xix. 18–19: “And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spoke …”) is related to Judgment Day when “The heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat” (2 Peter iii. 12).

35 Rev. xx. 2–3: “And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up,.…”

36 beats, shakes (his coiled tail).

37 The birth of Christ begins the destruction of the pagan divinities, extending through XXV, by stilling the false oracles of the heathen.

38 perhaps “paled with fear,” derived from the Latin usage of “palleo.”

39 Matt ii. 18: “In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning.…”

40 the spirit presiding over any particular place, such as a wood.

41 gods presiding over the home and spirits of the dead. “Flamins” l. 194, were Roman priests.

42 foreboding ill (see Georgics, I, 480).

43 The pagan divinities put to rout (XXII–XXV) are: Peor, the Phoenician sun god; Baalim, local Phoenician deities concerned with flocks; the Philistine fish god Dagon, whose statue was cast down twice because the people of Ashdod had taken the ark of God (1 Sam. v. 3-4); Ashtaroth, a Phoenician female divinity, identified with Astarte and Venus; Ammon, the North African name for Jove, who as tender of flocks was represented as a ram; Thammuz, the Phoenician Adonis, who was killed by a wild boar and revered as a vegetation god (compare Ezek. viii. 14: “behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz”); Moloch, a Semitic deity, represented by a hollow idol filled with fire to consume sacrificed children whose cries were drowned out by cymbals and trumpets; the Egyptian deities Isis, the earth goddess, with the head of a cow (thus “brutish”); Horus, the hawk-headed sun god; Anubis, guide of the dead with the head of a jackal; and Osiris, the chief god and judge of the dead, identified with Apis, the Sacred Bull, which was buried in the temple of Serapis at Memphis; and Typhon, a hundred-headed serpent who killed Osiris, scattering truth to the four winds (Areo., p. 29).

44 referring to the aridity of Egypt.

45 Osiris’ “sacred chest” borne by his black-robed priests to a temple, accompanied by the sound of tambourines.

46 Compare Luke ii. 7. The line glances at the legend of the strength of the infant Hercules.

47 Evil spirits return at morning to their graves or to hell.

48 wearying (since lengthy).

49 The star of Bethlehem, latest born, has taken position to shine its light on Christ the King.

50 wearing bright armor.

Elegia sexta

AD CAROLUM DIODATUM RURI COMMORANTEM1

Qui cum idibus Decemb. scripsisset, et sua carmina excusari postulasset si solito minus essent bona, quòd inter lautitias quibus erat ab amicis exceptus, haud satis felicem operam Musis dare se posse affirmabat, hunc habuit responsum.

               Mitto tibi sanam non pleno ventre salutem,

                 Quâ tu distento forte carere potes.

               At tua quid nostram prolectat Musa camoenam,

                 Nec sinit optatas posse sequi tenebras?

5

   5          Carmine scire velis quàm te redamémque colámque,

                 Crede mihi vix hoc carmine scire queas.

               Nam neque noster amor modulis includitur arctis,

                 Nec venit ad claudos integer ipse pedes.2

               Quàm bene solennes epulas, hilaremque Decembrim

10

  10                Festaque cœlifugam3 quæ coluere Deum,

               Deliciasque refers, hyberni gaudia ruris,

                 Haustaque per lepidos Gallica musta focos.

               Quid quereris refugam vino dapibusque poesin?

                 Carmen amat Bacchum, Carmina Bacchus amat.4

15

   15        Nec puduit Phœbum virides gestasse corymbos,

                 Atque hederam lauro præposuisse suæ.5

               Sæpius Aoniis clamavit collibus Euœ

                 Mista Thyoněo turba novena choro.6

               Naso Corallæis7 mala carmina misit ab agris:

20

  20                Non illic epulæ non sata vitis erat.

               Quid nisi vina, rosasque racemiferumque Lyæum

                 Cantavit brevibus Tëia Musa8 modis?

               Pindaricosque inflat numeros Teumesius Euan,

                 Et redolet sumptum pagina quæque merum;

25

   25        Dum gravis everso currus crepat axe supinus,

                 Et volat Eléo pulvere fuscus eques.

               Quadrimoque madens Lyricen Romanus9 Jaccho

                 Dulce canit Glyceran, flavicomamque Chloen.

               Jam quoque lauta tibi generoso mensa paratu,

30

  30                Mentis alit vires, ingeniumque fovet.

               Massica10 fœcundam despumant pocula venam,

                 Fundis et ex ipso condita metra cado.

               Addimus his artes, fusumque per intima Phœbum

                 Corda, favent uni Bacchus, Apollo, Ceres.11

35

   35        Scilicet haud mirum tam dulcia carmina per te

                 Numine composito tres peperisse Deos.

               Nunc quoque Thressa12 tibi cælato barbitos auro

                 Insonat argutâ molliter icta manu;

               Auditurque chelys suspensa tapetia circum,

40

  40                Virgineos tremulâ quæ regat arte pedes.

               Illa tuas saltern teneant spectacula Musas,

                 Et revocent, quantum crapula pellit iners.

               Crede mihi dum psallit ebur, comitataque plectrum

                 Implet odoratos festa chorea tholos,

45

   45        Percipies taciturn per pectora serpere Phœbum,

                 Quale repentinus permeat ossa calor,

               Perque puellares oculos digitumque sonantem

                 Irruet in totos lapsa Thalia13 sinus.

               Namque Elegía levis multorum cura deorum est,

50

  50                Et vocat ad numeros quemlibet illa suos;

               Liber adest elegis, Eratoque, Ceresque, Venusque,

                 Et cum purpureâ matre tenellus Amor.

               Talibus inde licent convivia larga poetis,

                 Sæpius et veteri commaduisse mero.

55

   55        At qui bella refert, et adulto sub Jove cælum,

                 Heroasque pios, semideosque duces,

               Et nunc sancta canit superum consulta deorum,

                 Nunc latrata fero regna profunda cane,14

               Ille quidem parcè Samii pro more magistri15

60

  60                Vivat, et innocuos præbeat herba cibos;

               Stet prope fagineo pellucida lympha catillo,

                 Sobriaque è puro pocula fonte bibat.

               Additur huic scelerisque vacans, et casta juventus,

                 Et rigidi mores, et sine labe manus.

65

   65        Qualis veste nitens sacrâ, et lustralibus undis

                 Surgis ad infensos augur iture Deos.

               Hoc ritu vixisse ferunt post rapta sagacem

                 Lumina Tiresian, Ogygiumque Linon,16

               Et lare devoto profugum Calchanta, senemque

70

  70                Orpheon edomitis sola per antra feris;

               Sic dapis exiguus, sic rivi potor Homerus

                 Dulichium vexit per freta longa virum,

               Et per monstrificam Perseiæ Phœbados17 aulam,

                 Et vada fœmineis insidiosa sonis,

75

   75        Perque tuas, rex ime, domos, ubi sanguine nigro

                 Dicitur umbrarum detinuisse greges.

               Diis etenim sacer est vates, divûmque sacerdos,

                 Spirat et occultum pectus, et ora Jovem.

               At tu siquid agam, scitabere (si modò saltern

80

  80                Esse putas tanti noscere siquid agam)

               Paciferum canimus cælesti semine regem,18

                 Faustaque sacratis sæcula pacta libris,

               Vagitumque Dei, et stabulantem paupere tecto

                 Qui suprema suo cum patre regna colit;

85

   85        Stelliparumque polum, modulantesque æthere turmas,

                 Et subitò elisos ad sua fana Deos.

               Dona quidem dedimus Christi natalibus illa,

                 Illa sub auroram lux mihi prima tulit.

               Te quoque pressa manent patriis meditata cicutis,

90

  90                Tu mihi, cui recitem, judicis instar eris.

Elegy 6

TO CHARLES DIODATI, SOJOURNING IN THE COUNTRY1

Who, when he wrote on the thirteenth of December and asked that his verses be excused if they were less estimable than usual, being in the midst of the splendors with which he had been received by his friends, declared himself to be able to produce by no means sufficiently auspicious work for the Muses, thus had this answer.

On an empty stomach I send you a wish for health, / which you, stuffed full, can perhaps do without. / But why does your Muse provoke mine, / and not permit it to be able to pursue its chosen obscurity? / You would like to know by song how I return your love and revere you; [5] / believe me, you can scarcely learn this from song, / for my love is not confined by brief measures, / nor does it itself proceed unimpaired on halting feet.2 / How well you report the customary sumptuous feasts and jovial December / and festivals that have honored the heaven-fleeing god,3 [10] / the sports and pleasures of winter in the country, / and the French wines consumed beside agreeable fires. / Why do you complain that poetry is a fugitive from wine and feasts? / Song loves Bacchus, Bacchus loves songs.4 / Nor did it shame Apollo to wear the green leaves of ivy [15] / and to prefer ivy to his own laurel.5 / On the Aonian hills the assembled ninefold band / has often evoked Euoe from the Thyonean troop.6 / Ovid sent poor verses from the Corallian fields;7 / in that land there were no banquets, nor had the grape been planted. [20] / What but wine and roses and Lyaeus wreathed with clusters / did the Teian poet8 sing in his shortened measures? / And Teumasian Euan inspires Pindaric odes, / and every page is redolent of the consumed wine, / while the laden chariot clatters on its back from an upset axle, [25] / and the horseman speeds on, darkened with Elean dust; / and the Roman lyricist,9 wet with four-year-old wine, / sang of sweet Glycera and golden-haired Chloe. / Indeed your table bathed in generous provision also / nourishes the powers of your mind and encourages your genius. [30] / The Massican10 cups foam out productive strength, / and you decant your verses contained within the wine-flask itself. / To this we add the arts and outpouring of Apollo through your inmost / heart; Bacchus, Apollo, Ceres together are favorable.11 / No wonder then that it is not doubted, for the three gods [35] / through you have created their delightful songs with combined divinity. / Now also for you the Thracian lyre12 with inlaid gold / is sounding, gently plucked by a melodious hand; / and the lyre is heard about the hanging tapestries, / which rules the maiden feet by its rhythmic art. [40] / At the least let these scenes detain your Muses / and recall whatever sluggish intoxication drives away. / Believe me, while the ivory plays on and the lyre / regales the perfumed halls with attendant festive dance, / you will feel silent Apollo creep through your breast [45] / like a sudden heat that permeates to the bones; / and through maiden eyes and sounding finger / gliding Thalia13 will invade all bosoms. / For gay Elegy is the concern of many gods / and she calls those whom she wishes to her measures; [50] / liber gives attention to elegiac verse, and Erato, Ceres, and Venus, / and with his rosy mother is delicate Love. / For such poets thereafter great banquets are allowed / and often to become soft with old wine. / But who records wars and heaven under mature Jove, [55] / and pious heroes and half-divine leaders, / and now who sings the sacred counsels of the supreme gods, / now the infernal realms bayed by the fierce dog,14 / let him live indeed frugally in the fashion / of the Samian teacher,15 and let herbage furnish his harmless food. [60] / Let the clear water near at hand stand in its bowl of beech wood, / and let him drink nonintoxicating potions from the pure spring.