Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/185

hearths all Italy celebrates the Ides^[1] of Hecate.^[2] But I, although beneath Dardanian Alba’s hills^[3] an estate of my own and a rivulet that runs for me by the grace of our great prince^[4] sufficed to soothe my cares and to allay the summer heat, was making the rocks of the Sirens^[5] and the home of eloquent Pollius my abode, no stranger there, and zealously gaining knowledge of his peaceful soul and studying the new Pierian blooms of his innocent Muse. It chanced that, while we were spending Trivia’s day upon the watery shore, and discontented with narrow doors and wonted house were sheltering from the sun ’neath the foliage of a spreading tree, the sky was hid, the bright light gave place to sudden cloud and the faint breeze changed to a heavy downpour from the south; such a storm as Saturnia brought upon Libya, while wealthy Elissa was given to her Ilian lover and the witnessing Nymphs shrieked in the pathless glades.^[6] Helter-skelter we fly, and the slaves snatch up the festal banquet and wreathed goblets; nor was there any refuge for the guests, though countless houses were planted on the happy fields above, and the mountain glittered with a wealth of towers: but the lowering clouds and the assurance that the fair weather, though ruined, would return, urged us to seek the nearest shelter. There stood a mean shanty bearing the name of a sacred shrine, that confined the great Alcides within its humble walls, scarce large enough to house sea-wandering mariners and searchers of the deep Hither all the crowd of us gather, hither throng the band of slaves with the costly couches and the feast, and all the pleasant household of elegant Polla. The doors would not contain us, the narrow shrine lacked room.