Eclogues

Virgil

Vergil. The Poems of Vergil. Rhoades, James, translator. London: Oxford University Press, 1921.

  1. I have a father and a step-dame harsh,
  2. and twice a day both reckon up the flock,
  3. and one withal the kids. But I will stake,
  4. seeing you are so mad, what you yourself
  5. will own more priceless far—two beechen cups
  6. by the divine art of Alcimedon
  7. wrought and embossed, whereon a limber vine,
  8. wreathed round them by the graver's facile tool,
  9. twines over clustering ivy-berries pale.
  10. Two figures, one Conon, in the midst he set,
  11. and one—how call you him, who with his wand
  12. marked out for all men the whole round of heaven,
  13. that they who reap, or stoop behind the plough,
  14. might know their several seasons? Nor as yet
  15. have I set lip to them, but lay them by.
DAMOETAS
  1. For me too wrought the same Alcimedon
  2. a pair of cups, and round the handles wreathed
  3. pliant acanthus, Orpheus in the midst,
  4. the forests following in his wake; nor yet
  5. have I set lip to them, but lay them by.