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. The virgins' locks with golden fillets bound,
  2. And sparkling diamonds glitt'ring all around;
  3. Buskins embroider'd on their feet they wear,
  4. And spreading trains with pride uneasy bear.
  5. Here, as in Greece the custom was of old,
  6. The image of the goddess we behold
  7. Borne on the heads of maidens, and behind
  8. The priestesses in beauteous rank you find.
  9. An awful silence reigns : the goddess last
  10. Approaches, and with her the pomp is past.
  11. The dress was Greek, and such Halesus wore,
  12. When in a fright he fled the Grecian shore;
  13. His father kill'd, an Argive ship he fraught,
  14. And to this coast the royal treasure brought.
  15. Much peril had he past, much labour known,
  16. O'er lands and seas, before he reach'd our own,
  17. And landing built, with happy hand, the town,
  18. Where first he did this festival revive,
  19. And its Greek rules to the Phaliscans give;
  20. The rites and sacrifices first he show'd,