Page:Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius.djvu/76

64 Theocritus, as a series of pictures of the bridal procession and rites, from end to end. The subjects of this poem were a scion of the ancient patrician house of the Torquati, Lucius Manlius Torquatus, a great friend and patron of our poet, and Vinia, or Julia Aurunculeia, one of whose two names seems to have been adoptive, and as to whom the poet's silence seems to imply that her bridegroom's rank was enough to dignify both. It was not so long afterwards that Manlius sought our poet's assistance or solace in the shape of an elegy (see Poem lxviii.) on her untimely death; but in the present instance his services are taxed to do honour to her wedding: and it may be interesting to accompany him through the dioramic description which his stanzas illustrate. The poem opens with an invocation to Hymen, child of Urania, dwelling in his mother's Helicon, bidding him wreathe his brows with sweet marjoram or amaracus, fling round him a flame-coloured scarf, and bind saffron sandals to his feet, in token of going forth upon his proper function and errand. Other accompaniments of his progress are to be song, and dance, and pine-torch,—each of them appropriate in the evening fetching-home of the bride from her father's house; and his interest is bespoken in one who is fair, favoured, and fascinating as Ida's queen, when she condescended to the judgment of Paris:—