Delphi Complete Works of Lucretius

by Titus Lucretius Carus

  illi inprudentes ipsi sibi saepe venenum

  1010 vergebant, nunc dant aliis sollertius ipsi.

  Inde casas postquam ac pellis ignemque pararunt

  et mulier coniuncta viro concessit in unum

  * * *

  cognita sunt, prolemque ex se videre creatam,

  tum genus humanum primum mollescere coepit.

  1015 ignis enim curavit, ut alsia corpora frigus

  non ita iam possent caeli sub tegmine ferre,

  et Venus inminuit viris puerique parentum

  blanditiis facile ingenium fregere superbum.

  [983] But what gave them trouble was rather the races of wild beasts which would often render repose fatal to the poor wretches.

  And driven from their home they would fly from their rocky shelters on the approach of a foaming bear or a strong lion, and in the dead of night they would surrender in terror to their savage guests their sleeping-places strewn with leaves.

  Nor then much more than now would the races of mortal men leave the sweet light of ebbing life.

  For then this one or that other one of them would be more likely to be seized, and torn open by their teeth would furnish to the wild beasts a living food, and would fill with his moaning woods and mountains and forests as he looked on his living flesh buried in a living grave.

  But those whom flight had saved with body eaten into, holding ever after their quivering palms over the noisome sores would summon death with appalling cries, until cruel gripings had rid them of life, forlorn of help, unwitting what wounds wanted.

  But then a single day gave not over to death many thousands of men marching with banners spread, nor did the stormy waters of the sea dash on the rocks men and ships.

  At this time the sea would often rise up and rage without aim, without purpose, without result, and just as lightly put off its empty threats; nor could the winning wiles of the calm sea treacherously entice any one to his ruin with laughing waters, when the reckless craft of the skipper had not yet risen into the light.

  Then too want of food would consign to death their fainting frames, now on the contrary ’tis plenty sinks into ruin.

  They unwittingly would often pour out poison for themselves; now with nicer skill men give it to their son’s wife instead.

  Next after they had got themselves huts and skins and fire, and the woman united with the man passed with him into one [domicile and the duties of wedlock were] learnt [by the two], and they saw an offspring born from them, then first mankind began to soften.

  For fire made their chilled bodies less able now to bear the frost beneath the canopy of heaven, and Venus impaired their strength and children with their caresses soon broke down the haughty temper of parents.

  Then too neighbors began to join in a league of friendship mutually desiring neither to do nor suffer harm;

  tunc et amicitiem coeperunt iungere aventes

  1020 finitimi inter se nec laedere nec violari,

  et pueros commendarunt muliebreque saeclum,

  vocibus et gestu cum balbe significarent

  imbecillorum esse aequum misererier omnis.

  nec tamen omnimodis poterat concordia gigni,

  1025 sed bona magnaque pars servabat foedera caste;

  aut genus humanum iam tum foret omne peremptum

  nec potuisset adhuc perducere saecla propago.

  At varios linguae sonitus natura subegit

  mittere et utilitas expressit nomina rerum,

  1030 non alia longe ratione atque ipsa videtur

  protrahere ad gestum pueros infantia linguae,

  cum facit ut digito quae sint praesentia monstrent.

  sentit enim vim quisque suam quod possit abuti.

  cornua nata prius vitulo quam frontibus extent,

  1035 illis iratus petit atque infestus inurget.

  at catuli pantherarum scymnique leonum

  unguibus ac pedibus iam tum morsuque repugnant,

  vix etiam cum sunt dentes unguesque creati.

  alituum porro genus alis omne videmus

  1040 fidere et a pennis tremulum petere auxiliatum.

  proinde putare aliquem tum nomina distribuisse

  rebus et inde homines didicisse vocabula prima,

  desiperest. nam cur hic posset cuncta notare

  vocibus et varios sonitus emittere linguae,

  1045 tempore eodem alii facere id non quisse putentur?

  praeterea si non alii quoque vocibus usi

  inter se fuerant, unde insita notities est

  utilitatis et unde data est huic prima potestas,

  quid vellet facere ut sciret animoque videret?

  1050 cogere item pluris unus victosque domare

  non poterat, rerum ut perdiscere nomina vellent.

  nec ratione docere ulla suadereque surdis,

  quid sit opus facto, facilest; neque enim paterentur

  nec ratione ulla sibi ferrent amplius auris

  1055 vocis inauditos sonitus obtundere frustra.

  postremo quid in hac mirabile tantoperest re,

  si genus humanum, cui vox et lingua vigeret,

  pro vario sensu varia res voce notaret?

  cum pecudes mutae, cum denique saecla ferarum

  1060 dissimilis soleant voces variasque ciere,

  cum metus aut dolor est et cum iam gaudia gliscunt.

  [1021] and asked for indulgence to children and womankind, when with cries and gestures they declared in stammering speech that meet it is for all to have mercy on the weak.

  And though harmony could not be established without exception, yet a very large portion observed their agreements with good faith, or else the race of man would then have been wholly cut off, nor could breeding have continued their generations to this day.

  But nature impelled them to utter the various sounds of the tongue and use struck out the names of things, much in the same way as the inability to speak is seen in its turn to drive children to the use of gestures, when it forces them to point with the finger at the things which are before them.

  For everyone feels how far he can make use of his peculiar powers.

  Ere the horns of a calf are formed and project from his forehead, he butts with it when angry and pushes out in his rage.

  Then whelps of panthers and cubs of lions fight with claws and feet and teeth at a time when teeth and claws are hardly yet formed.

  Again we see every kind of fowl trust to wings and seek from pinions a fluttering succor.

  Therefore to suppose that some one man at that time apportioned names to things and that men from him learnt their first words, is sheer folly.

  For why should this particular man be able to denote all things bywords and to utter the various sounds of the tongue, and yet at the same time others be supposed not to have been able to do so?

  Again if others as well as he had not made use of words among themselves, whence was implanted in this man the previous conception of its use and whence was given to him the original faculty, to know and perceive in mind what he wanted to do?

  Again one man could not constrain and subdue and force many to choose to learn the names of things.

  It is no easy thing in anyway to teach and convince the deaf of what is needful to be done; for they never would suffer nor in anyway endure sounds of voice hitherto unheard to continue to be dinned fruitlessly into their ears.

  Lastly what is there so passing strange in this circumstance, that the race of men whose voice and tongue were in full force, should denote things by different words as different feelings prompted?

  Since dumb brutes, yes and the races of wild beasts are accustomed to give forth distinct and varied sounds, when they have fear or pain and when joys are rife.

  quippe etenim licet id rebus cognoscere apertis.

  inritata canum cum primum magna Molossum

  mollia ricta fremunt duros nudantia dentes,

  1065 longe alio sonitu rabies restricta minatur,

  et cum iam latrant et vocibus omnia complent
;

  at catulos blande cum lingua lambere temptant

  aut ubi eos lactant, pedibus morsuque potentes

  suspensis teneros imitantur dentibus haustus,

  1070 longe alio pacto gannitu vocis adulant,

  et cum deserti baubantur in aedibus, aut cum

  plorantis fugiunt summisso corpore plagas.

  denique non hinnitus item differre videtur,

  inter equas ubi equus florenti aetate iuvencus

  1075 pinnigeri saevit calcaribus ictus Amoris

  et fremitum patulis sub naribus edit ad arma,

  et cum sic alias concussis artibus hinnit?

  postremo genus alituum variaeque volucres,

  accipitres atque ossifragae mergique marinis

  1080 fluctibus in salso victum vitamque petentes,

  longe alias alio iaciunt in tempore voces,

  et quom de victu certant praedaque repugnant.

  et partim mutant cum tempestatibus una

  raucisonos cantus, cornicum ut saecla vetusta

  1085 corvorumque gregis ubi aquam dicuntur et imbris

  poscere et inter dum ventos aurasque vocare.

  ergo si varii sensus animalia cogunt,

  muta tamen cum sint, varias emittere voces,

  quanto mortalis magis aequumst tum potuisse

  1090 dissimilis alia atque alia res voce notare!

  Illud in his rebus tacitus ne forte requiras,

  fulmen detulit in terram mortalibus ignem

  primitus, inde omnis flammarum diditur ardor;

  multa videmus enim caelestibus insita flammis

  1095 fulgere, cum caeli donavit plaga vaporis.

  et ramosa tamen cum ventis pulsa vacillans

  aestuat in ramos incumbens arboris arbor,

  exprimitur validis extritus viribus ignis,

  emicat inter dum flammai fervidus ardor,

  1100 mutua dum inter se rami stirpesque teruntur.

  [1062] This you may learn from facts plain to sense: when the large spongy open lips of Molossian dogs begin to growl enraged and bare their hard teeth, thus drawn back in rage they threaten in a tone far different from that in which they bark outright and fill with sounds all the places round.

  Again when they essay fondly to lick their whelps with their tongue or when they toss them with their feet and snapping at them make a feint with lightly closing teeth of swallowing though with gentle forbearance, they caress them with a yelping sound of a sort greatly differing from that which they utter when left alone in a house they bay or when they slink away howling from blows with a crouching body.

  Again is not the neigh too seen to differ, when a young stallion in the flower of age rages among the mares smitten by the goads of winged love, and when with wide-stretched nostrils he snorts out the signal to arms, and when as it chances on any occasion he neighs with limbs all shaking?

  Lastly, the race of fowls and various birds, hawks and osprays and gulls seeking their living in the salt water mid the waves of the sea, utter at a different time noises widely different from those they make when they are fighting for food and struggling with their prey.

  And some of them change together with the weather their harsh croakings, as the long-lived races of crows and flocks of rooks when they are said to be calling for water and rain and sometimes to be summoning winds and gales.

  Therefore if different sensations compel creatures, dumb though they be, to utter different sounds, how much more natural it is that mortal men in those times should have been able to denote dissimilar things by many different words!

  And lest haply on this head you ask in silent thought this question, it was lightning that brought fire down on earth for mortals in the beginning; thence the whole heat of flames is spread abroad.

  Thus we see many things shine dyed in heavenly flames when the stroke from heaven has stored them with its heat.

  Ay and without this when a branching tree sways to and fro and tosses about under the buffeting of the winds, pressing against the boughs of another tree, fire is forced out by the power of the violent friction, and sometimes the burning heat of flame flashes out, the boughs and stems rubbing against each other.

  quorum utrumque dedisse potest mortalibus ignem.

  inde cibum quoquere ac flammae mollire vapore

  sol docuit, quoniam mitescere multa videbant

  verberibus radiorum atque aestu victa per agros.

  1105 Inque dies magis hi victum vitamque priorem

  commutare novis monstrabant rebus et igni,

  ingenio qui praestabant et corde vigebant.

  condere coeperunt urbis arcemque locare

  praesidium reges ipsi sibi perfugiumque,

  1110 et pecudes et agros divisere atque dedere

  pro facie cuiusque et viribus ingenioque;

  nam facies multum valuit viresque vigebant.

  posterius res inventast aurumque repertum,

  quod facile et validis et pulchris dempsit honorem;

  1115 divitioris enim sectam plerumque secuntur

  quam lubet et fortes et pulchro corpore creti.

  quod siquis vera vitam ratione gubernet,

  divitiae grandes homini sunt vivere parce

  aequo animo; neque enim est umquam penuria parvi.

  1120 at claros homines voluerunt se atque potentes,

  ut fundamento stabili fortuna maneret

  et placidam possent opulenti degere vitam,

  ne quiquam, quoniam ad summum succedere honorem

  certantes iter infestum fecere viai,

  1125 et tamen e summo, quasi fulmen, deicit ictos

  invidia inter dum contemptim in Tartara taetra;

  invidia quoniam ceu fulmine summa vaporant

  plerumque et quae sunt aliis magis edita cumque;

  ut satius multo iam sit parere quietum

  1130 quam regere imperio res velle et regna tenere.

  proinde sine in cassum defessi sanguine sudent,

  angustum per iter luctantes ambitionis;

  quandoquidem sapiunt alieno ex ore petuntque

  res ex auditis potius quam sensibus ipsis,

  1135 nec magis id nunc est neque erit mox quam fuit ante.

  Ergo regibus occisis subversa iacebat

  pristina maiestas soliorum et sceptra superba,

  et capitis summi praeclarum insigne cruentum

  sub pedibus vulgi magnum lugebat honorem;

  1140 nam cupide conculcatur nimis ante metutum.

  [1101] Now either of these accidents may have given fire to men.

  Next the sun taught them to cook food and soften it with the heat of flame, since they would see many things grow mellow when subdued by the strokes of the rays and by heat throughout the land.

  And more and more every day men who excelled in intellect and were of vigorous understanding would kindly show them how to exchange their former way of living for new methods.

  Kings began to build towns and lay out a citadel as a place of strength and of refuge for themselves, and divided cattle and lands and gave to each man in proportion to his personal beauty and strength and intellect; for beauty and vigorous strength were much esteemed.

  Afterwards wealth was discovered and gold found out, which soon robbed of their honors strong and beautiful alike; for men however valiant and beautiful of person generally follow in the train of the richer man.

  But were a man to order his life by the rules of true reason, a frugal subsistence joined to a contented mind is for him great riches; for never is there any lack of a little.

  But men desired to be famous and powerful, in order that their fortunes might rest on a firm foundation and they might be able by their wealth to lead a tranquil life; but in vain, since in their struggle to mount up to the highest dignities they rendered their path one full of danger; and even if they reach it, yet envy like a thunderbolt sometimes strikes and dashes men down from the highest point with ignominy into noisome Tartarus; since the highest summits and those elevated above the level
of other things are mostly blasted by envy as by a thunderbolt; so that far better it is to obey in peace and quiet than to wish to rule with power supreme and be the master of kingdoms.

  Therefore let men wear themselves out to no purpose and sweat drops of blood, as they struggle on along the strait road of ambition, since they gather their knowledge from the mouths of others and follow after things from hearsay rather than the dictates of their own feelings; and this prevails not now nor will prevail by and bye anymore than it has prevailed before.

  Kings therefore being slain the old majesty of thrones and proud scepters were overthrown and laid in the dust, and the glorious badge of the sovereign head bloodstained beneath the feet of the rabble mourned for its high prerogative; for that is greedily trampled on which before was too much dreaded.

  It would come then in the end to the lees of uttermost disorder, each man seeking for himself empire and sovereignty.

  res itaque ad summam faecem turbasque redibat,

  imperium sibi cum ac summatum quisque petebat.

  inde magistratum partim docuere creare

  iuraque constituere, ut vellent legibus uti.

  1145 nam genus humanum, defessum vi colere aevom,

  ex inimicitiis languebat; quo magis ipsum

  sponte sua cecidit sub leges artaque iura.

  acrius ex ira quod enim se quisque parabat

  ulcisci quam nunc concessumst legibus aequis,

  1150 hanc ob rem est homines pertaesum vi colere aevom.

  inde metus maculat poenarum praemia vitae.

  circumretit enim vis atque iniuria quemque

  atque unde exortast, ad eum plerumque revertit,

  nec facilest placidam ac pacatam degere vitam

  1155 qui violat factis communia foedera pacis.

  etsi fallit enim divom genus humanumque,

  perpetuo tamen id fore clam diffidere debet;

  quippe ubi se multi per somnia saepe loquentes

  aut morbo delirantes protraxe ferantur

  1160 et celata mala in medium et peccata dedisse.

  Nunc quae causa deum per magnas numina gentis

  pervulgarit et ararum compleverit urbis

  suscipiendaque curarit sollemnia sacra,

  quae nunc in magnis florent sacra rebus locisque,

  1165 unde etiam nunc est mortalibus insitus horror,

  qui delubra deum nova toto suscitat orbi

  terrarum et festis cogit celebrare diebus,