A Roundabout Curse: Camilla's Demise, Servius, In Aen.11.8.42

Name: Servius Date: 4th – 5th century CE Region: [modern Italy] Citation:   Commentary on the Aeneid, 11.8.42

“You paid the cruel punishment...” A person ‘pays,’ who uses money. Here it is used as a metaphor for the death penalty. This has a fairly long explanation: the Volsci come from the Hylinas River, and Amazons are said to live there. Camilla ‘paid the penalty’ because she fought against the Trojans, when her predecessor agreed to be their allies [i.e, Penthesilea].

 

crudele luisti supplicium iuris verbo usus est. 'luere' enim debere dicitur qui pecuniam solvit: quod hic usurpatum est in capitis poenam. quidam huius loci longam expositionem tradunt: Volscos a Volscatibus Hylinis originem ducere, †exclytas autem, inter quos Amazones sunt, regionem Illyricam incolere. luisse ergo supplicium Camillam dicunt, quae adversum Troianos arma tulerit, quibus maiores eius auxilium constat tulisse, id est Penthesileam.

 

Servius [Maurus Servius Honoratus; 4th – 5th century CE] Servius’ name is unfortunately the only thing we know of this author. Little is known about the author or manuscript tradition for the grammatical commentary of Vergil’s Aeneid.

M/M: United in Death: Carpos & Calamos

Carpus and Calamus

Name: Servius Date: 4th – 5th century CE Region: [modern Italy] Citation:   Commentary on the Eclogues, 5.48

The story of Calamus is as follows: ancient authors say that the wind Zephyr married one of the Hours, and together they had a very handsome son named Carpus. Calamus, the son of the river god Meander, fell in love with him, and they loved each other intensely. However, when Carpus fell into the Meander river and drowned, Calamus was horrified by his father’s deed and ran away. He begged Jupiter to end his grief and let him die as well, so that he could join his sweetheart in death. Moved to pity, Jupiter ordered Calamus to be transformed into a reed, which is accustomed to bloom around riverbanks. Then he transformed Carpus into the fruit of all things, so he could always be reborn.

Carpus and Calamus

Fabula de Calamo talis est: veteres Zephyro vento unam ex horis coniugem adsignant, ex qua et Zephyro Carpon filium pulcherrimi corporis editum dicunt. Quem cum Calamus, Maeandri fluvii filius, amaret, a Carpo mutua vice etiam ipse adamatus est. Sed Carpos cum in Maeandrum fluvium cadens esset extinctus, Calamus, patrem propter hoc scelus aversatus, aufugit rogavitque Jovem, ut finem suis luctibus daret sibique mortem praestaret, ut amato post obitum iungeretur. Quem miseratione Juppiter ductus in harundinales calamos verti iussit, qui semper circa oras fluminum nasci solent, Carpon vero in fructus rerum omnium vertit, ut semper renasceretur.

Servius [Maurus Servius Honoratus; 4th – 5th century CE] Servius’ name is unfortunately the only thing we know of this author. Little is known about the author or manuscript tradition for the grammatical commentary of Vergil’s Aeneid.

M/M: Dying like a flower: Hyacinthus & Euryalus, Servius In Aen. 9.433

Name: Servius Date: 4th – 5th century CE Region: [modern Italy] Citation:   Commentary on the Aeneid, 9.433

9.433: “Like when a purple flower is cut by a plow.” This is the rationale for the comparison:  it is appropriate to compare Hyacinthus to Euryalus, because he was also a very beautiful man and he also turned into a flower when he died.

 

433] PURPUREUS VELUTI CUM FLOS SUCCISUS ARATRO habetur ratio comparationis: videtur enim Euryalo Hyacinthum comparare, qui pulcherrimus fuit et post mortem conversus in florem est 

 Servius [Maurus Servius Honoratus; 4th – 5th century CE] Servius’ name is unfortunately the only thing we know of this author. Little is known about the author or manuscript tradition for the grammatical commentary of Vergil’s Aeneid.

 

M/M: Phaeton and Cycnus, Servius In Aen.10.189

Name: Servius Date: 4th – 5th century CE Region: [modern Italy] Citation:   Commentary on the Aeneid, 10.189

“FOR, IT IS SAID, OUT OF LOVE FOR HIS LOVER PHAETON, CYCNUS…”

Commentary: Phaeton was the son of Clymene and the Sun. When Phaeton got upset because Epaphus, the Pharoah of Egypt, told him that he wasn’t the son of the Sun but a bastard, his mother Clymene took him to meet his father.  Phaeton asked the Sun to grant him a wish to prove he was really his son. When the Sun swore on the river Styx that we would grant Phaeton his wish, Phaeton said he wished to drive his chariot, and the Sun could not refuse.  

Phaeton took charge of his father’s chariot, and when he deviated from the Sun’s track, he began to burn up the world. Jupiter shot him down with lightning and Phaeton fell in the Po river.  

His sisters, Phaethusa and Lampetusa, wept over his death until the gods took pity on them and transformed into alder trees.  

Phaeton was also mourned by his lover, a Ligurian named Cycnus, (a man who was endowed with an amazing singing voice by Apollo). Because Cycnus mourned excessively over Phaeton’s death, he was transformed into the bird he shares a name with (a swan). Later on, Apollo turned him into a constellation. His son Cupavo is said to have the feathers of a swan in the crest of his helmet in tribute of his father. 

NAMQUE FERUNT LUCTU CYCNUM PHAETHONTIS AMATI Phaethon Clymenes et Solis filius fuit. qui cum doleret obiectum sibi ab Epapho, rege Aegypti, quod esset non de Sole, sed de adulterio procreatus, duce matre venit ad Solem et poposcit, ut si vere esset eius filius, petenda praestaret. quod cum Sol iurasset per Stygem paludem se esse facturum, petit ille ut eius currus agitaret. Sol post iusiurandum negare non potuit. acceptis itaque curribus Phaethon, cum orbitam solis exisset, et coepisset mundus ardere, a Iove fulminatus in Eridanum cecidit, qui et Padus vocatur. huius interitum flentes sorores, Phaethusa et Lampetusa, deorum miseratione in arbores commutatae sunt, ut hic dicit, in populos, ut in bucolicis, in alnos. fuit etiam quidam Ligus, Cycnus nomine, dulcedine cantus ab Apolline donatus, amator Phaethontis. qui cum eum fleret extinctum, longo luctu in avem sui nominis conversus est. qui postea ab Apolline inter sidera conlocatus est. cuius nunc filium Cupavonem dicit habere cycni pennas in galea ad formae paternae insigne monstrandum. 

--Servius, In Aen.10.189 

Servius [Maurus Servius Honoratus; 4th – 5th century CE] Servius’ name is unfortunately the only thing we know of this author. Little is known about the author or manuscript tradition for the grammatical commentary of Vergil’s Aeneid.

Twice A Man: The Story of Hippolytus and Virbius, Serv. In Aen. 7.761

Name: Servius Date: 4th – 5th century CE Region: [modern Italy] Citation:   Commentary on the Aeneid, 7.761

And Virbius, the beautiful child of Hippolytus, came for war:

When Hippolyte died, Theseus put his son Hippolytus in the care of [his new wife] Phaedra. When Hippolytus rejected Phaedra’s sexual advances, she lied and told Theseus that he had tried to rape her. Theseus sought vengeance from his father Aegeus. When Hippolytus was driving his chariot, Aegeus* sent a seal to spook the horses, and the chariot crashed. Then Diana, moved by Hippolytus’ chastity, brought him back to life through the work of Aesculapius. 

[Aesculapius was the child of Apollo and Coronis, who was cut from his dying mother’s womb. It happened when Apollo heard from the crow he’d sent to spy on Coronis that she had cheated on him. Angered, he killed the heavily pregnant Coronis with his arrows, changed the crow’s color from white to black, and cut Aesculapius from Coronis’ womb. Aesculapius grew up and  became skilled in medicine. Later on, Jupiter killed him because he’d restored Hippolytus to life. And because of that, Apollo got angry and killed Jupiter’s ironworking cyclopes with his arrows. And because of that, Jupiter stripped Apollo of his divine powers and made him a shepherd of King Admetus’ flocks for nine years.]

Once Hippolytus was restored to life, Diana entrusted him to the nymph Aricia, and ordered him to now be called Virbius [‘twice a man’]. Now his son, called the same name, comes to battle: but this is really unbelievable. For Hippolytus was chaste, and always lived alone, but somehow has a son? Actually, as I said previously, Virbius is the name of a divinity linked with Diana, just like Cybele is linked with Attis, Minerva is linked with Erichthonis, and Venus is linked with Adonis.

7.[761] IBAT ET HIPPOLYTI PROLES PULCHERRIMA BELLO VIRBIUS: Theseus mortua Hippolyte Phaedram, Minois et Pasiphaae filiam, superduxit Hippolyto. qui cum illam de stupro interpellantem contempsisset, falso delatus ad patrem est, quod ei vim voluisset inferre. ille Aegeum patrem rogavit ut se ulcisceretur. qui agitanti currus Hippolyto inmisit focam, qua equi territi eum traxerunt. tunc Diana eius castitate commota revocavit eum in vitam per Aesculapium, filium Apollinis et Coronidis, qui natus erat exsecto matris ventre, ideo quod, cum Apollo audisset a corvo, eius custode, eam adulterium committere, iratus Coronidem maturo iam partu confixit sagittis—corvum vero nigrum fecit ex albo—et exsecto ventre Coronidis produxit ita Aesculapium, qui factus est medicinae peritus. hunc postea Iuppiter propter revocatum Hippolytum interemit: unde Apollo iratus Cyclopas fabricatores fulminum confixit sagittis: ob quam rem a Iove iussus est Admeti regis novem annis apud Amphrysum armenta pascere divinitate deposita. sed Diana Hippolytum, revocatum ab inferis, in Aricia nymphae commendavit Egeriae et eum Virbium, quasi bis virum, iussit vocari. cuius nunc filium cognominem dicit in bellum venire: adeo omnia ista fabulosa sunt. nam cum castus ubique inductus sit et qui semper solus habitaverit, habuisse tamen fingitur filium. re vera autem, ut et supra diximus, Virbius est numen coniunctum Dianae, ut matri deum Attis, Minervae Erichthonius, Veneri Adonis.

Servius [Maurus Servius Honoratus; 4th – 5th century CE] Servius’ name is unfortunately the only thing we know of this author. Little is known about the author or manuscript tradition for the grammatical commentary of Vergil’s Aeneid.

Achilles' earrings! Servius, Aen. 1.30

Name: Servius Date: 4th – 5th century CE Region: [modern Italy] Citation:   Commentary on the Aeneid, 1.30

It is said that there’s a statue of Achilles in Sigeum where he wears an earring in his ear just like a woman does.

apud Sigeum Achillis statua fuisse dicitur, quae in lanna, id est in extima auris parte elenchum more femineo habuerit.

Servius [Maurus Servius Honoratus; 4th – 5th century CE] Servius’ name is unfortunately the only thing we know of this author. Little is known about the author or manuscript tradition for the grammatical commentary of Vergil’s Aeneid.

W/W: A Lover's Betrayal: Myrmex & Athena, Servius, In Aen. 4.402

Myrmex and Minerva

Name: Servius Date: 4th – 5th century CE Region: [modern Italy] Citation:   Commentary on the Aeneid, 4.402

Once upon a time, there was an Athenian woman named Myrmex, whom Minerva cherished because of her chastity and dexterity.   But soon Minerva's love turned into hatred. 

When Minerva saw that Ceres had discovered agriculture, she wanted to show the Athenians how to farm more efficiently, and so she invented the plough. 

Myrmex eavesdropped on the goddess as she was tilling the land, and the woman dared to steal the plough.

Then she bragged that Ceres’ crops would be worthless without this invention.   

Minerva didn't handle this well. She transformed Myrmex into an ant and ordered her to act according to her nature, as a traitor who always chases after and steals the grain of others.

Pitying the girl, Jupiter figured out a way to honor the ants.  For when he acknowledged the paternity of Aeacus (his son through Aegina), he made him king of Thessaly, and, seeing that the territory had no inhabitants, he ordered Aeacus to collect ants into one place and then he transformed them into people. This is why they are called the “Myrmidons,” the “Ant people.”

 

Myrmex and Minerva

De qua fabula talis est: in Attica regione quaedam puella Myrmix nomine fuit, Minervae ob castimoniam et sollertiam dilecta, quae postea hoc modo Minervae in se odium concitavit. Namque cum vidisset Minerva Cererem segetes invenisse, volens ipsa ostendere Atticis quo expeditius segetes parerent, aratrum dicitur invenisse. Quod cum manu ageret, et Myrmix ei adhaereret, ausa est occulte aratri stivam subripere, et apud homines se iactare, infructuosum esse Cereris munus, nisi suo uterentur invento, quo terra aratro resoluta expeditius ederet fructus. Quod cum proditum aegre tulisset Minerva, Myrmicem illam virginem in formicam convertit eamque, ut proditricem, adversam frumentis, quae semper insequitur et subripit, esse praecepit. Quae res cum Jovi miserationem movisset, excogitavit quemadmodum formicae honorem daret. Nam cum Aeacum, filium suum ex Aegina susceptum, Thessalis imponeret regem et agros ipsos videret hominibus indigere, formicas colligi in unum iussit easque in homines commutavit: unde “Myrmidones” appellati sunt.

 

Servius [Maurus Servius Honoratus; 4th – 5th century CE] Servius’ name is unfortunately the only thing we know of this author. Little is known about the author or manuscript tradition for the grammatical commentary of Vergil’s Aeneid.