Aeneid, 3 , 390

Latin Learning Latin
1

Hello, i just would to know if someone have a reponse for this: What’s the sow’s symbol here ? what’s the sow means ? thanks from now.

signa tibi dicam, tu condita mente teneto:
cum tibi sollicito secreti ad fluminis undam
litoreis ingens inventa sub ilicibus sus 390
triginta capitum fetus enixa iacebit,
alba solo recubans, albi circum ubera nati,
is locus urbis erit, requies ea certa laborum

I will declare the signs to you: keep them treasured up in your mind. When, thoughtfully musing by the streams of the secret river, you shall find a large sow that has brought forth a litter of thirty young, reclining on the ground, under the holms that shade the banks of the river, white the dam, the offspring white around her tits; that shall be the station of the city . there is the period fixed to all thy labours.

2

There is actually quite a bit of discussion on this in the commentaries. Most likely, from Deryck’s notes:

The white sow with its thirty young marks the site of Lavinium from which after thirty years the Trojans were to move to Alba Longa.

Fratantuono and Smith:

The problems occasioned by the references to the portent in Virgil are
many, not least because the surviving testimonia represent conflicting tradi-
tions. In the Aeneid the thirty piglets are clearly associated with the thirty years
that elapsed before the founding of Alba Longa.

3

Thanks barry. Can i find these books free in pdf ?

4

Well, I cited two different books, but as far as I know neither exists in a free PDF.

5

thanks for the correction. I think these commentaries very similar.