Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/201

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SILVAE, III. ii. 84–109

every terror, whether the raging coast of the Lucanian sea has sped thee by on favouring waves, whether eddying Charybdis be heaving or the maid that ravages the Sicilian deep,[1] how the furious Adriatic aids thy course, whether the Carpathian be at peace, and with what breeze the sea-nymph be wafting thee, that once smiled on the cunning of the Tyrian bull?[2] But I have deserved to mourn: for why, when thou wert bound for the wars, went I not with thee, an unwearied traveller, to unknown India and Cimmerian gloom?[3] By my patron’s warlike banner had I been standing, were it weapon or bridle thou wert holding, or whether thou wert giving laws to armed peoples, present if not to share, at least to admire thy deeds. If Phoenix whom great Achilles honoured came long ago to the Ilian shore and Thymbraean Troy, though not a warrior nor bound by oath to proud Atrides, why is my affection cowardly? But my loyal thoughts shall be ever with thee, and my prayers shall follow thy sails to distant lands.

Isis, once stalled in Phoroneus’ caves, now queen of Pharos and a deity of the breathless East, welcome with sound of many a sistrum[4] the Mareotic bark, and gently with thine own hand lead the peerless youth, on whom the Latian prince hath bestowed the standards of the East and the bridling of the cohorts of Palestine,[5] through festal gate and sacred haven and the cities of thy land. Under thy protection may he learn whence comes the fruitful licence of marshy Nile, why the waters abate and are hemmed within the banks that the Cecropian bird has coated

  1. ↑ i.e., Scylla.
  2. ↑ i.e., the sea between Crete and the Phoenician coast, over which travelled the bull that carried off Europa, daughter of Agenor, king of Phoenicia.
  3. ↑ The regions to the north of the Euxine, whence the name Crimea.
  4. ↑ The sistrum was a sort of rattle much used in the worship of Isis, here identified with Io, whom Hera out of jealousy turned into a heifer. Phoroneus was a former king of Argos.
  5. ↑ i.e., a command on the Syrian front.

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