.

infero, inferre, intuli, illatus

to carry into, to introduce, to bring forward. Aeneid 1.6, inferretque deos Latio (and so that he might introduce the gods to Latium). cf. fero, ferre, to carry, convery, transport, bring. Eng. inference, The act or process of deriving logical conclusions from premises known or assumed to be true; something inferred; a hint or suggestion. Emily Dickinson:

THE LEAVES, like women, interchange
Sagacious confidence;
Somewhat of nods, and somewhat of
Portentous inference,

The parties in both cases
Enjoining secrecy,—
Inviolable compact
To notoriety.

urbs, urbis, f.

a walled town or city, esp. Rome. Aeneid 1.5: dum conderet urbem (until he should found a city). cf. urbanitas, refinement and wit associated with living in the city, especially Rome.

Eng. urbanity, refinement and elegance of manner. William Makepeace Thackery, Vanity Fair, ch. 13:
"She went to Colnaghi’s and ordered the finest portrait of him that art had produced, and credit could supply. She chose that famous one in which the best of monarchs is represented in a frockcoat with a fur collar, and breeches and silk stockings, simpering on a sofa from under his curly brown wig. She had him painted in a brooch and wore it—indeed she amused and somewhat pestered her acquaintance with her perpetual talk about his urbanity and beauty. "

ira, -ae, f., anger

ira, -ae, f., anger. Aeneid 1.4: saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram (on account of the unforgetting anger of savage Juno). cf. iracundia, great anger. Eng. irascible, easily provoked to anger or resentment.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline, l. 297-299: ‘God’s name!’ shouted the hasty and somewhat irascible blacksmith;/‘Must we in all things look for the how, and the why, and the where-fore?/Daily injustice is done, and might is the right of the strongest!’

litus, litoris, n., seashore

litus, litoris, n., seashore. Aeneid 1.3: Troiae qui primus ab oris Italiam fato profugus Laviniaque venit litora." Who first, an exile by fate, came from the shores of Troy to Italy and the Lavinian shores."
Eng. littoral: relating to a seashore.
Charles Robert Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, ch. 13:
"Having run up the coast, we anchored near the northern end of the Chonos Archipelago, in Low’s Harbour, where we remained a week. The islands were here, as in Chiloe, composed of a stratified, soft, littoral deposit; and the vegetation in consequence was beautifully luxuriant. The woods came down to the sea-beach, just in the manner of an evergreen shrubbery over a gravel walk."

profugus, -i, m., an exile

profugus, -i, m., an exile.
Aeneid 1.2: Troiae qui primus ab oris Italiam fato profugus Laviniaque venit litora.
"Who first, an exile by fate, came from the shores of Troy to Italy and the Lavinian shores."
cf. fugio: to flee. Eng. fugitive: one who flees, a refugee.

cano, canere, cecini, cantum - to sing

cano, canere, cecini, cantum : to sing.
Vergil 1.1: arma virumque cano. "I sing of arms and the man." cf. cantus, "song".
Eng. canticle: A song or chant, especially a nonmetrical hymn with words taken from a biblical text other than from the Book of Psalms.