Whether it be a male or female offspring. Nor do divine powers thwart in any man A fruitful sowing, so that he may never Receive from sweet children the name of father, But in sterile wedlock must live out his days; As men in general fancy, and so sprinkle The altars sorrowfully with much blood, And heap the shrine-tables with offerings, To make their wives pregnant with copious seed. But vainly they importune the divinity And sortilege of the gods. For they are sterile Sometimes from too great thickness of the seed, Or else it is unduly thin and fluid. Because the thin cannot adhere and cleave To the right spots, it forthwith flows away Defeated, and departs abortively. Others again discharge a seed too thick, More solid than is suitable, which either Does not shoot forth with so far-flung a stroke, Or cannot so well penetrate where it should, Or having penetrated, does not easily Mix with the woman’s seed. For harmonies Seem to be most important in love’s rites. And some men will more readily fertilise Some women, and other women will conceive More readily and grow pregnant from other men. And many women, sterile hitherto In several marriages, have yet at last Found mates from whom they could conceive children, And so become enriched with a sweet offspring. And even for those to whom their household wives, However fruitful, had failed so far to bear, A well-matched nature has been often found That they might fortify their age with children. So important is it, if seeds are to agree And blend with seeds for purposes of birth, Whether the thick encounters with the fluid, And the fluid with the thick. Also herein It is of moment on what diet life Is nourished; for the seed within the limbs By some foods is made solid, and by others Is thinned and dwindled. Also in what modes Love’s bland delight is dealt with, that likewise Is of the highest moment. For in general Women are thought more readily to conceive After the manner of wild beasts and quadrupeds, Since so the seeds can find the proper spots, The breasts being bent downward, the loins raised. Nor have wives the least need of wanton movements. For a woman thwarts conception and frustrates it, If with her loins she joyously lures on The man’s love, and, with her whole bosom relaxed And limp, provokes lust’s tide to overflow. For then she thrusts the furrow from the share’s Direct path, turning the seed’s stroke aside From its right goal. And thus for their own ends Harlots are wont to move, because they wish Not to conceive nor lie in childbed often, Likewise that Venus may give men more pleasure. But of this surely our wives should have no need.