It is not in the least absurd to suggest that Vergil avoided inflected forms he did not like; why else, in the fourth Georgic, does he never speak of bees in the genitive plural, than because neither apium nor apum sounded right to him? It is not a matter of grammatical difficulty, rather elegance of taste.I think that Aeneas uses the name ?Elissa? in order to refer to Dido in the most formal way. All the monologue, in fact, is full of formal and rhetorical words and sentences (?Pro re pauca loquatur? v.337, and many others examples). The way Aeneas speaks is clearly different from Dido?s one in her precedent monologue, he seems to be a mere ?hospes? of the queen and not her real lover. Therefore I don?t think Virgil uses this word because of grammatical problems (It?s absurde!).
Leofranc Holford-Strevens -- *_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*
Leofranc Holford-Strevens 67 St Bernard's Road usque adeone Oxford scire MEVM nihil est, nisi ME scire hoc sciat alter? OX2 6EJ
tel. +44 (0)1865 552808(home)/353865(work) fax +44 (0)1865 512237 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (home)/[EMAIL PROTECTED] (work)
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