January 11th | Fastorum Liber Primus: Ianuarius
C • CAR • NP | III Eid. | I.461-586, Ovid describes the Carmentalia festival.
Proxima prospiciet Tithono nupta relicto
Arcadiae sacrum pontificale deae.
te quoque lux eadem, Turni soror, aede recepit,
hic ubi Virginea Campus obitur aqua.
unde petam causas horum moremque sacrorum? 465
deriget in medio quis mea vela freto?
ipsa mone, quae nomen habes a carmine ductum,
propositoque fave, ne tuus erret honor.
orta prior luna (de se si creditur ipsi)
a magno tellus Arcade nomen habet. 470
hinc fuit Euander, qui, quamquam clarus utroque,
nobilior sacrae sanguine matris erat;
quae simul aetherios animo conceperat ignes,
ore dabat pleno carmina vera dei.
dixerat haec nato motus instare sibique, 475
multaque praeterea tempore nacta fidem.
nam iuvenis nimium vera cum matre fugatus
deserit Arcadiam Parrhasiumque larem.
cui genetrix flenti “fortuna viriliter” inquit
“(siste, precor, lacrimas) ista ferenda tibi est. 480
sic erat in fatis; nec te tua culpa fugavit,
sed deus; offenso pulsus es urbe deo.
non meriti poenam pateris, sed numinis iram:
est aliquid magnis crimen abesse malis.
conscia mens ut cuique sua est, ita concipit intra 485
pectora pro facto spemque metumque suo.
nec tamen ut primus maere mala talia passus:
obruit ingentes ista procella viros.
passus idem est, Tyriis qui quondam pulsus ab oris
Cadmus in Aonia constitit exul humo: 490
passus idem Tydeus et idem Pegasaeus Iason,
et quos praeterea longa referre mora est.
omne solum forti patria est, ut piscibus aequor,
ut volucri, vacuo quicquid in orbe patet.
nec fera tempestas toto tamen horret in anno: 495
et tibi (crede mihi) tempora veris erunt.”
vocibus Euander firmata mente parentis
nave secat fluctus Hesperiamque tenet.
iamque ratem doctae monitu Carmentis in amnem
egerat et Tuscis obvius ibat aquis: 500
fluminis illa latus, cui sunt vada iuncta Tarenti,
aspicit et sparsas per loca sola casas;
utque erat, immissis puppem stetit ante capillis
continuitque manum torva regentis iter,
et procul in dextram tendens sua bracchia ripam
pinea non sano ter pede texta ferit; 505
neve daret saltum properans insistere terrae,
vix est Euandri vixque retenta manu.
“di” que “petitorum” dixit “salvete locorum,
tuque novos caelo terra datura deos, 510
fluminaque et fontes, quibus utitur hospita tellus,
et nemorum nymphae naiadumque chori!
este bonis avibus visi natoque mihique,
ripaque felici tacta sit ista pede!
fallor, an hi fient ingentia moenia colles, 515
iuraque ab hac terra cetera terra petet?
montibus his olim totus promittitur orbis:
quis tantum fati credat habere locum?
et iam Dardaniae tangent haec litora pinus:
hic quoque causa novi femina Martis erit. 520
care nepos, Palla, funesta quid induis arma?
indue! non humili vindice caesus eris.
victa tamen vinces eversaque, Troia, resurges;
obruit hostiles ista ruina domos.
urite vitrices Neptunia Pergama flammae! 525
num minus hic toto est altior orbe cinis?
iam pius Aeneas sacra et, sacra altera, patrem
adferet: Iliacos accipe, Vesta, deos!
tempus erit, cum vos orbemque tuebitur idem,
et fient ipso sacra colente deo, 530
et penes Augustos patriae tutela manebit:
hanc fas imperii frena tenere domum.
inde nepos natusque dei, licet ipse recuset,
pondera caelesti mente paterna feret;
utque ego perpetuis olim sacrabor in aris, 535
sic Augusta novum Iulia numen erit.”
talibus ut dictis nostros descendit in annos,
substitit in medio praescia lingua sono.
puppibus egressus Latia stetit exul in herba,
felix, exilium cui locus ille fuit! 540
nec mora longa fuit: stabant nova tecta, neque alter
montibus Ausoniis Arcade maior erat.
ecce boves illuc Erytheïdas applicat heros
emensus longi claviger orbis iter;
dumque huic hospitium domus est Tegeaea, vagantur
incustoditae lata per arva boves.
mane erat: excussus somno Tirynthius actor 545
de numero tauros sentit abesse duos.
nulla videt quaerens taciti vestigia furti:
traxerat aversos Cacus in antra ferox, 550
Cacus, Aventinae timor atque infamia silvae,
non leve finitimis hospitibusque malum.
dira viro facies, vires pro corpore, corpus
grande: pater monstri Mulciber huius erat:
proque domo longis spelunca recessibus ingens, 555
abdita, vix ipsis invenienda feris.
ora super postes adfixaque bracchia pendent,
squalidaque humanis ossibus albet humus.
servata male parte boum Iove natus abibat:
mugitum rauco furta dedere sono. 560
“accipio revocamen” ait, vocemque secutus
impia per silvas ultor ad antra venit.
ille aditum fracti praestruxerat obice montis;
vix iuga movissent quinque bis illud opus.
nititur hic umeris (caelum quoque sederat illis) 565
et vastum motu conlabefactat onus.
quod simul eversum est, fragor aethera terruit ipsum
ictaque subsedit pondere molis humus.
prima movet Cacus collata proelia dextra
remque ferox saxis stipitibusque gerit. 570
quis ubi nil agitur, patrias male fortis ad artes
confugit et flammas ore sonante vomit;
quas quotiens proflat, spirare Typhoea credas
et rapidum Aetnaeo fulgur ab igne iaci.
occupat Alcides, adductaque clava trinodis 575
ter quater adverso sedit in ore viri.
ille cadit mixtosque vomit cum sanguine fumos
et lato moriens pectore plangit humum.
immolat ex illis taurum tibi, Iuppiter, unum
victor et Euandrum ruricolasque vocat, 580
constituitque sibi, quae Maxima dicitur, aram,
hic ubi pars Urbis de bove nomen habet.
nec tacet Euandri mater prope tempus adesse,
Hercule quo tellus sit satis usa suo.
at felix vates, ut dis gratissima vixit, 585
possidet hunc Iani sic dea mense diem.
481 When next his wife quits Tithonus’ couch, she shall behold the rite pontifical of the Arcadian goddess.1 Thee, too, sister of Turnus,2 the same morn enshrined at the spot where the Virgin Water3 circles the Field of Mars. Whence shall I learn the causes and manner of these rites? Who will pilot my bark in mid ocean? Thyself, enlighten me, O thou (Carmentis), who dost take thy name from song (carmen), be kind to my emprise, lest I should fail to give thee honour due. The land that rose before the moon (if we may take its word for it) derives its name from the great Arcas.4 Of that land came Evander, who, though illustrious on both sides, yet was the nobler for the blood of his sacred mother (Carmentis), who, soon as her soul conceived the heavenly fire, chanted with voice inspired by the god prophetic strains. She had foretold that troubles were at hand for her son and for herself, and much beside she had forecast, which time proved true. Too true, indeed, the mother proved when, banished with her, the youth forsook Arcadia and the god of his Parrhasian5 home. He wept, but she, his mother, said, “Check, prithee, thy tears; bear like a man thy fortune. ’Twas fated so; no fault of thine has banished thee, the deed is God’s; an offended god has driven thee from the city. What thou dost endure is not the punishment of sin but heaven’s ire: in great misfortunes it is something to be unstained by crime. As each man’s conscience is, so doth it, for his deeds, conceive within his breast or hope or fear. Nor mourn these sufferings as if thou wert the first to suffer; such storms have whelmed the mighty. Cadmus endured the same, he, who of old, driven from Tyrian coasts, halted an exile on Aonian soil.6 Tydeus endured the same, and Pagasaean Jason too, and others more of whom it were long to tell. Every land is to the brave his country, as to the fish the sea, as to the bird whatever place stands open in the void world. Nor does the wild tempest rage the whole year long; for thee, too, trust me, there will be springtime yet.” Cheered by his parent’s words, Evander cleft in his ship the billows and made the Hesperian land. And now at sage Carmentis’ bidding he had steered his bark into a river and was stemming the Tuscan stream. Carmentis spied the river bank, where it is bordered by Tarentum’s shallow pool7; she also spied the huts dotted about these solitudes. And even as she was, with streaming hair she stood before the poop and sternly stayed the steersman’s hand; then stretching out her arms to the right bank, she thrice stamped wildly on the pinewood deck. Hardly, yea hardly did Evander hold her back from leaping in her haste to land. “All hail!” she cried, “Gods of the Promised Land! And hail! thou country that shalt give new gods to heaven! Hail rivers and fountains, which to this hospitable land pertain! Hail nymphs of the groves and bands of Naiads! May the sight of you be of good omen to my son and me! And happy be the foot that touches yonder bank! Am I deceived? or shall yon hills by stately walls be hid, and from this spot of earth shall all the earth take law? The promise runs that the whole world shall one day belong to yonder mountains. Who could believe that the place was big with such a fate? Anon Dardanian barks shall ground upon these shores: here, too, a woman8 shall be the source of a new war. Pallas, my grandson dear, why don those fatal arms?9 Ah, put them on! By no mean champion shalt thou be avenged. Howbeit, conquered Troy, thou shalt yet conquer and from thy fall shalt rise again: thy very ruin overwhelms the dwellings of thy foes. Ye conquering flames, consume Neptunian Pergamum! Shall that prevent its ashes from o’ertopping all the world? Anon pious Aeneas shall hither bring his sacred burden, and, burden no whit less sacred, his own sire; Vesta, admit the gods of Ilium10! The time will come when the same hand shall guard you and the world, and when a god shall in his own person hold the sacred rites.11 In the line of Augustus the guardianship of the fatherland shall abide: it is decreed that his house shall hold the reins of empire. Thereafter the god’s son and grandson, despite his own refusal, shall support with heavenly mind the weight his father bore; and even as I myself shall one day be sanctified at eternal altars, so shall Julia Augusta12 be a new divinity.” When in these words she had brought her story down to our own time, her prophetic tongue stopped short at the middle of her discourse. Landing from his ships, Evander stood an exile on the Latian sward, fortunate indeed to have that ground for place of exile! But little time elapsed until new dwellings rose, and of all the Ausonian mounts not one surpassed the Arcadian.13
542 Lo! the club-bearer14 hither drives the Erythean kine; a long road he had travelled across the world; and while he is kindly entertained in the Tegean house, the kine unguarded stray about the spacious fields. When morning broke, roused from his sleep the Tirynthian drover perceived that of the tale two bulls were missing. He sought but found no tracks of the noiselessly stolen beasts. Fierce Cacus had dragged the bulls backwards into his cave, Cacus the terror and the shame of the Aventine wood, to neighbours and to strangers no small curse. Grim was his aspect, huge his frame, his strength to match; the monster’s sire was Mulciber. For house he had a cavern vast with long recesses, hidden so that hardly could the wild beasts themselves discover it. Above the doorway skulls and arms of men were fastened pendent, while the ground bristled and bleached with human bones. The son of Jove was going off with the loss of part of the herd, when the stolen cattle lowed hoarsely. “I accept the recall,” quoth he, and following the sound he came, intent on vengeance, through the woods to the unholy cave. But the robber had blocked the entrance with a barricade of crag, scarcely could twice five yoke of oxen have stirred that mass. Hercules shoved it with his shoulders—the shoulders on which the sky itself had once rested—and by the shock he loosened the vast bulk. Its overthrow was followed by a crash that startled even the upper air, and the battered ground sank under the ponderous weight. At first Cacus fought hand to hand, and waged battle fierce with rocks and logs. But when these naught availed him, worsted he had recourse to his sire’s tricks, and belched flames from his roaring mouth; at every blast you might deem that Typhoeus blew, and that a sudden blaze shot out from Etna’s fires.15 But Alcides was too quick for him; up he heaved the triple-knotted club, and brought it thrice, yea four times down full on the foeman’s face. He fell, vomiting smoke mixed with blood, and dying beat the ground with his broad breast. Of the bulls the victor sacrificed one to thee, Jupiter, and invited Evander and the swains to the feast; and for himself he set up the altar which is called the Greatest at the spot where a part of the City takes its name from an ox. Nor did Evander’s mother hide the truth that the time was at hand when earth would have done with its hero Hercules. But the happy prophetess, even as she lived in highest favour with the gods, so now herself a goddess hath she this day in Janus’ month all to herself.
The Carmentalia, in honour of Carmenta or Carmentis, one of the Camenae, mother of Evander.
The nymph Juturna.
Aqua Virgo, an aqueduct built by Agrippa in 19 B.C. which still brings water to Rome, and fills the fountain of Trevi.
Son of Callisto, ii. 153. “The Arcadians are fabled to have lived before the moon,” Apoll. Rhod. iv. 264. See below, Lib ii. 290.
The Parrhasii were an Arcadian tribe.
Boeotia.
A place in the Field of Mars.
Lavinia.
Pallas, son of Evander, was slain by Turnus; but was avenged by Aeneas, who slew Turnus. Ovid has the Aeneid in mind here.
The Vestal fire and the Penates of the Roman people were believed to have been brought by Aeneas from Troy.
This applies both to Julius and to Augustus, who is the “son” of i. 533; the “grandson” is Tiberius.
By the will of Augustus, Liva was adopted into the Julian family and became Julia Augusta: Ovid anticipates her deification by her grandson Claudius (Suetonius, Claud. 11).
Evander landed at the foot of the Palatine hill, here called after him “Arcadian.”
Hercules came from Spain with the herds of Geryon, which he had taken there, to visit Evander; Erythea is in S.W. Spain. This capture was one of his Labours. He was son of Alcmena, princess of Tiryns. Evander’s house is called Tegean, for Arcadian.
See iv. 491.