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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
3.1.1
Thee too, great Pales, will I hymn, and thee,
3.1.2
Amphrysian shepherd, worthy to be sung,
3.1.3
You, woods and waves Lycaean. All themes beside,
3.1.4
Which else had charmed the vacant mind with song,
3.1.5
Are now waxed common. Of harsh Eurystheus who
3.1.6
The story knows not, or that praiseless king
3.1.7
Busiris, and his altars? or by whom
3.1.8
Hath not the tale been told of Hylas young,
3.1.9
Latonian Delos and Hippodame,
3.1.10
And Pelops for his ivory shoulder famed,
3.1.11
Keen charioteer? Needs must a path be tried,
3.1.12
By which I too may lift me from the dust,
3.1.13
And float triumphant through the mouths of men.
3.1.14
Yea, I shall be the first, so life endure,
3.1.15
To lead the Muses with me, as I pass
3.1.16
To mine own country from the Aonian height;
3.1.17
I, Mantua, first will bring thee back the palms
3.1.18
Of Idumaea, and raise a marble shrine
3.1.19
On thy green plain fast by the water-side,
3.1.20
Where Mincius winds more vast in lazy coils,
3.1.21
And rims his margent with the tender reed.
3.1.22
Amid my shrine shall Caesar's godhead dwell.
3.1.23
To him will I, as victor, bravely dight
3.1.24
In Tyrian purple, drive along the bank
3.1.25
A hundred four-horse cars. All Greece for me,
3.1.26
Leaving Alpheus and Molorchus' grove,
3.1.27
On foot shall strive, or with the raw-hide glove;
3.1.28
Whilst I, my head with stripped green olive crowned,
3.1.29
Will offer gifts. Even 'tis present joy
3.1.30
To lead the high processions to the fane,
3.1.31
And view the victims felled; or how the scene
3.1.32
Sunders with shifted face, and Britain's sons
3.1.33
Inwoven thereon with those proud curtains rise.
3.1.34
Of gold and massive ivory on the doors
3.1.35
I'll trace the battle of the Gangarides,
3.1.36
And our Quirinus' conquering arms, and there
3.1.37
Surging with war, and hugely flowing, the Nile,
3.1.38
And columns heaped on high with naval brass.
3.1.39
And Asia's vanquished cities I will add,
3.1.40
And quelled Niphates, and the Parthian foe,
3.1.41
Who trusts in flight and backward-volleying darts,
3.1.42
And trophies torn with twice triumphant hand
3.1.43
From empires twain on ocean's either shore.
3.1.44
And breathing forms of Parian marble there
3.1.45
Shall stand, the offspring of Assaracus,
3.1.46
And great names of the Jove-descended folk,
3.1.47
And father Tros, and Troy's first founder, lord
3.1.48
Of Cynthus. And accursed Envy there
3.1.49
Shall dread the Furies, and thy ruthless flood,
3.1.50
Cocytus, and Ixion's twisted snakes,
3.1.51
And that vast wheel and ever-baffling stone.
3.1.52
Meanwhile the Dryad-haunted woods and lawns
3.1.53
Unsullied seek we; 'tis thy hard behest,
3.1.54
Maecenas. Without thee no lofty task
3.1.55
My mind essays. Up! break the sluggish bonds
3.1.56
Of tarriance; with loud din Cithaeron calls,
3.1.57
Steed-taming Epidaurus, and thy hounds,
3.1.58
Taygete; and hark! the assenting groves
3.1.59
With peal on peal reverberate the roar.
3.1.60
Yet must I gird me to rehearse ere long
3.1.61
The fiery fights of Caesar, speed his name
3.1.62
Through ages, countless as to Caesar's self
3.1.63
From the first birth-dawn of Tithonus old.
3.49.64
If eager for the prized Olympian palm
3.49.65
One breed the horse, or bullock strong to plough,
3.49.66
Be his prime care a shapely dam to choose.
3.49.67
Of kine grim-faced is goodliest, with coarse head
3.49.68
And burly neck, whose hanging dewlaps reach
3.49.69
From chin to knee; of boundless length her flank;
3.49.70
Large every way she is, large-footed even,
3.49.71
With incurved horns and shaggy ears beneath.
3.49.72
Nor let mislike me one with spots of white
3.49.73
Conspicuous, or that spurns the yoke, whose horn
3.49.74
At times hath vice in't: liker bull-faced she,
3.49.75
And tall-limbed wholly, and with tip of tail
3.49.76
Brushing her footsteps as she walks along.
3.49.77
The age for Hymen's rites, Lucina's pangs,
3.49.78
Ere ten years ended, after four begins;
3.49.79
Their residue of days nor apt to teem,
3.49.80
Nor strong for ploughing. Meantime, while youth's delight
3.49.81
Survives within them, loose the males: be first
3.49.82
To speed thy herds of cattle to their loves,
3.49.83
Breed stock with stock, and keep the race supplied.
3.49.84
Ah! life's best hours are ever first to fly
3.49.85
From hapless mortals; in their place succeed
3.49.86
Disease and dolorous eld; till travail sore
3.49.87
And death unpitying sweep them from the scene.
3.49.88
Still will be some, whose form thou fain wouldst change;
3.49.89
Renew them still; with yearly choice of young
3.49.90
Preventing losses, lest too late thou rue.
3.72.91
Nor steeds crave less selection; but on those
3.72.92
Thou think'st to rear, the promise of their line,
3.72.93
From earliest youth thy chiefest pains bestow.
3.72.94
See from the first yon high-bred colt afield,
3.72.95
His lofty step, his limbs' elastic tread:
3.72.96
Dauntless he leads the herd, still first to try
3.72.97
The threatening flood, or brave the unknown bridge,
3.72.98
By no vain noise affrighted; lofty-necked,
3.72.99
With clean-cut head, short belly, and stout back;
3.72.100
His sprightly breast exuberant with brawn.
3.72.101
Chestnut and grey are good; the worst-hued white
3.72.102
And sorrel. Then lo! if arms are clashed afar,
3.72.103
Bide still he cannot: ears stiffen and limbs quake;
3.72.104
His nostrils snort and roll out wreaths of fire.
3.72.105
Dense is his mane, that when uplifted falls
3.72.106
On his right shoulder; betwixt either loin
3.72.107
The spine runs double; his earth-dinting hoof
3.72.108
Rings with the ponderous beat of solid horn.
3.72.109
Even such a horse was Cyllarus, reined and tamed
3.72.110
By Pollux of Amyclae; such the pair
3.72.111
In Grecian song renowned, those steeds of Mars,
3.72.112
And famed Achilles' team: in such-like form
3.72.113
Great Saturn's self with mane flung loose on neck
3.72.114
Sped at his wife's approach, and flying filled
3.72.115
The heights of Pelion with his piercing neigh.
3.95.116
Even him, when sore disease or sluggish eld
3.95.117
Now saps his strength, pen fast at home, and spare
3.95.118
His not inglorious age. A horse grown old
3.95.119
Slow kindling unto love in vain prolongs
3.95.120
The fruitless task, and, to the encounter come,
3.95.121
As fire in stubble blusters without strength,
3.95.122
He rages idly. Therefore mark thou first
3.95.123
Their age and mettle, other points anon,
3.95.124
As breed and lineage, or what pain was theirs
3.95.125
To lose the race, what pride the palm to win.
3.95.126
Seest how the chariots in mad rivalry
3.95.127
Poured from the barrier grip the course and go,
3.95.128
When youthful hope is highest, and every heart
3.95.129
Drained with each wild pulsation? How they ply
3.95.130
The circling lash, and reaching forward let
3.95.131
The reins hang free! Swift spins the glowing wheel;
3.95.132
And now they stoop, and now erect in air
3.95.133
Seem borne through space and towering to the sky:
3.95.134
No stop, no stay; the dun sand whirls aloft;
3.95.135
They reek with foam-flakes and pursuing breath;
3.95.136
So sweet is fame, so prized the victor's palm.
3.95.137
'Twas Ericthonius first took heart to yoke
3.95.138
Four horses to his car, and rode above
3.95.139
The whirling wheels to victory: but the ring
3.95.140
And bridle-reins, mounted on horses' backs,
3.95.141
The Pelethronian Lapithae bequeathed,
3.95.142
And taught the knight in arms to spurn the ground,
3.95.143
And arch the upgathered footsteps of his pride.
3.95.144
Each task alike is arduous, and for each
3.95.145
A horse young, fiery, swift of foot, they seek;
3.95.146
How oft so-e'er yon rival may have chased
3.95.147
The flying foe, or boast his native plain
3.95.148
Epirus, or Mycenae's stubborn hold,
3.95.149
And trace his lineage back to Neptune's birth.
3.123.150
These points regarded, as the time draws nigh,
3.123.151
With instant zeal they lavish all their care
3.123.152
To plump with solid fat the chosen chief
3.123.153
And designated husband of the herd:
3.123.154
And flowery herbs they cut, and serve him well
3.123.155
With corn and running water, that his strength
3.123.156
Not fail him for that labour of delight,
3.123.157
Nor puny colts betray the feeble sire.
3.123.158
The herd itself of purpose they reduce
3.123.159
To leanness, and when love's sweet longing first
3.123.160
Provokes them, they forbid the leafy food,
3.123.161
And pen them from the springs, and oft beside
3.123.162
With running shake, and tire them in the sun,
3.123.163
What time the threshing-floor groans heavily
3.123.164
With pounding of the corn-ears, and light chaff
3.123.165
Is whirled on high to catch the rising west.
3.123.166
This do they that the soil's prolific powers
3.123.167
May not be dulled by surfeiting, nor choke
3.123.168
The sluggish furrows, but eagerly absorb
3.123.169
Their fill of love, and deeply entertain.
3.138.170
To care of sire the mother's care succeeds.
3.138.171
When great with young they wander nigh their time,
3.138.172
Let no man suffer them to drag the yoke
3.138.173
In heavy wains, nor leap across the way,
3.138.174
Nor scour the meads, nor swim the rushing flood.
3.138.175
In lonely lawns they feed them, by the course
3.138.176
Of brimming streams, where moss is, and the banks
3.138.177
With grass are greenest, where are sheltering caves,
3.138.178
And far outstretched the rock-flung shadow lies.
3.138.179
Round wooded Silarus and the ilex-bowers
3.138.180
Of green Alburnus swarms a winged pest—
3.138.181
Its Roman name Asilus, by the Greeks
3.138.182
Termed Oestros—fierce it is, and harshly hums,
3.138.183
Driving whole herds in terror through the groves,
3.138.184
Till heaven is madded by their bellowing din,
3.138.185
And Tanager's dry bed and forest-banks.
3.138.186
With this same scourge did Juno wreak of old
3.138.187
The terrors of her wrath, a plague devised
3.138.188
Against the heifer sprung from Inachus.
3.138.189
From this too thou, since in the noontide heats
3.138.190
'Tis most persistent, fend thy teeming herds,
3.138.191
And feed them when the sun is newly risen,
3.138.192
Or the first stars are ushering in the night.
3.157.193
But, yeaning ended, all their tender care
3.157.194
Is to the calves transferred; at once with marks
3.157.195
They brand them, both to designate their race,
3.157.196
And which to rear for breeding, or devote
3.157.197
As altar-victims, or to cleave the ground
3.157.198
And into ridges tear and turn the sod.
3.157.199
The rest along the greensward graze at will.
3.157.200
Those that to rustic uses thou wouldst mould,
3.157.201
As calves encourage and take steps to tame,
3.157.202
While pliant wills and plastic youth allow.
3.157.203
And first of slender withies round the throat
3.157.204
Loose collars hang, then when their free-born necks
3.157.205
Are used to service, with the self-same bands
3.157.206
Yoke them in pairs, and steer by steer compel
3.157.207
Keep pace together. And time it is that oft
3.157.208
Unfreighted wheels be drawn along the ground
3.157.209
Behind them, as to dint the surface-dust;
3.157.210
Then let the beechen axle strain and creak
3.157.211
'Neath some stout burden, whilst a brazen pole
3.157.212
Drags on the wheels made fast thereto. Meanwhile
3.157.213
For their unbroken youth not grass alone,
3.157.214
Nor meagre willow-leaves and marish-sedge,
3.157.215
But corn-ears with thy hand pluck from the crops.
3.157.216
Nor shall the brood-kine, as of yore, for thee
3.157.217
Brim high the snowy milking-pail, but spend
3.157.218
Their udders' fullness on their own sweet young.
3.179.219
But if fierce squadrons and the ranks of war
3.179.220
Delight thee rather, or on wheels to glide
3.179.221
At Pisa, with Alpheus fleeting by,
3.179.222
And in the grove of Jupiter urge on
3.179.223
The flying chariot, be your steed's first task
3.179.224
To face the warrior's armed rage, and brook
3.179.225
The trumpet, and long roar of rumbling wheels,
3.179.226
And clink of chiming bridles in the stall;
3.179.227
Then more and more to love his master's voice
3.179.228
Caressing, or loud hand that claps his neck.
3.179.229
Ay, thus far let him learn to dare, when first
3.179.230
Weaned from his mother, and his mouth at times
3.179.231
Yield to the supple halter, even while yet
3.179.232
Weak, tottering-limbed, and ignorant of life.
3.179.233
But, three years ended, when the fourth arrives,
3.179.234
Now let him tarry not to run the ring
3.179.235
With rhythmic hoof-beat echoing, and now learn
3.179.236
Alternately to curve each bending leg,
3.179.237
And be like one that struggleth; then at last
3.179.238
Challenge the winds to race him, and at speed
3.179.239
Launched through the open, like a reinless thing,
3.179.240
Scarce print his footsteps on the surface-sand.
3.179.241
As when with power from Hyperborean climes
3.179.242
The north wind stoops, and scatters from his path
3.179.243
Dry clouds and storms of Scythia; the tall corn
3.179.244
And rippling plains 'gin shiver with light gusts;
3.179.245
A sound is heard among the forest-tops;
3.179.246
Long waves come racing shoreward: fast he flies,
3.179.247
With instant pinion sweeping earth and main.
3.179.248
A steed like this or on the mighty course
3.179.249
Of Elis at the goal will sweat, and shower
3.179.250
Red foam-flakes from his mouth, or, kindlier task,
3.179.251
With patient neck support the Belgian car.
3.179.252
Then, broken at last, let swell their burly frame
3.179.253
With fattening corn-mash, for, unbroke, they will
3.179.254
With pride wax wanton, and, when caught, refuse
3.179.255
Tough lash to brook or jagged curb obey.
3.209.256
But no device so fortifies their power
3.209.257
As love's blind stings of passion to forefend,
3.209.258
Whether on steed or steer thy choice be set.
3.209.259
Ay, therefore 'tis they banish bulls afar
3.209.260
To solitary pastures, or behind
3.209.261
Some mountain-barrier, or broad streams beyond,
3.209.262
Or else in plenteous stalls pen fast at home.
3.209.263
For, even through sight of her, the female wastes
3.209.264
His strength with smouldering fire, till he forget
3.209.265
Both grass and woodland. She indeed full oft
3.209.266
With her sweet charms can lovers proud compel
3.209.267
To battle for the conquest horn to horn.
3.209.268
In Sila's forest feeds the heifer fair,
3.209.269
While each on each the furious rivals run;
3.209.270
Wound follows wound; the black blood laves their limbs;
3.209.271
Horns push and strive against opposing horns,
3.209.272
With mighty groaning; all the forest-side
3.209.273
And far Olympus bellow back the roar.
3.209.274
Nor wont the champions in one stall to couch;
3.209.275
But he that's worsted hies him to strange climes
3.209.276
Far off, an exile, moaning much the shame,
3.209.277
The blows of that proud conqueror, then love's loss
3.209.278
Avenged not; with one glance toward the byre,
3.209.279
His ancient royalties behind him lie.
3.209.280
So with all heed his strength he practiseth,
3.209.281
And nightlong makes the hard bare stones his bed,
3.209.282
And feeds on prickly leaf and pointed rush,
3.209.283
And proves himself, and butting at a tree
3.209.284
Learns to fling wrath into his horns, with blows
3.209.285
Provokes the air, and scattering clouds of sand
3.209.286
Makes prelude of the battle; afterward,
3.209.287
With strength repaired and gathered might breaks camp,
3.209.288
And hurls him headlong on the unthinking foe:
3.209.289
As in mid ocean when a wave far of
3.209.290
Begins to whiten, mustering from the main
3.209.291
Its rounded breast, and, onward rolled to land
3.209.292
Falls with prodigious roar among the rocks,
3.209.293
Huge as a very mountain: but the depths
3.209.294
Upseethe in swirling eddies, and disgorge
3.209.295
The murky sand-lees from their sunken bed.
3.242.296
Nay, every race on earth of men, and beasts,
3.242.297
And ocean-folk, and flocks, and painted birds,
3.242.298
Rush to the raging fire: love sways them all.
3.242.299
Never than then more fiercely o'er the plain
3.242.300
Prowls heedless of her whelps the lioness:
3.242.301
Nor monstrous bears such wide-spread havoc-doom
3.242.302
Deal through the forests; then the boar is fierce,
3.242.303
Most deadly then the tigress: then, alack!
3.242.304
Ill roaming is it on Libya's lonely plains.
3.242.305
Mark you what shivering thrills the horse's frame,
3.242.306
If but a waft the well-known gust conveys?
3.242.307
Nor curb can check them then, nor lash severe,
3.242.308
Nor rocks and caverned crags, nor barrier-floods,
3.242.309
That rend and whirl and wash the hills away.
3.242.310
Then speeds amain the great Sabellian boar,
3.242.311
His tushes whets, with forefoot tears the ground,
3.242.312
Rubs 'gainst a tree his flanks, and to and fro
3.242.313
Hardens each wallowing shoulder to the wound.
3.242.314
What of the youth, when love's relentless might
3.242.315
Stirs the fierce fire within his veins? Behold!
3.242.316
In blindest midnight how he swims the gulf
3.242.317
Convulsed with bursting storm-clouds! Over him
3.242.318
Heaven's huge gate thunders; the rock-shattered main
3.242.319
Utters a warning cry; nor parents' tears
3.242.320
Can backward call him, nor the maid he loves,
3.242.321
Too soon to die on his untimely pyre.
3.242.322
What of the spotted ounce to Bacchus dear,
3.242.323
Or warlike wolf-kin or the breed of dogs?
3.242.324
Why tell how timorous stags the battle join?
3.242.325
O'er all conspicuous is the rage of mares,
3.242.326
By Venus' self inspired of old, what time
3.242.327
The Potnian four with rending jaws devoured
3.242.328
The limbs of Glaucus. Love-constrained they roam
3.242.329
Past Gargarus, past the loud Ascanian flood;
3.242.330
They climb the mountains, and the torrents swim;
3.242.331
And when their eager marrow first conceives
3.242.332
The fire, in Spring-tide chiefly, for with Spring
3.242.333
Warmth doth their frames revisit, then they stand
3.242.334
All facing westward on the rocky heights,
3.242.335
And of the gentle breezes take their fill;
3.242.336
And oft unmated, marvellous to tell,
3.242.337
But of the wind impregnate, far and wide
3.242.338
O'er craggy height and lowly vale they scud,
3.242.339
Not toward thy rising, Eurus, or the sun's,
3.242.340
But westward and north-west, or whence up-springs
3.242.341
Black Auster, that glooms heaven with rainy cold.
3.242.342
Hence from their groin slow drips a poisonous juice,
3.242.343
By shepherds truly named hippomanes,
3.242.344
Hippomanes, fell stepdames oft have culled,
3.242.345
And mixed with herbs and spells of baneful bode.
3.284.346
Fast flies meanwhile the irreparable hour,
3.284.347
As point to point our charmed round we trace.
3.284.348
Enough of herds. This second task remains,
3.284.349
The wool-clad flocks and shaggy goats to treat.
3.284.350
Here lies a labour; hence for glory look,
3.284.351
Brave husbandmen. Nor doubtfully know
3.284.352
How hard it is for words to triumph here,
3.284.353
And shed their lustre on a theme so slight:
3.284.354
But I am caught by ravishing desire
3.284.355
Above the lone Parnassian steep; I love
3.284.356
To walk the heights, from whence no earlier track
3.284.357
Slopes gently downward to Castalia's spring.
3.284.358
Now, awful Pales, strike a louder tone.
3.295.359
First, for the sheep soft pencotes I decree
3.295.360
To browse in, till green summer's swift return;
3.295.361
And that the hard earth under them with straw
3.295.362
And handfuls of the fern be littered deep,
3.295.363
Lest chill of ice such tender cattle harm
3.295.364
With scab and loathly foot-rot. Passing thence
3.295.365
I bid the goats with arbute-leaves be stored,
3.295.366
And served with fresh spring-water, and their pens
3.295.367
Turned southward from the blast, to face the suns
3.295.368
Of winter, when Aquarius' icy beam
3.295.369
Now sinks in showers upon the parting year.
3.295.370
These too no lightlier our protection claim,
3.295.371
Nor prove of poorer service, howsoe'er
3.295.372
Milesian fleeces dipped in Tyrian reds
3.295.373
Repay the barterer; these with offspring teem
3.295.374
More numerous; these yield plenteous store of milk:
3.295.375
The more each dry-wrung udder froths the pail,
3.295.376
More copious soon the teat-pressed torrents flow.
3.295.377
Ay, and on Cinyps' bank the he-goats too
3.295.378
Their beards and grizzled chins and bristling hair
3.295.379
Let clip for camp-use, or as rugs to wrap
3.295.380
Seafaring wretches. But they browse the woods
3.295.381
And summits of Lycaeus, and rough briers,
3.295.382
And brakes that love the highland: of themselves
3.295.383
Right heedfully the she-goats homeward troop
3.295.384
Before their kids, and with plump udders clogged
3.295.385
Scarce cross the threshold. Wherefore rather ye,
3.295.386
The less they crave man's vigilance, be fain
3.295.387
From ice to fend them and from snowy winds;
3.295.388
Bring food and feast them with their branchy fare,
3.295.389
Nor lock your hay-loft all the winter long.
3.295.390
But when glad summer at the west wind's call
3.295.391
Sends either flock to pasture in the glades,
3.295.392
Soon as the day-star shineth, hie we then
3.295.393
To the cool meadows, while the dawn is young,
3.295.394
The grass yet hoary, and to browsing herds
3.295.395
The dew tastes sweetest on the tender sward.
3.295.396
When heaven's fourth hour draws on the thickening drought,
3.295.397
And shrill cicalas pierce the brake with song,
3.295.398
Then at the well-springs bid them, or deep pools,
3.295.399
From troughs of holm-oak quaff the running wave:
3.295.400
But at day's hottest seek a shadowy vale,
3.295.401
Where some vast ancient-timbered oak of Jove
3.295.402
Spreads his huge branches, or where huddling black
3.295.403
Ilex on ilex cowers in awful shade.
3.295.404
Then once more give them water sparingly,
3.295.405
And feed once more, till sunset, when cool eve
3.295.406
Allays the air, and dewy moonbeams slake
3.295.407
The forest glades, with halcyon's song the shore,
3.295.408
And every thicket with the goldfinch rings.
3.239.409
Of Libya's shepherds why the tale pursue?
3.239.410
Why sing their pastures and the scattered huts
3.239.411
They house in? Oft their cattle day and night
3.239.412
Graze the whole month together, and go forth
3.239.413
Into far deserts where no shelter is,
3.239.414
So flat the plain and boundless. All his goods
3.239.415
The Afric swain bears with him, house and home,
3.239.416
Arms, Cretan quiver, and Amyclaean dog;
3.239.417
As some keen Roman in his country's arms
3.239.418
Plies the swift march beneath a cruel load;
3.239.419
Soon with tents pitched and at his post he stands,
3.239.420
Ere looked for by the foe.
3.349.421
Not thus the tribes
3.349.422
Of Scythia by the far Maeotic wave,
3.349.423
Where turbid Ister whirls his yellow sands,
3.349.424
And Rhodope stretched out beneath the pole
3.349.425
Comes trending backward. There the herds they keep
3.349.426
Close-pent in byres, nor any grass is seen
3.349.427
Upon the plain, nor leaves upon the tree:
3.349.428
But with snow-ridges and deep frost afar
3.349.429
Heaped seven ells high the earth lies featureless:
3.349.430
Still winter? still the north wind's icy breath!
3.349.431
Nay, never sun disparts the shadows pale,
3.349.432
Or as he rides the steep of heaven, or dips
3.349.433
In ocean's fiery bath his plunging car.
3.349.434
Quick ice-crusts curdle on the running stream,
3.349.435
And iron-hooped wheels the water's back now bears,
3.349.436
To broad wains opened, as erewhile to ships;
3.349.437
Brass vessels oft asunder burst, and clothes
3.349.438
Stiffen upon the wearers; juicy wines
3.349.439
They cleave with axes; to one frozen mass
3.349.440
Whole pools are turned; and on their untrimmed beards
3.349.441
Stiff clings the jagged icicle. Meanwhile
3.349.442
All heaven no less is filled with falling snow;
3.349.443
The cattle perish: oxen's mighty frames
3.349.444
Stand island-like amid the frost, and stags
3.349.445
In huddling herds, by that strange weight benumbed,
3.349.446
Scarce top the surface with their antler-points.
3.349.447
These with no hounds they hunt, nor net with toils,
3.349.448
Nor scare with terror of the crimson plume;
3.349.449
But, as in vain they breast the opposing block,
3.349.450
Butcher them, knife in hand, and so dispatch
3.349.451
Loud-bellowing, and with glad shouts hale them home.
3.349.452
Themselves in deep-dug caverns underground
3.349.453
Dwell free and careless; to their hearths they heave
3.349.454
Oak-logs and elm-trees whole, and fire them there,
3.349.455
There play the night out, and in festive glee
3.349.456
With barm and service sour the wine-cup mock.
3.349.457
So 'neath the seven-starred Hyperborean wain
3.349.458
The folk live tameless, buffeted with blasts
3.349.459
Of Eurus from Rhipaean hills, and wrap
3.349.460
Their bodies in the tawny fells of beasts.
3.384.461
If wool delight thee, first, be far removed
3.384.462
All prickly boskage, burrs and caltrops; shun
3.384.463
Luxuriant pastures; at the outset choose
3.384.464
White flocks with downy fleeces. For the ram,
3.384.465
How white soe'er himself, be but the tongue
3.384.466
'Neath his moist palate black, reject him, lest
3.384.467
He sully with dark spots his offspring's fleece,
3.384.468
And seek some other o'er the teeming plain.
3.384.469
Even with such snowy bribe of wool, if ear
3.384.470
May trust the tale, Pan, God of Arcady,
3.384.471
Snared and beguiled thee, Luna, calling thee
3.384.472
To the deep woods; nor thou didst spurn his call.
3.394.473
But who for milk hath longing, must himself
3.394.474
Carry lucerne and lotus-leaves enow
3.394.475
With salt herbs to the cote, whence more they love
3.394.476
The streams, more stretch their udders, and give back
3.394.477
A subtle taste of saltness in the milk.
3.394.478
Many there be who from their mothers keep
3.394.479
The new-born kids, and straightway bind their mouths
3.394.480
With iron-tipped muzzles. What they milk at dawn,
3.394.481
Or in the daylight hours, at night they press;
3.394.482
What darkling or at sunset, this ere morn
3.394.483
They bear away in baskets—for to town
3.394.484
The shepherd hies him—or with dash of salt
3.394.485
Just sprinkle, and lay by for winter use.
3.404.486
Nor be thy dogs last cared for; but alike
3.404.487
Swift Spartan hounds and fierce Molossian feed
3.404.488
On fattening whey. Never, with these to watch,
3.404.489
Dread nightly thief afold and ravening wolves,
3.404.490
Or Spanish desperadoes in the rear.
3.404.491
And oft the shy wild asses thou wilt chase,
3.404.492
With hounds, too, hunt the hare, with hounds the doe;
3.404.493
Oft from his woodland wallowing-den uprouse
3.404.494
The boar, and scare him with their baying, and drive,
3.404.495
And o'er the mountains urge into the toils
3.404.496
Some antlered monster to their chiming cry.
3.414.497
Learn also scented cedar-wood to burn
3.414.498
Within the stalls, and snakes of noxious smell
3.414.499
With fumes of galbanum to drive away.
3.414.500
Oft under long-neglected cribs, or lurks
3.414.501
A viper ill to handle, that hath fled
3.414.502
The light in terror, or some snake, that wont
3.414.503
'Neath shade and sheltering roof to creep, and shower
3.414.504
Its bane among the cattle, hugs the ground,
3.414.505
Fell scourge of kine. Shepherd, seize stakes, seize stones!
3.414.506
And as he rears defiance, and puffs out
3.414.507
A hissing throat, down with him! see how low
3.414.508
That cowering crest is vailed in flight, the while,
3.414.509
His midmost coils and final sweep of tail
3.414.510
Relaxing, the last fold drags lingering spires.
3.414.511
Then that vile worm that in Calabrian glades
3.414.512
Uprears his breast, and wreathes a scaly back,
3.414.513
His length of belly pied with mighty spots—
3.414.514
While from their founts gush any streams, while yet
3.414.515
With showers of Spring and rainy south-winds earth
3.414.516
Is moistened, lo! he haunts the pools, and here
3.414.517
Housed in the banks, with fish and chattering frogs
3.414.518
Crams the black void of his insatiate maw.
3.414.519
Soon as the fens are parched, and earth with heat
3.414.520
Is gaping, forth he darts into the dry,
3.414.521
Rolls eyes of fire and rages through the fields,
3.414.522
Furious from thirst and by the drought dismayed.
3.414.523
Me list not then beneath the open heaven
3.414.524
To snatch soft slumber, nor on forest-ridge
3.414.525
Lie stretched along the grass, when, slipped his slough,
3.414.526
To glittering youth transformed he winds his spires,
3.414.527
And eggs or younglings leaving in his lair,
3.414.528
Towers sunward, lightening with three-forked tongue.
3.440.529
Of sickness, too, the causes and the signs
3.440.530
I'll teach thee. Loathly scab assails the sheep,
3.440.531
When chilly showers have probed them to the quick,
3.440.532
And winter stark with hoar-frost, or when sweat
3.440.533
Unpurged cleaves to them after shearing done,
3.440.534
And rough thorns rend their bodies. Hence it is
3.440.535
Shepherds their whole flock steep in running streams,
3.440.536
While, plunged beneath the flood, with drenched fell,
3.440.537
The ram, launched free, goes drifting down the tide.
3.440.538
Else, having shorn, they smear their bodies o'er
3.440.539
With acrid oil-lees, and mix silver-scum
3.440.540
And native sulphur and Idaean pitch,
3.440.541
Wax mollified with ointment, and therewith
3.440.542
Sea-leek, strong hellebores, bitumen black.
3.440.543
Yet ne'er doth kindlier fortune crown his toil,
3.440.544
Than if with blade of iron a man dare lance
3.440.545
The ulcer's mouth ope: for the taint is fed
3.440.546
And quickened by confinement; while the swain
3.440.547
His hand of healing from the wound withholds,
3.440.548
Or sits for happier signs imploring heaven.
3.440.549
Aye, and when inward to the bleater's bones
3.440.550
The pain hath sunk and rages, and their limbs
3.440.551
By thirsty fever are consumed, 'tis good
3.440.552
To draw the enkindled heat therefrom, and pierce
3.440.553
Within the hoof-clefts a blood-bounding vein.
3.440.554
Of tribes Bisaltic such the wonted use,
3.440.555
And keen Gelonian, when to Rhodope
3.440.556
He flies, or Getic desert, and quaffs milk
3.440.557
With horse-blood curdled. Seest one far afield
3.440.558
Oft to the shade's mild covert win, or pull
3.440.559
The grass tops listlessly, or hindmost lag,
3.440.560
Or, browsing, cast her down amid the plain,
3.440.561
At night retire belated and alone;
3.440.562
With quick knife check the mischief, ere it creep
3.440.563
With dire contagion through the unwary herd.
3.440.564
Less thick and fast the whirlwind scours the main
3.440.565
With tempest in its wake, than swarm the plagues
3.440.566
Of cattle; nor seize they single lives alone,
3.440.567
But sudden clear whole feeding grounds, the flock
3.440.568
With all its promise, and extirpate the breed.
3.440.569
Well would he trow it who, so long after, still
3.440.570
High Alps and Noric hill-forts should behold,
3.440.571
And Iapydian Timavus' fields,
3.440.572
Ay, still behold the shepherds' realms a waste,
3.440.573
And far and wide the lawns untenanted.
3.478.574
Here from distempered heavens erewhile arose
3.478.575
A piteous season, with the full fierce heat
3.478.576
Of autumn glowed, and cattle-kindreds all
3.478.577
And all wild creatures to destruction gave,
3.478.578
Tainted the pools, the fodder charged with bane.
3.478.579
Nor simple was the way of death, but when
3.478.580
Hot thirst through every vein impelled had drawn
3.478.581
Their wretched limbs together, anon o'erflowed
3.478.582
A watery flux, and all their bones piecemeal
3.478.583
Sapped by corruption to itself absorbed.
3.478.584
Oft in mid sacrifice to heaven—the white
3.478.585
Wool-woven fillet half wreathed about his brow—
3.478.586
Some victim, standing by the altar, there
3.478.587
Betwixt the loitering carles a-dying fell:
3.478.588
Or, if betimes the slaughtering priest had struck,
3.478.589
Nor with its heaped entrails blazed the pile,
3.478.590
Nor seer to seeker thence could answer yield;
3.478.591
Nay, scarce the up-stabbing knife with blood was stained,
3.478.592
Scarce sullied with thin gore the surface-sand.
3.478.593
Hence die the calves in many a pasture fair,
3.478.594
Or at full cribs their lives' sweet breath resign;
3.478.595
Hence on the fawning dog comes madness, hence
3.478.596
Racks the sick swine a gasping cough that chokes
3.478.597
With swelling at the jaws: the conquering steed,
3.478.598
Uncrowned of effort and heedless of the sward,
3.478.599
Faints, turns him from the springs, and paws the earth
3.478.600
With ceaseless hoof: low droop his ears, wherefrom
3.478.601
Bursts fitful sweat, a sweat that waxes cold
3.478.602
Upon the dying beast; the skin is dry,
3.478.603
And rigidly repels the handler's touch.
3.478.604
These earlier signs they give that presage doom.
3.478.605
But, if the advancing plague 'gin fiercer grow,
3.478.606
Then are their eyes all fire, deep-drawn their breath,
3.478.607
At times groan-laboured: with long sobbing heave
3.478.608
Their lowest flanks; from either nostril streams
3.478.609
Black blood; a rough tongue clogs the obstructed jaws.
3.478.610
'Twas helpful through inverted horn to pour
3.478.611
Draughts of the wine-god down; sole way it seemed
3.478.612
To save the dying: soon this too proved their bane,
3.478.613
And, reinvigorate but with frenzy's fire,
3.478.614
Even at death's pinch—the gods some happier fate
3.478.615
Deal to the just, such madness to their foes—
3.478.616
Each with bared teeth his own limbs mangling tore.
3.478.617
See! as he smokes beneath the stubborn share,
3.478.618
The bull drops, vomiting foam-dabbled gore,
3.478.619
And heaves his latest groans. Sad goes the swain,
3.478.620
Unhooks the steer that mourns his fellow's fate,
3.478.621
And in mid labour leaves the plough-gear fast.
3.478.622
Nor tall wood's shadow, nor soft sward may stir
3.478.623
That heart's emotion, nor rock-channelled flood,
3.478.624
More pure than amber speeding to the plain:
3.478.625
But see! his flanks fail under him, his eyes
3.478.626
Are dulled with deadly torpor, and his neck
3.478.627
Sinks to the earth with drooping weight.
3.525.628
What now
3.525.629
Besteads him toil or service? to have turned
3.525.630
The heavy sod with ploughshare? And yet these
3.525.631
Ne'er knew the Massic wine-god's baneful boon,
3.525.632
Nor twice replenished banquets: but on leaves
3.525.633
They fare, and virgin grasses, and their cups
3.525.634
Are crystal springs and streams with running tired,
3.525.635
Their healthful slumbers never broke by care.
3.525.636
Then only, say they, through that country side
3.525.637
For Juno's rites were cattle far to seek,
3.525.638
And ill-matched buffaloes the chariots drew
3.525.639
To their high fanes. So, painfully with rakes
3.525.640
They grub the soil, aye, with their very nails
3.525.641
Dig in the corn-seeds, and with strained neck
3.525.642
O'er the high uplands drag the creaking wains.
3.525.643
No wolf for ambush pries about the pen,
3.525.644
Nor round the flock prowls nightly; pain more sharp
3.525.645
Subdues him: the shy deer and fleet-foot stags
3.525.646
With hounds now wander by the haunts of men
3.525.647
Vast ocean's offspring, and all tribes that swim,
3.525.648
On the shore's confine the wave washes up,
3.525.649
Like shipwrecked bodies: seals, unwonted there,
3.525.650
Flee to the rivers. Now the viper dies,
3.525.651
For all his den's close winding, and with scales
3.525.652
Erect the astonied water-worms. The air
3.525.653
Brooks not the very birds, that headlong fall,
3.525.654
And leave their life beneath the soaring cloud.
3.525.655
Moreover now nor change of fodder serves,
3.525.656
And subtlest cures but injure; then were foiled
3.525.657
The masters, Chiron sprung from Phillyron,
3.525.658
And Amythaon's son Melampus. See!
3.525.659
From Stygian darkness launched into the light
3.525.660
Comes raging pale Tisiphone; she drives
3.525.661
Disease and fear before her, day by day
3.525.662
Still rearing higher that all-devouring head.
3.525.663
With bleat of flocks and lowings thick resound
3.525.664
Rivers and parched banks and sloping heights.
3.525.665
At last in crowds she slaughters them, she chokes
3.525.666
The very stalls with carrion-heaps that rot
3.525.667
In hideous corruption, till men learn
3.525.668
With earth to cover them, in pits to hide.
3.525.669
For e'en the fells are useless; nor the flesh
3.525.670
With water may they purge, or tame with fire,
3.525.671
Nor shear the fleeces even, gnawed through and through
3.525.672
With foul disease, nor touch the putrid webs;
3.525.673
But, had one dared the loathly weeds to try,
3.525.674
Red blisters and an unclean sweat o'erran
3.525.675
His noisome limbs, till, no long tarriance made,
3.525.676
The fiery curse his tainted frame devoured.