Chapter XIV: Preface: (xxxiv.)

When Orpheus sought repose and, lulling his song to sleep, had long laid aside his neglected task, the Nymphs complained that their joy had been reft from them and the sad rivers mourned the loss of his tuneful lays. Nature’s savagery returned and the heifer in terror of the lion looked in vain for help from the now voiceless lyre. The rugged mountains lamented his silence and the woods that had so often followed his Thracian lute.

But after that Hercules, setting forth from Inachian Argos, reached the plains of Thrace on his mission of salvation, and destroying the stables of Diomede, fed the horses of the bloody tyrant on grass, then it was that the poet, o’erjoyed at his country’s happy fate, took up once more the tuneful strings of his lute long laid aside, and touching its

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et resides levi modulatus pectine nervos 15
pollice festivo nobile duxit ebur.
vix auditus erat: venti frenantur et undae,
pigrior adstrictis torpuit Hebrus aquis,
porrexit Rhodope sitientes carmina rupes,
excussit gelidas pronior Ossa nives; 20
ardua nudato descendit populus Haemo
et comitem quercum pinus amica trahit,
Cirrhaeasque dei quamvis despexerit artes,
Orpheis laurus vocibus acta venit.
securum blandi leporem fovere Molossi 25
vicinumque lupo praebuit agna latus.
concordes varia ludunt cum tigride dammae;
Massylam cervi non timuere iubam.

Ille novercales stimulos actusque canebat
Herculis et forti monstra subacta manu, 30
quod timidae matri pressos ostenderit angues
intrepidusque fero riserit ore puer:
“te neque Dictaeas quatiens mugitibus urbes
taurus nec Stygii terruit ira canis,
non leo sidereos caeli rediturus ad axes, 35
non Erymanthei gloria montis aper.
solvis Amazonios cinctus, Stymphalidas arcu
adpetis, occiduo ducis ab orbe greges
tergeminique ducis numerosos deicis artus
et totiens uno victor ab hoste redis. 40
non cadere Antaeo, non crescere profuit hydrae;
nec cervam volucres eripuere pedes.
Caci flamma perit; rubuit Busiride Nilus;
prostratis maduit nubigenis Pholoë.

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idle chords with the smooth quill, plied the famed ivory with festal fingers. Scarce had they heard him when the winds and waves were stilled; Hebrus flowed more sluggishly with reluctant stream, Rhodope stretched out her rocks all eager for the song, and Ossa, his summit less exalted, shook off his coat of snow. The tall poplar and the pine, accompanied by the oak, left the slopes of treeless Haemus, and even the laurel came, allured by the voice of Orpheus, though erstwhile it had despised Apollo’s art. Molossian dogs fawned playfully on fearless hares, and the lamb made room for the wolf by her side. Does sported in amity with the striped tiger and hinds had no fear of the lion’s mane.

He sang the stings of a step-dame’s ire[122] and the deeds of Hercules, the monsters overcome by his strong right arm; how while yet a child he had shown the strangled snakes to his terrified mother, and had laughed, fearlessly scorning such dangers. “Thee nor the bull that shook with his bellowing the cities of Crete alarmed, nor the savagery of the hound of Hell; thee not the lion, soon to become a constellation in the heavens, nor the wild boar that brought renown to Erymanthus’ height. Thou hast stripped the Amazons of their girdles, shot with thy bow the birds of Stymphalus, and driven home the cattle of the western clime. Thou hast o’erthrown the many limbs of the triple-headed monster and returned thrice victorious from a single foe. Vain the falls of Antaeus, vain the sprouting of the Hydra’s new heads. Its winged feet availed not to save Diana’s deer from thy hand. Cacus’ flames were quenched and Nile ran rich with Busiris’ blood. Pholoë’s slopes reeked with the slaughter of the

[122] Juno is called the stepmother of Hercules.

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te Libyci stupuere sinus, te maxima Tethys 45
horruit, imposito cum premerere polo:
firmior Herculea mundus cervice pependit;
lustrarunt umeros Phoebus et astra tuos.”

Thracius haec vates. sed tu Tirynthius alter,
Florentine, mihi: tu mea plectra moves 50
antraque Musarum longo torpentia somno
excutis et placidos ducis in orbe choros.

LIBER SECUNDUS

(XXXV.)

Impulit Ionios praemisso lumine fluctus
nondum pura dies; tremulis vibratur in undis
ardor et errantes ludunt per caerula flammae.
iamque audax animi fidaeque oblita parentis
fraude Dionaea riguos Proserpina saltus 5
(sic Parcae iussere) petit. ter cardine verso
praesagum cecinere fores; ter conscia fati
flebile terrificis gemuit mugitibus Aetna,
nullis illa tamen monstris nulloque tenetur
prodigio. comites gressum iunxere sorores. 10
Prima dolo gaudens et tanto concita voto
it Venus et raptus metitur corde futuros,
iam dirum flexura chaos, iam Dite subacto
ingenti famulos Manes ductura triumpho.

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cloud-born Centaurs. Thee the curving shore of Libya held in awe; thee the mighty Ocean gazed at in amaze when thou laidst the world’s bulk on thy back; on the neck of Hercules the heaven was poised more surely; the sun and stars coursed over thy shoulders.”

So sang the Thracian bard. But thou, Florentinus,[123] art a second Hercules to me. ’Tis thou causest my quill to stir, ’tis thou disturbest the Muses’ cavern long plunged in sleep and leadest their gentle bands in the dance.