Lines 582–694

But what time the artichoke bloometh and the chattering cicala sitting on a tree poureth his shrill song from beneath his wings incessantly in the season of weary summer, then are goats fattest and wine best, women most wanton and men most weak, since Sirios parcheth head and knee and the skin is dry for heat. Then let me have the shadow of a rock, and Bibline wine, and a milk cake, and milk of goats drained dry, and flesh of a pastured heifer that hath not yet borne a calf, and flesh of firstling kids, with ruddy wine to wash it down withal, while I sit in the shade, heart-satisfied with food, turning my face toward the fresh West Wind, and let me from an unmuddied everflowing spring which floweth away pour three measures of water and the fourth of wine.

But so soon as the strength of Orion appeareth, urge thy thralls to thresh the holy grain of Demeter in a windy place and on a rounded floor; measure and store it in vessels; and when thou hast laid up all thy livelihood within thy house, then I bid thee get a thrall that hath no family and seek a serving woman without a child. Troublous is a serving woman that hath a child. Care, too, for the dog of jagged teeth. Spare not his food, lest the Day Sleeper filch away thy goods. Also bring in fodder and litter that thou mayst have sufficient store for thy cattle and thy mules. Then let thy thralls rest their knees and loose thine oxen.

But when Orion and Sirios come into mid-heaven, and rosy-fingered Morning looketh upon Arkturos, O Perses, pluck and bring home all thy grapes, and show them to the sun for ten days and ten nights. Cover them for five and on the sixth draw off into vessels the gifts of joyful Dionysos. But when the Pleiades and the Hyades and the might of Orion set, then be mindful of seasonable plowing, and let the seed be duly bestowed under earth.

Howbeit, if desire of stressful seafaring seize thee—when the Pleiades, fleeing the mighty strength of Orion, plunge into the misty deep, then do blow the blasts of all the winds: then keep thou no more the ship upon the wine-dark sea, but mind thee to till the soil as I bid thee, and draw the ship on land and cover it about with stones to keep off the violence of the wet winds, and pull out the bottom-plug that the rain of Zeus rot not thy vessel. And duly bestow all thy ship-gear within thy house, well furling the wings of the seafaring ship, and hang the well-wrought rudder in the smoke. And thyself await the coming of the sailing season, and then hale the ship to the sea, and therein bestow the cargo, that thou mayest bring profit home: even as thy father and mine, foolish Perses, was wont to sail in ships, seeking a goodly livelihood: who also on a time came hither, traversing great space of sea in his black ship from Aeolian Kyme: not fleeing from abundance, nor from riches and weal, but from evil penury, which Zeus giveth unto men. And he made his dwelling near Helikon in a sorry township, even Askra, bad in winter, hard in summer, never good.

And in season do thou, Perses, be mindful of all works and chiefliest of seafaring. Praise thou the small vessel, but set thy goods in a large. Greater the cargo. and greater the gain upon gain will be, if the winds refrain their evil blasts. When thou wouldst turn thy foolish soul to trafficking, to escape debts and joyless hunger, I will show thee the measures of the surging sea, though I have no skill of seafaring or of ships. For never yet have I sailed over the sea in a ship save only to Euboia from Aulis, where of old the Achaeans abode a storm, when they had assembled a mighty host that should go from sacred Hellas unto Troy, the land of fair women. Thither even unto Chalkis I crossed to the games of wise Amphidamas. And the prizes full many did his great-hearted sons offer and set forth, where I avow that I was victorious with my hymn and carried off an eared tripod: which I offered up to the Muses of Helikon, where first they set me on the path of sweet song. Such is all the experience I have of dowelled ships. Yet even so shall I declare the mind of Zeus, the Lord of the Aegis. For the Muses have taught me to sing the wondrous hymn.

For fifty days after the turning of the sun, when harvest, the weary season, hath come to an end, sailing is seasonable for men. Thou shalt not break thy ship, nor shall the sea destroy thy crew, save only if Poseidon the Shaker of the Earth or Zeus the King of the Immortals be wholly minded to destroy. For with them is the issue alike of good and evil. Then are the breezes easy to judge and the sea is harmless. Then trust thou in the winds, and with soul untroubled launch the swift ship in the sea, and well bestow therein all thy cargo. And haste with all speed to return home again; neither await the new wine and autumn rain, and winter’s onset and the dread blasts of the South Wind, which, coming with the heavy autumn rain of Zeus, stirreth the sea, and maketh the deep perilous. Also in the spring may men sail; when first on the topmost spray of the fig-tree leaves appear as the foot-print of a crow for size, then is the sea navigable. This is the spring sailing, which I commend not, for it is not pleasing to my mind, snatched sailing that it is. Hardly shalt thou escape doom. Yet even this men do in ignorance of mind. For money is the life of hapless men: but dread is death amid the waves, and I bid thee think of all these things in thy heart, even as I say. Neither set thou all thy livelihood in hollow ships, but leave the greater part, and put on board the less. For a dread thing it is to chance on doom amid the waves, even as it is dread to put too great a burden on a waggon and break the axle, while the goods are lost. Observe thou measure: due measure is ever best.