Petronius Arbiter (20-66 CE)

 

 

94 P. L. M.

            If, Delia, You are the sister of Apollo, then I entrust my cause into Your care that You may deliver to Your brother the words of my prayer:

            “God of Delphi, I have dedicated to You a temple made of fine Sicilian marble, spoken allowed Your praises while accompanied by the sweet sounds of the calamus reeds.  If ever You hear our prayers, Apollo, and if indeed You are divine, tell me now, by what means does a man without money seek to find it?”

 

Si Phoebi sorores, mandotibi, Delia, causam, / scilicet ut fratri quae peto verba feras: / Marmore Sicanio struxi tibi, Delphice, templu / et levibis calamis candida verba dedi. / Nunc si audis atque es divinus, Apollo, dic mihi, qui nummos non habet, unde petat.

 

Satyricon 25

            May Juno’s anger fall on me if ever I can remember being a virgin.

 

Iunonem meam iratam habeam, si unquam me meminerim virginem fuisse.

 

Satyricon 79

            You gods and goddesses, o what a night. The bed so soft! Our souls had lost their way – we lay so warm and tight – goodbye to cares; I’ve said my last good night.

 

Qualis nox fuit illa, di deaeque,

quam mollis torus! Haesimus calentes

et transfudimus hinc et hinc labellis

errantes animas. Valete curae

mortales. Ego sic perire coepi.

 

Satyricon 85

            Dear Venus, if I may kiss this boy without his knowing, a pair of doves I’ll give tomorrow.

 

"Domina, inquam, Venus, si ego hunc puerum basiavero, ita ut ille non sentiat, cras illi par columbarum donabo".

 

Satyricon 86

            O eternal Gods, if I can get the full satisfaction of my desires from him, for this happiness tomorrow I shall give the finest Macedonian steed to the boy, but with this one proviso, he must notice nothing.

 

"Dii, inquam, immortales, si ego huic dormienti abstulero coitum plenum et optabilem, pro hac felicitate cras puero asturconem Macedonicum optimum donabo, cum hac tamen exceptione, si ille non senserit".

 

Satyricon 98

            God bless you, Giton.

 

Salvere, Gitona, iubet.

 

            In You, dearest Father, in Your hands do we place our safekeeping.

 

In tua… pater carissime, in tua sumus custodia.

 

Satyricon 103

            May Gods and mankind not suffer this from happening that you should end your lives in so vile a fashion.

 

Ne istud dii hominesque patiantur ut vos tam turpi exitu vitam finiatis.

 

Satyricon 108

            O Gods, help us!  Who takes up arms and beckons death amid the waves, or inadequate to suffer one death?  The sea’s savagery is enough, send no fresh floods to swell the savage waves.

 

Ei mihi, fata / hos inter fluctus quis raptis evocat armis? / Cui non est mors una satis? Ne vincite pontum / gurgitibusque feris alios immittite fluctus.

 

 

Satyricon 120, 76-84

            And here Dis Pater raised up His head, His hair lit with the flame of funeral pyres and flecked with white ash, and He called out to Fortuna, “O You who rules over the fortunes of gods and men, O Fortuna, You who hates for any power to grow secure, but who instead ever loves something new to come along, and who spurns what She already possesses, does not the triumphs of Rome now weigh upon You?  Can You bear to endure any further that tottering tower of doom?  No longer in times of peace have the young men of Rome any use of their prowess in war.  Therefore arouse, O Fortuna, Rome from a peaceful country and change over its placid face into the continence of war, and grant our realm in Hades receive more dead.”

 

Has inter sedes Ditis Pater extulit ora / bustorum flammis et cana sparsa favilla / ac tali volocrem Fortunam voce lacessit: / “Rerum humanarumque divinarumque potestas / Fors, cui nulla placet nimium secura potestas / quae nova semper amas et mox posessa relinquis, / ecquid Romano sentis te pondere victam / nec posse ulterius perituram extollere molem? / ipsa suas vires odit Romana iuventus / quare age, Fors, muta pacatum in proelia vultum / Romanosque cie ac nostris da funera regnis.

 

Satyricon 121, 103-6

            Father, Dis Pater, whose obedient realms are penetrated by the River Cocytus, in truth, by divine law the wicked and profane are vowed over to You, for no less in my heart than in Yours does the anger swell, and the flame burning deep within my marrow no less rises.

 

O genitor, cui Cocyti penetralia parent / si modo vera, mihi fas est impune profani / vota tibi cedent; nec enim minor ira rebellat / pectore in hoc leviorque exurit flamma medullas. 

 

Satyricon 122, 156-8

            Jupiter Almighty and Tellus, daughter of Saturnus, I, who willingly have borne arms in Your defense and who in the past has honored You with my triumphs, I swear, that it is by Your will that I am now invited to raise my hand in anger, and not by my will that Mars the God of War now inspires this army with His avenging fury.

 

Iuppiter omnipotens, et te, Saturnia Tellus, / armis laeta meis olimque onerata triumphis, / testor, ad has acies invitum accersere Martem.

 

Satyricon 126

            What has happened, Jove, to make You throw down Your arms, to become an old story in heaven, to disdain these terrestrial charms?  Here now was a worthy occasion to beetle your brows and put on the horns of a bull, or else to don the feathers and beak of a swan.  Here is a real Danae, she would kindle Your lust even higher.  One touch, one mere touch of her body would melt Your limbs in the fires of desire.

 

Quid factum est, quod tu proiectis, Iuppiter,armis

inter caelicolas fabula muta taces?

Nunc erat a torva submittere cornua fronte,

nunc pluma canos dissimulare tuos.

Haec vera est Danae. Tempta modo tangere corpus,

iam tua flammifero membra calore fluent.

 

 

Satyricon 133

            Companion of Nymphs, companion of Bacchus, Priapus, Whom Dione appointed God of lush forests, honoured in Lesbos and verdant Thasos, worshipped by the Lydians whose land is crossed by seven rivers and who built a temple to You in Your Hypaepan homeland, come to me, protector of Bacchus, beloved of Dryads, and hear my humble prayers.

            I come before you confessing, yet unrepentant of my blood-soaked hands.

            When I robbed that temple, I did not act irreligiously, but rather it was need and poverty that was the cause; not my true self.  A man who commits a crime through the necessity brought on by poverty commits only a venial offense.

            My prayer is this: Relieve me of a guilty conscious, forgive my venial offense and when Fortuna next smiles on me, praises and thanksgiving I shall offer You.  A goat with gilt horns, the finest of his herd, I shall bring to Your altars.  The suckling piglet of a sow I shall bring to Your altars.  Foaming new wine, borne by young men I shall bring to Your altars.  All these offering in procession shall I order to pass three times around Your shrine.

 

Satyricon 137

            Ask the Gods that They may forgive what you have done.

 

Tu modo deos roga, ut illi facto tuo ignoscant.

 

Satyricon fr. 31

            Healer of Delphi, dismiss Your swans, O Apollo, for here is a (parrot’s) voice more worthy to dwell within Your temple precinct.

 

Iam dimitte tuos, Paeon o Delphice, cynos / dignior haec vox est quae tua templa colat.