Eustace, John Cretwode: A classical tour through Italy An. MDCCCII (Vol. 3): 3. ed., rev. and enl (London: J. Mawman, 1815)

8

CLASSICAL TOUR

cji. I.

Into yonder grove on the borders of Avernus,
which Homer had filled with phantoms, the
nations of the dead, Virgil introduces the doves
of Venus, and brightens its gloom with the vision
of the golden bough.
Species auri frondentis opaca
liice
The adventures of Dsedalus were perhaps Ho-
mer’s ; but the temple with its sculptured walls,
and the vain efforts of the father to represent the
son’s fate are characteristic Embellishments of
Virgil.
Bis conatus erat casus effingere in auro
Bis patriae cecidere manus.
He also converted the cavern in yonder rock
rising on the level shore, into the abode of the
Sybil; he made its vaults echo with the voice of
futurity, and peopled its recesses with generations
yet unknown to the sun.
The Elysian fields, one of the most delightful
fictions of antiquity, if that may be called a
fiction which is founded on truth, belong almost
exclusively to Virgil. He at least gave sub-
stance and locality to a notion before him vague,
indefinite, and shadowy. He shed on yonder
groves that cover the hills and border the sea, a

5