Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/277

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

SILVAE, IV. v. 5–28

At last harsh winter has fled to the Parrhasian North,[1] o’erwhelmed by lofty suns; at last the cold winds are softened into mild zephyrs, and sea and land are smiling. Now every tree puts forth her yearly tresses of spring leaves, now are heard the birds’ new plainings and the unpractised songs which they planned in the silent winter. As for me, my thrifty domain and ever-wakeful hearth and rooftree blackened by many a fire console me, and the wine[2] that I take from the jar where lately it fermented. Here no thousand woolly sheep utter bleatings, no cow lows to its sweet lover; and only to their master’s voice, as he sings, whene’er he sings, do the mute fields re-echo. But this land, after my native country, holds first place in my love: here the maiden queen of battles[3] favoured my songs with Caesar’s golden crown, when you, striving with all your might, succoured your friend in his joyous hazard, even as Castor trembled at all the noise of the Bebrycian arena.[4]

  1. ↑ From Callisto, an Arcadian maiden, who was turned into a bear by Hera out of jealousy, and then made the constellation of the Bear; Parrhasus is a town in Arcadia.
  2. ↑ Bacchus, i.e. wine.
  3. ↑ i.e., Pallas. The reference is to the golden olive-wreath that was the prize of victory in the Alban contest; cf. iv. 2. 67.
  4. ↑ When Pollux fought against Amycus, king of the Bebrycians, during the voyage of the Argo. The meaning of ll. 25–26 seems to be that his friend gave him all the encouragement he could, being as anxious for him to win as Castor was when Pollux was fighting.

239

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.