4.494–527

Eurydice says goodbye to Orpheus, who continues to mourn her until his own death. 

Eurydice bemoans the cruel fates that call her back to the Underworld and utters a final farewell, even as she reaches for Orpheus. She vanishes from his sight, like wisps of smoke. Charon, the ferryman of the Underworld, refuses to carry him across a second time. Orpheus does not know what to do or how to convince the gods below. They say that for seven months he wept under a crag near the river and sang of his troubles, stirring wild animals and trees. Uninterested in any new love or marriage, he remained alone in chilly Thrace, complaining about the theft of Eurydice and the empty gifts of the gods of the Underworld. Spurned by him, Bacchants, in the midst of their nighttime revels, tore him limb from limb, and scattered his remains in the fields. Yet, his head, carried on the river, continued to sing of Eurydice, even as life was leaving his body.

494  illa: Eurydice, whose words we hear, only as she bids farewell to Orpheus. Orpheu: vocative < Orpheus, Orpheī (m) (AG 82).

495  quis tantus furor: supply perdidit, from line 494. 

495  ēn: an interjection.

496  vocant: supply mē. 

496  lūmina: the eyes are commonly called lūmina (the “lights” of the body) in poetry.

497  feror: 1st person singular present passive indicative < ferō, ferre, tulī, lātus; in the passive it commonly means “rush, move quickly.”  

497  ingentī circumdata nocte: circumdata is nominative, modifying the speaker (Eurydice). ingentī nocte is an ablative of instrument (AG 409).

498  tibī: the second “i” usually scans short, but it can also be long, as it is here. 

498  tua: nominative singular feminine.

499-500  ex oculīs…dīversa = ceu fūmus commixtus in tenuēs aurās, subitō dīversa fugit ex oculīs. dīversa is nominative modifying Eurydice, who trails away in the opposite direction.

500-502  neque…vīdit = neque <Eurydicē> vīdit illum prēnsantem umbrās nēquīquam et volentem dīcere multa praetereā. 

501  volentem < volō, velle, voluī. 

502–504  nec portitor…palūdem = nec potitor Orcī passus <est Orpheum> trānsīre amplius obiectam palūdem. 

502  portītor Orcī: the boatman Charon, who ferries souls across the Styx. Orcus was a god of the Underworld, who punished those who broke oaths, though he is often used metaphorically to refer to the Underworld itself. 

503  passus est < patior, patī, passus. 

503  palūdem: this must be the Styx, the river that souls had to cross to reach the Underworld. obiectam indicates the Styx as a barrier to Orpheus. 

504-505  quid faceret…movēret: a series of three deliberative subjunctives (AG 444), as Orpheus ponders his next move. This is also an example of a tricolon crescens.

504  raptā bis coniuge: ablative absolute (AG 420).

505  Mānēs: accusative plural masculine; these are the shades of the Underworld. See line 489. 

505  movēret: take with both quō fletū and quae nūmina.

506  illa…cumbā: illa frīgida is Eurydice. Stygiā cumbā is an ablative of place where without a preposition, as is common in poetry (AG 429.4). This is a golden line (see discussion at line 302).

507  septem...tōtōs…mēnsēs: accusative of duration of time (AG 423.2). 

507  perhibent: “they say.” illum is the subject accusative of flēsse and ēvoluisse (line 509) in indirect statement after perhibent. 

507  ex ōrdine: “in succession” (with septem tōtōs mēnsēs).

508  āëriā: ablative singular feminine, modifying rūpe. 

508  Strȳmonis: the Strymon is the modern-day Struma, a Thracian river that runs through modern-day Bulgaria and Greece. 

509  flēsse: a syncopated form of the perfect active infinitive = flēvisse. ēvoluisse can be understood as a metaphor for telling a story, either the spinning out of thread or rolling out a papyrus. 

509  haec: “these things,” that is, his song of his sorrows.

510  tigrēs: accusative plural masculine, direct object of mulcentem. Of course, tigers are not native to Thrace. 

510  quercūs: accusative plural feminine, direct object of agentem; quercus is a fourth declension noun. There are many varieties of oak in Europe, but all oaks are known for their hardness, stoutness, and immobility.

511  quālis: the beginning of a simile.

511  pōpuleā: ablative singular feminine, modifying umbrā. Numerous poplars are native to Europe. 

511  philomēla: the nightingale, Luscinia megarhynchos, is a small European bird (see line 15). Mynors observes that farmers had excellent reasons for killing the fledglings of birds of prey, but killing the offspring of a songbird is merely cruel. 

512  fētūs: accusative plural masculine.

513  nīdō: ablative of separation (AG 402).

513  implūmēs: accusative plural masculine, referring to the nestlings. 

513  illa = the nightingale.

514  noctem: accusative of duration of time (AG 423.2). 

514  rāmō: ablative of place where without the preposition, as is common in poetry (AG 429.4).

516  nulla Venus: also a subject of flēxere along with hymenaeī, without a conjunction; an example of asyndeton (AG 323b).

516  flexēre: 3rd person plural perfect active indicative (AG 163a).

516  hymenaeī: the marriage song and Venus are metonyms: no other woman draws him and he has not remarried. The animum is Orpheus’s.

517  sōlus: this might not only indicate Orpheus’s solitary state, and his loneliness, but also the fact that he is now an eligible bachelor. 

517  Hyperboreās: Hyperborea was a mythical land that was literally “beyond the north wind,” and so, conceptually, far to the north of Thrace. Vergil catalogues Orpheus’s wanderings in far northern, quasi-mythical landscapes. 

517  Tanaimque: Tanais was the name of the modern-day Don River that empties into Lake Maeotis (today, the Sea of Azov) in Russia. 

518  Rīphaeīs: the Riphaean mountains are mentioned by numerous classical authors, but their location is uncertain, though all agree that they are cold and snow-covered. They may be mythical (like Hyperborea), or the Urals (according to Pliny the Elder). Rīphaeīs pruīnīs is an ablative of separation (AG 400).

519  Dītis: genitive singular of Dis, the king of the Underworld.  See line 467.

520  Ciconum…mātrēs: Bacchants (see below) are the subject of sparsēre (line 522). The Cicones were a mythical tribe from Thrace. 

520  quō mūnere: “by this service,” that is, doing his duty to the memory of Eurydice. The relative pronoun connects this sentence to the previous (AG 308f). Take the phrase closely with sprētae.

521  sacra…Bacchī: Bacchants were women—often Thracian in myths—who worshiped Bacchus by night. Their rituals were female-only, and thus the cause for much concern by men. In myth Bacchants practice sparagmos, pulling living creatures limb from limb, and this is doled out as punishment to men they catch observing their rituals. nocturnī is a transferred epithet, from orgia to Bacchī.

522  sparsēre: 3rd person plural perfect active indicative (AG 163a). Vergil’s tale is quite compressed: the women have found and attacked Orpheus, dismembered him (discerptum) and scattered his remains.

523-526  tum…vocabat = tum quoque cum Oeagrius Hebrus, portāns caput revulsum ā marmoreā cervīce, volveret mediō gurgite, vōx ipsa et frīgida lingua vocābat Eurydicēn, “ā miseram Eurydicēn!” animā fugiente. 

523  marmorea…a cervīce: an ablative of separation (AG 401). Orpheus’s head has been twisted from his neck. 

524  gurgite…mediō: “in the middle of the whirlpool,” ablative of place where without a preposition, as is common in poetry (AG 429.4). 

524  cum: introduces a cum circumstantial clause (AG 546).

524  Oeagrius Hebrus: Oeagrus was the father of Orpheus and king of Thrace. Hebrus is the Maritsa, a river in Thrace (now Bulgaria and Turkey). 

526  ā miseram Eurydicēn: an accusative of exclamation (AG 397d). This is parenthetical, so not part of the syntax of the rest of the sentence. 

526  animā fugiente: ablative absolute (AG 419). The anima is Orpheus’s. The present participle indicates he is not yet dead.

527  tōtō…flūmine: ablative place where (AG 429.3 & 4). As Orpheus’s head floats to the river’s mouth, the waters resound with her name. 

527  Eurydicēn: in an English text this would be in quotation marks, since the word “Eurydice” is what echoes. This end to Orpheus’s story feels less abrupt when we recall that this tale was narrated by Proteus, to instruct Aristaeus on his error and how to restore his hive.