Epigram XLI. — To Meroe, a drunken Hag

Who first compounded thee thy name, Meroe, he for Hippolytus, Theseus' son, compounded a name. For 'tis divining to make such a name as betokens lot, or character, or death. So, Protesilaus, the Fates gave thee thy name, because thou wert to be Troy's first victim. When men call a poet Idmon, a physician lapyx, the names anticipate the arts they are to learn. Even so art thou Meroe, not because thou art dusky-hued as one born in Nile-washed Meroe; but because thou never slakest wine with water, being used to drink draughts unallayed of wine, pure wine.