Page:Ten Tragedies of Seneca (1902).djvu/427

Lines 48—77] connected therewith). But in what way do I propose to leave my husband? In the same way as that in which I followed him—as a criminal! Now let me put an end to impotent, sluggish dela—the palace which was obtained through the instrumentality of crime must be vacated with crime!

! ye Gods above; thou, Jupiter, who rulest the heavens, and thou, Neptune, who rulest over the vast ocean—be present all of you with your encouraging felicitations, at the marriage of the royal personages, Jason and Creusa, with the populace seconding your favourable acknowledgment, with becoming ceremonial rejoicing and kind words.—Let a prime bull amongst the first, with a snow-white hide, raising proudly its lofty head, be sacrificed at the altars of the deities, Jupiter and Juno, who wield the sceptre in the kingdom, whence the lightnings are sent forth, and let a white heifer—whose neck has never been bent to the yoke,—be offered to gratify the eyes of Lucina; and thou, Concordia, the goddess of peace, who restrainest the sanguinary weapons of Mars, and who, instead, bestowest the blessings of amicable treaties upon warlike peoples, and who art recognized by husbanding in thy horn of plenty the plentiful fruits of the earth,—for thee, let a fitting emblem in the shape of a sheep, be awarded. (This was sacrificed in an especial manner, without blood sprinkled on the altars, as opposed to the free shedding of blood, which characterizes the operations of war.) And thou, Hymenæus, who comest with thy torches suggestive of thy legitimate functions, who drivest away the darkness of night with the torches in thy right hand—come hither, oh! thou debauched-looking God, with thy drunken rollicking gait, wearing on thy head the customary chaplet of roses, and thou Venus, the constellation, the forerunner of day and night (coming at two times), and always returning late for those engaged in their love affairs. (That is, the time always appearing long, which is looked forward to by ardent lovers on the matrimonial list.) The anxious matrons want thee,—the brides want thee—the moment thou sheddest forth those rays of thine. But really, the beauty of our Virgin Creusa surpasses by far that of all the other brides, as well as those whom that city, without the protection 