Or to make use of skins, and clothe their bodies With spoils of wild beasts; but inhabiting Woods, mountains, caves and forests, they would shelter Their squalid limbs in thickets, when compelled To shun the buffeting of winds and rains. No regard could they have to a general good, Nor did they know how to make use in common Of any laws or customs. Whatsoever Fortune might set before him, that would each Take as his prize, cunning to thrive and live As best might please him, each one for himself. And in the woods Venus would join the bodies Of lovers, whether a mutual desire, Or the man’s violence and vehement lust Had won the woman over, or a bribe Of acorns, arbute-berries or choice pears. Endowed with marvellous strength of hands and feet They chased the forest-roaming tribes of beasts; And many with flung stones and ponderous club They overcame, some few they would avoid In hiding-places. And like bristly swine Just as they were they flung their savage limbs Naked upon the ground, when night o’ertook them, Enveloping themselves with leaves and boughs. Nor did they call for daylight and the sun Wandering terror-stricken about the fields With loud wails through the shadows of the night, But silently, buried in sleep they lay Waiting until the sun with rosy torch Brought light into the sky. For since from childhood They had been wont to see darkness and light Alternately begotten without fail, Never could they feel wonder or misgiving Lest night eternal should possess the earth And the sun’s light for ever be withdrawn. But ’twas a worse anxiety that wild beasts Often made sleep unsafe for these poor wretches. For driven from their homes in sheltering rocks They fled at the entrance of a foaming boar Or strong lion, yielding up at dead of night Their leaf-strewn beds in panic to fierce guests. Yet no more often in those days than now Would mortal men leave the sweet light of life With lamentation. Each one by himself Would doubtless be more likely then than now To be seized and devoured by wild beasts’ teeth, A living food, and with his groans would fill Mountains and forests, while he saw his own Live flesh in a live monument entombed. But those whom flight had saved with mangled body, From that time forth would hold their trembling hands Over their noisome scars, with dreadful cries Invoking death, till agonising throes Rid them of life, with none to give them aid, Ignorant of what wounds required. But then A single day did not consign to death Thousands on thousands, marshalled beneath standards, Nor did the turbulent waters of the deep Shatter upon the rocks both ships and men. At that time vainly, without aim or result The sea would often rise up and turmoil;