April 20th | Fastorum Liber Quartus: Aprilis
F N | XII Kal. | IV.713-720, as the constellation of the ram sets, the bull (or cow?) rises.
Proxima cum veniet terras visura patentes
Memnonis in roseis lutea mater equis,
de duce lanigeri pecoris, qui prodidit Hellen, 715
sol abit: egresso victima maior adest.
vacca sit an taurus, non est cognoscere promptum:
pars prior apparet, posteriora latent.
seu tamen est taurus sive est hoc femina signum,
Iunone invita munus amoris habet. 720
713 When next day Memnon’s saffron-robed mother1 on her rosy steeds shall come to view the far-spread lands, the sun departs from the sign of the leader of the woolly flock, the ram which betrayed Helle;2 and when he has passed out of that sign, a larger victim meets him. Whether that victim is a cow or a bull, it is not easy to know; the fore part is visible, the hinder part is hid. But whether the sign be a bull or a cow, it enjoys this reward of love against the will of Juno.3
M, the editor of Ovid Daily, has also written a translation of Liber IV.
Aurora.
See iii. 851–876.
Whether it be Io as a cow, or the bull that carried off Europa, Juno is equally offended at the reminder of her husband’s unfaithfulness.