Page:Ten Tragedies of Seneca (1902).djvu/429

Lines 78—115] pretentions (as a rival) as well as his brother Castor!

Thus,—thus, oh! ye Gods above, I vow and maintain, that Creusa carries off the prize amongst the maids, and Jason, by a long way, outshines all the men.—When she stands up with the women of this chorus, the face of that one, Creusa, surpasses all the others in beauty! As when the starry splendors fade away into nothingness when bright Phœbus shows his effulgent face, and as with the thick cluster of the Pleiades when bright Phœbe has approximated her circuitous horns (full moon) and shows herself as a solid orb, although the light is not her own! Thus it is with Creusa, when her snow-white face becomes tinged with the exquisite pink, diffusing itself; and in like manner, as the morning shepherd, wet himself with the dews of night, beholds the bright face of Aurora with a renovated light, as she is fed by the same dews. (The ancients imagined that the Stellar bodies were nourished with moisture, hence the idea—increased brilliancy.) Thou, Jason, having been snatched away (released) from the horrible marriage bed of Phasian memory, accustomed as thou wert to the temper and caprices of a fierce wife, and who trembledst even as thou didst caress her with thy unwilling right hand, take to thyself with rapture the Æolian Virgin, and thou, oh thou Bridegroom, for the first time in thy life rejoice in having a father-in-law ready to receive thee with open arms—and oh! ye young men, give yourselves up to jollity, the privilege of running down your masters being now accorded to you,—and oh! ye, the young of both sexes, chant forth your tuneful lays, the men at one time, the women at another. (This singing separately was adopted that the female voices should not be drowned by those of the males.) The rare liberty is now accorded to you, and acknowledged as your right, to rail against your masters. (This is the custom at the Saturnalia, when masters and slaves change places, and say what they like.)

And oh! ye fortunate noble progeny of the Thyrsus-bearing Lyæus (Bacchus), now is the time to set fire to the split pines, and to brandish the solemn marriage torches with your fingers, till they are thoroughly fagged out (the pines, being slit up with the grain of the wood, burn freely when wafted to and fro briskly), and the reciters of the bantering Fescennine Verses may freely induce in their licentious jocularities on this festive occasion, and the assembled throng are at liberty to crack their jokes as much as they like! But let Medea pass away into silent obscurity, she who became a fugitive and exile, and married a husband travelling about in foreign lands!!

