Page:The poems of Gaius Valerius Catullus - Francis Warre Cornish.djvu/89



Youths. As a widowed vine which grows up in a bare field never raises itself aloft, never brings forth a mellow grape, but bending its tender form with 5° downward weight, even now touches the root with the topmost twig; no farmers, no oxen till it: but if it chance to be joined in marriage to the elm, many farmers, many oxen till it. So a maid, whilst she remains untouched, so long is she aging untilled; but when in ripe season she has gained an equally matched marriage, she is more dear to her husband and less distasteful to her father. [Hymen, O sb Hymenaeus, Hymen, be present, O Hymenaeus!]

But you, maiden, strive not with such a husband; it is not right to strive with him to whom your father himself gave you, your father himself with your mother, whom you must obey.

Your maidenhead is not all your own; partly it belongs to your parents, a third part is given to your father, a third part to your mother, only the third is yours; do not contend with two, who have given their rights to their son-in-law together with the dowry. Hymen, O Hymenaeus, Hymen, be present, O Hymenaeus!

Borne in his swift bark over deep seas, Attis, when eagerly with rapid foot he reached the Phrygian forest, and entered the goddess's shadowy abodes crowned with woods; there, urged by raging madness, bewildered in mind, he cast down from him with sharp flint-stone the burden of his members. c. 10