The Latin:
Mercuri, facunde nepos Atlantis,
qui feros cultus hominum recentum
uoce formasti catus et decorae
more palaestrae,
te canam, magni Iouis et deorum
nuntium curuaeque lyrae parentem,
callidum quicquid placuit iocoso
condere furto.
Te, boues olim nisi reddidisses
per dolum amotas, puerum minaci
uoce dum terret, uiduus pharetra
risit Apollo.
Quin et Atridas duce te superbos
Ilio diues Priamus relicto
Thessalosque ignis et iniqua Troiae
castra fefellit.
Tu pias laetis animas reponis
sedibus uirgaque leuem coerces
aurea turbam, superis deorum
gratus et imis.
The Translation:
Mercury, eloquent grandson of Atlas
who, cunning, cultivated
the cruel custom of young mankind
with his voice and founded the honored gymnasium
I sing of you, herald of great Jove
and the gods and the father of the curved lyre
and sly, hiding whatever pleases in a
jolly trick.
Once, unless you returned the cows that you stole
through your cunning while Apollo feared the threatening voice
of a boy while he laughed at his widowed quiver
Moreover, by your lead wealthy Priam
cheated proud Atridas, with Ilium left behind,
and tricked Thessalian watchfires and the camp
hostle to Troy
You lead pious souls back
to blessed homes and contain
the fickle uproar with your golden wand
and are dear to the gods, highest and lowest.
Well this was a nice little apostrophe to Mercury. It's a pretty straightforward poem, and gives a good overview of Mercury's achievements. He's the trickster god of the Pantheon, he invented the lyre and stole Apollo's herd of cattle when he was a baby (why the sun god has a herd of cows, or what a baby would want with cows, I couldn't say. If I remember correctly, Mercury did invent the lyre using one of the sun-cow's intestines for string). The fourth stanza is an allusion to the Iliad, when Priam goes to Achilles to beg for Hector's body back. Interestingly, Mercury was one of the few gods who remained neutral in the war, along with Jupiter and Pluto (I'm just going to keep using the Roman names for consistancy's sake). I think this has to do with Mercury's role as a psychopomp, or a god who leads spirits to the underworld, like the Grim Reaper. I suppose in Homer's work, agents of death don't take sides, they just clean up afterwords (so long as you're buried properly that is. If you're not you can right well fuck off). One last interesting thing is that in the last stanza, souls are lead back to Elysium. This has a connection to the universe as presented in the Aenied, where souls come and go between the world and the underworld, which, so I am told, is very neoplatonic. I couldn't say for certain, though, as I'm not overly familiar with neoplatonism.
No comments:
Post a Comment