Here when he had well fed the loud-lowing cows with grass, and had driven them together in flocks into the shed, having cropped the lotus and dewy rush-grass, he then brought together much wood, and sought out the art of [producing] fire,[1] having taken a splendid branch of laurel, he pared it with the steel, having rubbed it in his hand, and upwards the warm vapour breathed[2] forth. Mercury then first bestowed fire-implements and fire. And having taken together many dry faggots, he placed them abundantly in a low trench, and the flame shone forth, sending afar the crackling[3] of a much-burning fire. But whilst the might of glorious Vulcan was kindling, he meantime drew two lowing heifers with crumple horns out of doors, near to the fire, for mighty was his power. But he threw them both panting to the ground, on their backs, and he rolled them over and over, bending down, and boring out their lives. And he wrought toil upon toil,[4] cutting their flesh together with the rich fat, and he roasted it being pierced through with the wooden spits, both the flesh and the well-prized backs, and the black blood kept within the intestines, but they lay there upon the ground. And he stretched out the skins upon a rough rock, †So do we[5] still cut up those which have been born for a long time, a long and incalculable time after this.† But then rejoicing Mercury drew off the fat spoils upon a smooth plane, and cut them into twelve parts, distributed by lot, and he offered the perfect honour to each [of the twelve gods]. Here glorious Mercury longed for the
- ↑ But Hermann reads τέχνην, illustrating the construction of μαίομαι with a genitive, from Il. x. 401. Od. v. 344.
- ↑ Ernesti prefers τάχα ἄμπνυτο.
- ↑ For which the laurel (vs. 109) was remarkable. Cf. Virg. Ecl. viii. 82. Nemesian. Ecl. iv. 65.
- ↑ Cf. Theocrit. Id. xv. 20, πέντε πόκως ἔλαβ' ἐχθὲς, ἅπαν ῥύπος, ἔργον ἐπ' ἔργῳ.
- ↑ "And thus were these now all in pieces shred,
And undistinguish'd from earth's common herd:
Though born for long date, and to heaven endear'd;
And now must ever live in dead event."Chapman.I am but half satisfied respecting these two lines, nor does Hermann seem quite settled as to their correction. His text has τάμετ' ἄσσα πολοχρόνιοι, but in the notes he proposes τάνυθ' ἄσσα πολυχρόνια π., giving the following explanation of ἄκριτον, "quemadmodum nunc quoque, multo post, tenduntur, quæ natura ad diuturnitatem, facta sunt."
