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ON VIRGIL'S LIGHTNING, COMETS, AND LIBYAN SHE-BEARS*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2014
Extract
The expression pelle Libystidis ursae, which occurs at Aen. 5.37 and 8.368, has caused a certain amount of puzzlement among scholars. This article will attempt to explain, through Virgil's allusions to Apollonius' Argonautica, the function of Libystis as a pointer to the motif of the creation of a new homeland within a foreign territory, as is the case with Segesta and Rome. This idea is further developed by the two omens that forebode the foundations of Segesta and Rome, that is, the omen of Acestes' arrow at Aen. 5.522–8 and the weapon-omen at Aen. 8.524–9, both of which are consistently associated with flames, comets, and lightning. These elements underline the symbolism of destruction, rebirth, and Jupiter's will that characterizes the foundations of Segesta and future Rome.
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Footnotes
*
I would like to thank Philip R. Hardie, Richard Hunter, Damien Nelis, and CQ's anonymous reader for their invaluable comments and suggestions.
References
1 Though note that Serv. Aen. 5.37 and 8.368 twice quotes Libystidis ursae.
2 Cf. Pliny NH 8.228.
3 Herodotus' passage does nothing towards explaining the reasons behind Virgil's choice, since it lists many animals, including dog-headed men and headless men with their eyes in the middle of their chest.
4 Serv. Auct. Aen. 5.37 says that it stands either for lion or for leopard, while Serv. Aen. 8.368 says that we can assume any beast as the meaning of ursa. It is unlikely that Virgil is employing the equivalent of a kenning in order to refer to lions: apart from the stylistic improbability, Catullus' leaena montibus Libystinis (60.1) provides an example of an equivalent rare adjective, which Virgil appears to be purposefully departing from, since, apart from these two instances of Libystis, the adjective for ‘Libyan’ in Virgil is always Libycus.
5 See Eden, P.T., A Commentary on Virgil: Aeneid VIII (Leiden, 1975), 116Google Scholar: ‘Virgil, like Milton after him, uses proper names for the sake of their associations – Libystidis suggests something remote, exotic and valuable.’ But contrast Fordyce, C.J., P. Vergili Maronis Aeneidos, Libri VII–VIII (Oxford, 1977), 247Google Scholar: ‘the literary epithet is implausible in this context’.
6 Clausen, W., Virgil's Aeneid and the Tradition of Hellenistic Poetry (Berkeley, CA, 1987)Google Scholar, 153 n. 21, takes Argus' bull hide at Arg. 1.324–5 as the model for Acestes' attire. George, E.V., ‘Acestes, Acastus: Aeneid 5.35–41’, AC 47 (1978), 553–6Google Scholar, at 556, links Acestes to both Argus and Akastos, who sided with Jason against his father Pelias; conversely, Acestes is veterum non immemor … parentum (Aen. 5.39). But Aen. 5.39 could equally allude to Ankaios' refusal to obey to his grandsire.
7 Both Acestes (Aen. 5.301 and 573) and Entellus (Aen. 5.409) are called senior. Cf. Aen. 2.561, where aequaevus links together old Priam and Anchises. By presenting Dares as having defeated the giant Butes (immani corpore qui se | Bebrycia veniens Amyci de gente ferebat, Aen. 5.372–3), and Dares being defeated by Entellus, Virgil seems to be preventing the identification both of Entellus as a new Amycus and of Dares as a new Polydeuces.
8 Later on, Aeneas, in correctly interpreting the omen of Acestes' arrow, is playing a role similar to that of Jason explaining the dream of Euphemos at Arg. 4.1749–54.
9 Exsors is first found in Virgil: see Austin, R.G., P. Vergili Maronis Aeneidos Liber Sextus (Oxford, 1977), 155Google Scholar; Eden (n. 5), 152–3. It is used elsewhere only at Aen. 6.428 and 8.552, although at Aen. 6.428 it is used in a metaphorical sense. It is noteworthy that Entellus' sacrifice (Aen. 5.478–81) is shortly followed by the reference to Acestes not having been drawn by lot (Aen. 5.498), just as, in the Argonautica, Ankaios' and Herakles' joint sacrifice is shortly followed by Ankaios' and Herakles' seats not being drawn by lot.
10 The archery contest is the only contest where the prizes are left unspecified (Aen. 5.486: praemia dicit; 543–4: proximus ingreditur donis … | extremus): thus Acestes' laurel wreath and golden patera are further highlighted as not belonging to the contest prizes.
11 The steed is definitely not a hospitality gift (it is given long after Aeneas and Evander's meeting), but something intended for the imminent war, like the horses given to the Trojans at Aen. 8.551 and the gift of 400 Arcadian horsemen at Aen. 8.518–9. Cf. the weapons brought by Venus (called dona at Aen. 8.609, 617, 721).
12 Cf. Il. 7.175–6. At Aristoph. Th. 458 πάλος is ‘lot cast from a shaken helmet’.
13 Notice that both Salius and Acestes receive better prizes than the actual winners.
14 While Gaetulus is probably used here as a synonymous of Libyan (as it is at Aen. 4.40, 326; 5.51, 192), it does not have any effect on the special function of Libystis as a pointer to Arg. 4.1753. Virgil is probably depicting Salius as a Herculean counterpart to Ankaios: Salius' prizes – a Libyan animal skin and a bipennis – match Ankaios' Arcadian she-bear skin and ἀμϕίτομος πέλεκυς. The fact that Salius' lion-skin is appropriately Libyan retrospectively underlines the oddity of the pellis Libystidis ursae worn by Acestes.
15 While Virgil makes Salius a contemporary of those Salii who at Aen. 8.285–304 sing the hymn to Hercules (that is, he cannot be their founder), the Herculean connotations which he gives to Salius might allude to an alternative version similar to Serv. Aen. 8.285, where he says that the Salii were founded by an Arcadian Salius, a story that Isidore (Orig. 18.50) attributes to Varro.
16 Rara sit an supra morem si densa requires | altera frumentis quoniam favet, altera Baccho | densa magis Cereri, rarissima quaeque Lyaeo, with the further explication clarifying the chiasmic structure of alter … alter. See Horsfall, N., Virgil, Aeneid 11: A Commentary (Leiden, 2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 374, on quorum alter … alter: ‘a rare alternative to hic … ille’. Moreover, for Salius being Arcadian and Patron being Acarnanian, compare Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 1.51.2, where Patron is an Acarnanian who accompanies Aeneas, and Serv. Auct. Aen. 8.285, who mentions an unnamed tradition about Salius' Arcadian origins.
17 The two resting places show a similar structure, having both a vegetable base (solio … acerno, 178, and stratis … foliis, 367–8) and an animal skin padding (toro et villosi pelle leonis, 177, and pelle Libystidis ursae, 368).
18 The passage also recalls how Ankaios and Herakles were sitting next to each other in the central rowing bench (Arg. 1.396–400, 531–2).
19 Cf. also villis of Salius' lion-skin at Aen. 5.352 with villosi used of the lion-skin that is offered to Aeneas at Aen. 8.177.
20 Cf. fessus opibus solatur amicis (Aen. 5.41) with Evander's offering Aeneas a couch to sleep on, and begging him to scorn opes (Aen. 8.364).
21 When Aeneas reaches Carthage, the situation is similar to that of Segesta at Aen. 5.755–61: compare especially Aen. 5.758, indicitque forum et patribus dat iura vocatis, with Aen. 1.426, iura magistratusque legunt sanctumque senatum (although the line might be out of place) and with 1.507, iura dabat legesque viris.
22 After Callimachus (quoted in Σ Plat. Ly. 206e5 and Suet. Περὶ τῶν παρ᾽ Ἕλλησι παιδιῶν 1.77) and Apollonius, the earliest occurrences of Λιβυστίς are App. B Civ. 1.9.80.4; Dionys. Per. Orbis Descriptio 614; Ps.-Hdn. De Prosodia Catholica 3.1.104.17; and Nonn. D. 10.230, 13.345.
23 See Livrea, E., Apollonii Rhodii Argonauticon Liber Quartus (Florence, 1973)Google Scholar, 479: ‘l'agg. è mutuato da Call. fr. 676 Pfeiffer’. Apollonius also uses the more common Λιβυστικός at Arg. 4.1233. Were Arg. 3.114–48 actually a reference to Call. fr. 676, Apollonius might be underlining the departure from the Callimachean passage by setting a quite different prize for Eros' services: eager to get the infant Zeus's ball, Eros promptly drops his golden ἀστράγαλοι (Arg. 3.146). Virgil follows Callimachus only in applying Libystis to a female animal rather than to a gazelle (notice that at Aen. 1.184, when it would be fitting, context-wise, to mention the Libyan gazelles, Virgil uses instead the term cervi).
24 The earth clod will be once more called a ξεινήιον at Arg. 4.1752 (it had already been called ξείνια at Pind. Pyth. 4.22).
25 See Livrea, E., ‘L'episodio libyco nel quarto libro delle Argonautiche di Apollonio Rodio’, QAL 12 (1987), 175–90Google Scholar, at 178, on previous versions of the offering of the tripod and the encounter with Triton in Timaeus, Lycophron, and Herodotus. See also Livrea (n. 23), 433, on Triton and Eurypylos.
26 Poverty can be a reason for Acestes or Evander, but not for Aeneas, who provides lavish prizes for the funerary games. Throughout the Aeneid, hospitality gifts are lavish: Aeneas gives Dido a mantle embroidered with gold, Helen's veil, Ilione's sceptre, a pearl necklace, and a golden and jewelled coronet (Aen. 1.647–55); Helenus gives Aeneas gold, ivory, silver, lebetes, and Pyrrhus' lorica and helmet, while Andromache gives Ascanius a Phrygian chlamys and textilibus donis (Aen. 3.464–85); Ilioneus gives Latinus Anchises' golden libation cup and Priam's sceptre, diadem, and robes (Aen. 7.245–8); Latinus gives the Trojans horses with embroidered, purple and gold trappings and harnesses, and a chariot with fire-breathing horses (Aen. 7.274–83). Anchises' gifts to Evander (Aen. 8.166–8), although precious, might not simply be hospitality gifts.
27 Gaza is a Persian word suggesting oriental luxury, which is slightly out of place with Acestes, especially since agrestis connotes it as locally produced: see Horsfall, N., Virgil, Aeneid 2: A Commentary (Leiden, 2008), 529CrossRefGoogle Scholar, on gaza as ‘entirely appropriate to the wealth of a great oriental city like Troy; cf. [Aen. 2.] 504 barbarico … auro’.
28 The she-bear skin marks the very spot of the future foundation of Rome, also hinted at by Evander, Romanae conditor arcis (Aen. 8.313), and by the Romanoque foro (Aen. 8.361): see Papaioannou, S., ‘Founder, civilizer and leader: Vergil's Evander and his role in the origins of Rome’, Mnemosyne 56 (2003), 680–702CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 695. Pallanteum can be seen as a new homeland for the exiled Evander ‘cut out’ of a foreign land like Carthage, Segesta, and the future Rome (cf. Evander's res egenae at Aen. 8.365 and the Sybil saying at Aen. 6.91 that Aeneas will reach Italy as a supplex in rebus egenis).
29 Wills, J., ‘Scyphus: a Homeric hapax in Virgil’, AJPh 108 (1987), 455–7Google Scholar. Farrell, J., ‘The Virgilian intertext’, in Martindale, C. (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Virgil (Cambridge, 1997), 222–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 226, further postulates that Virgil probably became aware of σκύϕος in his own imitation, in Eclogue 3, of a passage from Theocritus' first Idyll in which σκύφος occurs (Id. 1.143). On the similar use of Homeric hapax legomena in Callimachus, see Rengakos, A., ‘Homerische Wörter bei Kallimachos’, ZPE 94 (1992), 21–47Google Scholar; see also Rengakos, A., Apollonios Rhodios und die antike Homererklärung (Munich, 1994)Google Scholar, passim, and Fantuzzi, M., ‘“Homeric” formularity in the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes’, in Papanghelis, T. and Rengakos, A. (edd.), A Companion to Apollonius Rhodius (Leiden, 2001), 171–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar, for the use of Homeric hapax legomena in Apollonius.
30 Strikingly, θηροτρόϕος occurs only once in the Argonautica, when Triton is helping the Argonauts by showing them a way to safety and giving them ξεινήια, even though it is not long before Mopsos meets a horrible death due to a Libyan snake (Arg. 4.1502–36), which provides an ideal context for Libya as ‘nurse of wild beasts’. See Livrea (n. 25), 190, on the Libyan episode as a ‘metafora di morte’.
31 Apollonius' departure from καρποϕόρου Λιβύας at Pind. Pyth. 4.6 and Λιβύας εὐρυχόρου at Pind. Pyth. 4.42–3 might be significant in this respect.
32 Apollonius employs the Ionic form θήρη (Arg. 3.69), the genitive of which is identical to that of the island. Θήρη occurs earlier, in Homer (Il. 5.49, 10.360; Od. 9.158, 19.429) with the meaning of ‘prey/game’ or ‘hunt’. See Livrea (n. 23), 480–1, on Fränkel's and Wendel's conjecture of Θήρα in place of θήρης at Arg. 4.1763.
33 As further reinforcement for Callisto being almost equivalent to Calliste, see Maggiulli, G., ‘Artemide e Callisto’, in Untersteiner, M. (ed.), Mythos: Scripta in Honorem Untersteiner (Genoa, 1970), 179–85Google Scholar, for the possibility that Callisto is a Homeric duplication of Artemis Calliste.
34 Significantly, in Apollonius the clod transforms into the island, while in Pindar's account the clod of earth is left unattended and washed overboard by a wave in front of the already existing island of Thera (Pyth. 4.43–8). Euphemos' prophetic dream, which introduces the transition from nymph to island, is also an invention of Apollonius: see Livrea (n. 23), 431. See also Corsano, M., ‘Il sogno di Eufemo e la fondazione di Cirene nelle Argonautiche di Apollonio Rodio’, Rudiae 3 (1991), 55–72Google Scholar, at 63, on Apollonius' focus on Thera, instead of Cyrene, as the land meant for Euphemos' descendants.
35 Neither Callisto nor Arcas is mentioned in the Argonautica. The corresponding constellation is always referred to as Helice (Arg. 2.360, 3.745, 3.1195). Apart from two references to Ankaios' she-bear skin (Arg. 1.168, 2.120) and two more to Helice (Arg. 2.360, 3.1195), ἄρκτος occurs in relation to the Mount of Bears (Arg. 1.941, 1150).
36 As Libya is Calliste's τροϕός, so Calliste will be the τροϕός of Euphemos' descendants. Cf. Pind. Pyth. 4.20 (ματρόπολις Θήρα).
37 Coroebus' (and Aeneas') choice of ‘snake-warfare’ by donning Greek weapons at Aen. 2.370–401 will be the cause of the Trojans being killed by their fellow Trojans at Aen. 2.410–29. This motif is further developed by the snake-simile at Aen. 2.379–81, Coroebus' open acknowledgement of their use of dolus (Aen. 2.390) and, later on, by Pyrrhus' snake-simile at Aen. 2.471–4: see Knox, B.M.W., ‘The serpent and the flame: the imagery of the Second Book of the Aeneid’, AJPh 71 (1950), 379–400Google Scholar, at 391–2.
38 The term ὁλκός, when not used for comet-like phenomena (Arg. 3.141, 1378, 4.296), always has the sense of ‘furrow/trench’ (Arg. 1.375, 1167, 3.413, 1391). Other similarities are per umbras (Aen. 2.693) with σκοτίοιο δι᾽ ἠέρος (Arg. 3.1379), and cernimus (Aen. 2.696) with ἴδωνται (Arg. 3.1378).
39 Sulphur occurs only here in Virgil. The implications of the allusions to Arg. 3.1377–9 will be drawn out at Aen. 10.272–3, where Aeneas' frightening appearance is likened to comets that sanguinei lugubre rubent, symbolizing the bloodshed that will precede Troy's rebirth into the future Rome.
40 Horsfall (n. 27), 493, says that the Latin use of fulmen can refer to both lightning and meteors (although Cicero makes a clear distinction between the two, Cons. fr. 2.20–2 and 23–32) but concludes that ‘[Virgil] is quite free, poetically, to blend an alien element into his description of the meteor’.
41 See Lawler, S., ‘The significance of Acestes' arrow’, Vergilius 34 (1988), 102–11Google Scholar, at 105. Notice how Virgil does not follow Il. 23.870–3, where Merion makes a vow to Apollo: at Aen. 5.513–18 Eurytion invokes his brother Pandarus instead of Apollo (thus risking the god's displeasure, like Teucer in the Iliad), which allows Aeneas to declare that the subsequent omen has been sent by Jupiter (Aen. 5.533–4).
42 Once again, the destruction by fire of the ships carries hints of civil war, since the Trojan women are damaging their own people's chances of fulfilling their destiny. The flames of Acestes' arrow, the terrifici vates, and the exitus ingens (Aen. 5.523–4) could also be seen as hinting at the role that Segesta will play in Rome's future wars. On the exitus ingens, see Williams, R.D., P. Vergili Maronis Aeneidos Liber Quintus (Oxford, 1960), 142Google Scholar; also Horsfall, N., ‘Aeneid’, in A Companion to the Study of Virgil (Leiden, 2001), 101–216Google Scholar, at 140–1.
43 Aen. 5.626–34 presents the idea of the Trojans settling for a new Troy in Sicily, instead of pursuing it in Latium. On the rebirth motif being highlighted by the dove's death, see Lawler (n. 41), 109–10. Galinsky, G., ‘Aeneid V and the Aeneid’, AJPh 89 (1968), 157–85Google Scholar, at 169, remarks that ‘the terminology that is used in describing the foundation of Segesta is specifically Roman’.
44 See Campbell, M., A Commentary on Apollonius Rhodius Argonautica III 1–471 (Leiden, 1994)Google Scholar, 130, on ϕλεγέθοντα. Although Virgil, in the description of Acestes' arrow, does not employ sulcus as at Aen. 2.697, these two omens are connected by signantemque vias (2.697) and signavitque viam (5.526).
45 Terrificus is used by Virgil for the third and last time within the bull simile at Aen. 12.101–6, when Turnus is said to shoot sparks and fire from his face and eyes. As a verb, terrifico is used at Aen. 4.210 in relation to Jupiter's lightning.
46 Iris at Aen. 5.609 and 658 is given the connotations of an arrow shot from the bow, thus recalling Acestes' flaming arrow. Compare also viam celerans at Aen. 5.609 with signavitque viam at Aen. 5.526, and attonitis at Aen. 5.529 with attonitae at Aen. 5.559. At Aen. 5.683 and 699 the fire devouring the ships is called pestis: cf. Aen. 7.505 and 570, where pestis and pestiferus are used in connection with Allecto.
47 See Hardie, P.R., Virgil's Aeneid: Cosmos and Imperium (Oxford, 1986), 186–7Google Scholar, on the making of the fulmen. Contrast the making of the thunderbolt at Arg. 1.730–4.
48 On the elemental storm, see Hardie (n. 47), 325–7.
49 The association with lightning is reinforced by the presence of thunder at Aen. 5.694 (tonitru).
50 At Aen. 5.697–8, semusta … robora is probably an allusion to ἡμιδαὴς … νηῦς at Il. 16.294, where the Greek ships saved by Patroclus are immediately followed by a simile in which the storm clouds are scattered by Zeus, referred to here with the hapax στεροπηγερέτα. Virgil is thus alluding to the image of a lightning-wielding Homeric Zeus who brings salvation to the half-burnt ships, as Jupiter does with his storm with lightning undertones in the Aeneid.
51 The imperium Iovis will be made explicit by Anchises at Aen. 5.726.
52 See Otis, B., Virgil: A Study in Civilized Poetry (Oxford, 1963), 278–9Google Scholar. Notice how Anchises also mentions the flames which were destroying the Trojan fleet and the elemental storm in conjunction with Jupiter, thus further linking the flame, lightning, and comet components of the omen.
53 Vibro is used at Aen. 11.606 for javelins being brandished. Thunder accompanies each element of the three omens which hints at Jupiter's lightning: the comet at Aen. 2.692 (subitoque fragore), the storm at Aen. 5.694 (tonitru tremescunt), and the arms at Aen. 8.527 (fragor). Barchiesi, A., La traccia del modello: effetti omerici nella narrazione virgiliana (Pisa, 1984)Google Scholar, 82, notes that the apparition of weapons in the sky symbolizes the civil wars, and represents an ill-omened prodigy.
54 Fulgor is used by Lucretius at DRN 6.170 as the visual component of the lightning, complementary to tonitrus; at 6.217 and 316 it indicates the lightning by metonymy (a similar use of fulgur is found at 6.270 and 6.391).
55 On the significance of the two omens for Lykos and Pallas, see Feeney, D., The Gods in Epic (Oxford, 1991), 181–2Google Scholar; Nelis, D., Vergil's Aeneid and the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius (Leeds, 2001)Google Scholar, 364. For fulgor meaning ‘star’, cf. Cic. Arat. 57 and Rep. 6.17. Cf. Pliny NH 2.89.6 on comets: acontiae iaculi modo vibrantur, atrocissimo significatu.
56 In this case, vibratus ab aethere fulgor would be replicating the twofold characterization of οὐρανίη ἀκτὶς (Arg. 4.297), since ἀκτῖνες are also the main components of Zeus's lightning (Arg. 1.730–4). Notice how Aen. 5.525–8 is also modelled on a passage of the Argonautica that has both comet and (more implicitly) lightning connotations (Arg. 3.140–1), just as Aen. 2.698 is based on Arg. 3.1391, with the furrow filled with sulphur instead of blood drawing attention to Jupiter's lightning.
57 Compare arma inter nubem … rutilare (Aen. 8.528–9) with loricam … sanguineam … caerula nubes (Aen. 8.621–2), which appears to confirm that the weapons in the sky are the same that Venus will bring to Aeneas. A. Barchiesi (n. 53), 81–3, seems to leave the possibility open.
58 Cf. also sonitus at both Aen. 2.301 and 8.525. Rutilo used of weapons easily recalls the idea of firelight reflected from shields and armour during the destruction of Troy in Aeneid 2 (cf. Turnus' rutilus thorax at Aen. 11.487).
59 On the assimilation between Cacus incendia vana vomentem (Aen. 8.259) and Aeneas/Augustus see Lyne, R.O.A.M., Further Voices in Vergil's Aeneid (Oxford, 1987), 27–35Google Scholar; L. Morgan, ‘Assimilation and civil war: Hercules and Cacus. Aeneid 8’, in Stahl, H.-P. (ed.), Vergil's Aeneid: Augustan Epic and Political Context (London, 1998), 175–97Google Scholar, at 178–9.
60 See Nelis (n. 55), 356–7, on the parallels between the similes, the oak tree, Jason and Aeneas' joy, wonder, and handling/shouldering of the Fleece/armour.
61 The glow ‘similar to flame’ on Jason's cheeks and brow might be recalled by the flames, equivalent to those on Aeneas' helmet, that spread from Augustus' brow at Aen. 8.680 (cui tempora flammas).
62 See Nelis (n. 55), 357.
63 While Venus lets Aeneas handle the weapons at his leisure, Jason prevents the Argonauts, who are eager to touch and clasp the Fleece in their hands, from doing so. Compare the Argonauts' eagerness to clasp the Fleece with amplexus nati Cytherea petivit (Aen. 8.615).
64 Patrium at Aen. 8.681 might also be a hint at Jupiter's will, similarly to vi patria at Aen. 2.491, where it might refer not just to Achilles but also to Jupiter's role of granting strength to the Greeks (ipse pater Danais animos viresque secundas | sufficit, Aen. 2.617–8): compare the flames on Iulus' head and Jupiter's comet at Aen. 2.682–98, and the flames on Augustus' head together with his patrium sidus.
65 In addition to Hercules, the hesternus lar and the household gods (penates) are also being honoured.
66 Given that Aen. 8.560–67 represents a flashback, the mention of Priam and Polites would provide a matching flashback. The dichotomy at Aen. 2.523–4 (haec ara tuebitur omnes | aut moriere simul) on the occasion of the killing of Polites (who is mentioned only at 2.526 and 5.564 within the Aeneid), and Priam's consequent invocation to the gods (Aen. 2.535–9), would thus provide an equivalence with Evander's request to Jupiter either to save Pallas or to kill Evander as well. Further parallels are: Evander wishing to have the strength of his youth in order to be able to protect Pallanteum and Pallas from Mezentius (Aen. 8.560–71), and Priam donning his youthful arms in the vain effort to protect Troy and Polites from Pyrrhus (Aen. 2.507–46); Evander dragged away having fallen (conlapsum) by his slaves after invoking Jupiter (Aen. 8.573–84) and Priam being dragged in a similar state (lapsantem) by Pyrrhus after invoking the gods (Aen. 2.535–51).
67 Cf. the parallel between Aen. 5.564–5 and 8.572–83, where we have a father's prayer (Priam) to the gods (the reference to Aen. 2.535–9) matched with Evander's request for either death or Pallas' salvation at the hands of Jupiter: here the order is reversed, and Aeneas' request for either death or salvation at the hand of Jupiter is matched with Cybele's mother's prayer (parentem, Aen. 9.90) to Jupiter.
68 As if to show that Apollonius is the key to Libystis, all three of the omens of Troy's rebirth into new homelands contain allusions to the Argonautica.