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Excivere canes, silvisque exire parantem
Fixerat obliquo juvenis Cinyreïus ictu.
Protinus excussit pando venabula rostro

716

Sanguine tincta suo, trepidumque et tuta petentem 130 Trux aper insequitur, totosque sub inguine dentes Abdidit et fulva moribundum stravit arena. Vecta levi curru medias Cytherea per auras Cypron olorinis nondum pervenerat alis : Agnovit longe gemitum morientis, et albas 135 Flexit aves illuc. Utque æthere vidit ab alto 720 Exanimem inque suo jactantem sanguine corpus; Desiluit, pariterque sinus pariterque capillos Rupit, et indignis percussit pectora palmis. Questaque cum fatis, “At non tamen omnia vestri 140 Juris erunt:" dixit, 66 luctus monumenta mane

bunt

Semper, Adoni, mei; repetitaque mortis imago
Annua plangoris peraget simulamina nostri ;
At cruor in florem mutabitur. An tibi quondam
Femineos artus in olentes vertere menthas,
145 Persephone, licuit; nobis Cinyreïus heros

Invidiæ mutatus erit?" Sic fata cruorem
Nectare odorato sparsit, qui tactus ab illo
Intumuit, sic ut pluvio perlucida cœlo

Surgere bulla solet. Nec plena longior hora

725

730

150 Facta mora est, cum flos de sanguine concolor

ortus,

735

Qualem, quæ lento celant sub cortice granum,
Punica ferre solent. Brevis est tamen usus in illo:
Namque male hærentem et nimia levitate caducum
Excutiunt îdem, qui præstant nomina, venti.

XLI. MIDAS.

(XI. 86—193.)

Midas, king of Phrygia, was celebrated in legendary history for his riches and his folly. He had once gained the favour of Bacchus, when that god visited the plains of Phrygia. For on one occasion Silēnus, who was always to be found in the train of Bacchus, and who, according to the legend, had the care of the god in his youth

(whence juvenis alumnus, v. 14, and altor, v. 16) and to have instructed him, strayed in a state of drunkenness from the suite of the god. Some Phrygian peasants, who found him, brought him to King Midas. As the king had been initiated into the mysteries of the worship of Bacchus, he recognized Silēnus, and, after a festive entertainment, brought him back to the god, who for this invited him to utter a wish, which he undertook to perform for him. Midas foolishly asked, that whatever he touched might turn to gold. Delighted as he was at first with the fulfilment of his wish, it became such a distress to him, that his very meat and drink (wine, i. e. Bacchus, i.e. auctor muneris, v. 40) when touched by him, became gold which he could not enjoy. Tormented by the sharpest hunger and thirst, he prayed to the god for relief from the evil which his own folly had brought upon him. The god, listening to his prayer, directed him to bathe near the source of the river Pactõlus, and the waters of the stream released him from the burdensome gift, and from that time the Pactōlus has ever flowed over golden sands. Midas, however, displayed his folly in another way. Disgusted with riches and power, he devoted himself to rural pursuits. And when the shepherd-god, Pan (deus pecoris, v. 75), with his pipe of reed, engaged in a contest against Apollo and his lyre, the Phrygian mountain-god decided as umpire in favour of Apollo (v. 71). The judgement was generally approved; Midas alone pronounced the judgement unjust upon which Apollo changed the organs of his dull hearing into ass's ears. Midas carefully concealed this deformity under an ample turban. A slave, however, who waited on him, discovered the secret; and feeling an irresistible impulse to tell it again, yet not daring to disclose it to any of his acquaintance, dug a hole in the ground and whispered into it his discovery about the ears of his master.-He (agricola, v. 107) filled up the hole again with earth, but a thick tuft of reeds sprung up over the place; and when the wind stirred the reeds, there sounded from them the words that had been whispered by the slave: "Midas has ass's ears."

Bacchus, progenies Semeles, vineta Tymoli 86
Pactolonque petit, quamvis non aureus illo
Tempore, nec caris erat invidiosus arenis.

91

Hunc assueta cohors, Satyri Bacchæque, frequentant; 5 At Silenus abest. Titubantem annisque meroque Ruricolæ cepere Phryges, vinctumque coronis Ad regem duxere Midan, cui Thracius Orpheus Orgia tradiderat cum Cecropio Eumolpo. Qui simul agnovit socium comitemque sacrorum,

10 Hospitis adventu festum genialiter egit

Per bis quinque dies et junctas ordine noctes.

95

Et jam stellarum sublime coegerat agmen
Lucifer undecimus, Lydos cum lætus in agros
Rex venit, et juveni Silenum reddit alumno.
15 Huic deus optandi gratum, sed inutile, fecit
Muneris arbitrium, gaudens altore recepto.
Ille, male usurus donis, ait, "Effice, quicquid
Corpore contigero, fulvum vertatur in aurum."
Annuit optatis, nocituraque munera solvit
20 Liber, et indoluit, quod non meliora petisset.

100

105

Lætus abit gaudetque malo Berecyntius heros, Pollicitique fidem tangendo singula tentat. Vixque sibi credens, non alta, fronde virentem, Ilice detraxit virgam: virga aurea facta est; 25 Tollit humo saxum: saxum quoque palluit auro; 110 Contigit et glebam: contactu gleba potenti Massa fit; arentes Cereris decerpsit aristas: Aurea messis erat; demtum tenet arbore pomum : Hesperidas donasse putes; si postibus altis 30 Admovit digitos; postes radiare videntur.

Ille etiam liquidis palmas ubi laverat undis, Unda fluens palmis Danaen eludere posset. Vix spes ipse suas animo capit, aurea fingens Omnia. Gaudenti mensas posuere ministri, 35 Exstructas dapibus, nec tostæ frugis egentes. Tum vero sive ille sua Cerealia dextra Munera contigerat: Cerealia dona rigebant; Sive dapes avido convellere dente parabat : Lamina fulva dapes admoto dente nitebant. 40 Miscuerat puris auctorem muneris undis : Fusile per rictus aurum fluitare videres.

115

120

125

130

Attonitus novitate mali, divesque miserque Effugere optat opes, et, quæ modo voverat, odit. Copia nulla famem relevat; sitis arida guttur 45 Urit, et inviso meritus torquetur ab auro. Ad cœlumque manus et splendida brachia tollens, "Da veniam, Lenæe pater! Peccavimus;" inquit, Sed miserere, precor, speciosoque eripe damno!" Mite deûm numen, Bacchus, peccasse fatentem 50 Restituit, factique fidem, data munera, solvit ; "Neve male optato maneas circumlitus auro : Vade," ait, "ad magnis vicinum Sardibus amnem,

66

135

140

Perque jugum ripa labentibus obvius undis Carpe viam, donec venias ad fluminis ortus; 55 Spumiferoque tuum fonti, qua plurimus exit, Subde caput; corpusque simul, simul elue crimen." Rex jussæ succedit aquæ. Vis aurea tinxit Flumen, et humano de corpore cessit in amnem. Nunc quoque jam veteris percepto semine venæ 60 Arva rigent auro madidis pallentia glebis.

145

150

155

Ille, perosus opes, silvas et rura colebat Panaque, montanis habitantem semper in antris. Pingue sed ingenium mansit, nocituraque, ut ante, Rursus erant domino stolidæ præcordia mentis. 65 Nam, freta prospiciens, late riget arduus alto Tmolus in adscensu, clivoque extentus utroque, Sardibus hine, illinc parvis fiuitur Hypæpis. Pan ibi dum teneris jactat sua carmina Nymphis, Et leve cerata modulatur arundine carmen, 70 Ausus Apollineos præ se contemnere cantus, Judice sub Tmolo certamen venit ad impar. Monte suo senior judex consedit, et aures Liberat arboribus: quercu coma cærula tantum Cingitur, et pendent circum cava tempora glandes. 75 Isque deum pecoris spectans, "In judice," dixit, 160 Nulla mora est.' Calamis agrestibus insonat ille, Barbaricoque Midan-aderat nam forte canentiCarmine delenit. Post hunc sacer ora retorsit Tmolus ad os Phobi: vultum sua silva secuta est. 80 Ille, caput flavum lauro Parnaside vinctus, Verrit humum Tyrio saturata murice palla, Distinctamque lyram gemmis et dentibus Indis Sustinet a læva, tenuit manus altera plectrum. Artificis status iste fuit. Tum stamina docto 85 Pollice sollicitat: quorum dulcedine captus Pana jubet Tmolus citharæ submittere cannas.

66

Judicium sanctique placet sententia montis
Omnibus; arguitur tamen atque injusta vocatur
Unius sermone Midæ. Nec Delius aures
90 Humanam stolidas patitur retinere figuram ;

Sed trahit in spatium, villisque albentibus implet,
Instabilesque imo facit, et dat posse moveri.
Cetera sunt hominis: partem damnatur in unam,

165

170

175

Induiturque aures lente gradientis aselli.

95 Ille quidem celat, turpique onerata pudore 180 Tempora purpureis tentat velare tiaris;

Sed solitus longos ferro resecare capillos

Viderat hoc famulus. Qui cum nec prodere visum
Dedecus auderet cupiens efferre sub auras,

100 Nec posset reticere tamen, secedit, humumque 185
Effodit et, domini quales adspexerit aures,
Voce refert parva, terræque immurmurat haustæ ;
Indiciumque suæ vocis tellure regesta
Obruit, et scrobibus tacitus discedit opertis.
105 Creber arundinibus tremulis ibi surgere
lucus
Cœpit, et, ut primum pleno maturuit anno,
Prodidit agricolam : leni nam motus ab Austro
Obruta verba refert, dominique coarguit aures.

XLII. PELEUS AND CEYX.

(XI. 266-409.)

190

Peleus, the son of Eăcus (comp. Introd. XXXI.), was more than commonly blest both from his marriage with the goddess Thetis, and from the birth of his son Achilles. The only drawback was, that when once playing at quoits, he had killed his halfbrother, Phocus, the son of Eăcus and of the nymph Psamăthê, and was therefore obliged to flee his native country, and seek by expiatory sacrifice to cleanse himself from the guilt of murder. On this expedition he came with his train to the kind-hearted king Ceix, a son of the morning-star (Lucifero genitore satus, v. 6; and Lucifero genitus, v. 62), who was sovereign of Trachin. Peleus told nothing to Ceyx of the cause of his wanderings, but Ceyx, kind and cheerful as he at other times was, was then sadly troubled and afflicted (dissimilis sui, v. 8). Yet his kind-heartedness, which made him on all occasions friendly even to the lowly born (media plebi, v. 18), could far less refuse admission to Peleus, who was a grandson of Jupiter (arumque Jovem, v. 21). He related to his guest the misfortune of his brother Dædalion. This prince, out of grief for the death of his daughter Chionê, who, on account of her offensive pride, had been slain by Diana, was going to throw himself down Mount Parnassus, but Apollo changed him into a falcon (cujus virtus nunc agitat columbas, v. 35). Scarcely had Ceyx related the wonder of his brother's transformation, when there arrived a follower of Peleus, and announced to him a new misfortune. A wolf had fallen upon the herd of Peleus as it was halting by the sea-shore, and had com

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