Kitap 3
Lost like autumnal leaves when north winds rage.
Women with juice of herbs gray locks disguise,They dyed their hair with the juice of herbs. according to the fashion of the Germans, who make use of certain herbs to darken their hair, or dye it any other colour to disguise their age, and appear young. The Gauls made use of an herb which is called guesde, or woad, as Caesar reports in the third book of his commentaries.
And art gives colour which with nature vies;
The well-wove tours they wear, their own art thought,
215
But only are their own, as what they've bought.
Nor need they blush to buy heads ready dress'd,
And choose at public shops what suits 'em best.
Costly apparel let the fair one fly,
Enrich'd with gold, or with the Tyrian dye,The Tyrian scarlet was the finest dye in the world; preferable to that of Amyclea near Sparta, though that was also excellent. This scarlet is often confounded with purple, of which there were two sorts, one of a pomegranate colour, as the African, and the other of a reddish scarlet, as the Tyrian. Tibullus speaks of them distinctly.
220
What folly must in such expense appear,
When more becoming colors are less dear!
One with a die is ting'd of lovely blue,
Such as through air serene the sky we view,
With yellow lustre see another spread,
225
As if the golden fleece compos'd the thread.The colour like that of Phryxus's ram. He was the son of Athamas king of Thebes, and to avoid the anger of Ino, his mother-in-law, fled with his sister Helle upon a ram with a golden fleece. His sister tumbling into the sea gave it the name of Hellespont, but he arriving at Colchos sacrificed the rain to Mars, who placed it in the zodiac. The golden fleece was hung in a temple, consecrated to Mars, and under the keeping of a dragon.
Some of the sea green wave the cast display;
