The Satyricon — Volume 04 : Escape by SeaPetronius Arbiter
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The Satyricon — Volume 04 : Escape by Sea
Petronius Arbiter
Rome -- Fiction; Satire, Latin -- Translations into English
headway, one tried to harpoon the leaping fish, another hauled in the
struggling catch on baited hooks. Then some sea-birds alighted upon the
yard-arms and a skillful fowler touched them with his jointed rods: they
were brought down to our hands, stuck fast to the limed segments. The
breeze caught up the down, but the wing and tail feathers twisted
spirally as they fell into the sea-foam. Lycas was already beginning to
be on good terms with me, and Tryphaena had just sprinkled Giton with
the last drops in her cup, when Eumolpus, who was himself almost drunk,
was seized with the notion of satirizing bald pates and branded rascals,
but when he had exhausted his chilly wit, he returned at last to his
poetry and recited this little elegy upon hair:
"Gone are those locks that to thy beauty lent such lustrous charm
And blighted are the locks of Spring by bitter Winter's sway;
Thy naked temples now in baldness mourn their vanished form,
And glistens now that poor bare crown, its hair all worn away
Oh! Faithless inconsistency! The gods must first resume
The charms that first they granted youth, that it might lovelier
bloom!
Poor wretch, but late thy locks did brighter glister
Than those of great Apollo or his sister!
Now, smoother is thy crown than polished grasses
Or rounded mushrooms when a shower passes!
In fear thou fliest the laughter-loving lasses.
That thou may'st know that Death is on his way,
Know that thy head is partly dead this day!"
CHAPTER THE ONE HUNDRED AND TENTH.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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