Sive colunt habitantque viri, diffidimus illis :
Externos didici laesa timere viros.
Viveret Androgeos utinam: nec facta luisses
Impia funeribus, Cecropi terra, tuis!
Nec tua mactâsset nodoso stipite, Theseu,

Ardua1 parte virum dextera, parte bovem !
Nec tibi, quae reditus monstrarent, fila dedissem,
Fila per adductas saepe recepta manus!
Non equidem miror, si stat victoria tecum,
Strataque Cretaeam belua tinxit humum.
Non poterant figi praecordia ferrea cornu;
Ut te non tegeres,2 pectore tutus eras.
Illic tu silices, illic adamanta tulisti;

Illic qui silices,3 Thesea, vincat, habes.
Crudeles somni, quid me tenuistis inertem?
At semel aeterna nocte premenda fui.

The forms of the gods above seem to look down on Ariadne in anger, because she disregarded family ties for Theseus. Below," viveret" and "luisses" are different tenses, because the meaning is, "I wish Androgeos were now living... and the land of Cecrops had never had to atone for," etc. "Cecropi" is the vocative of "Cecropis," an adjective. Cecrops is said to have built the original city of Athens, which was confined at first to the Acropolis.

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110

though Theseus had no protective armour on, his very hardness of heart would have made him proof against wounds. This is fanciful, because hardness of heart is not material hardness, and therefore no defence against bodily hurt. Virgil has a similar display of fancy, when he speaks of "sleep softer than grass," and the incongruity of such expressions is displayed in its full absurdity in an epitaph, where Mr. Boyle is spoken of as "Father of Chemistry and Brother of the Earl of Cork."

3 Illic tu silices, etc. "There (in your heart) you have the Theseus to surpass the very flintstone in hardness." "Qui vincat" is "the sort of person to surpass." Below, "semel is once for all." Cf. Hor. Carm. iv. 7, 21: "Cum semel

2 Ut te non tegeres. Even occideris."

Vos quoque crudeles, venti, nimiumque parati,
Flaminaque in lacrimas officiosa meas.
Dextera crudelis, quae me fratremque necavit;
Et data poscenti, nomen inane, fides.
In me jurârunt somnus, ventusque, fidesque:
Prodita sum causis una puella tribus.
Ergo ego nec lacrimas matris moritura videbo ;
Nec, mea qui digitis lumina condat,1 erit?
Spiritus infelix peregrinas ibit in auras,
Nec positos artus unguet amica manus
Ossa superstabunt volucres inhumata2 marinae ?
Haec sunt officiis digna sepulcra meis?
Ibis Cecropios portus: patriaque receptus
Cum steteris urbis celsus in arce tuae,
Et bene narrâris letum taurique virique,
Sectaque per dubias saxea tecta vias;
Me quoque narrato sola tellure relictam:
Non ego sum titulis surripienda tuis.
Nec pater est Aegeus: nec tu Pittheïdos Aethrae
Filius auctores saxa fretumque tui.

3

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Di facerent, ut me summa de puppe videres!
Movisset vultus maesta figura tuos.

Nunc quoque non oculis, sed, qua potes, aspice

mente

Haerentem scopulo, quem vaga pulsat aqua.
Aspice demissos lugentis in ore capillos;

Et tunicas lacrimis, sicut ab imbre, graves.
Corpus, ut impulsae segetes Aquilonibus, horret;
Litteraque articulo pressa tremente1 labat.
Non te per meritum, quoniam male cessit, adoro;
Debita sit facto gratia nulla meo;

Sed nec poena quidem: 2 si non ego causa salutis,
Non tamen est cur sis tu mihi causa necis.
Has tibi plangendo lugubria pectora lassas
Infelix tendo trans freta longa manus.
Hos tibi, qui superant, ostendo maesta capillos.
Per lacrimas ora, quas tua facta movent,
Flecte ratem, Theseu, versoque relabere velo:
Si prius occidero, tu tamen ossa leges!

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as

she may fairly expect not to
suffer positive harm.
"Nec...
quidem" is not the same
ne... quidem;" but its force
is "but assuredly there should
be no punishment inflicted, as
well as no recompense made."

OENONE PARIDI.

Oenone, a Naiad (v. 10) dwelt on "Ida," a mountain in the neighbourhood of Troy. Paris, son of Priam, was loved by Oenone. Subsequently Paris carried off Helen, wife of Menelaus, from Sparta. Oenone was expecting the return of Paris, and on ascertaining what had occurred, wrote as follows:

PERLEGIS? An conjunx prohibet nova? Perlege:

non est

Ista Mycenaea1 littera facta manu.

Pegasis Oenone, Phrygiis celeberrima silvis,
Laesa queror de te, si sinis ipse, meo.
Quis deus opposuit nostris sua numina votis?
Ne tua permaneam, quod mihi crimen obest?
Leniter, ex merito quidquid patiare, ferendum est
Quae venit indignae poena, dolenda venit.
Nondum tantus eras, cum te contenta marito

Edita de magno flumine Nympha fui.
Qui nunc Priamides, (adsit 2 reverentia vero!)
Servus eras; servo nubere Nympha tuli.
Saepe greges inter requievimus arbore tecti,
Mistaque cum foliis praebuit herba torum.

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10

formed for "daughter of a stream
or fountain," a Naiad (nyń, a
fountain):
"Edita de magno
flumine," as she says below.

2 Adsit, etc. "Let due regard, or respect, be paid to truth." Below, "maculis" seems to imply that the junctions of the meshes of the nets were marked with some coloured material.

Saepe super stramen foenoque jacentibus alto
Defensa est humili cana pruina casa.
Quis tibi monstrabat saltus venatibus aptos,
Et tegeret catulos qua fera rupe suos?
Retia saepe comes, maculis distincta, tetendi;
Saepe citos egi per juga longa canes.
Incisae1 servant a te mea nomina fagi;
Et legor, Oenone falce notata tua.

Et quantum trunci, tantum mea nomina crescunt:
Crescite, et in titulos surgite recta meos.
Populus est, memini, fluviali consita ripa,
Est in qua nostri littera scripta memor.
Popule, vive precor, quæ consita margine ripae
Hoc in rugoso cortice carmen habes :-
Cum Paris Oenone poterit spirare relicta,
Ad fontem 2 Xanthi versa recurret aqua.

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20

25

30

Xanthe, retro propera, versaeque recurrite lymphae ;
Sustinet Oenonen deseruisse Paris.

Illa dies fatum miserae mihi dixit: ab illa
Pessima mutati coepit amoris hiemps,

Qua Venus et Juno, sumptisque decentior armis, 35
Venit in arbitrium nuda Minerva tuum.

1 Incisae, etc. Paris carved Oenone's name on the bark of trees. Cf. Verg. Eclog. x. 53: "Tenerisque meos incidere amores Arboribus; crescent illae, crescetis amores." So Andrew Marvell (Thoughts in a Garden):

"Fond lovers, cruel as their flame,

Cut in these trees their mistress' name: Fair trees, where'er your barks I wound,

No name shall but your own be found."

Below, "in titulos meos," etc., means that, as the trunk grew upward to the sky, it would