“The brilliant Sun had {now} hidden his shining head in the ocean, and

darkest Night had put forth her starry face, {when} the same God seemed

to be present, and to give the same commands, and to utter threats, more

numerous and more severe, if he does not obey. He was alarmed; and {now}

he was also preparing to transfer his country’s home to a new

settlement, {when} a rumour arose in the city, and he was accused of

holding the laws in contempt. And, when the accusation had first been

made, and his crime was evident, proved without a witness, the accused,

in neglected garb, raising his face and his hands towards the Gods

above, says, ‘Oh thou! for whom the twice six labours have created the

privilege of the heavens, aid me, I pray; for thou wast the cause of my

offence.’ It was the ancient custom, by means of white and black

pebbles, with the one to condemn the accused, with the other to acquit

them of the charge; and on this occasion thus was the sad sentence

passed, and every black pebble was cast into the ruthless urn. Soon as

it, being inverted, poured forth the pebbles to be counted, the colour

of them all was changed from black to white, and the sentence, changed

to a favourable one by the aid of Hercules, acquitted the son of Alemon.

“He gives thanks to the parent, the son of Amphitryon,[3] and with

favouring gales sails over the Ionian sea, and passes by the

Lacedæmonian Tarentum,[4] and Sybaris, and the Salentine Neæthus,[5] and

the bay of Thurium,[6] and Temesa, and the fields of Iapyx;[7] and

having with difficulty coasted along the spots which skirt these shores,

he finds the destined mouth of the river Æsar; and, not far thence,

a mound, beneath which the ground was covering the sacred bones of

Croton. And there, on the appointed land, did he found his walls, and he

transferred the name of him that was {there} entombed to his city. By

established tradition, it was known that such was the original of that

place, and of the city built on the Italian coasts.”

[Footnote 1: _Lacinian shores._--Ver. 13. Lacinium was a

promontory of Italy, not far from Crotona.]

[Footnote 2: _Distant Æsar._--Ver. 23. The Æsar was a little

stream of Calabria, which flowed into the sea, near the city of

Crotona.]

[Footnote 3: _Son of Amphitryon._--Ver. 49. Hercules was the

putative son of Amphitryon, king of Thebes, who was the husband of

his mother Alcmena.]

[Footnote 4: _Tarentum._--Ver. 50. Tarentum was a famous city of

Calabria, said to have been founded by Taras, the son of Neptune.

It was afterwards enlarged by Phalanthus, a Lacedæmonian, whence

its present epithet.]

[Footnote 5: _Neæthus._--Ver. 51. This was a river of the

Salentine territory, near Crotona.]

[Footnote 6: _Thurium._--Ver. 52. Thurium was a city of Calabria,

which received its name from a fountain in its vicinity. It was

also called Thuria and Thurion.]

[Footnote 7: _Fields of Iapyx._--Ver. 52. Iapygia was a name which

Calabria received from Iapyx, the son of Dædalus. There was also a

city of Calabria, named Iapygia, and a promontory, called

Iapygium.]

EXPLANATION.

To the story here told of Micylus, or Myscelus, as most of the

ancient writers call him, another one was superadded. Suidas, on the

authority of the Scholiast of Aristophanes, says that Myscelus,

having consulted the oracle, concerning the colony which he was

about to lead into a foreign country, was told that he must settle

at the place where he should meet with rain in a clear sky, ἐξ

αἰθρίας. His faith surmounting the apparent impossibility of having

both fair and foul weather at the same moment, he obeyed the oracle,

and put to sea; and, after experiencing many dangers, he landed in

Italy. Being full of uncertainty where to fix his colony, he was

reduced to great distress; on which his wife, whose name was

Aithrias, with the view of comforting him, embraced him, and bedewed

his face with her tears. He immediately adopted the presage, and

understood the spot where he then was to be the site of his intended

city.

Strabo says that Myscelus, who was so called from the smallness of

his legs, designing to found a colony in a foreign land, arrived on

the coast of Italy. Observing that the spot which the oracle had

pointed out enjoyed a healthy climate, though the soil was not so

fertile as in the adjacent plains, he went once more to consult the

oracle; but was answered that he must not refuse what was offered

him; an answer which was afterwards turned into a proverb. On this,

he founded the city of Crotona, and another colony founded the city

of Sybaris on the spot which he had preferred; a place which

afterwards became infamous for its voluptuousness and profligacy.

FABLES II. AND III. [XV.60-478]

Pythagoras comes to the city of Crotona, and teaches the principles

of his philosophy. His reputation draws Numa Pompilius to hear his

discourses; on which he expounds his principles, and, more

especially, enlarges on the transmigration of the soul, and the

practice of eating animal food.

There was a man, a Samian by birth; but he had fled from both Samos and

its rulers,[8] and, through hatred of tyranny, he was a voluntary exile.

He too, mentally, held converse with the Gods, although far distant in

the region of the heavens; and what nature refused to human vision, he

viewed with the eyes of his mind. And when he had examined all things

with his mind, and with watchful study, he gave them to be learned by

the public; and he sought the crowds of people {as they sat} in silence,

and wondered at the revealed origin of the vast universe, and the cause

of things, and what nature {meant}, and what was God; whence {came} the

snow, what was the cause of lightning; {whether it was} Jupiter, or

whether the winds that thundered when the cloud was rent asunder; what

it was that shook the earth; by what laws the stars took their course;

and whatever {besides} lay concealed {from mortals}.

He, too, was the first to forbid animals to be served up at table, and

he was the first that opened his lips, learned indeed, but still not

obtaining credit, in such words as these: “Forbear, mortals, to pollute

your bodies with {such} abominable food. There is the corn; there are

the apples that bear down the branches by their weight, and {there are}

the grapes swelling upon the vines; there are the herbs that are

pleasant; there are some that can become tender, and be softened by {the

action of} fire. The flowing milk, too, is not denied you, nor honey

redolent of the bloom of the thyme. The lavish Earth yields her riches,

and her agreable food, and affords dainties without slaughter and

bloodshed. The beasts satisfy their hunger with flesh; and yet not all

of them; for the horse, and the sheep, and the herds subsist on grass.

But those whose disposition is cruel and fierce, the Armenian tigers,

and the raging lions, and the bears together with the wolves, revel in

their diet with blood. Alas! what a crime is it, for entrails to be

buried in entrails, and for one ravening body to grow fat on {other}

carcases crammed {into} it; and for one living creature to exist through

the death of another living creature! And does, forsooth! amid so great

an abundance, which the earth, that best of mothers, produces, nothing

delight you but to gnaw with savage teeth the sad {produce of your}

wounds, and to revive the habits of the Cyclops? And can you not appease

the hunger of a voracious and ill-regulated stomach unless you first

destroy another? But that age of old, to which we have given the name of

‘Golden,’ was blest in the produce of the trees, and in the herbs which

the earth produces, and it did not pollute the mouth with blood.

“Then, both did the birds move their wings in safety in the air, and the

hare without fear wander in the midst of the fields; then its own

credulity had not suspended the fish from the hook; every place was

without treachery, and in dread of no injury, and was full of peace.

Afterwards, {some one}, no good adviser[9] (whoever among mortals he

might have been), envied this simple food, and engulphed in his greedy

paunch victuals made from a carcase; ’twas he that opened the path to

wickedness; and I can believe that the steel, {since} stained with

blood, first grew warm from the slaughter of wild beasts. And that had

been sufficient. I confess that the bodies {of animals} that seek our

destruction are put to death with no breach of the sacred laws; but,

although they might be put to death, yet they were not to be eaten as

well. Then this wickedness proceeded still further; and the swine is

believed to have deserved death as the first victim, because it grubbed

up the seeds with its turned-up snout, and cut short the hopes of the

year. Having gnawed the vine, the goat was led[10] for slaughter to the

altars of the avenging Bacchus. Their own faults were the ruin of the

two. But why have you deserved this, ye sheep? a harmless breed, and

born for the service of man; who carry the nectar in your full udders;

who afford your wool as soft coverings for us, and who assist us more by

your life than by your death. Why have the oxen deserved this, an animal

without guile and deceit, innocent, harmless, born to endure labour? In

fact, the man is ungrateful, and not worthy of the gifts of the harvest,

who could, just after taking off the weight of the curving plough,

slaughter the tiller of his fields; who could strike, with the axe, that

neck worn bare with labour, through which he had so oft turned up the

hard ground, {and} had afforded so many a harvest.

“And it is not enough for such wickedness to be committed; they have

imputed to the Gods themselves this abomination; and they believe that a

Deity in the heavens can rejoice in the slaughter of the laborious ox.

A victim free from a blemish, and most beauteous in form (for ’tis being

sightly that brings destruction), adorned with garlands and gold, is

placed upon the altars, and, in its ignorance, it hears one praying, and

sees the corn, which it has helped to produce, placed on its forehead

between its horns; and, felled, it stains with its blood the knives

perhaps before seen by it in the limpid water. Immediately, they examine

the entrails snatched from its throbbing breast, and in them they seek

out the intentions of the Deities. Whence comes it that men have so

great a hankering for forbidden food? Do you presume to feed {on flesh},

O race of mortals? Do it not, I beseech you; and give attention to my

exhortations. And when you shall be presenting the limbs of slaughtered

oxen to your palates, know and consider that you are devouring your

{tillers of the ground}. And since a God impels me to speak, I will duly

obey the God that {so} prompts me to speak; and I will pronounce my own

Delphic {warnings}, and disclose the heavens themselves; and I will

reveal the oracles of the Divine will. I will sing of wondrous things,

never investigated by the intellects of the ancients, and {things} which

have long lain concealed. It delights me to range among the lofty stars;

it delights me, having left the earth and this sluggish spot {far

behind}, to be borne amid the clouds, and to be supported on the

shoulders of the mighty Atlas; and to look down from afar on minds

wandering {in uncertainty}, and devoid of reason; and so to advise them

alarmed and dreading extinction, and to unfold the range of things

ordained by fate.

“O race! stricken by the alarms of icy death, why do you dread Styx? why

the shades, why empty names, the stock subjects of the poets, and the

atonements of an imaginary world? Whether the funeral pile consumes your

bodies with flames, or old age with gradual dissolution, believe that

they cannot suffer any injury. Souls are not subject to death; and

having left their former abode, they ever inhabit new dwellings, and,

{there} received, live on.

“I, myself, for I remember it, in the days of the Trojan war, was

Euphorbus,[11] the son of Panthoüs, in whose opposing breast once was

planted the heavy spear of the younger son of Atreus. I lately

recognised the shield, {once} the burden of my left arm, in the temple

of Juno, at Argos, the realm of Abas. All things are {ever} changing;

nothing perishes. The soul wanders about and comes from that spot to

this, from this to that, and takes possession of any limbs whatever; it

both passes from the beasts to human bodies, and {so does} our {soul}

into the beasts; and in no {lapse} of time does it perish. And as the

pliable wax is moulded into new forms, and no {longer} abides as it was

{before}, nor preserves the same shape, but yet is still the same {wax},

so I tell you that the soul is ever the same, but passes into different

forms. Therefore, that natural affection may not be vanquished by the

craving of the appetite, cease, I warn you, to expel the souls of your

kindred {from their bodies} by this dreadful slaughter; and let not

blood be nourished with blood.

“And, since I am {now} borne over the wide ocean, and I have given my

full sails to the winds, there is nothing in all the world that

continues in the same state. All things are flowing {onward},[12] and

every shape is assumed in a fleeting course. Even time itself glides on

with a constant progress, no otherwise than a river. For neither can the

river, nor the fleeting hour stop in its course; but, as wave is

impelled by wave, and the one before is pressed on by that which

follows, and {itself} presses on that before it; so do the moments

similarly fly on, and similarly do they follow, and they are ever

renewed. For the moment which was before, is past; and that which was

not, {now} exists; and every minute is replaced. You see, too, the night

emerge and proceed onward to the dawn, and this brilliant light of the

day succeed the dark night. Nor is there the same appearance in the

heavens, when all things in their weariness lie in the midst of repose,

and when Lucifer is coming forth on his white steed; and, again, there

is another appearance, when {Aurora}, the daughter of Pallas, preceding

the day, tints the world about to be delivered to Phœbus. The disk

itself of {that} God, when it is rising from beneath the earth, is of

ruddy colour in the morning, and when it is hiding beneath the earth it

is of a ruddy colour. At its height it is of brilliant whiteness,

because there the nature of the æther is purer, and far away, he avoids

{all} infection from the earth. Nor can there ever be the same or a

similar appearance of the nocturnal Diana; and always that of the

present day is less than on the morrow, if she is on the increase; {but}

greater if she is contracting her orb.

“And further. Do you not see the year, affording a resemblance of our

life, assume four {different} appearances? for, in early Spring, it is

mild, and {like} a nursling, and greatly resembling the age of youth.

Then, the blade is shooting, and void of strength, it swells, and is

flaccid, and delights the husbandman in his expectations. Then, all

things are in blossom, and the genial meadow smiles with the tints of

its flowers; and not as yet is there any vigour in the leaves. The year

{now} waxing stronger, after the Spring, passes into the Summer; and in

its youth it becomes robust. And indeed no season is there more

vigorous, or more fruitful, or which glows with greater warmth. Autumn

follows, the ardour of youth {now} removed, ripe, and placed between

youth and old age, moderate in his temperature, with a {few} white hairs

sprinkled over his temples. Then comes aged Winter, repulsive with his

tremulous steps, either stript of his locks, or white with those which

he has.

“Our own bodies too are changing always and without any intermission,

and to-morrow we shall not be what we were or what we {now} are. The

time was, when only as embryos, and the earliest hope of human beings,

we lived in the womb of the mother. Nature applied her skilful hands,

and willed not that our bodies should be tortured {by} being shut up

within the entrails of the distended parent, and brought us forth from

our dwelling into the vacant air. Brought to light, the infant lies

without {any} strength; soon, {like} a quadruped, it uses its limbs

after the manner of the brutes; and by degrees it stands upright,

shaking, and with knees still unsteady, the sinews being supported by

some assistance. Then he becomes strong and swift, and passes over the

hours of youth; and the years of middle age, too, now past, he glides

adown the steep path of declining age. This undermines and destroys the

robustness of former years; and Milo,[13] {now} grown old, weeps when he

sees the arms, which equalled those of Hercules in the massiveness of

the solid muscles, hang weak and exhausted. The daughter of Tyndarus

weeps, too, as she beholds in her mirror the wrinkles of old age, and

enquires of herself why it is that she was twice ravished. Thou, Time,

the consumer of {all} things, and thou, hateful Old Age, {together}

destroy all things; and, by degrees ye consume each thing, decayed by

the teeth of age, with a slow death.

“These things too, which we call elements, are not of unchanging

duration; pay attention, and I will teach you what changes they undergo.

“The everlasting universe contains four elementary bodies. Two of these,

{namely}, earth and water, are heavy, and are borne downwards by their

weight; and as many are devoid of weight, and air, and fire still purer

than air, nothing pressing them, seek the higher regions. Although these

are separated in space, yet all things are made from them, and are

resolved into them. Both the earth dissolving distils into flowing

water; the water, too, evaporating, departs in the breezes and the air;

its weight being removed again, the most subtle air shoots upwards into

the fires {of the æther} on high. Thence do they return back again, and

the same order is unravelled; for fire becoming gross, passes into dense

air; this {changes} into water, and earth is formed of the water made

dense. Nor does its own form remain to each; and nature, the renewer of

{all} things, re-forms one shape from another. And, believe me, in this

universe so vast, nothing perishes; but it varies and changes its

appearance; and to begin to be something different from what it was

before, is called being born; and to cease to be the same thing, {is to

be said} to die. Whereas, perhaps, those things are transferred hither,

and these things thither; yet, in the whole, all things {ever} exist.

“For my part, I cannot believe that anything lasts long under the same

form. ’Twas thus, ye ages, that ye came down to the iron from the gold;

’tis thus, that thou hast so often changed the lot of {various} places.

I have beheld that {as} sea, which once had been the most solid earth.

I have seen land made from the sea; and far away from the ocean the

sea-shells lay, and old anchors were found {there} on the tops of the

mountains. That which was a plain, a current of water has made into a

valley, and by a flood the mountain has been levelled into a plain; the

ground that was swampy is parched with dry sand; and places which have

endured drought, are wet with standing pools. Here nature has opened

fresh springs, but there she has shut them up; and rivers have burst

forth, aroused by ancient earthquakes; or, vanishing, they have

subsided.

“Thus, after the Lycus[14] has been swallowed up by a chasm in the

earth, it burst forth far thence, and springs up afresh at another

mouth. Thus the great Erasinus[15] is at one time swallowed up, and then

flowing with its stream concealed, is cast up again on the Argive

plains. They say, too, that the Mysus, tired of its spring and of its

former banks, now flows in another direction, {as} the Caicus. The

Amenanus,[16] too, at one time flows, rolling along the Sicilian sands,

{and} at another is dry, its springs being stopped up. Formerly, {the

water of} the Anigros[17] was used for drinking; it now pours out water

which you would decline to touch; since, (unless all credit must be

denied to the poets), the {Centaurs}, the double-limbed mortals, there

washed the wounds which the bow of the club-bearing Hercules had made.

And what besides? Does not the Hypanis[18] too, which before was sweet,

rising from the Scythian mountains, become impregnated with bitter

salts? Antissa,[19] Pharos,[20] and Phœnician Tyre,[21] were once

surrounded by waves; no one of these is now an island. The ancient

inhabitants had Leucas[22] annexed to the continent; now the sea

surrounds it. Zancle,[23] too, is said to have been united to Italy,

until the sea cut off the neighbouring region, and repelled the land

with its waves {flowing} between.

“Should you seek Helice and Buris,[24] cities of Achaia, you will find

them beneath the waves, and the sailors are still wont to point out

{these} levelled towns, with their walls buried under water.

“There is a high hill near Trœzen of Pittheus, without any trees, once a

very level surface of a plain, {but} now a hill; for (frightful to tell)

the raging power[25] of the winds, pent up in dark caverns, desiring to

find some vent and having long struggled in vain to enjoy a freer air,

as there was no opening in all their prison and it was not pervious to

their blasts, swelled out the extended earth, just as the breath of the

mouth is wont to inflate a bladder, or the hide[26] stripped from the

two-horned goat. That swelling remained on the spot, and {still}

preserves the appearance of a high hill, and has grown hard in length of

time. Though many other {instances} may occur, either heard of by, or

known to, yourselves, {yet} I will mention a few more. And besides, does

not water, as well, both produce and receive new forms? In the middle of

the day, thy waters, horned Ammon,[27] are frozen, at the rising and at

the setting {of the sun} they are warm. On applying its waters,

Athamanis[28] is said to kindle wood when the waning moon has shrunk

into her smallest orb. The Ciconians have a river,[29] which when drunk

of, turns the entrails into stone, and lays {a covering of} marble on

things that are touched by it. The Crathis[30] and the Sybaris adjacent

to it, in our own country, make the hair similar {in hue} to amber and

gold.

“And, what is still more wonderful, there are some streams which are

able to change, not only bodies, but even the mind. By whom has not

Salmacis,[31] with its obscene waters, been heard of? {Who has not

heard}, too, of that lake of Æthiopia,[32] of which, if any body drinks

with his mouth, he either becomes mad, or falls into a sleep wondrous

for its heaviness? Whoever quenches his thirst from the Clitorian

spring[33] hates wine, and in his sobriety takes pleasure in pure water.

Whether it is that there is a virtue in the water, the opposite of

heating wine, or whether, as the natives tell us, after the son of

Amithaon,[34] by his charms and his herbs, had delivered the raving

daughters of Prœtus from the Furies, he threw the medicines for the mind

in that stream; and a hatred of wine remained in those waters.

“The river Lyncestis[35] flows unlike that {stream} in its effect; for

as soon as any one has drunk of it with immoderate throat, he reels,

just as if he had been drinking unmixed wine. There is a place in

Arcadia, (the ancients called it Pheneos,)[36] suspicious for the

twofold nature of its water. Stand in dread of it at night; if drunk of

in the night time, it is injurious; in the daytime, it is drunk of

without any ill effects. So lakes and rivers have, some, one property,

and some another. There was a time when Ortygia[37] was floating on the

waves, now it is fixed. The Argo dreaded the Symplegades tossed by the

assaults of the waves dashing against them; they now stand immoveable,

and resist {the attacks of} the winds.

“Nor will Ætna, which burns with its sulphureous furnaces, always be a

fiery {mountain}; nor yet was it always fiery. For, if the earth is an

animal, and is alive, and has lungs that breathe forth flames in many a

place, it may change the passages for its breathing, and oft as it is

moved, may close these caverns {and} open others; or if the light winds

are shut up in its lowermost caverns, and strike rocks against rocks,

and matter that contains the elements of flame, {and} it takes fire at

the concussion, the winds {once} calmed, the caverns will become cool;

or, if the bituminous qualities take fire, or yellow sulphur is being

dried up with a smouldering smoke, still, when the earth shall no longer

give food and unctuous fuel to the flame, its energies being exhausted

in length of time, and when nutriment shall be wanting to its devouring

nature, it will not {be able to} endure hunger, and left destitute, it

will desert its flames.

“The story is, that in the far Northern Pallene[38] there are persons,

who are wont to have their bodies covered with light feathers, when they

have nine times entered the Tritonian lake. For my part I do not believe

it; {but} the Scythian women, as well, having their limbs sprinkled with

poison, are said to employ the same arts. But if we are to give any

credit[39] to things proved {by experience}, do you not see that

whatever bodies are consumed by length of time, or by dissolving heat,

are changed into small animals? Come too, bury some choice bullocks

{just} slain, it is a thing well ascertained by experience, {that}

flower-gathering bees are produced promiscuously from the putrefying

entrails. These, after the manner of their producers, inhabit the

fields, delight in toil, and labour in hope. The warlike steed,[40]

buried in the ground, is the source of the hornet. If you take off the

bending claws from the crab of the sea-shore, {and} bury the rest in the

earth, a scorpion will come forth from the part {so} buried, and will

threaten with its crooked tail.

“The silkworms, too, that are wont to cover the leaves with their white

threads, a thing observable by husbandmen, change their forms into that

of the deadly moth.[41] Mud contains seed that generate green frogs; and

it produces them deprived of feet;[42] soon it gives them legs adapted

for swimming; and that the same may be fitted for long leaps, the length

of the hinder ones exceeds {that of} the fore legs. And it is not a

cub[43] which the bear produces at the moment of birth, but a mass of

flesh hardly alive. By licking, the mother forms it into limbs, and

brings it into a shape, such as she herself has. Do you not see, that

the offspring of the honey bees, which the hexagonal cell conceals, are

produced without limbs, and that they assume both feet and wings {only}

after a time. Unless he knew it was the case, could any one suppose it

possible that the bird of Juno, which carries stars on its tail, and the

{eagle}, the armour-bearer of Jove, and the doves of Cytherea, and all

the race of birds, are produced from the middle portion of an egg? There

are some who believe that human marrow changes into a serpent,[44] when

the spine has putrefied in the enclosed sepulchre.

“But these {which I have named} derive their origin from other

particulars; there is one bird which renews and reproduces itself. The

Assyrians call it the Phœnix. It lives not on corn or grass, but on

drops of frankincense, and the juices of the amomum. This {bird}, when

it has completed the five ages of its life, with its talons and its

crooked beak constructs for itself a nest in the branches of a holm-oak,

or on the top of a quivering palm. As soon as it has strewed in this

cassia and ears of sweet spikenard and bruised cinnamon with yellow

myrrh, it lays itself down on it, and finishes its life in the midst of

odours. They say that thence, from the body of its parent, is reproduced

a little Phœnix, which is destined to live as many years. When time has

given it strength, and it is able to bear the weight, it lightens the

branches of the lofty tree of the burden of the nest, and dutifully

carries both its own cradle and the sepulchre of its parent; and, having

reached the city of Hyperion through the yielding air, it lays it down

before the sacred doors in the temple of Hyperion.

“And if there is any wondrous novelty in these things, {still more} may

we be surprised that the hyæna changes its sex,[45] and that the one

which has just now, as a female, submitted to the embrace of the male,

is now become a male itself. That animal, too, which feeds upon[46] the

winds and the air, immediately assumes, from its contact, any colour

whatever. Conquered India presented her lynxes to Bacchus crowned with

clusters; {and}, as they tell, whatever the bladder of these discharges

is changed into stone,[47] and hardens by contact with the air. So

coral, too, as soon as it has come up to the air becomes hard; beneath

the waves it was a soft plant.[48] “The day will fail me, and Phœbus

will bathe his panting steeds in the deep sea, before I can embrace in

my discourse all things that are changed into new forms. So in lapse of

time, we see nations change, and these gaining strength, {while} those

are falling. So Troy was great, both in her riches and her men, and for

ten years could afford so much blood; {whereas}, now laid low, she only

shows her ancient ruins, and, instead of her wealth, {she points at} the

tombs of her ancestors. Sparta was famed;[49] great Mycenæ flourished;

so, too, the citadel of Cecrops, and that of Amphion. {Now} Sparta is a

contemptible spot; lofty Mycenæ is laid low. What now is Thebes, the

city of Œdipus, but a {mere} story? What remains of Athens, the city of

Pandion, but its name?

“Now, too, there is a report that Dardanian Rome is rising; which, close

to the waters of Tiber that rises in the Apennines, is laying the

foundations of her greatness beneath a vast structure. She then, in her

growth, is changing her form, and will one day be the mistress of the

boundless earth. So they say that the soothsayers, and the oracles,

revealers of destiny, declare; and, so far as I recollect, Helenus, the

son of Priam, said to Æneas, as he was lamenting, and in doubt as to his

safety, when {now} the Trojan state was sinking, ‘Son of a Goddess, if

thou dost thyself well understand the presentiment of my mind, Troy

shall not, thou being preserved, entirely fall. The flames and the sword

shall afford thee a passage. Thou shalt go, and, together with thee,

thou shalt bear ruined Pergamus; until a foreign soil, more friendly

than thy native land, shall be the lot of Troy and thyself. Even now do

I see that our Phrygian posterity are destined {to build} a city, so

great as neither now exists, nor will exist, nor has been seen in former

times. Through a long lapse of ages, other distinguished men shall make

it powerful, but one born[50] of the blood of Iülus shall make it the

mistress of the world. After the earth shall have enjoyed his presence,

the æthereal abodes shall gain him, and heaven shall be his

destination.’ Remembering it, I call to mind that Helenus prophesied

this to Æneas, who bore the Penates {from Troy}; and I rejoice that my

kindred walls are rising apace, and that to such good purpose for the

Phrygians the Pelasgians conquered.

“But that we may not range afar with steeds that forget to hasten to the

goal; the heavens, and whatever there is beneath them, and the earth,

and whatever is upon it, change their form. We too, {who are} a portion

of the universe, (since we are not only bodies, but are fleeting souls

as well, and can enter into beasts {as our} abode, and be hidden within

the breasts of the cattle), should allow those bodies which may contain

the souls of our parents, or of our brothers, or of those allied with us

by some tie, or of men at all events, to be safe and unmolested; and we

ought not to fill[51] our entrails with victuals fit for Thyestes. How

greatly he disgraces himself, how in his impiety does he prepare himself

for shedding human blood, who cuts the throat of the calf with the

knife, and gives a deaf ear to its lowings! or who can kill the kid as

it sends forth cries like those of a child; or who can feed upon the

bird to which he himself has given food. How much is there wanting in

these instances for downright criminality? A {short} step {only} is

there thence {to it}!

“Let the bull plough, or let it owe its death to aged years; let the

sheep furnish us a defence against the shivering Boreas; let the

well-fed she-goats afford their udders to be pressed by the hand. Away

with your nets, and your springes and snares and treacherous

contrivances; deceive not the bird with the bird-limed twig; deceive not

the deer with the dreaded feather foils;[52] and do not conceal the

barbed hooks in the deceitful bait. If any thing is noxious, destroy it,

but even then only destroy it. Let your appetites abstain from it for

food, and let them consume {a more} befitting sustenance.”

[Footnote 8: _And its rulers._--Ver. 61. Pythagoras is said to

have fled from the tyranny of Polycrates, the king of Samos.]

[Footnote 9: _No good adviser._--Ver. 103. Clarke translates ‘Non

utilis auctor,’ ‘Some good-for-nothing introducer.’]

[Footnote 10: _The goat is led._--Ver 114. See the Fasti, Book I.

l. 361.]

[Footnote 11: _Was Euphorbus._--Ver. 161. Diogenes Laërtius, in

the life of Pythagoras, says that Pythagoras affirmed, that he

was, first, Æthalides; secondly, Euphorbus, which he proved by

recognizing his shield hung up among the spoil in the temple of

Juno, at Argos; next, Hermotimus; then, Pyrrhus and fifthly,

Pythagoras.]

[Footnote 12: _Flowing onward._--Ver. 178. ‘Cuncta fluunt’ is

translated by Clarke, ‘All things are in a flux.’]

[Footnote 13: _Milo._--Ver. 229. Milo, of Crotona, was an athlete

of such strength that he was said to be able to kill a bull with a

blow of his fist, and then to carry it with ease on his shoulders,

and afterwards to devour it. His hands being caught within the

portions of the trunk of a tree, which he was trying to cleave

asunder, he became a prey to wild beasts.]

[Footnote 14: _Lycus._--Ver. 273. There were several rivers of

this name. The one here referred to was also called by the name of

Marsyas, and flowed past the city of Laodicea, in Lydia.]

[Footnote 15: _Erasinus._--Ver. 276. This was a river of Arcadia,

which running out of the Stymphalian marsh, under the name of

Stymphalus, disappeared in the earth, and rose again in the Argive

territory, under the name of Erasinus.]

[Footnote 16: _Amenanus._--Ver. 279. This was a little river of

Sicily, rising in Mount Ætna, and falling into the sea near the

city of Catania.]

[Footnote 17: _Anigros._--Ver. 282. The Anigros, flowing from the

mountain of Lapitha, in Arcadia, had waters of a fetid smell, in

which no fish could exist. Pausanias thinks that this smell

proceeded from the soil, and not the water. He adds, that some

said that Chiron, others that Polenor, when wounded by the arrow

of Hercules, washed the wound in the water of this river, which

became impure from its contact with the venom of the Hydra.]

[Footnote 18: _Hypanis._--Ver. 285. Now the Bog. It falls into the

Black Sea.]

[Footnote 19: _Antissa._--Ver. 287. This island, in the Ægean Sea,

was said to have been formerly united to Lesbos.]

[Footnote 20: _Pharos._--Ver. 287. According to Herodotus, this

island was once a whole day’s sail from the main land of Egypt.

In later times, having been increased by the mud discharged by the

Nile, it was united to the shore by a bridge.]

[Footnote 21: _Tyre._--Ver. 288. Tyre once stood on an island,

separated from the shore by a strait, seven hundred paces in

width. Alexander the Great, when besieging it, united it to the

main land by a causeway. This, however, does not aid the argument

of Pythagoras, who intends to recount the changes wrought by

nature, and not by the hand of man. Besides, it is not easy to see

how Pythagoras could refer to a fact which took place several

hundred years after his death.]

[Footnote 22: _Leucas._--Ver. 289. The island of Leucas was

formerly a peninsula, on the coast of Acarnania.]

[Footnote 23: _Zancle._--Ver. 290. Under this name he means the

whole of the isle of Sicily, which was supposed to have once

joined the shores of Italy.]

[Footnote 24: _Helice and Buris._--Ver. 293. We learn from Pliny

the Elder and Orosius, that Helice and Buris, cities of Achaia at

the mouth of the Corinthian gulf, were swallowed up by an

earthquake, and that their remains could be seen in the sea.

A similar fate attended Port Royal, in the island of Jamaica, in

the year 1692. Its houses are said to be still visible beneath the

waves.]

[Footnote 25: _The raging power._--Ver. 299. Pausanias tells us,

that in the time of Antigonus, king of Macedonia, warm waters

burst from the earth, through the action of subterranean fires,

near the city of Trœzen. Perhaps the ‘tumulus’ here mentioned

sprang up at the same time.]

[Footnote 26: _Or the hide._--Ver. 305. He alludes to the

goat-skins, which formed the ‘utres,’ or leathern bottles, for

wine and oil.]

[Footnote 27: _Horned Ammon._--Ver. 309. The lake of Ammon, in

Libya, which is here referred to, is thus described by Quintius

Curtius (Book IV. c. 7)-- ‘There is also another grove at Ammon;

in the middle it contains a fountain, which they call ‘the water

of the Sun.’ At daybreak it is tepid; at mid-day, when the heat is

intense, it is ice cold. As the evening approaches, it grows

warmer; at midnight, it boils and bubbles; and as the morning

approaches, its midnight heat goes off.’ Jupiter was worshipped in

its vicinity, under the form of a ram.]

[Footnote 28: _Athamanis._--Ver. 311. This wonderful fountain was

said to be in Dodona, the grove sacred to Jupiter.]

[Footnote 29: _Have a river._--Ver. 313. Possibly the Hebrus is

here meant. The petrifying qualities of some streams is a fact

well known to naturalists.]

[Footnote 30: _The Crathis._--Ver. 315. Crathis and Sybaris were

streams of Calabria, flowing into the sea, near Crotona. Euripides

and Strabo tell the same story of the river Crathis. Pliny the

Elder, in his thirty-second Book, says-- ‘Theophrastus tells us

that Crathis, a river of the Thurians, produces whiteness, whereas

the Sybaris causes blackness, in sheep and cattle. Men, too, are

sensible of this difference; for those who drink of the Sybaris,

become more swarthy and hardy, with the hair curling; while those

who drink of the Crathis become fairer, and more effeminate with

the hair straight.’]

[Footnote 31: _Salmacis._--Ver. 319. See Book IV. l. 285.]

[Footnote 32: _Lake of Æthiopia._--Ver. 320. Possibly these may be

the waters of trial, mentioned by Porphyry, as being used among

the Indians. He says, that, according to their influence on the

person accused, when drunk of by him, he was acquitted or

condemned.]

[Footnote 33: _Clitorian spring._--Ver. 322. Clitorium was a town

of Arcadia. Pliny the Elder, quoting from Varro, mentions the

quality here referred to.]

[Footnote 34: _Son of Amithaon._--Ver. 325. Melampus, the

physician, the son of Amithaon, cured Mera, Euryale, Lysippe, and

Iphianassa, the daughters of Prœtus, king of Argos, of madness,

which Venus was said to have inflicted on them for boasting of

their superior beauty. Their derangement consisted in the fancy

that they were changed into cows. Melampus afterwards married

Iphianassa. He was said to have employed the herb hellebore in the

cure, which thence obtained the name of ‘melampodium.’]

[Footnote 35: _Lyncestis._--Ver. 329. The Lyncesti were the people

of the town of Lyncus, in Epirus. This stream flowed past that

place.]

[Footnote 36: _Pheneos._--Ver. 332. Pheneos was the name of a town

of Arcadia, afterwards called ‘Nonacris.’ In its neighbourhood,

according to Pausanias, was a rock, from which water oozed drop by

drop, which the Greeks called ‘the water of Styx.’ At certain

periods it was said to be fatal to men and cattle, to break

vessels with which it came in contact, and to melt all metals.

Ovid is the only author that mentions the difference in its

qualities by day and by night.]

[Footnote 37: _Ortygia._--Ver. 337. Ortygia, or Deloe, was said to

have floated till it was made fast by Jupiter as a resting-place

for Latona, when pregnant with Apollo and Diana. The Symplegades,

or Cyanean Islands, were also said to have formerly floated.]

[Footnote 38: _Far Northern Pallene._--Ver. 356. Pallene was the

name of a mountain and a city of Thrace. Tritonis was a lake in

the neighbourhood. Vibius Sequester says, ‘When a person has nine

times bathed himself in the Tritonian lake, in Thrace, he is

changed into a bird.’ The continuous fall of fleecy snow in that

neighbourhood is supposed by some to have given rise to the

story.]

[Footnote 39: _Give any credit._--Ver. 361. This was a very common

notion among the ancients. See the story of Aristæus and the

recovery of his bees, in the Fourth Book of Virgil’s Georgics,

I. 281-314. It is also told by Ovid in the Fasti, Book I. l. 377.]

[Footnote 40: _The warlike steed._--Ver. 368. Pliny the Elder,

Nicander, and Varro state that bees and hornets are produced from

the carcase of the horse. Pliny also says, that beetles are

generated by the putrefying carcase of the ass.]

[Footnote 41: _Deadly moth._--Ver. 374. Pliny, in the

twenty-eighth Book of his History, says, ‘The moth, too, that

flies at the flame of the lamp, is numbered among the bad

potions,’ evidently alluding to their being used in philtres or

incantations. There is a kind called the death’s head moth; but it

is so called simply from the figure of a skull, which appears very

exactly represented on its body, and not on account of any noxious

qualities known to be inherent in it.]

[Footnote 42: _Deprived of feet._--Ver. 376. He alludes to frogs

when in the tadpole state.]

[Footnote 43: _Not a cub._--Ver. 379. This was long the common

belief. Pliny says, speaking of the cub of the bear, ‘These are

white and shapeless lumps of flesh, a little bigger than mice,

without eyes, and without hair; the claws, however, are prominent.

These the dams by degrees reduce to shape.’]

[Footnote 44: _Into a serpent._--Ver. 390. Pliny tells the same

story; and Antigonus (on Miracles, ch. 96) goes still further, and

says, that the persons to whom this happens, after death, are able

to smell the snakes while they are yet alive. The fiction, very

probably, was invented with the praiseworthy object of securing

freedom from molestation for the bones of the dead.]

[Footnote 45: _Changes its sex._--Ver. 408. Pliny mentions it as a

vulgar belief that the hyæna is male and female in alternate

years. Aristotle took the pains to confute this silly notion.]

[Footnote 46: _Which feeds upon._--Ver. 411. The idea that the

chameleon subsists on wind and air, arose from the circumstance of

its sitting with its mouth continually open, that it may catch

flies and small insects, its prey. That it changes colour

according to the hue of the surrounding objects, is a fact well

known. It receives its name from the Greek χάμαι λέων, ‘The lion

on the ground.’]

[Footnote 47: _Changed into stone._--Ver. 415. Pliny says, that

this becomes hard, and turns into gems, like the carbuncle, being

of a fiery tint, and that the stone has the name of ‘lyncurium.’

Beckmann (Hist. Inventions) thinks that this was probably the

jacinth, or hyacinth, while others suppose it to have been the

tourmaline, or transparent amber.]

[Footnote 48: _A soft plant._--Ver. 417. Modern improvement in

knowledge has shown that coral is not a plant, but an animal

substance.]

[Footnote 49: _Sparta was famed._--Ver. 426-30. These lines are

looked upon by many Commentators as spurious, as they are omitted

in most MSS. Besides, all these cities were flourishing in the

time of Pythagoras. If they are genuine, Ovid is here guilty of a

series of anachronisms.]

[Footnote 50: _But one born._--Ver. 447. This was Octavius, the

adopted son of Julius Cæsar. According to Suetonius, he traced his

descent, through his mother, from Ascanius or Iülus.]

[Footnote 51: _Ought not to fill._--Ver. 462. Clarke’s quaint

translation is, ‘And let us not cram our g--ts with Thyestian

victuals.’]

[Footnote 52: _Feather foils._--Ver. 475. He alludes to the

‘formido;’ which was made of coloured feathers, and was used to

scare the deer into the toils.]

EXPLANATION.

The Poet having now exhausted nearly all the transformations which

ancient history afforded him, proceeds to enlist in the number some

of the real phenomena of nature, together with some imaginary ones.

As Pythagoras was considered to have pursued metaphysical studies

more deeply, perhaps, than any other of the ancient philosophers,

Ovid could not have introduced a personage more fitted to discuss

these subjects. Having travelled through Asia, it is supposed that

Pythagoras passed into Italy, and settled at Crotona, to promulgate

there the philosophical principles which he had acquired in his

travels through Egypt and Asia Minor.

The Pythagorean philosophy was well-suited for the purpose of

mingling its doctrines with the fabulous narratives of the Poet, as

it consisted, in great part, of the doctrine of an endless series of

transformations. Its main features may be reduced to two general

heads; the first of which was the doctrine of the Metempsychosis,

or continual transmigration of souls from one body into another.

Pythagoras is supposed not to have originated this doctrine, but to

have received it from the Egyptians, by whose priesthood there is

little doubt that it was generally promulgated. Some writers have

suggested that this transmigration was only taught by Pythagoras in

a metaphorical sense; as, for instance, when he said that the souls

of men were transferred to beasts, it was only to teach us that

irregular passions render us brutes; on examination, however, we

shall find that there is no ground to doubt that he intended his

doctrines to be understood according to the literal meaning of his

words; indeed, the more strongly to enforce his doctrine by a

personal illustration, he was in the habit of promulgating that he

remembered to have been Euphorbus, at the time of the siege of Troy,

and that his soul, after several other transmigrations, had at last

entered the body which it then inhabited, under the name of

Pythagoras. In consequence of this doctrine, it was a favourite

tenet of his followers to abstain from eating the flesh of animals,

for fear of unconsciously devouring some friend or kinsman.

The second feature of this philosophy consisted in the elucidation

of the changes that happen in the physical world, a long series of

which is here set forth by the Poet; truth being mingled at random

with fiction. While some of his facts are based upon truth, others

seem to have only emanated from the fertile invention of the

travellers of those days; of the latter kind are the stories of the

river of Thrace, whose waters petrified those who drank of it; the

fountains that kindled wood, that caused a change of sex, that

created an aversion to wine, that transformed men into birds, and

fables of a similar nature; such, too, are those stories which were

generally believed by even the educated men of antiquity, but which

the wisdom of modern times has long since shown to be utterly

baseless, as, for instance, that bees grew from the entrails of the

ox, and hornets from those of the horse. The principle of

Pythagoras, that everything is continually changing and that nothing

perishes, is true to a certain extent; but in his times, and even in

those of Ovid, philosophy was not sufficiently advanced to speak

with precision on the subject, and to discover the true boundary

between truth and fiction.

FABLES IV. V. AND VI. [XV.479-621]

Egeria, the wife of Numa, is inconsolable after his death, and is

changed into a fountain. The horses of Hippolytus being frightened

by a sea-monster, he is killed by being thrown from his chariot, and

becomes a God, under the name of Virbius. Tages, the Diviner, arises

out of a clod of earth. The lance of Romulus is changed into a

cornel-tree. Cippus becomes horned, and goes into voluntary

banishment, rather than his country should be deprived of its

liberty by his means.

With his mind cultivated with precepts such as these and others, they

say that Numa returned to his country, and, being voluntarily

invited,[53] received the sovereignty of the Roman people. Blest with a

Nymph for his wife, and the Muses for his guides, he taught the rites of

sacrifice, and brought over to the arts of peace a race inured to savage

warfare. After, full of years, he had finished his reign and his life,

the Latian matrons and the people and the Senators lamented Numa at his

death. But his wife, leaving the city, lay hid, concealed in the thick

groves of the valley of Aricia, and by her groans and lamentations

disturbed the sacred rites of Diana, brought thither by Orestes. Ah! how

oft did the Nymphs of the grove and of the lake entreat her not to do

so, and utter soothing words. Ah! how often did the hero, the son of

Theseus, say to her as she wept, “Put an end to it; for thy lot is not

the only one to be lamented. Consider the like calamities of others,

thou wilt {then} bear thine own better. And would that an example, not

my own, could lighten thy grief! yet even my own can do so.”

“I suppose, in discourse it has reached thy ears that a certain

Hippolytus met with his death through the credulity of his father, by

the deceit of his wicked step-mother. Thou wilt wonder, and I shall

hardly be able to prove it; but yet I am he. In former times, the

daughter of Pasiphaë, having tempted me in vain, pretended that I wished

to defile the couch of my father, a thing that she herself wished to do;

and having turned the accusation {against me}, (whether it was more

through dread of discovery, or through mortification at her repulse) she

charged me. And my father expelled me, {thus} innocent, from the city,

and as I went he uttered imprecations against my head, with ruthless

prayers. I was going to Trœzen, {the city} of Pittheus,[54] in my flying

chariot, and I was now proceeding along the shores of the Corinthian

gulf, when the sea was aroused, and an enormous mass of waters seemed to

bend and to grow in the form of a mountain, and to send forth a roaring

noise, and to burst asunder at its very summit. Thence, the waves being

divided, a horned bull was sent forth, and erect in the light air as far

as his breast, he vomited forth a quantity of sea-water from his

nostrils and his open mouth. The hearts of my attendants quailed; my

mind remained without fear, intent {only} on my exile, when the fierce

horses turned their necks towards the sea, and were terrified, with ears

erect; and they were alarmed with dread of the monster, and precipitated

the chariot over the lofty rocks. I struggled, with unavailing hand,

to guide the bridle covered with white foam, and, throwing myself

backwards, I pulled back the loosened reins. And, indeed, the madness of

my steeds would not have exceeded that strength {of mine}, had not the

wheel, by running against a stump, been broken and disjoined just where

it turns round on the long axle-tree.

“I was hurled from my chariot; and, the reins entwined around my limbs,

you might have seen my palpitating entrails dragged, my sinews fasten

upon the stump, my limbs partly torn to pieces and partly left behind,

being caught by {various obstacles}, my bones in their breaking emit a

loud noise, and my exhausted breath become exhaled, and not a part in my

body which you could recognize; and the whole of {me} formed {but} one

{continued} wound. And canst thou, Nymph, or dost thou venture to

compare thy misfortune to mine? I have visited, too, the realms deprived

of light, and I have bathed my lacerated body in the waves of

Phlegethon.[55] Nor could life have been restored me, but through the

powerful remedies of the son of Apollo. After I had received it, through

potent herbs and the Pæonian aid,[56] much against the will of Pluto,

then Cynthia threw around me thick clouds, that I might not, by my

presence, increase his anger at this favour; and that I might be safe,

and be seen in security, she gave me a {more} aged appearance, and left

me no features that could be recognized. For a long time she was

doubtful whether she should give me Crete or Delos for me to possess.

Delos and Crete being abandoned, she placed me here, and, at the same

time, she ordered me to lay aside my name, which might have reminded me

of my steeds, and she said, ‘Thou, the same who wast Hippolytus, be thou

now Virbius.’[57] From that time I have inhabited this grove; and,

as one of the lower Gods, I lie concealed under the protection of my

mistress, and to her am I devoted.”[58]

But yet the misfortunes of others were not able to alleviate the grief

of Egeria; and, throwing herself down at the base of the hill, she

dissolved into tears; until, moved by her affection as she grieved, the

sister of Phœbus formed a cool fountain from her body, and dissolved her

limbs in ever-flowing waters.

But this new circumstance surprised the Nymphs; and the son of the

Amazon[59] was astonished, in no other manner than as when the Etrurian

ploughman beheld the fate-revealing clod in the midst of the fields move

at first of its own accord and no one touching it, and afterwards assume

a human form, and lose {that} of earth, and open its new-made mouth with

{the decrees of} future destiny. The natives called him Tages. He was

the first to teach the Etrurian nation to foretell future events.

Or, as when Romulus once saw his lance, fixed in the Palatine hill,

suddenly shoot forth; which {now} stood there with a root newly-formed,

{and} not with the iron {point} driven in; and, now no longer as a dart,

but as a tree with limber twigs, it sent forth, for the admiring

{spectators}, a shade that was not looked for.

Or, {as} when Cippus beheld his horns in the water of the stream, (for

he did see them) and, believing that there was a false representation in

the reflection, often returning his fingers to his forehead, he touched

what he saw. And now, no {longer} condemning his own eyesight, he stood

still, as he was returning victorious from the conquest of the enemy;

and raising his eyes towards heaven, and his hands in the same

direction, he exclaimed, “Ye Gods above! whatever is portended by this

prodigy, if it is auspicious, then be it auspicious to my country and to

the people of Quirinus; but if unfortunate, be it {so} for myself.” And

{then} he made atonement at the grassy altars built of green turf, with

odoriferous fires, and presented wine in bowls, and consulted the

panting entrails of slaughtered sheep what the meaning of it was. Soon

as the soothsayer of the Etrurian nation had inspected them, he beheld

in them the great beginnings of {future} events, but still not clearly.

But when he raised his searching eyes from the entrails of the sheep, to

the horns of Cippus, he said, “Hail, O king! for thee, Cippus, thee and

thy horns shall this place and the Latian towers obey. Only do thou lay

aside all delay; hasten to enter the gates wide open; thus the fates

command thee. For, {once} received within the City, thou shalt be king,

and thou shalt safely enjoy a lasting sceptre.” He retreated backwards,

and turning his stern visage away from the walls of the City, he

exclaimed, “Far, O far away may the Gods drive such omens! Much more

righteously shall I pass my life in exile, than if the Capitol were to

see me a king.”

{Thus} he says; and forthwith he convokes the people and the dignified

Senate; but first, he veils his horns with laurel that betokens peace,

and he stands upon a mound raised by his brave soldiers; and praying to

the Gods after the ancient manner, “Behold!” says he, “one is here who

will be king, if you do not expel him from the City. I will tell you who

he is by a sign, {and} not by name. He wears horns on his forehead; the

augur predicts to you, that if he enters the City, he shall give you

laws as his slaves. He, indeed, was able to enter the open gates, but I

have opposed him; although no one is more nearly allied with him than

myself. Forbid your City to this man, ye Romans, or, if he shall deserve

it, bind him with heavy fetters; or else end your fears by the death of

the destined tyrant.”

As the murmur which arises among the groves of the slender pine,[60]

when the furious East wind whistles among them, or as that which the

waves of the ocean produce, if any one hears them from afar, such is the

noise of the crowd. But yet amid the confused words of the shouting

multitude, one cry is distinguished, “Which is he?” And then they

examine the foreheads, and seek the predicted horns. Cippus again

addresses them: “Him whom you require, ye {now} have;” and, despite of

the people, throwing the chaplet from his head, he exhibits his temples,

remarkable for two horns. All cast down their eyes, and utter groans,

and (who would have supposed it?) they unwillingly look upon that head

famed for its merits. And no longer suffering it to be deprived of its

honours, they place upon it the festive chaplet. But the nobles, Cippus,

since thou art forbidden to enter the city, give thee as much land, as a

mark of honour, as thou canst, with the oxen yoked to the pressed

plough, make the circuit of from the rising of the sun to its setting.

They carve, too, the horns, imitating their wondrous form, on the

door-posts adorned with brass, {there} to remain for long ages.

[Footnote 53: _Voluntarily invited._--Ver. 481. He was living at

the Sabine town of Cures, when the throne was pressed upon him by

the desire of both the Roman and the Sabine nations.]

[Footnote 54: _City of Pittheus._--Ver. 506. Pittheus was the son

of Pelops, and the father of Æthra, the mother of Theseus;

consequently he was the great-grandfather of Hippolytus.]

[Footnote 55: _Phlegethon._--Ver. 532. This was said to be one of

the rivers of the Infernal Regions, and to be flowing with fire

and brimstone.]

[Footnote 56: _Pæonian aid._--Ver. 536. Pæon was a skilful

physician, mentioned by Homer, in the Fifth Book of the Iliad.

Eustathius thinks that Apollo is meant under that name.]

[Footnote 57: _Virbius._--Ver. 544. This name is formed from the

words ‘vir’ and ‘bis,’ twice a man.]

[Footnote 58: _Am I devoted._--Ver. 546. In the same relation to

her as Adonis was to Venus, Ericthonius to Minerva, and Atys to

Cybele.]

[Footnote 59: _Son of the Amazon._--Ver. 552. Hippolytus was the

son either of the Amazon Hippolyta, or Antiope.]

[Footnote 60: _Slender pine._--Ver. 603-4. The words ‘succinctis

pinetis’ are rendered by Clarke, ‘the neat pine-groves.’]

EXPLANATION.

Ovid, following the notion that was generally entertained of the

wisdom of Numa, pretends that before he was elected to the

sovereignty he went to Crotona, for the purpose of studying under

Pythagoras; but he is guilty of a considerable anachronism in this

instance, as Pythagoras was not born till very many years after the

time of Numa. According to Livy, Pythagoras flourished in the time

of Servius Tullius, the sixth Roman king, about one hundred and

fifty years after Numa. Modern authors are of opinion that upwards

of two hundred years intervened between the days of Numa and

Pythagoras. Besides, Dionysius of Halicarnassus distinctly asserts

that the city of Crotona was only built in the fourth year of the

reign of Numa Pompilius.

Numa is said to have been in the habit of retiring to the Arician

grove, to consult the Nymph Egeria upon the laws which he was about

to promulgate for the benefit of his subjects. It is probable, that

to ensure their observance the more effectually, he wished the

people to believe that his enactments were compiled under the

inspection of one who partook of the immortal nature, and that in so

doing he followed the example of previous lawgivers. Zamolxis

pretended that the laws which he gave to the Scythians were dictated

to him by his attendant genius or spirit. The first Minos affirmed

that Jupiter was the author of the ordinances which he gave to the

people of Crete, while Lycurgus attributed his to Apollo. It is not

improbable that in this they imitated the example of Moses,

a tradition of whose reception of the laws on Mount Sinai they may

have received from the people of Phœnicia.

Dionysius of Halicarnassus has an interesting passage relative to

Numa, which throws some light upon his alleged intercourse with the

Nymph Egeria. His words are-- ‘The Romans affirm that Numa was never

engaged in any warlike expedition; but that he passed his whole

reign in profound peace: that his first care was to encourage piety

and justice in his dominions, and to civilize his people by good and

wholesome laws. His profound skill in governing made him pass for

being inspired, and gave rise to many fabulous stories. Some have

said that he had secret interviews with the Nymph Egeria; others,

that he frequently consulted one of the Muses, and was instructed by

her in the art of government. Numa was desirous to confirm the

people in this opinion; but because some hesitated to believe his

bare affirmation, and others went so far as to call his alleged

converse with the Deities a fiction, he took an opportunity to give

them such proofs of it, that the most sceptical among them should

have no room left for suspicion. This he effected in the following

manner. He one day invited several of the nobles to his palace, and

showed them the plainness of the apartments, where no rich furniture

was to be seen, nor any thing like an attempt at splendour; and how

even the most ordinary necessaries were wanting for anything like a

great entertainment; after which, he dismissed them with an

invitation to come to sup with him on the same night. At the

appointed hour his guests arrived; they were received on stately

couches; the tables were decked with a variety of plate, and were

loaded with the most exquisite dainties. The guests were struck with

the sumptuousness and profusion of the entertainment, and

considering how impossible it was for any man to have made such

preparations in so short a time, were persuaded that his

communication with heaven was not a fiction, and that he must have

had the aid of the celestial powers to do things of a nature so

extraordinary. ‘But,’ as the same author says, ‘those who were not

so ready at adopting fabulous narratives as a part of history, say

that it was the policy of Numa which led him to feign a conversation

with the Nymph Egeria, to make his laws respected by his people, and

that he thence followed the example of the Greek sages, who adopted

the same method of enforcing the authority of their laws with the

people.’

The Romans were so persuaded of the fact of Numa’s conferences with

the Nymph Egeria, that they went into the grove of Aricia to seek

her; but finding nothing but a fountain in the spot which he used to

frequent, they promulgated the story of the transformation of the

Nymph. St. Augustin, speaking on this subject, says that Numa made

use of the waters of that fountain in the divination which was

performed by the aid of water, and was called Hydromancy.

Theseus having left Ariadne in the isle of Naxos, flattered himself

with the hopes of marrying her sister Phædra. Deucalion, succeeding

Minos in Crete immediately after his death, sent Phædra to Athens.

On arriving there, she fell in love with Hippolytus, the son of

Theseus, who had been brought up at Trœzen by Pittheus. As she did

not dare to request of Theseus that his son might be brought from

the court of Pittheus, she built a temple to Venus near Trœzen, that

she might the more frequently have the opportunity of seeing

Hippolytus, and called it by the name of Hippolyteum. According to

Euripides, this youth was wise, chaste, and an enemy to all

voluptuousness. He spent his time in hunting and chariot racing,

with other exercises which formed the pursuits of youths of high

station. According to Plutarch, it was at the time when Theseus was

a prisoner in Epirus, that Phædra took the opportunity of disclosing

to Hippolytus the violence of her passion for him. Her declaration

being but ill received, she grew desperate on his refusal to comply

with her desires, and was about to commit self-destruction, when her

nurse suggested the necessity of revenging the virtuous disdain of

the youth.

Theseus having been liberated by Hercules, Phædra, being fearful

lest the intrigue should come to his knowledge, hanged herself,

having first written a letter to inform him that she could not

survive an attempt which Hippolytus had made on her virtue.

Plutarch, Servius and Hyginus, following Euripides, give this

account of her death. But Seneca, in his Hippolytus, says that she

only appeared before her husband in extreme grief, holding a sword

in her hand to signify the violence which Hippolytus had offered

her. On this, Theseus implored the assistance of Neptune, who sent a

monster out of the sea, to frighten his horses, as he was driving

along the sea-shore: on which, they took fright, and throwing him

from his chariot, he was killed. It has been suggested that the true

meaning of this is, that Theseus having ordered his son to come and

justify himself, he made so much haste that his horses ran away with

him; and his chariot being dashed over the rocks, he was killed.

Seneca also differs from the other writers, in saying that Phædra

did not put herself to death till she had heard of the catastrophe

of Hippolytus, on which she stabbed herself. The people of Trœzen,

regretting his loss, decreed him divine honours, built a temple, and

appointed a priest to offer yearly sacrifices to him. Euripides

says, that the young women of Trœzen, when about to be married, cut

off their hair and carried it to the temple of Hippolytus. It was

also promulgated that the Gods had translated him to the heavens,

where he was changed into the Constellation, called by the Latins

‘Auriga,’ or ‘the Charioteer.’ Later authors, whom Ovid here

follows, added, that Æsculapius restored him to life, and that he

afterwards appeared in Italy under the name of Virbius. This story

was probably invented as a source of profit by the priesthood, who

were desirous to find some good reason for introducing his worship

into the Arician grove near Rome. This story is mentioned by

Apollodorus, who quotes the author of the Naupactan verses in favour

of it, and by the Scholiasts of Euripides and Pindar.

The ancient Etrurians were great adepts in the art of divination;

their favourite method of exercising which was by the inspection of

the entrails of beasts, and the observation of the flight of birds;

and from them, as we learn from Cicero in his book on Divination,

the system spread over the whole of Italy. Tages is supposed to have

been the first who taught this art, and he wrote treatises upon it,

which, according to Plutarch, were quoted by ancient authors. It not

being known whence he came, or who were his parents, he was called,

in the language of the poets, a son of the earth. Ammianus

Marcellinus speaks of him as being said to have sprung out of the

earth in Etruria.

Ovid next makes a passing allusion to the spear of Romulus, which,

when thrown by him from the Mount Aventine towards the Capitol,

sticking in the ground was converted into a tree, which immediately

put forth leaves. This prodigy was taken for a presage of the future

greatness of Rome: and Plutarch, in his life of Romulus, says that

so long as this tree stood, the Republic flourished. It began to

wither in the time of the first civil war; and Julius Cæsar having

afterwards ordered a building to be erected near where it stood, the

workmen cutting some of its roots in sinking the foundations, it

soon after died. It is hardly probable that a cornel tree would

stand in a thronged city for nearly seven hundred years; and it is,

therefore, most likely, that care was taken to renovate it from time

to time, by planting slips from the former tree.

The story of Genucius Cippus is one of those strange fables with

which the Roman history is diversified. Valerius Maximus gives the

following account of it. He says that Cippus, going one day out of

Rome, suddenly found that something which resembled horns was

growing out of his forehead. Surprised at an event so extraordinary,

he consulted the augurs, who said that he would be chosen king, if

he ever entered the city again. As the royal power was abhorred in

Rome, he preferred a voluntary banishment to revisiting Rome on

those terms. Struck with this heroism, the Romans erected a brazen

statue with horns over the gate by which he departed, and it was

afterwards called ‘Porta raudusculana,’ because the ancient Latin

name of brass was ‘raudus,’ ‘rodus,’ or ‘rudus.’ The fact is,

however, as Ovid represents it, that Cippus was not going out of

Rome, but returning to it, when the prodigy happened; he having been

to convey assistance to the Consul Valerius. The Senate also

conferred certain lands on Cippus, as a reward for his patriotism.

He lived about two hundred and forty years before the Christian era.

Pliny the Elder considers the story of the horns of Cippus as much a

fable as that of Actæon. It appears, however, that the account of

the horns may have possibly been founded on fact, as excrescences

resembling them have appeared on the bodies of individuals. Bayle

makes mention of a girl of Palermo, who had little horns all over

her body, like those of a young calf. In the Ashmolean museum at

Oxford, a substance much resembling the horn of a goat is shown,

which is said to have sprung from the forehead of a female named

Mary Davis, whose likeness is there shown. The excrescence was most

probably produced by a deranged secretion of the hair, and something

of a similar nature may perhaps have befallen Genucius Cippus,

which, of course, would be made the most of in those ages of

superstition. Valerius Maximus, with all his credulity, does not say

that they were real horns that made their appearance, but that they

were ‘just like horns.’

It is not improbable that the story originally was, that Cippus, on

his return to Rome, dreamt that he had horns on his head, and that

having consulted the augurs, and received the answer mentioned by

Ovid, he preferred to suffer exile, rather than enslave his country;

and that, in length of time, the more wonderful part of the story

was added to it.

FABLE VII. [XV.622-744]

Rome being wasted by a pestilence, the Delphian oracle is consulted;

and the answer is given, that to cause it to cease Æsculapius must

be brought to Rome. On this, ambassadors are sent to Epidaurus to

demand the God. The people refuse to part with him; but he appears

to one of the Romans in a dream, and consents to go. On his arrival

at Rome the contagion ceases, and a Temple is built in his honour.

Relate, now, ye Muses, the guardian Deities of poets (for you know, and

remote antiquity conceals it not from you), whence {it is that} the

Island surrounded by the channel of the Tiber introduced the son of

Coronis into the sacred rites of the City of Romulus. A dire contagion

had once infected the Latian air, and the pale bodies were deformed by a

consumption that dried up the blood. When, wearied with {so many}

deaths, they found that mortal endeavours availed nothing, and that the

skill of physicians had no effect, they sought the aid of heaven, and

they repaired to Delphi which occupies the centre spot of the world, the

oracle of Phœbus, and entreated that he would aid their distressed

circumstances by a response productive of health, and put an end to the

woes of a City so great. Both the spot, and the laurels, and the quivers

which it has, shook at the same moment, and the tripod[61] gave this

answer from the recesses of the shrine, and struck {with awe} their

astonished breasts:-- “What here thou dost seek, O Roman, thou mightst

have sought in a nearer spot: and now seek it in a nearer spot; thou

hast no need of Apollo to diminish thy grief, but of the son of Apollo.

Go with a good omen, and invite my son.”

After the prudent Senate had received the commands of the Deity, they

enquired what city the youthful son of Phœbus inhabited; and they sent

some to reach the coasts of Epidaurus[62] with the winds. Soon as those

sent had reached them in the curving ship, they repaired to the council

and the Grecian elders, and besought them to grant them the Divinity,

who by his presence could put an end to the mortality of the Ausonian

nation; {for} that so the unerring response had directed. Their opinions

were divided, and differed; and some thought that aid ought not to be

refused. Many refused it, and advised them not to part with their own

protector, and to give up their own guardian Deity. While they were

deliberating, twilight had {now} expelled the waning day, and the shadow

of the earth had brought darkness over the world; when, in thy sleep,

the saving God seemed, O Roman, to be standing before thy couch; but

just as he is wont to be in his temple; and, holding a rustic staff in

his left hand, {he seemed} to be stroking the long hair of his beard

with his right, and to utter such words as these from his kindly

breast-- “Lay aside thy fears; I will come, and I will leave these {my}

statues. Only observe {now} this serpent, which with its folds entwines

around this staff, and accurately mark it with thine eyes, that thou

mayst be able to know it again. Into this shall I be changed; but I

shall be greater, and I shall appear to be of a size as great as that

into which heavenly bodies ought to be transformed.”

Forthwith, with {these} words, the God departs; and with his words and

the God sleep {departs}, and genial light follows upon the departure of

sleep. The following morn has {now} dispersed the starry fires;

uncertain what to do, the nobles meet together in the sumptuous temple

of the God {then} sought, and beseech him to indicate, by celestial

tokens, in what spot he would wish to abide. Hardly have they well

ceased, when the God, all glittering with gold, in {the form of} a

serpent, with crest erect, sends forth a hissing, as a notice of his

approach; and in his coming, he shakes both his statue, the altars, the

doors, the marble pavement, and the gilded roof, and as far as the

breast he stands erect in the midst of the temple, and rolls around his

eyes that sparkle with fire. The frightened multitude is alarmed; the

priest, having his chaste hair bound with a white fillet, recognizes the

Deity and exclaims, “The God! Behold the God! Whoever you are that are

present, be of good omen, both with your words and your feelings. Mayst

thou, most beauteous one, be beheld to our advantage; and mayst thou aid

the nations that perform thy sacred rites.” Whoever are present, adore

the Deity as bidden; and all repeat the words of the priest over again;

and the descendants of Æneas give a pious omen, both with their

feelings, and in their words. To these the God shows favour; and with

crest erected, he gives a hiss, a sure token, repeated thrice with his

vibrating tongue. Then he glides down the polished steps,[63] and turns

back his head, and, about to depart, he looks back upon his ancient

altars, and salutes his wonted abode and the temple that {so long} he

has inhabited. Then, with his vast bulk, he glides along the ground

covered with the strewn flowers, and coils his folds, and through the

midst of the city repairs to the harbour protected by its winding quay.

Here he stops; and seeming to dismiss his train, and the dutiful

attendance of the accompanying crowd, with a placid countenance, he

places his body in the Ausonian ship. It is sensible of the weight of

the God; and the ship {now} laden with the Divinity for its freight, the

descendants of Æneas rejoice; and a bull having first been slain on the

sea-shore, they loosen the twisted cables of the bark bedecked with

garlands. A gentle breeze has {now} impelled the ship. The God is

conspicuous aloft,[64] and pressing upon the crooked stern with his neck

laid upon it, he looks down upon the azure waters; and with the gentle

Zephyrs along the Ionian sea, on the sixth rising of the daughter of

Pallas, he makes Italy, and is borne along the Lacinian shores, ennobled

by the temple of the Goddess {Juno}, and the Scylacean[65] coasts. He

leaves Iapygia behind, and flies from the Amphissian[66] rocks with the

oars on the left side; on the right side he passes by the steep

Ceraunia, and Romechium, and Caulon,[67] and Narycia, and he crosses the

sea and the straits of the Sicilian Pelorus, and the abodes of the king

the grandson of Hippotas, and the mines of Temesa; and then he makes for

Leucosia,[68] and the rose-beds of the warm Pæstum. Then he coasts by

Capreæ,[69] and the promontory of Minerva, and the hills ennobled with

the Surrentine[70] vines, and the city of Hercules,[71] and Stabiæ,[72]

and Parthenope made for retirement, and after it the temple of the

Cumæan Sibyl. Next, the warm springs[73] are passed by, and

Linternum,[74] that bears mastick trees; and {then} Vulturnus,[75] that

carries much sand along with its tide, and Sinuessa, that abounds with

snow-white snakes,[76] and the pestilential Minturnæ,[77] and she for

whom[78] her foster-child erected the tomb, and the abode of

Antiphates,[79] and Trachas,[80] surrounded by the marsh, and the land

of Circe, and Antium,[81] with its rocky coast.

After the sailors have steered the sail-bearing ship hither (for now the

sea is aroused), the Deity unfolds his coils, and gliding with many a

fold and in vast coils, he enters the temple of his parent, that skirts

the yellow shore. The sea {now} becalmed, the {God} of Epidaurus leaves

the altars of his sire; and having enjoyed the hospitality of the Deity,

{thus} related to him, he furrows the sands of the sea-shore with the

dragging of his rattling scales, and reclining against the helm of the

ship, he places his head upon the lofty stern; until he comes to

Castrum,[82] and the sacred abodes of Lavinium, and the mouths of the

Tiber. Hither, all the people indiscriminately, a crowd both of matrons

and of men, rush to meet him; they, too, Vesta! who tend thy fires; and

with joyous shouts they welcome the God. And where the swift ship is

steered through the tide running out, altars being erected in a line,

the frankincense crackles along {the banks} on either side, and perfumes

the air with its smoke; the felled victim too, {with its blood} makes

warm the knives thrust {into it}.

And now he has entered Rome, the sovereign of the world. The serpent

rises erect, and lifts his neck that reclines against the top of the

mast, and looks around for a habitation suited for himself. {There is a

spot, where} the river flowing around, is divided into two parts; it is

called “the Island.” {The river} in the direction of each side extends

its arms of equal length, the dry land {lying} in the middle. Hither,

the serpent, son of Phœbus, betakes himself from the Latian ship; and he

puts an end to the mourning, having resumed his celestial form. And

{thus} did he come, the restorer of health, to the City.

[Footnote 61: _The tripod._--Ver. 635. The tripod on which the

priestess of Apollo or ‘Pythia,’ sat when inspired, was called

‘Cortina,’ from the skin, ‘corium,’ of the serpent Python, which,

when it had been killed by Apollo was used to cover it.]

[Footnote 62: _Epidaurus._--Ver. 643. There were several towns of

this name. The one here mentioned was in the state of Argolis.]

[Footnote 63: _Polished steps._--Ver. 685. Clarke translates

‘Gradibus nitidis,’ ‘the neat steps.’]

[Footnote 64: _Is conspicuous aloft._--Ver. 697. ‘Deus eminet

alte.’ This is rendered by Clarke, ‘The God rears up to a good

height.’]

[Footnote 65: _Scylacean._--Ver. 702. Scylace was a town on the

Calabrian coast; it was said to have been founded by an Athenian

colony.]

[Footnote 66: _Amphissian._--Ver. 703. Amphissia was the name of a

city of Locris; but that cannot be the place here alluded to on

the coast of Italy. It is most probably a corrupt reading.]

[Footnote 67: _Caulon._--Ver. 705. Caulon was a colony of the

Achæa on the coast of Calabria. Narycia, or Naritium, or Naricia,

was also a town on the Calabrian coast. The localities of Ceraunia

and Romechium are not known.]

[Footnote 68: _Leucosia._--Ver. 708. Leucosia was a little island

off the town of Pæstum, which was in Lucania; it was famous for

its mild climate, and the beauty of its roses, which are

celebrated by Virgil.]

[Footnote 69: _Capreæ._--Ver. 709. Capreæ was an island near the

coast of Naples.]

[Footnote 70: _Surrentine._--Ver. 710. Surrentum was a city of

Campania, famed for its wines.]

[Footnote 71: _City of Hercules._--Ver. 711. This was Herculaneum,

at the foot of Vesuvius; the place which shared so disastrous a

fate from the eruption of that mountain.]

[Footnote 72: _Stabiæ._--Ver. 711. This was a town of Campania,

which was destroyed by Sylla in the Social war. It was afterwards

rebuilt.]

[Footnote 73: _The warm springs._--Ver. 711. He alludes to the

city of Baiæ, famed for its warm springs and baths.]

[Footnote 74: _Linternum._--Ver. 714. This place was in Campania.

It was famous as the place of retirement of the elder Scipio; he

was buried there.]

[Footnote 75: _Vulturnus._--Ver. 715. This was a river of

Campania, which flowed past the city of Capua.]

[Footnote 76: _Snow-white snakes._--Ver. 715. Sinuessa was a town

of Campania; Heinsius very properly suggests ‘columbis,’ ‘doves;’

for ‘colubris,’ ‘snakes.’ We are told by Pliny the Elder, that

Campania was famed for its doves.]

[Footnote 77: _Minturnæ._--Ver. 716. This was a town of Latium;

the marshes in its neighbourhood produced pestilential

exhalations.]

[Footnote 78: _She for whom._--Ver. 716. This was Caieta, who,

being buried there by her foster-child Æneas, gave her name to the

spot.]

[Footnote 79: _Abode of Antiphates._--Ver. 717. Formiæ.]

[Footnote 80: _Trachas._--Ver. 717. This place was also called

‘Anxur.’ Its present name is Terracina. Livy mentions it as lying

in the marshes.]

[Footnote 81: _Antium._--Ver. 718. This was the capital of the

ancient Volscians.]

[Footnote 82: _Castrum._--Ver. 727. This was ‘Castrum Inui,’ or

‘the tents of Pan;’ an old town of the Rutulians.]

EXPLANATION.

The story here narrated by Ovid is derived from the Roman history,

to which we will shortly refer for an explanation.

Under the consulate of Quintus Fabius Gurges, and Decimus Junius

Brutus Scæva, Rome was ravaged by a frightful pestilence. The

resources of physic having been exhausted, the Sibylline books were

consulted to ascertain by what expedient the calamity might be put

an end to, and they found that the plague would not cease till they

had brought Æsculapius from Epidaurus to Rome. Being then engaged in

war, they postponed their application to the Epidaurians for a year,

at the end of which time they despatched an embassy to Epidaurus;

on which a serpent was delivered to them, which the priests of the

Deity assured them was the God himself. Taking it on board their

ship, the delegates set sail. When near Antium, they were obliged to

put in there by stress of weather, and the serpent, escaping from

the ship, remained three days on shore; after which it came on board

of its own accord, and they continued their voyage. On arriving at

the Island of the Tiber the serpent escaped, and concealed itself

amid the reeds; and as they, in their credulity, fancied that the

God had chosen the place for his habitation, they built a temple

there in his honour. From this period, which was about the year of

Rome 462, the worship of Æsculapius was introduced in the city, and

to him recourse was had in cases of disease, and especially in times

of pestilence.

FABLE VIII. [XV.745-879]

Julius Cæsar is assassinated in the Senate-house, and by the

intercession of Venus, his ancestor, he is changed into a star. The

Poet concludes his work with a compliment to Augustus, and a promise

of immortality to himself.

And still, he came a stranger to our temples; Cæsar is a Deity in his

own city; whom, {alike} distinguished both in war and peace, wars ending

with triumphs, his government at home, and the rapid glory of his

exploits, did not more {tend to} change into a new planet, and a star

with brilliant train, than did his own progeny. For of {all} the acts of

Cæsar, there is not one more ennobling than that he was the father of

this {our Cæsar}. Was it, forsooth, a greater thing to have conquered

the Britons surrounded by the ocean, and to have steered his victorious

ships along the seven-mouthed streams of the Nile that bears the

papyrus, and to have added to the people of Quirinus the rebellious

Numidians[83] and the Cinyphian Juba, and Pontus[84] proud of the fame

of Mithridates, and to have deserved many a triumph, {and} to have

enjoyed some, than it was to have been the father of a personage so

great, under whose tutelage over the world, you, ye Gods above, have

shewn excessive care for the human race? That he {then} might not be

sprung from mortal seed, {’twas fit that Julius} should be made a

Divinity. When the resplendent mother of Æneas was sensible of this; and

{when} she saw that a sad death was in preparation for the Pontiff, and

that the arms of the conspirators were brandished; she turned pale, and

said to each of the Deities, as she met them:--

“Behold, on how vast a scale treason is plotted against me, and with how

great perfidy that life is sought, which alone remains for me from the

Dardanian Iülus. Shall I alone be everlastingly harassed by justified

anxieties? I, whom one while the Calydonian lance of the son of Tydeus

is wounding, {and} at another time the walls of Troy, defended in vain,

are grieving? I, who have seen my son driven about in protracted

wanderings, tossed on the ocean, entering the abodes of the departed,

and waging war with Turnus; or, if we confess the truth, with Juno

rather? {But}, why am I now calling to mind the ancient misfortunes of

my own offspring? Present apprehensions do not allow me to remember

things of former days. Against me, you behold how the impious swords are

{now} being whetted. Avert them, I entreat; hinder this crime, and do

not, by the murder of the priest, extinguish the flames of Vesta.”

Such expressions as these did Venus, full of anxiety, vainly let fall

throughout the heavens, and she moved the Gods above. Although they were

not able to frustrate the iron decrees of the aged sisters, yet they

afforded no unerring tokens of approaching woe. They say, that arms

resounding amid the black clouds, and dreadful {blasts of} the trumpet,

and clarions heard through the heavens, forewarned men of the crime. The

sad face too of the sun gave a livid light to the alarmed earth. Often

did torches seem to be burning in the midst of the stars; often did

drops of blood fall in the showers. The azure-coloured Lucifer had his

light tinted with a dark iron colour; the chariot of the moon was

besprinkled with blood. The Stygian owl gave omens of ill in a thousand

places; in a thousand places did the ivory statues shed tears; dirges,

too, are said to have been heard, and threatening expressions in the

sacred groves. No victim gave an omen of good; the entrails, too, showed

that great tumults were imminent; and the extremity {of the liver} was

found cut off among the entrails. They say, too, that in the Forum, and

around the houses and the temples of the Gods, the dogs were howling by

night; and that the ghosts of the departed were walking, and that the

City was shaken by earthquakes. But still the warnings of the Gods could

not avert treachery and the approach of Fate, and drawn swords were

carried into a temple; and no other place in the {whole} City than the

Senate-house pleased them for this crime and this atrocious murder.

But then did Cytherea beat her breast with both her hands, and attempt

to hide the descendant of Æneas in a cloud, in which, long since, Paris

was conveyed from the hostile son of Atreus,[85] and Æneas had escaped

from the sword of Diomedes. In such words as these {did} her father

{Jove address her}: “Dost thou, my daughter, unaided, attempt to change

the insuperable {decrees} of Fate? Thou, thyself, mayst enter the abode

of the three sisters, {and} there thou wilt behold the register of

{future} events, {wrought} with vast labour, of brass and of solid iron;

these, safe and destined for eternity, fear neither the {thundering}

shock of the heavens, nor the rage of the lightnings, nor any {source

of} destruction. There wilt thou find the destinies of thy descendants

engraved in everlasting adamant. I myself have read them, and I have

marked them in my mind; I will repeat them, that thou mayst not still be

ignorant of the future. He (on whose account, Cytherea, thou art {thus}

anxious), has completed his time, those years being ended which he owed

to the earth. Thou, with his son, who, as the heir to his glory, will

bear the burden of government devolving {on him}, wilt cause him, as a

Deity, to reach the heavens, and to be worshipped in temples; and he, as

a most valiant avenger of his murdered parent, will have us to aid him

in his battles. The conquered walls of Mutina,[86] besieged under his

auspices, shall sue for peace; Pharsalia shall be sensible of him, and

Philippi,[87] again drenched with Emathian gore; and the name {of one

renowned as} Great, shall be subdued in the Sicilian waves; the Egyptian

dame too, the wife[88] of the Roman general, shall fall, vainly trusting

in that alliance; and in vain shall she threaten, that our own Capitol

shall be obedient to her Canopus.[89] Why should I recount to thee the

regions of barbarism, {and} nations situate in either ocean? Whatever

the habitable world contains, shall be his; the sea, too, shall be

subject to him. Peace being granted to the earth, he will turn his

attention to civil rights, and, as a most upright legislator, he will

enact laws. After his own example, too, will he regulate manners; and,

looking forward to the days of future time, and of his coming posterity,

he will order the offspring born of his hallowed wife[90] to assume both

his own name and his cares. Nor shall he, until as an aged man he shall

have equalled {his glories with} like years,[91] arrive at the abodes of

heaven and his kindred stars. Meanwhile, change this soul, snatched from

the murdered body, into a beam of light, that eternally the Deified

Julius may look down from his lofty abode upon our Capitol and Forum.”

Hardly had he uttered these words, when the genial Venus, perceived by

none, stood in the very midst of the Senate-house, and snatched the

soul, just liberated {from the body}, away from the limbs of her own

Cæsar, and, not suffering it to dissolve in air, she bore it amid the

stars of heaven. And as she bore it, she perceived it assume a {train

of} light and become inflamed; and she dropped it from her bosom. Above

the moon it takes its flight, and, as a star, it glitters, carrying a

flaming train with a lengthened track; and, as he beholds the

illustrious deeds of his son, he confesses that they are superior to his

own, and rejoices that he is surpassed by him. Although {Augustus}

forbids his own actions to be lauded before those of his father, still

Fame, in her freedom and subject to no commands, prefers him against his

will; and, in {this} one point, she disobeys him. Thus does Atreus yield

to the glories of the great Agamemnon; thus does Theseus excel Ægeus,

{and} thus Achilles Peleus. In fine, that I may use examples that equal

themselves, thus too, is Saturn inferior to Jove. Jupiter rules the

abodes of heaven and the realms of the threefold world:[92] the earth is

under Augustus: each of them is a father and a ruler. Ye Gods, the

companions of Æneas,[93] for whom both the sword and the flames made a

way; and you, ye native Deities, and thou, Quirinus, the father of the

City, and thou, Gradivus, the son of the invincible Quirinus, and thou,

Vesta, held sacred among the Penates of Cæsar; and, with the Vesta of

Cæsar, thou, Phœbus, enshrined in thy abode, and thou, Jupiter, who

aloft dost possess the Tarpeian heights, and whatever other {Deities} it

is lawful and righteous for a Poet to invoke; late, I pray, may be that

day, and protracted beyond my life, on which the person of Augustus,

leaving that world which he rules, shall approach the heavens: and

{when} gone, may he propitiously listen to those who invoke him.

And now I have completed a work, which neither the anger of Jove, nor

fire, nor steel, nor consuming time will be able to destroy! Let that

day, which has no power but over this body {of mine}, put an end to the

term of my uncertain life, when it will. Yet, in my better part, I shall

be raised immortal above the lofty stars, and indelible shall be my

name. And wherever the Roman power is extended throughout the vanquished

earth, I shall be read by the lips of nations, and (if the presages of

Poets have aught of truth) throughout all ages shall I survive in fame.

[Footnote 83: _Numidians._--Ver. 754. The Numidians under Syphax,

together with Juba, King of Mauritania, aided Cato, Scipio, and

Petreius, who had been partizans of Pompey, against Julius Cæsar,

and were conquered by him.]

[Footnote 84: _Pontus._--Ver. 756. Cæsar conquered Pharnaces, the

son of Mithridates, king of Pontus, in one battle. It was on this

occasion, according to Suetonius, that his despatch was in the

words, ‘Veni, Vidi, Vici,’ ‘I came, I saw, I conquered.’]

[Footnote 85: _Son of Atreus._--Ver. 805. This was Menelaüs, from

whom Paris was saved by Venus. See the Iliad, book III.]

[Footnote 86: _Mutina._--Ver. 823. This was a place in Cisalpine

Gaul, where Augustus defeated Antony, and took his camp.]

[Footnote 87: _Philippi._--Ver. 824. Pharsalia was in Thessaly,

and Philippi was in Thrace. He uses a poet’s license, in treating

them as being the same battle-field, as they both formed part of

the former kingdom of Macedonia. Pompey was defeated by Julius

Cæsar at Pharsalia, while Brutus and Cassius were defeated by

Augustus and Antony at Philippi. The fleet of the younger Pompey

was totally destroyed off the Sicilian coast.]

[Footnote 88: _The wife._--Ver. 826. Mark Antony was so

infatuated as to divorce his wife, Octavia, that he might be

enabled to marry Cleopatra.]

[Footnote 89: _Canopus._--Ver. 828. This was a city of Egypt,

situate on the Western mouth of the river Nile.]

[Footnote 90: _His hallowed wife._--Ver. 836. Augustus took Livia

Drusilla, while pregnant, from her husband, Tiberius Nero, and

married her. He adopted her son Tiberius, and constituted him his

successor.]

[Footnote 91: _With like years._--Ver. 838. Julius Cæsar was

slain when he was fifty-six years old. Augustus died in his

seventy-sixth year.]

[Footnote 92: _Threefold world._--Ver. 859. This is explained as

meaning the realms of the heavens, the æther and the air; but it

is difficult to guess exactly what is the Poet’s meaning here.]

[Footnote 93: _Companions of Æneas._--Ver. 861. He probably

refers to the Penates which Æneas brought into Latium. Dionysius

of Halicarnassus says that he had seen them in a temple at Rome,

and that they bore the figures of two youths seated and holding

spears.]

EXPLANATION.

The Poet having fulfilled his promise, and having brought down his

work from the beginning of the world to his own times, concludes it

with the apotheosis of Julius Cæsar. He here takes an opportunity of

complimenting Augustus, as being more worthy of divine honours than

even his predecessor, while he promises him a long and glorious

reign. Augustus, however, had not to wait for death to receive

divine honours, as he enjoyed the glory of seeing himself worshipped

as a Deity and adored at altars erected to him, even in his

lifetime. According to Appian, he was but twenty-eight years of age

when he was ranked among the tutelar Divinities by all the cities of

the empire.

The Romans, who deduced their origin from Æneas, were flattered at

the idea of Venus interesting herself in behalf of her posterity,

and securing the honours of an apotheosis for Julius Cæsar. The

historical circumstances which Ovid here refers to were the

following:--After Julius Cæsar had been murdered in the Senate

house, Augustus ordered public games to be instituted in his honour.

We learn from Suetonius, that during their celebration a new star,

or rather a comet, made its appearance, on which it was promulgated

that the soul of the deified Julius had taken its place among the

stars, and that Venus had procured him that honour. It was then

remembered, that the light of the Sun had been unusually pallid the

whole year following the death of Cæsar; this which is generally

supposed to have been caused by some spots which then appeared on

the disk of the sun, was ascribed to the grief of Apollo. Various

persons were found to assert various prodigies. Some said that it

had rained blood, others that the moon and stars had been obscured;

while others, still more imaginative, asserted that beasts had

uttered words, and that the dead had risen from their graves.

The sorrow of the Gods and of nature at the untimely death of Julius

being thus manifested, Augustus proceeded to found a temple in his

honour, established priests for his service, and erected a statue of

him with a star on its forehead. He was afterwards represented in

the attitude of ascending to the heavens, and wielding a sceptre in

his hand. While flatterers complimented Augustus upon the care which

he had taken to enrol his predecessor among the Deities, there were

some, the poet Manilius being of the number, who considered that

heaven was almost over-peopled by him. Augustus, however, was not

the sole author of the story of the apotheosis of Julius Cæsar. The

people had previously attempted to deify him, though opposed by

Cicero and Dolabella. In the funeral oration which was delivered

over Julius Cæsar by Antony, he spoke of him as a God, and the

populace, moved by his eloquence, and struck at his blood-stained

garments and his body covered with wounds, were filled with

indignation against the conspirators, and were about to take the

corpse to the Capitol, there to be buried; but the priests would not

permit it, and had it brought back to the Forum, where it was burnt.

Dio Cassius says, that the Roman people raised an altar on the spot

where the body had been burnt, and endeavoured to make libations and

to offer sacrifices there, as to a Divinity, but that the Consuls

overthrew the altar. Suetonius says, that a pillar was also erected

to him, of about twenty feet in height, with the inscription,

‘parenti patriæ,’ ‘To the father of his country,’ and that for some

time persons resorted to that spot to offer sacrifices and to make

vows. He adds, that he was made a Divinity by a public decree, but

he does not say at what time.

THE END.

London: Printed by William Clowes and Sons, Limited,

Stamford Street and Charing Cross.

* * * * *

* * * *

* * * * *

_Errors and Anomalies noted by transcriber_

Abbreviations in the form “II.XIV Exp.” mean “Book II, Fable XIV,

Explanation” (appended to most Fables).

Hyphenization is inconsistent--for example, the forms “sea monster”

and “sea-monster” both occur--and is not marked unless one form is

clearly anomalous. Errors and omissions in Greek diacritical marks

have been silently corrected.

VIII.I

he ordered the halsers of the fleet to be loosened

[_variant spelling of “hawsers”_]

VIII.II

FABLE II. [FABLE VI.]

They immediately sent ambassadors [ambasssadors]

VIII.V

and do not trust thyself [_invisible h_]

IX.II

Fn. 22: _Branching holm oak._ [_body text has “holm-oak”_]

IX.V

(if I could {only} recall what has been destined) [recal]

X.I

for the newmade bride [_elsewhere “new-made” with hyphen_]

Exp.: Orpheus, too, is supposed to have [to]

X.VIII

Fn. 43: Clarke translates it ‘Coysts,’

[_Clarke (1752) has “costys”, but this is hardly less obscure._]

Fn. 48: whether the festival [_invisible e in “the”_]

X.IX

FABLE IX. [FABLE VI.]

XI.III

with the steel {scissars}, [_attested variant spelling_]

XI.VI

Fn. 31: _The Magnetes._ [Magnete]

XII.III, IV

Fn. 38: the two-fold form of the Centaurs

[_elsewhere “twofold” without hyphen_]

XII.V, VI

thou shouldst have a forgetfulness [forgetfuless]

XIII.I

FABLE I. [_error for “FABLES I. AND II.”?_]

who could better succeed the great Achilles [succed]

XIII.III, IV Exp.

Le Clerc considers him [consideres]

XIII.V, VII

Fn. 64: from the Greek word [work]

XIII.VII

the hatred of the Cyclop [Cylop]

XIV.II Exp.

An aged woman presented to Tarquinius Superbus three books

[_text unchanged: error for “nine books”_]

XIV.V

they attended our footsteps [foosteps]

XIV.VI

Fn. 28: so called from the whiteness [ths]

XIV.X Exp.

The story of the heron [_invisible y_]

XIV.XII, XIII

Fn. 59: the apartments on the ground floor [grouud]

XV.II, III

If any thing is noxious,

[_word “If” missing at line-beginning (Latin “siqua nocent”)_]

XV.II, III

and her agreable food [_spelling unchanged_]

Fn. 10: _The goat is led._ [_body text has “was led”_]

Fn. 13:

_The line-endings of this footnote are missing, apparently through

printing error. Reconstructed words are shown in {braces}. The word

given as “then” might be “also” or any word of similar length:_

... was an athlete of such stren{gth}

... with a blow of his fist, and {then}

... and afterwards to devour it. {His}

[_page break in footnote: remainder is clear_]

Fn. 31: ... See Book IV. l. 285 [_invisible l_]

Fn. 49: flourishing in the time of Pythagoras

[_invisible t in “time”_]

XV.IV, V, VI Exp

According to Euripides [Acccording]

_Variant Names_

This is not intended to be a complete list.

Dieresis is unpredictable; forms such as “Alcathöe” and “Pirithöus”

are common, and have been silently corrected. Since the ligatures “æ”

and “œ” are used consistently, dieresis in “oe” and “ae” can be assumed

even when not explicitly indicated.

Treatment of names in Ia- (pronounced as two syllables) is inconsistent.

“Iäsion” and “Iänthe” are regularly written with dieresis, while

“Iarbas”, “Iapyx”, “Iapygia” are written without.

The forms “Lapithean” and “Lapithæan” both occur.

The “Lilybœus” of Books I-VII is now correctly written “Lilybæus”,

but Erysichthon (with y or upsilon) is written “Erisicthon”.

As in Books I-VII, spellings in “-cth-” (Erisicthon, Erectheus) are

used consistently in place of “-chth-” (-χθ-). Similarly, Phaëthon

is written “Phaëton”.

_Punctuation_

_Invisible periods (full stops) at line-end have been silently supplied.

Unless otherwise noted, items in the following list were missing the

closing quotation mark, either single or double._

Introduction:

published by Joseph Davidson, [. for ,]

VIII.II Exp.

...the one resembled Minos, and the other Taurus. [invisible .]

VIII.IV

brandished with their broad points. [, for .]

Fn. 33: ... the sons of Aphareus. [invisible .]

VIII.V

“Come,” said he, “famous Cecropian [second , invisible]

VIII.VII

nor has any woman been standing {here}.’ [” for ’]

Fn. 100: Ver. 846. [invisible . in “Ver.”]

----: ‘Tandem, demisso in viscera censu;’ [invisible ;]

----: swallowed down all his estate into his g--ts.’

[_Clarke writes out “guts”_]

X.IV

serves nectar to Jove.”

X.VI

changed into hard rocks.”

X.VIII

or take away from them, the polished quivers.”

X.IX

Fn. 58: ‘... in his boyish face!’

X.X

Fn. 64: ‘... riding in her light chair. [missing ’]

Exp.: during that festival.” / This notion of the mourning

[_open quote at beginning of final paragraph instead of close

quote at end of previous paragraph_]

XI.I

After they, in their rage [superfluous “ at beginning]

XI.VII

Fn. 39: ... ‘The ends or points of the sail-yards, [missing ‘]

Fn. 42: ’tis the dreadful kind of death [invisible ’ in ’tis]

Fn. 51: they lost all recollection [invisible -coll-]

Fn. 54: ... Ver. 663. [, for . in “Ver.”]

XII.I, II

Fn. 16: ‘He overset him ...’ [invisible ‘]

XII.III, IV

Fn. 21: a people of Thessaly, who, [invisible ,]

Fn. 22: Clarke renders these lines, ‘Come, tell us... by any one?’

... the old blade replied.’ [_mismatched quotes as shown_]

Fn. 27: Clarke renders ... ‘goblets of blood.’

[_if this is an error for “gobbets”, it is Clarke’s error_]

XII.V, VI

of the dispute to them all. [superfluous ” at end]

XIII.I

Fn. 40: ... Helenus, the son of Priam. [invisible ,]

XIII.VII

“‘But didst thou {but} know me well [missing inner ‘]

... retained that ancient name.”

Exp.: Elpe, the daughter of the king, carried her off. [, for .]

XIV.II

Exp.: which was in consequence called ‘Byrsa.’ [missing ‘]

XIV.VI

‘And yet thou shalt not escape me,’ she said

he sped more swiftly than usual, [invisible ,]

“‘The setting Sun [missing inner ‘]

XV.II, III

Fn. 9: Clarke translates ‘Non utilis auctor,’

XV.IV, V, VI Exp

‘But,’ as the same author says [missing ‘]

XV.VII

Fn. 76: for ‘colubris,’ ‘snakes.’ [missing ‘ in “‘snakes’”]

XV.VIII

Fn. 84: ‘Veni, Vidi, Vici,’ [invisible ,’]

_Footnote Numbers_

Numbers begin from 1 in each Book. Almost all Books had duplications in

the sequence, usually in the form “17*”; some had omissions. In this

e-text, footnotes have been renumbered consecutively within each Book,

without duplication.

Bk. VIII:

Note 6: tag missing in text

... that thou dost desert me?: extraneous footnote tag 7, no note

Notes 39-79: printed as 38*, 39-78

Notes 80-101: printed as 78*, 79-99

Bk. IX:

Notes 49-80: printed as 48*, 49-79

Bk. X:

Note 47: tag misprinted as 74

Note 50-65: 50 omitted, printed as 51-66

Note 66: 67 omitted, printed as 68

Bk. XI:

Notes 36-63: printed as 35*, 36-62

Note 51: tag (50) missing in text

Bk. XII:

Notes 49-55: 49 omitted, printed as 50-56

Note 56: misprinted as 59 (for 57)

Bk. XIII:

Notes 31-41: 31 omitted, printed as 32-42

Notes 42-51: printed as 42*, 43-51

Notes 52-78: 52 omitted, printed as 53-79

Bk. XIV:

Note 6: tag missing in text

Note 19: footnote and tag misprinted as 17

Notes 20-27: printed as 18-25

Notes 28-32: 26 omitted, printed as 27-31

Notes 33-41: 32 omitted, printed as 33-41

Notes 42-63: 42 omitted, printed as 43-64

Bk. XV:

Notes 9-11: 9 omitted, printed as 10-12

Note 10: tag (11) missing in text

Notes 12-33: 13 omitted, printed as 14-35

Notes 34-63: printed as 35*, 36-64

Notes 64-84: printed as 64*, 65-84

Notes 85-93: 85 omitted, printed as 86-94