Delphi Complete Works of Lucretius

by Titus Lucretius Carus

The noble earnings of their fathers are turned into hair-bands, head-dresses; sometimes are changed into a sweeping robe and Alidensian and Cean dresses.

  Feasts set out with rich coverlets and viands, games, numerous cups, perfumes crowns and garlands are prepared; all in vain, since out of the very well-spring of delights rises up something of bitter, to pain amid the very flowers; either when the conscience-stricken mind haply gnaws itself with remorse to think that it is passing a life of sloth and ruining itself in brothels, or because she has launched forth some word and left its meaning in doubt and it cleaves to the love-sick heart and bums like living fire, or because it fancies she casts her eyes too freely about or looks on another, and it sees in her face traces of a smile.

  And these evils are found in love that is lasting and highly prosperous; but in crossed and hopeless love are ills such as you may seize with closed eyes, past numbering; so that it is better to watch before-hand in the manner I have prescribed, and be on your guard not to be drawn in.

  For to avoid falling into the toils of love is not so hard as, after you are caught, to get out of the nets you are in and to break through the strong meshes of Venus.

  And yet even when you are entangled and held fast you may escape the mischief, unless you stand in your own way and begin by overlooking all the defects of her mind or those of her body, whoever it is whom you court and woo.

  For this men usually do, blinded by passion, and attribute to the beloved those advantages which are not really theirs.

  We therefore see women in ways manifold deformed and ugly to be objects of endearment and held in the highest admiration.

  And one lover jeers at others and advises them to propitiate Venus, since they are troubled by a disgraceful passion, and often, poor wretch, gives no thought to his own ills greatest of all.

  The black is a brune, the filthy and rank has not the love of order; the cat-eyed is a miniature Pallas, the stringy and wizened a gazelle; the dumpy and dwarfish is one of the graces, from top to toe all grace; the big and overgrown is awe-inspiring and full of dignity.

  balba loqui non quit, traulizi, muta pudens est;

  1165 at flagrans, odiosa, loquacula Lampadium fit.

  ischnon eromenion tum fit, cum vivere non quit

  prae macie; rhadine verost iam mortua tussi.

  at nimia et mammosa Ceres est ipsa ab Iaccho,

  simula Silena ac Saturast, labeosa philema.

  1170 cetera de genere hoc longum est si dicere coner.

  sed tamen esto iam quantovis oris honore,

  cui Veneris membris vis omnibus exoriatur;

  nempe aliae quoque sunt; nempe hac sine viximus ante;

  nempe eadem facit et scimus facere omnia turpi

  1175 et miseram taetris se suffit odoribus ipsa,

  quam famulae longe fugitant furtimque cachinnant.

  at lacrimans exclusus amator limina saepe

  floribus et sertis operit postisque superbos

  unguit amaracino et foribus miser oscula figit;

  1180 quem si iam ammissum venientem offenderit aura

  una modo, causas abeundi quaerat honestas

  et meditata diu cadat alte sumpta querella

  stultitiaque ibi se damnet, tribuisse quod illi

  plus videat quam mortali concedere par est.

  1185 nec Veneres nostras hoc fallit; quo magis ipsae

  omnia summo opere hos vitae poscaenia celant,

  quos retinere volunt adstrictosque esse in amore,

  ne quiquam, quoniam tu animo tamen omnia possis

  protrahere in lucem atque omnis inquirere risus

  1190 et, si bello animost et non odiosa, vicissim

  praetermittere et humanis concedere rebus.

  Nec mulier semper ficto suspirat amore,

  quae conplexa viri corpus cum corpore iungit

  et tenet adsuctis umectans oscula labris;

  1195 nam facit ex animo saepe et communia quaerens

  gaudia sollicitat spatium decurrere amoris.

  nec ratione alia volucres armenta feraeque

  et pecudes et equae maribus subsidere possent,

  si non, ipsa quod illarum subat, ardet abundans

  1200 natura et Venerem salientum laeta retractat.

  [1164] She is tongue-tied, cannot speak, then she has a lisp; the dumb is bashful; then the fire-spit, the teasing, the gossiping turns to a shining lamp.

  One becomes a slim darling then when she cannot live from want of flesh; and she is only spare, who is half-dead with cough.

  Then the fat and big-breasted is a Ceres’ self big-breasted from Iacchus; the pug-nosed is a she Silenus and a satyress; the thick-lipped a very kiss.

  It were tedious to attempt to report other things of the kind.

  Let her however be of ever so great dignity of appearance; such that the power of Venus goes forth from all her limbs; yet there are others too; yet have we lived without her before; yet does she do, and we know that she does, in all things the same as the ugly woman; and fumigates herself, poor wretch, with nauseous perfumes, her very maids running from her and giggling behind her back.

  But the lover, when shut out, often in tears covers the threshold with flowers and wreaths, and anoints the haughty doorposts with oil of marjoram; and imprints kisses, poor wretch, on the doors.

  When however he has been admitted, if on his approach but one single breath should come in his way, he would seek specious reasons for departing, and the long-conned deep drawn complaint would fall to the ground; and then he would blame his folly on seeing that he had attributed to her more than it is right to concede to a mortal.

  Nor is this unknown to our Venuses; wherefore all the more they themselves hide with the utmost pains all that goes on behind the scenes of life from those whom they wish to retain in the chains of love; but in vain, since you may yet draw forth from her mind into the light all these things and search into all her smiles; and if she is of a fair mind and not troublesome, overlook them in your turn and make allowance for human failings.

  Nor does the woman sigh always with feigned passion, when she locks in her embrace and joins with her body the man’s body and holds it, sucking his lips into her lips and drinking in his kisses.

  Often she does it from the heart, and seeking mutual joys courts him to run the complete race of love.

  And in no other way could birds, cattle, wild beasts, sheep and mares submit to bear the males, except because the very exuberance of nature in the females is in heat and burns and joyously draws in the Venus of the covering males.

  nonne vides etiam quos mutua saepe voluptas

  vinxit, ut in vinclis communibus excrucientur,

  in triviis cum saepe canes discedere aventis

  divorsi cupide summis ex viribus tendunt,

  1205 quom interea validis Veneris compagibus haerent?

  quod facerent numquam, nisi mutua gaudia nossent,

  quae iacere in fraudem possent vinctosque tenere.

  quare etiam atque etiam, ut dico, est communis voluptas.

  Et commiscendo quom semine forte virilem

  1210 femina vim vicit subita vi corripuitque,

  tum similes matrum materno semine fiunt,

  ut patribus patrio. sed quos utriusque figurae

  esse vides, iuxtim miscentes vulta parentum,

  corpore de patrio et materno sanguine crescunt,

  1215 semina cum Veneris stimulis excita per artus

  obvia conflixit conspirans mutuus ardor,

  et neque utrum superavit eorum nec superatumst.

  fit quoque ut inter dum similes existere avorum

  possint et referant proavorum saepe figuras,

  1220 propterea quia multa modis primordia multis

  mixta suo celant in corpore saepe parentis,

  quae patribus patres tradunt a stirpe profecta.

  inde Venus varia producit sorte figuras,

  maiorumque refert voltus vocesque comasque;

  1225 quandoquidem nihilo magis haec de semi
ne certo

  fiunt quam facies et corpora membraque nobis.

  et muliebre oritur patrio de semine saeclum

  maternoque mares existunt corpore creti;

  semper enim partus duplici de semine constat,

  1230 atque utri similest magis id quod cumque creatur,

  eius habet plus parte aequa; quod cernere possis,

  sive virum suboles sivest muliebris origo.

  Nec divina satum genitalem numina cuiquam

  absterrent, pater a gnatis ne dulcibus umquam

  1235 appelletur et ut sterili Venere exigat aevom;

  quod plerumque putant et multo sanguine maesti

  conspergunt aras adolentque altaria donis,

  ut gravidas reddant uxores semine largo;

  [1201] See you not too how those whom mutual pleasure has chained are often tortured in their common chains?

  How often in the highways do dogs, desiring to separate, eagerly pull different ways with all their might, while all the time they are held fast in the strong fetters of Venus!

  This they would never do, unless they experienced mutual joys strong enough to force them into the snare and hold them in its meshes.

  Wherefore again and again I repeat there is a common pleasure.

  And when haply in mixing her seed with the man’s, the woman by sudden force has overpowered and seized for herself his force, then children are formed from the mothers’ seed like to the mothers, as from the fathers’ seed like to the fathers.

  But those whom you see with a share of both forms, blending equally the features of the parents, grow from the union of the father’s body and the mother’s blood, when the mutual ardor of desire working in concert has brought and clashed together the seeds roused throughout the frame by the goads of Venus; and neither of the two has gotten the mastery nor has been mastered.

  Sometimes too the children may spring up like their grandfathers and often resemble the forms of their grandfathers’ fathers, because the parents often keep concealed in their bodies many first-beginnings mixed in many ways, which first proceeding from the original stock one father hands down to the next father; and then from these Venus produces forms after a manifold chance and repeats not only the features, but the voices and hair of their forefathers.

  And the female sex equally springs from the father’s seed and males go forth equally formed from the mother’s body; since these distinctions no more proceed from the fixed seed of one or other parent than our faces and bodies and limbs: the birth is always formed out of the two seeds; and whichever parent that which is produced more resembles of that parent it has more than an equal share; as you may equally observe, whether it is a male child or a female birth.

  Nor do the divine powers debar anybody from the power of begetting, forbidding him ever to receive the name of father from sweet children and forcing him to pass his life in a barren wedlock; as men commonly fancy when in sorrow they drench the altars with much blood and pile the raised altars with offerings, to make their wives pregnant with abundant seed.

  ne quiquam divom numen sortisque fatigant;

  1240 nam steriles nimium crasso sunt semine partim,

  et liquido praeter iustum tenuique vicissim.

  tenve locis quia non potis est adfigere adhaesum,

  liquitur extemplo et revocatum cedit abortu.

  crassius hinc porro quoniam concretius aequo

  1245 mittitur, aut non tam prolixo provolat ictu

  aut penetrare locos aeque nequit aut penetratum

  aegre admiscetur muliebri semine semen.

  nam multum harmoniae Veneris differre videntur.

  atque alias alii complent magis ex aliisque

  1250 succipiunt aliae pondus magis inque gravescunt.

  et multae steriles Hymenaeis ante fuerunt

  pluribus et nactae post sunt tamen unde puellos

  suscipere et partu possent ditescere dulci.

  et quibus ante domi fecundae saepe nequissent

  1255 uxoris parere, inventast illis quoque compar

  natura, ut possent gnatis munire senectam.

  usque adeo magni refert, ut semina possint

  seminibus commisceri genitaliter apta

  crassaque conveniant liquidis et liquida crassis.

  1260 atque in eo refert quo victu vita colatur;

  namque aliis rebus concrescunt semina membris

  atque aliis extenvantur tabentque vicissim.

  et quibus ipsa modis tractetur blanda voluptas.

  id quoque permagni refert; nam more ferarum

  1265 quadrupedumque magis ritu plerumque putantur

  concipere uxores, quia sic loca sumere possunt

  pectoribus positis sublatis semina lumbis.

  nec molles opus sunt motus uxoribus hilum.

  nam mulier prohibet se concipere atque repugnat,

  1270 clunibus ipsa viri Venerem si laeta retractat

  atque exossato ciet omni pectore fluctus;

  eicit enim sulcum recta regione viaque

  vomeris atque locis avertit seminis ictum.

  idque sua causa consuerunt scorta moveri,

  1275 ne complerentur crebro gravidaeque iacerent,

  et simul ipsa viris Venus ut concinnior esset;

  coniugibus quod nil nostris opus esse videtur.

  Nec divinitus inter dum Venerisque sagittis

  deteriore fit ut forma muliercula ametur;

  [1239] In vain they weary the divinity of the gods and the sacred lots.

  They are barren sometimes from the too great thickness of the seed, sometimes from its undue fluidity and thinness: because the thin is unable to get a firm hold on the right spots, it at once passes away and is repelled and withdrawn abortively: since by others again a too thick seed is discharged in a state more solid than is suitable, it either does not fly forth with so prolonged a stroke or cannot equally pass into the proper spots or when it has passed in with difficulty mixes with the woman’s seed.

  For well-assorted matches are found to be of great importance; and some males impregnate some females more readily than others, and other females conceive and become pregnant more readily from other males.

  And many women have hitherto been barren during several marriages and have yet in the end found mates from whom they could conceive children and be enriched with a sweet offspring.

  And often even for those to whom hitherto wives however fruitful had been unable in their house to bear, has been found a compatible nature, enabling them to fortify their age with sons.

  Of such great importance is it in order that seeds may agree and blend with seeds in a way to promote birth whether the thick comes into contact with the fluid and the fluid with the thick.

  And on this point it matters much on what diet life is supported; for by some foods seed is thickened in the limbs, and by others again is thinned and wasted.

  And in what modes the intercourse goes on, is likewise of very great moment; for women are commonly thought to conceive more readily after the manner of wild beasts and quadrupeds, because the seeds in this way can find the proper spots in consequence of the position of the body.

  Nor have wives the least use for effeminate motions: a woman hinders and stands in the way of her own conceiving, when thus she acts; for she drives the furrow out of the direct course and path of the share and turns away from the proper spots the stroke of the seed.

  And thus for their own ends harlots are wont to move, in order not to conceive and lie in child-bed frequently, and at the same time to render Venus more attractive to men.

  This our wives have surely no need of.

  Sometimes too by no divine grace and arrows of Venus a sorry woman of inferior beauty comes to be loved;

  1280 nam facit ipsa suis inter dum femina factis

  morigerisque modis et munde corpore culto,

  ut facile insuescat secum te degere vitam.

  quod super est, consuetudo concinnat amorem;

  nam leviter quamvis quod crebro tunditur ic
tu,

  1285 vincitur in longo spatio tamen atque labascit.

  nonne vides etiam guttas in saxa cadentis

  umoris longo in spatio pertundere saxa?

  [1280] for the wife sometimes by her own acts and accommodating manners and by elegant neatness of person readily habituates you to pass your life with her.

  Moreover custom renders love attractive; for that which is struck by oft-repeated blows however lightly, yet after long course of time is overpowered and gives way.

  See you not too that drops of water falling on stones after long course of time scoop a hole through these stones?

  Liber Quintus — BOOK V.

  Quis potis est dignum pollenti pectore carmen

  condere pro rerum maiestate hisque repertis?

  quisve valet verbis tantum, qui fingere laudes

  pro meritis eius possit, qui talia nobis

  5 pectore parta suo quaesitaque praemia liquit?

  nemo, ut opinor, erit mortali corpore cretus.

  nam si, ut ipsa petit maiestas cognita rerum,

  dicendum est, deus ille fuit, deus, inclyte Memmi,

  qui princeps vitae rationem invenit eam quae

  10 nunc appellatur sapientia, quique per artem

  fluctibus et tantis vitam tantisque tenebris

  in tam tranquillo et tam clara luce locavit.

  confer enim divina aliorum antiqua reperta.

  namque Ceres fertur fruges Liberque liquoris

  15 vitigeni laticem mortalibus instituisse;

  cum tamen his posset sine rebus vita manere,

  ut fama est aliquas etiam nunc vivere gentis.

  at bene non poterat sine puro pectore vivi;

  quo magis hic merito nobis deus esse videtur,

  20 ex quo nunc etiam per magnas didita gentis

  dulcia permulcent animos solacia vitae.

  Herculis antistare autem si facta putabis,

  longius a vera multo ratione ferere.

  quid Nemeaeus enim nobis nunc magnus hiatus

  25 ille leonis obesset et horrens Arcadius sus,

  tanto opere officerent nobis Stymphala colentes?

  denique quid Cretae taurus Lernaeaque pestis

  hydra venenatis posset vallata colubris?

  quidve tripectora tergemini vis Geryonai

  30 et Diomedis equi spirantes naribus ignem

  Thracia Bistoniasque plagas atque Ismara propter