I.

2.

With anger filled that Niobe presumed
Herself with fair Latona to compare,
Her many children with her rival's two;
Lo, by the two were all the many slain.

Nine days in death they lay; and none was there
To pay their funeral rites; for Saturn's son
Had given to all the people hearts of stone.

At length the immortal gods entomb'd the dead.
Nor yet did Niobe, when now her grief

Had worn itself in tears, from food refrain

And now in Sipylus, amid the rocks,

And lonely mountains, where the goddess nymphs
That love to dance by Achelous stream,

'Tis said, were cradled, she, though turned to stone,
Broods o'er the wrongs inflicted by the gods!
LORD DERBY'S Translation.

Illam, Arachne, whose story immediately precedes.
Niobe was daughter of Tantalus, king of Lydia and Phrygia, and
was married to Amphion, king of Thebes.

Maeonia is an old name for Lydia; Sipylus a mountain
in it.

3. Popularis, her countrywoman.

4.

5.

IO.

12.

Cedere, a poetical construction. Cp. L. Gr. p. 170, I. 2 c (2).
She had many things to make her proud, but the one thing of
which she boasted was her children. Sed enim, but after all.
Cp. IV. 76.

Coniugis artes, &c. Amphion was a famous singer and
harper, who is said to have built the walls of Thebes by his
minstrelsy, 1. 31. Genus amborum, he, as well as his
wife's father, was a son of Jupiter.

Manto, a Theban prophetess.

Ismenides. Theban women, from the river Ismenus, near
Thebes.

14. Lauro, as sacred to Apollo, Latona's son.

19.

Vestibus follows intexto: by the gold inwoven in her Phrygian dress.

20. Formosa (forma), shapely. Ill-temper spoils beauty. Cp. I. 63. The asyndeton here is very effective.

25.

26.

From

Tantalus was admitted to the society and the table of the gods,
and in his pride could not help talking of what he had heard
there. He was punished in the lower regions by having food
and water within sight, but always eluding his grasp.
this story we get our word tantalize,' to hold out expectations
which are never to be gratified. He is said to have been
buried under Mount Sipylus.

27. Pleiadum soror, Dione, one of the Hyades, daughters of Atlas. 30. Join sub me domina: it had me for its mistress.

35.

Homer has six sons and six daughters.

37. These imperatives are ironical: Examine, and then dare if you

can....

38. Nescio quo is treated as one word, which accounts for the posiCoeus was one of the Titans.

40.

tion of que.

Note the contrast, maxima—exiguam.

43. According to the legend Delos was a floating island, which became stationary as a reward for sheltering Latona.

45. Uteri, i.e. offspring.

50.

Metum. Cp. V. 6, are beyond the reach of fear.

51. Her family is a 'people' compared with Latona's 'rabble'; Latona is as good as childless.

54.

56.

57.

59.

61.

Capillis, abl. from......

Fear of their queen makes them desist, fear of the gods makes
them try to secure themselves by silent prayer.

Cynthi, a mountain in Delos. Hence the names Cynthins and
Cynthia applied to Apollo and Diana.

Animosa, proud in a good sense.
Gen. in prose, de me dubitatur.

66. Linguam paternam, the garrulity of her father, Tantalus. 70. Join tecti nubibus. The citadel of Thebes was called Cadmea. 73. Mollierat, had broken up.

of that time.

75. In equos. An anachronism; chariot driving was the exercise The trappings were of purple, the harness mounted with gold.

82.

84.

85.

87.

89.

He hears Apollo's quiver in the air, but does not see it.
Unfurls the sails so as to avail himself of the least breeze.
Qua, by any means.

Cervix is the back, guttur the front of the neck.

Ut erat pronus, riding fast he was leaning forward, and so fell over his horse's mane. His hold on the rein slackened, and so the horse bolted (admissa; equum admittere, or immittere habenas to give a horse the rein).

93. Transierant, had passed on (for change).

Nitidae, because it was usual to rub the body over with oil, to make the grip more difficult.

94. They had closed breast to breast, wrestling in tight grip. 96. Sicut, &c. Just as they were, clasped together.

99. Exhalarunt. Cp. VII. 65, and note.

100.

102.

Laniata, prolepsis, till it was torn.

Pio officio, the duteous employment; pius, of affection to parents or brothers.

106. Intonsum. The Greek youths wore their hair long till they came to man's estate.

108.

III.

Join non simplex, more than one.

The muscles of the knee make a soft joint. Internodium is that which connects the joints.

And spurting forth spouts aloft, and bounds afar, piercing the air.

115. Ignarus = a word of knowing or the opposite, and so takes

inf. and accus.

Non omnes, but only Apollo and Diana.

117. Tamen. It was too late to stay the shot, but the rising pity lessened its force. In one version of the story, one of the brothers and one of the sisters are spared.

121.

What is the subject to potuisse ?

127.

Resupina, with her head haughtily thrown back.

131. Liventia, as a consequence of the planctus at this bad news. Each of these seven deaths is a death to me.

Efferor, I am borne out to burial.

Arcu, sc. Dianae. See the quotation from Homer.
Demisso crine, as a sign of mourning.

Swooned in death, or sank back in death, as she stooped to kiss

134.

135.

138.

141.

143.

her brother.

145.

147.

150.

Caeco, from an unknown source.

Duplicata, bent double.

Trepidare, opp. to latet, rushes about in fear.

She is thus represented in the famous group.

162. Montis. Sipylus, where there was a rough hewn image of a mourning woman three times the size of life, hewn out of the rock.

The figure still exists, but is believed to be a figure of Cybele, the mother of the gods. There is a description of it in the Academy for August 28, 1880.

163. Liquitur, is in tears. Possibly the rain, draining from the neighbouring hillside, trickled over the figure. Cp. Hamlet's 'like Niobe, all tears.'

IX.

PROSERPINE.

THE worship of Demeter, with whom the Romans identified the Italian goddess Ceres, was common to all parts of Greece, where agriculture at all flourished, but it had especial currency where the land was very rich and fertile. Hence Sicily, which was afterwards called the granary of Italy, was in a peculiar sense the home of Demeter-worship. There were in the island two great centres of this worship, Henna towards the middle of the island, and Catana on its eastern shore. was from the former of these, which also claims to be the scene of the leading incident in this story, that the worship was introduced into Rome.

It

The meaning of the story seems plain. It has been called 'The Myth of the Buried Seed-corn." The earth swallows up the grain which must remain in the ground through the winter before the golden harvest can again gladden the goddess's eyes.

I.

2.

Hennaeis. Henna was called the middle of Sicily (όμφαλὸς
Σικελίας). It was on the road from Catana to Agrigentum,
and in the middle of an extensive corn-growing district.
Caystros, a river of Lydia.

5. Velo, the awning which was spread over the heads of the spectators in a theatre to protect them from sun and rain.

6. Tyrios, i.e., purple.

9.

II.

15.

Puellari studio, in girlish delight.

Note how the quick rhythm of the verse indicates the rapidity of the action.

Remissis. She rent her clothes in sign of despair, and so the lappets of her tunic dropped.

16

17.

20.

22.

Simplicitas, artlessness.

Cf. III. 14, and note.

Obscura ferrugine, all that belongs to the infernal regions is of a dusky hue.

Stagna Palicorum, two volcanic lakes, about fifteen miles west of Leontini. They were sacred to local deities, called Palici. The pools sent up sulphurous vapours and naphtha. There is now but one pool, called Lago di Naftia.

23. Bacchiadae, at one time the ruling family of Corinth, under whom a colony was sent to Sicily, and founded Syracuse, with two harbours, a lesser and a greater, separated by the island of Ortygia.

Bimaris, between two seas, the Corinthian and the Saronic Gulfs. 25. Cyanes, genitive of relative position; in the middle as regards Cyane, &c., so between. So CAESAR B. G. I. 34, 'aliquem locum medium utriusque.' Similarly uéoos in Greek has a genitive. Pisaeae. It was believed that there was underground communication between the Peloponnese and Sicily, and that the waters of the fountain of Arethusa, on the peninsula of Ortygia, came from near Pisa in Elis.

26.

an

Note the hiatus in Pisaeae, which is unusual on the syllable that bears the beat of the metre.

Aequor, the great harbour of Syracuse. Cyane is on the western side of the harbour, and Arethusa on the eastern.

30. Nec, the conjunction belongs to inquit.

31.

You cannot force yourself as a son-in-law on Ceres.

32. Subject to fuit ?

Quod, the use of the neuter relative in phrases like this is due to the constant habit of linking sentences by qui.

33. Anapus, a streamlet by Syracuse, whose waters mingle with those of Cyane close to the sea.

38. Contortum, flung.

39.

41.

Condidit, buried.

The nymph pines away, and is absorbed in the stream itself. 44. Numen, complement.

47.

56.

59.

Quisque is frequently joined to superlatives, in the sense of all: e.g., optimus quisque, all the good men.

Illam Cererem. Udis, as rising from the sea, or because of
the morning dew.

Pruinosas tenebras, the cold dews of darkness.
Hebetarat, had dimmed.

Collegerat expresses a growing feeling: so odium colligere, to
get more and more hated: rabiem colligere, to grow mad.
Dulce, a sweet drink. The polenta was parched, and sprinkled
over the surface.

60.

62.

66.

69.

70.

71.

74.

76.

Petit for petiit.

Parte, half.

Join polenta (abl.) mixta cum liquido.

What just now he wore as arms, he now wears as legs.
Parva lacerta, than that of a small lizard.

77.

79.

87.

89.

Nomen, stellio, a kind of lizard.

Like Alexander, she wanted another world to search over.
Denique. She had not realized it before.

Repetita. Cp. VI. 72.

95. As a banker may deny having received that which is entrusted to his keeping.

Vitiataque semina fecit, and made the seeds rotten.

97. Sicily was one of the great storehouses of corn for Rome.

98. Falsa jacet, is belied and fallen. Primis in herbis, in the first blade.

100.

102.

By a common licence, que is lengthened because the beat of the foot falls upon it.

The farmer wages war against weeds. 103. Alpheias. According to the legend, the river god Alpheus, whose waters flow through Arcadia and Elis, pursued the nymph Arethusa. At her prayer Diana changed her into a spring she dashed into the sea, and flowed through the earth beneath it, till she came up again in Ortygia. But Alpheus followed her even into the sea, and united himself to her. Cp. SHELLEY's poem, Arethusa.

108.

109. I12.

117.

Patuit, &c. And has unwillingly been the scene of abduction.
And therefore I am not partial.

Hoc, i.e., solum.

Melioris, more cheerful.

119. Desueta, long lost.

124.

126.

127.

128.

131.

139.

143.

Matrona, opp. to puella, the lawful wife.

See IV. 81.

Amentia, stupor.

Toto nubila vultu, her whole face clouded.

The insult is done to you, not to me only.

Excepit, took up the words, i.e. at once replied, or even interrupted her.

Modo dummodo. Ut concessive.

145. Sorte. Jupiter obtained by lot (sortitus) at his father's death the government of the upper world, Pluto of the lower. 148. Cautum est, it is provided.

151. Simplex, carelessly.

152. Poeniceum, the pomegranate, from the blood-red colour of its flesh. The pomegranate, from the number of its seeds, was a symbol of plenty and fruitfulness (in Herodotus, IV. 143, Artabanus asks Darius what he would like to have as many of as there are seeds in a pomegranate), and it seems to have been also a symbol of marriage, so that this means that Persephone was already married to Pluto. (PRELLER, Griechische Mythologie, I. 628.)

Orphne the gloaming. Ascalaphus = an owl, in Greek. 159. So in another place Ovid has profanus bubo. Met., VI. 431. Avem, horned owl.

160.

162. See 1. 26, and note.

164. Regnorum, the upper and the nether world.

167. Even Dis, accustomed to all that is gloomy, might think her sad.