The hymn shall Egon and Damœtas sound, Such, when our offerings to the Nymphs we bear, So long thy rites, thy name, thy praise shall last. 95 Not more his prayer shall Bacchus Ceres sway; Mops. A strain so soft what recompense shall greet? For to my ear the whispering breeze less sweet, 100 prove: With this I sang "Young Corydon's" sad love ; (Fair though he was), this jointed crook receive: 110 of that island. Dancing, we may add, was much used in religious ceremonies, not only by idolatrous nations, but also by the Jews. 89-91 At the two seasons, winter and summer, of sacrificing to the Nymphs within doors, and the Ambarvalia in the open fields. ECLOGUE VI.-SILENUS. ARGUMENT. CESAR having restored Virgil to his lands, the poet now, A. U. C. 714, seems to have seized the opportunity of fulfilling the promise which he had made to Q. Atius Varus (Ecl. ix. 32), that he would exalt his name to the "bright stars," if he would preserve Mantua. This he performed in his Silenus, one of his finest Eclogues, which is dedicated to that distinguished personage. See a long note by Martyn on nunc ego, v. 6 of the original. It was probably written not "unbidden" of him; as Virgil himself obviously was anxious to make "kings and war's achievements" the subjects of his poetry. Varus was, it may be believed, an Epicurean: and hence the poet makes that philosophy the subject of his pastoral; which, however, as it would have been incongruous to the simplicity of a shepherd's love, he dexterously puts into the mouth of the demi-god Silenus. Accordingly, the "long-promised strain" gives a succinct account of the natural and moral doctrines of Epicurus, the formation of the world from atoms, and the necessity of avoiding perturbations of the mind. It includes a fine compliment to Cornelius Gallus, vv. 72-83, who had about this time written a poem on "Gryneum's grove" in the style of Hesiod, and was also, like Varus, a great favourite of Cæsar. FIRST breathed my Muse the Syracusan strain, Nor blush'd to dwell amid the woodland train, When, rashly bold, I struck the lyre to kings, And war's achievements flutter'd o'er my strings, With friendly caution Phoebus touch'd mine ear; 5 "Tityrus, to shepherds still their flocks be dear: Still shrink the rural bard from lofty themes: His modest pipe a lowlier lay beseems." 8 Lowlier; literally a "drawn out" lay. The metaphor is taken from wool, which is spun thinner. Still, then, that lay be mine! There yet will be, Varus, enow to sing of war and thee. 10 Nor flows my verse unbidden. Should the MuseAh! should she win some fond eye to peruse; Thee, Varus, shall our tamarisks give to fame: Phoebus most loves the page that bears thy name. Proceed, sweet maids. Within a cavern wide 15 Silenus Chromis and Mnasylos spied. Heavy with sleep the aged tippler lay, And swoln his veins, as wont, with wine of yesterday: Slipp'd from his brow, unburst, his wreath was here; They seize him; and his chaplet forms his chain. 25 "Why bind me, boys?" at last with smiles he cried: "Loose me; suffice a demi-god descried! The lay ye ask be yours; the lay to you, To her another recompense is due." 30 He sings! In measured step you then might see Fauns and fierce beasts frisk to the minstrelsy, And knotted oaks their tops in rapture nod: Not with such glee Parnassus hails its god; 20 The cantharus, a "goblet," was a sort of drinking vesse with ears or handles, sacred to Bacchus, the pupil of Silenus. Both Pliny and Valerius Maximus heavily censure Marius for having presumed, after his victory over the Cimbri, to drink out of such a vessel; as thus insinuating that his own actions might vie with the victories of the god of wine. 26 This hue was added, not to make a jest of the tipsy deity, but to render him more propitious, red being the colour sacred to the gods. So Pan, in Ecl. x. 32, has his "vermil die." 32 The "Fauns" are "rural deities, so called a fando, because they speak personally to men."-Martyn. Less, when the Muses breathe from Orpheus' shell, Feel Rhodope and Ismarus the spell! 35 He sang, how from the void immense combined Their seeds, earth, ocean, fire, and ether join'd; And how, no more in wild disorder hurl'd, Sprang from these elements the nascent world. 40 Its firmness how the soil, the sea its bed, Received, and gradual vegetation spread: How the new sun o'er wondering lands arose, And buoyant clouds their liquid wealth disclose: How rising woods first cast their little shade, And few the beasts o'er unknown mountains stray'd: The stones of Pyrrha, Saturn's golden time, Prometheus' penal vulture, and his crime: And Hylas, whom his messmates loud deplore, While 66 Hylas! Hylas !" rings from all the shore. 45 50 Happy had herds ne'er been, Pasiphäe next He soothes, with love of her white steer perplext, Ah, wretched fair! what madness fires thy brain? Though Prœtus' maids with lowings mock'd the plain, None ever coveted such foul embrace; 55 Oft though they fear'd the plough, and o'er their face Trembling essay'd the sprouting horn to trace. 36 Rhodope and Ismarus were mountains of Thrace. 47-49, &c. Of Pyrrha and Prometheus, the "miser-maid” Atalanta, and the "sad sisters of Phaeton," the reader can hardly require an account; but he may be less acquainted with Hylas, the young companion of Hercules in the Argonautic expedition, who was lost in a fountain where he went to draw water. Hence he was said to have been carried off by a Naiad. The Argonauts called for him a long time, but in vain. See Theocr. Idyl xiii. Pasiphäe and the daughters of Protus are better left in silence. Gortyna, however (it may be geographically remarked), was a city of Crete, near which the remains of the famous labyrinth, it is said, are still to be seen; including col umns of marble, granite, and red and white jasper. Ah, wretched fair! thy heart in absence pines: Or in some shade reposed the cud he chews, 60 "Close, nymphs of Crete! ye nymphs, now close the groves: Some friendly chance, as near my favourite roves, Some emerald pasture, bright with morning dew, 65 By lust of the Hesperian fruit betray'd; Next Gallus, wandering by Permessus' stream, 70 And all the sisters rose, and reverent homage paid; While Linus, shepherd he of sacred song 75 (Flowers, and wild parsley, twined his locks among), Cried, "Take this reed, the Muses' gift, before 80 85 82 See Martyn in loc.; as also for the fables (here slightly referred to in the close of Silenus's song) of Scylla "of royal Nisus sprung," and Tereus, vv. 85-90. Dulichium, whence Ulysses' keels" are in the original called "Dulichian," was one of the Echinades, islands in the Ionian Sea, subject to the chieftain of Ithaca. |
