Claudian, volume 1 (of 2): With an English translation by Maurice PlatnauerClaudianus, Claudius
General
Claudian, volume 1 (of 2): With an English translation by Maurice Platnauer
Claudianus, Claudius
Claudianus, Claudius -- Translations into English
“Yet virtue none shall find that has not first learned to know himself
and stilled the uncertain waves of passion within him. Long and winding
is the path that leads thereto. What each man learns in his own
interests learn thou in the interests of the world. When Prometheus
mixed earthly and heavenly elements and so formed human kind, he stole
man’s spirit pure from his own heavenly home, held it imprisoned and
bound despite its outcries, and since humanity could be formed in no
other way he added two more souls.[155] These fail and perish with the
body; the first alone remains, survives the pyre and flies away. This
soul he stationed in the lofty fastness of the brain to control and
oversee the work and labours of the body. The other
[155] Claudian here follows the Platonic psychology which divides
the soul into τὸ ἐπιθυμητικόν, τὸ θυμοειδές, the two (” geminas” )
baser elements, and τὸ λογιστικόν (the “haec” of l. 234).
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illas inferius collo praeceptaque summae
passuras dominae digna statione locavit.
quippe opifex veritus confundere sacra profanis
distribuit partes animae sedesque removit. 240
iram sanguinei regio sub pectore cordis
protegit imbutam flammis avidamque nocendi
praecipitemque sui. rabie succensa tumescit,
contrahitur tepefacta metu. cumque omnia secum
duceret et requiem membris vesana negaret, 245
invenit pulmonis opem madidumque furenti
praebuit, ut tumidae ruerent in mollia fibrae.
at sibi cuncta petens, nil conlatura cupido
in iecur et tractus imos compulsa recessit,
quae, velut inmanis reserat dum belua rictus, 250
expleri pascique nequit: nunc verbere curas
torquet avaritiae, stimulis nunc flagrat amorum,
nunc gaudet, nunc maesta dolet satiataque rursus
exoritur caesaque redit pollentius hydra.
“Hos igitur potuit si quis sedare tumultus, 255
inconcussa dabit purae sacraria menti.
tu licet extremos late dominere per Indos,
te Medus, te mollis Arabs, te Seres adorent:
si metuis, si prava cupis, si duceris ira,
servitii patiere iugum; tolerabis iniquas 260
interius leges. tunc omnia iure tenebis,
cum poteris rex esse tui. proclivior usus
in peiora datur suadetque licentia luxum
inlecebrisque effrena favet. tum vivere caste
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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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