Amores

Ovid

Ovid. Ovid's Art of Love (in three Books), the Remedy of Love, the Art of Beauty, the Court of Love, the History of Love, and Amours. Dryden, John, et al., translator. New York: Calvin Blanchard, 1855.

  1. A heifer of the place they sacrifice,
  2. But ne'er to men expose their mysteries,
  3. I mark'd the hidden way my consort went,
  4. And follow'd down the deep and dark descent.
  5. To an old wood at last I came, whose shade
  6. Impress'd a horror on the gloom it made,
  7. And ev'ry step with trembling feet I trod,
  8. Profan'd, I thought, the dwelling of a god.
  9. An altar there was rais'd by hands divine,
  10. And fragrant incense flam'd around the shrine.
  11. Chaste matrons there their vow'd oblations pay,
  12. And celebrate with joyful hymns the day.
  13. Soon as the fife the signal gives, they move
  14. In long procession through the sacred grove
  15. Branches and flow'rs are with devotion spread
  16. O'er all the way, and priestly vestments laid.
  17. Next after these, through loud acclaims, they lead
  18. A cow milk white, and of Phaliscan breed;
  19. Then a young steer, whose forehead ne'er had borne