Page:The Pharsalia of Lucan; (IA cu31924026485809).pdf/93

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Book III

MASSILIA

69

Celænae's fields which mourned of yore the giftOf Pallas,^[1] and the vengeance of the god,All draw the sword; and those from Marsyas' floodFirst swift, then doubling backwards with the stream 240Of sinuous Meander: and from wherePactolus leaves his golden source and leapsFrom Earth permitting; and with rival wealthRich Hermus parts the meads. Nor stayed the bandsOf Troy, but (doomed as in old time) they joinedPompeius' fated camp: nor held them backThe fabled past, nor Cæsar's claimed descentFrom their Iülus. Syrian peoples cameFrom palmy Idumea and the wallsOf Ninus great of yore; from windy plains 250Of far Damascus and from Gaza's hold,From Sidon's courts enriched with purple dye,And Tyre oft trembling with the shaken earth.All these led on by Cynosura's light^[2]Furrow their certain path to reach the war.Phœnicians first (if story be believed)Dared to record in characters; for yetPapyrus was not fashioned, and the priestsOf Memphis, carving symbols upon wallsOf mystic sense (in shape of beast or fowl) 260Preserved the secrets of their magic art.Next Persean Tarsus and high Taurus' grovesAre left deserted, and Corycium's cave;

↑ Probably the flute thrown away by Pallas, which Marsyas picked up when he challenged Apollo to a musical contest. For his presumption the god had him flayed alive.
↑ That is, the Little Bear, by which the Phœnicians steered, while the Greeks steered by the Great Bear. (See Sir G. Lewis's 'Astronomy of the Ancients,' p, 447.) In Book VIII., line 193, the pilot declares that he steers by the pole star itself, which is much nearer to the Little than to the Great Bear, and is (I believe) reckoned as one of the stars forming the group known by that name. He may have been a Phœnician.

[1] Probably the flute thrown away by Pallas, which Marsyas picked up when he challenged Apollo to a musical contest. For his presumption the god had him flayed alive.

[2] That is, the Little Bear, by which the Phœnicians steered, while the Greeks steered by the Great Bear. (See Sir G. Lewis's 'Astronomy of the Ancients,' p, 447.) In Book VIII., line 193, the pilot declares that he steers by the pole star itself, which is much nearer to the Little than to the Great Bear, and is (I believe) reckoned as one of the stars forming the group known by that name. He may have been a Phœnician.

[1]

[2]