Fulgentius: MITOLOGIARUM LIBRI TRES

Quamuis inefficacem petat studium res quae caret effectum et ubi emolumentum deest negotii causa cessat inquiri — hoc uidelicet pacto, quia nostri temporis erumnosa miseria non dicendi petat studium, sed uiuendi fleat ergastulum nec famae adsistendum poeticae, sed fami sit consulendum domesticae — cito itaque nunc aut quod amiseris fleas aut quod edas inquiras quam quod dicas inuenias uacatque hoc tempore potentibus opprimere, prioribus rapere, priuatis perdere, miseris flere — quia soles, domine, meas cachinnantes sepius nenias lepore satyrico litas libentius adfectari, dum ludicro Talia uentilans epigrammate comedica solita est uernulitate mulcere, additur quia et mihi nuper imperasse dinosceris ut feriatas affatim tuarum aurium sedes lepido quolibet susurro permulceam: parumper ergo ausculta dum tibi rugosam sulcis anilibus ordior fabulam, quam nuper Attica saporante salsura, nocturna praesule lucerna commentus sum, ita somniali figmento delusam, quo non poetam furentem aspicias, sed onirocretam soporis nugas ariolantem aduertas. Neque enim illas Eroidarum arbitreris lucernas meis praesules libris, quibus aut Sulpicillae procacitas aut Psices curiositas declarata est, neque illam quae ui maritum Fedriam in tumulum duxit aut Leandricos natatus intercepit, sed quae nostrum achademicum rethorem ita usque ad uitalem circulum tulit, quo pene dormientem Scipionem caeli civem effecerit. Uerum res publica uideat quid Cicero egerit.

Although a pursuit that lacks effect seeks in vain, and where the emolument is wanting the cause of the business ceases to be inquired into — this, namely, because the poverty‑ridden misery of our time does not demand a zeal for speaking, but laments a prison of living, nor should one attend to poetic fame, but domestic hunger should be consulted — therefore quickly now it is more fitting to ask what you have lost or what you will eat than what you will say or find, and at this time it is free to oppress the powerful, to seize from the former, to ruin private persons, to bewail the wretched — because you, master, laughing at my things, more often prefer my little songs to be sought with satyric charm, while, fanning such matters with playful epigram, you are wont to soothe with servile flattery, and moreover you are said recently to have ordered me to mollify sufficiently the seats of your ears at your festivals with any agreeable whisper: therefore listen for a little while while I set out for you a wrinkled tale furrowed by old women, which lately, seasoned with Attic salt, I composed for the nocturnal presiding lamp, thus beguiled by a somnial fiction, by which you may behold not a raging poet but one, dream‑interpreting, prophesying the trifles of sleep. Nor think those lamp‑pieces of the Eroidae to be my presiding books, in which either Sulpicilla’s impudence or Psyche’s curiosity is declared, nor that which by force led Fedria’s husband to a tomb or intercepted little Leandrius swimming, but that which carried our academic rhetor even to the vital circle, by which he has almost made the sleeping Scipio a citizen of the heavens. But let the res publica see what Cicero has done.

Me interim discedentem a te domine dum quasi urbanis extorrem negotiis ruralis otii torpor adstringeret, et euitans erumnosa calamitatum naufragia quibus puplicae uexantur incessabiliter actiones, arbitrabam agrestem secure adipisci quietem, ut procellis curarum celantibus, quo in turborem urbana tempestas exciderat, uelut Alcione niduli placidam serenitatem uillatica semotione tranquillior agitassem; sopitisque in fauilla silentii raucisonis iurgiorum classicis quibus me galagetici quassauerant impetus defecatam silentio uitam agere creditabam, ni me illuc quoque memorum angina inprobior sequeretur felicitatisque nouerca fortuna, quae amarum quiddam humanis interserit semper negotiis, me quasi pedisequa sectaretur. Nam tributaria in dies conuentio conpulsantium pedibus limen proprium triuerat noua indictionum ac momentanea proferens genera, quo, si Mida rex ex homine uerterer, ut locupletes tactus rigens auri materia sequeretur, credo etiam Pactoli ipsius fluenta condictis frequentibus desiccassem. Nec hoc tantum miseriarum ergastulum sat erat; addebatur his quod etiam bellici frequenter incursus pedem domo radicem infigere iusserant, quo portarum nostrarum pessulos, aranearum cassibus oppletos, quispiam non uideret.

Meanwhile, as I was departing from you, lord, while the torpor of rural otium was fastening upon me as if to wrest me away from urban affairs, and, avoiding the ruinous shipwrecks of calamities by which public actions are incessantly vexed, I thought to acquire a rustic, secure rest, so that, with the storms of cares hidden, in that placid seclusion from the turmoil that the city tempest had cast out, I might lead a more tranquil life by a villatic withdrawal like Alcione’s calm over her nest; and, with the trumpets of loud quarrels stilled whose Gallic onsets had shaken me, I believed I would live a life spent in silence, if not for that choking of memories of baser things following me even there and the stepmother Fortune of felicity — which always mixes something bitter into human affairs — as if she were my footman pursuing me. For the tributary throng of those pressing together with converging feet had, day by day, worn down the proper threshold of my house, producing new seasons and shifting kinds of summons, so that, if I were turned into Midas and the material of my touch were stiffened into enriching gold, I think even the streams of Pactolus itself would have dried up from the frequent visits of depositors. And this prison of miseries would not have been enough; added to these was that frequent incursions of the warlike had ordered their foot to fix a root in the home, so that someone might not see the sockets of our doors, filled with boxes of spiders.

Agrorum enim dominium gentes ceperant, nos domorum; fructus enim nostros exspectare licuit, non frui; merces quippe gentilis fuerat, si uel ad manendum clausos relinquerent. Sed quia numquam est malum inmortale mortalibus, tandem domini regis felicitas adventantis uelut solis crepusculum mundo tenebris dehiscentibus pauores abstersit. Et post torpentes incessus quae tum bellicum robigauerat interdictum licuit tandem arua uisere, limites circuire; egredimur nautarum in morem quos tempestatum flagitamento confractos exoptata reduces excepit ripa et velut parietum indumentis exuti post domesticas stationes ambulare potius discimus quam progredimur et Maroneo uersu consimiles tandem liber equus campo potitur aperto intuemur arua, quibus adhuc inpressae bellantium plantae mauricatos quod aiunt sigillaverunt gressus et formidine menti nondum extersa hostes in uestigiis pauebamus; terrorem enim pro sui memoria miles hostis heredem relinquerat.

For the dominion of the fields the peoples had seized, for the dominion of the houses we kept; for we were permitted to await our fructus, not to enjoy them — the merces, in truth, belonged to the gentile, if they left them closed up to remain. But since no evil is immortal to mortals, at length the felicitas of the lord king, like the crepusculum of a rising sun as the world’s darkness split, wiped away our fears. And after those torpentes delays which then had rusted the warlike interdiction, at last it was permitted to visit the arua, to walk the limites; we go out like nautes whom, broken by the flagitation of tempestates, the wished-for shore received as returns, and, as if stripped of the wall-clothes after domestic stationes, we learn rather to walk than to advance; and, as in Maronean verse a freed horse at last enjoys the open campo, so we behold the fields, on which the plants stamped by fighting — mauricated, as they say — had sealed our steps, and with a fear not yet wiped from the mind we dreaded enemies’ footprints; for the soldier had left terror as the heir of the enemy’s memory.

Sed Troadum in morem ostentabamus alterutrum loca quorum recordationem aut internitio celebrior faciebat aut praeda. Tandem inter sentosa nemorum frutecta, quae agrestis olim deseruerat manus, — nam intercapedinante pauoris prolixitate tam larga fumo lurida parietibus aratra pendebant et laborifera boum colla iugales in uaccinam mollitiem deduxerant callos — squalebat uiduus sulcis ager et herbidis sentibus oliuifero uertici minabatur; ita etenim nexili desmate meandrico gramini labrusca coibant, quo saepta herbosis radicibus tellus Triptolemicum contumax abnueret dentem — ergo dum huiuscemodi paliurea prata incedenti premerem planta et roscidos florulenti uelleris colles spatianti meterem passu, defectum voluntas peperit et egredientis studio sedulitas ex labore successit. Deuertor arborei beneficium umbraculi praesumens, quo me erranti foliorum intextu Phoebi torridis defensaret optutibus et circumfluo ramorum recurrentium nexu umbram quam propriis radicibus praeberet mihi etiam concederet esse communem.

But in the manner of the Trojans we showed either of two places, the memory of which made either extinction more celebrated or plunder. At last, among the bristling thickets of groves which once the rustic hand had abandoned — for with the interposing length of fear so wide a smoke lurked on the walls that ploughs hung suspended and the laborious yokes of oxen had led their necks into the softness of stalls, so that calluses were reduced — the field lay deserted by furrows and threatened by olive-bearing heights with grassy thickets; for thus intertwined with a braided meander the vine checked the grape by grass, so that the earth, fenced by herbaceous roots, stubbornly would refuse Triptolemus’s tooth — therefore, while I pressed such pasturelands with my treading foot and measured the dewy slopes of flowering fleece as I walked, the will produced a failure and diligence in departing succeeded from the toil. I turned aside, supposing the benefaction of a tree’s shade, by which, wandering, the woven leafage might defend me from Phoebus’s burning eyes, and the surrounding knot of recurring branches might offer me a shadow common even to my own roots.

Nam me auium quaedam uernulitas, quae fragili quadam dulcedine crispantes sibilos corneis edunt organulis, ad hoc opus allexerat et laboris tam subita requies melos quoddam carminis expectabat:

For a certain vernal sweetness of the birds, which with a certain fragile dulcetness emit crisping whistles on their corneous little organs, had enticed me to this task, and the so sudden repose of labour awaited a certain melody of song:

Thespiades, Hippocrene
quas spumanti gurgite
inrorat loquacis nimbi
tinctas haustu Musico,
ferte gradum properantes
de uirectis collium,
ubi guttas florulentae
mane rorat purpurae
umor algens, quem serenis
astra sudant noctibus.
Uerborum canistra plenis
reserate flosculis.
Quicquid per uirecta Tempe
raptat unda proluens
innientis etre cursu
quam produxit ungula,
quicquid Ascreus ueterna
rupe pastor cecinit,
quicquid exantlata gazis
uestra promunt horrea,
quod cecinit pastorali
Maro silua Mantuae,
quod Meonius ranarum
cachinnauit proelio,
Pharrasia candicanti
dente lyra concrepet;
ad meum uetusta carmen
saecla nuper confluant.

Thespiades, Hippocrene
which with foaming gulf
the talkative cloud sprinkles,
dyed by a Musical draught,
bear quickening step
from the greenness of the hills,
where the drops of flowery
morning bedew the purple’s
chilling moisture, which in serene
nights the stars exude.
Unlock baskets of words
with their full little flowers.
Whatever through green Tempe
the wave snatches streaming,
in the bending course
that the hoof has driven forth,
whatever the Ascrean
shepherd sang from the eternal
rock, whatever from spent treasures
your granaries bring forth,
what Maro of Mantua
sang in pastoral strain,
what Meonius in the combat
of frogs laughed aloud,
with Pharrasia’s whitening
tooth the lyre shall ring;
may ancient ages
newly flow together to my song.

Hoc itaque sacrificali carmine Gorgonei fontis adspargine madidas et praepetis ungulae riuo merulentas Pierides abstraxit. Adstiterant itaque sirmate nebuloso tralucidae ternae uiragines edera largiore circumfluae, quarum familiaris Calliope ludibundo palmulae tactu meum uaporans pectusculum poeticae proriginis dulcidinem sparsit; erat enim grauido ut apparebat pectore, crine neglecto quem margaritis praenitens diadema constrinxerat, talo tenus bis tinctam recolligens uestem, quod credo et itineris propter et ne meandricos tam subtilis elementi aliquatenus limbos aculeati herbarum uertices scinderent. Adstitit propter; erectus ergo in cubitum ueneratus sum uerbosam uiraginem, olim mihi poetico uulgatam euidentius testimonio, nec inmemor cuius uerbosas fabulas propter scolaribus rudimentis tumidas ferulis gestaueram palmas, et quia non mihi euidenti manifestatione quaenam esset liquebat, cur uenisset inquiro.

By that sacrificial song, with the sprinkling of the Gorgonian spring and the spray of the swift hoof‑stream, she plucked away the damp, bluish Pierides. Before me, therefore, stood three maidens shining through a misty garment, girded about with a more abundant flowing ivy, of whom the familiar Calliope, with the playful touch of her little palm, sprinkled my faint, vaporous little breast with the sweetness of poetic origin; for she seemed gravid in the breast, her hair neglected, which a foreknowing diadem had bound with pearls, gathering up her robe twice‑dyed down to the ankle — which I suppose both because of the journey and lest the meanders of so subtle an element somewhat shred the hems and spiky tips of the herbs. She stood nearby; so I, having risen to the couch, reverently approached the verbose virgin, one once more plainly made known to me by poetic testimony, and not forgetful that, on account of my scholastic rudiments, I had borne her wordy fables — swollen — on my palms with rods; and because it was not clear to me from evident manifestation who she was, I asked why she had come.

Tum illa: Una, inquit, sum e uirginali Eliconiadum curia, Iouis albo conscripta, quam olim Atheneam ciuem Romanus ordo colendam exceperat, ubi nouellos ita frutices edidi, quo eorum cacumina summis astris insererem, ita uitae famam linquentes heredem, quo maius celebriorem obitum protelarent. Ast ubi me Romuleae arcis conuentu bellicus uiduauit incursus, Alexandriae conciliabula urbis exulata possederam uariis dogmatum inbutamentis lasciua Grecorum praestruens corda postque Catonum rigores Tullianasque seueras inuectiones et Uarroniana ingenia Pelleae genti enerues sensus aut satyra luseram aut comedico fasmate delectabam aut tragica pietate mulcebam aut epigrammatum breuitate condibam. Libebat me mea captiuitas, et licet nostrae uacuissent industriae, inueniebat tamen animus quibus inter mala arrideret, nisi me etiam exinde bellis crudelior Galeni curia exclusisset, quae pene cunctis Alexandriae ita est inserta angiportis, quo cirurgicae carnificinae laniola pluriora habitaculis numerentur; denique ita certando remittunt in mortem quo ferant Caronem citius obiturum, si collegio non donetur.

Then she: “I am one, she said, of the virginal court of the Heliconides, enrolled on Jupiter’s white register, whom once the Roman order had accepted to be venerated as an Athenian citizen, where I produced new shrubs in such fashion that I might graft their summits into the highest stars, thus leaving to life a fame as heir, by which they might prolong a greater and more celebrated departure. But when the warlike onset of the Romulean citadel bereft me of my assembly, I had taken up exile in the quarters of the Alexandrian city, furnishing wanton hearts with various tinctures of doctrine and, after the rigors of the Catones and the severe invectives of the Tullians and the wits of Varronian learning, I had unstringed the senses of the Pellean clan — whether by satyr play or by comic spell I amused, or with tragic piety I soothed, or with the brevity of epigrams I composed. My captivity pleased me, and although our industries had been laid waste, yet my mind found where among the evils it might smile, were it not that from there also the harsher circles of Galen’s art excluded me by wars, which are so interwoven into the alleys of Alexandria that the surgical butcheries count more little shreds in dwellings; finally, in contending they remit the case to Death so that they may bring Charon sooner to bear him off, unless he be bestowed upon the guild.

Hanc orationem risus mollior terminauit. Itaque meis quo deuerteret culminibus inpetraui. Tum illa: Non paues, inquit, Musicum tuis receptare dogma penatibus, cum barbarorum morem auscultauerim ita litterarios mercatos penitus abdicare, ut hos qui primis elementorum figuris uel proprium discripserint nomen cassata inquisitione mutum in carnificina reptarent.

A milder laughter ended this speech. Therefore I sought with my summits where she might turn aside. Then she: “Do not fear,” she said, “to receive the Musical dogma into your penates, since I have observed the custom of barbarians to renounce literary markets so utterly that those who first described the figures of the elements or set down a proper name, with inquiry abolished, are dragged mute into the carnage.

Tum ego: Non ita est, inquam, ut 'audieras, sed fama fuit'. Nam 'carmina tantum nostra ualent', Musa, 'tela inter Martia, quantum' 'dulcis aquae salientis sitim restinguere riuo'. Et ut suum me amplius familiarem rescisset, illud etiam Terentianum adieci: 'Olim isti fuit generi quondam questus aput saeclum prius'. Nunc itaque ita litterae suos ä quicquid Elicon uerbialibus horreis entecatum possederat in ipsis potestatum culminibus hereditario iure transferret catus extendunt. Illa exhilarata uersiculis, utpote quasi Meonem senem uiseret recitantem, laudatorio palmulae tactu meam mulsit caesariem percussaque mollius ceruice quam decuit: Eia, inquit, Fabi, Anacreonticis iamdudum nouus mistes initiatus es sacris; ne quid ergo meo tibi desit tirunculo, accipe parem dogmatis gratiam et quatenus nostra te satyra lasciuienti uerborum rore percussit uadatumque te sui retinet amoris inlecebra, redde quod deuerbas sipnotico et quidquid libet Niliacis exarare papiris, feriatis aurium sedibus percipe; nec deerit historiae quilibet effectus cuius te uisceribus interstingi poposceris. Tum ego: Index te libelli fefellit, generosa loquacitas; non mihi cornutus adulter arripitur nec imbre mendaci lusa [Danae] uirgo cantatur, dum suo iudicio deus sibi pecudem praetulit et hanc auro decepit quam potestate nequiuit; non suillo canimus morsu depastum amantis iuuenis femur nec in meis libellulis sub falsa alite puerilis pependit lasciuia; non olorinis reptantem adulterum plumis, oua pulligera uirginibus inculcantem quam semina puerigena uisceribus infundentem, nec lignides puellas inquirimus, Ero atque Psicen, poeticas garrulantes ineptias, dum haec lumen queritur extinctum, illa deflet incensum, ut Psice uidendo perderet et Ero non uidendo perisset; nec referam uirginali figmento Aricinam lusam uiraginem, dum quaereret Iuppiter quod magis esse uellet quam fuerat.

Then I: It is not so, I said, that “you had heard, but there was a rumor.” For “our songs are worth only,” Muse, “among Martian arms, as much as” “sweet spring-water is to quench thirst by a leaping stream.” And that he might know me more familiarly, I added that Terentian line as well: “Once there was to that kind a complaint at some time before the age.” Now therefore the letters so cunningly extend that they transfer to their own use whatever Elicon had possessed, stored in verbial granaries, onto the very summits of power by hereditary right. She, exhilarated by the little verses, as if she had seen old Meon reciting, with the flattering touch of a little palm stroked my head of hair and smoothed my neck more gently than was fitting: “Ah,” she said, “Fabius, you have long since been newly initiated into Anacreontic rites; therefore, that nothing of my teaching be lacking to you, novice, receive an equal grace of doctrine, and insofar as our satire has struck you with the wanton dew of words and the bait of love holds you pledged to it, render back what you owed to the Sipnotic and whatever you wish to inscribe on Nilotic papyri; take it into the festival-seats of ears; nor will any result of history be lacking which you shall demand to be imprinted in your entrails.” Then I: “The title-page of your little book deceived you, generous loquacity; no horned adulterer is seized up for me, nor is the virgin sung as played upon by a lying shower [Danaë], while by her own judgment a god preferred to himself a flock and deceived her with gold which he could not by power; we do not sing of the youth’s thigh fed by a sow’s bite, nor in my little books does childish lechery hang beneath a false wing; we do not seek adulterers creeping in swan-feathers, pressing egg-bearing things upon maidens which boyish seed pours into their entrails, nor do we investigate wooden girls, Eros and Psyche, chattering poetic inanities, while one laments her extinguished light, the other weeps that she was inflamed, so that Psyche might perish by seeing and Eros might perish by not seeing; nor will I tell, by virginal fiction, the Arician pastime of a womanly maiden, while Jupiter sought what he wished to be more than he had been.”

Mutatas itaque uanitates manifestare cupimus, non manifesta mutando fuscamus, ut senior deus innitus exerceat et sol fulgoris igne deposito malit anilibus exarari rugis quam radiis; certos itaque nos rerum praestolamur effectus, quo sepulto mendacis Greciae fabuloso commento quid misticum in his sapere debeat cerebrum agnoscamus. Tum illa: Unde haec tibi, inquit, homuncule, tantam ignorantiae scientiam, unde tam ratum ordinem ignorandi? Dum enim saeculis intacta exquiris, ostendis te sapienter scire quod nescis.

Therefore we desire to make manifest the transformed vanities, not to darken manifest things by changing them, so that the elder god, leaning, may be exercised, and the sun, the fire of brightness laid aside, would rather be seared by old-women’s wrinkles than by its rays; and thus we await certain effects of things, by which, the mendacious fabulous commentary of Greece being buried, we may recognize what mysterious element in these things the mind ought to perceive. Then she: Whence is this to you, he said, little man, so great a knowledge of ignorance, whence so settled an order of not-knowing? For while you seek the untouched through the ages, you show yourself to know wisely that which you do not know.

Cui ego: Si his, quibus ignorare aliquid contingit, ne ipsut quidem nescire suum scire contingerit, quanto satius erat eis etiam non nasci contingere quam nasci inefficaciter uenire. Primum itaque ego scientiae uestibulum puto scire quod nescias. Ad haec illa: Tam secretis misticisque rebus uiuaciter pertractandis ampliora sunt auctoritatum quaerenda suffragia; neque enim quippiam ludicrum quaeritur, quo ludibundo pede metrica uerborum commoda sarciamus.

To which I: If for those to whom it happens to be ignorant of anything it should not even happen to know that they do not know, how much more advisable would it have been for it to happen to them not even to be born than to come into birth ineffectually. Therefore first I hold the vestibule of scientia to be to know what you do not know. To this she: For matters so secret and mystical, when to be handled with vivacity, broader suffrages of authorities ought to be sought; for nothing ludicrous is being sought, by which with a playful foot we might metrically stitch together the conveniences of words.

Sudor hic opus est palestrantis ingenii, ne tam magnifici adsumpta operis moles ipso fere medio conaminis impetu uiuacissimis destituta uanescat tractatibus. Ergo erunt nobis etiam Philosofia atque Urania adiutrices operis consciscendae; nec [enim] deerit tuis lasciuiens amica solaciis, at dum te misticae artes anhelum tractando reddiderint, tute tua Satyra ludentem excipiet. Quaeso, inquam, munifica largitas, ne tu istam tuam Satyram cuius me dudum uadatum amore praedixeras temere nostris credas penatibus.

This sweat is needed of a palestrating ingenium, lest the mass of so magnificent a work once undertaken, almost in the very middle of the attempt, be left, deprived of the liveliest exertions, and vanish from our treatises. Therefore Philosophy and Urania must also be enlisted as auxiliaries of the work to be undertaken; nor indeed will a lascivious friend for your consolations be wanting, but while the mystic arts have rendered you breathless by handling them, your own Satyra herself will receive you at play. I beseech, I say, bountiful largess, that you do not rashly entrust that Satyra of yours — for whose pledged love you long ago foretold me — to our penates.

Tam etenim liuens zelo sortitus sum ex affectu coniugium, ut, si hanc suis oblucentem ut pelicem uoluptatibus domo reppererit, ita sulcatis ungue genis in Eliconem remittat necesse est, quo eius diluendis uulneribus Gorgonei ipsius fontis nequaquam fluenta sufficiant. Tum illa cachinnum quassans fragile conliso bis terque pulsu palmulae femore: Nescis, inquit, Fulgenti, rudis accola Pieridum, quantum Satyram matronae formident; licet mulierum uerbialibus undis et causidici cedant nec grammatici muttiant, rethor taceat et clamorem praeco conpescat, sola est quae modum inponit furentibus, licet Petroniana subit Albucia. Hac etenim alludente et Plautinae Saureae dominatus obdormit et Sulpicillae Ausonianae loquacitas deperit Sallustianaeque Semproniae quamuis praesens sit Catilina melos cantandi raucescit.

For I have been so green with zeal, having taken a marriage from affection, that if he should find this woman shining to his own pleasures like a pelt in his house, he must needs send her back to Helicon with her cheeks furrowed by the nail, where the streams of the very Gorgon's fountain will by no means suffice to wash away her wounds. Then she, shaking a laugh, striking the fragile little palm twice or thrice with her thigh, said: "You do not know, Fulgentius, a rude neighbor of the Pierides, how much matrons fear a Satyr; although they yield to the verbal waves of women and the advocate gives way and the grammarian does not mutter, the rhetor falls silent and the herald restrains the cry, she alone is she who imposes measure upon the raving, although Petronian Albucia steps in. With this one alluding, the dominion of Plautina Saurea falls asleep and the loquacity of Sulpicilla Ausoniana wastes away, and although Catilina of Sallustian Sempronia is present, the melody of singing grows hoarse."

Soluerat igniuomos mundi regione peracta
quadrupedes gelidumque rotis tepefecerat orbem
rector et auratis colla spoliabat habenis.
Iam Phoebus disiungit equos, iam Quintia iungit;
quasque soror linquit, frater pede temperat undas.
Tum nox stellato mundum circumlita peplo
caerula rorigeris pigrescere iusserat alis
astrigeroque nitens diademate Luna bicorni
bullatum biiugis conscenderat aethera tauris.
Iam simulacra modis mentes fallentia plastis
mollia falsidicis replebant stramina signis;

Having traversed the fiery region of the world, the charioteer had loosed the four‑footed beasts and had made the icy orb warm with wheels, and with gilded reins was despoiling necks.
Now Phoebus unyokes the steeds, now Quintia yokes them;
and those waters which the sister quits, the brother tempers with his foot.
Then Night, smeared the world with a starry peplum,
had bid the blue grow heavy with dew‑bearing wings,
and Luna, shining with a star‑bearing diadem and two‑horned,
studded and yoked to a pair of bulls, had mounted the aether.
Now counterfeit shapes, moulded in deceptive modes,
were filling minds with soft, lying straw‑signs;

et, ut in uerba paucissima conferam, nox erat. Cuius noctis nomen iamdudum oblitus ut insanus uates uersibus delirabam, dum subito agrestis illa quam dudum uideram hospita oborto impetu cubicularias inpulsu fores inrupit necopinanterque me iacentem repperiens marcentia languore somni lepido lumina rapido atque admodum splendifice intermicanti quodam sui uultus coruscamine perpulit; erat enim ultra solitum eminens mortalitatis aspectum. Denique pigrae adhuc quietis indicium rotatis naribus ruptuantem repentina ostii crepitatione turbauit.

and, to bring it into very few words, it was night. Of whose name long since forgetting, like a mad vates I raved in verses, when suddenly that rustic guest whom I had seen a little while before, with an uprising onset, burst into the bedchamber by thrusting open the doors, and unexpectedly finding me lying there smitten with the wasting languor of sleep she struck my eyes with a rapid and most splendidly coruscating flash of her countenance; for she towered beyond the accustomed aspect of mortality. Finally she disturbed me, still a sign of sluggish rest, snorting with flaring nostrils, by the sudden creak of the door.

Hanc praeibat florali lasciuiens uirguncula petulantia, hedera largiori circumflua, improbi uultus et ore contumeliarum sarcinis grauido, cuius ironicum lumen tam rimabunda uernulitate currebat quo mentes etiam penitus abstrusas temulentis inscriptionibus depinxisset. Musae autem latera sarciebant altrinsecus duae, quarum dexterior uerenda quadam maiestate subnixa elatae frontis polimina argenteis astrorum crispauerat margaritis, cuius faleratum exoticis diadema carbunculis corniculata lunae sinuatio deprimebat ac cerulanti peplo circumlita hyalinae cauitatem sperae osseo fastigans tigillo uersabat. Uisus itaque luminis tam elata contemplatione caelitus erigebatur intuitus, quo pene foribus superna intuens pollicem inlisisset.

Before her strode a wanton maiden, frisking with floral petulance, ivy flowing more abundantly around her, of impudent countenance and with a mouth weighted with bundles of insult, whose ironic light ran with such fissured servility that it had painted even minds deeply concealed with drunken inscriptions. But two others filled the Muses' flanks on the other side, the right-hand one, supported by a certain venerable majesty, having adorned the lofty forehead's locks with silvery, star-like pearls; whose ornamented exotic diadem, horned with carbuncles, the moon's curvature depressed, and, smeared all around with a cerulean peplos, she turned the hollow of the glassy sphere with a bony fastening-girder. The vision of that light therefore was raised from on high by so exalted a contemplation of gaze, by which, almost looking toward the upper doors, he had nearly thrust in his thumb.

Leui comes lateris refugo quodam contemplatu secretior humanos intuitus uelamine quodam arcano uitabat; huius ninguida canis albentibus nitebat caesaries rugaque crispato multiplici supercilio rancidum se quiddam consipere promittebat; tardior erat incessus et ipsa ponderationis grauidine uenerandus. Tunc Calliope prouinciam loquacitatis ingressa: His te, inquit, Fulgenti, tutricibus spondideram largiturum; quarum sequax si fueris, celeri te raptu ex mortali caelestem efficient astrisque te, non ut Neronem poeticis laudibus, sed ut Platonem misticis interserent rationibus. Neque enim illos de his expectas effectus, quos aut poema ornat aut deflet tragoedia aut spumat oratio aut cachinnat satyra aut ludit comedia, sed in quibus et Carneadis resudat elleborum et Platonis auratum eloquium et Aristotelis sillogismaticum breuiloquium.

The slight companion at his side, retreating somewhat into contemplation, more secret, avoided human sight with a certain arcane veil; his snowy-gray locks shone whitening, and a wrinkle, with many a curled brow, promised to hide something rancid; his step was slower and he himself was venerable with the weightiness of deliberation. Then Calliope, having entered the province of loquacity: “These,” she said, “I had pledged to you, Fulgenti, that I would bestow as guardians; if you are a follower of them, they will, by a swift snatch, make you from mortal into heavenly and among the stars — not to praise you with poetic encomia like Nero, but to intermix you with Plato in mystic reasonings. Nor do you expect from these the effects that either poem adorns or tragedy laments or oratory foams or satire bursts into loud laughter or comedy plays, but those in which the hellebore of Carneades transudes, and Plato’s golden eloquence, and Aristotle’s syllogistic breviloquence.”

Nunc itaque pande mentis cubiculum et aurium fistulis audito nuntio mentibus intromitte quod excipis; sed enerva totum mortale quod tibi est, ne tam sacrati series dogmatis scrupulosis rite non residat penetralibus. Ergo nunc de deorum primum natura, unde tanta malae credulitatis lues stultis mentibus inoleuerit, edicamus. Quamuis enim sint quidam qui spreta capitis generositate aricinis atque arcaicis sensibus glandium quippiam sapiant atque eorum altiori stultitiae nubilo soporata caligentur ingenia, tamen nequaquam aput humanos sensus nisi fortuitis conpulsationibus moti nascuntur errores, ut etiam Crysippus de fato scribens ait: Conpulsationibus lubricis uoluuntur incursus.

Now therefore throw open the chamber of the mind and, through the pipes of the ears, admit into your minds the message you have heard; but weaken wholly that which in you is mortal, lest the series of so sacred a dogma not duly remain in its penetralia because of scrupulosities. Therefore now let us set forth first concerning the nature of the gods, from which has grown such a plague of bad credulity in foolish minds. For although there are some who, scorning the nobility of the head with rustic and archaic senses, fancy that acorns and the like have some sapience, and whose natures, stupefied by the clouded sleep of deeper folly, are darkened, nevertheless errors are by no means born in human senses except by fortuitous convulsions, as even Chrysippus, writing on fate, says: “They are tossed about by slippery convulsions.”

Itaque primum omisso circuitu, unde idolum tractum sit, edicamus.

Therefore, first, with the circuit omitted from which the idol was drawn, let us set forth.

I. Unde idolum.

1. Whence the idol.

Diophantus Lacedemonum auctor libros scripsit antiquitatum quattuordecim, in quibus ait Sirophanem Aegyptium familia substantiaque locupletem filium genuisse; quem, uelut inormis substantiae successorem, ineffabili ultra quam paternitas exigebat affectu erga filium deditum is qui dum adversis fortunae incursibus raperetur, quo patri crudelem geminae orbitatis derelinquisset elogium ut et posteritatis perpetuale suffragium denegasset et substantiae propagandae subitam interceptionem obiceret. Quid igitur faceret aut fecunda paternitas in sterilitate damnata aut felix substantia in successione curtata? Parum erat ut non haberet quod habuit, nisi etiam nec esset qui obtineret quod relinquit.

Diophantus, author of the Lacedaemonians, wrote fourteen books of antiquities, in which he says that Sirophanes the Egyptian begot a son rich in family and substance; whom, as it were an ill‑formed successor of the estate, he surrendered to an ineffable affection toward the son beyond what fatherhood required — and who, while he was being swept away by the incursions of adverse fortune, by that very fact would have cruelly left to his father the memorial of a double orphanhood, would have denied a perpetual vote of posterity, and would have thrown up a sudden obstruction to the propagation of the estate. What then would fertile paternity do, condemned to sterility, or prosperous substance when curtailed in succession? It would be little to have not what he possessed, if there were not also one to obtain what he leaves.

Denique doloris angustia quae semper inquirit necessitatis solatium filii sibi simulacrum in edibus instituit dumque tristitiae remedium quaerit, seminarium potius doloris inuenit nesciens quod sola sit medicina miseriarum obliuio; fecerat enim ille unde luctus resurrectiones in dies adquireret, non in quo luctus solatium inueniret. Denique idolum dictum est, id est idos dolu, quod nos Latine species doloris dicimus. Namque uniuersa familia in domini adolatione aut coronas plectere aut flores inferre aut odoramenta simulacro succendere consuerat.

Finally, the constriction of grief, which always seeks the solace of necessity, established for itself a simulacrum of a son in the house; and while it seeks a remedy for sadness, it rather finds a nursery of grief, not knowing that oblivion alone is the medicine of miseries; for he had made that by which lamentations daily acquired resurrections, not that in which lamentation would find consolation. Finally it was called idolum, that is idos dolu, which in Latin we call the species of grief. For the entire familia, in the adoration of the lord, was wont either to braid crowns or to bring flowers or to kindle perfumes for the simulacrum.

Nonnulli etiam seruorum culpabiles domini furiam euitantes ad simulacrum profugi ueniam merebantur et quasi salutis certissimo conlatori florum atque turis offerebant munuscula timoris potius effectu quam amoris affectu. Denique huius rei non inmemor et Petronius ait: 'Primus in orbe deos fecit timor'; nam et Mintanor musicus in crumatopoion libro artis musicae quem descripsit ait: 'Deum doloris quem prima conpunctio humani finxit generis'. Exhinc ergo inueteratus error humanis pedetemtim consertus discipulis baratro quodam sceuae credulitatis prolabitur.

Some, too, guilty as servants, avoiding their masters’ fury, sought mercy at the image as fugitives and, as if to the most certain bestower of salvation, offered little gifts of flowers and incense — tokens born more of fear than of affection. Moreover, mindful of this matter, Petronius said: "Fear first made the gods in the world"; and Mintanor the musician, in his crumatopoion, the book of musical art which he wrote, said: "The god of sorrow whom the first pang fashioned of the human race." Hence that long‑standing error, gradually woven into human disciples, slides down into a kind of abyss of false belief.

II. Fabula Saturni.

CHAPTER 2. FABLE OF SATURN.

Saturnus Polluris filius dicitur, Opis maritus, senior, uelato capite, falcem ferens; cuius uirilia abscisa et in mari proiecta Uenerem genuerunt. Itaque quid sibi de hoc Philosophia sentiat, audiamus. Tum illa: Saturnus primus in Italia regnum obtinuit; hicque per annonae praerogationem ad se populos adtrahens a saturando Saturnus dictus est.

Saturn is said to be the son of Polluris, husband of Opis, an elder, with his head veiled, bearing a sickle; whose genitals, having been cut off and thrown into the sea, begot Venus. Therefore let us hear what Philosophy herself thinks about this. Then she: Saturn first obtained a kingdom in Italy; and here, by the praerogative of the annona, drawing peoples to himself through supplying food, he was called Saturn (from "to sate").

Opis quoque eius uxor eo quod opem esurientibus ferret edicta est. Polluris etiam filius siue a pollendo siue a pollucibilitate quam nos humanitatem dicimus. Unde et Plautus in comedia Epidici ait: 'Bibite, pergregamini pollucibiliter'. Uelato uero capite ideo fingitur, quod omnes fructus foliorum obnupti tegantur umbraculo.

His wife Opis is likewise said to have been appointed because she brought aid to the hungry. Polluris is called the son of Pollurus either from pollendo or from pollucibilitas, which we call humanitas. Hence Plautus in the comedy Epidicus says: 'Bibite, pergregamini pollucibiliter' (Drink, proceed in a pollucible — that is, a courteous — manner). He is imagined with a veiled head because all the fruits of the foliage, being wedded, are covered by a small umbraculum.

Filios uero suos comedisse fertur, quod omne tempus quodcumque gignat consumit; falcem etiam fert non inmerito, siue quod omne tempus in se reuergat ut curuamina falcium siue fructuum propter; unde etiam et castratus dicitur, quod omnes fructuum uires abscisae atque in humoribus uiscerum uelut in mare proiectae, sicut illic Uenerem, ita et libidinem gignant necesse est. Nam et Apollofanes in epico carmine scribit Saturnum quasi sacrum nun — nus enim Grece sensus dicitur — aut satorem nun quasi diuinum sensum creantem omnia. Cui etiam quattuor filios subiciunt, id est primum Iouem, secundum Iunonem, tertium Neptunum, quartum Plutonem; Polluris quasi poli filium dicunt, quattuor elementa gignentem,

He is said, moreover, to have eaten his own sons, because he consumes whatever thing time begets; he also bears a sickle not without reason, either because all time turns back into itself like the curvatures of sickles, or on account of fruits; hence he is also called castrated, because all the powers of the fruits, having been cut off and cast into the humors of the viscera as into the sea—just as there they begot Venus—so too they must generate lust. For Apollofanes in an epic song writes Saturn as if sacrum nun—nus, for the word nun-nus is said in Greek to mean sense—or satorem nun as if a divine sense creating all things. To him moreover they ascribe four sons, that is first Jupiter, second Juno, third Neptune, fourth Pluto; Polluris they call as if a son of the pole, begetting the four elements,

III. De Ioue et Iunone.

3. On Jove and Juno.

id est primum Iouem ut ignem, unde et Zeus Grece dicitur; Zeus enim Greca significatione siue uita siue calor dici potest, siue quod igne uitali animata omnia dicerent, ut Eraclitus uult, siue quod hoc elementum caleat; secundam Iunonem quasi aerem, unde et Era Grece dicitur; et quamuis aerem masculum ponere debuerunt, tamen ideo sororem Iouis, quod haec duo elementa sibi sint ualde consocia, ideo Iouis et coniugem, quod maritatus aer igne feruescat. Nam et Teopompus in Cipriaco carmine et Ellanicus in dios politia quam descripsit ait Iunonem ab Ioue uinctam catenis aureis et degrauatam incudibus ferreis, illud nihilominus dicere uolentes quod aer igni caelesti coniunctior duobus deorsum elementis misceatur, id est aquae et terrae, quae elementa duobus superioribus grauiora sunt.

that is, first Jove as fire, whence he is also called Zeus in Greek; for Zeus in Greek signification can be said either life or heat, or that they called all things animated by a vital fire, as Heraclitus wishes, or that this element is warm; secondly Juno as it were the air, whence she is called Hera in Greek; and although they ought to have set the air as masculine, nevertheless they make her the sister of Jove because these two elements are very closely allied, and his wife because married air is heated by fire. For Teopompus in a Cyprian song and Hellanicus in the divine polity which he described say that Juno was bound by Jove with golden chains and weighed down with iron anvils, intending nevertheless to say that air, being more closely joined to the celestial fire, is mixed with the two lower elements, that is water and earth, which elements are heavier than the two superior ones.

IV. Fabula Neptuni.

4. The Tale of Neptune.

Neptunum uero tertium uelut aquarum uoluerunt elementum, quem ideo Grece etiam Posidoniam nuncupant quasi pion idonan quod nos Latine facientem imaginem dicimus, illa uidelicet ratione quod hoc solum elementum imagines in se formet expectantium, quod nulli alio ex quattuor conpetat elementis. Tridentem uero ob hac re ferre pingitur, quod aquarum natura triplici uirtute fungatur, id est liquida, fecunda, potabilis. Huic et Neptuno Amphitritem in coniugium deputant — amphi enim Grece circumcirca dicimus — eo quod omnibus tribus elementis aqua conclusa sit, id est sit in caelo, sit in aere id est in nubibus, et in terra, ut sunt fontes uel putei.

Neptune, however, they regarded as the third element, as it were, of the waters, whom therefore the Greeks also call Poseidonian, as if posid onian — what we in Latin call the maker of images — that is, because this element alone forms images within itself of things awaiting (appearance), which does not pertain to any of the other three elements. For this reason he is painted bearing a trident, because the nature of waters performs a threefold virtue, that is, to be liquid, fecund, and potable. To this Neptune they also assign Amphitrite in marriage — amphi in Greek we say around about — because water is enclosed in all three realms, that is, it is in the sky, it is in the air, that is, in the clouds, and in the earth, as in springs or wells.

V. Fabula de Plutone.

CHAPTER 5. The Tale of Pluto.

Quartum etiam Plutonem dicunt terrarum praesulem — plutos enim Grece diuitiae dicuntur — solis terris credentes diuitias deputari. Hunc etiam tenebris abdicatum dixerunt, quod sola terrae materia sit cunctis elementis obscurior. Sceptrum quoque in manu gestat quod regna solis conpetant terris.

They likewise call Pluto the fourth lord of the lands — for ploutos in Greek signifies riches — believing that riches are allotted to the lands alone. They also say that he was consigned to darkness, because the very matter of the earth is darker than all the elements. He likewise bears a scepter in his hand, because kingdoms which pertain to the sun are assigned to the lands.

VI. Fabula de Tricerbero.

CHAPTER 6. FABLE OF TRICERBERUS.

Tricerberum uero canem eius subiciunt pedibus, quod mortalium iurgiorum inuidiae ternario conflentur statu, id est naturali, causali, accidenti. Naturale est odium ut canum et leporum, luporum et pecudum, hominum et serpentium, causale est ut amoris zelum atque inuidiae, accidens est quod aut uerbis casualiter oboritur ut hominibus aut comestionis propter ut iumentis. [Cerberus uero dicitur quasi creoboros, hoc est carnem uorans et fingitur tria habere capita pro tribus aetatibus, infantia, iuuentute, senectute, per quas introiuit mors in orbem terrarum.

They subject his dog Tricerberus underfoot, because the quarrels of mortals' envy are composed in a threefold state, that is, natural, causal, accidental. Natural is hatred, as of dogs and hares, wolves and flocks, men and serpents; causal is the zeal of love and of envy; accidental is that which either arises casually in words toward men or, on account of feeding, toward beasts of burden. [Cerberus, moreover, is said to be called as if creoboros, that is, flesh‑devouring, and is imagined to have three heads for three ages — infancy, youth, old age — through which Death entered into the circle of the lands.

VII. Fabula de Furiis.

CHAPTER 7. TALE OF THE FURIES.

Huic quoque etiam tres Furias deseruire dicunt, quarum prima Allecto <secunda Tisiphone, tertia Megera>; Allecto enim Grece inpausabilis dicitur; Tisiphone autem quasi tuton phone, id est istarum vox; Megera autem quasi megale eris, id est magna contentio. Primum est ergo non pausando furiam concipere, secundum est in uoce erumpere, tertium iurgium protelare.

To this also they say three Furies serve, the first Allecto <the second Tisiphone, the third Megera>; for Allecto in Greek is called inpausabilis (unceasing); Tisiphone, however, as it were tuton phone, that is, the voice of those; Megera likewise as megale eris, that is, great contention. Therefore the first is to conceive fury without pausing, the second is to break forth in voice, the third to prolong a quarrel.

VIII. Fabula de Fatis.

CHAPTER 8. TALE OF THE FATES.

Tria etiam ipso Plutoni destinant fata; quarum prima Cloto, secunda Lacesis, tertia Atropos — clitos enim Grece euocatio dicitur, Lacesis uero sors nuncupatur, Atropos quoque sine ordine dicitur — hoc uidelicet sentire uolentes quod prima sit natiuitatis euocatio, secunda uitae sors, quemadmodum quis uiuere possit, tertia mortis conditio quae sine lege uenit.

Pluto himself likewise assigns three Fates; of whom the first is Cloto, the second Lacesis, the third Atropos — for clitos in Greek is called an evocation, Lacesis is named a lot, Atropos too is said to be “without order” — this, evidently wishing to indicate, that the first is the evocation of nativity, the second the lot of life, how one may live, the third the condition of death which comes without law.

IX. Fabula de Arpyis.

9. Tale of the Harpies.

Arpyias etiam tres inferis Uirgilius deputat, quarum prima Aello, secunda Oquipete, tertia Celeno — arpage enim Grece rapina dicitur — ideo uirgines, quod omnis rapina arida sit et sterilis, ideo plumis circumdatae, quia quicquid rapina inuaserit celat, ideo uolatiles, quod omnis rapina ad uolandum sit celerrima. Aello enim Grece quasi edon allon, id est alienum tollens, Oquipete id est citius auferens, Celenum uero nigrum Grece dicitur, unde et Homerus prima Iliados rhapsodia: [aipsa toi haima kelainon eroesei peri douri], id est: Statim niger tuus sanguis emanabit per meam hastam — hoc igitur significare uolentes quod primum sit alienum concupisci, secundum concupita inuadere, tertium celare quae inuadit.

Virgil furthermore assigns three Harpies to the underworld, the first of which is Aello, the second Oquipete, the third Celeno — for in Greek arpage is called rapine — hence virgins, because every rapine is arid and sterile; hence girded with plumes, because whatever rapine has seized it conceals; hence volant, because every rapine is most swift for flying. Aello in Greek is as if edon allon, that is, taking away the alien; Oquipete means the swifter taker-away; Celeno in Greek is said to be black, whence Homer in the first rhapsody of the Iliad: [aipsa toi haima kelainon eroesei peri douri], that is, “Immediately your black blood will gush forth around my spear” — this, therefore, signifying that first is the desire for another’s thing, second the invasion of the desired, third the concealing of what it has invaded.

X. Fabula de Proserpina.

CHAPTER 10. TALE OF PROSERPINA.

Plutoni quoque nuptam uolunt Proserpinam, Cereris filiam; Ceres enim Grece gaudium dicitur; et ideo illam frumenti deam esse uoluerunt, quod ubi plenitudo sit fructuum gaudia superabundent necesse est. Proserpinam uero quasi segetem uoluerunt, id est terram radicibus proserpentem, unde et Ecate Grece dicitur; hecaton enim Grece centum sunt; et ideo illi hoc nomen inponunt, quia centuplatum seges proferat fructum.

They likewise make Proserpina the bride of Pluto, the daughter of Ceres; for Ceres in Greek is called gaudium (joy); and therefore they wished her to be the goddess of grain, because where the fullness of fruits is, joys must needs abound. Proserpina, moreover, they conceived as segetem—that is, the crop creeping forth with roots, the earth proserpenting—whence she is called Ecate in Greek; hecaton in Greek means one hundred; and therefore they bestow this name on her, that the field may yield a hundredfold harvest.

XI. Fabula Cereris.

CHAPTER 11. TALE OF CERES.

Hanc etiam mater cum lampadibus raptam inquirere dicitur, unde et lampadarum dies Cereri dedicatus est, illa uidelicet ratione quod hoc tempore cum lampadibus, id est cum solis feruore, seges ad metendum cum gaudio requiratur.

This mother is moreover said to search for her captured daughter with lampades, whence the day of lampades is dedicated to Ceres, namely because at this season, with lampades — that is, with the sun’s fervour — the crop to be reaped is sought with joy.

XII. Fabula Apollinis.

CHAPTER 12. FABLE OF APOLLO.

Apollinem solem dici uoluerunt; apollon enim Grece perdens dicitur, quod feruore suo omnem sucum uirentium dequoquendo perdat herbarum. Hunc etiam diuinationis deum uoluerunt, siue quod sol omnia obscura manifestat in lucem seu quod in suo processu et occasu eius orbita multimodis significationum monstret effectus. Sol uero dicitur aut ex eo quod solus sit aut quod solite per dies surgat et occidat.

They wished Apollo to be called the sun; for Apollon in Greek is said perdens, because by his fervor he destroys every sap of growing things by boiling away the herbs. They also construed him as a god of divination, either because the sun brings all things obscure into the light, or because in his procession and his setting his orbita shows in many ways the effects of signs. The sun, however, is said either from the fact that he is solus (alone) or because he is wont to rise and set through the days.

Huic quoque quadrigam scribunt illam ob causam, quod aut quadripertitis temporum varietatibus anni circulum peragat aut quod quadrifido limite diei metiatur spatium; unde et ipsis equis condigna huic nomina posuerunt, id est Erytreus, Acteon, Lampus et Filogeus. Erytreus Grece rubeus dicitur quod a matutino ipse limine rubicundus exurgat, Acteon splendens dicitur quod tertiae horae metis uehemens insistens lucidior fulgeat, Lampus uero ardens dum ad umbilicum diei centratum conscenderit circulum, Filogeus Grece terram amans dicitur quod horae nonae procliuior uergens occasibus pronus incumbat.

To this also they ascribe that quadriga for the reason that either by the fourfold divisions of times it completes the circle of the year or that by a four‑split boundary it measures the span of the day; whence they set upon the horses themselves names fitting to this, namely Erytreus, Acteon, Lampus and Filogeus. Erytreus in Greek is said to be “red,” because he himself rises ruddy from the morning threshold; Acteon is called shining because, pressing vehemently at the bounds of the third hour, he gleams more brightly; Lampus, however, burning, when he mounted the circle centered at the navel of the day; Filogeus in Greek is called “lover of the earth,” because at the ninth hour, leaning more inclined toward the west, he bends forward prone toward the setting.

XIII. Fabula de Coruo.

13. Fable of the Crow.

In huius etiam tutelam coruum uolunt, siue quod solus contra rerum naturam in mediis ipsis aestiuis feruoribus ouiparos pullulet fetus, unde et Petronius:

They also assign the crow to its tutelage, either because it alone, contrary to the nature of things, in the very midst of the summer heats breeds oviparous offspring, hence also Petronius:

'Sic contra rerum naturae munera notae coruus maturis frugibus oua refert',

'Thus, contrary to the known gifts of nature,
the crow brings eggs among ripe fruits',

siue quod in orneoscopicis libris secundum Anaximandrum siue etiam secundum Pindarum solus inter omnes aues LX quattuor significationes habeat uocum.

either because in the orneoscopic books according to Anaximandrus, or even according to Pindarus, he alone among all birds has 64 significations of voices.

XIV. Fabula de Lauro.

CHAPTER 14. FABLE OF THE LAUREL.

In huius etiam tutelam laurum ascribunt, unde etiam eum amasse Dafnem dicunt, [Penei] fluminis filiam. Et unde laurus nasci possit nisi de fluuialibus aquis? Maxime quia et eiusdem Penei fluminis ripae lauro abundare dicuntur.

They also ascribe the laurel to his tutelage, whence they say that Daphne loved him, [Penei] the river’s daughter. And whence could the laurel be born except from fluvial waters? Especially because the banks of that same river Peneus are said to abound in laurel.

At uero amica Apollinis ob hac re uocitata est, quia illi qui de somniorum interpretatione scripserunt ut Antiphon, Filocorus et Artemon et Serapion Ascalonites promittant in libris suis quod laurum si dormientibus ad caput posueris, uera somnia esse uisuros.

But indeed she is called the friend of Apollo on account of this: for those who have written about the interpretation of dreams, such as Antiphon, Filocorus and Artemon and Serapion of Ascalon, affirm in their books that if you place laurel at the heads of sleepers, they will behold true dreams.

XV. Fabula de nouem Musis.

CHAPTER 15. Tale of the nine Muses.

Huic etiam Apollini nouem deputant Musas ipsumque decimum Musis adiciunt illa uidelicet causa, quod humanae uocis decem sint modulamina; unde et cum decacorda Apollo pingitur cithara. Sed et lex diuina decacordum dicit psalterium. Fit ergo uox quattuor dentibus, id est e contra positis, ad quos lingua percutit et quibus si unus minus fuerit sibilum potius quam uocem reddat necesse est.

They likewise assign nine Muses to this Apollo and add him as the tenth Muse, plainly for the reason that the human voice has ten modulations; whence Apollo is painted with a ten‑stringed cithara. But the divine law also calls the psaltery decacord. Thus the voice is produced by four teeth, that is by those set opposite one another, against which the tongue strikes, and if one of these were lacking it would necessarily give forth a hiss rather than a voice.

Duo labia uelut cimbala uerborum commoda modulantia, lingua ut plectrum quae curuamine quodam uocalem format spiritum, palatum cuius concauitas profert sonum, gutturis fistula quae tereti meatum spiritalem praebet excursu et pulmo qui uelut aerius follis concepta reddit ac reuocat. Habes ergo nouem Musarum uel Apollinis ipsius redditam rationem, sicut in libris suis Anaximander Lamsacenus et Zenopanes Eracleopolites exponunt; quod et alii firmant ut Pisander fisicus et Euximenes in libro teologumenon. Nos uero nouem Musas doctrinae atque scientiae dicimus modos, hoc est: prima Clio quasi cogitatio prima discendi — cleos enim Grece fama dicitur, unde et Homerus: [kleos oion akousamen], id est: famam solam audiuimus, et alio in loco: [peutheto gar Kupronde mega kleos] et quoniam nullus scientiam quaerit nisi in qua famae suae protelet dignitatem, ob hanc rem prima Clio appellata est, id est cogitatio quaerendae scientiae —, secunda Euterpe quod nos Grece bene delectans dicimus, quod primum sit scientiam quaerere, secundum sit delectari quod quaeras, tertia Melpomene quasi melenpieomene, id est meditationem faciens permanere, ut sit primum uelle, secundum desiderare quod uelis, tertium instare meditando ad id quod desideras, quarta Talia, id est capacitas uelut si dicatur tithonlia, id est ponens germina, unde et Epicarmus comicus in Difolo comedia ait: [leia me idon limon tis artunei],id est: germina dum non uiderit, famem consumit, quinta Polymnia quasi polymnemen, id est multam memoriam faciens dicimus, quia post capacitatem est memoria necessaria, sexta Erato, id est euronchomoeon, quod nos Latine inueniens simile dicimus, quia post scientiam et memoriam iustum est ut aliquid simile et de suo inueniat, septima Terpsicore id est delectans instructionem, unde et Hermes in Opimandrae libro ait: [ek korou trophes e ek kouphou somatos], id est: absque instructione escae et uacuo corpore, ergo post inuentionem oportet te etiam discernere ac diiudicare, quod inuenies, Urania octaua, id est caelestis — post enim diiudicationem eligis quid dicas, quid despuas; eligere enim utile caducumque despuere caeleste ingenium est —, nona Calliope, id est optimae uocis, unde et Homerus ait: [theas opa phonesases], id est deae uocem clamantis.

Two lips, like cymbals of words, modulating; the tongue as a plectrum which by a certain curvature shapes the vocal spirit; the palate whose concavity produces sound; the gullet, a pipe which affords a rounded spiritual passage by its course; and the lung, which like an airy bellows receives what is conceived and gives it back and recalls it. You have therefore an account of the nine Muses or of Apollo himself rendered, as Anaximander Lamsacenus and Xenophanes of Heracleopolis explain in their books; which others also confirm, as Pisander the physicist and Euximenes in the book Theologumenon. We, however, call the nine Muses the modes of doctrine and of knowledge, that is: first Clio, as it were the first thought of learning — cleos in Greek is said to be fame, whence Homer: [kleos oion akousamen], that is: “we have heard only fame,” and elsewhere: [peutheto gar Kupronde mega kleos] — and since no one seeks knowledge unless in that by which he may advance the dignity of his fame, for this reason the first was called Clio, that is the thought of seeking knowledge —; second Euterpe, because in Greek we say well‑delighting, that is, that first be to seek knowledge, second to take delight in what you seek; third Melpomene, as melenpieomene, that is making meditation continue, so that first is to will, second to desire what you will, third to press on by meditating toward that which you desire; fourth Thalia, that is capacity, as if called tithonlia, that is placing seeds, whence Epicarmus the comic in the comedy Difolos says: [leia me idon limon tis artunei], that is: “while he has not seen the seeds, he consumes hunger”; fifth Polymnia, as polymnemen, that is making much memory, we say, because after capacity memory is necessary; sixth Erato, that is euronchomoeon, which we in Latin call “finding the similar,” because after knowledge and memory it is right that one also invent something analogous and of its own; seventh Terpsichore, that is delighting instruction, whence Hermes in the book Opimandra says: [ek korou trophes e ek kouphou somatos], that is: “without instruction, food and an empty body,” therefore after invention it behooves you also to discern and judge what you find; Urania the eighth, that is celestial — for after judgment you choose what to say, what to spurn; to choose the useful and to spurn the perishable is a heavenly genius —; ninth Calliope, that is of the best voice, whence Homer says: [theas opa phonesases], that is: the voice of the goddess crying out.

Ergo hic erit ordo: primum est uelle doctrinam, secundum est delectari quod uelis, tertium est instare ad id quod delectatus es, quartum est capere ad quod instas, quintum est memorari quod capis, sextum est inuenire de tuo simile ad quod memineris, septimum iudicare quod inuenias, octauum est eligere de quo iudicas, nonum bene proferre quod elegeris.

Therefore the order will be this: first is the willing of doctrine, second is delighting in what you will, third is pressing on toward that which you have delighted in, fourth is seizing that for which you press on, fifth is remembering what you seize, sixth is finding from your own something similar to that which you remember, seventh is judging what you find, eighth is choosing concerning what you judge, ninth is well uttering what you have chosen.

XVI. Fabula Phaetontis.

CHAPTER 16. THE TALE OF PHAETHON.

Hic etiam cum Climene nimfa coiens Fetonta dicitur genuisse, qui paternos currus adfectans sibi atque mundo concremationis detrimenta conflauit. Semper ergo sol cum aqua coiens aliquos fructus gignat necesse est, qui eo, quod terris exilientes appareant, fanontes dicuntur; fanon enim Grece apparens dicitur. Qui quidem fructus ad maturitatem sui solis ardorem quaerant necesse est, quo accepto omnia feruoris incendio consumantur.

Here also it is said that when the nymph Climene united (coiens) she bore Phaethon, who, coveting his father’s chariot for himself, and for the world gathered together the detriments of burning. Therefore whenever the sun joins with water it must needs produce certain fruits, which, because they seem to spring up from the earth, are called phainontes; for phainon in Greek is said to mean “appearing.” These very fruits must seek the sun’s ardor for their ripeness, and having received it all things are consumed by the fire of heat.

Huius etiam sorores [Arethusa, Lampetusa] quae gemmeis ac tralucentibus fraterna deplorant guttis incendia sucinaque diruptis iaciunt inaurata corticibus; soror enim totius germinis arbor est, quae una eademque feruoris humorisque iugalitate gignuntur. Itaque istae arbores quae sucinum sudant, dum maturatis frugibus solis feruor torrentibus ipsis Iunio Iulioque mensibus incendiosior cancri atque leonis tetigerit metas, tunc istae arbores aestu ualido fissis corticibus sucum sui liquoris in Eridano flumine aquis durandum emittunt.

Also of his sisters [Arethusa, Lampetusa], who bewail with gemlike and translucent brotherly tears the conflagrations and cast amber and gold in ruptured barks; for the sister is the tree of the whole stock, which are born together by the same ardor and by the paired moisture. Hence those trees that sweat amber, when the heat of the sun, torrential with ripening fruits, in the months of June and July has touched the bounds of Cancer and Leo more fiercely, then those trees, by a strong summer heat and with their barks split, send out the sap of their liquid juices into the waters of the river Eridanus to be hardened.

XVII. De tripo, sagittis et Pithone.

CHAPTER 17. On the tripod, the arrows, and Python.

His tripum quoque Apollini adiciunt, quod Sol et praeterita nouerit et praesentia cernat et futura uisurus sit. Arcum uero huic sagittasque conscribunt, siue quod de circulo eius radii in modum sagittarum exiliant seu quod suorum radiorum manifestatione omnem dubietatis scindat caliginem, unde etiam Pithonem sagittis interemisse fertur; pithos enim Grece credulitas dicitur. Et quia omnis falsa credulitas sicut serpentes luce manifestante deprimitur, Pithonem eum interfecisse dicunt.

They also assign the tripod to Apollo, because he knows the past and discerns the present and is to behold the future. They ascribe to him a bow and arrows, either because from his circle his rays shoot forth in the fashion of arrows, or because by the manifestation of his rays he rends all the darkness of doubt; whence it is also reported that he slew Pithon with arrows — for pithos in Greek is said to mean credulity. And because all false credulity, like serpents, is crushed by the light when it is revealed, they say he killed that Python.

Quare sine barba pingitur, cum pater dicatur.

Why then is he painted without a beard, when he is called father.

Quia occidendo et renascendo semper est iuuenior siue quod numquam in sua uirtute deficiat ut luna, quae crescit aut minuit.

Because by dying and being reborn he is always younger, or because he never fails in his own virtue like the moon, which waxes or wanes.

XVIII. Fabula Mercurii.

CHAPTER 18. THE FABLE OF MERCURY.

Si furtis praefuerunt dii, non erat opus criminibus iudicem, ex quo culpae habuerunt caelestem auctorem. Mercurium dicunt praeesse negotiis, uirgam ferentem serpentibus nexam, pennatis quoque talaribus praeditum, hunc etiam internuntium furatrinumque deum. Quid sibi uero huius nominis atque imaginis significatio disserat, edicamus.

If the gods presided over thefts, there would be no need for a judge for crimes, since the faults had a heavenly author. They say Mercury presides over business, bearing a rod bound with serpents, also endowed with winged talaria; he is likewise the messenger and the god of thefts. What, truly, the signification of this name and image argues, let us set forth.

Mercurium dici uoluerunt quasi mercium-curum; omnis ergo negotiator dici potest Mercurius.

They wished him to be called Mercurium, as if mercium-curum — the care-taker of wares; therefore every negotiator (merchant) may be called Mercurius.

Quare pennas.

Wherefore the wings.

Pennata uero talaria, quod negotiantum pedes ubique pergendo [quasi] pennati sunt.

The winged talaria, moreover, because the feet of merchants, by going everywhere, have become as if winged.

Quare uirgam.

Why the rod.

Uirgam uero serpentibus nexam ob hoc adiciunt, quod mercatus det aliquando regnum ut sceptrum, det uulnus ut serpentum.

They indeed add a rod bound with serpents for this reason, because the purchaser may sometimes grant a kingdom as a scepter, may grant a wound as of serpents.

Quare galerem et gallum.

Wherefore the galerus and the cock.

Galere enim coperto capite pingitur, quod omne negotium sit semper absconsum. Gallum quoque in eius ponunt tutelam, siue quod omnis negotiator semper inuigilet seu quod ab eius cantu surgant ad peragenda negotia.

Galera, moreover, is painted on the covered head, signifying that every business is always concealed. They likewise place a rooster under his protection, either because every merchant is ever vigilant, or because at its crowing they rise to accomplish the business to be done.

Quare Ermes.

Wherefore Hermes.

Ermes quoque Grece dicitur ab eo, quod est ermeneuse quod nos Latine disserere dicimus, illa uidelicet causa quod negotiatori linguarum sit disertio necessaria. Utraque etiam regna permeare dicitur, superna atque inferna, quod modo uentis in altum nauigans currat, modo dimersus inferna tempestatibus appetat.

Ermes is also called in Greek from that, since he is an ermeneuse, which we in Latin call to discourse, namely because eloquence is necessary for the negotiator of languages. He is said likewise to pass through both kingdoms, the upper and the infernal, for at one time, sailing on the winds he runs aloft, at another, plunged down, he seeks the underworld by tempest.

Quare fur, quare celer dicitur.

Why he is called fur, why he is called celer.

Hunc etiam deum furti ac praesulem uolunt, quod nihil intersit inter negotiantis rapinam atque periurium furantisque deierationem ac raptum. Stellam uero quae stilbos Grece nuncupatur, quam ei pagani adscribunt, ex quo etiam diei nomen inuenerunt, tantum celerior planetis omnibus currit, ut septima die suos permeet circulos, quod Saturnus uiginti octo annis et Iuppiter duodecim possunt; unde etiam Lucanus ait: motuque celer Cyllenius hebet.

They moreover desire this god to be the patron of theft and plunder, because there is no difference between the trader’s rapine and perjury and the oath-taking of the one who steals and the thing seized. The star, moreover, which in Greek is called stilbos, which the pagans ascribe to him, from which they also found the name of the day, runs so much swifter than all the planets that in the seventh day it completes its circuits — what Saturn can in 28 years and Jupiter in 12; whence Lucan also says: "motuque celer Cyllenius hebet" — and the swift Cyllenius dulls by motion.

Quare Argum occidit.

Why he killed Argus.

Denique etiam Argum luminum populositate conseptum interemisse dicitur, dum oculorum inmensam unius corporis segetem ubique uiua circumspectione florentem singularis uulneris recussu falcifero messuisset curuamine. Quid sibi ergo tam fabulosum Greciae commentum uelit, nisi quod etiam centum custodes totidemque astutos sine negotiatione uacuos — unde et Argus Grece uacuus dicitur — et furantis astutia et negotiantis circumuenit astuta falcataque cautela. Solet igitur adludere his speciebus et honeste mendax Grecia et poetica garrulitas semper de falsitate ornata,

Finally it is said that he slew Argus, who was heaped with a populace of lights, when with a sickle‑like curve he reaped, by the rebound of a single wound, the immense harvest of eyes of that one body, which everywhere flourished with living circumspection. What then does so fabulous a Greek fiction mean, unless that he meets a hundred guards and as many crafty men idle of trade — whence Argus in Greek is said to mean “vacant” — and outwits both the thief’s cunning and the trader’s crafty, hooked caution. Therefore Greece, honorably mendacious, and poetic garrulity, always adorned with falsity, are wont to toy with such appearances,

XIX. De Danae

CHAPTER 19. OF DANAË

dum et Danae imbre aurato corrupta est non pluuia, sed pecunia,

while Danaë was corrupted by a golden shower, not by rain but by money,

XX. De Ganimede

CHAPTER 20. OF GANIMEDES

et raptum Ganimedem aquila non uere uolucris, sed bellica praeda. Iuppiter enim, ut Anacreon antiquissimus auctor scripsit, dum adversus Titanas, id est Titani filios qui frater Saturni fuerat, bellum adsumeret et sacrificium caelo fecisset, in uictoriae auspicium aquilae sibi adesse prosperum uidit uolatum. Pro quo tam felici omine, praesertim quia et uictoria consecuta est, in signis bellicis sibi aquilam auream fecit tutelaeque suae uirtuti dedicauit, unde et apud Romanos huiuscemodi signa tracta sunt.

and that Ganimedēs was snatched by an aquila not truly a volucris but a bellic prize. Iuppiter, for as Anacreon the most ancient auctor wrote, while he was taking up war against the Titanas — that is, the sons of Titān who had been the brother of Saturnus — and had made a sacrifice to the heavens, saw a prosperous volatum of an aquila present to him as an auspice of victory. For that so fortunate omen, especially because victory followed, he made for himself in military signa a golden aquila and dedicated it to his tutela and to his virtus, whence among the Romanos such standards have been carried.

Ganimeden uero bellando his signis praeeuntibus rapuit, sicut Europam in tauro rapuisse fertur, id est in nauem tauri picturam habentem, et Isidem in uacca, similiter in nauem huiusce picturae. Denique ut hoc certius esse cognoscas, nauigium Isidis Aegyptus colit.

Ganymede, however, was snatched away while he was going to war with these banners leading the way, just as Europa is said to have been carried off on the bull — that is, on a ship bearing the image of a bull — and Isis on a cow, likewise into a ship of that same design. Finally, that you may know this more certainly, Egypt reveres the ship of Isis.

XXI. Fabula Persei et Gorgonarum.

CHAPTER 21. The Story of Perseus and the Gorgons.

Perseum ferunt Medusae Gorgonae interfectorem. Gorgonas dici uoluerunt tres, quarum prima Stenno, secunda Euriale, tertia Medusa, quarum quia fabulam Lucanus et Ouidius scripserunt poetae grammaticorum scolaribus rudimentis admodum celeberrimi, hanc fabulam referre superfluum duximus. Theocnidus antiquitatum historiographus refert Forcum regem fuisse, qui tres filias locupletes derelinquit.

They report Perseus as the slayer of Medusa the Gorgon. They would have the Gorgons said to be three, of whom the first is Stenno, the second Euriale, the third Medusa; and because Lucan and Ovid, poets very celebrated among the rudiments for grammar-school pupils, have written the tale of these, we deemed it superfluous to relate this story. Theocnidus, historiographer of antiquities, reports that Forcus was a king who abandoned three wealthy daughters.

Quarum Medusa maior quae fuerat locuples regnoque colendo fructificandoque ampliauerat — unde et Gorgo dicta est quasi georgigo; nam Grece georgi agricultores dicuntur; serpentino uero capite ideo dicta est, quod astutior fuerit; cuius regnum opimum Perseus inuidens ipsam quidem interemit — ideo uolaticus dicitur, quod nauibus uenerit —, cuius capite id est substantia ablata ditior factus non parua regna obtinuit. Denique et Atlantis regnum inuadens quasi per Gorgonae caput, id est per substantiam eius, eum in montem fugire conpulit, unde in montem conuersus esse dicitur. Tamen quid hac sibi tam subtili sub imagine ornatrix Grecia sentire uoluerit, edicamus.

Of these, Medusa, the eldest, who had been wealthy and had increased her domain by husbandry and fructifying the land — hence she is also called Gorgo, as if georgigo; for in Greek georgi are called farmers — and with her serpentine head she was so named because she was more cunning; whose realm Perseus, envying it, indeed slew her — hence he is called volaticus, because he came by ships — and with her head, that is with her substance taken away, having been made richer he obtained not small kingdoms. Finally, also attacking the kingdom of Atlas as if through the Gorgon’s head, that is through her substance, he forced him to flee into a mountain, whence he is said to have been turned into a mountain. Yet we will declare what Greece, that most subtle ornatrix under her image, wished thereby to signify.

Gorgonas dici uoluerunt tres, id est tria terroris genera; primus quippe terror est qui mentem debilitat, secundus qui profundo quodam terrore mentem spargit, tertius qui non solum mentis intentum, uerum etiam caliginem ingerat uisus — unde et nomina tres Gorgones acceperunt, [prima Stenno,] Stenno enim Grece debilitas dicitur, unde et astenian infirmitatem dicimus, secunda Euriale id est lata profunditas, unde et Homerus [Troien euruaguian] dixit, id est Troiam latas plateas habentem —, itaque Medusam quasi meidusam, quod uidere non possit. Hos ergo terrores Perseus adiuuante Minerua, id est uirtus adiuuante sapientia, interfecit. Ideo auersus uolat, quod uirtus terrorem numquam aspicit.

They wished the Gorgons to be called three, that is three genera of terror; for the first indeed is a terror that debilitates the mind, the second that scatters the mind with a certain profundity of terror, the third that not only pours intent into the mind but also injects a darkness into the sight — whence they received their three names, [prima Stenno,] for Stenno in Greek means debility, whence we say asthenia for infirmity, the second Euriale, that is wide profundity, whence even Homer said [Troien euruaguian], that is “Troy having broad streets” —, and so Medusa as it were meidusa, because one cannot see. These terrors therefore Perseus, Minerva assisting, that is virtue aiding wisdom, slew. Hence he is called volant, because virtue never looks upon terror.

Speculum etiam ferre dicitur, quod omnis terror non solum in corde, sed etiam in figura transeat. De sanguine eius nasci fertur Pegasus in figura famae constitutus; uirtus enim, dum terrorem amputauerit, famam generat; unde et uolare dicitur, quia fama est uolucris. Unde et Tiberianus: 'Pegasus hinnientem transuolaturus ethram'. Ideo et Musis fontem ungula sua rupisse fertur, quod Musae ad describendum famam heroum aut sequantur proprium aut indicent antiquorum.

The mirror is said also to bear that every terror passes not only into the heart but also into outward figure. From her blood Pegasus is said to be born, established in the form of fama; for virtus, when it amputates terror, begets fama; whence he is said to fly, because fama is a bird. Hence Tiberianus: 'Pegasus hinnientem transuolaturus ethram' — 'Pegasus about to fly over the neighing plain.' Therefore he is also said to have broken the Muses’ spring with his hoof, because the Muses, to set forth the fama of heroes, either follow that which is proper or point out the ancients.

XXII. Fabula Admeti et Alcestae.

CHAPTER 22. THE FABLE OF ADMETUS AND ALCESTE.

Sicut nihil benigna superius coniuge, ita nihil infesta crudelius muliere. Quanto enim sapiens pro uiri [sui] salute suam opponit animam pigneri, tanto maligna ad mariti mortem etiam suam uitam reputat nihili; ergo coniunx quantum iure coniunctior, tantum est aut morum dulcedine mellea aut felle malitiae toxicata, est quippe aut perpetuale refugium aut perenne tormentum. Admetus rex Greciae Alcestam in coniugio petit; cuius pater edictum proposuerat, ut si quis duas feras sibi dispares suo curru iungeret ipse illam in coniugio accepisset.

As nothing is more kindly above toward a spouse, so nothing is more cruelly hostile than a woman. For just as the wise man, for the safety of his husband [his], sets his own life up to be pledged, so the malignant woman, at her husband's death, regards even her own life as nothing; therefore the spouse, the more closely joined by law, is all the more either honeyed with the sweetness of manners or poisoned with the gall of malice—for indeed he or she is either a perpetual refuge or an everlasting torment. King Admetus of Greece sought Alcesta in marriage; her father had put forward a decree, that if anyone should yoke two wild beasts unequal to his chariot, he would himself receive her in marriage.

Is igitur Admetus Apollinem atque Herculem petit et ei ad currum leonem et aprum iunxerunt, itaque Alcestam in coniugio accepit. Cumque in infirmitatem Admetus decidisset et mori se conperisset, Apollinem deprecatus est; ille uero dixit se ei aliquid [in infirmitate] non posse praestare, nisi si quis se de eius propinquis ad mortem pro eo uoluntarie obtulisset. Quod uxor effecit; itaque Hercules dum ad Tricerberum canem abstrahendum descenderet, etiam ipsam de inferis leuat.

He therefore sought Apollo and Hercules, and to his chariot they yoked a lion and a boar for him, and thus he received Alcesta in marriage. And when Admetus had fallen into sickness and discovered that he was to die, he begged Apollo; but he said that he could do nothing for him in his infirmity, unless someone of his kinsfolk would voluntarily offer himself to death for him. Which his wife accomplished; and so Hercules, while he descended to drag away the dog Cerberus, also raised her herself from the underworld.

Admetum posuerunt in modum mentis, ideo et Admetus nuncupatus est quasi quem adire poterit metus. Hic itaque Alcestam in coniugio desiderat; alce enim Grece lingua Attica praesumptio dicitur, unde et Homerus ait: [all' ouk esti bie phresin oude tis alke], hoc est: non est aliqua uirtus in mentibus neque aliqua praesumptio. Ergo mens praesumptionem sperans sibi coniungi duas feras [dispares] suo currui subiungat, id est suae uitae duas uirtutes asciscat, animi et corporis, leonem ut uirtutem animi, aprum ut uirtutem corporis.

They placed Admetus as a mode of the mind, and therefore he was named Admetus as if “one whom fear may approach.” He therefore desires Alcesta in marriage; for alce in the Attic Greek tongue is called presumption, whence Homer says: [all' ouk esti bie phresin oude tis alke], that is: there is neither force in the mind nor any presumption. Therefore the mind, hoping that presumption may be joined to it, yokes two beasts [dispares] to its chariot — that is, it adopts for its life two virtues, of soul and of body: the lion as the virtue of the soul, the boar as the virtue of the body.

Denique et Apollinem et Herculem sibi propitiat, id est sapientiam et uirtutem. Ergo praesumptio semet ipsam ad mortem pro anima obicit ut Alcesta, quam praesumptionem quamuis in periculo mortis deficientem uirtus de inferis reuocat, ut Hercules fecit [Alcestam].

Finally she propitiates both Apollinem and Herculem for herself, that is, wisdom and virtue. Therefore Presumption casts herself to death for the soul like Alcesta; and that Presumption, although failing in the danger of death, Virtue recalls from the underworld, as Hercules did (Alcestam).