Jfci.177 * r HARPER'S CLASSICAL LIBRARY. THE WORKS OF VIRGIL, LITERALLY TRANSLATED. * , & ? V ** * 4 THE WORKS OF VIRGIL. LITERALLY TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH PROSE, WITH NOTES, BY DAVIDSON. A NE\T EDITION, REVISED, WITH ADDITIONAL NOTES, THEODORE ALOIS BUCKLEY, OF CHRIST CHURCH. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, 829 & 881 PEAEL S,TREET. 1859. "* PREFACE. THE object of the publishers in issuing the present volume was not so much to produce a new book, as to render an old and, in many respects, a good one, more suited to the present state of scholarship, and the exi- gences of the student. With this view the translation has been carefully compared with Wagner's text, and with the principal commentaries ; many thousand alterations, involving either closer accuracy in translation or a stricter adher- ence to the construction, have been introduced ; and, while the brief historical and mythological notes of the original work have been retained for the use of the tyro, attention has also been paid in the editor's further illustrations to the requirements of the more advanced scholar. 2051520 vi PREFACE. The brief Memoir of Virgil contains every fact neces- sary to be known by the general student, and nothing more. In criticising a poet, whose taste, rather than his invention, is to be commended, it is easy to offend many, and please none ; to draw comparisons, but fail of con- viction. THEODORE ALOIS BUCKLEY, CHRIST CHURCH. MEMOIR. PUBLIUS VIRGILIUS MARC was born on the 15th of October, B. c. TO, at Andes, a little village near Mantua. His mother's name was Maia, and his father was prob- ably a small landowner. Great attention must have been bestowed upon the education of our poet, as he appears to have been thoroughly imbued with the spirit of ancient philosophy by his master, Syron. Delicacy of health, and the probable want of influence arising from his not being a Roman citizen by birth, no doubt prevented his attention to the more rising professions of war and oratory, and contributed to strengthen his natural inclination for a retirement sacred to poetry and agriculture. The fatal issue of the battle of Philippi, in B. c. 42, placed Mark Antony and Octavianus at the head of affairs, and the latter quickly began, on his return, to reward his soldiers with allotments of land. To make way for these new occupants, the old possessors had to give up their own estates, and among these sufferers was Virgil. The particulars of the case are insufficiently viii MEMOIR. known to us, but Virgil probably owed the subsequent restitution of his estate (between B. c. 42 and 40) to the advice and intercession of Asinius Pollio. The first Eclogue is commonly regarded as a thank-offering of the poet to Augustus. About the same time Virgil became acquainted with the proverbial patron of men of genius, Maecenas, at whose mansion his friendship with Horace probably commenced. The writings of the latter show that the most cordial intimacy must have subsisted between these distinguished poets and their liberal entertainer. Critics seem to agree in placing the completion of the Georgics in B. c. 31, while his Eclogues were no doubt of an earlier date. As Theocritus formed the model of these brief pastorals, so the Greek agricultural and astronomical poems of Hesiod, Aratus, Nicander, and others, whose works are only known to us in fragments, furnished the materials, and often the language, of the Georgics of VirgiL The jEneid must have occupied our poet's thoughts for a long time, although we have no certain data of its commencement and progress. 1 At whatever time, how- ever, it was begun, the poet appears to have regarded it as an unfinished production at the time of his death, an opinion in which modern critics have unanimously coincided. On the return of Augustus from Samos in the year B. c. 20, he met Virgil at Athens. An intended tour 1 A summary of some of the principal suppositiors on this head will be found in Mr. George Long's article " Virgilius," in Smith's Biographi- cal Dictionary. MEMOIR. j x through Greece was prevented by his failing health, and Virgil died soon after his arrival at Brundusium, on the 2d of September, B. c. 19. His remains were carried to Naples, which had been his favorite place of residence, and, if we may believe Donatus, the fol- lowing inscription, from the poet's own hand, was placed on the tomb. " Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthenope. Cecini pascua, rura, duces." Although Virgil had lived with the greatest liberality, and had been studiously mindful of the fulfillment of filial duty, he left considerable property, accumulated by the liberality of his friends. His manners were modest and retiring ; his disposition distinguished by amiable urbanity and unassuming gentleness. Nor was his fortune inferior to his merits. He lived in the best age of Home, among the best spirits of that age, and enjoyed the delights of fame without the persecutions of envy and the sacrifice of character. If not possessed of the mighty inventive genius of a Homer or ^Eschy- lus, he was beyond all others in the true perception of elegance, in the unaffected love of his subject, and in the exquisite finish and sublimity of his episodes. VIRGIL'S BUCOLICS. ECLOGUE I. Virgil, in this Eclogue, celebrates the praises of Augustus, for restoring to him his lands, of which he had been dispossessed, having been bestowed upon the veteran soldiers who had fought in the cause of Augustus, at the battle of Philippi, B. c. 42. Tityrus personates Virgil, or probably his father, and M-elib a city in the north of Italy on the Mincio, in the neighbor- hood of which Virgil was born. 4 "Quo"=:"ad quam." This is a common usage in poetry, but is scarcely to be imitated in prose. See Muncker on Hyginus, Fab. 3. B. 6 " Depellere." It must be remembered that Virgil's village, Andes, stood on high ground, and hence the road to the city lay downward. B. " Viburnum" is properly the " wayfaring tree." B". 7 Urbs is emphatically applied to Rome. So Tibull. i. 9, 61, (i Te canet agricola, e magna cum venerit urbe." B, ECL. i. 5174. BUCOLICS 3 pregnant ewes ; nor noxious diseases of the neighboring flock shall hurt them. Happy old man ! here, among well- known streams and sacred fountains, you will enjoy the coo) shade. On this side, a hedge planted at the adjoining bound ary, whose willow blossoms are ever fed on by Hyblaean bees," shall often court you by its gentle hummings to indulge repose. On the other side, the pruner beneath a lofty rock shall sing to the breezes : nor meanwhile shall either the hoarse wood-pigeons, thy delight, or the turtle from his lofty elm, cease to coo. T. Sooner therefore shall the fleet stags pasture high in the air, and the seas leave the fish naked on the shore ; sooner, the bounds of each being traversed, shall the Parthian 9 exile drink the Arar, or Germany the Tigris, than his countenance be effaced from my breast. M. But we must go hence ; some to the parched Africans, 10 some of us shall visit Scythi-a, and Oaxes the rapid [river] of Crete, and the Britons, totally separated from all the world. Ah ! shall I ever hereafter, after a length of time, with wonder behold my native territories, and the roof of my poor cot piled up with turf; some ears of corn, 11 my [only] kingdom? Shall a ruffian soldier possess these well-cultivated fields ? a barbarian, these my fields of standing corn? See! to what extremity discord hath reduced us wretched citizens. See ! for whom we have sown our fields. Now, Meliboeus, graft your pear-trees; in order range your vines. Begone, my * Hyblsean bees, from Hybla, a mountain of Sicily, celebrated for its excellent honey. * Parthian, etc. Parthia, now part of Persia, a country of Asia. The Arar, or Saone, a river of France, which falls into the Rhone at Lyons. Germany, a large country of Europe, to the north of Italy. The Tigris, a river of Asia, forming a junction with the Euphrates. 10 Africans, etc. Africa, one of the three divisions of the ancient world. Scythia, a general name given by the ancients to the extreme northern parts of Europe and Asia. Oaxes, a river in the southern part of the island of Crete. The Britons, the inhabitants of Britain, which some of the ancients believed was once joined to the continent of Europe. 11 So the later commentators ; but I am still inclined to follow Serviug in interpreting aristas " corn seasons." He observes, " quasi rusticua per aristas numerat annos." See my note on Soph. Ant. 340. Bind. So Silius It. viii. 61, " Dum flavas bis tondet messor aristas." Auso- nius, however, probably understood it the other way, if we may judre from his imitation, Id. 3, " Salve haerediolum majorum regna meorum." B. 4 BUCOLICS. ECL. i. 7584. u. 120. goats, once a happy flock, begone : no more shall I, stretched out in my verdant grot, henceforth behold you hanging far above me from a rock with bushes overgrown. No carols shall I sing; no more, my goats, as I feed you, shall you browse the flowery cytisus and bitter willows. T. Yet here this night you may take up your rest with me on green leaves. We have mellow apples, soft chestnuts, and plenty of fresh-pressed curd. And now the high tops of the villages afar smoke, and larger shadows fall from the lofty mountains. ECLOGUE H. The subject of this Eclogue is copied from Theocritus. The shepherd Cory- don is deeply enamored of Alexis, an ungrateful youth of great beauty. ALEXIS. THE shepherd Corydon burned 1 for beauteous Alexis, the darling of his master ; nor had he any thing to hope. Only among the thick beeches, high embowering tops, he continu- ally came : there, in solitude, with unavailing fondness, he cast forth to the mountains and the woods these undigested [complaints] : Ah, cruel Alexis, for my songs hast thou no care ? on me hast thou no pity ? thou wilt surely at last" compel me to die. Even the cattle now pant after shades and cool retreats ; now the thorny brakes shelter even the green lizards ; and Thes- tylis pounds the garlic and wild thyme, strong-scented herbs, for the reapers spent with the violent heat. But to the hoarse grasshoppers in company with me the thickets resound, while under the scorching sun I trace thy steps. Was it not better to endure the rueful spite and proud disdain of Amaryllis? Would it not [have been better to endure] Menalcas, though he was black, though thou wast fair? Ah, comely boy, trust not too much to complexion. White privets fall neglected ; the purple hyacinths are gathered. By thee, Alexis, I am neglected; nor dost thou inquire who I am; how rich in 1 For this Grecism compare Hermesianax, 37, Kate pev Nemes. Eel. ii. 1, " Formosam Donacen puer Idas et puer Alcon arde- bant." B. * The full force of " denique" seems to be, " What tlien ? will you force me," etc. B. ECL. IL 2048. BUCOLICS. 5 flocks, how abounding in snow-white milk.* A thousand ewes of mine stray on the mountains of Sicily. I want not milk in summer ; I have it new even in the cold weather. I warble the same airs 'which Theban Amphion* was wont, when on Attic Aracynthus* he called his herds together. Nor am I so deformed : upon the shore I lately viewed myself, when the sea stood unruffled by the winds. I will not fear Daphnis, thyself being judge, if my image never deceives me. O would it but please thee to inhabit with me our mean rural retreats and humble cots, and to pierce the deer, and to drive together a flock of kids to the green mallow ! In the woods along with me thou shalt rival Pan in singing. Pan* first taught [men] to join several reeds with wax ; Pan guards both the sheep and the shepherds. Nor let it displease thee to rub thy lip with a shepherd's reed. What did Amyntas not do to learn this same art ? I have a pipe of seven unequal reeds compactly joined, of which Damoetas some time ago made me a present, and dying, said, Thou art now its second master. Damoetas said : the foolish Amyntas envied. Be- sides [I have] two young he-goats I found in a valley not safe, whose skins even now are speckled with white ; each day they drain both the udders of an ewe ; these I reserve for thee. Long Thestylis has begged to have them from me ; and she shall do so, since my presents are disdained by you. Come hither, O lovely boy ; behold the nymphs bring thee lilies in full baskets. For thee, fair Nais, cropping the pale violets 7 and heads of poppies, joins the daffodil and flower of 8 I follow Anthon's punctuation. But Servius defends " nivei pecoris." There seems little difference. B. * Amphion, the famous king of Thebes, who built the walls of that city ; the stones whereof he is said to have made to dance into their places by the music of his lyre. He is called Dircseus, either from Dirce, his step-mother, whom he put to death for the injuries she had done to bis mother, Antiope ; or from a fountain in Bceotia of that name. 6 Aracynthus was a town on the confines of Attica and Boeotia, where was the fountain Dirce : it is called Actaeo, Attic, from Acta or Acte, the country about Attica, Ovid. Met. lib. ii. 720, "Sic super Actaeas agilis Cyllenius arces inclinat cursus," 6 Pan, the god of shepherds, chiefly worshiped in Arcadia. B. 7 i. e. gilliflowers or wall-flowers. The term " pale" is here applied to denote a pale, tawny hue, not mere whiteness, as Anthon has ob- served. B (5 BUCOLICS. ECL. n. 4873. sweet-smelling dill. Then, interweaving them with cassia, 8 and other fragrant herbs, sets off the soft hyacinths with saf- fron marigold. Myself will gather for thee quinces hoary with tender down, and chestnuts which my Amaryllis loved. Plums I will add of waxen hue. On this fruit" too shall honor be conferred. And you, O laurels, I will crop; and thee, O myrtle, next : for, thus arranged, you mingle sweet perfumes. Corydon, thou art a clown. Alexis neither minds thy presents ; nor, if by presents thou shouldst contend, would tolas yield. Alas, alas, what was the bent of my wretched mind ? Undone, I have let the south wind loose among my flowers, and the boars in my crystal springs. Ah, madman, whom dost thou fly ? The gods themselves have dwelt in woods, and the Trojan Paris. Let Pallas herself inhabit the citadels she has erected. Let woods above all things delight us. The grim lioness pursues the wolf, the wolf on his part the goat ; the wanton goat pursues the flowery cytisus ; Cory- don thee, O Alexis. His own peculiar pleasure draws on each one. See, the steers bring home the plow hung upon the yoke, and the retreating sun doubles the growing shadows ; but me love still consumes. For what bounds can be set to love? Ah, Corydon, Corydon, what frenzy hath possessed thee ? Half-pruned is thy vine on the leafy elm. 10 Why rather triest 11 thou not to weave, of osiers and pliant rush, some one at least of those implements which thy work requires. Thou wilt find another Alexis, if this disdains thee. 8 The " spurge plant," or " mountain widow- waile," not the aromatic plant of the same name. ANTHON. * " Pomum" is literally " an apple," but it is also used as a general term for all kinds of fruit 10 Vines were trained to elms. So Hor. Ep. L 13, 3, " amicta vitibua ulmo." B. u Literally, " but do you rather," i. e. " than go on in this mad way." ECL. in. 127. BUCOLICS. ECLOGUE IIL This Eclogue exhibits a trial of skill in singing, between Damcetas and Me- palcas. Palsemon, who is chosen judge, after hearing them, declares his inability to decide such an important controversy. MENALCAS, DAMOSTAS, PALSEMON. M. TELL me, Damcetas, whose 1 is that flock ? Is it that of Meliboeus ? D. No ; but ^Egon's. ^Egon lately intrusted it to my care. M. Ah sheep, ever a luckless flock; while he himself ca- resses Neaera, and fears that she may prefer me to him, this hireling shepherd milks his ewes twice in an hour; and the juice 2 is filched from the flock, and the milk from the lambs. D. Remember, however, that these scandals should with more reserve be charged on men. We know both who [cor- rupted] you, and in what sacred grot, while the goats looked askance ; but the good-natured nymphs smiled. M. Then, I suppose, when they saw me with a felonious bill hack Mycon's elm-grove and tender vines. D. Or here by these old beeches, when you broke the bow and arrows of Daphnis : which when you, cross-grained Me- nalcas, saw gi fen to the boy, you both repined, and had you not, by some means or other, done him a mischief, you had burst [for envy]. M. What can masters do, when pilfering slaves are so auda- cious ? Miscreant ! did I not fee thee entrap that goat of Damon, while his mongrel barked with fury ? And when I cried out, Whither is he now sneaking off? Tityrus, assemble your flock ; you skulked away behind the sedges. D. Ought he not, when vanquished in singing, to give me the goat which my flute by its music won ? If you know it not, that same goat was my own : and Damon himself owned it to me, but alleged that he was not able to pay. M. You [vanquish] him in piping ? Or was there ever a wax-jointed pipe in your possession? Wast thou not wont, thou dunce, in the cross-ways to murder a pitiful tune on a squeaking straw ? 1 " Cujum," from the obsolete " cujus, -a, -m." B. 9 i. e. animal lymph, as Edwards observes. Cicero Tusc. Q. ii. 17, " Subdue cibum unum diem athlete, ferre non posse exclamabit." B. 8 BUCOLICS. ECL. ni. 2859. D. Are you willing, then, that each of us try by turns what we can do ? This young heifer I stake ; and lest you should possibly reject it, she comes twice a day to the milking-pail : two calves she suckles with her udder : say for what stake you will contend against me. M. I dare not stake any thing with thee from the flock : for I have a sire at home, I have a harsh step-dame : and twice a day both of them number the cattle, and one the kids. But what thou thyself shalt own of far greater value, since thou choosest to be mad, I will stake my beechen bowls, the carved work of divine Alcimedon, 3 round which a curling vine, super- added by the skillful carver's art, mantles the clustering berries diffusely spread by the pale ivy. In the midst are two figures, Conon ; and, who was the other ? He who with his wand dis- tributed among the nations the whole globe ; [who taught] what seasons the reaper, what the bent plowman, should observe. Nor have I yet applied my lips to them, but I keep them carefully laid up. D. For me too the same Alcimedon made two bowls, and with soft acanthus 4 wreathed their handles : Orpheus in the midst he placed, and the v/oods following. Nor have I yet ap- plied my lips to them, but keep them carefully laid up. If you consider the heifer, you have no reason to extol your bowls. M. By no means shalt thou this day escape : I will come to any terms you challenge. Let but that very person who comes (lo, it is Palsemon) listen to this strain : I will take care that you shall not challenge any henceforth at singing. D. Come on, then, if thou hast aught [to sing] ; in me there shall be no delay : nor do I shun any one. Only, neighbor Palsemon, weigh this with the deepest attention ; it is a matter of no small importance. P. Sing, since we are seated on the soft grass ; and now every field, now every tree, is budding forth : now the woods look green ; now the year is most beauteous. Begin, Damcetas : then you, Menalcas, follow. Ye shall sing in alternate verses : the Muses love alternate verses. 8 Alcimedon, an excellent carver, but of what country is uncertain. Conon, a Greek astronomer of Samos, the cotemporary and friend of Archimedes, who, probably, was the other figure mentioned by the poet. * Plin. Ep. v. 6, " Acanthus in piano mollis, et, pene dixerim, liquidus." It is the modern " Brankursine." B. ECL. in. 60 83. BUCOLICS. 9 D. From Jove, ye Muses, 5 let us begin: all things are full of Jove : he cherishes the earth ; by him are my songs esteemed. M. And me Phoebus loves : for Phoebus 6 are still with me his appropriate gifts, the laurel and sweet-blushing hyacinth. D. Galatea, wanton girl, pelts me with apples, 7 and flies to the willows, but wishes first to be seen. M. But my flame Amyntas voluntarily offers himself to me ; so that now not Delia's 8 self is more familiar to our dogs. D. A present is provided for my love : for I myself marked the place where the airy wood-pigeons have built. M. What I could, I sent to my boy, ten golden apples gathered from a tree in the wood : to-morrow I will send him ten others. D. O how often, and what things Galatea spoke to me ! Some part, ye winds, waft to the ears of the gods. M. What avails it, O Amyntas, that you despise me not in your heart, if, while you hunt the boars, I watch the toils. D. Tolas, send to me Phyllis : it is my birthday. When for the fruits I sacrifice a heifer, come thyself. M. lolas, I love Phyllis above others : for at my departure she wept, and said, Adieu, fair youth, a long adieu. D. The wolf is fatal to the flocks ; showers to ripened corn ; winds to the trees ; to me the anger of Amaryllis. M. Moisture is grateful to the sown corn ; the arbute to weaned kids ; the limber willow to the teeming cattle ; to me, Amyntas alone. 8 Muses, goddesses who presided over poetry, music, etc. The nine Muses were called the Pierian Sisters, from Pieria in Macedonia, where they were born. Virgil also calls them Sicilian Muses, because Theoc- ritus, the celebrated pastoral poet, was a native of Sicily ; and Libefhrian nymphs, from Libethra, a mountain of Boeotia, in Greece. 9 Phoebus, a name given to Apollo. The " laurel" refers to his mistress Daphne, who was changed into that tree, while flying from her lover. B. 7 The apple, under the Latin name of which (malum) the Romans comprehended also the quince, the pomegranate, the citron, the peach, etc., was sacred to Venus, whose statues sometimes bore a poppy in one hand and an apple in the other. A present of an apple, or a partaking of an apple with another, was a mark of affection ; and so, also, to throw an apple at one. To dream of apples was also deemed by lovers a good omen. ANTHON. 8 Delia. Diana was so called, because she was born in the island of Delos. 1* 10 BUCOLICS. ECL. ra. 84105. D. Pollio loves my muse, though rustic : ye Pierian Sisters, feed a heifer for your reader. M. Pollio himself too composes unrivaled verses : feed [for him] the bull which already butts with the horn, and spurns the sand with his feet. D. Let him who loves thee, Pollio, rise to the same state to which he rejoices that thou [hast risen] ; for him let honey flow, and the prickly bramble bring forth amomum. M. Who hates not Bavius" verse, may love thine, O Maavius ; and the same may yoke foxes, and milk he-goats. D. Ye swains who gather flowers, and strawberries that grow on the ground, O fly hence ; a cold snake lurks in the grass. 10 M. Forbear, sheep, to advance too far ; it is not safe trusting to the bank ; the ram himself is but now drying his fleece. .D. Tityrus, from the river remove your browsing goats; I myself, when it is time, will wash them all in the pool. M. Pen up the sheep, ye swains : if the heat should dry up the milk as of late, in vain shall we squeeze the teats with our hands. D. Alas, how lean is my bull amid the fattening vetch ! the same love is the bane of the herd and of the herdsman. M. Surely love is not the cause with these : they scarcely stick to their bones. Some evil eye or other bewitches my tender lambs. D. Tell me (and you shall be my great Apollo), where heaven's circuit extends no farther than three ells. 11 9 Bavius and Maevius, two contemptible poets in the age of Augustus, contemporary with Virgil. 10 The Greek proverb is, vird iravri J.iQy anopinof, [" under every stone a scorpion,"] in Carcinus apud Athen. xv. 15. With regard to the epithet, " frigidus," Kiessling, on Theocr. xv. 58, quotes a remark of the Scholiast on Nicander Th. 291, to the effect that the epithet V^P^f is applied to all reptiles in a similar manner. B. * Numerous explanations have been given to the enigma here stated, some making the reference to be to a well ; others, to a pit in the center of Rome, in the Comitium, etc. The best solution, however, is that of Asconius Pedianus, who heard Virgil himself say, that he meant to al- lude to a certain Ccelius, a spendthrift at Mantua, who, having run through all that he possessed, retained merely enough ground for a sepulcher : and that this very sepulcher, embracing about three ells in extent, is what Damcetas refers to in the text, the whole enigma turning upon the similarity in form and sound between cceli, "of heaven," and Cceli (i. e. Ccelii), ' ; of Codius." AJJTHOX. ECL. HI. 106 111. IT. 115. BUCOLICS. U M. Tell me in what land flowers grow, inscribed with the names of kings; 11 and have Phillis to thyself alone. P. It is not for us to determine so great a controversy be- tween you ; both you and he deserve the heifer ; and whoever [so well] shall sing the fears of sweet [successful] love, and experimentally describe the bitterness of [disappointment]. 13 Now, swains, shut up your streams ; the meads have imbibed enough. ECLOGUE IV. , > Virgil, in this Eclogue, is supposed by some to refiw to the birth of Marcel- ' lus, the son of Octavia, the sister of Augustus ; or to a son of his patron, ' ' the consul Pollio, to whom the Eclogue is inscribed. Others consider it to be founded on ancient predictions respecting the Messiah, and apply it to our blessed Saviour. POLLIO. YE Sicilian Muses, let us sing somewhat higher strains. Vineyards and lowly tamarisks delight not all. If rural lays we sing, let those lays be worthy of a consul's ear. The last era, of Cumaean 1 song, is now arrived : The great series of ages begins anew. Now, too, returns the virgin Astraea," returns the reign of Saturn ; now a new progeny is sent down from high heaven. Be thou but propitious to the infant boy, under whom first the iron age shall cease, and the golden age over all the world arise, O chaste Lucina; now thy own Apollo reigns. While thou too, Pollio, while thou art consul, this glory of our age shall make his entrance ; and the great months begin to roll. Under thy conduct, whatever vestiges of our guilt remain, shall, being done away, release the earth from fear forever. He shall partake the life of gods, shall see 11 The allusion is to the hyacinth, which has, according to a poetic legend, the letters AI marked on its petals, not only as a note of sorrow for the death of Hyacinthus, but also as constituting half the name of Ajax, i. e. Ataj-. AXTHON. 13 There is much uncertainty respecting the reading of this passage. Anthon ingeniously transposes " amores" and "amaros." But I can not help thinking that "there is no occasion to alter the common reading. B. 1 Cumasan song, from Cuma3, a city of Italy, north-west of Naples, in the vicinity of which resided the celebrated Cumaean SibyL 2 Astraea, in the mythology of the ancients, was the goddess of Justice, who resided on earth during the reign of Saturn, or the golden age. Being shocked by the impiety of mankind, she returned to heaven, and became one of the twelve signs of the zodiac, under the name of Virgo. 12 BUCOLICS. ECL. iv. 15 49. heroes mingled in society -with gods, himself be seen by them, and rule the peaceful world with his father's virtues. Mean- while the earth, O boy, as her first offerings, shall pour thee forth every where, without culture, creeping ivy with lady's glove, and Egyptian beans with smiling acanthus intermixed. The goats of themselves shall homeward convey their udders distended with milk; nor shall the herds dread huge over- grown lions. The very cradle shall pour thee forth attractive flowers. The serpent also shall die ; and the poison's fallacious plant shall die: the Assyrian spikenard shall grow in every soil. But soon as thou shalt be able to read the praises of heroes, and the achievements of thy sire, and to understand what virtue is, 3 the field shall by degrees grow yellow with soft ears of corn ; blushing grapes shall hang on the rude brambles and hard oaks shall distill the dewy honey. Yet some few footsteps of ancient vice shall remain to prompt [men] to brave the sea in ships, to inclose cities with walls, and cleave furrows in the earth. There will then be another Tiphys, and another Argo 4 to waft chosen heroes: there shall be likewise other wars: and great Achilles 6 shall once more be sent to Troy. After this, when confirmed age shall have ripened thee into man, the sailor shall of himself renounce the sea ; nor shall the naval pine barter commodities : all lands shall all things produce. The ground shall not endure the harrow, nor the vineyard the pruning-hook ; the sturdy plowman, too 1 , shall now release his bulls from the yoke. Nor shall the wool learn to counterfeit various colors : but the ram himself shall in the meadows tinge his fleece, now with sweet-blushing purple, now with saffron dye. Scarlet shall spontaneously clothe the lambs as they feed. The Destinies, harmonious in the established order of the Fates, sung to their spindles : " Ye ages, run on thus." Dear offspring of the gods, illustrious increase of Jove, set forward on thy way to signal honors ; the time is now at * Servius rightly understands the successive studies of poetry and philosophy, as they are enumerated in Plato Protag. 43. B. 4 Argo, the name of the ship which carried Jason and his fifty -four companions to Colchis, to recover the golden fleece. Tiphys, who was pilot of the ship, died before reaching Colchis. The Argonautic expedi- tion happened about 1263 B. 0. 6 Achilles, the bravest of all the Greeks in the Trojan war, where he performed prodigies of valor. He slew Hector, but was himself at last slain by Paris. ECL. IV. 50 63. v.l 12. BUCOLICS. 13 hand. See the world with its convex weight nodding to thee, the earth, the regions of the sea, and heavens sublime : See how all things rejoice at the approach of this age. O that my last stage of life may continue so long, and so much breath as shall suffice to sing thy deeds ! Neither Thracian Orpheus,* nor Liuus, shall surpass me in song, though his mother aid the one, and his sire the other, Calliopea Orpheus, and fair Apollo Linus. Should even Pan with me contend, Arcadia's self being judge, even Pan should own himself overcome, Arcadia's self being judge. Begin, sweet babe, to distinguish thy mother by thy smiles ;' ten months brought on thy mother tedious qualms. Begin, young boy ; that child on whom his parents never smiled, nor god ever honored with his table, nor goddess with her bed. ECLOGUE V. In this Eclogue, the shepherds Menalcas and Jtopsns celebrate the funeral eulogium of Daphnis. MENALCAS, MOPSUS. ME. SINCE, Mopsus, we are met, both skillful swains, you in piping on the slender reed, I in singing verses, why have we not sat down here among the elms intermixed with hazels ? Mo. You, Menalcas, are my superior : it is just that I be ruled by you ; whether under the shades that waver by the fanning zephyrs, or rather into this grotto we repair : see how the wild vine with scattered clusters hath spread the grotto. ME. Amyntas alone in our mountains may vie with tkee. Mo. What if the same should vie with Phoebus' self in song ? ME. Begin you, Mopsus, first; whether you are disposed to sing the passion of Phyllis, 1 or the praises of Alcon, or the strife of Codrus ; begin : Tityrus will tend the browsing kids. * Orpheus, the son of (Eagrus, king of Thrace, and the muse Calliope, celebrated for his masterly skill in music. 7 Heyne wrongly refers " risu" to the mother's smile. B. 1 The names here introduced, namely, Phyllis, Alcon, and Codrus, be- long not to real characters, but to fictitious pastoral personages. Phyllis, therefore, must not be confounded with the daughter of Lycurgus, king of Thrace, who was abandoned by Demophoon, nor Codras with the early king of Athens. ANTHON. 14 BUCOLICS. ECL. T. 1351. Mo. Nay, I will rather try those strains which lately I in- scribed on the green bark of the beech tree, and sang and noted them by turns : then bid Amyntas vie with me. ME. As far as the limber willow is inferior to the pale olive, and humble lavender to crimson beds of roses ; so far is Amyn- tas, in my judgment, inferior to you. Mo. But, shepherds, cease further words : we have reached the grot. The nymphs wept Daphnis cut off by cruel death ; ye hazels and ye streams witnessed [the mourning of] the nymphs, when the mother, embracing the hapless corpse of her son, reproached both gods and stars with cruelty. The swains, O Daphnis, then forgat to drive their fed cattle to the cooling streams : no quadruped either tasted of the brook, or touched a blade of grass. The savage mountains, Daphnis, and the woods, can tell that even the African lions mourned thy death. Daphnis taught to yoke Armenian tigers in the chariot ; Daphnis, to lead up the dances in honor of Bacchus, and wreathe the pliant wands with soft leaves. As the vine is the glory of the trees, as grapes are of the vine, as the bull is of the flock, as standing corn of fertile fields ; so thou wast all the glory of thy fellow-swains. Ever since the Fates snatched thee away, Pales 4 herself, and Apollo too, have left the fields. Luckless darnel, and the barren oats, spring up in these furrows, where we were wont to sow the plump barley. Instead of the soft violet, instead of the purple narcissus, the thistle springs up, and the thorn with its sharp prickles. Strew the ground with leaves, ye shepherds, form a shade over the fountains : these rites Daphnis for himself ordains. And form a tomb ; and on that tomb inscribe this epithet : I am Daphnis of the groves, hence even to the stars renowned, the shepherd of a fair flock, fairer myself. ME. Such, matchless poet, is thy song to me, as slumbers to the weary on the grass ; as in scorching heat to quench thirst from a salient rivulet of fresh water. Nor equal you your master in the pipe only, but also 3 in the voice. t Happy swain, you shall now be the next to him. Yet, I will sing in my turn these verses of mine, such as they are, and exalt * Pales, the goddess of sheepfolds and of pastures, was worshiped with great solemnity among the Romans. 3 I have supplied the ellipse of " et," with Burm. on Phaedr. ProL L6. B. ECL. v. 5079. BUCOLICS. 15 your Daphnis to the stars : Daphnis I will raise to the stars ; me too Daphnis loved. Mo. Can aught be more acceptable to me than such a pres- ent ? The swain himself was most worthy to be sung, and Stimichon hath long since praised to me that song of thine. ME. Daphnis, robed in white, admires the courts of heaven, to which he is a stranger, and under his feet beholds the clouds and stars. Hence mirthful pleasure fills the woods and every field, Pan and the shepherds, and the virgin Dryads.* The wolf doth neither meditate plots against the sheep, nor are any toils set to insnare the deer ; good Daphnis delights in rest. For joy, even the unshorn mountains raise their voices to the stars : now the very rocks, the very groves, resound these notes : a god, a god, he is, Menalcas. O be propitious and indulgent to thy own ! Behold four altars ; lo, Daphnis, two for thee,* and two for Phoebus. Two bowls foaming with new milk, and two goblets of fat oil, will I present to thee each year : and chiefly, enlivening the feast with plenty of the joys of Bacchus, 8 before the fire if it be winter ; if har- vest, in the shade, 7 1 will pour thee forth Ariusian wine, a new kind of nectar. Damoetas and Lyctian ^Egon shall sing to me : Alphesiboeus shall mimic the frisking satyrs. These rites shall be ever thine, both when we pay our solemn an- niversary vows to the nymphs, and when we make the circuit of the fields. While the boar shall love the tops of mountains ; while fishes love the floods ; while bees on thyme shall feed, and grasshoppers on dew ; thy honor, name, and praise shall still remain. As to Bacchus and Ceres, 8 so to thee the 4 Dryads, nymphs who presided over the woods. 5 " Lo ! two (altars) for thee, Daphnis, two larger ones for Phoebus." Observe that altaria is here in opposition with aras understood. This passage shows plainly that the distinctive difference between ara and aUare is here meant to be observed. Ara is an altar of smaller size, on which incense, fruits of the earth, and similar oblations are offered up ; aLtare is an altar of larger size, on which victims are burned. This serves to explain, also, what immediately follows. To Daphnis, as to a deified hero, no bloody offerings are to be made ; the oblations are to consist merely of milk, oil, and wine. ANTHON. 6 Bacchus first taught the use of the vine, etc., and was therefore called the God of wine. Ariusia, i. e. Chios, now Scio, an island in the Archipelago, celebrated for its excellent wine. 7 Cicero de Senect. 14, " Me vero delectant et pocula minuta atque rorantia, et refrigeratio restate, et vicissim aut Sol aut ignis hibernus." B. 8 Ceres, the goddess of corn and of harvests. 16 BUCOLICS. ECL. v. 80 90. TL 1 13. swains shall yearly perform their vows : thou too shalt bind them by their vows. Mo. What, what returns shall I make to thee for so excellent a song ? For neither the whispers of the rising south wind, nor shores lashed by the wave, nor rivers that glide down among the stony vales, please me so much. ME. First I will present you with this brittle reed. This taught me, " Corydon for fair Alexis burned." This same hath taught me, " Whose is this flock ? is it that of Meli- bceus?" Mo. But do you, Menalcas, accept this sheep-hook, beautiful for its uniform knobs and brass, which Antigenes never could obtain, though he often begged it of me ; and at that time he was worthy to be loved. ECLOGUE VI. Silenus, a demi-god and companion of Bacchus, was noted for his love of wine and skill in music : here he relates concerning the formation of the world, and the nature of things, according to the doctrine of the Epicu- reans. SILENUS. Mr Thalia is the first who deigned to sport in Syracusian strain, nor blushed to inhabit the woods. When I offered to sing of kings and battles, Apollo twitched my ear, and warned me thus: A shepherd, Tityrus, should feed his fattening sheep, and sing in humble strain. 1 Now will I, O Varus 2 (for there will be many who will desire to celebrate thy praises, and record disastrous wars), exercise my rural muse on the slender reed. I sing not unbidden strains : yet whoso enamored [with my strains], whoso shall read even these, to him, O Varus, our tamarisks, each grove shall sing of thee : nor is any page more acceptable to Phoebus, than on whose front the name of Varus is inscribed. Proceed, O Muses. 1 Deductum dicere carmen, a humble or slender song; a metaphor taken from wool spun out till it becomes fine and slender. So Hor. lib. ii. 1, 225, Tenui deducta poemata filo. And TibuL lib. i. 3, 86, Deducat plena stamina longa colo. 1 Varus, Quintilius Varus, a Roman proconsul, who commanded an army in Germany, where he lost his life, with three whole legions, A. D. 10. *OL. vi. 13 35. BUCOLICS. 17 Chromis and Mnasylus, the youthful swains, saw Silenus lying asleep in his cave, his veins, as usual, swoln with yesterday's debauch. His garlands just 3 fallen from his head, lay at some distance, and his heavy flagon hung hy its worn handle. Taking hold of him (for often the sire had amused them both with the promise of a song), they bind him with his own wreaths. ^Egle associates herself with them, and comes un- expectedly upon the timorous swains ; JEgle, fairest of the Naiads ; and just as he is opening his eyes, she paints his forehead and temples with blood-red mulberries. He, smiling at the trick, says, Why do ye fasten these bonds ? Loose me, swains : it is enough that I have suffered myself to be seen. Hear the song which you desire : the song for you ; for her I shall find another reward. At the same time he begins. Then you might have seen the Fauns and savages frisking in measured dance, then the stiff oaks waving their tops. Nor rejoices the Parnassian rock so much in Phoebus :* nor do Rhodope and Ismarus' so much admire Orpheus. For he sang how, through the mighty void,' the seeds of earth, and air, and sea, and pure fire, had been together ranged ; how from these principles all the elements, and the world's tender' globe itself, combined into a system ; then how the soil began to harden, to shut up the waters apart* within the sea, and by s Tantum capti delapsa, " Having fallen to such a distance from his head." It is very hard to say what is here the true meaning of tantum. If we join it with procul, it makes a most harsh construction ; if we ren- der it "only," it clashes with procul, unless this stand for juxta, which is too forced; if, with Voss., we make it equivalent to modo, "just," it appears frigid and tame. We have ventured, therefore, to regard it as standing for in tantum. ANTHON. 4 Parnassain rock. Parnassus, a celebrated mountain of Phocis in Greece, sacred to Apollo and the Muses, remarkable for its two summits. 6 Ehodope and Ismarus, two high mountains in Thrace. 6 Magnum per inane. The Epicureans, whose philosophy is here sung, taught that incorporeal space, here called magnum inane, and cor- poreal atoms were the first principles of all things; their void space they considered as the womb, in which the seeds of all the elements were ripened into their distinct forms. 7 " Tener," Anthon says, " because just created." But I prefer under- standing it of the plastic nature of the materials, with Pliny, Hist. Nat ii. 3. B. 8 Et discludere Nerea ponto. Literally, "to shut up Nereus apart in the sea," i. e. to separate the waters into their channel,- Uereus the sea* god being here put for the waters in gener?' 18 BUCOLICS. ECL. vi. 3660. degrees to assume the forms of things ; and how anon the earth was astonished to see the new-born sun shine forth ; and how from the clouds, suspended high, the showers descend : when first the woods began to rise, and when the animals, yet few, began to range the unknown mountains. He next tells of the stones which Pyrrha 9 threw, the reign of Saturn, the fowls of Caucasus, 10 and the theft of Prometheus. To these he adds the fountain where the sailors had invoked aloud Hylas 11 lost; how the whole shore resounded Hylas, Hylas. And he soothes Pasiphae 13 in her passion for the snow-white bull : happy woman if herds had never been ! Ah, ill-fated maid, what madness seized thee ? The daughters of Prcetus 13 with imaginary lowings filled the fields ; yet none of them pursued such vile embraces of a beast, however they might dread the plow about their necks, and often feel for horns on their smooth foreheads. Ah, ill-fated maid, thou now art roaming on the mountains ! He, resting his snowy side on the soft hyacinth, ruminates the blenched herbs under some gloomy oak, or courts some female in the numerous herd. Ye nymphs, shut up now, ye Dictaan 14 nymphs, shut up the avenues of the forests, if any where by chance my bullock's wandering footsteps may offer to my sight. Perhaps some heifers may lead him on to the Gortynian stalls, 16 either 9 Pyrrha, the wife of Deucalion, in whose age all mankind was de- stroyed by a deluge, these two excepted. On consulting the oracle, they were directed to repair the loss, by throwing stones behind their backs ; those which Pyrrha threw were changed into women, and those of Deucalion into men. " Caucasus, a lofty mountain of Asia, between the Euxine and Caspian Seas. Prometheus, having made a man of clay, which he animated with fire stolen from heaven, was, for the impiety, chained to a rock on the top of Caucasus, where a vulture continually preyed upon his liver. u Hylas, a youth, the favorite of Hercules, who accompanied the Argonautic expedition, but was drowned in the Ascanius, a river of Bithynia, which afterward received his name. " Pasiphae, the wife of Minos, king of Crete, who disgraced herself by her unnatural passion. 13 Proetus, king of Argolis, whose three daughters became insane for neglecting the worship of Bacchus, or, according to some, for preferring themselves to Juno. 14 Dictaaan nymphs, Cretan nymphs from Dicte, a mountain in the island of Crete, where Jupiter was worshiped. 15 Gortynian stalls. Gortyna, an ancient city of Crete, the country around which produced excellent pastures. ECL. vi. 6077. BUCOLICS. 19 enticed by the verdant pasture, or in pursuit of the herd. Then he siugs the virgin, 18 charmed with the apples of the Hesperides : then he surrounds the sisters of Phaeton" with the moss of bitter bark, and raises the stately alders from the ground. Then he sings how one of the Sister Muses led Gallus, wandering by the streams of Permessus, 18 to the Aonian mountains ; and how the whole choir of Phoebus rose up to do him honor : how Linus, the shepherd of song divine, his locks adorned with flowers and bitter parsley, thus addressed him : Here, take these pipes the Muses give thee, which before [they gave] to the Ascraen 19 sage ; by which he was wont to draw down the rigid wild ashes from the mountains. On these let the origin of Grynium's grove" be sung by you ; that there may be no grove in which Apollo may glory more. Why should I tell how [he sang] of Scylla 21 the daughter of Nisus ? or of her whom, round the snowy waist, begirt with barking monsters, fame records to have vexed" the Dulichian ships, and in the deep abyss, alas, to have torn in pieces the trembling sailors with sea-dogs ? 18 i. e. Atalanta, daughter of Schoeneus, king of Scyros, or, according 'to others, of lasius, king of Arcadia, who was famed for her beauty, which gained her many admirers. She consented to bestow her hand on him that could outrun her, though he was to die if he lost the race. Many of her suitors had perished in the contest, when Hippomenes offered himself; during the race, he dropped, at intervals, three golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides, which Atalanta stopping to pick up, he arrived first at the goal, and obtained her in marriage. 17 The sisters of Phaeton, according to the mythologists, bewailing his unhappy end, were changed into poplars by Jupiter. 18 Permessus, a river issuing from Mount Helicon in Aonia (Bceotia), sacred to the Muses. 19 Ascrsean sage. Hesiod, so named from Ascra, a village of Bceotia in Greece, where he was born. 80 Grynium's grove. Grynium, a town on the coast of JEolia in Asia Minor, where Apollo had a temple with a sacred grove. 21 Scylla, a daughter of Nisus, king of Megara, feigned to have been changed into a lark. Dulichian ships, those of Ulysses, who was king of the island of Dulichium. After the fall of Troy, Ulysses, in his return home, encountered incredible hardships, and with difficulty escaped the rocks of Scylla, so named from a daughter of Typhon, who was changed by Circe into a frightful monster, when, throwing herself into the sea between Italy and Sicily, she became the dangerous rocks which con- tinued to bear her name. " Virgil's use of " vexare" is discussed by Gellius, ii. 6, and Macrob. Sat vi. 7. From their remarks, the word harass best appears to ex- press its meaning. B. 20 BUCOLICS. ECL. vi. 7886. rn. 19. or how he described the limbs of Tereus" transformed ? what banquets and what presents Philomela for him pre- pared ? with what speed he sought the deserts, and with what wings, ill-fated one, he fluttered over the palace once his own ? All those [airs] he sings, which happy Eurotas" heard, and bade its laurels learn, when Phoebus played of old. The val- leys, stricken [with the sound], re-echo to the stars ; till Vesper 56 warned [the shepherds] to pen their sheep in the folds, and recount their number; and came forth from re- luctant Olympus. ECLOGUE Vn. In tills Eclogue, Virgil, as Melibceus, gives an account of a poetical contest between Thyrsis and Corydon. MELIBCEUS, CORYDON, THYRSIS. M. DAPHNIS by chance sat down under a whispering 1 holm-oak, and Corydon and Thyrsis had driven their flocks together; Thyrsis his sheep, Corydon his goats distended with milk : both in the flower of their age, Arcadians both, 2 equally matched at singing, and ready to answer. To this quarter, while I was fencing my tender myrtles from the cold, the he-goat himself, the husband 3 of the flock, from me had strayed away : and I espy Daphnis : when he in turn saw me, he cried out, Come hither quickly, Melibceus ; your goat and 23 Tereus, a king of Thrace. He married Progne, a daughter of Pan- dion, king of Athens, who, in revenge for his having violated her sister Philomela, and cut out her tongue, killed his son Itys, and served him up at a banquet. According to the poets, they were all changed into different kinds of birds. 84 Eurotas (Vasili Potamo), a river of Laconia, washing ancient Sparta, and falling into the Mediterranean. 25 Vesper, the planet Venus, or the evening star. 1 The rustling of the breeze in the leaves is thus said ijji&vpl&iv in Greek. B. * i. e. both skilled in music, which was greatly cultivated among the Arcadians. No reference to their country is intended, but merely to their musical excellence. B. 8 Vir gregis ipse caper. " The he-goat himself, the husband of my flock." (Compare Theocritus, viii. 49: 'Q rpuye TUV ).EVKUV ar/tiv uvep). Observe the force of ipse here, implying that he was followed by the rest of the flock (Wagner, Qusest. Virg. xviii. 2, b.) ; and hence we have, in verse 9th, " caper tibi salvus et ?uxdi." ANTHOX. So Martial, Ep. is. 31, "pecorisque maritus tanigeri." B. ECL. vii. 10 42. BUCOLICS. 21 kids are safe ; and, if you can stay a while, rest under this shade. Hither thy bullocks of themselves will come across the meads to drink. Here Mincius 4 hath fringed the verdant banks with tender reed, and from the sacred oak swarms of bees resound. What could I do ? I had neither Alcippe, nor Phyllis, to shut up at home my weaned lambs ; but there was a great match proposed, Corydon against Thyrsis. After all, I postponed my serious business to their play. In alternate verses, therefore, the two began to contend : alternate verses the Muses would have me record. These Corydon, those Thyrsis, each in his turn recited. C. Ye Libethrian nymphs, my delight, either favor me with such a song as ye did my Codrus 8 (he makes verses next to those of Phoebus) ; or, if we can not all attain to this^here on this sacred pine my tuneful pipe shall hang. T. Ye Arcadian shepherds, deck with ivy your rising poet, that Codrus' sides may burst with envy. Or, if he praise me beyond what I desire, bind my brow with lady's glove, lest his evil tongue should hurt your future poet. C. To thee, Delia, young Mycon [tor me presents] this head of a bristly boar, and the branching horns of a long-lived stag. If this success be lasting, thou shalt stand at thy full length in polished marble, thy legs with scarlet buskin bound. T. A pail of milk and these cakes, Priapus, 6 are enough for you to expect [from me] ; you are the keeper of a poor, ill- furnished garden. Now we have raised thee of marble such as the times admit ; but, if the breed recruit my flock, thou shalt be of gold. C. Galatea, daughter of Nereus, sweeter to me than Hybla's thyme, whiter than swans, fairer than white ivy ; soon as the well-fed steers shall return to their stalls, come, if thou hast any regard for Corydon. T. May I even appear to thee more bitter than Sardinian herbs, 7 more rugged than the furze, more worthless than sea- 4 Mincius, the Mincio, a river in the north of Italy, falling into the Po below Mantua. 6 Codrus, a Latin poet, cotemporary with VirgiL * Priapus, a deity among the ancients, who presided over gardens. He was the son of Bacchus and Venus, and was chiefly worshiped at Lampsacus on the Hellespont. 7 Sardinian herbs, a bitter herb which grew in the island of Sardinia, said to cause convulsions and death. 22 BUCOLICS. ECL. vii. 4368. weed cast upon the shore, if this day be not longer to me than a whole year. Go home, my well-fed steers, if you have any shame, go home. C. Ye mossy fountains, and grass more soft than sleep, and the green arbute-tree that covers you with its thin shade, ward off the midsummer heat from my flock ; now scorching sum- mer comes, now the buds swell on the fruitful tendrils. T. Here is a glowing hearth, and resinous torches ; here is always a great fire, and lintels sooted with continual smoke. Here we just as much regard the cold of Boreas, 8 as either the wolf does the number [of sheep], or impetuous rivers their banks. C. Junipers and prickly chestnuts stand thick ; 9 beneath each tree its apples here and there lie strewn ; now all things smile ; but, were fair Alexis to go from these hills, you would see even the rivers dry. T. The field is parched ; by the intemperature of the air the dying herbage thirsts ; Bacchus has envied our hills the shadow of the vine ; [but], at the approach of our Phyllis, every grove shall look green, and Jove abundantly descend in joyous showers. C. The poplar is most grateful to Hercules, 10 the vine to Bacchus, to lovely Venus 11 the myrtle, to Phoebus his own laurel ; Phyllis loves the hazels : so long as Phyllis loves them, neither the myrtle nor the laurel of Phoebus shall surpass the hazels. T. The ash is fairest in the woods, the pine in the gardens, the poplar by the rivers, the fir on lofty mountains : but if, my charming Lycidas, you make me more frequent visits, the ash in the woods shall yield to thee, and the pine in the gardens. 8 Boreas, the name of the north wind. According to the ancient poets, Boreas was the son of Astraeus and Aurora. 9 Anthon rightly observes that this is the force of " stant." So Luta- tius Placidus on Stat. Theb. X. 157, interprets "stat furor," by "plenus est," quoting this line as an example. "B. 10 Hercules, the most celebrated hero of fabulous history, the son of Jupiter and Alcmena, was, after a life spent in achieving the most in- credible exploits, ranked among the gods, and received divine honors. 11 Venus, a principal deity among the ancients, the goddess of love and beauty. She was the wife of Vulcan, but passionately loved Adonis and Ancbises ; by the latter she became the mother of ^Eneas. ECL. vil. 69, 70. Tin. 121. BUCOLICS. 23 M. These verses I remember, and that vanquished Thrysis in vain contended. From that time Corydon, Corydon is our man. ECLOGUE VIE. This Bucolic contains the strains of Damon for the loss of his mistress ; and Alphesiboeus records the charms of an enchantress. DAMON, ALPHESIBGEUS. THE muse of the shepherds, Damon and Alphesiboeus, whom the heifers, unmindful of their pastures, admired contending, and by whose song tiie lynxes were astonished, and the rivers, having changed their courses, stood still ; the muse of Damon and Alphesiboeus I sing. Whether thou art now passing for me 1 over the rocks of broad Timavus, 2 or cruising along the coast of the Ulyrian Sea ; s say, will that day ever come, when I shall be indulged to sing thy deeds ? say, shall it come that I may be indulged to diffuse over the world thy verses, which alone merit comparison with Sophocles' * lofty style ? With thee my muse commenced ; with thee shall end. Accept my songs begun by thy command, and permit this ivy to creep around thy temples among thy victorious laurels. Scarce had the cold shades of night retired from the sky, a time when the dew on the tender grass is most grateful to the cattle, when Damon, leaning against a tapering olive, thus began : D. Arise, Lucifer,* and preceding usher in the cheerful day ; while I, deceived by the feigned passion of my mistress Nisa, complain ; and to the gods, now that I die (though I have availed me nought in taking them to witness), yet in my last hour appeal. Begin with me, my pipe, Maenalian strains. 1 " Mihi" is the dativus ethicus. B. J Timavus, the Timavo, a river of Italy, rising at the foot of the Alps, and falling into the gulf of Trieste. At its mouth are several small islands containing hot springs. 3 Illyrian Sea, the Adriatic Sea between Italy and Dalmatia, etc. 4 Sophocles, a celebrated tragic poet of Athens, remarkable for sub- limity of style. He was cotemporary with Pericles and Euripides, and died B. c. 406. s . Lucifer, the name of the planet Venus, or morning star ; as Hesperus was of the same planet, or evening star. 24 BUCOLICS. ECU vin. 22 51. Maenalus* always has a vocal grove and shaking pines ; he ever hears the loves of shepherds, and Pan, the first who suf- fered not the reeds to be 7 neglected. Begin with me, my pipe, Msenalian strains. Nisa is bestowed on Mopsus ! what may ~we lovers not expect ? Griffins now shall match with horses, and in the succeeding age the timorous does with dogs shall come to drink. Mopsus, cut your fresh nuptial torches : for thee a wife is on the point of being brought home. Strew the nuts,* bridegroom ; Hesperus for thee forsakes (Eta.* Begin with me, my pipe, Msenalian strains. thou matched to a worthy spouse ! while you disdain all others, and while you detest my pipe and goats, my shaggy eyebrows, and my overgrown beard ; nor believe that any god regards the affairs of mortals. Begin with me, my pipe, Maenalian strains. When thou wast but a child, I saw thee with thy mother fathering the dewy apples on our hedges ; I was your guide ; had then just entered on the year next after eleven, I was then just able to reach the slender boughs from the ground. As soon as I saw thee, how was I undone ! O how an evil error bore me away ! Begin with me, my pipe, Maenalian strains. Now I know what Love is : Ismarus, or Rhbdope, or the remotest Garamantes, 10 produced him on rugged cliffs, a boy not of our race or blood. Begin with me, my pipe, Mse- nalian strains. Relentless Love taught the mother 11 to stain her hands in her own children's blood ; a cruel mother too thou wast : whether more cruel was the mother or more im- pious the boy ? Impious was the boy ; thou, mother, too, wast cruel. Begin with me, my pipe, Msenalian strains. Xow let Masnalus, now Roino, a mountain of Arcadia in Greece, sacred to Pan. It was covered with pine-trees. 7 "Esse"is elegantly omitted after such words as "pati," "sinere," etc. Nemes. Cyn. 70, "Omnia tentantem passL" Apul. de Deo. Socr. " Sejugam veluti debilem passa est." Seneca, Ined. 182, " Quemve secu- rum sinit" Virg. JEn. i. 389, " Nee plura querentem Passa Venus." B. 8 On this custom compare Catull. Epith. p. 98. Muret "Da nucis pueris iners Concubine, satis diu Lucisti nucibus." B. * (Eta, a celebrated mountain, or, more properly, chain of mountains, between Thessaly and Greece Proper. It was so high, that the poets feigned the sun, moon, and stars rose behind it 10 Garamantes, a people in the interior of Africa, now called Zaara. 11 Matrem. This cruel mother is Medea, who to be avenged on Jason for preferring another mistress to her, slew her sons whom she bore to Lim, before his eyes. ECL. viiL 5284. BUCOLICS. 25 the wolf of himself fly from the sheep ; the hard oaks bear golden apples ; the alder bloom with narcissus ; the tamarisks distill rich amber from their barks ; let owls with swans con- tend ; be Tityrus an Orpheus ; an Orpheus in the woods, an Arion ia among the dolphins. Begin with me, my pipe, Mae- nalian strains. Let all things become very mid ocean ; ye woods, farewell. From the summit of yon aerial mountain will I throw myself headlong into the waves : take this last present from me dying. Cease, my pipe, now cease Maenah'an strains. Thus Damon: Ye Pierian muses, say what Alphesibceus sung. We can not all do all things. A. Bring forth the water, and bind these altars with a soft fillet : burn thereon oily vervain and male 13 frankincense, that I may try, by sacred magic spells, to dispossess my love of a sound mind. Only charms are here wanting. My charms, bring Daphnis from the town, bring him home. Charms can even draw down the moon from heaven ; by charms Circe 14 transformed the companions of Ulysses ; the cold snake is in the meads by incantation burst. My charms, bring Daphnis from the town, bricg him home. First, these three threads, with threefold colors varied, I round thee twine ; and thrice lead thy image round these altars. The gods delight in the uneven number. My charms, bring Daphnis from the town, bring him home. Bind, Amaryllis, three colors in three knots ; bind them. Amaryllis, now ; and say, I bind the chains of Venus. My charms, bring Daphnis from the town, bring him home. As this clay hardens, and as this wax dissolves with one and the same fire ; so may Daphnis by my love. Sprinkle the salt cake, and burn the crackling laurels in bitumen. Me cruel Daphnis burns ; I on Daphnis burn this laurel. My charms, bring Daphnis from the town, bring him home. May such love " Arion, a famous lyric poet and musician of the isle of Lesbos. On his return to Corinth from Italy, the mariners formed a plot to murder him for his riches, when he threw himself into the sea, and was carried on the back of a dolphin to Tsenarus in the Morea. 13 i. e. frankincense of the best sort. 11 Circe, a daughter of Sol and Perseis, celebrated for her knowledge of magic and poisonous herbs. She changed the companions of Ulysses into swine; but afterward, at his solicitation, restored them to their former state. 2 25 BUCOLICS. ECL. viii. 85 109. ix. 1, [seize] Daphnis as when a heifer, tired with ranging after the bull through lawns and lofty groves, distracted, lies down on the green sedge by a rivulet, nor is mindful to withdraw from the late hour of night : let such love seize Daphnis, nor let his cure be my concern. My charms, bring Daphnis from the town, bring him home. These garments the faithless one left with me some time ago, the dear pledges of himself; which to thee, O earth, on the very entrance, I now commit : these pledges owe me Daphnis. My charms, bring Daphnis from the town, bring him home. These herbs, and these baneful plants, in Pontus 16 gathered, Moeris himself gave me : in Pon- tus numerous they grow. By these have I seen Mceris trans- form himself into a wolf, and skulk into the woods ; often from the deep graves call forth the ghosts, and transfer the springing harvests to another ground. My charms, bring Daphnis from the town, bring him home. Bring forth the ashes, Amaryllis ; throw them into a flowing brook, 16 and over thy head ; look not back. Daphnis with these I will assail : nought h6 regards the gods, nought my charms. My charms, bring Daphnis from the town, bring him home. See the very ashes have spontaneously seized the altars with quivering flames, while I delay to remove them may it be a happy omen. 'Ti certainly something or other ; and Hylax " in the entrance barks. Can I believe ? or do those in love form to themselves fantastic dreams ? Cease ; for Daphnis comes from the town ; now cease, my charms. ECLOGUE IX. Virgil having .recovered his patrimony through the favor of Augustus. devotes this pastoral to complain against Arius the centurion, who had possession of his lands, and laid a plan for his assassination. LYCIDAS, MCERIS. L. WHITHER, Mceris, do thy feet [lead] 1 thee? are you for the town, whither the way leads ? 7"* / : " Pontus, a country of Asia Minor, bordering on the Euxine : it was the kingdom of Mithridates the Great 18 Rivoque fluenti, the same as in rivnm fluentem, of which construc- tion many examples occur in Virgil. See - !-'** GALLCS. GRANT unto me, O Arethusa, 1 this last essay. A few verses, but such as Lycoris herself may read, I must sing to my Gallus. Who can deny a verse to Gallus? So, when thou glidest beneath the Sicilian wave, may the salt Doris* not intermingle her streams [with thine]. Begin : let us sing the anxious loves of Gallus, while the flat-nosed goats browse the tender shrubs. We sing not to the deaf; the woods re- ply to all. What groves, ye virgin Naiads, or what lawns detained you, while Gallus pined 3 with ill-requited love ? for neither any of the tops of Parnassus, nor those of Pindus, 4 nor Aonian Aganippe, did retard you. The very laurels, the very tamarisks bemoaned him : even pine-topped Msenalus [bemoaned] him as he lay beneath a lonely rock, and over 10 " The same as Ocnus, of whom Virgil says in the tenth Eclogue, Fatidicce Mantus, et Thusci jttius Amnis. He was the founder of Man- tua." SEEVIUS. B. 1 Arethusa, the nymph who presided over the fountain of the same name hi Sicily. a Doris, a sea-nymph, the mother of the Nereids ; here used to ex- press the sea itself. Naiads, nymphs goddesses who presided over rivers and fountains. 3 Observe that " periret" is used to express the ITUKETO, i. e. " wasted away," of Theocr. i. 66. B. 4 Pindus, a mountain between Thessaly and Epirus, sacred to Apollo and the Muses. Aonian Aganippe, a celebrated fountain of Boeotia, of which Aonia was a district. 30 BUCOLICS. ECL. x. 1347. him the stones of cold Lycaeus 5 wept. His sheep too stand around him, nor are they ashamed of us ; nor, divine poet, be thou ashamed of thy flock; even fair Adonis 8 tended sheep by the streams. The shepherd too came up ; the slow-paced herdsmen came; Menalcas came wet from winter-mast. All question whence this thy love ? Apollo came : Callus, he says, why ravest thou thy care ? 7 Lycoris is following another through snows and horrid camps. Silvanus" too came up with rural honors on his head, waving the flowering fennels and big lilies. Pan, the god of Arcadia, came ; whcm we ourselves beheld stained with the elder's purple berries and vermilion. "What bounds, he says, will you set [to mourning] ? Love regards not such matters. Nor cruel love with tears, nor grassy meads with streams, nor bees with cytisus, nor goats with leaves, are satisfied. But he, overwhelmed with grief, said, Yet* you, Arcadians, shall sing these my woes on your mountains ; ye Arcadians, alone skilled in song. Oh how softly then may my bones rest, if your pipe in future times shall sing my loves ! And would to heaven I had been one of you, and either keeper of your flock, or vintager of the ripe grape! Sure whether Phyllis or Amyntas, or whoever else, had been my love (what though Amyntas be swarthy ? the violet is black, and hyacinths are black), they would Lave reposed with me among the willows under the limber vine ; Phyllis had gathered garlands for me, Amyntas would have sung. Here are cool fountains; here, Lycoris, soft mer.ds, here a grove : here with thee I could consume my whole life away. Now frantic love detains me in the service of rigid Mars, in the midst of darts, and adverse foes. Thou, far from thy native land (let me not believe it), beholdest nothing but Alpine snows, 10 and the colds of the Rhine, ah, hard- * Lycseus, a mountain of Arcadia, sacred to Jupiter, and also to Pan. 8 Adonis, a youth, the favorite of Venus : having lost his life by the bite of a wild boar, he was changed into the flower Anemone. 7 ^Esch. Choeph. 223, u i/.arov peAiyta (i. e. " cura'') rV//e in Greece, which was sacred to him. 8 Thule, an island in the most northern parts of the German Ocean, to which the ancients gave the epithet of Ultima. Some suppose that it is the island of Iceland, or part of Greenland, while others imagine it to be the Shetland Isles. 7 Tethys, the chief of the sea-deities, was the wife of Oceanus. The word is often used by the poets to express the sea. 8 Tartarus, the infernal regions, where, according to the ancients, the most impious and guilty among mankind were punished. 8 Proserpine, the daughter of Ceres, and wife of Pluto, who stole her away as she was gathering flowers in the plains of Enna in Sicily. 2* 34 GEORGICS. a. i. 4467. hoary hills, and the crumbling glebe unbinds itself by the zephyr; then let my steer begin to groan under the deep- pressed plow, and the share worn by the furrow [begin] to glitter. That field at last answers the wishes of the covetous farmer, which twice hath felt the sun, twice the cold," har- vests immense are wont to burst his barns. But, before we cleave an unknown plain with the plow- share, let it be our care previously to learn the winds, and various character of the climate, the ways of culture practiced by our forefathers, and the tillage and habits of the soil ; what each country is apt to produce, and what to refuse. Here grain, there grapes, more happily grow ; nurseries of trees elsewhere, and herbs spontaneous bloom. Do not you see, how Tmolus 11 sends saffron odors, India ivory, the soft Sabaeans their frankincense ? But the naked 12 Chalybes [send] steel, Pontus strong-scented castor, Epirus 13 the prime of the Olympic mares. These laws and eternal conditions nature from the beginning imposed on certain places : what time Deucalion first cast stones into the unpeopled world, whence men, a hardy race, sprang up. Come then, let your sturdy steers forthwith turn up a soil that is rich for the first month of the year ; and let the dusty summer bake the scattered clods with mature suns. But, if the land be not fertile, it will be 10 Anthon observes, "The usual custom of the Roman farmers was to plow the land three times, when it fell under the denomination of hard land. The first plowing was in the spring, the second in the summer, the third in autumn (tertiabatur, COLUM. ii. 4). In this way the ground was exposed twice to the heat of the sun, and once to the frost. If, how- ever, the soil was unusually hard and stubborn, a fourth plowing took place at the end of autumn or beginning of winter ; and it is to such a process that the poet here alludes, the land having thus, in the course of its four upturnings with the plow, twice felt the sun and twice the cold." 11 Tmolus, a mountain of Lydia, in Asia Minor, abounding in vines, saffron, etc. Sabaeans, the inhabitants of Saba, a town of Arabia, famous for frankincense, myrrh, and aromatic plants. Chalybes, a people of Pontus, in Asia Minor ; their country abounded in iron mines. IJ If "nudi" be correct, Virgil must speak of the Chalys only as lightly clad (leviter vestiti), as in his direction to husbandmen "to plow and sow naked." But although this would be a very proper way of speaking among people acquainted with this limitation of mean- ing, yet it seems scarcely an apt epithet for a barbarian tribe, dwelling in a cold region. Some years since, I proposed to read " duri." See the supplement to my notes on ApuL de Deo Socr. B. " Epirus (Albania), a country of Greece, famous for its fine breed of horses. B. I. 6896. GEOEGICS. 35 enough to raise it up with a light furrow, even toward the rising of Arcturus : 14 in the former case, lest weeds obstruct the joyous corn ; in the latter, less the scanty moisture for- sake the barren sandy soil. You will likewise suffer your lands after reaping to lie fal- low every other year, and the exhausted field to harden by repose. Or, changing the season, you will sow there yellow wheat, whence before you have taken up the joyful pulse, with rustling pods, or the vetch's slender offspring and the bitter lupine's brittle stalks, and rustling grove. For a crop of flax burns 16 the land: as burn the oats and poppies im- pregnated with Lethsean sleep." But yet your labor will be easy [even though you should sow these kinds of grain] every other year, provided only you be not backward to saturate the parched soil with rich dung, or to scatter sordid ashes upon the exhausted lands: thus, too, your land will rest by changing the grain. Nor, in the meantime, will there be ungratefulness. Often, too, it has been of use to set fire to barren lands, and burn the light stubble in crackling flames : whether the land thence receives secret strength and rich nourishment from a field left fallow; or whether every vicious quality is exhaled by the fire and the superfluous moisture sweats off ; or whether the heat opens more passages, and secret pores, through which the sap may come to the tender blades ; or whether it hardens more, and binds the gaping veins ; that the small showers, or keen influence of the violent sun, or penetrating cold of Boreas, may not parch it up. He, too, greatly benefits the land, who breaks the sluggish clods with harrows, and drags osier hurdles over them (nor does yellow Ceres view him from high Olympus, 17 to no 14 Arcturus, a star near the tail of Ursa Major, whose rising and set- ting was supposed to portend great tempests. In the time of Virgil, it rose about the middle of September. 15 i. e. exhausts. Virgil does not forbid the sowing of flax and pop- pies, but explains that, from their exhausting nature, they are bad crops in rotation after wheat. So Anthon. B. 16 Lethasan sleep. Lethe was one of the rivers of hell, whose waters had the power of causing forgetfulness. " Olympus, a lofty mountain on the confines of Thessaly and Mace- donia, separated from Ossa by the vale of Tempe. The ancients sup- posed that it touched the heavens with its top, and on that account the poets made it the residence of the gods. 36 aEORGICS. B. i. 97130. purpose), and he also who, after the plain has been torn, again breaks through the land; that raises up its ridges, turning the plow across, 18 and gives it frequent exercise and rules his lands imperiously. Pray, ye swains, for moist summers and serene winters. In winter's dust most joyful is the corn, joyful is the field. On no culture does Mysia 19 so much pride herself, and [hence] even Gargarus admires his own harvest. What shall I say of him, who, immediately after sowing the seed, presses on the lands, and levels the heaps of barren sand ; then on the sown corn drives the stream and ductile rills? and when the field is scorched with raging heat, the herbs all dying, lo ! from the brow of a hilly tract he decoys the torrent ; which falling down the smooth rocks, awakes the hoarse murmur, and with gurgling streams allays the thirsty lands ? What of him who, lest the stalk with over-loaded ears bend to the ground, feeds down the luxuriance of the crop in the tender blade, when first the springing corn equals the fur- rows ; and who drains from soaking sand the collected moist- ure of the marsh, chiefly when, in the changeable months, the swelling river overflows, and overspreads all around with slimy mud, whence the hollow dikes sweat with tepid vapor ? After all (when the labors of men and oxen have tried these expedients in cultivating the ground), the voracious goose, the Strymonian" cranes, and succory with its bitter roots, and even the shades are in some degree injurious. The Sire himself willed the ways of tillage not to be easy, and first aroused the fields by art, whetting the skill of mortals with care ; nor suffered he his reign to lie inactive in heavy sloth. Before Jove, no husbandmen subdued the fields ; nor was it even lawful to mark out, or by limits divide the ground. They made all things common gain, and earth of herself pro- duced every thing freely without any one asking. He infused the noxious poison into the horrid serpent, commanded the wolves to 'prowl, and the sea to be stirred ; and he shook the M . A description of " cross-plowing." B. 19 Mysia, a country .of Asia Minor, bordering on Troas. Gargarus, a mountain, or rather a part of Mount Ida, in Troas. 80 Strymonian cranes. Strymon, a river of Macedonia, the ancient boundary between that country and Thrace. B. I. 131164. aEOBGICS. 37 honey from -the leaves, removed fire, and restrained the wine that ran commonly in rivulets ; that experience, by dint of thought, might gradually hammer out the various arts, in furrows seek the blade of corn, and from the veins of flint strike out the hidden fire. Then first the rivers felt the ex- cavated alders ; then the seamen gave the stars their numbers and their names, the Pleiades, 21 Hyades, and the bright bear of Lycaon. Then were invented [the arts of] catching wild beasts in toils, deceiving with birdlime, and encom- passing the spacious lawn with hounds. And now one seek- ing the depths, lashes the broad river with his casting-net; and on the sea another drags his humid lines along. Then [arose] the rigid force of steel, and the flat blade of the grating saw (for the first mortals cleft the splitting wood with wedges) ; then various arts ensued. Incessant labor and want, in hard- ships pressing, surmounted every obstacle. Ceres first taught mortals with steel to turn the ground : when now the acorns and arbutes of the sacred wood failed, and Dodona 22 refused sustenance. Soon too was distress inflicted on the corn ; when noxious mildew eat the stalks, and the lazy thistle shot up its horrid spikes in the field. The crops of corn die ; a prickly wood succeeds, burs and caltrops, and, amid the shining fields, unhappy darnel and barren wild oats bear sway. But unless you both vex the ground by continual harrowings, fright away the birds with a noise, and with the pruning-knife re- strain the shades of the shaded field, and by prayers call down the showers; alas, [while thy labor proves] in vain, thou wilt view another's ample store, and in the woods solace thy hunger by shaking [acorns] from the oak. We must also describe what are the instruments used by the hardy swains, without which the crops could neither be sown nor spring. First, the share, and the heavy timber of the curved plow, and the slow-rolling wains of the Eleusinian mother, Ceres, and sledges and drags, and harrows of unwieldy weight ; 21 Pleiades, a name given to the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione, made a constellation in the heavens. Hyades, the five daughters of Atlas, who were also changed into stars, and placed in the constellation Taurus. Bear of Lycaon. Calisto, the daughter of Lycaon, was changed by Juno into a bear, but Jupiter made her the constellation Ursa Major. 22 Dodona, an ancient city of Epirus, in Greece, where was a sacred grove, with a celebrated oracle and temple of Jupiter. 38 GEORGICS. B. i. 165194. besides the mean osier furniture of Celeus," arbute hurdles, and the mystic fan of Bacchus ; all which, with mindful care, you will provide long beforehand, if glory of a blissful coun- try duly awaits thee. In the first place, 24 in the woods an elm, bent with vast force, is subdued into the plow tail, and re- ceives the form of the crooked plow. To this, at the lower end, are fitted a beam extended to eight feet, two earth-boards, and share-beams with a double back. The light linden also is felled beforehand for the yoke, and the tall beech, and the plow-staff, to turn the bottom of the carriage behind ; and the smoke seasons" the timber hung up in the chimneys. I can recite to you many precepts of the ancients, unless you decline them, and think it not worth while to learn these trifling cares. The thrashing-floor chiefly must be leveled with the huge roller, and wrought with the hand, and con- solidated with binding chalk, that weeds may not spring up, and that overpowered with drought it may not chap. Then various pests baffle us ; often the diminutive mouse has built its cell, and made its granaries ; or the moles, deprived of sight, have dug their lodges under ground ; and in the cavities has the toad been found, and vermin which the earth produces in abundance ; the weevil plunders vast heaps of corn, and the ant, fearful of helpless old age. Observe also, when the almond 28 shall clothe itself abund- antly with blossom in the woods, and bend its fragrant boughs : if the rising fruit abound, in like quantity the corn will follow, and a great thrashing with great heat will ensue. But, if the shady boughs abound with luxuriance of leaves, in vain the floor shall bruise the stalks, fertile only in chaff. I have, indeed, seen many sowers artificially prepare their seeds, and steep them first in saltpeter and black lees of oil, " Celeus, a king of Eleusis, was the father of Triptolemus, whom Ce- res instructed in husbandry. 24 The order is, " ulmus flexa in silvis magna vi domatur in burim, et aceipit formam curvi aratri." ANTHON. Literally, "explores," "searches," i. e., to see if there be any chinks. B. as The term nux is employed by the Roman writers in an extended sense, to denote the almond, the walnut, the hazel-nut tree, etc. Most commonly, however, an epithet is added, to make the meaning more definite ; thus, nuxjuglans, " the walnut ;" nux amygdala, " the almond ;" nux avellana, " the hazel-nut or filbert," etc. ANTHON. B. i. 195223. GEORGICS. 39 that the produce might be larger in the fallacious pods. And though, being hastened, they were soaked over a slow fire, selected long, and proved with much labor, yet have I seen them degenerate, unless human industry with the hand culled out the largest every year. Thus all things, by destiny, hasten to decay, 27 and gliding away, insensibly are driven backward ; not otherwise than he who rows hjs skiff with much ado against the stream, if by chance he slackens his arms, and the tide hurries him headlong down the river. Further, the stars of Arc turns, and the days of the Kids, and the shining Dragon, must be as much observed by us, as by those who, homeward borne across the main, attempt the [Euxine] Sea, 28 and the straits of oyster-breeding Abydos. 29 When Libra makes the hours of day and night equal, and now divides the globe in the middle between light and shades, work your steers, ye swains, sow barley in the fields, till toward the last shower of the inclement winter solstice. Then, too, is the time to hide in the ground a crop of flax, and the poppy of Ceres, and high time to ply your harrows ; while the ground, yet dry, you may, while the clouds are yet suspended. In the spring is the sowing of beans : then thee too, O Medic plant ! 30 the rotten furrows receive, and millet comes, an annual care, when the bright Bull with gilded horns opens the year, and the Dog sets, giving way to the backward star. But if you labor the ground for a wheat-harvest and sturdy grain, and are bent on bearded ears alone, let the Pleiades in the morning be set, and let the Gnosian star 31 of [Ariadne's] blazing Crown depart, before you commit to the furrows the 97 The infinitive is used absolutely to signify what is wont to hap- pen. B. 38 The Euxine (or Black) Sea is situated between Europe and Asia, and communicates with the Mediterranean by the Sea of Marmora and the Dardanelles. 29 Abydos, a city of Asia Minor, on the Hellespont (Dardanelles), opposite to Sestos, in Thrace; famous for the bridge of boats which Xerxes made there across the Hellespont, when he invaded Greece ; and for the loves of Hero and Leander. 80 Medic plant, a species of trefoil, so called, because introduced from Media into Greece. 31 Gnosian star, etc., Ariadne's crown, consisting of seven stars, so called from Gnosus, a city of Crete, where Minos, the father of Ariadne, reigned. Maia, one of the Pleiades. Bootes, a constellation near the Ursa Major, or Great Bear. 40 &EORGICS. B. I. 224256. seed designed, and before you hasten to trust to the unwilling earth the hopes of the year. Many have begun before the setting of Maia; but the expected crop hath mocked them with empty ears. But if you are to sow vetches, and cheap kidney-beans, nor despise the care of the Egyptian lentil ; set- ting Bootes will afford thee signs not obscure. Begin, and extend thy sowing to the middle of the frosts. For this purpose, the golden sun, through the twelve con- stellations of the world, rules the globe measured out into certain portions. Five zones embrace the heavens ; whereof one is ever glowing with the bright sun, and scorched forever by his fire ; round which two furthest ones to the right and left are extended, stiff with cerulean ice and horrid showers. Between these and the middle zones, two by the bounty of the gods are given to weak mortals ; and a path is cut through both, where the series of the signs might revolve obliquely. As the world rises high toward Scythia and Riphsean" hills ; so sloping downward it is depressed toward the south winds of Libya, 3 ' The one pole to us is always elevated ; but the other, under our feet, is seen by gloomy Styx 34 and the ghosts below. 35 Here, after the manner of a river, the huge Dragon glides away with tortuous windings, around and through between the Bears ; the Bears that fear to be dipped in the ocean. There, as they report, either dead night forever reigns in silence, and, outspread, wraps all things up in darkness ; or else Au- rora 3 ' returns thither from us, and brings them back the day ; and when the rising sun firsts breathes on us with panting steeds, there ruddy Vesper lights up his late illuminations. Hence we are able to foreknow the seasons in the dubious sky, hence the days of harvest, and the time of sowing ; and when it is proper to sweep the faithless sea with oars, when to launch the armed fleets, or to fell the pine in the woods in *' Riphsean hills, in the north of Scythia, near the rivers Tanais and Rha. 33 Libya, an extensive country of Africa, lying between Egypt and the Syrtis Major ; by the ancients it was often applied to Africa in general. 34 Styx, one of the rivers of hell, round which it was said to flow nine times. The gods held the waters of the Styx in such veneration, that they always swore by them ; an oath which was inviolable. '* So "profunda Juno," for Proserpine, In Claudian, de Vap. i. 2. B. 38 Aurora, the goddess of the morning. Vesper, the evening star ; often used for the evening, as Aurora is for the morning. B. L 257282. GEORGICS. 41 season. Xor in vain do we study the settings and the risings of the signs, and the year equally divided into four different seasons. If at any time a bleak shower confines the husbandman, then is his time to do many things in season, wnicb, as soon as the sky is serene, would have to be done with expedition. 37 The plowman sharpens the hard edge- of the blunted share, scoops little boats from trees, or stamps the mark on the sheep, or the number on his sacks. Others sharpen stakes and two-horned forks, and prepare Amerine [osier] bands'* for the limber vine. Now let the pliant basket of bramble twigs be woven ; now parch your grain over the fire, now frind it with the stone : for even on holy-days, divine and uman laws permit to perform some works. No religion hath forbidden to clear the channels, to raise a fence before the corn, to lay snares for birds, to fire the thorns, and plunge in the wholesome river a flock of bleating sheep. Often the driver of the sluggish ass loads his ribs with oil, or common apples ; and, in his return from the town, brings back an in- dented mill-stone, or a mass of black pitch. The moon, too, hath allotted days auspicious to works, some in one order, some in another. Shun the fifth : [on this] pale Pluto 38 and the Furies were born. Then at an unholy birth the earth brought forth Coeus, 40 lapetus, and savage Typhoeus, and the brothers who conspired to tear down the skies. For thrice did they essay to pile Ossa 41 upon Pelion, and to roll woody Olympus upon Ossa : thrice the Sire, with his thun- " So this line appears to be explained by Nonius Marc. L p. 512, and M acrob. Sat. vL 3. " Maturare" at times is nearly identical with " pro- perare. " B. 88 Amerine bands, from Ameria, a city of TJmbria, in Italy, which abounded in osiers. *' J Pluto, in ancient mythology, was the son of Saturn and Ops, and brother to Jupiter and Neptune ; in the division of his father's empire, the kingdom of Hell was allotted to him. 40 Coeus, lapetus, etc., famous giants, sons of Coelus and Terra, who, according to the poets, made war against the gods ; but Jupiter at last put them to flight with his thunderbolts, and crushed them under Mount JEtna, in Sicily. 41 Ossa, Pelion, etc., celebrated mountains of Thessaly, in Greece, which the giants, in their war against the gods, were feigned to have heaped on each other, that they might with more facility scale the wall* of heaven. 42 GEORGICS. B. I. 283313. der, overthrew the piled-up mountains. The seventh, next to the tenth, is lucky both to plant the vine, and hreak the oxen caught, and to add the woof to the warp : the ninth is better for flight, adverse to thefts. 4 * Many works too have succeeded better in the cool night ; or when morning sprin- kles the earth with the rising sun. By night the light stub- ble, by night the parched meadows, are better" shorn : the clammy dews fail not by night. And some by the late fires of the winter light, watch all night, and with the sharp steel point torches. Meanwhile, his spouse, cheering by song her tedious labor, runs over the webs with the shrill shuttle ; or over the fire boils down the liquor of the luscious must, and skims with leaves the tide of the trembling caldron. But reddening Ceres is cut down in noontide heat ; and in noontide heat the floor thrashes out the parched grain. Plow naked, 44 sow naked : winter is an inactive time for the hind. In the cold weather the farmers mostly enjoy the fruit of their labor, and, rejoicing with one another, provide mutual enter- tainments : the genial winter invites them, and relaxes their cares ; as when weather-beaten ships have reached the port, and the joyous mariners have planted garlands on the sterns. But it then is the time both to strip the mast of oak, and the bay-berries, the olive, and the bloody myrtle-berries ; then to set springes for cranes, and nets for stags, and to pursue the long-eared hares ; and whirling the hempen thongs of the Baleariau 46 sling, to pierce the does, when the snow lies deep, when the rivers hurtle down the ice. Why should I speak of the storms 46 and constellations of autumn ? and what must be guarded against by swains when the day is now shorter, and the summer milder ? or when the 41 Anthon remarks, " The ninth day would be favorable for the run- away, since the moon would then be of sufficient age to give a good light, and help him on his way. For this very reason, on the other hand, it would be unfavorable for the thief, who prefers darkness." Voss. ad loc. 41 I think the harmony of this verse will be increased by transposing, thus, " Nocte leves stipulse melius," as it is quoted by Jul. Rufin. Schem. Lex. 6. p. 31, ed. Ruhnk. B. 44 i. e., in thin attire. B. 15 Balearian sling, from the Baleares ; a name given to the islands of Majorca and Minorca, in the Mediterranean, because the inhabitants were expert slingera. *" Nonius, i. s. v. tempestas, limits the sense of this word to " turbo vcntorum," I think, scarcely with reason. B. B. I. 313346. GEORGICS. 43 showery springs pours down, the spiky harvest bristles in the fields, and the milky corn swells in the green stalk ? Oft have I seen, when the farmer had just brought the reaper into the yellow fields, and was binding up the barley with the brittle straw, all the battles of the winds engage, which far and wide tore up the full-loaded corn from the lowest roots, and tossed it up : just so, with blackening whirlwind, a wintery storm would drive light straw and flying stubble. Often also an- immense march of waters gathers in the sky, and clouds, col- lected from on high, brew thick an ugly storm of black show- ers : the lofty sky pours down, and with storms of rain sweeps away the joyful corn, and toils of steers : the ditched are filled, and the hollow rivers 47 swell with roaring, and in the steam- ing friths the sea boils. The Sire himself, amid a night of - clouds, launches the thunders with his flaming right hand : with the violence of which mighty earth trembles: the beasts are fled, and through the nations lowly fear hath sunk the hearts of men. He with his flaming bolt strikes down or Athos," or Rhodope, or high Ceraunia : 49 the south winds redouble, and the shower is more and more condensed ; now woods, now shores, moan 'neath the mighty blast. This dreading, observe the months and constellations of the heavens : which way the cold star of Saturn shapes his course, into what circuits Mercury's fiery planet wanders in heaven. Above all, venerate the gods ; and renew to great Ceres the sacred annual rites, 60 offering up thy sacrifice upon the joyous turf, at the expiration of the last days of winter, when the spring .is serene. Then the lambs are fat, and then the wines most mellow ; then slumbers on the hills are sweet, and thick the shades. For thee let all the rural youths adore Ceres ; to whom mix thou the honey-comb with milk and gentle wine ; and thrice let the auspicious victim go round the recent grain ; which let the whole chorus of thy companions accompany in 47 i. e. the mountain streams. Hesych. 6a?.acaa. Kotf.rj, rj xst^piac. B. 48 Athos, a lofty mountain of Macedonia, in Greece, on a peninsula : it is now called Monte Santo, from the number of monasteries erected upon it. Ceraunia, large mountains of Epirus, in Greece, stretching out far into the Adriatic. 43 " Acroceraunia" is more usual. Servius on ./En. iii. B. 50 The poet here alludes to the Ambarvalia, a festival in honor of Ceres, and which was so called because the victim was led around the fields (quod victima ambiret arva) before it was sacrificed. ANTHON. 44 GEORGICS. B. L 347383. jovial mood, and with acclamation invite Ceres into their dwellings ; nor let any one put the sickle to the ripe corn, till, in honor of Ceres, having his temples bound with wreathed oak, he dance in measure uncouth, and sing hvmns. And that we may learn these things by certain signs, both heats and rains, and cold-bringing winds, the Sire himself has appointed what the monthly moon should betoken ; under what sign the south winds should fall ; from what common observations the husbandman should learn to keep his herds nearer their stalls. Straightway, when winds are rising, the friths of the sea with tossirigs begin to swell, and a dry crashing noise to be heard in the high mountains ; or the far-sounding shores to be disturbed, and the murmurs of the grove to increase. Now hardly the billows refrain themselves from the crooked ships, when the cormorants fly swiftly back from the midst of the sea, and send their screams to the shore ; and when the sea-coots sport on the dry beach ; and the heron forsakes the well- known fens, and soars above the lofty cloud. Often too, when wind threatens, you will see the stars shoot precipitate from the sky, and behind them long trails of flame whiten athwart the shades of night ; often the light chaff and fallen leaves flutter about ; or feathers swimming on the surface of the water frisk together. But when it lightens from the quarters of surly Boreas, and when the house of Eurus 61 and Zephyrus thunders, all the fields are floated with full ditches, and every mariner on the sea furls his damp sails. Showers never hurt any unfore- warned : either the airy cranes have shunned it in the deep valleys as it rose ; or the heifer looking up to heaven, hath snuffed in the air with wide nostrils ; or the chattering swallow hath fluttered about the lakes ; and the frogs croaked their old complaint in the mud." And often the ant, drilling her nar- row path, hath conveyed her eggs from her secret cell ; and the mighty bow hath drunk deep ; and an army of ravens, on their return from feeding, have beaten the air and made a noise, with wings close crowded. Now you may observe the various sea-fowls, and those that rummage about the Asian 61 Eurus and Zephyrus, the east and west winds. " Alluding to the metamorphosis of the Lycian peasants into frogf for insulting Latona, Ovid, Met. vi. 376. ANTHOX. B. B. I. 384 409. GEORGICS. 45 meads, in Cayster's 63 pleasant lakes, keenly lave the copious dews upon their shoulders ; now offer their heads to the work- ing tides, now run into the streams, and, sportive, revel vainly in their desire of bathing. Then the impudent crow with full throat invites the rain, and solitary stalks by herself on the dry sand. Nor were even the maids, carding their nightly tasks, ignorant of the approaching storm ; when they saw the oil sputter on the heated sherd, and foul fungous clots grow thick." Nor with less ease may you foresee, and by certain signs discern, sunshine succeeding rain, and open serene skies. For neither are the stars then seen with blunted edge, nor the moon to rise as if indebted to her brother's beams ; nor thin fleecy" clouds to be borne through the sky. Nor do the hal- cyons, beloved by Thetis, 88 expand their wings upon the shore to the warm sun : the impure swine are not heedful to toss about with their snouts the loosened wisps. But the mists seek the lower grounds, and rest upon the plain ; and the owl, observant of the setting sun from the high housetop, practices her evening songs in vain. Nisus in the clear sky appears aloft, and Scylla pays penalty for the purple lock. Wher- ever she flying cuts the light air with her wings, lo, hostile, implacable Nisus, 5 ' with loud screams pursues her through the sky: where Nisus mounts into the sky, she swiftly flying cuts' the light air with her wings. Then the ravens, with com- 13 Cayster, a river of Asia Minor, which falls into the ^gean Sea, near Ephesus. M This was a popular superstition, as we learn from Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 260. B. 66 Cf. Lucret. vi. 503, " veluti pendentia vellera lanae." B. 66 Thetis, one of the sea-deities, daughter of Nereus and Doris and mother of Achilles. 67 Minos having laid siege to Megara, ofwhich Nisus was king, became master of the place through the treachery of Scylla, the daughter of the latter. Nisus had a purple or golden lock of hair growing on his head, and, as long as it remained uncut, so long was his life to last. Scylla, having seen Minos, fell in love with him, and resolved to give him the victory. She accordingly cut off her father's precious lock as he slept, and he immediately died. The town was then taken by the Cretans ; but Minos, instead of rewarding the maiden, disgusted with her unnatural treachery, tied her by her feet to the stern of his vessel, and thus dragged her along till she was drowned. Nisus was changed after death into the bird called the sea-eagle, (d/>.taerof,) and Scylla into that named ciris (icelpif)- and the father continually pursues the daughter, says the legend, to punish her for her crime. ANTHON. 46 GEORGICS. B. I. 410 444. pressed throat, three or four times repeat their clear notes ; and often in their nests aloft, affected with I know not what unusual charm, they rustle togethef among the leaves : the rains now passed, they are glad to revisit their little offspring and beloved nests : not, indeed, I am persuaded, as if they had a spirit of discernment from the gods, or superior knowledge of things by fate ; but when the storm and fluctuating vapors of the air have changed their course, and showery Jove by his south winds condenses those things which just before were rare, and rarefies what things were dense ; the images of their minds are altered, and their breasts now receive different im- pressions (different, while the wind rolled the clouds). Hence that concert of birds in the fields, and the cattle frisking for joy, and the ravens exulting in their caws. But if you give attention to the rapid sun, and the moons in order following; the hour of ensuing morn shall never cheat you, nor shall you be deceived by the treacherous aspect of a serene night. When first the moon collects the returning rays, if with horns obscure she incloses dusky air, a vast rain is preparing for swains and mariners. But, if she should spread a virgin blush over her face, wind will ensue : golden Phoebe 68 always reddens with wind. But if at her fourth rising (for that is the most unerring monitor) she passes along the sky pure and bright, nor with blunted horns ; both that whole day, and all those that shall come after it, till the month be finished, will be free from rains and winds : and the mariners preserved, will pay their vows upon the shore to Glaueus, 6 ' Panopea, and Melicerta, Ino's son. The sun too, both rising and when he sets in the waves, will give signs. The surest signs attend the sun, both those which he brings in the morning, and those when the stars arise. When he shall checker his new-born face with spots, hidden in a cloud, and has fled from view with half his orb, you may then suspect showers : for the south wind, pernicious to trees and corn and flocks, hastens from the sea. Or when 68 Phoebe, a name of Diana, or Luna (the moon) ; as Phoebus is a name of Apollo, or Sol (the sun). ** Glaueus, a fisherman of Anthedon, in Bosotia, son of Neptune and Nais, changed into a sea-deity. Panopea, a sea-nymph, one of the Ne- reids. Melicerta, the son of Athanas and Ino, changed into a sea-god, known also by the names of Palembn and Portumnus. B. I. 445470. GBOEGICS. 47 at the dawn the rays shall break themselves diversely among the thick clouds ; or when Aurora, leaving the saffron-bed of Tithonus 60 rises pale ; ah, the vine-leaf will then but ill de- fend the mellow grapes ; so thick the horrid hail bounds rat- tling on the roofs. This too it will be more advantageous to remember, when, having measured the heavens, he is just setting ; for often we see various colors wander over his face. The azure threatens rain ; the fiery wind. But if the spots begin to be blended with bright fire, then you will see all things embroiled together with wind and storms of rain. Let none advise me that night to launch into the deep, or to tear my cable from the land. But, if, both when he ushers in, and when he shuts up the revolving day, his orb is lucid ; in vain will you be alarmed by the clouds, aud you will see woods waved by the clear north wind. In fine, the sun will give thee signs what [weather] late Vesper brings, from what quarter the wind will roll the clouds serene, what wet Auster 61 meditates. Who dares to call the sun deceiver ? He even forewarns often that hidden tumults are at hand, and that treachery and secret wars are swelling to a head. He also pitied Rome at Caesar's death, when he covered his bright head with murky iron hue, 62 and the impions age feared eternal night ; though at that time the earth too, and ocean's plains, ill-omened dogs, and presaging birds, gave ominous signs. How often have we seen 90 Tithonus, a son of Laomedon, king of Troy, was so beautiful that Aurora became enamored of him, and carried him away to Ethiopia. 61 Auster, the south wind. M " When he shrouded his bright head with a dark ferruginous hue." According to Plutarch (Vit. Cass. c. 90), Pliny (H. N. ii. 30), and Dio Caasius (xlv. 17), the sun appeared of a dim and pallid hue after the assassination of Julius Caesar, and continued so during the whole of the year. It is said, too, that, for want of the natural heat of that luminary, the fruits rotted without coming to maturity. "What Plutarch calls pale- ness, Virgil, it will be perceived, denominates by a stronger term, ferrugo. This, of course, is the license of poetry. The phenomenon mentioned by the ancient writers is thought by some modern inquirers to have been oc- casioned by spots on the sun ; and this is the more probable opinion. There appears, however, to have been an actual eclipse of the sun that same year, in the month of November. ANTHON. 63 ^Etna (Gibello), a celebrated volcanic mountain of Sicily. This immense mountain is of a conical form ; it is two miles in perpendicular height, 100 miles round the base, with an ascent, in some places, of SC miles, and its crater is a circle of about 3 1-2 miles in circumference. 48 GEORGICS. B. i. 471 498. from its burst furnaces boil over in waves on the lands of the Cyclops,'* and shoot up globes of flame, and molten rocks! Germany heard a clashing of arms over all the sky ; the Alps trembled with unwonted earthquakes. A mighty voice too was commonly heard through the silent groves, and specters strangely pale were seen under cloud of night ; and the very cattle (O horrid !) spoke ; rivers stopped their courses, the earth yawned wide ; the mourning ivory weeps in the tem- ples, and the brazen statues sweat. Eridanus,* 4 king of rivers, overflowed, whirling in mad eddy whole woods along, and bore away the herds with their stalls over all the plains. Nor at the same time did either the fibers fail to appear threatening in the baleful entrails, or blood to flow from the wells, and cities to resound aloud with wolves howling by night. Never did more lightnings fall from a serene sky, or direful comets so often blaze. For this Philippi 88 twice saw the Roman armies in intestine war 67 engage ; nor seemed it unbecoming to the gods, that Emathia 88 and the extensive plains of Hsemus should twice be fattened with our blood. Ay, and the time will come, when in those regions the hus- bandman, laboring the ground with the crooked plow, shall find javelins all eaten with corrosive rust, or with his cumbrous harrows shall clash on empty helmets, and marvel at the huge bones in dug-up graves. Ye guardian deities of my country, ye Indigetes 69 and thou 04 Cyclops, a gigantic race of men, sons of Ccelus and Terra: they were Vulcan's workmen in fabricating the thunderbolts of Jupiter, and were represented having only one eye in the middle of their forehead. '* Eridanus, called afterward Padus (the Po), the largest river of Italy, rises in the Alps, after a course of nearly 400 miles, falls into the Adriatic, to the south of the city of Venice. " Philippi, a city of Macedonia, on the confines of Thrace, famous for the defeat of Brutus and Cassius by Antony and Augustus, B. c. 42. By the other battle at Philippi, mentioned here, Virgil is supposed to allude to that between Caesar and Pompey on the plains of Pharsalia, in Thessaly, which was fought near a town also called Philippi, B. c. 48. 67 The force of "paribua telis" is well expressed by Lucan. i. 7, "pares aquilas, et pila minantia pilis," as remarked by Servius. B. 88 Emathia, an ancient name of Macedonia and Thessaly. Hsemus, an extensive chain of mountains through Thrace, etc., in length about four hundred miles. 69 Indigetes, a name given to those deities who were worshiped in particular places, or to such heroes as were deified. B. 1. 498514. GEORGICS. 49 O Romulus, 70 and mother Vesta, 71 who guardest the Tuscan Tiber, 7 * and the palaces of Rome'; forbid not that this youth- ful hero at least repair the ruins of the age. Long since enough have we with our blood atoned for the perjuries of Laomedon's Troy. 73 Long since, O Caesar, the courts of heaven envy us thee, and complain that thou art concerned about the triumphs of mortals' since among them the distinctions of right and wrong are perverted ; so many wars, so many aspects of crimes, are throughout the world ; the plow has none of its due honors; the fields lie waste^ their owners being drawn for service ; and the crooked scythes are forged into rigid swords. Here Euphrates, 74 there Germany, raises war ; neigh- boring cities, having broken their mutual leagues, take arms ; impious Mars 75 rages through all the world. As when the four-horsed chariots have burst forth from the goal, they add speed to speed, and the charioteer, stretching in vain the bridle, is hurried away by the steeds, nor is the chariot heedful of the 70 Romulus, a son of Mars and Rhea, grandson of Numitor, king of Alba, and twin-brother of Remus. He was the founder and first king of Rome, which he built on Mount Palatine, B. c. 753. By the triumphs of their arms, and the terror of their name, the Romans gradually rose, during a succession of ages, to universal empire, and Rome became, for a time, mistress of the world. After his death, Romulus was ranked among the gods, and received divine honors under the name of Quirinus. 71 Vesta, daughter of Rhea and Saturn, called the mother of the gods, was the goddess of fire, and the patroness of the vestal virgins, among the Romans. 73 Tiber, a celebrated river of Italy, rises in the Apennines, and falls into the Mediterranean Sea, sixteen miles below the city of Rome. 73 Laomedon, King of Troy, and the father of Priam. He built the walls of Troy, with the assistance of Apollo and Neptune ; but, on the work being finished, he refused to reward them for their labors, and, in consequence, incurred the displeasure of the gods. 71 Euphrates, a celebrated river of Asia, which rises' in the mountains of Armenia, and discharges itself into the Persian Gulf. 75 Mars, the god of war. Among the Romans, this deity received the most unbounded honors. 3 50 GEORGICS. B. n. 126. BOOK H. Virgil, having, in the First Book, treated of tillage, proceeds in the Second to the subject of planting ; describes the varieties of trees, with the best methods of raising them : gives rules for the management of the vine and olive, and for judging of the nature of soils ; and, in a strain of exalted poetry, celebrates the praises of Italy, and the pleasures of a country life. THUS far of the culture of fields, and of the constellations of the heavens ; now, Bacchus, will I sing of thee, and with thee of woodland trees, and of the slow-growing olive's offspring. Hither, O father 1 Lenjeus" (here is all full of thy bounties: for thee the field, laden with the viny harvest, flouiishes ; [for thee] the vintage foams in the full vats) : hither, O father Lenaeus, come ; and, having thy buskins stripped oif, stain thy legs, bared of the sandals, with me in new wine. first, nature is various in producing trees : for some, with- out any cogent means applied by men, come freely of their own accord, and widely overspread the plains and winding rivers; as the soft osier and limber broom, and poplar and the whitening willows, with sea-green leaves. But some arise from deposited seed ; as the lofty chestnuts, and the jesculus, which, in honor of Jove, shoots forth its leaves, the most majestic of the groves, and the oaks reputed oracular by the Greeks. To others a most luxuriant wood [of suckers] springs from the roots ; as the cherries and the elms : thus, too, the little bay of Parnassus raises itself under its mother's mighty shade. Nature at first ordained these means [for the produc- tion of trees] : by these every species blooms, of woods, and shrubs, and sacred groves. Others there are, which experi- ence has found out for itself on the way. 3 One, cutting off the tender suckers from the body of their mother, sets them in the furrows ; another buries the stocks in the ground, and stakes split in four, and poles with the wood sharpened to a point ; and some trees expect the bent-down arches of a layer, 1 The term " pater" is here applied to Bacchus, not with any reference to advanced years, for the, god is always represented by the ancient art- ists with the attributes of youth (compare Miiller, Archaeolog. der Kunst, p. 566), but merely as indicative of his being the beneficent author of so many good gifts unto men. ANTUON. 3 Lenaeus, a surname of Bacchus, the god of wine, from Aqvof, a winepress. 8 " Yia" here denotes the " march of intellect." B. B. n. 2761. GEORGICS. 51 and living nurseries in their native soil. Others have no need of any root ; and the planter makes no scruple to commit to earth the topmost shoots, restoring them [to their parent soil]. Even (what is wondrous to relate) after the trunk is cut in pieces, the olive-tree shoots forth roots from the dry wood. Often we see the boughs of one tree transformed, with no disadvantage, into those of another, and a pear-tree, being changed, bear ingrafted apples, and stony cornels grow upon plum stocks. 4 Wherefore come on, O husbandmen, learn the culture proper to each kind, and soften the wild fruits by cultivation : nor let any lands lie idle : it is worth while to plant Ismarus with vines, and clothe vast Taburnus 5 with olives. And thou, O glory mine, O thou deservedly the greatest por- tion of my fame, be present, Maecenas, pursue with me this task begun, and flying set sail on this sea, now opening wide. I choose not to comprise all matters in my verse, even if I had a hundred tongues, a hundred mouths, and an iron voice ; be present, and coast along the nearest shore. The earth is near at hand ; I will not here detain thee with fictitious song, or with circumlocution and tedious preamble. Those which spring up spontaneously into the regions of light are unfruitful indeed ; but they rise luxuriant and strong : for in the soil lies a native quality. Yet, if any one ingraft even these, or deposit them transplanted in trenches well pre- pared, they will put off their savage nature, and by frequent culture will not be slow to follow whatever modes of culture you call them to. And [the sucker] also which sprouts up barren from the low roots, will do the same, 8 if it be distrib- uted through fields where room : now [in its natural state] the high shoots and branches of the mother overshadow, and hinder it from bearing fruit as it grows up, or pinch and starve it when it bears. The tree, again, that is raised from fallen seed, grows up slowly, so as to form a shade for late posterity, and its fruits degenerate, forgetting their former juices : thus even the vine bears sorry clusters, a prey for birds. In fact, labor must be bestowed on all, and all must 4 So Martyn. But see Anthon. B. 6 Taburnus, a mountain of Campania, in Italy, which, abounded with olives. 8 i. e. will lay aside its wild and unproductive nature. ANTHON. 52 GEOBGICS. B. IL 6290. be forced into the trench, and tamed with vast pains. But olives answer better [when propagated] by truncheons, vines by layers, the myrtles of the Paphian [goddess 7 by settings] from the solid wood. From suckers the hard hazels grow, the mighty ash, and the shady poplar-tree, a crown for Her- cules, and the oaks of the Chaonian Sire : thus also the lofty palm is propagated, and the fir-tree doomed to visit the dangers of the main. But the rugged arbute is ingrafted on the offspring of the walnut, and barren planes have borne stout apple-trees. Chestnut-trees [have borne] beeches, and the mountain ash hath whitened with 8 the snowy blossoms of the pear : and swine have crunched acorns under elms. Nor is the method of ingrafting the same with that of inoculating. For [inocu- lating is thus] : where the buds thrust themselves forth from the middle of the bark, and burst the slender coats, a small slit is made in the very knot : hither they inclose a bud from another tree, and teach it to unite with the moist rind. Or again [in ingrafting] the knotless stocks are cut, and a pas- sage is cloven deep, into the solid wood with wedges : then fertile scions are inserted; and in no long time a huge tree shoots up to heaven with prosperous boughs, and admires its new leaves and fruits not its own. Moreover, the species is not single, either of strong elms, or of willows, of the lote-tree, or of the Idsean cypresses ; fl nor do the fat olives grow in one form, the orchades, and the radii, and the pausia with bitter berries ; nor apples, and the orchards of Alcinous ; nor are the shoots the same of the Crustumian and Syrian pears, and of the heavy volemi. The same vintage hangs not on our trees, which Lesbos 10 gathers 7 Paphian goddess. Venus was so called, from Paphos (Bafia), a city of Cyprus, where she was worshiped. 8 " Incanuit" is an instance of zeugma, for the chestnut hears no white flower. B. 9 Idsean cypresses, from Mount Ida, in the island of Crete. Orchards of Alcinous, king of Pha3acia, afterward called Corcyra (Corfu), one of the Ionian islands ; his gardens, which were greatly famed, are beauti- fully described by Homer. Crustumian and Syrian pears ; the first were so called from Crustuminum, a town of Etruria, in Italy ; and the latter from Syria, a country of Asia, along the eastern shore of the Mediterra- nean. Phoenicia and Palestine were generally reckoned provinces of Syria. 10 Lesbos (Mytilene), a largo island in the Archipelago, celebrated, B. n. 91116. GEORGICS. 53 from the Methymnsean vine. There are the Thasian vines, and there are the white Mareotides ; these fit for a rich soil, and those for a lighter one : and the Psythian, more service- able when dried, and the thin lageos, which will tie the feet at length, and bind the tongue : the purple and the rath-ripe : And in what numbers shall I sing of thee, O Rhaetian grape ? nor therefore vie thou with the Falernian 11 cellars. There are also Amminean vines, best-bodied wines ; which even Tmolus and Phanae, king of mountains, honor ; and the smaller Ar- gitis, which none can rival, either in yielding so much juice, or in lasting so many years. I must not pass thee over, Rhodian grape, grateful to the gods and second courses, nor thee, bumastos, with thy swollen clusters. But we neither can re- count how numerous the species, nor what are their names, nor imports it to comprise their number ; which whoever would know, the same may seek to learn how numerous are the sands of the Libyan Sea tossed by the zephyr ; or to know how many waves of the Ionian Sea 14 come to the shores, when Eurus, more violent, falls upon the ships. But neither can all soils bear all sorts [of trees]. Willows ' grow along the rivers, and elders in miiy fens ; the barren wild ashes on rocky mountains ; the shores rejoice most in myrtle groves : Bacchus, in fine, loves open hills ; the yews, the north wind and the cold. Survey, also, the globe subdued by the most distant culti- vators, both the eastern habitations of the Arabians, 13 and the tattooed Geloni. Countries are distinguished by their trees. particularly the city of Methymna, for its excellent wines. Thasian vines, those of Thasos, also an island hi the Archipelago, near the coast of Thrace. Mareotides, a vine from Mareotis, a lake hi Egypt, near Alexandria. Psythian, from Psythia, an ancient town of Greece, famous for its grapes. Rluetian grape, from Rhsetia (the Tyrol, etc.), a moun- tainous country to the north of Italy. u Falernian, etc. Falernus, a fertile mountain and plain of Campania, in Italy. Amminia, a district of Campania. Phanae, a promontory of the island of Chios (Scio). Rhodian grape, from Rhodes, a large and fertile island in the Mediterranean, near the coast of Asia Minor, cele- brated for a colossal statue of Apollo. IJ Ionian Sea, a part of the Mediterranean Sea, at the bottom of the Adriatic, and between Sicily and Greece. " Arabians, etc., the inhabitants of Arabia, an extensive country of Asia, forming a peninsula between the Persian and Arabian Gulfs; tb latter separates it from Africa. Geloni, a people of Scythia. 54 GEORGICS. B. n. 117146. India alone bears black ebony : the frankincense-tree belongs to the Sabseans only. -Why should I mention to thee balms distilling from the fragrant woods, and the berries of the ever- green acanthus ? why the forests of the Ethiopians whitening with downy wool? and how the Seres 14 comb the slender fleeces from the leaves 1 or the groves which India, nearer the ocean, the utmost skirts of the globe, produces? where no arrows by their flight have been able to surmount the airy summit of the tree : and yet that nation is not slow at archery. Media bears the bitter juices and the permanent flavor of the happy apple ; than which no remedy comes more seasonably, and expels the black venom from the limbs, when cruel step- dames have drugged the cup, and mingled herbs and not in- noxious spells. The tree itself is stately, and in form most like a bay ; and if it did not widely diffuse a different scent, would be a bay. Its leaves fall not off by any winds ; its blossoms are extremely tenacious. With it the Medes correct their breaths and unsavory mouths, and cure their asthmatic old men. But neither the land of Media, most rich in woods, nor the beauteous Ganges, 16 and Hermus turbid with golden sands, can match the praises of Italy : not Bactra, 18 nor the Indians, and Panchaia, all enriched with incense-bearing soil. Bulls breathing fire from their nostrils never plowed these regions, sown with the teeth of a hideous dragon ; nor did a crop of men shoot dreadful up with helmets and crowded spears ; but teeming corn and Bacchus' Campanian juice have filled [the land], olives and joyous herbs possess it. Hence the warrior- horse with stately port advances into the field ; hence, CH- tumnus, 1 ' thy white flocks, and the bull, chief of victims, after 14 Seres, a nation of Asia, between the Ganges and Eastern Ocean ; the modern Tibet, or probably China. Media, a celebrated country of Asia, to the south of the Caspian Sea. 15 Ganges, a celebrated river of India, which arises in the Himalaya mountains, and after a course of 1500 miles, falls into the bay of Bengal, below Calcutta. Hermus (Sarabat), a river of Lydia, in Asia Minor, whose sands were mingled with gold ; it receives the waters of the Pac- tolus near Sardis, and falls into the ^Egean, north-west of Smyrna. 18 Bactra (Balkh), the capital of Bactriana, a country of Asia. Pan- chaia, a district of Arabia Felix. 17 Clitumnus. a river of TJmbria, in Italy, which falls into the Tiber. It was famous for its milk-white flocks, selected as victims in the cele- bration of the triumph. B. H. 141169. GEORGICS. 55 they have been often plunged in thy sacred stream, escort the Roman triumphs to the temples of the gods. Here is per- petual spring, and summer in months not her own : twice a year the cattle are big with young, twice the trees productive in fruit. But here are no ravening tigers, nor the savage breed of lions ; nor wolfsbane deceives the wretched gather- ers ; nor along the ground the scaly serpent sweeps his im- mense orbs, nor with so vast a train gathers up himself into coils. And so many magnificent cities, and works of elaborate art ; so many towns upreared with the hand on craggy rocks ; and rivers gliding beneath ancient walls. Or need I mention the sea which washes it above, and that below ? or its lakes so vast ? thee, Larius, 18 of largest extent ? and thee, Benacus, swelling with the waves and roaring of the sea ? Or shall I mention its ports, and the moles raised to dam the Lucrine, 1 ' and the sea raging indignant with loud murmurs, where the Julian wave far resounds, the sea pouring in, and the Tuscan tide is let into the straits of Avernus 1 The same land hath in its veins disclosed rivers of silver and mines of copper, and copious flowed with gold. The same hath produced a warlike race of men, the Marsi 20 and the Sabellian youth, and the Li^urian inured to hardship, and the Volscians armed with sharp darts ; this same the Decii, 21 the Marii, and the great 18 Larius (Como), a beautiful lake of Cisalpine Gaul, through which the Adua runs in its course to the Po, above Cremona. Benacus (L. di Garda), a large lake, from which the Mincius issues, and flows into the Po. 13 Lucrine Lake, near Cumae on the coast of Campania. During an earthquake, A. D. 1538, this lake disappeared, and hi its place was formed a mountain, two miles in circumference, and one thousand feet high, with a crater hi the middle. Avernus, a lake of Campania, whose waters were so putrid, that the ancients regarded it as the entrance of the in- fernal regions. Augustus united the Lucrine and Avernian lakes by the famous Julian harbor, and formed a communication- between the lat- ter lake and the sea. 30 Marsi were a people of Germany, who emigrated to Italy, and set- tled near the lake Fucinus. The Sabellians were descended from the Sabines, or from the Samnites ; the Ligurians inhabited Piedmont ; the Volscians were a warlike people of Latium (Campagna di Roma). 21 Decii, a noble family of Rome, who devoted themselves to death for the safety of their country. Marii, the Marian family, the chief of whom was Caius Marius, who, from a peasant, became one of the most powerful and cruel tyrants that Rome ever beheld during her consular government 56 GEORGICS. B. n. 170198. Camilli," 3 the Scipios* 3 invincible in war, and thee, most mighty Caesar ; who, at this 'very time victorious in Asia's remotest limits, art turning away from the Roman towers the humbled Indian. Hail, Saturnian' 4 land, great parent of fruits, great parent of heroes ; for thee I enter, on a subject, of ancient re- nown and ail, venturing to disclose the sacred springs ; and I sing an Ascreean strain through Roman cities. Now it is time to describe the qualities of soils ; what is the strength of age, what color, and what its nature is most apt to produce. First, stubborn lands, and unfruitful hills, where lean clay [abounds], and pebbles in the bushy fields, rejoice in Pallas' wood of long-lived olives. The wild olive rising copious in the same soil is an evidence, and the fields strewn with woodland berries. But, to the ground that is fat, and glad- dened with sweet moisture, and to the plain that is luxuriant in grass, and of a fertile soil (such as we are often wont to look down upon in the hollow valley of a mountain), streams glide from the high rocks, and draw a rich fattening slime along : and that which is raised to the south, and nourishes the fern abhorred by the crooked plows, will in time afford vines ex- ceedingly strong, and flcv.-ing with abundant wine : this will be prolific of grapes, this of such liquor as we pour forth in libation from golden bowls, when the sleek Tuscan has blown the ivory pipe at the altars, and we offer up the smoking en- trails in the bending chargers. But if you are rather studious to preserve herds [of kine] and calves, or the offspring of the sheep, or kids that kill the pastures ; seek the lawns and distant fields of fruitful Taren- tum, aB and plains like those which hapless Mantua hath lost, aa Camilli, two celebrated Romans, father and son : the latter was chosen five times dictator, expelled the Gauls under Brennus from Rome, and, on account of his services to his country, was called a second Ro- mulus. 83 The Scipios. P. Cornelius Scipio, surnamed Africanus, the con- queror of Hannibal, and his grandson, P. ^Emilianus Scipio, called Afri- canus the younger, on account of his victories over Carthage, B. c. 146. The two Scipios may justly be ranked among the brightest ornaments of Roman greatness. 84 Saturnian land. Italy was so called, from Saturn, who, on being dethroned by Jupiter, fled to Italy, where he reigned during the golden age. 15 Tarentum (Torento), a maritime city of Calabria in Italy, situated on a noble bay of the same name. p. n. 199229. GEORGICS. 57 feeding snow-white swans in the grassy stream. Neither limpid springs nor pastures will be wanting to the flocks : and as much as the herds will crop in the long days, so much will the cold dews in the short night restore. A soil that is blackish and fat under the deep-pressed share, and whose mold is loose and crumbling (for this we aim at in plowing), is generally best for corn ; (from no plain will you see more wagons move homeward with tardy oxen) ; or that from which the angry plowman has cleared away a wood, and felled the groves that have been at a stand for many years, and with their lowest roots grubbed up the an- cient dwellings of the birds ; they abandoning their nests soar on high, but the field looks gay when the plowshare is driven into it. For the lean hungry gravel of a hilly field scarcely furnishes humble cassia and rosemary for bees : and no other lands, they say, yield so sweet food to serpents, or afford them such winding coverts, as the rough rotten-stone, and chalk corroded by black water-snakes. That land which exhales thin mists and flying smoke, and drinks in the moisture, and emits it at pleasure ; and which always clothes itself with its own fresh grass, nor hurts the plowshare with scurf and salt-rust ; will entwine thine elms with joyous vines ; that also is fertile of olives ; that ground you will experience, in manur- ing, both to be friendly to cattle and submissive to the crooked share. Such a soil rich Capua 56 tills, and the territory neigh- boring to Mount Vesuvius," and the Clanius not kind to de- populated Acerrae." Now I will tell by what means you may distinguish each. If you desire to know whether it be loose or unusually stiff (because the one is fit for corn, the other for wine ; the stiff is best for Ceres, and the most loose for Bacchus) : first you 99 Capua, a famous city of Italy, the capital of Campania. 27 Vesuvius, a celebrated volcanic mountain of Campania, about six miles south-east of Naples, and 3780 feet high. The first great eruption of Vesuvius on record was accompanied by an earthquake, A. D. 79, when the towns of Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabise were overwhelmed under lava and ashes. The discovery of these towns after having lain above 1600 years buried and unknown, has furnished the world with many curious and valuable remains of antiquity. 48 Acerree, a town of Campania, near the city of Naples ; the river Clanius almost surrounded the town, and by its inundations frequently depopulated it. 3* 58 GEORGICS. B. n. 230265. shall mark out a place with your eye, and order a pit to be sunk deep in solid ground, and again return all the mold into its place, and level with your feet the sands at top. If they prove deficient, the soil is loose, and more fit for cattle and bounteous vines : but, if they deny the possibility of returning to their places, and there be an overplus of mold after the pit is filled up, it is a dense soil ; expect reluctant clods, and stiff ridges, and give the first plowing to the land with sturdy bullocks. But saltish ground, and what is accounted bitter, where corn can never thrive* 9 (it neither mellows by plowing, nor preserves to grapes their kind, nor to fruits their qualities), will give a proof to this effect. Snatch from the smoky roofs baskets of close-woven twigs, and the strainers of thy wine-press. Hither let some of that vicious mold, and sweet water from the spring, be pressed brimfull : be sure all the water will strain out, and big drops pass through the twigs. But the taste will clearly make discovery ; and in its bitterness will distort the wry faces of the tasters with the sensation. Again, what land is fat we briefly learn thus : When squeezed by the hand, it never crumbles, but, in handling, it stacks to the fingers like pitch. The moist soil produces herbs of a larger size, and is itself luxuriant beyond due measure. Ah, may none of mine be [thus] too fertile, nor show itself too strong at the first springing of the grain ! That which is heavy betrays itself by its very weight, with- out my telling you ; and likewise the light It is easy to dis- tinguish the black at first sight, and what is the color of each. But to search out the mischievous cold, is difficult : only pitch- trees, and sometimes noxious yews, or black ivy, disclose its signs. These rules observed, remember to dry and bake the soil long before, and to encompass the spacious hills with trenches, expose the turned-up clods to the north wind, before you plant the vine's joyous race. Fields of a loose crumbling soil are best ; this effect the winds and cold frosts produce, and the sturdy delver, close plying his acres, tossed and turned upside down. But those men, whom not any vigilance escapes, first seek 19 This rule is however scarcely universal, as is shown by Van Goes, on the Scriptorr. Rei Agrim. p. 137. B. B. ii. 266303. GEOEGICS. 59 out the same sort of soil, where the first nursery may be pro- vided for their trees, and whither it may soon be transplanted in rows ; lest the slips take not kindly to this mother suddenly changed. They even mark on the bark the quarter of the sky, that, in whatever manner each stood, in what part it bore the southern heats, what sides it turned to the northern pole, they may restore [it to the same position]. Of such avail is cus- tom in tender years. Examine, first, whether it is better to plant your vines on hills or on a plain. If you lay out the fields of a rich plain, plant thick ; Bacchus will not be less productive in a densely- planted soil : but if a soil rising with a gentle ascent, and sloping, hills, give room to your ranks ; yet so that, your trees being exactly ranged, each path between may be exactly even, a line being cut. As often in dread war, when the extended legion hath ranged its cohorts, the battalions stand marshaled on the open plain, the armies set in array, and the whole ground wide waves with gleaming brass ; nor yet are they engaged in horrid battle, but Mars hovers dubious in the midst of arms : [thus,] let all your vineyards be laid out in equal proportions, not only that the prospect may idly feed the mind, but because the earth will not otherwise supply equal strength to all : nor will the branches be able to extend them- selves at large. Perhaps, too, you may ask what depth is proper for the trenches. I could venture to commit my vine even to a slight furrow. Trees, again, are sunk deeper down, and far into the ground : especially the sesculus, which shoots downward to Tartarus with its roots, as far as [it rises] with its top to the ethereal regions. Therefore, nor wintery storms, nor blasts of winds, nor showers, can uproot it : it remains unmoved, and, rolling many ages of men away, outlasts them in surviving ; then stretching wide its sturdy boughs and arms this way and that way, itself in the midst sustains a mighty shade. Nor let the vineyards h'e toward the setting sun ; nor plant the hazel among your vines ; neither seek after the extremities of the shoots ; nor gather your cuttings from the top of the tree, so much is their love for the earth : nor hurt your shoots with blunted steel ; nor plant among them truncheons of wild olive. For fire is often let fall from the unwary shepherds, which at first secretly lurking under the unctuous bark, 60 GEORGICS. B. n. 304340. catches the solid wood, and shooting up into the topmost leaves, raises a loud crackling to heaven ; thence pursuing its way, reigns victorious among the branches and the lofty tops, involves the whole grove in flames, and, condensed in pitchy vapor, darts the black cloud to heaven ; especially if a storm overhead rests on the woods, and the driving wind rolls round the flames. When this happens, their strength decays from the root, nor can they recover, though cut, or sprout up from the deep earth such as they were : the unblest wild olive with its bitter leaves [alone] survives. Let no counselor be so wise in your eyes as to persuade you to stir the rigid earth when Boreas breathes. Then winter shuts up the fields with frost ; and when the slip is planted, suffers not the frozen root to fasten to the earth. The planta- tion of the vineyard is best, when in blushing spring the white stork comes in, abhorred by the long snakes ; or toward the first colds of autumn, when the vehement sun does not yet touch the winter with his steeds, and the summer is just gone. The spring, too, is beneficial to the foliage of the groves, the spring is beneficial to the woods : in spring the lands swell, and demand the genial seeds. Then almighty father ./Ether 30 descends in fertilizing showers into the bosom of his joyous spouse, and great himself, mingling with her great body, nourishes all her offspring. Then the retired brakes resound with tuneful birds ; and the herds renew their loves on the stated days. Then bounteous earth is teeming to the birth, and the fields open their bosoms to the warm breezes of the Zephyr: in all a gentle moisture abounds ; and the herds dare safely trust themselves to the infant suns ; nor do the vine's tender shoots fear the rising south winds, or the shower pre- cipitated from the sky by the violent north winds ; but put forth their buds, and unfold all their leaves. No other day," I should think, had shone at the first origin of the rising world ; it was spring, the spacious globe enjoyed spring, and the east winds spared their wintery blasts ; when first the cattle drew in the light, and the earthly race of men upreared their heads 80 Virgil here follows the notions of Chrysippua, as delivered in lus (Fragm. Danaid. fragm. 38, Dind.), but especially by Euripides (Fragm. Chrysipp. No. vi. Dind.) B. " It was an ancient supposition, that the world was created in tbo spring. B. * B. IL 341371. GEORGICS. 61 from the ruggid glebe, and the woods were stocked with wild beasts, and the heavens with stars. Nor could the tender pro- ductions [of nature] bear this labor, if so great rest did not in- tervene between the cold and heat, and if heaven's indulgent season did not visit the earth in its turn. For what remains, whatever layers you bend down over all the fields, overspread them with fat dung, and carefully cover them with copious earth ; or bury about them spongy stones, or rough shells ; for thus the rains will soak through, and a subtile vapor penetrate them, and the plants will take cour- age. Some, too, have been found, who are for pressing them from above with a stone, and the weight of a great potsherd ; this is a defense against the pouring rains : this [a defense] when the sultry dog-star cleaves the gaping fields with drought. After your layers are planted, it remains to convey earth often to the roots, and ply the hard drags ; or to work the soil under the deep-pressed share, and guide your struggling bul- locks through the very vineyards ; then to adapt [to the vines] smooth reeds, and spears of peeled rods, and ashen stakes, and two-horned forks ; by whose strength they may learn to shoot up, to contemn the winds, and climb from stage to stage along the highest elms. And, while their infant age sprouts with new-born leaves, you must spare the tender vines ; and while the joyous shoot raises itself on high, being sent onward through the open air with loose reins," tie edge of the pruning-knife itself must not be applied ; but the leaves should be plucked with the in- bent hands, and culled here and there. Thereafter, when they have shot forth, embracing the elms with firm stems, then cut their locks, then lop their arms. Before this they dread the steel ; then, and not till then, exercise severe dominion, and check the loose straggling boughs. Fences, too, should be woven, and all the cattle be kept out ; especially while the leaves are tender and unacquainted with w A metaphor taken from horses, in imitation of Lucretius : Arboribus datum est variis exinde per auras Crescendi magnum immissis certamen habenis. Per purum in Virgil signifies the same as per auras in Lucretius. Horace uses it also for the air : Per purum tonantes Egit equos. .a.,, ., . GEORGICS. B. n. 372399. hardships ; to which, besides the rigorous winters and vehe- ment sun, the wild bulls 33 and persecuting goats continually do wanton harm ; the sheep and greedy heifers browse upon them. Nor do the colds, condensed in hoary frosts, or the severe heat beating upon the scorched rocks, hurt them so much as the flocks, and poison of their hard teeth, and a scar imprinted on the gnawed stem. For no other offense is the goat sacrificed to Bacchus on every altar, and the ancient plays come upon the stage ; 34 and the Athenians proposed for wits prizes about the villages and crossways ; and, joyous amid their cups, danced in the soft meadows on wine-skins smeared with oil. [On the same ac- count,] the Ausonian 35 colonists also, a race sent from Troy, sport in uncouth strains, and unbounded laughter ; assuming horrid masks of hollowed barks of trees : and thee, Bacchus, they invoke in jovial songs, and to thee hang up mild images 58 from the tall pine. Hence every vineyard shoots forth with large produce ; both the hollow vales and deep lawns are filled with plenty, and wherever the god hath moved around his propitious countenance. Therefore will we solemnly ascribe to Bacchus his due honors in our country's lays, and offer chargers, and the consecrated cakes ; and the sacred goat led by the horn shall stand at his altar, and we will roast the fat entrails on hazel spits. There is also that other toil in dressing the vines ; on which you can never bestow pains enough : for the whole soil must be plowed three or four times every year, and the 83 These must not be confounded with either the bison or the buffalo. See Anthon. B. 34 Proscenia. In the Roman theater there was first the portions or gallery for the populace, where the seats were formed like wedges, grow- ing narrower as they came near the center of the theater, and therefore called cunei, or wedges. 2. The orchestra, in the center and lowest part of the theater, where the senators and knights sat, and where the dancers and musicians performed. 3. The proscenium, or space before the scenes, which was raised above the orchestra, and where the actors spoke. 85 Ausonian, etc., the inhabitants of Ausonia, an ancient name of Italy, who were supposed to be descended from ^Eneas. 86 Compare Anthon's remark : " And in honor of thee hang up the mild oscilla on the tall pine." Oscittum, a diminutive, through osculum, from os, means, properly, " a little face, and was the term applied to faces or heads of Bacchus, which were suspended in the vineyards to be turned in every direction by the wind. "Whichsoever way they looked, they were supposed to make the vines and other things hi that quarter fruitful." B. n. 400435. G-EORGICS. 63 clods continually be broken with bended drags; the whole grove mnst be disburdened of its leaves. The farmer's past labor returns in a circle, and the year rolls round on itself on its own steps. And now, when at length the vineyard has shed its late leaves, and the cold north wind has shaken from the groves their honors ; 37 even then the active swain extends his cares to the coming year, and closely plies the forsaken vine, cutting off [the superfluous roots] with Saturn's crooked hook, and forms it by pruning. Be the first to trench the ground, be the first to carry home and burn the shoots, and the first to return beneath your roof the vine-props : be the last to reap the vintage. Twice the shade assails the vines ; twice do weeds overrun the field with thick bushes; each a hard labor. Commend large farms ; cultivate a small one. Besides all this, the rough twigs of butcher's-broom are to be cut throughout the woods, and the watery reed on the banks : and the care of the uncultivated willow gives new toil. Now the vines are tied ; now the vineyard lays aside the pruning- hook ; now the exhausted vintager salutes in song his utmost rows : yet must the earth be vexed anew, and the mold put in motion ; and now Jove is to be dreaded by the ripened grapes. On the other hand, the olives require no culture ; nor do they expect the crooked pruning-hook and tenacious harrows, when once they are rooted in the ground, and have stood the blasts. Earth of herself supplies the plants with moisture, when opened by the hooked tooth of the drag, and weighty fruits, when [opened] by the share. Nurture for thyself with this the fat and peace-delighting olive. The fruit-trees too, as soon as they feel their trunks vigorous, and acquire their strength, quickly shoot up to the stars by their own virtue, and need not our assistance. At the same time, every grove is in like manner loaded with offspring, and the uncultivated haunts of birds glow with blood-red berries: the cytisus is browsed ; the tall wood supplies with torches ; and our noc- turnal fires are fed, and shed beamy light. And do men hesi- tate to plant and bestow care ? Why should I insist on greater things ? The very willows and lowly broom supply either browse for cattle, or shade for Hor. Ep. ii. 5. " December silvis honorem decutit." B. * 64 GBORGICS. B. n. 436462. shepherds, fences for the corn, and materials for honey. It is delightful to behold Cytorus 38 waving with the grove of Na- rycian pitch : it is delightful to see the fields not indebted to the harrows, or to any care of men. Even the barren woods on the top of Caucasus, which the fierce east winds continually are crushing and tearing, yield each their different produce : they yield pines, an useful wood for ships, and cedars and cy- presses for houses. Hence the husbandmen have rounded spokes for wheels ; hence they have framed solid orbs for wagons, and bending keels for ships. The willows are fertile in twigs, the elms in leaves for fodder ; the myrtle again is useful for sturdy spears, and the cornel for war ; the yews are bent into Ityraean bows. 89 In like manner the smooth- grained limes, or box polished by the lathe, receive a shape, and are hollowed with sharp steel. Thus too the light alder, launched on the Po, 40 swims the rapid stream ; thus too the bees hide their swarms in the hollow bark, and in the heart of a rotten holm. What have the gifts of Bacchus produced so worthy of record ? Bacchus has given occasion to offense and guilt : he quelled by death the furious Centaurs, 41 Rhoetus and Pholus, and Hylaeus threatening the Lapithae with a huge goblet. Ah ! the too happy swains, did they but know their own bliss ! to whom, at a distance from discordant arms, earth, of herself most liberal, pours from her bosom their easy susten- ance. If the palace, high raised with proud gates, vomits not forth from all its apartments a vast tide of morning visitants ; 88 Cytorus (Kidros), a city and mountain of Paphlagonia, on the Euxine. Narycian pitch, from Narycia, a town of the Locrians in Magna Graecia, in the neighborhood of which were forests of pine, etc. 89 Ityraean bows, from Ityraea, a province of Syria, whose inhabitants were famous archers. 40 Po, anciently called also Eridanus, the largest river of Italy, rises in Mount Vestulus, one of the highest mountains of the Alps, and after an easterly course of nearly 400 miles, and receiving numerous tributary streams, discharges its waters into the Adriatic, about 30 miles S. of the city of Venice. 41 Centaurs, a people of Thessaly, represented as monsters, half men and half horses. The Lapithse, also a people of Thessaly, who inhabited the country about Mount Pindus and Othrys. The allusion here is to the battle of the Centaurs and Lapithae, at the celebration of the nuptials of Pirithous, king of the latter, who invited not only the heroes of his age, but also the gods themselves. In the contest that ensued, many of the Centaurs were slain, and the rest saved themselves by flight. u. n. 463492. GEORGICS. 65 and they gape not at porticoes variegated with beauteous tor- toise-shell, and on tapestries tricked with gold, and on Co- rinthian brass ; and if the white wool is not stained with the Assyrian ' drug, nor the use of the pure oil corrupted with Cassia's aromatic bark ; yet [there is] peace secure, and a life ignorant of guile, rich in various opulence ; yet [theirs are] peaceful retreats in ample fields, grottoes, and living lakes ; yet [to them] cool vales, the lowings of kine, and soft slum- bers under a tree, are not wanting. There are woodlands and haunts for beasts of chase, and youth patient of toil, and inured to thrift ; the worship of the gods, and fathers held in veneration : Justice, when she left the world took her last steps among them. But me may the Muses, sweet above all things else, 45 whose sacred symbols I bear, smitten with violent love, first receive into favor ; and show me the paths of heaven, and constella- tions ; the various eclipses of the sun, and labors of the moon ; whence the' trembling of the earth ; from what influ- ence the seas swell high, bursting their barriers, and again sink back into themselves ; why the winter suns make such haste to dip themselves in the ocean, or what delay retards the slow-paced [summer] nights. But if the cold blood about my heart hinders me from penetrating into these parts of nature ; let fields and streams gliding in the valleys be my delight ; inglorious may I court the rivers and the woods. O [to be] where are the plains, 43 and Sperchius, and Taygetus, 44 the scenes of Bacchanalian revels to Spartan maids ! O who will place me in the cool val- leys of Hsemus, and shelter me with the thick shade of boughs ? Happy is he who has been able to trace out the causes of things, and who has cast beneath his feet all fears, and in- exorable Destiny, and the noise of devouring Acheron ?" 42 I have followed Wagner in joining "dulcesante omnia," but I have some doubts whether the old interpretation is not better. B. 43 Thessalian plains. Thessaly, a country of Greece, south of Mace- donia, in which was the celebrated vale of Tempe. Sperchius, a river of Thessaly, rises in Mount (Eta, and runs into the Maliac Gulf, near the pass of Thermopylae. 44 Taygetus, a mountain of Laconia in Peloponnesus (Morea), on which were celebrated the orgies of Bacchus ; it hung over the city of Sparta, and extended from Ttenarus to Arcadia. 45 Acheron, one of the rivers of hell, according to the ancient poets ; 66 GEORGICS. B. n. 493521. Blest too is he who has known the rural deities, Pan and old Silvanus, and the sister nymphs ! him nor the fasces of the people, nor the purple of kings ; nor discord persecuting faith- less brothers, nor the Dacian descending from the conspiring Danube; 48 nor the revolutions of Rome, or perishing king- doms, have moved. He neither pined with grief, lamenting the poor, nor envied the rich. What fruits the boughs, what the willing fields spontaneously yielded, he gathered ; nor saw the iron-hearted laws, the madly litigious bar, or the public courts. Some vex the dangerous seas with oars, some rush into arms, some work their way into courts, and the palaces of kings. One destines a city and wretched families to destruc- tion, that he may drink in gems, and sleep on Tyrian purple. 47 Another hoards up wealth, and broods over buried gold. One, astonished at the rostrum, grows giddy ; another, peals of applause along the rows (for it is redoubled both by the people and the fathers), have captivated, and set agape ; some rejoice when stained with their brother's blood ; and exchange their homes and sweet thresholds for exile, and seek a coun- try lying under another sun. The husbandman cleaves the earth with a crooked plow ; hence the labors of the year; hence he sustains the countiy, and his little offspring; hence his herds of kine, and deserving steers. Nor is there any in- termission, but the year either abounds with apples, or with the breed of the flocks, or with the sheaf of Ceres' stalk ; loads the furrows with increase, and overstocks the barns. Winter comes : the Sicyonian* 8 berry is pounded in the oil-presses ; the swine come home gladdened with acorns ; the woods yield their arbutes ; and the autumn lays down its various produc- often taken for hell itself. Virgil here follows Lucretius, i. 37, "Et metus ille foras praeceps Acheruntis agendus Funditus, humanarn qui vitam turbat ab imo, Omnia suffundens mortis nigrore." And soon after, vs. 79, " Quare religio pedibus subjecta." B. " The Danube rises in the black forest of Suabia, and, after a course of about 1600 miles, discharges itself into the Euxine Sea. The Dacians inhabited an extensive country, north of the Danube, now called "ft'alla- chia, Transylvania, and Moldavia. 41 Tyrian purple, from Tyre, a city of Phoenicia in Asia, celebrated for its early commerce and numerous colonies, and for the invention of sear- let and purple colors ; its ancient name was Sarra, now Soor. 48 Sicyonian berry, the olive, with which Sicyonia, a district of Pelo- ponnesus, in Greece, abounded. B. n. 521542. in. 13. GEORGICS. 67 tions ; and high on the sunny rocks the mild vintage is ripened. Meanwhile the sweet babes twine round their pa- rents' neck : his chaste family maintain their purity ; the cows hang down their udders full of milk ; and the fat kids wrestle together with butting horns on the cheerful green. The swain himself celebrates festal days ; and, extended on the grass, where a fire is in the middle, and where his companions crown the bowl, invokes thee, O Lenaeus, making libation ; and on an elm sets forth to the masters of the flock prizes to be con- tended for with the winged javelin ; and they strip their hardy bodies for the rustic ring. This life of old the ancient Sabines ;" this Remus and his brother strictly observed ; thus Etruria 60 grew in strength ; and thus too did Rome become the glory and beauty of the world, and, single, hath encompassed for herself seven hills with a wall. This life, too, golden Saturn led on earth, be- fore the sceptered sway of the Dictsean" kjng, and before an impious race feasted on slain bullocks. Nor yet had mankind heard the warlike trumpets blow ; nor yet the swords laid on the hard anvils clatter. But we have finished this immensely extended field ; and now it is time to unloose the smoking necks of our steeds. BOOK HL In the third Book, after invoking the rural deities, and eulogizing Augustus, Virgil treats of the management of cattle, laying down rules for the choice and breeding of horses, oxen, sheep, etc. The book abounds in admirable descriptions ; many passages are inimitably fine. THEE, too, great Pales, and thee, famed shepherd from Am- phrysus, 1 ye woods and Arcadian rivers, will I sing. Other themes, that might have entertained minds disengaged from 49 Sabines, an ancient people of Italy, reckoned among the aborigines, or those inhabitants whose origin was unknown ; their country was situ* ated between the rivers Tiber, Nar, and Anio, having the Apennines on the east. 50 Etruria (Tuscany), a country of Italy lying west of the Tiber. 51 Dicta;an king, Jupiter is so called from Mount Dicte in Crete, where he was worshiped. 1 Amphrysus, a river of Thessaly, on the banks of which Apollo fed the flocks of king Admetus. Arcadian rivers : Arcadia was a pastoral district of Peloponnesus in Greece, of which Pan was the tutelary deity. 68 GEORGICS. B. m. 426. . - song, are now all trite and common. Who is unacquainted either with severe Eurystheus, 8 or the altars of infamous Busiris ? By whom has not the boy Hylas been recorded, and Latonian Delos ? 3 or Hippodame, 4 and Pelops, conspicuous for his ivory shoulders, victorious in the race ? I, too, must at- tempt a way, whereby I may raise myself from the ground, and victorious hover through the lips of men. I first returning from the Aonian mount, will (provided life remain) bring along with me the Muses into my country; for thee, O Mantua, I first will bear off the Idumaean* palms, and on thy verdant plains erect a temple of marble, near the stream where the great Mincius winds in slow meanders, and fringes the banks with tender reeds. In the middle will I have Csesar, and he shall command the temple. In honor of him will I victorious, and in Tynan purple conspicuous, drive a hundred four-horsed chariots along the river. For me all Greece, leaving Alpheus' and the groves of Molorchus, shall contend in races and the raw-hide cestus. I myself, graced with leaves of the shorn olive, will bear offerings. Even now I am well pleased to lead on the solemn pomps to the temple, and to see the bullocks slain ; or how the scene with shifting front retires ; and how the inwoven Britons lift up the purple curtain. On the doors will I delineate, in gold and solid 8 Eurystheua, king of Argos and Mycenae, who, at the instigation of Juno, imposed upon Hercules the most perilous enterprises, well known by the name of the twelve labors of Hercules. Busiris, a king of Egypt, noted for his cruelty in sacrificing all foreigners who entered his country. 3 Delos, a small but celebrated island of the ^Egean Sea, nearly in the center of the Cyclades, in which Latona gave birth to Apollo and Diana; hence the former is frequently called Delius, and the latter Delia. 4 Hippodame, a daughter of (Enomaus, king of Pisa in Elis. Her father refused to marry her except to him who could overcome him in a chariot race ; thirteen had already been conquered, and forfeited their lives, when Pelops, the son of Tantalus, entered the lists, and by bribing Myrtilus, the charioteer of (Enomaus, insured to himself the victory. 5 Idumasan palms, from Idumasa, a country of Syria, on the south of Judaea, famed for its palm-trees. 6 Alpheus (Rouphia), a river of Elis in Peloponnesus, where the Olympic games were celebrated. Molorchus, a shepherd of Argolis, who kindly received Hercules, and in return the hero slew the Nemsean lion which laid waste the country ; hence the institution of the Nemscan games. B. in. 2145. GEORGICS. 69 ivory, the battle of the Gangarides/ and the arms of conquer- ing Quirinus ; and here the Nile 8 swelling with 'war, flowing majestic, and columns rising with naval brass. I will add the vanquished cities of Asia, and subdued Niphates,' and the Parthian presuming on his flight and arrows shot backward, 10 and two trophies snatched by the hand from two widely-distant foes, and nations twice triumphant over on either shore. Here too shall stand in Parian 11 marble, breathing statues, the off- spring of Assaracus, 12 and the chiefs of the Jove-descended race ; both Tros, the great ancestor [of Rome], and Cynthian Apollo, founder of Troy. Here baneful envy shall dread the Furies, and the grim river of Cocytus, 13 Ixion's twisted snakes, the enormous wheel, and the. insurmountable stone. Meanwhile, let us pursue the woods of the Dryads, and un- trodden lawns ; thy commands, Maecenas, of no easy import. Without thee my mind ventures on nothing sublime ; come then, break off idle delays. Cithseron 14 calls with loud halloo, and the hounds of Taygetus, and Epidaurus, the tamer of horses ; and the voice, doubled by the assenting groves, re- 7 Gangarides, a people of Asia, near the mouth of the Ganges. 8 Nile, a great river of Africa, and one of the most celebrated in the world, is generally supposed to have its sources in that immense chain of mountains in Central Africa, called the Mountains of the Moon. Its course runs in a northerly direction, flowing through Nubia and Egypt ; a little below Cairo it divides itself into two great branches, which en- close the Delta, and fall into the Mediterranean, the western branch at Rosetta, and the eastern at Damietta. 9 Niphates, a mountain of Armenia, part of the range of Taurus, from which the river Tigris takes its rise. 10 Cf. Plutarch, Crass, p. 558, ii-fyevyov yap fifia fiuhlovref .ol UdpOoi. B. 11 Parian marble, from Paros, an island of the JEgean Sea, one of the Cyclades, famed for its beautiful white marble. IJ Assaracus, a Trojan prince, father of Capys, and grandfather of An- chises. Tros, a son of Erichthonius, king of Troy, which was so named after him. Cyntliian Apollo : the surname is from Cynthus, a mountain in the island of Delos, where Apollo and Diana were born, and which was sacred to them. 13 Cocytus, a river of Epirus in Greece, called by the poets one of the rivers of hell. Ixion, a king of Thessaly, whom Jupiter is fain to have struck with his thunder for having attempted to seduce Juno ; he was bound with serpents to a wheel in hell, which was perpetually in motion. 14 Cithseron, a mountain of Boeotia in Greece, sacred to Jupiter and the Muses. Epidaurus (Pidavra), a city of Argolis in Peloponnesus, famed for a temple of Esculapius, and for its fine breed of horses. 70 GEORGICS. B. in. 4680. echoes. Yet ere long shall I be prepared to sing of Caesar's ardent battles, and to transmit his name with honor through as many years as Caesar is distant from the first origin of Tithonus. . .1 Whether any one, aspiring to the praises of the Olympian palm, breeds horses, or whether any one [breeds] sturdy bul- locks for the plow, let him choose with special care the bodies of the mothers. The stern-eyed heifer's form is best, whose head is disproportionately large, whose neck is brawny, and whose dew-laps hang from the chin down to the legs. Then there is no measure in her length of side ; all her parts are huge, even her foot ; and her eyes are rough under her crumpled 16 horns. Nor would she displease me if streaked with white spots, or if she refuses the yoke, and sometimes is surly with her horn, and in aspect approaches nearer to a bull, and if she is stately throughout, and sweeps her steps with the ex- tremity of her tail, as she goes along. The age to undergo breeding and proper union ends before ten, and begins after four years : the other years [cows] are neither fit for breeding, nor strong for the plow. Mean- time, while the flocks abound with sprightly youth, let loose the males ; be the first to indulge thy cattle in the joys of love : and by generation raise up one race after another. Each best time of life fly fast away from wretched mortals : dis- eases succeed, and sad old age, and pain ; and the inclemency of inexorable death snatches them away. There will always be some whose bodies you would choose to have changed [for better]. Therefore continually repair them ; and, that you may not regret them when lost, be beforehand, and yearly provide a new offspring for the herd. The same discriminating care is also requisite for a breed of horses. But still, on those which you intend to bring up for the hope of the race, bestow your principal diligence im- mediately from their tender years. The colt of generous breed from the very first walks high throughout the fields, and nimbly moves his pliant legs ; he is the first that dares to lead the way, and tempt the threatening floods, and trust him- self to an unknown bridge ; nor starts affrighted at vain alarms. Lofty is his neck, his head little and slender, his 15 Nonius, Marc, i., explains " caraurum by obtortum." Hesiod, Opp. 452, eAtxaf /toiif. B. B. in. 81109. GEORGICS. 71 belly short, his back plump, and his proud chest swells luxu- riant with brawny muscles : (the bright bay and bluish gray are in most request ; the worst colors are the white and sor- rel.) Then, if he by chance hears the distant sound of arms, he knows not how to stand still ; he pricks up his ears, trem- bles in every joint, and snorting, rolls the collected fire under his nostrils. Thick is his mane, and, waving, rests on his right shoulder. A double spine 16 runs along his loins, his hoof scoops up the ground, and deep resounds with its solid horn. Such was Cyllarus, broken by the reins of Amyclaean Pollux, 17 and such (which the Grecian poets have described) the har- nessed brace of Mars, and the chariot-horses 18 of great Achil- les. Such Saturn too himself, swift at the coming of his wife, spread out a full mane on his [assumed] horse's neck, and flying filled lofty Pelion with shrill neighing. Him too, when with sickness oppressed, or now enfeebled with years, he fails, shut up in his lodge, and spare his not in- glorious age. An old horse is cold to love, and in vain drags on the ungrateful task, and if ever he comes to an engagement, he is impotently furious, as at times a great fire without strength among stubble. Therefore chiefly mark their spirit and age ; then their other qualities, their parentage, and what is the sorrow of each when vanquished, what the pride when victorious. See you not? 19 when in the rapid race the chariots have seized the plain, and pouring forth rush along; when the hopes of the youth are elevated, and palpitating fear heaves their throbbing hearts : they ply with the twisted lash, and bending forward give full reins : the axle flies glowing with the impetuosity. And now low, now high, they seem to be borne aloft through the open air, and to mount up into the 18 In a horse that is in good case, the back is broad, and a fullness of flesh near the spine is indicated, by which two ridges are formed, one at each side of the bone. This is what the ancients mean by a double spine. VALPY. 17 Amyclsean Pollux was the son of Jupiter by Leda, and the twin brother of Castor ; he was so called from Amiclse, a city of Lyconia, where he was born. " With this sense of "currus," compare the similar Greek usage, Eur. Hipp. 1224, rerpupov iKpaivuv ojov, vs. 1352, ed. Monk, and Ion, 1151. B. 19 This is a formula used in adducing examples. Comp. Georg. i. 56 ; Lucr. ii. 196. HlCKiE. 72 GEORGICS. B. in. 110137. skies. No stop, no stay": but a thick cloud of yellow sand is tossed up : the foremost are wet with the foam and breath of those that follow. So powerful is the love of praise, so anxious the desire of victory. First Erichthonius* dared to yoke the chariot and four steeds, and upon the rapid wheels victorious to stand. The Pelethronian Lapithae first mounted on horseback applied the reins, and turned him in the ring ; taught the horsemen under arms to spurn the plain, and with proud ambling pace to prance along. Either toil is equal ; with equal care the mas- ters in either case seek after a [steed that is] youthful, of warm mettle, and eager in the race : [they do not make choice of an old horse,] though often he may have driven before him the flying foes, may boast of Epirus, or of warlike Mycenae" for his country, and derive his pedigree even from Neptune's breed. These things observed, they are very careful about the time [of generation], and bestow all their care to plump him up with firm fat whom they have chosen leader, and assigned stallion to the herd : they cut downy herbs, and supply him with plenty of water and corn, that he may be adequate to aa the soothing toil, and lest the puny sons should declare the meagemess of their sires. But they purposely attenuate the brood mares with leanness : and, when now the known pleas- ure solicits the first enjoyment, they both deny herbs, and debar them from the springs ; often too they shake them in the race, and tire them in the sun, when beneath the beaten grain the barn floor deeply groans, and in the rising zephyr the empty chaff is tossed about. This they do, that excessive pampering may not blunt the powers of the genial soil, and choke up the sluggish passages ; but that it may with eager- ness drink in the joys of love, and lay them up more deeply within. * 80 Erichthonius, a son of Vulcan, and king of Athens ; the invention of chariots is ascribed to him. Pelethronian Lapithae, so called from Pelethronium, a town of Thessaly at the foot of Mount Pelion, inhabited by the Lapithae, who were excellent horsemen. S1 Mycense, a city of Argolis in Peloponnesus, once the capital of a kingdom, and the residence of Agamemnon. * a " Superesse" is explained " prsestantior esse" by the Scholiast on Avianus, Fab. xiii. 10, but more clearly by Gellius, i. 22, " supra laborem esae, neque opprimi a labore." B. B. m. 138164. GEOBGICS. 73 Again the cares of the sires begin to fail, and that of the dams to succeed ; when now, their months elapsed, they rove about pregnant : let no one suffer them to drag the yokes of heavy wagons 2 * or to leap across the way, scamper over the meads with sprightly career, and swim the rapid floods. They ought then to feed 2 * in spacious lawns, and beside full rivers, where moss, and grassy banks of prime verdure, and caves may shelter them, and over them a shady rock project. About the groves of Silarus," and Alburnus, verdant with ever-green oaks, abounds a flying thing," 8 which the Romans name asilus, and the Greeks in their language have rendered oestros; of angry sting, humming harshly; with which whole herds affrighted fly dispersed through the woods ; the sky is furiously shaken with bellowings, and the woods and banks of dry Tanagrus. With this monster did Juno once exercise her fell revenge, having meditated a plague for the Inachian" heifer. This, too (for in the noontide heat it rages more keen- ly), you must keep off from the pregnant cattle ; and feed your herds when the sun is newly risen, or when the stars usher in the night. After the birth, the whole care is transferred to the calves ; and from the first they stamp with a hot iron the marks and names of the race ; and which they choose to bring up for the increase of the flock, or to keep sacred for the altar, or to cleave the ground, ami turn up the soil all rugged with broken clods : the rest of the herd graze amid the green pastures. Those which you would form for the design and service of agriculture, train up while calves, and enter on the way to 33 Here wagons stand for any " wheeled vehicle." HICKTE. " Or rather, "scamper over." Heyne remarks, " proprie via carpitur per prata." B. " Silarus (Sele), a river of Italy, separating Lucania from the terri- tory of the Picentini ; its banks were much infested with the gad-fly. Alburnus, a lofty mountain of Lucania, at the foot of which rises the river Tanagros (Negro), remarkable for its cascades and its beautiful meanderings. 36 " Volitans," as Anthon remarks, is here used as a kind of substan- tive. Compare "volucri asilo," Yaler. Flacc. iii. 581. 27 Inachian heifer. lo, daughter of Inachus, and priestess of Juno at Argos, according to the poets, was changed into a heifer by Jupiter, but afterward restored to her own form, when she married Telegonua or Osiris, king of Egypt, and after death was worshiped under the name of Isia. 4 74 GEORGICS. B. m. 165 197. tame them, while their minds in youth are tractable, while their age is pliant. And first fasten about their necks loose collars of slender twigs; next, when they have accustomed their free necks to servitude, match your bullocks in pairs joined by those same collars, and make them step together ; and now let empty wheels be dragged by them along the ground, and let them print their traces in the surface of the dust. Afterward let the beechen axle laboring under a pon- derous load creak, and the brass-girt pole draw the joined wheels. Meanwhile for the young untamed bullocks you will crop with your hand not only grass, or the tender 28 leaves of willows, or a marshy sedge, but also springing corn : nor shall your suckling heifers, as was the custom of our fathers, fill the snowy milking-pails, but spend all their udders on their sweet offspring. But if thy inclination is to war and martial troops, or with thy wheels to skim along the brink of Pisa's 29 Alphceau streams, and drive the flying chariot in Jupiter's grove : the first task of the horse must be to view the fierceness and the arms of warriors, to be patient of the trumpet, and to bear the rumbling of the wheels in their career, and in his stall to hear the rattling bridles ; then more and more to rejoice in the coaxing praises of his master, and to love the sound of his patted neck. 30 And these let him hear as soon as weaned from the udder of his dam, and now and then yield his mouth to the soft halters when weak, and yet trembling, and yet not confident in his years. But, three full years elapsed, when his fourth summer has arrived, let him forthwith begin to wheel in the ring, and with regular steps to prance ; and let him bend the pliant joints of his legs alternately, and seem to labor. Then let him dare the winds in swiftness, and through the open plains flying, as loosened from the reins, scarcely print his steps on the surface of the sand. As when boisterous Boreas hath rushed forth from the Hyperborean regions, and drives along the Scythian storms and dry clouds ; 28 " Vescas" is interpreted by Servius, " siccas et teneras." See Gro- nov. on Liv. xxxiii. 48. intpp. on Lucret. i. 327. B. S9 Pisa, an ancient city of Elis in Peloponnesus, on the banks of the Alpheus, and on the ruins of which Olympia is supposed to have been built. 30 Silius, iv. 265, " stimulans grato plauste cervicis honore, Coruipedeni alloquitur." B. B. ra. 198235. GEORGICS. 75 then the high corn and waving fields tremble with the gentle gusts, the tops of the woods rustle, and the lengthened waves press toward the shore : he flies, sweeping in his career at once the fields, at once the seas. Such a courser will either sweat at the goals and spacious bounds of the Elean plain, and drive the bloody foam from his mouth, or will better bear the Belgic cars on his pliant neck. Then at last, when they are broken, let their ample bodies grow with fattening mash ; for, [if full fed] before breaking them in, they will swell their mettle high, and when seized, refuse to bear the limber whip, and to obey the hard curb. But no industry more confirms their strength than to avert Venus from them, and the stings of blind love, whether any one be more fond of a breed of bullocks or of horses. And therefore they remove the bulls to a distance, and to lonely pastures, behind an obstructing mountain, and beyond broad rivers, or keep them shut up within at full cribs ; for the fe- male insensibly consumes his vigor, and fires him while in his eye," nor suffers him to mind his groves and pastures. Often by her sweet allurements she even impels her haughty lovers to combat with their horns. The beauteous heifer feeds in the spacious wood ; they by turns with mighty force engage with repeated wounds ; black blood laves their bodies ; and their adverse horns are impelled on the straggling foes with a vast groan; the woods and spacious skies rebellow. Nor is it usual for the warriors to dwell together ; but the one vanquished retires, and becomes an exile in unknown distant coasts ; much and often bemoaning his disgrace, and the wounds of the proud victor, in _fine, the loves which un- avenged he has lost ; and, often gazing at the stalls, departs from his hereditary realms. Therefore with the utmost care he exercises his strength, and lies all night among the hard rocks, on an unspread couch, feeding on prickly leaves and sharp rushes ; he tries himself, and learns to collect his rage into his^ horns, butting against the trunk of a tree ; dares the winds with blows, and preludes to the fight by spurning the sand. Afterward, when his strength is rallied, and his vigor Sl Literally, " by their beholding her." Anthon truly remarks, that it is a mistake to suppose that the gerund is used for the passive. C "cantando," Eel. viii. 71, "tegendo," Georg. iii. 454, "habendo," Lu- cret L 313. B. 7