Conspexit terra centum procumbere tauros. Impia non verita est divos scelerare parentes, LXV. Etsi me assiduo confectum cura dolore 395. Tritonis hera] Minerva. Lake Trito was in North Africa. Rhamnusia virgo, Nemesis or Adrastea, who was worshipped at Rhamnus in Attica. 397. imbuta] 'Steeped in.' 398. Iustitiamque, &c.] Compare Ovid. Metam. i. 129, speaking of the iron age, Fugere pudor verumque fidesque, In quorum subiere locum fraudesque dolique Insidiaeque et vis et amor sceleratus habendi.' 404. divos - parentes] 'Intelligit Scaliger "deos patrios," equidem 390 395 400 405 loquentem, Troia Rhoeteo quem subter litore tellus Ne tua dicta vagis nequicquam credita ventis Ut missum sponsi furtivo munere malum Quod miserae oblitae molli sub veste locatum, LXVI. Omnia qui magni dispexit lumina mundi, 7.] Rhoeteum was a promontory of the Troad. 8. Obterit] Keeps down.' 9.] After tua, facta is proposed. 14. Daulias] (From Daulis, in Phocis, where Tereus, husband of Procne, reigned) The nightingale, into which either Procne (the mother of Itylus or Itys) or her sister Philomela was changed. Procne is more usually supposed to have been changed into a swallow. 16. Battiadae] Callimachus, of Cyrene, in Africa, from Battus, reputed founder of that town. 'Battiades toto semper cantabitur orbe, Quamvis ingenio non valet, arte valet,' Ov. Amor. i. 15. 13. 23. Atque illud] Forthwith it,' &c., as in Virgil, Georg. i. 202, 'Si brachia forte remisit, Atque illum in praeceps prono rapit alveus amni.' LXVI. This is a translation of a now lost poem of Callimachus of Alexandria, made by Catullus at the request of his friend Hortalus. See supr. lxv. The poem is supposed to be spoken by a lock of Berenice's hair, and is exceedingly difficult. In me 1.] Qui Conon, v. 7. dio duo signa Conon; et quis fuit alter Descripsit radio totum qui gentibus orbem ?' Virg. Ecl. iii. 40. 5. Triviam] Diana, or the Moon, fabled to have visited Endymion, Idem me ille Conon caelesti numine vidit Fulgentem clare, quam multis illa dearum * Estne novis nuptis odio Venus? anne parentum At tu non orbum luxti deserta cubile, Cum penitus maestas exedit cura medullas, Ut tibi tunc toto pectore sollicitae Sensibus ereptis mens excidit! at te ego certe 25 Anne bonum oblita es facinus, quo regium adepta's Sed tum maesta virum mittens quae verba locuta es! 30 Quis te mutavit tantus deus? an quod amantes Si reditum tetulisset. Is haut in tempore longo as he lay asleep in Latmos. This is 7. Conon] A celebrated mathematician in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus.-me, the lock of hair which is supposed to speak throughout the poem. 11. novo auctus hymenaeo] His marriage with his sister Berenice.rex, Ptolemaeus Euergetes. 18.] iuerint for iuverint. O Tite, si quid ego adiuero curamve levasso,' Ennius, apud Cic. de Senect. i. 35 21.] But it was not the widowed bed that you mourned forlorn, but the woeful separation from your dear brother.' 27. facinus] Hyginus relates that in a certain battle Berenice restored the day, by her personal valour, for her father Philadelphus. 28.] alis, neuter alid, the old form of alius, alia, aliud. 30. tristi] Contracted for trivisti. 32. caro corpore] The beloved person.' Quis ego pro factis caelesti reddita coetu Pristina vota novo munere dissoluo. Ille quoque eversus mons est, quem maximum in oris Cum Medi peperere.novum mare, cumque iuventus 37. caelesti reddita coetu] Because the lock became a constellation. coetu is dat., as curru in Virg. Aen. vii. 724. 38. Pristina vota, &c.] 'Release (i. e. pay) your former vows by this novel offering of myself.' So Hor. Od. iv. 2. 54, ' Me tener solvet vitulus.' 39.] Virgil, Aen. vi. 460, has closely imitated this line: Invitus, regina, tuo de littore cessi.' 41.] By which if any one swears falsely, may he receive his deserts.' 42. postulet, &c.] Can claim' to 'be a match for steel.' Pope in his Rape of the Lock,' has closely imitated this passage in the well-known lines, Steel could the labours of the gods destroy,' &c. 43] So Juvenal, Sat. x. 173, 'Creditur olim Velificatus Athos, et quicquid Graecia mendax Audet in historia.' 44. Progenies Thiae] The sun. 40 45 50 55 48.] ut utinam. O that!' 'Iupiter ut pereat positum robigine telum,' Hor. Sat. ii. 1. 43. N.B.The last syllable of Chalybum is treated as if it were Chalybon. In the Scholia to Apoll. Rhod. ii. 375, the original words are quoted, Xaλúβων ὡς ἀπόλοιτο γένος γειόθεν ἀντέλλοντα κακὸν φυτὸν οἱ μιν nav. 50.] frangere vincere. 51-54.]My sisters were bewailing the fate of me a lock lately severed, when the brother of Aethiopian Memnon, beating the air with flapping wings, the winged horse of Cyprian Arsinoe, presented himself." 53. Unigena] Zephyrus was son of Aurora, who was also Memnon's mother. 57.] Probably the name Zephyritis was applied to Arsinoe, on account of Zephyrium, a promontory of Egypt, where she was worshipped as Graia Canopieis incola litoribus. *Hi dii ven ibi vario ne solum in lumine caeli Ex Ariadneis aurea temporibus Fixa corona foret, sed nos quoque fulgeremus 60 Virginis et saevi contingens namque leonis Uvidulam a fletu cedentem ad templa deum me Lumina, Callisto iuxta Lycaoniam, 65 Vertor in occasum, tardum dux ante Booten, Qui vix sero alto mergitur Oceano. Sed quanquam me nocte premunt vestigia divum, 70 (Pace tua fari hic liceat, Rhamnusia virgo, Arsinoe Cypris.-Cypridos for Locridos, in 54. Cf. Athenaeus, vii. 318. Anyhow, Catullus appears to have identified Arsinoe, wife of Ptolemy Philadelphus, who built a temple to her honour at Alexandria, with Aphrodite Zephyritis, the proper goddess of Zephyrium. For the application of the term 'ales equos' to Zephyrus, compare 'Eurus Per Siculas equitavit undas,' Hor. Od. iv. 4. 43. 58. Graia-incola] As being a Greek goddess introduced by the Macedonian dynasty. Canopieis. Canopus was a town of Egypt, at the mouth of the Nile. ing from its mistress, 75 66. Lumina] The stars forming the constellation.'-Callisto Lycaoniam, daughter of Lycaon, the Great Bear. Note the quantity of juxtă. 67. Booten] Bootes, the Herdsman, was another name for Arctophylax, the Bearward. 6 68.] Arctos Oceani metuentes aequore tingi,' Virg. Georg. i. 246. 69. me nocte premunt, &c.] i. e. 'I am high up in the heavens at night;' lit. the gods walk upon me.' 71. Rhamnusia virgo] Nemesis. Rhamnus was a village in Attica, where there was a celebrated statue of the goddess. · 73.] Nec = ne quidem. Not |