book of latin poetry

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A BOOK OF

LATIN POETRYEDITED. WITH INTRODUCTION. NOTESAND VOCABULARY

BY

K. P. R. NEVILLE, M.A., Ph.D.University of Western Ontario

R. O. JOLLIFFE, M.A., Ph.D.Queen's University, KingstonE. A. DALE, M.A.

University of Toronto

AND

D. BRESLOVE, M.A. Malvern Collegiate Institute, Toronto

Prgscribed for the Department of Education for the Province of Ontario for use for Upper School Examination. Authorized for use in the Province of Nova Scotia.

TORONTO: TH E M A C M I L L A N COMPANY OFCANADA LIMITED. AT ST. MARTIN'S HOUSE

1946


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COPYRIGHT, CANADA, 1931B Y T H E M A C M I L L A N C O M PA N Y O F C A N A D A L I M I T E D

All rights reserved, including that of translation—no part of thisbook may be produced in any form wi thou t permission in wr it in g

from the publishers.

Wnnrtntorf 1931. 1032. 1933. 1934. 1935 (twice).1936, 1987, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941 , 1942, 1943 1944

1945, 1946

PRINTED AND BOOND IN CANADA


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PREFACEThis Book of Latin Poetry has been prepared

for use in the Collegiate Institutes and High Schoolsof Ontario at the request of the Classical Sectionof the Ontario Educational Association. TheLatin text is divided into three parts, each of whichwill provide reading for a school year; teacherswil l have no difficulty i n finding passages in theparts unprescribed, which wi l l be suited in vocabulary, subject and style for translation at sight.

The Introduction deals with Literary History,w i t h M y t h o lo g y and w i t h Prosody. Th e first par tgives a brief introduction to the history of Latinpoetry of the Republican and Augustan periods,and a biographical account of the authors whosework is represented in th is vo lume. The secondpart deals with the best-known myths of the Greeks

and Romans, and is designed to supply such abackground of knowledge as will render the allusionsin which Latin poetry is so rich a source of interestrather th an of bewi lderm ent. Th e t h i r d pa rt givesan account of all the metres exemplified in the verseto be read, and in the specimens of scansion givenseeks to deal with the difficulties that confront thenovice.

In the Explanatory Notes the Editors have triedto help the student who is willing to avail himselfof the help given by the In tr od uc ti on and theVocab ula ry; they have given dir ect ion where thesyntax is less easy or the forms are less usual, but

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iv A BOOK OF LATIN POETRY

have not supplied information that is better soughtelsewhere. T he Index collects references to th emore important items dealt with in the Notes.Cross-references are frequent throughout, and it ishoped that the use of these w i l l encourage thestudent to face ideas and idioms in different formsand contexts, thereby attaining some power ofdealing with the thought and language of anotherpeople.

The Vocabulary is designed to avoid givingunnecessary information, and at the same time togive a selection of meanings and uses for all thewords contained in the text, from which the studentmay form some conception of the scope of a wordbefore he tries to fit it into the particular contexttha t he is studying . Th is exercise w i l l b u i ld up asound knowledge of English as well as of Latinwords.

The Editors wish to express their gratitude forthe excellent work of Mr. J. S. Linnell, who hasbeen most helpful in reading the manuscript andproofs; his suggestions have been valuab le at manypoint s. As they send the book out the Ed itor shope that it wi l l prove a fresh and attractive select ion of reading to student and teacher alike. Theyhave tried to make the study of Latin poetry notmerely a means of mental discipline, but a pathwayinto realms of imagination and delight.


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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

TEXT—PART ONE

PART TWO

PART THREE

NOTES—PART ONE

PART TWO

PART THREE

VOCABULARY

INDEX

v

PAGE

vii

133

65

97

157

215

273

361


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INTRODUCTIONA . B I O G R A P H I C A L

1. About the middle of the third century B.C.,in her settlement of the territory of Southern Italythat she had recently conquered and acquired, Romecame in touch with the cities of what was known asMag na Graecia. The practical matter-of-factRoman now for the first time came in contact withthe outposts of the civilization that had been for

centuries bu ilded on the things of the sp ir it . T heconqueror was taken captive by her captives, andthe Romans began to look on these Greeks with aneye of yearning for that which the Greeks possessedbu t whi ch they themselves had no t. Edu catedGreek captives and slaves were set the task of teaching the scions of the Roman houses to which they hadbeen distributed as part of the booty of victory.B u t they found no textbooks to thei r hand ; the irfirst task was to translate into the Latin languagethe textbooks of their own school days—Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. In the same way the first effortsto produce literature were attempts to translate intoRoman dress the stock tales and plots of Greekli te rary creation . In on ly a few fie lds have we preserved for us in anything but a very fragmentarystate the works of the children of genius of thispioneering age. In dram a, the most hi gh lydeveloped form of literary art, T. Maccius Plautuswrote a series of slap-stick comedies; twenty-one

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A BOOK OF LATIN POETRY

have been preserved in a fa i r ly complete state. He

died about 184 B .C . at almost the same ti me asthe other famous wri te r of Roman comedies wasbo rn , Publ ius Te rent ius Af er (Terence). We have sixplays fro m t h e la tt e r' s hand , works of a muc h morema ture ar t th an those of Pla utu s; smo oth, moderate,calm, and in their polished diction a great contrastto Plautus' rough and ready, farcical, boisterous,

colloquial lines.2. Other names in th is period were L iv iu s Andro -nicus (284-204 B.C.), who translated the Odysseyand wrote tragedies and comedies; Cn. Naevius(264-194 B.C.), equally versatile b u t more successful, whose principal work was an epic history;and Q. Ennius (239-199 B.C .) , the firs t great Roman

poet, whose Annates treated, in eighteen books, thehistory of Rome from Aeneas to his own day;C. Lucilius (150-103 B.C.), who subjected publicmen and public affairs to a biting, sharp, wittycriticism, introducing into literature the one form,satire, that was said to have its origin among theRomans.

3. Th is does n ot exhaust th e roster of aspirantsfor literary fame in the century and a half between250 and 100 B .C . There were other at tempt s inpoetry, now lost and unknown because the Fateshave been unkind . There were numerous works inprose—in history, oratory, jurisprudence and folklore —that , w i t h the exception of those of M. PorciusCato (234-149 B.C.), served no good purpose exceptto furnish the material on which successors couldimprove. This improvement was effected withsuch good results tha t the cen tury tha t followed(100 B .C . to A . D . 17) was the Golden Age of Ro ma nLi te ra tu re . To th is centu ry belong a ll the poets


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INTRODUCTION IX

from whose works selections have been made for

this volume.4. The first fifty years of this century were yearsof destruction, factional strife, party struggle, anddesperate personal efforts to bring order out of thechaos of a state, in which progressive modernismwas vainly trying to function through antiquated,ou tg rown machinery. The last fif ty years of thecentury were years of constructive peace, mirroringa constantly increasing prospe rity. Such a periodof life and effort begot men of action who won famein various spheres of life—law, literature, statesmanship, practical politics, war by land and sea,finance, and "big business' '—a vivid forerunner ofthe b ri l li an t centuries th at have recurred int ermittently in the history of Western Europe.

5. In the field of poetry first comes T. LucretiusCams (circ. 99-55 B.C.), whose noble poem De

Rerum Natura, an animated account of the philosophical system of Epicurus (a Greek philosopher,341-271 B.C.), exerted a great influence on Virgil;by some critics, ancient as well as modern, he hasbeen though t even greater th an V i r g i l himself. B u twe ourselves are first concerned with C. ValeriusCatullus who was born in Northern Italy in either87 or 84 B .C . ; we cannot be sure whi ch. H i s

father, a man of prominence in hisC a t u l l u s na tive t own of Verona, was pos

sessed of considerable wealth. Hishome was the constant rendezvous of the politicaland social leaders of the hour, with whom theyounger Catullus therefore developed a free andeasy friendship. There was another son in thefamily, evidently older than Gaius, for whom thelat te r had profound admi ra tion and affection,and whose premature death caused him an


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intense and las ting grief. Wh en the educational

advantages of Verona had been exhausted, Catullus'thoughts turned to the capital city, where was thegraduate school of rhetoric and philosophy forthose who aspired to the higher education of thetime . No sooner had Ca tul lus ar rived in Romethan we find him one of the coterie of admirers of alady he calls Lesbia—a name he uses to hide theidentity of Clodia, the sister of P. Clodius Pulcher,Cicero's bitter personal enemy, and the wife ofQ. Caecilius Metel lus Celer, praetor of the year 63,governor of Cisalpine Ga ul , probably in 62, andconsul in 60. He and his wife were no dou bt at theCatullus home more than once in 62.

6. While Catullus was engulfed in the social ratherthan the educational life of the capital, his brotherdied away off in the Troad, far from kin or friend.Catullus hurried to Verona to his father's house tohide the anguish that all but overwhelmed him.This grief was as the refining fire that consumed allthe dross of his character; b u t it seems at the sametime to have burned the very gloss off life for him.The haunts he once had loved ceased to appeal.Every sight and every sound at Rome, when here tu rned, begot sadness and sorrow. To escapefrom himself, he cared not whither, he accepted aone-year appointment on the staff of Memmius,who held the governorship of Bithynia in the year57-56. The acceptance of such an appo in tmentwas a common thing among the cadets of the housesof the socially elect who nursed political ambitions.It not on ly gave the lucky appointee a year of f irs thand experience in the actual administration of aprovince, though in a minor way, but it also affordedhim an opportunity for "easy money" at theexpense of the provincials. Fo r Ca tullus th is


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INTRODUCTION XI

part icul ar appo intm ent to B i thy n ia d id more : it

gave him a chance to satisfy his affectionate longingto see where his brother lay buried, and to performthe usual last sad rites tha t migh t have beenoverlooked in a funera l so far fr om Ro me . Hecommemorates this event in one poem (101), inwhich he utters his last farewell to the soul of hisdearly beloved brother, a farewell of heartrending,poignant sadness, made infinitely sadder, as Merrillsays, because it speaks of no hope of a futurereunion.

7. Tho ug h Ca tullus d id no t find his year afinancial success, he was for tuna te enough not to losemuch money, evidently, because he was able to buya boat of his ow n on wh ic h to re tu rn . His joy overthat return broke forth into two of the daintiestpoems of pure delight that have come down to usfrom Roman days (Nos. 81 and 46) . He loved hisow n Verona. Rome was the set ting of al l the soul-storms of his younger life. In spite of th at , " a l lroads led to Rom e" . Rome drew h im like a megnet,not to entangle him now in love's intrigues, out toenmesh him in the political quarrels of the hour.At first he was drawn into enmity to Julius Caesarbecause of his strong personal dislike for Mamurra,Caesar's notorious chief-of-staff. Late r, prob ably,he was thrown into association with Caesar himselfat the Catullus family home in Verona, whenCaesar (B.G. v.l) spent the winter of 55-54 in theCisalpine por ti on of his Galli c Provinces. L i k eeverybody else, Catul lus could no t resist the personalappeal of the most affable man in Roman politicsat the ti me. For the few short mo nth s of life tha twere left him, he was to be found enrolled amongthe amici Ccesaris, and, as such, he was the legitimateprey of all the social and political "climbers" who


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guessed, shrewdly enough, that Caesar was to emerge

in the not-distant future as the one man whosefriendship counted. Among these "c limbe rs " wasLesbia. B u t his former relationship w i t h her shecould never prev ai l on Ca tu ll us to renew. H is tone ofpolite refusal is infinitely sad and haughty, butnever scathing nor pe tu lant . In life's stern schoolhe had grow n up to the statu re of a man . A n ddea th took h i m , possibly before the end of the year54 B.C.

8. Catullus was the first, if not the foremost;lyric poet of Rome, Horace to the contrary notwiths tand ing (1. 1337). He was the pioneer inw r i t ing in Ro ma n dress the poet ry of personalemotion. He at temp ted, and w i t h marke d success,to adapt to L a t i n man y Greek poetica l forms. Wehave preserved for us only 116 poems, but he musthave written many an experimental exercise thathe deemed fit only for dest ruct ion, before he reachedthe degree of perfection that he attained in almost ascore of metr ic al measures : elegiac couplet (dis ti ch ),dactylic hexameter, hendecasyllabic (his favouritemeasure, appearing in 40 poems), scazon (8 poems),iambic trimeter (3 poems), Sapphic, Asclepiadean,Glyconic , Pherecratic, and the "baffl ing Ga ll ia mb ic".To convince us that he was more than the master ofthe occasional and inconsequent, he has given usfour longer poems of sustained seriousness—twoEpithalamia, or marriage hymns (61 and 62), Att is(68), Peleus and Thetis (64), and The Lock ofBerenice (66), a translation from the Greek of Cal-limachus, the Ale xandria n poet (circ. 310-235 B.C.) .In these he showed powers of sustained character-draw ing, subtle analysis an d descrip tion, an d adramatic skill, tha t have made subsequent ages ofcrit ics lament his early dea th. In the personal


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INTRODUCTION xiii

poems he runs the ga mut of al l the emotions. We

probably like his pre-Hibernian sense of the ridiculous (18, 44) better than his scurrilous abuse, andwe prefer his affection to his hate, his admiration tohis scorn. T he language tha t he uses is the languageof the sidewalk rather th an of the drawing- room orthe study, except in his longer poems, which areconsciously premeditated imitations of the literarymodes of Greece, especially of Alexa nd ri a. In th islanguage lies much of his cha rm for us; it brings tous a note of "m od er ni ty "; the simple dic tio n, however, d i d no t appeal to Rom an taste. A fat al faul trobbed him of any opportunity to be ranked amongthe greatest poets : his subjects, so far from beingsubl ime, often descend to the commonplace. B u tno critic can deny that "his works have the immortality of truth", and as such are destined to maketheir appeal to all generations of readers and critics.

9. P. Vergil ius Ma r o (V ir gi l) was born onOctober 15, B.C. 70, at Andes, near Mantua, in

Northern Italy, a section of theVirgil I t a l ian Peninsula that had not yet

obtained, or had thrust upon it,Rom an citi zenship. He was of obscure andhum ble parentage. H i s father so applied himselfto the interests of his employer that he won hisfavour and in time married his daughter, MagiaPo lla, a nam e tha t in its el f may have suggestedthe idea to the Middle Ages that Virgil was amagician. T he story about his extreme po ve rtyand lo wl y b i r t h must not be interpreted too li t er al ly,because he was given the opportunity to take aneducation, and he devoted himself assidously to thepursuit of that particular type of training that leddirectly to national service—a destination thatwould have been denied one as poor and lowly as


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some of his biographers would have us believe he

was. He studied at M a n tu a ; then at the nearestL a t i n colony, Cremona; the n, wh en abou t 15 yearsof age, he went to Milan, the capital of CisalpineGaul, where he continued his studies t i l l he wasready to go, in 53 B. C., to Rome. There he devotedhimself to rhetoric and philosophy with some attention to the science of the day, which includedmathematics and medicine.

In 42 B.C. at the battle of Philippi, Brutus andCassius, who had effected the assassination ofJulius Caesar, were defeated by the Caesarian champions, Antony and Octavian. Victory alwaysbrought the soldiers participating some concretereward . Where there was no tow n captured andbooty taken, some other method of reimbursing thelegionaries had to be discovered. In this case theacres of cities and districts which had sympathisedwith Brutus and Cassius were confiscated for allotmen t. Inc lud ed were Cremona an d M a n tu a ; andV i r g i l los t his ancestral estate. Small as th isprobab ly was, it meant his a l l . So he im me diatelyset out for Rome, and with the assistance of somepowerful friends, Gallus, Maecenas, and Pollioamong others, persuaded Octavian to restore himhis family acres, or, if not those, others in exchangefor them. Very l i t t le of the remainder of his lifewas spent in the nor th . We find h im fr om now onliving at the capital, where the episode of the confiscated estate ripened a friendship with Maecenaswhich lasted t i l l Virgil 's death i n 19 B.C . H ewas buried near Naples in Campania, wherehe had a retreat which the climate made especiallyattractive to him.

10. A l l these years (39-19 B.C.) were dedicatedto the Muses. In 37 B.C . he published his Bucolics


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INTRODUCTION xv

or Eclogues, ten pastoral poems in imitation of the

Sici lian Greek, Theocr itu s. One of these, num berfour, the prophecy of the millennial age, brought toVirgil among the early Christians the reputationand renown of an Amos or Isaiah . The years 36 to29 B.C. were devoted to the Georgics, or FarmersAlmanac, four books on husbandry, a finished andpolished exposition of the joys of country life andru ra l pur sui ts. There is no do ub t th a t thi s poemhad its poli ti ca l purpose. Oc tavian and his ableminister, Maecenas, were intent on restoring the oldI t a l y w i t h its old religion, its old virtues, its oldagricultural structure, in which the small independent landowner constituted, morally and economically, the backbone of the nat ion . Both Virg i l andHorace contributed their respective shares to whatto-day would be called "selling" these ideas to thecitizenry of Rom e. In addi tion there ha d to beinstilled in the war-weary souls of the Romans pridein their blood, their ancestry, their traditions—ineverything that had made the nation great in theyears of its conquering prowess. Once againOctavian appealed to Horace and Virgil, the formerthe poet of higher, shorter, flights, the latter thepoet of sustained and serious effort. The Aencidwas the outcome of the loyal devotion of Virgil tothese ideas. In it we have, as the result of his to i l ,one of the greatest epics of the literature of theworld.

11. The subject of the Aeneid is the capture ofTroy, and the seven years' wandering of Aeneas t i llhe finally reaches I t a l y ; next come the tales of thewars waged against him by the native Italianprinces, success over whom was destined to culminate in the establishment of the city of Rome.Among the stories that had gathered around the


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epochal conflict beneath the walls of Troy there was

the tr ad i t ion th at a T ro jan hero, Aeneas, had escapedwhen Troy fell, and had ultimately taken refuge inItaly. By adopting the traditional genealogywhich traced the lineage of the dictator Julius andthe emperor Augustus back to this Aeneas, Virgilsecured an honourable antiquity for his Romans,and into the ancestral pedigree he wove details fromlocal tradition to prove the glorious destiny of therace of Romulus, and to establish in the livingdescendants of the Latin folk pride in the stockfro m wh ich they had sprung. Eve ry th in g of thei rpast was exalted for a purpose, everything of theirfuture was portrayed in glowing colours for thesame purpose. One of the peculiar things aboutthe Aeneid is th at , though the work was a set taskand in its initial stages not spontaneous, it graduallypossessed the soul of Virgil so completely that thefinal product shows very few tricks of manufacture;it is a work of amazing genius. V i r g i l was such acareful, slow author that he does not seem to havedone much more than three or four lines per day onthe average. Aft er his fir st draf t was fin ished, in19 B.C., he set off to Greece to gather some firsthand information to use in revising and polishingthe poem. To this task he seems to have beenprepared to devote three years. At Athens he metthe Emperor Augustus returning from a tripthrough the Eastern provinces, and was persuadedby h im to return to I t a ly . On the way Vi rg i l wasstricken with fever at Megara and died at Brunr-disium (September 21, 19 B.C.) a few days afterreaching that port.

12. There is an interesting story that Virgil wasso dissatisfied with the poem as he left it when hewent to Greece, that he asked his literary executor,


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INTRODUCTION xvii

Varius, to burn it if any misfortune overtook him.

B u t on Vi rg il 's death Variu s, qu ite w i t h the appr ovalof Augustus as anyone could surmise, broke faithw i t h his dead friend and pub lished the poem , practic al ly as it came fr om the hands of it s autho r w i t ha ll its shor t unfinished lines, in the conv ic tio n tha tit s transcendent perfection would fu ll y compensatefor its few defects. A ro und the w o r ld al l nationsin 1930 joined w i t h I t a l y in joyous celebration ofthe two -tho usan dth anniversary of Vi rg il 's b i r t h ,wh ile scarcely a k in d ly w ord was spoken for V ar iu s,the man who saved a ll the w ork of his master'sgenius to enrich th e tw en ty centuries throu gh wh ic hit has lived.

13. Horace (Q. Horatius Flaccus) was born atVenusia, a Roman colony on the border-line of

Apulia and Lucania, December 8,H o r a c e 65 B .C . H is father was a freedman,

emancipated some time beforeHorace's b i r t h . He was ve ry p ro ud of his father,b u t he never mentions his mo the r. T he father ha dno exalted calling (he was a collector of taxes), buthe was able to save money enough to buy a smallpr op er ty near Venusia. H i s interest, however, wasnot in material things, but in his son, whose companion, guide, philosopher and friend he strove tobe; in his an xiety to be b o th a father and a mo ther tothe young Quintus, we see some evidence to suggestth a t the mother ha d died in Horace's y o u th and leftth e son a special charge to the father. As soon as theeducational possibilities of Venusia were exhausted,the father and son moved to Rome to continue theyouth's education, the father giving up hismu ni cip al position to lead the w ay th ith er. A tabout the age of twenty Horace went to Athens tocontinue his study, devoting himself especially to


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philosophy, the outstanding professors of which atthe t im e were the Peripatetic Cra tippus and theAcademician Theomnestus. B u t Horace shows nosigns of having been deeply impressed or seriouslyaffected; he was at best a superficial student, wholoved to skim the surface, but never went deeplyinto any school's doctr ines. Tha t is one of the majorreasons why he makes his appeal to the averagereader; he shows a sympathetic kinship w i t hthe Babbitts of all ages, and he gets as much enjoyment out of the foibles of the Forum as Lewis everdi d ou t of M a i n Street. There is not ver y mu chreason to doubt that he got more joy out of his firstcontacts with the Greek lyric poets than out of hisphi losophy. In the la tt er he browsed, and hiswritings show a surface appreciation not only of thePeripatetic and the Academician systems, but ofthe Stoic and, to a greater degree, of the Epicurean.

14. At Athens he had as fellow students the son ofCicero the orator, Messala, and Brutus, one of themurderers of Julius Caesar. Brutus was a studentonly in the intervals of relaxation from preparationto defend himself and his party against the avengersof Caesar, headed by the young Octavian and theolder bu t no mature r An to ny . The straits to wh ichthey were driven for supporters can be gleaned fromthe fact that Brutus offered Horace, youthful andinexperienced though he must have been, a positionon General Headquarters Staff as tribunus militum.In this capacity Horace was present for at least partof the bat tle of Phi li ppi , 42 B.C ., bu t he admits tha tas a soldier he left much to be desired {Odes II. mi).He was punished for his lack of political vision andsagacity w i t h far more justif ication than was V i r g i laf ter the same conflict. When Horace re tu rn edto Italy he found his little ancestral estate con-


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INTRODUCTION xix

fiscated for the veterans of the Caesarians; but ,

worst of a l l , he found his father dead. His life washenceforth his ow n to "make or break" . Hisimmediate physical needs were met by the scantstipend of a clerkship in the quaestor's office,secured nobody knows exactly how.

15. His natural gift for poetry had to be exercised,and some of his early verses attracted the friendshipof Virgil andVarius, who secured for him an introduction to Maecenas, the patron of literature atRome (39 B.C .) . Horace had friends at court no w;the rough paths were made smoother, perhaps quiteas smooth as one could desire who had no extravagant tastes and who loved deeply the simple life.His publications followed at more frequent intervalsthan those of Virgil, though their main purpose wasto assist the same policies of the Emperor :

Satires, Book I . . . puSatires, Book IT, and Epodes,Odes, Books I - I I I . . .Epistles, Book 1 . . .Carmen Sa ecu!are

Epistles, Book IIOdes, Book I V . . . .

16. His patron rewarded his first published workby the gift of the famous Sabine farm,a small countryestate in the Sabine mountains near Tibur andabout t h i r t y miles from Rome. From this resortHorace der ive d the greatest en joyme nt: it furnishedhim with a retreat when he wished to devote himselfto literary work, when he wished to be alone withhimself to meditate, or when he wished to entertainhis friends "fat from the madding crowd's ignoblest ri fe". Th e type of the gi ft is a revela tion of theinsight of the giver, Maecenas.

tied in 35 B.C.,, ,, 30 B.C.,, ,, 23 B.C.,, ,, 20 B.C.

,, ,, 17 B.C.,, ,, 14 B.C.,, ,, 13 B.C.


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17. W i t h the passing of the years Horace grew in

li tera ry eminence, and in favour w i t h gods, heroes,and men; the stamp of app rova l of the Empero r A ugustus was placed on h i m and his li te ra ry -pol it ic alwork, when he was asked to become the Emperor'spr ivat e secretary. He declined the honour, bu t therefusal was understood. Horace never lost the E mperor's good wi l l , as is evident from the fact that hewas commissioned to write the Carmen Saeculare,the Commemora tion Ode of the founding of the P ri n -cipate, as Augustus preferred to call his Empire.

18. Horace has a charm tha t has appealed toevery generation of readers, from his day to our own.He had no very pro fo un d ideas to express; he hadno intense and sustained emotion to depict . W h yhis appeal ? " L i t e r a ry critics have repeatedly to ldus that it is due to his unfailing tact and exquisitefelicity in the expression of poetical and moral commonplaces", says Sho re yi n his ed it ion of the Odes;and, further, "for the expression of an every-dayphilosophy of life, ju st sufficiently il lu mi na te d w i t hhumour, touched with pathos, and brightened bypoetic feeling, his phrases replace all others in theminds of those who have once learned th em. Theyare inevitable. We cannot say the th ing otherwise.' '

19. Horace died B .C. 8, at the age of 57, jus t a fewmonths after his pa tr on Maecenas. They restedside by side on the Esquiline Hill—comrades indeath as they had been in life.

20. Albius Tibullus was born about 50 B.C., theexact date an d place not being known. He died

about the same time as Virgil (inT i b u l l u s 19 B .C. ) . He was of equestrian

rank, which means that his familywas at least comfortably well-off, though it lost itsestates when Virgil lost his by the confiscation of


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INTRODUCTION xxi

41 B .C . He was s ti ll qu it e young when his father

died, but we have reason to believe that his motherand at least one sister out li ved h im . He belongedto the literary school of which Messala (see §14), thetrus ted adviser of Augustus, was pat ron ; thi s schoolwas the rival circle to that of which the giftedMaecenas was the inspi ra tion , and to wh ich belongedHorace, Virgil , and Propertius . H e seems to have

had the advantages of an education at Rome fromhis earliest years—proof that his birthplace waseither the cap ita l or some near-by to wn. W i t hMessala he went to the Aquitanian campaign to gethis first experience of military life, military trainingbeing compulsory for all well-bred Roman youths.On his return from the West, he elected to follow

Messala to the East in 30 B.C., but a sudden illnessprevented the complet ion of thei r plans. He seemsnever to have left Rome and its vicinity thereafter,though we have no proof that he used his constantpresence to secure for himself even a minor part inpubl ic lif e. He loved the quiet of his re tirement ,broken only by his association with his literary

equals and friends. The inspira tions of his poet ry ,however, seem to have been his lady-loves, the firstof whom, known to us as Delia, is the motif of thefirst book of his elegies; the second lady, for someunknown reason called Nemesis, had a shorter andless absorbing influence over the poet . She is thetheme of book two. She d id not possess for h imany ardent affection; she seems to have been of the"gold-digger" type. The other two books ofelegies that have for centuries been associated withthe name of Tibullus seem to be a collection ofisolated poems by Tibullus himself, together withmany more of unknown origin and authorship.


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21 . H i s love-laments reveal tw o impressivecharacteristics—his infinite sadness and gloom, andhis love, of na ture . It was in the expression of thelatter sentiment that we find him assisting Augustusmost in his policy of the rehabil ita tio n of I t a l y . Bythe schoolmen of ancient Rome he was accorded ahig h place: Qu in ti li an says of h i m (x. i. 93) mihitersus atque elegans maxhne videtur auctor Tibullus,One of the most sympathetic of modern editors( K . P. Ha rr ingt on ) says : " W i t h i n his field it is rashto assert that Tibullus is a second-rate poet who justmissed greatness. H is wonderfully pure L a t i n i t y ,in the Augustan age, his perfection in handling theelegiac distich, and his success in touching thehuman heart with a gentle sympathy, place himamong the masters of his art."

22. Ovid (P. Ovidius Naso) was born at Sulmoin Pelign ium on March 20, 43 B.C. Like Tibu llus ,

he was of the middle-class aristocracy,O v i d the son of an equestrian father . He

was therefore in circumstances sufficien tly affluent to guarantee the best educat ion ofthe day , inc lud ing extensive tr av el . He studiedfinally at Athens after he had profited at Rome bythe expert tutelage of the best teachers of rhetoricof his time. He was trained for the law, b u t theduties of the law (and the civil service that seemedinseparable from it) appealed to him very little.Society, w h ic h was open to one of his financial standing and of his native poetic gifts, was far more alluring than any form of ha rd work . Nobody of his agehad greater na tu ra l endowments for po et ry ; hesays, "I lisped in numbers for the numbers came."(1550-1.) Such a genius cannot escape recognit ion bythose of the same class wh o have already "a r r ive d" ;we find him adopted, almost, and certainly pat-


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INTRODUCTION xxiii

ronized by Horace and Propertius, by Virgil andTib ul lu s, an d looked on by th em w i t h the condescension tha t in those days was accorded to y ou th . Herapidly won his way into the inner circle of thesociety of the capital, and t i l l he was fifty years ofage he was a most popu lar "m an -a bo ut -t ow n" ; andin the years when his vogue was the widest heproduced that great volume of verse that has cometo us fro m his ha nd . He could not in such a societyescape the traps that were set for the most eligibleyoung man of the c i t y ; twice he was married andtwice divorced before he had the the good for tuneto marry a la dy of the Fa bian house. The ir life wasvery happy together and to them a daughter wasbor n. A n d ju s t when the picture of happiness wasmost serene it was rudely shattered (A.I). 8) by asentence of banishment to the town of Tomi on theBlack Sea.

23. One naturally wonders why this sentence waspassed on him ,bu t the answer is nowhere to be found.Ovid himself in discussing the unfair severity of hisfate admits the cause to have been carmen et error.Critics are of one accord in identifying the Ars

Amatoria as the carmen ; bu t what was the error ?He may have known too much about the love-affairsof the two Julias—the daughter and granddaughterof the Emperor Augustus.

24. The rest of his life from A . D 8. to A . D . 17 wasspent amid scenes as remote from the cultured lifeof the capital as one could well imagine. To T om ihe never d id , never could, become reconciled. Hehad loved the ease tha t the capi ta l afforded ; thesoft, effeminate, irresponsible li fe led by thedarling of the highest society of the world-capital ofhis day produced none of the red-blooded virilitythat this outpost of civilization demanded.


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25. Ovid 's lit erary ac t iv i ty began w i t h the

Amoves , a series of poems portraying the loveexperiences of O v id and Corinna . It is no t cer tainthat there was ever such a maiden, but Catullushad his Lesbia, Propertius his Cynthia, Tibullus hisDelia, why not Ovid his Corinna, or any other namehe wished to assign to his "dream-girl"? Next camethe Heroides, letters of love-sick heroines to their

heroes and the replies of the heroes. In 2 B .C . camethe Ars Amatoria, an expert's advice on how to winand keep affection, books i and ii addressed to themen , and book i i i to the women. The Reiv.rdia Amor is gives the rules for those who would esca,from the hypnotic spell of love. Medicamina Facieitells the ladies how to secure and re ta in a fine

school-girl complexion. These books cons titute thecomplete vade mecum of what an up-to-date womanof the time in Rome was supposed to know.

2G. Two serious works of an entirely differenttype are to be assigned to his last years in Rome.First, the Metamorphoses, presenting in wonderfullyclever narrat ive a large p ort ion of the tales of

classical mythology, with especial attention to thecases of transformation that constitute so large apa rt of this lore. He treats chronological ly thewhole history of transformation, thereby producing,as Rand says, a "Who's Who Among the Gods", or,as the same author says in another place, "theGolden Legend of an t iqu i ty . " Second, the Fasti, aRoman calendar which was planned to containtwelve books, one for each month, but of which onlysix were completed at the time of his banishment;the others were never finished. I n t o this frameworkhe wove the legends of the religious feasts that fallin the several months of the Roman year.


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27. The third era of his literary activity has for

its background Tomi—five books of Tristia and fourof Epistulae Ex Ponto, all petitions of complaintover his hard lo t and all "B lu es " wr i t te n in differentwords b u t set to the same music of wai li ng. Thereis some reason to believe that the stony heart ofAugustus was gradually being worn down by theimportunities of Ovid's ceaseless complaining, and

that his banishment would soon have been endedhad no t Augustus inconsiderately died ( in A . D . 17).The blow killed Ovid, who survived his patron-to rm en to r b u t a few months . Some say he diedin A . D . 17, some in 18.

B . M Y T H O L O G I C A L

28. Through the fabric of Greek and L a t i n poetry,in epic, drama, and lyric, runs the thread of classicalmythology. Sometimes we have just a reference togive poetic charm or to adorn the tale . Often awhole work is based on the history of the numerousdeities of land , sea, ai r, and underw or ld . Often thetale centres around the adventures of the demi-godsand heroes, around "far-off things and battles longago."

29. The Greeks were a highly imaginative peoplew i t h a keen poetica l and ar ti st ic sense. TheRomans were, by nature, practical and unimaginat ive . T he Greeks early created a large and picturesque bod y of legends. The Romans had, incomparison with the Greeks, few tales, and eventhese lacked the charm and the colour of the legendsof Greece.

30. Af ter the Romans had come under theinfluence of Greek literature, they identified manyc£ the ir own deities w i t h certain Greek deities whom


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they resembled and whose characteristics they

henceforth assumed. The legends of the Greeksbecame incorporated in Roman literature.3 1 . Accord ing to the Graeco-Roman myt ho lo gy , at

the beg inn ing of the universe there was no orderedsystem. "V e r i ly at firs t Chaos came to be", wro tethe Greek poet Hesiod in his account of the originof th ings ; " b u t nex t wide-bosomed E a r t h . . . andEros (Love), fairest among the deathless gods."Fr om Chaos came fo rt h black N i g h t . E a r t h borestarry Heaven, Uranus, "to cover her on every side,and to be an ever-sure abiding place for the blessedgods." Then E a r th brough t fo rt h the hills andthe seas.

32. From the union of Uranus and Earth camethe Titans and the Hundred-handed Ones and theone-eyed Cyclopes. "O f a ll the children tha t wereborn of Earth and Heaven, the Hundred-handedOnes were the most terrible, and they were hatedby the ir own father from the fir st. A n d he used tohide them away in a secret place as soon as each wasborn ." B u t E a r th was vexed at the loss of heroffspring and appealed to her children the Titansfor help. One alone answered her ca ll : w i t h asickle the Titan Cronus attacked and mutilatedUranus. F r om the blood of the wou nd leapedforth the Furies and the Giants.

33. Cronus now reigned with Rhea, or Cybele,his sister-queen. To th em were bo rn three daughters, Vesta, Ceres, and Juno, and three sons, Pluto,Neptu ne, and Jup ite r. B u t Cronus, ha ving learnedthat he was destined to be overcome by his own son,swallowed each ch il d as it was bo rn . Rhea, however, succeeded in concealing the birth of Jupiter,who, as an infant, was reared in the island of Crete.When Jupiter reached maturity, he compelled his


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INTRODUCTION xxvii

father to disgorge his bro thers and sisters. Then

Ju pi te r made war on Cronus. W i t h the help of theCyclopes and the Hundred-handed Ones, Jupitervanquished his father and the other Titans, andconsigned th em to the lowest depths. Atla s , one ofthe Titans, was doomed to bear the heavens on hisshoulders.

34. After the overthrow of Cronus, Jupiterbecame supreme ruler of the world, having as hisspecial sphere earth and heaven. Neptu ne receivedthe kin gd om of the sea. To Pl ut o fel l the lordshipof the und erw or ld. B u t Jup iter and his brotherswere not destined to rule unchallenged. TheGiants, who had sprung from the blood of thewounded Uranus, raised the standard of rev ol t.Awful to look at were the Giants, whose lower limbstook the for m of snakes. Arm ed w i t h rocks andtr un ks of trees, they at tacked the gods. B u t thei rbrute force could not prevail, and they too were castinto the depths of darkness.

35. Prometheus, though the son of a T i t a nIapetus, ha d assisted Jupi te r in the war againstCronus and so had escaped the fate of the Titans.Some classical writers credited Prometheus with thecreation of man . Ou t of earth kneaded w i t h waterPrometheus made man, giving him an uprightstature wh ich dist inguished h i m from the beasts. Tolighten the lot of man Prometheus, without theconsent of Jupi te r, stole " th e far-seen gleam of u nwearying fire" from heaven and brought it down toear th. The rea t Jupi ter's anger broke fo r th . Prometheus was chained to a rock, where for ages aneagle gnawed at his live r. U l t im a te ly relief camethrough Hercules who killed the eagle.

36. The first age of man's habitation on earth wasone of innocence and happiness. T r u t h and r ig h t


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prevailed, while the rigour of the law and the

violence of war were alike un know n. Spr ing reignedthro ughout the year. T he rivers fl ow ed w i t h m i lkand honey. This was the Golden Age, begun in thereign of Satu rn, w ho m the Romans came to ide nti fywith Cronus.

37. The Golden Age was succeeded by the Silver.L ife became harder. E a r th no longer gave of herfru its unasked; farmer and ox toi led in the fie ld.Next came the Bronze Age, and then the hardestand most cruel, the I r o n Age. N o w crime andviolence and war sta lked abroad. One by one thegods, who had moved so freely among men, left theea rth . T he last to go was Astraea, goddess ofJustice, who, on withdrawing to heaven, was placedamong the stars, under the name of Virgo.

38. After Jupiter's reign was established he dweltwith many of the gods on the top of snow-cappedOlympus. Six gods and six goddesses made up thegreat Ol ym pi c council. T hey were Jupi ter, Neptune, Mars, Apollo, Mercury, Vulcan; Juno,Minerva, Venus, Diana, Vesta, Ceres.

39. "Throned on high Olympus" sat Jupiter, thesire of gods and men, surveying the universe withfar-seeing eyes. H is it was to govern the affairs ofgods and men w i t h eternal sway. H is weaponswere the lightning and the thunderbolt, forged forh im in the workshops of Vu lc an .

40. Neptune, the brother of Jupiter, was the godof the sea. Over the waves his steeds drew hischar io t. His palace was in the depths of the AegeanSea, but he made his home on Olympus when hechose. T he tr id ent was his symb ol of power.

41 . Mar s, or M av or s, "w ho wields al l warfareunder his sway", was the son of Jupiter and Juno.In Rome the Campus Martius was sacred to him.


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Here he was adored with sacrifice, and here stoodhis temple, where his priests, the Salii, watched overthe sacred spear and the sacred shield that fell fromheaven.

42. Apollo, or Phoebus Apollo, the son of Jupiterand Latona, was pre-eminently the god of the sun.He was also the god of light, of oracles, of music, ofthe ar t of healing, of the bow and ar row. He wasborn on the island of Delos, and was called the Del ia ngod . V i rg i l speaks of h i m as "most hi gh of gods,guardian of ho ly Soracte"; at Soracte the worshippers of Apollo walked three times through a pine-fire, carrying offerings to the god. He was called,too, Actian Apollo for the assistance he gaveOctav ian at the battl e of A c t ium . It was w i t h thecity of Delphi that Apollo was chiefly associated;here, through his oracle, he revealed the future tothose who consulted h im . Thr ou gh the Delph ianoracle he promoted colonization and legislation.

"I am the eye with which the universeBeholds itself and knows itself divine;

A l l harmony of inst rum ent or verse,A l l prophecy, a l l medicine, are mine ,

All light of art or nature;—to my song,Victory and praise in their own right belong."(Shelley, Hymn of Apollo.)

43. Mercury, the son of Jupiter and Maia, thedaughter of Atlas, was the messenger of the gods.He is represented in art as bearing wings on hisankles and on his ha t. In his hand he bore a wand,twined with snakes and surmounted with wings.Himself gifted with eloquence, Mercury, accordingto Horace, endowed primitive man with speech.As the presiding deity of athletics, he instituted the palcestra (school of wres tl ing) . To h i m was creditedthe in ve nt io n of the ly re and the flute . A cunning


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god , he played the tri ckste r and the thief. H is

more serious function was to conduct the souls of thedead to their final home in the house of Hades.44. Lord of fire (ignipotens) and blacksmith of

the gods was Vulc an , son of Ju pi te r and Juno . Inhis workshop, which tradition placed under variousvolcanic islands, he toiled with the Cyclopes, andthere he fashioned the thu nderbolts of Jupi te r. Atthe request of Venus, his wife, he made the shieldof Aeneas. Sometimes he was cal led Mukiber,"the smelter" (see 1726 n.).

45. Juno, sister and wife of Jupi te r, was thequeen of the gods and guardian of women. She isrepresented as tall, stately, dignified, but cruel andvengeful at times. Angered by the ju dg men t ofParis, she long cherished a grudge against theTrojans. Among the chief centres of Juno-worshipwas the island of Samos, so that Ovid speaks oflunonia Samos.

46. M in e rva , or Pallas Athene, was a v i rg ingoddess. She sprang from the head of Jupi te r ,agleam in full armour, brandishing her spear. Shewas a goddess of war, but also the goddess ofwisdom and skilled labour.

47. Venus, goddess of love and beauty, was thedaughter of Jupiter and Dlone, and the wife ofVulc an . She was closely associated w i t h manyplaces, among others with the island of Cytheraand w i t h Paphos and I d a l i u m in Cyprus. She wasfrequently called Cytherea; Horace speaks of heras "the goddess who rules over Cyprus" (1. 1065).In the story of Troy she appears as the goddess whowon the award of Paris and as the mother of Aeneas.She constantly watched over the interests of theTrojans, and for Aeneas she secured from Vulcanthe famous armour described by Virgil.


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INTRODUCTION XXXI

48. Diana, the twin sister of Apo llo, was the

daughter of Jupiter and Latona, whence she.is calledLatoni a. L ike Minerva she was a vi rgin goddess.She was associated with Apollo in nearly all hisadventures. As his feminine counterpart, she wasidentified with the moon as he was with the sun.Virgil speaks of "Latona's daughter, glory of thestars and gu ardian of the groves" (1. 214). Shewas the goddess of hunting, a huntress herself and aguardian of w i l d beasts. She was attended byThr ac ia n forest-nymphs. Sometimes she was identified with Hecate, a goddess of the underworld andof witch craf t. Hecate was the goddess also of thecross roads and so was called Trivia, a name appliedat times to Diana.

49. Vesta, the goddess of the hearth, was theeldest ch ild of Cronus and Rhea. The poets calledher "hoary " Vesta and "e te rn al " Vesta. She washighly honoured on Olympus and in the temples ofthe gods on ea rth. Before her shrine in the c i tythe holy fla me was relig ious ly cherished. In hertemple at Rome six virgin priestesses called Vestalswatched over the sacred fire. As goddess of thedomestic hea rth, Vesta was the d iv in i ty of the home.

50. Ceres, daughter of Cronus and Rhea, was thegoddess of ag ricu lture. The centre of her worsh ipwas the to wn of Eleusis in A t t i c a . Here , each year,were held "the sacred rites of mystic Ceres", atwhich, in the presence of the initiated, were enactedscenes which probably represented the alternationof death and life in nature and suggested the immortality of the soul.

51. Bacchus, son of Jupiter and S£mele, a princessof Thebes, was the god of the vine, a promoter ofc iv il iz a ti on , a lawgiver, and a lover of peace. He rodeupon a tiger or was drawn in his car by wild beasts.


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INTRODUCTION xxxiii

poetry, Potyhymnia, of sacred poetry, Urania, ofastronomy, Thal ia , of comedy. The worship of theMuses was introduced from the north, into Boeitia,where their favourite haunt was Mount Heliconw i t h it s sacred founta in Hippocrene . Th e Museswere invoked by the poets as the inspiring goddessesof song. Horace speaks of himself as Musarumsacerdos (1. 1907).

58. T he three Fates, or Parcae, daughters ofNigh t , were Clo tho , Ldchesis, and Atropos. Th ei rfunction was to spin the thread of man's destinyand to cut it off with their shears when they pleased.

59. Another daughter of N i g h t was Nemesis,whom she bore " to afflict mo rt a l men " . Nemesisrepresents the righteous anger and vengeance of thegods, especially toward the proud, the insolent, andthe law-breaker. Ca tu llus says of Nemesis, "Sheis an imperious goddess—beware of offending her".

60. Aurora , the rosy-fingered goddess of theM o r n , arose, saffron-robed, from the stream ofOcean, to bring l ight to gods and men. One of herfavourites was Ti th 5n us , a Tro jan prince. Shestole him away and prevailed on Jupiter to granth im immor ta l i ty . B u t she failed to ask for h imthe boon of eternal you th . In time he became

"A white-haired shadow roaming like a dreamThe ever-silent spaces of the Kast ,Far-folded mists, and gleaming halls of morn."

(Tennyson, Tithonus.)

61. The Winds were the sons of Dawn :B6reas or Aquilo

NZephyrus or Favonius W - | - E Eurus

SNotus or Auster


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62. The waters of the sea, the rivers, the fountains,the fields and the forests alike were peopled bynumerous deities. Oceanus, the god of the rive rthat encircled the whole earth, was the son ofUranus and Ear th . H is wife was Te th ys . Amon gtheir children were the sea-nymphs and numerousriver gods. Thus Peneiis, the chief rive r of Thessaly,is represented as the son of Oceanus and Tethys.Among the attendants of Neptune were Nereus andhis daughters , the Nereides. One of the Nereideswas that Thetis who married Peleus and was themother of Achilles (§ 88).

63. The nymphs were female divinities of lowerrank who inhabited all parts of nature—the sea,the springs, the rivers, the trees, the mountains.

Certain nymphs were attendants of Diana.64. Various deities watched over the forests andfields. Pan , son of M ercury and a wood-nym ph,was god of woods and fields, of flocks and shepherds.He dwelt in the mountain caves, and delighted inthe chase. He was fond of music and was theinventor of the shepherd's pipe . Ar ca dia was the

principal seat of his worship.65. Faunus was one of the oldest of the Italian

deities. He was the prot ec ting god of farmers and-shepherds. Aft er the in tr oducti on of the worshipof the Greek Pan into Italy, Faunus was identifiedwith Pan, and represented, like the latter, withhorns and goat's feet. Yearly , at Rome, on February 15, a festival of purification was held inhonour of Pan or of Faunus . Th is was called theLupercalia, and the officiating priests were knownas Luperci.

66. Silvanus was a Latin deity of the fields andforests, who guarded the herds of cattle and drove


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INTRODUCTION xxxv

away the wolves. He was also called protec tor ofthe boundaries of fields.

67. Pales was a Roman goddess of flocks andshepherds.

68. The household and its interests were guardedby several gods. Vesta was the goddess of thehear th and of the fire bu rnin g there. The Penatesattended to the welfare and prosperity of the family.

They were the gods of the inner and more sacredport ions of the house. Closely associated w i t h thePenates were the Lares, spirits of ancestors whowatched over thei r descendants. The hear th , whichwas the centre of the family life, was sacred to theLares and the Penates, as well as to Vesta. Herewere thei r images and here sacrifice was made to

th em at each meal. There were also publ ic Lareswho belonged to the whole city.69. Pluto (known also as Hades, Dis, and Orcus)

w i t h his queen Proserpina, daughter of Ceres, heldsway over the underworld, a region of darknessinhabi ted by the spirits of the dead. As lo rd of theshades he was hard and inexorable—illacrimabilis,Horace calls h im . A w f u l rivers bounded his realm :the Styx, by which the gods sealed their oaths;Acheron , riv er of woe; Cocytus, rive r of wa il ing.To the house of Hades the souls of the dead wereconducted by Mercury (§ 43). At the river 's edgethey met Charon, the grim boatman, who ferriedth em across. Before the judges of the unde rw or ld ,Minos, Aeacus, and Rhadamanthus, the souls werebrough t to t r i a l . The condemned were assignedto regions where all manner of torture awaited them.The worst of evildoers were doomed to the gul fof Tar ta ru s far below. The souls of the goodpassed to the Elysian Fields.


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70. Am ong those whom our poets represent asbeing punished in the lower world for their crimesare Sisyphus, Tan ta lus, T i tyo s , a nd the fiftydaughters of Danaiis, who were betrothed to theircousins, the fifty sons of Aegyptus, but were compelled by their father to promise to k i l l their husbands. Only one dared to disobey. Fo r thei rcrime the sisters were punished in the lower worldby being compelled to pour water eternally into avessel full of holes.

71 . Sisyphus, the son of Aeolus, was a k ing ofCor in th . He promoted nav igat ion and commerce,bu t was avaricious and dece itful. Fo r his wick edness he was punished in the lower world, where hehad to roll uphill a huge stone, which, as soon as itreached the top, always rolled down again.

72. Tantalus, while on earth, had been a wealthyking, so respected that Jupiter invited him to histable and communicated his divine counsels to him.B u t Ta ntalus divu lged his secrets. He was punishedin the lower world by being afflicted with a ragingthirst, and at the same time placed in a lake, thewaters of which receded from his lips as soon as heat te mpted to d r ink . Over his head hung branchesof fruit that always eluded his grasp.

73. T i tyos was a gi an t in Euboea. Fo r an insu ltoffered to Diana, he was killed by the arrows of thegoddess or of Apol lo . He was then cast in to Tartarus, where he lay outstretched on the ground,covering nine acres, while two vultures devouredhis liver.

74. The Furies, or Dime, sprang from the bloodof the m ut il a te d Uranus (§ 32). Th ey were fearfulwinged maidens, with serpents twined in their hair.They punished men, both in this world and in thenext, especially for crimes committed against


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INTRODUCTION xxxvii

parents, for perjury, murder, and violation of thelaws of ho sp ital it y. The name, Eumenides, bywhich they were often called, meant "the well-meaning", as people dreaded to call these awfulgoddesses by their real name.

75. In the early days before evil had spread onearth, the gods had moved freely among men(§§36,37) . Even after the gods ha d departed from earth ,they still revealed themselves and their will byoccasional personal interviews. Thus Venus inperson came to Aeneas to bring him the armourfashioned by Vulc an. Sometimes the gods dealtwith mortals through messengers, such as Mercury(§43). Through oracles, e.g., tha t of Apol lo atDelphi , the gods might reveal their wi l l . Throughomens, too, and portents, if understood, throughdreams, if read aright, man might learn the will ofheaven.

76. Besides dealing w i t h the gods, classicalmythology has much to say of the lives and exploitsof demi-gods and heroes. M a n y of the earlierheroes spent their lives in the service of mankind,contributing to civilization, founding cities, andridding the earth of monstrous beings.

77. Orpheus was regarded by the Greeks as themost celebrated of the poets who lived beforeHo mer . He was the son of the Muse Ca lliope, andliv ed in Thr ace at the time of the Argonauts,whom he accompanied on their expedition (§ 86).He was presented with the lyre by Apollo and instructed in its use by the Muses. W i t h it s music heenchanted not only wild beasts but also the treesand rocks upon Olympus, so that they moved fromthe ir places to fol low the sound. Anot he r famousmusician of legendary days was Lin us , son of Apol lo ,who is said to have taught Hercules music.


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78. Hercules, the son of Jupiter and Alcmene, a

princess of Thebes, was the most celebrated of allthe heroes of an ti qu it y . Thr ou gh the ho st il it y ofJuno, he was forced to undertake a series of adventures, which are called "The Twelve Labours ofHercules". Amon g these were the struggle w i t h amonstrous lion, the fight against the nine-headedHydra, and the capture of a golden-antlered, brazen-footed stag. Ano ther task was the cap ture of the oxenof Geryon, a monster with three bodies, who dweltin the island of Eryth ea in the far west. Herculesreached the island, killed the warders and carriedoff the oxen.

79. His labours finished, Hercules sailed againstTroy, to punish Laomedon, the king. WhenLaomedon was building the walls of Troy, Neptuneand Apo llo had assisted h i m , bu t ha d been refusedthe wages agreed upon . In anger Neptune ravagedthe land by floods and sent a sea-monster against it.To satiate the appetite of the beast Laomedon wasdriven to offer it his daughter Hesione. Herculeski l led the monster and rescued the princess. Laom edon in gratitude promised Hercules the horses ofNeptune. Once more his promise proved worthless.Hercules sailed against Troy, overcame the city, anddethroned Laomedon.

80. Minos, son of Jupiter and Europa, was acelebrated ki ng and lawgiver of Crete. Af te r hisdeath he was transferred, with his brother Rha-damanthus, and Abacus the king of Aeglna, to thelower wor ld where they became the judges of thedead.

8 1 . Min os I I , the grandson of Mi no s (§80), laterbecame k ing of Crete. In his day there ranged theisland a bull-headed, man-bodied monster, theMinotaur, who was a constant terror to the inhabi-


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INTRODUCTION XXXIX

tan ts. To house th is hideous being a l aby r in th

with countless twistings and turnings was built bya cunn ing artificer, Daedalus. Here in the M in o tau rlive d on hu ma n vi ct im s. Athens, placed undertribute by Minos, had to send him annually sevenyouths and seven maidens, who were thrown to theM in ot au r. Athens pai d this tr ib ut e u n t i l the tim eof Theseus.

82. Theseus was the great legendary hero ofA t t i ca . Of his ow n accord he went as one of theyouths sent as tribute by Athens to Crete each year(§ 81). Whe n the Athenians ar rive d at Crete,Ariadne, daughter of Minos, became enamoured ofTheseus and helped him to slay the Minotaur.Having effected his object, Theseus sailed away,taking Aria dne w i t h h i m . He abandoned her onthe island of Naxos, where she was found by Bacchuswho made her his wife.

83. Theseus had a dear friend named Plrithous,who attempted to carry off Proserpina, the wife ofPl ut o, from the lower wor ld . Theseus assisted h imin this adven ture. The a tt empt was a failure, andPirithous never returned to the upper world.

84. Among the exploits of Theseus was an expedit ion against the Amazons. These were a race ofwarlike women settled in Asia Minor and governedby a queen. Theseus at tacked the Amazons andcarried off the ir queen An ti op e. T h e Amazons, intu rn , invaded A t t i c a ; in a final ba ttl e, in the heartof Athens , they were defeated. Theseus marr ie dAntiope, who bore him a son, Hipp6lytus.

85. After the death of Antiope, Theseus marriedPhaedra, who fell in love w i t h Hi ppol ytus . Bu t asher stepson would not return her love, she falselyaccused h i m to his father. Theseus cursed his sonand devoted h i m to destruc tion. As Hi pp ol yt us


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INTRODUCTION xli

89. Cas tor an d Pol lux were the sons of Led a

and Tyndareus, king of Lacedaemon, and brothersof Helen of Troy. Castor was famed as a horse-tamer, Pollux as a boxer. B o t h were among theArgon auts. T hey received di vi ne honours at Spartaan d elsewhere in Greece, an d late r in I t a l y . T heywere worshipped more especially as the protectorsof sailors, for Neptune had given them powerover winds and waves.

90. Belterophon was the son of Glaucus, kingof Cor in th . Whi le Bellorophon was at Argos,Antea, the wife of king Proetus, fell in love withh i m . W hen she co uld not w in his love she falselyaccused him to her husband. The credulousProetus sent Bellerophon to the king of Lycia witha letter in which the latter was asked to put the heroto death. T he L y c ian ki ng accordingly sent h i mto k i l l the monster, Chimaera. Be llerophon, insteadof being slain, was able with the aid of the wingedhorse Pegasus to k i l l the monster.

9 1 . Daedalus was a famous architect an d sculptor ,who built for Minos the labyrinth in which theM i n o ta u r was ke pt (§ 81). Fa ll in g under the displeasure of Minos, Daedalus sought to escape fromCrete . O u t of feathers he made wings for his sonIcarus and himself and fastened them on with wax.At first their flight through the air was successful.B u t Icarus, in his j o y , fl ew too near the sun. T h ewaxen fastenings of his wings were softened. D o w nthe lad fell into the sea, named after him Icarian.Daedalus himself reached Sicily in safety.

92. Another who lost his life while essaying flightth ro ug h the air was Phaetho n. H a v in g persuadedhis father, the Sun, to allow h i m to d ri ve his char iotacross the heavens, he was unable to check thehorses, which, leaving their course, came so near


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the earth as almost to set it on fire. ThereuponJupiter kil led h im wi th a flash of lightning. Hi ssisters were metamorphosed into poplars.

C. ON M E T R E

On the Reading of Latin Verse93. A l l the great li te ra tu re of the Greeks and the

Romans was written to be read aloud, and a greatdeal of the effect at which the authors aimed iscompletely lost by those who try to dispense withora l practice. Poet ry in every language is intendedto be spoken or sung with due attention to its sound.One of the main objects (if not the only object)of poetry is to give pleasure, and that pleasuredepends upon the enjoyment of beautiful wordsarranged in a regular but skilfully varied pattern.To the intellect and still more to the feelings thesounds appeal, giving to the words a deeper andricher content through the cadences and harmoniesthat are closely akin to those of music.

To read Latin correctly requires careful attentionto tw o factors, word-accent and quan t it y . ForEnglish-speaking people it is not hard to accent theproper syllable in a L a t i n word , as the usage is so likethat of English, but to combine this in correctbalance w i t h quan t it y demands care and practice.For example, a word lik e bono tends to be pronouncedbond because the word-accent does not coincidew i t h the long syllable, whereas vastus only runsthe risk of not having its "a" pronounced longenough.

Whe n yo u read L a t i n verse, you mu st fir stacquaint yourself perfectly with the pattern ormetrical scheme, and then, pronouncing the wordswith the correct word-accent and quantity, read


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INTRODUCTION xliii

your line continuously, without any pauses in the

middle of the words and wi thout any undue emphasison the syllables in a word that are normally unaccented. To produce a pleasing effect the metr ic alstructure of the lines must not be obtruded anymore th an in the reading of Engl ish verse. Goodreading in any language requires both practiceand good taste. Fo r every metre exemplifiedin this book you will do well to select a few representative lines; when yo u have mastered completelytheir meaning, commit them to memory and practise the recitation of them until the rhythm andpattern have become thoroughly familiar.

Some Rules of Prosody Briefly Stated

94. A syllable is considered to be long (1) if itconsists of or contains a long vowel or a diphthong;(2) if the vowel, even though short, is followedimmediately by a double consonant (x,z) or bytwo or more consonants;

but where a vowel is followed by a mute (p, b, ///, /; /, d, th; k, c, qu, g, ch) followed by a liquid (/ and

r; m and n also in Greek names) the syllablemay be considered long or short (see 1053 n.)95. Where a word ends with a vowel and the

succeeding word begins with a vowel or with //,the prior vowel is lightly pronounced and is disregarded for the purposes of scansion (Elision).

Where a word ends with -am, -em, -hn, -urn and thesucceeding word begins with a vowel or with //,this final pair of letters is lightly pronounced andis disregarded in scansion. (T hi s var ie ty of El is ionis called Ecthlipsis.)

Where a vowel immediately precedes anotheror is merely separated by h, the two vowels may


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be run together (de-inde becomes deinde; dehinc

becomes deinc).For metrical purposes a consonantal i is occasionally pronounced as a vowel, and the vowel i asa consonant; so also u may be pronounced as if itwere v and v as u. ( In ancient manuscripts thereis no distinction between u and v.)*

The Dactylic Hexameter96. The lines of Latin verse are subdivided

for scansion into feet; the vertical marks are to beconsidered much like bars in wr itten music; that is,they indicate structural units but are not meantto cause any break in the sequence of sound.

The dactyl consists of a long syllable succeeded

by two short syllables in the time proportion of2 : 1: 1, - u .The spondee consists of two long syllables in the

time proportion of 2 : 2, — •In the dactylic hexameter and in some other

metres, these two feet are regarded as equivalents.97. The dactylic hexameter contains six feet.

Any combination of dactyls and spondees mayoccur in the first four feet; the sixth foot alwaysconsists of two syllables, either — or - u. (Thelast syllable of the line, being long or short,is called syllaba anceps, "the doubtful syllable";when it is short, the rest or pause at the end of theline may be taken to fill up the time.)

, The fifth foot of the hexameter line is regularlya dactyl, but occasionally a spondee is substituted.A line where this occurs is called a spondaic line.

*N.B. Fo r the recognition of long vowels, rules are tobe found in every Latin Grammar, and the vocabulary inthis volume, where long vowels are always indicated, mustconstantly be used to ensure correctness.


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INTRODUCTION xlv

A line in which dactyls predominate has a more

rap id or li ve ly movem ent ; where spondees predominate the movement is slower, more statelyand solemn.

(For the same kind of spondaic effect comparethe following lines from Pope, but notice that hekeeps to his ten syllables, and uses emphatic wordsto add weight to his line:

"When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throwThe line too labours and the verse moves slow.")

The Elegiac Couplet98. The Elegiac C ouplet consists of :1. a Dactylic Hexameter line as described above

(§ 97), and 2. an Elegiac Pentameter line.

The Elegiac Pentameter is divided into twosections, which may be roughly described as consisting of two and a half feet each.

In the first half of the line any combination ofdactyls and spondees may occur, and the lastsyllable is in va ri ab ly long.

In the second half of the line the first two feet

are always dactyls and the last syllable may belong or short (syllaba anceps).

Scheme of the Elegiac Couplet(1) Dactylic Hexameter

(2) Elegiac Pentameter

*In all metrical schemes here given the less usual formsare enclosed in square brackets.


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S. T. Coleridge's lines may be helpful:

" I n , the hexameter riseth the fountain's si lvery col um n;In the pentameter aye fa ll in g in melody back ."Note in the following lines (11. 1604, 5) the applica

tion of the rules.

sive favore t u l i sive hanc ego carmine famam

iure tibi grates candide lector ago.The vertical lines after tuli mark the Caesura;

the Caesura is to be found in hexameter lines, wherethe voice naturally pauses at the end of a wordbut in the middle of a foot ; in the pentameterthere is always a complete break in the middleof the line, always of course at the end of a word.Not e tha t in the fir st line above ve-hanc constitutesone syllable (§ 95).

99. There are two metres employed by Horacein his Odes, th at everyone ought to understand:the Alcaic and the Sapphic.

The AlcaicThe poet Alcaeus, who lived in the seventh cen

tury B.C. at Mitylene in the island of Lesbos,is said to have invented the metre, called Alca icafter h i m . As he handles it the lines are madeup mainly of trochees \ and dacty lsHorace, however, makes the second foot in eachof the fi rs t three lines of the four-l ine stanzaalways a spondee, and usually closes all the linesw i t h a long syllable. L a t i n verse depends verymuch on the use of long syllables for its effects,and Horace employs his Alcaics very successfullyfor solemn themes, which this heavier but statelyr h y t h m well suits. The metre is wr i t te n in stanzas


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INTRODUCTION xlvii

of four lines, which are evidently meant to be

practically continuous, as Horace avoids closinga line w i t h a vow el, dip hth ong or " w " whenthe next line begins with a vowel, and severaltimes the third and fourth lines are run togetherwi thout a break. (For " m " ending, see §95.)

At the beginning of the fi rs t three lines is asyllable called the Anacrusis or Upbeat (which is

thought to correspond to the initial raising of aconductor's baton).Note the ou tl ine of the scheme; in the fi rs t tw o

lines the anacrusis is followed by trochee andspondee, then after a break by two dactyls, thelast syllable, however, being often long (syllabaanceps); in the th i r d after the anacrusis cometrochee, spondee, trochee, spondee; and in thelast dactyl, dactyl, trochee, spondee.(3) Lines 1 and 2


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xlviii A BOOK OF L A T I N POETRY

In this scheme note that the break at the end of

the fifth syllable in the first two lines is indicated by||. In the lines scanned (11. 391-394) no te carefullywhat becomes of the ending -urn; where it occursbefore a vowel it is not regarded as constitutinga syllable (§ 95 ). T he last syllables in lines391, 2 might be scanned long, so closely does Horacerun the lines of the Alcaic together.

L o r d Tennyson , expe rimenting in classicalmetres, wr ote some fine Alcaics on M i l t o n . Thefirst stanza runs as follows:

"O mighty-mouth'd inventor of harmonies,O skill 'd to sing of Time or Eternity,

God-gifted organ-voice of England,Milton, a name to resound for ages".

Notice that Tennyson does not have the breakat the fifth syllable.

The Sapphic100. The Sapphic, much used by the great Greek

poetess Sappho, a contemporary of Alcaeus andlike him a native of Lesbos, is also composed of

trochees an d dactyls. Again Horace has made thefif th syllable in the fir st three lines in va ri ab ly lon g.There is no anacrusis, and whereas the last syllablein the first three lines may be long or short, the lastsyllable in the last line is usually long .(6') Lines 1, 2, 3

(7) Line 4

Note that the fifth syllable in the first threelines is usually the last syllable of a word, andthat the fourth line is exactly on the pattern ofthe end of a dactylic hexameter


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INTRODUCTION xlix

Sapphic Stanza

Stium bello furiosa Th race

o ti u m M e d l pharetra decori,

Grosphe, non gemmis neque pur pu ra ve-

nale neque auro.Note in this example the short syllable where a

liquid follows a mute (Thr and -/r, § 94); note alsotha t quis treated as a single consonant, the uafter q never being counted as a vo wel . The

word venale is shown d iv id ed ; in reading, Horacemade the last two lines continuous.A rough rendering of these lines may be helpful:

Peace is what Thrace asks, the furious in warfare,Peace is what Medes ask, in quivers resplendent,Peace is what no gems, neither purple could buy

No, nor your gold-bags! Asclepiadean Stanzas

101. The Asclepiadeans are most easily understood th ro ug h the use of the peculiar foot know nas the choriambus -

The first Asclepiadean form consists entirely oflines of the following type known as the lesserAsclepiadean, where after a spondee there are twochoriambi and an iambus '

First A sclepiadean(8) The Lesser Asclepiadean LineMaecenas atavls edi te regibus

Notice that the sixth syllable is regularly theend of a word, and that, as in this example (1.255),the last syllable is occasionally short.


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Second Asclepiadean

The second Asclepiadean consists of Glyconicsand lesser Asclepiadeans alt ernati ng: The Glyconicis like the lesser Asclepiadean except that it containson ly one choriambus. In a l l the types of linebelonging to these Asclepiadean stanzas the lastsyllable may be long or short (syllaba anceps).

(9) The GlyconicSic te diva potens Cypri

(8) sic fratres Helenae, lucida sidera

Note in th is example (11. 10G5, 6) the quan t i tyof the syllables in Cypri and fratres (§ 94).

Third AsclepiadeanThe Third Asclepiadean form consists of three

lesser Asclepiadeans followed by a Glyconic.(8) Quis deslderio sit pudor au t modus

(S) tarn ca rl capitis? praecipe lugubres

(8) cantus, Melpomene, cui li qu id am pater

(9) voccm cum cithara dedit .

Note in this example (11. 1829-1832) that thesecond syllable of lugubres is short, and qu and thonly count as one consonant each.

Fourth Asclepiadean102. For the Fourth Asclepiadean we require a

t h i r d type of line kn ow n as the Pherecra tic; it issimilar to the Glyconic except that it lacks a syllable


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INTRODUCTION li

at the end; the last syllable may be long or short.

The stanza is made up of two lesser Asclepiadeans,a Pherecratic (10) and a Glyconic.

(8) fies no bil iu m tu quoque fo nt iu m

(8) me dlcente cavis im posi tam Ilicem

(10) saxls, unde loquaces

(9) lym phae des iliun t tuae.

Note in this example (11. 519-522) the schemefor the Pherecratic (line type 10) in this case with along syllable las t. Note elision in line 520 (-ambefore i) and that x is a double consonant (1. 521).See §§ 94 and 95.Other Horatian Metres (found in Part I I I only)

103. The metre of Odes I. iv (11. 1793-1812)consists of a Greater Ar ch iloc hian line and anIa mb ic Tr im et er Catalectic in alternation. T heGreater Archilochian, named after the Greek poetArchilochus of Paros, is divided into two parts,the former con taining four dacty ls, for the first threeof which spondees may be substituted, and thelatter of three trochees, ending with syllaba anceps.

(11) The Greater Archilochian LineThe Iambic Trimeter Catalectic consists of three

pairs of iambic feet, but with the last foot defectiveow ing to the omission of the last syllable (catalectic);in the first and third foot a spondee may be substituted for an iambus.


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(12) Iambic Trimeter Catalectic

Horace Odes : I . t v(11) So lv itur acris hiems grata vice vgr is et

Favoni

(12) trahuntque siccas machinae carinas

The metre of Odes IV. vii (11. 2077-2104), anotherspring song, consists of a dact yl ic hexameter (§96,97)and a lesser Ar ch iloc hian in al te rnat ion.

(18) The Lesser Archilochian Line

Horace Odes : IV. vii(1) Diffueere nives redeunt iam erramina camois

(13) arboribusque comae;

Some Metres of Catullus (found in Parts I and IIonly)

104. There are three characteristic metres usedby Catullus, which must be clearly distinguished.The first of these, the Phalaecean or eleven-syllabledline, consists of five feet; th e firs t is trochee , or

spondee or iambus , th e second a dac ty l , th e restare trochees with the last syllable long or short.

(14) The Phalaecean Line


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PART IV I R G I L

A E N E I D I X . 176-445

Nisus erat portae custos, acerrimus armis,Hyrtacides, comitcm Aeneae quern miserat Idavenatrix, iaculo celerem levibusque sagittis;et mxta comes Euryalus, quo pulchrior alternon fuit Aeneadum Troiana neque induit arma,ora puer prima sign ans intonsa iuventa.his amor unus erat, pariterque in bella ruebant:turn quoque communi portam statione tenebant.Nisus ait: 'dine hunc ardorem mentibus addunt,'Euryale, an sua cuique deus fit dira cupido?'aut pugnam aut aliquid iamdudum invadere mag

num'mens ag itat m ih i , nec plac ida contenta quiete est.'cernis, quae Rutulos habeat fiducia rerum.'l um in a rara mi ca nt; somno vinoque solut i'procubuere; silent late loca; percipe porro,'quid dubitem et quae nunc animo sententia surgat.'Aenean acciri omnes, populusque patresque,'exposcunt, mittique viros, qui certa reportent.'si tibi quae posco promittunt (nam mihi facti'fama sat est), tumulo videor reperire sub illo

1

5

1 0

15

2 0


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A E N E I D I X . 176-445 3

ductores Te uc ru m p r i m i , delecta iuventus,

consilium summis regni de rebus habebant,quid facerent quisve Aeneae iam nuntius esset.stant longis adnixi hastis et scuta tenentescast rorum et camp i medio, tu rn Nisus et unaEuryalus confestim alacres admittier orant:rem magnam, pre tium que morae fore, pri mu s lu lu s

accepit trep idos ac N i su m dicere iussit.tu rn sic Hy rt ac ides : 'a ud it e o men tibus aequis,' Aeneadae, neve haec nostris spectentur ab annis'quae ferimus. R u t u l i somno vinoque soluti'conticuere; lo cu m ins idiis conspeximus ips i,'qui patet in bivio portae, quae proxuma ponto;'interrupti ignes, aterque ad sidera fumus'er igi tur : si fortuna pe rm itt i t i s u t i ,'quaesitum Aenean et moenia Pallantea,'mox hic cum spoliis ingenti caede peracta'adfore cernetis. nec nos v ia falle t euntes:'vidimus obscuris primam sub vallibus urbem'venatu adsiduo et totum cognovimus amnem.'hic annis gravis atque an im i ma turus Aletes:' di p a t r i i , quo ru m semper sub numine Tr o ia est,'non tamen omnino Teucros delere paratis,'cum tales animos iuvenum et tarn certa tulistis'pec to ra l sic memorans umeros dextrasque tenebatamborum et voltum lacrimis atque ora rigabat'quae vobis, quae digna, vir i , pro laudibus istis'pr aemia posse rear solvi? pu lch er rim a p r i m u m' d i moresque dabu nt ve st r i; tu rn cetera reddet'actutum pius Aeneas atque integer aevi

55

6o

65

70

76

8 0


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4 VIRGIL

'Ascanius, m er it i ta n ti non inmemor unq uam . '

'immo ego vos, cui sola salus genitore reducto,'excipit Ascanius, 'per magnos, Nise, Penates'Assaracique larem et canae penetralia Vestae'obtestor; quaecumque mihi fortuna iidesque est,' i n vestris pono grem iis; revocate parentem,'re dd ite conspectum; n ih il il lo triste recepto.

'bina dabo argento perfecta atque aspera signis'pocula, devicta genitor quae cepit Arisba,'et tripodas geminos, auri duo magna talenta,'cratera antiquom, quern dat Sidonia Dido,'si vero capere Italiam sceptrisque potiri'contigerit victori et praedae dicere sortem,

'v i d i s t i quo Tu rn us equo, quibus ib at in armis'aureus: ipsum ilium, clipeum cristasque rubentes'excipiam sorti, iam nunc tua praemia, Nise.'praeterea bis sex genitor lectissima matrum'corpora captivosque dabit suaque omnibus arma:'insuper his, campi quod rex habet ipse Latinus.'te vero, mea quern spatiis propioribus aetas'insequitur, venerande puer, iam pectore toto'accipio et comitem casus complector in omnes.'nulla meis sine te quaeretur gloria rebus;'seu pacem seu bella geram, tibi maxima rerum'verbo rumq ue fides.' con tra quern ta li a fa tu r 105Eur ya lu s: 'm e nu ll a dies ta rn for tibus ausis'dissimilem arguerit: tan turn fortuna secunda'haud adversa cadat. sed te super om nia dona'unum or o: genetrix P r i am i de gente vetusta'est mihi, quam miseram tenuit non Ilia tellus

85

9 0

95

1 0 0

11 0


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AENEID IX. 176445 5

'mecum excedentem, non moenia regis Acestae.

'banc ego nunc ignaram huius quodcumque pericliest

' inque salu tat am linq uo (nox et tu a testis' dextera) quod nequeam lacrimas perferre parent is.' at tu, oro, solare inopem et succurre relictae.'hanc sine me spem ferre t u i : audentior ibo

'in casus omnes., percussa mente dedereDardanidae lacrimas; ante omnes pulcher lu lu s ,atque animum patriae strinxit pietatis imago,turn sic effatur:'sponde digna tuis ingentibus omnia coeptis.'namque erit ista mihi genetrix, nomenque Creusae' solum defuerit, nec partum gratia talem'p arva manet. casus fa ct um quicum que sequentur,'per caput hoc iuro, per quod pater ante solebat:'quae tibi polliceor reduci rebusque secundis,'haec eadem matrique tuae generique manebunt.'sic a i t inlacr imans; umero si mul exui t ensemauratum, mira quern fecerat arte LycaonGnosius atque habilem vagina aptarat eburna.dat Niso Mnestheus pellem horrentesque leonisexuvias ; galeam fidus pe rm ut at Aletes.pr ot inus a rm at i incedunt; quos omnis euntesprimorum manus ad portas, iuvenumque senumque,prosequitur vo tis . nec no n et pulcher lu lu s,ante annos animumque gerens curamque virilem,m u l t a p a t r i manda ta dabat po rta nd a: sed auraeomnia discerpunt et nubibus inrita donant.

egressi superant fossas noctisque per umbram

115

1 2 0

I25

135


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6 VIRGIL

castra inimica petunt, multis tamen ante futuri

ex it io . passim somno vinoque per herbamcorpora fusa vident, arrectos litore currus,inter lora rotasque viros, simul arma iacere,vi na sim ul. pr io r Hyrta cides sic ore locu tus:'E ur ya le , audendum dex tra ; nunc ipsa vocat res.'hac it er est. t u , ne qua manus se at to llere nobis

' a tergo possit, custodi et consule longe;'haec ego vasta dabo et la to te limite ducam.'sic memorat vocemque premit; simul ense superbumRhamnetem adgreditur, qui forte tapetibus altisexstructus toto proflabat pectore somnum,—rex idem et regi Turno gratissimus augur,

sed non augurio potuit depellere pestem.inpastus ecu plena leo per ovilia turbans(suadet enim vesana fames), manditque trahitquemolle pecus mutumque metu; fremit ore cruento.nec min or Eurya l i caedes; incensus et ipseperfurit, ac multam in medio sine nomine plebem,Fadumque Herbesumque subit Rhoctumque Aba-

rimque.iamque ad Messapi socios tendebat; i b i ignemdeficere extremum et religatos rite videbatcarpere gramen equos; brev ite r cum ta li a Nisus(sensit enim nimia caede atque cupidine ferri)'absistamus,' ai t, 'nam lux in im ica prop inq ua t.'poenarum exhaustum satis est; v ia facta per

hostes.'multa virum solido argento perfecta relinquuntarmaque craterasque simul pulchrosque tapetas.

141

145

150

154

160

165


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A E N E I D I X . 176-445 7

Euryalus phaleras Rhamnetis et aurea bullis

cingula, T i b u r t i Remulo ditissimus ol imquae mittit dona, hospitio cum iungeret absens,Caedicus: il le suo moriens da t habere nepo ti ,post mo rte m bello R u t u l i pugnaque p o t i t i :haec rapit atque umeris nequiquam fortibus aptat.turn galeam Messapi habilem cristisque decoram

unduit . execedunt castris et t u t a capessunt.interea praemissi equites ex urbe Latina,

cetera dum legio campis instructa moratur,ibant et Turno regi responsa ferebant,ter centum, scutati omnes, Volcente magistro.iamque propinquabant castris muroque subibant,cum procui hos laevo flectentes lim it e cernunt,et galea Euryalum sublustri noctis in umbraprodidit inmemorem radiisque abversa refulsit.haud temere est vi su m, conclamat ab agmine Volcens:'state, v i r i . quae causa viae? qu ive estis i n armis?'quove tenetis iter?' nihil i l l i tendere contra,sed celerare fugam in silvas et fidere nocti.obiciunt equites sese ad divortia notahinc atque hinc, omnemque abitum custode coro-

nant.silva fuit late dumis atque ilice nigraho

book of latin poetry

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