e DE RERUM NATURA LIBRI SEX WITH NOTES AND A TRANSLATION BY H. A. J. MUNRO FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE TRANSLATION LONDON GEORGE BELL AND SONS CAMBRIDGE DEIGHTON BELL AND CO 1900 31009 First Edition 1864. Second Edition 1866. Third Edition 1873. Fourth Revised Edition 1886. Reprinted 1891, 1898, 1900. 1. Hav. 417. Cambridge: PRINTED BY J. & C. F. CLAY, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. LUCRETIUS ON THE NATURE OF THINGS BOOK FIRST Mother of the Aeneadae, darling of men and gods, increasegiving Venus, who beneath the gliding signs of heaven fillest with thy presence the ship-carrying sea, the corn-bearing lands, since through thee every kind of living things is conceived, rises up and beholds the light of the sun. Before thee, goddess, flee the winds, the clouds of heaven; before thee and thy advent; for thee earth manifold in works puts forth sweet-smelling flowers; for thee the levels of the sea do laugh and heaven propitiated shines with outspread light. For soon as the vernal aspect of day is disclosed, and the birth-favouring breeze of favonius unbarred is blowing fresh, first the fowls of the air, o lady, shew signs of thee and thy entering in, throughly smitten in heart by thy power. Next the wild herds bound over the glad pastures and swim the rapid rivers: in such wise each made prisoner by thy charms follows thee with desire, whither thou goest to lead it on. Yes, throughout seas and mountains and sweeping rivers and leafy homes of birds and grassy plains, striking fond love into the breasts of all thou constrainest them each after its kind to continue their races with desire. Since thou then art sole mistress of the nature of things and without thee nothing rises up into the divine borders of light, nothing grows to be glad or lovely, fain would I have thee for a helpmate in writing the verses which I essay to pen on the nature of things for our own son of the Memmii, whom thou, goddess, hast willed to have no peer, rich as he ever is in every grace. Wherefore all the more, o lady, lend my lays an everliving charm. Cause meanwhile the savage M. III. A |