Metrum 6

Meter: Anapestic dimeter with diaeresis.

line 1

Tonantis: "the thunderer," i.e., Jupiter.

line 2

pura: ablative.

line 6

concitus: < concio, "rouse, provoke."

line 7

Phoebes: Greek genitive singular, "of the moon."
axem: literally, "axis," i.e., a fixed point of rotation; here, used for the rotation itself.

line 9

Ursa: antecedent of quae (line 8) and subject of cupit (line 12); the "great bear" never goes below the horizon for observers in the northern temperate latitudes.

line 10

occiduo: literally, "setting," thus "western" (where the sun and stars set).
lota: "washed," one way to spell the perfect passive participle < lauo (lauatum and lautum also occur).

line 17

astrigeris: astrigeris . . . exulat oris: "is in exile from the starry shores."

line 18

exulat oris: astrigeris . . . exulat oris: "is in exile from the starry shores."

line 19

19: Lines 19-24: Cf. 2M8.2ff, 3M9.10ff.

line 20

pugnantia: i.e., in conflict with the dryness to which they do in fact yield. (This word provides the only dactyl in a fourth foot in any of the four poems with this meter. The foot may in fact be a spondee with -tia pronounced as a single syllable by synaeresis.)

line 21

uicibus: "by turns."

line 23

pendulus: "hanging, poised"; fire is normally to be found balanced between the air and the ether.

line 24

sidant: "settle, subside."

line 25

uere: "in spring" (< uer, ueris).

line 26

spirat: here, "exhales, emits" with direct object (odores).

line 30

Haec: accusative.

line 32

eadem: object of condit and aufert.
condit et aufert: both creates (cf. lines 30-31) and takes away (cf. line 33).

line 33

obitu: obitu . . . supremo: "in the final passing away. "
orta: "things having arisen," i.e., "whatever has come to be"; object of mergens.
supremo: obitu . . . supremo: "in the final passing away. "

line 38

38: Cf. 3M9.3.

line 39

sistit: "causes to stop."

line 40

rectos: "straight, direct."
itus: "goings, courses"; first syllable scanned long, unclassically.

line 43

dissaepta: "separated as if by walls."

line 45

boni fine: i.e., by having the Good as their common goal.

line 47

conuerso rursus amore: The divine principle sets all things in motion but then in the end draws them back to rest in itself.

line 48

causae: dative with refluant.
esse: object of dedit; translate, "being, existence."