TRANSLATIONS, &c.
115
"Much of domestic damage and misrule
"Will sadden your return; for in your court
"Suitors voluptuous swarm, with am'rous wiles
"Studious to win your consort, and seduce
"Her from chaste fealty to joys impure, 130
"In bridal pomp; vain efforts! but they soon
"By stratagem, or your puissant arm,
"To ruin are fore-doom'd. Then to a race
"Remote from ocean, who with savoury salt
"Ne'er season their repast, nor vessel view'd 135
"Furrowing the foamy flood with painted prow,
"And all her tackle trim, with speed repair
"Carrying a taper oar: way-faring thus,
"One journeying obvious will misname that oar
"A corn van; fix it there, and victims slay 140
"To Neptune rev'rent; from the fleecy fold
"A ram select, and from the beeves and swine
"The choicest male entire of either herd:
"Thence homeward haste, and hecatombs prepare
"For the bright order of the gods, who reign 145
"Spher'd in empyreal splendours. White with years,
"The balm of life evaporating slow,
"At length, when Neptune points the dart of death[1],
"Without a pang you'll die, and leave your land
"With fair abundance bless'd. In these fix'd laws
"Of Fate repose affiance, and beware." 151
I thus reply'd: "In this authentic will
"Will sadden your return; for in your court
"Suitors voluptuous swarm, with am'rous wiles
"Studious to win your consort, and seduce
"Her from chaste fealty to joys impure, 130
"In bridal pomp; vain efforts! but they soon
"By stratagem, or your puissant arm,
"To ruin are fore-doom'd. Then to a race
"Remote from ocean, who with savoury salt
"Ne'er season their repast, nor vessel view'd 135
"Furrowing the foamy flood with painted prow,
"And all her tackle trim, with speed repair
"Carrying a taper oar: way-faring thus,
"One journeying obvious will misname that oar
"A corn van; fix it there, and victims slay 140
"To Neptune rev'rent; from the fleecy fold
"A ram select, and from the beeves and swine
"The choicest male entire of either herd:
"Thence homeward haste, and hecatombs prepare
"For the bright order of the gods, who reign 145
"Spher'd in empyreal splendours. White with years,
"The balm of life evaporating slow,
"At length, when Neptune points the dart of death[1],
"Without a pang you'll die, and leave your land
"With fair abundance bless'd. In these fix'd laws
"Of Fate repose affiance, and beware." 151
I thus reply'd: "In this authentic will
- ↑ He was killed with the bone of a sea-turtle.
