(fas VfKbblZ, Rnnk fw . I ■ J^/Z+.s&z . THE FASTI OF / OVID. By JOHN BENSON EOSE. L O N D N : * DORRELL AND SON, CHARING CROSS. 18GP,. ^0 LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND aONS, STAMFORD STRKKT, AND CHARING CROSS, 96-845;>23 ERRATA. Page 72. line 147, read The old bays foil from altars Iliacan. ,, 77 ., 802, omit far ; insert meal. ., 102 ., 5. omit Iliartes: insert For Romulus. CONTENTS. JANUARY—BOOK I. PAGii 1. Kalends Festival of Janus 1 Dedication of the Temples of Jupiter and iEsculapius in Tiber 12 3. HE. Nones Cancer sets 13 5. Nones Lyre rises 13 9. V. Ides Agonalia 14 Dolphin rises 18 10. IV. Ides... Mid-winter 19 11. III. , Carmentalia — Temple of Juturna dedi- cated 19 15. Ides The provinces restored to Koman popular Government — Csssar surnamed Augus- tus 24 Carmentalia — Festival of Porrima and Postverta 25 Temple of Concord inaugurated 26 Sun in Aquarius 26 The Lyre sets 27 Kegulus in Leo sets 27 (Sementivan Feasts) 27 27. VI. , , ... Dedication of Temple to Castor and Pollux 29 30. III. ,, ... Dedication of Altar of Peace 29 15. XVIII. Kalends 16. XVII. 17. XVI. 23. X. 24. IX. FEBEUAEY— BOOK II. 1. Kalends Fane of Juno Sospita 33 Lucaria 33 Vesta and Jupiter Tonans 34 2. IV. Nones Lyra sets, and half of Leo sets 'M a 2 iv CONTENTS. PAGE 3. III. Nones Dolphin sets 34 5. The Nones Augustus Csesar Pater Patrise 36 Aquarius rises 37 9. V. Ides Spring commences 37 11. III. ,, Arctophylax rises 37 13. The Ides Faunus Festum 39 Slaughter of the Fabii 39 14. XVI. Kalends of\ n n , ' . . . ,, ,, , >Corvus, Crater, and Anguis rise 41 March J ' ' & 15. XV. Kalends Lupercalia 42 Variable winds 49 Sun in Pisces 49 17. XIII. ,, Quirina'lia 50 Feast of Fools and Fornacalia 51 19. XI. ,, Feralia 52 Dese Mutse Sacra 54 22. VIII. ,, Charistia— Feast of Kelatives 56 23. VII. ,, Terminalia 57 24. VI. ,, Abdication and flight of kings 58 Arrival of the Swallow 64 27. III. ,, Equiria in Campus Martius 65 MAECH— BOOK III. 1. The Kalends Rhea Sylvia 68 Eomulus and Remus 69 Maniples 71 Matronalia 73 Juno Lucina — Temple dedicated 73 Anciliorum, feast of 76 3. V. Nones Piscis Notius sets 81 5. III. ,, Arctophylax sets 82 Vindemitor arises 82 6. Pridie Nones Feast of Vesta — Augustus Pontifex Maxi- mus 82 CONTENTS. v PAGE 7. The Nones Temple of Vejovis 83 Pegasus arises 84 8. VIII. Ides Ariadne's Crown rises 84 13. III. ,, Equiria in Campus Martins 86 15. The Ides Anna Perenna's feast 87 Parricidium, or murder of Julius Caesar 93 16. XVII. Kalends of\ a . , . . _, . ,., f Scorpio, part of, sets 94 17. XVI. ,, Liberalia 94 Toga Virilis to boys 96 Festival of Argives 97 Milvus rises 97 19. XIV. ,, Quinquatria 97 Minerva Capta feast 97 Sun in Aries 99 Quinquatria ends 99 Tubilustria 99 Equinox 100 Janus, Concord, Health, and Peace, Festival 100 [LunaeFestum 100 APEIL— BOOK IV. 1. The Kalends Venus worshipped with Myrtle 106 Fortuna Virilis with Frankincense 106 Venus Verticordia 106 Scorpio sets 107 2. IV. Nones Pleiades set 107 4. Pridie Nones Megalesia (Mother of the Gods worshipped) 108 5. Nones Fortuna Publica, Temple of 115 6. VIII. Ides Juba conquered 116 Libra sets with rain 116 9. V. , Orionsets 116 22. XI. » > 23. X. ■» 25. VIII. > » 29. IV. > > 31. Pridie April Kalends of . 20. XII. 21. XI. 23. IX 25. VII. vi CONTENTS. PAGE 10. IV. Ides Ludi Cereales 116 13. Ides Jupiter Victor, Temple of 126 Liberty, Temple of 126 14. XVILT. Kalends . . . Augustus Caesar at Mutina 1 26 15. XVII. , , Fordicidia, pregnant cow sacrificed to Tellus 126 16. XVI. ,, Augustus Csesar proclaimed Imperator. . . 128 TheHyadesset 128 19. XIII. , , Circensian Games, Foxes on fire turned loose 128 Sol in Taurus 130 Palilia 130 Foundation of Rome 134 ,, Vinalia of Jove and Venus 136 Mid-spring 138 Aries sets 138 Sirius rises 138 Rubigalia (Rust) 138 28. IV. ,, Floralia » 140 Feast of Vesta, Phoebus and Augustus. . . 140 MAY— BOOK V. 1. The Kalends Capella rises 145 Altar to Guardian Lares 146 Rites of Bona Dea 146 2. VI. Nones Argestes blows 147 Hyades rise 147 3. V. , Floralia ends 148 The Centaur rises 156 5. III. ,, Lyra rises 157 6. Pridie Nones Scorpio partly sets 157 9. VII. Ides Lemuria begin 157 11. V. ,, Orion sets 160 12. IV. ,, Temple to Mars Ultor 162 CONTENTS. PAGE Pridieldes Pleiades rise 165 Taurus rises 165 Scirpea (wicker images) cast in Tiber ... 166 Ides Feast of Mercury 167 XIII. Kalends Sol in Gemini 169 XII. ,, Agonalia 170 XI. , Sirius or Procyon rises 170 X. ,, Tubilustria 170 IX. ,, Fuga Kegis ? Q. K. C. F 170 VIII. , , Fortuna Publica — Aquila rises 170 VII. ,, Bootes sets 171 27. VI. ,, Hyadesrise 171 14. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 2G. JUNE— BOOK VI. Name of June 173 1. The Kalends Feast of Cama 177 Juno Moneta's Temple 180 FeastofMars 181 Tempestas, Temple of. 181 2. IV. Nones Hyadesrise 181 4. Pridie Nones Bellona, Temple of 181 Hercules Custos 182 5. The Nones Sanctus, Fidius or Semo, Temple of. 182 Unfortunate to wed 182 7. VII. Ides Arctophylax sets 183 Tiberinan games 183 8. VI. ,, Temple to Mens 183 9. V. , Vestalia 184 Altar to Jupiter Pistor 188 Palladium saved from the flames 191 Slaughter of Crassi 193 10. IV. ,, Dolphin rises 193 11. III. ,, Matralia 193 viii CONTENTS. PAGK 11. III. Ides Temple of Mater Matuta, built by Ser- viusTullius 194 Rutilius and Didius slain 197 Temple of Fortune dedicated 198 Temple of Concord dedicated 201 13. The Ides Temple to Jupiter Invictus 201 Quinquatria Minora 201 15. XVII. Kalends . . . Thyene rises in Taurus 204 Temple of Vesta purified 204 16. XVI. ,, ... Zephyr blows 204 Orion rises 204 17. XV. ,, ... Delphinus rises 205 Volsci and iEqui conquered 205 19. XIII. ,, ... Sol in Cancer 205 Pallas worshipped on Mount Aventine 205 20. XII. ,, ... Temple to Summanus 205 Ophiuchus rises 205 23. IX. , , ... Flaminius conquered at Thrasymene . . . 207 24. VIII. ,, ... Syphax and Hasdrubal conquered 207 Fors Fortuna Festum 207 26. VI. ,, ... Orion's Belt rises 208 Summer Solstice 208 27. V. ,, ... Temple to the Lares consecrated 208 Temple to Jupiter Stator built 208 28. IV. ,, ... Temple to Quirinus built 208 30. Pridie Kalends ... Festival of Hercules and the Muses 209 Notes 211 THE FASTI BOOK I. The Times and Seasons of the Latin year, The stars that rise and rule and disappear, Causes and digests, shall my song declare. Smile on the task, Caesar G-ermanice, And steer the timid bark I launch to sea. 5 Scorn not the theme as light or poor of wit, Thy favour will suffice to sanction it. Annals of eld, and deeds of high emprize, Ennobling days, shalt thou there recognise : Oft will thy father's name, and grandsire's, be 10 Linked with domestic feasts ; oft wilt thou see Thine own recorded here, and Drusus' name, In rubric Fasti of ennobling fame. Others have sung Caesarian campaigns, Sing we Caesarian altars, feasts, and fanes. 15 Bow down a brow benignant, and impart Modest assurance to my beating heart ; For while the praise of thine I undertake, Success or failure follows in thy wake. The page, submitted to thine eye sedate, 20 As to the Clarian god's, doth crepitate ; For we have heard thine eloquence, we know How, for thy friends arraigned, its accents flow ; We know how deep the stream, how lull withal Thy flow of fervent verse poetical : 25 * a 2 THE FASTI. Book I. A seer thyself, bend down upon a seer If that it lawful be, a favouring ear, And aid the journey through the happy year. When that Eome's founder times divided, he Ordained twice five months for one year to be. 30 Ah ! Komule, thou wottedst more of wars, And subjugating neighbours, than of stars. Yet, Caesar, he, by reasons good, was moved To that result, though it erroneous proved. Gestation's period, which our females bear, 35 He deemed sufficient for a current year. It likewise was the period sacred to A widow's mourning, and the pomp of woe. Quirinus trabea-garb'd, and making laws For a rude race, thought these sufficient cause. 40 His father Mars he put the first in place ; Venus the next as authoress of his race ; Seniors and Juniors had the third and fourth ; The rest in sequent numbers he set forth. But Numa added Janus thereunto, 45 And Shades ancestral, making months more two. And now to teach the rites of divers days (Each dawning morn hath not like offices) ; Nefasti those, when the three words are barred, And Fasti those whereon lawsuits be heard. 50 L. 49. — The three words were — Do, Dico, Addico. The praetor pro- nounced them when, as judge, he decided suits. I give, I pronounce, I adjudge. The first is the property of our grand jury to find a true bill ; the second of our jury to give a verdict ; the third of our judge to award sentence. The Koraan praetor held all three. Book I. THE FASTI. Nor deem that one whole day enjoys one right, ISTefastus may be Fastus ere the night. When entrails offered have been, all is free, Then may the " Honoured Praetor" make decree. There is a day whereon the consul pens 55 The Septa in, the Koman citizens. On the ninth days unbars the market-place, Oft as recurring, to the populace. Ausonian Kalends Juno claims as hers: The Ides are sanctified as Jupiter's, 60 When the best spotless lamb to him is slain : But the Nones own no guardian god or fane. Sequent to these — I rede you mark it well — The morrow will be black ; and sooth to tell Events, not omens, have oft proved it so ; 65 Rome on such days has suffered from the foe Her worst defeats and fearful loss and woe. These points to Festivals are general Therefore I now adduce them once for all. KAL. JAN. FEAST OF JANUS. First, Father Janus, in my verse appear 70 And bid Germanicus a happy year. O Father, of the year of silent track, Sole Deity beholding thine own back ; O Biceps ! present with our rulers be ; Beneath whose rule the fertile earth and sea 75 Enjoy prosperity : Quirinus shew thy face To Koman Senate, Roman populace ; b 2 4 THE FASTI. Book I. The dawn propitious is ; with heart and voice Mate words and days and bid us all rejoice ; Open thy candid temples, bid to cease 80 The sounds of strife, bid Envy hold her peace. Behold how iEther glows with sacred fire, Where incense and odorous nard aspire ; How lambent flames all tremulously foiled Up to thy dome, reflect from burnished gold. 85 Lo ! the procession mounts Tarpeia's height ; The garb and festival are sacred white ; New fasces lead the way ; in purple dye New consuls in the chairs of ivory. The unyoked steers, from the Faliscan plain, 90 Proffer their necks consentant to be slain; And Jupiter from heaven gazing round Kegardeth nothing else, but Koman ground. Salve, auspicious morn ! for ever aye Eeturn to Komans an auspicious day. 95 Jane biformis, what shall I call thee ? Greece, has no corresponding deity. Propound the cause, why of Celestials one May see behind his back the deed that's done, And at the same time view events before. 100 Now, as I pondered this thing o'er and o'er, My tablets in my hand, behold the gloom By sudden brightness banished from my room, L. 90. — The white oxen of the .sun. slain by the followers of Ulysses, despite the warnings of Circe and Tiret-ias. Faliscan is a corruption ot the word Pali-stan, fire-worshippers. These oxen were fed on the sacred Clitumnus, and are preserved to-day in the sanctuary of Sheikh Shems by the Yesidi, where Mr. Layard found them. Book I. THE FASTI. 5 And sacred Janus burst upon my sight. Amazed I stood, my hairs erect with fright, 105 And my heart sunk within my breast downright : His right hand grasped the staff, the left the key, As from his foreface thus he answered me : " Laborious Bard, toiling of Times to learn ; Fear not, but mark my precepts and discern. 110 The Old-age called me Chaos : I belong To earliest time, and thence deduce my song. This lucent Air, these Fire, Water, Earth, Commingled ere their elemental birth In one great mass ; but when they ordered were 115 To harmonise, each sought its proper sphere ; Flame soared on high, Air took the middle space, And Land and Water each assumed its place. Then I, who was a lump of mud, a clod, Keceived these features worthy of a god. 120 Yet still, in this reduplicated face, I bear a remnant and chaotic trace. But there is yet another cause why I Am fashioned thus, to wit, my Ministry. Whate'er you see around to me is given 125 To open and to shut, Earth, Sea, and Heaven ; The world committed is to me alone, The right to turn the key is all mine own ; And while it pleases me, I liberate Sweet Peace to ambulate the tranquil state, 130 And did I not turn the firm bolt on War He would rush forth and set the world ajar. 6 THE FASTI. Book I. I, and the gentle Hours, preside above ; I open and I shut the door to Jove ; Therefore am I called Janus ; and my priest 135 Doles honey cates, the Liba, at my feast And salted meal ; calls me Patulchius, And (smile not) in the same breath Clusius ; So did the Old-age strive by change of names To indicate my functions and their claims. 140 Such are my functions ; for my shape, altho' Guessed it thou hast perchance ere now, you know That every door must have a double face; One views the Lares, one the Populace ; And as your mortal Janitor, who sees 145 From threshold floor, exits and entrances, So I, the Janitor celestial, view Eoan and Hesperian regions too. Hecat' you know is furnished with fronts three That she may watch and ward her Trivise, 150 And I have twain, that, without movement, I May view alike past and futurity." So far he spoke, and his benignant eye Seemed to invite to further colloquy ; I plucked up courage, made acknowledgment, 155 And thus pursued, but with mine eyes down bent. " O tell me wherefore is the new year born In frost and cold, when all is chill and lorn ? Surely its birthday should in Spring have been When meads are blossoming and woods are green ; 160 When the young buds are bursting from the bines, And elms are gorgeous, garmented with vines, Book I. THE FASTI. 7 When corn blades upward shoot and the sweet bird, In purest ether, carolling is heard ; When flocks are wanton, and the swallow guest 165 Beneath the roof and rafter frames her nest ; When sunshine blesses all, the steer and share, Should not this be the birthday of the year ? " So did I ask with fervency ; so he Responded with contrasting brevity : — 170 " The winter Solstice doth the years divide ; Annus and Phoebus, both claim Brumaltide." I pondered on and asked why New Year's-day From legal pleas should not exempted be ? " Then learn ; " he said ; " inestimable time 175 Must not be lost, but seized on at the prime ; A bad beginning would usurp the year : Therefore I will, that each man in his sphere Work ere he play — and show his willingness." I asked him next — " Wherefore, when I address 180 My prayers, Janus, to the gods on high, Do I bring wine and frankincense to thee ? " " Because I hold the threshold, keep the door ; Access to them, through me, must you implore." " Why, Janus, on thy Kalends do we greet 185 With compliments and wishes those we meet ? " Then he, incumbent on his staff, replied : " Omens are from first indexes supplied ; Your timid ears catch the first spoken word, The Augur answers from the first seen bird, 190 Then ears of gods are open, and their fanes, And then the votary his wish obtains." 8 THE FASTI. Book I. He paused — -my question trod on his reply — " Say what the date and dry fig signify, And candid honey in white earthen ware 195 We offer then ? " " All that is sweet and fair ; A sign prognostic that the year may run Its destined course as blandly as begun." " I see the cause of sweets, now tell the cause For the small coin, and I shall know thy laws." 200 He laughed and said : " thou of little wit, The habits of all time account for it ; Why e'en when Saturn reigned on earth, e'en then, Nought sweeter was than money unto men. The passion grew with time ; it grew, but now 205 It culminates, and can no further grow. Wealth now predominates ; not so of yore When Rome was little and the Romans poor. Quirinus, Mars-begotten, laid his head In a thatched hut, beside the river's bed 210 The reeds amidst. The Fane of Jupiter So lowly was, sedent he stooped him there ; The bolt in his right hand was potter's clay : Boughs strew'd, not gems, the Capitoline way. The Senators fed sheep, nor scorned on bed 215 Of straw and fragrant hay to couch the head ; The Consul left the plough for curule chair ; Silver to hold was criminal and rare ; But when Dame Fortune raised unto the dome Of the high heavens above, the head of Rome, 220 Then grew the lust of lucre, love of gain ; The more they had, the more would they obtain, Book I. THE FASTI. 225 230 Greed to accumulate, and greed to spend, Vices on vices gendered without end ; Like to the toper in his drunken thirst, Water on water drinking till he burst. And now 'tis all in all ; it honour buys And friendships, and, the poor man lowly lies : And dost thou yet demand, what auspices In ancient coin of brass, or augury is ? We gave brass formerly, we give gold now, And the new omen beats the old, I trow. We, who delight in fanes, we gods, who praise The old simplicity, admire the blaze Of golden temples, suited gods unto. We praise the olden time, we love the new, For both are good, so both be lele and true." He paused, and I nought seeming to deter, Further addressed the Deus Claviger : " Much have I learned in sooth ; but tell me now 240 What means upon the coin the galley's prow, And on the obverse a bifrontal face ? " " Ah ! Time obliterates, — or you would trace 235 The Roman As. Poseidon stands on such a Galley in a coin of Beyrouth.— Bryant, III., p. 338, pi. xxviii. 10 THE FASTI. Book I. Me, in that duplex form ; myself it is. And for the galley's prow, the cause is this — 245 Saturn -came hither in a ship ; expelled From seats on high, him Tuscan Tiber held, After that he had wandered round the world. Well I remember how from heaven was hurl'd The Deus Falcifer by Jupiter, 250 And his first advent and reception here. The name Saturnia followed his abode, And Latium also, from the latent god. In memory, then, of their celestial guest, The good inhabitants on brass impressed 255 The modelled ship. I, upon the left side Kesided then, of Tiber's placid tide — For where Eome is, was uncut forest then, And oxen grazed these matchless haunts of men ; My arx, the hill, you call Janiculum, 260 So called from me, and shall be times to come. My reign began in the primaeval tide Of mundane things, when gods dwelt side by side With men below ; or ere Dame Justice fled From earth and crime, last of the gods who sped ; 265 When man was swayed by virtue, not by lust, And laws were all superfluous for the just ; When peace and doors domestic were my charge, (He showed the key) and Peace I set at large." L. 269. — On the authority of Aratus, the key was similar in shape to the constellation of Cassiopeia : "her glittering stars depict the crooked key of the bifolding door and warder." This is its form : — Book I. THE FASTI. 11 He closed his lips, and I re-opened mine, 270 My mortal thoughts eliciting divine. " Tell me, Janus ; the bifrontal doors And fanes are many ; why one only yours, Betwixt two Forums where your statue stands ? " He stroked and smoothed his beard between his hands ; Of Titus Tatius, the (Ebalian, told, [275 Tarpeia's falsehood and the torques of gold. How she betrayed, unto the Sabine foe, The path the sacred citadel unto. " For then, as now, there was a sheer descent 280 Down to the valley, and the path ypent Betwixt the Fora : there the Sabines were. Saturnia had unbarred my barrier With hand insidious ; and I, fearing to Contend with her, considered what to do 285 In this my proper matter. Fountains are A source of wealth to me peculiar. * * * * * " It is similar to the sickle-shaped key Homer gives to Penelope, according to Eustathius." — Dr. Lamb's ' Aratus,' p. 98. It likewise cor- roborates the opinions of the Bryant school that Noah, Saturn, and Janus were one and the same. We find the ship or ark common to the three, and also this symbol of the falx, scythe, pruning-hook, and key. 12 THE FASTI. Book I. I opened every fountain source below ; I added sulphur to the gelid flow, And so to Sabine foes I barred the gate 290 With boiling waters ; and in after date, When quiet was the vale, men understood The waters medicated were and good : Therefore they built this altar and its fane To burn in sacrifice my cates and grain." 295 I asked again, " Why do you close the bar* In time of peace and open it in war ? " " For ingress to returning warriors," He answered promptly, " I throw open doors Wide as I may ; and when the combats cease, 300 I turn the key upon my Lady Peace, Lest she perchance should gad ; which will not be I trow awhile, beneath Caesarian sway." He said, regarding with his eyes around The placid world, where all was peace profound. 305 Yes Peace, Germanice ! The conquered Khine And all her subject tributaries, thine. O Janus, grant us peace for evermore, And ministers of peace ; which to ensure Preserve its author in our Emperor, 310 TEMPLES OF JOYE AND ^ESCULAPIUS DEDICATED. And further, searching Fasti, do I find Upon this day, two Deities enshrined By Eoman forefathers ; the island on Dividing Tiber's waters. The great Son Of Phoebus and the nymph Coronis there 315 Keception found ; so also Jupiter. Book I. THE FASTI. 13 On the same island they — and nothing loth — Stand side by side, grandsire and grandson both. III. NONES. CANCER SETS. Now of the stars : Doth aught forbid, I ask, To sing of them, as portion of my task ? 320 ' Surely they favoured were, whose mortal eye Uprose to scan those mansions upon high — Surely they soared in spirit to the spheres High over haunts of human crimes and cares. No lust or wine enflamed or dimmed their sight ; 325 Nor military toil, nor civic rite, Nor puffed ambition, neither tinselled fame Nor sordid love of wealth arrested them. They subjected the stars to mortal ken, And drew down aether to the haunts of men ; 330 So sought they heaven ; not Titan like, on high Mountains on mountains piling to the sky. Do we the like ; and mete the plain divine, And unto every day its stars assign. Thus, on the third before the Nones, we view 335 The earth besprinkled with celestial dew, And for the Crab, eight-footed, look in vain ; Who entered has, headlong the Western main. NONES. LYRA RISES. So on the Nones, when sable clouds aspire With storms attendant on the risen Lyre. 340 14 THE FASTI. Eook I. V. ID. JAN. JANI AGON ALIA. Now add four days in sequence from the Nones Janus, the Agonalian light atones. The name perchance hath reference to the Priest Who when succinct for sacrificial feast With hand and steel upraised to smite the blow 345 And cause the tepid victim blood to flow, Always demands " Agone," " Shall I do ? " Nor doth he smite till he be bidden to. But there are others who the word refer To the poor flock " Agantur " driven there. 350 Some to the old Agnalia it retrace, And deem a letter has dropped out of place. Some from the Agony the victims feel On seeing in pure waters the bright steel. Some, from Agones and the Grecians, claim 355 Its origin and antiquated name. But sheep of old were called Agonia too, And that to my mind is the meaning true ; To wit : the patriarch Earn the offering is Made by the Kex to soothe the deities. 360 Victim 'tis called when slain by Victor's hand, And Hostia, when hosts hostile quit the land. The Gods of eld accepted man's appeal With offerings of pure salt and simple meal. Not yet had ships bounded o'er subject seas 365 For tears of myrrh, wept from the wounded trees. Not yet Euphrates frankincense, nor Ind Her spice and saffron, wafted on the wind : Book I. THE FASTI. 15 Then native herbs sufficed for holydays And the bay branches crackled in the blaze. 37u He was deemed rich, who in his coronet Of rustic blossoms wreathed the violet. No knife in those days was unsheathed to smite The lordly bull in sacrificial rite. Ceres — she was the first to joy in blood 375 Of sow, for rooting up her cereal food. The bristly swine would plough her crops among In the sweet springtide when the blade was young ; And the sow paid the penalty condign. E'en so, the goat browzed tendrils of the vine, 380 Unheeded her example ; man might say, Beholding him, " Ah, munch and munch away, Goat with corroding tooth ; there still will be Juice of the grape sufficient unto thee, When at the shrine you bleed in punishment." 385 The words prophetic were of the event : For, with his forehead sanctified by wine, Bacche, is he offered at thy shrine. And thus her guilt was fatal to the sow ; His fatal to the goat ; but tell me how 390 The ox, and the poor sheep paid penalties ? The shepherd Aristseus lost his bees ; He wept his swarms confounded in one doom Dead offspring, and unfinished honeycomb : Him hardly his cerulean mother might 395 Console, so weary woeful was his plight : Cease boy to weep, she said ; to Proteus go, He can repair thy loss, relieve thy woe ; 16 THE FASTI. Book I. Yet will he fool thee, unless thou canst bind His limbs in fetters to coerce his mind. 400 And the youth sought the seer, and sleeping found His haunt within, and hands and arms he bound. And he the Watery Sire, essayed in vain His wizard arts ; with brow cerulean Upraised, he said : " Now what dost thou require ? 405 Kedemption for thy swarms is thy desire ? Bury, in earth, the immolated steer, He will resolve the question you ask here." The pastor did so ; from the putrid frame Fervent with life, swarms by the myriad came. 410 Fate claimed the sheep ; she miserably browzed Verbenas sacred ; and the wrath aroused Of rural gods. With instances like these What victim could escape life's penalties ? Persia devotes the steed, the brave, the fleet, 415 To Hypereion as an offering meet. The hind had been the substitute and sign For virgin offered at Diana's shrine ; Now for herself, no substitute, she falls. Sapaeans, upon Trivia's festivals 420 Offer dogs' entrails, snowy Haamus on. The ass, Priapus to — the tale is one Like to that Grod himself, a tale of shame. To Grecian festival the votaries came, Of Bacchus ivy-crowned triennial. 425 The gods of cold Lycseum one and all ; Pan and the Satyrs, prone to jollity ; And Nymphs and Naiads full of mirth and glee ; Book I. THE FASTI. 17 Silenus on his ass, now senior, and The young Priapus with his scaring wand. 430 Upon the turf — in grove the pleasantest They spread their tables, and they lay at rest. Liber gave wine ; each wreathed his coronet, And mingled charily the rivulet Of waters with their wine : and Naiads there 435 Some locks dishevelled, some with kempt bright hair ; One's tunic is upraised, another's falls, Shoulders and breasts are bared at intervals ; One trails her robe, and limbs the gazers greet Of flashing beauty, and unsandalled feet ; 440 The youthful Satyrs and the jolly Pan, Silenus, natheless old, to warm began : Priapus ruddy, guardian and grace Of garden ground, is caught by Lotis' face ; He gazes, loves, his passion signifies 445 By nods and becks and lover's smiles and sighs. Beauty, intuitively proud, disdains The lover's suit and laughs at lover's pains ; And, Lotis by her haughtiness of mien Avouched her scorn with innate pride and spleen. 450 'Twas night, by wine and revelry oppressed, Each sought for silent slumber spots of rest. Lotis beneath a maple wearied slept. The lover slept not, he in silence crept, Scarce breathing, stealthily unto her lair ; 455 He gains the secret couch of Naiad fair, 18 THE FASTI. Book I. Fearful of his own palpitating breath ; He draws the veil, the coverlet beneath Which she was slumbering : when, lo ! the bray Of ass, Silenus owned, drove sleep away ; 4G0 Slumbers were scattered all by sounds like those — Affrighted and awoke, the Nymph uprose And fleeing raised the grove : all laughed to see The scene absurd and baffled deity ; But the ass died for it ; from thence began 465 That sacrifice, Hellespontiacan. And feathered tribes were spared in days of eld, The guiltless warblers of the wood and weald That build their nests and hatch their young with notes Of dulcet sweetness from their swelling throats. 470 That sweetness saves them not, for augury lies In voice of birds, divulging destinies. Truly, it may be so — attendant on The Gods above, their wills may be foreshown By flight and voice of birds ; and therefore 'tis 475 The milk-white dove is burnt in sacrifice Torn from her mate ; and so, oblivious Of the saved Capitol, we yield the goose — His liver upon chargers at thy fane, dainty child of Inachus. Again 480 The crested bird, because he hails the light, By night is sacrificed to Goddess Night. DOLPHIN ARISES. Meantime the Dolphin quits his parent main And soars refulgent in the skies again. Book I. THE FASTI. 19 iv. id. jan. mid-winter. The next day marks mid-winter: half is done, And there is yet another half to run. 485 III. ID. JAN. FESTIVAL OF CAEMENTIS AND JUTUENA. Tithonus quitted, next Aurora sees The double feast. Arcadian mysteries And goddess's old. rites pontifical. Also the nymph Juturna's festival — 490 Sister of Tumus, on the Campus, thou Art worshipped where the " Virgin waters " flow. From whence shall I each rite and cause derive ? Who will direct my sails as on they drive Thro' pathless seas ? thou that hast thy name 495 Derived frpm song, let song prolong thy fame. From mighty Areas, the Arcadian earth Derived her name, or e'er the moon had birth. Evander thence, of birthright fair and good, Was yet ennobled by his mother's blood, 500 His sacred mother, whom the god inspires With verse prophetic and ethereal fires. 'Twas she foretold the troubles of the state Arcadian, in words replete with fate. And so they fled, the mother and the son 505 From lands Arcadian, home Parrhasian. The grieving mother said, my child weep not, You must with manly spirit bear your lot ; 'Tis Fate, 'tis God, it is no fault of thine. We from the town are thrust by wrath divine, 510 L. 495. — " thou :" Carmentis. c 2 20 THE FASTI. Book I. And not for crime, go we to banishment ; 'Tis wrong we suffer and not punishment ; The righteous soul in an undaunted breast Unswayed by hope or fear does its behest. Nor we the first to suffer Fortune's blow, 515 Great men before us oft have suffered so : Cadmus was banished from shores Tyrian And entered, exiled, realms Aonian. Such wrong the Pagassean Jason bore ; Such Tydeus ; aud a crowd of heroes more. 520 The world, to a brave man, a kingdom is — As air to birds, — as unto fishes seas. Winters have end, and troubles must subside ; Believe me child, Time brings a better tide. Evander then, his mother for his guide, 525 Inspired Carmentis ! entered Tiber's tide. Entered Hesperia, cut the Tuscan waves. xind where the river, fords Terentan, laves, There she looked forth, and sparsely scattered there Beheld the shepherds' huts : with streaming hair 530 She stood upon the poop and laid her hand Upon the steersman with inspired command ; And stretched her right hand o'er the opened SL'ene And stamped her foot on deck with lofty mien, And would have leapt to shore, but that her son, 535 Evander, her restrained with grasp upon : "Hail, and all hail, ye local gods,. she cried ; Hail, land of offspring to be deified ; Hail, fountains, floods, Nymphs of the woods and groves. And choirs of Naiads ! let us share your loves, 540 Book I. THE FASTI. 21 My son and I — and let our feet alight Upon thy happy soil with omens bright. Am I deceived ? or are these hills to be Enclosed with mighty walls ; and earth and sea Governed from hence hereafter ? Even so, 545 Mistress of the whole earth, these hills shall grow ; Dardanian ships shall gather on these shores, Another promised bride the cause of wars. Pallas, dear grandson mine — depose those arms, Yet why depose ! a glorious death hath charms. 550 And conquered Troy, forth from thine ashes rise, Kevenge thyself on hearths of enemies. Consume Neptunian Pergamus, consume, And rise again more glorious from thy doom. Pius iEneas here shall bear his sire, 555 And gods of Ilion, and the Vestal fire, Receive them, Vesta, here ! The time will be A man shall rule the world, thy votary Himself a god, and guard thy rites and fane. The house of the Augusti, shall maintain 560 The guardianship of Rome ; 'tis Heaven's decree That they shall hold the reins of destiny. Tho' one would it refuse, yet may he not — He son and grandson both — decline his lot. Julia Augusta, too, enshrined shall be ; 565 Here shall she hold a new divinity, Worshipped to be, for evermore, with me. Her prescient words descended to our days As there they stopped and stayed in prophecies. 22 THE FASTI. Book I. They stepped from deck to shores of Latin land 570 Exiled, but happy exiles on such strand ; And straightway rose their domiciles, and none Fairer than theirs Ausonian hi] Is upon. Thither came Hercules : an orbit vast Of earth, the hero Claviger had passed, 575 Driving his Erythsean herd : they fed Upon the mead untended, — whilst his head Was pillowed 'neath a Tegeaean dome. At dawning morn, Tirynthius left that home To find two bulls were missing from the herd. 580 No traces of the silent theft appeared, Cacus had dragged them backwards to his den, Cacus the shame of Aventine was then, And terror of its groves ; — infliction dread Of neighbours and of strangers ; — brutal head 585 Inhuman, mighty strength and mighty frame And Mulciber his sire : dread and shame Of the Mount Aventine ! his home a lair In the huge cavern's deep recesses, where Beasts roamed perplexed ; a den with human bones 590 And human skulls, hanging on portal stones, And festering with slaughters was the ground : Tirynthius departing thence, the sound Of bullock, from the subterranean stall Arrested him : " A signal of recall, 595 And I accept it," — so he said, and found The impious cavern hid in woods around. Now Cacus with a rock had barred his den ; Five team of bulls had insufficient been Book I. THE FASTL 23 To drag it thence ; but not so Hercules. 600 That back that bore the Heavens aloft, now is Set to dislodge its weight ; with crashing blow, Down down it fell betraying crypts below ; And Cacus fought, with rocks and stumps of trees, Alcides hand to hand ; but failing these 605 Recourse he had to his paternal arts And power demoniac ; from his inward parts Vomiting fire You would have deemed Typhoeus had stirred, And iEtna in eruption seen and heard, 610 The whilst Alcides grappled him ; and broke With club trinodine, amidst fire and smoke The caitiff's head ; who falling spread around His fumes and blood and carcass on the ground. The victor sacrificed, O Jupiter 615 To thee ! one rescued bull — Evander there And habitants invoking, — and he willed That they an altar unto him should build The Ara Maxima, the place upon Which takes its name from Oxen : the which done 620 Evander's mother spoke ; " The days," she said '? Of Hercules on earth were passed and sped." And she herself, Goddess and Prophetess, Blessed by the gods, the Koman race to bless This day of month of Janus, doth possess. 625 ID. JAN. Sacred to Jove the Ides of Janus are : The chaste priest slays thereon to Jupiter 21 THE FASTI. Book I. A wether semi-male : for on this day The citizens of Roine resumed the sway Of Koman provinces. Augustus then, 630 Keceived instead, that title from her men. Eegard the waxen busts in marble halls, And read the titles on their pedestals, None like to his. Albeit the victors there Of Africa, Isauria of, appear, 635 Numidia, Crete, Messana, and the town Numantia of; high titles of renown ! Germania, death and immortality* Gave to thy Drusus, Germanice ! If Csesar sought from conquests won his fame, 640 The wide world must condense into a name. Some celebrated are from trophies won, Torquatus from the torque ; another one From " Corvus " aiding him ; another " Great ; " Albeit that title feeble be to mate C45 His measure of achievement : and how poor Were any name to grace his conqueror ! No Roman house had grade cognominal Above the Fabii ; titled above all As "Maxima," for deeds of merit done. 650 Bat these be human honours : he has won " Augustus," shared by him with Jupiter. The Temple Fanes that consecrated were L. 644. — " Corvus :" Valerius Maximus Corvinus. " Great :" Pompeius Magnus. L. 647. — " His conqueror :" Caius Julius Csesar. Book I. THE FASTI. 25 By priestly hand, and rites that holy be The Patres termed Augusta. Augury 655 Derived from thence its word ; and whatsoe'er By aid divine on earth or in the sphere Jove blesses and augments. Augment we pray Our chief with years of blessing and of sway. Long may the oaken chaplet shade his door 660 With auspices to the inheritor To bear the sceptre which his father bore. XVIII. EAL. FEB. KITES OF POREIMA AND POSTYERTA, When the third Titan riseth past the Ides Again the Goddess Prophetess presides Over Parrhasian rites : of yore the Dames 665 Kode in carpenta to Ausonian games — Named from Carmenta as I think; but when That honour was forbidden, hating men, The matrons vowed not to parturiate, And slew their offspring in its embryo state ; 670 And though the senators such sin reproved, The hated prohibition was removed. Since when, two Tegeaean feasts are held For boys and girls : then are all hides expelled Her holy places — nothing that is dead 675 Pollutes her holy hearths : then let one read In antique lore, then let him hear the priest Enuntiate names unknown upon this feast, L. G71. — " Senators," i. e. the Patres. 26 THE FASTI. Book I. Porrima and Postverta : whether they Were sisters, Msenalian nymph, to thee, 680 Or sharers of thy flight. One sings of all That hath befallen, one what will befall ; So we believe, in verse prophetical. XVII. KAL. FEB. TEMPLE OF CONCOED. And the next light beams on the candid shrine And marble steps that scale the height divine 685 Moneta of : Concordia from her place Keplaced by holy hands, surveys the Eoman race. For Furius, conqueror of Etruria, Had vowed of old to build her temple there, And built it long ago : of slighted laws 690 Wars and dissensions civic, the first cause — Patres and Plebs at variance : too much wealth Impostume dread of overweening health. Better the second cause, Grermania fair Entreating thee, with hands and flowing hair, 695 venerated chief : whilst thou from thence Didst the triumphant spoil to us dispense ; And to the goddess, well beloved, this shrine. Thy mother it endowed, with hand benign, Spouse of the Koman Jove and mother of thy line. 700 XVI. KAL. FEB. SOL IN AQUARIUS. Next to this festival the rising morn Sees Phoebus passed the bounds of Capricorn And entering Aquarius. L. 699. — "Thy mother:" Livia, his graudmother. Book I. THE FASTI. 27 X. KAL. FEB. LYRE SETS. Seven Orients bright, And Lyra vanishes. IX. KAL. FEB. LEO'S BREAST SETS. One other night And the bright star that beams on Leo's breast 705 Sinks in the Western deeps, o' nights, to rest. SEMENTIVAN (SEED SOWN) FEASTS. Three times and four times have I searched the whole Of Fasti Eoman, wading through the roll, But failed to find one Sementivan feast. The conscious Muse at hand, my doubt released, 710 Keminding me these feasts were moveable, Proclaimed by public voice, and I was dull. The days uncertain, not the times of mirth. When seed corn is committed to the earth ; When oxen stand begarlanded in stall ; 715 When the plough furloughed hangs upon the wall ; And the cold ground shrinks from another wound. Best to the land and man that tills the ground husbandman accord : let villagers Keep holiday, and let the village seers 720 Lustrate their bounds with annual rites and cates. Such annual festival propitiates Ceres and Tellus, then those powers allow Your sacrifice of meal, and teeming sow. 28 THE FASTI. "Book I. Ceres and Terra in conjunction reign — 725 One finds the seed and one the fruitful plain, Partners in toil ; and man, no longer rude, Resigns the acorn gland for better food. goddesses, o'erwhelni the colonists With harvests ripe ; so may they own your gifts 730 With gratitude. Give growth unto the blade, Forbid the nipping frosts and snows to raid ; Grant drought for sowing, after harrowing rain, And banish birds — foes to the golden grain ; Let emmets spare until the harvest's o'er, - 735 'Twill well repay them and their garnered store ; Be smut and mildews thence, and let the plant Be neither sickly nor luxuriant ; Away with darnel, baneful to man's sight, And sterile wild oats ; but let earth requite 740 With interest the wheat and barley seed And pulse, or spelt twice to the fire decreed. These votive wishes do I breathe for ye O Colonists ; reciprocate with me These prayers unto the goddesses ; — for war, 745 War too long hath prevailed ; in days of yore It native was to man, who loved the steed Far better than the steer ; the hoe to weed And spade to delve he forged into a sword ; And harrow to a helmet for its lord : 750 Thanks to the gods and thy benignant reign, War prostrate lies, bound in an iron chain. Ah Ceres, daughter and disciple too Of gentle Peace, speed the plough anew. Book I. THE FASTI. 29 VI. KAL. FEB. CASTOR AND POLLUX — CONSECRATION OF FANE. The sixth of corning Kalends sacred is 755 To heavenly twins, Ledsean deities : — Two other brothers of their race and line Placed, by Juturna's Alban lake, their shrine. III. KAL. FEB. ALTAR OF PEACE. Altar of Peace ! my song alights on thee : But two days more this month will cease to be : 7G0 O with trimmed locks entwined with Actian boughs Be present gentle Peace ; the world allows Thy presence alway, here and everywhere. AVhen foes are wanting, triumphs disappear ; And chiefs by thee are graced and glorified ; 765 And martial pomp becomes thy grace and pride, And trumpets sound thy triumph : present here Let the whole world regard with love, or fear Kome, and her sons iEneadan : Ye Priests Smite, let white victims fall upon these feasts, 770 And feed with frankincense the peaceful fires ; Then to the gods above waft our desires To grant joint rule with Peace perennial To peace-achieving house imperial. The month is past, with the first section done 775 T close the chapter of my task begun. filSilta wmmmmmm Temple of Janus. Book II. THE FASTI. 31 BOOK II. Janus is ended ; the year speeds along A second month, and eke a second song. Now let ray lowly elegy take wing, And with a broader pinion soar and sing. Sweet Elegy — thee did I first inyoke In youth, in love, when first my muse awoke ; Now I, the self-same seer, would note with thee The calendar, and things that sacred be. "Who would have thought, have dreamed, thou would'st have been The path for me and these : my way to win \Yith weapons I can wield, is what I must. Others in warlike steed and armour trust, Others in helmet and the girded sword ; Nor am I of such arms as these the lord. Still Caesar, will I militate with breast On thy behalf — and mine own soul's behest Thy glory and thy fame : Be present now, Reward my services with beaming brow. If, sooth to say, foes leisure thee allow. FEBEUARIUS. Atoning victims to departed souls Were Februa called of old. Time onward rolls Since so our fathers called them ; but we trace The meaning still in word and sign and place. 32 THE FASTI. Book II. Still at the sacrifice the Pontifex 5 Asks wool, from hands of Flamen or of Kex, By name of Februa : and so the cakes Of pulse and salted meal the Lictor takes To houses to be purified : so too the bays Cut from the holy trees of holy days 10 To deck the temple roofs : and I have seen On such feasts, the Flaminica obtain, Demanding Februa, a bough of pine. Our hirsute unshorn ancestors in fine Called all and everything that purifies 15 Our hearts or homes as Februa : from these The month hath appellation. Luperci With thongs of hide the country purify And deem it Februa — for then the shade In precincts purified, atonement made, 20 Will slumber in the tomb. In olden time 'Twas thought such rites removed the curse of crime. In Greece it had its rise, Greece so believed That crimes were purged, and criminals relieved. So Peleus purged Actorides ; and he 25 From blood of Phocus also was washed free Acestus by and waves iEruonian ; iEgeus so, too credulous, was fain To aid the Phasian dragon-borne thro' air ; And on like quest Alcniaeon made repair 30 To Acheloiis Acarnanian, And said, " Absolve me, a bloodguilty man ! " L. 25.- L. 29.- ■ il Actorides :" Patroclus. " The Phasian," &c. : Medeia. Book II. THE FASTI. 33 Oh ! credulous, too credulous, to deem That guilt of blood can purged be by a stream. Now understand that Janus was the first 35 Of months, and is ; that Februa was erst Last of the months, with Terminus to share The sacred rites of the concluding year. Janus is first, and holds the portal-gate ; The last unto the Shades we consecrate. 40 In after times the Decemvirs reversed The twain, for some good reason unrehearsed. KAL. FEB. TEMPLE OF SOSPITA CONSECRATED. First in the month was Sospita endowed With altars new ; conterminous she stood And adjunct to the Phrygian mother's fanes. 45 Where be they now ? the votary complains ; They perished long ago. The watchful care Of our great Chief prevents more ruin there ; Our holy fanes suffer no more decays. The gods, as well as mortals, sound thy praise 50 founder and refounder of our shrines. May the just gods reward thee ; and confines Celestial have and hold thee, many years As thou hast given them in sublunary spheres. LTJCARIA. Now to the Grove Asylum, all Home goes 55 Where foreign Tiber denizen'd down flows. 34 THE FASTI. Book II. VESTA AND JUPITEE TONANS. Now to the highest citadel they move, To Numa's fane and Capitoline Jove To slay a bident ; oft the south winds blow In drizzling rains, or coating earth with snow. IV. NON. FEB, LYEA AND LEO SET. When Titan next in the Hesperian main Undoes of steeds purpurean, the rein, Man marvelling shall ask, where is to-day The Lyre that shone so brightly yesterday ? And looking for the Lyre shall further lack The Lion semi-merged unto his back. 60 65 III. NON. FEB. DELPHIN SETS. And the next night the Dolphin that you saw, Bedecked with stars, he also will withdraw. He or the index was of secret loves, Or else he, Lesbian-Lyre supporting, roves With its great Lord. What sea, what shore, That doth not know Arion : who of yore Arrested running waters with his strains ? Ofttimes the wolf his appetite restrains And spares the lamb ; ofttimes the hound and hare Couch in the selfsame shade, the strain to hear ; That strain the lioness and hind allures ; And bird of Pallas, taciturn, endures The crow loquacious by her side ; the dove Sits by the hawk ; and Cynthia from above 70 80 Book II. THE FASTI. 35 Hears, and is spell-bound ; for she deems that strain To be her brother's. Cities of the main Siculian and Ausonian own and claim The lyric numbers and virion's fame. 'Twas thence returning with his golden hoard, 85 Ijruit of his art, Arion went on board. did he fear the wind or fear the wave ? Safety, the barque denied, the ocean gave. For when the pirate captain and the crew, With drawn swords in their hands, assaulted you, 90 And you demanded, " Wherefore do ye stand With the drawn sword and not the helm in hand ? " And said, unwitting what you said, " My fate 1 do not shun, I do not deprecate ; But let me take my lyre once more, I pray, 95 And chant a little while ;" and, laughing, they Granted the asked delay. He bound his brows, Bright as thine, Phoebus ! with the laurel boughs ; He donned the Palla bright with Tyrian dye, And with his thumb awoke chords bright and high — 100 Like to the swan's, what time the feathered shaft Thro' the grey temples pierces to the haft — And so he leapt into the azure wave : And there the dolphin with curved back to save Arose, and him, unwonted freight, received. 105 'Tis so recorded and 'tis so believed — Sedent he holds the lyre and calms the sea, And pays, with song and strain, his passage-fee. d 2 36 THE FASTI. Book II. The gods beheld that pious deed ; and Jove Assigned the dolphin a bright seat above : 110 Nine stars are his, and unto him behove. PRID. NON. FEB. AUGUSTUS CLESAR CALLED PATER PATRIAE. for a Muse of thousand-trumpet tongue # Like thine, Mgeonides, like thine that sung The great Achilles. For our sacred Nones 1 celebrate in alternating tones 115 Which culminate in grace, my kalendar : But than my muse, the subjects higher are : To-day, of all in all pre-eminent. my poor elegy ! tis evident That I am crazy to impose on thee 1 20 So great a theme : heroics these should be. Pater Patriae ! to thee divine, The Koman Plebs and Curiae assign That appellation ; and we further hail Thee, Eques. But in thy wake we sail 125 And gather up the titles thou dost win ; The father of the world thou long hast been ; Another title dost thou share with Jove, Father of man, as he of gods above. Romule', concede, concede the palm 130 To him who guards thy walls from scathe and harm, Which Remus overleap! Yes Romule Tatius, Camina, Cures fell to thee ; But by this chieftain all the world is won, All that the circling sun doth gaze upon ; 135 Book II. THE FASTL 37 Small was thine empire — universal his — Beneath the ether blue all Koman is. Thou didst raid wives, he bid§ them virtuous be ; Crime thou asylum'd, crime ejecteth he ; Force thy delight was, Caesar's polity ; 140 Thy title, Lord, his, Princeps, disagree ; Remus accuses thee, he pardons foes ; Thy father thee, to him his father owes The rank that Apotheosis bestows. AQUARIUS RISES. And now doth the Idsean boy appear 145 Effunding waters and the nectar rare. Let him, who hateth Boreas, now be glad ; Zephyrs approach with balmiest breezes clad. v. IDES. Five days are passed, and Lucifer shall shine Forth o'er the ocean with a beam benign ; 150 Yet be not tricked, 'tis but the warmth of Spring, Winter departing upon rheumy wing. ' III. IDES FEB. ARCTOPHYLAX RISES. In the third Ides the Bear's custodier Will rise on both his feet and reappear. Callisto, Hamadryad maid, was one 155 Of quivered Dian's choir : with hand upon Diana's bow, she vowed, " My witness be Thou sacred bow ! of vowed virginity." \1 38 THE FASTI. Book II. And Cynthia praised and said, " Keep thou that oath, And lead my Virgin choir." Her plighted troth 160 She would have kept, had she but only been Less beautiful ; — she had no fear of men, She met no wrong from mortals, but from Jove ! For Phoebe refuged in an ilex grove, Hot from the chase ; shelter the ilex gave 165 To a deep fountain with an icy wave. " Maid Tegesean let us bathe," she said : Callisto blushed at the wrong title, " Maid." " Nymphs let us bathe," Diana said again ; And every nymph ungarmented full fain. 170 Callisto only tarried ; aid they lent Unsought, audio ! the cause was evident. To whom the goddess : " Child of Lycaon hence ! That perjured art — behold the evidence ! Pollute not with your body this chaste wave,' 175 And quit the Choir, that you defiled have." Ten times the moon fulfilled her offices, And she who was a maid a mother is. But injured Juno metamorphosed her — Goddess, take heed ! The raid of Jupiter 180 She hated and withstood : — Juno, her face Beholds and says, " Now then with leave embrace Your minion, Jupiter." And as a Bear She haunts the rugged hills ; she whilom dear To Jupiter. Three lustres then rolled by, 185 The child conceived in guilt, grown up a boy, Stands by his mother's lair ; entranced she stood And groaned aloud ; groans all the mother could. Book II. THE FASTI. 39 The boy prepared to pierce her with his spear ; But both were snatched to the superior sphere 190 Where they both shine. As Arctos bright she beams, Arctophylax her following, as it seems. And still she bears her penalty and pain, The hoary Thetis bars her western main, At Juno's quest, to Bear Mseualian. 195 IDES FEB. FEAST OF FAUNUS. The fanes of Faunus blaze forth on the Ides ; Agrestan Faunus — where the isle divides The rippliDg waters. THE SLAUGHTEK OF THE FABII. And 'twas on this day Three hundred and six warlike Fabii Fell on the plain of Veii. They assumed 200 Alone to guard the city, and resumed Their military calling Fabian. Forth from the camp egress'd then- bands, each man Fitted to lead ; by the Carmentan gate, To Janus on the right hand proximate. 205 Avoid that gate, I say ; 'tis ominous ! By it three hundred of the Fabian house, So fame avers, went forth. Yet free from blame The gate, despite its omen and bad name. With double step they passed Cumera's flood 210 Swollen with wintry rains ; encamped they stood ; Then sallied with drawn swords on Tyrrhene foes. So, even so, the Libyan lion throws 40 THE FASTI. Book II. Himself upon the flocks, that frighted flee : So fled the Tyrrhenes, and disgracefully 215 Eeceived their wounds behind. The earth was red With Tuscan blood, when they the Fabii fled. They, when it proved impossible for them To gain by valour, rushed to stratagem And lay in wait : a cultivated plain 220 Bounded by hills and forests ; sylvan reign Of mountain beasts ; the Tuscan foemen there Left flocks and herds and herdsmen as a snare, Whilst they in ambush 'midst the scrub abide. As swollen mountain-torrents roll their tide, 225 As snows rush onwards thawed by Zephyrus, So rushed the warriors of the Fabian House And scorned and scouted at the feeble foe. gallant warriors, why do ye so ? Beware of wiles, beware of treachery ; 230 Ye generous souls ! fraud conquers bravery. Here, there, and everywhere the foeman shows, The plain itself is cumbered with the foes ; What can a few against such thousands do ; What rescue from such legions for so few ? 235 As the wild boar, in forest Laurentine, Scatters with lightning tusk his foes canine, And dies not unavenged, for though he die, He gives and takes the wound alternately, E'en so the House of Fabius ; one day saw 240 It sally forth, and one day fall in war. One scion save. Immortal will decreed One scion of the Herculeian seed Book II. THE FASTI. 41 Then to survive : a boy of tender age Too young for battle-field, or war to wage, Was left behind : no doubt, Maxinie, The father of a Fabius to be By prudence and delay the commonwealth to free. 245 XVI. KAL. MAET. CORVUS CRATER AND HYDRA RISE. Next in position, constellations three, Corvus, and Crater, and the Hydra be, 250 Occult upon the Ides, next night they rise ; And why conjoined they are, like three allies Now let me sing, not wearisome the tale. Phoebus to Jove prepared a festival : Away my bird, quoth he, away and bring 255 Me living water from the fountain-spring, That nought delay the rites ; and Corvus flies, The golden crater in his claws, and spies A fig-tree on the way thick set with fruit : Unripe they proved to be. His lord's pursuit 260 Corvus forgot, 'tis said, and bided there Heedless of duty till they ripened were : Then clutched a hydra in his sable claws Keturning to his lord, " Behold the cause Of my delay," he said ; "this snake kept guard 265 Over the living water and debarred Me in the due fulfilment of my task." " And dost thou dare to add a lie, and mask Your fault to me, Phoebus Fatidicus ! Unfaithful servant, I reward thee thus : — 270 42 THE FASTI. Book II. Never I say, whilst figs be green on tree Never be cooling waters drunk by thee." Apollo said ; and in memorial Anguis, and Avis, Crater, one and all, Since shine above as signs sidereal. 275 XV. KAL. MAET. LUPEBCALIA. The third Aurora past the Ides, beholds The naked Luperci : Faunus bicornis holds His festival : from whence did this begin ? Sing, Pierides, its origin. Pan, god of flocks and herds, Arcadia's boast, 280 Arcadian mountains he affecteth most ; Bear witness, Pholoe ; witness ! ye waves Of Stymphalis ; and Ladon swift that braves The breast of ocean ; pines Nonacrian ; Cyllene high ; and snows Parrhasian. 285 Pan is the god of herds, the god of mares And guardian of sheep ; the shepherd bears To Pan his offering. Evander brought Silvestrian deities with him, and sought A rustic site, where now the city stands. 290 So came the god Pelasgian to our lands ; So came Pelasgic rites : the ancient priest Flamen Dialis tended at the feast. Wherefore they run the course, you ask, and why With bodies naked, garments all laid by ? 295 So the god loves to chase ; e'en so he wills To hunt the beasts upon the rugged hills ; Book II. THE FASTI. 43 Naked himself, he makes his followers go Without impediment, and naked too. It is avouched the men Arcadian were 300 Tenants of earth, prior to Jupiter, And prior to the Moon. But very rude Their mode of life ; earth's fruits their only food, And trees their shelter ; right uncivilised, All arts and comforts unknown and despised. 305 The waters quaffed from hollow of the hand Was nectar to them ; neither had they land Ploughed by the steer ; and neither backed they steed, Themselves they bore; nor did they fleeces need, The flock unshorn for them ; beneath the sky 310 Naked to wintry winds and rains they lie. Memorial of those days of eld, they hold The custom still — relique of manners old. But wherefore Faunus the velamen flees ? You fain would ask. The fabled facts are these : — 315 Tirynthius with his wife's companions played, And Faunus from a precipice surveyed The fair procession : gazing, he inflamed ; " Ye mountain Nymphs and Sylphids," he exclaimed, " Away — no more of ye ; here is my May." 320 With locks all perfumed, which abandoned play O'er shoulders beautiful, Mseonis walked The golden canopy beneath, that baulked Meridian rays, held in Herculean hand, Conspicuous in her bosom's golden band. 325 44 THE FASTI. Book II. But when the dewy Hesperus arose, The grove and cave of Bacchus for repose, Midst vineyards Tmolan offered them a home. Inlaid with rows of shells its pumice dome, Before it babbled a pure rivulet. 330 Here then they tarried, here the feast was set, Viands and wine : that while the Lydian maid, Alcides, in velamen her's arrayed, Her dainty tunic of Getulian dye Her zone, his frame gigantic on, they tie, 335 Unlaced the tunic to admit his hands, And broken the small armlets and their bands ; His feet with tiny buskins she enfolds ; Herself assumes the lion's hide, and holds The hero's club and quiver full of shafts. 340 Accoutred so they drained their festive draughts, And so to slumber : when they couched their heads Upon contiguous, although separate, beds ; For purely, on the morrow, rites divine Were due unto the Giver of the Vine. 345 But now 'twas midnight : and I prythee, what — What is there, love unholy, dareth not ? Shrouded in midnight darkness Faunus comes — He finds all sleeping : hope on hope he sums That as the servants so the masters lie ; Kashly he enters, groping cautiously, He touched the lion's hide, and started back Like to the wayfarer, who in the track 350 Book II. THE FASTI. 45 Sees the coil'd snake ; but soon he tried again, And touched the soft velamen, and full fain 355 Clambered the couch upon ; his hopes were high — When the Tirynthian hero suddenly Him smote with hasty elbow to the ground. Awoke Mseonis, at the sudden sound, And called her maidens and for lights. They came 360 Divulging all ; — loud laughed the Lydian dame, Whilst Faunus groaned and grovelled on the floor. Alcides laughed ; all, all with laughter, roar. Deceived by vestures, thence the god forbad All garments, and his votaries come unclad ! 365 That custom was Pelasgic ; now, Muse, Sing me the Latin custom that we use : And let my courser tread his native plain. To Faunus, horny-hoofed, a she-goat slain ; A mighty crowd came to the scanty feast. 370 On willow spits, th' officiating priest Transfixed the sacred entrails, when the sun Was midmost in the heavens. Stretched upon The earth was Komulus ; his brother there And shepherd swains all naked in the air. 375 They exercised with ceestus, dart, and stone, When from his height, they heard the warder's tone — " Eh, Romule ! the robbers are on raid And filch the herds away by stealth," he said. There was no time to arm : upon the track 380 Naked they rushed ; and Remus brought them back. Remus returned, — the roasted entrails drew From spits, and said, " These are the Victor's due ! " 46 THE FASTI. Book II. He said, and ate ; the Fabii also ate ; And Komulus returned, and coming late 385 Found nought but the picked bones ; he smiled, but grieved That Kemus and the Fabii had received The honours lost by his Quinctilii. The fame thereof descended, and 'tis why Since then they run ungarmented ; because 390 That famous naked raid successful was. And now, methinks, you ask wherefore we call The day and spot by name of Lupercal ? The vestal Ilia, in her uncle's reign, Bare the celestial seeds of mortal strain ; 395 He orders them in Tiber to be drowned. What dost thou do ? tyrant ! 'twill be found Hereafter, — one of these is Eomulus. Bidding performed by servants lachrymous, Who bore the twins to the appointed spot 400 And Albula, — name merged, forgotten not In Tiber, named from Tiberinus drowned, — Was swollen by wintry floods. These Fora round Where men now congregate, were flooded wide ; So also Circus Maximus thy pride. 405 Hither they came and could advance no more, When one bespoke the burden that they bore ; " How very like ye are — how beautiful — How full of life, of infant vigour full — If one may draw conclusions from the face 410 Some god, be sure, was author of your race : Book II. THE FASTI. 47 And yet a god, with power and will endued, Would bring ye aid in need. Your mother would An' if she might ; but she hath need of aid Mother and childless whom one day hath made ! 415 Together now in waves of Tiber lie — Brothers, together born, together die ! " He ceased, and took them from his breast ; they cried, As if they knew their fate. The servants sighed And wept as they abandoned them to fate. 420 The hollow ark sustains the living freight On swollen waters ; what a freight was there — How much of destiny that wood doth bear ! It floats along — by bank of forest brown — The flood subsides, on mud it settles down 425 Beneath a tree — the Ficus Eomula ; Its stump now called the Ficus Bumina. Wondrous to say, a she-wolf that had borne Her littered whelps, came to the Twins that morn. Who would believe that she-wolf harmed them not ? 430 Who would believe she nurtured them ? and what A kinsman's hand had banned, she came to save W^ith blandishment and tongue to lick and lave ! — Plainly they sprung from Mars ; no fear deters ; They drain her dugs, nourished by milk of hers. 435 And so she names the spot ; and so we call From her the Luperci, and Lupercal : Such payment hath she for her milk. — But now Arcadia makes her claim ; I'll tell thee how : 48 THE FASTI. Book II. Faunus Lycseus, fane and altar hath 440 Arcadia in. Bride, patient in the path, What dost thou wait for ? 'Tis not herb of power, Nor prayer, nor incantation for thy bower, That can make thee a mother : the right hands And fecund stripes shall break thy sterile bands ; 445 For on that day, when cursed with barrenness, The Sabine matron failed with pledge to bless And Romulus exclaimed, " What profits me To captive Sabine wife to married be, If for my raid successful I reap war ? 450 Not to be son-in-law were better far." Beneath the Mount Esquilian is a grove Sacred to Juno, sister-wife of Jove, Sacred from felling axe, and thither came In supplication — husband, wedded dame, 455 And bent the knee and prayed; when through the grove These accents ran — accents which souls emove To wonderment : " Let He-goat access have Unto Italian matrons." Their minds wave, Until an augur of Hetrurian land, 460 His name now lost in eld, came exiled and Here sacrificed a he-goat. At his behests The matrons bared their shoulders, doffed their vests, Submitting them to strokes of thongs of hide ; And when the tenth month shone in her full pride 465 The men were fathers, and brides mothers were, Grace to Lucina. Thence that name you bear Book II. THE FASTI. 49 Named from the grove ; unless, goddess bright, 'Tis that you open infant eyes to light ; Whiche'er it be — spare, Lucina, spare 470 Our gentle brides, and let them safely bear ! UNCEETAIN WINDS. At dawning morning now distrust the winds ; No order rules them, and no reason binds ; Inconstant, — and for six days all ajar The prison-gates iEolian open are. 475 sol m PISCIBUS. With urn oblique Aquarius now subsides, And Piscis for ethereal steeds provides : Thou and thy brother fish, for ye be twain, Shining conjoined in the celestial reign, Sustained, 'tis said, two gods your backs upon. 480 Dione fleeing Typhon, fearfullest son Of Terra, what time Jupiter assumed Arms in defence of heaven ; wearied roamed, Bearing the young Cupidon at her breast, Unto Euphrates. There she sate to rest 485 By waters Palaestinan ; in reedy bed Willows and poplars shading overhead, She lay concealed ; but whilst she couched perdue The grove resounded, and she pallid grew And deemed it was the enemy : she pressed 490 Her son unto her bosom, and addressed The Nymphs for help. — " Help two divinities, Aid us, Nymphs," she said, " by sacred ties ;" E 50 THE FASTI. Book II. And leapt into the wave. Two fishes lent them aid, And for reward are constellations made. Nor do the simple Syrians now dare To eat a fish, but worship them in fear. 495 XIII. KAL. MART. QUIRINALIA. The next light vacant is : the third is named Quirinus from ; the synonym e, far-famed, Of Komulus. Whether from Sabine spear Called Curis anciently ; for to the sphere Celestial he was raised, in virtue of His warrior spear : or whether from the love Of a Curetan title, to bring nigher The Komans and Curetans. For his sire Armipotent, when that he saw the walls And subjugated tribes, memorials Of wars Komulean, in high conclave, said " Jupiter ! lo, Kome hath gathered head And needeth not the presence of my son ; Kestore him to his sire. The other one Unhappily is not, and he must stand For Eemus and himself. Now give command, E'en as you promised to install my son In seat cerulean, now let it be done." Jove bowed assent ; the poles the edict knew, And trembling owned, and Atlas bent anew. There is a spot called the Caprean Mere. Dispensing justice, Komulus sate there ; 51i Book II. THE FASTI. 51 When fled the solar orb, when darkness black, 520 Thunders and storm, and lightning rent the rack. The people fled, whilst the Kex sought the stars Borne by paternal steeds. But jealous jars Infested minds of men ; and they accused The Patres of his murder, self-abused. 525 And very surely they had held it so, But Julius Proculus, who chanced to go By night from Alba Longa, lunar light Him guiding without torch ; before whose sight Clouds thundering on the sinister, with fear 530 That checked his footstep and upraised his hair, The gracious Bomulus — huger than mortal man — Decorous in his trabea — who began : " Tell the Quirites I prohibit this — This mourning soils my Apotheosis. 535 Let them burn incense ; let them now adore Their god Quirinus ; let them learn the lore Of war and arms mayortial." Then in air He vanished ; and his words reported were By Proculus to all. And nations twain 540 Accepted the report : they reared the fane, Surnamed the hill Quirinal, and each year Its Quirinalian feast appointed there. THE FEAST OF FOOLS AND FOKNICALIA. To-day is likewise called Fools' Festival ; And wherefore so ? A reason trivial 545 52 THE FASTI. Book II. But apt suggested is : — In days of old Land lacked skilled husbandmen ; the brave and bold Were all usurped by war ; youth cared to throw The warlike spear, more than to speed the plough. Absent the lord, neglected was the field ; 550 Yet broadcast they sowed spelt, and reaped the yield, And offered Ceres, for her first-fruits, meal. Yet even boors make progress towards their weal, They learned to parch their pease ; but doing so They gathered ashes, set their huts alowe, 555 And played old bogy. So they deified Dame Fornax ; praying Fornax to provide Heat moderate to parch. The Curio Maximus Appoints the Fornicalia ; and thus No stated time or season. They regard 560 With vacant eyes the tablets for each ward" Hung in the Forum, know not whose is whose, Or which is which ; they all at hazard choose, And then, to make all right, repeat to-day Last in the lists, their jolly holiday. 5$?> XII. KAL. MART. FERALIA. And honour to the tombs ; appease the shades- Appease the shades parental, youth and maids ; Place gifts on the cold pyre ; not gifts of price, The Stygian powers are not overnice, Nor greedy either ; scatter some small fruit,, Corn steeped in wine, and salt in grain minute ; 570 Book II. THE FASTL 53 Place on the tumulus thy coronal With violets plucked ; a jar to hold them all, Left in the footway ; not that 'tis forbade Gifts of more cost, but that with these the shade 575 Is satisfied. Add to them prayers and praise, And salutations, whilst the altars blaze. This custom good iEneas introduced Into thy lands Latinus. He was used, The worthy author of such rites, to pay 580 Gifts annual to his father's shade to-day. The pious rite descended unto us. But once it happened in times perilous And overpressed by war, we lapsed a day ; Nor did it lapse, free from impunity. 585 'Tis said — from such omission by our sires Home scorched beneath her own suburban pyres. I hardly think it was so ; but 'tis said In silent night the graves sent forth their dead [590 That wept and wailed thro' Home ; that phantom hosts Swept thro' the civic ways and Latin coasts ; But when the tombs their honours repossessed, The plague was ceased, and the ghosts w r ent to rest. Pending these obsequies, maidens fair, Choose not a sponsal day ; let not the spear 595 Divide your maiden tresses ; light no pine, Nor let your mothers hasten rites divine. Away, Hymenaaus — fires like these Are hostile unto thine : Let the divinities [GOO Flee hence and hide themselves ; close Temple gates, And burn no incense, light no altar-grates ; 54 THE FASTI. Book II. For silent shades and buried bodies roam, And spirits now the offered meats consume. Count backward now, as many days as feet In this elegiac verse thy lips repeat, 605 So long — nor longer — the Feral ia, Which close to-day, to the tombs sacred are. FEAST OF DEA MUTA. See that old crone, albeit not tacit, she Performing rites to Tacita : with digits three Taking three grains of incense, which she hides 610 Beneath |he threshold where the mouse abides. She sits within a circle of mute girls, And, with enchanted threads, her spindle whirls, Whilst seven black beans she mumbles in her jaw ; A Msena's head she roasts, sewn up its maw 615 With brazen needle, and estopped with pitch. And wine— but drop by drop — for sooth that which She libates not she drinks, and so drinks all ; And saying — " Now all mouths inimical [620 And slanderous tongues are stopped," the drunken crone Gets up and goes her way. Now all that's known About this silent goddess you shall know, Told unto me, by old men, long ago : That Jupiter, with passion un quelled for The Nymph Juturna, bore — good sooth he bore — 625 Wrong mighty for a godhead : she would hide, Now in the hazel-copse, anon would glide L. 615. — A Mama, a sardine or anchovy. Book II. THE FASTI. 55 Into her native lake, whilst mighty Jove 'Plained to the Latin Nymphs of stream and grove ; And, sitting midst their choir, in dudgeon cries — 630 " This sister Nymph of yours — what folly lies In such perversity ; still to deny ' And shun my suit, and— chief of gods am I. Look ye to this : for granting my desire She serves herself — takes a position higher. 635 And do ye thus, next time the Nymph you see Basking on shore, catch her and hold for me." Jove spoke — assent the Tiberinides, And every Nais, Diva Ilia sees, [640 Encouched with her : save one Nymph, Lara named, Erst Lalla called, # word old Almo framed To indicate her failing — chattering : Often and often would her father fling Reproaches at her — " Daughter, hold thy tongue." She held it not ; and be it right or wrong, 645 Adding advice to shun the river groves, She told Juturna every word of Jove's. Then on she went to Juno, and told her Juturna had enamoured Jupiter. But Jove was very wroth — decreeing, she 650 Of speech immodest, thenceforth mute should be ; And further, he charged Mercury to lead Her to the realm of Manes — silent dead— To be a Nymph infernal. Jove's will was done. A grove received them as they journeyed on : 655 Mercurius fell in love. In vain the maid With speechless look of deprecation prayed. 56 THE FASTI. Book II. Gravid she grew with twins. The Lares they, Guardians of urban home and rural way ; Beneficent and vigilant alway. 660 XL KAL. MART. CHAEISTIA. KITH AND KIN. The next day, kinsmen kind, appropriate To the Charistia — kinsfolk small and great Assemble at this feast : 'Tis sweet to turn From tumuli, from the funereal urn, xlnd bid the living hail ! — 'tis sweet to count 665 Our relatives, and reckon their amount In numbers and degrees. Enter the gates, Ye kind and good ; avaunt ye reprobates ! Unnatural son or brother, cruel dame; Envious of old age, covetous to claim 670 The undue heritage ; stepdame cruel to Daughter-in-law ; ay, and avaunt ye too, Tantalidse, Medeas, Inos — all Who strive for wealth by methods criminal. But offer to the good gods frankincense ; 675 Unto Concordia, present to dispense Benignant gifts ; and send the platter round To the Twin Lares, robe Gabinian bound. And night approaching, summoning to rest, Pour forth the wine unsparingly, the best ; 680 And say, effunding it, well may it be With us and thee — Caesar optime And Pater Patrise with us and thee. Book II. THE FASTI. 57 X. KAL. MAKT. TEKMINALIA. Another night, another honoured day To Terminus we Terminalia pay. 685 God, or of wood or stone, whiche'er you be, Marking the bounds, you claim divinity. Two landlords crown thee, one on either side, Two chaplets offer, and two cakes provide. The altar rises, and the peasant dame 690 Brings in a broken sherd the fuel flame ; A senior chops the wood and piles it high, And pights the branches on land high and dry ; And whilst he blows the bark into a lowe, A boy stands by, with canister, to throw 695 Fruits of the earth three times into the flame. His little daughter meantime doth the same With honeycomb ; others the like with wine ; And all things else they have to flame consign. Garmented white, strict silence they maintain ; 700 So unto Terminus the lamb is slain, Or sucking pig — for pork he scorneth not. •The neighbours there assembled on the spot Chanting the praise of Sanctus Terminus. Cities and nations, great and populous, 705 Save but for you would litigate and jar. You no ambition have, you steadfast are And firm in your integrity, and hold The ancient limit bounds, unbribed by gold. Had Thyrea been so marked in days of old 710 By Termini, three hundred brave and bold 58 THE FASTI. Book II. Had been preserved. Nor would Othryades Have built the trophy signed by blood of his — Ah, me, what patriot blood unduly spilt ! What happened when the Capitol was built ? 715 When all the gods, yielding to Jove, withdrew, Save Terminus, the ancients tell us, who Now shares that fane with Jove : therefore its roof Is pierced that he may see the stars aloof. Since then, Termine, thou art not free 720 To chop and change about in levity : Where thou art placed remain, lest so it prove Thou giv'st to man what thou deny'st to Jove. If plough or harrow hurtle thee, cry out, [725 " This land is mine ; friend, mind what you're about." There is a road on the Laurentian plain That marked the limits of the Dardan reign ; The sixth stone from the city marks the way, And there a sheep to Terminus we slay. All nations have their termini, save Kome : 730 The Orbs is Urbs Romana, and our home. VII. TCAL. MART. REGIFUGIUM. The flight and abdication of the king, Which we commemorate to-day, I sing. Tarquinius was the last held sovereignty Over the Roman realm : a warrior lie 735 As mighty as unjust : cities he won, And held or rased ; but Gabii was o'erthrown By villany. Book II. THE FASTI. 59 Three sons be had ; the youngest of the three — Plainly the offspring of Superbus — he 740 Entered by silent night in Gabii. The guard prepared to smite : " Smite ! " said the boy ; " Please them, who me have lacerated thus ; Please ye my brothers and Tarquinius." 'Twas moonlight, and they looked and saw in truth 745 The weals upon the shoulders of the youth. They wept and pitied him — nay, asked that he Would sojourn with them and their leader be, He cunning, and they unsuspicious fools. He potent grown sends one of his base tools 750 Unto Tarquinius, bidding him to tell The mode and method Gabians to quell. Tarquinius walked within his garden bound, Where flowed the rivulet with pleasant sound Round beds of lilies : with his staff, the king 755 Smote off the highest heads ; so answering The secret mission. When the messenger Reported this — " I understand my sire," Sextns replied, and straightway havoc made Amongst their best and bravest, and betrayed 760 The naked walls of Gabii. But after this Occurred a prodigy ; at sacrifice The entrails broiling on the fanes were snatched Thence by a snake. An embassy despatched Consulted Phoebus thereupon ; who made 765 Response oracular : " Whoe'er," he said, " Should kiss his mother first, should victor be." All understood that response literally, 60 THE FASTI. Book II. And rushed to kiss their mothers : Brutus prone Fell to the ground. Brutus assumed the tone 770 Of folly to escape insidious snares Of dread regality : he the response hears, And kissed his mother Earth ; whilst all around Thought and believed he stumbled to the ground. And Ardea was besieged e'en then by Borne 775 With tedium of blockade most wearisome. The foeman would not fight ; the soldiery, Or waste or spend their moments as they may. The young Tarquinius feasted at his board His friends and comrades : he assumed the word 780 Addressing them — " This stubborn Ardea here Keeps us from patriot gods and spouses dear ; I marvel if our partners pine for us, And watchful wake with love solicitous ? " All burst in wordy praise ; each one avows, 785 With wine to aid, the virtue of his spouse. When Collatinus rising cried, " Away ! No faith but in the fact ; away, I say ! Night cometh on — to horse, we'll visit home." They saddle and away, and borne to Borne, 790 They sought the regal roofs. No warder's sound Them challenged at the gate : within they found The dame, the royal dame, with chaplet wreck Fallen from the brow and pendent on the neck, Drunken with wine. They hurried from the sight 795 And sought Lucretia : by one dim lamp's light Book II. THE FASTI. 61 They found her midst her maids, assorting wool, Which lay around her couch in baskets full ; And saying softly to them : " 'Tis full time That this lucerna's finished ; morning's prime 800 Must see it posted to my lord : so now Tell all you know, and all you hear ; I trow Ye hear far more than I ; How goes the war ? Ardea, hateful ; warriors better far Than you can muster you detain from home. 805 1 know that very soon your fall will come ; I should not fear, I should more patience have But that my dauntless husband is so brave, Ever where war is densest : tremors run Thro' my cold veins when wars I dream upon." 810 And tears stood in her eyelids, clropt the thread From out her hand, and dropped her comely head Upon her bosom ; grief you could not blame, So well her face and feelings it became. " Wife, dearest wife, behold me ! " — and she sprung 815 Upon her husband's neck, and there she hung Its sweetest burden. But the regal youth, Enfraught with envy — all devoid of ruth — Burnt with a lover's fires, as he viewed The form dependant on her spouse, endued 820 With blushes red and white, with auburn hairs — Beauty all unadorned ; drunk in his ears Her sobs and loving words ; and moreover knew, With sinking soul, how they were leal and true. But now the bird prenuntiate of day 825 Proclaims the morning — and away, away 62 THE FASTL Book II. They post again to camp : but memory Engages Sextus ; lie bath fallen the prey To feelings uncontrolled ; her voice and mien Live in his mind— all, all that he had seen — 830 Her needlework, her hair, her faultless face. As the swoll'n, broken billow leaves its trace Upon the surface of the placid sea, So doth his soul distain the memory Her beauty and her virtue leave behind. 835 And now he meditates in troubled mind To compass her by wrong. " Some god," says he, " Some god assists the bold. So Gabii we Won by our daring." He girded sword on side, And mounted horse : Collatia threw wide 840 The brazen portal to the regal son As day was closing. Dear, unwitting one, Hostis non Hospes entereth thy house, Kindly received as consanguineous. erring minds of mortals ! gladly she 845 Keceived and entertained her enemy. 'Twas night, and darkness utter, when, sweet bride, He with drawn sword thy bridal bed beside Avouched his name, his royalty, and will. " Tarquinius I, Lucretia : lo, be still, 850 The sword is bared." She had no power to speak, But silent trembled, powerless and weak. So trembleth the poor lamb when she beholds The raiding wolf beleaguering the folds, Nor can resist nor flee. Upon her breast 855 Where never hand, save one, before had pressed, Book II. THE FASTI. 63 His hand coerces ; but nor prayers nor threats Avail him aught : infuriate he gets, And swears to slay her and a slave, and swear Caught in the act adulterous they were. 860 The maiden falls thro' fear of loss of fame. Dost thou rejoice, Victor ! — dost thou claim Praises for victory ? Thou hast to-night Made forfeit of thy regal sovereign right. And morning dawned ; and as the dames appear, 865 Who mourn for sons at funerals, with hair Dishevelled, so she sate ; and summoned from The camp her husband and her sire, who come • Straight at her summons ; and with wondering eyes Asked why and wherefore she did obsequies. .870 She could not speak, she could not make reply ; Only she hid her face, and heaved the sigh : Her husband and her father soothed, until Themselves they caught infection of the ill. [875 Three times she strove to speak, three times she failed ; The fourth time, with her eyes downbent, prevailed : " Disgrace unto Tarquinius, we owe ! Speak out the wrong I must, and will do so. My deep disgrace ;" and then the woman spoke All that the woman could ; when off she broke, 880 She wept and blushed bloodred. But undefiled The spouse asserts the wife ; the sire the child. " The pardon you would grant me, I deny," She said ; — and with a dagger ruthlessly Smote her own bosom ; all her further care 885 To fall with decency — re veil the fair 64 THE FASTI. Book II. And bleeding breast, and at their feet to die. The Father and the Husband fall and lie Upon the corpse, — oblivious unto shame. But Brutus, present there, belied his name, 890 Divulging his true soul : the dripping blade He drew from forth the breast, and, raising, made Oath, as he thundered : — " By thy blood I swear, Blood chaste and noble, by thy presence fair, Thou shalt from henceforth be my deity, — 895 And banished hence the race of Kings shall be. Down with Tarquinius and his house ; too long Have I dissimulated, and borne wrong ! " She turned her failing eyes, now lustreless ; But her concussing locks her joy express : 900 Heroic matron, borne upon thy bier Kome shed the silent and indignant tear. Before the wound uncovered, haranguing Was Brutus, to Quirites 'gainst the King. Tarquinius fled, the King's last day was come, 905 And Consuls thenceforth chosen were in Borne. THE SWALLOW'S ADVENT. Look, do I see the Swallow ! art thou here, True harbinger of Spring ? Hast thou no fear Of wintry blasts returning ? Yet full oft Thou pinest, Progne sweet, for zephyrs soft, 9 10 Whilst Tereus, at thy shivering, joys aloft. L. 900. — " Concussing locks.'' Jupiter shakes his locks when lie "nods. " as we translate the word, his assent. This may have reference thereto. But more probably it is one of the perversions of the word coma, and that Lucretia's fane was, like the Vestals, and Hersilia's, a tumulus. Book II. THE FASTI. 65 III. KAL. MART. EQUIRIA IN CAMPUS MARTIUS. Of this our second month two days remain, Only two days — and Mars across the plain Urges his steeds in games Equirian, ( xraced by his presence since those games began. 915 All hail Gradivus ! in good time you come ; Your month is now at hand, and feast in Kome. Now we touch port, the current month now flees, And when we rehoist sail, 'twill be on other seas. Babylonian Cylinder. P. 50, 1. 494. "Two fishes lent their aid. Temple of Vesta. Book III. THE FASTI. 67 BOOK III. MARTIUS. Now doff thine helmet, O Mars Bellice ! Loose from that casque those locks, and present be. Now you will ask what fellowship there lies Twixt Mars and the sweet Muse ? The Muse replies This month belongs to you ; it bears your name. 5 Minerva warlike is, — and yet her fame Extends to Science : then let Pallas be Your great example ; do the like as she — Depose the spear, there else is to be done, Unarmed you were, when Vestal Priestess won, 10 On her was Rome's progenitor begot. When Ilia, Vestal Virgin, — wherefore not, I pry thee, speak of this ? When to the spring She came at early dawning morn to bring Waters for sacrifice, descended, she deposed, 15 The urn from off her head, and so reposed, Opened her bosom to the breeze, and smoothed Her locks disordered ; and with spirit soothed Sate on the turf, lulled by the sleepy sound Of willows, birds, and waters babbling round, 20 Till sleep crept stealthily upon her, and On either side languid dropt either hand. Mars sees, beholds, desires, and enjoys : By power divine and stealth he barred annoys. F 2 68 THE FASTI. Book in. She wakes ; but heavily ; Rome's founder lies * 25 I^i embryo in her womb. She fain to rise i )oth marvel, at such heaviness, but speaks Pier thoughts aloud : — " Or is it slumber breaks, Or have I seen a vision? Brightest beam Too vivid for a vision or a dream 30 Prove fortunate and good ! i 114 THE FASTI. Book IV. Your stage attests it still. The Mother moved, Her followed and, by following, her approved. Midst shouts of joy and gladness, on they go By the left stream, to Tiber's mouths, called so From clays of old ; night came, and to an oak 370 They bound the barque ; and when the morning broke It they unbound, and burnt their frankincense, And offered there as type of innocence A heifer hostage, unyoked and unwed, Which fell before the vessel garlanded. 375 Bright Almo joins the Tiber, and resigns To him his name ; and where he Tiber joins, They stopped, and in his purple garb the priest In Almo's waters lustrated the guest. Men uttering their alallah, and the clang Of cymbals, drums, and trumpets rose and rang. Claudia absolved by voice divine presides, And walks in front ; the goddess mother rides, Floundering through roads of roses, on a wain On high enthroned, and drawn by oxen twain ! Enters the gate Capena ; Scipio there < Attendant her upon. Yon temple fair He built to her, but its restorator Augustus is : Metellus was of yore." Ceased Erato, awaiting question more. \ " Tell me," I said, " why gather we her store In little Stips ? " " It was the Koman As Given by all, contributed the brass Book IV. THE FASTI. 115 With which Metellus first restored the shrine, So still we gather Stips of smallest coin." 395 " Why do we all give dinners and dine out, And rush to public feasts with rabble rout ? " " So Berecynthia altered her abode, And still good omens followed as she rode." " The Megalesian games, wherefore do they 400 Precede all other games in Eome, now say ? " * She mother is of all the gods, and all Yield her precedence at each festival." " Why Galli call her mutilated band, And Gaul far distant from the Phrygian land ? " 405 " Betwixt Cybele and Celsene flows, A stream of water, madness which bestows, Gallus by name : who drinks thereof goes mad, To all who would be sane, it is forbad To drink thereof — avoid it lass and lad." 410 " muse, one question more, and I have done, We place a salad of small herbs upon* The table of the Domina — is there Some ancient cause for that ? it seemeth queer." " There is ; the ancients lived in olden time 415 On milk and herbs, when earth was in its prime ; Herbs and white cheeses recognised as food Of pristine days, the mother still holds good." IX. ID. APR. FORTUNA PUBLICA. When Luna stables next her milkwhite steeds And bright Pallanteas to the spheres succeeds 1 I 2 420 116 THE FASTI. Book IV One standing here on the Quirinal hill, And thinking o'er past history, says still — " Fortuna Publica, installed to-day, For victory vouchsafed us formerly." VIII. ID. APR. JUBA CONQUERED. RAIN. LIBRA SETS. Three mornings more, and there are games. I sate 425 Spectator there ; a senior prone to prate Sat next to me and said, " To-day, ah, ah ! Caesar beat Juba, 'twas in Lybia — Caesar my leader was ; in Caesar's time, They made me tribune : I served under him. My military rank gives me this seat, You sit in right of your decemvirate " — Here peppered down a storm and stopped his tongue, For Libra in the skies suspended hung. 430 III. ID. APR. ORION SETS. But ere the last day of the games be passed, 435 Sword-girt Orion sets in ocean vast PRID. ID. APR. CEREAL GAMES. When Eos next o'er Koma Victrix soars, The Circus will be thronged ; a crowd adores The gods in pomp procession. There the steed Vies for the palm, rivalling the winds in speed. 440 The games of Ceres ! there is no need to tell Why we rejoice for bounties known so well. Book IV. THE FASTI. 117 Earth's earliest fruits, vouchsafed to mortals rude, Were grass and herbs — the land's spontaneous food. Then acorn-glands — the oak supplied the feast — 445 Sumptuous repast ! and shared by man and beast ; Till Ceres first, with bounteous goodness, sent Than acorn-glands a better aliment. She tamed the bull, and forced him to the yoke, And in the broken furrow daylight broke. 450 Brass was then used, for the chalybeate store Was hidden then : would now and evermore It hidden were ; for Ceres peace approves ; Pray, Coloni ! for the peace she loves — For peace and Caesar, all perpetual ! 455 Now one and all come to her festival. Bring meal and salt and incense, cast them on Her ancient altars ; have you incense none Then light the torch of pine, she doth not care ; The goddess loves the pure and not the rare. 460 And ye, girt ministers, remove the knife From neck of toiling ox, take not his life, Let the ox plough : go, sacrifice the swine ; For labour and its fruits are gifts divine. Now time and place demand that I should sing 465 Of the rapt virgin : haply, I may bring Some novel points unto the tale oft told. Trinacria thrusts three promontories bold Into the ocean wave, and thence her name. Dear unto Ceres 'tis : there doth she claim 470 Cities and realms ; there fertile Henna soars ; There frigid Arethusa to her shores 118 THE FASTI. Book IV. Called the celestial matrons to the feast. The goddess-mother, golden-haired, came prest, And with her brings her child Proserpina, 475 With naked foot ; with her the maidens are. With virgin choir attendant, did she roam Sicilian meads, with heart unbnrdensome. There lies a shady vale, with waterfall, Where flowers abundant are, of colours all 480 Diversified, with tints innumerable. " Come, sisters, come ! and fill your bosoms full ! " The raptured girl exclaimed, " come with me." The simple plunder filled their souls with glee.. Unceasingly, unweariedly they toil, 485 And heap the calathum of osier-coil. One crams her lap, another loads her vest, Kingcups and violets, of scent the best, They pick the poppy and the hyacinth, The thyme, the rosemary, and amarynth, 490 The inelilote, the white rose and the red, And many a nameless blossom there bespread. She gathers crocus and the lily pale, And wanders deeper, deeper in the vale, And from her young companions far ahead. 495 Her uncle spied her unaccompanied, And bore her off, in his cerulean car, To his own realms. " Io carissima ! mother mine, behold me borne away ! " Dis cleft the earth, and oped a downward way ; 500 The maiden shrieked, and tore her maiden vest ; The steeds down plunged, by light of day distressed. Book IV. THE FASTI. 119 The choir of girls, with laden canister, Cried, " Persephone ! come here ! come here ! " But none replied ; and then the mountain rang 505 To their complaints, and hands and bosoms clang ; And Ceres hears the plaint ; and now she stands Upon Mount Henna ; now she clasps her hands And rushing On, distracted by her woe, " My daughter ! my daughter ! where art thou ? " 510 So rush, they say, Threician Msenades, With hair unbound and frantic ; so one sees The heifer for her lost calf stray and low ; So Ceres seeks her child ; so, even so, She follows and she plains. From Henna's height 515 Her search began : the maiden's footstep light She sees and knows and tracks, and might have found The maiden by that clue, but that the ground Had trodden been by swine. With wanderings vast Leontinon, Amenana, she passed, 520 And verdant Acis, and dark Cyane, And gentle Anapus, and Gela, thee Fearful with whirlpools — then Ortygia, And Pantageas passed, and Megara, Symsethus and, on ocean slumbering, 525 And caves Cyclopian, where the anvils ring, Black with the fume and fire ; and Zancle's bar, So called from the curved falx ; and Himera, And Didymus, and Acragenta, and Tauromenos, and Mela, pleasant land, 530 Feeding the sacred oxen : by Camerina's bay, By Thapsos' isle, and Tempe, through which stray 120 THE FASTI. Book IV. Waves of Helorus ; and Eryx, to the blast Of Zephyrus exposed. Explored she last The promontories three, Peloran and 535 The Lilybsean and Pachynon strand. Still as she goes she weeps; like to the strains Of Philomel for Itys lost, she plains ; Still calls " Persephone ! " and " Daughter mine ! " And then " My daughter dear ! my Proserpine ! " 540 But neither heard the other. Ceres plained, So did Persephone, but nought attained To either ear ; yet if the mother met A boor or shepherd swain, one question set She had for all, " Say, has a girl passed by ? " 545 And night came on in darkest panoply. The very watch-dogs slept. Mount iEtna lies Upon Typhoeus : when he strives to rise He breath eth flame forth from the ardent ground. There did she light her torches ; pines she found 550 And lighted them, which we commemorate With blazing pine-torch when we celebrate Her festival. There is a cavern lone,- Dreaded by man and beast, of pumice-stone. Thither she came and stood, and joined the snakes 555 Unto the car, and then her journey takes Across the seas, and never wets a wheel ; The Syrtes over ; o'er Chary bdis fell ; O'er the Niseian dogs, the seaman's dread ; The Adriatic o'er ; to Corinth, head 560 Book IV. THE FASTI. 121 Of the gulfs twain ; and to the ports that are The pride and boast of stony Attica. And here she rested, sitting on a stone By name of " Trist," since to Cecropians known ; And there, 'neath storm and sun and lunar ray, 565 All motionless she sat for many a day. Chance giveth fate unto localities — Where Ceres sat, and where Eleusis is, The homestead of old Celeus was, and farm. Acorns and arbute berries and the hanlm 570 In faggots for the fire home he bore ; His little daughter drove two goats, no more, Home from the crag ; his little son in bed Was lying sick. " Mother ! " the damsel said — The goddess started at the word and tone — 575 " What dost thou here — here on the mountain lone, Sitting upon cold rock ? " The senior stayed His step, though laden heavily, and prayed Her to take refuge. " Come unto my cot, Though poor it be ;" but she assented not, 580 But sate and with a mitra bound her hair Like an old dame. Again he spoke her fair, And she replied, " may'st thou happy be, And father of a daughter — unlike me ! My child is lost : for daughter lost I pine ; 585 Thy lot is happy — happier far than mine ! " And then she dropped what seemed a mortal tear — Immortals weep not — 'twas of crystal clear, That warmed upon her breast. The mortals wept ; The old man and the girl, their tears down leapt 590 I 122 THE FASTI. Book IV. xis he replied, " I hope that thou may'st find Thy daughter lost. Arise, and be resigned ; Come to my cottage now." And Ceres said, "Lead on! I follow ; thou hast conquered." And rose and left the stone. And, as they went, 595 Unto his woes the senior gave vent, And told of his sick son, his weary plight, Unslumbering the livelong day and night. Or e'er saluting the Penates poor, She gathered poppies growing by the door ; 600 'Tis added that, in mood oblivious, She tasted then the juice somniferous Incautiously, and broke her lengthened fast. Since when it happens, when the day is past And stars appear, her Mystse do the same 605 And break their fast at night. The goddess-dame Then crossed the threshold ; and within the door Sorrow and woe and the child given o'er. The mother-mistress, Metanira styled, She first salutes, then deigned to kiss the child, 610 And from her kiss celestial strength he drew, And pallor fled, and vigour sprung anew ; And all the house rejoiced — that is to say, The parents and the girl, no more were they. Then came their supper, homely as their home : 615 Of curds and whey, and fruits, and honeycomb. But alma Ceres fasted : poppy-heads Somniferous, into warm milk she sheds And gives the boy to drink ; at midnight deep She took Triptolemus, 'midst placid sleep, 620 Book IV. THE FASTI. 123 Into her bosom — him three times did she Sign with her hand, and chanted verses three — Verses it were unholy to repeat — Then, with the ashes glowing with red heat She covered him, that fire might purge away 625 His common burden of mortality. The mother woke — pious, but inscient too — And madly cried, " What is it that you do ? " And snatched him from the ashes. Ceres said, " Tho' kindly meant, unkindly hast thou sped ; 630 Maternal hands have counteracted mine, And mortal fears annull'd my love divine. Mortal must he remain ; yet shall he be The first to plough and sow and bear away The harvest of the lands of husbandry." 635 She said, and in a cloud she disappeared. The dragon-car on dragon-wings upreared, Borne through the air aloft, past Sunium's steep, Past the Pirsean port, iEgsean deep, Beholding all the scattered Cyclades ; 640 Past the Ionian and Icarian seas ; The Hellespont she passed ; towns Asian ; She passed Arabia's incense-bearing plain, India, and Libya, and Meroe, And land of drought, unto the western sea 645 Hesperian, where rush into the main Rhenus, and Rhodanus, and Padus, reign Of Father Tiber — future sovereign ! Where am I ? where ? in fine, there was no spot Of earth inhabited that she searched not. 650 124 THE FASTI. Book IV. Then soared to heaven above, to stars that roll, Exempt immersion from, in northern pole : <( Parrhasian constellations ! ye, that know All things that be, that never sink below The ocean-wave, tell unto wretched me 655 Where is my child, my lost Persephone ? " And Helice replied, " Blame not the night, The deed was done beneath the solar light. Demand of Sol, day's monarch overhead ! " Away, she visits Sol, who, answering, said 660 " labour not in vain ! the bride she is Queen of tripartite empire and of Dis, Brother to Jupiter." Again she stands Before the Thunderer's throne, with clasped hands, Woe stampt upon her brow. To him she said, 665 " If thou rememberest our bridal bed And child Persephone, then wilt thou share My misery and my maternal care. I sought and I have found the ravisher, I know the robber who possesses her. 670 Say, is a base marauder bridegroom meet For my Persephone ? Is such a feat Becoming us or her — such deed of scorn ! What more, I ask, what more could I have borne Had Gyges been victorious — captive I ? 675 And you who hold the sceptre here on high, And see her borne away complacently — Let Pluto make amends to you and me, Let him restore her ; let him make amends." But Jove excuses Pluto, and defends 680 Book IV. THE FASTI. 125 On plea of love. " Now, in good faith," quoth he, " Dis is no son-in-law to flout. In three The world divided was ; he hath his reign Chaotic, as I here sit sovereign ; And as our other brother rules the sea. 685 But if you are resolved immutably — I say, if you immutably resolve These bonds to break, this marriage to dissolve, It may be done ; it may be done, if she Have never broken fast below : then he 690 Must her resign ; if broken, she is bound." Caducifer, despatched the truth to sound, Stooped unto Tartarus ; as quick as thought Thither he went, and thence the answer brought — The bride had broken fast : Persephone 695 Of Punic-apple grains had eaten three, And broken fast. Again disconsolate, As when she lost her first, the mother sate And cowered in grief; nor did forgetfulness Or passing time assuage her deep distress : 700 " Then I renounce the skies! " she said ; " command The jaws Taenarian to receive me ;" and She would have quitted heaven, had not Jove Made compact, that her child six months above Should annually pass days. Then, comforted, 705 Ceres replaced wheat-garlands on her head. Then yellow harvests reassumed the plain, And garner'd hoards burst with the golden grain. Ceres affects the white. White garments don Upon her feasts ; dyed garments she will none. 710 126 THE FASTI. Book IV ID. APR. TEMPLES OF JUPITER VICTOR AND LIBERTY. Jupiter Victor claims these April Ides, His dedicated temple here abides ; And on this day did Liberty, most dear To Latin men, fix constant atria here. XVIII. KAL. MAI. CESAR VICTOR AT MUTINA. Od the next morning, seamen, quit the wave 715 For haven safe ; west wind and hail will rave. It may or may not be ; be it as may, Caesar, amidst such storm of hail to-day, Won Mutina, and beat Mark Antony. XVII. KAL. MAI. FORDICIDIA. Third of these Ides of Venus, with the morn, 720 Pontifices ! a gravid cow adorn For sacrifice. Forda, " ferendo " from We name the gravid kine, and in the womb The embryo foetus too derives that name. Cattle are pregnant now, and earth the same ; 725 To pregnant earth is pregnant victim meet. Part falls in arx of Jove. Twice ten of neat Fall in the Curiae ; gore flows in a wave. But when the ministry attendant have The embryo disemboweled, and the flame 730 Hath burnt the crackling entrails ; then the Dame. The oldest Vestal maid, shall burn the beast, The embryo calf, to ashes — for the feast Book IV. THE FASTI. 127 Of Pales- — wherewithal to purify The populace. For in the days gone by, 735 In Numa's reign, man's labour was in vain ; No yellow harvest waved upon the plain, Earth grieved, and cheated too the husbandman. Sometimes the drought, and sometimes rain would ban His rising crops ; sometimes the tender blade 740 Was blasted in the bud or wild oats' shade ; And cattle cast their young, or else the lamb Cost life to the parturiating dam ; Herds and flocks failed. Behold an ancient wood Inviolate by steel had ever stood, 745 For sacred 'twas unto Maenalian Pan. Here in the depth of night did slumbering man Seek, and receive responses : Numa brought His victims there ; he, too, its response sought. Thither in sacrifice he brought two sheep, 750 For Faunus one, and one for gentle Sleep. He spread the fleeces on the earth ; his head Unshorn, with living wave he lustrated Twice at the spring : and twice with chestnut boughs Wreathed in a coronet he bound his brows. 755 Now at such tide the votary must be free From joys of love, and meats that carnal be, And rings of gold ; rude garments he must don, And cloak them with the fleeces him upon, Or e'er in form prescribed he breathe his prayer. 760 Night, with his crown of poppies, then came there 128 THE FASTI. Book IV. With escort of dark dreams : and Faunns pressed His hoof upon the fleeces, and addressed Numa from the right hand — "Thou must, King, Propitiate Tellus with an offering ; 765 Two oxen must thou slay, but two in one." Starting awake with fright : the vision done, He questioned the dark saying — what it meant. Egeria, his beloved, assistance lent ; " A gravid cow they ask, and embryo." 770 They sacrificed a gravid cow, and lo ! The year was fruitful ; earth her fruits supplied, And flocks and herds increased and multiplied. XVI. KAL. MAI. AUGUSTUS C^SAR CALLED IMPERATOR. This is the day that Sol's ethereal steeds Precipitate to rest. 'Tis Cythereia speeds 775 Them on their way ; for with the coming light Was young Augustus Imperator hight, For conquests won, aye battling for the right. XV. KAL. MAI. HYADES SET. And from the Ides of April four dawns are, Slumber the Hyades with Dorida. 780 XIII. KAL. MAI. CIRCENSIAN GAMES AND FOXES BURNT. Third from the setting of the Hyades For the Circenses : now the Circus is Book IV. THE FASTI. 129 Ee-opened unto steeds. Now let me say Why foxes, tied to firebrands, to-day Are loosed into the fields. Carseolis 785 Is cold of soil, and unadapted is To olive trees, but famous for its grain. I journeyed through it to my native plain Pelignan, small and pastoral, but fed By streams perennial at their fountain head. 790 I entered in the house of an old friend — Phoebus had couched — who oft would condescend To aid this work with facts and ancient lore. * 'Twas on this plain," he said, "in days of yore, A frugal peasant dame and hardy spouse 795 Tilled their small field — in sweat of his own brows He ploughed, and reaped, and stored. She swept the cot. All tumble down and propped ; eggs she had got She set beneath the hen ; or gathered fare, Mallows and mushrooms ; and the eve to cheer, 800 Lighted a blazing fire — lastly span Ever anon, clothes for her own good man, And her young son — a sort of pickle lad, Twelve years of age. Now the boy captured had A she-fox in their willows — many a hen 805 Had travelled from their hen-house to her den. But the boy captured her ; he bound her tight In wisp of straw, and set the straw alight, And so he let her go. She went her ways Through standing corn, and set it in a blaze. 810 'Twas yellow harvest time, and breezes bland Aided the flames to devastate the land ; K - 130 THE FASTI. Book IV. 'Tis long ago, but unforgotten still It lives in memory, and ever will ; Therefore it is the Carseolan law 815 Condemns a captured fox to fire and straw. Amidst the Cereal games a she-fox dies And, as she burnt the corn crops, perishes." XII. KAL. MAI. SOL IN TAURUS. When Memnon's mother saffron-robed shall rise, And urge her roseate steeds through open skies, 820 Sol quitteth Aries, Helle that betrayed ! A major victim in his path displayed : Heifer or bull is not exactly known, Fore-quarters only of the beast are shown, Hind-quarters hidden are : whiche'er it be, 825 Or cow or bull — despite the enmity Of Juno — loves of Jupiter we see. XI. KAL. MAI. PALILIA. Night flies, Aurora dawns ; early am I Summoned unto Palilia. I reply - Promptly, and not in vain, if Pales deign 830 Favour the pastoral poetic strain. " Oh alma Pales, let me be thy seer, I sing thy rites and festival ; appear ! With hands all pure, I often on this morn Have Februa, burnt calf, and bean ashes borne ; 835 Oft have I leapt your flames in triple rows, And sprinkled me with dripping laurel boughs. Book IV. THE FASTI. 131 Lo ! she is moved, the Goddess answers me ! Away, away, and launch my bark to sea ; Bulge with the favouring breezes, full my sail. 840 Up, up, ye people all, up and inhale Fumes from the vestal shrine that purify, Yesta will grant them, she is ever nigh. Let horses' blood, and the calf's ashes be Ingredients two, bean-stalk ingredient three. 845 Now shepherds up, and purify your sheep ; With water and with laurel besom sweep Sheepfolds and stalls ; at twilight decorate With leaves and branches arching o'er the gate. Burn living sulphur, rub it burning blue 850 Upon the bleating sheep ; the flame renew With vervain, pine, and savin : now then turn The laurel branch in flame, and let it burn ; Bring millet in a panier, and in cates, Pales that rustic food participates : 855 Add butter, cheese — the products of the pail, And new milk warm ; and with such offerings hail Pales Silvicola ! and say, " Oh keep The stable stall, the shepherd, and the sheep ; Keep them from harm. Or whether they have fed 860 On holy ground, or whether I have led Them unto sacred tree, or tumuli Where bones are buried; or if haply I Have led my ewes to grove inhibited, Or with incautious eyes the Nymphs affrayed, 865 Or Semi-caper Pan ; or if my knife, Cutting of simples, to preserve the life k 2 132 THE FASTI. Book IV. Of a sick ewe, despoiled a holy grove, Oh pardon me. . Or if when from above Descended prone the rattling hail and rain, 870 If I have sheltered in thy rustic fane, Or if my flock have drank from sacred mere, Offending Nymphs, and soiling waters clear, Do thou for me, Goddess kind, appease Offended Nymphs, offended deities. Far, far be it from me to gaze upon The Dryad maids or Faunus, or to run 'Gainst fountain baths of Dian, very far : And chase diseases all that fatal are To man and flocks : and guard the faithful race, 880 And vigilant of dogs, when we retrace At eve our homeward steps, lest heavy moan Be made on lessened flock, — the fleece alone Saved from the wolf ; let famine absent be, But grass on earth, and verdure upon tree 885 Abundantly ; and let me waters have Whereof to drink, and wherewithal to lave. Let dugs be full, let liquid serum pass Thro' osier frame, — let cheeses bring me brass, And let my ram be lusty, — fruitful ewes, 890 And plentiful my lambs; let damsels choose My wool as best and softest, even such As hurts them not, and pleasant is to touch : Oh make these blessings mine, so when we make Our feast at Brumaltide, the largest cake 895 Shall be for Pales, at the shepherds' wake." Book IV. THE FASTI. 133 Be this repeated thrice, and face the East, And wash your hands soon as the prayer is ceased. With this, she's satisfied. Now may you drink From crater and from bowl filled to the brink 900 Of milk and wine. Now may you leap the flame With active foot, strong arm, and sturdy frame, — Through crackling bays again, and yet again. Such is the custom, now doth it pertain To me to tell its origin : It is, 905 To say the least, merged in perplexities. Doubts check my song, the causes many are ; — Or, fire purges all things, e'en a bar Of massy steel, and therefore rams and ewes ; Or that, of seeds discordant that transfuse 910 Our mortal frames, two principles and powers, Fire and water they, our ancestors Conjoined and used as elements, whereby Through touch and contact us to purify; — Or that, these elements to life allied, 915 Ta'en from the exile, given to the bride, Are principles by which we live or die ? Whilst others, antiquarian, not I, Kefer it to the myth of Phaeton, And deluge waters of Deucalion : — 920 Others, that shepherds, rubbing stone on stone, Raised sparks by friction, the which falling down Ignited straw, and thence Palilian fire. I advocate another cause and higher, ./Eneas from, the man of piety, 925 W r ho thro' the flames of burning Troy walked free. 134 THE FASTI. Book IV. Another yet, our Lares changed their home When Eome was built, and migrating to Borne, Burnt their old. habitations ; and that through The conflagration men and cattle too 930 Leapt as they leap now on Eome's natal day. EOME FOUNDED. Awake my muse, and strike a bolder lay — The origin of Kome. Now present be great Quirine ! 'tis thy history. Amulius slain, and Numitor restored 935 The shepherds rallied under each twin lord, And vote to build a city : and then came) Questions as to the founder and the name. Quoth Komulus, "Dispute it not by words, Submit it to the augury of birds — 940 Great is the augury of birds." In fine, Agreed, one sought the rocks of Palatine, And one Mount Aventine : thence Kemus o'er, Six vultures in succession passed before, But Romulus saw twelve : the compact held 945 For Romulus the city walls to build. And next they chose a day to mark the wall, And plough the city bounds. The festival Of Pales was at hand : that day they choseo The fosse was dug, therein did they depose 950 Seed-corn, and sods of earth ; — the sods were ta'en From neighbouring lands, and the fosse filled again. Thereon they built the shrine of turf, and drew Down, to ignite the altar, fires new. Book IV. THE FASTI. 135 Then Romulus put hand unto the plough 955 Drawn by a milkwhite bull and milkwhite cow, And marked the walls. Then did he say, as king, — " Jupiter, our actions ordering, And Mayors father, Mother Vesta, and Ye Deities benignant to this land, 960 Be present now; beneath your auspices let this work, founded by me, arise, — Let it endure, and let it stretch its sway From rising unto setting of the day." So Komulus, and Jove upon the left, 965 With pealing thunders and with lightnings cleft The spheres above ; and shepherds one and all Hushed to the task, and laboured at the wall. Celer urged on the work, whom Eomulus Commissioned had in words he uttered thus : — 970 " Celer, be this thy task : let no one dare To pass the fosse or furrow of the share ; Whoe'er attempts it, slay." But ignorant Of this command was Kemus, who would taunt, And scorn the humble walls. "In sooth," said he, 975 " Safe, very safe, the citizens will be ; " And straightway overleapt it. Celer smote Him with his pike, and Kemus in the moat Dropped bleeding. The king they advertise Of this mischance, who swallowed down his sighs, 980 And hid his tears and anguish of his breast ; He would not weep nor would unman the rest, But turned it to an omen. " So may all Fall who as enemies would pass this wall." 136 THE FASTI. Book IV. But when he did the obsequies, his soul 985 Burst forth dissimulation and control ; Prostrate he fell and kissed him on the bier, And spoke, " Farewell, farewell, my brother dear, Slain by no will of mine ! " Anointing him For burning then, old Faustulus, eyes dim, 990 And Acca, hair dishevelled, lent him aid ; The youth (not then Quirites) honour paid, The pyre lit, and 4 lamentations made. So was the city founded, so it rose : Who thought it then, to triumph over foes, 995 And place a conquering footstep on the world ? Oh ! may that banner ever be unfurled Under the rule of Csesar ; may that name Never decline, through ages all the same ; And may she stand above the world sublime 1000 O'er every country and o'er every clime. IX. KAL. MAI. VINALIA OF VENUS AND JOVE. Pales is sung : Vinalia I sing. One day has intervened on silent wing. Now, ye Professse, public girls, address The goddess Venus, your sole patroness. 1005 Offer your frankincense to her, and pray For blandishments — such blandishments as may Win public favour ; beauty, mirth, and wit. Wreath for your patroness the coronet, The myrtle wreath which grateful is to her, 1010 With roses, rushes, aud sisymbria. Book IV. THE FASTI. 137 Now it behoves to seek the Colline gate, And fane of Venus there approximate, Named from Siculian hill. When Claudius Had won the Arethusan Syracuse 1015 And taken Eryx, Venus left that fane — As was foretold in aged Sibyl's strain — And sought at Kome her children own again. And now you ask me how the Queen of Love Shares the Vinalia with Olympic Jove ? 1020 By war ! stern arbiter — waged to decide The question of the son-in-law and bride Of Latian Amata : thus it was ; Young Turnus would ally unto his cause Hetruscans ; and Mezentius — he whom Fame 1025 Emblazoned with a warrior's dread name, Unequalled in the lists, on horse or foot. When such alliance Turnus 'gan to moot, The Tuscan chief replied : " These scars record That martial worth is not its own reward ; 1030 So doth this armour, often red with blood ! My arm is strong, your vintages are good : Divide with me your vintage, pay in wine — No mighty payment — and your war is mine. Do as you like, it is for you to choose ; 1035 iEneas will be glad if you refuse." But they assented, and he armed to aid. iEneas armed him also, whilst he prayed To Jupiter : " The vintage of my foe Is granted to Mezentius. Unto you 1040 138 THE FASTI. Book IV. We dedicate our Latin vintage." Thus The better vow prevailed : Mezentius, The huge Mezentius, fell ; and earth oppressed Beneath his scornful and indignant breast. Autumnus came sordid with fruit of vine ; 1045 They bore to Jupiter his meed of wine : The day thence called Yinalia : and Jove Shares the Vinalia with the Queen of Love. VII. KAL. MAI. MID SPUING. ARIES SETS.' CANIS EISES. When April hath but six days more to' run The second half of springtide has begun ; 1050 Then Aries of Helle disappears, Kain gathers, Sirius rises in the spheres. RUBIGALIA. Eeturning from Nomentum unto Kome, Midway I marked a white procession come. The Flamen led the pomp which journeyed to 1055 The sacred grove of ancient Kubigo — With entrails of a dog and of a sheep To burn as offerings. To the burning heap I followed in the wake to see the rite. Thy Flamen then, clad in his garb of white, 1060 Uttered this prayer, Quirine. " Kubigo Spare cereal crops ; let the light stamen grow Waving upon the plain : then let them stand Nourished by rains and dews upon the land, Book IV. THE FASTI. 139 Till they be ripe for reaping. Thine evil eye, 1065 As colonists well know, falls fatally On crops that thou hast marked out for thine own. Not so injurious to the seed-corn sown Are frosts, and winds, and rain, as Titan's rays Falling upon dank stems : thy wrath arrays 1070 Itself, dread goddess, then. Kestrain thine hand From standing corn and cultivated land. Enough that you possess the power to harm — Spare then the crops, and stretch thy heavy arm On iron spears and swords ; corrode them all ; 1075 We want them not, the placid world to maul ; But mattocks, harrows, and the crooked plough, Our rustic implements and wealth, allow Furbished to shine ; but let the soldier's brand Rust in the sheath, repugnant to command ; 1080 And spare our corn crops — neither come thou near Our homesteads when we pay our vows with prayer." He prayed, and held a napkin of coarse twine, Censer of frankincense, and bowl of wine. The wine and incense burnt, upon the fane 1085 He cast the entrails of the biclent slain, Together with the offering obscene Of a dog's entrails — of a dog unclean ! Then I demanded of the Flamen, why He offered such base victim ? In reply 1090 He said, " Then, understand ! a dog there is Icarian, Msera and Erigone's, And when his star appeareth upon high, The corn burns up, and the baked earth is dry : 140 THE FASTI. Book IV. Unto that dog a dog we cast in flame — 1095 His name and not his nature bears the blame." IV. KAL. MAI. FLOEALIA. Tithonia thrice must leave the sponsal bed, And o'er the boundless world rays three times shed ; And Flora cometh, goddess of our bowers, Enwreathed with chaplets of a thousand flowers : 1100 And the stage opens with buffoonery. A greater theme upon my hands have I : Until the Kalends pass we Flora by. FEAST OF VESTA, PHCEBUS, AND AUGUSTUS. 'Tis Vesta's day — to-day was she enshrined On kindred threshold of her kith and kind : 1105 The senators decreed it. Phoebus shares With her the day and shrine ; and Yesta spares A third part to Augustus and his heirs. Laurel of Palatine eternal be, And Oak, thy fellow sentinel, for three— 1110 Three gods inhabit here eternally. Book V. THE FASTI. 141 BOOK V. MAIUS. The month of Maius, why is it called so ? You ask ; and, I confess, I do not know. Like to the traveller who stands in doubt Which is the track of many round about, So do I stand perplexed ; the causes are So many that I wish they fewer were. Aid me, ye goddesses, who dwell beside Sweet Aganippe, and the gushing tide Of Hippocrene and Medusaean steed. They on the mooted point are not agreed ; They silent stand, till Polyhymnia breaks The silence deep, all listen as she speaks. " 'Twas after Chaos, when tricorporate Earth Received its second elemental birth, And the fair universe took aspects new, » Earth gravitated down, and with it drew The waters down ; but gravitation none Affected lunar steeds, or stars, or sun : Earth had her laws, and their own laws the spheres They clashed not, equal separate honours theirs. Often a minor god, Saturne, sate Upon the throne of thy supernal state ; And often would a stranger god divide Oceanus and Tethys, his bright bride. 10 15 20 142 THE FASTI. Book V. Till Honour and fair Keverence came late, 25 And ordered each to seats legitimate. From them sprung Majesty — their daughter she Who sprang at once to full-grown puberty ; Amidst the gods Olympic she sat down, Conspicuous in gold and purple gown ; 30 Attendant on her Modesty and Awe. She upon powers divine imposed her law, Which was assumed by them ; and deference For place and rank established was from thence. And so it lasted till Saturnus fell, 35 As fated 'twas, from heaven's citadel. Then Terra bare her brood, the giant race, Who tried to storm Jove's realm and native place : A thousand hands had they and serpent thighs. And Terra them conjured to scale the skies 40 And to depose the gods ; they mountains haled To mountain tops and Jupiter assailed. But Jupiter from heaven fulminates, And cast upon them those huge mountain weights, Burying in ruin. Now in the seat above 45 Sits Majesty beside the throne of Jove, Defended by his bolts ; whilst Jupiter Finds his defence and firmest friend in her, And mighty sceptre easy to his hand. She came to earth, she came to Koman land, And Komulus and Numa worshipped her ; And others followed late or earlier. Fathers and mothers she invests with awe, And youth and maidens bend them to her law ; Book V. THE FASTI. 143 She graces Fasces and the Curule chair, 55 And shares the triumph of the Victor's car." So Polyhymnia spoke : of Song and Lyre, The learned Muses, Clio and Thaleia, Agreed with her : and then Urania broke The silence deep — all listened as she spoke. 60 " In the good times of old the hoary hair And wrinkles of old age respected were : Then youth bore arms and armour ; forth they trod In the defence of gods, with Mars their god. The seniors then, unfitted wars to wage, 65 Assembled to debate in council sage. The Curiae then demanded men mature, And Patres, synonyme with Senator. The seniors made the laws : an age was named At which such honour might be held and claimed ; 70 Age walked escorted then by youth, who vied To honour it by walking by his side. In presence of old age youth curbed his tongue, And suffered reprimand for speaking wrong ; And Pomulus this noting called the old, 75 Patres, selected for hearts leal and bold, And yielded to them civic government. In my belief, it is from that event That Maius from Majores was surnamed. The sequent month by juniors is claimed, 80 And adds its sanction that the thought is true. Of Numitor it is recorded too, That he petitioned Eomulus to pay Respect to seniors — whence this month of May." 144 THE FASTI. Book V. Urania ceased, and Calliope rose, 85 First of the maiden choir ; from her brows, Her locks neglected, ivy-wound, she threw, And thus commenced : " When that the world was new, Oceanus preferred to bridal bed Tethys Titanida, whose arms are spread 90 Encircling earth with waters : Pleione Was born unto them, chosen bride to be To heaven-bearing Atlas : sprung from them The Pleiades ; and Maia, the gem Of that sweet sisterhood, by Jove was won. 95 By Jove embraced, she bare to him a son On cypress-clad Cyllene — him who bears On winged feet Jove's mandates ( through the spheres. Him the Arcadians worship, habitants Of mighty Msenalus and Ladon's banks, 100 And elder than the Moon. Evander bore From thence his gods unto the Latin shore An exile with them ; and where Roma stands The mistress of the world, were pasture lands Of wretched flocks and scattered cottages. 105 The prescient mother gazing upon these Proclaimed a halt. ' Behold the spot,' she said, ' Predestined unto Empire : ' and obeyed Her the Nonacrian hero, questioning not ; He dwelt a foreigner on foreign spot, no And taught the rites of Faunus the bicorned, And him with winged Talaria adorned. To Semicaper Faunus, Luperci, Cinctured and armed with hides, to purify Book V. THE FASTI. 145 The crowds collected in the public ways ; And Mercury, in his fair mother's praise, Gave to the month her name. Inventor he Of the curved lyre, patron of knavery, Inventor of the seven chords, to please The sisterhood, the seven Pleiades." She ended, and she most applauded was. What can I do ? Each lovely sister hasl Homage from me : whatever me befall, Pierian sisters, I believe you all. 115 120 KAL. MAI. CAPELLA EISES. Begin my strain with Jove. Behold the star 125 Capella rises — nurse of Jupiter ! Olenian Capella — sign of rain ! Thy milk upraised thee to the starry train. The Nais Amalthea, in the woods Of Cretan Ida, her own solitudes, lfo Hid Jupiter : a goat most beautiful, Mother of twins, with strutting udders full, Such as the nurse of Jupiter should have — With horns recurved aerial, she gave Milk to the god ; but hurtling 'gainst an oak, 135 One comely horn- in the mid part she broke ; And Amalthea picked it up and wound That horn with flowers and wreaths of leaves around, And filled with fruit to feed the infant Jove. Who when he held supreme the throne above, 140 Raised nurse and horn to heaven, where she appears Under her name, in the celestial spheres. L 146 THE FASTI. Book V. ALTAR OF GUARDIAN LARES ERECTED. Kalends of May are dedicated to The guardian Lares : altars we renew Unto their statues small ; as vowed of eld 145 By Curius, they were not as now beheld Cankered by time and old age. Prgestes is Their true cognomen : they guard properties Committed to their charge ; unslumbering guard Our houses and our walls with watch and ward, 150 And sound alarm with aid : there used to be A dog carved at their feet, cut out of the Same stone, and watching with the Lar. You ask The reason why ? Alike their daily task, Alike their duty, guardians of the home, 155 And faithful to the master : when they roam They love the cross ways, both the dog and Lar ; Both scare the thief ; both very watchful are Through day and night : and that is all I know Touching these statues of twin gods, that bow 160 Beneath the weight of years ; a thousand stand With the presiding genius of the land In Koman streets ; and so we worship three — Three now, which twin Penates used to be. RITES OF BONA DEA. Now whither am I borne, to antedate The month of August, to anticipate The strain to Diva Bona to be sung ? conspicuous among A native crag 165 Book V. THE FASTI. 147 The rocks, and called The Kock — stands on the hill Whereon stood Bemus, frustrated in will, 170 When the twelve birds Palatinate conferred Empire on Eomulus. That spot preferred Was by the Senators whereon to plan Her Temple, who abhors the gaze of man. She, of the ancient Claudian race and line, 175 Whose virgin body shunned aught masculine, Founded that fane : which Livia restored, Following therein the footsteps of her lord. VI. NON. MAI. AKGESTES BLOWS. When Hypereion's roseate child next day With matutinal steeds drives stars away, Argestes cold, will wave the fields of corn, And waft the white sails from Calabria borne. 180 HYADES EISE. And when the doubtful crepuscule is gone The Hyades appear, all glittering on The head of Taurus ; seven glittering stars ; From Kain, so called by Grecian mariners. Some think that they nursed Bacchus : others sing From Tethys and Oceanus they spring — That JEthra, child of old Oceanus, Bare Hyas, for fair form conspicuous, Him and the Nymphs — but Hyas was first born, Ere Atlas bore the spheres, in Nature's morn. Before his beard was seen, he snared the deer And found benignant quarry in the hare. l 2 185 190 148 THE FASTI. Book V. But in his manhood boars became his prey, 195 And hirsute lioness : he dared one day To snatch her cubs, through darkness of her den, But fell bloodstained to the brute Libyan. iEthra and Atlas wept ; his sisters wailed For Hyas lost : their piety availed 200 To raise them to the spheres, where now they flame In their own right, and bear their brother's name. FLOKALIA. Mother of flowers, Flora, present be, We raise the chant midst jocund games to thee. Begun in April, unto May deferred, 205 For both are thine, the jocund song is heard. Upon the confines of both months we stand Embellished with the bounties of thy hand. The circus closes, and the theatre Rings with applauses, as the victors bear 210 Off palms awarded : I resume my song. " Who art thou, Flora ? ofttimes we are wrong With judgments fallible ; therefore impart The truth thyself, and tell me who thou art." The goddess answers me, and perfume flows 215 Around, with fragrance of the vernal rose. " Chloris I was, and Flora am, the same, Thus Rome corrupted has my Grecian name. Chloris a Nymph of plains delectable — Abode of blessed men, of virtue full. 220 Of beauty mine, it is not mine to tell ; The god, my spouse, my lover, proves it well. Book V. THE FASTI. 149 'Twas springtide, and I roamed ; me Zephyrus Chased and made captive : like the boisterous Boreas his brother, he forsooth, must win 225 A wife by violence ; and Athens in He found his precedent : he bore me off But made me full amendment for the scoff By wedding me, and happy is the life That I have lived of Zephyrus the wife : 230 Spring sempiternal mine, the beautiful Revolving year of buds and blossoms full, And earth with beauties ever unconcealed : My dwelling is a garden in the weald, Nursed by the breezes, and by fountains fed ; "235 And Zephyrus, my lord, on it hath shed Stores of the fairest and most fragrant flowers. He calls me goddess of the floral bowers And bids me be their queen. Ofttimes I try To count their tints and hues — infinity 240 Still baffles me, for they are infinite. And when Sol rising chases dews of night, And every blossom opens to his ray, The Hours following, in robes painted, they Replenish osier trays with gifts of mine : 245 And following them the Graces intertwine With wreaths terrestrial, their celestial hair. I cast o'er all the earth my blossoms rare, Earth, who was only clad in green before. I tinged the Therapngean plant with gore, 250 I signed upon its leaf the written plaint ; Narcissus, too, boy with the bosom faint 150 THE FASTI. Book V. Wlio grieved he was himself, did I create ; Crocus and Attis also ; and thy fate, Adonis, son of Cinyras, became 255 Endowed with beauty and with deathless fame. Mars also — if you know it not, my prayer Is fervent, Jupiter may know it ne'er — Mars, too, did I create. When Juno 'plained That Jove — her form and spousal rights disdained — 260 Gave birth unto Minerva motherless ; She sought Oceanus, but weariness O'ertook her at my door. ' Saturnia dear,' Ejaculated I, ' what brings you here ? ' She told me where she journeyed, and the cause ; 265 With words of sympathy I filled a pause, When she exclaimed, ' Comfort I can have none. If Jupiter can bear a child alone Why may not I ? if he the power possess Of male and female both — I not the less 270 Possess the power, and happy shall I be Intact to live from male embraces free. Search will I seas and Tartarus profound Until the true medicaments be found.' And speaking thus, observing a deep trace 275 Of thought and observation on my face, She added, ' Nymph, you look as if you knew Something about it :' three times did I rue The wish I had to tell her, thrice I strove Sileuce to keep, I feared the wrath of Jove. 280 * Speak if you can,' said Juno, ' and I swear By the Styx river, ne'er will I declare Book V. THE FASTI. 151 Who my informant was ; ' and then she swore By Styx she would not ; and the swearing o'er — ' Olenian plains,' I said, ' possessed the flower, 285 But now one sole root blossoms in my bower. When he who gave it said, make trial now, Touch with a branch of it yon sterile cow ; I touched and she conceived. And from its spray I plucked a blossom with my thumb straightway, 290 And touched the goddess, and she, touched, conceived. Her, the Propontis over, Thrace received ; Where she gave birth to Mars : and mindful he That his existence was so due to me, Said, ' Enter thou my town Komulean, 295 And there abide.' " But do not think my reign Is only over chaplets, wreaths, and bowers ; I hold my place among the rustic powers. If the corn blossom well, then rich will be The threshing floor ; if vines and olive tree, 300 Then wine and oil ; so likewise trees of fruit, If blossoms fall, useless the stalwart root. So beans and pulse, and foreign lentiles so On banks of Nilus : and the wine we stow In roomy caves, ferments and floivers with scum. 305 And honey, too — bees at my bidding come To violets and cytisus and thyme. I also foster youth ; in manhood's prime The soul luxuriates, the body grows." I stood in marvel hearing her disclose 310 152 THE FASTI. Book V. Her empire thus. " Now what you wish to know Ask it, you have my leave, and I will show." " The games, goddess, whence their origin? " I asked, and she replied — " I must begin With olden time, ere luxury had grown 315 To what it is : with objects then unknown. The holder of broad lands was locuples — He had pecunia, who had pecudes. Then man grew covetous, and coveted. To common lands the private flocks were led ; 320 There was no legal let or penalty ; The common lands were under no one's eye, And he was only thought a simpleton Who left the common for fields all his own. The iEdiles long were spiritless to aid ; 325 But when the two Publicii were made The people's iEdiles they imposed a fine, And trespassers paid penalties condign. Praised were the iEdiles for that act and deed ; Part of the fines were unto me decreed, 330 And games therewith appointed held to be In memory of the iEdiles' victory ; And with the other part they cut the incline Down from the rugged cliff of Aventine, And surnamed it Publician." " Then," I said, 335 Are the games annual ? " She shook her head — But added thus : " We covet honour, too ; For altars and for festivals, their due, Gods jealous and ambitious are ; ofttime Doth mortal man remission get from crime 340 Book V. THE FASTI. 153 By sacrifice ; and oftentimes a beast Offered in sacrifice hath him released ; For I have seen Jove's arm, upraised to throw, Sink at the scent of frankincense below. When we are slighted, our wrath has no bound, 345 But falls relentlessly on all around. Witness Thestiades, by distant fire Burnt unto death : the cause do you inquire — Because Diana's altar lacked its flame. Witness Tantalides, the cause the same, 350 Diana stayed his sails. A virgin though, She retributed slight on friend and foe. Witness Hippolytus, Dione's slight, Compassed his death by his own steeds affright. 'Twere long and very tedious to recall 355 All who have failed — enumerate them all. The Koman Patres once neglected me, And I exacted their full penalty, — I wrought by my own hand to my own hurt : Through sorrow I grew sullen and inert, 360 I guarded not the fields, I valued not The fruitful orchard, or the garden plot ; Faded the lilies, violets fell dead, And the punicean crocus bent its head. Oft Zephyrus would utter, ' Why do you 365 Destroy your dowry ? ' Dowry mine, 'twas true, — I cared not for it then : the olive trees Were nipped in blossom by the northern breeze, Cornfields in blossom by the hail laid low, The vine unblossomed : I let Auster blow 370 154 THE FASTI. Book V. And nip them in the buds, then stripped the vine With thundering rain : it was no deed of mine, — I am not cruel in my wrath, but took No care with fostering love to overlook The evil, or repel or check the blight. 375 The Senate met, and vowed if all went right, And if the coining year should blossom well, To me, for aye, an annual festival, And I assented : In the consulate Of Lsenas and Posthumius I first sate, 380 And saw the Consul Laenas celebrate." I had upon my lips to ask her why Her games licentious were with revelry; But it recurred to me that unaustere, Licence she loved, and such rites suited were. 385 With chaplets crowned, with roses scattered o'er The festive board ; — behold the reveller Inebriated, leaping, with his hair Ybound with festive wreath of philyra, Eeckless beneath the influence of wine. 390 Inebriate, the lover at the shrine Of aye disdainful beauty pours his song, Perfumed and garlanded amidst the throng ; No brow is thoughtful, and no water flows In wine of reveller who dons the rose. 395 No, Acheloe ! roses and thy wave Have no affinity — no friendship have. Bacchus loves blossoms, Bacchus placed the crown On Ariadne's head. And Flora, known Book V. THE FASTI. 155 As dearly loving scenes of merry wit, 400 Disdains with buskin'd goddesses to sit. Still must I ask, why, wherefore is allowed Frequenting these — the meretricious crowd ? 0, for she is soft hearted, unsevere, And loves to see the choirs plebeian there. 405 She loves that jocund youth should use its bloom, Nor tarry till the roses lose perfume ; And to contemn the thorn in autumn's gloom. "At Ceres' feast," I said, "we garb in white, And many-coloured robes at yours are dight ; 410 Is it because the fields are white with grain, And flowers their varied tints and hues retain?" She bowed assentant, and the blossoms fell Forth from her locks, as roses cast pellmell On festal tables. One question sole remained, 415 "The lighted torches, why are they retained Part of the rites?" She answered, "Purple flowers Are lights pertaining to my floral bowers. Or 'tis because the flower and flame are bright, And both attract and fascinate the sight. 420 Or 'tis because they suit nocturnal glee, And my delights : methinks these facts agree." " One question more, if you will suffer it ? " I said, and she responded, " I permit." " The hare and roe we chase, instead of the 425 Dread Libyan lioness, to honour thee." " Woods are not my domain : my gardens lay Safe from the raidings of such beasts of prey," 156 THE FASTI. Book V. She said, and melted into air, the room Avouched the goddess in retained perfume. 430 that the song of Naso flourish may To endless age ; Goddess, diffuse, I pray, Thy gifts upon my breast and song alway. V. NON. MAI. CENTAUKUS EISES. The fourth night ere the Kalends, Chiron speeds His rising star, his frame a ruddy steed's, 435 And Semivir's. Pelion Haemonian, With southern side yclad with woods of pine, And northern side with oak : Phillyrides There made abode — the cavern which was his, Home of the just old man, existing still. 440 He taught that hand its lyric strain and skill In future times fated to overcome Great Hector. There had Alcides come, His labours nearly ended — all save Troy Reserved for the young hero to destroy ; 445 And there Mount Pelion on, iEacides Stood with the son of Jove, great Hercules. The Philyreian hero greeting gave, Asked for the cause that brought him to his cave, And Hercules responded : Chiron eyed 450 With admiration club and lion's hide, And vowed them weapons worthy of the man, The man of them. Achilles, too, began To run his fingers through the shaggy mane : Then to inspect the shafts was Chiron fain, 455 Book V. THE FASTI. 157 And handling them, he let an arrow fall j On his left foot, those shafts envenomed all With blood Echidnan. Chiron groaning drew The weapon forth, and groaned Alcides too ; And groaned the boy iEmonian, who brought 460 The PagasEean herbs, and straightway wrought To medicine the wound. The virus ate Potent and prevalent, — insatiate, And seized on bones and body ; and the blood Lernsean, mingled with the Centaur's flood 465 With leisure none for aid. Achilles wept As though he wept for Peleus : Chiron reapt Fruits of his labours magisterial, In his dear pupil's art medicinal ; Who kissed him, and besought him to live on. 470 "0 father mine," he said, " leave not thy son." But the ninth day drew on, when to the skies Chiron most just, with fourteen stars, should rise. III. NON. MAI. LYEA KISES. Full fain the Lyre would him accompany, But not yet is its path celestial free, 475 On the third sequent night 'twill opened be. PEID. NON. MAI. SCORPIO SETS IN PART. And half the Scorpion sets ere dawning day ; Of Nones approaching half hath passed away. VII. ID. MAI. LEMURIA. And three times more beams Hesperus the brig] it, And three times more Sol chases stars of night, 480 158 THE FASTI. Book V. And rites nocturnal, sacred rites of old, Lemuria, to the silent shades we hold. For when the year was shorter, of months ten, Nor Janus chief, nor pious Februa, then Upon ancestral tombs these rites were wrought, 485 Relations to the dust departed brought Gifts clue to it : and the month Maius, named From the "Majores," the Lemuria claimed. When midnight reigns o'er silence and o'er sleep, And dogs and birds are still, he who would keep 490 The ancient rituals, and fears the gods, Rises, and treads unsandall'd o'er the sods, But with his thumb and fingers making sounds, Lest he should meet the spirit on its rounds At unawares. First in the fountain cleans 495 His impure hands, then scatters he the beans, ^ Black, and cast backward, with averted gaze ; And as they fall, " I offer these," he says, "And with these beans redeem myself and mine." This he repeats with gaze askew, times nine. 500 And we believe the shade to follow him, If he unnoticed be, collecting them. Again he washes in the wave, and sounds On Temesaean brass, and from its bounds Invites the shade to come ; and nine times done, 505 He says again, " Rest, rest beloved one, Paternal shade ! " Then doth he look behind, All correspondent to the rites to find. But whence these rites, whence they deduce and are I do not know, some god must that declare. 510 Book V. THE FASTI. 159 Son of the Pleiad, bearer of the wand That opens unto thee the Stygian strand, — Realm of the Stygian Jove, inform me thou ! Caducifer appears. Attend ye now To what the God informed me. 515 Romulus Had built to Remus, too impetuous ! The Tumulus ; — and Faustulus was there, And Acca also, with dishevelled hair, At the last rites, and shed their pious tears On the combusted dust : oppressed with cares 520 At the first crepuscule they homeward prest, And on their pallet bed lay down to rest. The ghost of blood-stained Remus then appeared, And spoke in ghostly accents hardly heard : — " Behold me, Remus ! I the one half part, 525 The other foster brother of thy heart : See what I am, remember what I was. Had but the fatal birds espoused my cause, I should have been the greatest; but am made By funeral fires a form of emptiest shade. 530 I am what once was Remus. Mars, my sire, Oh where was he ? You say at his desire The wolf, to us exposed, gave nourishment. Why unto us exposed was succour sent, For me to fall to a rash citizen ? 535 savage Celer, may you fall by men Bloodstained as I. My brother willed it not, He loved me well, he wept my fatal lot. 160 THE FASTI. Book V. Oh by the tears and aliment you gave Entreat him for me, let me honour have, 540 A day and feast to soothe me in the grave." They stretched their arms to catch him, but he broke Like vapour through their grasp ; so they awoke — Sleep and the shade departed. Pondering The matter in their hearts, they sought the king, 545 And Komulus assented : and that day He called Eemuria, thereupon to pay Eites to our ancestry. Time changed the word For the rough letter R one soft preferred, And called the shades Lemures : even so 550 The sound, and sense, as we pronounce it now. The ancients closed the temples on that day, As we on the Feralia ; and they say For marriage it is naught, that torches lit For maid or widow ne'er burn bright on it — 555 They early die : a vulgar proverb, too, Declares the wedded maids of May untrue. V. ID. MAI. OKION SETS. Three days Lemuria lasts, not sequent though Two intervene : the midmost day, if you Look forth to see Orion, you will fail. 560 My present theme of song, Orion hail ! Attended by Mercurius — Jupiter And Neptune journeyed : 'twas the placid stir When ploughs are driven homeward, when the ewes Give milk unto the lambs, and fall the dews. 565 Book V. THE FASTI. 161 Old Hyrieus, Boeotian, stood before His little homestead at the cottage door. The way is long, he said, and passed the day, My humble gate is open, travellers, stay. Also he smiled benignantly and pressed; 570 And the gods turned and tarried there to rest. Veiling divinity, they entered in The smoky cabin, to behold within Yesterday's log ; the senior on his knees, Puffing and blowing to excite a blaze, 575 And piling faggot wood ; two pipkins stood Bubbling upon the hearth, with daily food Of beans and potherbs : and or e'er they dine, With shaking hand he filled the cup of wine ; The God of Ocean drank, and said, " Refill 580 The cup for Jupiter." An awful thrill Passed thro' his veins at name of Jupiter. His soul returned ; his only ox stood there Which tilled his narrow fields ; he smote him down And roasted him, and wine of some renown 585 From smoky cask he draws ; to work they go. On linen couch they lie, with sedge below — No lofty couch : and so they sat to sup Off crater of red clay and chestnut cup. And Jupiter then said, "Xow will we grant 590 Whatever you may wish, whatever want." And the old man replied with placid tone — "I had a darling wife, now dead and gone, My first and only love ; inurned she is ; I swore to her, by ye, Deities ! 595 M I 162 THE FASTI. Book V. I swore to her never to wed again, And I will keep my oath : and yet I fain Would be a father, were it possible." They nodded : and around the hide of bull — I say not what they did — they buried it. 600 Ten months' gestation followed, which complete, A boy was born from earth congested there ; And Hyrieus called the boy Uriona, Because he was so born ; the letter IT Hath lost its ancient sound. But the child grew 605 Immensely ; Delia chose him for his height To be her follower and satellite. He boasted there was nothing crossed his path He could not conquer, and the gods were wrath. Earth sent a scorpion, whose assault begins 610 Upon the goddess mother of the Twins — Orion it withstood : Latona said, Unto desert let due reward be paid, And so a constellation he was made. IV. ID. MAI. FEAST OF MAES BISULTOE. But wherefore doth Orion take his flight, 615 And wherefore scud the stars and hours of night ? And why doth Lucifer so early rise And usher the fair day in roseate skies ? Am I deceived — or is it war's alar'ms ? 'Tis no deception, 'tis the sound of arms — 620 'Tis Mars approaching : the avenger comes, These sounds are his ; he leaves celestial domes Book V. THE FASTI. 163 For the Augustan forum, and his seat Conspicuous there. Truly the god is great, And truly great his fane ; second to none 625 Mars habitates in city of his son. Gigantic trophies of gigantic wars, Fit muniments of the avenging Mars, Whether Eoan realms of foemen rude Or Occidental, be to be subdued. 630 He, the armipotent, regarding round, Claims for the gods the summit of the mound, And roofs pyramidal. He then surveys The trophied arms, and sculptured effigies, Upon the portals ; where, on either side, 635 The heroes to the Koman name allied — The great iEneas, with his freight divine Borne on his shoulders, heading the long line Of ancestors Iiilean : the other side Laden with armour in which Acron died, 640 Was Romulus ; and the illustrious names Of heroes of his line. The temple claims Augustus as its founder ; Caesar writ Beneath the pediment ennobles it. In youth he vowed it, when he first put on 645 Avenging arms : so worthily begun, He started in his conquering career. He, with his hands upraised, his army near, And ranged in front the bold conspirators, Spoke thus : " Now if the god of war, if Mars 650 Begot, if vestal priestess bare, if they Be authors of my race, let Mars to-day M 2 164 THE FASTI. Book V. Be present, and our righteous cause withstood, Asserting, steep the steel in wicked blood ; And I will found a temple to thy fame ; 655 Mars the avenger ! such shall be thy name If I return victorious." Victorious he Returned, exulting in his victory. Yet did not this cognomen satisfy Avenging Mars. Parthians protected by 660 Plains, rivers, steeds, and shafts — and overbold By slaughter of the Crassi — Parthians hold The Roman standards. Army and leader lie Slaughtered together ; and the standard high And Roman eagles in a hostile hand — 665 Parthia dishonouring Ausonian land ! But Caesar reigned ; Caesar effaced that stain ; The Roman legions hold their own again — Their ancient banners. What then availed the might Of steed and plain, the arrows' backward flight ? 670 The eagles were restored : and Parthian ! now No pledge of conquest or defeat hast thou ; With suppliant hand dost thou extend the bow. Therefore the temple and the god is named Bis-Ultor, twice avenged. Cognomen claimed 675 By right and vow ; and games of solemn state Quirites on the Circus celebrate, The theatre too small for god of so much weight. Book V. THE FASTI. 165 PEID. ID. MAI. PLEIADES RISE. Behold the Pleiades, in conclave full One night before the Ides, all visible. Summer commences now, spring disappears, So science, good authority ! declares. 680 TAURUS RISES. And prior to the Ides doth Taurus rise With face begemmed with stars ; and rumour flies Well known — that he is Jupiter : The maid 685 Of Tyre on his back, and the false horns displayed, Fear adding grace unto her loveliness ; The right the mane, the left hand grasps her dress, Bulged by the breeze, and floating on the air Her golden locks ; so, exquisitely fair, 690 The maid Sidonian is borne off by Jove. She draws her maiden foot the wave above, Dreading the dashing waves, and Jupiter Sinks deeper purposely, to startle her And force her to enclasp him in her arms. 695 But Ida's shore attained, he soothed alarms, Deposed his horns and bovine form, and stood Revealed, in his full majesty endued. Taurus ascended; but the deity, maid Sidonian, stayed enclasping thee ; 700 And the third part of earth asserts thy name. Though others for the Pharian heifer claim This constellation ; Io, they say, it is Turned to a cow by metamorphosis. 166 THE FASTI. Book V. SCIRPEA CAST INTO TIBER. The vestal virgin casts in Tiber's tide, 705 From off the bridge of oak, thence down to glide, Her wicker forms of men. Be it understood, Man credulous ! that our forefathers rude Did not drown old men — that they did not do Such wickedness — the legend is untrue. 710 Old Fame avers, Apollo gave command In oracles to the Satumian land To cast two bodies of the natives there In Tuscan waters, to the Scythe-bearer. So till the advent of Tirynthius 715 Leucadia's dire rite was held by us. He cast into the waters wisps of straw In form of citizens, fulfilling law, And we from his example do the like. But there be some who think the youth did strike 720 The seniors from the bridge, to rule alone The commonwealth by suffrages their own. Tiber, instruct me : older art thou than The city on thy banks ; none other can Know better than thou knowest. As I spoke 725 Tiber arose : hoarsely the accents broke From sacred mouth, and head ycrowned with reeds. He said : " This was a wilderness of weeds ; No civic wall was here, but herds of kine. Little cared they that my stream was divine, 730 Where nations now all honour me and fear. Evander, the Arcadian, he came here, Book V. THE FASTI. 167 And dashed my refluent wave with foreign oars. Alcides also came unto these shores, Consorted by a Grecian multitude : 735 And Albula, if memory hold good, Was then my name. The hero Pallantine Received and entertained the youth divine : And Cacus — Cacus met his punishment. With Erytheian spoils the victor went ; 740 But his companions free resolved to stay, Argos abandoned : in these mountains they Resolved to live, with hope and sacred home. But love of fatherland still tempted some ; And dying, one his heir beseeches thus : — 745 1 Oh let my dust repose by Inachus ! Cast me on waves of Tiber — cast me in The river Tiber, my free way to win.' The thing pleased not the heir ; a distant tomb Misliked him, and he buried him at home. 750 But made a wicker image, which he cast Into the Tiber, over ocean vast To float to Argos home." So Tiber said, And in his grotto merged his dripping head, The light waves whist the while nor forward sped. 755 FEAST OF MERCURY. Grandson of Atlas, hail ! whom Maia erst Pleiad on Mount Arcadian bare and nursed To Jupiter. The minister art thou Of peace and war to gods, above, below, 168 THE FASTI. Book V. Earthly and heavenly, — thou of the strucken lyre, Thou of the winged foot, thou grace and fire Of the Palaestra ; eloquence of tongue Presides there, under thee. These Ides upon The senate met, decreeing unto thee A fane and festival, the fane to be Facing the circus. There merchants go With frankincense and prayer, to ask that thou Shouldst send them profit; and thy fountain by The gate Capenan holds divinity, As those that know aver. Mercator there, With tunic girded round, and pure with prayer, Draws waters, in an urn too purified, And bears it home — home, where he scatters wide, With branch of laurel bay, all wares for sale ; — Lustrates himself and hair, in nought to fail, And in a voice tuned by hypocrisies — A caitiff voice — he proffers prayers like these : — " Wash out my perjuries of yesterday Wash out my lies of every former day ; Whether I called to witness to my oath The mightiness of Jove, whom I were loth Should hear me ever ; if wilfully I have Cheated a god or goddess, do thou lave Me pure again ; let breezes bear all hence. To-morrow let me chaff without offence ; Let not the gods list to the things I say ; But grant me lucre, profits good alway ; Let me rejoice in gain, and let me cheat My customers to make my gains more sweet." 760 765 770 775 780 785 Book V. THE FASTI. 169 Mercurius smiles on high, his smile divine, 790 At prayers like these, remembering lang syne How he himself once filched Apollo's kine. XIII. KAL. JUN. SOL IN GEMINI. " But tell thou me, more righteous if my prayer, What date doth Sol in Gemini appear ? " And he responded, " The days backward count 795 From the month's end, days equal in amount To toils of Hercules." " Tell me/' I cried, " Why were they constellated ? " He replied With lips of eloquence : " Tyndaridse, Horseman and pugilist and brothers, they 800 Phoebe and Phoebe's sister rapt away — Leucippus' daughters, who affianced were To Idas and his brother, who prepare With lovers' promptness to redeem the maids. And the like love peremptorily persuades 805 Th' (Ebalidse to fight and hold their own. They might have sped away, have sped and gone, But that they held it turpid so to flee. The spot was void of trees, an area free, Fitted for combat — they encountered there : 810 'Twas called Aphidna. Ta'en at unaware, The sword of Lynceus transfixed Castor's breast ; Pollux avenging rushed, with spear he pressed And bore down Lynceus ; Idas rushed to aid. Him Jupiter opposed ; but lightnings made 815 Him hardly to submit : and Idas slain, Despite the bolts of Jove, within his strain Still grasped his sword, incumbent on the plain. 170 THE FASTI. Book V. Now whilst to him the heaven all open was Pollux impleaded his dead brother's cause. 820 "Father," he said, " let divided be The immortality accorded me ; I prize the half gift better than the whole." He said : and so redeemed his brother's soul, Sharing his lot with him. The mariners 825 Put trust in them ; useful to barks their stars. AGONALIA. What the Agonia are, repeated now Turn back to Janus, ye who seek to know. CANIS SETS. On the next night, tale also told by me, We lose the dog of sweet Erigone. 830 XII. KAL. JUN. TUBILUSTKIA. The next day Vulcan's Tubilustria, For pure and sacred, too, his trumpets are. XI. KAL. JUN. Q. K. C. F. Then comes the spot of four initials, Eead in their order, when the Kex installs Comitia — Fas or Fugit — signifies 835 The sacrifice he flees or sanctifies. X. KAL. JUN. TEMPLE TO FOKTUNA PUBLICA. AQUILA BISES. Fortuna Publica, of potent Eome, I pass not thee by, granted unto whom Book V. THE FASTI. To-morrow founds the fane : And when the light Sinks in the wave of Amphitrite bright Will Aquila, to Jove dear, rise to sight. IX. KAL. JUN. BOOTES SETS. VIII. KAL. JUN. HTADES KISE. The next Aurora hides Bootes wain, The next the Hyades appear again. 171 840 EUROPA SIDONIA. SAMIAN JUNO. : )K VI. THE FASTI. 173 BOOK VI. JUNIUS. w various causes likewise are assigned 'or name of Junius : satisfy your mind ; Take that which pleases most ; facts though I sing 'Tis fiction thought by some, discrediting That mortal men confer with deities. Divinity dwells in us ; whence it*1s Inspired, we own the impetus divine Springing from sacred seed. Such lot is mine — Pre-eminently mine ; a seer am I. And all my song treats of divinity. Therefore I sought the secret silent grove — Silent, save that the babbling waters rove — And there I wandered, pondering in my mind, And the true cause of the month's name to find ; And there I met with goddesses ; — not those Who to the shepherd seer at Ascra rose, Nor those who many-fountained Ida sought, Courting Priamides : except, I ought, One who was there, whose temple stands above The capitol — the sister-wife of Jove. Yes, she was there ; I trembling with affright With pallor on my face ; the goddess bright Spoke reassurance, saying thus : " seer, Toilsome compiler of the Koman year, 10 15 20 174 THE FASTI. Book VI. Treating of matters high in modest strains, 25 Acquired hast the right that appertains To seers who sing our feasts, to hear and see, And parley with celestials, and with me ! Discard now vulgar errors from your mind ; Junius derives from me, to me assigned — 30 To me, the sister and the wife of Jove. Nor do I know which term I most approve, Sister or wife. I am the eldest born Saturnus of ; in whose primaeval morn Home was, alike with me, Saturnia hailed. 35 And, after heaven, Rome o'er the world prevailed. If spousals rank o'er birth, I am the spouse Of thundering Jove ; and married right allows My fanes on the Tarpeian joined to his. Maia, his mistress, claims her month ; is this 40 A claim invidious to be made by me ? Why am I called Regina ? wherefore the Chief of the goddesses ? wherefore hold In my right hand the sceptre staff of gold ? Can I from lunar months Lucina be, 45 And be. denied the month surnamed from me ? Or else, good sooth, I may repent the grace Done to Electra and the Dardan race For twofold wrongs — abducted Ganymede, And prize denied unto my beauty's meed ; 50 I may repent my Carthage I resigned, And arms and chariot that I left behind ; I may repent for Sparta, Argos, and My own Mycenae, Samos' ancient land, Book VI. THE FASTI. 175 Now subjected to Latium ; furthermore, 55 For my Falisci, worshippers of yore ; And good old Tatius, whom I suffered to Succumb to Kome ; losses I do not rue — I love the Komans well, and nought more dear Than with my Brother to be worshipped here. 60 And Mars petitioned me : 'Let me commend,' He said, ' these walls to thee ; love and befriend Thy grandson's city, and reign potent there.' Which came to pass. A hundred altars are Erected unto me ; moreo'er I claim, 65 No trivial honour, this month to my name. Inspect the kalendar, and you will find Not Home alone, but neighbouring towns assigned This month to me. Wooded Aricia, Laurentum, and mine own Lanuvia 70 Have all their month Junonius. Tiber, too, And walls Praeneste's goddess sacred to, , Have their month Junonal ; but Komulus Did not build them : whilst Kome belongs to us." The goddess ceased ; I cast my eyes around 75 Where Hebe stood, weeping in grief profound,. Consort of Hercules ! " I would not stay In heavenly mansions, if from thence away My mother bade me go ; counter to her I do not strive; the suit which I prefer 80 I urge with prayers," she said; "I urge my plea, And may my mother, may you favour me. My mother holds the golden Capitol, Conjoint with Jupiter she holds it all. 176 THE FASTI. Book VI. This month was mine ; sole honour that I claimed 85 Was that the month was after me surnamed. Koman seer, dost fear to do me right, The wife of Hercules, in Eoman sight ? The Koman land owes something to my lord : The kine, by Cacus captured, he restored, 90 And slew that robber who, in fate condign, Stained with his blood the hill of Aventine. It was in after days, when youth from age Divided was by Komulus, to wage His battles, whilst Age counselled, he decreed 95 The months to bear a record of his deed ; Age as Majores, taking Maius And Juvenes, the month of Junius." So Hebe said. Wrathful her mother grew, And ties of kinship had been rent in two ; 100 But Concord came, goddess of Caesar's vows, Bays Apollonean waviug on her brows, Enwreathing tresses o'er her aspect grave. She told of Tatius and Quirinus brave, Kingdoms and subjects "juncti," when the home 105 Common to both established was in Koine ; And Junius was surnamed their junction from. So the third cause is said. Now, goddesses, 1 yield the chair, for this a matter is Beyond my arbitrating power : with me 110 Ye equal are, and ye shall equal be. A judgment levelled Pergamus : more harm Can two offended do ; than one can charm. Book VI. THE FASTI. 177 KAL. JUN. FEAST OP CAENA. First of these kalends is assigned to thee, Carna, and goddess of the hinge, with key 115 To open what is closed, to close what open be. But whence derived that function, is obscure ; Time, the obscurer, shall not hide it more, My song shall say, and Fame the tale unfold. By Tiber is thy grove, Helernus old, 120 And pontiffs still do sacrifice to thee. A nymph was bom unto thee ; Grane she Was in that old time named; oft, but in vain, Did suitors woo her. Huntress on the plain, With nets and javelin she chased the prey ; 125 She bore no quivers ; yet did people say She sister was to Phoebus ; if she were, Phoebus had not offended been by her. And when the youth would woo her, she would say, "This place is light, dwells modesty with day: 130 Lead to the secret grot, I follow thee." He enters, credulous, the cave ; and she Stops when amidst the bushes, and there lies Inexplicably hidden from all eyes. And Janus saw and wooed the cruel fair. 135 Grane repeats to him, " This open air Is all too light and bright ; seek we the cave ;" And then her usual slip to him she gave. Ah, foolish one ! Janus beholds behind ; Now you are caught ; him cannot you so blind, 140 Now you are caught. Janus beholds the spot ; The rock, your hiding place, conceals you not. N 178 THE FASTI. Book VI. So you become his prize and concubine. " Maiden," said happy Janus, " love of thine Must have its recompense ; this hinge shall be 145 The recompense for lost virginity. And then he gave a wand of thorn ; 'twas white, To drive from doors all doers of despite, All malice-workers. Greedy birds there are — Not those of old, that wonted were to tear 150 The meats of Phineus ; yet from there and thence Do these derive their being ; heads immense, And glaring eyeballs, vulture beaks and maws, And hoary pinions, cruel taloned claws ; • They fly by night upon their quest accurst ; 155 Drag infant boys, when negligently nurst, Forth from their cradles, and pollute their flesh ; The milky food within their bowels fresh They suck and gorge, commingled with the blood, And fill their maws distended with such food. 160 Striges they are ; Stryx is their proper name, From screeching in the silent night it came. $ Whether they be a race of birds, or made ' By magic charm — the Marsi, so 'tis said, Transforming hags to birds — uncertain is. 165 Procas they seek ; entering his chamber seize Procas then five days old, their present prey, They seize with greedy maws to bear away. Bellowed the helpless boy ; it brought him aid ; For, frightened by the cry, the nursing maid 170 Book VI. THE FASTI. 179 Runs to her infant, and beholds his cheeks Riled with their cruel claws. Now aid she seeks, For the child's colour all had disappeared, Like to the leaf autumnal wintry seared. She came to Grane, and she told her tale. 175 " Fear not," responded she, " all strong and hale Shall the boy be ;" so to the cradle goes, Where sat the parents weeping o'er their woes ; " Weep not," she said, " I bring you remedy." And then with arbute branches thrice smote she 180 The lintels of the window and the door ; She sprinkled waters on the threshold floor That medicated were ; and entrails raw Of two months' porker for the Striges' maw, She offered, as she said, " Ye birds of night, 185 Spare entrails of boy-babes — let these requite For infant child ; and for a victim small Suffice it that a little victim fall ; Here heart for heart, entrails for entrails take, And life for life — these for a better's sake." 190 Then cut she them to atoms, and cast out Into the air ; forbad them round about, And witnessing the rites, to use their eyes. The wand of white thorn, and her maiden prize Given by Janus, placed upon the sill 195 Of the small window, where the sun-rays trill Into the chamber. After that no more Returned the birds of night ; and hue he bore Returned unto the infant as before. n 2 180 THE FASTI. Book VI. Now ask you why upon these kalends we 200 Eat beans and bacon ? Pristine goddess, she Loves food of ancient days ; she loves to dine On simple meats of old ; nor doth she pine For luxuries imported : for in the days of old Fish were not purchased, oysters were not sold ; 205 No snipes Ionian then were sought as food, Nor cranes delighting in Pygmaean blood. The peacock in his gaudy plumage fed Unfed upon ; nor bird nor beast was bred Fattened in coops. It was the fatted sow 210 Honoured the festival and paid the vow. The land gave gifts spontaneous : beans and peas, And the sow slain graced our festivities. Who on these kalends beans and bacon eat, Need fear no indigestion with their meat. 215 TEMPLE TO JUNO MONETA. Juno Moneta's temple stands on the Peak of the capitol ; there decreed to be, Pursuant to the vow Camillus made ; The home of Manlius once, where he the raid Of Gauls withstood ; and where he, victor, drove Them back from seat of Capitoline Jove, Ah, then and there he should, in patriot palms, Defender of those fanes, have died in arms, Nor lived to lose his fame in evil hour Of stolid age, desiring regal power. 220 225 Book VI. THE FASTI. 181 FEAST OF MARS. And Mars again we invocate to-day : At the Capenan gate and covered way The temple stands. TEMPLE TO TEMPESTAS. And thee, Tempestas, too, For fleet preserved at Corsica, ensue. 230 AQUILA RISES. All this on earth we do, the while above Upsoars with crooked beak the bird of Jove. IV. NON. JUN. HYADES ARISE. And Hyades and Taurine horns are born Earth soaked with rain, upon the morrow's morn. PRID. NON. JUN. TEMPLE TO BELLONA. When Phoebus twice more rises o'er the main, 235 And cornfields soaked with dews, Bellona's fane Is visited ; built in the Tuscan war, She favours Latium aye ! Appius afar With mental vision, for his eyes were blind, Refusing peace to Pyrrhus, it designed. 240 A terrace opens to the circus, where A column, small but famous, stands ; for there The herald priest, with javelin in hand, Prenuntiate of warfare, takes his stand 182 THE FASTI. Book VI. And hurls it thence, whenever Eomans fling Defiance against commonwealth or king. 245 TEMPLE TO HEKCULES CUSTOS. The circus else is sacred to the sway Of Hercules — a gift, the prophecy Of the Cumsean verse avouched as his. The light before the nones appointed is ; And if you ask on whose authority, Sylla pkobavit graven is on high. 250 NON. JUN. TEMPLE TO SANCUS, FIDIUS, OR FATHEE SEMO. I searched to learn to whom assigned should be These nones- — to Sancus, Fidius or thee, Father Semo ? Sancus answered me : 255 " Assign to either of those titles three, And you assign to me ; my names fulfil The will Curetan, and the Sabine will, By temple built on the Quirinal hill. INAUSPICIOUS DAY TO MARRY. My daughter ! and I utter now my prayer 260 For happiness for her, and many a year Of comfort and of life when mine is sped. Anxious, my child, to strew thy bridal bed When thou wast nubile, then I asked what tides Propitious were for bridegrooms and for brides ; 265 And June was named, when June hath passed the Ides. Book VI. THE FASTI. 183 'Twas the Flaminica, priestess benign, Who said, " Till Vesta's Iliacan shrine Is purged by placid Tiber of its dust — Until that come to pass, refrain you must ; It is not lawful unto me to pare With steel my nails, or comb with box my hair, Shorn though it be, nor consort with my spouse, Though priest of Jove, mine by eternal vows, Wedded by a perpetual decree, Until the Ides be passed. Then patient be, And when Telighted Vesta's pure flames blaze, Let her espouse in those propitious days. " 270 275 VII. ID. JUN. AECTOPHYLAX SETS. Third from the nones Phoebe, 'tis said, removes Lycaon from the sphere, and Ursa roves Fearless meantime ; and I remember, too, 280 GAMES TO THE RIVER TIBER. The games to yellow Tiber now are due On Campus Martius. This is a holy day For fishermen ; their nets now laid away, Nor brass hook baited is for finny prey. 285 VI. ID. JUN. TEMPLE TO MENS. Mens, too, is deified : Carthage perfidious, thou- Thou wast the cause of the enshrining vow. Thou hadst again rebelled, and panic dread Had fallen upon us ; when our consul, dead, 184 THE FASTI. Book VI. We stood astonished by Mauritian arms, 290 And fear had banished hope. These panic qualms The senate besought Mens to soothe and sane, And she besought restored our minds again. On the sixth day before the Ides, we paid To her the vow then by the senate made. 295 V. ID. JUN. VESTALIA. Vesta, appear ! goddess, unto thee We tune the strain, if that it lawful be — If that we may enchant thy holy rite. • Immersed in prayer, I marked the blushing light Of the celestial goddess, and rebound 300 Of roseate reflection on the ground. I saw thee not — avaunt, audacious song ! Thou goddess art invisible ; but long Hidden in error, matters long unknown Were to my mind intuitively shown. 305 For Borne had kept her feast Palilia here Some two-score times : so long it was. or e'er The guardian of the sacred fire obtained Her temple here. It was when Numa reigned, A peaceful and a righteous king, — the best 310 The Sabine land e'er gave or e'er possessed — These brazen roofs thatched with straw only were, These walls were but of wattled osier, This little spot that holds her fane and dome Was unshorn Numa's great palatial home. 315 The rounded frame is now as then it was, It is unchanged, and with sufficient cause ; Book VI. THE FASTI. 185 Vesta and Terra are one and the same, Common to both the never-smouldering flame — Common to both and so the earth and hearth 320 Imply their seat. And as the rounded earth, Supported by no prop, hangs in the sphere A weighty mass in circumambient air, Kotundity its strength, no angles break Externally, no friction makes it weak, 325 Poised in the centre, neither more nor less Doth any point beyond another press. All this to its convexity is due, And so the earth became a nucleus to The universe. 330 So Syracusan art enclosed in air A globe confined, type of the earth and sphere Which equidistant floats 'twixt pole and pole — Kotundity of this effect, cause sole. Round as the earth, so round is Vesta's fane, 335 And a round dome protects it from the rain. Why has the goddess maiden ministers, Do you demand ? Such ministry of hers Has reasons good. From Ops descended are Juno and Ceres, to Saturn them she bare, 340 And they are married, and are mothers both ; And Vesta third she bare : but Vesta, loth To wedlock, still rejected marriage bands. What marvel, then, she chooses virgin hands To do her rites ? Vesta is living flame, 345 And fire produces not a mortal frame ; li 186 THE FASTI. Book VI. Therefore by right a virgin, and no seed Or principle within her which could breed — Her virgin train the same. I sometimes deemed She statues had — so I absurdly dreamed ; 350 Beneath the hollow dome there nothing is — Vesta and flame possess no effigies — Nothing but flame, which unextinguished lies Secret and hid in her peripheries. [355 Earth stands, " t Vi stando," in her strength, stands she ; Thence derives Yesta. Similar may be The derivation of her Grecian name ; But " Focus " and the hearth derive from flame, Because it " fosters " all, and therefore stood Within the entrance door ; and thence ensued 360 The name of Vestibule ; and thence we trace Our prayer, " Thou, Vesta, holding the front place." Guests sat before this hearth, and benches were Arranged on which they sat ; we thought, too, there The gods sat at our board : that thought is now 365 Transferred unto Vacuna ; when we go To do her ancient rites, we think that they By hearths vacunal present are alway. And still we hold the custom old and rude On a clean platter to bear Vesta food ; 370 With ass begarlanded with loaves of bread, And festal wreaths around the millstones spread. Only in ovens formerly the boor Boasted his peas and beans, as told before, Book VI. THE FASTI. 187 On festival of Fornax ; to bake bread 375 They used the hearth and ashes, on tiles spread. They the first bakers : so it came to pass That honoured were the goddess, hearth, and ass That turned the millstone's rough and rugged mass. And must I once again write thy disgrace, 380 Thou droll Priapus with the ruddy face ? Cybele, turret-crowned, proclaimed a feast, And called thereto each deity as guest. The satyrs and the nymphs invited were, Silenus also went unbidden there. 385 It is not lawful for me in this tale The re veilings of godheads to unveil : Passed was the night in banquetting, the morn Beheld them on Mount Ida most part worn And choosing spots for rest ; some sought the shade ; 390 But some, the nymphs and satyrs, danced and played With knitted fingers and with bounding feet. Vesta had chosen out a calm retreat, And pillowed on a tuft the goddess slept ; Euddy Priapus still the revel kept, 395 And chased the nymphs ; chasing he chanced to view The sleeping goddess, dubious if he knew She was a goddess or a nymph ; howe'er that be For nymph or goddess reverence none had he. Silenus there had left the ass beside 400 The verdant pasture of the rippling tide, And the ass brayed, and so the goddess woke ; Her maidens sought the spot, and spoilt the joke 188 THE FASTI. Book VI. Of him who reigns by the long Hellespont. And thence the men of Lampsacus are wont 405 To sacrifice the ass to him, and we Still broil his entrails : but in memory Of thee, dear goddess, we monilia make Of loaves of bread, and deck him for thy sake ; The sounds of grinding cease whiles we perform the wake. 410 ALTAR TO JUPITER PISTOR. Jupiter Pistor ! On the thunderer's hill That altar stands, and that name ever will Be most renowned, though the memorial's small. The capitol blockaded by the Gaul Suffered dread famine. Jupiter convoked 415 The gods to council ; and he Mars invoked To speak. Mars answering said, " Well known, It needeth not the voice of plaint or groan ; But if I must proclaim the deep disgrace, Borne prostrate lies before an Alpine race. 420 Is this, I ask, her promised sovereignty ? Is this her empire o'er the world to be? Crushed had she all the neighbouring tribes around, Etrurian armies, all within her bound. And now she is expelled, herself expelled. 425 Why we, the Conscript Fathers, have beheld Men graced with triumphs, but now seniors, fall In picted vestments and in open hall. Symbols of Ilian Vesta have they sent Wanting our aid, perhaps, to banishment ; 430 Book VI. THE FASTI. 189 For when they cast their eyes, and see the Gaul Invest the capitol — that home of all The gods of heaven, — I say, then what pretence Have we to ask for further frankincense, Which offered is in vain ? would that they 435 Had a fair field of action, had fair play ! Then, if they could not conquer, they could die. Now are they famished, starved, cooped up, and lie Beleaguered by barbarians." So spoke Mars : Him Venus following spoke, denouncing wars ; 440 Quirinus her, with trabea and staff — And Vesta followed him on Home's behalf. Then Jupiter responded : " We are all Concerned in this. Hereafter conquered Gaul Shall suffer pains and penalties ; devise, 445 Vesta now, how emptied granaries May be reported full ; protect thy seat ; Bring out thence all the stores of unground wheat, And grind them in the mills ; let all hands knead And all hearths bake again the stores of bread. 450 So Jupiter : Saturnian Vesta bowed To him and to his will. Night cast her shroud O'er toils and battles. Jove descending sought The capitol, and chided, whilst he taught That which he willed : " arise, and cast from hence 455 The thing that ye most need for your defence ; Hurl at the foe the thing that you most want." They woke and asked, what matter militant They should resign : it seemed to them 'twas bread ; They hurled the cereal gift at Gallic head ; 460 190 THE FASTI. Book VI. Loaves rattled on the helmet and the shield ; Hope left the Gaul and he resigned the field. And when repulsed, they placed a candid shrine To Jove the baker, by Jove's fane divine. From Vesta's festival, it happed, I strayed 465 By the new street, now to the Forum made, And 'marked a matron walking with bare feet ; Surprised I paused, and pondered in the street ; Which an old dame remarking, bade me sit And hear her palsied tongue account for it. 470 " Yes, they be Fora now, once marshes, which The river overflowed, and filled the ditch. This was the Curtian lake, but now 'tis dry — A lake it was, it now has altars high. Willows and reeds and weeds were here, where we 475 By the Velabra pomp processions see Wend to the circus ; often tipsy boys Fording suburban waters make a noise Chanting and taunting sailors with words rude. Not then Vertumnus, he who turned the flood, 480 The god of changing shapes, had had that name. And here, too, was a sacred grove, the same All reeds and bulrushes ; you could not go To it with shoes upon your feet ; and though The marsh is drained and banked, and is quite dry, 485 Yet still we keep old customs up ; that's why We walk barefooted." So said the dear old soul. Farewell, old dame, I said ; may thy days roll Happy and peacefully to their last goal. Book VI. THE FASTI. 191 PALLADIUM SNATCHED FROM THE FIRE. The tale I now must tell I learnt and knew 490 When I was quite a child ; 'tis a tale true, And must not be passed by. Ilus Dardanides Had built his walls ; the Asian realm was his, The Asian wealth ; Minerva's statue fell Within his walls — on Ilion's citadel. 495 To see it was my cue : the place and fane I saw, indeed, there place and fane remain ; The Palladium is at Kome. Smintheus consulted was, and from deep gloom Of holy grove the response came, from whom 500 No response false can come : " Ketain," he said, " The form ethereal of the martial maid ; To town and realm, wherever she may be, She will transfer all rule and sovereignty." Ilus preserved her ; in his citadel 505 He shut her up. The custody next fell Unto Laomedon his heir ; then Priam reigned, And badly guarded her ; she so ordained That it should be. She willed not to remain After her form and face had borne disdain 510 By voice of Paris. It is thought and said Crafty Ulysses, or else Diomed, Or good iEneas, bore her thence away ; Whose hand it was, we cannot surely say ; But Koman is she now, and Vesta holds 515 Her well in ward, assiduous beholds 192 THE FASTI. Book VI. With eyes all- vie wing and ne'er-slumbering light : And yet the senators were dumb with fright, When Vesta burned, and when her crypt and home Was almost buried by the fallen dome. 520 When fire unholy burnt the sacred fires, — Flames pious flames profane — her- ministers, Her virgin ministry, absorbed by fear, Weeping and wailing with disordered hair. Metellus rushed to rescue. Virgin bands, 525 This will not do, he cried ; put forth your hands And save the fated pledge ; as it is fit, Your hands and not your prayers must rescue it. Ah me ! unhappy do you doubt and fear, For on her knees was every virgin there. 530 With upraised hands and waters pure, he ran : " Behold it not, ye holy ! I a man Entering your shrines forbidden unto men, And, if a crime unpardonable, then v On me, on me, devolve the penalty, 535 Let Koine be saved, and I the victim be." The goddess rescued by her Pontifex Approved the deed and overlooked his sex. Now beneath Caesar, ye burn well, fires; Now and for ever holy flame aspires 540 On Ilian shrines ; nor now nor ever more Shall priestess foul the fillets that she wore ; No more unchastity shall buried be Alive in earth, for buried so was she Who broke her vows : Tellus was heaped on her — 545 One and the same Vesta and Tellus are. Book VI. THE FASTI. 193 CALLAICI CONQUERED. Cognomen, yet one more, did Brutus gain, Callaicus, from victory in Spain, SLAUGHTER OF THE CEASSI. But fate ordains to mingle good and ill, 550 Unmingled happiness denying still, Crassus, amidst Euphrates' channels, lost Himself, his sons, his eagles, and his host. Parthian, exultest thou ? the goddess cried. Thou shalt restore the standards, and thy pride 555 Suffer rebuke — vengeance is on our side. DELPHIN ARISES. Soon as the ass is freed from festal chain, And the hoarse mill of Ceres grinds again, The seaman, sitting in the boat, will say, " ^Yhen dewy night has chased the light of day 560 The dolphin will arise to point the way." III. ID. JUX. MATEALIA. Now when Tithonus plains for his lost bride. And Lucifer has risen from the tide, Up, bonae matres, up, your festival 3Iatralia is to-day : ye offer all 565 Cakes to the Theban goddess. An area famed Betwixt the circus and the bridge was named From a bull's statue there. And on this day The sceptred Servius in state array o 194 THE FASTI. Book VI. Ordained a temple to our parent dame, 570 Matuta. Now who the goddess is, and whence she came, And why she chases handmaids from her shrine — For chased they are from thence — and why, in fine, She wants cates toasted — Bacchus, for you know, 575 With grape and ivy bound about your brow ; If that she be of yours, my shallop steer. Jove, too obsequious to your mother's prayer, Sweet Semele consumed ; and Ino took Charge of thee, child ; all other care forsook 580 Save care for thee. Juno in rage because She reared a foster child, who rescued was From concubine of Jove, whom she had doomed ; And yet she was her sister who consumed. So Athamas was maddened, and he slew 585 His son, the young Learchus. Ritual due You gave to him : and then with floating hair From funeral pyre returning as you were, You snatched young Melicerta from his bed, And burst away unto a rocky head 590 Which separates two seas — one little neck of land Washed by two waters ; there you took your stand, Hugging your son in your insanity, And plunged with him from cliff into the sea — From the high cliff. Them Panope received ; 595 She and her hundred sisters them relieved, And bore them softly on their watery tide. For not yet was Leucothoe deified ; Book VI. THE FASTI. 195 Nor was Palaamon fixed on Tiber's flood. There is a grove there, hardly understood 600 Whether of Semele or Stimula ; The Maenades Ausonian dwelt there, And Ino asked of them, "Who owned those plains?" "Arcadians," they replied, "Evander reigns." Saturnia heard, descending in disguise, 605 She to the Latin Maenades replies, r simpletons, blockheads ! ye are mad ; This stranger comes unfriendly and unbad ; By fraud she seeks to learn our mysteries ; A pledge she has for penalty — him seize." 610 Or ere she well had done, the Thyad choir Yelled their ulalah ! and with streaming hair Laid hands on her, and strove to tear away Young Melicerta from her arms : and they Invoked the gods, albeit ignorant 615 What gods, and man to aid a suppliant — A mother in despair. , The rocks reply, And Aventine re-echoed to her cry. (Etaaus heard ; he had just driven thence The kine Iberian ; hating violence, 620 He heard the cry and to the rescue dashed ; At w r hose approach the female crew abashed Turned turpidly and fled ; and Hercules Her recognising, "Aunt of Bacchus," says, I What dost thou here ? say, doth the deity 625 That vexes me, doth she too harass thee?" And she replied, but told but half the tale ; The presence of her son caused her to fail ; o 2 196 THE FASTI. Book VI. She blushed to make confession before him ; Now frenzy had transported her to crime. 630 Fame, swift and busy ever, now upsoars, And vaunts the name of Ino on those shores. Carmentis welcomed her, and as her guest She broke her fast and sunk to needful rest. The Tegeaean priestess made her cakes, 635 Baked hurriedly upon the hearth : she rates That rustic kindness shown upon that day, Amidst her brightest beams of memory. Therefore, Matralia on, we offer Cates. " And now," she said, " prophetess, the Fates 640 Are known to you ; unseal then their decree, And add that boon to hospitality." There was no pause ; straightway the godhead fired The mortal frame, and all her soul inspired. Scarcely the matron might you recognise, 645 So holier, statelier grown to human eyes. " Burst into joy my song, rejoice," she sung, "Ino, thy toils are ended; us among Here must thou dwell, henceforth for aye to be Goddess Marine and benign deity. 650 Thy Melicerta, too, must be the same, And he and thou receive another name ; Thou by the Greeks Leucothoe called, by us Matuta. And in port, all naval jus Shall centre in your son. Palaamon they 655 Shall name his godhead, and Portunus we. Arise, assume your duties and your state." They bowed assentant, and it followed straight ; Book VI. THE FASTI. 197 Xames changed, and ended toils and miseries, Now one a god and one a goddess is. 660 And now you ask, why handmaids hated are ? The faithless Athamas, Cadmeida ! Wrought folly with thy maid. To hurt the queen She told him that adusted grain had been Served out unto the husbandmen for seed. 665 Ino denied the calumny indeed ! But what of that, it was received as sooth. That girl's immodesty and want of truth Have caused her chase them all with little ruth. Now let not anxious mothers prayers prefer 670 For blessings for their offspring unto her ; She was a hapless mother of her own. But useful she unto her sister's son To Bacchus was ; therefore invoked may be For brother's or for sister's progeny. 675 SLAUGHTER OF THE RUTILII AND DIDII. It is recorded that she said to thee, Consul Kutilius, " Hurry not to be Slain on my feast day by the Marsian foe ; " Despite her warning words it followed so. Tolenus rolled his waters gory red With blood of slain, the Consul with the dead ; And the succeeding year and morning same Saw Didius die, doubling the Marsian fame. 680 198 THE FASTI. Book VI. TEMPLE OF FORTUNE DEDICATED. On the same morning, on the selfsame site, Did the same hand the fane of Fortune pight. 685 But who is this who lies therein perdue Beneath the toga ? It is Servius. True, 'Tis Servius, that is certain ; why he lies Obscured therein, to my mind doubtful is. She, child celestial, owning love concealed, 690 Blushed deeply red to find her love revealed — Love for a mortal man ! Her spirit yearned With passion for the king ; her bosom burned For him, not blind in that. Wonted she was withal To seek him through a casement window small, . 695 From whence a royal portal bears the name Of Fenestella ; but now she blushes shame, And o'er herself and features spreads the veil, And toga o'er the king. Another tale Perchance has more verisimilitude. 700 After the death of Tullius, grief ensued ; The Commons mourning o'er their peaceful chief, And seeking mitigation for their grief, Covered his statue with their togas broad, And hid from sight their lost and murdered lord. 705 Another tale, and longer, must I sing, Yet will I rein my steeds within the ring. Tullia had compassed wedlock, and possessed Of the reward of wickedness, addressed Book VI. THE FASTI. 199 Her husband thus : 710 "What doth it boot to be Steeped in our kindred slaughter, you and me, In blood of sister and of brother slain, If piously contented we remain ? My husband and your wife need not have died, If virtuously we stop now, satisfied. 715 Up, I present you with a dowry good — My father's head and seat, my father's blood. Now, as thou art a man, put forth thy hand And take that dowry — seize on the command. Regality is criminal ; now steep 720 Thy hand and mine ; in blood paternal reap The throne and reign." So did she goad him on Till he, a Commoner, seized regal throne. The Commons thunder-stricken rushed to arms ; And followed straight blood, slaughter, and alarms ; 725 Infirm old age succumbed. Superbus sate Sceptred and throned upon the seat of state. 'Neath the Esquilian Servius lay slain Beneath his palace, bloody on the plain. His daughter in her chariot down that street 730 Rode to the roof paternal. At her feet The body lay — the startled charioteer Reined up the horses, as he dropped a tear : Haughty and bold, she bade him to go on, Nor tempt her wrath by weeping like a loon — 735 "Go on," she said, "drive the wheels over him." The fact is true ; they crushed him face and limb — 200 THE FASTI. Book VI. The fact is true : the street is called from it The Sceleratus, appellation fit. Yet further, Tullia dared to touch the fane 740 Memorial of her father — deed profane ! Another marvel followed thereupon : There sat the imaged Tullius on his throne ; The statue cast its hand before its eyes, And spoke and said, " shield me from surprise ! 745 Cover my face, and let it not behold My wicked daughter's face." With toga-fold They covered up his face as it behoved, Which Fortune suffered not to be removed. For thus she spoke forth from her sacred fane : 750 " If e'er the features be unveiled again Of Servius Tullius, shame departeth hence. Roman matrons, on no vain pretence Touch ye the toga ; but be it yours to pray Rome's seventh king may lie concealed alway 755 Under the Roman garb." That fane was burned ; Flames spared that statue. Mulciber returned To save his son, for Tullius was the son Of Mulciber. Corniculum when won, The fair Ocrisia there was captive made. 760 In company with Tanaquil she paid The sacred rites ; she libated the wine In sacrifice upon the sculptured shrine. Amidst the ash a naked form appeared ; The captive maid commanded, it upreared, 765 Book VI. THE FASTI. 201 And by it became pregnant : Servius thus Was born of seed celestial. Proof to us The father gave, when in a fiery cone The coruscating flame upsoared upon The head and hair of his acknowledged son. 770 TEMPLE OF CONCORD DEDICATED. And thou, Concordia ! Livia enshrined In fane magnificent. Thee she assigned Unto her spouse adored : yet be it known, Of all that fane the portico alone, Of all that house immense, descends to us. The walls of many a city populous Circled an area smaller than its wall. Tis levelled now, but for no crime at all Save luxury. Baneful to common weal, Caesar subverted it with courage leal To public good, and to his private cost. So does our Censor act ; no deed is lost When that the Censor practises in sooth The morals he enjoins to Roman youth. 775 780 IDES JUN. TEMPLE TO JUPITER INVICTUS. The next day is a blank ; as the Ides rove The temples blaze to the unconquered Jove. 785 QUINQU ATRIA MINORA. Quinquatria the lesser is my task ; Minerva auburn-haired, thee do I ask 202 THE FASTI. Book VI. To aid me in my duty. Tell me why The strolling player of the pipe flouts by 790 Through thoroughfares of Borne, throughout the town In masks, disguises, and the trailing gown ? Tritonia answered me, deposed the spear, would that I could utter words as clear ! — " In the old age, the player of the flute 795 Was much esteemed ; his pipe was never mute ; It sounded in the temples, at the games, It sounded too amidst funereal flames. Payment made labour sweet, until in brief Times changed, and Grecian customs came to grief. 800 The iEdile also limited their men Attendant on funereal pomps to ten ; Therefore they left the city, and they went Exiled to Tibur. Tibur sometime lent Exiles asylum ; and then ceased the sound 805 Of music at the scene, the altars round, Nor choir nor dirge accompanied the dead. A certain man of Tibur, who had sped A term of slavery there, but who then free Erom term of time — of noble soul was he — 810 Prepared a feast in rural villa, and Invited thereunto the exiled band. 'Twas night, and wine and revelry had pressed Hard on the eyes and spirits of each guest, When rushed a man, with preconcerted tale, 815 And said, ' Away with feast convivial ! Thy manumittor comes, and is at hand.' To cut and run uprose the tuneful band, Book VI. THE FASTI. 203 But could not manage it; strong wine betrays, And tipsiness, the staggering foot bewrays. 820 But their host cried, ' Depart,' and hurled them in A wattled waggon ; hoisted thick and thin ; And there they lay. Time, wine, and motion wrought, And on they slept, to T.ibur, as they thought, But on the waggon went to Kome, and passed 825 The hill Esquilian, and at morn stood fast Eight in the Forum. Plautius ready there Them to befriend : number and calling were To be enshrouded from the Senate's eyes ; Therefore he masked them, put them in disguise 830 Of trailing garments and long robes, and made Them join the female troop ; and so arrayed Unnoticed they returned. This stratagem Deceived his colleague persecuting them, [835 And pleased the many — the Commons all were pleased. Now on the Ides all order is defeased ; In dresses quaint, sanctioned by custom long, They vent their merriment in ancient song." , Minerva ceased : again I dared to say, " Still must I ask the reason why to-day 840 Is called Quinquatrus ? " " March holds a feast to me Called by that name," she said. " Tibicinse Are votaries of mine. I was the first to drill The boxen pipe with stops and notes at will. The melody pleased well ; but when before 845 The watery mirror, how deformed I wore 204 THE FASTI. Book VI. My puffed out virgin cheeks, ' No, no/ I cried ; * My tibia, farewell, you touch my pride — ' And cast it in the flood. A Satyr found, And struck with marvel heard the pleasing sound ; 850 Though ignorant of stops, he piped away, Whilst now his lips and now his fingers play ; The nymphs applauded ; so he bragged and played And challenged Phoebus ; vanquished, Phoebus flayed Him bone and limb. 855 Yes, I invented flutes ; The science takes its place midst my pursuits." XVII. KAL. JUL. HYADES AKISE. PUPJFIED. TEMPLE OF VESTA On the third dawn Dodonian Thyene Bright on the forehead of the bull will be ; And, Father Tiber, thou dost purge away The dust and ash of Vesta on this day. 860 XVI. KAL. JUL. ZEPHYRUS BLOWS. And if ye trust in winds, mariners ! Spread sails, to-morrow Zephyrus bestirs. ORION PISES. But when the sire of the bright Heliades Shall plunge his radiant beams in Western seas, And, with his star serene, fulfills his track, The son of Hyreius will show his back. 865 Book VI. THE FASTI. 205 XV. KAL. JUL. DELPHIN KISES. VOLSCI AND JEQUI CONQUEKED. On the next night Delphin appears in sight : 'Tis long ago since he beheld the flight Of Yolsci and of iEqui on thy meads, Algida terra ! and of milk-white steeds, 870 Tubertus Postlmmus, unto thy car Assigned for triumph in suburban war. XIV. KAL. JUL. SOL IN CANCER. TEMPLE TO MINERVA. Twelve days remain of June ; add one day more. Sol quitting Gemini now passes o'er To Cancer ruddy-rayed : Pallas divine 875 This day was worshipped on Mount Aventine. XIII. KAL. JUL. TEMPLE TO SUMMANUS. And now Laomedon, thy daughter bright Rising dispels the damps and dews of night ; Summanus, whosoe'er he was, received His temple here : 'twas when the Romans grieved 880 By Pyrrhus were, and him supreme believed. OPHIUCHUS RISES. When Galateia shall have welcomed her In waves paternal ; when, ceased daily stir, Stillness and quiet reign, the youth appears, Smitten by thunderbolt of Jove, who bears 885 The double snakes knotted upon his hand. Phaedra and Theseus, — we now understand 206 THE FASTI. Book VI. How lust and how injustice doomed their son. The pious boy exiled was journeying on Unto Troezena, when a blatant bull 890 Kose on the crested wave, uprising full In front of startled steeds ; nor voice nor rein Of their undaunted lord might them restrain. O'er rocks and crags they bolted, till the car Was broken, overturned, and onward far 895 They dragged their lord, enveloped by the reins, Lifeless and crushed. Dian, indignant 'plains ; But Coronides said, " I can restore The pious boy to life, so grieve no more ; The sombre Fates must yield unto my art." 900 From ivory box, herbs he selected part, The which the shade of Glaucus had yproved The benefit : — for ^Esculapius roved Searching for simples once, and killed a snake, And saw its fellow herbs remedial take 905 And him resuscitate. He smote the breast Thrice, and with words remedial addressed, And raised the head from earth. DiGtynna hides Him in her grove ; he in the glen abides As Virbius, by the lake Aricinan : 910 But Clymenus and Clotho plaints began ; She for her twisted thread was tied again, And he for scorn done to his nether reign. And Jupiter was wrath, and levelled hath His thunderbolt, for in unsanctioned path 9L5 Book VI. THE FASTI. 207 The augur wrought with aid unwarranted. But 'plain not Phoebus, that thy son is dead ; He is a god ; be friends with Jupiter ; Be reconciled with him, who dares confer Things upon thee, which else forbidden are. 920 IX. KAL. JUN. FLAMINTUS CONQUERED. I would not Caesar, though you hurrying were To victory, bid you the standard rear If auspices forbad ; witness to us have been Flaminius and the banks of Trasimene How the just gods give augury by birds. A day of rashness and of loss past words, Was the eighth day before the end of June. 925 VIII. KAL. JUN. SYPHAX AND HASDRUBAL CONQUERED. But the next morning sings another tune ; Then Massinissa conquered Syphax, and Hasdrubal fell by act of his own hand. 930 FEAST OF FORS FORTUNA. Time flits away, years roll on silent wing, The hours unreined old age and feebless bring. How quickly cometh Fors Fortuna's feast ! Yet seven morns and June will be released. Now go, Quirites, go and celebrate The goddess Fors where she doth habitate On Tiber's banks, by bounty of the king; On foot, on board, go hurry-skurrying, 935 208 THE FASTI. Book VI. Nor blush returning home inebriate. Barks garlanded to carry you await ; . 940 And as you float indulge in cups of wine. The Commons love her ; he who built her shrine Was but of rank plebeian, but he swayed The regal sceptre which all ranks obeyed : And Fors upholds the slave, for Tullius sprung 945 From a bondwoman, ranking them among ; And he to Fors Fortuna raised the fane. vi. kal. jun. orion's zone eises. summer solstice. From her suburban temple one again, Returning glorious, apostrophises thus Orion rising : " Belt, unseen by us 950 To-day and perhaps to-morrow will appear, Orion, afterwards." Who, if he were But sober in his wits, would also say The summer solstice doth recur to-day. V. KAL. JUL. TEMPLE TO THE LARES. With morning dawn rites are to Lares paid, And chaplets offered by hands skilful made. 955 TEMPLE TO JUPITER STATOR. And Stator hath his dedicated shrine By Romulus, in front of Palatine. IV. KAL. JUL. TEMPLE TO QUIRINUS. And you, Quirinus, in the trabea, Three days before June closes, worshipped are. 060 Book VI. THE FASTI. 209 PEID. KAL. JUL. FEAST OF HEKCULES AND THE MUSES. And with to-morrow morn July is born ! " Pierian maidens, let me have no scorn In my last task ; Pierian maidens, tell Who placed ye here conjoint with him to dwell 965 Who suffered scathe of Juno — Hercules." So I, and Clio said, " Memorial 'tis Philippus of the Great, and of his child Marcia, the beautiful, the undefiled, With name deduced from Ancus Martius 970 And piety : her wit and genius, Hereditary loveliness of face, All on a par with birth : deem it not base To praise her loveliness ; we laud the grace Of goddesses celestial ; — they were allied 975 To house of Csesar, by Philippus' bride. grace and glory, woman worthiest, Hail, and all hail." So Clio her addressed With the assent of all the gifted choir ; Alcides nodding with responsive lyre. 980 JUPITEE TOXANS. PIRAXESI. "RESTITVEKE." NOTES. " M Bomule"—BooK I. line 31. Ovid over-estimates the science of his own age, and under-estimates that of the old Etruscans. Augustus Caesar had no better scientific appliances wherewith to measure time, than to rob Heliopolis of an obelisk, its " finger of the Sun," and set it up in the Campus Martius, on the Monte Citorio, and to concoct a clepsydra, or water time-piece, to divide the day into hours. It was the honour of a far later age to discover the pendulum, and mete the hour into minutes and seconds, and to appro- priate to the year its exact measure of time — as 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 11 seconds. The confusion which had occurred, with loss of sixty- seven days in the time of Julius Caesar, was not attributable to the old Etruscans, but to the historic period of Eome lerself. Two hundred and seventy years more than suffice to explain that deficiency, by simply omitting the fraction of the day in the year ; and this must be laid entirely to the charge of the Eoman Commonwealth; her ploughmen, Cincinnatus and Fabricius, and her tyrants, Marius and Sylla, apparently caring for none of these things ; and Ovid apparently classes astronomy and astrology together when he questions, in Booki. 1. 319, the lawfulness of his writing upon the stars. The old Etruscans belonged to a family of the races of man with whom astronomy was a religious stucty, and their teasure of time was carefully and properly kept. The p 2 212 NOTES TO THE FASTI. Equinoxes and the solstices were their festivals, as we find in this exposition by the month of Janns. This race of man, scattered over the globe, had its well at Syene, and its pillar at Pern, marking the summer solstice, when, as in Etruria, new fire was drawn down from heaven. Homer mentions the Pillar at Scyros, which was probably another like the Obelisk of Heliopolis, which discriminated by the shadow the daily progress. Hezekiah had his sun- dial; Ulysses shot his shaft through the twelve rings, probably the solar ray penetrating the cavern on the equinox. The length of the year was well known in very early times. The old Etruscan year we are told consisted of 304 days ; being thirty-eight Nundinae of eight days ; and the cycle consisted of six of these, as nearly as possible the length of five years of 365 days, being respectively 1824 and 1825 days, which they further kept correct by intercalary days ; thus, amidst such apparently discordant periods, keeping a concordant course. The Sementival festivals of the times of harvest and of seed-time were specially named, occurring only five times, to six of the other festivals in the period of the C3^cle ; and the husbandmen, as do our gardeners and peasantry, went by natural indications of the advent of the swallow, and the budding of the mulberry, &c. " Jane hiformis." — 1. 1. 96. Janus is a most complex and puzzling deity. Jana, Diana, and Luna are the moon ; whom again we find in the masculine as Janus, Dianus, and Lunus. AVhether solar and lunar ; or whether the masculine form be the solar phase, yet Janus appears to me to have far more of lunar than of solar properties. He gives sanctuary, his wand is white, he claims the pig, he has a love affair with Grane, the solar NOTES TO THE FASTI. 213 fountain, and his fanes at Aventine and at Falisca were cubes. He claims fountains as his own, especially the sul- phur fountains at the foot of Mount Aventine, to which phase he belongs as a democrat against the Palatine kings, one of whom, King Procas, was saved by Grane and the pig and white wand. Mr. Faber carries him back to Noah ; Janus and Eanus, inch last was a variation of Oan and Oannes. Junonius, from the dove ; Quirinus, from Kur, the Sun. We have ,lready seen, p. 11, the ark and the falx as common to Noah, Saturn, and Janus. Bryant identifies Oannes with )agon, the fish idol of the Philistines and Babylonians, Ld with the Indian Yish-Nou, whom again he traces back :o Noah. He used to appear with his three sons, iv. 141 ; ley were the Cabeiri : — Cabria bore three Cabeiri, and three Cabeirae, and they were the Ogdoad of the ark ; the life before and after the Flood giving him his double, old and young, face. Fountains are his property. Janus, as the Moon, is considered an irreproachable character ; but, in respect of fountains, we find the nymph Grane abused by him ; and he has a daughter Canens, by Venilia, upon whom severally a word. Grane is " fons solis," converted from rites of blood to sanctuary by Janus, as will be shown in Carnse Festum, and Kalends of June. The name Grane, or Carna, as appropriate to the Sun, may be traced in Cranae, the isle which received Paris and Helen. Grynaeus, Carneius, titles of Apollo ; the Geranos sacred to him. Kprjvrj, Grane, Carne. Grenna, fount of Apollo at Cyrene. Aquae Grane, Aix-la-Chapelle. Ros-Crana, of Ossian, the impersonation of female beauty and goodness, like the Shirin of Chosroes. 214 NOTES TO THE FASTI. In Ireland we find — Grian, Celtic name of the Sun. Cairn, Barrow dedicated to the Sun. New Grange, a tumulus, on the Boyne, whereon St. Patrick is said to have lighted the Paschal fires, which put out those of Tara for ever. Knoch Greine, Tuam Greine, Hills of the Sun. Slieb na Grian, Slieb na Man, Hills of Tipperary to the Sun and Moon. • Cairn Grainey, solar heap. Granny's Bed, Grian Beacht. In Scotland we have inscriptions " Apollini Granno." In England we have the Graney Eiver, so the Granta was formerly called, rising at the Bartlow Hills beneath Bump- stead Helion, and joining the Cam and the Khe at Eagae (now Cambridge) ; all which words, Cam, Ee, and Graney, signify the solar fount; springing respectively at Ash- well and Ashton, the word ash being' equally significant of fire. Cranmere on Dartmoor. Cranbournes and Cranbrooks are fountains and lakes of the sun, erroneously applied to a supposititious Geranos or crane. There is no such bird. The Egyptian Ibis was the original Geranos. There was a dance called by that name : Theseus danced it at Delos round the altar Keraton, formed of the left horns of bulls. The title Karanus devolved on the Macedonian kings from their symbol, Keren, a horn, which they put upon the head of iEgae, the tumulus, and symbolized it by Atyrjs, the Goat, with "the notable horn " of Daniel. See woodcut, p. 247. And Hesychius says the goat was called Caranus by the Cretans. The practice of marking fountains by mounds and Cippi is almost universal in the East, but sulphurous springs and intermittent sources of water were more than usually holy ; NOTES TO THE FASTI. 215 so we find the sulphurous springs of the Forum, claimed by Janus, and the summit of the hill Janiculum is full of springs which are among the chief grace of the Yilla Pam- phili Doria on that hill. The name of Janigena Can ens exists still with us, as the fountain sources of the Wiltshire Avon at All Cannings and Bishop Cannings, whilst if we have a Janiculum existing on our land, it is at Shepherd's Shore, above those fountains, on Wans Dyke, which separates the northern from the southern sources of those most holy of our Druidic- worshipped streams.* The word signifies Can-Ain, head or chief spring ; the Camcenee, to whom she belongs, are the solar founts ; the complex character of Janus jumbles him with these. It remains to treat of Venilia. I have adduced Greemes Dyke and the Duni Pacis at Camelon as a Janiculum, and the word Venilia I think attaches to it. In Sir Walter Scott's ' Antiquary,' in the dispute on the Picts betwixt Oldbuck and Sir Arthur Wardour, the dis- putants agree there is but one word remaining of their dialect ; asked by Lovel what that word in dispute was ? " Ben Val," said both the disputants at once. " Which signifies caput valli," said Sir Arthur. " The head of the wall," echoed Oldbuck. " There was a deep pause, &c." Ben Val, or Venilia, is the top of Picts Wall, the Ja- niculum there, at Crowy Point, which is another equivalent. Here we find Venilia, which legend is repeated in the * Canens, in Britain, was converted into Keyne, Teyne, Cynan, Kane ; which was again converted to Queen, as in Queen's Camel, the sul- phurous source beneath the Camelates — mounds sacred to King Arthur, our British Sun. 216 NOTES TO THE FASTI. masculine in Venulus, the Ambassador of Turnus, Meta- morph, xiv. 1. 515, who, returning home, runs against the double fane, sacred to Semi-caper Pan, but originally in days of old to the nymphs ; there was the oleaster or wild olive, like the cursed fig-tree at the double fane at Bethany and Bethphage ; and the fig-tree in the fable of the con- stellation Hydra, Corvus, and Crater, which appear to me to triplicate one another, the barren fig, the unripe fig, and the bitter olive. A group of two fanes, with a tree between, appears among the objects of Curetan worship on the Barbarini pavement in Mr. Faber's Cabeiri, which is here given. The fane stands above two bursting fountains, which fall into a reservoir and emerge again in eight streams. We trace in all these cases a fane with a double or divided worship, and the tree apparently an object of fear and hatred to the votary. But the fig-tree saves Ulysses at Charybdis, and the ark of Eomulus and Remus floats to the Ficus Kuminalis of Mount Aventine, by the fountain of Janus there. To conclude, I think we have traced in this our land, Venilia in Ben Val, a Janiculum of Picts Wall. Canens beneath a very similar spot of Wans- or NOTES TO THE FASTI. 217 Odens Dyke, and Grane or Carna in rtos-Crana of Ossian, and Cran Mere, mother of the rivers, of Dartmoor, who will be fully treated of on the Kalends of June and her feast. 1. 1. 347. 1. Agone, shall I act. 2. Agantur, driven. 3. Agnalia, ancient festival. 4. Aycovia, metus, angor, agony. 5. Aywves, Grecian games. 6. Agonia, sheep, deriving from the sacrifice of sheep to the sun. " In Arcadia, near Mount Lycasus, was a sacred fountain, into which one of the nymphs who nursed Jupiter was supposed to have been changed. It was called Hagnon, the same as Ain On, the fountain of the sun. From Ain, pronounced Agn, came the Agnos of the Greeks, signifying anything pure and clean. Pausanias calls the fount Hagno, but it was originally Hagnon. It is the same as Hanes or Hagnes. Egnatia in Italy, called now Anazo and Anazzo, in the Campis Salentini, is of the same purport." — Bryant, i. p. 252. Bryant omits the Lago dAgnano, and its sacred mephitic cave, Grotto del Cane, which may be properly rendered the waters or lake of the sun, and grotto of the priest. The sacrificial knife, the cultrum, was put into pure waters for ablution, the waters there symbolizing the Ain Shems, or solar fountain : therefore the third reason Agnalia is the true one for the Agonalia, which devolved accidentally, perhaps, on this 9th of January, for the addition of the sixty -seven lost days would place it near the vernal equinox, or Sun in Aries. 218 NOTES TO THE FASTI. " Made by the Rex."— I. 1. 360. The Rex was the priest of Diana Taurica in the Vale of Aricia. The title Eex probably deduces from Re, the Sun, Regis and Regia, which attached to the Tauric rites. Diana was hostile to these Tauric rites ; she saved Iphi- geneia ; she fled with Orestes from Taurica ; she groaned and defeated her own rites and votaries in Aricia, where " one stray bleat rising would the rites defeat." But this placable mood of the goddess did not save the Rex. " Soli non mitis Aricia Regi," who was always a fugitive, and the murderer of his predecessor, and who went constantly armed against the expected assault of his successor. 'Well might Tullia exclaim, " Regia, res scelus est," " tinge thy hand in blood." — Fasti, vi. 595. Hippolytus, Egeria, the nymphs and naiads of Lake Kemi, Juturna, and many more fountain genii, belong to this grove. 1. Blood is shown in the Tauric rites of Iphigeneia and Orestes. 2. Fire is recorded in those of Castabala, where the priestesses of Diana Taurica walked through fires. 3. The ameliorated worship is shown in these confused rites of the Arician grove, and its " pinguis ubi et placa- bilis ara Dianse." I. 1. 400. The powers who were caught and bound whilst sleeping in caves were Thetis, Proteus, Picus and Faunus, and Silenus. Only the two first-named had power of trans- formation. 1. 1. 555. When iEneas ejaculates "Sum pius ^Eneas," does he NOTES TO THE FASTI. 219 mean pious as we accept that word ? I think not ; it is so offensive that it disgusts every school-boy ; he means pia- bilis, expiable, atoning ; as affording the sanctuary expressed in his name, and as opposed to sacrificial murder. He him- self in the iEneid sacrifices eight captives to the shade of Pallas ; this is the only instance, due to the Pali rites of Arcadia, of his violating lunar sanctuary. Yirgil forgot his cue, in making his " pius " prince follow the practice of bloody Achilles " bloodier than war," who immolated twelve to Patroclus, and demanded " a Virgin of the House of Priam " for himself. " Tegecean dome."— I. 1. 578. I.e. Maenalian, of Mons Meenalus, a sanctuary spot. Hercules is conjoined with sanctuary. Croton's not inhospitable house at Crotona ; the mound of sanctuary at Troy ; Iliad xx. 1. 174 (Pope's), and the mound Ara Maxima of 1. 619, all have allusion to sanctuary rites over sacrificial rites. " Cacus had dragged them backwards to his den." — I. 1. 582. The whole space between the Palatine and the Aventine was marsh ; between Palatine and Capitolinus there was, beside, the Lake Curtius, and the sulphur fountains of Janus ; it was here the Ficus Euminalis stood, to which the ark with the twins was wafted by Tiber ; it was here that the ships of Hercules were concealed by Cacus, hidden in these marshy fastnesses, and apparently almost impassable morass, until drained by the Cloaca Maxima, and pro- pitiated by sacrifice of Curtius. The marsh was called Velabrum, and passengers were ferried across. Those sulphur springs were sacred to Kur, the Sun, and solar sacrifice : whence the legend of the self-sacrifice of Curtius. See p. 190, and note p. 259. i 220 NOTES TO THE FASTI. " Ara Maxima"— I. 1. 619. From the Taur, Baris, or Theba, that probably stood there : the tumulus by the sulphur fountains. Afterwards Forum Boarium. " The Patres termed Augusta." — 1. 1. 655. This is another etymological or phonetic appropriation. Augustus, augment, augury, auspices, are supposed to derive from Avis, — " ab auctu vel ab avium gestu, gus- tuve," Suetonius. Probably the Eastern Eu and the Hetrurian Ju in Eu- menes and Eupator ; Jupiter, Juno, and Juturna, as repre- senting the watery and benignant principle, and symbol of sanctuary, as against the Petra or rocks of sacrifice, has a better claim ; the Gallic eau and our Ewer and Euwa- gium, although far distant in sound, are as near as Avis and Gestus. The Greeks adopted the Eu as a beneficent prefix, but in Eumenides, Euxine, Eunuchus, &c, it fails signally. " And slew their offspring in its embryo state." — 1. 1. 670. This must needs allude to sacrifices of sons and daughters. So Clytemnestra to the Chorus upon the sacrifice of Iphi- geneia by Agamemnon — • " Yet he without remorse, As if a lamb that wantoned in his pasture Were doomed to bleed, could sacrifice his daughter, For whose dear sake I felt a mother's pains, To appease the winds of Thrace." Egypt, Scandinavia, Palestine, Holy Writ, treat on these sacrifices of sons and daughters, which apparently were Arcadian rites in the days of Lycaon and the Harpies, as set forth in the fable of Carna Festum, where King Procas NOTES TO THE FASTI. 221 is saved from the Stryges by the sacrifice of a pig, and which runs into the sequent fable of Juno Moneta, which surname was given her because she advised the Eomans to sacrifice a pregnant sow to avert an earthquake. Cicero de Divis, i. c. 15. The Patres demanded the sacrifice, the dames refused, and they, the Ausonian matrons, practised abortion, as the Hebrew mothers analogously exposed their offspring in an ark. It led to a feast, from which all dead was excluded, as a compromise for not offering something living. (?) Book II. Line 5. It is almost needless to remark that this translation is not in the elegiac measure of the original, alluded to as lowly and meek. " Lucaria and Asylum." — II. 1. 55. " And Abraham planted (or ordained) an asyl in the land of the Philistines." The altar of fire was called Lukus ; so the prophetess exclaimed, " Luke, Luke, quamdiu tu consumes facultates Israelitarum." — Bochart, ii. p. 828. From whence, and lucus the grove, came the adage " Lucus a non lucendo," and also the notions on Lycanthropy. Argos was the name of a sect affording sanctuary : the grove of Argos, profaned by fire by Cleomenes, and the Phont, signifying Priest in Egyptian speech, converted to murder. They slew the Argive stranger there. " Necnon et sacri monstrat nemus Argil eti Testaturque locum, et letum docet hospitis Argi." — Ms. viii. 345. Juno Sospita has just been invoked, and " Advena Tiber," flowing by the Lucus Asylum, We next, following the 222 NOTES TO THE FASTI. clue, run against " Zeus, the god of rain," at Argos. There was likewise there the mound of Argus, supposed to have been the son of Niobe. Danae enters into the fable — Perseus, begotten of her in a shower, exposed in an ark, brother to Argus, who was her son, founder in Italy of Ardea and Argiletum. — Bryant, iii. 68 ; Mn. vii. 409. It is possible that the tumulus, now called the tomb of Augustus, was the Argive Lophos, raised where Tiber over- flowed, and represented the Mount Baris, or mound of Argus, of Arkite rites. The Scirpea, cast into the Tiber by the Vestal Virgin from the Sublician Bridge, were called Argei. " Sospitar—TL 1. 43. Juno the preserver. The fane and founder of it both unknown. It stood on the Palatine by Cybele's. " The slaughter of the Fabii"— IL 1. 200. The tale of the Fabii is evidently an old Kornan legend, sung in ballads. Fabae, beans, is the ignoble derivation etymological. Ph' aub, the fount, as in Phoebus, Phoebe, and our Fovant, fountain, were probably the root of the honoured name ; for the Fabii sprung from Hercules (the Sun) and a daughter of Evander, the Aquas Solis of the spot, agreeing with their position by Carmenta, a fountain, and the fountains of Janus. Ovid draws a contrast between the rash valour of the race and the procrastinating policy of Maximus, by which he defeated Hannibal. " Arctophylax, the Bear's Custodier." — II. 1. 153. Ovid here gives another interpretation to the Constella- tions of the Bears. Areas becomes Bootes. (See woodcut to Jupiter Elicius, p. 233.) NOTES TO THE FASTI. 223 The deity stands on Mount Meenalus, indicated by the square rock, and symbolises sanctuary. His opponent is the Baal — the ancient Solar God, de- manding sacrifice of blood on the conical Solar Petra. Aquarius stands behind, effunding the nectar and water of 1. 146, or more probably representing the rivers of Mesopo- tamia and land of Babylon. The victim of Moloch, twice called "Molossian" by Ovid, in the Metamorphoses, kneels between them. Lycaon sacrifices the Molossian captive. — Met., Book i. 1. 226, and in Book xiii. 1. 717. iEneas passes " Molossian regions, where The royal princes, sons of kings, through air, By means of wings from fire rescued were." Bootes is by different authorities the same as Erichthonius, or Auriga. As Met., Book ii. " And then Bootes, if report say true, Mounting his waggon, tardily withdrew." He is here Areas, the eponym of Arcadia, with its harpy rites of fire and blood. He is also Icarus — votary of Bacchus and the Vine, and father of Erigone — hostile to the Pali shepherds and their fire rites. He becomes Agrotes, or the Herdsman, and he holds an " ashre," or blesser, as a staff, against the crooked sickle and revolving fire of his opponent. Kalisto is the mound of Kali, the eastern goddess of blood and human sacrifice on the largest scale. Dob is Chaldee for bear, and Dubhe is the chief star of her constellation. There are huge cavern temples in Persia which bear this appellation ; and in Chinese the word signifies crocodile ; as she is represented by Typho holding a crocodile in Egyp- tian sculptures. 224 NOTES TO THE FASTI. Bootes holds a redeeming victim in his hands. It was the pig which redeemed King Procas from the Stryges, the same as the harpies of Arcadia, by the white wand of Janus (Book vi.). No ancient writer has given any interpretation to En- gonesis, or the kneeler. I believe it to represent the human sacrifice, redeemed by the principle of sanctuary from the destroying sickle of Saturn and the revolving fires of Baal, in the land of Mesopotamia, where such abominations com- menced. " Hydra, Corvus and Crater" — II. 1. 250. We have here a deeply perverted asterism. It is pro- bably the sacred fountain of the Sun, with the Scyth of Hercules, in which he sailed round the world, and which is a lost constellation, converted to the Crater of Bacchus : for Coronis is the black poop of a ship, and Coroneos is the black fig; and Corvus, or Coronis, the dedicated mound by the mythologic fig-tree, the Ficus Euminalis of the Palatine, the two mounds Eimmon of the Euphrates, the two Duni Pacis of our Graems wall at Camelon, &c. Ulysses was saved by this fig at Charybdis, and Mopsus overcame Calchas in the famous cause " the sow versus the fig; " as see Lempriere. The above is the asterism, as it appears on the sphere of Denderah. The Zodiacal sign of Leo upon that sphere apparently NOTES TO THE FASTI. 225 duplicates the above. Leo places his foot on the hierogly- phic of water, and the ape is adjunct to his tail. leo (Denderah). I must adduce one more woodcut of a double fane — a tree in the midst and the fountains below — showing the Hydra (?) or the Ark, into which two entered and eight came forth. fountain in cave (Barbarini pavement). I 226 NOTES TO THE FASTI. In these perversions Hydra becomes the snake ; Aree, or Ariel, becomes the lion ; and Pithek, the monkey, super- sedes Pithos, " dolium, a cask, or -vessel.'*' An earthenware vase still exists in Cyprus, 30 feet in circumference, shown in the frontispiece of Landseer's ' Sabsean Eesearches;' whilst it is Pliny who asserts that iEnaria, or Inarime of Homer, was also called Pithecusa, not from the multitude of monkeys there, but from the potter's earthen vessels: old Bochart exclaiming (i. p. 592), " quee omnia sunt perabsurda." When we get into these perversions they are so ; but here we get the clue of the ape, superseding the Pythoness at one shrine, and taking the place of the earthen crater in the asterism of another, as Pytho and its Pythoness ; or Pithek and the monkey ; or Pithos, the cask, or crater, as they severally suited the " perabsurdity " of the learned. The Zodiacal Leo has his foot on the Egyptian symbol of water, Meh or Mem, and apparently duplicating Hydra and the lion. Germanicus states that his name was " Mehdi- mon," which assuredly signifies waters of blood. We find it so called in Isaiah xv. 9 ; for the " Meh Dimon," " the waters of Dimon shall be full of blood, for I will bring upon Dimon lions," &c. And also in 2 Kings, ii. 22, prior to the sacrifice of the son of Mesha, the shepherd king, upon the Chomah of Kir-Haresh, i. e. the Solar tumulus, the miracle had occurred which made them ejaculate " this is blood," for the ditches were or appeared to be full of blood. Endymion signifies probably this fountain of blood, or solar slaughters, and therefore incompetent to be loved by Diana ; so also Hecuba the mother of Paris the firebrand was Dymantida. We trace in the above records a double fane and the unripe fig. I trace Venilia to this spot of the Duni Pacis NOTES TO THE FASTI. 227 of Picts' wall. We also have the fable in the Meta- morphoses of Venulus, and the fountain and the bitter olive. The fane was a double fane, sacred to the nymphs and to Semi-caper Pan, that is, iEgae, the mound. There is another instance agreeing, but which is adduced with the reverence due. Bethany and Bethphage, equally a double shrine, the names compounded apparently of Ain, the foun- tain, and iEgee, the mound. Our Saviour cursed the fig- tree, and it withered ; and he alluded to the mound in the memorable words that by faith it might be cast into the sea. As these mounds were raised on rivers and by inter- mittent water-floods, they were ever carried off. The tomb of Cycnus was swept away by Anaurus — the mound Cerca- soura, of Egypt, was swept off by the Nile. Mr. Palgrave, at Charax, on the Eulaeus, standing by the mound which gave its name to the spot, heard his native cicerone descant- ing hotly on the subject with all the fervour of an anti- quarian; but unfortunately Mr. Palgrave had not been inoculated with the clue that this mound was the third of those which had suffered the fate of such mounds and been swept off into the sea. Loftus' ' Chaldaea,' p. 282, and Palgrave's ' Arabia.' We now come to the Barbarini pavement and its Curetan fane. We have here the double fane. Pithos, the cask, with the Cippus arising from it, and which methinks is also a clue to Actaeon and his metamorphosis into Elaphos, the stag — round-haunched, horned, and secluded, or " heart of fear." It stands by the Cippus and by the tree, itself bearing its Semiramidan Cippus, and the whole stand above the cave of fountain waters — two springs falling into an ark or receptacle, and issuing forth in eight streams. Is this Hydra? or does it belong to the Arkite phase of idolatry ? Q 2 228 NOTES TO THE FASTI. On the same pavement is another fane, with the Pytho- ness, shown as Pithek, the monkey, and the five mounds iEgae, which we find by the Solar fountain of Heliopolis, in Egypt, perverted to five iEgae goats, as below, NYMPHJETJir. From Barbarmi pavement. (Faber's ' Cabsiri.') " Unto Euphrates"— II. 1. 485. There is confusion in the words Euphrates, Palsestinan, and the Lebane or Poplar shade, although the willows of Babel's waters are consonant with the poplars of Syrian Lebanon. It was the Syrians who worshipped the fish ; it was at the lake of Aphaca that Derceto was metamorphosed, and that the Lebanotides, votaresses of Lebane, the Moon, succeeded the Heliades, votaresses of the Sim. Dione and Typhon pertain to Euphrates, and Dione changed herself to NOTES TO THE FASTI. 229 a fish in Xilus, when chased thither with the eight gods from Babel. But as we find Derceto and prodigiosa Atar- gatis as a female fish deity, so we have Dagon and Oannes as male fish deities ; and this legend is found conjoined with Euphrates, Xilus, and the Adonis, the river of Lebanon. H. 1. 501. The spear of Eomulus was called Curis. It is the Cippus, the black solar Cippus: it was changed to a tree on his apotheosis — a tree of sanctuary. It may be seen on the Mosaic pavement of the Quirinal hill — three homed " tri- charites," shown in woodcut, p. 228. The Caprean Mere is the fons solis ; Cap, or Ceph, head • and Ee, the Sun. It is the Cran Mere of Dartmoor, and Eos Crana of Scotland; the Daphne of Mount Casius, or Cepheus. Eomulus sits there as Eex, which is a contracted form of Eegis, Eegia, &c, appertaining to Solar rites of Ee, the Sun. He is there murdered. The Eex of Aricia was always slain, and his conqueror, or assassin, reigned in his stead. " Sola non mitis Aricia Eegi " is written of that mythical and contradictory fane of Diana Orestea. The people accused the Fatres of the murder. The Patra was the rock of the Sun and of human sacrifice. The analogy can be followed by retaining the archaic and original words, but is lost in translation. Arthur's spear was called Eos, the head. Cephalus had such a spear. Cephel the head, &c. Melia, of Pelion, is the black ashen spear of Achilles. II. 1. 625. We assuredly have not the true clue to the prefix Ju in Jupiter, Juno, and Juturna, Hetruscan gods. Eu and Joo, 230 NOTES TO THE FASTI. in the East, have reference to water, and Jutuina is a water nymph, a fonntain in Rome, and a lake nymph in Aricia. Jupiter Pluvius was the iEther and Juno was the Moon, the presiding power of waters. Eupator and Eumenes are the Pontic titles, and which are not Greek ; neither in the words Eumenides, Euxine, and Eunuchus, is it easy to discover the benignant Grecian Eu, the prefix of all that is good. We have the prefix Eu in our word Ewell, Ewer, and Euagium : we have a fountain fane, the source of the Eiver Lee, county Cork, with four fountains, called Gou- gane : and there is equally in the East, Jehada Joo, four springs ; Jooval, the Eulasus of Persia, the holiest of rivers ; and Soo, the present word for water, as Kara Soo, the Black water there. GOUGANE BAKRA. Terminus.— II. 1. 701. Terminus appears to have many points in common with Janus, the double face, the like offerings to him; white NOTES TO THE FASTI. 231 and silence, and "sucking-pig — for pork he scorneth not." The roof of his fane was like that of Tellus, pierced to see the stars; but Terminus himself was originally a large square stone, like the fane of Janus, which was a cube. Some held Janus to be the same as Coelus, whose fanes were also uncovered. Apparently Terminus is one of the forms of Janus, and peace, sanctuary, and keeping the bounds common to both. " But Gabii was overthrown by villany." — II. 1. 737. We are in the mythic realms of story. Gabii and the Gabinian garb are sectical terms, and hostile to the regal Tarquin, and I suspect equally with Komulus, Eemus, and the Trabea. The Eamahs and Gebas of Scripture, the conjoined wor- ship of the Eamahs and Gabs in every street, Ezekiel xvi. 24, the hostility of Gibeon, the great high place, with its "consecrated slaves," deceit, and immorality. The Eamahs and Ganesas of India represented there by the elephant and the sphynx ; Ganesa and Eemena, or Eomena, as Aldrovandus records, all severally marked by the spire and the dome, and represented now in the East by the conjoined dome and minaret, are all offshoots of this phase of paganism, we find here overthrown by the regal tyranny of the Tarquins. Gabii disappeared, and regality followed quickly, to be succeeded by the Commonwealth, when we find Brutus declaring Lucretia a divinity. Her eyes are described as lustreless; i.e., the bale of fire of the solar rites is extinguished, but the " concussa Coma " points to the Chomah mound, and its secret crypt and oracle, as we find it conjoined with the vestal virgins, and with Ora, whose hair was burnt off on the Quirinal hill ere she was deified under that name. 232 NOTES TO THE FASTI. The thing signified is that the regal fire-rites make way for lunar fountain-worship, with the adjunct mound and crypt. «3£ars Belike."— Book III. 1. 1. Mars never was a benignant God. Ares, God of Thrace, was brutal. Jupiter himself, in the Iliad V. 890, upbraids him for his known ferocity. Mr. Gladstone says he may be compared with Caliban. The hills of Ares were cursed with human slaughter. Here we have this solar god wooing the benignant vestal fires at the sacred spring. The word Sylvia is a compound of Yl or Syl, and Via, a corruption of the Yir, in Virbius, and representing the Beer or Veer, the eastern well. Our own land of Wales preserves the syllables in Erfair, Llan- fair, Y Fynnon Vair, our Lady's Well, pronounced Ervia, like the Latin Sjlvia, whilst the legend of Virbius finds corroboration in the fact that horses are cured at the well of Y Fynnon Vair, or Winifred, who was chased down the hill by Prince Craddock, and decapitated at the well, now graced by her name. The stories are duplicates — the solar lover and the lunar victim. Rhea Sylvia, conjoining solar and lunar rites, falls the victim, and her tomb or fane was a tumulus within the walls of Eome, to which tumulus she alludes in her dream, " Contigeratque nova sidera summa coma," 1. 33, which she applies to the foliage of her soaring palm. " Calls thee Micius."— III. 1. 350. Helix is to revolve, whence Ursa Major is Helice, the revolver. The Baal in the woodcut holds the revolving fire. It singularly applies to this myth of Ovid. The hill is the Capitol. Ceph, Kaf, Kephale, Cop, Capo, Caput, NOTES TO THE FASTI. 233 LANDSEEE S ' SAB^AN RESEARCHES. from whence Cepheus, Cephas, Caphtor, Cephalus. And Tol, another archaism, we find in tholus, the sectical pagan dome, Triptolemus, Thalamnm, &c, whence the word " Capitol." The two rocks upon which Baal and Bootes respectively stand represent the hill of solar sacrifice, and the hill of lunar sanctuary. In Babylonia, where the intaglio was framed, it represented those rival hills : fol- lowing «dt to Arcadia, they represent Mount Lycaeus, with Lycaon, the Harpies, &c, and the Mount Maenalus, which is still part of the constellation of Bootes on our maps. Following them to Rome, they equally represent Mounts Palatine or the Capitoline, as against the Mount Aventine ; the fire and sacrifice of the first as against the sanctuary afforded by the latter. The revolving fire of Baal is being propitiated by an offering from Mons Maenalus, and the man redeemed by some victim: it looks like a dog, but a dog was never an acceptable sacrifice : it is 234 NOTES TO THE FASTI. more likely the hare or the kid we see in the arms of Auriga, and in the hand of Centaurus. The play of words betwixt Elicius and Numa appears to be between Caput, one root of Capitol, and Maena, the like syllable as in Maenalus, " Caede caput," I will, responds Numa, " Cepa cajdenda est," i.e., an onion. " Hominis " " summos Capil- los," " Animam," " Piscis," held to be the Maena (see p. 54, Dea Muta), which has affinity with Masnalus, and, by analog) 7 , with Aventine. With Numa and Mount Aven- tine superseding Romulus and Palatine, sanctuary suc- ceeded to sacrifice. The round or conical rock upon the coins of Elagabalus, was inscribed "Sole invicto;" the square, as symbolizing the lunar, may be traced back to Egypt, where, on the cartouche of Mycerinus, the round reads Ea, the Sun, and the square Men, the moon, the two worships being mingled under his dynasty. For the rest — Numa veils in white. Helenus had in- structed iEneas to veil his head in purple. "Purpureo velare comas, adopertus amictu." — Mx. III. 405. " Et capita ante aras Phrygio velamur amictu." — 545. He sits on a throne of maple-wood, spotted, neither black nor white. This Acernus, maple, is constantly met with as a sectical symbol. And the Salii priests of the sun assume the ancile or shield by which lightning is averted, or perhaps whereby they concentrated the solar rays, and drew down new fire from heaven. The Gnossian crown. — III. 1. 498. This must have been the circle of stones, such as we have at Stennis, Avebury, Stanton Drew, and many other spots, adjunct to the cryptish fanes of Minos and of Pasiphae. The word Karanim signifies ambiguously rays and horns. NOTES TO THE FASTI. 235 The unbenignant fires of the Minotaur were conquered by the benignant fire of Theseus, but Ariadne was made over to the horns of Bacchus, which are solar rays — Bac- chus, the last pagan impersonation of the Sun. The crown was the work of Vulcan, fire. Ovid is the only authority for making Ariadne the Goddess Libera. He makes her complain of the horns of the Minotaur, and praise those of the solar Bacchus. Of Melite.— III. 1. 615. Bochart says that Melite signifies sanctuary, and Battus is a scorned and scornful title of one who could not grant it. The Ogygian Island of Calypso is held to have been a Melite. The port of the cornucopia'd Achelous was an- other. An island off Eagusa, which gave name to argosies, Li a Melita ; and lastly, the famous Isle of Malta, now the spot in question. The Lybians call a king Battus ; but the dynasty were stammerers and lame, and could not govern Cyrene, their fountain of the Sun, but were obliged to send to Mantinea, a lunar town, for a man to govern Cyrene. In Ovid's ' Metamorphoses ' Battus is turned to the spotted stone " Index, known for its villany." So a Battus reigned at Malta, and could not protect his sanctuary. UnsandallecL — 1. 647. Jason loses a sandal on crossing the Anaurus (the solar fount). It is probably the like as Achelous losing a horn to Hercules. The pair of mounds, Taurs, were symbols of sacrifice, but one was the symbol of commercial safety ; indeed of the Pharos, like the beacon-tower of the benefi- cent King Ceyx at Trachin, — " A beacon tower with summit altars stood, Signal to vessels batter'd by the flood Of shelter sure.'' — Met. Book XI. 236 NOTES TO THE FASTI. iEneas walks unsandalled. The Latin deity Indiges had no mound. (?) But in 1. 675, he gives iEneas and Lavinia the tholus or dome, hostile probably, to the Tyrian Queen, from which Anna Pererma flees. " The march unto the Argei." — III. 1. 845. The groves of Argos and the mounds of Argos. Mound*< of the Ark, in conjunction at Argos with the God of inun- dations, and Zeus the God of rain, are the Argei hern named,, although the interpretation, referred by Ovid to a future day, is wanting. At Pome we have these Argei, to which pomp-processions were made. Also the Grove Argi- letum, which is the Latin translation of Argiphont, i.e., Argive priest. We have the Scirpea, Book V. 1. 620, images of men, also called Argei, which were cast into the Tiber in lieu of the " advena Argivus hospes." The lucus asylum and the Lucaria of Book II. 1. 55, is probably the grove dedicated by Bomulus for the " Argive slain." They w r ere spots affording sanctuary to strangers. The Argive seems to be the reverse of the Molossian, representing Arkite and Moloch rites. Minerva Cajpta, or Pallas. — III. 1. 8G7. The head of Jove, from which Pallas sprung fully armed by a blow from the hammer of Hepheestos, God of fire, was the Eastern Mount Caf, Ceph, Kepheus, Kephas, and Kephalus, of mythology : w r hence, Minerva Capta. Pallas herself eponymizes the Pali fire- worshippers, and the Pali-stan becomes in Hetruria Faliscan, with its white oxen dedicated to the Sun. So the iEgis was likewise the mound which got pho- netically perverted to the goat's skin, but iEgaa, the mound of Neptune, was a sanctuary, and mounds Ije and Yge are NOTES TO THE FASTI. 237 traceable still in the Ije Abarim of Scripture, and the Mont d'Yge of Mans, Brittany. IV. 1. 239. " Say what denote The lions her attending ; savage race Bearing the yoke, so strangely out of place ? " Har, Ari, Arimi, Ararat, Hereri, Ariel, &c, convertible terms for mountains and for lions. The Goddess Ken is shown now on a lion's back, and now on mountain-peaks. It was the pagan sect of Arimites the goddess changed from bloody sacrifice to her own form of worship. ASSYRIAN GODDESSES KEN AND ASTARTE. "Palcestinates."—IV. 1. 266. The Pali, fire-worshippers and blood-sacrificers, the Palla- cicles, Philition the Shepherd, the Ara Palici, and these 238 NOTES TO THE FASTI. furies Paleestinates, belong to this root. Thus we find a Paleeste in Epirus with a temple to the furies. Flint and volcanic stone knives were used by this sect in their sacrifices. " The Games of Ceres."— IV. 1. 441. Here we approach Ceres, the Moon, as Servius calls her in the first Georgia White garments, swine, waters of Enna, the Meoni of Scripture, and peaceful altars for the pure offerings of her votaries and orgies. Ovid avails himself of the occasion to tell again the rape of Proserpine, but with no great varia- tion from the other accounts. The birth of her votary Triptolemus is the chief new point, it is the sectical tholus, dome for her cryptish fires, that she affects under that eponym. Her feast ends with the emphatic declaration of the lunar deity : — u Ceres afiects the white : white garments don Upon her feasts — dyed garments she will none." . Scylla. " O'er the Niseian dogs the seaman's dread!' — IV. 559. Ovid does not separate Scjdla, child of Nisus, and Scylla, child of Cratseie. " And Scylla sits, dogs' muzzles round her hips, A maiden visage and a hellish womb." The woodcut represents one of many such fanes on the Palestine coast at Marathos, b}^ Tortosa. Maundrell selected a pair, which I have given p. 175 of the Metamorphoses - , and proposed that the subterranean chambers were for sacrifice, and the narrow excavations in the rock, cut in radii 18 feet long, were for offerings of masts and oars, dedicated to the winds. NOTES TO THE FASTI. 239 TEMPLE AT MARATHOS. The sacrifice of shipwrecked mariners is traced to the ports of By bios and Curium, and the rocks called Leucadian, as alluded to by Ovid in the casting of the Scirpea into the Tiber, *' So till the advent of Tirynthius, Leucadia's dire rite was held by us." — Book V. 715. So Virgil also calls Leucadia's rock " the seaman's dread " (iEneid iii. 275), conjoined with the name of Apollo, sig- nifying the sun. Scylla is conjoined with Halyaeetos, which I take to be the Allyattan mound. TOMB OF ALLYATTES, WITH THE SUBTERRANEAN GALLERIES OB ANCIENT EXCAVATIONS. These mounds, which are numerous by the Lake Gygaea, have not been much explored, but their congeners of Tyr- 240 NOTES TO THE FASTI. rhenia had Daedalian subterraneous passages, and appear to me to link on the fable of Daedal ion chasing Thisbsean doves, the pirate chasing merchant ships, to the utter grief of Ceyx and Alcyone, who protected the oceanic realms and also the wings and subterraneous caverns of Daedalus. Scylla, in the woodcut, represents the white symbol of sanctuary ; Kiris the lark, and Kere the unicorn. The former notion of a bird common to herself and sire may deduce from the eastern word Graph, signifying equally pinnacles and wings. The name of Scylla is conjoined with wrecks. Virgil mentions " Navifragum Scylacaeum ;" and we have our Scilly and Skully isles carrying on the analogy. The white pillar, with the tholus or dome, and the orna- mentation symbolic of water (?) and of sanctuary, was appa- rently a lure, and the Gortygian cavern beneath was the Gheres, the bed of death, of the sun or destruction, demand- ing maritime victims. Outside the Gate of Damascus, at Jerusalem, exists a series of subterraneous chambers known by the name of the Tombs of the Kings. That they are not tombs of kings is agreed upon : they are therefore something else. Maundrell has given the first and best description of them. He says : " Entering by the rock you find an underground court 40 paces square ; a portico, with' a hole to enter by, leading successively to seven or eight apart- ments ; the two last lower than the others, and descended to by six or seven steps. These apartments are surrounded by niches, 9 feet deep by o feet square, holding cofims of stone sculptured with garlands. The doors of stone, with their pivots cut in the native rock. Lastly, a channel for water, cut the whole length of the chambers." Compare this with the description in Ezekiel viii. : — " And brought me to the door of the inner gate that NOTES TO THE FASTI. 241 looketh towards the north, where was the seat of the image of jealousy." v. 3. " And he brought me to the door of the court, and when I looked behold a hole in the wall ; and he said unto me, Son of Man, dig now in the wall, and when I had digged in the wall behold a door." v. 7. There was weeping for Tammuz, v. 14. There was fire-worship to the sun, v. 16. With the branch to their nose, v. 17. The hole in the wall, the door of native rock, the sculptures of garlands, and the stream of water for purifi- cation, all point these out as the chambers of imagery denounced by Ezekiel. Our Saviour also appears to have alluded to such cham- bers in his speech, "lo! he is in the secret chambers; believe it not." These chambers of Jerusalem find congeners in those of Marathos and of Etruria. Mr. Faber considers them caves of the Cabeiric mysteries, and imagines that the descent of iEneas to Tartarus is drawn by Yirgil from such mysteries and chambers. iEneas, after the nocturnal sacrifice of seven bullocks and seven rams, " furens antro se immisit aperto.'" — VI. 262. which led him to the vestibule of the jaws of Orcus and the passage of its water, Styx. He then passed the several fields — corresponding with these chambers, one by one, into the place where they divided into twain, 1. 540, when " panduntur portse " again " Oceupat -Eneas aditum corpusque recenti Spargit aqua, ramumque ad verso in limine figit," he purifies himself with living waters, and fixes the branch 242 NOTES TO THE FASTI. to the lintel of the gate, which singularly agrees with Ezekiel's caves, mysteries, and the branch to the nose. These caverns are not without their very ancient legends, conjoined with the name of Herod, who violated these tombs secretly by night in search of treasures, but found none ; and thence dated the curse which fell on him and his family. — Josephus Antiq. xvi. 7. It is a repetition of the oft-repeated tale of violating tombs for treasure, as in the case of the tomb at Morng-aub and the Pyramids. Josephus adds that Herod, in intended propitiation of his deed, erected a propitiatory monument of white stone. Mr. Fergusson, in his ' History of Architecture,' from whence the wood-cut is taken, states that if he had to decide upon the form of that propitiatory monument, he should select that of the wood-cut. I should do the like from its being the pinnacle to similar chambers else- where. Allyattes' mound had five termini, like Porsena's at Clusium, and both had subterranean passages. Purification was one of the functions of Croesus, the son of Allyattes ; and the secret mysteries and fatal effects of betraying them is the opening tale told by Herodotus, under the fable of Candaules exposing the beauties of his wife to Gyges.— Herodotus i. 8 and 35. The escape of the Molossian (Moloch) Princes by means of wings, and Daedalian caverns, conjoined with sacrifice, wings, and sculpturings, appear to me to belong to these secret chambers, which amongst other variations devolve upon Scylla — conjoining the Kiris, the lark, and unicorn, with Halyaaetos and his mound ; Dsedalion chasing This- basan doves, conjoins them with the sea and mariners ; and the long, narrow niches, spreading round their rays, appear like spots dedicated to the winds, and fitted to receive offerings of masts and oars. NOTES TO THE FASTI. 243 Vulpium combustio. Foxes burnt.' — IV. 1. 786. This ancient fire-rite, which we trace in Holy Scripture, precedes the feast of Palilia. It appears it was no new notion that entered Samson's head when he let loose the three hundred foxes in the standing corn of the Philistines ; but he, in mocking their fire-rite, did it in harvest, and not in the stubble fields. IY. 1. 830. Following immediately on the burning of Foxes, we come upon Palilia, a feast second to none in Eoman annals. The word derives from the Pali, fire- worshippers of the East. They may be found pure at Gwalior (Cali ur, the town of Kali, the eastern goddess of fire and blood), which fortress was held firstly by Suraj Pal, to be held by his descendants so long only as a Pal should be its lord. Eighty- four reigned in turn, and built its pagodas. It descended to one Yatai Karan, who resigned it for a larger kingdom, leaving it to his viceroy Earn Deo, whose descendant Earn Sah was conquered and expelled by Jahangir and his omni- potent white elephant, who conquered the Pali Earns and their Singh (or sphynx) ; but it is recorded that the Singh will return, and will conquer and eat the elephant, as we see him in the act of doing in 'Asiatic Eesearches,' Vol. III. p. 333. Batuta, p. 131. We follow the Pali dynasty to Egypt, as the shepherd race who built the two pyramids of Gheeza. Philition the shepherd, whose name was hateful to the Egyptians, the Pallades or Palacides, priestesses of fire and blood, the marriage of one of whom by old rhoenix (Iliad Book IX.) was so deadly a crime; she was Kalle- Come, fair-haired, or of the Chomah of Kali. Thence we go to Palestine, on which this race have bestowed their it 2 244 NOTES TO THE FASTI. name, and where we find the burning of foxes as one of their rites. Lebanon is called Palaestinan, the Furies the goddesses Palaestinates. We find altars at sulphurous springs to the Palici : and following the clue to Etruria, we come to Pales, a male and female power, and her fire- worship in Palilia, and her shepherd sway over flocks and herds, and the white oxen of the sun at Falistan ; the local Pali-stan, or land of the Pali. Palae Tyrus and Pallas, born from the head of Jupiter by a blow of Vulcan's hammer, belong to this root. The ashes of purification, a heifer's ashes " sprinkling the unclean," are the production of preceding festivals, the Februa and the Forda, &c, horses' blood, calves' ashes, and bean-ashes, being the charms. All these words refer to old pagan fanes, and rites, and demons. Hippa and the Cippi for the horse, Agelah, Baris, and Theba, for the heifer, and Fabse beans, in Ph'aub, the fountain and the serpent, the sibyl, and the god. The Agelah was revolving fire; we have the root in Tintagel, which was invisible twice a year, at Yule and bonfire. Tristram, p. 322. It also forms the root of our fiery giant Eigel, Tregegle, common to Scandinavia and our- selves. Palilia were performed until very lately in the very streets of London. We used to go into the fields to gather vervain ( John's-wort), to burn on St. John's eve, when we rubbed our eyes and rheumatic arms with the ashes, leapt through the flames, and sprinkled ourselves with water, even as Ovid declares that he duly had done. And Beltane is still retained in Ireland, the Highlands of Scotland, and in rocks in Derbyshire and Yorkshire to this day. Pales Silvicola does not probably apply to Silva, a wood, but to Sil, as we find it in Sileni, Silvius, Ehea Sylvia. Silbury Hill and Her-Silia, a solar phase opposed to Baal, NOTES TO THE FASTI. 245 as K§ was opposed to Amnion in Egypt ; as the fires of Comana and of Soracte were fires of purification, unlike those of the Taurs and Ben Hinnom, where victims were burnt in sacrifice. The sanctity of the holy groves is strongly asserted 4 The danger there was apparently in approaching these sacred spots of sanctuary, would well nigh prevent a votary from availing himself of them ; only the theory and prac- tice must have been widely different. Virgil describes the shepherds as reposing at midday in the sacred groves, and Servius warns us that it was not lawful to browze them. The Coloniate addresses (Edipus sitting on the sloping and unhewn stone in front of the fane of the Eumenides : — Col. " Ere thou speak more, come from that seat ; the place That holds thee now is hallowed from thy tread. (Ed. What is the place then, sacred to what God ? Col. Nor touch, nor habitation dares profane That place ; for there the dreadful Goddesses, Daughters of Earth and Night, have their abode. CEd. Them by what awful name should I invoke ? Col. This people calls them the Eumenides, The all-beholding powers." — Pottee's Translation. Sacred spots were consecrated under a blessing or under a curse. In which latter case pasturage, or the use of any of the productions, was held impious. In all cases the plough was forbidden. Mitford, vi. 257. The " serpent groves " and this fane of the Eumenides are cases of consecration under a curse. The history of sanctuary and forests and forest laws in England would be very curious and entertaining. Probably forest laws were founded upon older sanctuary laws. Pales has been converted into a benignant deity; her fires are fires of purification, and her feasts of wine and milk. Pier festival inaugurates the foundation of Eome. 246 NOTES TO THE FASTI. Borne built.— IV. 1. 934. Palatine, Aventine, and Coelius, are the three mountain eminences, rivals; and Komulus, Eemus, and Celer, the three enacting personages. Looking at the map, it appears that Aventine was sur- rounded by the overflowing waters of Tiber, which thus gave sanctuary both effectually and symbolically. Eemus appears to involve the root of Eeem, the scriptural word for sanctuary, being probably Ea Em, the House of the Sun, as it reads on Mycerinus' cartouche. Eemus stood upon the stone called " The Eock " of Aventine when he counted the vultures (p. 147). Yen o\ PYRAMID AND CARTOUCHE OF MEN-KA-RA OR MYCERTNUS. When water could not be made available to encircle and form the sanctuary, the plough was used to make a Grims (Hareem) or sanctuary-dyke, of which we have many in this country, including Graeme's or Picts' Wall between Forth and Clyde. Eomulus, whose etymon signifies something high, Eom El, the High Sun, appears to do this on the feast of Palilia, NOTES TO THE FASTI. 247 and his grims-ditch. being derided by Reinus, as it passed between the unnooded valley between Mount Palatine and Mount Coelius, Celer is reported to have slain him. Romulus ploughs with the white oxen of the Sun. It was on the feast of fire when — " Et novus accenso fungitur igne focus,"' when the Etruscan Haruspex drew down from heaven new fire, which ceremonial we trace to Peru at the feast of Raymi, and see alluded to wherever the fire-worshipping race is traced in story. We have a King Coel in Britain, referred to Ccelus, the heavens ; a fabled king and father to the Empress Helena at a spot near Colchester ; and Cod's Kitchen, a magnifi- cent chalk eminence by Maiden Bradley, ranking amidst them. symbol of Macedonia. (• Arch?eo ' xiv. p. 14.) Book V. 1. 125. Capella is a variation of the mountain sanctuary, Kaf, Ceph, Cephal, Cephalus. 248 NOTES TO THE FASTI. Amalthea is a form of the sanctuary hills Hamalell, which we trace at Adam's Peak, Ceylon, under that name, Melek Ham and Hamalell (Batuta, p. 185), and also at the oasis of Jupiter Ammon, in " Edrar Amelah," the White Moun- tain of Mr. St. John (Lybian desert), with its flat summit and single path of ascent; we trace here a third in Crete, in Amalthea, which when subject to Baal was probably marked by the double fane of the bulls of Colchos, Bhodes, and Lemnos ; but when one was broken off, as in the case of the sandalon of Jason, the horn of Achelous, and this horn of Amalthea, broken off against an "Alon or Asyl" (oak and asylum), further symbolic term for sanctuary, then the woods of Crete convert into the 100 cities under Jupiter, and the Pharos becomes a cornucopia. The woodcut represents the Caranus of Macedonia — " the rough goat," with the one "notable horn" of Daniel. It is the Geranos of the altar dance of Delos, which Theseus danced there, in lieu of the dance of Daedalus (see note, p. 214). Caranus, first king of Macedonia, was led to Edessa by goats, and changed the name of that city to Mg8& accordingly. Keren is horn and ray in Hebrew, and it is Keras in the Greek. The pyramidal canopy over the god Bamah, in the East, is Kernia; Juggernauth is Karanak; the mound at the junction of Tigris and Eu- phrates is Korna, all variations of the " horn." Hesychius says the Cretans called the goat Caranus ; Xenophon that Karanos signified Lord, and Alexander the Great adopted the Persian title, Dhul-karnein, when he associated the horn of the Bam of Persia with the Goat of Macedonia. Sir Thomas Wyse finds a locality recording this' phase of worship, at " Yostitza — iEgium, its ancient name, and again called so officially," ii. 247. Like Mount Ida, where Olenos and his wife Lethaea were changed to stone (' Metamor- phoses,' x. 1. 70), so an Olenos was near iEgium, giving NOTES TO THE FASTI. 249 the appellation of Olenian to Capella. " Zeus had an alsos near, and on the coins of iEgiura he is represented crushing the goat between two trees, symbolic of the whole grove," p. 246. It is against this Alsos, the Alon, Asyl, Grove, Oak, or Asylum, that the sacred Goat breaks off a horn ; and accordingly we find iEgium a prosperous seaport, and its fountains hyperbolically praised by Pausanias as "an abundant source of water ; which fountain it was both sweet to look at and to drink from" ('Peloponnesus ' ii. 245). We also find the river called the " Ass-drowner," re- ferring to the mounds " On " of the Sun, and being an- other version of the story of Pausanias, of iEgge being swept away by the river Crathis. Cicero's translation of Aratus : a manuscript of the second or third century — British Museum, Cotton MS., Tit. B. 5. Paper read 13th February, 1834, p. 150. Koyal Society of Antiquaries, London. Orion.— V. 1. 5G0. Bryant designates the legend of Orion as the most slovenly legend ever devised. " How art thou fallen 250 NOTES TO THE FASTI. from heaven, Al-Al, son of the morning," as it is written in Isaiah. Orion was called Alorus, Nebrod, Nimbrod, and Ximrod ; Alal, Alalcomeneus, the Giant, the Ethiop, the hunter ; another scriptural name is Kisel, synonyme with fool. Whilst Homer, in the Odyssey, shows him as a savage hunter with a club of bi'ass, Aratus and the astronomers depict him as a king with drawn sword ; but all authorities mainly agree in referring him to Babylon, where he was Belus, instituting the worship of fire, and building the tower of Babel. Nonnus makes him the Indian Bacchus. BAAL AND THE HORNED BACCHUS. Thus he has the grandest of the constellations assigned him, whilst Baal has three stars allotted to him, which were perhaps the original " Deltoton," consisting of three stars of the first magnitude — Sirius, Procyon (also called his dogs), and Betel geux of Orion, which formed that lost constellation, and which represented, as Hevelius thought, and has replaced it, the Baem, or Unicorn, which was, indeed, the temple of Baal. NOTES TO THE FASTI. 251 ORION AND SIRIUS— SPHERE OF DENDKRAH. So Job, comparing the true deity with those Chaldaic objects of Pagan worship, declared that he, God, made "Ash, Kisel, and Cimah, and the Kadyrs of Teman," i.e. Arcturus, Orion, the Pleiades, and their seats of sanctuary (?) The seats of sanctuary we find as Amalthea in Crete, and Hamallel in Ceylon, and at the Oasis of Ammon in Lybia, being compounded of Ham and Alal, and where we trace them as mountain sanctuaries, scarped rocks, still amongst other names retaining that of Hamallah, as we also find it in Pindar's " Alalkomeneus, first of men." Aur Ionah, the Babylonian Sun, or Fire, or Light, is probably the etymology of Oriona, of which the nomina- tive Orion is an elipsed form. Orion was the earth-born, confusing him with the tumulus he erected. Chios and Boeotian Tanagra, and the Peloran promontory of Sicily are places to which he has been especially assigned ; in Chios Orion was blinded by CEnopion; blinded he sought Lernnos, the isle of Vulcan, fire, Vulcan gave him Kedalion to carry him to the abode of the Sun ; the Sun restored his eyesight, and when 252 NOTES TO THE FASTI. Orion sought (Enopion to take vengeance, the Chians hid him under ground, and Orion retired to Crete. Mount Casius of Pelusium is now called Kisel. The statue of Jupiter Casius there held a pomegranate in his hand, asso- ciating him with Eimmon (Lempriere, and Bryant, iii. 239). Have we Orion under some of his synonymes in Britain ? I think we have ; (Enopion and Kedalion are corruptions of Ain and Aub, the prophetic fountain, and Kadyr Helion, the solar fane. We have eight, at least, of such fanes and fountains re- taining the name Chesil in Britain : — Chesil, with Clorus Camp and Dunstable pool, east of Salisbury. Chesilbury, eight miles west of Salisbury, with its earth- work above the magnificent fountain Fovant. Chesilbourne, under Nettle -cum-Tout, the highest point of the chalk range, Dorsetshire, among the Melburys. Chesildon, below Liddington earthworks, but it is also an earthwork itself, and built up of Druidic stones; its spring feeds the great reservoir by Swindon, supplying the canal. Chesilhampton hill, in the fork of Thame and Isis, with a fraternity of Baldons around, Baldon Toot, &c. Chesilhurst, Kent, a cliff overlooking Bickton and Bromley vales. Chesilton, Portland Isle, with the Chesil bank. Chesil- water, Fortune's Well, Melcombe Eegis, and the Druidic fountain of Portisham, and Chesilborough, a conical hill, an offshoot of the Ham quarry hills, Somersetshire, famous still for cretinism, witches, and an evil name. It is here, I think, I have discovered Orion himself as a Eoman Penates. NOTES TO THE FASTI. 253 CHESELBOEO. CEENE ABBAS. The Chesilborough Penates is taken from the ' Journal of the British Archaeological Association/ December 31, 1862. The writer says, " I met there the late Sir Eichard Hoare, and the Eev. Mr. Skinner. I asked the latter the meaning of the word Chesil, having a field in West Coker of that name. I considered it had allusion to the sandy soil of the locality, but he said it meant the 'Great House,' or * Place,' and added, search in your field, and it is my opinion you will find Eoman remains." The statement goes on to say, that so it proved ; the soil dark rich loam (not sand at all), and stones, tesserse, plaster, tiles, pottery, nails, bronzes, coins, flints, bones, &c, mixed with the soil ; they found no remnant of palace or place, but they found an altar, " one wall fragment of six stones, in situ" with a stone path of the Ham quarry stone, the stones worn with having been trodden on, and bones of ox, sheep, hog, horse, deer, stone arrows, javelins, and knives, and coins, all Eoman. Amidst them the Penates they call Mars, but which the constellation 254 NOTES TO THE FASTI. marked upon his body and the belt, carrying out the slovenly legend " Triorches," prove to be Kisel, or Orion. There are two marks given on the knees : if further research should show them to be two more stars, the con- stellation of Orion would be perfect upon the body, and leave no doubt of the idol. All these representations of Orion (except Denderah) bear the constellation marked upon the figures, and that of Aratus apparently conjoins the twain of Deltoton and Orion. The other figure I have placed by his side is a monster idol of 180 feet in height, beneath an earthwork on the chalk range, and above the fountain which rises at Cerne Abbas, and which, like the White Horse of Ashbury, has existed time immemorial. Cerne Abbas is the Game horn of the Aub spring ; all our " Abbas " and " Abbots " stand on springs of water, which appear to have reference to the name ; but M. Hue, writing of the Kere, or Unicorn of Thibet, and comparing it with the Unicorn of Scripture, calls the latter the " Ariel and Aboukarn of Haute Nubie." Aboukarn and Cerne Abbas appear to me to be the like word, and in Ariel and Abou- karn we have this Ariel — "lionlike man of Moab," forming the Karn to the fountain of Cerne Abbas. The legend of Kentish horsetails, according to Mr. Bailey's ' Etymological Dictionary,' belongs to this spot, which I have attempted to account for in a note to the White Horse of Ashbury, p. 208, Metamorp. the -wiirrrc nonsK of ashbvuy, bkrks. NOTES TO THE FASTI. 255 That these idol monsters, called Kisel and Cefl, were converted into Cavalli by the missionary monks of Pope Gregory, who instructed them to pervert the names of idols to some approximating inoffensive word ; and that thus the Dragon of Ashbury, and the trinodine club-bearer of Cerne Abbas got conjoined with horses. Probably the people, angry at hearing their idols called Cavalli, fixed horses' tails in derision upon the offending Christians ; and that the monks framed the retributive legend of horses' tails growing on the backs of the men of Ceme or of Kent, where was another White Horse belonging to the Druidic system at Addington. Tyndaridce.—Y. 800. The Tyndaridas and the (Ebalidae contend for the Leucip- pides. The TyndaridaB were fire temples, says Bryant, ii. 157, and because they stood by the sea they were made tutelary deities of that element. The (Ebalidse would appear to be the Aub. El. fountain of the sun, of which Idas and Lynceus, his brother, were the mount and bale of fire. They fought at Aphidna. " Aphys or Aphytis, in Thrace, in a country Phlegra, from its worship of fire," Biyant i. p. 75. A spot unencumbered by trees, suited to fiery contention. It appears partly to duplicate the story told by Homer of Idas and fairfooted Evenina, Marpessa, or Cleopatra, whom he redeemed from Apollo. Jupiter enters into this fable ; but his bolt was as unequal to strike the sword from the dead hand of Idas, as was Apollo's dart from Idas,- " most excellent of mortal men," as Homer terms him. The death of Castor appears to be another instance of changing the pair of fire temples into one, as in Jason and his sandal, Achelous and Amalthea, and their horns, from the pair of Taurs, threatening death to the mariner, to the 256 NOTES TO THE FASTI. Pharos, a pillar "by day and a light by night, affording harbourage and safety to him. Carna.—YL 1. 115. The three female names conjoined with Janus and the Janiculum are Gran&, Venilia, and Canens. Adopting three spots as representing Janiculums in Britain, we find traces of the three names. At Shepherd's shore, the Janicu- lum of the Wansdyke, we have the sacred sources of the Avon, called Cannings — All Cannings and Bishop Cannings. At Camelon on Picts', or Graeme's dyke, we find the sole remaining word of the Pictish tongue to be Ben-Val (see back, p. 215). On Dartmoor we have a mythical central mere, from whence its rivers were supposed to spring and flow, called Cranmere, equivalent to the Eos-Crana of Ossian and the Hippocrene" of the Muses. Cranmere ex- emplifying in its fable the story of Grane, or Carna, those who seek for it fail to discover it. The analogies of the name are given p. 213, showing it to be the fountain of the sun, and still called Grenna, at the fountain of Apollo at Cyrene, and Aquae Grane by Lord Clarendon, at the sacred waters of Aix-la-Chapelle. The Eiver Teign is one of the very chief of our Druidic worshipped rivers. It seems to signify the eastern T'ain, the fountain. St. Keyne of Cornwall and Keynsham be- comes St. Teyne in Wales ; and the words Dan and Dane are perhaps variations of the name. There is no Druidic remain of which the Teign possesses not a specimen. A three days' journey through its wil- derness would take the votary from the huge lagoon, at its mouth, to Cranmere, at its source ; by Chudleigh and its pixy cave ; Manaton and its dragon and legendary snakes ; Heytor, with its pyramids of native granite ; Stanton Drew, NOTES TO THE FASTI. 257 with its cromlech and Brad-mere; tolmens and logan stones., circles, old British bridges, and grey wethers. Near to Chagford the river surrounds Gidleigh, and descends through a cleave from the morass of Dartmoor. Following the course of the stream the votaiy would ascend by one arm and descend by another and make a circuit without being able to identify where the summit fountain actually lies : this is Cranmere ; the summit being a swamp, Cranmere is undiscoverable. The Brenner pass of the Alps is another case in point : the fountain parts upon the summit and flows north and south, the nymph of the pass hiding herself, as did Grane. The Teign nevertheless does hold a mere or pool above Gidleigh, though not at its summit waters, called Eaybarrow pool. Be Buri is equivalent to the Irish Cairn Grainey, p. 214, solar heap or mound, and would imply that this mere had been dedicated to Jie, the sun. Above Shepherd's Shore we have B} T bury, the summit peak, also called Tan hill ; Tan in British signifying fire. The river Till appears in like manner to enclose the peak of Cheviot with its Druidic remains. The horseshoe circle of Marlborough Downs is enclosed by the Gad and Og- bournes and ditches yet remaining between them on the north. The Cranmere of Hacpen there has the resounding name of Glory Anne, or Port Laurien. The notion that Cranmere is so named from the Cranes frequenting it is utterly untenable. It is a dread solitude, the peat supporting nothing but itself, " spongy and poor and wet." It does not appear to subsist a frog. Animal life commences below the cleaves ; a,bove them is mere desolation. Geese fly by myriads over the Yorkshire wolds ; but I never heard of geese on Dartmoor. All our Cranbournes and Cranbrooks hold their titles from the sun, and not from cranes ; and their old Pagan s 258 NOTES TO THE FASTI. attributes were beneficent, if Grane truly is their imper- sonating genius. " Thence derives Vesta."— YI. 1. 356. Ovid breaks down thoroughly in this derivation of Vesta. We trace the derivation very surely from the eastern Ash, or Esh, fire ; Eshah offering by fire, Hestia, Vesta, JEstns, Eshel, Asylum, and Asherah, groves ; in our English Ashes, and Ash bury and Ash wells, Yes Tor, companion with Mis Tor, the two chief Tors of Dartmoor, and signif3 r ing solar and lunar (as also Bel Tor and Hessary Tor ; Hay tor and Manaton ; and others forming pairs of solar and lunar fanes on Dartmoor). Ovid proceeds to show that Vesta and Terra are the same. " Tellus was heaped upon her ; one and the same Vesta and Tellus are," 1. 545. the tehl. (Tristram's ' Great Sahara,' p. 30.) The Thol, in Hebrew ; in Latin the tholus. dome of Vesta, as also the word thalamum, sometimes applies to tumuli, and sometimes to bridal beds beneath the dome, as in Book iv. 202, where Attis imagining the thalamum or dome of Cj^bele would fall and crush him, resumed the Teak of Dindymus. He flees from the crypt of Cybele and resumes NOTES TO THE FASTI. 259 the Tehl, as we see it in the woodcut. The Tehl and the Thol are the same, only the bale of fire of the Tehl becomes the vestal fire of the Thol. In our country St. Bridget's lire was kept in the round tower of Kildare ; which round towers " arctge sunt et altse necnon et rotundas." — Girald. Cambrens., which description of the round tower carries out the sectical points of Tellus and Vesta. Another point belonging to the subject appears to be the ass. This would be the Boinos On, the mound of the sun, represented by the garlanded ass, referred to 1. 410, 1. 557. The ass's shadow at noonday when the tumulus affords none, and a dozen strange proverbs touching the ass; among the Kumaaans ; among the monkeys, Pithecoi ; among the bees, Melissais ; the Thebans could not pass the Oneium, &c. ; all show the sectical difference of this silent and despised solar shrine. " The CurtianiaJceJ'—YI. 1. 473. * Probably this was the Caprean mere where Eomulus, sacrificing, disappeared. It was sacred to Kur, the sun, with a sanctuary grove, to which they went barefoot. It was the site of the sulphur springs of Janus, and medicated waters, i. 293. It was drained by the Cloaca Maxima, and mythically filled up by the sacrifice of Curtius, horse and armour, to the solar rites. Vertumnus and the revellers from Fors Fortuna's feast, and scoffing at sailors belong to this spot. The memory of this paganry did not disappear when all traces of lake and solar rites had passed away. The Palladium.— VI. 1. 501. " Ketain, he said, The form ethereal of the martial maid, To town and realm wherever she may be, She will transfer all rule and .sovereignty." s 2 260 NOTES TO THE FASTI. It is curious that we possess a Palladium in the " Liag Fail," or Stone of Fate, in Westminster Abbey, with a legend similar. On the palace of Scone, from whence we took it, is inscribed i" Ni fallat fatum, Scoti quocunque locatuin Invenient lap idem regnare tenentur ibidem." which is rhymed thus : — " Except old saws do feign, And wizards' wits be blind, The Scots in peace must reign Where they this stone shall find." which is supposed to be a translation of the Irish verse and Scoti of Ireland. James I. was crowned upon' this stone. We have another, the Saxon Kings' stone, at Kingston-upon- Thames, and another in London, now part of St. Swithin's church, whereon Jack Cade struck his sword, exclaiming, " Now is Mortimer lord of this City." At Cashel also is the stone on which the Kings of Minister were crowned. VI. 1. 590. "A rocky head, Which separates two seas — one little neck of land Washed by two waters." Portishead separating the waters of the Avon Eiver from the waters of the Severn, exactly exemplifies this descrip- tion. Fors Fortuna and Portunus, Portumnus and Matuta, are all part and portion of one another. Portishead is a remarkable spot. AVansdyke commences there, traceable still to Inkpen by Hungerford, separating the waters of the northern Avons and Kennets from the southern. Portland Isle with Fortune's well, and the Druidic fane of Portisham at the end of the Chesil water, also pro- NOTES TO THE FASTI. 261 bably record the name of this pagan marine god. Haven was our old British word for port. Fors Fortuna and Portunus probably named Portsmouth, Portisham, and Por- tishead. Our legend of Sabrina leaping into the sea and being there received by the Panope and her hundred sisters of Severn, has somewhat of analogy to the fable of Ino. VI. 1. 686. " But who is this Beneath the toga ? It is Servius." VI. 1. 698. " And o'er herself and features spreads the veil, And toga o'er the king." Tullius Servius is thus conjoined with Fortuna, Fors Fortuna, and Matuta. Servius was a solar power, a rex and born of Mulciber, though by a slave. He lies, therefore, covered, i. e. in crypt, beneath the toga purpurea of the kings. iEneas sacrificed thus in purple by command of Helenus on reach- ing Italy, and the old Greek monarchs veiled their heads when they sacrificed. Fortuna lies covered by the white Velamen, Peplos, or Kredemnon of the Greek, the lunar veil, as shown upon the Samian Juno, p. 172. Wordsworth (' Athens and Attica,' p. 181), writes, that the Peplos was hoisted aloft with cables, like a ship's sail, on a horizontal bar attached to the summit of a vertical mast. In this position the peplos moved above the heads of the crowd. Afterwards the peplos assumed the character of a real sail, and the props of the peplos the functions of a yard- arm and mast. So we find in Britain a coin of Antoninus Pius gives Britannia holding the mast, from which descend three 262 NOTES TO THE FASTI. A- Peplos (Camden i. cxviii. of Roman Coins). It appears in some sectical way to reverse the trident, which was of fiery symbolic import. At the same time the peplos was an undoubted garment — a robe presented by the Trojan dames in procession to 4i unjust Minerva." It was the Panathenaic symbol. We find it as a robe and as a «ail in the hands of Europa on the bull in the coin of Sid on. Leucothea lent hers to Ulysses ; Medeia stained hers with the blood of Apsyrtes ; Thisbe's was spotted and polluted by the lioness, priestess of the Arimi ; Omphale clothed Hercules in her velamen ; Faunus fled from the sight of it, his rustic fanes were fire altars. In all these instances the like symbol is referred to the lunar veil and cryptish rites of the lunar deity from Isis to St. Bridget. PRINTED BY W. CLOWES AM) SONS. STAMFORD STREET. AND CHARING CROSS. I