[Footnote IV.12: _In our taverns_)--Ver. 2. We learn from Horace and other ancient writers, that it was the custom to paint comic subjects on the walls of the taverns; and similar subjects have been found painted on walls at Pompeii.] FABLE VII. THE POET’S DEFENCE AGAINST THE CENSURERS OF HIS FABLES. You, fastidious {critic}, who carp at my writings, and disdain to read trifles of this kind, endure with some small patience this little book, while I smooth down the severity of your brow, and Æsop comes forward in a new and more lofty style.[13] Would that the pine had never fallen on the summits of Pelion[14] under the Thessalian axe! and that Argus had never, with the aid of Pallas, invented a way boldly to meet certain death, {in the} ship which, to the destruction of Greeks and Barbarians, first laid open the bays of the inhospitable Euxine. For both had the house of the proud Æetes to lament it, and the realms of Pelias[15] fell by the guilt of Medea, who, after concealing by various methods the cruelty of her disposition, there effected her escape, by means of the limbs[16] of her brother, {and} here embrued the hands of the daughters of Pelias in their father’s blood. What think you of this? “This, too, is mere folly,” say you, “and is an untrue story; for long before this, Minos, of more ancient date, subjected the Ægæan seas with his fleet, and by seasonable correction, punished {piratical} attacks.” What then can I possibly do for you, my Cato of a Reader, if neither Fables[17] nor Tragic Stories suit your taste? Do not be too severe upon {all} literary men, lest they repay you the injury with interest. This is said to those who are over-squeamish in their folly, and, to gain a reputation for wisdom, would censure heaven itself. [Footnote IV.13: _More lofty style_)--Ver. 5. “Cothurnis,” literally “the buskins of Tragedy.”] [Footnote IV.14: _Summits of Pelion_)--Ver 6. The ship Argo was said to have been built of wood grown on Mount Pelion. The author alludes to the expedition of Jason to Colchis to fetch thence the Golden Fleece.] [Footnote IV.15: _The realms of Pelias_)--Ver. 13. He alludes to the death of Pelias, King of Thessaly, through the schemes of Medea, daughter of Æetes, King of Colchis, at the hands of his own daughters. See Ovid’s Metamorphoses, B. vii. l. 297, _et seq._] [Footnote IV.16: _Limbs of her brother_)--Ver. 15. When, on her flight with Jason, Æetes pursued his daughter Medea, she, having taken with her her brother Absyrtus, in order to retard her father in the pursuit, cut her brother in pieces, and scattered his limbs in the way. Thus, while the father was employed in gathering the limbs of his son, Medea made her escape. The place where this happened was thence said to have had the name of Tomi; and to this place Ovid was banished by Augustus. See the Story related in the Tristia of Ovid, B. iii. El. ix.]