Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/189

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SILVAE, III. i. 115–142

Amphion’s towers will not have risen more swiftly, nor the toilsome walls of Troy.[1]” He spoke, and went from out his heart.[2]

Without delay the design is sketched and the plan shaped. Innumerable workers gather: some have the task of felling trees or planing beams, others sink the foundations in the soil. Moist clay is baked to protect against storm and to keep out frost, and untamed limestone is melted in the round furnace. But the chief labour is to cleave by might and main the opposing rock and the boulders that resist the steel. Hereupon the patron of the place, the Tirynthian himself, lays by his arms and sweats at the work, and himself with strong axe hews at the shapeless mass, when the lowering sky is veiled by the shades of night. Rich Caprae and green Taurubulae[3] resound, and the mighty echo of the sea returns again to the land. Not so loud is Aetna’s din, when the anvils are busy and Brontes and Steropes ply the hammer, nor greater the noise from the Lemnian caves when Mulciber amid his flames forges the aegis and makes chaste gifts for Pallas. The cliffs diminish, and the workmen returning in the rosy dawn marvel at the achievement. Scarce has a second panting summer come, when the Tirynthian enriched by a mighty dome looks down upon the waves and challenges his stepdame’s neighbouring abode, and invites Pallas to a temple worthy of her. Already the peaceful trumpets give the signal, already the sand smokes and burns with the valiant contests. Such honours would neither Pisaean Jove nor the sire of leafy Cirrha spurn.[4] No sadness is here: let tearful Isthmos and cruel Nemea give

  1. ↑ The walls of Troy were built by Apollo and Neptune, those of Thebes by the music of Amphion.
  2. ↑ Cf. “corda subit,’ l. 90.
  3. ↑ An island near Naples.
  4. ↑ i.e., at the games of Olympia and Delphi.

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