Simile of the Swallow. 249 



the worAfulica, a coot, to help him out in naming 

 a bird which was something like a coot, but a bird 

 of the sea, and one for which he had no word 

 ready, or none that would suit his metre. 



Another beautiful passage is to be found in the 

 twelfth book of the Aeneid; it is one in which 

 our poet is evidently describing an everyday sight 

 of an Italian spring and summer, and writing 

 independently of an original : 



Nigra velut magnas domini cum divitis aedes 

 Pervolat et pennis alta atria lustrat hirundo, 

 Pabula parva legens, nidisque loquacibus escas ; 

 Et nunc porticibus vacuis, nunc humida circum 

 Stagna sonat : similis medios Juturna per hostes 

 Fertur equis, rapidoque volans obit omnia curru. 1 



Though it seems odd to compare to a swallow 

 the fierce female warrior careering in her chariot, 

 it should be noted that Juturna's object is not 

 to fight, but by constant rapidity of movement 

 to keep Turnus and Aeneas from meeting each 

 other. This simile is, I think, the most perfect 



1 Aen. xii. 473. Mr. Mackail translates : "As when a black 

 swallow flits through some rich lord's spacious house, and 

 circles in flight in the lofty halls, gathering her tiny food for 

 sustenance to her twittering nestlings, and now swoops down 

 the spacious colonnades, now round the wet ponds," &c. 



