The Allegory of the Golden Bough

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Clifford Weber Kenyon College, [email protected]

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THE ALLEGORY OF THE GOLDEN BOUGH Author(s): Clifford Weber Source: Vergilius (1959-), Vol. 41 (1995), pp. 3-34 Published by: The Vergilian Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41587127 . Accessed: 10/10/2014 09:44

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Not too many years ago, an essay bearing the title above would have requiredan apology. ViktorPöschl's Die DichtkunstVirgils , for example, published in Englishin 1962, "displaysthroughout an uncompromisinglyhostile atti- tudetoward allegory."1 Indeed, the enormousprestige of thisbook may be largely responsiblefor the factthat in the wake of its publication,most criticism omitted even to mentionallegoresis as a methodof interpretingthe Aeneid. When David Thompsonwrote in 1970 thatPöschl's symbolicreading of the poem is itself"in manycases the veriestallegory,"2 this protest had the characterof a voice crying in thewilderness. That, however,was a quarterof a centuryago. Since thenthings have changed,and to such a degree thata discussionof Virgilianallegory now requiresbibliography rather than apology.3 Therefore, thanks to a criticalclimate thatno longerdismisses out of hand the possibilityof allegoryin Virgil, we may proceeddirectly to thepreliminary thesis of thispaper.

In Aeneid 6.724-51, Virgil adoptsthe mannerof Lucretiusand presentsa philosophicallyeclectic cosmologyaccording to whichthe macrocosmis a living organismcomposed of body and soul. The overtLucretianisms in thispassage have been notedin detailby Nordenand Austin.4Elsewhere in thesame book, however,

1 DavidThompson, "Allegory and Typology in theAeneid ," Arethusa3 (1970): 147, wherePöschl's book is called"the greatest modern critical work on the Aeneid ." 2 Ibid. 3 Threerecent bibliographies will make this clear. The first and most recent is inRaymond J. Starr,"Vergil's Seventh Eclogue and Its Readers:Biographical Allegory as an Interpretive StrategyinAntiquity and Late Antiquity," CP 90 (1995):129, nn. 1-2; 130,n. 8; 131,n. 12 (add p. 351to the pages cited in V. Langholfsarticle); 138, n. 50. Thesecond is inFrederick E. Brenk, "TheGates of Dreamsand an Imageof Life:Consolation and Allegory at theEnd of Vergil's AeneidVI," inStudies in Latin Literature and Roman History , ed. CarlDeroux, vol. 6 (Brussels, 1992),289, n. 37. Thethird, in Joseph Farrell, Vergil's "Georgics" and the Traditions ofAncient Epic (NewYork and Oxford, 1991), 258, n. 107; 262, n. 115. To thesources cited in these bibliographiesaddA. M. Bowie,"The Death of Priam: Allegory and History in the Aeneid ," CQ, n.s.,40 (1990):470-81. Allegoresis as a validapproach to theAeneid is predicatedon Virgil's familiaritywith Hellenistic allegorizations ofHomer. 4 EduardNorden, ed., P. VergiliusMaro: Aeneis Buch Vfi (Darmstadt, 1984), 309-10; R. G. Austin,ed., P. VergiliMaronìs Aenetdos Uber sextus (Oxford, 1977), 220-32. Additional sourcesare given in Michael Wigodsky, Vergil and Early Latin Poetry (Wiesbaden, 1972), 137, n. 701, andextensive bibliography onLucretius' general influence on Virgilis tobe foundin the foot- notesibid. 132-38.

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Virgil's debt to Lucretiusextends beyond words and phrasesto includeideas and conceptions.In lines 273-81, for example, Aeneas encountersan assemblageof fearfulabstractions encamped at theentrance to theunderworld:

vestibulumante ipsum primisque in faucibusOrci Luctuset ultricesposuere cubilia Curae, pallentesquehabitant Morbi tristisque Senectus, et Metuset malesuadaFames ac turpisEgestas, terribilesvisu formae,Letumque Labosque; tumconsanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis Gaudia, mortiferumqueadverso in limineBellum, ferreiqueEumenidum thalami et Discordiademens vipereumcrinem vittis innexa cruentis.

Here also, to be sure, Virgil is indebtedto Lucretiusfor phraseology-"turpis Egestas" in line 276 is a conflationof "turpiscontemptus" and "acris egestas" in Lucretius3.65- but he has borroweda conceptionas well. In Lucretius3.65-67, "turpiscontemptus" and "acris egestas"loiter before figurative gates of hell:

turpisenim ferme contemptus et acris egestas semotaab dulci vita stabiliquevidetur et quasi iam letiportas cunctarier ante

In Aeneid6.273, as Agnes K. Michelsonce noted,5these figurative gates reappear as an actual anteroomleading into Hades. Here Virgil has borroweda Lucretian imageand turnedit intomaterial reality.6 In thepages thatfollow, I will arguethat Virgil's Golden Bough is another instance,albeit a more complex one, of Lucretianimagery made real. More generally,I will also undertaketo show thatVirgil describes the Golden Bough in termsthat apply as well to theunion of bodyand soul in a livingorganism. Finally I will considersome implicationsof thisfact for the meaningof theGolden Bough

" 5 AgnesK. Michels,"Lucretius and the Sixth Book of the Aeneid, AJP 65 (1944):138- 40. Lucretius'"leti portae" reappear as "letiianua" in 5.373, in a passagein which Virgil found furthermaterial for his description ofthe entrance tothe underworld. For "vasto immanis hiatu" of thecave in Aen. 6.237, Norden (n. 4 above)201 cites parallels in Euripides and Apollonius, but he doesnot mention the immediate source both of Virgil'sphrase and of itschthonic context, viz., Lucretius'"sed patet immani et vasto respectât hiatu," which occurs in 5.375 and refers to the "leti ianua"in 5.373. For the correspondence between Virgil's Avernian cave and Lucretius' figurative gateof death, see RaymondJ. Clark,Catabasis: Vergil and the Wisdom-Tradition (Amsterdam, 1979),188-89. 6 This of debtto Lucretiusis discussed in R. aspect("remythologization") ' Virgil's " Philip Hardie,Virgil's Aeneid n: "Cosmos" and Imperium(Oxford, 1986), 178, 180-82.

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in thecontext of Aeneid6 as a whole.7

Ill

In Aeneid 4.441-46, Aeneas is comparedto an oak that,like Aeneas himself in Book 6, "in Tartaratendit" (4.446). This "age-old similebetween men and trees"8is groundedin an anthropomorphicperception of treesthat is apparently universal.9In Latin, bracchia for rami, and coma for folia, are both trite poeticisms,and even in commonparlance, truncus is appliedto treetrunks as well as to human torsos.10Indeed, the formeris the primarymeaning of the word. Amphibologyis thusinherent in the nountruncus , and in Aeneid6.207 , thisaspect of the word is broughtto the foreby the additionof the adjectiveteres , whichis itselfused of the humananatomy no less thanof treesand theirbranches.11 Thus, removed from its context, "teretis . . . truncos" in Aeneid 6.207 would be ambiguous;it could referto trees,but it could equallywell referto humanbodies. The anthropomorphismof the Golden Bough and its oak is, if anything, even morepronounced in the passage in whichthey are firstmentioned. In 6.141, the Sibyl refersto the Bough as the "auricomos. . . fetus"of the oak. The trans- ferenceof the nounfetus fromanimals to plantsis too commonto allow muchto be made of thathere. Conversely,however, the adjectiveauricomus is unattested beforethis occurrence, and so it is notknown how (or, indeed,whether) this word was used beforeVirgil. The Greek adjectivesxpuffo/có/xoç and -коцод, on which

7 Forthe copious bibliography on the Golden Bough, see James E. G. Zetzel,"'Romane Memento':Justice and Judgment inAeneid 6," ТАРА119 (1989): 276, n. 51; CharlesP. Segal, EnciclopediaVirgiliana , vol. 4 (Rome,1988), 397, s.v. "Ramod'oro.'* " 8 WendellClausen, Virgil's Aeneid" and the Tradition ofHellenistic Poetry (Berkeley and LosAngeles, 1987), 50. 9 The lastword on this is Wilhelm Wald-und Feldkulte*- subject " Mannhardt, " (Berlin, 1904-5;reprinted Darmstadt, 1963); see esp. 1:1-4 ( Grundanschauung) and 2:23-31 ("Wechsel- beziehungzwischen Mensch und Baum"). Yet this immense work appears not to mention the impor- tantphenomenon of the ancient battle trophy, which consisted of thedefeated warrior's armor suspendedfrom a tree trunk representing, presumably, historso. The anthropomorphic aspect of the trophyis salientin Virgil'sdescription ofthe trophy erected by Aeneas in Aen. 11.5-11 (see also 11.83).For bibliography onthe trophy, see W. KendrickPritchett, The Greek State at War, Part 2 (Berkeleyand Los Angeles,1974), 246-51. There is alsotestimony indicating that in Greece, tree trunkscould serve as aniconicmonuments: seeA. A. Donohue,"Xoana" and the Origins of Greek Sculpture(Atlanta, 1988), 220; alsothe passage quoted from Clement's Protrepticus ibid. 266-70. Forthe personification oftrees in farmers' language and metamorphosis legends, see Norden (n. 4 above)218. 10Conversely, beginning with Pliny HN 1.16.53, corpus can denote the trunk of a treeas opposedto itsbranches. See OttoSkutsch, ed., The"Annals" of Quintus Ennius (Oxford, 1985), 401; Norden(n. 4 above)218. 11See C. J. Fordyce,Catullus (Oxford, 1961), 316; A. S. Hollis,ed., Ovid:Ars Amatoria,Book J (Oxford, 1977), 131.

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auricomusis modeled, are used primarilyof gods (Apollo in particular).12If, as seems likely,Virgil adheredto the referenceof his Greek models as faithfullyas he reproducedtheir form, auricomi fetus would be a bold personification.The literalmeaning of theadjective would suggestthat in any case. The same appliesto the Sibyl's choice of words when, in 6.146, she tells Aeneas that, "si te fata vocant,"the Bough will proveeasy to detach:

ipse volensfacilisque sequetur

This too is an expressionthat would ordinarilyrefer to an animatebeing.13 Out of sixteenother occurrences in Virgil, volens, for example,is applied to gods or to humanbeings in all cases butone ("volentiarura" in Georgics2.500). Finally,the Bough is also personifiedin 6.211, where "cunctantem,"as othershave noted, seems "to endow the branchwith a will, consciousness,and quasi-animatelife of itsown.'44 As it is analyzedin De rerumnatura 3 and elsewhere,the physiology of the livingorganism corresponds in manyrespects with the union of Virgil's Golden Boughand its oak. Indeed, in theline of theAeneid just quoted,the wording of the Sibyl's promisethat the Bough "ipse volens facilisquesequetur" recalls Lucretius 3.400, wherethe anima is said to departthe body in thewake of theanimus : sed comes insequiturfacile

Thus, the Sibyl characterizesthe detachmentof the Golden Bough fromits treein language that Lucretiusapplies to the separationof soul frombody. Such correspondencesbetween Virgil's Bough and its oak and the Lucretiananalysis of body and soul are in generalso numerous-and theirimplications so suggestive- thatit will be worthwhileto considerthem in some detail. The lightfrom the Bough contrastswith the darknessof the oak withinthe dark forestwhere the oak grows.15The importanceof this contrastis implicitin thefrequency with which Virgil alludes to it: latetarbore opaca aureus et foliiset lentovimine ramus (6.136-37)

12Norden (п. 4 above)176. 13So JohnH. D'Arms,"Vergil's 'Cunctantem (Ramum)': Aeneid 6.211," CJ 59 (1964): 266,where the personification in"auricomos . . . fetus"is alsonoted. 14Charles P. Segal,"The Hesitation ofthe Golden Bough: A Reexamination,"Hermes 96 (1968):78, in agreement with D'Arms (n. 13above) 266-67 . 15On this point see Charles P. Segal,"'Aeternum Per Saecula Nomen,' the Golden Bough andthe Tragedy of History," Arion 4 (1965):625-26.

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hunc...... obscuris clauduntconvallibus umbrae (6.138-39)

... in lucos ubi pinguemdives opacat ramushumum (6.195-96)

discolor undeauri per ramosaura refulsit (6.204)

taliserat species auri frondentisopaca ilice (6.208-9)

The correspondingantithesis of the lightof the soul locked in the darknessof the body (aůfjia агцха) is too familiarto requiredocumentation.16 In the Aeneid it is foundsome 700 lines afterthe firstmention of the Golden Bough, thatis, in the cosmologyto whichreference has alreadybeen made:

igneusest ollis vigoret caelestisorigo seminibus (6.730-31)

. . . neque auras dispiciuntclausae tenebriset carcerecaeco (6.733-34)

. . . purumquerelinquit aetheriumsensum atque aurai simplicisignem (6.746-47)

A furtherlink withthe Bough is to be foundin "aurai simplicisignem" in 6.747, whichparallels "auri . . . aura" in 6.204. In bothof theseexpressions, which are strikingprecisely on thisaccount,17 light is referredto as aura: thelight/fire that is soul in 6.747, and theradiance of theGolden Bough in 6.204.

16 Usefullysuccinct is Plu.2.1130b: avrijif те rrjv ěvioitGìv фсХоаофоор фcoç eivai TT)oiiaía voiiíÇovoiv, cited in AlbrechtDieterich, Nekyia2 (Leipzig and Berlin, 1913; reprinted Darmstadt,1969), 24, п. 1. 17Cf. R. A. B. Brooks,"'Discolor Aura': Reflections on theGolden Bough," AJP 74 (1953):273, reprinted in Virgil: A Collectionof Critical Essays , ed. SteeleCommager (Englewood Cliffs,N. J.,1966), 155, on Aen. 6.204: "aura is evenstranger. Virgil is playingof course on the soundof aurum , but this cannot be thewhole explanation. Normally the word has no visual sense."

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In Aeneid 6.207, the Golden Bough is comparedto mistletoeencircling a tree:

[quale soletviscum] teretis circumdare truncos18

As themistletoe clings to its host,a similarlytight bond ties the soul to all partsof thebody in Lucretius3:

nam ñeque [animas]tanto opere adnecti potuisseputandumst corporibusnostris extrinsecus insinuatas (3.688-89)

namque[anima] ita conexa est per venas, viscera,nervos ossaque uti dentesquoque sensuparticipentur (3.691-92)

пес [animae],tam contextaecum sint,exire videntur incólumesposse et salvas exsolveresese omnibuse nervisatque ossibus articulisque (3.695-97)

In the Phaedo of Plato, no verb is used moreoften than òsi p, the exact equivalent of nectere, and its compoundsto expressthe relationshipof soul to body.19The same conceptionis also foundin Aen. 4.695, wherethe meaningof "nexos" (sc. "animae") is clear fromthe first two passages quotedjust above:

quae luctantemanimam nexosque resolveret artus

Finally,the similaritybetween an animatebody and a treewrapped in mistletoeis made overtin Lucretius3.325. Here soul and body are comparedto two

Trueenough; and hence the parallelism between 6.204 and 6.747, unmentioned byBrooks, is the moresalient on that account. 18In Sen. Ep. 92.13,the same verb is usedto express the opposite relationship ofthe body enclosingthe soul like a garment:"hoc [sc. corpus] natura ut quandam vestem animo circumdedit," withwhich cf. the many sources for this idea cited in G. Zuntz,Persephone (Oxford, 1971), 406, n. 4. Onthe other hand, there is anexact correspondence between "teretis circumdare truncos" and thePythagorean (?) symbolism of a largeveil = 'j/vxvremoved from the body at death:for this onRoman seeWilliam "Un dansTart funéraire image " sarcophagi, Lameere, symbolepythagoricien deRome, Bull. Corr. Hell. 63 (1939):79-85. 19Cf. Phd. 81D-E {èvbelv), 82E (bictôeïv,irpooKoKhàv, béiv), 83D {kcltolòeÌv,npoorjXovv, itQooirepovčtv),84A (еукатаЬеЪ).

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plants which, like mistletoeand tree, are so tightlyentwined that they seem to springfrom the same roots:20

nam [animaet corpus]communibus inter se radicibushaerent

This image is sustainedthrough lines 331-32, wheresoul atoms and body atoms are implicitlycompared to intertwiningplants:

implexisita principiisab origineprima interse, fiunt[anima et corpus]consorti praedita vita

The same botanicalmetaphor is latentin Plato's choice of wordsin Phaedo 81C, concerningthe corruption of soul by body:

àXXà disikrjßfjLsvrjv. . . viròtov ouyLOiTosiòovç, о аЬту rj oyiCKíaте ка1 OVVOVOÍOLtov oáyiotroqòià то àeì avvsivmkolÌ òià ttjv iroWrjv fjLsXeTrjpèveiroírioe ovh<¡>vtov'

From the tightbond unitingsoul and body, Lucretiusderives some impor- tantcorollaries, among them the notion, expressed in 3.695-97 above, thatthe soul is not easily pried loose fromthe body. This idea, in turn,affects Lucretius' diction,for the separationof soul frombody is sometimesexpressed with verbs con- notingeffort or even violence.21In 3.326, a compoundof veliereserves this pur- pose:22

nam communibusinter se radicibushaerent nec sine perniciedivelli posse videntur

Similarly,it is difficult-nay, impossiblein most cases- to separatethe Golden Boughfrom the oak on whichit grows:23

20 "Theatoms of soul and body so interpenetrateeachother . . . thatthey have, as itwere, a tangleof common roots" (Cyril Bailey, ed., Titi Lucreti Cari De rerumnatura libri sex , voi.2 [Oxford,1947], 1048). 21 Thisaspect of Lucretius'thanatology is discussed in CharlesP. Segal,Lucretius on Deathand Anxiety (Princeton, 1990), 60. 22In 3.327and 3.563, evellere and avellere are used with reference to odor and oculus respectively,toboth of which the soul is compared.Also cf. compounds oftrahere in 3.330and 3.844.The occurrence ofconvellere in3.340 and 3.343 is not,however, apposite, for in both lines thiscompound refers not to the separation ofsoul and of its analogue, water vapor, but rather to the effectthat this separation has, or fails to have, on the body and on water respectively. 23 Theforce required for removing the Bough from its tree is expressednot only by a- and convellerein thelines quoted below, but also by "decerpserit"in 141, by "carpemanu" in 146 (imanu roughly = "forcefully"),and by "corripit" and "refringit" in210. See Segal(n. 14 above) 74-76,which critiques William T. Avery,"The Reluctant Golden Bough," CJ 61 (1966):271.

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aliternon viribusullis vincerenec duropoteris convellere ferro (6.147-48)

Note the compoundof veliere, as in Lucretius.Combined with a differentprefix, thesame verbis used of theBough in Aeneid6.143:

primoavulso, non deficitalter aureus

This idea is also foundin Phaedo 108A-B, whereit applies, however,only to the class of souls corruptedby thebody:

r¡ fxèi>ovp Koafiía те ка1 (frpópiíioç'рvxv éirsTaí тг ка1 ovk ay posi та жарорта' rj 6' èm0vfi7]TLKO)çtov aú^aroç s'ovaa . . . , irspiskslpo ttóKvv XPÓvovèiTTOTifiépr) ка1 irspì tòp оратор тотгор,тоХКа àpTiTsípaoa ка1 TToWàiraOovaa, ßiy koùfióyig virò tov irpooTSTayfjLSPOvdaípopoç oïxsrai ayoyLSP-q.

It is likelythat the notion of thedifficulty of separatingsoul frombody also lies behind Aeneid 4.695, where Dido's soul is said to struggle ( luctari), presumablyto freeitself from the queen's body:

quae luctantemanimam nexosque resolverei artus

So does the same participleof cunctari,resembling luctari phonetically, express thedifficulty of separatingthe Bough from its tree in 6.210-11:

corripitAeneas extemploavidusque refringit cunctantem

This, however,is differentfrom what the Sibyl tells Aeneas to expectin 6.146-48:

namqueipse volens facilisquesequetur si te fatavocant; aliter non viribus ullis vincerenec duropoteris convellere ferro

There are some strikingverbal correspondences between the precedingtwo passages on the Bough and the lines quoted above from Phaedo 108A-B24:

24There is also a closeresemblance, noted by commentators,between Phd. 66B-C and lines730-34 later in Aeneid6. Thus,a connectionbetween the Phaedo and Virgil's Bough is a prioria plausible hypothesis.

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"cunctantem"= iroWà c¿ptltsívoígo¿',"facilis" opp. fJióyiç;"sequetur" = ётгетт; and "viribus" = ßiqL. Subject to the condition"si te fatavocant," the Sibyl leads Aeneas to expectthe Bough to detachas easily as rj Koopia те koiìфрорсцод 'pvxý', in the event,it moreresembles in its tenacityrj '¡/vxyу ётвуцутисид rov aá/xaroç sxovaa. The correspondencebetween Virgil's stubbornBough and a soul clinging to life can also be adduced fromLucretius. Cunctari, used of the Bough in Virgil, refersin Lucretiusto an injuredman's reluctanceto relinquishhis soul:

si non omnimodis,at magnaparte animai privatus,tamen in vitacunctatur et haeret (3.406-7)

The factthat Virgil's Bough is hiddenfrom view is expressedin no fewer than three separate clauses, first with latere, then with tegere, finally with claudere: latet arboreopaca . . . ramus(6.136-37)

hunetegit omnis lucus et obscurisclaudunt convallibusumbrae (6.138-39)

Similarly,in Lucretius3.273-81, the verb latere is thriceused of the "fourth element"constituting the soul, the remotenessof which fromperception by the senses(Bailey's gloss) is expressedas followsin 3.273-74:

nampenitus prorsum latet haec naturasubestque nec magishac infraquicquam est in corporenostro

If "in corporenostro" alone were deleted,these could be the wordsof the Sibyl speakingof theGolden Bough. Secondly,as theverb tegere is appliedto thegrove coveringthe Golden Bough, so is the same stemused of the body shelteringthe soul in Lucretius3:

quare etiamatque etiam,resoluto corporis omni tegmineet eiectisextra vitalibus auris, dissolvisensus animi fateare necessest atque animam,quoniam coniunctast causa duobus (3.576-79)

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quid dubitastandem quin, extraprodita corpus imbecillaforas, in aperto,tegmine dempto, non modo non omnempossit durare per aevum sed minimumquodvis nequeat consistere tempus? (3.603-6)

So withthe last of the threeverbs employed by Virgil,namely, claudere, a compound of whichis used to referto the soul trappedin an aged body in Lucretius 3.773:

an metuitconclusa manerein corporeputrì?

Indeed, later in Aeneid 6, Virgil himselfuses claudere of souls imprisonedin bodies:

. . . clausae tenebriset carcerecaeco (6.734)

Here thereis a clear verbal correspondencebetween souls enclosed in darkness ("clausae tenebris")and the Bough thatshadows enclose ("clauduntumbrae") in line 139. If we extendour inquirybeyond Lucretius to includeancient philosophy in general,further correspondences emerge. Pythagoreans held the view (rejectedby Lucretiusin 3.670-97) thatonly the body is createdat conception,the immortal soul enteringthe mortalbody only at the momentof birth.The particularapplica- tionof thisidea in EnniusAnnals 8-10 (Skutsch)is well known:

ova parirésolet genus pennis condecoratum, non animam,post indevenit divinitus pullis ipsa anima

Thus, the livingorganism is an entitycomposed of alien elements,of whichonly the body is a productof conception.In describingthe mistletoeand its toree in Aeneid6.206, Virgilcomes as close to thisidea as biologicalfacts will allow:

quod [i.e., viscum]non sua seminatarbos

The same could be said of thetree's soul, if onlyit had one. The parallelismbetween Virgil's mistletoeand the soul of Ennius' peacock is exact: like the soul of the peacock, the mistletoeis geneticallyalien to the tree on whichit grows. Indeed, the rareverb seminare (occurring only here in Virgil, and missingentirely even in Lucretius)could seem calculatedto bringto mind

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Lucretius'semina and theircentral role in his theoryof the soul. When Virgil ostentatiouslymimics Lucretius in the cosmologies of Eclogues 6.31-40 and Aeneid6.724-51, he uses seminain bothpassages. Lucretiushimself, moreover, in refutingPythagorean doctrine, insists that the soul, like the body, is created "semineseminioque" :

si non certasuo quia semineseminioque vis animipariter crescit cum corporequoque (3.746-47)

Froma purelyformal point of view, thesimilarity between Virgil's "non sua semi- nat" and "non . . . suo . . . semine"in Lucretiusis obvious.25Plato uses the same imagein Phaedo 83D, wherethe reincarnated soul is said to be plantedand to take rootin a new body:

Нате tc¿xvтттеир eiç à Wo oûfia Kai liaicsp OTcsipofiévr]ецфйеоОси

Differentorigins imply different natures. Just as the carnal conceptionof the body and the celestialorigin of the soul reflecttheir respective mortality and immortality,so the apparentimmortality of the mistletoesets thisplant apart from thetree on whichit grows:

quale solet silvisbrumali frigore viscum frondevirere nova . . . et croceo fetuteretis circumdare truncos (6.205-7)

For the mistletoealone, the springthat is life is eternal,enduring even in winter, whenits hosttree succumbs to a dormancyresembling death.26 The correspondencesdetailed above are remarkablenot only for being precise. Their sheernumber is so large thatuseful though it mightbe in principle to summarizethem here, to do so would destroythe coherenceof the discussion. The correspondencesbetween oak/Bough and body/soulare also thoroughlycon- sistent.Points of contactlie withoutexception between oak and body, Bough and soul; thereare none at all betweenoak and soul, or betweenBough and body. In sum, the correspondencesidentified above are so exact, so numerous,and so con-

25It would appear that in 6.209, Virgil also owes to Lucretius the noun brattea , which is firstattested in Lucr,4,727 (a comparisonbetween gold leaf and compound simulacra sufficiently "tenuia" [4.726]both to combine and to penetrate through tothe "tenuem animi naturam" [4.731]. Thus,the brattea of Virgil's Bough has tenuitas incommon with the Lucretian soul). 26"Winter und Tod sind für mythisches Denken eins" (Norden [п. 4 above]166).

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sistentas to justifyadopting, argumenti causa , theworking hypothesis that the oak standsfor a humanbody (this,as notedat the outset,is plausiblea priori),while theGolden Bough symbolizesa soul.27The nextstep is to considerwhether Aeneid 6 as a whole supportsor negatesthis hypothesis.Considering this questionmay also make it possible to identifywhom the oak and its magical bough mightbe takento represent.

In lines thatare among the most famousin the Aeneid, the Sibyl warns Aeneas thata journeyinto the underworld is fraughtwith danger:

facilisdescensus Averno, noctesatque dies patetatri ianua Ditis; sed revocaregradům superasque evadere ad auras, hoc opus, hic labor est (6.126-29)

And so Aeneas' own experienceproves it to be. In yetanother series of encounters withphantoms connected with his irretrievablepast, Aeneas proves no less vul- nerable to basic but ruinous human impulses-"ignoscenda quidem, scirentsi ignoscereManes"- thanhe has been throughouthis voyageon earthfrom Troy to Cumae. But forthe Sibyl, his misericordiafor Palinurus could inducehim to violate the iron law of Hades,28as amor led Orpheusbefore him to do. Virgil does not indicate(he does not need to) how Aeneas' own amor mighthave led him to react had Dido's shade received him with warmthand affection,as Anchises' shade does later;but untranslatable"prosequitur" at the end of theepisode (6.476) leaves littledoubt. Finally,the pitifulsight of his mutilatedcompatriot Deiphobus reawakens the same dolor that repeatedlyimmobilizes him on earth. "With Deiphobus,Aeneas would have spenthis whole timein relivingthe past."29This predilectionAeneas and Deiphobus sharewith the Trojan shades in Elysium,who also cannotforget their Trojan past:

27In orderto preventlater misunderstanding, I should stress at thispoint that the correspondencesdetailed above lie betweenVirgil's description ofthe Golden Bough and some of the termsin which Lucretius analyzes the interrelationship between soul and body. This is notto argue thatLucretius' Epicurean psychology is also Virgil's psychology. In Anchises' eschatology (6.724- 51) as well,Virgil's debt to Lucretius'language is patent,but the content of thatspeech is downrightanti-Lucretian. 28"Lest Aeneas' pity violate the laws of the Underworld, theSibyl answers for him. . . . Andhe [Palinurus]would bind him to the emotional ties of the past when Aeneas is enteringupon a largerscheme of destiny" (Segal [n. 15above] 4 [1965]:651-53). 29Commager (n. 17above) 8.

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quae gratiacurrum armorumquefuit vivis, quae cura nitentis pascereequos, eadem sequiturtellure repostos (6.653-55)

These actions betraythe same overpoweringnostalgia that Deiphobus puts into words: et nimiummeminisse necesse est (6.514)

Once again, theSibyl mustintervene:

et forsomne datumtraherent per talia tempus, sed comes admonuitbreviterque adfata Sibylla est: "nox ruit,Aenea; nos flendoducimus horas" (6.537-39)

The firstof theselines makesthe meaningof "hoc opus, hie labor est" abundantly clear, "omne datumtempus" being nothingless thaneternity in the contextof the underworld.Aeneas' continuingsusceptibility to memoriaand to dolor threatensto sidetrackforever his returnto the worldof the living.In the thirdline, the setting in sunless Hades- "tristessine sole domus" (6.534)- clearlymarks the symbolic importof "nox ruit,Aenea; nos flendoducimus horas." The same thingcould have been said in Carthageand, in fact,was said:

quis talia fando MyrmidonumDolopumve aut durimiles Ulixi tempereta lacrimis?et iam nox umidacáelo praecipitatsuadentque cadentia sidera somnos (2.6-9)

In Carthage,this referenceto nightfalling as tearsare shed is literaltruth; but in the land of perpetualnight- "umbrarum hie locus est, somni noctisquesoporae" (6.390)- "nox ruit,Aenea" necessarilytakes on thecharacter of metaphor.Eternal darknessis about to fall on Troy, and Troy and the debilitatingmemory of it are soon to vanishfrom Aeneas' consciousness.This interpretationis confirmed at the end of the scene, whenDeiphobus, speaking as thepersonification of Troy and its people,30promises to withdrawand to impedeAeneas no more:

30So hashe beencorrectly interpreted in, for example, Brooks Otis, Virgil: A Studyin CivilizedPoetry (Oxford, 1964), 295-96, and in ThomasM. Falkner,"The Functionof the DeiphobusEpisode inAeneidVl" Humanitas 3.4 (1978):19-20.

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discedam.explebo numerum reddarque tenebris (6.545)

This is a major turningpoint, for it signalsAeneas' finalrelease fromthe lure of dolor and memoria.31 Aftera digressionin whichthe Sibyl describesthe impiousof Tartarusand theirpunishment,32 she and Aeneas make theirway to Proserpina'spalace. There, in two climacticallysuccinct lines33 marked by tricolon,parison, and placementof identicalverb forms at extremesof theline,

occupâtAeneas aditumcorpusque recenti spargitaqua ramumqueadverso in liminefigit (6.635-36)

If the Bough representssomeone's soul, the contextof these lines makes it clear enoughwhose soul is here leftbehind in Hades. Aeneas himselfrelinquishes his Trojan soul. This act is theculmination of Aeneas' labores and theprecondition of his passage fromthe darkness of Hades intothe light of Elysium.Significantly, he entersElysium immediatelyafter the depositionof the Bough, and this event anticipatesother, less concretetransitions soon to follow. With the emblem of

31"The reader has a senseof leave-taking- ofa farewellto wandering, to love, to Troy" (WendellClausen, "An Interpretation ofthe Aeneid ," inCommager [n. 17 above]86). "ButI can- notbut believe that in this book he is meantto take a lastfarewell of all whohave shared his past fortunes,have helped him or injuredhim. . . . Henceforward[i.e., afterAnchises' prophecy] Aeneasmakes no allusion to the past and the figures that peopled it" (W. WardeFowler, The Reli- giousExperience ofthe Roman People [London, 1911], 421). Forfurther discussion of this view bothpro and con, see the citations inAgnes K. Michels,"The Insomnium ofAeneas," Cß, n.s.,31 (1981):141, n. 5. 32Discussed at length in Zetzel (n. 7 above)264-72. 33Some years ago, L. A. MacKayalso noted the striking contrast between the importance of Aeneas'presentation of the Bough and the brevity of itsnarration: "this could have been a grandioseand impressive scene, but [Aeneas] . . . doesnot present his passport to Proserpina; when he comesto dispose of the Bough he doesso in a lessspectacular, but actually more solemn and moremeaningful way" (L. A. MacKay,"Three Levels of Meaning in Aeneid VI," ТАРА86 [1955]: 182-83). Thesame number of lines marked by the same features noted in Aen. 6.635-36 also des- cribethe similarly climactic event of Aeneas detaching the Bough in 6.210-1 1:

corripitAeneas extemplo avidusque refringit cunctantemetvatis portât sub tecta Sibyllae

Is thefinal abandonment ofthe Bough thus meant to recall its initial acquisition? In addition to the pairof lines, the tricolon with parison, and the framing ofline 210 with identical verb forms (fea- turesalready noted in 6.635-36),note the corresponsion between "corripit Aeneas" (6.210) and "occupâtAeneas" (6.635), and also between the acts of taking the Bough to the Sibyl in 6.211 and presentingitto Proserpina in6.636.

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TrojanAeneas' soul relegatedfor eternity to thedarkness of Hades, hope may now supplantnostalgia, the honestvigor of Rome in the makingmay replacethe super- civilized decadence of fallen Troy ("excudentalii . . ."), and allegiance to the ideal of Romanitasmay evolve fromdevotion to a mortalfather.34 Nothing less thandeath and rebirthcould sufficeto expressthe mysteryof such profoundtrans- formations,35which found their contemporary parallel in the comparablemystery (or so it musthave seemed to Virgil) of Octavian's transformationfrom a dynast motivatedby filialpiety into the founderof a new orderof things.Aeneas experi- ences the inverseof a usual reincarnation,in whichthe same soul exchangesone body foranother.36 Aeneas ratherexchanges one soul foranother, and he deposits theBough on Proserpina'sthreshold at preciselythat point in thenarrative at which the burdenof his Trojan soul is finallylaid down. Here the identificationof the GoldenBough withthe soul of TrojanAeneas suitsthe context admirably well. The act of abandoning the Golden Bough at Proserpina's door is accompaniedby a lustration.Commentators since Servius have wonderedwhy a lustrationis requiredat thispoint in thenarrative, and thisquandary, in turn,raises thepossibility that Aeneas' actionsin 6.635-36 are notto be explainedin narrative termsalone. To be specific,these lines suggesta funeral,and thisconnotation is due not only to the contextof similaractions elsewhere in theAeneid, but also to the reflexiveuse of the noun corpus in the phrase describingAeneas' lustration: "corpusquerecenti spargit aqua." It will be worthwhileto considereach of thesein turn,beginning with reflexive corpus.

34The ascent from Aeneas' love for his father to love for the Romanitas seen reflected in hisfather is analogousto the ascent from ó èpúfievoçtoavrò то koXóvin Plato's Symposium. This Platonicaspect of Aeneid 6 is toolittle remarked upon; but there are useful observations concerning theinterconnection between the motivation and the result of Aeneas' catabasis in Richard C. Monti, TheDido Episode and the Aeneid (Leyden, 1981), 79-80. See alsoOtis (n. 30 above)286. For the transformationofAeneas in the underworld, seeViktor Pöschl, The Art of Virgil, trans. G. Seligson (AnnArbor, 1962), 38; ElizabethBelfiore, "Ter Frustra Comprensa : Embraces in theAeneid ," Phoenix38 (1984):25; alsobelow, pp. 22-24. 35Essentially the same point is madeinterrogatively inWerner Suerbaum, "Aeneas zwis- chenTroja und Rom," Poetica 1 (1967): 191-92:"In diesemGegensatz zwischen Aeneas dem Latinerund zukünftigen Römer und Aeneas dem Trojaner, liegt das eigentliche Problem der Aeneis unddie dichterische Aufgabe, die Vergil zu lösenhatte: Wie konnte er es als glaubwürdig,ja als notwendigerscheinen lassen, dass aus denehemaligen Trojanern Latiner und später Römer wer- den?" 36This is onlya moreprecise formulation ofBrooks Otis's view that when Aeneas finally reachedhis father, "he had also undergone a kind of death [emphasis mine]- the death of his old Trojanand erotic self' (Otis [n. 30 above]307). Similarly Adam Parry: "Aeneas has not only gone intothe Underworld: he has in some way [emphasis mine] himself died" (Adam Parry, "The Two Voicesof Virgil'sAeneid Arion2.4 [1963]:78, reprintedin Commager [n. 17 above]121). OtherwiseMonti (n. 34 above)80: "theSibyl makes it plain that in seeking union with Anchises in theunderworld, Aeneas seeks a truedeath." For a Homericparallel in Odyssey11, where Odys- seus' to theunderworld is said to be "most a deathand see journey " " explicitlysymbolic rebirth," StephenV. Tracy,The Story of the Odyssey(Princeton, 1990), 68 (a referencefor which I have JosephRife to thank).

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The reflexiveuse of singularcorpus , thoughcommon in Latin,37in Virgil is uncommonand, withthe sole exceptionof Aeneid 10.834, is restrictedto the phrases "corriperee stratis/somnocorpus" (3.176, 4.572) and "corpus spargere " lympha/aqua.The latterphrase occurs in identicalcontexts (lustration) in identical lines (635) in Books 4 and 6, and in bothplaces the use of corpusinstead of se is appositefor the same reason. In Book 4, Dido dispatchesher nurseto bid Anna "corpusproperet fluviali spargere lympha." The corpusin questionwould seem to be Anna's own, but for Dido, and for the readeraware of her imminentsuicide, "corpus"also denotesDido's corpse. Not onlydoes suchamphibology become pro- nouncedas the Dido drama reachesits climax,38but "corpse" is in factthe usual meaningof accusativecorpus in Virgil.39In 4.683-84, the corpusto be cleansed provesto be Dido's afterall: "date," says Anna to the thronggathered round her dyingsister, "vulnera lymphis abluam." A similardouble entendremay be present in Aeneid6.635. Here too the immediatecontext would requirethat corpus stand for se; but the symbolismof the Bough also suggeststhe meaning"corpse." In layingdown on Proserpina'sthreshold the talismanof his 'pvxvTpo/m}, Aeneas becomes not a disembodiedsoul but, conversely,a body withouta soul. The funeraryimport of Aeneas' lustrationis reinforcedby the occurrenceof the same detailsin thefuneral of Misenus:

pars calidos laticeset aëna undantiaflammis expediunt,corpusque lavantfrigentis et unguunt (6.218-19)

idemter socios pura circumtulitunda spargens rorelevi et ramofelicis olivae, lustravitqueviros dixitque novissima verba (6.229-31)

As Charles Segal observed almost thirtyyears ago, Aeneas' lustration"closely recalls the ritual of burial required for Misenus before he could attain the Bough. . . . The rite of fasteningthe Bough thus recalls the recentactuality of deathin theupper world."40 On the other hand, the phrase followingAeneas' lustrationsuggests a dedicationof equipmentno longerneeded:

37See 7LL,vol. 4, col. 1012.41-1014.10. 38See Pöschl (n. 34 above)83-85. 39Sixteen times out of thirty-three, bymy count, not including Aen. 10.820. 40Segal (n. 15above) 5 (1966):41.

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ramumqueadverso in liminefigit (6.636)

Bothadversus and figere appear in a dedicatorycontext in Aeneid3.286-87, where Aeneas depositsin the templeof Apollo at Actiuma shieldtaken from the Greek Abas: aere cavo clipeum,magni gestamen Abantis, postibusadversis figo

Whenone dedicatesthe tools of one's trade,however, that signifies retirement, the tools in questionbeing now expendable.Thus, Antenor's dedicationof his Trojan armsin 1.248-49 indicatesthat both Troy and warfarelay behindhim once he had achievedthe settled peace of a new cityin Italy:

hie tamenille urbemPatavi sedesquelocavit Teucrorumet gentinomen dedit armaque fixit Troia, nuncplacida compostuspace quiescit (1.247-49)

In Carthage, Aeneas too retireshis Trojan arms, albeit prematurely,meta- phorically,and irresponsibly:

armaviri thalamo quae fixa reliquit impius (4.495-96)

Here thedeity is a mortal,her templea boudoir,and thededication itself a gesture notof pietybut of its opposite,even if thatis notquite the sense thatDido herself attachesto "impius." To both Antenorand Aeneas alike, arrivalin Italy brings deathof a sort.41That is impliedfor Antenor by thewords that describe his settled peace, for "placida compostuspace quiescit"applies to burial(N.B. "compostus," standardparlance for "buried") as well as to retirement.42The same is also the sig- nificanceof Trojan Aeneas' dedicationof the expendabletalisman of his soul. Whatsets Aeneas apartfrom Antenor is notdeath but rebirth.

41 WhenAeneas makes landfall in Italy,he andhis crew disembark "onto the Hesperian shore"(Aen. 6.6), i.e., withlower-case /г, "onto the evening shore." Both evening and a distant shoreare commonly associated with death, e.g., in Soph.ОТ 178,where the two ideas are com- binedin theexpression актаи irpòçèairépov deov , "theevening god" being, of course,Hades. Thus,from the very beginning ofBook 6, Italy,as an "eveningshore," is linkedwith the land of thedead. 42See thecopious comments ofHeyne and Wagner on Aen. 1 .249: "quo sensu haec dicta sintdubitare licet; aut enim de morteaut de otioet tranquillitate . . . accipipotest" (С. G. Heyne andG. P. E. Wagner,eds., Publias Virgilius Maro4 , vol. 2 [Leipzig,1832], 115).

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Finally,as a munusfor Proserpina, Virgil's Bough is cast in the same role as thepurified soul in Orphicmysticism, released from the Wheel of Birth( kvkKoç rrjç yepéaeuç).43 In one of the poems inscribedon the so-called Orphic Gold Leaves foundat Thurii,such a soul, like theBough, is destinedfor Proserpina:

òsoiroívaçô' viròкокжоу sòvp xOovíaç ßaciksiag44

In Pindar,fragment 127, the same goddess presidesover thejudgment and rein- carnationof souls.45

The Golden Bough is firstmentioned in Aeneid 6.136-48. We may now turnback to thatpassage and considerto what extentthe Sibyl's words in those lines are consistentwith the hypothesisthat the Golden Bough standsfor the soul of TrojanAeneas. The textis as follows:

latetarbore opaca aureuset foliiset lentovimine ramus, Iunoniinfernae dictus sacer; hunctegit omnis lucus et obscurisclaudunt convallibus umbrae. sed non antedatur telluris operta subire auricomosquam quis decerpseritarbore fetus. hoc sibi pulchrasuum ferri Proserpina munus instituit.primo avulso, non deficitalter aureus,et similifrondescit virga metallo. ergo alte vestigaoculis et riterepertum carpe manu; namqueipse volensfacilisque sequetur, si te fatavocant; aliter non viribusullis vincereпес duropoteris convellere ferro.

We have alreadyconsidered how the image of splendorshrouded in darkness applies to the incarnatesoul, and so thistheme, to whichthe firstfour lines are devoted,need notconcern us here. The symbolismof thegold, however,from which the splendorof the Bough derives-and which Virgil highlightsat the beginningof threelines out of eight (6.137-44)- establishesanother connection

43See the excursus below. 44Zuntz (n. 18above) 301, 308, 319. 45Ibid. 86-87. Virgil may have found the Bough itself in certain mysteries ofProserpina: so Norden(п. 4 above)171-73.

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between Bough and soul. As Norden46recognized, gold symbolizes life and immortality,that is, theessential attributes of thesoul. Indeed,this symbolism was observedabove in the Greek adjectivesxPvffÓKOfioç and -kó/xtjç,used primarilyof immortalgods. Thus, the materialof the Bough symbolizesthe essence of the soul.47 Concerning"Iunoni infernaedictus sacer" in line 138, commentators(Nor- den and Austin,for example) have tendedto concentrateeither on thealleged tech- nical reasonfor the periphrasis(metri gratia) or on the identityof "luno inferna." On theother hand, the sinisterconnotations of thefour words in questionseem not to have been fullyappreciated. Taken by itself,the phrase "dictus sacer" would mean "damned," "accursed,"48and in the particularcontext of the Aeneid, the hostilityof Junobrings this meaning very close to thesurface. In theclimactic line of her reconciliationspeech to Jupiterin Aeneid 12, Junoemploys, emphatically and significantly,the dictionof deathwhen she refersto thedestruction of Troyas a fait accomplithat she demandsremain so:

occidit,occideritque sinas cum nomineTroia (12.828)

She does not specifyexactly when Troy's demiseoccurred, but arguably it was not completeuntil even the memoryof Troy ceased to exist in Aeneas' psyche. Con- trary to Aeneas' professed expectationin 1.206- "illic fas regna resurgere Troiae"- Troy is in factnever to rise again. Junodemands its eternalannihilation, and she is grantednothing less whenthe last of theTrojans surrenders the talisman of his soul to her chthonicmanifestation. As it pertainsto the destructionof Troy, Jupiter's"do quod vis" in 12.833 is a statementof accomplishedfact.49

46 Ibid.172. In thefragment ofClearchus quoted ibid., n. 2, thepower of a '//vxov'kòç paßÖoqboth to disembodyand to incarnatesouls has an obviousconnection with the symbolism hereproposed for Virgil's Bough. See also Segal (n. 15above) 4 (1965):627-28, 631. 47 Thereis plausibilityin Agnes K. Michels*contention ("The Golden Bough of Plato," AJP66 [1945]:59-63) that Virgil knew the golden bough mentioned in the proem of Meleager's Garland, which refers to Plato'sepigrams as the"ever-golden branch of divine Plato" (xpvoeiov àel deioto TLXárcúuoç / кХшш, lines 47-48). If Virgilalso knewthat Meleager's "ever-golden branch"was specifically the houseleek (so BenedictEinarson, "Plato in Meleager'sGarland," CP 38 [1943]:260-61), which in Greekcarries, among others, the names àeí xpvoov ([Dsc.]) and àeífaov(Theophr.), Meleager's couplet will in thatcase have supplied the linkage among branch, gold,and immortality thatVirgil exploited for his own purposes. 48 See R. M. Ogilvie,A CommentaryonLivy Books 1-5 (Oxford,1965), 500-1, s.v. "ius fasque"and "Iovi." 49 Othershave argued otherwise, e.g., AgnesK. Michels(n. 31 above)142: "onecan arguethat, in thelast half of theAeneid , Aeneas . . . hasnot put behind him his past and his memoriesofTroy." This conclusion, however, is notsupported by the evidence, limited as thatis toa singleline (12.440) in which Aeneas invokes both himself and Hector as exemplavirtutis for Ascanius.If Aeneas' memories ofTroy in Aen. 7-12 amount to no more than this unique, curt, and ad hocreference toHector, he has clearly become a differentman from the nostalgia-ridden heroof

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An object sacer to an underworlddivinity is in any case earmarkedfor destructionipso facto. Virgil combinessacer witha dativenoun six times,50and twice this noun is the name of an underworlddeity. Like the Golden Bough "Iunoni infernaedictus sacer," Dido's lock in 4.703-4 is "Diti sacer." It too is severed,and forDido thisaction has thesame significanceas our hypothesiswould postulatefor Aeneas and thesevering of theGolden Bough. Dido's soul is set free, "omniset una / dilapsuscalor atque in ventosvita recessit"(4.704-5). In sum, not only are Dido's lock and the Golden Bough bothsacer to one or the otherof the reigningmonarchs in the underworld,but both are severed, and in both cases essentiallythe same outcome ensues: actual death for Dido, symbolicdeath for Aeneas. It is also worthnoting that auricomus applies to Dido's lock no less than to theBough:

nondumilli flavumProserpina vertice crinem abstulerat (4.698-99)

Finally, a furtherlink betweenthe Golden Bough and Dido's death has already been notedabove in thesimilarity between the cunctatio of theBough in 6.211 and theluctatio of Dido's soul in 4. 695.51 In line 147, too littlenote has been takenof the expressionfata vocant, whichhere makes its debutin extantLatin literature.Like auricomusin line 141, Virgil may have borrowedfata vocant fromRoman tragedy,52for accordingto Socrates in Phaedo 115A, the correspondingGreek expression belonged to TpayLKTjXefiç:

Books1-6. Michels(ibid. 143, n. 6) givesfive citations from Books 7-12 in which Aeneas' mis- sionis saidto be the rebuilding ofTroy; but four of these (7.322, 10.26-27, 58, 74-75) come from speechesof Juno and Venus, whose perception offate is consistentlymyopic. Nowhere in Books 7- 12 doesAeneas himself speak of his mission in these terms, in marked contrast to Books1-6 (see 1.206,for example). Finally, there is nothingto indicatethat Aeneas himself is responsiblefor namingthe Dardanian camp "Troy," which Michels also considers germane. If Aeneasis calleda Trojanby himself and by others in Books7-12, the immutable fact of his provenance allows no alternative.The nuance of the name, however, no longersuits him, as is evidentwhen one com- paresJupiter's differing reactions tothe insults of Iopas and of Numanus Remulus, for which see n. 58 below. 50Aen. 4.703, 6.138, 6.484, 10.316, 11.768, 12.766; also cf. 4.485, where the branches holdingthe golden apples of the Hesperides are, like the Golden Bough, sacer, but sans dative. 51To thecorrespondences enumerated above, another may be added:the claim of L. AnnaeusCornutus, reported and rejected by Macrobius(Sat. 5.19.2),that Dido's lock and the GoldenBough are both instances of Virgilian inventio. For a modernassessment ofthis claim, see Norden(n. 4 above)169. 52See ibid. 176-77 for Virgil's aversion to neologisms.

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èfie òs pvpr¡8ri KocXeî, aíri ар àprjpтраумод, r¡eifiapfiepij53

Similarly,fata vocant in Latin is, with one exception, exclusivelypoetic.54 Nevertheless,whatever may be the literaryhistory of thisexpression, the question here is ratherits meaningin Aeneid6.147, where"si te fatavocant" is generally takenas equivalentto "si es vir fatalis."55In Phaedo 115A, however,the meaning of the correspondingGreek expressionis "esse moriturus,"and thatis the usual meaningof fata vocantin Latin as well.56Thus, in Aeneid6.147, the Sibyl could mean "si es vir fatalis,"but she could equallywell mean "si es moriturus."In fact, the second alternative,addressed to "Tros Anchisiades,"suits the contextbetter; forif "si te fatavocant" is takenin the sense "si es moriturus,"the inconsistency between"ipse volens facilisquesequetur" in line 146 and "cunctantem"in line 211 ceases to be a problem.The tenacityof the Bough calls intoquestion not Aeneas' statusas a man of destiny-that is assured in the second line of the poem- but ratherthe readinessof Trojan Aeneas to embarkupon the deathjourney that the separationof the Bough fromthe oak symbolicallyinaugurates.57 Orientals are proverbialvoluptuaries,58 and hence the Oriental soul is, in Socratic terms,

53Socrates must mean the entire expression, for n eiuapuevri alone occurs even in prose. 54Four times in Virg.,twice in Ov. (Her.only), once in Sen.trag., more than once in Sil.,and once in Claud. The only occurrence inprose is inJustin 18.6.5. Sg. fatum vocat is found oncein Luc. and more than once in Sil. Citationsare in 7ZX, vol. 6, col.363.12-14. 55For example, "the golden bough . . . cannotbe broken off by any but the appointed few . . . whoare fated to carry it" (Otis [n. 30 above]288-89); "only those can pluck it who are called bydestiny" (Austin [n. 4 above]83). 56 See Virg.G. 4.496,Aen. 10.471,Ov. Her. 6.28 ("me quoquefata vocant" opp. "vivit"),7.1 (swansong), Sil. 4.508;and ci. fata poscunt! quaeruntl expetunt inVeil. 2.123.2, Sen. Troad.368, 528, Petr. 111.11. When fata vocant refers to destiny, fata is normallyaccompanied bya dependentgenitive (Virg. Aen. 11.97, Sen. Her. F. 396,Justin 18.6.5), Claud. 26.171 alone excepted.Paired with lux , sg.fatum vocat carries the meaning "esse naturus" inSil. 13.857. 57Others as wellhave suggested that the resistance ofthe Bough may reflect some sort of reluctanceinAeneas himself: e.g., Viktor Pöschl, "Das Befremdendeinder Aenei s," in2000 Jahre Vergil:Ein Symposion, ed. ViktorPöschl (Wiesbaden, 1983), 187; Kenneth J. Reckford,"Some Treesin Virgiland Tolkien," in PerspectivesofRoman Poetry , ed. G. KarlGalinsky (Austin, 1974),71-72, 83. 58For occurrences ofthis cliché in theAeneid , see N. M. Horsfall, "Numanus Remulus: Ethnographyand Propaganda in Aeneid9.598ff.," Latomus 30 (1971):1113-16, reprinted with updatedbibliography inOxford Readings in Vergil's"Aeneid" ed. S. J.Harrison (Oxford and New York,1990), 311-15. The transformation of Aeneas in Aen. 6 is evidentin Jupiter'scontrasting reactionstothe taunts of Iarbas in Book4 andto the ethnic slurs of Numanus Remulus in Book9. Jupiteraids and abets Ascanius' violent rebuttal of Remulus,but his activist response to Iarbas tacitlyconfirms that Iarbas' slanders are just (otherwise Charles P. Segal,"The Song of Iopas in the Aeneid,"Hermes 99 [1971]: 341 ["Iarbas'passion allows us to discounthis accusation"]). Similarly,like Remulus' insults, Turnus' misperception ofAeneas as a Phrygiandandy in 12.99- 100also proves fatal, as doesthe propensity ofthe Italians in generalto viewAeneas as a Paris redivivus:see WilliamS. Anderson,"Vergil's Second Iliad" ТАРА88 (1957): 21-23, 30, reprintedinHarrison (above) 243-45, 252.

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smOvfjiriTLKÛçrov GÚfiaToç šxovoct ( Phaedo 108A). The luctatioof Dido's soul in the face of death resemblesthe cunctatioof the Golden Bough, and it suggests what the clingingBough signifiesfor Aeneas. The Trojan king no less than the Tyrianqueen wavers on the thresholdof death,just as the Socratic analysison pages 10-11 above would lead one to expectin view of the natureof the Eastern soul.59Beginning with an elaborateGreek vocative- "Tros Anchisiade"- in which she uses the language of Troy to underscoreAeneas' Trojan identity60(and a patronymicto allude to the filial pietythat alone has broughthim to her door61 [6.108-17]), the Sibyl tells Trojan Aeneas thatif his finalhour is at hand- "si te fatavocant"- it will prove possible to detachthe Bough fromthe oak; otherwise,

59Among the four examples of pleasures that Socrates attributes tothe somatoeidetic soul in Phd.64D-E, two in particularapply to Dido andAeneas: та афроЫоих(64 D; cf. SìВ) and í/mríш ЬьафероггшKTrjoeiç ка1 Ьтгобг^цбтьзи ка1oi ãXKoLкаХкштоцо! oi irepi то aû/ia.For the latter,see Aen. 1.648-55, 711, 4.137-39, 216-17, 261-64, 11.72-75. Decked out in a fop'sfinery in4.261-64, Aeneas, far from adopting alien ways, rather reverts to type.His cargo of objets d'art andTrojan gaza in 1.119(mentioned also in 2.763-66) betoken the same mores as does"wealthy" (4.263)Dido's freight ofTyrian treasure in 1.362-64. In 1.637-42 and 1 .697-700, the interior of Dido'spalace, "regali splendida luxu," exhibits the same character as thedoorposts of Priam's Trojanpalace, "barbarico . . . aurospoliisque superbi," in 2.504 (note "at domus interior" ofboth palacesin 1.637and 2.486, but nowhere else in Virgil;also superbus in 1.639,1.697, 2.504). Luxuryis endemicamong Trojans and Tyrians alike (cf. 2.4 and4.75, in which, similarly struc- tured,"Troianae" and "Sidoniae"are interchangeableas modifiers of "opes"),and Trojan and Tyriangold is as old as thepeoples themselves (1.640-42, 2.448, 8.166-68, the last concerning Priam'svisit to Arcadia with Anchises before the war). The Trojan king succumbs to theallure of Carthageprecisely because this transplant ofTyre could pass for Troy itself, to which it is Aeneas' fondestdesire to return.In Carthagehe feelsquite literally at home.It is significantthat when Aeneasarrives in Africa in 1.157-73,Virgil recalls the Homeric passage (Od. 13.93-124)in which Odysseusreturns tohis native land. For good remarks on the "dangerous oriental luxury" common toboth Trojans and Carthaginians, seeSegal (n. 58 above)340-42. 60So has shealready done in 6.52,where she addresses Aeneas as "TrosAenea." The prayerof Aeneasthat follows in 6.54-76is a compendiumof terms for "Troy" or "Trojan,"of whichthere are eight occurrences within the first thirteen lines (56-68). "It may be fancyin me to seeeven in his prayer ... a leaningto thinkof Troy" (Fowler [n. 31 above]421). Theextreme neotericismofthe initial Daedalus episode also reflects Aeneas' Asiatic provenance, as the subject ofthe passage (separation offather from son) alludes to the filial piety that motivates Aeneas at this pointin the narrative (see Pöschl [n. 34 above]150). 61Herein lies a probableexplanation for the fact that in nobook of the Aeneid is Aeneas called"son of Anchises" so oftenas inBook 6 (lines126, 322, 331, 348). The three cases in Book 5 (lines244, 407, 424) are similar: they all belong to the funeral games, which, like the underworld journey,are an actof filial piety. Finally, in most of the four isolated cases remaining, there is a clearconnection between the immediate context and the appellation "son of Anchises":7.152, 8.521(following a speech of Evander that concludes with the name of his ill-starred son), 10.250 (beforea prayerto the"fostering mother of thegods, dwelling on Ida," thetry sting place of Anchisesand 10.822 Aeneasviews the "mentem subiit Venus), (as " " dyingLausus, patriae pietatis imago").See K. W. Gransden,ed., Virgil:Aeneid Book VIII (Cambridge, 1976), 151, and cf. Nor- denin the next footnote. Aeneas' journey to Hades as an actprompted "by love and longing" for Anchisesis succinctlyand eloquently stressed by Segal (n. 15 above)4 (1965):635. See alsoBel- fiore(n. 34 above)24. In thisconnection itmay also be pertinent torecall that death and love have incommon the separation ofsoul from body, as inCallim. Epigr. 41 .

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impossible,no matterthe forcethat is broughtto bear. The same applies to Trojan Aeneas' soul, separablefrom the body only in thehour of death:

apa fir¡[sc. riyovfisOatòp Oávaroveivai] aXko ri rjttjv tt}ç rpvxyçòlttò rov oáfÁaToçатгаХкау r¡v' (Phaedo 64C)

Nothingless thandeath and rebirthcould sufficeto expressthe mysteryof such radicaltransformations as occur in Aeneid6. These transformationsare radi- cal notonly because theyinvolve polar opposites,but also because theirrealization is as swiftas it is total. This becomes especiallyclear when the prolongedand ardentreunion of Aeneas withAnchises62 (6.679-702) is set beside the complete absence of a final leave-takingat the end of the book. In the initialencounter betweenfather and son, nearlyidentical phraseology underscores the fact that when reunitedat last withhis father,the longed-for focus of hispietas , Aeneas responds withthe same intenseemotion as when he earliermet the woman for whom his amor stillburned:

da, genitor,teque amplexune subtrahenostro (6.698) sistegradům teque aspectune subtrahenostro (6.465)

As he oftenhas at othertimes,63 Aeneas reactsto thisTrojan imago as if it were real:

62 "Vater-und Sohnesliebe finden bei dem weichgestimmten Dichter oft ergreifenden Aus- druck:um nur bei BuchVI zu bleiben,so trafenwir vorhin (Vers 30ff.) schon ein Beispiel, und werdenunten (687ff.) einem weiteren [in addition to 6.110-14]begegnen" (Norden [n. 4 above] 156-57). 63 E.g., in 1.453-95and 6.648-55. The Trojans depicted in thetemple at Carthageand thosemet in Elysiumare imagines that differ only in kind, and hence inanis applies to the chariots ofboth: ferturequis curruque haeret resupinus inani (1 .476; cf. 1 .464) armaprocul currusque virum miratur inanis (6.651) Aeneasis amazedat bothartifacts and shades ("miranda" in 1.494,"miratur" in 6.651),and the tearsshed at the sight of Anchises* shade replicate the tears evoked by Dido's panels: sicmemorans, largo fletu simul ora rigabat (6.699) multagemens, largoque umectat flumine vultum (1.465) Evenif due to pietas (see n. 61 above)rather than to debilitating nostalgia, Aeneas' reunion with hisfather nevertheless belongs to a lengthyseries of encounters with Trojan ghosts that extends as farback as thebeginning ofthe poem. Included among these, as DavidBright has shown ("Aeneas' OtherNekyia," Vergilius 27 [1981]:40-47), is Aeneas'visit to theNew Troy of Helenusand Andromache,a Trojan imago that Virgil assimilates to a landof shadesand phantoms. Aeneas' propensitytotreat phantoms as realities is firstmanifested as memoria in 1.94-101, where Troy and itspeople, though dead, continue toaffect Aeneas as powerfullyas if they were still living realities.

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terconatus ibi collo dare bracchiacircum; ter,frustra comprensa, manus effugit imago, par levibusventis volucrique simillima somno (6.700-3)

Thus, when Aeneas takes leave of his fathersome 200 lines later, he could be expectedat least to acknowledge,as he does to Dido in 6.466,

extremumfato quod te adloquorhoc est

He mightalso be expectedto act accordingly.In fact,however, he does not even offerhis hand in eternalfarewell, nor does he betrayany impulseto embracehis father'sshade. If wordsof farewellare spoken,the poet omitsto say so. What he does say, afterdevoting twice as manylines to the gates of hornand ivory,64is simplythis:

his ibi tumnatum Anchises unaque Sibyllam prosequiturdictis portaque emittit eburna (6.897-98)

"Prosequitur"is the same verb with which the scene with Dido concludes, but otherwisethe two passages have nothingin common.The "his . . . dictis"referred to are instructions,not affectionatewords of eternalfarewell.65 It would be difficult to imagine a sharpercontrast with the emotionallyextravagant reunion of fatherand son in 6.679-702; and the transformationunderlying this contrastis revealedin 6.889:

incenditqueanimum famae venientis amore

Amorpatris has been transformedinto amorfamae venientis. Aeneas' affections are heretransferred from Trojan fatherto Romanideal, froma humanbeing to an abstraction.With this, proto-Roman Aeneas is born,and the requisitetransforma- tion is completedfrom Trojan son into "pater Aeneas, Romanae stirpisorigo" (12.166). Read against this background,the Sibyl's words concerningthe Golden Boughin 6. 143-44 takeon thecharacter of allegory:

64For an analysisof thisincongruity and its effect, see R. J.Tarrant, "Aeneas and the Gatesof Sleep," CP 11 (1982):52. ' 65"The summary[of Anchisesinstructions] suggests the hard clarity and order of a Romangeneral" (Segal [n. 15 above]5 [1966]:63). "Theleave-taking of father and son in the underworldis remarkably casual" (Belfiore [n. 34 above]25).

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primoavulso, non deficitalter aureus,et similifrondescit virga metallo

The metempsychosisof thelast of theTrojans into the prototypical Roman requires deathand rebirth,that is, the surrenderof one soul in exchangefor another. The removalof one Golden Boughand its replacementby anothersymbolically foresha- dows Aeneas' experiencein the underworld.Thus, thisdetail too accords withthe thesisthat the Bough, carriedinto the underworldand laid at Proserpina'sdoor, is theemblem of TrojanAeneas' soul.

In Aeneid 4.441-46, as was observedat the outset,a formalsimile makes explicitthe identification of Aeneas withan oak that"in Tartaratendit." In Book 6 the same image reappearsas theoak containingthe Golden Bough, buthere Virgil makesthe connectionwith Aeneas implicit,by describingoak and Bough in terms thatcorrespond not only withthe imagerypertaining to body and soul in Lucretius and Plato, but also, as has just been argued, with the experiencethat Aeneas undergoesin Book 6. The separationof the Golden Bough fromits oak is thusa symbolicenactment of the separationof soul frombody- thatis, of death- without which no journey into Hades is possible.66This interpretationis furthercor- roboratedby the factthat as soon as the Bough is pulled loose fromthe oak, there followsan elaboratefuneral, the significance of whichdeserves some attention. With the sole exceptionof Pallas in Book 11, no one in the Aeneid is preparedfor burial withgreater pomp and ceremonythan is Misenus in Book 6. The deathof Pallas is a cardinalevent, and thelength of thepassage devotedto his funeralis consistentwith the centralimportance of thisyoung victim's death. The same cannotbe said of Misenus, however.To his funeralrites also a long passage (6.212-35) is devoted,and yet, untilAeneas and his men come upon his body in 6.162, his role in the poem has been limitedto a unique mentionin a single line (239) in Book 3. In thisrespect he resemblesDeiphobus later in thebook. In spite of receivingequal time with Palinurusand Dido, familiarto both Aeneas and readeralike, Deiphobus is knownonly froman isolated mentionin 2.310. The parallelof Deiphobus is instructive,for as Brooks Otis recognized,Deiphobus is "the symbol of all the violence and treacherythat attendedthe destructionof Troy."67In otherwords, the familiarityof Palinurusand Dido promptsa response to themas individuals.The veryanonymity of Deiphobus,however, enables him

66In CharlesSegal's view ([n. 15 above]4 [1965]:634, 636), "the symbolic enactment of hisown death" rather occurs when Aeneas enters Hades in 6.236-63. 67Otis (n. 30 above)296. Additionalarguments insupport of the same view are adduced inFalkner (n. 30 above)19-20.

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to acquire a significancethat extends beyond his personal insignificance.For Deiphobus thereare no givens, as thereare for Palinurusand for Dido, and as therewould have been for Hector or Creüsa had eitherof these appeared in his place.68The same is trueof Misenus. The incongruitybetween his lavish funeral and his own obscurity("the enormouspreparations for the funeralof one man, Misenus,are astonishing"69)suggests the possibility that his burialmay have a significance that extends beyond itself. Specifically, because Misenus' burial immediatelyfollows70 the passage in which,according to our hypothesis,the death of Trojan Aeneas is symbolicallyenacted, it would notbe unreasonableto suppose thatMisenus is only a stand-infor Aeneas himself.71If, for passage across the Styx, burial is requiredafter death, the same would also apply afterthe sortof symbolicdeath that Aeneas undergoeswhen he tears the Golden Bough fromits oak. As a matterof objectivefact, Misenus is interredin Aeneid 6.212-35, but ratherthan Misenus, the funeralrites filling these lines are likelyto honorTrojan Aeneas. There is, moreover,a linguisticargument that leads to the same conclusion. Whatthat argument is we maynow proceedto consider. In Aeneid4.19, Dido acknowledgesto her sisterthat if she had not grown indifferentto marriage,"I could perhapshave yieldedto this single wrong,"that is, to thewrong of marryingAeneas in spiteof hervow to Sychaeus:

68So Clark(n. 5 above)163-65. 69Skutsch (n. 10above) 341 . 70 Theburial of Misenus coming next after the discovery of theBough is a juxtaposition thatSegal too considers "of the highest importance," and he discusses it atlength ([n. 15 above]4 [1965]:620-24, 636-42). It is inany case not to be takenfor granted. The Sibyl treats the Bough andthe burial as distincttasks (note "pr aeterea" preceding the burial instructions in6.149), and so Virgilcould be expectedto have presented them sequentially, taking up the search for the polluting corpseonly after the Bough is secured,or vice versa. This, however, would have prevented thejux- tapositionof Boughand burial, which Virgil achieved by integrating thediscovery of the Bough intothe search for wood for Misenus' pyre. For the integration of these two episodes, noted as earlyas Servius,see Norden (n. 4 above)180 and Segal (n. 15above) 4 (1965):620-22. A pairof doves and their role in the discovery of a magicaloak are elements that Virgil's narrativehas in common with the foundation legend of the oracle at Dodona. This oracle traced its originto the flight out of Egypt of two doves, one of which flew north to Dodona, landed on the propheticoak, and with a humanvoice instructed the locals to establishan oracleon thesite. Accordingto S. Tr. 172, theancient oak at Dodonaspoke "out of twindoves" (bwoûv ек ireXeLáòcjúv),as the priestesses at Dodona were called. At the same time, as Serviusremarked and Norden(n. 4 above)189-90 demonstrates indetail, the doves' flight to the Bough in 6.191-203 is madeto resemble an augury.Thus, Roman augury and Greek prophecy are combined in a unified episode.Such a contaminationofGreek with Roman sources is so thoroughlyVirgilian that the pair ofdoves, which are out of place in their augural context ("keine augurales a ves"- ibid. 190), can confidentlybe assigned not to the symbolism ofthe Golden Bough, but rather to the concrete reality of theoak at Dodona.Norden (ibid. 174) notesthe parallelism between the Cumaean and the Chaoniandoves, and hence it is surprisingthat his commentary on 6.191-203 has nothing to say aboutcontamination. 71Something akin to thisview is advancedin Monti(n. 34 above)81: "in burying Misenus,Aeneas buries symbolically hisown will."

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huic uni forsanpotui succumbere culpae

This verse is grammaticallycomplete, however, with "succumbere," and untilthe additionof "culpae"- at the last minute,as it were- it means "under this man " alone I could perhapshave lain. The last wordin theline transformsthe meaning, butnonetheless, the initialindiscretion is by no meanserased.72 On the contrary,it betraysan aspect of Dido's psychologythat her regal status,not to mentionepic decorum,will notallow to be made explicit. Anotherexample of the same techniqueis foundin the wordsof the Sibyl, whose penchantfor significantambiguity, "obscuris vera involvens"(6.100), has already been observed in such expressionsas "si te fata vocant." In the same speech in which these words occur, the Sibyl begins as follows her instructions concerningthe second task awaiting Aeneas:

praetereaiacet exanimumtibi corpus amici (6.149)

Initiallythe Sibyl appears to say that it is Aeneas' body that lies lifeless- "praetereaiacet exanimumtibi73 corpus"- and this sense persistsup untilthe last word, which,like "culpae" in 4.19, amountsto a irapà irpoaòoicíolv requiringthe reinterpretationof the wordsthat have come beforeit.74 The lifelesscorpse requir- ing burial belongs after all not to Aeneas but to one of the hero's friends. Nevertheless,the initialmeaning lingers, and withit theinnuendo that the burial of Misenusis tantamountto theburial of TrojanAeneas himself. There is anotherexpressive double entendreemployed to the same effectin Aeneid6.232-33, where,as theclimactic action preceding the finalaetion, Aeneas places atop Misenus' tombthe tools of thistrumpeter's trade:

72For the double entendre inAen. 4.19, see Clausen(n. 8 above)42; see alsoibid. 24, whereClausen's remark on the double entendre inAen. 4.165 applies as wellto the case under discussion:"the effect is untranslatable.Ambiguity inLatin poetry is circumscribedandtends to be, as here,momentary and evanescent; but it doesexist." For two other examples in Aen. 2.235 and 4.82,see respectively ibid. 37 andClifford Weber, "Some Double Entendres inOvid and Vergil," CP 85 (1990):212-14; also thesources cited in JamesJ. O'Hara,"They Might Be Giants: InconsistencyandIndeterminacy inVergil's War in Italy," Colby Quarterly 30 (1994):221, n. 41. As thepostponement ofa conjunctioncreates a doubleentendre inAen. 4.165, so thesame man- nerismproduces the same effect in Anna'surgent question in 4.33: "necdulcis natos Veneris nec praemianoris?" Initially the first object appears to be "dulcisnatos Veneris," i.e., Cupidand Aeneas,whose sibling relationship Venus herself invokes in 1 .667. 73 A SQ-çalled"sympathetic" dative of the sort commonly used with anatomical terms, as inCatull. 8.18, 97.2, Virg. Aen. 1.477, 4.248, 6.299, 6.596. 6.665, Tibull. 1.4.4: see J. B. Hof- mann,Lateinische Syntax und Stilistik , rev. Anton Szantyr (Munich, 1965), 94-95. 74This valuable insight concerning Aen. 6.149 is entirelyJulia Dyson's, to whomI am gratefulfor bringing itto my attention.

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at pius Aeneas ingentimole sepulcrum imponitsuaque armaviro remumquetubamque

Here the sentenceis grammaticallycomplete with "viro," at whichpoint it means thatAeneas' own arms crownMisenus' tomb.Although the ashes of Misenus are storedwithin, the tomb,it would seem, is markedas thatof Trojan Aeneas. Like the finalwords in 4.19 and 6.149, the finaltwo wordsin 6.233 alterthe meaning of all that precedes them. The "arma" belong afterall not to Aeneas but to Misenus. Nevertheless,the initialimpression remains, that Aeneas lays his own armson the tomb.75Such would be the normalsense of "sua," which,despite the special pleading of commentators,would properlydenote Aeneas ratherthan Misenus. Here too, then,double entendreserves to suggesta meaningthat cannot be expressedovertly. In the end, Misenus' accoutrementsdo after all crown Misenus' tomb. Nevertheless,Aeneid 6.232-33 appears initiallyto convey the sense thatMisenus' tomb is markedas the tombof Aeneas, and this implication tallies withthe conclusionadvanced above, thatthe lavish funeralof Misenus is likelierto honorthe symbolicdeath of Trojan Aeneas thanthe actual deathof an insignificanttrumpeter.76

VII

It remainsto considerthe penultimateappearance of the Golden Bough in Aeneid 6.384-416, where the Sibyl dispels Charon's misgivingsover ferrying

75 Cf.Antenor's dedication of hisTrojan arms upon his arrival in Italy(Aen . 1.248-49, quotedon p. 17above). 76 In additionto the length of the Misenus passage, a featureof its diction also contributes tothe incongruity noted above between the modest subject and its extravagant treatment. The adjec- tiveingens occurs 168 times in the Aeneid , and three times within the twenty-four lines devoted to Misenus'funeral. This concentration is equaled or exceeded in only four other passages: 2.476-89 (theattack on Priam'spalace), 6.400-26 (five times, thrice of Cerberus),8.241-58 (the Cacus episode),and 12.708-24 (the duel of Aeneasand Turnus); cf. 7.167-85(different paragraphs), 12.888-97(epanalepsis). Applied so oftento the funerary apparatus ofa minorfigure, ingens seems misused,as is notedby Norden (n. 4 above)195, who finds in 6.222 ( ingens of Misenus' bier) an instanceof "derstarken Katachrese, die dieses Wort . . . oftbei Vergil hat" (on the other hand, ingensused of Misenus' pyre and grave in 6.215 and 6.232 elicits no comment). The same adjective alsolinks Misenus to Aeneas, who, as heboards Charon's boat, is calledingens in 6.413 (the view thatAeneas is hereingens qua vivus[so HelenH. Bacon,"The Aeneid as a Dramaof Election," ТАРА116 (1986): 317] is refutedin Aen.2.557, where, as mycolleague Eugene Dwyer reminds me,the "ingens truncus" is that of Priam's corpse; neither does it follow from Aeneas' great weight in6.413 that his must therefore be a corpusvivum , for weight is a primeattribute ofdead bodies: cf. English"dead weight," and see Luc. 2.206,where "viva corpora" and "graves trunci" are antitheticallyjuxtaposed). Misenus also has in common with Aeneas the fact that he "Hectoris. . . magnifuerat comes" (6.166: cf. Pöschl's remarks [(n. 34 above)36-37] concerning the amicitia of Hectorand Aeneas);and withTrojan Aeneas, Misenus shares characteristic Trojan garb ("purpureasque. . . vestes,velamina nota" in 6.221,derided by Numanus Remulus in 9.614as a familiarexample of Trojan decadence; see nn. 58-59 above).

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Aeneas across the Styx. Charon gives two reasons for denyingAeneas passage: first,because "corporaviva" are prohibitedfrom crossing the river(6.391); and, secondly,because thelast mortalsto do so- theytoo, like Aeneas, descendedfrom gods and invincible(6.394, echoingthe Sibyl's words to Aeneas in 6. 129-31)- playedhavoc in the halls of Pluto's palace. Stressingonce again77Aeneas' Trojan provenanceand the filial piety that motivateshim (6.403-4), the Sibyl refutes Charon'stwo objectionsin reverseorder, and by differentmeans. For dealingwith the second objection,she resortsto argumentation.Aeneas, she says, is no Her- cules, Theseus,or Pirithoüs,for he exemplifiespietas , notvis and insidiae (6.399- 404). Then, havingthus dissociated pius Aeneas fromhis violentpredecessors, the Sibyl proceedsto addressas followsthe firstand moregeneral of Charon's objec- tions,to wit, thatit is forbidden("nefas" in 6.391) for corpora viva to cross the Styx: "si te nulla movet tantaepietatis imago, at ramumhunc" (aperitramum qui vestelatebat) "agnoscas." tumidaex ira tumcorda residunt, пес plurahis. ille, admiransvenerabile donum fatalisvirgae longo posttempore visum,78 caeruleamadvertit puppim ripaeque propinquat (6.405-10)

In theselines, the Sibyl employsevidence rather than argumentation, and the symbolismof the Golden Bough servesto explainnot only whythe Sibyl exhibitsthe Boughat thispoint in particular,but also whyCharon relents as soon as he sees it. RepresentingTrojan Aeneas' soul, and detachedfrom the tree on which it once grew, the Bough constitutesmaterial proof of the factthat the body thatCharon beholdsis not vivumbut, symbolically at least, exanimum in theliteral sense of the word. Thus, even moredecisively than the Sibyl's wordsconcerning the natureof Aeneas' motivation,both the presence of theBough and its symbolicimport satisfy Charonthat qua exanimus, TrojanAeneas is notincluded among the corpora viva19 thatthe boatman is forbiddento takeon board.

77See nn. 60-61 above. 78 I havenothing to addto all thathas been written about "longo post tempore visum." ThatCharon has previouslyseen such a boughwould follow naturally enough from 6.143-44, wherethe Sibyl says that a goldenbough is alwaysavailable for the plucking. Aeneas, it would seem,is notthe first to detachthe Bough, nor, presumably, will he be thelast. Likewise, the Sibyl's"pau ci" in6.129 explains well enough why Charon has not seen the Bough for some time. 79 Too littlenote has been taken of "viva"applied to "corpora"in 6.391;it changesthe objectsof Charon's refusal from bodies in general to living bodies exclusively. Ifcorpora exanima hadmeans of locomotion (as TrojanAeneas does, thanks to the ersatz nature of his death), Charon wouldapparently bewilling to take them on board. The expression corpus vivum is noteworthyfor anotherreason as well:elsewhere it is limited,if theTLL may be trusted(see below), to Cicero's philosophicalworks (twice), Lucretius (2.703, 2.879, 3.714, 5.476, the last missing from TLL , vol. 4, col. 1009.27-32),and Lucan (twice). Noun and adjective, inthat order, are always contiguous in

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VIII

Even before1986, whenPhilip R. Hardie discussedin some detailparticu- lar Lucretianrationalizations of myth,this tactic per se was a familiarfeature of Lucretius'art, and nowheremore so thanin Lucretius'allegorical analysis of the Acherusianrealm in whichAeneid 6 is set:

atque ea nimirumquaecumque Acherunte profundo proditasunt esse, in vita suntomnia nobis (3.978-79)

Virgil "remythologizes"(Hardie's term)his predecessor'sallegory.80 In Aeneid6, Lucretius'abstractions reacquire concrete form. Considered from a differentpoint of view, however, Virgil's underworldis seen to preserveLucretius' allegory intact.To be sure, it accommodatesthe familiarmonsters and sinnersof tradition, but thesemonsters are in factremarkably innocuous. The Hydraand otherterrors encampedat theentrance pose no threatat all:

et ni docta comes tenuissine corporevitas admoneatvolitare cava sub imagineformae, inruatet frustraferro diverberet umbras (6.292-94)

Cerberustoo is easily pacifiedwith a timelydose of druggeddog food. On the otherhand, thereis genuinedanger in the recrudescenceof the passions within Aeneas thatthe shades of Palinurus,Dido, and Deiphobus evoke. These Aeneas struggledto tame on earthas well- "in vita sunt omnia nobis." Thus, even if Virgil "remythologizes"Lucretian abstractions, he more fundamentallyfollows Lucretiusin portrayingthose abstractionsas the trulyformidable monstra that threatento waylayAeneas in the underworld.Far more is Aeneas endangeredby Dido thanby ^substantialitieslike Cerberusand the Hydra. Herein he resembles Hercules, his predecessorin the underworld,whose victoriesover the traditional monstersencountered by Aeneas were rationalizedby ancientsavants as thetaming of humanpassions.81

Ciceroand Lucretius (but never so inLucan), and plural in all cases except Lucr. 2.703 and 3.714. Thisexpression, then, can be addedto the tally of Lucretian borrowings inAen. 6. ForAeneas' great size and weight in 6.413and their irrelevance tohis status as a corpus vivum, see n. 76 above. 80See n. 6 above. 81See Hardie (n. 6 above)213-14, 217, n. 151,and the sources cited there.

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This content downloaded from 138.28.20.205 on Fri, 10 Oct 2014 09:44:22 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Allegory of the Golden bough

Strictlyspeaking, "remythologization" does notapply to theGolden Bough, forthere is no pre-existingmyth of whichthe Lucretian analysis of thesoul maybe viewed as a rationalization.Nevertheless, apart from the factthat here a mythis inventedrather than restored,82there is no importantdifference between Virgil's Bough and the traditionalmonsters and sinnerswith which he populates his underworld.Like these,the Bough is a tangiblereality, and as Virgilconfronts his hero withthe humanpassions thatLucretius saw allegorizedin Tartarus,so does he also adoptaspects of theLucretian theory of thesoul out of whichhe createdhis own allegoryof the tree and its magical bough. Virgil's Golden Bough has an obvious narrativefunction, but to the extentthat this narrative is also an allegory, Virgil's debtto Lucretiusis twofold.Not only is theallegoresis of chthoniclegend a thoroughlyLucretian procedure, but Lucretianimagery underlies the particular formthat Virgil's allegoryhas assumed.

Excursus

That the soul of Trojan Aeneas is to be sparedfurther incarnations is clear fromAnchises' cosmology, which reads like a gloss on thelabores thatAeneas has enduredat sea. Thus, in the descriptionof punishmentsin 6.740-42, some impure souls are describedas if the sails of Aeneas' becalmedships, while otherssuffer Aeneas' trialsin the stormat sea, or the fate of his ships on the day when the Trojanwomen set fireto them:

aliae pandunturinanes suspensaead ventos,aliis sub gurgitevasto infectumeluitur scelus àut exuriturigni

N.B. "panduntur,"a vox propria for unfurlingsails ( TLL, volume 10.1, column 194.11-25), and "gurgitevasto," whichelsewhere in theAeneid is restrictedto the contextof Aeneas at sea (1.118, 3.197; cf. 3.421). Exurereis also specialized,refer- ringto burningships in five out of eightoccurrences in theAeneid (1.39, 5.635, 5.794 [both of these of the firingof Aeneas' ships], 9.115, 10.36). In a word, iráQriкаОарцод,*3 and this positiverationale for the toils of Aeneas answersin retrospectthe indignant question posed at thebeginning of theAeneid :

Musa, mihicausas memora,quo numinelaeso

82See п. 51 above. 83The notion that the Aeneid is "an antiquePilgrim's Progress" is advancedwith some supportingdetail ibid. 326 and in Francis A. Sullivan,"The Spiritual Itinerary ofVirgil's Aeneas," AJP80 (1959):154-61.

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quidve dolensregina deum tot volvere casus irisignempietate virum, tot adire labores impulerit.tantaene animis caelestibus irae? (1.8-11)

In Aeneid6.305-32 thereare even clearerinstances of parallelismbetween Aeneas' journeyand thefate of disembodiedsouls in theunderworld. In 6.305-14, "matresatque viri" (306) and "pueri innuptaequepuellae" (307) gatheron the hitherbank of the Styx and beg to be made the firstto cross. In their "ripae ulteriorisamor" (314), this "inops inhumataqueturba" (325) resemble the "miserabilevulgus" composed of "matresvirique" and "collecta exsilio pubes" who, in 2.796-800, crowdthe shoreof the Hellespontand await theircrossing to the farthershore thatis Italy. Like the migratorybirds to whichthe souls of the unburiedare compared,84Aeneas and his Trojans,arriving in Italy in ships (compared to birds in Apollonius 4.238-40), "ad terramgurgite ab alto / . . . glomerantur. . . , ubi frigidusannus / transpontum fugat et terrisimmittit apricis" (6.310-12). Making theirescape fromCarthage, the Trojans too cross the sea in winter,and the sun-filled land par excellence is uniquelyItaly itself: "hie ver adsiduum atque alienis mensibus aestas" ( Georgics 2.149). Finally, Aeneas' sympathyfor the plightof the unburied-"centum errant annos volitantquehaec litora circum" (6.329)- stems from his own experience of a similar fate: "multosqueper annos / errabant[sc. Troes] acti fatismaria omnia circum"(1.31- 32). Indeed, the longingof the unburiedfor burial- "prius quam sedibus ossa quierunt"(6.328)- echoes Aeneas' similarlonging for settled quietude in 1.205-6: "sedes ubi fataquietas / ostendunt."85

CliffordWeber KenyonCollege

84See GeorgeThaniel, "Vergil's Leaf- and Bird-Similes ofGhosts," Phoenix 25 (1971): 241-45. 85This paper has benefited along the way from the comments and criticisms of various friendsand colleagues. These include Michael Barich, Wendell Clausen, Eugene Dwyer, Julia Dyson,Patricia Johnson, William McCulloh, Helen North, and the editor of this journal, to all of whomI amindebted for their willingness toread a longpaper carefully. I regret not being able to acknowledgebyname my debt to the written reports of anonymous referees.

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