PERSIUS, SATIRE II
17Come now, answer me this question; it is a very little thing that I want to know; What is your opinion of Jupiter? Would you rank him above—"Above whom?"—Above whom, you ask? Well, shall we say Staius?[1] or do you stick at that? Could you name a more upright judge than Staius; or one more fitted to be a guardian to an orphan family? Well then, just whisper to Staius the prayer with which you would impress the ear of Jupiter:—"O gracious Jupiter!" he would cry, "O Jupiter!" And will not Jupiter call upon himself, think you? Do you imagine that he has condoned everything because, when it thunders, the sacred fire rends an oak-tree in twain sooner than you and your house? Or because you are not lying in a grove, at the bidding of Ergenna[2] and a sheep's liver, an accursed and abhorred object,[3] will Jupiter therefore offer you his foolish beard to pluck? And what is the price by which you have purchased a kindly hearing from the gods? Is it a dish of lights and greasy entrails?[4]
31See how a granny, or an auntie who fears the gods, takes baby out of his cradle:[5] skilled in averting the evil eye, she first, with her middle finger, applies the charm of lustrous spittle[6] to his forehead and slobbering lips; she then dandles the wizened Hopeful[7] in her arms, and destines him in
- ↑ Staius is taken as a representative of an average respectable citizen.
- ↑ An obviously Etruscan name. Etruria was famous for its soothsayers.
- ↑ Bidental is properly a spot struck by lightning, purified or consecrated by the sacrifice of a bidens (a two-year-old victim), and enclosed with a fence. Such spots were of evil omen. Here the bidental stands for the body of the man killed by lightning.
- ↑ Persius and Juvenal are continually ridiculing the offering of exta to the gods (Juv. x. 354, xiii. 115).
- ↑ This passage bears a close resemblance to Juv. x. 289 foll.
- ↑ Various were the virtues of saliva, especially in magical and semi-magical ceremonies. See Pliny, H. N. xxviii. 4, 22. It was especially efficacious against the evil eye.
- ↑ The contemptuous epithet heightens the contrast. Professor Housman takes spem to mean simply hope; hope lean and hungry, and therefore insatiable.
