Yesterday I received the following message from Tom Bestul, my old Anglo-Saxon teacher:
>I am editing a commentary on Proverbs by Alexander Nequam (d. 1217), and >have encountered what seems to me a very curious statement about Aeneas, >namely that he drowned in the battle with Turnus, and this fact was covered >up by Virgil: > >Eneas conflictum Turni sustinere non ualens, phaselum intrare coactus est et >sic submersus, licet Eneis virgiliana ueritatem historie ob gloriam Romani >nominis commutauerit. > >I've checked the usual places; Servius, Augustine, Orosius, Bernard >Silvestris, etc., and can find the tradition that Aeneas died in the >climactic battle, and that his body was nowhere to be found (Serv ad Aen >4.620, e.g). > >But I can't find a source for Nequam's claim that Aeneas was forced into a >boat and drowned (I believe drowning is the intended meeting, rather than >mere submersal (like Turnus, earlier), since the account is included in a >list of other notables who drowned, such as Osiris and Frederick >Barbarossa). I had a few ideas, most of which had occurred to him already: 1. Livy 1.2 states that the site where Aeneas died is above the river Numicus. For death by drowning, see 2. Ovid, Met. 14 says that the mortal part of Aeneas was washed away in the Numicus. This is probably the most important source for the tradition that Aeneas drowned. -- Might check a good commentary on this passage to see if it gives any cross-references. 3. Servius, in Aen. 1.259, 4.620 (which records the bizarre tradition that Aeneas fell into the river while sacrificing, as does Servius auctus on 12.794), 6.88, 7.150 and 7.797 (which claim that the body _was_ found in the river, contradicting what he says elsewhere), and 12.139 (which doesn't mention the death of Aeneas, but says that the water for all Roman sacrifices came from the Numicus; this explains the tradition that Aeneas fell into the river while sacrificing). 4. Tibullus 2.5.43-44 has "illic sanctus eris cum te ueneranda Numici / unda deum caelo miserit indigetem," where te = Aeneas. Tibullus doesn't say how Aeneas came to be in the worshipful wave of Numicus, but this is pretty good evidence that the death by water tradition is older than Virgil. -- Might check a good commentary on this passage to see if it gives any cross-references. What I can't explain is Alexander's reference to a boat. Servius auctus (in Aen. 1.259 and 12.794) says that Aeneas may have fallen into the river while fleeing Messapus or Mezentius. Bits of Servius auctus did circulate in the Middle Ages, but not widely, and that doesn't really solve the problem anyway. A possibility: Alexander is conflating the death by water tradition with Aen. 10.653, in which Turnus is lured into a boat by a phantom-Aeneas, in order to draw him away from the fighting and save his life. -- Does anyone have a better source for "phaselum intrare coactus"? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- David Wilson-Okamura http://virgil.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] East Carolina University Virgil reception, discussion, documents, &c ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub
