aestus immanes -- parsing a sentence from Augustine's Confessions

Question

Please consider this passage from Book III, chapter 2 of Augustine's Confessions:

Ut quid decurrit in torrentem picis bullientis, aestus immanes taetrarum libidinum, in quos ipsa mutatur et vertitur per nutum proprium de caelesti serenitate detorta atque deiecta?

How would you parse aestus immanes? Could we say it's accusative plural in apposition to torrentem? The implicit subject of decurrit is vena amicitiae (mentioned a sentence or two before the quoted passage). Augustine is discussing how the vena amicitiae has been distorted in him.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

I think you're right that aestus immanes is in apposition to torrentem.

Aestus is 4th declension and (with the ambiguous length of the final -us) has many possible parsings. Combined with the immanes, however, the possibilities reduce somewhat: nominative, accusative, and vocative plural.

The only possibility that makes sense is accusative. There is no plural verb with which it could agree as a nominative subject. Furthermore, aestus immanes clearly develops the same idea in the phrase torrentem picis bullientis.