XI. TO CERES.
I begin to sing fair-haired Ceres, a venerable goddess, herself and her most beauteous daughter Proserpine. Hail! goddess, and preserve this city,[1] and direct my song.
XII. TO THE MOTHER OF THE GODS.
Sing to me, sweet[2] Muse, daughter of mighty Jove, the mother both of all gods and all men, to whom the noise of cymbals and drums,[3] and with it the drone of pipes is pleasant, and the howling of wolves and terrible lions, and the echoing mountains, and woody recesses. And do thou thus hail, and with thee all the goddesses, in song.
XIII. TO LION-HEARTED HERCULES.
I will sing Hercules the son of Jove, whom Alcmene bore, the most valiant of earthly beings, in Thebes of beauteous quires, having been embraced by dark-clouded Jove. Who in days of yore, wandering o'er boundless earth and sea, at the behest of king Eurystheus, himself both did and suffered many grievous deeds.[4] But now he dwells delighted on the fair seat of snowy Olympus, and possesses fair-ancled Hebe. Hail! O king, son of Jove, and give valour and prosperity.
XIV. TO ÆSCULAPIUS.
I begin to sing the healer of diseases, Æsculapius, the son of Apollo, whom divine Coronis bore in the Dotian[5] field, the
- ↑ Barnes well compares Callim. in Cer. 135.
- ↑ Cf. Alcman, fragm. i. 1, ed. Welcker.
- ↑ On this miscellaneous musical taste, cf. Lucret. ii. 618, sqq., Catull. lxi. 28, sqq., and Lilius Gyraldus de Diis, Synt. iv. p. 140, ed. Amst.
- ↑ Here there is another similar interpolation to the one in Hymn viii. See Hermann.
- ↑ In Thessaly. See Barnes.
