Sponte sua, dum ferre moror, cinis ipse. Bonum sit ! Nescio quid certe est; et Hylax in limine latrat. Credimus? an, qui amant, ipsi sibi somnia fingunt ? Parcite, ab urbe venit, jam parcite, carmina, Daphnis. ECLOGA IX." LYCIDAS, MORIS. L. Quo te, Moeri, pedes? an, quo via ducit, in urbem? M. O Lycida, vivi pervenimus, advena nostri, Quod nunquam veriti sumus, ut possessor agelli Diceret haec mea sunt : veteres migrate coloni. Nunc victi, tristes, quoniam Fors omnia versat, Hos illi (quod nec bene vertat) mittimus hoedos. L. Certe equidem audieram, qua se subducere colles Incipiunt, mollique jugum demittere clivo, 5 Usque ad aquam, et veteres jam fracta cacumina, fagos, Omnia carminibus vestrum servasse Menalcan. M. Audieras ; et fama fuit; sed carmina tantum 10 a This Eclogue is a dialogue between two Shepherds, Lycidas and Moeris, who are supposed to meet on the road to Mantua, and discourse concerning the violence of the soldiers, to whom the neighbouring lands had been given. Virgil is here supposed to describe his own farm, and, under the feigned name of Menalcas, to speak of himself. Nostra valent, Lycida, tela inter Martia, quantum 15 L. Heu! cadit in quemquam tantum scelus? heu tua nobis Paene simul tecum solatia rapta, Menalca ! Quis caneret nympas ? quis humum florentibus herbis Cum te ad delicias ferres Amaryllida nostras ? Tityre, dum redeo, brevis est via, pasce capellas; Et potum pastas age, Tityre; et inter agendum, Occursare capro, cornu ferit ille, caveto." 20 25 M. Immo haec, quae Varo necdum perfecta canebat : "Vare, tuum nomen (superet modo Mantua nobis, Mantua vae miserae nimium vicina Cremonae !) Cantantes sublime ferent ad sidera cycni." с L. Sic tua Cyrnaeas fugiant examina taxos; 30 b Chaonias....columbas. These were famous pigeons in the Dodonean grove, that uttered oracular responses. Epirus, which was anciently called Chaonia. Dodona was in Virgil therefore uses Chaonian pigeons poetically, for pigeons in general. c Cyrnaeas.... taxos. The island of Corsica was called Cyrnus by the Greeks, but why the Corsican yews were esteemed particularly poisonous, does not appear in any ancient author. Sic cytiso pastae distendant ubera vaccae : 35 M. Id quidem ago, et tacitus, Lycida, mecum ipse voluto, Si valeam meminisse; neque est ignoble carmen. Huc ades, o Galatea; quis est num ludus in undis ? L. Quid, quae te pura solum sub nocte canentem d 40 45 M. "Daphni, quid antiquos signorum suspicis ortus? Ecce Dionaei processit Caesaris astrum ; d Daphnis seems to be intended only as a fictitious name for some favourite shepherd. e Dione was a sea-nymph, the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, and the mother of Venus and Jupiter. Venus was the mother of Enaeus, who was the father of Ascanius or Julius; from whom f A remarkable star or comet appeared for seven days together, after the death of Julius Cæsar, which was thought to be a sign, that his soul was received into heaven. Astrum properly signifies a constellation, or a number of stars placed in a certain order.; but Astrum, quo segetes gauderent frugibus; et quo Insere, Daphni, pyros; carpent tua poma nepotes." L. Causando nostros in longum ducis amores. 52 55 60 the Julian family derived their descent. Julius Cæsar therefore being of this race, he is here called Dionaean Cæsari, as Æneas calls Venus his Dionaean mother, at the beginning of the third Æneid. Virgil uses the word here, to denote a single star, by way of preeminence. g Bianor, surnamed Ocnus, son of the river Tiber, by the prophetess Manto, daughter of Tiresias, is said to have fortified Mantua, and to have given it the name of his mother. h Urbem. Mantua. |