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264 264 ARISTOPHANES

Your struggles of misery, labor, and care. Whence you may learn and clearly discern Such truths as attract your inquisitive turn ; lo

ΛVhieh is busied of late, with a mighty debate, A profound speculation about the creation, And organical life, and chaotical strife. With various notions of heavenly motions. And rivers and oceans, and valleys and mountains, is And sources of fountains, and meteors on high, And stars in the sky. We propose by-and-by (If you '11 listen and hear) to make it all clear. And Prodicus ^ henceforth shall pass for a dunce, When his doubts are explained and expounded at once. 20

Before the creation of Aether and Light, Chaos and Night together were plight. In the dungeon of Erebus foully bedight. Nor Ocean, or Air, or substance was there, Or solid or rare, or figure or form, »

But horrible Tartarus ruled in the storm :

At length, in the dreary chaotical closet Of Erebus old, was a privy deposit. By Night the primaeval in secrecy laid ; A Mystical Egg, that in silence and shade so

Was brooded and hatched ; till time came about : And Love, the delightful, in glory flew out. In rapture and light, exulting and bright. Sparkling and florid, with stars in his forehead. His forehead and hair, and a flutter and flare, 35

As he rose in the air, triumphantly furnished To range his dominions, on glittering pinions, All golden and azure, and blooming and burnished : ^ A Sophist of Ceos, contemporary with Socrates.