---
title: "On the Nature of Things · De Rerum Natura"
author: "Lucretius"
translator: "William Ellery Leonard"
languages: [la, en]
shelf: "Classical Latin"
section: 13 of 18
url: https://scriptura.si/works/lucretius-de-rerum-natura/13/
cite: "Lucretius, tr. William Ellery Leonard, On the Nature of Things · De Rerum Natura, section 13. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/lucretius-de-rerum-natura/13/"
---

# On the Nature of Things · De Rerum Natura

*Lucretius, tr. William Ellery Leonard*

Epicurus’ universe of atoms and void, set out in verse to free us from the fear of the gods and of death.

> Latin: from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit, phi0550.phi001, CC BY-SA 4.0).

> English: William Ellery Leonard, from the Perseus Digital Library (phi0550.phi001.perseus-eng1). Notes are not included.

> Rows follow the references the two texts share (line numbers), cut where both reach the end of a sentence.

## 13. Book V · lines 1–494

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/lucretius-de-rerum-natura/13/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/lucretius-de-rerum-natura/13/#p-N

[¶0] O who can build with puissant breast a song
Worthy the majesty of these great finds?
Or who in words so strong that he can frame
The fit laudations for deserts of him
Who left us heritors of such vast prizes,
By his own breast discovered and sought out?-
There shall be none, methinks, of mortal stock.
For if must needs be named for him the name
Demanded by the now known majesty
Of these high matters, then a god was he,-
Hear me, illustrious Memmius- a god;
Who first and chief found out that plan of life
Which now is called philosophy, and who
By cunning craft, out of such mighty waves,
Out of such mighty darkness, moored life
In havens so serene, in light so clear.
Compare those old discoveries divine
Of others: lo, according to the tale,
Ceres established for mortality
The grain, and Bacchus juice of vine-born grape,
Though life might yet without these things abide,
Even as report saith now some peoples live.
But man's well-being was impossible
Without a breast all free. Wherefore the more
That man doth justly seem to us a god,
From whom sweet solaces of life, afar
Distributed o'er populous domains,
Now soothe the minds of men. But if thou thinkest
Labours of Hercules excel the same,
Much farther from true reasoning thou farest.
For what could hurt us now that mighty maw
Of Nemeaean Lion, or what the Boar
Who bristled in Arcadia? Or, again,
O what could Cretan Bull, or Hydra, pest
Of Lerna, fenced with vipers venomous?
Or what the triple-breasted power of her
The three-fold Geryon...
The sojourners in the Stymphalian fens
So dreadfully offend us, or the Steeds
Of Thracian Diomedes breathing fire
From out their nostrils off along the zones
Bistonian and Ismarian? And the Snake,
The dread fierce gazer, guardian of the golden
And gleaming apples of the Hesperides,
Coiled round the tree-trunk with tremendous bulk,
O what, again, could he inflict on us
Along the Atlantic shore and wastes of sea?-
Where neither one of us approacheth nigh
Nor no barbarian ventures. And the rest
Of all those monsters slain, even if alive,
Unconquered still, what injury could they do?
None, as I guess. For so the glutted earth
Swarms even now with savage beasts, even now
Is filled with anxious terrors through the woods
And mighty mountains and the forest deeps-
Quarters 'tis ours in general to avoid.
But lest the breast be purged, what conflicts then,
What perils, must bosom, in our own despite!
O then how great and keen the cares of lust
That split the man distraught! How great the fears!
And lo, the pride, grim greed, and wantonness-
How great the slaughters in their train! and lo,
Debaucheries and every breed of sloth!
Therefore that man who subjugated these,
And from the mind expelled, by words indeed,
Not arms, O shall it not be seemly him
To dignify by ranking with the gods?-
And all the more since he was wont to give,
Concerning the immortal gods themselves,
Many pronouncements with a tongue divine,
And to unfold by his pronouncements all
The nature of the world.

> Latin: Quis potis est dignum pollenti pectore carmen
condere pro rerum maiestate hisque repertis?
quisve valet verbis tantum, qui fingere laudes
pro meritis eius possit, qui talia nobis
pectore parta suo quaesitaque praemia liquit?
nemo, ut opinor, erit mortali corpore cretus.
nam si, ut ipsa petit maiestas cognita rerum,
dicendum est, deus ille fuit, deus, inclyte Memmi,
qui princeps vitae rationem invenit eam quae
nunc appellatur sapientia, quique per artem
fluctibus et tantis vitam tantisque tenebris
in tam tranquillo et tam clara luce locavit.
confer enim divina aliorum antiqua reperta.
namque Ceres fertur fruges Liberque liquoris
vitigeni laticem mortalibus instituisse;
cum tamen his posset sine rebus vita manere,
ut fama est aliquas etiam nunc vivere gentis.
at bene non poterat sine puro pectore vivi;
quo magis hic merito nobis deus esse videtur,
ex quo nunc etiam per magnas didita gentis
dulcia permulcent animos solacia vitae.
Herculis antistare autem si facta putabis,
longius a vera multo ratione ferere.
quid Nemeaeus enim nobis nunc magnus hiatus
ille leonis obesset et horrens Arcadius sus,
tanto opere officerent nobis Stymphala colentes?
denique quid Cretae taurus Lernaeaque pestis
hydra venenatis posset vallata colubris?
quidve tripectora tergemini vis Geryonai
et Diomedis equi spirantes naribus ignem
Thracia Bistoniasque plagas atque Ismara propter
aureaque Hesperidum servans fulgentia mala,
asper, acerba tuens, immani corpore serpens
arboris amplexus stirpes? quid denique obesset
propter Atlanteum litus pelagique severa,
quo neque noster adit quisquam nec barbarus audet?
cetera de genere hoc quae sunt portenta perempta,
si non victa forent, quid tandem viva nocerent?
nil, ut opinor: ita ad satiatem terra ferarum
nunc etiam scatit et trepido terrore repleta est
per nemora ac montes magnos silvasque profundas;
quae loca vitandi plerumque est nostra potestas.
at nisi purgatumst pectus, quae proelia nobis
atque pericula tumst ingratis insinuandum!
quantae tum scindunt hominem cuppedinis acres
sollicitum curae quantique perinde timores!
quidve superbia spurcitia ac petulantia? quantas
efficiunt clades! quid luxus desidiaeque?
haec igitur qui cuncta subegerit ex animoque
expulerit dictis, non armis, nonne decebit
hunc hominem numero divom dignarier esse?
cum bene praesertim multa ac divinitus ipsis
iam mortalibus e divis dare dicta suerit
atque omnem rerum naturam pandere dictis.

[¶1] And walking now
In his own footprints, I do follow through
His reasonings, and with pronouncements teach
The covenant whereby all things are framed,
How under that covenant they must abide
Nor ever prevail to abrogate the aeons'
Inexorable decrees,- how (as we've found),
In class of mortal objects, o'er all else,
The mind exists of earth-born frame create
And impotent unscathed to abide
Across the mighty aeons, and how come
In sleep those idol-apparitions,
That so befool intelligence when we
Do seem to view a man whom life has left.
Thus far we've gone; the order of my plan
Hath brought me now unto the point where I
Must make report how, too, the universe
Consists of mortal body, born in time,
And in what modes that congregated stuff
Established itself as earth and sky,
Ocean, and stars, and sun, and ball of moon;
And then what living creatures rose from out
The old telluric places, and what ones
Were never born at all; and in what mode
The human race began to name its things
And use the varied speech from man to man;
And in what modes hath bosomed in their breasts
That awe of gods, which halloweth in all lands
Fanes, altars, groves, lakes, idols of the gods.
Also I shall untangle by what power
The steersman nature guides the sun's courses,
And the meanderings of the moon, lest we,
Percase, should fancy that of own free will
They circle their perennial courses round,
Timing their motions for increase of crops
And living creatures, or lest we should think
They roll along by any plan of gods.
For even those men who have learned full well
That godheads lead a long life free of care,
If yet meanwhile they wonder by what plan
Things can go on (and chiefly yon high things
Observed o'erhead on the ethereal coasts),
Again are hurried back unto the fears
Of old religion and adopt again
Harsh masters, deemed almighty,- wretched men,
Unwitting what can be and what cannot,
And by what law to each its scope prescribed,
Its boundary stone that clings so deep in Time.

> Latin: Cuius ego ingressus vestigia dum rationes
persequor ac doceo dictis, quo quaeque creata
foedere sint, in eo quam sit durare necessum
nec validas valeant aevi rescindere leges,
quo genere in primis animi natura reperta est
nativo primum consistere corpore creta,
nec posse incolumem magnum durare per aevum,
sed simulacra solere in somnis fallere mentem,
cernere cum videamur eum quem vita reliquit,
quod super est, nunc huc rationis detulit ordo,
ut mihi mortali consistere corpore mundum
nativomque simul ratio reddunda sit esse;
et quibus ille modis congressus materiai
fundarit terram caelum mare sidera solem
lunaique globum; tum quae tellure animantes
extiterint, et quae nullo sint tempore natae;
quove modo genus humanum variante loquella
coeperit inter se vesci per nomina rerum;
et quibus ille modis divom metus insinuarit
pectora, terrarum qui in orbi sancta tuetur
fana lacus lucos aras simulacraque divom.
praeterea solis cursus lunaeque meatus
expediam qua vi flectat natura gubernans;
ne forte haec inter caelum terramque reamur
libera sponte sua cursus lustrare perennis,
morigera ad fruges augendas atque animantis,
neve aliqua divom volvi ratione putemus.
nam bene qui didicere deos securum agere aevom,
si tamen interea mirantur qua ratione
quaeque geri possint, praesertim rebus in illis
quae supera caput aetheriis cernuntur in oris,
rursus in antiquas referuntur religiones
et dominos acris adsciscunt, omnia posse
quos miseri credunt, ignari quid queat esse,
quid nequeat, finita potestas denique cuique
qua nam sit ratione atque alte terminus haerens.

[¶2] But for the rest,- lest we delay thee here
Longer by empty promises- behold,
Before all else, the seas, the lands, the sky:
O Memmius, their threefold nature, lo,
Their bodies three, three aspects so unlike,
Three frames so vast, a single day shall give
Unto annihilation! Then shall crash
That massive form and fabric of the world
Sustained so many aeons! Nor do I
Fail to perceive how strange and marvellous
This fact must strike the intellect of man,-
Annihilation of the sky and earth
That is to be,- and with what toil of words
'Tis mine to prove the same; as happens oft
When once ye offer to man's listening ears
Something before unheard of, but may not
Subject it to the view of eyes for him
Nor put it into hand- the sight and touch,
Whereby the opened highways of belief
Lead most directly into human breast
And regions of intelligence. But yet
I will speak out. The fact itself, perchance,
Will force belief in these my words, and thou
Mayst see, in little time, tremendously
With risen commotions of the lands all things
Quaking to pieces- which afar from us
May she, the steersman Nature, guide: and may
Reason, O rather than the fact itself,
Persuade us that all things can be o'erthrown
And sink with awful-sounding breakage down!

> Latin: Quod super est, ne te in promissis plura moremur,
principio maria ac terras caelumque tuere;
quorum naturam triplicem, tria corpora, Memmi,
tris species tam dissimilis, tria talia texta,
una dies dabit exitio, multosque per annos
sustentata ruet moles et machina mundi.
nec me animi fallit quam res nova miraque menti
accidat exitium caeli terraeque futurum,
et quam difficile id mihi sit pervincere dictis;
ut fit ubi insolitam rem adportes auribus ante
nec tamen hanc possis oculorum subdere visu
nec iacere indu manus, via qua munita fidei
proxima fert humanum in pectus templaque mentis.
sed tamen effabor. dictis dabit ipsa fidem res
forsitan et graviter terrarum motibus ortis
omnia conquassari in parvo tempore cernes.
quod procul a nobis flectat fortuna gubernans,
et ratio potius quam res persuadeat ipsa
succidere horrisono posse omnia victa fragore.

[¶3] But ere on this I take a step to utter
Oracles holier and soundlier based
Than ever the Pythian pronounced for men
From out the tripod and the Delphian laurel,
I will unfold for thee with learned words
Many a consolation, lest perchance,
Still bridled by religion, thou suppose
Lands, sun, and sky, sea, constellations, moon,
Must dure forever, as of frame divine-
And so conclude that it is just that those,
(After the manner of the Giants), should all
Pay the huge penalties for monstrous crime,
Who by their reasonings do overshake
The ramparts of the universe and wish
There to put out the splendid sun of heaven,
Branding with mortal talk immortal things-
Though these same things are even so far removed
From any touch of deity and seem
So far unworthy of numbering with the gods,
That well they may be thought to furnish rather
A goodly instance of the sort of things
That lack the living motion, living sense.
For sure 'tis quite beside the mark to think
That judgment and the nature of the mind
In any kind of body can exist-
Just as in ether can't exist a tree,
Nor clouds in the salt sea, nor in the fields
Can fishes live, nor blood in timber be,
Nor sap in boulders: fixed and arranged
Where everything may grow and have its place.
Thus nature of mind cannot arise alone
Without the body, nor have its being far
From thews and blood. Yet if 'twere possible?-
Much rather might this very power of mind
Be in the head, the shoulders, or the heels,
And, born in any part soever, yet
In the same man, in the same vessel abide
But since within this body even of ours
Stands fixed and appears arranged sure
Where soul and mind can each exist and grow,
Deny we must the more that they can dure
Outside the body and the breathing form
In rotting clods of earth, in the sun's fire,
In water, or in ether's skiey coasts.
Therefore these things no whit are furnished
With sense divine, since never can they be
With life-force quickened.

> Latin: Qua prius adgrediar quam de re fundere fata
sanctius et multo certa ratione magis quam
Pythia quae tripode a Phoebi lauroque profatur,
multa tibi expediam doctis solacia dictis;
religione refrenatus ne forte rearis
terras et solem et caelum, mare sidera lunam,
corpore divino debere aeterna manere,
proptereaque putes ritu par esse Gigantum
pendere eos poenas inmani pro scelere omnis,
qui ratione sua disturbent moenia mundi
praeclarumque velint caeli restinguere solem
inmortalia mortali sermone notantes;
quae procul usque adeo divino a numine distent
inque deum numero quae sint indigna videri,
notitiam potius praebere ut posse putentur
quid sit vitali motu sensuque remotum.
quippe etenim non est, cum quovis corpore ut esse
posse animi natura putetur consiliumque.
sicut in aethere non arbor, non aequore salso
nubes esse queunt neque pisces vivere in arvis
nec cruor in lignis neque saxis sucus inesse,
certum ac dispositumst ubi quicquid crescat et insit,
sic animi natura nequit sine corpore oriri
sola neque a nervis et sanguine longius esse.
quod si posset enim, multo prius ipsa animi vis
in capite aut umeris aut imis calcibus esse
posset et innasci quavis in parte soleret,
tandem in eodem homine atque in eodem vase manere.
quod quoniam nostro quoque constat corpore certum
dispositumque videtur ubi esse et crescere possit
seorsum anima atque animus, tanto magis infitiandum
totum posse extra corpus formamque animalem
putribus in glebis terrarum aut solis in igni
aut in aqua durare aut altis aetheris oris.
haud igitur constant divino praedita sensu,
quandoquidem nequeunt vitaliter esse animata.

[¶4] Likewise, thou canst ne'er
Believe the sacred seats of gods are here
In any regions of this mundane world;
Indeed, the nature of the gods, so subtle,
So far removed from these our senses, scarce
Is seen even by intelligence of mind.
And since they've ever eluded touch and thrust
Of human hands, they cannot reach to grasp
Aught tangible to us. For what may not
Itself be touched in turn can never touch.
Wherefore, besides, also their seats must be
Unlike these seats of ours,- even subtle too,
As meet for subtle essence- as I'll prove
Hereafter unto thee with large discourse.
Further, to say that for the sake of men
They willed to prepare this world's magnificence,
And that 'tis therefore duty and behoof
To praise the work of gods as worthy praise,
And that 'tis sacrilege for men to shake
Ever by any force from out their seats
What hath been stablished by the Forethought old
To everlasting for races of mankind,
And that 'tis sacrilege to assault by words
And overtopple all from base to beam,-
Memmius, such notions to concoct and pile,
Is verily- to dote. Our gratefulness,
O what emoluments could it confer
Upon Immortals and upon the Blessed
That they should take a step to manage aught
For sake of us? Or what new factor could,
After so long a time, inveigle them-
The hitherto reposeful- to desire
To change their former life? For rather he
Whom old things chafe seems likely to rejoice
At new; but one that in fore-passed time
Hath chanced upon no ill, through goodly years,
O what could ever enkindle in such an one
Passion for strange experiment? Or what
The evil for us, if we had ne'er been born?-
As though, forsooth, in darkling realms and woe
Our life were lying till should dawn at last
The day-spring of creation! Whosoever
Hath been begotten wills perforce to stay
In life, so long as fond delight detains;
But whoso ne'er hath tasted love of life,
And ne'er was in the count of living things,
What hurts it him that he was never born?
Whence, further, first was planted in the gods
The archetype for gendering the world
And the fore-notion of what man is like,
So that they knew and pre-conceived with mind
Just what they wished to make? Or how were known
Ever the energies of primal germs,
And what those germs, by interchange of place,
Could thus produce, if nature's self had not
Given example for creating all?
For in such wise primordials of things,
Many in many modes, astir by blows
From immemorial aeons, in motion too
By their own weights, have evermore been wont
To be so borne along and in all modes
To meet together and to try all sorts
Which, by combining one with other, they
Are powerful to create, that thus it is
No marvel now, if they have also fallen
Into arrangements such, and if they've passed
Into vibrations such, as those whereby
This sum of things is carried on to-day
By fixed renewal.

> Latin: Illud item non est ut possis credere, sedes
esse deum sanctas in mundi partibus ullis.
tenvis enim natura deum longeque remota
sensibus ab nostris animi vix mente videtur;
quae quoniam manuum tactum suffugit et ictum,
tactile nil nobis quod sit contingere debet;
tangere enim non quit quod tangi non licet ipsum.
quare etiam sedes quoque nostris sedibus esse
dissimiles debent, tenues de corpore eorum;
quae tibi posterius largo sermone probabo.
Dicere porro hominum causa voluisse parare
praeclaram mundi naturam proptereaque
adlaudabile opus divom laudare decere
aeternumque putare atque inmortale futurum,
nec fas esse, deum quod sit ratione vetusta
gentibus humanis fundatum perpetuo aevo,
sollicitare suis ulla vi ex sedibus umquam
nec verbis vexare et ab imo evertere summa,
cetera de genere hoc adfingere et addere, Memmi,
desiperest. quid enim inmortalibus atque beatis
gratia nostra queat largirier emolumenti,
ut nostra quicquam causa gerere adgrediantur?
quidve novi potuit tanto post ante quietos
inlicere ut cuperent vitam mutare priorem?
nam gaudere novis rebus debere videtur
cui veteres obsunt; sed cui nihil accidit aegri
tempore in ante acto, cum pulchre degeret aevom,
quid potuit novitatis amorem accendere tali?
quidve mali fuerat nobis non esse creatis?
an, credo, in tenebris vita ac maerore iacebat,
donec diluxit rerum genitalis origo?
natus enim debet qui cumque est velle manere
in vita, donec retinebit blanda voluptas;
qui numquam vero vitae gustavit amorem
nec fuit in numero, quid obest non esse creatum?
exemplum porro gignundis rebus et ipsa
notities hominum divis unde insita primum est,
quid vellent facere ut scirent animoque viderent,
quove modost umquam vis cognita principiorum
quidque inter sese permutato ordine possent.
si non ipsa dedit speciem natura creandi?
namque ita multa modis multis primordia rerum
ex infinito iam tempore percita plagis
ponderibusque suis consuerunt concita ferri
omnimodisque coire atque omnia pertemptare,
quae cumque inter se possint congressa creare,
ut non sit mirum, si in talis disposituras
deciderunt quoque et in talis venere meatus,
qualibus haec rerum geritur nunc summa novando.

[¶5] But knew I never what
The seeds primordial were, yet would I dare
This to affirm, even from deep judgments based
Upon the ways and conduct of the skies-
This to maintain by many a fact besides-
That in no wise the nature of all things
For us was fashioned by a power divine-
So great the faults it stands encumbered with.
First, mark all regions which are overarched
By the prodigious reaches of the sky:
One yawning part thereof the mountain-chains
And forests of the beasts do have and hold;
And cliffs, and desert fens, and wastes of sea
(Which sunder afar the beaches of the lands)
Possess it merely; and, again, thereof
Well-nigh two-thirds intolerable heat
And a perpetual fall of frost doth rob
From mortal kind. And what is left to till,
Even that the force of nature would o'errun
With brambles, did not human force oppose,-
Long wont for livelihood to groan and sweat
Over the two-pronged mattock and to cleave
The soil in twain by pressing on the plough.......
Unless, by the ploughshare turning the fruitful clods
And kneading the mould, we quicken into birth,
[The crops] spontaneously could not come up
Into the free bright air. Even then sometimes,
When things acquired by the sternest toil
Are now in leaf, are now in blossom all,
Either the skiey sun with baneful heats
Parches, or sudden rains or chilling rime
Destroys, or flaws of winds with furious whirl
Torment and twist. Beside these matters, why
Doth nature feed and foster on land and sea
The dreadful breed of savage beasts, the foes
Of the human clan? Why do the seasons bring
Distempers with them? Wherefore stalks at large
Death, so untimely? Then, again, the babe,
Like to the castaway of the raging surf,
Lies naked on the ground, speechless, in want
Of every help for life, when nature first
Hath poured him forth upon the shores of light
With birth-pangs from within the mother's womb,
And with a plaintive wail he fills the place,-
As well befitting one for whom remains
In life a journey through so many ills.
But all the flocks and herds and all wild beasts
Come forth and grow, nor need the little rattles,
Nor must be treated to the humouring nurse's
Dear, broken chatter; nor seek they divers clothes
To suit the changing skies; nor need, in fine,
Nor arms, nor lofty ramparts, wherewithal
Their own to guard- because the earth herself
And nature, artificer of the world, bring forth
Aboundingly all things for all.

> Latin: Quod [si] iam rerum ignorem primordia quae sint,
hoc tamen ex ipsis caeli rationibus ausim
confirmare aliisque ex rebus reddere multis,
nequaquam nobis divinitus esse paratam
naturam rerum: tanta stat praedita culpa.
principio quantum caeli tegit impetus ingens,
inde avidam partem montes silvaeque ferarum
possedere, tenent rupes vastaeque paludes
et mare, quod late terrarum distinet oras.
inde duas porro prope partis fervidus ardor
adsiduusque geli casus mortalibus aufert.
quod super est arvi, tamen id natura sua vi
sentibus obducat, ni vis humana resistat
vitai causa valido consueta bidenti
ingemere et terram pressis proscindere aratris.
si non fecundas vertentes vomere glebas
terraique solum subigentes cimus ad ortus.
sponte sua nequeant liquidas existere in auras.
et tamen inter dum magno quaesita labore
cum iam per terras frondent atque omnia florent,
aut nimiis torret fervoribus aetherius sol
aut subiti peremunt imbris gelidaeque pruinae
flabraque ventorum violento turbine vexant.
praeterea genus horriferum natura ferarum
humanae genti infestum terraque marique
cur alit atque auget? cur anni tempora morbos
adportant? quare mors inmatura vagatur?
tum porro puer, ut saevis proiectus ab undis
navita, nudus humi iacet infans indigus omni
vitali auxilio, cum primum in luminis oras
nixibus ex alvo matris natura profudit,
vagituque locum lugubri complet, ut aequumst
cui tantum in vita restet transire malorum.
at variae crescunt pecudes armenta feraeque
nec crepitacillis opus est nec cuiquam adhibendast
almae nutricis blanda atque infracta loquella
nec varias quaerunt vestes pro tempore caeli,
denique non armis opus est, non moenibus altis,
qui sua tutentur, quando omnibus omnia large
tellus ipsa parit naturaque daedala rerum.

[¶6] And first,
Since body of earth and water, air's light breath,
And fiery exhalations (of which four
This sum of things is seen to be compact)
So all have birth and perishable frame,
Thus the whole nature of the world itself
Must be conceived as perishable too.
For, verily, those things of which we see
The parts and members to have birth in time
And perishable shapes, those same we mark
To be invariably born in time
And born to die. And therefore when I see
The mightiest members and the parts of this
Our world consumed and begot again,
'Tis mine to know that also sky above
And earth beneath began of old in time
And shall in time go under to disaster.
And lest in these affairs thou deemest me
To have seized upon this point by sleight to serve
My own caprice- because I have assumed
That earth and fire are mortal things indeed,
And have not doubted water and the air
Both perish too and have affirmed the same
To be again begotten and wax big-
Mark well the argument: in first place, lo,
Some certain parts of earth, grievously parched
By unremitting suns, and trampled on
By a vast throng of feet, exhale abroad
A powdery haze and flying clouds of dust,
Which the stout winds disperse in the whole air.
A part, moreover, of her sod and soil
Is summoned to inundation by the rains;
And rivers graze and gouge the banks away.
Besides, whatever takes a part its own
In fostering and increasing [aught].........
Is rendered back; and since, beyond a doubt,
Earth, the all-mother, is beheld to be
Likewise the common sepulchre of things,
Therefore thou seest her minished of her plenty,
And then again augmented with new growth.

> Latin: Principio quoniam terrai corpus et umor
aurarumque leves animae calidique vapores,
e quibus haec rerum consistere summa videtur,
omnia nativo ac mortali corpore constant,
debet eodem omnis mundi natura putari.
quippe etenim, quorum partis et membra videmus
corpore nativo mortalibus esse figuris,
haec eadem ferme mortalia cernimus esse
et nativa simul. qua propter maxima mundi
cum videam membra ac partis consumpta regigni,
scire licet caeli quoque item terraeque fuisse
principiale aliquod tempus clademque futuram.
Illud in his rebus ne corripuisse rearis
me mihi, quod terram atque ignem mortalia sumpsi
esse neque umorem dubitavi aurasque perire
atque eadem gigni rursusque augescere dixi.
principio pars terrai non nulla, perusta
solibus adsiduis, multa pulsata pedum vi,
pulveris exhalat nebulam nubesque volantis,
quas validi toto dispergunt aëre venti.
pars etiam glebarum ad diluviem revocatur
imbribus et ripas radentia flumina rodunt.
praeterea pro parte sua, quod cumque alit auget,
redditur; et quoniam dubio procul esse videtur
omniparens eadem rerum commune sepulcrum.
ergo terra tibi libatur et aucta recrescit.

[¶7] And for the rest, that sea, and streams, and springs
Forever with new waters overflow,
And that perennially the fluids well,
Needeth no words- the mighty flux itself
Of multitudinous waters round about
Declareth this. But whatso water first
Streams up is ever straightway carried off,
And thus it comes to pass that all in all
There is no overflow; in part because
The burly winds (that over-sweep amain)
And skiey sun (that with his rays dissolves)
Do minish the level seas; in part because
The water is diffused underground
Through all the lands. The brine is filtered off,
And then the liquid stuff seeps back again
And all regathers at the river-heads,
Whence in fresh-water currents on it flows
Over the lands, adown the channels which
Were cleft erstwhile and erstwhile bore along
The liquid-footed floods.

> Latin: Quod super est, umore novo mare flumina fontes
semper abundare et latices manare perennis
nil opus est verbis: magnus decursus aquarum
undique declarat. sed primum quicquid aquai
tollitur in summaque fit ut nihil umor abundet,
partim quod validi verrentes aequora venti
deminuunt radiisque retexens aetherius sol,
partim quod supter per terras diditur omnis;
percolatur enim virus retroque remanat
materies umoris et ad caput amnibus omnis
convenit, inde super terras fluit agmine dulci
qua via secta semel liquido pede detulit undas.

[¶8] Now, then, of air
I'll speak, which hour by hour in all its body
Is changed innumerably. For whatso'er
Streams up in dust or vapour off of things,
The same is all and always borne along
Into the mighty ocean of the air;
And did not air in turn restore to things
Bodies, and thus recruit them as they stream,
All things by this time had resolved been
And changed into air. Therefore it never
Ceases to be engendered off of things
And to return to things, since verily
In constant flux do all things stream.

> Latin: Aëra nunc igitur dicam, qui corpore toto
innumerabiliter privas mutatur in horas.
semper enim, quod cumque fluit de rebus, id omne
aëris in magnum fertur mare; qui nisi contra
corpora retribuat rebus recreetque fluentis,
omnia iam resoluta forent et in aëra versa.
haut igitur cessat gigni de rebus et in res
reccidere, adsidue quoniam fluere omnia constat.

[¶9] Likewise,
The abounding well-spring of the liquid light,
The ethereal sun, doth flood the heaven o'er
With constant flux of radiance ever new,
And with fresh light supplies the place of light,
Upon the instant. For whatever effulgence
Hath first streamed off, no matter where it falls,
Is lost unto the sun. And this 'tis thine
To know from these examples: soon as clouds
Have first begun to under-pass the sun,
And, as it were, to rend the rays of light
In twain, at once the lower part of them
Is lost entire, and earth is overcast
Where'er the thunderheads are rolled along-
So know thou mayst that things forever need
A fresh replenishment of gleam and glow,
And each effulgence, foremost flashed forth,
Perisheth one by one. Nor otherwise
Can things be seen in sunlight, lest alway
The fountain-head of light supply new light.
Indeed your earthly beacons of the night,
The hanging lampions and the torches, bright
With darting gleams and dense with livid soot,
Do hurry in like manner to supply
With ministering heat new light amain;
Are all alive to quiver with their fires,-
Are so alive, that thus the light ne'er leaves
The spots it shines on, as if rent in twain:
So speedily is its destruction veiled
By the swift birth of flame from all the fires.
Thus, then, we must suppose that sun and moon
And stars dart forth their light from under-births
Ever and ever new, and whatso flames
First rise do perish always one by one-
Lest, haply, thou shouldst think they each endure
Inviolable.

> Latin: Largus item liquidi fons luminis, aetherius sol,
inrigat adsidue caelum candore recenti
suppeditatque novo confestim lumine lumen.
nam primum quicquid fulgoris disperit ei,
quo cumque accidit. id licet hinc cognoscere possis,
quod simul ac primum nubes succedere soli
coepere et radios inter quasi rumpere lucis,
extemplo inferior pars horum disperit omnis
terraque inumbratur qua nimbi cumque feruntur;
ut noscas splendore novo res semper egere
et primum iactum fulgoris quemque perire
nec ratione alia res posse in sole videri,
perpetuo ni suppeditet lucis caput ipsum.
quin etiam nocturna tibi, terrestria quae sunt,
lumina, pendentes lychni claraeque coruscis
fulguribus pingues multa caligine taedae
consimili properant ratione, ardore ministro,
suppeditare novom lumen, tremere ignibus instant,
instant, nec loca lux inter quasi rupta relinquit:
usque adeo properanter ab omnibus ignibus ei
exitium celeri celeratur origine flammae.
sic igitur solem lunam stellasque putandum
ex alio atque alio lucem iactare subortu
et primum quicquid flammarum perdere semper,
inviolabilia haec ne credas forte vigere.

[¶10] Again, perceivest not
How stones are also conquered by Time?-
Not how the lofty towers ruin down,
And boulders crumble?- Not how shrines of gods
And idols crack outworn?- Nor how indeed
The holy Influence hath yet no power
There to postpone the Terminals of Fate,
Or headway make 'gainst Nature's fixed decrees?
Again, behold we not the monuments
Of heroes, now in ruins, asking us,
In their turn likewise, if we don't believe
They also age with eld? Behold we not
The rended basalt ruining amain
Down from the lofty mountains, powerless
To dure and dree the mighty forces there
Of finite time?- for they would never fall
Rended asudden, if from infinite Past
They had prevailed against all engin'ries
Of the assaulting aeons, with no crash.

> Latin: Denique non lapides quoque vinci cernis ab aevo,
non altas turris ruere et putrescere saxa,
non delubra deum simulacraque fessa fatisci
nec sanctum numen fati protollere finis
posse neque adversus naturae foedera niti?
denique non monimenta virum dilapsa videmus,
[quaerere proporro, sibi cumque senescere credas,]
non ruere avolsos silices a montibus altis
nec validas aevi vires perferre patique
finiti? neque enim caderent avolsa repente,
ex infinito quae tempore pertolerassent
omnia tormenta aetatis, privata fragore.

[¶11] Again, now look at This, which round, above,
Contains the whole earth in its one embrace:
If from itself it procreates all things-
As some men tell- and takes them to itself
When once destroyed, entirely must it be
Of mortal birth and body; for whate'er
From out itself giveth to other things
Increase and food, the same perforce must be
Minished, and then recruited when it takes
Things back into itself.

> Latin: Denique iam tuere hoc, circum supraque quod omne
continet amplexu terram: si procreat ex se
omnia, quod quidam memorant, recipitque perempta,
totum nativum mortali corpore constat.
nam quod cumque alias ex se res auget alitque,
deminui debet, recreari, cum recipit res.

[¶12] Besides all this,
If there had been no origin-in-birth
Of lands and sky, and they had ever been
The everlasting, why, ere Theban war
And obsequies of Troy, have other bards
Not also chanted other high affairs?
Whither have sunk so oft so many deeds
Of heroes? Why do those deeds live no more,
Ingrafted in eternal monuments
Of glory? Verily, I guess, because
The Sum is new, and of a recent date
The nature of our universe, and had
Not long ago its own exordium.
Wherefore, even now some arts are being still
Refined, still increased: now unto ships
Is being added many a new device;
And but the other day musician-folk
Gave birth to melic sounds of organing;
And, then, this nature, this account of things
Hath been discovered latterly, and I
Myself have been discovered only now,
As first among the first, able to turn
The same into ancestral Roman speech.
Yet if, percase, thou deemest that ere this
Existed all things even the same, but that
Perished the cycles of the human race
In fiery exhalations, or cities fell
By some tremendous quaking of the world,
Or rivers in fury, after constant rains,
Had plunged forth across the lands of earth
And whelmed the towns- then, all the more must thou
Confess, defeated by the argument,
That there shall be annihilation too
Of lands and sky. For at a time when things
Were being taxed by maladies so great,
And so great perils, if some cause more fell
Had then assailed them, far and wide they would
Have gone to disaster and supreme collapse.
And by no other reasoning are we
Seen to be mortal, save that all of us
Sicken in turn with those same maladies
With which have sickened in the past those men
Whom nature hath removed from life.

> Latin: Praeterea si nulla fuit genitalis origo
terrarum et caeli semperque aeterna fuere,
cur supera bellum Thebanum et funera Troiae
non alias alii quoque res cecinere poëtae?
quo tot facta virum totiens cecidere neque usquam
aeternis famae monimentis insita florent?
verum, ut opinor, habet novitatem summa recensque
naturast mundi neque pridem exordia cepit.
quare etiam quaedam nunc artes expoliuntur,
nunc etiam augescunt; nunc addita navigiis sunt
multa, modo organici melicos peperere sonores,
denique natura haec rerum ratioque repertast
nuper, et hanc primus cum primis ipse repertus
nunc ego sum in patrias qui possim vertere voces.
Quod si forte fuisse ante hac eadem omnia credis,
sed periise hominum torrenti saecla vapore,
aut cecidisse urbis magno vexamine mundi,
aut ex imbribus adsiduis exisse rapaces
per terras amnes atque oppida coperuisse.
tanto quique magis victus fateare necessest
exitium quoque terrarum caelique futurum;
nam cum res tantis morbis tantisque periclis
temptarentur, ibi si tristior incubuisset
causa, darent late cladem magnasque ruinas.
nec ratione alia mortales esse videmur,
inter nos nisi quod morbis aegrescimus isdem
atque illi quos a vita natura removit.

[¶13] Again,
Whatever abides eternal must indeed
Either repel all strokes, because 'tis made
Of solid body, and permit no entrance
Of aught with power to sunder from within
The parts compact- as are those seeds of stuff
Whose nature we've exhibited before;
Or else be able to endure through time
For this: because they are from blows exempt,
As is the void, the which abides untouched,
Unsmit by any stroke; or else because
There is no room around, whereto things can,
As 'twere, depart in dissolution all,-
Even as the sum of sums eternal is,
Without or place beyond whereto things may
Asunder fly, or bodies which can smite,
And thus dissolve them by the blows of might.
But not of solid body, as I've shown,
Exists the nature of the world, because
In things is intermingled there a void;
Nor is the world yet as the void, nor are,
Moreover, bodies lacking which, percase,
Rising from out the infinite, can fell
With fury-whirlwinds all this sum of things,
Or bring upon them other cataclysm
Of peril strange; and yonder, too, abides
The infinite space and the profound abyss-
Whereinto, lo, the ramparts of the world
Can yet be shivered. Or some other power
Can pound upon them till they perish all.
Thus is the door of doom, O nowise barred
Against the sky, against the sun and earth
And deep-sea waters, but wide open stands
And gloats upon them, monstrous and agape.
Wherefore, again, 'tis needful to confess
That these same things are born in time; for things
Which are of mortal body could indeed
Never from infinite past until to-day
Have spurned the multitudinous assaults
Of the immeasurable aeons old.

> Latin: Praeterea quae cumque manent aeterna necessust
aut, quia sunt solido cum corpore, respuere ictus
nec penetrare pati sibi quicquam quod queat artas
dissociare intus partis, ut materiai
corpora sunt, quorum naturam ostendimus ante,
aut ideo durare aetatem posse per omnem,
plagarum quia sunt expertia, sicut inane est,
quod manet intactum neque ab ictu fungitur hilum,
aut etiam quia nulla loci sit copia circum,
quo quasi res possint discedere dissoluique,
sicut summarum summa est aeterna, neque extra
qui locus est quo dissiliant neque corpora sunt quae
possint incidere et valida dissolvere plaga.
at neque, uti docui, solido cum corpore mundi
naturast, quoniam admixtumst in rebus inane,
nec tamen est ut inane, neque autem corpora desunt,
ex infinito quae possint forte coorta
corruere hanc rerum violento turbine summam
aut aliam quamvis cladem inportare pericli,
nec porro natura loci spatiumque profundi
deficit, exspargi quo possint moenia mundi,
aut alia quavis possunt vi pulsa perire.
haut igitur leti praeclusa est ianua caelo
nec soli terraeque neque altis aequoris undis,
sed patet immani et vasto respectat hiatu.
quare etiam nativa necessumst confiteare
haec eadem; neque enim, mortali corpore quae sunt,
ex infinito iam tempore adhuc potuissent
inmensi validas aevi contemnere vires.

[¶14] Again, since battle so fiercely one with other
The four most mighty members the world,
Aroused in an all unholy war,
Seest not that there may be for them an end
Of the long strife?- Or when the skiey sun
And all the heat have won dominion o'er
The sucked-up waters all?- And this they try
Still to accomplish, though as yet they fail,-
For so aboundingly the streams supply
New store of waters that 'tis rather they
Who menace the world with inundations vast
From forth the unplumbed chasms of the sea.
But vain- since winds (that over-sweep amain)
And skiey sun (that with his rays dissolves)
Do minish the level seas and trust their power
To dry up all, before the waters can
Arrive at the end of their endeavouring.
Breathing such vasty warfare, they contend
In balanced strife the one with other still
Concerning mighty issues,- though indeed
The fire was once the more victorious,
And once- as goes the tale- the water won
A kingdom in the fields. For fire o'ermastered
And licked up many things and burnt away,
What time the impetuous horses of the Sun
Snatched Phaethon headlong from his skiey road
Down the whole ether and over all the lands.
But the omnipotent Father in keen wrath
Then with the sudden smite of thunderbolt
Did hurl the mighty-minded hero off
Those horses to the earth. And Sol, his sire,
Meeting him as he fell, caught up in hand
The ever-blazing lampion of the world,
And drave together the pell-mell horses there
And yoked them all a-tremble, and amain,
Steering them over along their own old road,
Restored the cosmos,- as forsooth we hear
From songs of ancient poets of the Greeks-
A tale too far away from truth, meseems.
For fire can win when from the infinite
Has risen a larger throng of particles
Of fiery stuff; and then its powers succumb,
Somehow subdued again, or else at last
It shrivels in torrid atmospheres the world.
And whilom water too began to win-
As goes the story- when it overwhelmed
The lives of men with billows; and thereafter,
When all that force of water-stuff which forth
From out the infinite had risen up
Did now retire, as somehow turned aside,
The rain-storms stopped, and streams their fury checked.

> Latin: Denique tantopere inter se cum maxima mundi
pugnent membra, pio nequaquam concita bello,
nonne vides aliquam longi certaminis ollis
posse dari finem, vel cum sol et vapor omnis
omnibus epotis umoribus exsuperarint?
quod facere intendunt, neque adhuc conata patrantur;
tantum suppeditant amnes ultraque minantur
omnia diluviare ex alto gurgite ponti:
ne quiquam, quoniam verrentes aequora venti
deminuunt radiisque retexens aetherius sol,
et siccare prius confidunt omnia posse
quam liquor incepti possit contingere finem.
tantum spirantes aequo certamine bellum
magnis [inter se] de rebus cernere certant,
cum semel interea fuerit superantior ignis
et semel, ut fama est, umor regnarit in arvis.
ignis enim superavit et ambiens multa perussit,
avia cum Phaethonta rapax vis solis equorum
aethere raptavit toto terrasque per omnis.
at pater omnipotens ira tum percitus acri
magnanimum Phaethonta repenti fulminis ictu
deturbavit equis in terram, Solque cadenti
obvius aeternam succepit lampada mundi
disiectosque redegit equos iunxitque trementis,
inde suum per iter recreavit cuncta gubernans,
scilicet ut veteres Graium cecinere poëtae.
quod procul a vera nimis est ratione repulsum.
ignis enim superare potest ubi materiai
ex infinito sunt corpora plura coorta;
inde cadunt vires aliqua ratione revictae,
aut pereunt res exustae torrentibus auris.
umor item quondam coepit superare coortus,
ut fama est, hominum vitas quando obruit undis;
inde ubi vis aliqua ratione aversa recessit,
ex infinito fuerat quae cumque coorta,
constiterunt imbres et flumina vim minuerunt.

[¶15] But in what modes that conflux of first-stuff
Did found the multitudinous universe
Of earth, and sky, and the unfathomed deeps
Of ocean, and courses of the sun and moon,
I'll now in order tell. For of a truth
Neither by counsel did the primal germs
'Stablish themselves, as by keen act of mind,
Each in its proper place; nor did they make,
Forsooth, a compact how each germ should move;
But, lo, because primordials of things,
Many in many modes, astir by blows
From immemorial aeons, in motion too
By their own weights, have evermore been wont
To be so borne along and in all modes
To meet together and to try all sorts
Which, by combining one with other, they
Are powerful to create: because of this
It comes to pass that those primordials,
Diffused far and wide through mighty aeons,
The while they unions try, and motions too,
Of every kind, meet at the last amain,
And so become oft the commencements fit
Of mighty things- earth, sea, and sky, and race
Of living creatures.

> Latin: Sed quibus ille modis coniectus materiai
fundarit terram et caelum pontique profunda,
solis lunai cursus, ex ordine ponam.
nam certe neque consilio primordia rerum
ordine se suo quaeque sagaci mente locarunt
nec quos quaeque darent motus pepigere profecto;
sed quia multa modis multis primordia rerum
ex infinito iam tempore percita plagis
ponderibusque suis consuerunt concita ferri
omnimodisque coire atque omnia pertemptare,
quae cumque inter se possent congressa creare,
propterea fit uti magnum volgata per aevom
omnigenus coetus et motus experiundo
tandem conveniant ea quae coniecta repente
magnarum rerum fiunt exordia saepe,
terrai maris et caeli generisque animantum.

[¶16] In that long-ago
The wheel of the sun could nowhere be discerned
Flying far up with its abounding blaze,
Nor constellations of the mighty world,
Nor ocean, nor heaven, nor even earth nor air.
Nor aught of things like unto things of ours
Could then be seen- but only some strange storm
And a prodigious hurly-burly mass
Compounded of all kinds of primal germs,
Whose battling discords in disorder kept
Interstices, and paths, coherencies,
And weights, and blows, encounterings, and motions,
Because, by reason of their forms unlike
And varied shapes, they could not all thuswise
Remain conjoined nor harmoniously
Have interplay of movements. But from there
Portions began to fly asunder, and like
With like to join, and to block out a world,
And to divide its members and dispose
Its mightier parts- that is, to set secure
The lofty heavens from the lands, and cause
The sea to spread with waters separate,
And fires of ether separate and pure
Likewise to congregate apart.

> Latin: Hic neque tum solis rota cerni lumine largo
altivolans poterat nec magni sidera mundi
nec mare nec caelum nec denique terra neque aër
nec similis nostris rebus res ulla videri,
sed nova tempestas quaedam molesque coorta.
diffugere inde loci partes coepere paresque
cum paribus iungi res et discludere mundum
membraque dividere et magnas disponere partes
omnigenis e principiis, discordia quorum
intervalla vias conexus pondera plagas
concursus motus turbabat proelia miscens
propter dissimilis formas variasque figuras,
quod non omnia sic poterant coniuncta manere
nec motus inter sese dare convenientis,
hoc est, a terris altum secernere caelum,
et sorsum mare, uti secreto umore pateret,
seorsus item puri secretique aetheris ignes.

[¶17] For, lo,
First came together the earthy particles
(As being heavy and intertangled) there
In the mid-region, and all began to take
The lowest abodes; and ever the more they got
One with another intertangled, the more
They pressed from out their mass those particles
Which were to form the sea, the stars, the sun,
And moon, and ramparts of the mighty world-
For these consist of seeds more smooth and round
And of much smaller elements than earth.
And thus it was that ether, fraught with fire,
First broke away from out the earthen parts,
Athrough the innumerable pores of earth,
And raised itself aloft, and with itself
Bore lightly off the many starry fires;
And not far otherwise we often see......
And the still lakes and the perennial streams
Exhale a mist, and even as earth herself
Is seen at times to smoke, when first at dawn
The light of the sun, the many-rayed, begins
To redden into gold, over the grass
Begemmed with dew. When all of these are brought
Together overhead, the clouds on high
With now concreted body weave a cover
Beneath the heavens. And thuswise ether too,
Light and diffusive, with concreted body
On all sides spread, on all sides bent itself
Into a dome, and, far and wide diffused
On unto every region on all sides,
Thus hedged all else within its greedy clasp.
Hard upon ether came the origins
Of sun and moon, whose globes revolve in air
Midway between the earth and mightiest ether,-
For neither took them, since they weighed too little
To sink and settle, but too much to glide
Along the upmost shores; and yet they are
In such a wise midway between the twain
As ever to whirl their living bodies round,
And ever to dure as parts of the wide Whole;
In the same fashion as certain members may
In us remain at rest, whilst others move.
When, then, these substances had been withdrawn,
Amain the earth, where now extend the vast
Cerulean zones of all the level seas,
Caved in, and down along the hollows poured
The whirlpools of her brine; and day by day
The more the tides of ether and rays of sun
On every side constrained into one mass
The earth by lashing it again, again,
Upon its outer edges (so that then,
Being thus beat upon, 'twas all condensed
About its proper centre), ever the more
The salty sweat, from out its body squeezed,
Augmented ocean and the fields of foam
By seeping through its frame, and all the more
Those many particles of heat and air
Escaping, began to fly aloft, and form,
By condensation there afar from earth,
The high refulgent circuits of the heavens.
The plains began to sink, and windy slopes
Of the high mountains to increase; for rocks
Could not subside, nor all the parts of ground
Settle alike to one same level there.

> Latin: Quippe etenim primum terrai corpora quaeque,
propterea quod erant gravia et perplexa, coibant
in medio atque imas capiebant omnia sedes;
quae quanto magis inter se perplexa coibant,
tam magis expressere ea quae mare sidera solem
lunamque efficerent et magni moenia mundi;
omnia enim magis haec e levibus atque rutundis
seminibus multoque minoribus sunt elementis
quam tellus. ideo per rara foramina terrae
partibus erumpens primus se sustulit aether
ignifer et multos secum levis abstulit ignis,
non alia longe ratione ac saepe videmus,
aurea cum primum gemmantis rore per herbas
matutina rubent radiati lumina solis
exhalantque lacus nebulam fluviique perennes
ipsaque ut inter dum tellus fumare videtur;
omnia quae sursum cum conciliantur, in alto
corpore concreto subtexunt nubila caelum.
sic igitur tum se levis ac diffusilis aether
corpore concreto circum datus undique saepsit
et late diffusus in omnis undique partis
omnia sic avido complexu cetera saepsit.
hunc exordia sunt solis lunaeque secuta,
interutrasque globi quorum vertuntur in auris;
quae neque terra sibi adscivit nec maximus aether,
quod neque tam fuerunt gravia ut depressa sederent,
nec levia ut possent per summas labier oras,
et tamen interutrasque ita sunt, ut corpora viva
versent et partes ut mundi totius extent;
quod genus in nobis quaedam licet in statione
membra manere, tamen cum sint ea quae moveantur.
his igitur rebus retractis terra repente,
maxuma qua nunc se ponti plaga caerula tendit,
succidit et salso suffudit gurgite fossas.
inque dies quanto circum magis aetheris aestus
et radii solis cogebant undique terram
verberibus crebris extrema ad limina fartam
in medio ut propulsa suo condensa coiret,
tam magis expressus salsus de corpore sudor
augebat mare manando camposque natantis,
et tanto magis illa foras elapsa volabant
corpora multa vaporis et aëris altaque caeli
densabant procul a terris fulgentia templa.
sidebant campi, crescebant montibus altis
ascensus; neque enim poterant subsidere saxa
nec pariter tantundem omnes succumbere partis.