Angry Molossian hounds, when first they draw back
Their flabby jowls and bare their teeth and growl
1065
With rage suppressed, make sounds quite different
From when they bark and fill the place with din.
And when they lick their pups with loving tongue
And toss them with their paws and nibbling them
Pretend to make sweet tender mouthfuls of them,
Far different then the playful yelps they make
1070
From when they howl abandoned in the house
Or whimper cringing from the master’s whip.
In neighing too, there is a difference
When a young stallion in the prime of life
Pricked by the spurs of winged love runs wild
1075
Among the mares, and from his flaring nostrils
Snorts out his challenge to arms, and when he’s weak
At other times and neighs with quaking limbs.
Lastly, among the different types of birds,
Ospreys, sea hawks, and gulls amid the waves
Seeking their life and living from the sea,
1080
At other times make very different cries
From when they are fishing and struggling with their prey.
And some birds change their voices with the weather,
As ancient ravens do and flocks of rooks,
Or so they say, when they cry out for rain
To bring them water, or summon wind and storm.
1085
Therefore if animals are caused by different feelings,
Dumb though they be, to utter different sounds,
So much the more and with compelling reason
Must we suppose that men could in those days
Mark different things by different sounds of speech.
1090
Now here’s an answer to another question.
Fire was first brought to earth for mortal men
By lightning. From this every flame has spread.
For fire from on high fills many things, and makes them
1095
Blaze, when a stroke from heaven has kindled them.
But also when a branching tree struck by the wind
Swaying and surging leans against another,
Fire is pressed out by the strong force of friction
Until sometimes the gleam of flame springs forth
As bough rubs bough and trunk rubs trunk together.
1100
Fire may have come to men from either cause.
Then, to cook food and soften it by heat
It was the sun that taught them, since they saw,
Roaming the fields, how many things were softened
By its strong rays and vanquished by the heat.
And as the days passed, more and more they learnt
1105
To change their former life and way of living
By new inventions and by fire, well taught
By those pre-eminent in heart and mind.
Kings founded cities and built citadels,
Safeguard and refuge of their royal power.
Cattle and lands they divided, giving to each
1110
According to his talent and strength and beauty.
For beauty then was prized and strength had power.
Next property was established and gold was found,
And all the honour given to strength and beauty
Was quickly lost, for ’tis the general rule,
1115
Where riches call, the strong and handsome follow.
But if a man should guide his life by wisdom,
His greatest riches are a frugal life
And quiet mind. In that little there’s no poverty.
But men instead sought after fame and power
1120
To make a firm foundation for their fortune
And live in wealth a life of quiet content—
In vain. Since as they strove to reach the heights
They made a lonely path beset with danger,
And from the summit like a thunderbolt,
1125
Envy struck them down to a Hell of shame.
For envy as a rule like thunderbolts
Is wont to strike the summits, scorching all
That stand above the common range of things.
Far better therefore is it in obedience
To live a life of quiet than lust for kingdom
1130
And fell desire to hold the world subdued.
So let them sweat blood, wearied by fruitless toil,
Struggling along ambition’s narrow path.
Since all their wisdom comes from others’ lips
And they strive for things relying on what they hear
From others, and ignore the evidence
Of their own senses, it profits no more now,
Nor ever will do, than it did before.
1135
Therefore the kings were killed, and in the dust
The ancient majesty of thrones and sceptres proud
Lay overthrown. The sovereign head’s great crown
Bloodstained beneath the rabble’s trampling feet,
All honour lost, bewailed its high estate.
For men do eagerly tread underfoot
What they have feared too much in former time.
1140
So things fell back to utter dregs and turmoil
As every man sought power for himself.
Then some men taught them to appoint magistrates
With rights established and the rule of law;
For mankind worn by a life of violence
1145
And weakened by its feuds, was ready now
To yield to rules of law and binding statutes.
For men in anger would avenge themselves
More savagely than just laws now would suffer;
And for this reason a life of violence
Was viewed with utter weariness and loathing.
1150
Hence comes the fear of punishment that stains
The prizes of life. For violence and wrong
Enmesh a man and oft recoil upon him;
Nor easily with calm and quiet mind
Can he abide who violates the bonds
Of peace established for the common good.
1155
Though he should keep it hid from gods and men,
Yet he must wonder how his sin can stay
Secret for ever, seeing that many men
Talking in dreams or raving in disease
Are said to have betrayed themselves, and brought
Long-hidden crimes into the light of day.
1160
Let us now think why reverence for gods
Has spread through mighty nations and filled cities
With altars, and established solemn rites,
Rites that now flourish in great states and places;
Whence even now implanted in men’s hearts
Comes that dread awe which over all the world
1165
Raises new temples to the gods, and summons
The crowds that throng them on great festal days.
These matters are quite easy to explain.
The truth is then that in those early days
Men in their waking hours and still more in sleep
Had visions of gods, conspicuous in beauty,
1170
Of form surpassing and of wondrous stature.
These they endowed with senses, since they seemed
To move their limbs, and speak proud words, befitting
Their splendid beauty and their mighty strength;
And they gave them eternal life, because always
1175
The figures were renewed with form unchanged,
And they thought indeed that figures of such strength
> Could hardly be by any force subdued.
Therefore they thought them past all measure blest
Since none was troubled by the fear of death,
1180
And because also in their dreams they saw
These wondrous beings do many miracles
All without labour wrought or weariness.
And men observed the order of the heavens
And seasons of the year on their fixed course
Turning, and could not tell the reason why.
1185
Therefore for refuge everything they gave
To gods, their nod controlling everything.
And in the sky they placed the gods’ abodes
Since night and moon are seen to cross the sky,
Moon, day, and night, and the stern signs of night,
1190
Night-wandering torches of heaven, flying flames,
Clouds, sun, rain, snow, winds, lightnings, hail,
And thunderclaps and mighty murmurings.
Ah, wretched race of men, that to the gods
Ascribe such things, and add fierce bursts of wrath!
1195
What groans they made for themselves, what wounds for us,
What tears for generations still to come!
It is no piety to show oneself
Bowing with veiled head towards a stone,
Nor to be seen frequenting every altar,
Nor to fall prostrate on the ground, with palms outspread
1200
Before the shrines of gods, nor deluge altars
With streams of blood from beasts, vow piled on vow.
True piety is for a man to have the power
To contemplate the world with quiet mind.
When we look upward to the heavenly realms
Of the great firmament, and see the sky
Bedecked with sparkling stars, and when we think
1205
Of the sure courses of the sun and moon,
Then in our hearts already worn with woes
A new anxiety lifts up its head,
Whether some power beyond all reckoning
Hangs over us perchance, of gods, that make
The bright stars in their varied courses move.
1210
The doubting mind is racked by ignorance
Whether the world had a beginning, whether
Some final end is set for it, when all
The mighty bastions of the world no longer
Can bear the forces of its restless motion,
Or whether by power divine forever sure
1215
They glide eternal through the course of ages
And scorn the power of time immeasurable.
And what man does not quail with fear of gods,
With shrinking mind and flesh creeping with terror,
When the parched earth struck by a thunderbolt
1220
Trembles, and thunder rolls across the sky.
Nations and people tremble and proud kings
Shiver, limbs shaken by the fear of gods,
Lest for some foul deed or contemptuous word
The solemn hour of punishment be near.
1225
And when at sea a mighty wind and storm
Sweeps o’er the waters some high admiral
With all his legions and his elephants,
What vows he makes to gods to send him peace,
What prayers for gentle winds and favouring breezes!
1230
In vain, since oft the violent hurricane
Drives him no less upon the reefs of death.
So true it is that by some hidden power
Human affairs are ground to dust, a power
That seems to trample on the splendid rods
And cruel axes, and hold them in derision.
1235
Then, when the whole world reels beneath their feet,
And cities shaken fall or threaten ruin,
What wonder if mortal men despise themselves
And all the great and wondrous powers relinquish
To gods, as governors of all the world?
1240
I now discuss how metals first were found.
Copper and iron and gold and heavy silver
And serviceable lead, these were discovered
When fire upon high mountains had consumed
Vast forests, or a bolt from heaven had struck,
Or because tribesmen in some forest war
1245
Had fired the woods to scare their enemies,
Or because seeing the bounty of the soil
They wished to clear fat fields for pasturage,
Or else they wished to kill the forest beasts
And profit by their spoils, for pits and fire
Were found of use for hunting before they learnt
1250
To fence a wood with nets and drive with dogs.
Whatever the reason was that flaming heat
With hideous roar burnt all the forest down
Deep to its roots and baked the earth with fire,
Through melted veins into hollows in the earth
1255
Would trickle a stream of silver and of gold
And copper and lead, collecting; and when they saw
These hardened and glowing with colour on the earth
They would pick them up, charmed by their bright smooth beauty,
And see that each was formed into a shape
1260
Printed like that of the hollow in the earth.
Then the thought came to them that these things melted
By heat could run into any shape or form,
And into sharpest point or thinnest edge
Be drawn by hammering, and so make tools
1265
To cut down woods and rough-hew timber, and plane
Smooth planks, and bore and pierce and perforate.
And they tried to make these things of gold and silver
At first, no less than of bronze so tough and strong—
1270
In vain, since all their strength gave way defeated,
Unable to bear so well the heavy labour.
Then bronze was valued higher and gold sank low,
Thought useless since its edge was quickly blunted.
Now bronze lies low in the esteem of men,
And gold has mounted to the highest honour.
1275
So with the rolling years times change for things.
What once was valued has no honour now.
Next follows something else, no longer scorned,
Which day by day more keenly sought once found
Is crowned with praise and honoured beyond belief.
1280
Now it is easy for you, Memmius,
To understand by yourself the way in which
The properties of iron were discovered.
The ancient weapons were hands and nails and teeth
And stones and branches torn from trees
And flame and fire, as soon as they were known.
1285
Later the power of iron and bronze was found.
The use of bronze was known before that of iron,
Being worked more easily and more plentiful.
With bronze they tilled the soil, with bronze they roused
The waves of war, and sowed the withering seeds
1290
Of wounds, and made a spoil of flocks and fields.
For all things naked and unarmed must yield,
An easy prey, to men equipped with arms.
Then gradually the sword of iron came forth
And, the bronze sickle’s curving blade despised,
With iron they began to cleave the earth.
1295
And in the dark uncertain fates of war
Things were made equal on the battlefield.
To mount a h
orse in arms, controlling it
With reins and bit, the right hand freed for action,
Came earlier than in a two-horsed chariot
To chance the hazards of war; and the two-horsed car
Came earlier than harnessing two pairs,
1300
And before armed men mounted scythed chariots.
Next elephants with turrets on their backs,
Snake-handed hideous beasts, the men of Carthage
Taught to endure the dreadful wounds of war
And all the mighty hosts of Mars embroil.
Thus Discord bred one foul thing after another
1305
To bring new terror to the battlefield
And day by day increased the horrors of war.
Bulls too were pressed into the service of war,
And they tried to send boars against the enemy,
And sometimes they sent lions in front of them
1310
With trainers armed and cruel keepers, skilled
To master them and hold them on the leash—
In vain, since heated by the general slaughter
Raging uncontrolled they threw the squadrons into turmoil
Tossing their dread manes everywhere. The riders
1315
Quite lacked the power to calm the terrified horses
And rear them round against the enemy.
The lionesses hurled their frenzied bodies
In all directions, leaping at men’s throats,
Or snatching unsuspecting victims from behind,
1320
Dragging them mortally wounded to the ground
Held fast by their strong teeth and curving claws.
Bulls tossed their masters and trod them underfoot
And gored the flanks and bellies of the horses,
Striking upwards with their horns, and in their fury
1325
Tore up the earth. And boars with their strong tusks
Savaged their allies, and bathing in their own blood
The weapons broken in their reeking bodies
To horse and foot alike dealt out destruction.
Horses would shy and swerve to avoid the tusks’
Fierce onset, or rear up and paw the air—
1330
In vain, since they were hamstrung and collapsed
And fell, and spread their bodies on the ground.
Even the animals that seemed tame at home
They saw boil over in the heat of action—
1335
Wounds, shouting, flight and terror and tumult—
And none of them would answer the recall.
For all the different wild beasts fled away,
As elephants often at the present time
Will run amok when wounded by the steel,
After they have turned their fury on their keepers.
1340
If in fact they did do this. For I
Can scarce believe that in their minds no vision
Or apprehension came that this would happen
On the Nature of the Universe (Oxford World’s Classics) Page 25
