4.345–356

Storytelling in Cyrene’s cave is interrupted by the sound of Aristaeus’s complaints. 

While the nymphs work their wool, Clymene sings about the love affair of Mars and Venus and the origins of the world. The nymphs listen as they work, until they are startled by the sound of Aristaeus’s complaints. Arethusa raises her head above the water, and reports that Aristaeus stands crying next to the Peneus River, calling his mother cruel.

345  Clymenē nārrābat: Clymene tells the story of Vulcan’s tricky plan to trap his wife Venus and her lover Mars (dolōs et dulcia furta, 346) by using a nearly invisible net to catch them while in bed, in order to display their infidelity to all the gods (also told at Odyssey 8.266-366). Instead of vindicating Vulcan’s outrage, the rest of the gods laugh. Some interpret the inānem cūram of Vulcan as his fruitless anxiety or purposeless precautions against his wife’s affair. Others suggest that this is a nymph singing for a female audience, and inānem cūram might instead refer to Vulcan’s vain passion and and unrequited love. In ancient epic women are often represented as singing and telling stories while they work wool. See, for example, Homer Odyssey 5.61, 10.221 and Ovid Metamorphoses 4.31-415. 

346  Volcānī Martisque: Vulcan is the Roman god of the forge, Mars is the god of war. 

347  āque Chaō: “and from Chaos.”

347  dīvum: “of the gods,” genitive plural masculine; a syncopated form. Clymene now seems to be recalling Hesiod’s Theogony, which begins with Chaos (at line 116) and ends with a catalogue of female love objects of the gods (beginning with the birth of Athena). 

348  carmine quō captae: “captivated by song,” literally, “by which song captivated.” Latin often uses relative clauses where in English we would start a new sentence. These are the nymphs, and the subject of dēvolvunt. 

348  fūsīs: “with their spindles,” ablative of means (AG 409).

350  luctus: nominative singular masculine; take the genitive Aristaeī with it. 

350  vitreīsque sedīlibus: ablative of place where without a preposition, as is common in poetry (AG 429.4). vitreīs likely indicates both the color of the seats (sea-green) and its brightness.

351  obstipuēre: 3rd person plural perfect active indicative (AG 163a). The nymphs are so attentive (captae) to Clymene’s song, that Aristaeus’s expressions of sorrow startle and disturb them.

352  summā … undā: “at the top of the wave,” that is, “from the top of the wave,” ablative of place where without a preposition, as is common in poetry (AG 429.4). 

353  procul: this shows just how deep down the chamber of the Cyrene is. 

353  gemitū…tantō: ablative of means (AG 409).

353  nōn frustrā: “not without reason.” Another example of litotes.

353  exterrita: vocative singular feminine, as is Cȳrēnē soror in line 354.

354  tua maxima cūra: “that man, your greatest concern,” in apposition to ipse. 

354  tibi: a dative of reference, taking it closely with ipse as well as with lacrimāns (AG 377). Some call it an ethical dative, showing that the situation has a particular interest for an individual, but this is really an elaboration of the dative of reference (AG 380).

355  Pēnēī genitōris ad undam: “at the waters of your father Peneus.” We left Aristaeus at the source of the river Peneus, which is surely what undam refers to. Pēnēī scans as two syllables (a spondee) by synizesis.

356  crūdēlem: take as a predicate.