Regina Aurea (Aen. 1. 697–98)

Abstract

the subject of the striking adjective aurea has been a topic of debate since antiquity. servius offers us two choices: “si ‘Dido aurea’, pulchram significat, et est nominatiuus, si ‘sponda aurea’, septimus quidem est, sed synizesis fit, et spondeus est.” In other words, we can take aurea in the nominative to go with dido, in which case it is the equivalent of pulchra, or, as an example of synizesis, it is attached to sponda, the gilded couch on which she is reclining. if we opt for the latter interpretation, as commentators do generally, we should bear in mind the words of R. G. austin, in his note on line 698, that “virgil is alone in employing it [synizesis] elsewhere than at the end of the line.”2