Lucretius and the Sixth Book of the Aeneid

Author(s): Agnes Kirsopp Michels

Source: The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 65, No. 2 (1944), pp. 135-148
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
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 LUCRETIUS AND THE SIXTH BOOK OF THE
AENEID.

To trace the development of an author's thought by di

ing whence he borrowed his material, and how he used
be one of the most entertaining forms of literary criticism
most classical authors this is a little difficult, because so
of their reading matter has been lost, but in the case of
we are lucky enough to have the complete works of two
who obviously had a very profound influence on him:
and Lucretius. Lucretius' influence is most obvious in the 6th
Eclogue and the 2nd Georgic.l It is less conspicuous in the
Aeneid, since the opportunity to show philosophic interests in
an epic narrative is naturally limited. Moreover the whole
teaching of the Aeneid, involving as it does the responsibility of
the individual to the future, is diametrically opposed to Epi-
curean ethics, which upheld withdrawal from the world into
intellectual seclusion. It is not surprising that many have felt
that as Vergil grew older he grew away from Epicureanism and
closer to Stoicism. The Sixth Book of the Aeneid, which seems
to contradict the Epicurean doctrine of the mortality of the
soul, is of course the main support of this thesis and may be
interpreted as a rebuttal of Lucretius. A careful scrutiny of the
language of the Sixth Book and of the associations evoked by
phrases and words used in significant positions seems to me
to indicate, however, that when Vergil was composing the Aeneid
he was still in many ways very much an Epicurean. Indeed it
would have been somewhat difficult for him to continue living in
the hortulus Cecropius at Naples on any other terms. Much

The bibliography of scholarly work dealing with the influence of

Lucretius on Vergil is extensive, but I have not been able to discover
any treatment of the material with which I am concerned here. In
collecting it I have found many valuable clues in Connington's edition
of the Aeneid and Norden's edition of the Sixth Book. Rostagni's
Virgilio Minore encouraged me to feel that I was on the right track.
I should perhaps mention Merrill's painstaking collection of parallels
(" Parallels and Coincidences in Lucretius and Vergil," Univ. of Cali-
fornia Publ. in Classical Philology, III [1918], p. 135) but it is not
very illuminating because of its omission of contexts. M. E. Hirst
("The Gates of Vergil's Underworld," C. R., XXVI [1912], p. 82) saw
the connection but did not carry the suggestion any further.
135

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136 AGNES K. MICHELS.

of his vocabulary in his descriptions of Hades indic

even here he was thinking in terms of Epicurea
particularly the theory of images, and some of these de
have more meaning if one reads them while keeping in
passages from the De. Rerum Natura which they su
somewhat detailed discussion of the passages in ques
think, enable us to approach the thorny question of how
pret the Sixth Book of the Aeneid from an angle which
be entirely new but may be slightly different.
At the very moment when Aeneas plunges into the un
we are reminded of Lucretius by a very firmly
association of words: 2

Ibant obscuri sola sub nocte per umbram

Perque domos Ditis vacuas et inania regna
(VI, 268-9).
It would be difficult to read the words vacuas and inania thus
juxtaposed without being reminded of the vacuum inane of
Epicurean physics. Our thoughts once turned in this direction,
we are not surprised to find an Epicurean theory introduced to
give uncanny atmosphere:
quale per incertam lunam sub luce maligna
est iter in silvis, ubi caelum condidit umbra
Iuppiter, et rebus nox abstulit atra colorem
(VI, 270-2).

This is a more poetic statement of Lucretius' words describing

the atoms:3

Praeterea quoniam nequeunt sine luce colores

Esse, neque in lucem existunt primordia rerum,
Scire licet quam sint nullo velata colore.
Qualis enim caecis poterit color esse tenebris?
(II, 795-8).
We follow Aeneas to the Gates of Hell where are gathered
the personifications of all the sorrows of humanity. Beyond this
is the tree of dreams:

2 I have throughout italicized the words in the quotations upon

which the associations depend.
3 This association was pointed out by Servius who tells us (Aen.,
VI, 272) : Hoc et videmus et tractatur ab Epicureis, rebus tollere noctem
colorum varietatem: unde etiam apud inferos omnia nigra esse dicuntur.

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LUCRETIUS AND THE SIXTH BOOK OF THE "AENEID." 137

In medio ramos annosaque bracchia pandit

Ulmus opaca ingens, quam sedem Somnia vulgo
Vana tenere ferunt, foliisque sub omnibus haerent
(VI, 282-4).
This tree is the subject of much discussion. Norden was unable
to find any prototype for it and has been forced, as in the case
of the Golden Bough, to assume that Vergil drew the idea from
the common stock of ancient folklore.4 It is also a little difficult
to explain why Vergil introduces, after the dreams, the Centaurs,
the twyformed Scyllae, and other "long legged beasties."
Norden finds precedent for all of these as residents of Hades,
except the Centaurs. He is forced to assume that Vergil found
the Centaurs as daimonic characters in the model he was follow-
ing, which has since disappeared.5 It is, however, more than
suggestive that twice in Lucretius we find the Centaurs grouped
with that curious plural form of the Scyllae. The parallel is
duly pointed out by Norden, but only for the philological
interest.6 In Book IV, 722 ff., Lucretius explains how the
insubstantial nature of images accounts for our ability to con-
ceive of beings which never have existed, or no longer do exist,
and our consequent ability to see them unless our reason rejects
them. (To him, to imagine an object and actually to see it
appear to be practically the same thing.) The fineness of the
images makes it possible for them to become entangled and to
blend, producing hybrids. He continues:
Centauros itaque et Scyllarum membra videmus
Cerbereasque canum facies simulacraque eorum
quorum morte obita tellus amplectitur ossa,
omne genus quoniam passim simulacra feruntur
(IV, 732-5).
The connection here with visions of the dead is also significant.
It establishes firmly the association of these imaginary creatures
with Hades. The Epicurean does not deny the possibility that
we may see visions of the dear departed, which are really their
simulacra. He does deny that the dead themselves exist, any
more than the mythical beasts. The Centaurs and Scyllae are
found together again in Book V, 890-4 in another context.
Here Lucretius is explaining why it is impossible for such

4 E. Norden, P. Vergilius Maro, Aeneis, Buch VI, p. 216.

5 Op. cit., p. 215. 6 Loc. cit.

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138 AGNES K. MICHELS.

"Mischwesen" to exist. We find added to this list o

bilities the Chimaera and giants, who also appear in
colony by the tree of dreams. In Vergil these cr
usually distinguished by editors from the false dr
nested in the great elm tree, but, in view of their
association with dreams in Lucretius' mind, it does n
far-fetched to identify the two groups and thus e
presence of the Centaurs and all the other creature
passage. Besides being mythological characters they
sessed of some physically impossible feature such as
describes. These apparitions, with which he seems
familiar, he groups on an equal footing with vis
dead (IV, 29-41). How important these visions seem
we know from the lines in Book I in which he includes them
among the main problems with which he plans to deal (I,
127-35).
With so many more or less obvious associations with Lucretius
in the first twenty-six lines of the descent to Avernus one
naturally hopes to find more that are not quite so evident. And
they are there. At the actual entrance to Hades we find camped
before it the personified Sins and Sorrows:

Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus Orci

Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae;
pallentesque habitant Morbi tristisque Senectus,
et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas,
terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque;
tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis
Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum,
ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens
vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (VI,273-81).

Many editors have pointed out here the resemblance to the

passage in the third book of Lucretius, in which he explains
how the fear of death has ruined many a man's life:
haec vulnera vitae
non minimam partem mortis formidine aluntur.
turpis enim ferme contemptus et acris egestas
semota ab dulci vita stabilique videtur,
et quasi iam leti portas cunctarier ante (III, 63-7).
With this clue to start us, can we find any other similarity
between the two passages ? Lucretius tells us how, when they are

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LUCRETIUS AND THE SIXTH BOOK OF THE "AENEID." 139

as wretched as they can be, the fear of death often drives

to the comfort of religion:
extorres idem patria longeque fugati
conspectu ex hominum, foedati crimine turpi,
omnibus aerumnis adfecti denique vivunt,
et quocumque tamen miseri venere parentant
et nigras mactant pecudes et manibu' divis
inferias mittunt, multoque in rebus acerbis
acrius advertunt animos ad religionem (III, 48-54).
Vergil's Luctus certainly describes their situation adequate
Before this Lucretius tells us that men pretend to fear dise
or disgrace, more than death, but that this is only braggin
nam quod saepe homines morbos magis esse timendos
infamemque ferunt vitam quam Tartara leti
et se scire animi naturam sanguinis esse
aut etiam venti, si fert ita forte voluntas,
nec prorsum quicquam nostrae rationis egere,
hinc licet advertas animum magis omnia laudis
iactari causa quam quod res ipsa probetur
(III, 41-7).
In turning to Vergil we find Metus, Letum, Morbi, and Senectus,
which to the Roman mind seems to be almost a disease in itself.
Lucretius tells us that Greed, which regards poverty as next to
death, forces men to tremendous struggles in the effort to acquire
wealth and sometimes even drives them to crime:

denique avarities et honorum caeca cupido

quae miseros homines cogunt transcendere fines
iuris et interdum socios scelerum atque ministros
noctes atque dies niti praestante labore
ad summas emergere opes, haec volnera vitae
non minimam partem mortis formidine aluntur
(III, 59-64).
We are reminded of Vergil's malesuada Fames, acris Egestas,
and Labos. In order to gain their ends, Lucretius tells us, men
start civil wars and rejoice in the death of their kinsmen:
unde homines dum se falso terrore coacti
effugisse volunt longe longeque remosse,
sanguine civili rem conflant divitiasque
conduplicant avidi, caedem caede accomulantes,
crudeles gaudent in tristi funere fratris
et consanguineum mensas odere timentque
(III, 68,73).

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140 AGNES K. MICHELS.

We may see the reflection of these details in Vergil's mort

bellum, the Eumenides, and Discordia, and may explai
line 72 his peculiar expression mala mentis Gaudia. Th
joys of the mind" might, after all, cover a very wide
human pastimes, but from the association with the L
passage we may be justified in diagnosing them as fr
Vergil had already used the same suggestion in th
Georgic when he is describing the pursuits of those not f
enough to be farmers:
. . . gaudent perfusi sanguine fratrum
(Georg., II, 510).
Is it going too far to see in Lucretius' description of
follies the picture which suggested to Vergil's mind t
creatures which introduce men to their own hells ? We shall see
later how the description of Tartarus, which he puts into the
mouth of the Sibyl, harks back again to this passage in Lucretius
and is also connected with the Lucretian idea that men make
their own hell for themselves. The difference between the two
writers is well illustrated by their attitudes here. Lucretius is
struck and vexed by the stupidity of men while Vergil sees the
pathos of the suffering which it brings upon them.
After Aeneas and the Sibyl have crossed the Styx they come
to the place of those who die before their time. One group here,
the suicides, is described in terms which suggest that Vergil had
Lucretius' words in mind as he wrote, as he well might if there
is any truth in the story that Lucretius killed himself:
proxima deinde tenent maesti loca, qui sibi letum
insontes peperere manu lucemque perosi
proiecere animas. quam vellent aethere in alto
nunc et pauperiem et duros perferre labores
(VI, 434-7).
Lucretius describes the desire to die in the same terms, as hatred
of light which he so often equates with life:
et saepe usque adeo mortis formidine vitae
percipit humanos odium lucisque videndae,
ut sibi consciscant maerenti pectore letum
obliti fontem curarum hunc esse timorem
(III, 79-82).
The pathetic wish of the suicides is of course closely related to
the speech of Achilles in the Odyssey:

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LUCRETIUS AND THE SIXTH BOOK OF THE " AENEID." 141

/8ovXoiL/r/v K' e7rapovpos Ewv OTyrevEjev aAXw,

davsp raps aKX'pw p / p f'tOTOSo roAXvs El,
X 7rdaLv veKv'eacr KaTaOL0tJLEVOtCaV avacro'etv
(XI, 489-91),
but it also contains a phrase reminiscent of two passages in the
De Rerum Natura: "duros perferre labores." In III, 990
Lucretius uses the expression, apropos of Tityos "aeternum
poterit perferre dolorem," and in III, 999 in connection with
Sisyphus " durum sufferre laborem."
From here we follow Aeneas through his encounters with Dido,
the Greek heroes, and Deiphobus, until he comes to the gates of
Tartarus. Since he may not enter, the interior is described to
him by the Sibyl. Her speech has always seemed to me the
flattest part of the book, a passage which might have been
inserted as a concession to literary convention or to a scholarly
love of mythology. If, however, while reading these lines, one
bears in mind Lucretius' description of the Tortures of Hell,
they become much more interesting. Whether Vergil intended
the characters whom he places in Tartarus also to be interpreted
as allegorical figures, one cannot say, but one can at least see
by what train of thought they may have come into the picture
and can find in them the "lacrimae rerum" which otherwise
seem strangely lacking in this episode.
At the end of Book III Lucretius attacks the popular con-
ception of Hades and tells us that there is no true hell except
what we make for ourselves here on earth:

Atque ea nimirum quaecumque Acherunte profundo

prodita sunt esse, in vita sunt omnia nobis
(III, 978-9).
The stock creatures of the mythical Hades had been to Lucretius
symbols of human folly and wickedness. Tantalus, dreading
the stone which hangs above his head, represents the fear of the
gods and of fate:
nec miser inpendens magnum timet aere saxum
Tantalus, ut famast, cassa formidine torpens;
sed magis in vita divom metus urget inanis
mortalis, casumque timent quem cuique ferat fors
(III, 980-3).
Tantalus' name appears to have been lost in the lacuna in
Vergil's text, but we cannot be wrong in identifying him from
the description:

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142 AGNES K. MICHELS.

quo super atra silex iam iam lapsura cadentiqu

imminet adsimilis; lucent genialibus altis
aurea fulcra toris, epulaeque ante ora paratae
regifico luxu; furiarum maxima iuxta
accubat et manibus prohibet contingere mensa
exsurgitque facem attollens atque intonat ore
(VI, 602-7).
Lucretius cites Tityos, with his vitals everlastingly torn by birds,
as the type of the lover:
sed Tityos nobis hic est, in amore iacentem
quem volucres lacerant atque exest anxius angor
aut alia quavis scindunt cuppedine curae
(III, 992-4).
Vergil describes the same character with more sympathy for his
unhappy situation:
nec non et Tityon, Terrae omniparentis 7 alumnum,
cernere erat, per tota novem cui iugera corpus
porrigitur, rostroque immanis vultur obunco
immortale iecur tondens fecundaque poenis
viscera rimaturque epulis habitatque sub alto
pectore, nec fibris requies datur ulla renatis
(VI, 595-600).
To a good Epicurean political ambition is one of the greater
follies, and Lucretius represents its evil consequences by the
figure of Sisyphus:
Sisyphus in vita quoque nobis ante oculos est
qui petere a populo fasces saevasque secures
imbibit, et semper victus tristisque recedit.
nam petere imperium, quod inanest nec datur umquam,
atque in eo semper durum sufferre laborem,
hoc est adverso nixantem trudere monte
saxum quod tamen e summo iam vertice rursum
volvitur et plani raptim petit aequora campi
(III, 995-1002).
Vergil probably shared this point of view towards the desire for
office, but in the Augustan age another aspect of its folly was
more apparent. It was not merely a platitude when Horace said:

7 Omniparens is a rather uncommon word which occurs twice in

Lucretius as an adjective for terra, once in II, 706, where he has been
explaining the generation of species and cites our old friend the
Chimaera as an example of what cannot happen per terras omniparentis,
and again in the magnificent, if unoriginal, line which describes the
earth as omniparens eadem rerum commune sepulcrum (V, 259). In
both cases an association with the underworld is not far to seek.

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 LUCRETIUS AND THE SIXTH BOOK OF THE "AENEID." 143

. . . celsae graviore casu

decidunt turres feriuntque summos
fulgura montis.
Vergil has been impressed by the same aspect of ambition
instead of Sisyphus he shows us first the Titanss and t
Aloidae who tried to drive Jupiter from heaven (VI, 580
and then Sisyphus' unhappy but more picturesque brot
Salmoneus:

vidi et crudelis dantem Salmonea poenas,

dum flammam Iovis et sonitus imitatur Olympi.
quattuor hic invectus equis et lampada quassans
per Graium populos mediaeque per Elidis urbem
ibat ovans, divumque sibi poscebat honorem,
demens, qui nimbos et non imitabile fulmen
aere et cornipedum pulsu simularet equorum
(VI, 585-91).
In an age in which human ambition could reach for divinity
such a picture would be much more striking than Sisyphus
plodding dully up the hill. Lucretius ends his list of types with
the Danaids who represent futile greed (III, 1003-10). There
seems to be no parallel for them in Vergil's Tartarus, where,
however, we find the Lapiths, Ixion, and Pirithous (VI, 601).
Since the lacuna which swallowed Tantalus' name has also
deprived us of any further details about these last fam
sinners, we cannot say what association suggested them to Verg
from all the rank and file of myth. In view of the lacu
would hesitate to do more than point out that both Ixion and h
son Perithous were on occasion involved with those Centaurs
who in this connection sometimes emerge from Vergil's
subconscious.9
Thus out of the six characters or groups of characters in the
first part of Vergil's Tartarus (the Titans, the Aloidae, Sal-
moneus, Tityos, the Lapiths, and Tantalus) five may be in-

8 The Titans are used as symbols of overweening ambition by Horace

also in Odes, III, 4, when he advises the use of vim temperatam instead
of vis consili expers. One glimpses Antony behind the giants.
9 Ixion's connection is the more interesting. He became the father of
a Centaur, by a shade which was created by Zeus in the shape of Hera
to deceive him. Such a tale might well be called to mind by Lucretius'
discussion of impossible "Mischwesen" and his relation of the images
to the futility of love. The grotesque outcome of Ixion's passion for
the Queen of Heaven makes him a good illustration of the latter idea.

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144 AGNES K. MICHELS.

terpreted in an allegorical way which gives the pic

more depth, if we keep in mind Lucretius' words.
After Vergil has described specific mythological chara
introduces some human sinners under general head
who hated their brothers, beat their fathers, or ch
clients, or who were misers, adulterers, and traito
and Phlegyas interrupt this second series of sinners,
as examples of impiety, and then we return to the
ending with more varieties of traitors, and committers
This galaxy does not seem to have been suggested b
passage in Lucretius as the former group, but it has
sound which is explained if we turn again to the
of Lucretius' third book and his list of the crimes to which the
fear of death drives mankind. We find an interesting series of
parallels:

1. Vergil:
Hic quibus invisi fratres, dum vita manebat,
pulsatusve parens aut fraus innexa clienti (608-9).

Lucretius:
crudeles gaudent in tristi funere fratris
et consanguineum mensas odere timentque (72-3).
hunc vexare pudorem, hunc vincula amicitiai
rumpere et in summa pietatem evertere suadet;
nam iam saepe homines patriam carosque parentes
prodiderunt, vitare Acherusia templa petentes
(83-6).
2. Vergil:
aut qui divitiis soli incubuere repertis
nee partem posuere suis . . . (610-11).
Lucretius:
denique avarities, et honorum caeca cupido
quae miseros homines cogunt transcendere fines
iuris . . . (59-61).
. . . divitiasque
conduplicant avidi . . . (70-1).
3. Tergil:
quique ob adulterium caesi (612).
Lucretius:
hunc vexare pudorem (83).

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 LUCRETIUS AND THE SIXTH BOOK OF THE "AENEID." 145

4. Vergil:
4 . . quique arma secuti
impia nec veriti dominorum fallere dextras (612
Lucretius:
sanguine civili rem conflant . . . (70).
. . .hunc vincula amicitiai
rumpere et in summa pietatem evertere suadet;
nam iam saepe homines patriam . . .
prodiderunt . . . (83-6).
These pairs cannot all be called close parallels, nor are there
always even approximate parallels for all the ideas in either
passage, but the thought is close enough in meaning and expres-
sion to be interesting in this connection.
At the appointed spot Aeneas leaves the Golden Bough and
they pass on to the place of the Blessed:
His demum exactis, perfecto munere divae,
devenere locos laetos et amoena virecta
fortunatorum nemorum sedesque beatas.
largior hic campos aether et lumine vestit
purpureo, solemque suum, sua sidera norunt
(VI, 637-41).
The influence of Lucretius' famous imitation of Homer, in his
description of the gods' home, is obvious here:
. .semperque innubilus aether
integit et large diffuso lumine rident (III, 21-2).
There is, however, in the fourth book of Lucretius a description
of dreams which conveys much more of the uncanny atmosphere
of Aeneas' journey:
denique cum suavi devinxit membra sopore
somnus et in summa corpus iacet omne quiete,
tum vigilare tamen nobis et membra movere
nostra videmur, et in noctis caligine caeca
cernere censemus solem lumenque diurnum,
conclusoque loco caelum mare flumina montis
mutare et campos pedibus transire videmur,
et sonitus audire, severa silentia noctis
undique cum constent, et reddere dicta tacentes
(IV, 453-61).
This can, of course, be read as a perfectly straightforward
description of the phenomena of dreams, but I should think that
anyone who had ever had a nightmare, or a high fever, would
3

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146 AGNES K. MICHELS.

recognize the shadow which then surrounds the ligh

one moves, and the endless wandering under a low
In noctis caligine caeca may mean simply " although
is dark" and concluso loco may mean "within our
walls," but it is one of the virtues of great poetry t
seems to mean a great deal more than the author o
intended, and can touch off an image in another p
which results in something quite different. I shou
surprised if Lucretius' haunting description contrib
thing to Vergil's first picture of the dark underworld,
only the fields of the blessed knew sun and stars, and o
troubled wanderings among the shadows.
. . sit numine vestro
pandere res alta terra et caligine mersas.
Ibant obscuri sola sub nocte per umbram
perque domos Ditis vacuas et inania regna:
quale per incertam lunam sub luce maligna
est iter in silvis, ubi caelum condidit umbra
Iuppiter, et rebus nox abstulit atra colorem
(VI, 266-72).
These lines are full of the same eerie twilight that Lucretiu
felt in his dreams.10

10 We may note here the relation between this passage in Lucretius

and Vergil's most successful description of a dream, that of Dido after
Aeneas has left her:
. . .agit ipse furentem
in somnis ferus Aeneas, semperque relinqui
sola sibi, semper longam incomitata videtur
ire viam et Tyrios deserta quaerere terra,
Eumenidum veluti demens videt agmina Pentheus
et solem geminum et duplices se ostendere Thebas
aut Agamemnonius scaenis agitatus Orestes,
armatam facibus matrem et serpentibus atris
cum fugit ultricesque sedent in limine Dirae
(Aeneid, IV, 465-73).
The mythological and theatrical details at the end have always seemed
to me to spoil a very moving passage, but the connection between dreams
and these impossible creatures of the imagination, which is provided by
the Lucretian theory of the images, at least explains what they are
doing here. The double sun and the two Thebes, which seem particularly
irrelevant to Dido's sorrow, must have slipped in at the tail end of
Vergil's train of thought, for, just before Lucretius describes dreams
in the passage quoted above (IV, 453-61) he is explaining how one car
make oneself see double by pressing a finger against the eyeball.

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 LUCRETIUS AND THE SIXTH BOOK OF THE "AENEID." 147

Anchises' explanation of the anima mundi is not a passage

which one would expect to find much evidence of sympathy wit
the passionate materialism of Lucretian thought, but it provi
a very interesting example of similarity in language and to
combined with almost complete difference of content. Tha
doctrine so utterly opposed to his own should be presented
such a way that one could almost swear the words were spok
by Lucretius himself-Lucretius polished and perhaps a littl
subdued, but still perfectly recognizable-would be enough t
make even his ashes spin in their urn. But the fact remain
that, if Vergil had never read Lucretius, Anchises' speech co
never have been written as it stands.1l
With this survey of Lucretian associations in the Sixth Book
of the Aeneid I hope that I have made this point: Vergil as he
wrote the Sixth Book was still very much under the influence
of many of the Epicurean theories which were part of his daily
life in the hortulus Cecropius. The physics of Epicurus he still
accepted and he used the theory of images to provide the setting
for the high point of his epic. He gives plenty of hints to guide
his friends to the scientific explanation of Aeneas' journey to the
underworld but does not spoil the narrative by being explicit or
weaken the effect of the episode by making its nature obvious.
I feel sure that Vergil meant Aeneas' journey to Hades to be
interpreted as a dream by those versed in the Epicurean theories
of dreams and visions, while he left it to be taken as a real
episode by the uninitiated. This would explain the statement
at the end of the book that Anchises sent Aeneas and the Sibyl
back to the upper world by the Ivory Gate through which the
Manes send dreams instead of letting them retrace their steps,
as other visitors to Hades had done. Aeneas and his companion
are thus put in the same category as the falsa insomnia. The

11 The Lucretian associations here seem to support the thesis that

Vergil in his picture of Anchises had in mind Ennius' description of
Homer's appearance to him and his revelation of the rerum natura.
Lucretius refers to this (I, 119-26) and may thus have suggested the
device to Vergil while he was collecting the material and putting
together the plot for the Sixth Book, or rather have reminded him of a
scene with which he must have been familiar. Cf. Pascal, Commenta-
tiones Vergilianae, pp. 143 ff., where the whole of Anchises' speech, not
just the idea for the episode, is thought to have been taken from
Ennius.

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148 AGNES K. MICHELS.

Aeneas of the underworld is a dream dreamed by the t

The introduction of the tree of dreams at the entrance to Hades
and its association with the theory of images must have been
meant as the clue to the interpretation.l2
If, however, he still accepted the physics of Epicureanism, it
is quite clear that he had discarded its ethics in one cardinal
point. The difference between Vergil's point of view and
Lucretius' on the question of participation in public affairs
cannot be better illustrated than by comparing two famous
passages which contain another striking verbal association:
ut satius multo iam sit parere quietum
quam regere imperio res velle et regna tenere
(Lucretius, V, 1129-30).
tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento
(hae tibi erunt artes), pacisque imponere morem,
parcere subiectis ac debellare superbos
(Aeneid, VI, 851-3).
Here Vergil sets forth his challenge to Lucretius and we see
what the whole book has been leading up to. Aeneas leaves
Hades with his mind intent upon the future, not his own future
but that of his descendants. To the true Epicurean such a
preoccupation would be simply silly, but Vergil has hoist the
Epicureans with their own petard. He has used their own
physics, the material and often the very words of their greatest
exponent, to preach against the principle on which their secure
and peaceful lives were founded, and he sends out his hero,
following a dream, to labor for a future he will never see.

AGNES KIRSOPP MICHELS.

BRYN MAWR COLLEGE.

12 E. L. Highbarger in his recent book, The Gate of Dreams (Johns

Hopkins Univ. Studies in Archaeology, No. 30) sees marked Platonic
influence in the latter part of the Sixth Book and interprets the whole
journey through Hades as an allegory of the soul (Chap. VIII, especially
p. 110). Such an observation does not seem to me necessarily at
variance with my own interpretation. A poem like the Aeneid is difficult
to understand largely because it can mean so many different things.

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