the archaeological accuracy of the poet, comments[1] as follows: "How deeply significant Virgil can be with a single word in dealing with matters of ritual, can be seen from the lines—
'The ruthless Parcae claimed their prize (sacrarunt),' &c.
For whatever is destined for the gods is called sacred (sacrum): but the soul cannot reach them unless it be freed from the incumbrance of the body, and this liberation can be effected only through death. Hence he aptly uses the word sacrare of Halæsus, who was doomed to die. Indeed in this passage he strictly follows the terminology of laws both human and divine. His phrase 'laid their finger on him' (iniecere manum) amounts to a mention of legal emancipation (mancipium), while his use of the word sacrare satisfies the requirements of religion. And here I may refer to the condition of those men whom the laws would consecrate to particular deities; for some persons, I know, feel surprised at the rule, which forbids us to injure consecrated things, but bids us put to death a consecrated man. The reason of it is this. The ancients would not allow any consecrated animal to remain within their own boundaries, but drove them into the boundaries of those gods, to whom they were consecrated; whereas the souls of consecrated men, whom the Greeks call Zanes, they regarded as owed to the gods.[2] So the consecrated thing that could not actually be sent to the gods they did not hesitate to send away from themselves, while the con-
- ↑ Macrob. Sat., 3.7.3–8.
- ↑ Macrob. Sat., 3.7.6, animas vero sacratorum hominum, quos Zanas Græci vocant, dis debitas æstimabant. The reading is certain (see Jan's 'apparatus criticus); and Jan was honest enough to retain it in his text, though he did not see what sense could be made of it. For various attempts to emend the passage see Jan ad loc. (cj. ἀναθήματα), Cælius Rhodiginus antiq. lect., xii., 11 (ζόανας = ξόανα!), Liebrecht in Philologus, xxii., 710 (cj. ζωγάνας, cp. Frazer, Golden Bough,² ii., 25 n.).
