Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/183

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SILVAE, III. i. 37–59

stalwart shoulders: here are high-piled cushions for thee, embroidered with acanthus in purple hue, and a lofty couch all rough with ivory carving. Come in a peaceable and gentle spirit, not turbulent with wrath nor suspicious like a slave, but in such mood as when Auge[1] the Maenalian maid detained thee, worn out with revel and drenched with thy brother’s wine,[2] or when Thespius, the father of thy many brides, marvelled at thee after the reproach of that roving night. Here hast thou a festal playing-ground, where ungloved youths in innocent rivalry perform the yearly, swift-recurring contests. Here on thy temple is written thy priest’s name to the joy of his grandsire:[3] small is he yet, and like to thee when with thy hand thou didst quell the first monsters of thy stepdame[4] and weep that they were slain.

But come, august Calliope, tell how the sudden shrine arose; Alcides will bear thee company with ringing voice, and twang his bowstring to imitate thy strains.

’Twas the season when the vault of heaven bends its most scorching heat upon the earth, and the Dog-star smitten by Hyperion’s full might pitilessly burns the panting fields. And now the day had come, when the torch-smoke rises from Trivia’s grove at Aricia, refuge of the runaways who reign there, and the lights twinkle on the lake that knew the secret of Hippolytus[5]; Diana herself sets garlands on her faithful hounds, and polishes her darts and lets the wild beasts go free, while at its virtuous

  1. ↑ Of Tegea in Arcadia, mother of Telephus by Hercules. The jovial and amatory character of the god is a common theme of ancient literature.
  2. ↑ Bacchus was a brother of Hercules, being equally sonof Zeus.
  3. ↑ Probably the eldest son of Julius Menecrates, to whom iv. 8 is addressed.
  4. ↑ The snakes that Hera sent to slay him in his cradle.
  5. ↑ Hippolytus when healed by Asclepios was hidden by Diana in her precinct by the lake. The lake of Nemi is close to Aricia; the priest of the shrine was called “rex Nemorensis.” and was a runaway slave who “slays the slayer and shall himself be slain.”

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