Saturnine Soliloquy

Cullen Jacob, 2025 AD

Unedited

‘pandite mandati memores, Heliconis alumnae,

gaudeat assiduo cur dea Magna sono.’

sic ego. sic Erato (mensis Cythereius illi

cessit, quod teneri nomen amoris habet):

‘reddita Saturno sors haec erat: “optime regum,

a nato sceptris excutiere tuis.”

ille suam metuens, ut quaeque erat edita, prolem

devorat, immersam visceribusque tenet’

“Mindful of her command, ye nurslings of Helicon,

disclose the reason why the Great Goddess delights in perpetual din.”

So did I speak, Erato did thus reply (it fell to her to speak of Venus’ month,

because her own name is derived from tender love):

“Saturn was given this oracle: ‘Thou best of kings,

thou shalt be ousted of thy sceptre by thy son.’

In fear, the god devoured his offspring as fast as they were born,

and he kept them sunk in his bowels.”

—Fasti IV, Ovid, lines 191 - 197, 8 AD

Minor modifications by the Editor

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