iracunda diem proferet Ilio matronisque Phrygum classis Achillei; 1 Pergameas Petrus van Os, 1500: Iliacas MSS. 30 heedlest thou not Laertes' son, the scourge of thy race? No? Nor Pylian Nestor? Dauntlessly upon thee press Teucer of Salamis and Sthenelus skilled in battle, or, if occasion call to guide the car, no sluggish charioteer. Meriones, too, shalt thou come to know. Lo! Fierce Tydides, brave father's braver son, is furious to hunt thee out. Him shalt thou flee faint-hearted, panting with head thrown high, as the deer forgets its pasturage and flees the wolf seen across the valley, though to thy mistress thou didst promise a far different prowess. The wrath of Achilles' followers may put off the day of doom for Ilium and the Trojan matrons; yet after the allotted years the fires of Greece shall burn the homes of Pergamus. non Dindymene, non adytis quatit sic1 geminant Corybantes aera, tristes ut irae, quas neque Noricus fertur Prometheus addere principi vim stomacho apposuisse nostro. irae Thyesten exitio gravi 1 sic MSS.: si Bentley, followed by many editors, 10 20 ODE XVI The Poet's Recantation O MAIDEN, fairer than thy mother fair, make any end thou wilt of my abusive lines, be it with fire or in the waters of the Adriatic! Not Dindymene, not the god who dwells in Pytho's shrine, when he thrills the priestess' soul, not Bacchus, not the Corybants, when they clash their shrillsounding cymbals, so agitate the breast as doth grim anger, which neither the Noric sword represses, nor the sea that wrecketh ships, nor fierce fire, nor Jupiter himself, when he dashes down in awful fury. Prometheus, as goes the tale, when forced to add to our primeval clay a portion drawn from every creature, put also in our breasts the fury of the ravening lion. 'Twas anger that laid Thyestes low in dire destruction, and that has ever been the primal cause why lofty cities perished utterly, and |