of the earth, thou wilt dwell the third part of the year[1] * *, but the [other] two with me and the other immortals. But when the earth flourishes with all kinds of sweet-scented spring flowers,[2] then again shalt thou return back from the murky darkness, a mighty marvel to gods and mortal men.[3] * * * * And by what stratagem did the strong Many-receiver beguile thee?" But her beauteous Proserpine addressed in turn: "Therefore will I tell thee all things truly, mother. When beneficial Mercury, the swift messenger, came from the Saturnian sire and the other gods, then he led[4] me out from Erebus, that thou, having beheld me with thine eyes, mightest cease from thy wrath and grievous anger against the immortals, but I leaped forth for joy. But [my husband] privily threw to me the grain of a pomegranate, pleasant to eat, and compelled me perforce, against my will, to taste it.[5] But how, having snatched me away through the cunning device of my sire, the son of Saturn, he went bearing me beneath the hiding-places of the earth, I will speak out, and detail all things, as thou askest. We indeed were all at play in the pleasant meadow, Leucippe, and Phœno, and Electra, and Ianthe, and Melite, and Iacche, and Rhæa, and Callirrhoe, and Melobate, and Tyche, and rosy Ocyrrhoe, and Chryseis, and Ianeira, and Acaste, and Admeta, and Rhodope, and Pluto,[6] and lovely Calypso, and Styx, and Urania, and lovely Galaxyre, and battle-rousing Pallas, and arrow-rejoicing Diana, and were plucking the pleasant flowers with our hands, the beauteous crocus,[7] and the iris, and hyacinth, and the rosebuds, and the lilies, a marvel to behold, and the narcissus, which, like the crocus,[8] the wide earth produced. But I was
- ↑ For conjectures as to the supplying of this line, see Ruhnken and Hermann.
- ↑ I prefer εἴαρος ὥρῃ, with La Fontaine.
- ↑ Here there is evidently a lacuna, as Ruhnken observes, to whom τίνι σ' ἐξαπάτησε is due.
- ↑ Read ἦγε δέ μ' ἐξ Ἐρέβευς, ἵνα μ', with Herm.
- ↑ But see Hermann.
- ↑ A nymph, not Hades.
- ↑ Read μίγδα κρόκον τ' ἀγανὸν, with Voss.
- ↑ This is very tame. Hermann reads ὥσπερ κόνιν, "abundant as the dust," comparing Il. ix. 385, οὐδ' εἴ μοι τόσα δοίη, ὅσα ψάμαθος τε κόνις τε. Burney in note MS., proposes ὃν ἔφυσεν ἐΰχροον.
