Page:Catullus, Tibullus and Propertius.djvu/83

Rh the bride, espying the male chorus, enter on a rivalry in argument and song as to the merits of Hesperus, whom they note as he shows his evening fires over Œta—a sight which seems to have a connection with some myth as to the love of Hesper for a youth named Hymenæus localised at Œta, as the story of Diana and Endymion was at Latmos, to which Virgil alludes in his eighth eclogue. Both bevies gird themselves for a lively encounter of words, from their diverse points of view. First sing the virgins:—

The band of youths reply in an antistrophe which negatives the averment of the maidens:—

To judge of the next plea of the chorus of maidens by the fragmentary lines which remain of the original, it took the grave form of a charge of abduction against the incriminated evening star. If he were not a principal in the felonious act, at least he winked at it, when it was the express vocation of his rising to pre-