Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/595

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

THEBAID, IV. 652–676

In drunken languor Liber was bringing back his array of war from conquered Haemus; there had he taught the warrior Getae, two winters through, to hold the orgies, and white Othrys to grow green along his ridges and Rhodope to bear Icarian shade;[1] already he draws nigh in his chariot decked with vine-leaves to his mother’s city; wild lynxes bear him company to right and left, and tigers lick the wine-soaked reins. In his train exulting Bacchanals[2] carry their spoil of beasts, half-dead wolves and mangled she-bears. No sluggish retinue is his: Anger and Fury are there, and Fear and Valour, and Ardour never sober, and steps that stagger, an army most like to its prince. But when he sees the cloud of dust surge up from Nemea, and the sun kindling on the flashing steel, and Thebes not yet marshalled for battle, horror-struck at the sight, though faint and reeling, he commands the brazen cymbals and the drums and the noise of the double pipe, screaming loudest about his astonished ears, to be silent, and thus speaks: “Against me and my race doth that host plan destruction; after long time their rage gains violence anew; savage Argos and my stepmother’s indomitable wrath are stirring up this war. Doth it not even yet suffice—my mother’s cruel burning, the natal pyre, and the lightning-flash that I myself perceived? Nay, even against the relics and the tomb of her consumed rival, against idle Thebes doth she make impious attack.[3]

  1. ↑ That of the vine, which Icarus of Sparta was taught by Bacchus to cultivate.
  2. ↑ “Mimallones,” i.e., Bacchanals.
  3. ↑ The reference is to Semele, mother of Bacchus, to whom she gave birth when struck by Jove’s lightning. “residem” seems to mean “unwarlike,” often a taunt in the mouths of enemies of Thebes, here a reproach against Argos for attacking her, as she is doing Argos no harm.

557

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.