“Hymen, choose thou the festal torches, and ye Graces gather flowers for the feast. Thou, Concord, weave two garlands. You, winged band, divide and hasten whithersoever you can be of use: let none be slothful or lazy. You others hang numberless lamps in order from their brackets against the coming of night. Let these haste to entwine the gleaming door-posts with my sacred myrtle. Do you sprinkle the palace with drops of nectar and kindle a whole grove of Sabaean incense. Let others unfold yellow-dyed silks from China and spread tapestries of Sidon on the ground. Do you employ all your arts in decorating the marriage-bed. Woven with jewels and upborne on carved columns be its canopy, such * * * * * Page 258 aedificetur apex, qualem non Lydia dives 215 erexit Pelopi nec quem struxere Lyaeo Indorum spoliis et opaco palmite Bacchae. illic exuvias omnes cumulate parentum: quidquid avus senior Mauro vel Saxone victis, quidquid ab innumeris socio Stilichone tremendus 220 quaesivit genitor bellis, quodcumque Gelonus Armeniusve dedit; quantum crinita sagittis attulit extremo Meroë circumflua Nilo; misit Achaemenio quidquid de Tigride Medus, cum supplex emeret Romanam Parthia pacem. 225 nobilibus gazis opibusque cubilia surgant barbaricis; omnes thalamo conferte triumphos.” Sic ait et sponsae petit improvisa penates. illa autem secura tori taedasque parari nescia divinae fruitur sermone parentis 230 maternosque bibit mores exemplaque discit prisca pudicitiae Latios nec volvere libros desinit aut Graios, ipsa genetrice magistra, Maeonius quaecumque senex aut Thracius Orpheus aut Mytilenaeo modulatur pectine Sappho 235 (sic Triviam Latona monet; sic mitis in antro Mnemosyne docili tradit praecepta Thaliae): cum procul augeri nitor et iucundior aër attonitam lustrare domum fundique comarum gratus odor. mox vera fides numenque refulsit. 240 cunctatur stupefacta Venus; nunc ora puellae, * * * * * Page 259