Kitap 2
This I command, Venus commands the same,
Who hates the snares she once sustain'd with shame.
660
What impious wretch will Ceres' rites expose,This is a simile, and shows us it was not lawful to reveal the mysteries of Ceres. Macrobius in the 11th chapter of his first book upon Scipio's dream, writes that the philosopher Numenius, being too curious to know the secrets of hidden things, incurred the wrath of the gods by divulging the Eleusinian mysteries, which were the same with those of Ceres.
Or Juno's solemn mysteries disclose!
His witty torments Tantalus deserves,He proves by the example of Tantalus, that no man should reveal secrets. Tantalus, so Diodorus tells us, was the son of Jupiter and the nymph Plota, equally rich and renowned. He dwelt in Paphlagonia, and was favoured by the gods for the dignity of his birth ; but having been told some of their secrets, and divulging them to mortals, he was thrown into hell for his crime, where his punishment was what Ovid tells us.
That thirsts in waves and viewing banquets starves.
But Venus most in secresy delights:
665
Away, ye babblers, from her silent rites!
No pomp her mysteries attend, no noise!
No sounding brass proclaims the latent joys!
With folded arms the happy pair possess,
Nor should the fond betraying tongue confess
670
Those raptures, which no language can express.
When naked Venus casts her robes aside,
The parts obscene her hands extended hide;
No girl on propagating beasts will gaze,
But hangs her head, and turns away her face.
675
We darken'd beds and doors for love provide;
What nature cannot, decent habit hide.
Love darkens courts, at most a glimm'ring light,
