Metamorphoses

Ovid

Ovid. Metamorphoses. More, Brookes, translator. Boston: Cornhill Publishing Co., 1922.

  1. While this was happening, they began to seek
  2. for one who could endure the weight of such
  3. a task and could succeed a king so great;
  4. and Fame, the harbinger of truth, destined
  5. illustrious Numa for the sovereign power.
  6. It did not satisfy his heart to know
  7. only the Sabine ceremonials,
  8. and he conceived in his expansive mind
  9. much greater views, examining the depth
  10. and cause of things. His country and his cares
  11. forgotten, this desire led him to visit
  12. the city that once welcomed Hercules.
  13. Numa desired to know what founder built
  14. a Grecian city on Italian shores.
  15. One of the old inhabitants, who was well
  16. acquainted with past history, replied:
  17. “Rich in Iberian herds, the son of Jove
  18. turned from the ocean and with favoring wind
  19. 'Tis said he landed on Lacinian shores.
  20. And, while the herd strayed in the tender grass,
  21. he visited the house, the friendly home,
  22. of far-famed Croton. There he rested from
  23. his arduous labors. At the time of his
  24. departure, he said, ‘Here in future days
  25. shall be a city of your numerous race.’
  26. The passing years have proved the promise true,
  27. for Myscelus, choosing that site, marked out
  28. a city's walls. Argive Alemon's son,
  29. of all men in his generation, he
  30. was most acceptable to the heavenly gods.
  31. Bending over him once at dawn, while he
  32. was overwhelmed with drowsiness of sleep,
  33. the huge club-bearer Hercules addressed
  34. him thus: ‘Come now, desert your native shores.
  35. Go quickly to the pebbly flowing stream
  36. of distant Aesar.’ And he threatened ill
  37. in fearful words, unless he should obey.
  38. “Sleep and the god departed instantly.
  39. Alemon's son, arising from his couch,
  40. pondered his recent vision thoughtfully,
  41. with his conclusions at cross purposes.—
  42. the god commanded him to quit that land,
  43. the laws forbade departure, threatening death
  44. to all who sought to leave their native land.
  45. “The brilliant Sun had hidden in the sea
  46. his shining head, and darkest Night had then
  47. put forth her starry face; and at that time
  48. it seemed as if the same god Hercules
  49. was present and repeating his commands,
  50. threatening still more and graver penalties,
  51. if he should fail to obey. Now sore afraid
  52. he set about to move his household gods
  53. to a new settlement, but rumors then
  54. followed him through the city, and he was
  55. accused of holding statutes in contempt.
  56. “The accusation hardly had been made
  57. when his offense was evidently proved,
  58. even without a witness. Then he raised
  59. his face and hands up to the gods above
  60. and suppliant in neglected garb, exclaimed,
  61. ‘Oh mighty Hercules, for whom alone
  62. the twice six labors gave the privilege
  63. of heavenly residence, give me your aid,
  64. for you were the true cause of my offence.’
  65. “It was an ancient custom of that land
  66. to vote with chosen pebbles, white and black.
  67. The white absolved, the black condemned the man.
  68. And so that day the fateful votes were given—:
  69. all cast into the cruel urn were black!
  70. Soon as that urn inverted poured forth all
  71. the pebbles to be counted, every one
  72. was changed completely from its black to white,
  73. and so the vote adjudged him innocent.
  74. By that most fortunate aid of Hercules
  75. he was exempted from the country's law.
  76. “Myscelus, breathing thanks to Hercules,
  77. with favoring wind sailed on the Ionian sea,
  78. past Sallentine Neretum, Sybaris,
  79. Spartan Tarentum, and the Sirine Bay,
  80. Crimisa, and on beyond the Iapygian fields.
  81. Then, skirting shores which face these lands, he found
  82. the place foretold the river Aesar's mouth,
  83. and found not far away a burial mound
  84. which covered with its soil the hallowed bones
  85. of Croton.—There, upon the appointed land,
  86. he built up walls—and he conferred the name
  87. of Croton, who was there entombed, on his
  88. new city, which has ever since been called
  89. Crotona.” By tradition it is known
  90. such strange deeds caused that city to be built,
  91. by men of Greece upon the Italian coast.
  1. Here lived a man, by birth a Samian.
  2. He had fled from Samos and the ruling class,
  3. a voluntary exile, for his hate
  4. against all tyranny. He had the gift
  5. of holding mental converse with the gods,
  6. who live far distant in the highth of heaven;
  7. and all that Nature has denied to man
  8. and human vision, he reviewed with eyes
  9. of his enlightened soul. And, when he had
  10. examined all things in his careful mind
  11. with watchful study, he released his thoughts
  12. to knowledge of the public.
  13. He would speak
  14. to crowds of people, silent and amazed,
  15. while he revealed to them the origin
  16. of this vast universe, the cause of things,
  17. what is nature, what a god, whence came the snow,
  18. the cause of lightning—was it Jupiter
  19. or did the winds, that thundered when the cloud
  20. was rent asunder, cause the lightning flash?
  21. What shook the earth, what laws controlled the stars
  22. as they were moved—and every hidden thing
  23. he was the first man to forbid the use
  24. of any animal's flesh as human food,
  25. he was the first to speak with learned lips,
  26. though not believed in this, exhorting them.—
  27. “No, mortals,” he would say, “Do not permit
  28. pollution of your bodies with such food,
  29. for there are grain and good fruits which bear down
  30. the branches by their weight, and ripened grapes
  31. upon the vines, and herbs—those sweet by nature
  32. and those which will grow tender and mellow with
  33. a fire, and flowing milk is not denied,
  34. nor honey, redolent of blossoming thyme.
  35. “The lavish Earth yields rich and healthful food
  36. affording dainties without slaughter, death,
  37. and bloodshed. Dull beasts delight to satisfy
  38. their hunger with torn flesh; and yet not all:
  39. horses and sheep and cattle live on grass.
  40. But all the savage animals—the fierce
  41. Armenian tigers and ferocious lions,
  42. and bears, together with the roving wolves—
  43. delight in viands reeking with warm blood.
  44. “Oh, ponder a moment such a monstrous crime—
  45. vitals in vitals gorged, one greedy body
  46. fattening with plunder of another's flesh,
  47. a living being fed on another's life!
  48. In that abundance, which our Earth, the best
  49. of mothers, will afford have you no joy,
  50. unless your savage teeth can gnaw
  51. the piteous flesh of some flayed animal
  52. to reenact the Cyclopean crime?
  53. And can you not appease the hungry void—
  54. the perverted craving of a stomach's greed,
  55. unless you first destroy another life?
  56. “That age of old time which is given the name
  57. of ‘Golden,’ was so blest in fruit of trees,
  58. and in the good herbs which the earth produced
  59. that it never would pollute the mouth with blood.
  60. The birds then safely moved their wings in air,
  61. the timid hares would wander in the fields
  62. with no fear, and their own credulity
  63. had not suspended fishes from the hook.
  64. All life was safe from treacherous wiles,
  65. fearing no injury, a peaceful world.
  66. “After that time some one of ill advice
  67. (it does not matter who it might have been)
  68. envied the ways of lions and gulped into
  69. his greedy paunch stuff from a carcass vile.
  70. He opened the foul paths of wickedness.
  71. It may be that in killing beasts of prey
  72. our steel was for the first time warmed with blood.
  73. And that could be defended, for I hold
  74. that predatory creatures which attempt
  75. destruction of mankind, are put to death
  76. without evasion of the sacred laws:
  77. but, though with justice they are put to death,
  78. that cannot be a cause for eating them.
  79. “This wickedness went further; and the sow
  80. was thought to have deserved death as the first
  81. of victims, for with her long turned-up snout
  82. she spoiled the good hope of a harvest year.
  83. The ravenous goat, that gnawed a sprouting vine,
  84. was led for slaughter to the altar fires
  85. of angry Bacchus. It was their own fault
  86. that surely caused the ruin of those two.
  87. “But why have sheep deserved sad destiny,
  88. harmless and useful for the good of man
  89. with nectar in full udders? Their soft wool
  90. affords the warmest coverings for our use,
  91. their life and not their death would help us more.
  92. Why have the oxen of the field deserved
  93. a sad end—innocent, without deceit,
  94. and harmless, without guile, born to endure
  95. hard labor? Without gratitude is he,
  96. unworthy of the gift of harvest fields,
  97. who, after he relieved his worker from
  98. weight of the curving plow could butcher him,
  99. could sever with an axe that toil worn neck,
  100. by which so often with hard work the ground
  101. had been turned up, so many harvests reared.
  102. For some, even crimes like these are not enough,
  103. they have imputed to the gods themselves
  104. abomination—they believe a god
  105. in heaven above, rejoices at the death
  106. of a laborious ox.
  107. “A victim free
  108. of blemish and most beautiful in form
  109. (perfection brings destruction) is adorned
  110. with garlands and with gilded horns before
  111. the altar. In his ignorance he hears
  112. one praying, and he sees the very grain
  113. he labored to produce, fixed on his head
  114. between the horns, and felled, he stains with blood
  115. the knife which just before he may have seen
  116. reflected in clear water. Instantly
  117. they snatch out entrails from his throbbing form,
  118. and seek in them intentions of the gods.
  119. Then, in your lust for a forbidden food
  120. you will presume to batten on his flesh,
  121. O race of mortals! Do not eat such food!
  122. Give your attention to my serious words;
  123. and, when you next present the slaughtered flesh
  124. of oxen to your palates, know and feel
  125. that you gnaw your fellow tillers of the soil.
  126. “And, since a god impels me to speak out,
  127. I will obey the god who urges me,
  128. and will disclose to you the heavens above,
  129. and I will even reveal the oracles
  130. of the Divine Will. I will sing to you
  131. of things most wonderful, which never were
  132. investigated by the intellects
  133. of ancient times and things which have been long
  134. concealed from man. In fancy I delight
  135. to float among the stars or take my stand
  136. on mighty Atlas' shoulders, and to look
  137. afar down on men wandering here and there—
  138. afraid in life yet dreading unknown death,
  139. and in these words exhort them and reveal
  140. the sequence of events ordained by fate!
  1. “O sad humanity! Why do you fear
  2. alarms of icy death, afraid of Styx,
  3. fearful of moving shadows and empty names—
  4. of subjects harped on by the poets' tales,
  5. the fabled perils of a fancied life?
  6. Whether the funeral pile consumes your flesh
  7. with hot flames, or old age dissolves it with
  8. a gradual wasting power, be well assured
  9. the body cannot meet with further ill.
  10. And souls are all exempt from power of death.
  11. When they have left their first corporeal home,
  12. they always find and live in newer homes.
  13. “I can declare, for I remember well,
  14. that in the days of the great Trojan War,
  15. I was Euphorbus, son of Panthous.
  16. In my opposing breast was planted then
  17. the heavy spear-point of the younger son
  18. of Atreus. Not long past I recognised
  19. the shield, once burden of my left arm, where
  20. it hung in Juno's temple at ancient Argos,
  21. the realm of Abas. Everything must change:
  22. but nothing perishes. The moving soul
  23. may wander, coming from that spot to this,
  24. from this to that—in changed possession live
  25. in any limbs whatever. It may pass
  26. from beasts to human bodies, and again
  27. to those of beasts. The soul will never die,
  28. in the long lapse of time. As pliant wax
  29. is moulded to new forms and does not stay
  30. as it has been nor keep the self same form
  31. yet is the selfsame wax, be well assured
  32. the soul is always the same spirit, though
  33. it passes into different forms. Therefore,
  34. that natural love may not be vanquished by
  35. unnatural craving of the appetite,
  36. I warn you, stop expelling kindred souls
  37. by deeds abhorrent as cold murder.—Let
  38. not blood be nourished with its kindred blood!
  39. “Since I am launched into the open sea
  40. and I have given my full sails to the wind,
  41. nothing in all the world remains unchanged.
  42. All things are in a state of flux, all shapes
  43. receive a changing nature. Time itself
  44. glides on with constant motion, ever as
  45. a flowing river. Neither river nor
  46. the fleeting hour can stop its constant course.
  47. But, as each wave drives on a wave, as each
  48. is pressed by that which follows, and must press
  49. on that before it, so the moments fly,
  50. and others follow, so they are renewed.
  51. The moment which moved on before is past,
  52. and that which was not, now exists in Time,
  53. and every one comes, goes, and is replaced.
  54. “You see how night glides by and then proceeds
  55. on to the dawn, then brilliant light of day
  56. succeeds the dark night. There is not the same
  57. appearance in the heavens,: when all things
  58. for weariness are resting in vast night,
  59. as when bright Lucifer rides his white steed.
  60. And only think of that most glorious change,
  61. when loved Aurora, Pallas' daughter, comes
  62. before the day and tints the world, almost
  63. delivered to bright Phoebus. Even the disk
  64. of that god, rising from beneath the earth,
  65. is of a ruddy color in the dawn
  66. and ruddy when concealed beneath the world.
  67. When highest, it is a most brilliant white,
  68. for there the ether is quite purified,
  69. and far away avoids infection from
  70. impurities of earth. Diana's form
  71. at night remains not equal nor the same!
  72. 'Tis less today than it will be tomorrow,
  73. if she is waxing; greater, if she wanes.
  74. “Yes, do you not see how the year moves through
  75. four seasons, imitating human life:
  76. in early Spring it has a nursling's ways
  77. resembling infancy, for at that time
  78. the blade is shooting and devoid of strength.
  79. Its flaccid substance swelling gives delight,
  80. to every watching husbandman, alive
  81. in expectation. Then all things are rich
  82. in blossom, and the genial meadow smiles
  83. with tints of blooming flowers; but not as yet
  84. is there a sign of vigor in the leaves.
  85. “The year now waxing stronger, after Spring
  86. it passes into Summer, and its youth
  87. becomes robust. Indeed of all the year
  88. the Summer is most vigorous and most
  89. abounds with glowing and life-giving warmth.
  90. “Autumn then follows, and, the vim of life
  91. removed, that ripe and mellow time succeeds
  92. between youth and old age, and a few white hairs
  93. are sprinkled here and there upon his brow.
  94. “Then aged Winter with his tremulous step
  95. follows, repulsive, strips of graceful locks
  96. or white with those he has retained so long.
  97. “Our bodies also, always change unceasingly:
  98. we are not now what we were yesterday
  99. or we shall be tomorrow. And there was
  100. a time when we were only seeds of man,
  101. mere hopes that lived within a mother's womb.
  102. But Nature changed us with her skilfull touch,
  103. determined that our bodies should not be
  104. held in such narrow room, below the entrails
  105. in our distended parent; and in time
  106. she brought us forth into the vacant air.
  107. “Brought into light, the helpless infant lies.
  108. Then on all fours he lifts his body up,
  109. feeling his way, like any young wild beast,
  110. and then by slow degrees he stands upright,
  111. weak-kneed and trembling, steadied by support
  112. of some convenient prop. And soon more strong
  113. and swift he passes through the hours of youth,
  114. and, when the years of middle age are past,
  115. slides down the steep path of declining age.
  116. “This undermines him and destroys the strength
  117. of former years: and Milon, now grown old,
  118. weeps, when he sees his arms, which once were firm
  119. with muscles big as those of Hercules,
  120. hang flabby at his side: and Helen weeps,
  121. when in the glass she sees her wrinkled face,
  122. and wonders why two heroes fell in love
  123. and carried her away.—O Time,
  124. devourer of all things, and envious Age,
  125. together you destroy all that exists
  126. and, slowly gnawing, bring on lingering death.
  127. “Yes, even things which we call elements,
  128. do not endure. Now listen well to me,
  129. and I will show the ways in which they change.
  130. “The everlasting universe contains
  131. four elemental parts. And two of these
  132. are heavy—earth and water—and are borne
  133. downwards by weight. The other two devoid
  134. of weight, are air and—even lighter—fire:
  135. and, if these two are not constrained, they seek
  136. the higher regions. These four elements,
  137. though far apart in space, are all derived
  138. from one another. Earth dissolves
  139. as flowing water! Water, thinned still more,
  140. departs as wind and air; and the light air,
  141. still losing weight, sparkles on high as fire.
  142. But they return, along their former way:
  143. the fire, assuming weight, is changed to air;
  144. and then, more dense, that air is changed again
  145. to water; and that water, still more dense,
  146. compacts itself again as primal earth.
  1. “Nothing retains the form that seems its own,
  2. and Nature, the renewer of all things,
  3. continually changes every form
  4. into some other shape. Believe my word,
  5. in all this universe of vast extent,
  6. not one thing ever perished. All have changed
  7. appearance. Men say a certain thing is born,
  8. if it takes a different form from what it had;
  9. and yet they say, that certain thing has died,
  10. if it no longer keeps the self same shape.
  11. Though distant things move near, and near things far,
  12. always the sum of all things is unchanged.
  13. “For my part, I cannot believe a thing
  14. remains long under the same form unchanged.
  15. Look at the change of times from gold to iron,:
  16. look at the change in places. I have seen
  17. what had been solid earth become salt waves,
  18. and I have seen dry land made from the deep;
  19. and, far away from ocean, sea-shells strewn,
  20. and on the mountain-tops old anchors found.
  21. Water has made that which was once a plain
  22. into a valley, and the mountain has
  23. been levelled by the floods down to a plain.
  24. A former marshland is now parched dry sand,
  25. and places which endured severest drought
  26. are wet with standing pools. Here Nature has
  27. opened fresh springs, but there has shut them up;
  28. rivers aroused by ancient earthquakes have
  29. rushed out or vanished, as they lost their depth.
  30. “So, when the Lycus has been swallowed by
  31. a chasm in the earth, it rushes forth
  32. at a distance and is reborn a different stream.
  33. The Erasinus now flows down into a cave,
  34. now runs beneath the ground a darkened course,
  35. then rises lordly in the Argolic fields.
  36. They say the Mysus, wearied of his spring
  37. and of his former banks, appears elsewhere
  38. and takes another name, the Caicus.
  39. “The Amenanus in Sicilian sands
  40. now smoothly rolling, at another time
  41. is quenched, because its fountain springs are dry.
  42. The water of the Anigros formerly
  43. was used for drinking, but it pours out now
  44. foul water which you would decline to touch,
  45. because (unless all credit is denied
  46. to poets) long ago the Centaurs, those
  47. strange mortals double-limbed, bathed in the stream
  48. wounds which club-bearing Hercules had made
  49. with his strong bow.—Yes, does not Hypanis
  50. descending fresh from mountains of Sarmatia,
  51. become embittered with the taste of salt?
  52. “Antissa, Pharos, and Phoenician Tyre,
  53. were once surrounded by the wavy sea:
  54. they are not islands now. Long years ago
  55. Leucas was mainland, if we can believe
  56. what the old timers there will tell, but now
  57. the waves sweep round it. Zancle was a part
  58. of Italy, until the sea cut off
  59. the neighboring land with strong waves in between.
  60. Should you seek Helice and Buris, those
  61. two cities of Achaea, you will find
  62. them underneath the waves, where sailors point
  63. to sloping roofs and streets in the clear deep.
  64. “Near Pittheaan Troezen a steep, high hill,
  65. quite bare of trees, was once a level plain,
  66. but now is a hill, for (dreadful even to tell)
  67. the raging power of winds, long pent in deep,
  68. dark caverns, tried to find a proper vent,
  69. long struggling to attain free sky.
  70. Finding no opening from the prison-caves,
  71. imperious to their force, they raised the earth,
  72. exactly as pent air breathed from the mouth
  73. inflates a bladder, or the bottle-hides
  74. stripped off the two-horned goats. The swollen earth
  75. remained on that spot and has ever since
  76. appearance of a high hill hardened by
  77. the flight of time.
  78. “Of many strange events
  79. that I have heard and known, I will add a few.
  80. Why, does not water give and take strange forms?
  81. Your wave, O horned Ammon, will turn cold
  82. at mid-day, but is always mild and warm
  83. at sun-rise and at sun-set. I have heard
  84. that Athamanians kindle wood, if they
  85. pour water on it, when the waning moon
  86. has shrunk away into her smallest orb.
  87. The people of Ciconia have a stream
  88. which turns the drinker's entrails into stone,
  89. which changes into marble all it raves.
  90. The Achaean Crathis and the Sybaris,
  91. which flow not far from here, will turn the hair
  92. to something like clear amber or bright gold.
  93. “What is more wonderful, there are some waters
  94. which change not only bodies but the minds:
  95. who has no knowledge of the Salmacis
  96. and of its ill famed waves? Who has not
  97. heard of the lakes of Aethiopia:
  98. how those who drink of them go raving mad
  99. or fall in a deep sleep, most wonderful
  100. in heaviness. Whoever quenches thirst
  101. from the Clitorian spring will hate all wine,
  102. and soberly secure great pleasure from
  103. pure water. Either that spring has a power
  104. the opposite of wine-heat, or perhaps
  105. as natives tell us, after the famed son
  106. of Amythaon by his charms and herbs,
  107. delivered from their base insanity
  108. the stricken Proetides, he threw the rest
  109. of his mind healing herbs into the spring,
  110. where hatred of all wine has since remained.
  111. Unlike in nature flows another stream
  112. of the country, called Lyncestius: everyone
  113. who drinks of it, even with most temperate care,
  114. will reel, as if he had drunk unmixed wine.
  115. In Arcadia is a place, called Pheneos
  116. by men of old, which is mistrusted for
  117. the twofold nature of its waters. Stand
  118. in dread of them at night; if drunk at night,
  119. they harm you, but in daytime they will do
  120. no harm at all.
  1. So lakes and rivers have
  2. now this, now that effect.
  3. “Ortygia once
  4. moved like a ship that drifts among the waves.
  5. Now it is fixed. The Argo was in dread
  6. of the Symplegades, which moved apart
  7. with waves in-rushing. Now immovable
  8. they stand, resisting the attack of winds.
  9. “Aetna, which burns with sulphur furnaces,
  10. will not be always concentrated fire,
  11. nor was it always fiery. If the earth
  12. is like an animal and is alive
  13. and breathes out flame at many openings,
  14. then it can change these many passages
  15. used for its breathing and, when it is moved,
  16. may close these caverns as it opens up
  17. some others. Or if rushing winds are penned
  18. in deepest caverns, and they drive great stones
  19. against the rock, and substances which have
  20. the properties of flame and fire are made
  21. by those concussions; when the winds are calmed
  22. the caverns will, of course, be cool again.
  23. “Or if some black bitumen catches fire
  24. or yellow sulphur burns with little smoke,
  25. then surely, when the ground no longer gives
  26. such food and oily nutriment for flames
  27. and they in time have ravined all their store,
  28. their greedy nature soon will pine with death—
  29. it will not bear such famine but depart
  30. and, when deserted, will desert the place.
  31. “'Tis said that Hyperboreans of Pallene
  32. can cover all their bodies with light plumes
  33. by plunging nine times in Minerva's marsh.
  34. But I cannot believe another tale:
  35. that Scythian women get a like result
  36. by having poison sprinkled on their limbs.
  37. “If we give any credit to the things
  38. proved by experience, we can surely know
  39. whatever bodies are decayed by time
  40. or by dissolving heat are by such means
  41. changed into tiny animals—Come now,
  42. bury choice bullocks killed for sacrifice,
  43. and it is well known by experience
  44. that the flower-gathering bees are so produced,
  45. miraculous, from entrails putrefied.
  46. These, like the faithful animals from which
  47. they were produced, inhabit the green fields,
  48. delight in toil, and labor for reward.
  49. “The warlike steed, when buried in the ground,
  50. is a known source of hornets. If you cut
  51. the bending claws off from the sea-shore crab
  52. and bury the remainder in the earth,
  53. a scorpion will come forth from the dead crab
  54. buried there, threatening with its crooked tail.
  55. “The worms which cover leaves with their white threads,
  56. a thing observable by husbandmen,
  57. will change themselves to funeral butterflies.
  58. Mud holds the seeds that generate green frogs,
  59. at first producing tadpoles with no feet,
  60. and soon it gives them legs adapted for
  61. their swimming, and, so they may be as well
  62. adapted to good leaping, their hind legs
  63. are longer than the fore-legs. The mother bear
  64. does not bring forth a cub but a limp mass
  65. of flesh that hardly can be called alive.
  66. By licking it the mother forms the limbs,
  67. and brings it to a shape just like her own.
  68. “Do not the offspring of the honey bees,
  69. concealed in cells hexagonal, at first
  70. get life with no limbs, and assume in time
  71. both feet and wings? Unless the fact were known,
  72. could anyone suppose it possible
  73. that Juno's bird, whose tail is bright with stars;
  74. the eagle, armor-bearer of high Jove;
  75. the doves of Cytherea; and all birds
  76. emerge from the middle part of eggs?
  77. And some believe the human marrow turns
  78. into a serpent when the spine at length
  79. has putrefied in the closed sepulchre.
  80. “Now these I named derive their origin
  81. from other living forms. There is one bird
  82. which reproduces and renews itself:
  83. the Assyrians gave this bird his name—the Phoenix.
  84. He does not live either on grain or herbs,
  85. but only on small drops of frankincense
  86. and juices of amomum. When this bird
  87. completes a full five centuries of life
  88. straightway with talons and with shining beak
  89. he builds a nest among palm branches, where
  90. they join to form the palm tree's waving top.
  91. “As soon as he has strewn in this new nest
  92. the cassia bark and ears of sweet spikenard,
  93. and some bruised cinnamon with yellow myrrh,
  94. he lies down on it and refuses life
  95. among those dreamful odors.—And they say
  96. that from the body of the dying bird
  97. is reproduced a little Phoenix which
  98. is destined to live just as many years.
  99. “When time has given to him sufficient strength
  100. and he is able to sustain the weight,
  101. he lifts the nest up from the lofty tree
  102. and dutifully carries from that place
  103. his cradle and the parent's sepulchre.
  104. As soon as he has reached through yielding air
  105. the city of Hyperion, he will lay
  106. the burden just before the sacred doors
  107. within the temple of Hyperion.
  108. “But, if we wonder at strange things like these,
  109. we ought to wonder also, when we learn
  110. that a hyena has a change of sex:
  111. the female, quitting her embracing male,
  112. herself becomes a male.—That animal
  113. which feeds upon the winds and air, at once
  114. assumes with contact any color touched.
  115. “Conquered India gave to the vine crowned Bacchus
  116. lynxes, whose urine turns, they say to stones,
  117. hardening in air. So coral, too, as soon
  118. as it has risen above the sea, turns hard.
  119. Below the waves it was a tender plant.
  120. “The day will fail me; Phoebus will have bathed
  121. his panting horses in the deep sea waves,
  122. before I can include in my discourse
  123. the myriad things transforming to new shapes.
  124. In lapse of time we see the nations change;
  125. some grow in power, some wane. Troy was once great
  126. in riches and in men—so great she could
  127. for ten unequalled years afford much blood;
  128. now she lies low and offers to our gaze
  129. but ancient ruins and, instead of wealth,
  130. ancestral tombs. Sparta was famous once
  131. and great Mycenae was most flourishing.
  132. And Cecrops' citadel and Amphion's shone
  133. in ancient power. Sparta is nothing now
  134. save barren ground, the proud Mycenae fell,
  135. what is the Thebes of storied Oedipus
  136. except a name? And of Pandion's Athens
  137. what now remains beyond the name?
  138. “Reports come to me that Dardanian Rome
  139. is rising, and beside the Tiber's waves,
  140. whose springs are high in the Apennines, is laying
  141. her deep foundations. So in her growth
  142. her form is changing, and one day she will
  143. be the sole mistress of the boundless world.
  144. “They say that soothsayers and that oracles,
  145. revealers of our destiny, declare
  146. this fate, and, if I recollect it right,
  147. Helenus, son of Priam, prophesied
  148. unto Aeneas, when he was in doubt
  149. of safety and lamenting for the state
  150. of Troy, about to fall, ‘O, son of a goddess,
  151. if you yourself, will fully understand
  152. this prophecy now surging in my mind
  153. Troy shall not, while you are preserved to life
  154. fall utterly. Flames and the sword shall give
  155. you passage. You shall go and bear away
  156. Pergama, ruined; till a foreign soil,
  157. more friendly to you than your native land,
  158. shall be the lot of Troy and of yourself.
  159. “Even now I know it is decreed by Fate
  160. that our posterity, born far from Troy,
  161. will build a city greater than exists,
  162. or ever will exist, or ever has
  163. been seen in former times. Through a long lapse
  164. of ages other noted men shall make
  165. it strong, but one of the race of Iulus;
  166. shall make it the great mistress of the world.
  167. After the earth has thoroughly enjoyed
  168. his glorious life, aetherial abodes
  169. shall gain him, and immortal heaven shall be
  170. his destiny.’
  1. Such was the prophesy
  2. of Helenus, when great Aeneas took
  3. away his guardian deities, and I
  4. rejoice to see my kindred walls rise high
  5. and realize how much the Trojans won
  6. by that resounding victory of the Greeks!
  7. “But, that we may not range afar with steeds
  8. forgetful of the goal, the heavens and all
  9. beneath them and the earth and everything
  10. upon it change in form. We likewise change,
  11. who are a portion of the universe,
  12. and, since we are not only things of flesh
  13. but winged souls as well, we may be doomed
  14. to enter into beasts as our abode;
  15. and even to be hidden in the breasts
  16. of cattle. Therefore, should we not allow
  17. these bodies to be safe which may contain
  18. the souls of parents, brothers, or of those
  19. allied to us by kinship or of men
  20. at least, who should be saved from every harm?
  21. Let us not gorge down a Thyestean feast!
  22. “How greatly does a man disgrace himself,
  23. how impiously does he prepare himself
  24. for shedding human blood, who with u knife
  25. cuts the calf's throat and offers a deaf ear
  26. to its death-longings! who can kill the kid
  27. while it is sending forth heart rending cries
  28. like those of a dear child; or who can feed
  29. upon the bird which he has given food.
  30. How little do such deeds as these fall short
  31. of actual murder? Yes, where will they lead?
  32. “Let the ox plough, or let him owe his death
  33. to weight of years; and let the sheep give us
  34. defence against the cold of Boreas;
  35. and let the well-fed she-goats give to man
  36. their udders for the pressure of kind hands.
  37. “Away with cruel nets and springs and snares
  38. and fraudulent contrivances: deceive
  39. not birds with bird-limed twigs: do not deceive
  40. the trusting deer with dreaded feather foils:
  41. do not conceal barbed hooks with treacherous bait:
  42. if any beast is harmful, take his life,
  43. but, even so, let killing be enough.
  44. Taste not his flesh, but look for harmless food!”
  1. They say that Numa with a mind well taught
  2. by these and other precepts traveled back
  3. to his own land and, being urged again,
  4. assumed the guidance of the Latin state.
  5. Blest with a nymph as consort, blest also with
  6. the Muses for his guides, he taught the rites
  7. of sacrifice and trained in arts of peace
  8. a race accustomed long to savage war.
  9. When, ripe in years, he ended reign and life,
  10. the Latin matrons, the fathers of the state,
  11. and all the people wept for Numa's death.
  12. For the nymph, his widow, had withdrawn from Rome,
  13. concealed within the thick groves of the vale
  14. Aricia, where with groans and wailing she
  15. disturbed the holy rites of Cynthia,
  16. established by Orestes. Ah! how often
  17. nymphs of the grove and lake entreated her
  18. to cease and offered her consoling words.
  19. How often the son of Theseus said to her
  20. “Control your sorrow; surely your sad lot
  21. is not the only one; consider now
  22. the like calamities by others borne,
  23. and you can bear your sorrow. To my grief
  24. my own disaster was far worse than yours.
  25. At least it can afford you comfort now.
  26. “Is it not true, discourse has reached yours ears
  27. that one Hippolytus met with his death
  28. through the credulity of his loved sire,
  29. deceived by a stepmother's wicked art?
  30. It will amaze you much, and I may fail
  31. to prove what I declare, but I am he!
  32. Long since the daughter of Pasiphae
  33. tempted me to defile my father's bed
  34. and, failing, feigned that I had wished to do
  35. what she herself had wished. Perverting truth—
  36. either through fear of some discovery
  37. or else through spite at her deserved repulse—
  38. she charged me with attempting the foul crime.
  39. “Though I was guiltless of all wrong,
  40. my father banished me and, while I was
  41. departing, laid on me a mortal curse.
  42. Towards Pittheus and Troezen I fled aghast,
  43. guiding the swift chariot near the shore
  44. of the Corinthian Gulf, when all at once
  45. the sea rose up and seemed to arch itself
  46. and lift high as a white topped mountain height,
  47. make bellowings, and open at the crest.
  48. Then through the parting waves a horned bull
  49. emerged with head and breast into the wind,
  50. spouting white foam from his nostrils and his mouth.
  51. “The hearts of my attendants quailed with fear,
  52. yet I unfrightened thought but of my exile.
  53. Then my fierce horses turned their necks to face
  54. the waters, and with ears erect they quaked
  55. before the monster shape, they dashed in flight
  56. along the rock strewn ground below the cliff.
  57. I struggled, but with unavailing hand,
  58. to use the reins now covered with white foam;
  59. and throwing myself back, pulled on the thongs
  60. with weight and strength. Such effort might have checked
  61. the madness of my steeds, had not a wheel,
  62. striking the hub on a projecting stump,
  63. been shattered and hurled in fragments from the axle.
  64. “I was thrown forward from my chariot
  65. and with the reins entwined about my legs.
  66. My palpitating entrails could be seen
  67. dragged on, my sinews fastened on a stump.
  68. My torn legs followed, but a part
  69. remained behind me, caught by various snags.
  70. The breaking bones gave out a crackling noise,
  71. my tortured spirit soon had fled away,
  72. no part of the torn body could be known—
  73. all that was left was only one crushed wound—
  74. how can, how dare you, nymph, compare your ills
  75. to my disaster?
  76. “I saw the Lower World
  77. deprived of light: and I have bathed my flesh,
  78. so tortured, in the waves of Phlegethon.
  79. Life could not have been given again to me,
  80. but through the remedies Apollo's son
  81. applied to me. After my life returned—
  82. by potent herbs and the Paeonian aid,
  83. despite the will of Pluto—Cynthia then
  84. threw heavy clouds around that I might not
  85. be seen and cause men envy by new life:
  86. and that she might be sure my life was safe
  87. she made me seem an old man; and she changed
  88. me so that I could not be recognized.
  89. “A long time she debated whether she
  90. would give me Crete or Delos for my home.
  91. Delos and Crete abandoned, she then brought
  92. me here, and at the same time ordered me
  93. to lay aside my former name—one which
  94. when mentioned would remind me of my steeds.
  95. She said to me, ‘You were Hippolytus,
  96. but now instead you shall be Virbius.’
  97. And from that time I have inhabited
  98. this grove; and, as one of the lesser gods,
  99. I live concealed and numbered in her train.”
  100. The grief of others could not ease the woe
  101. of sad Egeria, and she laid herself
  102. down at a mountain's foot, dissolved in tears,
  103. till moved by pity for her faithful sorrow,
  104. Diana changed her body to a spring,
  105. her limbs into a clear continual stream.
  1. This wonderful event surprised the nymphs,
  2. and filled Hippolytus with wonder, just
  3. as great as when the Etrurian ploughman saw
  4. a fate-revealing clod move of its own
  5. accord among the fields, while not a hand
  6. was touching it, till finally it took
  7. a human form, without the quality
  8. of clodded earth, and opened its new mouth
  9. and spoke, revealing future destinies.
  10. The natives called him Tages. He was the first
  11. who taught Etrurians to foretell events.
  12. They were astonished even as Romulus,
  13. when he observed the spear, which once had grown
  14. high on the Palatine, put out new leaves
  15. and stand with roots—not with the iron point
  16. which he had driven in. Not as a spear
  17. it then stood there, but as a rooted tree
  18. with limber twigs for many to admire
  19. while resting under that surprising shade.
  20. Or, as when Cippus first observed his horns
  21. in the clear stream (he truly saw them there).
  22. Believing he had seen a falsity,
  23. he often touched his forehead with his hand
  24. and, so returning, touched the thing he saw.
  25. Assured at last that he could trust his eyes,
  26. he stood entranced, as if he had returned
  27. victorious from the conquest of his foes:
  28. and, raising eyes and hands toward heaven, he cried,
  29. “You gods above! Whatever is foretold
  30. by this great prodigy, if it means good,
  31. then let it be auspicious to my land
  32. and to the inhabitants of Quirinus,—
  33. if ill, let that misfortune fall on me.”
  34. He made an offering at new altars, built
  35. of grassy thick green turf, with fragrant fires,
  36. presenting wine in bowls. And he took note
  37. of panting entrails from new-slaughtered sheep,
  38. to learn the meaning of the event for him.
  39. When an Etruscan seer examined them,
  40. he found the evidence of great events,
  41. as yet obscure, and, when he raised keen eyes
  42. up from the entrails to the horns of Cippus,
  43. “O king, all hail!” he cried, “For in future time
  44. this country and the Latin towers will live
  45. in homage to you, Cippus, and your horns.
  46. But you must promptly put aside delay;
  47. hasten to enter the wide open gates—
  48. the fates command you. Once received within
  49. the city, you shall be its chosen king
  50. and safely shall enjoy a lasting reign.”
  51. Cippus retreated, and he turned his grave
  52. eyes from the city's walls and said, “O far,
  53. O far away, the righteous gods should drive
  54. such omens from me! Better it would be
  55. that I should pass my life in exile than
  56. be seen a king throned in the capitol.”
  57. Such words he spoke and forthwith he convoked
  58. the people and the grave and honored Senate.
  59. But first he veiled his horns with laurel, which
  60. betokens peace. Then, standing on a mound
  61. raised by the valiant troops, he made a prayer
  62. after the ancient mode, and then he said,
  63. “There is one here who will be king, if you
  64. do not expel him from your city—I
  65. will show him to you surely by a sign;
  66. although I will not tell his name. He wears
  67. horns on his head. The augur prophecies
  68. that, if he enters this your city, he
  69. will give you laws as if you were his slaves.
  70. “He might have forced his way within your gates,
  71. for they stand open, but I have hindered him,
  72. although nobody is to him so close
  73. as I myself. Good Romans, then, forbid
  74. your city to this man; or, if you find
  75. that he deserves still worse, then bind him fast
  76. with heavy fetters; or else end your fears
  77. by knowledge of the destined tyrant's death.”
  78. As murmurs which arise among the groves
  79. of pine trees thick above us, when the fierce
  80. east wind is whistling in them, or as sound
  81. produced by breaking waves, when it is heard
  82. afar off, such the noise made by the crowd.
  83. But in that angry stirring of the throng
  84. one cry could be distinguished, “Which is he?”
  85. And they examined foreheads, and they sought
  86. predicted horns. Cippus then spoke again:
  87. “The man whom you demand,” he said, “is here!”
  88. And, fearless of the people, he threw back
  89. the chaplet from his forehead, so that all
  90. could see his temples plainly, wonderful
  91. for their two horns. All then turned down their eyes
  92. and uttered groans and (was it possible?)
  93. they looked unwillingly upon that head
  94. famed for its merit. They could not permit
  95. him to remain there long, deprived
  96. of honors, and they placed upon his head
  97. the festive chaplet. And the Senate gave
  98. you, Cippus, since you nevermore must come
  99. within the walls, a proof of their esteem—
  100. so much land as your oxen and their plow
  101. could circle round from dawn to setting sun.
  102. Moreover they engraved the shapely horns
  103. on the bronze pillars of the city gate,
  104. which for long ages kept his name revered.
  1. Relate, O Muses, guardian deities
  2. of poets (for you know, and the remote
  3. antiquity conceals it not from you),
  4. the reason why an island, which the deep stream
  5. of Tiber closed about, has introduced
  6. Coronis' child among the deities
  7. guarding the city of famed Romulus.
  8. A dire contagion had infested long
  9. the Latin air, and men's pale bodies were
  10. deformed by a consumption that dried up
  11. the blood. When, frightened by so many deaths,
  12. they found all mortal efforts could avail
  13. them nothing, and physicians' skill had no
  14. effect, they sought the aid of heaven. They sent
  15. envoys to Delphi center of the world,
  16. and they entreated Phoebus to give aid
  17. in their distress, and by response renew
  18. their wasting lives and end a city's woe.
  19. While ground, and laurels and the quivers which
  20. the god hung there all shook, the tripod gave
  21. this answer from the deep recesses hid
  22. within the shrine, and stirred with trembling their
  23. astonished hearts—
  24. “What you are seeking here,
  25. O Romans, you should seek for nearer you.
  26. Then seek it nearer, for you do not need
  27. Apollo to relieve your wasting plague,
  28. you need Apollo's son. Go then to him
  29. with a good omen and invite his aid.”
  30. After the prudent Senate had received
  31. Phoebus Apollo's words, they took much pains
  32. to learn what town the son of Phoebus might
  33. inhabit. They despatched ambassadors
  34. under full sail to the coast of Epidaurus.
  35. When the curved ships had touched the shore, these men
  36. in haste went to the Grecian elders there
  37. and prayed that Rome might have the deity
  38. whose presence would drive out the mortal ill
  39. from their Ausonian nation; for they knew
  40. response unerring had directed them.
  41. The councillors dismayed, could not agree
  42. on their reply: some thought that aid ought not
  43. to be refused, but many more held back,
  44. declaring it was wise to keep the god
  45. for their own safety and not give away
  46. a guardian deity. And, while they talked,
  47. discussing it, the twilight had expelled
  48. the waning day, and darkness on the earth
  49. spread a thick mantle over the wide world.
  50. Then in your sleep, the healing deity
  51. appeared, O Roman leader, by your couch,
  52. as in his temple he is used to stand,
  53. holding in his left hand a rustic staff.
  54. Stroking his long beard with his right, he seemed
  55. to utter from his kindly breast these words:
  56. “Forget your fears; for I will come to you,
  57. and leave my altar. But now look well at
  58. the serpent with its binding folds entwined
  59. around this staff, and accurately mark
  60. it with your eyes that you may recognize it.
  61. I will transform myself into this shape
  62. but of a greater size, I will appear
  63. enlarged and of a magnitude to which
  64. a heavenly being ought to be transformed.”
  65. The god departed, when he said those words;
  66. and sleep went, when the god and words were gone;
  67. and genial light came, when the sleep had left.
  68. The morning then dispersed fire-given stars.
  69. The envoys met together in much doubt
  70. within the temple of the long sought god.
  71. They prayed the god to indicate for them,
  72. by clear celestial tokens, in what spot
  73. he wished to dwell.
  74. Scarce had they ceased the prayer
  75. for guidance, when the god all glittering
  76. with gold and as a serpent, crest erect,
  77. sent forth a hissing as to notify
  78. a quick approach— and in his coming shook
  79. his statue and the altars and the doors,
  80. the marble pavement and the gilded roof.
  81. Then up to his breast the serpent stood erect
  82. within the temple. He gazed on all with eyes
  83. that sparkled fire. The waiting multitude
  84. was frightened; but the priest, his chaste hair bound
  85. with a white fillet, knew the deity.
  86. “Behold the god!” he cried, “It is the god.
  87. Think holy thoughts and walk in reverent silence,
  88. all who are present. Oh, most Beautiful,
  89. let us behold you to our benefit,
  90. and give aid to this people that performs
  91. your sacred rites.”
  1. All present then adored
  2. the deity as bidden by the priest.
  3. The multitude repeated his good words,
  4. and the descendants of Aeneas gave
  5. good omen, with their feelings and their speech.
  6. Nodding well pleased and moving his great crest,
  7. the god at once assured them of his favor
  8. and hissed repeatedly with darting tongue.
  9. And then he glided down the polished steps;
  10. turned back his head; and, ready to depart,
  11. gazed on the altars he had known for so long—
  12. a last salute to the temple of his love.
  13. While all the people strewed his way with flowers,
  14. the great snake wound in sinuous course along
  15. and, passing through the middle of their town,
  16. came to the harbor and its curving wall.
  17. He stopped there, and it seemed that he dismissed
  18. his train and dutiful attendant crowd,
  19. and with a placid countenance he placed
  20. his mighty body in the Ausonian ship,
  21. which plainly showed the great weight of the god.
  22. The glad descendants of Aeneas all
  23. rejoiced, and they sacrificed a bull beside
  24. the harbor, wreathed the ship with flowers, and loosed
  25. the twisted hawsers from the shore. As a soft breeze
  26. impelled the ship, within her curving stern
  27. the god reclined, his coils uprising high,
  28. and gazed down on the blue Ionian waves.
  29. So wafted by the favoring winds, they came
  30. in six days to the shores of Italy.
  31. There he was borne past the Lacinian Cape,
  32. ennobled by the goddess Juno's shrine,
  33. and Scylacean coasts. He left behind
  34. Iapygia; then he shunned Amphrysian rocks
  35. upon the left and on the other side
  36. escaped Cocinthian crags. He passed, near by,
  37. Romechium and Caulon and Naricia;
  38. crossed the Sicilian sea; went through the strait;
  39. sailed by Pelorus and the island home
  40. of Aeolus and by the copper mines
  41. of Temesa. He turned then toward Leucosia
  42. and toward mild Paestum, famous for the rose.
  43. He coasted by Capreae and around
  44. Minerva's promontory and the hills
  45. ennobled with Surrentine vines, from there
  46. to Herculaneum and Stabiae
  47. and then Parthenope built for soft ease.
  48. He sailed near the Cumaean Sibyl's temple.
  49. He passed the Warm Springs and Linternum, where
  50. the mastick trees grow, and the river called
  51. Volturnus, where thick sand whirls in the stream,
  52. over to Sinuessa's snow-white doves;
  53. and then to Antium and its rocky coast.
  54. When with all sails full spread the ship came in
  55. the harbor there (for now the seas grew rough),
  56. the god uncoiled his folds, and, gliding out
  57. with sinuous curves and all his mighty length,
  58. entered the temple of his parent, where
  59. it skirts that yellow shore. But, when the sea
  60. was calm again, the Epidaurian god
  61. departing from his father's shrine, where he
  62. a while had shared the sacred residence
  63. reared to a kindred deity, furrowed
  64. the sandy shore with weight of crackling scales,
  65. again he climbed into the lofty stern
  66. and near the rudder laid his head at rest.
  67. There he remained until the vessel passed
  68. by Castrum and Lavinium's sacred homes
  69. to where the Tiber flows into the sea
  70. there all the people of Rome came rushing out—
  71. mothers and fathers and even those who tend
  72. your sacred fire, O Trojan goddess Vesta—
  73. and joyous shouted welcome to the god.
  74. Wherever the swift ship steered through the tide,
  75. they built up many altars in a line,
  76. so that perfuming frankincense with smoke
  77. crackled along the banks on either hand,
  78. and victims made the keen knives hot with blood.
  79. The serpent-deity has entered Rome,
  80. the world's new capital and, lifting up
  81. his head above the summit of the mast,
  82. looked far and near for a congenial home.
  83. The river there, dividing, flows about
  84. a place known as the Island, on both sides
  85. an equal stream glides past dry middle ground.
  86. And here the serpent child of Phoebus left
  87. the Roman ship, took his own heavenly form,
  88. and brought the mourning city health once more
  1. Apollo's son came to us from abroad,
  2. but Caesar is a god in his own land.
  3. The first in war and peace, he rose by wars,
  4. which closed in triumphs, and by civic deeds
  5. to glory quickly won, and even more
  6. his offspring's love exalted him as a new,
  7. a heavenly, sign and brightly flaming star.
  8. Of all the achievements of great Julius Caesar
  9. not one is more ennobling to his fame
  10. than being father of his glorious son.
  11. Was it more glorious for him to subdue
  12. the Britons guarded by their sheltering sea
  13. or lead his fleet victorious up the stream
  14. seven mouthed of the papyrus hearing Nile;
  15. to bring beneath the Roman people s rule
  16. rebel Numidia, Libyan Juba, and
  17. strong Pontus, proud of Mithridates' fame;
  18. to have some triumphs and deserve far more;
  19. than to be father of so great a man,
  20. with whom as ruler of the human race,
  21. O gods, you bless us past all reckoning?
  22. And, lest that son should come from mortal seed,
  23. Julius Caesar must change and be a god.
  24. When the golden mother of Aeneas was
  25. aware of this and saw a grievous end
  26. plotted against her high priest, saw the armed
  27. conspiracy preparing for his death,
  28. with pallid face she met each god and said:
  29. “Look with what might this plot prepares itself
  30. against my cause; with how much guile it dooms
  31. the head which is the last that I have left
  32. from old-time Iulus, prince and heir of Troy.
  33. Shall I alone be harassed through all time
  34. by fear well grounded? First the son of Tydeus
  35. must wound me with his Calydonian spear;
  36. and then I tremble at the tottering walls
  37. of ill defended Troy; I watch my son
  38. driven in long wanderings, tossed upon the sea,
  39. descending to the realm of silent shades,
  40. and waging war with Turnus—or, if I should speak
  41. the truth, with Juno! Why do I recall
  42. disasters of my race from long ago?
  43. The present dread forbids my looking back
  44. at ills now past. See how the wicked swords
  45. are whetted for the crime! Forbid it now,
  46. I pray you, and prevent the deed,
  47. let not the priest's warm blood quench vestal fires!”
  48. Such words as these, full of her anxious thoughts,
  49. Venus proclaimed through all the heavens, in vain.
  50. The gods were moved, and, since they could not break
  51. the ancient sisters' iron decree, they gave
  52. instead clear portents of approaching woe.
  53. It is declared, resounding arms heard from
  54. the black clouds and unearthly trumpet blasts
  55. and clarions heard through all the highest heavens,
  56. forewarned men of the crime. The sad sun's face
  57. gave to the frightened world a livid light;
  58. and in the night-time torches seemed to burn
  59. amid the stars, and often drops of blood
  60. fell in rain-showers. Then Lucifer shone blue
  61. with all his visage stained by darksome rust.
  62. The chariot of the moon was sprinkled with
  63. red blood. The Stygian owl gave to the world
  64. ill omens. In a thousand places, tears
  65. were shed by the ivory statues. Dirges, too,
  66. are said to have been heard, and threatening words
  67. by unknown speakers in the sacred groves.
  68. No victim gave an omen of good life:
  69. the fibers showed great tumults imminent,
  70. the liver's cut-off edge was found among
  71. the entrails. In the Forum, it is said,
  72. and round men's homes and temples of the gods
  73. dogs howled all through the night, and silent shades
  74. wandered abroad, and earthquakes shook the city.
  75. But portents of the gods could not avert
  76. the plots of men and stay approaching fate.
  77. Into a temple naked swords were brought—
  78. into the Senate House. No other place
  79. in all our city was considered fit
  80. for perpetrating such a dreadful crime!
  81. With both hands Cytherea beat her breast,
  82. and in a cloud she strove to hide the last
  83. of great Aeneas' line, as in times past
  84. she had hid Paris from fierce Menelaus
  85. Aeneas from the blade of Diomed.
  86. But Jove, her father, cautioned her and said,
  87. “Do you my daughter, without aid, alone,
  88. attempt to change the fixed decrees of Fate?
  89. Unaided you may enter the abode
  90. of the three sisters and can witness there
  91. a register of deeds the future brings.
  92. These, wrought of brass and solid iron with
  93. vast labor, are unchangeable through all
  94. eternity; and have no weakening fears
  95. of thunder-shocks from heaven, nor from the rage
  96. of lightnings they are perfectly secure
  97. from all destruction. You will surely find
  98. the destinies of your descendants there,
  99. engraved in everlasting adamant.
  100. 'Tis certain. I myself, have read them there:
  101. and I, with care have marked them in my mind.
  102. I will repeat them so that you may have
  103. unerring knowledge of those future days.
  104. “Venus, the man on whose behalf you are
  105. so anxious, already has completed his
  106. alloted time. The years are ended which
  107. he owed to life on earth. You with his son,
  108. who now as heir to his estate must bear
  109. the burden of that government, will cause
  110. him, as a deity, to reach the heavens,
  111. and to be worshipped in the temples here.
  112. “The valiant son will plan revenge on those
  113. who killed his father and will have our aid
  114. in all his battles. The defeated walls
  115. of scarred Mutina, which he will besiege,
  116. shall sue for peace. Pharsalia's plain will dread
  117. his power and Macedonian Philippi
  118. be drenched with blood a second time, the name
  119. of one acclaimed as ‘Great’ shall be subdued
  120. in the Sicilian waves. Then Egypt's queen,
  121. wife of the Roman general, Antony,
  122. shall fall, while vainly trusting in his word,
  123. while vainly threatening that our Capitol
  124. must be submissive to Canopus' power.
  125. “Why should I mention all the barbarous lands
  126. and nations east and west by ocean's rim?
  127. Whatever habitable earth contains
  128. shall bow to him, the sea shall serve his will!
  129. “With peace established over all the lands,
  130. he then will turn his mind to civil rule
  131. and as a prudent legislator will
  132. enact wise laws. And he will regulate
  133. the manners of his people by his own
  134. example. Looking forward to the days
  135. of future time and of posterity,
  136. he will command the offspring born of his
  137. devoted wife, to assume the imperial name
  138. and the burden of his cares. Nor till his age
  139. shall equal Nestor's years will he ascend
  140. to heavenly dwellings and his kindred stars.
  141. Meanwhile transform the soul, which shall be reft
  142. from this doomed body, to a starry light,
  143. that always god-like Julius may look down
  144. in future from his heavenly residence
  145. upon our Forum and our Capitol.”
  146. Jupiter hardly had pronounced these words,
  147. when kindly Venus, although seen by none,
  148. stood in the middle of the Senate-house,
  149. and caught from the dying limbs and trunk
  150. of her own Caesar his departing soul.
  151. She did not give it time so that it could
  152. dissolve in air, but bore it quickly up,
  153. toward all the stars of heaven; and on the way,
  154. she saw it gleam and blaze and set it free.
  155. Above the moon it mounted into heaven,
  156. leaving behind a long and fiery trail,
  157. and as a star it glittered in the sky.
  158. There, wondering at the younger Caesar's deeds,
  159. Julius confessed they were superior
  160. to all of his, and he rejoiced because
  161. his son was greater even than himself.
  162. Although the son forbade men to regard
  163. his own deeds as the: mightier! Fame, that moves
  164. free and untrammelled by the laws of men,
  165. preferred him even against his own desire
  166. and in that one point disobeyed his will.
  167. And so great Atreus yields to greater fame
  168. of Agamemnon, Aegeus yields to Theseus,
  169. and Peleus to Achilles, or, to name
  170. a parallel befitting these two gods,
  171. so Saturn yields to Jove. Now Jupiter
  172. rules in high heavens and is the suzerain
  173. over the waters and the world of shades,
  174. and now Augustus rules in all the lands—
  175. so each is both a father and a god.
  176. Gods who once guarded our Aeneas, when
  177. both swords and fire gave way, and native gods
  178. of Italy, and Father Quirinus—
  179. patron of Rome, and you Gradivus too—
  180. the sire of Quirinus the invincible,
  181. and Vesta hallowed among Caesar's gods,
  182. and Phoebus ever worshipped at his hearth,
  183. and Jupiter who rules the citadel
  184. high on Tarpeia's cliff, and other gods—
  185. all gods to whom a poet rightfully
  186. and with all piety may make appeal;
  187. far be that day—postponed beyond our time,
  188. when great Augustus shall foresake the earth
  189. which he now governs, and mount up to heaven,
  190. from that far height to hear his people's prayers!
  191. And now, I have completed a great work,
  192. which not Jove's anger, and not fire nor steel,
  193. nor fast-consuming time can sweep away.
  194. Whenever it will, let the day come, which has
  195. dominion only over this mortal frame,
  196. and end for me the uncertain course of life.
  197. Yet in my better part I shall be borne
  198. immortal, far above the stars on high,
  199. and mine shall be a name indelible.
  200. Wherever Roman power extends her sway
  201. over the conquered lands, I shall be read
  202. by lips of men. If Poets' prophecies
  203. have any truth, through all the coming years
  204. of future ages, I shall live in fame.