All 3 Uses of
prodigal
in
The Aeneid
- Ye Trojan flames, your testimony bear, What I perform'd, and what I suffer'd there; No sword avoiding in the fatal strife, Expos'd to death, and prodigal of life; Witness, ye heavens!†
Book 2 *
- The next, in place and punishment, are they Who prodigally throw their souls away; Fools, who, repining at their wretched state, And loathing anxious life, suborn'd their fate.†
Book 6
- Here patriots live, who, for their country's good, In fighting fields, were prodigal of blood: Priests of unblemish'd lives here make abode, And poets worthy their inspiring god; And searching wits, of more mechanic parts, Who grac'd their age with new-invented arts: Those who to worth their bounty did extend, And those who knew that bounty to commend.†
Book 6
Definition:
-
(prodigal) recklessly wasteful
or more rarely:
abundant (extravagant in amount)
or more rarely still:
long absent (someone who has been away a long time)