Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/139

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SILVAE, II. ii. 63–90

Why should I tell of ancient forms in wax or bronze, or of aught that the colours of Apelles rejoiced to animate, or the hand of Phidias carved, though Pisa still was empty,[1] yet wondrously withal, or what was bidden live by Myron’s art or Polycletus’ chisel, the bronzes, from the funeral fire of Corinth,[2] more precious than gold, countenances of chieftains and prophets and sages of old time, whom it is thy care to follow, whose influence thou dost feel in all thy being, untroubled and steadfast in thy tranquil virtue, and ever lord of thy own heart? Why should I recount the numberless summits and the changing views? Each chamber has its own delight, its own particular sea, and across the expanse of Nereus each window commands a different landscape: this one beholds Inarime, from that rugged Prochyta is seen; here the squire of mighty Hector[3] is outspread, there sea-girt Nesis breathes tainted air; yonder is Euploea, good omen for wandering barks,[4] and Megalia flung out to repel the curving billows; and thy own Limon grieves that his lord reclines there over against him, and gazes at thy Surrentine mansion from afar. Yet one room there is, one higher than all the rest, which over a straight track of sea brings Parthenope to thy sight: here are marbles chosen from the heart of Grecian quarries;[5] the stone of Eastern Syene, splashed with veining, and that which Phrygian axes hew in mournful Synnas o’er the fields of wailing Cybele,[6] whereon the white expanse is bordered by a rim of purple; here too are green blocks quarried from the hill of Lycurgus at

  1. ↑ i.e., before the statue of Olympian Zeus was there.
  2. ↑ Statues supposed to have been cast from the masses of molten bronze found in Corinth after its burning: see Petronius, 50; Pliny, N.H. xxxiv. 5.
  3. ↑ The cape called after Misenus.
  4. ↑ Because the name (Εὔπλοια) means “happy voyaging.”
  5. ↑ See note on i. 2. 148.
  6. ↑ The Phrygian worship of Cybele, who wails for Attis, her votary (cf. i. 5. 38), is here referred to.

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