Versus Ad Gratiam Domini

POMPONIUS'S VERSES TO THE GRACE OF THE LORD. HE INTRODUCES TWO CHARACTERS, MELIBOEUS AND TITYRUS. Tityrus, you, reclining under the cover of a spreading beech, happy with some sweetness beyond the usual, fortunate old man! Here, among familiar streams and sacred springs, you prepare to recite verses and to sing with divine song, shepherd, guardian of a beautiful flock, yourself more beautiful. I do not sing uncertain things, the predictions of earlier seers. Or is anything greater than such a gift for us? O Meliboeus, a god has made this leisure for us. For he will always be a god to me, and king of men, omnipotent father, who holds the highest power over things, whom, if one wishes to know, let him breathe in divine love. I speak of things not unknown, which are scattered throughout the whole world. The mountains themselves, unshorn, hurl voices to the stars in joy; the very rocks now sing songs; the very thickets resound; for do not doubt that a god goes through all lands and stretches of sea and the deep sky — for you see true things — who with a fixed covenant rules by eternal commands and calms angers. If he did not do this, black night would brood over the seas and lands. Fortunate is he who has been able to know the causes of things! For, I will confess, the race from which our prince comes, Stimicon heard: he praised the songs to us. Be fortunate! For you go through the deep with greater auspices, manifest faith for these praises. Accept and give faith: it is not an ignoble song.

A greater god is at work and sends us back to greater works. The one who, by delaying, restored the thing to us, he is the guardian of works, the discoverer of men and things, without whom the mind begins nothing lofty; he himself rolls over what is, what has been, what soon will be drawn as future events. For by these signs and following these examples, they said that souls are a part of the divine mind and draughts of aether, because there is divinity in them— their genius. Although the narrow limit of life and earthly limbs and mortal members dull them, yet the immortal kind remains: do not seek to be taught. Their vigor is fiery and their origin celestial, and when cold death has separated the soul from the limbs, all these, after they have rolled the wheel through a thousand years, counting the times, the god summons in a great host. They render themselves in as many forms, and the earth gapes open. But to recall the step and escape to the upper airs— this is the work of virtue—to try remote lands into a starry seat and to succeed into high heaven. Tityrus, is it then to be thought that some sublime souls go from here to heaven and again return to sluggish bodies? Are we called from one fate into another? Am I immortal? Joy stirs my heart, if only what you recall as done could come to pass.

Do not doubt that nothing is held by the law of fate: believe in God—for you see what is true—that a parent can exist without power. How little does prudence yield to fate. I indeed believe, and it is not a vain faith; who would be so mad as to deny such things? And I, both conquered and willing, submit myself: I was foolish to compare great things with small; nor does my judgment, now changed in its place, give way. I ask one thing: teach me the path, and open the sacred gates, and what I must follow to overcome such great labors. I will indeed speak, nor will I keep you in suspense, my son, and I will show how and in what way you should flee and bear each labor. 'Dare, stranger, to despise wealth: it is the first path of salvation. Unblemished faith and a mind conscious of what is right bear worthy rewards. Trusting in piety, they found a way through fire: that is a sure rest from labors. Gardens fragrant with saffron-colored flowers invite you, and the abodes of the blessed groves will always be happy places, for those whose better judgment guides the mind: for them there will be a place in the city, the glory of the divine countryside. For those who alone brooded over discovered riches, they postponed the expiation of sins until a late death,

All dared an immense sin, and having dared, they are seized by punishments. How they would wish to be in the high ether and to have come under the upper breezes of heaven! What gifts can I give you for such a song? It is beyond our power: I will raise your name to the stars, Tityrus. The shadows have been scattered and light restored to the mind. These things do not come by human resources, nor by the art of a teacher: you will be able to know what virtue is, unless you shrink back. I will proceed, retracing from the first origin. Come then, and tell us, stranger, from the first origin; I willingly accept and acknowledge it as a parent's words. Listen: the ancient faith is done, but the fame is everlasting. Now I will begin to sing, since we have both come together in our mountains: the valleys carry back to the stars. "A great order of ages is born anew; I set in motion a greater work: the praises and deeds of the parent. For there were neither fires of the stars nor the bright sidereal ether of the sky, and dark night held sway. Then the omnipotent father, with things already revealed by light, parted the dark air and dispersed the shadows. In the beginning he made heaven and earth, and the setting sun and the shining globe of the moon, and the liquid plains, the path of night, and gave numbers and names to the stars.

from which come the race of men, of beasts, and of flying creatures, and what the sea bears as monsters beneath its marble surface. And already it divides the sphere between light and shadow, and the year, equal in its four differing seasons. Nor did he allow his realms to grow sluggish with heavy idleness; he stirred the fields with cares, sharpening mortal hearts, so that by pondering they might hammer out various arts through practice. This untaught race, scattered over high mountains, he organized and gave a law, holding them under his sway. Hence he taught that a people, widespread in rule and proud in age, would come to destruction after a vast defeat, victorious from the peoples of the Dawn and the Red Shore. Then they restore their strength with food, celestial gifts, until a worse and discolored age gradually succeeds, and the madness of war and love of possession follow. Forgetful of kingdoms, seized by base desire. Then various plagues mock. Evil error carried off Egypt and the forces of the East: monstrous gods of every kind and the barking Anubis seem wondrous. What help are temples and images lacking light? Not with such aid nor with those defenders does the time need; when your day, with the rolling years, has refuted your words, you will pay the penalty for your crimes. Why not rather eternal peace and an altar of the divine?

Let us all beseech? This altar will protect all. With these things done, the father ponders within himself another matter, by which he gave eternal life, by which the condition of death was removed, and at last from the high heaven he looked with pity upon men. Ancient piety regards human toils, about to set a limit to their ruin; trustworthy enough oracles were given: manifest faith in the hidden parent. He himself, the swift messenger, bears these commands through the airy breezes from heaven, and declares that the admonition and the inspired one will be present in words, and the seers of old sang of terrible omens; for they sang that he would be illustrious in words and deeds. O how should I remember you, virgin? To whom the Almighty granted mind and spirit from an ethereal seed, from the heavenly shores.