Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T21:09:33.880Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

UCALEGON (VERG. AEN. 2.311–12) AND OTHER BURNING NEIGHBOURS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2020

James Diggle*
Affiliation:
Queens’ College, Cambridge
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Verg. Aen. 2.311–12 iam proximus ardet | Vcalegon. This striking phrase is twice echoed, as commentators observe. The burning neighbour Ucalegon reappears in Juv. 3.198–201 iam poscit aquam, iam friuola transfert | Vcalegon … | ultimus ardebit quem … . And the words proximus ardet reappear in Hor. Epist. 1.18.84 paries cum proximus ardet.

Type
Shorter Notes
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association

Verg. Aen. 2.311–12 iam proximus ardet | Vcalegon. This striking phrase is twice echoed, as commentators observe. The burning neighbour Ucalegon reappears in Juv. 3.198–201 iam poscit aquam, iam friuola transfert | Vcalegon … | ultimus ardebit quem … . And the words proximus ardet reappear in Hor. Epist. 1.18.84 paries cum proximus ardet.

Fraenkel suggested that Virgil and Horace both echo the ending of a lost verse of Ennius (E. Fraenkel, Horace [Oxford, 1957], 319 n. 1). There is no need to invoke Ennius. Virgil is echoing Callim. Hymn 4.180 γείτονος αἰθομένοιο (itself echoing Hom. Il. 21.523 ἄστεος αἰθομένοιο), also in the context of an enemy incursion.