Page:Statius (Mozley 1928) v1.djvu/99

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

SILVAE, I. v. 20–40

honour of the streams, I care not to solicit: far hence remove thou, O Salmacis, with thy deceiving fount, and the river of Cebrenis left forlorn, that grief made dry, and the ravisher of Hercules’ young ward![1] But ye Nymphs who dwell in Latium and on the Seven Heights and make Thybris swell with your fresh waters, ye whom headlong Anio delights and the Maiden destined to welcome the swimmer, and Marcia that brings down the Marsian snow and cold,[2] ye whose travelling waves flood through the lofty masonry and are carried high in air over countless arches—yours is the work I fain would sing, yours the home whereof my gentle verse doth tell. Never in other grottos dwelt ye more sumptuously. Cytherea herself guided her lord’s hand, and taught him skill; and that no baser flame might scorch the furnace, herself she kindled the brands of her winged Loves thereunder. Neither Thasos nor wave-lashed Carystos are suffered here;[3] far off the onyx mourns, and the serpent-stone rejected makes complaint; only the porphyry gleams, hewn from the Nomads’ tawny rocks, only that which in the hollow caves of Phrygian Synnas Attis bedewed with the bright drops of his own blood, and the snow-white cliffs that Tyre and Sidon quarry.[4] Scarce is there space for stone from

  1. ↑ Salmacis enticed Hermaphroditus into her waters and united herself indissolubly to him. Cebrenis is Oenone. Hylas, ward of Hercules, was drawn by a nymph into the spring where he was getting water.
  2. ↑ Two famous aqueducts, excellent for swimming in and drinking respectively, from the purity of the one and the coolness of the other. The “Maiden” fed several baths, including those of Agrippa.
  3. ↑ See note on i. 2. 148.
  4. ↑ No emendation of the text is convincing here. It is not certain whether there is any allusion to marble of Tyre and Sidon, of which nothing is otherwise known. The parallel in i. 2. 151 suggests rather a comparison with Tyrian dye, or, as Slater conjectures, with the purple “sindon” (linen garment) of a guest at the banquet; hence he would read “quaeque Tyri vineas fucatam sindona rupes,” “marble of a deeper purple than fine linen dyed at Tyre.”

61

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.