Tandem audite me,
Sionis filiae!
Aegram respicite,
Dilecto dicite:
Amore vulneror, 5
Amore funeror.
Huc oderiferos,
Huc soporiferos
Ramos depromite,
Rogos componite; 10
Ut phoenix moriar!
In flammis oriar!
An amor dolor sit,
An dolor amor sit,
Utrumque nescio! 15
Hoc unum sentio:
Iucundus dolor est,
Si dolor amor est.
Quid, amor, crucias?
Aufer inducias! 20
Suavis tyrannus es:
Momentum, annus es:
Tam tarda funera
Tua sunt vulnera!
Iam vitae stamina 25
Rumpe, O anima!
Ignis ascendere
Gestit, et tendere
Ad caeli atria;
Haec mea patria! 30
Anonymous.
DIES IRAE.
Dies irae, dies illa
Solvet saeclum in favilla,
Teste David cum Sybilla.
Quantus tremor est futurus,
Quando iudex est venturus, 5
Cuncta stricte discussurus!
Tuba, mirum spargens sonum
Per sepulcra regionum,
Coget omnes ante thronum.
Mors stupebit, et natura, 10
Cum resurget creatura
Iudicanti responsura.
Liber scriptus proferetur,
In quo totum continetur,
Unde mundus iudicetur. 15
Iudex ergo cum sedebit,
Quidquid latet apparebit,
Nil inultum remanebit.
Quid sum miser tunc dicturus,
Quem patronum rogaturus, 20
Cum vix iustus sit securus?
Rex tremendae maiestatis,
Qui salvandos salvas gratis,
Salva me, fons pietatis!
Recordare, Iesu pie, 25
Quod sum causa tuae viae;
Ne me perdas illa die!
Quaerens me sedisti lassus,
Redemisti crucem passus:
Tantus labor non sit cassus! 30
Iuste iudex ultionis,
Donum fac remissionis
Ante diem rationis!
Ingemisco tanquam reus,
Culpa rubet vultus meus: 35
Supplicanti parce, Deus!
Qui Mariam absolvisti,
Et latronem exaudisti,
Mihi quoque spem dedisti.
Preces meae non sunt dignae, 40
Sed tu bonus fac benigne
Ne perenni cremer igni.
Inter oves locum praesta,
Et ab haedis me sequestra,
Statuens in parte dextra. 45
Confutatis maledictis,
Flammis acribus addictis,
Voca me cum benedictis!
Oro supplex et acclinis,
Cor contritum quasi cinis, 50
Gere curam mei finis!
—-
Lacrimosa dies illa
Qua resurget ex favilla
Iudicandus homo reus:
Huic ergo parce, Deus! 55
Pie Iesu domine,
Dona eos requie! Amen!
Thomas of Celano.
DE PATRIAE CAELESTIS LAUDE.
'The World is very Evil.'
Hora novissima, tempora pessima sunt; vigilemus.
Ecce minaciter imminet arbiter ille supremus.
Imminet, imminet et mala terminet, aequa coronet,
Recta remuneret, anxia liberet, aethera donet,
Auferat aspera duraque pondera mentis onustae, 5
Sobria muniat, improba puniat, utraque iuste.
Ille piissimus, ille gravissimus, ecce! venit rex!
Surgat homo reus! Instat homo deus, a patre iudex.
'Brief Life is here our Portion.'
Hic breve vivitur, hic breve plangitur, hic breve fletur;
Non breve vivere, non breve plangere retribuetur; 10
O retributio! stat brevis actio, vita perennis;
O retributio! caelica mansio stat lue plenis;
Quid datur et quibus? aether egentibus et cruce dignis,
Sidera vermibus, optima sontibus, astra malignis.
Sunt modo praelia, postmodo praemia; qualia? plena; 15
Plena refectio, nullaque passio, nullaque poena.
Spe modo vivitur, et Sion angitur a Babylone;
Nunc tribulatio; tunc recreatio, sceptra, coronae;
'For thee, O Dear, Dear Country!'
O bona patria, lumina sobria te speculantur,
Ad tua nomina sobria lumina collacrimantur: 20
Est tua mentio pectoris unctio, cura doloris,
Concipientibus aethera mentibus ignis amoris.
Est ibi consita laurus et insita cedrus hysopo;
Sunt radiantia iaspide moenia clara pyropo;
Hinc tibi sardius, inde topazius, hinc amethystus; 25
Est tua fabrica contio caelica, gemmaque Christus.
Lux tua mors crucis, atque caro ducis est crucifixi.
Laus, benedictio, coniubilatio personat ipsi.
Tu sine litore, tu sine tempore, fons, modo rivus,
Dulce bonis sapis, estque tibi lapis undique vivus. 30
Est tibi laurea, dos datur aurea, Sponsa decora,
Primaque Principis oscula suscipis, inspicis ora.
'Jerusalem the Golden!'
Urbs Sion aurea, patria lactea, cive decora,
Omne cor obruis, omnibus obstruis et cor et ora.
Nescio, nescio, quae iubilatio, lux tibi qualis, 35
Quam socialia gaudia, gloria quam specialis.
Sunt Sion atria coniubilantia, martyre plena,
Cive micantia, Principe stantia, luce serena.
Urbs Sion incluta, turris et edita litore tuto,
Te peto, te colo, te flagro, te volo, canto, saluto. 40
Me Pater optimus atque piissimus ille creavit;
In lue pertulit, ex lue sustulit, a lue lavit.
Diluit omnia caelica gratia, fons David undans
Omnia diluit, omnibus affluit, omnia mundans.
O mea, spes mea, tu Sion aurea, clarior auro, 45
Agmine splendida, stans duce, florida perpete lauro.
O bona patria, num tua gaudia teque videbo?
O bona patria, num tua praemia plena tenebo?
Plaude, cinis meus, est tua pars Deus; eius es, et sis.
Plaude, cinis meus, est tua pars Deus; eius es, et sis. 50
Bernard of Cluny.
THE HEAVENLY CITY.
Me receptet Sion illa,
Sion, David urbs tranquilla,
Cuius faber Auctor lucis,
Cuius portae lignum crucis,
Cuius muri lapis vivus, 5
Cuius custos Rex festivus.
In hac urbe lux solennis,
Ver aeternum, pax perennis:
In hac odor implens caelos,
In hac semper festum melos; 10
Non est ibi corruptela,
Non defectus, non querela;
Non minuti, non deformes,
Omnes Christo sunt conformes.
Urbs in portu satis tuto, 15
De longinquo te saluto,
Te saluto, te suspiro,
Te affecto, te requiro.
Quantum tui gratulantur,
Quam festive convivantur, 20
Quis affectus eos stringat
Aut quae gemma muros pingat,
Quis chalcedon, quis iacinthus,
Norunt illi qui sunt intus.
In plateis huius urbis 25
Sociatus piis turbis
Cum Moyse et Elia
Pium cantem Alleluia. Amen.
Hildebert.
ABBREVIATIONS.
A. & G. = Allen and Greenough's New Latin Grammar. B. = Bennett's Latin Grammar. G. & L. = Gildersleeve and Lodge's Latin Grammar. Lex. = Harper's Latin-English Lexicon. cf. = confer, compare. e.g. = exempli gratia, for example. ff. = following. i.e. = id est, that is. l.,ll. = line, lines. lit. = literally. p., pp. = page, pages. sc. = scilicet, understand, supply. vol. = volume.
NOTES.
CLASSICAL LATIN POETRY.
I. ENNIUS. 239-169 B.C.
Ennius ut noster cecinit, qui primus amoeno
Detulit ex Helicone perenni fronde coronam,
Per gentes Italas hominum quae clara clueret.
Lucretius, 1. 117-119.
Let us venerate Ennius like the groves, sacred from their antiquity, in which the great and ancient oak trees are invested not so much with beauty as with sacred associations.—Quintilian, 10. 1. 88,—translated by Sellar.
Q. Ennius, 'the Father of Latin Literature,' was born at Rudiae, a town of Calabria and a point of contact between the Italian and Greek civilizations. He served with the rank of centurion in the Roman army in Sardinia and attached himself to Cato the Censor. In 204 he came to Rome, where he lived modestly, supporting himself by teaching Greek and by his writings. There he became an intimate friend of the great Scipio. The most famous of his works are the tragedies, written on Greek models, and the Annals, a long epic poem in eighteen books, whose subject is the history of Rome from the earliest times to Ennius' own day. We have fragments of about twenty-five of the tragedies. Of the Annals about six hundred lines are preserved.
Ennius introduced the dactylic hexameter into Latin poetry.
He was versatile, widely read in Greek literature, a man of practical interests and intellectual vigor. His intense patriotism was rewarded by an enduring popularity.
For Reference: Sellar, Roman Poets of the Republic (Oxford, 1889), chapter 4; the collections of the fragments by Vahlen (Leipzig, 1854) and by Muller (St. Petersburg, 1885).
Metres: Dactylic Hexameter, B. 368; A. & G. 615: Selections 1-5.
Trochaic Septenarius, B. 366, 2; A. & G. 620: Selections 6, 7. Elegiac
Stanza, B. 368, 369; A. & G. 616: Selection 8.
1. 'Lines of tender regret and true hero-worship.'—Sellar. Cf. Livy, 1. 16. 2, 3. Prose translation in Sellar, Roman Poets of the Republic, p. 110. 3. qualem…genuerunt: How great a guardian of our country did the gods create in thee!—Sellar. 4. O pater, o genitor: pater is a title of respect, genitor the actual parent. sanguen: an ante-classic neuter collateral form of sanguis. 5. intra luminis oras: within the realms of light (Sellar), a favorite expression with later poets.
2. 'Sentiments truly regal and worthy of the race of the Aeacidae.' Cicero, De Officiis, 1. 12.
This is Pyrrhus' reply to Fabricius and other envoys sent to negotiate for the ransom of the Roman prisoners after the battle of Heraclea, 280 B.C.
Prose translation and fine comment in Sellar, Roman Poets of the
Republic, p. 99.
1. dederitis: perfect subjunctive in a prohibition. 2. nec cauponantes bellum: not making petty traffic of war. 3. vitam: accusative of specification. 5. accipe: to Fabricius, while ducite (1. 8) is to all the envoys. 7. eorundem: scanned as three syllables. 8. volentibus…dis: under favor of the great gods.—Sellar. Final s in volentibus as in vivus (Selection 8. 2) is neglected in scanning.
4. These lines were often quoted. They are imitated by Vergil, Aeneid, 6. 845-846:
Tu Maximus ille es,
unus qui nobis cunctando restituis rem.
Prose translation in Sellar, Roman Poets of the Republic, p. 106.
1. cunctando: by biding his time.—Sellar. rem equals rem publicam. 2. noenum equals ne, not + oenum, old form of unum, one. This eventually contracts into non. rumores: what men said of him.—Sellar.
5. One of the grandest lines in Latin poetry. Cicero says of it (De Republica, 5.1): 'For brevity and for truth it is like the utterance of some oracle.'
1. Moribus…virisque: By olden custom and great men Rome stands. virisque: of. Sir William Jones, An Ode in Imitation of Alcaeus:
What constitutes a state?
Not high-raised battlement, nor labored mound,
Thick wall or moated gate:
Not cities fair with spires and turrets crowned:
No;—men, high-minded men,—…
Men, who their duties know,
But know their rights, and knowing dare maintain.
6. From the Telamo, spoken by Telamon on receiving tidings of his son's death. Sellar describes the passage as 'this strong and scornful triumph over natural sorrow.'
Prose translation in Sellar, Roman Poets of the Republic, p. 113.
1. ei re sustuli: to that end (i.e. with full knowledge of the fact) I bred them. re: dative, B. 52, 3; A. & G. 98, d, NOTE.
7. From the Telamo. This is Epicurean doctrine. Cf. Tennyson, The Lotos-Eaters, Choric Song at end:
like Gods together, careless of mankind.
For they lie beside their nectar, and the bolts are hurl'd
Far below them in the valleys, and the clouds are lightly curl'd
Round their golden houses, girdled with the gleaming world:
Where they smile in secret, looking over wasted lands,
Blight and famine, plague and earthquake, roaring deeps and fiery
sands,
Clanging fights, and flaming towns, and sinking ships, and praying
hands.
But they smile, etc.
Prose translation in Sellar, Roman Poets of the Republic, p. 78.
1. deum: genitive with which caelitum agrees. 3. abeat: is not so.— Sellar.
8. Prose translation in Sellar, Roman Poets of the Republic, p. 76. Note the alliterations in the passage. 1. dacrumis: older form of lacrimis and related to it as dingua to lingua. nec…faxit: and let none weep at my funeral, faxit is perfect subjunctive. 2. Volito…virum: I still live as I fly along the lips of men. Cf. Vergil, Georgics, 3. 9: victorque virum volitare per ora, and Shakspere, Sonnet 82:
You still shall live—such virtue hath my pen—
Where breath most breathes, even in the mouths of men.
II. LUCRETIUS.
98-55 B.C.
Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas
atque metus omnis et inexorabile fatum
subiecit pedibus strepitumque Acherontis avari.
Vergil, Georgics, 2. 490-492.
He…died
Chief poet on the Tiber-side.
Mrs. Browning, Vision of Poets.
This doctrine of Lucretius, though antagonistic to the popular religion, is not atheistic or pantheistic; it is not definite enough to be theistic. It is rather the twilight between an old and a new faith.— Sellar, Roman Poets of the Republic, p. 355.
The joy and glory of his art come second in his mind to his passionate love of truth, and the deep moral purport of what he believes to be the one true message for mankind. The human race lies fettered by superstition and ignorance; his mission is to dispel their darkness by that light of truth which is 'clearer than the beams of the sun and the shining shafts of day.'—Mackail, Latin Literature, p. 43.
The De Rerum Natura, Lucretius' only work, left at his death unfinished, is a didactic poem in six books which aims to give an explanation of the origin and nature of the universe. All things are declared to be composed of atoms—even the soul, which is therefore mortal—and have been developed by a process of 'evolution' and 'survival of the fittest' under the uninterrupted control of natural law. Gods exist, but have little to do with the world. On the ethical side contentment, self-control, obedience, humility, are earnestly enjoined.
The style abounds in archaism, alliteration, and assonance. The frequent use of new compounds is a noticeable peculiarity of the diction.
Jerome states that the wife of Lucretius gave him a love-philtre which took away his reason so that, after composing in his lucid intervals several books, which were afterward corrected by Cicero, he died by his own hand.
Sellar is inclined to accept this story as a 'meagre and distorted record of tragical events in the poet's life.' On the basis of this legend and an appreciative study of the De Rerum Natura, Tennyson composed his Lucretius.
For Reference: Sellar, Roman Poets of the Republic, chapters 11-14;
Munro, Text of Lucretius, with Notes and Introduction (4th. edition,
Cambridge, 1886); Mackail, Latin Literature (New York, 1898), pp. 44-
46 (Lucretius as anticipating theories of modern science).
Metre: Dactylic Hexameter, B. 368; A. & G. 615.
1. 2. animi: a locative form, B. 232, 3; A. & G. 358. 3. thyrso: see Lex. II. A and B. 5-10. Often imitated, as by Vergil, Georgics, 3. 291-293. 5, 6. mente…loca: I traverse in blooming thought the pathless haunts of the Pierides.—Munro. 7. iuvat: I love.—Munro. 11,12. artis religionum nodis: Lucretius teaches that, since the gods do not govern the world, all rites of worship are needless, and, since the soul is mortal, punishment after death is not to be feared. Cf. Tennyson, Lucretius:
My golden (cf. aurea, Selection 2. 12) work in which I told a truth
That stays the rolling Ixionian wheel,
And numbs the Fury's ringlet-snake and plucks
The mortal soul from out immortal hell.
Religio is probably derived from the root lig, meaning to bind. The Roman felt his religion to be a fetter upon him. 14. contingens: o'erlaying, a compound of tango.—Munro.
2. 2. commoda: the true interests.—Munro. 3. o…decus: Epicurus, who is praised in many passages. (See Sellar, Roman Poets of the Republic, p. 298 ff.) His bold and, comprehensive thinking is characterized as follows (1. 72-74):
Ergo vivida vis animi pervicit, et extra processit longe flammantia moenia mundi atque omne inmensum peragravit mente animoque.
6, 7. quid…cycnis: for in what respect could the swallow vie with swans? 8. consimile…et: that could compare with. 16. terrores: of superstition. To remove these by demonstrating the uncontested supremacy in the universe of natural law is Lucretius' main purpose. moenia ff.: Lucretius thinks of the earth as at rest in the centre of our system,— or mundus,—surrounded by the air in which move the moon and the sun. The air is encompassed by the fiery aether,—or flammantia moenia mundi, 'the flaming walls of the world,'—which, as it rotates, carries the stars with it. Beyond is the 'illimitable inane' (inmensum inane) in which are set an infinite number of other worlds, and in the midst of these the dwellings where the gods 'live the great life…center'd in eternal calm' (deos securum agere aevom, 6. 58). To the poet's instructed vision aether opens and earth becomes transparent. 18-24. Inspired by Odyssey, 6. 42-45. Cf. Tennyson, Lucretius:
The Gods, who haunt
The lucid interspace of world and world,
Where never creeps a cloud, or moves a wind,
Nor ever falls the least white star of snow,
Nor ever lowest roll of thunder moans,
Nor sound of human sorrow mounts to mar
Their sacred everlasting calm!
and his description of the
island-valley of Avilion,
Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow,
Nor ever wind blows loudly
in the Passing of Arthur. Observe the melody of the Latin due to the skilful alliteration, and cf. Munro's translation of it for a like effect.
25. nusquam apparent: Lucretius has proved that they do not exist. 26. nec…dispiciantur: though earth is no bar to all things being descried.—Munro. 28, 29. voluptas adque horror: delight mixed with shuddering awe.—Munro.
3. 1-4. Zephyr and Flora precede Spring and Venus. viai: genitive of archaic form dependent on cuncta, translate as all the way. 5. loci: partitive genitive after inde; translate the two words by then. 8. aliae…ventique: other stormy winds, i.e. Volturnus and Auster. 10. bruma: midwinter.
4. 1. Ergo: because of visions of the night and day and because of their observation of natural phenomena men at large came to the incorrect belief that the gods govern the world. (Lucretius denies the providence of the gods, not their existence.) 2. tradere, facere: infinitives used substantively in apposition to perfugium. 3. templa: realms. 5. severa: stern, austere. Properly the epithet of noctis, but poetically transferred to signa. 6. faces, flammae: meteors. 7. The heaping up of substantives without a copula is not uncommon in Lucretius. 8. fremitus: distant, rumbling thunder. murmura magna minarum: the near loud, threatful thunderclaps.—Munro. minarum is equivalent to a limiting adjective. 13. velatum: the Romans prayed with covered head. 14. vertier: middle. The reference is to a Roman custom by which the suppliant approached with the statue on his right; after praying, he turned to the right so as to face it and then prostrated himself. 17. vota: votive tablets. 18 ff. It is true piety, not to perform these rites, but to possess a tranquil mind, and this is difficult, for the grandeur and terror of nature are almost overwhelming. 20. super fixum: fast above.—Munro. 21. et…viarum: and direct our thoughts to the courses of the sun and moon.—Munro. viarum: B. 206, 3. 26. rationis egestas: lack of power to solve the question.— Munro. 27. genitalis origo: birthtime.—Munro. 28. quoad: how long. 34. contrahitur: shrink into itself.—Munro. 38. corripiunt: like contrahitur, but stronger. 40. poenarum: genitive depending on solvendi. 45. viris quae ff.: powers sufficient to, etc.
LUCRETIUS AS OBSERVER AND WORD-PAINTER.—The following groups of phrases and sentences are given as illustrative of the accuracy, variety, and splendor of Lucretius' descriptions:
1. Shells on the Shore.
Concharumque genus parili ratione videmus pingere telluris gremium, qua mollibus undis litoris incurvi bibulam pavit aequor arenam. 2. 374-376.
2. The Stars.
Candida sidera. 5. 1210. micant aeterni sidera mundi. 5. 514. Simul ac primum sub diu splendor aquai ponitur, extemplo caelo stellante serena sidera respondent in aqua radiantia mundp. 4. 211-213. caeli labentia signa. 1. 2. fervida signa. 5. 628. Raraque per caelum cum venti nubila portant tempore nocturno, tum splendida signa videntur labier adversum nimbos atque ire superne. 4. 443-445. totum circum tremere aethera signis. 1. 1089.
3. The Sky.
stellis fulgentibus apta
concutitur caeli domus. 6. 357-358.
signiferi super aetheris aestas. 6. 481.
caeli lucida templa. 1. 1014.
altaque caeli
densebant procul a terris fulgentia templa. 5. 490-491.
4. The Sun.
sol lumine conserit arva. 2. 210-211. rosea sol alte lampade lucens. 5. 610. aeternum lampada mundi. 5. 402.
III. CATULLUS.
84-54 B.C.
Odi et amo. Carmen 85. 1.
Si tamen e nobis aliquid nisi nomen et umbra
restat, in Elysia valle Tibullus erit:
obvius huic venias, hedera iuvenalia cinctus
tempora, cum Calvo, docte Catulle, tuo.
Ovid, Amores, 3. 9. 59-62.
Tenderest of Roman poets…
Sweet Catullus.
Tennyson, 'Frater, Aae atque Vale.'
Catullus is the greatest lyric poet of Roman literature.
With the exception of c. 61, it is in his shorter poems that Catullus achieves his greatest success. The poet does not handle dactylic measures quite easily; on the other hand, he is masterly in the lighter lyrical forms. The harmony of substance and form, the refinement and transparent clearness of the thoughts, are incomparable, as are the grace, strength, and warmth of feeling in the shorter pieces.
Teuffel, Schwabe, and Warr, History of Roman Literature, vol. 1, p. 391 ff.
Catullus, born at Verona in Cisalpine Gaul, came early to Rome, where most of his short life was spent. He has left us about 116 poems, most of them brief, but a few of considerable length. The ultimate preservation of these depended upon the fortunate rediscovery at Verona of a single copy. Several of them imitate the learned and artificial style of the Alexandrine school of Greek poetry. It is on this account that Ovid applies to him the epithet doctus.
For Reference: Sellar, Roman Poets of the Republic, chapter 15;
Robinson Ellis, A Commentary on Catullus (2d edition, Oxford, 1889);
Merrill, Catullus (Boston, 1893); Ellis, Translation of Catullus
(London, 1871).
Metres: Phalaecian, A. & G. 623, 624, 625. 11: Selections 1, 3, 4, 5.
Choliambic, A. & G. 618, a, b, c: Selection 6. Elegiac, B. 369, 1, 2;
A. &. G. 616: Selections 2, 7-9.
1. 2. oppositast: equals opposita est. The joke turns on the double meaning of opponere, to expose and to mortgage. We may render the passage as,—My little farm is not exposed to the drafts of the south wind…but to a draft for, etc. 3. Apeliotae: a Greek word for east wind, meaning from the sun, i.e. from the region where the sun rises. For declension see B. 22; A. & G. 44. 4. ducentos: sc. sestertios. The sestertius was worth from four to five cents. 5. O ventum…pestilentem: O unhealthy draft!
2. Latin did not naturally use h at all with consonants nor favor its use before vowels. Greek, however, frequently employs the aspirated consonants ch, ph, and th as well as the rough breathing; and, though in earlier times the Romans were satisfied to take Greek words over into their language without aspirating, e.g. Corintus for [Greek: Korinthos], in later times aspirating became a fashion. Of this fashion Arrius is an unskilful follower, who, while believing himself to be achieving a fine reputation for good form, makes himself a target for the ridicule of Catullus.
1. vellet: imperfect subjunctive in the protasis of a general condition, B. 302, 1, 3, a; A. & G. 518, c. 3. sperabat: he used to flatter himself. 4. quantum poterat: with might and main. Arrius makes all the display that he can of his elegant (?) accomplishment. 5. liber: implying that Arrius' uncle had been a slave and that the family is of humble origin. Catullus thus intimates that what Arrius thinks an accomplishment really stamps him as of low birth. 7. misso: sent to Syria on some public service, perhaps with Crassus in 55 B.C. 8. audibant: B. 116, 4, b; A. & G. 183, 1. leniter et leviter: the devotees of the aspirating fashion whom Arrius had left behind in Rome were not so obtrusive about it as he, did not speak out 'quantum poterant.' 9. postilla: equals postea. 11. Ionios: news of Arrius would come soon from the Ionian Sea, for, lying as it did to the west of Greece, it would soon be reached by him on his eastward journey. isset: B. 116, 1; A. & G. 181, b.
The following is Martin's translation:
Whenever Arrius wished to name
'Commodious,' out 'chommodious' came:
And when of his intrigues he blabbed,
With his 'hintrigues' our ears he stabbed;
And thought, moreover, he displayed
A rare refinement when he made
His h's thus at random fall
With emphasis most guttural.
When suddenly came news one day
Which smote the city with dismay,
That the Ionian seas a change
Had undergone, most sad and strange;
For, since by Arrius crossed, the wild
'Hionian Hocean' they were styled.
3. 1. Veneres: the plural is symmetrical with Cupidines, while suggesting 'the Graces.' 2. et…venustiorum: and all who have a soul for beauty. hominum: partitive genitive. venustiorum: B. 240, 1; A. & G. 291, a. The expression describes those who possess qualities of grace and charm, and implies that they can appreciate such qualities. 3. puellae: probably Clodia, wife of Q. Caecilius Metellus Celer, to whom under the name of 'Lesbia' Catullus addressed a number of poems. His attachment for her was the 'one all-absorbing passion of the poet's life.' 6. mellitus: a honey. suamque: his lady. Catullus speaks of the sparrow in language appropriate to a lover. 11. iter tenebricosum: the shadowy journey to Hades. 12. Cf. Hamlet, 3. 1:
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns.
13. At…tenebrae: Evil be to you, evil shadows! 17. tua opera: for you, i.e. for the sparrow, ablative of cause. 18. turgiduli…ocelli: my girl's pretty eyes are so red and swollen.
4. 2. antistans…trecentis: worth a million of the rest to me. milibus: depends on antistans, B. 187, III, 1; A. & G. 370. 4. Anum: aged, used as an adjective. 5. mini: B. 188, c; A. & G. 378, 1. nuntii: plural, though for a single message. 6. Hiberum: genitive plural. 7. facta: deeds. 8. adplicansque collum: i.e. with arm about your neck drawing you to me. 10. Cf. 1, 2 and note on venustiorum. Translate O! of happy, happy mortals. 11. quid: a 'neuter not very rare in Latin in similar sweeping appeals.'—Merrill.
5. Date, 56 B.C. 1. egelidos: in which there is no chill. 4. Catullus is at the end of a year of absence in Bithynia on the staff of Memmius the governor, and is about to return to Italy. Phrygii campi: the plains about Nicaea. 6. claras Asiae urbes: the famous Greek cities on the western coast of Asia Minor, as Ephesus, Smyrna. 7. praetrepidans: tremulous with anticipation. 9. comitum: the other members of the governor's staff, or cohors. 11. diversae variae: separate and varied.
6. Date, 56 B.C. Sirmione (Sirmio) is a peninsula—at high water an island—extending into the Lago di Garda (Lacus Benacus). An ancient ruin here of Constantine's time was long known as Catullus' villa. Cf. with this and the ninth selection Tennyson's 'Frater, Ave atque Vale':
Row us out from Desenzano, to your Sirmione row!
So they row'd and there we landed—'O venusta Sirmio!'
There to me thro' all the groves of olive in the summer glow,
There beneath the Roman ruin where the purple flowers grow,
Came that 'Ave atque Vale' of the poet's hopeless woe,
Tenderest of Roman poets nineteen hundred years ago,
'Prater, Ave atque Vale'—as we wander'd to and fro
Gazing at the Lydian laughter of the Garda Lake below
Sweet Catullus' all-but-island, olive-silvery Sirmio!
1, 2. Paene insularum…ocelle: pearl of all peninsulas. Paene is used as an adjective by a Greek construction, A. & G. 321, c. Cf. Ovid, Heroides, 15.357, paene puer. ocelle: cf. Milton, Paradise Regained, 4. 240, 'Athens, the eye of Greece.' 3. fert…Neptunus: twin-realmed (Cranstoun) Neptune upholds in lakes or sea. fert: Poseidon, according to Homer, is the earth-upholding. Cf. Exodus 20.4 'the water under the earth.' uterque: i.e. as god of stagna (lakes) and of mare. 5. Thyniam: the part of Bithynia on the shore of the Thracian Bosporus. 6. liquisse: the poets are fond of using uncompounded forms of verbs. Cf. 5, 4, linquantur. 7. O…curis: 'The form of expression suggests that the cares now past are, as past, actual pleasures.'—Ellis. 8, 9. peregrine labore: the toil of travel. larem: the home, lit. the household god. 11. Hoc…tantis: This it is that of itself is a compensation for so great labors. 12. venusta: Ellis praises 'the beauty of Sirmio, with its high cliffs descending into the transparently blue water, and the exquisite color of the surrounding land and sky.' ero gaude: be glad for thy master, i.e. thy master bids thee 'Rejoice!' 13. Lydiae: the shores of the lake were once occupied by Etruscans, and they were said to have come originally from Lydia. The epithet is transferred from lacus to undae. 14. quidquid…cachinnorum: the clause is to be taken as a vocative.
7. 2. Calve: Calvus was an accomplished orator and poet. Of his literary work almost nothing remains. He was Catullus' intimate friend and is often mentioned with him. 3. desiderio: yearning, in apposition to dolore, defining and specializing it. 4. olim missas: lost in by-gone days, missas equals amissas. Cf. Selection 6, 6 and note. 6. Quintiliae: Calvus' young wife. Calvus himself wrote elegies in her memory.
8. This poem was sent to Hortensius introducing a translation from the Greek poet Callimachus (which is possibly Carmen 66 and of the Coma Berinices). 2. Ortale: Q. Hortensius Ortalus, Cicero's chief rival as an orator. virginibus: the Muses. 3. fetus: fruitage. 4. mens animi: my thoughtful soul. Cicero, De Republica, 2.40.67, describes the mens as pars animi. 5, 6. Lethaeo gurgite manans unda: the wave slow-streaming from the gulf of oblivion. The 'river of death' which the brother of Catullus has just crossed (Catullus says forded) to return no more, is called Lethaean (Greek [Greek: lethe], 'forgetfuluess'), since the dead forget the living, and the living the dead. 6. pallidulum: poor, pallid foot. 7. Rhoeteo: Rhoeteum was a promontory of the Troad. 8. obterit: crushes. 13. Daulias: the nightingale, lit. the (transformed) woman of Daulis. Catullus has taken this name from the legend of Tereus (see Harper's Classical Dictionary, 'Tereus'), while he has followed the myth as it appears in Odyssey, 19. 518 ff., where the plaintive song of the nightingale is represented as the lamentation of Aedon for her child Itylus, whom before her transformation into the nightingale 'she slew unwittingly with the bronze.' 15. haec expressa carmina Battiadae: these verses translated from Callimachus. Callimachus of Cyrene, 'the son of Battus,' was a Greek poet of the Alexandrine school. His death occurred about 240 B.C. 16. nequiquam…ventis: i.e. ineffectual.
9. 'An invocation accompanying offerings at the tomb of the poet's brother.'—Merrill. Catullus probably made this visit to the Troad on his Bithynian journey. Date, probably 57 B.C. 2. miseras ad inferias: for these sad offerings. The inferiae, or offerings to the dead, consisted of wine, milk, blood, honey, flowers, etc. 4. nequiquam: no answer would be returned. 6. indigne: wrongfully, because his death was premature. 7. Nunc tamen interea: But now while I thus am sorrowing, interea, as in 14. 21, 36. 18, and Ciris, 44 ff., marks the transition from reflection upon a situation to the act which that situation demands at the moment. 9. multum manantia: drenched. 10. ave atque vale: the formula of farewell to the dead, spoken at the conclusion of the funeral ceremonies. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid, 11. 97 ff.
IV. VERGIL.
70-19 B.C.
Roman Vergil, thou that singest
Ilion's lofty temples robed in fire,
Ilion falling, Rome arising,
Wars, and filial faith, and Dido's pyre;
Thou that singest wheat and woodland,
Tilth and vineyard, hive and horse and herd;
All the charm of all the Muses
Often flowering in a lonely word;
Poet of the happy Tityrus
Piping underneath his beechen bowers;
Poet of the poet-satyr
Whom the laughing shepherd bound with flowers;
I salute thee, Mantovano,
I that loved thee since my day began,
Wielder of the stateliest measure
Ever molded by the lips of man.
Tennyson, To Vergil.
Vergil, as the author of the Bucolics and the Aeneid, is already known to the student. The Georgics were composed after the former and before the latter, since they were begun in 36 B.C. and finished in 29 B.C. Hesiod's Works and Days supplied a partial model, and the influence of Lucretius was powerful. The poet shows an intense enthusiasm for his subject, which Mr. Merivale asserts to be the Glorification of Labor. The First Book treats of the tillage of the ground, the Second of the culture of trees and of the vine, the Third of the care of the animals bred by the farmer, and the Fourth and last of bee-keeping. Elegant episodes diversify the poem, the longest of which we extract. The dedication of the Georgics is to Maecenas. Their extent is about 2200 lines.
For Reference: Conington's Vergil, Fifth Edition, revised by Haverfield, George Bell and Sons, London, 1898, Vol. I, pp. 135-165, and notes upon Georgics, 4. 315-558.
Metre: Dactylic Hexameter, B. 368; A. & G. 615.
1. Servius twice tells us (Eclogues 10. 1 and Georgics 4. 1) that the poet Cornelius Gallus was Vergil's friend, and that the latter half of the fourth Georgic was originally written in his praise, but that this was suppressed at the command of Augustus and the tale of Aristaeus substituted. Gallus, we remember, appears in the sixth and tenth Eclogues. The story of his disgrace by the emperor and his suicide is a familiar one.
Aristaeus, having lost his bees 'by disease and hunger,' is commanded by the nymph Cyrene, his mother, to obtain from the sea-god Proteus the reason for this manifestation of divine displeasure. He learns that it is because Eurydice, the wife of Orpheus, has perished as a result of his amorous pursuit; and the story of Orpheus' descent to the lower world to recover her is narrated to him. Then Cyrene instructs him how to secure a new swarm. 1. hanc…artem: this method of obtaining new swarms of bees by slaying cattle and allowing bees to form in their decaying bodies. 3. Peneia Tempo: Tempe is a beautiful valley in Thessaly through which the river Peneus flows. 5. extremi: i.e. the rising river. amnis: the Peneus. 7. gurgitis: flood. 9. Thymbraeus: Thymbra was a city near Troy where there was a temple of Apollo. 10. fatis: by the fates, B. 189, 2; A. & G. 375. nostri: objective genitive, 11. caelum sperare: Aristaeus was deified after death. 12. honorem: honor from the possession of wealth. 14. relinquo: leave with reluctance, lose. 15. Quin age: Why not go on? in ironical remonstrance. 17. molire: wield, imperative. 18. taedia: loathing of my praise, B. 55, 4, c. The plural expresses the aversion on each occasion. 19. thalamo sub: in the deep river's chamber. Sub governs thalamo, but follows it. Cyrene, as daughter of the river-god Peneus, dwells in subterranean chambers at the source of that stream. She is at this time in the thalamo described in 60 ff. Aristaeus enters through the river, thought of as emerging from the earth a full-grown stream, the waters arching over his head to admit him. He passes beneath the earth where he sees groves and lakes, and rivers which are presently to issue as the various streams of the upper world. 20. Milesia: the wool of Miletus, a city on the west coast of Asia Minor, was famous. 21. carpebant: were plucking the fleeces, i.e. spinning. hyali…colore: dyed with the rich, glass-green color. 22. A similar catalogue of names is in Iliad, 18. 39 ff. Drymoque: que is long according to Greek usage before the double consonant beginning the next word. 28. auro ff.: arrayed in skins embroidered with threads of gold. 31 ff. Odyssey, 8. 34. mollia pensa: their soft tasks. See Lex. pendo II, pensum, B, 1. 35. impulit: struck his mother's ears. 39. procul: sc. dixit. frustra: idly, without reason. 42. nomine: ablative of specification. 43. nova: strange. 44. age: quick. 46. qua ff.: purpose clause, that the youth might enter there. 48. misit: let him pass, lit. sent him. He enters the earth through the opening by which the Peneus finds exit. 52. sub…terra: so Plato in the myth of the Phaedo conceives of rivers as penetrating the depths of the earth. 53 ff. For the rivers named see Lex. 57. cornua: accusative of specification. voltu: dative, B. 49, 2; A. & G. 89. 60. in thalami pendentia pumice tecta: tecta may be regarded either as participle or noun. In the former case thalami tecta, 'the covered things of the chamber,' equals thalamum teclum, 'the covered chamber,' as strata viarum equals stratae viae; pendentia pumice tecta, roofs or covered things hanging with pumice (ablative of instrument) equals pendente pumice tecta, roofs of hanging pumice (ablative of description). Translate: into the chamber roofed with arching pumice. 61. inanis: since so easily removed, accusative plural. 63. tonsis…villis: of shorn nap, smooth and soft. 64. onerant: B. 254, 4, a; A. & G. 317, d. 65. Panchaeis ignibus: incense-burning flames. Panchaea was a fabulous island, east of Arabia, rich in incense. 66. et mater: sc. dixit. Maeonii: Lydian. Bacchi: the wine, as Vestam (1. 70) is the fire, the deities being named for that over which they preside. 69. centum: simply expressing a large number. 71. subiecta: shooting up. 73 ff. This part of the story has its original in Odyssey 4. The Carpathian Sea is between Crete and Rhodes. 74. caeruleus: an epithet applied to Proteus as a god of the azure sea. 75. The yoked chariot of two-footed steeds equals the chariot yoked to two-footed steeds. 77. Pallenen: a peninsula of Emathia, or Macedonia. 79. quae…trahantur: what in the near future is drawn on in the chain of events. 83. eventusque secundet: and may make the issue favorable. 94. fulva cervice: ablative of description. 101. ambrosiae: used as an ointment, as Iliad, 14. 170, Aeneid, 12.419. 102. perduxit: anointed; Lex. perduco, I. C. 1. 105, 106. quo…reductos: whither many a billow marches before the wind and divides into files that fall back, cogo and reductos may be used in a military sense. The wind is the rear-guard of the marching files of billows formed as the main wave enters an indentation in the shore. As the wave divides, all the secondary waves pursue the original direction, but the outer ones are retarded, as compared with the middle ones, and seem to fall back. Statio, just below, is familiar as a military term. Or reductos sinus can mean the depths of the bay. 107. deprensis: weather-bound. 108. vasti…obiice saxi: by the barrier of a vast rock, i.e. behind a rock. 109. averaum a lumine: in the darkness. 114. faucibus: i.e. the deep-cut channels. Perhaps the author intends with a bold personification to speak of the almost dried-up rivers as dry-throated, siccis faucibus would then be well taken as ablative of description. 115. antra: plural in view of the many chambers. 117. rorem amarum: the bitter dew, beautifully used of the salt spray. 121. acuunt: whet the wolves, i. e. their hunger. 131. Nam quis equals quisnam, Who pray? Surprise is expressed. 133. neque est: nor is it possible, used with infinitive in Greek construction, Lex. 1 sum, I, B, 5, 6, e. 135. lassis rebus: shattered fortunes. 137. glauco: azure. 139. Non…nullius: double negative for greater emphasis. It is in very truth the wrath of a god that pursues thee. irae: B. 55,4, c; A. & G. 100, c. 141. haud quaquam ob meritum poenas: penalties by no means on account of thy guilt, i.e. less than thy guilt. 147-149. Rhodope and Pangaeus are mountains, the Getae a tribe, Hebrus a river,—all in Thrace. Athenian Orithyia, daughter of Erechtheus, king of Athens, was carried by Boreas to Thrace, where she bore Calais and Zetes. As a nymph of the country she is interested in the fate of the Thracian Orpheus and Eurydice. 153. Taenarias: a cavern on the promontory of Taenarus in Laconia was fabled to be the entrance of the infernal regions. 157. Erebi: Greek [Greek: Erebos], a place of darkness, i.e. the lower world. 159 ff. Cf. Aeneid 6. 309-312. 161 ff. Cf. Aeneid 6. 306-308. 165 ff. Cf. Aeneid 6. 438-439. 167, 168. intima Leti Tartara: the inmost prison cells of death. crinibus: dative. anguis: accusative of specification. 169. Eumenides: the Furies, deities who punish crime; even they are moved by Orpheus' song. Cerberus: the three-headed dog at the entrance of Hades who kept the spirits from escaping. 171. Ixion, for an attempt upon the chastity of Juno, was bound to an ever-revolving wheel. vento: ablative of cause. The logic is loose; because of the wind's stopping. 173. pone: adverb. Cf. Aeneid, 2. 208. 177. animi: locative genitive, B. 232, 3; A. & G. 358. 179. stagnis: ablative of source. 182. natantia: swimming. 188. praeterea vidit: saw him more, praeterea here equalling postea. 192. nabat: was sailing. 194. Strymonis: a river on the borders of Thrace. 196. agentem: that trees followed the music of Orpheus became one of the commonplaces of poetry. 197-201. Notice the sweetness of sound due to the alliteration, especially of the liquids. 202. hymenaei: nuptials. 203. Hyperboreas: Hyperborean, i.e. northern, lit. beyond the north wind. Tanaim: now the Don, a river named here, as are the Rhipaei monies of the following line, because belonging to the cold, distant, desolate North. 204. numquam viduata: never bereaved, with a thought of the bereaved Orpheus. The setting corresponds to the situation. The grim landscape is forever wedded to its desolation as Orpheus to his bereavement. 206. Ciconum: a Thracian people. munere: tribute to the dead. The word is used technically of funeral honors. 206-213. Cf. Lycidas, 61-63:
By the rout that made the hideous roar
His gory visage down the stream was sent,
Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore.
210. Oeagrius: Oeagrius was a king of Thrace and father of Orpheus. 213. referebant: echoed with. Cf. Pope, Ode on St. Cecilia's Day, 113-116:
Yet ev'n in death Eurydice he sung,
Eurydice still trembled on his tongue,
Eurydice the woods, Eurydice the floods,
Eurydice the rocks, and hollow mountains rung.
214. iactudedit: i.e. iecit. 219. choros…agitabat: used to dance. Agito means to occupy oneself with, as Plautus, Asinaria, 5. 1. 7. 221. Napaeas: Dell-nymphs, Greek [Greek: napaiai], belonging to a wooded vale. 225. Lycaei: a mountain of Arcadia. 234. facessit: he despatches. 235-239. The repetitions from 224-232 are in the Homeric manner. 241 ff. The bees are thought to form within the bodies and to force their way through the yielding sides. 244. uvam demittere: to let fall a cluster. The cluster formed by the bees when they alight in swarming resembles a bunch of grapes.
V. PHAEDRUS.
Flourished about 15 A.D.
Phaedrus, born in Thrace, came to Rome as a slave, and was set free by Augustus. Under Tiberius he was the victim of political persecution on account of some verses offensive to Sejanus. He published five books of fables (with occasional anecdotes) largely imitated from Aesop.
His style is fluent, his tone lively and sometimes coarse, his diction correct, his verse skilful.—Teuffel, Schwabe, and Warr, History of Roman Literature, vol. 2, p. 30.
For Reference: Teuffel, Schwabe, and Warr, History of Roman
Literature, vol. 2, p. 29 ff.
Metre: Iambic Trimeter, B. 370, 1, 2; A. & G. 618, a, b.
1. Aesopus: a famous writer of fables, born in Phrygia about 600 B.C. He is said to have been liberated from slavery, to have lived at Sardis and to have been Croesus' ambassador to Delphi, where he was murdered by the angry townspeople, who hurled him over a precipice. Babrius, a Greek who lived about 100 B.C., made a comprehensive collection of Aesopian fables which Phaedrus imitated with considerable closeness. 5-7. 'Let no one censure me for representing trees as speaking; it is merely the play of fancy and a fable.'
2. 4. latro: the robber wolf. 7. Qui: how? Qui is the old ablative of the relative, interrogative, and indefinite pronouns.
4. 1. devocat: allures. 3. Tanto…melior: 'That is good!' See Lex. under tantus, I, C, 3, a, b. 4. prosecutus: and went on to say. See Lex. underprosequor, II, B. 5. unde: equivalent to a quo. 7. dignum ff.: with a double meaning. 10. namque: for, a strengthened nam.
5. This story is also told by Cicero, De Oratore, 2. 352 ff., and by others. 1, 2. Quantum…superius: an earlier fable (4. 23) relates how Simonides, shipwrecked and destitute, was received most hospitably by one of his admirers. 4. Simonides: the renowned Greek lyric poet of Ceos. His ode upon those who fell at Thermopylae was especially famous. Sterling translates:
Of those who at Thermopylae were slain,
Glorious the doom, and beautiful the lot;
Their tomb an altar: men from tears refrain
To honor them; and praise, but mourn them not.
Such sepulchre nor drear decay
Nor all-destroying time shall waste; this right have they.
Within their grave the home-bred glory
Of Greece was laid; this witness gives
Leonidas, the Spartan, in whose story
A wreath of famous virtue ever lives.
5. pyctae: a word borrowed directly from the Greek. 8. poetae more: poets who wrote odes in honor of victories at the games usually inserted some legend containing an account of a similar victory won by a god or a hero. 9. gemma Ledae pignera: Castor and Pollux, the latter famous as a boxer. pignera: see Lex. II, B, 1. 10. auctoritatem…gloriae: citing the authority of a like glory. 11, 12. tertiam partem: only a third. 13. duae: sc. partes, two-thirds. 24. humanam supra formani: the gods and heroes were 'divinely tall.' The diminutive servulo is in strong contrast. 31. Ut…rei: When the incident was told just as it occurred.
Another story of divine interposition on the part of Castor and Pollux is vividly told by Macaulay in The Battle of Lake Regillus.
6. Compare with Vergil's account of the oracle given by the Sibyl to Aeneas, Aeneid, 6. 9 ff. Some of the more obvious resemblances in diction and thought are Aeneid, 6. 12, 29, 35, 44, 45, 46 ff., 50, 95, 98, 99, 100.
1. Utilius: equalling a superlative, of highest value. 2. qui ff.: Delphi was a city in north central Greece and Parnassus a mountain near it. 4. tripodes: this probably means the golden seat above the cleft in the ground in the adytum of Apollo's temple at Delphi. On this the priestess (vates, 1. 3; virgo, 1. 16) sat to breathe the rising vapors which induced the prophetic ecstasy. The tripus is named from being supported on three legs. adytis: from [Greek: aduton], 'not to be entered.' The adyta, or innermost parts of temples, were accessible only to priests. 5. lauri: the laurel was sacred to Apollo. 6. Pytho: the former name for Delphi. Pytho is poetically said to speak when the Pythian priestess speaks. 7. Delii: Delos, an island of the Aegean, nearly at the centre of the Cyclades, was sacred to Apollo, and was his birthplace. 12. ite obviam: oppose.
7. Plutarch, Symposiacon Problematon, V. 1 (Moralia, 674 B, C), tells essentially this same story. Parmeno, he says, was famous for his imitation of the grunting of a pig. Even when one came upon the stage having a real pig concealed under his cloak, the audience cried, 'This is nothing to compare with the sow of Parmeno.' Then he who had the pig threw it in the midst of them, 'to show that they judged according to opinion and not truth.'
1. Pravo favore: prejudice. labi: the metaphor is in evident contrast to that in stant of 1. 2. 2. pro iudicio…erroris: in defence of their mistaken judgment. 3. rebus manifestis: the disclosure of the truth. 4. Facturus ludos: who was about to give an entertainment. 8. scurra: a city wit. urbano sale: clever jesting, merry cleverness. The Romans sharply contrasted city manners with those of the country to the disadvantage of the latter. 12. loca: seats. 18. verum: sc. porcellum. pallio: mantle or toga. 19. simul: equals simul ac. 21. prosequuntur: honor. 27. degrunnit: grunts his best. 30. scilicet: to be sure. 32. vero: sc. porcello. 35. imitatum: sc. esse.
VI. SENECA.
3 B.C.-65 A.D.
Seneca the Younger, or 'the Philosopher,' was born in Spain at Corduba; was educated at Rome; was banished in 41 A.D. to Corsica by Claudius; was recalled in 49; became Nero's tutor; largely deserves the credit for the good government of the early part of that emperor's reign; was consul in 57, but lost influence with Nero, and was compelled by him to commit suicide on a charge of participation in the conspiracy of Piso.
His writings are chiefly philosophical and ethical. The frequent close resemblance of his views to those of Christianity occasioned the fabrication of a correspondence between himself and St. Paul. St. Jerome considered this genuine and therefore included him among the Christian saints.
Nine tragedies of Seneca's composition are extant. These have powerfully influenced the development of the English and French drama.
His style is forced and ornamental, moving, for the most part, in brief, disconnected, and often paradoxical sentences.
For Reference: Teuffel, Schwabe, and Warr, History of Roman
Literature, vol. 2, p. 38 ff.; Leo, L. Annaei Senecae Tragoediae
(Berlin, 1878-1879); Sherburne's Tragedies of Seneca Translated
(London, 1702); Kingery, Three Tragedies of Seneca (New York, 1908);
Harris, The Tragedies of Seneca Translated (The Clarendon Press,
1904).
Metres: Anapaestic Dimeter Acatalectic with Anapaestic Dipody,
G. & L. 777, 780, 782: Selection 1. Dactylic Hexameter, B. 368; A. &
G. 615: Selection 2.
1. Cf. Horace, Carmen, 1. 3. 9-40. 1. Audax: cf. ll. 24, 39. nimium: cf. l. 8. 7, 8. With too slight a partition dividing the ways of life and death, i.e. separating from himself by merely a thin plank the sea in which he would perish. Cf. Juvenal, 12. 57-59. Line 7 nearly equals inter vitam et mortem. 18. Hyadas: a group of seven stars in the head of Taurus, whose setting at both the morning and the evening twilight was attended with storms. 19. Oleniae…caprae: one of the horns of the goat Amalthea, which fed Jupiter with its milk, was placed among the stars. The goat was Olenian, i.e. Aetolian. 21. Attica plaustra: Charles' Wain (the Great Dipper), which Bootes was imagined to drive. The latter constellation is called tardus as being so placed in the sky that it requires a long time for its setting. 24. Tiphys: the pilot of the Argo. 28. Thessala pinus: the Argo, the first ship, which, built under the direction of Pallas, with Jason as leader and heroes like Hercules, Castor, and Pollux as crew, sailed to Colchis in the Far East in quest of the Golden Fleece (which perhaps originally meant the fleecy, golden clouds of sunrise). The Sirens, Scylla, and the Symplegades were some of the dangers of the journey. Medea, daughter of the king of Colchis, aided Jason to secure the fleece and fled with him. See Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 'Argonautae.' 32. illa: the Argo. 34. montes: the Symplegades, floating rocks at the entrance of the Euxine, which clashed together to crush whatever might come between them. 36. velut…sonitu: groaned as with ethereal sound, i.e. dashed together with a sound like thunder. 38. mare deprensum: the sea caught between and forced up by the closing rocks. 42. In the prow of the Argo was a piece of the speaking oak of Dodona. 43. virgo Pelori: Scylla. 45. omnes…hiatus: opened all her mouths together. 48. dirae pestes: the Sirens, maidens who by sweet songs lured sailors to their shore and devoured them. Orpheus saved his companions by drowning the Sirens' song with the music of his lyre.
These stories are told in Odyssey, 12, in Apollonius Rhodius, 4. 889 ff., and (in English) in Charles Kingsley's Greek Heroes.
55. Medea, abandoned by Jason for Creusa, in the later action of this play slays her rival and her own children. 68-72. Thule: a distant island not identified,—possibly Iceland, more probably the largest of the Shetland Islands,—regarded by the ancients as the northern limit of the known world.
Seneca, considering the progress of maritime discovery in the past, was led naturally to the thought that new lands would some day be discovered beyond the ocean. The conception was not new. Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes, 1. 28, speaks of a south temperate zone, cultivated and inhabited, unknown to us. This, of course, is not necessarily beyond the sea, though Mela places it there. Cicero again in De Republica, 6. 20 implies that there are other islands than the Roman world surrounded by other seas than the Atlantic. Plato, Timaeus, 24-25, says that beyond and surrounding the Atlantic there is a vast continent, between which and the western coast of Europe and of Libya are a number of islands, of which Atlantis before its submergence was the largest. Strabo, 1. 4. 6, says it is quite possible that in the temperate zone there may be not only the island that forms the world as known to his contemporaries, but two such or even more, especially near the circle of latitude which is drawn through Athens and the Atlantic Ocean. See Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, 'Atlanticum mare' and 'Atlantis.'
Lowell, in his Columbus, represents the discoverer as naming this passage,—said also by tradition to have made a deep impression on his mind,—along with Canto XXVI of Dante's Inferno and Plato's Timaeus and Critias, as inspiring him to his attempt:
Then did I entertain the poets' song,
My great Idea's guest, and, passing o'er
That iron bridge the Tuscan built to hell,
I heard Ulysses tell of mountain-chains
Whose adamantine links, his manacles,
The western main shook growling and still gnawed.
I brooded on the wise Athenian's tale
Of happy Atlantis, and heard Bjorne's keel
Crush the gray pebbles of the Vinland shore:
I listened musing to the prophecy
Of Nero's tutor-victim…
And I believed the poets.
The son of the discoverer wrote in his copy of the tragedies opposite these lines,—'This prophecy was fulfilled by my father, the Admiral Christopher Columbus, in the year 1492.'
2. Agamemnon returns to Argos after the capture of Troy, his wife Clytemnestra expressing deep joy at his return. He has brought with him as a captive Cassandra the seer who, suddenly swooning, sees in prophetic frenzy Agamemnon's death and her own at the hand of Clytemnestra and her paramour, Aegistheus. Agamemnon worships Jupiter and Juno at the altar and then enters the palace to his death.
1, 2. Tandem…terra. Cf. Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 503 ff., 810 ff. laris: Roman coloring. 3. diu: taken with felix. 4. Asiae: objective genitive, after potentes, B. 204, 1; A. & G. 349, a. 5. vates: Cassandra. corpus: accusative of specification. 7. recipit diem: i.e. revives. 9. optatus ff.: with a double meaning to the audience. 10. Festus ff.: Troy fell immediately after the festivities that celebrated the withdrawal of the Greek fleet. Cf. Aeneid, 2. 246 ff. 11. Cecidit ff.: for the death of Priam cf. Aeneid, 2. 506 ff. 13. Priamum: King Agamemnon's fate is to be such as King Priam's. Priam was slain at the altar, and these altars (aras, 1. 11) awaken forebodings. 14. Ubi ff.: where faithless wives are, is calamity. 15. Libertas: the freedom of death. 19. dum excutiat deum: until she casts off the influence of Apollo who has thrown her into the prophetic frenzy. 21. pater: Jupiter. 24. cuncta: accusative of specification. 25. Argolica Iuno: Hera had a famous shrine at Argos. For an account of excavations there see Waldstein, The Argive Heraeum. 26. Arabumque donis: incense. supplice fibra: the entrails of the sacrificed animals (pecore votivo), whose condition was supposed to indicate the will of the gods.
VII. LUCAN.
39-65 A.D.
Lucan, full of warmth and vehemence, eminently quotable, but, to speak frankly, one whom, orators rather than poets should imitate.— Quintilian, 10. 1. 90.
When I consider that Lucan died at twenty-six, I cannot help ranking him among the most extraordinary men that ever lived.— Macaulay.
The whole production (the Pharsalia) is youthful and unripe, but indicative of genuine power.—Teuffel, Schwabe, and Warr, History of Roman Literature, vol. 2, p. 78.
Lucan was born in Spain; was taken early to Rome; was carefully educated; wrote much; and was much admired; but was disliked by Nero, who forbade him to publish poems or recite them, and finally put him to death on the charge of complicity in the conspiracy of Piso.
In philosophy Lucan was a Stoic, in style a rhetorician. The Pharsalia, his only extant work, is an epic poem of about eight thousand lines in ten books on the civil war between Pompey and Caesar.
The Cato of Selections 2-5 is Cato the Younger, or 'the Stoic,' who in 46 B.C. was in Africa in command of a part of the Republican forces opposed to Julius Caesar. After the decisive defeat at Thapsus he refused to survive the Republic, taking his own life at Utica. His memory was revered throughout antiquity and the Middle Ages. Vergil makes him the lawgiver of Elysium (Aeneid, 8. 670), and Dante represents him as the warden of Purgatory, 'venerable,' his countenance adorned with the 'rays of the four consecrated stars,' his form destined to shine brightly on the last day.
For her [i.e. Liberty] to thee not bitter
Was death in Utica, where thou didst leave
The vesture, that will shine so, the great day.
See Longfellow's translation of the Purgatorio, with notes, Canto I.
Haskins, Lucani Pharsalia, Introduction, pp. 59-60, examines all allusions to Cato in the Pharsalia, and concludes that the picture is in its main outlines truthful, though the failure to depict 'the cross-grained perversity that moved the complaints of Cicero' makes it somewhat one-sided. 'Of course the portrait is colored by a loving hand: but it is none the worse for that.'
For Reference: Teuffel, Schwabe, and Warr, History of Roman Literature, vol. 2, p. 78 ff. Haskins, Lucani Pharsalia (London, 1889).
Metre: Dactylic Hexameter, B. 368; A. & G. 616.
2. 4. deis placuit: that Caesar 'had the strongest battalions' proves that 'Heaven' was 'on his side.'
3. Cato, proceeding by land from the neighborhood of Cyrene toward Numidia, and coming to the temple of Jupiter Ammon,—geographically misplaced by Lucan,—is advised by Labienus to consult the god concerning the outcome of the war and the nature of virtue. The selection gives his reply. 1. mente gerebat: of. Seneca, Epistula 4. 12 (41). 1, 2. 'God is near you, is with you, is within you. I have this to say, Lucilius: a sacred spirit has his abode within us.' 3. Labiene: Caesar's former second-in-command, who went over to Pompey's side at the beginning of the Civil War and was finally slain at Munda. 5. et: even. 6, 7. Fortuna perdat minas: whether Fortune threatens vainly. 8. et…honestum: and whether the right never grows more, right by success. 10. Haeremus ff.: We are in constant intercourse with heaven.—Haskins. 11. Sponte dei: by the inspiration of God.—Haskins. 12, 13. dixit…licet: the inner light of conscience. auctor: the Creator. 15-17. These lines suggested the passage in Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey:
I have felt…a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean, and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
A motion and a spirit that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.
virtus: Grotius quotes Hierocles: 'God hath not upon earth a place more truly his than the pure heart,' and the Pythian oracle: 'I joy in reverent mortals even as in Olympus.' Superos…ultra: Why further do we seek the gods? Iuppiter…moveris: All that you see, and all your feelings, that is Jupiter.—Haskins. Cf. Seneca, De Beneftciis, 4. 8: Quocumque te flexeris, ibi ilium videbis occurrentem tibi: nihil ab illo vacat, opus suum ipse implet. 22. Servata fide: true to his word. 23. populis: dative, to the multitude, i.e. of Orientals waiting to consult the oracle.
4. 10. Fortuna fuit: i.e. was due to fortune rather than to virtue. Fortuna is predicate nominative. 14. quam…Iugurthae: i.e. than to win the victories of Marius.
5. This noble portrait is that of an ideal Stoic. Roman life had been deeply imbued with this philosophy, which had passed beyond the limits of the schools to become at once a religious creed and a practical code of morals for everyday use. See Mackail, Latin Literature, p. 171. 2. servare…tenere: to hold fast the mean, to observe the due limit. These and the following phrases are Stoic formulae. 4. Cf. Seneca, Epistula 95 (15.3). 52-53, where he says 'we are members of a great body.' 'Let this line be both in our hearts and on our lips:
"Human I am,
And every human interest is mine."'
See the entire passage. 12. sibi nata: selfish.