The Greek word zeugma means “yoking,” and is the name of a figure by which a verb is applied to two objects, one properly or literally and the other improperly or metaphorically, or in some sort of extended sense.

Zeugma is found frequently in ancient literature. Here are two examples from the first book of Vergil’s Aeneid.

Zeugma in Vergil

First, from Jupiter’s prophecy to Venus about the future founding and dominance of Rome:

Hic tibi (fabor enim, quando haec te cura remordet,
longius et volvens fatorum arcana movebo)
bellum ingens geret Italia, populosque feroces
contundet, moresque viris et moenia ponet,
tertia dum Latio regnantem viderit aestas,               265
ternaque transierint Rutulis hiberna subactis.

In the translation of Frederick Ahl:

Since this anxiety constantly gnaws you, I'll make my pronouncements.
I will unwind rather more of my scroll of the fates and their secrets.
He'll wage widespread war throughout Italy, crushing ferocious
Peoples; he'll give men civilized ways and fortified ramparts,
Till the third summer has seen him reigning as ruler in Latium,
Till he's camped three times in the winter and conquered Rutulians.

The zeugma is in bold: ponet (“he places, sets up”) applies literally to moenia (“walls”), and in an extended sense mores (“morals”).

Here is another, from later in the book, of the gifts Aeneas has brought to Dido:

Munera praeterea, Iliacis erepta ruinis,
ferre iubet, pallam signis auroque rigentem,
et circumtextum croceo velamen acantho,
ornatus Argivae Helenae, quos illa Mycenis,               650
Pergama cum peteret inconcessosque hymenaeos,
extulerat, matris Ledae mirabile donum…

Again, Frederick Ahl’s version:

Further, [Aeneas] ordered that presents be brought, pieces snatched from the Trojan
Ruins: a mantle stiffened with figured designs and with gold thread;
Also a veil, trim borders embroidered with saffron acanthus,
Finery Argive Helen had brought from Mycenae when sailing
Over to Pergamum, fully intent on an unapproved wedding.

The zeugma^[1] is not clear from the translation, but it is found in the verb peteret (“she was seeking”), applied first literally to Pergama (“Pergamum”; = Troy), and in an extended sense to hymenaeos (“wedding, marriage”): “When she was seeking Troy and an unlawful marriage…”.

Zeugma in Dylan

We see the same technique put to use in Desire‘s “Isis,” co-written with Jacques Levy. In the fourth verse, Dylan sings:

We set out that night for the cold in the North
I gave him my blanket, he gave me his word
I said, “Where are we goin’?” He said we’d be back by the fourth
I said, “That’s the best news that I’ve ever heard”

Though Dylan, unlike Vergil, repeats his verb twice, the idea is more or less the same. The verb “give” is used in two different senses and so applies to its two objects in different ways. The first is “literal” or physical: The song’s speaker hands a man a blanket. In an apparent exchange, the man gives his word: In this idiom, “give” means “to make a promise.” One does not “give” his word in the same way he “gives” a blanket.^[2]

I don’t really have anything to add beyond this at the moment, other than to say that this is another instance where we can see techniques associated with high literature in classical philology (and elsewhere) on display in a very different kind of medium. Writers like Vergil had lots of tricks. Dylan knows most of them.^[3]