Minor Latin poets; with introductions and English translations

ni:mksianlshollows his hands and makes a cup of his jjahns ;another, stooping forward, drinks of the wine-vatand with smacking lips drains the new wine ; anotherdips therein his sonorous cymbals, and yet another,lying on his back, catches the juice from the squeezedgrapes, but when drunk (as the welling liquid leapsback from his mouth) he vomits it out, and theliquor flows over shoulders and breasts. Everywheresport reigns, and song and wanton dances.And now love is stirred by the wine ; amorous satyrsare seized with desire to unite in intercourse withthe fleeing nymphs, whom, all but escaped, onecaptor holds back by the hair, another by the dress.Then first did old Silenus greedily quaff bowls fullof rosy must, his strength not equal to the carousal.And ever since that time he rouses mirth, his veins-woUen with the sweet nectar and himself heavywith yesterday's lacchus." And indeed that godri nowned, the god sprung from very Jove, pressesthe grape-clusters with his feet, enwreaths the spearlikethyrsi from the vine-wands, and proffers a mixingbowl to a lynx that drinks thereof."So Pan taught the boys in the Maenalian vale,until night bade them drive together the sheepscattered o'er the plain, urging them to drain theudders of their milk-flow and curdle and thicken itinto snow-white clots of cheese." i.e. his debauch on the gifts of the Wine-god.477