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ODDESS from whom descends the race of
Rome,

Venus, of heaven and earth supreme delight,
Hail thou that all beneath the starry dome-

Lands rich with grain and seas with navies whiteBlessest and cherishest! Where thou dost come Enamelled earth decks her with posies bright To meet thy advent; clouds and tempests flee And joyous light smiles over land and sea.

Often as comes again the vernal hour

And balmy gales of spring begin to blow, Birds of the air first feel thy sovereign power

And, stirred at heart, its genial influence show. Next the wild herds the grassy champaign scour Drawn by thy charm, and stem the river's flow. In mountain, wood, field, sea, all things by grace Of Venus love, and love preserves their race.

Mother of life and beauty, that dost bring
All things in order forth, thy aid I claim
When to our Memmius I essay to sing

Of nature and the universal frame

Memmius whom thy own hand has crowned the king Of all that charms or wins the meed of fame. Grace thou my verse, and while I sing bid cease Fell war, and let the weary earth have peace.

nam tu sola potes tranquilla pace iuuare mortalis, quoniam belli fera moenera Mauors armipotens regit, in gremium qui saepe tuum se reicit aeterno deuictus uulnere amoris, atque ita suspiciens tereti ceruice reposta pascit amore auidos inhians in te, dea, uisus, eque tuo pendet resupini spiritus ore. hunc tu, diua, tuo recubantem corpore sancto circumfusa super, suauis ex ore loquelas

funde petens placidam Romanis, incluta, pacem.

i. 1-40.

This thou alone canst do, since thou alone

Mars, battle's master, by thy spells canst bind; Oft does the God of War love's cravings own Unquenchable, and on thy lap reclined,

His shapely neck back in his rapture thrown,
His soul to thine through looks of passion joined,
Feed on thy beauty. Clasp him to thy breast,
Fill him with thy sweet self, and give us rest.

L'impia

The Sacrifice of Iphigenia

LLVD in his rebus uereor, ne forte rearis impia te rationis inire elementa uiamque indugredi sceleris. quod contra saepius illa religio peperit scelerosa atque impia facta : Aulide quo pacto Triuiai uirginis aram Iphianassai turparunt sanguine foede ductores Danaum delecti, prima uirorum. cui simul infula uirgineos circumdata comptus ex utraque pari malarum parte profusast, et maestum simul ante aras adstare parentem sensit et hunc propter ferrum celare ministros aspectuque suo lacrimas effundere ciuis,

muta metu terram genibus summissa petebat : nec miserae prodesse in tali tempore quibat quod patrio princeps donarat nomine regem; nam sublata uirum manibus tremebundaque ad aras deductast, non ut sollemni more sacrorum perfecto posset claro comitari Hymenaeo, sed casta inceste nubendi tempore in ipso hostia concideret mactatu maesta parentis, exitus ut classi felix faustusque dareturtantum religio potuit suadere malorum.

i. 80-101.

OR deem it sin by Reason to be freed,

NOR Or think I lead thee an unholy way;

Rather to many a dark and bloody deed
Religion hurries those who own her sway.
Was not Iphigenia doomed to bleed

By the Greek chiefs, though first of men were they, Staining the altar of the Trivian Maid

At Aulis where the fleet by winds was stayed?

Lo! on her tresses fair for bridal tire

The sacrificial fillet they have bound;
Beside the altar weeping stands her sire:
In all the crowd no tearless eye is found.
The priests make ready for their office dire,

Yet pitying hide the knife. When gazing round
The maiden sees her doom, her spirit dies,
Her limbs sink down, speechless on earth she lies.

The firstborn of his children, she in vain
Had brought the name of father to the king.
In arms upborne she goes, not by a train
Of youths that the loud hymeneal sing
Around a happy bride in joyous strain

Bearing her home, but a sad offering,
There to be slain by him who gave her birth.
Such evil hath Religion wrought on earth.