Kenney_and_Clausen B.M.W.(eds.) - Get a Free Blog

MARTIAL AND JUVENAL
But in Satire 13, the message is clearer, written up in a more leisurely manner.
A broader humour, even signs of humanity, replace the accustomed malevolent
posture — the old anger and indignation have gone:
quondam hoc indigenae uiuebant more, priusquam
sumeret agrestem posito diademate falcem
Saturnus fugiens, tune cum uirguncula Iuno
et priuatus adhuc Idaeis Iuppiter antris;
nulia super nubes conuiuia caelicolarum,
nee puer Iliacus formosa nee Herculis uxor
ad cyathos, et iam siccato nectare tergens
bracchia Vulcanus Liparaea nigra taberna;
prandebat sibi quisque deus, nee turba deorum
talis ut est hodie, contentaque sidera paucis
numinibus miserum urguebant Atlanta minori
pondere; nondum imi sortitus triste profundi
imperium Sicula toruos cum coniuge Pluton,
nee rota nee Furiae nee saxum aut uolturis atri
poena, sed infernis hilares sine regibus umbrae. (13.38—52)
That was how primitive man lived long ago, before
King Saturn was ousted, before he exchanged his diadem
For a country sickle, when Juno was only a schoolgirl,
And Jupiter — then without title — still dwelt in Ida's caves.
No banquets above the clouds yet for Heavens inhabitants,
With Hebe and Ganymede there to hand round drinks, and Vulcan,
Still black from the smithy, scrubbing the soot off his arms
With spirits of— nectar. Each God would breakfast in private)
There wasn't our modern rabble of divinities, the stars
Ran to far fewer deifications, the firmament rested lighter
On poor old Atlas' back. The throne of the nether regions
Stood vacant still — grim Pluto and his Sicilian consort,
The Furies, Ixion's wheel, the boulder of Sisyphus,
The black and murderous vulture, all these were yet to come:
While they'd got no monarch, the shades could enjoy a high old time.
Charm is hardly a quality one would usually associate with Juvenal — but here,
at last, the wryness is fetching, not acid; the tone comic, not abrasive. Not that
we really believe in the one-time innocence of the gods: but at least our satirist
looks closer now to laughter than to bitterness or tears. 1 We admit his parody
this time because it does not threaten us.
But, as we began by saying, it is for his earlier work that Juvenal is remembered
: and there the world was out of joint, in almost all its aspects. Even our
positives, our favourite opinions were subject to his scrutiny, and often his
1
On the transition from the indignation of Satires I—