Prima dies tibi, Carna, datur. dea cardinis haec est:
numine clausa aperit, claudit aperta suo.
unde datas habeat vires, obscurior aevo
fama, sed e nostro carmine certus eris.
adiacet antiquus Tiberino lucus Alerni: 105
pontifices illuc nunc quoque sacra ferunt.
inde sata est nymphe (Cranaën1 dixere priores)
nequiquam multis saepe petita procis.
rura sequi iaculisque feras agitare solebat
nodosasque cava tendere valle plagas. 110
non habuit pharetram, Phoebi tamen esse sororem
credebant; nec erat, Phoebe, pudenda tibi.
huic aliquis iuvenum dixisset amantia verba,
reddebat tales protinus illa sonos:
“haec loca lucis habent nimis et cum luce pudoris: 115
si secreta magis ducis in antra, sequor.”
credulus ante ut iit, frutices haec nacta resistit
et latet et nullo est invenienda modo.
viderat hanc Ianus visaeque cupidine captus
ad duram verbis mollibus usus erat. 120
nympha iubet quaeri de more remotius antrum
utque comes sequitur destituitque ducem.
stulta! videt Ianus, quae post sua terga gerantur:
nil agis, et latebras respicit ille tuas.
nil agis, en! dixi: nam te sub rupe latentem 125
occupat amplexu speque potitus ait:
“ius pro concubitu nostro tibi cardinis esto:
hoc pretium positae virginitatis habe.”
sic fatus spinam, qua tristes pellere posset
a foribus noxas (haec erat alba), dedit. 130
sunt avidae volucres, non quae Phineïa mensis
guttura fraudabant, sed genus inde trahunt:
grande caput, stantes oculi, rostra apta rapinis,
canities pennis, unguibus hamus inest.
nocte volant puerosque petunt nutricis egentes 135
et vitiant cunis corpora rapta suis.
carpere dicuntur lactentia viscera rostris
et plenum poto sanguine guttur habent.
est illis strigibus nomen; sed nominis huius
causa, quod horrendum stridere nocte solent. 140
sive igitur nascuntur aves, seu carmine fiunt
neniaque in volucres Marsa figurat anus,
in thalamos venere Procae. Proca natus in illis
praeda recens avium quinque diebus erat,
pectoraque exsorbent avidis infantia linguis; 145
at puer infelix vagit opemque petit.
territa voce sui nutrix accurrit alumni
et rigido sectas invenit ungue genas.
quid faceret? color oris erat, qui frondibus olim
esse solet seris, quas nova laesit hiems. 150
pervenit ad Cranaën et rem docet. illa “timorem
pone: tuus sospes” dixit “alumnus erit.”
venerat ad cunas: flebant materque paterque:
“sistite vos lacrimas, ipsa medebor” ait.
protinus arbutea postes ter in ordine tangit 155
fronde, ter arbutea limina fronde notat;
spargit aquis aditus (et aquae medicamen habebant)
extaque de porca cruda bimenstre tenet;
atque ita “noctis aves, extis puerilibus” inquit
“parcite: pro parvo victima parva cadit. 160
cor pro corde, precor, pro fibris sumite fibras.
hanc animam vobis pro meliore damus.”
sic ubi libavit, prosecta sub aethere ponit,
quique adsint sacris, respicere illa vetat;
virgaque Ianalis de spina subditur alba, 165
qua lumen thalamis parva fenestra dabat.
post illud nec aves cunas violasse feruntur,
et rediit puero, qui fuit ante, color.
pinguia cur illis gustentur larda Kalendis,
mixtaque cum calido sit faba farre, rogas? 170
prisca dea est aliturque cibis, quibus ante solebat,
nec petit ascitas luxuriosa dapes.
piscis adhuc illi populo sine fraude natabat,
ostreaque in conchis tuta fuere suis.
nec Latium norat, quam praebet Ionia dives, 175
nec quae Pygmaeo sanguine gaudet avis;
et praeter pennas nihil in pavone placebat,
nec tellus captas miserat ante feras.
sus erat in pretio, caesa sue festa colebant:
terra fabas tantum duraque farra dabat. 180
quae duo mixta simul sextis quicumque Kalendis
ederit, huic laedi viscera posse negant.
arce quoque in summa Iunoni templa Monetae
ex voto memorant facta, Camille, tuo:
ante domus Manli fuerat, qui Gallica quondam 185
a Capitolino reppulit arma Iove.
quam bene, di magni, pugna cecidisset in illa,
defensor solii, Iuppiter alte, tui!
vixit, ut occideret damnatus crimine regni:
hunc illi titulum longa senecta dabat. 190
lux eadem Marti festa est, quem prospicit extra
appositum Tectae porta Capena Viae.
te quoque, Tempestas, meritam delubra fatemur,
cum paene est Corsis obruta classis aquis.
haec hominum monumenta patent. si quaeritis astra, 195
tunc oritur magni praepes adunca Iovis.
101 The first day is given to thee, Carna.2 She is the goddess of the hinge: by her divine power she opens what is closed, and closes what is open. Time has dimmed the tradition which sets forth how she acquired the powers she owns, but you shall learn it from my song. Near to the Tiber lies an ancient grove of Alernus;3 the pontiffs still bring sacrifices thither. There a nymph was born (men of old named her Cranaë), often wooed in vain by many suitors. Her wont it was to scour the countryside and chase the wild beasts with her darts, and in the hollow vale to stretch the knotty nets. No quiver had she, yet they thought that she was Phoebus’ sister; and, Phoebus, thou needst not have been ashamed of her. If any youth spoke to her words of love, she straightway made him this answer: “In this place there is too much of light, and with the light too much of shame; if thou wilt lead to a more retired cave, I’ll follow.” While he confidingly went in front, she no sooner reached the bushes than she halted, and hid herself, and was nowise to be found. Janus had seen her, and the sight had roused his passion; to the hardhearted nymph he used soft words. The nymph as usual bade him seek a more sequestered cave, and she pretended to follow at his heels, but deserted her leader. Fond fool! Janus sees what goes on behind his back; vain is thine effort; he sees thy hiding-place behind him. Vain is thine effort, lo! said I. For he caught thee in his embrace as thou didst lurk beneath a rock, and having worked his will he said: “In return for our dalliance be thine the control of hinges; take that for the price of thy lost maidenhood.” So saying, he gave her a thorn—and white it was—wherewith she could repel all doleful harm from doors.4 There are greedy birds, not those that cheated Phineus’ maw of its repast,5 though from those they are descended. Big is their head, goggle their eyes, their beaks are formed for rapine, their feathers blotched with grey, their claws fitted with hooks. They fly by night and attack nurseless children, and defile their bodies, snatched from their cradles. They are said to rend the flesh of sucklings with their beaks, and their throats are full of the blood which they have drunk. Screech-owl is their name, but the reason of the name is that they are wont to screech horribly by night. Whether, therefore, they are born birds, or are made such by enchantment and are nothing but beldames transformed into fowls by a Marsian6 spell, they came into the chambers of Proca.7 In the chambers Proca, a child five days old, was a fresh prey for the birds. They sucked his infant breast with greedy tongues, and the poor child squalled and craved help. Alarmed by the cry of her fosterling, the nurse ran to him and found his cheeks scored by their rigid claws. What was she to do? The colour of the child’s face was like the common hue of late leaves nipped by an early frost. She went to Cranaë and told what had befallen. Cranaë said, “Lay fear aside; thy nursling will be safe.” She went to the cradle; mother and father were weeping. “Restrain your tears,” she said, “I myself will heal the child.” Straightway she thrice touched the doorposts, one after the other, with arbutus leaves; thrice with arbutus leaves she marked the threshold. She sprinkled the entrance with water (and the water was drugged), and she held the raw inwards of a sow just two months old. And thus she spoke: “Ye birds of night, spare the child’s inwards: a small victim falls for a small child. Take, I pray ye, a heart for a heart, entrails for entrails. This life we give you for a better life.” When she had thus sacrificed, she set the severed inwards in the open air, and forbade those present at the sacrifice to look back at them. A rod of Janus, taken from the white-thorn, was placed where a small window gave light to the chambers. After that, it is said that the birds did not violate the cradle, and the boy recovered his former colour.
169 you ask why fat bacon is eaten on these Kalends, and why beans are mixed with hot spelt. She is a goddess of the olden time, and subsists upon the foods to which she was inured before; no voluptuary is she to run after foreign viands. Fish still swam unharmed by the people of that age, and oysters were safe in their shells. Latium knew not the fowl that rich Ionia supplies,8 nor the bird that delights in Pygmy blood9; and in the peacock naught but the feathers pleased, nor had the earth before sent captured beasts. The pig was prized, people feasted on slaughtered swine: the ground yielded only beans and hard spelt. Whoever eats at the same time these two foods on the Kalends of the sixth month, they affirm that nothing can hurt his bowels.
183 They say, too, that the temple of Juno Moneta was founded in fulfilment of thy vow, Camillus, on the summit of the citadel10: formerly it had been the house of Manlius, who once protected Capitoline Jupiter against the Gallic arms.11 Great gods, how well had it been for him if in that fight he had fallen in defence of thy throne, O Jupiter on high! He lived to perish, condemned on a charge of aiming at the crown: that was the title that length of years reserved for him.
191 The same day is a festival of Mars, whose temple, set beside the Covered Way,12 is seen afar without the walls from the Capene Gate. Thou, too, O Storm, didst deserve a shrine, by our avowal, what time the fleet was nearly overwhelmed in Corsican waters.13 These monuments set up by men are plain for all to see: if you look for stars, the bird of great Jupiter with its hooked talons then rises.14
cranen U2: grannen U1: gramen m2: gramen Xm1: ganien m2: cranaen Merkel.
Probably the name is derived from caro, carnis, “flesh,” but Ovid has confounded her with Cardea, goddess of hinges, as if from cardo.
Branches of whitethorn, or buckthorn, kept out witches, and protected against wandering ghosts. See below. 1. 165.
The Harpies. See Virg. Aen. iii. 225.
Marsians were famous for wizardry.
King of Alba Longa.
Francolin (attagen).
Crane. The Cranes were said to wage war on the Pygmies.
M. Manlius Capitolinus, 390 B.C.
Probably a colonnade rising along the side of the Appian way.
Dedicated by L. Corn. Scipio, 259 B.C, after expelling the Carthaginians from Corsica.
True evening rising was on June 3.