| 6.473. Iam, Phryx, a nupta quereris, Tithone, relinqui, 6.474. et vigil Eois Lucifer exit aquis: 6.475. ite, bonae matres (vestrum Matralia festum) 6.476. flavaque Thebanae reddite liba deae. 6.477. pontibus et magno iuncta est celeberrima Circo 6.478. area, quae posito de bove nomen habet: 6.479. hac ibi luce ferunt Matutae sacra parenti 6.480. sceptriferas Servi templa dedisse manus, 6.481. quae dea sit, quare famulas a limine templi 6.482. arceat (arcet enim) libaque tosta petat, 6.483. Bacche, racemiferos hedera redimite capillos, 6.484. si domus illa tua est, dirige vatis opus. 6.485. arserat obsequio Semele Iovis: accipit Ino 6.486. te, puer, et summa sedula nutrit ope. 6.487. intumuit Iuno, raptum quod paelice natum 6.488. educet: at sanguis ille sororis erat. 6.489. hinc agitur furiis Athamas et imagine falsa, 6.490. tuque cadis patria, parve Learche, manu. 6.491. maesta Learcheas mater tumulaverat umbras 6.492. et dederat miseris omnia iusta rogis. 6.493. haec quoque, funestos ut erat laniata capillos, 6.494. prosilit et cunis te, Melicerta, rapit. 6.495. est spatio contracta brevi, freta bina repellit 6.496. unaque pulsatur terra duabus aquis: 6.497. huc venit insanis natum complexa lacertis 6.498. et secum e celso mittit in alta iugo. 6.499. excipit illaesos Panope centumque sorores, 6.500. et placido lapsu per sua regna ferunt. 6.501. nondum Leucothea, nondum puer ille Palaemon 6.502. verticibus densi Thybridis ora tenent, 6.503. lucus erat; dubium Semelae Stimulaene vocetur: 6.504. Maenadas Ausonias incoluisse ferunt. 6.505. quaerit ab his Ino, quae gens foret: Arcadas esse 6.506. audit et Evandrum sceptra tenere loci. 6.507. dissimulata deam Latias Saturnia Bacchas 6.508. instimulat fictis insidiosa sonis: 6.509. ‘o nimium faciles, o toto pectore captae! 6.510. non venit haec nostris hospes amica choris, 6.511. fraude petit sacrique parat cognoscere ritum; 6.512. quo possit poenas pendere, pignus habet.’ 6.513. vix bene desierat, complent ululatibus auras 6.514. Thyades effusis per sua colla comis, 6.515. iniciuntque manus puerumque revellere pugt, 6.516. quos ignorat adhuc, invocat illa deos: 6.517. dique virique loci, miserae succurrite matri! 6.518. clamor Aventini saxa propinqua ferit, 6.519. appulerat ripae vaccas Oetaeus Hiberas: 6.520. audit et ad vocem concitus urget iter. 6.521. Herculis adventu, quae vim modo ferre parabant, 6.522. turpia femineae terga dedere fugae. 6.523. quid petis hinc (cognorat enim) ‘matertera Bacchi? 6.524. an numen, quod me, te quoque vexat?’ ait. 6.525. illa docet partim, partim praesentia nati 6.526. continet, et furiis in scelus isse pudet, 6.527. rumor, ut est velox, agitatis pervolat alis, 6.528. estque frequens, Ino, nomen in ore tuum. 6.529. hospita Carmentis fidos intrasse penates 6.530. diceris et longam deposuisse famem; 6.531. liba sua properata manu Tegeaca sacerdos 6.532. traditur in subito cocta dedisse foco. 6.533. nunc quoque liba iuvant festis Matralibus illam: 6.534. rustica sedulitas gratior arte fuit. 6.535. nunc, ait ‘o vates, venientia fata resigna, 6.536. qua licet, hospitiis hoc, precor, adde meis.’ 6.537. parva mora est, caelum vates ac numina sumit 6.538. fitque sui toto pectore plena dei; 6.539. vix illam subito posses cognoscere, tanto 6.540. sanctior et tanto, quam modo, maior erat. 6.541. laeta canam, gaude, defuncta laboribus Ino, 6.542. dixit ‘et huic populo prospera semper ades. 6.543. numen eris pelagi, natum quoque pontus habebit. 6.544. in vestris aliud sumite nomen aquis: 6.545. Leucothea Grais, Matuta vocabere nostris; 6.546. in portus nato ius erit omne tuo, 6.547. quem nos Portunum, sua lingua Palaemona dicet. 6.548. ite, precor, nostris aequus uterque locis!’ 6.549. annuerat, promissa fides, posuere labores, 6.550. nomina mutarunt: hic deus, illa dea est. 6.551. cur vetet ancillas accedere, quaeritis? odit, 6.552. principiumque odii, si sinat illa, canam, 6.553. una ministrarum solita est, Cadmei, tuarum 6.554. saepe sub amplexus coniugis ire tui. 6.555. improbus hanc Athamas furtim dilexit; ab illa 6.556. comperit agricolis semina tosta dari. 6.557. ipsa quidem fecisse negat, sed fama recepit. 6.558. hoc est, cur odio sit sibi serva manus, 6.559. non tamen hanc pro stirpe sua pia mater adoret: 6.560. ipsa parum felix visa fuisse parens, 6.561. alterius prolem melius mandabitis illi: 6.562. utilior Baccho quam fuit ipsa suis. 6.563. hanc tibi, quo properas? memorant dixisse, Rutili, 6.564. luce mea Marso consul ab hoste cades. 6.565. exitus accessit verbis, numenque Toleni 6.566. purpureum mixtis sanguine fluxit aquis, 6.567. proximus annus erat: Pallantide caesus eadem 6.568. Didius hostiles ingeminavit opes. 6.569. Lux eadem, Fortuna, tua est auctorque locusque; 6.570. sed superiniectis quis latet iste togis? 6.571. Servius est, hoc constat enim, sed causa latendi 6.572. discrepat et dubium me quoque mentis habet, 6.573. dum dea furtivos timide profitetur amores, 6.574. caelestemque homini concubuisse pudet 6.575. (arsit enim magno correpta cupidine regis 6.576. caecaque in hoc uno non fuit illa viro), 6.577. nocte domum parva solita est intrare fenestra; 6.578. unde Fenestellae nomina porta tenet, 6.579. nunc pudet, et voltus velamine celat amatos, 6.580. oraque sunt multa regia tecta toga. 6.581. an magis est verum post Tulli funera plebem 6.582. confusam placidi morte fuisse ducis, 6.583. nec modus ullus erat, crescebat imagine luctus, 6.584. donec eum positis occuluere togis? 6.585. tertia causa mihi spatio maiore canenda est, 6.586. nos tamen adductos intus agemus equos. 6.587. Tullia coniugio sceleris mercede parato 6.588. his solita est dictis extimulare virum: 6.589. ‘quid iuvat esse pares, te nostrae caede sororis 6.590. meque tui fratris, si pia vita placet? 6.591. vivere debuerant et vir meus et tua coniunx, 6.592. si nullum ausuri maius eramus opus. 6.593. et caput et regnum facio dictale parentis: 6.594. si vir es, i, dictas exige dotis opes. 6.595. regia res scelus est. socero cape regna necato, 6.596. et nostras patrio sanguine tingue manus.’ 6.597. talibus instinctus solio privatus in alto 6.598. sederat: attonitum volgus ad arma ruit. 6.599. hinc cruor et caedes, infirmaque vincitur aetas: 6.600. sceptra gener socero rapta Superbus habet. 6.601. ipse sub Esquiliis, ubi erat sua regia, caesus 6.602. concidit in dura sanguinulentus humo, 6.603. filia carpento patrios initura penates 6.604. ibat per medias alta feroxque vias. 6.605. corpus ut aspexit, lacrimis auriga profusis 6.606. restitit, hunc tali corripit illa sono: 6.607. ‘vadis, an expectas pretium pietatis amarum? 6.608. duc, inquam, invitas ipsa per ora rotas.’ 6.609. certa fides facti: dictus Sceleratus ab illa 6.610. vicus, et aeterna res ea pressa nota. 6.611. post tamen hoc ausa est templum, monumenta parentis, 6.612. tangere: mira quidem, sed tamen acta loquar, 6.613. signum erat in solio residens sub imagine Tulli; 6.614. dicitur hoc oculis opposuisse manum, 6.615. et vox audita est ‘voltus abscondite nostros, 6.616. ne natae videant ora nefanda meae.’ 6.617. veste data tegitur, vetat hanc Fortuna moveri 6.618. et sic e templo est ipsa locuta suo: 6.619. ‘ore revelato qua primum luce patebit 6.620. Servius, haec positi prima pudoris erit.’ 6.621. parcite, matronae, vetitas attingere vestes: 6.622. sollemni satis est voce movere preces, 6.623. sitque caput semper Romano tectus amictu, 6.624. qui rex in nostra septimus urbe fuit. 6.625. arserat hoc templum, signo tamen ille pepercit 6.626. ignis: opem nato Mulciber ipse tulit, 6.627. namque pater Tulli Volcanus, Ocresia mater 6.628. praesignis facie Corniculana fuit. 6.629. hanc secum Tanaquil sacris de more peractis 6.630. iussit in ornatum fundere vina focum: 6.631. hic inter cineres obsceni forma virilis 6.632. aut fuit aut visa est, sed fuit illa magis, 6.633. iussa foco captiva sedet: conceptus ab illa 6.634. Servius a caelo semina gentis habet. 6.635. signa dedit genitor tunc cum caput igne corusco 6.636. contigit, inque comis flammeus arsit apex. 6.637. Te quoque magnifica, Concordia, dedicat aede 6.638. Livia, quam caro praestitit ipsa viro. 6.639. disce tamen, veniens aetas, ubi Livia nunc est 6.640. porticus, immensae tecta fuisse domus; 6.641. urbis opus domus una fuit, spatiumque tenebat, 6.642. quo brevius muris oppida multa tenent, 6.643. haec aequata solo est, nullo sub crimine regni, 6.644. sed quia luxuria visa nocere sua, 6.645. sustinuit tantas operum subvertere moles 6.646. totque suas heres perdere Caesar opes, 6.647. sic agitur censura et sic exempla parantur, 6.648. cum iudex, alios quod monet, ipse facit. | 6.473. Now you complain, Phrygian Tithonus, abandoned by your bride, 6.474. And the vigilant Morning Star leaves the Eastern waters. 6.475. Good mothers (since the Matralia is your festival), 6.476. Go, offer the Theban goddess the golden cakes she’s owed. 6.477. Near the bridges and mighty Circus is a famous square, 6.478. One that takes its name from the statue of an ox: 6.479. There, on this day, they say, Servius with his own 6.480. Royal hands, consecrated a temple to Mother Matruta. 6.481. Bacchus, whose hair is twined with clustered grapes, 6.482. If the goddess’ house is also yours, guide the poet’s work, 6.483. Regarding who the goddess is, and why she exclude 6.484. (Since she does) female servants from the threshold 6.485. of her temple, and why she calls for toasted cakes. 6.486. Semele was burnt by Jove’s compliance: Ino 6.487. Received you as a baby, and nursed you with utmost care. 6.488. Juno swelled with rage, that Ino should raise a child 6.489. Snatched from Jove’s lover: but it was her sister’s son. 6.490. So Athamas was haunted by the Furies, and false visions, 6.491. And little Learchus died by his father’s hand. 6.492. His grieving mother committed his shade to the tomb. 6.493. And paid the honours due to the sad pyre. 6.494. Then tearing her hair in sorrow, she leapt up 6.495. And snatched you from your cradle, Melicertes. 6.496. There’s a narrow headland between two seas, 6.497. A single space attacked by twofold waves: 6.498. There Ino came, clutching her son in her frenzied grasp, 6.499. And threw herself, with him, from a high cliff into the sea. 6.500. Panope and her hundred sisters received them unharmed, 6.501. And gliding smoothly carried them through their realm. 6.502. They reached the mouth of densely eddying Tiber, 6.503. Before they became Leucothea and Palaemon. 6.504. There was a grove: known either as Semele’s or Stimula’s: 6.505. Inhabited, they say, by Italian Maenads. 6.506. Ino, asking them their nation, learned they were Arcadians, 6.507. And that Evander was the king of the place. 6.508. Hiding her divinity, Saturn’s daughter cleverly 6.509. Incited the Latian Bacchae with deceiving words: 6.510. ‘O too-easy-natured ones, caught by every feeling! 6.511. This stranger comes, but not as a friend, to our gathering. 6.512. She’s treacherous, and would learn our sacred rites: 6.513. But she has a child on whom we can wreak punishment.’ 6.514. She’d scarcely ended when the Thyiads, hair streaming 6.515. Over their necks, filled the air with their howling, 6.516. Laid hands on Ino, and tried to snatch the boy. 6.517. She invoked gods with names as yet unknown to her: 6.518. ‘Gods, and men, of this land, help a wretched mother!’ 6.519. Her cry carried to the neighbouring Aventine. 6.520. Oetaean Hercules having driven the Iberian cattle 6.521. To the riverbank, heard and hurried towards the voice. 6.522. As he arrived, the women who’d been ready for violence, 6.523. Shamefully turned their backs in cowardly flight. 6.524. ‘What are you doing here,’ said Hercules (recognising her), 6.525. ‘Sister of Bacchus’ mother? Does Juno persecute you too?’ 6.526. She told him part of her tale, suppressing the rest because of her son: 6.527. Ashamed to have been goaded to crime by the Furies. 6.528. Rumour, so swift, flew on beating wings, 6.529. And your name was on many a lip, Ino. 6.530. It’s said you entered loyal Carmentis’ home 6.531. As a guest, and assuaged your great hunger: 6.532. They say the Tegean priestess quickly made cake 6.533. With her own hands, and baked them on the hearth. 6.534. Now cakes delight the goddess at the Matralia: 6.535. Country ways pleased her more than art’s attentions. 6.536. ‘Now, O prophetess,’ she said, ‘reveal my future fate, 6.537. As far as is right. Add this, I beg, to your hospitality.’ 6.538. A pause ensued. Then the prophetess assumed divine powers, 6.539. And her whole breast filled with the presence of the god: 6.540. You’d hardly have known her then, so much taller 6.541. And holier she’d become than a moment before. 6.542. ‘I sing good news, Ino,’ she said, ‘your trials are over, 6.543. Be a blessing to your people for evermore. 6.544. You’ll be a sea goddess, and your son will inhabit ocean. 6.545. Take different names now, among your own waves: 6.546. Greeks will call you Leucothea, our people Matuta: 6.547. Your son will have complete command of harbours, 6.548. We’ll call him Portunus, Palaemon in his own tongue. 6.549. Go, and both be friends, I beg you, of our country!’ 6.550. Ino nodded, and gave her promise. Their trials were over, 6.551. They changed their names: he’s a god and she’s a goddess. 6.552. You ask why she forbids the approach of female servants? 6.553. She hates them: by her leave I’ll sing the reason for her hate. 6.554. Daughter of Cadmus, one of your maid 6.555. Was often embraced by your husband. 6.556. Faithless Athamas secretly enjoyed her: he learned 6.557. From her that you gave the farmers parched seed. 6.558. You yourself denied it, but rumour confirmed it. 6.559. That’s why you hate the service of a maid. 6.560. But let no loving mother pray to her, for her child: 6.561. She herself proved an unfortunate parent. 6.562. Better command her to help another’s child: 6.563. She was more use to Bacchus than her own. 6.564. They say she asked you, Rutilius, ‘Where are you rushing? 6.565. As consul you’ll fall to the Marsian enemy on my day.’ 6.566. Her words were fulfilled, the Tolenu 6.567. Flowed purple, its waters mixed with blood. 6.568. The following year, Didius, killed on the same 6.569. Day, doubled the enemy’s strength. 6.570. Fortuna, the same day is yours, your temple 6.571. Founded by the same king, in the same place. 6.572. And whose is that statue hidden under draped robes? 6.573. It’s Servius, that’s for sure, but different reason 6.574. Are given for the drapes, and I’m in doubt. 6.575. When the goddess fearfully confessed to a secret love, 6.576. Ashamed, since she’s immortal, to mate with a man 6.577. (For she burned, seized with intense passion for the king, 6.578. And he was the only man she wasn’t blind to), 6.579. She used to enter his palace at night by a little window: 6.580. So that the gate bears the name Fenestella. 6.581. She’s still ashamed, and hides the beloved feature 6.582. Under cloth: the king’s face being covered by a robe. 6.583. Or is it rather that, after his murder, the people 6.584. Were bewildered by their gentle leader’s death, 6.585. Their grief swelling, endlessly, at the sight 6.586. of the statue, until they hid him under robes? 6.587. I must sing at greater length of a third reason, 6.588. Though I’ll still keep my team on a tight rein. 6.589. Having secured her marriage by crime, Tullia 6.590. Used to incite her husband with words like these: 6.591. ‘What use if we’re equally matched, you by my sister’ 6.592. Murder, I by your brother’s, in leading a virtuous life? 6.593. Better that my husband and your wife had lived, 6.594. Than that we shrink from greater achievement. 6.595. I offer my father’s life and realm as my dower: 6.596. If you’re a man, go take the dower I speak of. 6.597. Crime is the mark of kingship. Kill your wife’s father, 6.598. Seize the kingdom, dip our hands in my father’s blood.’ 6.599. Urged on be such words, though a private citizen 6.600. He usurped the high throne: the people, stunned, took up arms. 6.601. With blood and slaughter the weak old man was defeated: 6.602. Tarquin the Proud snatched his father-in-law’s sceptre. 6.603. Servius himself fell bleeding to the hard earth, 6.604. At the foot of the Esquiline, site of his palace. 6.605. His daughter, driving to her father’s home, 6.606. Rode through the streets, erect and haughty. 6.607. When her driver saw the king’s body, he halted 6.608. In tears. She reproved him in these terms: 6.609. ‘Go on, or do you seek the bitter fruits of virtue? 6.610. Drive the unwilling wheels, I say, over his face.’ 6.611. A certain proof of this is Evil Street, named 6.612. After her, while eternal infamy marks the deed. 6.613. Yet she still dared to visit her father’s temple, 6.614. His monument: what I tell is strange but true. 6.615. There was a statue enthroned, an image of Servius: 6.616. They say it put a hand to its eyes, 6.617. And a voice was heard: ‘Hide my face, 6.618. Lest it view my own wicked daughter.’ 6.619. It was veiled by cloth, Fortune refused to let the robe 6.620. Be removed, and she herself spoke from her temple: 6.621. ‘The day when Servius’ face is next revealed, 6.622. Will be a day when shame is cast aside.’ 6.623. Women, beware of touching the forbidden cloth, 6.624. (It’s sufficient to utter prayers in solemn tones) 6.625. And let him who was the City’s seventh king 6.626. Keep his head covered, forever, by this veil. 6.627. The temple once burned: but the fire spared 6.628. The statue: Mulciber himself preserved his son. 6.629. For Servius’ father was Vulcan, and the lovely 6.630. Ocresia of Corniculum his mother. 6.631. Once, performing sacred rites with her in the due manner, 6.632. Tanaquil ordered her to pour wine on the garlanded hearth: 6.633. There was, or seemed to be, the form of a male organ 6.634. In the ashes: the shape was really there in fact. 6.635. The captive girl sat on the hearth, as commanded: 6.636. She conceived Servius, born of divine seed. 6.637. His father showed his paternity by touching the child’ 6.638. Head with fire, and a cap of flames glowed on his hair. 6.639. And Livia, this day dedicated a magnificent shrine to you, 6.640. Concordia, that she offered to her dear husband. 6.641. Learn this, you age to come: where Livia’s Colonnade 6.642. Now stands, there was once a vast palace. 6.643. A site that was like a city: it occupied a space 6.644. Larger than that of many a walled town. 6.645. It was levelled to the soil, not because of its owner’s treason, 6.646. But because its excess was considered harmful. 6.647. Caesar counteced the demolition of such a mass, 6.648. Destroying its great wealth to which he was heir. |
