* * * * * Page 377 I was yoking Phrygian lions whilst thou wast being carried off. Yet see the punishment visited upon me. My face is seared with wounds and long gashes furrow my bloody breast. My womb, forgetful that it gave thee birth, is beaten with continual blows. “Where under heaven shall I find thee? Beneath what quarter of the sky? Who shall point the way, what path shall lead me? What chariot was it? Who was that cruel ravisher? A denizen of earth or sea? What traces of his wingèd wheels can I discover? Whithersoever my steps lead me or chance direct, thither will I go. Even so may Dione be deserted and seek for Venus! “Will my labours be successful? Shall I ever again be blest with thine embrace, my daughter? Art thou still fair; still glows the brightness of thy cheeks? Or shall I perchance see thee as thou cam’st in my nightly vision; as I saw thee in my dreams?” So spake she and from Etna first she drags her steps, and, cursing its guilty flowers and the spot whence Proserpine was ravaged, she follows the straying tracks of the chariot-wheels and examines the fields in the full light of her lowered torch. Every rut is wet with her tears; she weeps at each trace she espies in her wanderings over the plain. She glides a shadow o’er the sea and the farthest ray of her torches’ gleam strikes the coasts of Italy and Libya. The Tuscan shore grows bright and the Syrtes gleam with kindled wave. The light reaches the distant cave of Scylla, of whose dogs some shrink back and are still in dumb amaze, others, not yet horrified into silence, continue to bark.[135] [135] For the unfinished state of the poem see Introduction, p. xiv. * * * * * INDEX OF POEMS [_The numbers in the right-hand column are those of Gesner’s edition retained by Birt_] Panegyricus Probini et Olybrii I. In Rufinum I. praef. II. In Rufinum I III. In Rufinum II. praef. IV. In Rufinum II V. Bellum Gildonicum I XV. In Eutropium I XVIII. In Eutropium II. praef. XIX. In Eutropium II XX. Fescennina de nuptiis Honorii I XI. Fescennina II XII. Fescennina III XIII. Fescennina IV XIV. Epithalamii de nuptiis Honorii praef. IX.