The Fables of Phaedrus Part 5

[Footnote II.13: _Carrying baskets_)--Ver. 2. "Fisci" were baskets made of twigs, or panniers, in which the Romans kept and carried about sums of money. Being used especially in the Roman treasury, the word in time came to signify the money itself. Hence our word "fiscal."]

[Footnote II.14: _Clear-toned bell_)--Ver. 5. Scheffer and Gronovius think that the bell was used, as in some countries at the present day, for the purpose of warning those who came in an opposite direction to make room where the path was narrow.]

[Footnote II.15: _Amid the slaughter_)--Ver. 8. He alludes no doubt to the murder of the men conducting the mules by the Robbers.]

FABLE VIII.

THE STAG AND THE OXEN.

A Stag, aroused from his woodland lair, to avoid impending death threatened by huntsmen, repaired with blind fear to the nearest farm-house, and hid himself in an ox-stall close at hand. Upon this, an Ox said to him, as he concealed himself: "Why, what do you mean, unhappy one, in thus rus.h.i.+ng of your own accord upon destruction, and trusting your life to the abode of man?" To this he suppliantly replied: "Do you only spare me; the moment an opportunity is given I will again rush forth." Night in her turn takes the place of day; the Neat-herd brings fodder, but yet sees him not. All the farm servants pa.s.s and repa.s.s every now and then; no one perceives him; even the Steward pa.s.ses by, nor does he observe anything. Upon this, the stag, in his joy, began to return thanks to the Oxen who had kept so still, because they had afforded him hospitality in the hour of adversity. One of them made answer: "We really do wish you well; but if he, who has a hundred eyes, should come, your life will be placed in great peril." In the meanwhile the Master himself comes back from dinner; and having lately seen the Oxen in bad condition, comes up to the rack: "Why," says he, "is there so little fodder? Is litter scarce? What great trouble is it to remove those spiders' webs?"[16] While he is prying into every corner, he perceives too the branching horns of the Stag, and having summoned the household, he orders him to be killed, and carries off the prize.

This Fable signifies that the master sees better than any one else in his own affairs.

[Footnote II.16: _Those spiders' webs_)--Ver. 23. The mode of clearing away the spider webs may be seen described in the beginning of the "Stichus" of Plautus.]

THE EPILOGUE.

The Athenians erected a statue to the genius of aesop, and placed him, though a slave, upon an everlasting pedestal, that all might know that the way to fame is open to all, and that glory is not awarded to birth but to merit. Since another[17] has prevented me from being the first, I have made it my object, a thing which still lay in my power, that he should not be the only one. Nor is this envy, but emulation; and if Latium shall favour my efforts, she will have still more {authors} whom she may match with Greece. {But} if jealousy shall attempt to detract from my labours, still it shall not deprive me of the consciousness of deserving praise. If my attempts reach your ears, and {your} taste relishes {these} Fables, as being composed with skill, {my} success {then} banishes every complaint. But if, on the contrary, my learned labours fall into the hands of those whom a perverse nature has brought to the light of day, and {who} are unable to do anything except carp at their betters, I shall endure my unhappy destiny[18] with strength of mind, until Fortune is ashamed of her own injustice.

[Footnote II.17: _Since another_)--Ver. 5. He probably refers to aesop: though Heinsius thinks that he refers to C. Mecaenas Melissus, mentioned by Ovid, in his Pontic Epistles, B. iv., El.

xvi., l. 30, a freedman of Mecaenas, who compiled a book of jests partly from the works of aesop. Burmann, however, ridicules this supposition.]

[Footnote II.18: _Unhappy destiny_)--Ver. 17. The words "fatale exitium" have been considered as being here inappropriately used. It is very doubtful whether the last part of this Epilogue is genuine.]

BOOK III.

THE PROLOGUE.

TO EUTYCHUS.[1]

If you have a desire, Eutychus, to read the little books of Phaedrus, you must keep yourself disengaged from business, that your mind, at liberty, may relish the meaning of the lines. "But," you say, "my genius is not of such great value, that a moment of time should be lost {for it} to my own pursuits." There is no reason then why that should be touched by your hands which is not suited for ears so engaged. Perhaps you will say, "some holidays will come,[2] which will invite me to study with mind unbent." Will you {rather}, I ask you, read worthless ditties,[3]

than bestow attention upon your domestic concerns, give moments to your friends, your leisure to your wife, relax your mind, and refresh your body, in order that you may return more efficiently to your wonted duties? You must change your purpose and your mode of life, if you have thoughts of crossing the threshold of the Muses. I, whom my mother brought forth on the Pierian hill,[4] upon which hallowed Mnemosyne, nine times fruitful, bore the choir of Muses to thundering Jove: although I was born almost in the very school itself, and have entirely erased {all} care for acquiring wealth from my breast, and with the approval of many have applied myself to these pursuits, am still with difficulty received into the choir {of the Poets}. What do you imagine must be the lot of him who seeks, with ceaseless vigilance, to ama.s.s great wealth, preferring the sweets of gain to the labours of learning?

But now, come of it what may (as Sinon said[5] when he was brought before the King of Dardania), I will trace a third book with the pen of aesop, and dedicate it to you, in acknowledgment of your honor and your goodness.[6] If you read it, I shall rejoice; but if otherwise, at least posterity will have something with which to amuse themselves.

Now will I explain in a few words why Fabulous narrative was invented.

Slavery,[7] subject to the will of another, because it did not dare to say what it wished, couched its sentiments in Fables, and by pleasing fictions eluded censure. In place of its foot-path I have made a road, and have invented more than it left, selecting some points to my own misfortune.[8] But if any other than Seja.n.u.s[9] had been the informer, if any other the witness, if any other the judge, in fine, I should confess myself deserving of such severe woes; nor should I soothe my sorrow with these expedients. If any one shall make erroneous surmises, and apply to himself what is applicable to all in common, he will absurdly expose the secret convictions of his mind. And still, to him I would hold myself excused; for it is no intention of mine to point at individuals, but to describe life itself and the manners of mankind.

Perhaps some one will say, that I undertake a weighty task. If aesop of Phrygia, if Anacharsis of Scythia[10] could, by their genius, found a lasting fame, why should I who am more nearly related to learned Greece, forsake in sluggish indolence the glories of my country? especially as the Thracian race numbers its own authors, and Apollo was the parent of Linus, a Muse of Orpheus, who with his song moved rocks and tamed wild beasts, and held the current of Hebrus in sweet suspense. Away then, envy! nor lament in vain, because to me the customary fame is due.

I have urged you to read {these lines}; I beg that you will give me your sincere opinion[11] of them with {your} well-known candour.

[Footnote III.1: _Eutychus_)--Ver. 2. It is not known with certainty who this Eutychus was to whom he addresses himself. It has been suggested that he is the same person who is mentioned by Josephus, Antiq. B. xix., c. 4, as flouris.h.i.+ng at the Court of Caligula, and who had previously been a charioteer and inspector of buildings at the stables of Claudius. He is also supposed, from the words of the Epilogue of this Book, line 20-26, to have held more than one public office. It has been suggested that he was the freedman of the Emperor Claudius or Augustus, an inscription having been found in the tomb of the freedmen of the latter to C.

Julius Eutychus. But it is hardly probable that he is the person meant; as there is little doubt that Phaedrus wrote the present Book of Fables long after the time of Augustus. Indeed it has been suggested by some that he wrote it as late as the reign of Caligula.]

[Footnote III.2: _Some holidays_)--Ver. 8. The Romans had three kinds of public "feriae," or holidays, which all belonged to the "dies nefasti," or days on which no public business could be done. These were the "feriae stativae," "conceptivae," and "imperativae." The first were held regularly, and on stated days set forth in the Calendar. To these belonged the Lupercalia, Carmentalia, and Agonalia. The "conceptivae," or "conceptae," were moveable feasts held at certain seasons in every year, but not on fixed days; the times for holding them being annually appointed by the magistrates or priests. Among these were the "feriae Latinae,"

s.e.m.e.ntivae, Paga.n.a.lia, and Compitalia. The "feriae imperativae" were appointed to be held on certain emergencies by order of the Consuls, Praetors, and Dictators; and were in general held to avert national calamities or to celebrate great victories.]

[Footnote III.3: _Worthless ditties_)--Ver. 10. "Naenia" were, properly, the improvised songs that were sung at funerals by the hired mourners, who were generally females. From their trivial nature, the word came to be generally applied to all worthless ditties, and under this name Phaedrus, with all humility, alludes to his Fables.]

[Footnote III.4: _On the Pierian Hill_)--Ver. 17. Judging from this pa.s.sage it would appear that Phaedrus was a Macedonian by birth, and not, as more generally stated, a Thracian. Pieria was a country on the south-east coast of Macedonia, through which ran a ridge of mountains, a part of which were called Pieria, or the Pierian mountain. The inhabitants are celebrated in the early history of the music and poesy of Greece, as their country was one of the earliest seats of the wors.h.i.+p of the Muses, and Orpheus was said to have been buried there. It is most probable that Phaedrus was carried away in slavery to Rome in his early years, and that he remembered but little of his native country.]

[Footnote III.5: _As Sinon said_)--Ver. 27. He here alludes to the words of Sinon, the Grecian spy, when brought before Priam, in the Second Book of Virgil, 77-78:--

"Cuncta equidem tibi, rex, fuerit quodc.u.mque fatebor Vera, inquit----"

Others, again, suppose that this was a proverbial expression in general use at Rome. It is not improbable that it may have become so on being adopted from the work of Virgil: "Come what may of it, as Sinon said."]

[Footnote III.6: _And your goodness_)--Ver. 30. "Honori et meritis dedicam illum tuis." We learn from ancient inscriptions that this was a customary formula in dedications.]

[Footnote III.7: _Slavery_)--Ver. 34. He probably alludes to aesop's state of slavery, in the service of the philosopher Xanthus.]

[Footnote III.8: _To my own misfortune_)--Ver. 40. He evidently alludes to some misfortune which has befallen him in consequence of having alluded in his work to the events of his own times. It has been suggested that he fell under the displeasure of Tiberius and his minister Seja.n.u.s, in consequence of the covert allusions made to them in Fables II and VI in the First Book. This question is, however, involved in impenetrable obscurity.]

[Footnote III.9: _Than Seja.n.u.s_)--Ver. 41. He means that aelius Seja.n.u.s had acted against him as both informer, witness, and judge; but that had an honest man condemned him to the sufferings he then experienced, he should not have complained. The nature of the punishment here alluded to is not known.]

[Footnote III.10: _Anacharsis of Scythia_)--Ver. 52.

A Scythian philosopher, and supposed contemporary of aesop. He came to Athens in pursuit of knowledge while Solon was the lawgiver of that city. He is said to have written works on legislation and the art of war.]

FABLE I.

THE OLD WOMAN AND THE CASK.

An Old Woman espied a Cask,[12] which had been drained to the dregs, lying on the ground, {and} which still spread forth from its enn.o.bled sh.e.l.l a delightful smell of the Falernian lees.[13] After she had greedily snuffed it up her nostrils with all her might; "O delicious fragrance,[14]" said she, "how good I should say were your former contents, when the remains of them are such!"

What this refers to let him say who knows me.[15]

[Footnote III.11: _Nearer to learned Greece_)--Ver. 54.

Alluding to Pieria, the place of his birth. The people of Pieria were supposed to have been of Thracian origin.]

[Footnote III.12: _A cask_)--Ver. 1. "Amphoram." Properly, the "amphora," or earthen vessel with two handles, in which wine was usually kept.]

[Footnote III.13: _Falernian Lees_)--Ver. 2. The Falernian wine held the second rank in estimation among the Romans. The territory where it was grown commenced at the "Pons Campa.n.u.s," and extended from the Ma.s.sic Hills to the river Vulturnus. Pliny mentions three kinds, the rough, the sweet, and the thin. It is supposed to have been of an amber colour, and of considerable strength. It was the custom to write the age of the wine and the vintage on the "amphora," or cask.]

[Footnote III.14: _O, delicious fragrance_)--Ver. 5. "Anima,"

most probably applies to the savour or smell of the wine; though some Commentators have thought that she addresses the cask as "anima," meaning "O dear soul;" others, that she speaks of the wine as being the soul of life; while Walchius seems to think that she is addressing her own soul, which is quite cheered by the fumes.]

[Footnote III.15: _Who knows me_)--Ver. 7. Burmann thinks that the author covertly hints here at the habits of the Emperor Tiberius in his old age, who still hankered after those vicious indulgences which had been his main pursuits in his former days; or else that the Poet simply refers to human life, in the same spirit in which Seneca, Ep. lvii., calls old age, "faex vitae," "the lees of life." Others again suppose that Phaedrus alludes to his own old age, and means that those who knew him when this Fable was written, may judge from their present acquaintance with him what he must have been in his younger days. Heinsius thinks that it refers to the present state of servitude of Phaedrus, compared with his former liberty; but, if he was manumitted, as generally supposed, by Augustus, and this Fable was not written till after the death of Seja.n.u.s, that cannot be the case.]

FABLE II.

THE PANTHER AND THE SHEPHERD.