Page:The Pharsalia of Lucan; (IA cu31924026485809).pdf/117

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Book IV
CÆSAR IN SPAIN
93
For none pressed on them; and the victor chiefs,Forced to withdrawal, gained the day in vain.Henceforth the fitful changes of the yearGoverned the fates and fashioned out the war.For stubborn frost still lay upon the land,And northern winds, controlling all the sky,Prisoned the rain in clouds; the hills were nippedWith snow unmelted, and the lower plainsBy frosts that fled before the rising sun; 60And all the lands that stretched towards the skyWhich whelms the sinking stars, 'neath wintry heavensWere parched and arid. But when Titan nearedThe Ram, who, backward gazing on the stars,Bore perished Helle,[1] and the hours were heldIn juster balance, and the day prevailed,The earliest faded moon which in the vaultHung with uncertain horn, from eastern windsReceived a fiery radiance; whose blasts]Forced Boreas back: and breaking on the mists 70Within his regions, to the OccidentDrave all that shroud Arabia and the landOf Ganges; all that or by Caurus[2] borneBedim the Orient sky, or rising sunsPermit to gather; pitiless flamed the dayBehind them, while in front the wide expanseWas driven; nor on mid earth sank the cloudsThough weighed with vapour. North and south alikeWere showerless, for on Calpe's rock aloneAll moisture gathered; here at last, forbidden 80
  1. ↑ Phrixus and Helle, the children of Nephele, were to be sacrificed to Zeus; but Nephele rescued them, and they rode away through the air on the Ram with the golden fleece. But Helle fell into the sea, which from her was named the Hellespont. (See Book IX., 1126.)
    The sun enters Aries about March 20. The Ram is pictured among the constellations with his head averse.
  2. ↑ See Book I., 463.
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