adde, quod in vestro genitor meus aequore regnat: hunc tibi do socerum. Tantum miserere, precesque supplicis exaudi, tibi enim succumbimus uni. 860 quique Jovem et caelum sperno et penetrabile fulmen, Nereï, te vereor: tua fulmine saevior ira est. 'Atque ego contemptus essem patientior hujus, si fugeres omnes. Sed cur Cyclope repulso Acin amas? praefersque meis amplexibus Acin? ille tamen placeatque sibi, placeatque licebit, quod nollem, Galatea, tibi. Modo copia detur ! sentiet esse mihi tanto pro corpore vires: viscera viva traham, divulsaque membra per agros, perque tuas spargam - sic se tibi misceat! — undas. uror enim, laesusque exaestuat acrius ignis ; cumque suis videor translatam viribus Aetnam pectore ferre meo: nec tu, Galatea, moveris.' 6 875 Talia nequiquam questus — nam cuncta videbam surgit, et ut taurus vacca furibundus adempta, stare nequit, silvaque et notis saltibus errat: cum ferus ignaros, nec quicquam tale timentes, me videt atque Acin; Video' que exclamat et ista ultima sit, faciam, veneris concordia vestrae.' tantaque vox, quantam Cyclops iratus habere debuit, illa fuit. Clamore perhorruit Aetne, ast ego vicino pavefacta sub aequore mergor. Terga fugae dederat conversa Symaethius heros, et Fer opem, Galatea, precor, mihi! ferte parentes,' dixerat, et vestris periturum admittite regnis !' insequitur Cyclops, partemque e monte revulsam mittit; et extremus quamvis pervenit ad illum angulus is montis, totum tamen obruit Acin. At nos, quod solum fieri per fata licebat, fecimus, ut vires assumeret Acis avitas. puniceus de mole cruor manabat, et intra 885 temporis exiguum rubor evanescere coepit: 135 890 895 Acis erat. Sed sic quoque erat tamen Acis, in amnem versus, et antiquum tenuerunt flumina nomen. XXI. THE WISDOM OF KING NUMA. [BOOK XV. 1-487.] [ÆNEAS had passed, on the coast of Italy, the isle of the Cercopes, turned by Jupiter into apes (XIV. 75-100), and coming to Cumæ, finds the Sibyl Amalthea, daughter of Scylla, who relates that, being loved by Apollo, he had granted her wish to live so many years as the grains of sand in her hand (101-153). Arriving at Cajetas, he meets Macareus, an old companion of Ulysses, who relates the adventure of the Cyclops and the enchantments of Circe, at whose palace they had remained a full year (154–312). During this time, Circe tells of Picus, son of Saturn, whom, not returning her love, she had converted to a woodpecker, and his companions to various beasts, while his wife Canens wasted into air (313-440). In the wars which followed Æneas' arrival in Latium, Diomed refuses aid to Turnus, but his companions, desiring to grant it, are changed to white hinds (441-511). Various transformations follow: of the shepherd Apulus to a wild olive; of Æneas' ships to water-nymphs; of the ashes of the city Ardea to a heron; and at length of Æneas himself to one of the gods Indigetes; of Tiberinus to a river; of Vertumnus to sundry shapes, with the tales by which he at length won the love of Pomona ; lastly of Romulus, who at his death became the god Quirinus, and his wife Hersilia the goddess Ora (512-851).] Guided by an ancient sage, Numa seeks wisdom among the Greeks of Southern Italy; [whereby violating the Sabine law, he is accused, but acquitted, the black lots being changed by miracle to white in the urn (XV. 1–59)]. At Heraclea Pythagoras, exiled from Samos, instructs him in the doctrine of metempsychosis, and the law which forbids all shedding of blood. This was unknown in the golden age, but began with the slaughter of animals for food (75-142). Pythagoras — recalling his own former existence as Euphorbas (slain by Menelaus before Troy)-teaches that all life incessantly passes from one to another form; all things are in flux and change the heavenly bodies, the seasons types of human life, the elements with their transmutations, the vast changes on the face of the earth (237-277). [These changes detailed: waters that disappear, or overflow regions once dry; islands formed from mainland, and plains uplifted into hills; springs alternately XV. 71.] Doctrine of Pythagoras. 137 hot and cold, or strangely affecting those who drink of them; Delos and the Symplegades; Ætna, which did not always flame. Earth herself lives and breathes, and suffers all these changes; life springs from decay, and shows strange metamorphoses, as of worms to butterflies, tadpoles to frogs, and shapeless cubs to bears; fable of the Phoenix, hyæna, and chameleon, and the growth of coral; States change and pass away, Sparta, Mycenæ, Thebes, — while new Rome is rising from ancient Troy (278-453).] The lesson of mercy is reinforced; and, fortified with this doctrine, Numa rules peacefully the state of Rome until his death (454-457). [Egeria, grieving at his loss, listens to the tale of Hippolytus, son of Theseus (banished by the false accusations of Phædra, and dashed to pieces on the shores of Corinth), but changed to the Italian Virbius, and is changed by Diana to a fountain (488–551). Tale of the Etruscan Tages, who sprang from a clod; and of Cipus, on whose brow grew horns, and who refused the sovereignty of his city portended thereby (532-621).] DESTINAT imperio clarum praenuntia veri Fama Numam. Non ille satis cognosse Sabinae gentis habet ritus: animo majora capaci 5. 60 65 70 et quodcumque latet; primusque animalia mensis 'Parcite, mortales, dapibus temerare nefandis corpora! Sunt fruges, sunt deducentia ramos pondere poma suo, tumidaeque in vitibus uvae ; sunt herbae dulces, sunt quae mitescere flamma mollirique queant; nec vobis lacteus humor eripitur, nec mella thymi redolentia flore. prodiga divitias alimentaque mitia tellus 75 80 suggerit, atque epulas sine caede et sanguine praebet. ❤ carne ferae sedant jejunia, nec tamen omnes: quippe equus et pecudes armentaque gramine vivunt ; at quibus ingenium est inmansuetumque ferumque, 85 Armeniaeque tigres iracundique leones, cumque lupis ursi, dapibus cum sanguine gaudent. 'Heu quantum scelus est in viscera viscera condi, congestoque avidum pinguescere corpore corpus, alteriusque animantem animantis vivere leto! . Scilicet in tantis opibus, quas optima matrum Terra parit, nil te nisi tristia mandere saevo vulnera dente juvat, rictusque referre Cyclopum?, nec, nisi perdideris alium, placare voracis et male morati poteris jejunia ventris? 'At vetus illá aetas, cui fecimus aurea nomen, fetibus arboreis et quas humus educat herbis fortunata fuit, nec polluit ora cruore. tunc et aves tutae movere per aëra pennas, 90 95 100 105. |