Kitap 1
And lays them deep in earth, with muttered words
1
Naming the spot accursed. Next a steer,
Picked for his swelling neck and beauteous form,
He leads to the altar, and with slanting knife
Spreads on his brow the meal, and pours the wine.
The victim's struggles prove the gods averse;
But when the servers press upon his horns
He bends the knee and yields him to the blow.
No crimson torrent issues at the stroke,
But from the wound a dark empoisoned stream
Ebbs slowly downward. Aruns at the sight
Aghast, upon the entrails of the beast
Essayed to read the anger of the gods.
Their very colour terrified the seer;
Spotted they were and pale, with sable streaks
Of lukewarm gore bespread; the liver damp
With foul disease, and on the hostile part
The angry veins defiant; of the lungs
The fibre hid, and through the vital parts
The membrane small; the heart has ceased to throb;
Blood oozes through the ducts; the caul is split:
And, fatal omen of impending ill,
One lobe o'ergrows the other; of the twain
The one lies flat and sick, the other beats
And keeps the pulse in rapid strokes astir.
Disaster's near approach thus learned, he cries-
' Whatever may be the purpose of the gods,
' Tis not for me to tell; this offered beast
' Not Jove possesses, but the gods below.
' We dare not speak our fears, yet fear doth make
' The future worse than fact. May all the gods
' Prosper the tokens, and the sacrifice
' Be void of truth, and Tages (famous seer) Tages. A dwarf, with the figure of a child, but with grey hairs, ploughed up by a peasant near Tarquinii. He betrayed the secrets of Etruscan lore and straightway died. (Mommsen, vol. i. p. 190; Dennis, 'Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria,' vol. i. p. 373.)
' Have vainly taught these mysteries.' Such his words
For knowledge of the secret depths of space
And laws harmonious that guide the stars
Memphis could find no peer, then spake at large:
' Either,' he said, ' the world and countless orbs
