Book 13
73
And that most magnificent poet Aeschylus, in his Danaides, introduces Venus herself speaking thus— Then, too, the earth feels love, and longs for wedlock, And rain, descending from the amorous air, Impregnates his desiring mate; and she Brings forth delicious food for mortal man,— Herds of fat sheep, and corn, the gift of Ceres; The trees love moisture, too, and rain descends T' indulge their longings, I alone the cause.
74
And again, in the HippolytusV. 3. of Euripides, Venus says— And all who dwell to th' eastward of the sea, And the Atlantic waves, all who behold The beams of the rising and the setting sun, Know that I favour those who honour me, And crush all those who boast themselves against me.
74
And, therefore, in the case of a young man who had every other imaginable virtue, this one fault alone, that he did not honour Venus, was the cause of his destruction. And neither Diana, who loved him exceedingly, nor any other of the gods or demi-gods could defend him; and accordingly, in the words of the same poet,— Whoe'er denies that Love's the only god,This is not from the Hippolytus, but is a fragment from the Auge. Is foolish, ignorant of all that's true, And knows not him who is the greatest deity Acknowledged by all nations.
