accommodat: accommodare,to adapt, adjust, fit.
210. monitus: acc. pl., warnings.
genae: gena,cheek.
maduere: madere,to be wet; sc. lacrimis, because of his anxiety for Icarus.
211. patriae: adj. with manus.
212. repetenda: to be repeated or sought again.
levatus: levare,to lighten, raise, lift up.
213. velut: just as.
ales:bird.
ab alto: with nido (nidus, nest), producing an end-line rhyme.
Daedalus instructs and warns Icarus.
“Daedalus and Icarus” Charles Paul Landon 1799 Musée Municipal des Beaux-Arts Alençon, France
Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY.
Instruit et natum, “Medio” que “ut limite curras, Icare,” ait “moneo, ne, si demissior ibis, 205 unda gravet pennas, si celsior, ignis adurat: inter utrumque vola. Nec te spectare Booten aut Helicen iubeo strictumque Orionis ensem: me duce, carpe viam!” Pariter praecepta volandi tradit et ignotas umeris accommodat alas. 210 Inter opus monitusque genae maduere seniles, et patriae tremuere manus; dedit oscula nato non iterum repetenda suo, pennisque levatus ante volat comitique timet, velut ales ab alto quae tenera, prolem produxit in aera nido, 215 hortaturque sequi, damnosasque erudit artes, et movet ipse suas et nati respicit alas. Hos aliquis, tremula dum captat harundine pisces, aut pastor baculo stivave innixus arator vidit et obstipuit, quique aethera carpere possent, 220 credidit esse deos.
214. teneram: tender, delicate, young.
prolem: proles,offspring.
215. sequi: sc. natum as subj.
damnosas:destructive.
erudit: erudire,to teach.
216. alas: with both movet and respicit; see note on notae (117).
217. hos: obj. of videt and obstipuit, antecedent of qui, and subj. of esse.
tremula:shaking, because there is a fish on the line, or trembling, because the fisherman is frightened at the sight of the two men flying.
harundine: harundo,rod.
pisces: piscis,fish.
218. pastor…arator: a shepherd leaning on (inniti) his staff (baculus) or a plowman (leaning on) the handle of his plow (stiva); CHIASMUS.
219. obstipuit: obstipescere, to be amazed, astounded.
aethera: Greek acc. of aether, heaven, sky.
carpere: here, to pass through.
220. laeva parte (221): on their left side.
221. Samos: sc. erat; called Iunonia because it was sacred to Juno. Samos, Delos, Paros, Lebinthos, and Calymne are all Greek islands in the Aegean Sea.
222. dextra: nom., as the meter indicates, though it balances laeva parte. Having flown north from Crete and past Delos and Paros, the pair are now flying east, with Samos to the north, Lebinthos and Calymne to the south, and approaching what was to be named, after Icarus’ disaster, the Icarian Sea.
fecunda:fertile, rich.
223. audaci: logically with puer, a TRANSFERRED EPITHET; and note the ASSONANCE with gaudere.
224. deseruit: deserere, to desert, abandon.
225. rapidi: here, ravaging, fierce.
226. odoratas: fragrant.
227. tabuerant: tabescere, to waste away, melt; the plpf. indicates sudden action.
nudos: i.e., stripped (of their wings).
