April 19th | Fastorum Liber Quartus: Aprilis
E • CER • NP LVD • IN • CIR | XIII Kal. | IV.679-712, Ovid explains why foxes are released at the Games of Ceres.
Tertia post Hyadas cum lux erit orta remotas
carcere partitos Circus habebit equos. 680
cur igitur missae vinctis ardentia taedis
terga ferant volpes, causa docenda mihi est.
frigida Carseolis nec olivis apta ferendis
terra, sed ad segetes ingeniosus ager;
hac ego Paelignos, natalia rura, petebam, 685
parva, sed assiduis obvia semper aquis.
hospitis antiqui solitas intravimus aedes;
dempserat emeritis iam iuga Phoebus equis.
is mihi multa quidem, sed et haec narrare solebat,
unde meum praesens instrueretur opus: 690
“hoc” ait “in campo” (campumque ostendit) “habebat
rus breve cum duro parca colona viro.
ille suam peragebat humum, sive usus aratri
seu curvae falcis sive bidentis erat.
haec modo verrebat stantem tibicine villam, 695
nunc matris plumis ova fovenda dabat,
aut virides malvas aut fungos colligit albos,
aut humilem grato calfacit igne focum.
et tamen assiduis exercet bracchia telis
adversusque minas frigoris arma parat, 700
filius huius erat primo lascivus in aevo
addideratque annos ad duo lustra duos.
is capit extremi volpem convalle salicti:
abstulerat multas illa cohortis aves.
captivam stipula fenoque involvit et ignes 705
admovet: urentes effugit illa manus:
qua fugit, incendit vestitos messibus agros;
damnosis vires ignibus aura dabat.
factum abiit, monumenta manent; nam dicere certa
nunc quoque lex volpem Carseolana vetat; 710
utque luat poenas gens haec Cerialibus ardet,
quoque modo segetes perdidit, ipsa perit.”
879 When the third morn shall have risen after the disappearance of the Hyades, the horses will be in the Circus, each team in its separate stall. I must therefore1 explain the reason why foxes are let loose with torches tied to their burning backs.2 The land of Carseoli3 is cold and not suited for the growth of olives, but the soil is well adapted for corn. By it I journeyed on my way to the Pelignian land, my native country, a country small but always supplied with never-falling water. There I entered, as usual, the house of an old host; Phoebus had already unyoked his spent steeds. My host was wont to tell me many things, and among them matters which were to be embodied in my present work. “In yonder plain,” said he, and he pointed it out, “a thrifty countrywoman had a small croft, she and her sturdy spouse. He tilled his own land, whether the work called for the plough, or the curved sickle, or the hoe. She would now sweep the cottage, supported on props; now she would set the eggs to be hatched under the plumage of the brooding hen; or she gathered green mallows or white mushrooms, or warmed the low hearth with welcome fire. And yet she diligently employed her hands at the loom, and armed herself against the threats of winter. She had a son, in childhood frolicsome, who now had seen twice five years and two more. He in a valley at the end of a willow copse caught a vixen fox which had carried off many farmyard fowls. The captive brute he wrapped in straw and hay, and set a light to her; she escaped the hands that would have burned her. Where she fled, she set fire to the crops that clothed the fields, and a breeze fanned the devouring flames. The incident is forgotten, but a memorial of it survives; for to this day a certain law of Carseoli forbids to name a fox; and to punish the species a fox is burned at the festival of Ceres, thus perishing itself in the way it destroyed the crops.”
Because this loosing of foxes was part of the Games of Ceres.
Compare Judges xv. 4–6.
A Latin town, on the road to Paelignian Corfinium.