75-83

Juno calls greater adversaries, the Titans and the Giant Typhoeus, against Hercules. She eventually realizes that monsters will continue to fail against Hercules and that only he can defeat himself.

75 magna meditantem: “(Hercules) planning great things,” i.e. his great plans.

76 congredere: “join (battle), grapple with,” imperative singular of a deponent verb (AG 190).

77 quid … mandās: “why (do you) delegate?”

77–78 discēdant … vacet: hortatory or jussive subjunctives (AG 439). Juno uses either imperatives or jussive subjunctives for much of the rest of her speech as she issues commands to various addressees.

78 imperandō: ablative of the gerund (AG 507). The ablative is felt with vacet (see above) and fessus: Juno imagines that Eurystheus has become exhausted from giving Hercules so many orders to perform the Labors. vacet: “rest (from)” + ablative.

79 ausōs: as the equivalent of a relative clause (Tītānas quī ausī sunt). Jupiter imprisoned the Titans in Tartarus to prevent them from rebelling once more against his rule: Juno imagines setting them free to attack Hercules.

80 ēmitte … laxā: imperatives. Siculī: Jupiter imprisoned the giant Typhoeus under Mt. Etna in Sicily.

81 Nominative tellūs … Dōris … tremēns surrounds and is interwoven with ablative Gigante … excussō. The word order contributes to the image of the land shaking when the giant Typhoeus moves. Dōris: Sicily was part of greater Greece and also the homeland of Greek pastoral poetry in the Doric dialect, and so can be referred to as a “Doric” land.

82 levet: “free” (L-S levo II.B.3), jussive subjunctive (AG 439). supposita … colla: “pinioned neck.”

83 Some editors bracket this line because it does not appear to contribute to the context. Juno has already admitted that Hercules conquered all the monsters he has faced, culminating with Cerberus (30–63). Generating new monsters from the Moon will not help to defeat him.