Abstract

Macrobius devotes almost the whole morning of the third day in his Saturnalia to Virgil. Eustathius, in response to a question from Euangelus, examines what Virgil drew from the Greeks and from Homer in particular. In chapter 11 of Book 5, the expositor quotes and comments on some loci similes, judging in favour of the Roman poet. At the start of the chapter, he compares the bee simile in Aeneid 1.430–6 with a passage from Homer, Iliad 2.87–93: Et haec quidem iudicio legentium relinquenda sunt, ut ipsi aestiment quid debeant de utriusque collatione sentire. Si tamen me consulas, non negabo nonnumquam Vergilium in transferendo densius excoluisse, ut in hoc loco:Qualis apes aestate noua per florea ruraexercet sub sole labor, cum gentis adultoseducunt fetos, aut cum liquentia mellastipant et dulces distendunt nectare cellas,aut onera accipiunt uenientum aut agmine factoignauum, fucos, pecus a praesepibus arcent.feruet opus, redolentque thymo fraglantia mella.