Fertur in arva volans, plausumque exterrita pennis
Dat tecto ingentem, mox aëre lapsa quieto
Radit iter liquidum, celeres neque commovet alas :
Sic Mnestheus, sic ipsa fuga secat ultima Pristis
Aequora, sic illam fert impetus ipse volantem.
Et primum in scopulo luctantem deserit alto
Sergestum brevibusque vadis frustraque vocantem
Auxilia et fract is discentem currere remis.
Inde Gyan ipsamque ingenti mole Chimaeram
Consequitur; cedit, quoniam spoliata magistro est.
Solus iamque ipso superest in fine Cloanthus :
Quem petit, et summis adnixus viribus urget.
Tum vero ingeminat clamor, cunctique sequentem
Instigant studiis, resonatque fragoribus aether.
Hi proprium decus et partum indignantur honorem
Ni teneant, vitamque volunt pro laude pacisci;
Hos successus alit: possunt, quia posse videntur.
Et fors aequatis cepissent praemia rostris,
Ni palmas ponto tendens utrasque Cloanthus
Fudissetque preces, divosque in vota vocasset:
217. Radit iter liquidum. Cf. Milton (P. L. II. 634):
Shaves with level wing the deep.
231. Note the truth that success is self-reproductive. It has been said that "Nothing succeeds like success." Dryden probably had this passage in mind when he wrote:
Rouse conscious virtue up in every heart,
And seeming to be stronger makes them so.
An. Mir. 758-61.
Schiller (Coleridge's trans.) presents the objective side of the same thought: Be in possession, and thou hast the right, And sacred will the many guard it for thee! - Piccolomini, IV. IV.
Success atones for all faults. So in
But sharp remembrance on the English Byron (Corsair, I. II.) : part,
And shame of being matched by such a foe,
Ne'er seasons he with mirth their jovial
But they forgive his silence for success.
224. Magistro, 131.—232–34. Cepissent — ni fudisset, 198.
Dî, quibus imperium est pelagi, quorum aequora curro,
Vobis laetus ego hoc candentem in litore taurum
Constituam ante aras, voti reus, extaque salsos
Porriciam in fluctus et vina liquentia fundam.
Dixit, eumque imis sub fluctibus audiit omnis
Nereïdum Phorcique chorus Panopeaque virgo,
Et pater ipse manu magna Portunus euntem
Impulit; illa Noto citius volucrique sagitta
Ad terram fugit, et portu se condidit alto.
Tum satus Anchisa, cunctis ex more vocatis,
Victorem magna praeconis voce Cloanthum
Declarat, viridique advelat tempora lauro,
Muneraque in naves ternos optare iuvencos
Vinaque et argenti magnum dat ferre talentum.
Ipsis praecipuos ductoribus addit honores :
Victori chlamydem auratam, quam plurima circum
Purpura Maeandro duplici Meliboea cucurrit;
Intextusque puer frondosa regius Ida
Veloces iaculo cervos cursuque fatigat,
Acer, anhelanti similis, quem praepes ab Ida
Sublimem pedibus rapuit Iovis armiger uncis;
Longaevi palmas nequiquam ad sidera tendunt
Custodes, saevitque canum latratus in auras.
At qui deinde locum tenuit virtute secundum,
Levibus huic hamis consertam auroque trilicem
Loricam, quam Demoleo detraxerat ipse
Victor apud rapidum Simoënta sub Ilio alto,
252-57. Woven into this garment is a picture of the rape of Ganymede, the "rapti Ganymedis honores" (I. 28); cf. Inductive Studies, 62.
255. Iovis armiger, i. e. the eagle. 259. Cf. III. 467.
237. Voti, 92.251. Maeandro, 236. — 260. Demoleo, 101.
Donat habere viro, decus et tutamen in armis.
Vix illam famuli Phegeus Sagarisque ferebant
Multiplicem, conixi umeris; indutus at olim
Demoleos cursu palantes Troas agebat.
Tertia dona facit geminos ex aere lebetas,
Cymbiaque argento perfecta atque aspera signis.
Iamque adeo donati omnes opibusque superbi
Puniceis ibant evincti tempora taeniis,
Cum saevo e scopulo multa vix arte revulsus,
Amissis remis atque ordine debilis uno,
Irrisam sine honore ratem Sergestus agebat.
Qualis saepe viae deprensus in aggere serpens,
Aerea quem obliquum rota transiit, aut gravis ictu
Seminecem liquit saxo lacerumque viator,
Nequiquam longos fugiens dat corpore tortus,
Parte ferox, ardensque oculis, et sibila colla
Arduus attollens; pars vulnere clauda retentat
Nixantem nodis seque in sua membra plicantem.
Tali remigio navis se tarda movebat;
Vela facit tamen, et velis subit ostia plenis.
Sergestum Aeneas promisso munere donat,
Servatam ob navem laetus sociosque reductos.
262. Decus et tutamen. Catullus So glides some trodden serpent on the couples these words in a similar manner: O decus eximium magnis virtutibus
Emathiae tutamen opis, etc. LXIV. 323.
273. Qualis, etc. This figure probably suggested Pope's thought (Essay on Crit.):
That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.
And Dryden's (An. Mir. 491):
And long behind his wounded volume
trails.
And Falconer's (Shipwreck, III. II.):
Awhile the mast, in ruins dragged behind,
Balanced the impression of the helm and
wind:
The wounded serpent agonized with pain
Thus trails his mangled volume on the
plain.
262. Habere, 161.— 266. Ex aere, 134. — 282. Sergestum — munere, 126.
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