Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/235

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SILVAE, III. v. 41–64

my exhausted term of life, and the gods above feared thy displeasure. After that do you hesitate to go with me on this short journey to the desirable bay? Ah! where is that loyalty of yours, well-known and put to many a test, that makes you one with the heroines of Greece and Rome? Penelope would have rejoiced to go to Ilium’s town—for what deters true lovers?—had Ulysses suffered her; Aegiale chafed, and Meliboea chafed to be left behind,[1] and she too whom grief—how savage!—drove to frenzy.[2] Yet you no less than these are loyal, and your life is devoted to your lord. Not otherwise indeed do you still seek the ashes and shade of your former husband,[3] and embracing the relics of your poet-spouse renew your bitter heartfelt lamentation, even now that you are mine. As great too is your care and devotion for your daughter; your love as a mother is as tender; she is never absent from your heart, but the thought of her abides day and night in the inmost chambers of your being. Less lovingly does Alcyone of Trachis[4] flutter round her nest, and Philomela cherish her vernal home, and give her young ones the warmth of her own life. ’Tis she now keeps you, because alone and unmarried she is wasting her youth and beauty in barren leisure. But wedlock will come, ay come with all its festal torches. So assuredly does she deserve for her sweet face and virtuous mind; whether she clasp and strike the lute, or with voice as tuneful as her sire’s sing melodies that the Muses

  1. ↑ Aegiale, wife of Diomede and daughter of Adrastus, called Deipyle in the Thebaid; Meliboea is mentioned by Athenaeus as the wife of Theseus (Ath. p. 557), also by Servius (Aen. i. 724) as the wife of an Ephesian youth named Alexis.
  2. ↑ Laodamia, see ii. 7. 126 n.
  3. ↑ It is not known who he was; he, not Statius, was the father of her daughter.
  4. ↑ Changed by Zeus into the sea-bird called ἀλκύων; according to the fable, while the bird was nesting, the seas were all calm.

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