Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/483

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THEBAID, II. 665–691

wands to your unwarlike music? or were joining the fray that true men know nought of at the sound of Celaenae’s[1] boxwood pipe? Far other carnage is this, far other madness! To death with you, cowards and too few!” So thunders he, but nevertheless his limbs deny him, and the tired blood beats heavy on his heart. His arm is raised, but falls in idle blows, his steps are slow, nor can his elbow bear the weight of the buckler changed[2] by the spoils it bears; the cold sweat pours down his panting breast, and his hair and burning visage stream with gory dew and the foul bespattering of dying bodies: even as a lion, who has driven the shepherd tar from the meadows and taken his fill of Massylian sheep, when his hunger is sated in abundance of blood, and his neck and mane are congealed and heavy with corruption, stands faint in the midst of the slaughter, his mouth agape, fordone with gorging; gone is his savage fury, he only snaps in the air his empty jaws, and with hanging tongue licks them clean of the soft wool.

Rich in spoils and bloodshed, he would even have gone to Thebes, and vaunted his triumph before astonished prince and people, hadst not thou, Tritonian maid,[3] deemed worthy of thy counsel the hero, still ardent and all dazed by his deeds: “Scion of proud Oeneus, to whom just now, though far away, we granted victory over Thebes, set now a limit, and strain no more the gods’ undue favour; seek only credence for these toils. Depart, having used thy fortune to the full.” There yet remained, an unwilling survivor of his comrades’ slaughter, Maeon,

  1. ↑ Where Marsyas the flute-player was defeated by Apollo.
  2. ↑ Cf. the use of “mutare” in vii. 71. E. H. Alton suggests “spiclis” for “spoliis.” The spoils are apparently regarded as carried on the shield. “spiclis” (“darts”) would refer to the missiles sticking in the shield, flung by his enemies.
  3. ↑ Pallas Athene, who was born, according to one legend, from a lake Triton in Libya.

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