Minor Latin poets; with introductions and English translations

PHOENIXCirrhean " modes ; nay, let not the dying swan be /thought capable of imitating it, nor yet the tunefulstrings of Cyllcnean ^ lyre.After Phoebus has given his steeds the rein intothe open heavens and in ever onward course broughtforth his full round orb,^ then that bird with thricerepeated beat of the wing yields her applause, andafter three obeisances to the fire-bearing princeholds her peace. She it is also who marks oif theswift hours by day and night in sounds which maynot be described, priestess of the grove and aweinspiringministrant of the woods, the only confidantof thy mysteries, Phoebus. When she has alreadyfulfilled a thousand years of life ^ and long lapse oftime has made it burdensome to her, she flees fromher sweet and wonted nest in the grove, so that inthe closing span she may restore her bygone existence,and when in passion for re-birth she has lefther sacred haunts, then she seeks thisjvyoi'ld whereDeath holds sovereignty. Despite her length ofyears she directs her swift flight into Syria, to whichshe herself of old gave the name of" Phoenice," andseeks through desert wilds the care-free groves, herewhere the sequestered woodland lurks among theglades. Then she chooses a palm-tree towering withairy crest which bears its Greek name " Phoenix "from the bird : against it no hurtful living creaturecould steal forth, or slippery serpent, or any bird of' Possibly " revealed the whole wide world " (c/. Virg. Aen.IV. 118).* Tac. Ann. VI. 28 gives 500 years as the usually acceptedlength of the Phoenix-cycle, but he mentions also 1461 years{i.e. the " magnus annus " = 365 j x 4). Martial V. vii. 2 givesdecern snecula, and Pliny 1000 years, a round figure adopted byClaudian and Ausonius.65S