4.333–344

Cyrene hears her son’s complaint beneath the river. 

All around Cyrene other nymphs are working wool. Vergil names each of them.

333  thalamō sub flūminis altī: “down in (OLD sub 2) her chamber of the deep river.” It is easier to imagine what is happening here than to translate it. Cyrene sits in a chamber in an underwater home, where her son’s voice reaches her.

334-335  eam circum…colōre = circum eam Nymphae carpēbant Mīlēsia vellera fūcāta saturō colōre hyalī. 

hyalī...colōre: ancient Roman glass came in a range of colors, most commonly aqua (bluish-green), green, blue, and amber, with rarer instances of purple, red, yellow, and colorless varieties. The colors were mainly due to natural impurities in the raw materials and the techniques used in glass production. Aqua (bluish-green) and green was the most common color, especially in utilitarian vessels and window panes. The color was caused by iron oxides naturally present in the sand used to make glass.

334 Mīlēsia: refers to Miletus, on the east coast of what is now Turkey, a rich ancient Greek city known for the costliness and quality of its wool. 

334  Nymphae:nature goddesses of minor importance, typically associated with natural locales. This scene is much like Homeric episodes where women, attended by servants, sit in their chambers and spin and weave (including Homer Odyssey 5.61, 10.221 and Ovid Metamorphoses 4.31-415).

335  carpēbant: when women spin, they must pull or “pluck” a small tuft of the wool to draw down into a thread, which is the work the nymphs do here. The wool suffused with a rich color of glass is likely a sea green.

335  saturō: > satur satura saturum, “saturated,” of dyes, “rich,” “full.”

336-347  Drȳmōque…amōrēs: all of these names are in the nominative. This catalogue of nymphs echoes others, particularly that of Iliad 18.38–149 and Hesiod Theog. 240–264 and 349–61. The names of these nymphs seem to be Vergil’s invention, but he makes no clear distinction between water and land nymphs. As always, scanning lines with proper names is difficult. Some particularly unusual features of this section are the lengthening of the “e” in Drymoquē (336), hiatus after Cȳdippē (336) and Ephyrē (343), a short final Greek “e” in Ōceanītides (341), and lack of a third or fourth foot caesura (336, 339).

337  effūsae: “having let fall.” This is an almost middle sense of effūsae with caesariem as an accusative of respect with a body part (AG 397b). 

338  Nēsaeē…Cȳmodocē: this entire line appears at Aeneid 5.826, and may have been interpolated.

339-340  altera…altera: “the one…the other.” 

340  Lūcīnae: genitive singular feminine; Lucina is the Roman goddess of childbirth. 

342  ambae aurō = ambae <incīnctae> aurō. 

342  pictīs…pellibus: “variegated pelts,” as hunters might wear.

343  Āsia: an adjective, “Asian.”

344  positīs…sagittīs: “because her arrows had been set aside,” ablative absolute (AG 419).