Talk:Aeneid

Draft

• Sicut aquæ tremulum labris ubi lumen ahenis
  Sole repercussum aut radiantis imagine lunæ
  Omnia peruolitat late loca, jamque sub auras
  Erigitur, summique ferit laquearia tecti.
  • So water trembling in a polish'd vase,
    Reflects the beam that plays upon its face,
    The sportive light, uncertain where it falls,
    Now strikes the roof, now flashes on the walls.
  • Book VIII. Cowper, Poems of the Inner Temple, 4th ed. (1782) epigraph Ficaia (talk) 09:57, 1 August 2025 (UTC)

@Ficaia: Virgil imitated this simile from Apollonius of Rhodes:

• Ἠελίου ὥς τίς τε δόμοις ἐνιπάλλεται αἴγλη
  ὕδατος ἐξανιοῦσα, τὸ δὴ νέον ἠὲ λέβητι
  ἠέ που ἐν γαυλῷ κέχυται· ἡ δ᾽ ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα
  ὠκείῃ στροφάλιγγι τινάσσεται ἀίσσουσα.
  • As a sunbeam quivers upon the walls of a house when flung up from water, which is just poured forth in a caldron or a pail may be; and hither and thither on the swift eddy does it dart and dance along.
  • Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica (c. 250 BC), lines 756–759 (tr. R. C. Seaton)

There's a hint of it in Homer:

• ὥς τε γὰρ ἠελίου αἴγλη πέλεν ἠὲ σελήνης
  δῶμα καθ' ὑψερεφὲς μεγαλήτορος Ἀλκινόοιο.
  • For there was a gleam as it were of sun or moon through the high-roofed hall of great-hearted Alcinous.
  • Homer, Odyssey (c. 725 BC), Book VII, lines 84–85 (tr. S. H. Butcher and A. Lang)

Virgil inspired Silius, Ariosto and Camões:

• Sicut aquae tremulum labris ubi lumen aenis
  sole repercussum aut radiantis imagine lunae
  omnia pervolitat late loca, iamque sub auras
  erigitur summique ferit laquearia tecti.
  • As quick as flickering light
    thrown off by water in bronze bowls reflects the sun
    or radiant moon, now flittering near and far, now
    rising to strike a ceiling's gilded fretwork.
  • Virgil, Aeneid (19 BC), Book VIII, lines 22–25 (tr. Robert Fagles)

• Sicut aquae splendor radiatus lampade solis
  dissultat per tecta uaga sub imagine uibrans
  luminis et tremula laquearia uerberat umbra.
  • Even so, when a sunbeam is reflected in water, the light flits to and fro through the room, quivering as the reflection moves, and strikes the ceiling with flickering shadow.
  • Silius Italicus, Punica (c. 98), Book VII, lines 142–145 (tr. J. D. Duff)

• Qual d'acqua chiara il tremolante lume,
  dal sol percossa o da' notturni rai,
  per gli ampli tetti va con lungo salto
  a destra et a sinistra, e basso et alto.
  • As when, from sun or nightly planet shed,
    Clear water has the quivering radiance caught,
    The flashes through the spacious mansion fly,
    With reaching leap, right, left, and low, and high.
  • Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1532), Canto VIII, stanza 71 (tr. W. S. Rose)

• Qual o reflexo lume do pulido
  Espelho de aço ou de cristal fermoso,
  Que, do raio solar sendo ferido,
  Vai ferir noutra parte, luminoso,
  E, sendo da ouciosa mão movido
  Pela casa, do moço curioso,
  Anda pelas paredes e telhado
  Trémulo, aqui e ali, e dessossegado.
  • As the reflected light from a mirror
    Of burnished steel or lovely crystal,
    A ray of sunlight, perhaps, glancing
    Sideways to focus somewhere else,
    Is directed by the idle hand
    Of a curious youngster, up
    Walls and across roof-tiles like a will-
    o-the-wisp, ever-quivering, never still.
  • Luís de Camões, The Lusiads (1572), Canto VIII, stanza 87 (tr. Landeg White)

~ DanielTom (talk) 14:56, 27 February 2026 (UTC) last update: 06:28, 28 February 2026 (UTC)

Nice job unpacking all that! Ficaia (talk) 15:09, 27 February 2026 (UTC)