Non ego deserto jacuissem frigida lecto,
Nec quererer tardos ire relicta dies:
Nec mihi, quaerenti spatiosam fallere noctem,
Lassaret viduas pendula tela manus.

Quando ego non timui graviora pericula veris ?
Res est solliciti plena timoris amor.

10

In te fingebam violentos Troas ituros:
Nomine in Hectoreo pallida semper eram.
Sive quis Antilochum1 narrabat ab Hectore victum,
Antilochus nostri causa timoris erat :

Sive Menoetiaden 2 falsis cecidisse sub armis,
Flebam successu posse carere dolos.

Sanguine Tlepolemus Lyciam tepefecerat hastam ;
Tlepolemi leto cura novata mea est.

Denique, quisquis erat castris jugulatus Achivis
Frigidius glacie pectus amantis erat.

Sed bene consuluit casto deus aequus amori;
Versa est in cinerem sospite Troia viro.
Argolici rediere duces; altaria fumant;
Ponitur ad patrios barbara praeda deos.

66

66

"aethera," aera," "Thesea," Hectora," etc., are in use, and the plural forms "Troas," etc. Below, "jacuissem" and quererer," are different tenses, because Penelope means to say that if Paris had never visited Lacedaemon she should not in the first instance have been deserted by Ulysses, nor should she now be complaining of the constant weariness of her life.

1 Antilochum. The son of Nestor, killed, according to the usual account, by Memnon. (Hom. Odyss. iv. 188; Pind. Pyth. vi. 31).

2 Menoetiaden. "The son of Menoetius," Patroclus; a patro

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20

25

Grata ferunt nymphae pro salvis dona maritis;
Illi victa suis Troia fata canunt.

Mirantur justique senes, trepidaeque puellae ;
Narrantis conjunx pendet ab ore1 viri.

Atque aliquis posita monstrat fera proelia mensa ;
Pingit et exiguo Pergama tota mero.
Hac ibat Simois; hic est Sigeïa tellus: 2
Hic steterat Priami regia celsa senis.
Illic Aeacides, illic tendebat Ulysses;
Hic lacer admissos terruit Hector equos.
Omnia namque tuo senior, te quaerere misso,
Rettulerat nato Nestor; at ille mihi.
Rettulit et ferro Rhesumque Dolonaque caesos;
Utque sit hic somno proditus, ille dolo;

1 Pendet ab ore. "Hangs on the lips or utterances." Virgil has the same phrase, Aen. iv. 79: "Pendetque iterum narrantis ab ore." So Tennyson, In Memor. lxxxvi. :

5

4

30

335

40

vallum

“Militesque extra
tendere jussit.' The ellipsis is
"tentoria." In the next line
the allusion is to the dragging
of Hector at the chariot wheels
of Achilles.

Quaerere misso.
This is a
poetical construction. The in-
finitive, as a rule, is not used
to express purpose. The prose
forms would have been,"
quaereret," "ad quaerendum,"
quaesituro," "quaerendi cau-

66

sa,

ut

or "quaesitum (supine)." Telemachus, at the instigation of Pallas, leaving Ithaca went to Pylos, to learn, if possible, from Nestor, tidings of the fate of Ulysses.

5

Rhesumque Dolonaque. Ulysses and Diomedes entered by night the camp of Rhesus, a Thracian king, outside Troy, and after killing him, carried off his famous horses to the Greek encampment. Dolon entered the Greek camp as a spy, but was detected by Ulysses and Dio

Ausus es, o nimium nimiumque oblite tuorum,
Thracia nocturno tangere castra dolo;
Totque simul mactare viros, adjutus ab uno!

1

At bene cautus eras, et memor ante mei!
Usque metu micuere sinus; dum victor amicum
Dictus es Ismariis 1 îsse per agmen equis.
Sed mihi quid prodest vestris disjecta lacertis
Ilios? et, murus quod fuit ante, solum ?
Si maneo, qualis Troia durante manebam :
Virque mihi, dempto fine carendus, abes?
Diruta sunt aliis, uni mihi Pergama restant;
Incola captivo quae bove victor2 arat.
Jam seges est, ubi Troia fuit; resecandaque falce
Luxuriat, Phrygio sanguine pinguis, humus.
Semisepulta virûm curvis feriuntur aratris
Ossa: ruinosas occulit herba domos.

Victor abes; nec scire mihi, quae causa morandi,
Aut in quo lateas ferreus orbe, licet.
Quisquis ad haec vertit peregrinam litora puppim,
Ille mihi de te multa rogatus abit.

medes, who extracted from him under a promise of security the plans of the Trojans, and then put him to death. In the next line "hic" refers to the former, Rhesus, not the latter, Dolon, who was treacherously slain, as just mentioned. The pronouns, in fact, follow the order of mention in the previous line, and the degree of prominence in the writer's thoughts. Cf. Livy, xxx. 30: "Melior tutiorque est certa pax quam sperata victoria; haec in tua, illa in Deorum manu est."

1 Ismariis. Ismarus was a mountain and town of Thrace. Below, "vestris" is used, and

45

50

55

60

Quamque tibi reddat, si te modo viderit usquam,
Traditur huic digitis charta notata meis.
Nos Pylon,1 antiqui Neleïa Nestoris arva,
Misimus: incerta est fama remissa Pylo.
Misimus et Sparten: Sparte quoque nescia veri, 65
Quas habitas terras, aut ubi lentus abes.
Utilius starent etiam nunc moenia Phoebi.2
Irascor votis heu levis ipsa meis.

Scirem, ubi pugnares; et tantum bella timerem ;
Et mea cum multis juncta querella foret.

Quid timeam ignoro; timeo tamen omnia demens :
Et patet in curas area lata meas.

70

Quaecunque aequor habet, quaecunque pericula tellus,

Tam longae causas suspicor esse morae.

Haec ego dum stulte meditor (quae vestra libido est,)8

Esse peregrino captus amore potes.

Carm. iii. 3, 21:—

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"Ex quo destituit Deos Mercede pacta Laomedon." Also Pind. Olym. viii. 31; Ovid's Metam. xi. 199; Verg. Georg. i. 502.

3 Quae vestra libido est.
"Such is the caprice of your
sex," not "the caprice of you
personally," which would have
required "tua.” Compare, for
the sentiment, Shakespeare's—
"Sigh no more ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever;

One foot in sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never."

Below, "rustica" is "homely."
Mr. Palmer quotes Herrick

"You set too high a rate upon
A shepherdess so homely."

Forsitan et narres, quam sit tibi rustica conjunx:

1

Quae tantum 1 lanas non sinat esse rudes.

Fallar; et hoc crimen tenues vanescat in auras:
Neve, revertendi 2 liber, abesse velis.
Me pater Icarius viduo discedere lecto
Cogit, et immensas increpat usque moras.
Increpet usque licet: tua sum; tua dicar oportet:
Penelope conjunx semper Ulyssis ero.

Ille tamen pietate mea precibusque pudicis
Frangitur, et vires temperat ipse suas.

Dulichii,3 Samiique, et quos tulit alta Zacynthos,
Turba ruunt in me luxuriosa, proci;

Inque tua regnant, nullis prohibentibus, aula:

4

Viscera nostra, tuae dilaniantur opes.

80

85

90

Quid tibi Pisandrum, Polybumque, Medontaque

dirum,

Eurymachique avidas Antinoique manus,

Atque alios referam, quos omnes turpiter absens
Ipse tuo partis sanguine rebus alis?

Irus egens, pecorisque Melanthius actor edendi, 95
Ultimus accedunt in tua damna pudor.

1 Quae tantum. The sort of person whose only function is not to leave wool unused. A mere housewife, with no higher aims.

2 Revertendi. The genitive after "liber; "free in the matter of returning." Virgil has "certus eundi," and Tacitus "vetus operis, segnis aliorum," and similar genitives. Below, "cogit is is for compelling me; tries to force me"-a common use of the present tense.

3 Dulichii, etc. Dulichium is supposed to have been one of the Echinades at the mouth of

the Achelous in Aecolia; Same and Zacynthus, islands near Ithaca.

4 Viscera nostra. In apposition to "opes." Viscera seems to mean here "all that is dearest to us; our very heartstrings.' So Juv. iii 72, speaks of Greek adventurers becoming "Viscera magnarum domuum."

5 Irus egens. The presence of the beggarly Irus, and of Melanthius (who drove the sheep to the slaughter-house for the suitors), about the palace of Ulysses added disgrace to the actual loss of substance.