Saturday, May 30, 2020

A Tag for our Times

At least the first clause of Aenas's question seems curiously apposite for the season of COVID-19:
                      Cur dextrae iungere dextram
non datur, ac veras audire et reddere voces?
(Aeneid I, 408-409). Theodore Williams renders it as
Hast thou no hand-clasp true, nor interchange
of words unfeigned betwixt this heart and thine?
(Having appeared in indifferently poor disguise, Venus has given Aeneas some useful information, and is disappearing just as he recognizes her.)

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