658 THE HADES OF HOMER AND VIRGIL. 



by the manner in which his departure is related by the poet. Sudden 

 and strong fear seized him. He hurried to his ships and to his com- 

 panions, who could not have been far from him, according to the 

 representation of the poet himself. "They quickly embarked, and 

 sat down on the benches. And the wave of the stream carried the 

 ship through the ocean river, first the rowing and afterwards a fair 

 wind." 



There is an absence of naturalness in the description which Yirgil 

 gives of the departure of ^neas and the Sibyl from Hades. It must 

 be admitted, that the verisimilitude which the poet lias hitherto pre- 

 sented with comparative faithfulness and success, is weakened by the 

 manner in which he allows ^neas and the Sibyl to return to the 

 upper regions. In Odyssey XIX., Penelope, before she recognized 

 Ulysses, who had at last arrived at his much-loved Ithaca, informed 

 him, " that there are two portals of unsubstantial dreams : these are 

 made of horn, and those of ivory. Whichever of them comes through ' 

 the sawn ivory, they deceive, bringing promises which will never be 

 fulfilled; but those which come out of doors through the polished 

 horn accomplish what is true, when any one of mortals sees them." 

 There can be little doubt that Virgil reproduces the woi-ds of Penelope, 

 which have jusfc been quoted, when he thus describes the departure 

 of ^neas and the Sibyl : 



" Sunt geminaB Somni portae ; quarum altera fertur 

 Cornea, qu& veris facilis datur exitus Umbris -^ 

 Altera, candenti perfecta nitens elephanto ; 

 Sed falsa ad coelum mittunt insomnia Manes. 

 His ubi turn natum Anchises, unaque SibyllaBi, 

 Prosequitur drctis, portaque emittit eburna : 

 Ille viam secat ad naves, sociosque revisit." 



Any one can discern an incongruity in the opinion of the poet, that 

 gates, the object of which is to allow dreams to pass through, can 

 have the texture and capacity which are presupposed by the passing 

 through them of ^neas and the Sibyl. The impression undoubtedly 

 remains, that Yirgil either sought to destroy the verisimilitude of his 

 entire story, by the manner in which he describes the return of 

 ^neas and the Sibyl to the earth; or, that he was anxious that his 

 readers should regard the story as purely imaginary — the fiction of 

 his own brain. 



