Book V

You inquire for what reason I suppose that its name was given to the month of May. My answer is, the cause has not been quite clearly ascertained by me. Just as the traveller comes to a stand, and, in his uncertainty, knows not which way to go when he sees a road in every direction; so, because it is in my power to assign different reasons, I know not in which direction to turn, and the very abundance of them is a difficulty to me. Tell me, ye who hold possession of the springs of Aganippian Hippocrene, the pleasing track of the steed of Medusa. The Goddesses differed on the point, Polyhymnia begins, the first of them to speak; the others keep silence, and mark her sayings in their minds. After the state of Chaos, when first the three elements were given to the world, and the whole universe receded into new forms, the earth, by its own weight, tended downwards, and drew after it the seas; whereas its lightness buoyed up the æther to the highest position. Thou too, O Sun, together with the stars, weighed down by no gravity, and you, ye steeds of the Moon, sprung forth in a direction upward. But neither did the earth for any length of time yield to the heaven, nor the rest of the stars to the sun; there was an equality of honour among them. Ofttimes did any one of the lower class of the Deities dare to sit on the throne, which thou, O Saturn, was wont to occupy: then any stranger God reclined side by side with Ocean, and Tethys was received many a time in the lowest place; until, at length, Honour and Reverence, with mild aspect, placed their bodies on the nuptial couch, sanctioned by the laws. Hence did Majesty spring, she who rules the universe, and of full growth was she on the very day on which she was produced. She delayed not; she took her seat on high in the midst of Olympus, resplendent with gold, and conspicuous with purple plaited robe. Together with her sit Modesty and Awe; you might behold every Deity assuming an aspect in conformity with hers. Forthwith respect for high rank take possession of their minds; dignity is now valued, and each is no longer occupied by self-complaisance. This state of things remained in heaven for many years, until, by the decree of the Fates, the oldest of the Gods was removed from the topmost place of heaven. The Earth brought forth her savage offspring, huge monsters, giants, who would dare to attempt an entrance into the palace of Jove. A thousand hands she gave to them, and serpents in place of legs; and she said, Take up your arms against the great Gods." These were preparing to pile up the mountains to the highest stars, and to provoke the mighty Jupiter to battle. Jove, hurling his thunderbolts from the heights of heaven, overturned the vast piles on those who had formed them." De ended by these arms the Majesty of the Gods still remains, and from that time abides in security. Next to Jove she sits; she is his most trusty guardian, and without violence she secures the sceptre to his sway. She came on earth, too; Romulus and Numa worshipped her; afterwards the others, each in his own day. She invests fathers and mothers with dutiful respect; she is the companion of boys and maidens. She adds dignity to the fasces when granted, and to the curule chair of ivory; she triumphs, standing aloft, the horses wreathed with garlands." Polyhymnia had ended her words; Clio and Thalia, skilled at the sounding lyre, approved of what she said. Urania took up the discourse; all kept silence, and no voice, save hers, could be heard. In days of yore, great was the respect of the hoary head, and the wrinkles of old age were honoured. The youths undertook the toils of Mars and the undaunted warfare; and in defence of their Gods, they remained at their posts. That age, which was feebler in strength and useless in bearing arms, often by its counsel assisted its country. Nor then was the Senate-house open to a citizen but in his latter years, and the Senate was the placid synonyme of old age. The old man gave ordinances to the people, and by definite laws the age was fixed at which this honour should be obtained, in those days the old man walked between the youths, they not denying him the honour; and if he had but one companion, he took the inner place. Who in those days, in the presence of an old man, would dare to utter words worthy of a blush? Old age conferred the right to reprimand. Romulus saw this, and he called the selected persons, 'Fathers.' To these was referred the government of the new-built city. From this circumstance I am inclined to think that the elders gave their name to May, and consulted the honour of their old age. It is possible, too, that Numitor may have said, Grant, Romulus, this month to the aged," and that the grandson did not refuse his grandsire. June, too, is at hand, so called from the name of the Juniors, the successor of this month, and no small guarantee for the honours of the month before it." Then did Calliope, first of her party, thus begin, her careless tresses wreathed in ivy, " In former times. Ocean had wedded Tethys, daughter of Titan, who encircles the earth whichever way it extends, with her flowing waters. Pleione, born of this marriage, is united to Atlas, supporter of the skies, and becomes the mother of the Pleiades. Of these, Maia is said to have surpassed her sisters in beauty, and to have been embraced by the mighty Jove. She brought forth on the brow of Cyllene, clad with the cypress, him who with his winged feet cleaves through the ethereal path. Him the Arcadians, and the rapidly flowing Ladon, and the mighty Mænalus duly worship, a land believed to be more ancient than the moon. Evander, an exile from Arcadia, had come to the fields of Latium, and had brought the Gods which he had placed on board his ships. Here, where now is Rome, the capital of the world, there were then but trees and grass, and a few sheep, and a cottage here and there. When they had come hither, " Stop," cried his prophetic mother, " for this spot of country shall one day be the site of an empire." " The Nonacrian hero obeys his mother and prophetess, and, a stranger, he paused on a foreign soil. Many sacred rites indeed did she teach these nations, but first the ceremonial of the horned Faunus and of the God of the winged foot." Faunus, half-goat in form, thou art worshipped by the aproned Luperci, at the time when the hides cut in thongs purify the thronged ways. But to this month hast thou given the name of thy mother, thou inventor of the curved lyre, patron of the thieves. And this was not thy first act of duty; thou art believed to have given to the lyre the seven strings, as being the number of the Pleiades.' She, too, had ended, and was applauded by the voice of her sisters. What am I to do? Each part of the choir has the same weight with me Let the favours of the Pierian train be equally bestowed on me, and let no one of them be praised by me more or less than her sisters.

From Jove let my work commence. On the first night is to be seen the star that tended the cradle of Jove. The rainy Constellation of the Olenian she-goat rises; she enjoys heaven as the reward of the milk which she afforded. The Naiad Amalthea, noble on the Cretan Ida, is said to have concealed Jupiter in the woods. To her belonged a beautiful goat, the dam of two kids, with horns towering, and bending over her back, and with an udder, such as by right the nurse of Jove ought to have. She gave milk to the God; but against a tree she broke her horn, and thus was mutilated of half of her beauty. This the Nymph took up, and wreathed it with fresh gathered herbs, and then raised it, filled with fruits, to the mouth of Jupiter. He, when he held the sovereignty of heaven, and sat on the throne of his father, and when there was no one greater than the unconquered Jove, changed his nurse, and her fruit-bearing horn into Constellations, which last still retains the name of its owner.

The Calends of May beheld the altar erected to the guardian Lares, and the little statues of the Gods. These Curius vowed; but the great length of time is fast destroying them, and extreme age is wearing away the stone. However, the cause of the title which is applied to them is, that they stand in guard over all things kept in safety under their eyes. They stand in guard over us, too, and they guard the fortifications of the city; they are ever at hand, and are giving us their assistance. But before their feet there used to stand a dog, hewn out of the same stone. What was the reason of its so standing with the Lar? It is, because each of them guards the house; each, too, is faithful to his owner. The cross roads are pleasing to the God; pleasing, too, to the dog. Both the Lar and the tribe of Diana scare away the thieves; both the Lares and the dogs keep their watch throughout the night. I was inquiring after the statues of the twin-brother Gods that had fallen down under the power of lengthened years. A thousand Lares does our city contain, and the Genius of the chief, who confided them to our care; and to the three Deities do the streets pay homage. Whither am I hurried away? The month of August will give me a right opportunity for this strain, meanwhile the good Goddess must be sung by me. There is a natural rock; the reality of the fact gave its name to the place. They call it The Crags;" it is a large part of the hill. On this spot had Remus stood, to no purpose, at the time when you, ye birds of the Palatine, gave the commencing sovereignty to his brother. There did the Senators erect, on the gently sloping hill, the temple that utterly abhors the gaze of males. The heiress of the ancient name of the Clausi dedicated this; one who never submitted her virgin person to the embrace of man. Livia restored it, that she might not fail to imitate her husband, and that in every point she might follow in his footsteps.

When the next dawn, the daughter of Hyperion, raises on the steeds of the morning her rosy light, the stars being driven away, the cold north-western wind will gently bend the tops of the ears of corn, and the white canvass will be set from the Calabrian waves; and soon as the darkening twilight ushers in the night, no one of all the train of the Hyades lies concealed. The face of the Bull glitters, radiant with seven flaming stars, which the Grecian mariner calls Hyades, from rain. Some think that they nursed Bacchus; some have supposed that they were the granddaughters of Tethys and of old Ocean. Not as yet was Atlas standing, bearing on his shoulders the burden of Olympus, when Hyas was born, distinguished for his beauty. Him and the Nymphs, did Æthra, daughter of Ocean, bring forth with timely throes; but Hyas was the elder born. While the down of his cheek is still young, with the net beset with variegated feathers, he scares the timid deer; and the hare proves to him an abundant prey. But when his manliness ripened with his years, he dared to attack even the wild boars and the shaggy beasts of prey; and now while he was seeking the lair and the cubs of a lioness that had just brought forth, he himself became the bloodstained prey of the Libyan wild beast. His mother and his sorrowing sisters bewailed Hyas; Atlas too, destined to support with his neck the burden of the skies, bewailed him. Yet were both of the parents surpassed by the affection of the sisters; that affection raised them to the sky: Hyas gave them their name.

" Come hither, thou mother of the flowers, to be honoured by mirthful sports; in a former month I had deferred the recital of what related to thee. In April thou dost begin; thou passest on to the days of May. The one month at its departure receives thee; the other as it comes. Since the limits of the two months are thine, and make place for thee, either this one or that is suitable for thy praises. In this month, end the games of the Circus, and the award of the prizes with the applause of the theatres: with this performance of the Circus let my strain proceed. Teach me thyself who thou art. The opinions of men are fallible; thou wilt be the best instructor as to thine own name." Thus I spoke; thus replied the Goddess to my request; while she was speaking, she breathed forth the vernal roses from her mouth. I, who now am called Flora, was once called Chloris. The Greek spelling of my name became corrupted by the Latin pronunciation. I was Chloris, a Nymph of the blessed plains, where, as thou hast heard, was formerly the abode of the blessed men. How great was my beauty it is irksome to one of my modesty to tell; but it procured a God as a son-in-law for my mother. 'Twas spring; I was roaming about: Zephyrus beheld me. I walked on; he followed me: I fled; he proved the stronger. Boreas '" too had given to his brother a full precedent for violence, when he dared to bear off his prize from the house of Erectheus. Yet he made amends for his violence by giving me the name of wife, and in my married state I have no ground for complaint. I enjoy perpetual spring; to me the year is always most beauteous; the tree always bears its foliage; the earth its herbage. A fruitful garden in the fields of my dowry is mine; the breeze cherishes it; it is irrigated by a spring of trickling water. This my husband has filled with flowers of the choicest kinds, and he says, Do thou. Goddess, rule the empire of the flowers. Ofttimes have I desired to reckon the tints as they were arranged, and I could not: their multitude exceeded all number. When first the dewy rime has been dashed from the leaves, and the variegated flowers warm in the beams of the sun, the Seasons arrayed in painted robes assemble, and gather my presents into their light baskets. Forthwith, to them are added the Graces, and they plait the chaplets, and the garlands, destined to bind their heavenly locks. I was the first to spread the new seed throughout the unlimited nations; before then the earth was of but one tint. I was the first to create the flower of the Therapnsean blood, and the complaint still remains that is written on its leaf. Thou too, Narcissus, hast a name throughout the cultivated gardens — unhappy in thy fate, that thou didst not in thy own person form two individuals! Why should I tell of Crocus or Attis, or the son of Cinyras, from whose blood by my art their fame arises in the shape of a flower? Mars, too, if thou art ignorant of the fact, was born by my art: that Jove may still remain in ignorance of it is my constant prayer. The sacred Juno, when, without a mother, Minerva was born, was grieved that Jupiter had not needed her aid. She was on her way, that she might complain to Ocean of the deeds of her husband; wearied with her toil, she stopped at my doors. Soon as I saw her, I said, Daughter of Saturn, what has brought thee here? She tells me the place to which she is going: she adds, too, the reason. I consoled her with words of friendship. 'My care, said she,' cannot he alleviated by words. If Jove has become a father, having neglected the instrumentality of his wife, and if he in his own person possesses the title of both husband and wife, why should I despair of becoming a mother without the aid of my husband, and, keeping myself chaste, of bringing forth, untouched by any man? All the drugs in the wide world I will try. I will search both the seas and the abysses of Tartarus.' She was in the middle of her speech - I appeared to have the look of one in consideration. Thou seemest. Nymph, she said, to have some influence in such matters. Thrice did I intend to promise her my assistance — thrice was my tongue stayed. The wrath of Supreme Jove was the cause of my alarm. 'Give me, I pray, thy aid,' she said;' my adviser shall not be disclosed: and she then calls to witness the Deity of the Stygian stream. 'What thou seekest,' said I, a flower sent to me from the Olenian fields will give to thee; the one in my garden is the only plant. He who made me a present of it said, Touch, with this, a sterile cow; she shall become a dam.' I touched one; forthwith she did become a dam. Straightway, with my thumb, I plucked the flower as it adhered to the stem; she was touched by me; and when touched, she conceived in her womb. And now, pregnant, she enters Thrace and the regions on the left of the Propontis. She gains her wish, and Mars is born. He, mindful that by means of me he had received his birth, said, Do thou occupy a place, too, in the city of Romulus. Perhaps thou mayst imagine that my sway is only over the delicate chaplets; but my divine power extends to the fields as well. If the cornfields have blossomed well, then will the threshing floor be rich; if the vineyards have blossomed well, there will be plenteous wine; if the olives have blossomed well, most shining with oil will the year prove; the pomes as well enjoy the increase of this season. When the blossom has once been injured, the vetches and the beans perish, and thy lentiles, O Nile, river that flowest from afar. The wine, too, carefully stowed away in the spacious cellars, flowers, and the scum covers the surface of the casks. Honey, too, is my province I invite the winged insects that will yield the honey, to the violet, the cytisus, and the hoary thyme. The same thing do I when the spirits abound in the years of youth, and the body is now in strength." As she said these things I regarded her with silent astonishment. But she said, " Thou hast the privilege of learning, if there be any thing that thou seekest to know." " Tell me, O Goddess," I answered, " what was the origin of the games." Scarcely had I fully concluded, when she answered me. The other appliances of luxury were not yet in full operation: the man who was rich possessed either cattle or a wide tract of land. From this circumstance, too, it was that the rich man was called " locuples," and that money had the name of pecunia." But now at length each was acquiring wealth by forbidden means. It had become a custom to depasture the lands of the people; and long was that permitted, and there was no penalty for so doing. The people kept their public places in the guardianship of no one: and to pasture on his own private property was deemed the act of a simpleton. Such irregularities as these were reported to the Ædiles, the Publicii: spirit before was wanting in these men. The people took cognizance of the matter: the offenders suffered the penalty of a fine; to its guardians the care of the public was a theme of praise. In part, the price was granted to me; and with great applause did the Ædiles, victorious in the contest, institute new games. With the other part they made, by contract, the carriage-road, which then was a steep precipice; now it is a useful way, and they style it the Publician. I had before supposed that annual spectacles were instituted; she told me, not so, and added to her expressions these words: " Honour influences us too: in festivals and altars do we take pleasure, and we that inhabit the heavens are an ambitious set. Often, by his sin, has some mortal made the Gods enraged, and the victim has been a soothing sacrifice for his crimes. Oft times have I seen Jove, when he was just, about to hurl his thunderbolts, withhold his hand on the offering of some frankincense. But if we are slighted, the wrong is atoned for with weighty penalties, and our wrath proceeds beyond moderate bounds. Look at the grandson of Thestius; with flames, at a far distance, did he burn: the reason was, because the altar of Diana was without its fire. Look at the descendant of Tantalus; the same Goddess withheld from him the power of setting sail. A Virgin indeed she is, and yet twice has she avenged her altars when subjected to a slight. Hapless Hippolytus, thou couldst wish that thou hadst paid homage to Dione, when thou wast torn in pieces by thy frightened steeds. 'Twere a tedious task to recount the slights that have been chastised by calamity. Me, too, the Roman fathers neglected. What could I do? By what means could I give symptoms of my displeasure? What penalty could I inflict for this my disgrace? My wonted duties were forgotten by me in my sorrow. No longer I guarded the fields: no longer was the fruitful garden valued by me. The lilies faded; you might see the violets parched; and the filaments of the ruddy crocus become flaccid. Many a time did Zephyrus say to me, Do not, thyself, destroy thy own dowry. Worthless to me was my dowry. The olive trees were in bloom; the wanton blasts nipped them. The corn-fields were in blossom; the corn was injured by hailstorms. The vine as yet gives a ground for hope; the heaven blackens in the quarter of the south wind, and the leaves are stripped off by the sudden shower. I did not wish all this to happen, for I am not cruel in my wrath; but I took no care to repel the evil. The Senators assembled; and if the year should blossom well, they vowed to my Godhead an annual festival. I assented to the vow. Lænas, the Consul, with his colleague Posthumius, in discharge of their promise, instituted in my honour these games." I was preparing to inquire why there was in these games a greater license, and more freedom in merriment. But it occurred to me that she was no austere Deity, and that she had functions suited for the enjoyment of pleasure. Her temples are entirely surrounded with the wreaths of flowers sewed together, and the gorgeous board is concealed by the roses showered down upon it. The drunken reveller dances with his hair wreathed with the bark of the linden-tree, and scarcely knowing what he does, is whirled along by the influence of the wine. In his drunken fit, the lover sings at the cruel threshold of his beauteous mistress; his perfumed locks support the delicate garlands. No grave matters are transacted with a brow enriched with the garland: and limpid water is not the beverage of those wreathed with flowers. As long as thou wast mixed, Achelous, with the juice of no clusters, there was no pleasure in assuming the rose. Bacchus loves the flowers; you may know that the garland is pleasing to Bacchus, from the Constellation of Ariadne. A merry stage becomes this Goddess; she is not, believe me, she is not to be reckoned in the number of the tragic Goddesses. And why the multitude of the courtezans throng to these games, the reason, when sought for, is not difficult to be ascertained. She is none of the morose ones, nor is she one of the great boasters: she wishes that her festival should be open to the Plebeian multitude. She teaches us, too, to make use of the beauty of our youth, while it is still in bloom; and that the thorn is slighted when the roses have faded. But why, whereas white garments are worn on the festival of Ceres, is this Goddess gay with habits of various colours? Is it because the harvest grows white with its ripened ears, but every hue and tint is to be found in flowers? She nodded her assent, and, as she shook her hair, the flowers fell, just as the rose, when dropped, is wont to fall on the festive board. There still remained the torches, the origin of which was concealed from me; when thus she removed my uncertainty. It is either because the fields are resplendent with purple flowers, that lights appear to be becoming to my festival or because neither the flower nor flame is of a dull colour, and the brightness of each attracts our attention, or because the licence of the night is suited to my pleasures. The third reason is derived from fact. There is still a little matter," I said, about which it remains for me to inquire, if I may be allowed." She said, I permit thee." " Why, in honour of thee, are the feeble roes and the timid hares enclosed in the net in place of the Libyan lionesses ?" She replied that the woods were not her domain, but the gardens and the fields not to be approached by the savage beast of prey. She had concluded her speech; and she vanished into empty air. A sweet perfume remained; you might know that she was a Goddess. That the song of Naso may flourish throughout all times, diffuse, I pray, O Goddess, thy gifts in my breast.

On the night before the fourth from the Calends, shall Chiron raise his star, half-man, and half-formed of the body of a yellow steed. Pelion is a mountain of Hæmonia, facing the south; its summit is green with pine; the oak covers the other part. The son of Phillyra inhabited it. The cave is still extant in the ancient rock which they say was the abode of the worthy old man. He is believed to have occupied with the strains of the lyre those hands that were destined in future times to effect the death of Hector. Alcides had come, a part of his task performed, and now almost the last of the labours enjoined on him, remained for the hero. You might see the two destined for the destruction of Troy, by chance, standing together. On the one side was the boy, the son of Æacus; on the other side was the son of Jove. The hero, the son of Phillyra, receives the youth with hospitality, and asks him the cause of his coming; the other one informs him. Meanwhile he examines his club and the spoil of the lion, and he says, " Hero worthy of these arms, and arms worthy of the hero !" Nor could the hands of Achilles refrain from daring to touch the hide bristling with its shaggy hair. While the old man is handling the arrows, tipped with poison, one falls, and the barb is fixed in his left foot. Chiron groans aloud, and draws the steel from the wound; Alcides weeps, and so does the Hæmonian boy. Yet he himself prepares the herbs collected on the hills of Pagasæ, and soothes the wounds with various remedies. The eating venom was too powerful for a remedy, and the pestilence was entirely absorbed in his bones and throughout his whole body. The blood of the Hydra of Lerna mingling with the blood of the Centaur gave no time for aid. Achilles stood bedewed with tears, as though before his father; thus was Pelias to be mourned had he then died. Often did he chafe the hands of the patient with his affectionate hands: the teacher then received the advantages of that disposition of which he had had the training. Often did he kiss him; often, too, did he say to him as he lay, "Live on, I pray; leave me not, my dear father!" The ninth day had come, when thou, most righteous Chiron, hadst thy body girt with twice seven stars.

Him the curving Lyre would desire to follow; but not yet is the path in readiness; the third night will be a suitable time. At the hour, when on the morrow, we say, that now the Nones are dawning, the Scorpion shall be marked in the sky from its middle.

When thrice from this time the Star of the Evening shall have raised his beauteous disk, and thrice the conquered stars shall have made way for the Sun, then will be the rites of your ancient ceremonial, feast of the Lemures; this feast will present the offerings to the silent shades. Their year was shorter; and not as yet had they been taught to employ, for purification, the affectionate Februa, and not yet wast thou the leader of the months, O Janus! thou of the double form. Yet already did they offer their peculiar gifts to the ashes of the dead, and the grandson performed the rites at the tomb of his buried grandsire. The month was called Maius, from the name of the " majores," [their ancestors,] which even now retains a part of the ancient custom. When midnight now is over, and affords silence for sleep, and ye dogs, and birds with your various tints, are still; at that hour rises the person who bears in mind the ancient ceremonial, and stands in awe of the Gods; his two feet have no sandals on them, and he makes a noise with his fingers clasped in each other with his thumb in the middle, for fear lest the aerial spectre should meet him if silent. After he has washed his hands clean in the water of the spring, he turns round, and first he takes up the black beans; with his face turned away, he flings them; but while he flings them, he says " I offer these; with these beans do I ransom myself and mine." Nine times does he say this, and looks not behind him. The ghost is believed to gather them, and to follow behind if no one is looking on. A second time he touches the water and tinkles the copper of Temesa, and begs the ghost to leave his house. When nine times he has repeated, Shades of my father! depart," he looks back, and believes that his rites are duly performed. Whence the day was called, or what is the origin of the name, is unknown to me; from some God it must be learned. Thou son of the Pleiad, worthy of veneration from thy potent wand, do thou instruct me; ofttimes has the palace of the Stygian Jove been visited by thee. The wand-bearing God comes at my prayer. Hear now the reason of the name; the reason was learned from the God himself. When Romulus consigned to the tomb the remains of his brother, and the obsequies of Remus, unhappily too active, were duly performed, woe-stricken Faustulus, and Acca with her dishevelled locks, were sprinkling his burnt bones with their tears. Afterwards, in their sorrow, they returned home, about the beginning of twilight, and threw themselves down to rest on their couch, hard as it was. The blood-stained ghost of Remus seemed to be standing by the bed, and, with a subdued gibbering, to utter these words, " Behold me, the half, the equal part, of all your prayers! Behold of what nature I now am! and of what nature but a little while ago I was! I, who so short a time since, if I had obtained the omens conferring on me the sovereign sway, might have been the chief among my people. Even now have I glided from the flames of the funeral pile, and am a phantom of air." This shape is all that is left of that which was Remus. Alas! where is Mars, my father? If ye did but speak the truth, and if it was he that gave to us, when outcasts, the udder of the wild beasts. Me has the rash hand of a fellow citizen destroyed — me, the very man whom a she-wolf preserved — of the two, how much the more humane was she. Ah, cruel Celer, mayst thou yield up thy remorseless soul through wounds, and mayst thou pass under the earth all stained with gore, as I have done. My brother willed not this; his brotherly affection is equal to my own. 'Twas all he could do; he expended his tears on my doom. Entreat him by those tears, by the nourishment you afforded him, to appoint a day to be celebrated in my honour." As he gives them these commands, they long to embrace him, and extend their arms: the gliding phantom escapes their hands as they grasp at him. As the ghost in its flight deprived them of their slumber, they both of them reported to the king the words of his brother. Romulus obeyed, and he called that day on which the prescribed rites are performed in favour of the buried dead, " Remuria." The harsh letter which was the first in the entire name, in lapse of time was changed into one of softer articulation. Afterwards, they called the ghosts of the silent shades the " Lemures :" this was the meaning of the word; this the import of the expression. Yet, on those days, the ancients shut their temples as you now see them shut at the festival of the Feralia. That time, too, was not auspicious for the marriage torches of the widow or of the virgin. She who married then did not long remain a wife. For this reason, too, if proverbs have any weight with you, the common people say that bad prove the wives that are married in May."

But these three festivals, I should observe, are at the same season, but continued on no one of the days intervening between them. On the middle one of these days if you seek for the Boeotian Orion, you will be disappointed. The origin of this Constellation must now be sung by me. Jupiter and his brother, who rules over the wide ocean, together with Mercury, were on their travels. It was the hour when ploughs turned over on the yoke are carried homeward, and the lamb drinks the milk of the ewe as it downward presses the udder. By chance, the old man, Hyrieus, the cultivator of a scanty farm, catches sight of them while he is standing before his humble cottage, and thus he accosts them, — Long is the road, and but little of the day now remains; my door, too, is ever open to the stranger." He adds looks to his words which fully confirm them: they comply with his invitation, and conceal their divine nature. They come beneath the roof of the old man, soiled with the blackening smoke; there is a little fire remaining in the log that had been laid on the day before. He, himself, on his knees, kindles the blaze with his breath, and then brings out and breaks up the split firewood. The pipkins stand on the table; the smaller of them contains beans; the other herbs; and each of them, covered with its lid, sends forth its steam. While there is a pause, he presents with his shaking right hand the blushing wine. The God of the Ocean receives the first cup. When he has drunk off the contents, he says, " Pour out some more, that Jupiter, in his turn, may drink." At hearing the name of Jupiter, the man turns pale. As soon as his self-possession returns, he sacrifices the ox, the tiller of his humble farm, roasting him on a large fire, and he draws the wine which he had racked in his early years, when stored in a smoky cask. He admits of no delay; now they reclined on couches that concealed under the linen cover the sedge of the river, and even with that addition, by no means lofty ones. Now was the board graced with viands,'" and with the wine placed upon it. The bowl was of red clay; the cups of beech wood. These were the words of Jove, — 'If thy inclination leads thee to desire anything, wish for it: thou shalt receive anything." These were the words of the mild old man, — " I once had a dear wife, known as the choice of my early youth. You ask where she is now: the urn covers her. To her did I swear this, having called yourselves as witnesses of my vow, thou alone shalt enjoy wedlock with me. I swore it, and keep my oath; but now I have desires that are not compatible with each other; I do not wish to be a husband; but I desire to be a father." They assented to his desire; they all stood round the hide of the bull. Modesty forbids me to tell the rest. Then did they cover the soaking hide with earth heaped upon it. And now ten months had passed, and a boy was born; him Hyrieus calls Urion, because he was thus begotten; the first letter has now lost the ancient sound. He had grown to a huge size; the Goddess of Delos took him as her companion; he was the protector and the attendant of the Goddess. His unguarded words excited the anger of the Gods. " There is no wild beast," said he, " that I am unable to conquer." The earth sent a scorpion ;" it attempted to fasten its crooked claws in the Goddess, the mother of the twins; Orion opposed it. Latona added him to the number of the radiant stars, and said, "Enjoy the reward of thy deserts."

But why do both Orion and the other stars hasten to leave the sky? and why does Night contract her path? Why, more swiftly than usual, does the fair day raise its beams from the watery deep, the morning star preceding? Am I mistaken? or do arms now clash? I am not deceived: it was the clash of arms. Mars is approaching, and, as he comes he gives the indications of war. The Avenger himself comes down from heaven to his own honours, and to the temple conspicuous in the Forum of Augustus. Mighty is the God, and so is the work; in no other fashion ought Mars to have his habitation in the city of his offspring. These shrines are worthy of the trophies won from the giants; it becomes Gradivus from this spot to give an impulse to the cruel warfare; whether it be that any one shall assail us from the eastern world, or whether, under the western Sun, the enemy will have to be subdued. He, all-powerful in arms, surveys the pinnacles of the highest part of the building, and considers it right that the unconquered Gods should possess its summit. He surveys, on the portals, the weapons of various forms, and the arms of the world conquered by his own soldiers. On one side, he beholds Æneas laden with the burden of affection, and so many progenitors of the noble house of Iulus: on another side he beholds the son of Ilia bearing on his shoulders the armour of the chieftain, and their illustrious deeds written on the base beneath the heroes ranged in order. He sees, too, the temple adorned with the name of Augustus; and as he reads the name of Cæsar, the work appears still greater. This, when a young man, he had vowed, at the time when he took up the arms of duty; from such acts as these ought a Prince to commence his career of command. He, stretching forth his hands, as, on one side, stood his avenging army, on the other, the conspirators, thus spake: — If the father of warfare, and the priestess of Vesta, are the founders of my race, and I am preparing to avenge either of these Divinities, do thou, Mars, come hither and satiate thy sword in the accursed blood, and let thy favour abide by the better cause. Thou shalt receive a temple, and when I am victorious 'The Avenger' shall be thy title." He had uttered his vow, and returned, exulting, from the routed foe. Nor is it enough for Mars once to have merited this epithet: he pursues the standards detained in the hands of the Parthian. This was a nation protected both by their plains, their horses, and their arrows, and inaccessible from the rivers, that surrounded them. The slaughter of the Crassi had given daring to the nation, when soldier, general, and standards were lost together. The Parthian was in possession of the Roman standards, the token of honour in warfare; and an enemy was the bearer of the Roman eagle. And still would that disgrace have been remaining, had not the empire of Ausonia been protected by the valiant armies of Cæsar. 'Twas he, that removed the ancient stains, and the disgrace of so long duration; the standards, when recovered, recognized their friends. What, then, thou Parthian availed thee the arrows wont to be discharged behind thy back? What, thy inaccessible places? What, the management of thy fleet steed? Parthian! thou restorest the eagles! thy conquered bows, too, thou extenclest! Now, not any pledges of our disgrace hast thou. Well was the temple and the name given to the Deity who twice avenged us, and the deserved honour acquits us of the obligation undertaken by our vows. Celebrate, ye Quirites, these solemn games in the Circus; the theatre does not seem to be befitting the God of valour.

When one night shall be remaining before the Ides, you shall see all the Pleiades, and the whole company of the sisters. At that time, according to no mean authority, as I think, the summer commences, and the season of the mild spring comes to a close.

The day before the Ides shows the Bull raising his face bespangled with stars; a well-known story is attached to this Constellation. Jupiter, in the form of a bull, offered his back to the Tyrian maid, and bore horns on an assumed forehead. She, with her right hand, held by his mane, and with her left she held her dress; and her very alarm was a source of additional grace. The breeze swells her flowing robes; her auburn hair floats along the wind. In such guise, Sidonian maid, it was befitting that Jove should behold thee. Full oft did she raise her maiden feet from the water of the ocean, and dread the splash of the dashing wave; often did the God purposely sink deeper in the waves, that she might the more tightly cling to his neck. The shore now reached, Jove stood without horns, and from a bull was changed into a God. The bull enters the heavens; thee, maid of Sidon, Jupiter embraces, and a third part of the earth bears thy name. Others have said that this Constellation is the cow of Pharos, which, from a human being, was made a cow, from a cow, a Goddess. On this day, too, the Vestal virgin is wont to throw from the oak-built bridge the images of the ancient men, platted in rushes. He who has formed a belief that aged men, after their sixtieth year, were put to death by them, charged our ancestors with wanton cruelty. The tradition is an old one: at the time when this was called the Saturnian land, these were the words of the prophetic God: — Ye nations, throw two bodies in sacrifice to the sickle-bearing aged God, to be caught by the Etrurian stream." Until the Tirynthian came to these fields, each year was the cruel sacrifice performed with the Leucadian rites. They say that he was the first to throw into the stream citizens made of bundles of straw; and that, after the example of Hercules, fictitious bodies are still so thrown. Some think that, with the view that they alone might enjoy the right of suffrage, the youths did fling from the bridges the infirm old men. Tiber, teach me the truth; thy bank is of higher antiquity than the City; thou hast the opportunity of well knowing the origin of the ceremony. Tiber raises his head crowned with reeds from the midst of his channel, and in such accents opens his hoarse mouth: — 'I have beheld this place, a lonely piece of pasture land, without walls; each of my banks used to feed the straggling cattle; and I, that Tiber which all nations now know and hold in dread, then was an object, even to the flocks, unworthy of notice. The name of Arcadian Evander is ofttimes mentioned to thee; he, as a stranger, dashed my waters with his oars. There came, too, Alcides, attended by a Grecian multitude. Then, if I remember aright, Albula was my name. The hero of Pallantium receives the youth with hospitality, and the punishment which was his due falls at length upon Cacus. The conqueror departs, and with him carries away the kine, the booty of Erythea; but his followers refuse to proceed any further; a great part of them had come having left Argos behind; in these mountains they establish their hopes and their home. Yet many a time are they influenced by sweet love of their father-land, and as he dies, oft does some one of them enjoin this slight task — "Throw my body into the Tiber, that, carried by the waves of the river, I, become lifeless dust, may go to the Inachian shore." The care of providing such a tomb as he enjoined displeases his heir; the corpse of the stranger is buried in Ausonian ground; a rush-made image is thrown into the Tiber instead of the master of the family, that over the wide seas it may return to a Grecian home," Thus much he said; when he descended into his grottoes, dripping from the natural rock, you, ye lightly flowing streams, withheld your current.

Illustrious grandson of Atlas! come hither. Thou whom once, on the Arcadian mountains, one of the Pleiades brought forth to Jove: thou minister of peace and war to the Gods above, and the Gods below: thou who wendest thy way with winged foot; thou exulting in the touch of the Lyre; exulting, too, in the Palaestra shining with oil, under the patronage of whom the tongue learned to speak with elegance! On the Ides did their fathers erect for thee a temple looking towards the Circus. From that time is this a day devoted to thee. Whoever make a business of selling their wares, having first offered thee the frankincense, beg of thee that thou wilt grant them profit. The fountain of Mercury is near the Capenian gate: if we may believe those who have experienced it, it has a divine efficacy. Hither comes the tradesman, having a girdle round his robes, and, in a state of purity, he draws some of the water, to carry it away in a perfumed urn; in this a laurel branch is dipped, and with the wet laurel are sprinkled all the things which are intended to change owners. He sprinkles his own hair, too, with the dripping bough, and runs through his prayers in a voice accustomed to deceive. 'Wash away the perjuries of past time," says he; "wash away my lying words of the past day whether I have made thee to attest for me, or whether I have invoked the great Godhead of Jove, whom I did not intend to listen to me. Or if I have knowingly deceived any other of the Gods, or any Goddess, let the swift breezes bear away my wicked speeches. Let there be no trace left of my perjuries on the morrow, and let not the Gods care whatever I may choose to say. Do but give me profits; give me the delight that rises from gain, and grant that it may be lucrative to me to impose on my customers." From on high Mercury laughs at his worshipper while making such requests as these, remembering that once on a time he himself stole the Ortygian kine. But explain to me, I pray, who am making far more becoming requests, from what time the Sun passes into the Constellation of the Twins? His answer was, "When thou shalt see days remain of the month as many as were the exploits of the labours of Hercules." "Tell me," I said, "the origin of this Constellation?" The God, with eloquent lips, explained the cause: — " The brothers, the sons of Tyndarus, had borne off Phoebe, and the sister of Phoebe; the one of them was a horseman, the other skilled as a pugilist. Idas and his brother prepare for war, and seek to recover those betrothed to them, being both of them affianced to be sons-in-law of Leucippus. Love persuades these to recover the damsels, the others, to refuse to give them up; and from the same motive each one of them fights. The Œbalian brothers were fully able to escape their pursuers by flight; but it seemed a disgrace to conquer only by speed in flight. There is a spot, destitute of trees, suited as a fitting ground for a combat. There had they taken their stand; Aphidna was the name of the place. Castor having his breast pierced by the sword of Lyncæus, lay stretched on the earth by an unexpected wound. The avenging Pollux is at hand, and pierces Lyncæus with his spear, in the spot, where the neck at its termination joins the shoulders. Idas was rushing on him, and hardly by the lightning of Jove was he repelled, and they say that his weapon was not even wrenched from his right hand by the bolt. And now, Pollux, the lofty heaven was open to thee, when thou saidst, Hear my words, my father! That heaven which as of right thou grantest to me alone, divide between us two; half will then be more valuable to me than the whole of the gift.' He spoke, and ransomed his brother by an alternate change of place; the pair form a Constellation serviceable to the tossed bark." Let him return to the month of Janus, who asks what are the Agonia, which, however, occupy this period as well in the Calendar. On the night succeeding this day, the Dog of Erigone departs. In another place, the origin of this sign is explained.

The next day is that of Vulcan: they call it Tubilustria. The trumpets'" which he makes are purified as sacred.

Then comes the place for the four initials, which being read in order, either the custom of the sacrifices, or the flight of the king of the sacrifices, is meant thereby.

Nor do I pass by thee. Public Fortune, of the all-powerful nation; to whom on the following day a temple was given.

When Amphitrite, abounding in waves, shall have received this day, thou shalt behold the beak of the russet bird so pleasing to Jove. The coming dawn removes Bootes from our sight, and, on the succeeding day, the Constellation of Hyas will be risen.