Met. 15.153Ō genus attonitum gelidae formīdine mortis,
quid Styga, quid mānēs et nōmina vāna timētis,
155māteriem vātum, falsīque perīcula mundī?O race stunned by fear of icy death, why do you fear Styx, why the shades and empty names, the matter of poets, and the perils of an unreal world? Met. 15.156Corpora, sīve rogus flammā, seu tābe vetustās
abstulerit, mala posse patī nōn ūlla putētis!Do not think that bodies, whether the pyre has taken them away with flame or age with decay, can suffer any ills! Met. 15.158Morte carent animae, semperque priōre relictā
sēde novīs domibus vīvunt habitantque receptae.Souls are free from death, and always, leaving their former abode, they live in new homes and dwell there once received. Met. 15.160Ipse ego (nam meminī) Trōiānī tempore bellī
Panthoidēs Euphorbus eram, cui pectore quondam
haesit in adversō gravis hasta minōris Atrīdae:
cognōvī clipeum, laevae gestāmina nostrae,
nūper Abantēīs templō Iūnōnis in Argīs.I myself (for I remember) at the time of the Trojan War was Euphorbus, son of Panthous, in whose breast once stuck the heavy spear of the younger son of Atreus: I recently recognised the shield, the burden of my left arm, in the temple of Juno in Argos, city of Abas.
Met. 15.165Omnia mūtantur, nihil interit: errat et illinc
hūc venit, hinc illūc, et quōslibet occupat artūs
spīritus ēque ferīs hūmāna in corpora trānsit
inque ferās noster nec tempore dēperit ūllō;All things change, nothing perishes: the spirit wanders, and comes from there to here, from here to there, and occupies whatever limbs it pleases, and passes from beasts into human bodies and from us into beasts, and never perishes at any time; Met. 15.169utque novīs facilis signātur cēra figūrīs
170nec manet ut fuerat nec fōrmās servat eāsdem,
sed tamen ipsa eadem est: animam sīc semper eandem
esse, sed in variās doceō migrāre figūrās.and as pliant wax is stamped with new figures and does not remain as it was nor keep the same forms, but is still itself the same, so I teach that the soul is always the same but migrates into various shapes. Met. 15.173Ergō, nē pietās sit victa cupīdine ventris,
parcite, vāticinor, cognātās caede nefandā
175exturbāre animās, nec sanguine sanguis alātur!Therefore, lest piety be overcome by the craving of the belly, refrain, I prophesy, from driving out kindred souls by unholy slaughter, and let not blood be nourished by blood!
Met. 15.176Et quoniam magnō feror aequore plēnaque ventīs
vēla dedī: nihil est tōtō, quod perstet, in orbe.And since I am borne over the great sea and have given my full sails to the winds: there is nothing in the whole world that endures. Met. 15.178Cūncta fluunt, omnisque vagāns fōrmātur imāgō;All things flow, and every form is shaped as it wanders; Met. 15.179ipsa quoque adsiduō lābuntur tempora mōtū,
180nōn secus ac flūmen, neque enim cōnsistere flūmen
nec levis hōra potest, sed ut unda impellitur undā
urgēturque eadem veniente urgetque priōrem,
tempora sīc fugiunt pariter pariterque sequuntur
et nova sunt semper;time itself too glides on in constant motion, no differently from a river; for neither a river nor the fleeting hour can stand still, but as wave is driven by wave and, pressed by the one coming, presses the one before, so the times flee and at the same time follow, and are always new; Met. 15.184nam quod fuit ante, relictum est,
185fitque quod haud fuerat, mōmentaque cūncta novantur.for what was before is left behind, and what had not been comes to be, and every moment is renewed.
Met. 15.186Cernis et ēmēnsās in lūcem tendere noctēs,
et iubar hoc nitidum nigrae succēdere noctī.You see too that nights, their course run, stretch towards the light, and that this shining radiance follows the black night. Met. 15.188Nec color est īdem caelō, cum lassā quiēte
cūncta iacent mediā, cumque albō Lūcifer exit
190clārus equō rūrsusque alius, cum praevia lūcis
trādendum Phoebō Pallantias īnficit orbem.Nor is the colour of the sky the same when all things lie weary in quiet at midnight, and when bright Lucifer comes out on his white horse; and it is different again when the daughter of Pallas, forerunner of the light, stains the world that is to be handed over to Phoebus. Met. 15.192Ipse deī clipeus, terrā cum tollitur īmā,
māne rubet, terrāque, rubet cum conditur īmā,
candidus in summō est, melior nātūra quod illīc
195aetheris est terraeque procul contāgia fugit.The god's very shield is red in the morning when it rises from the depths of the earth, and red when it is hidden in the depths of the earth; it is white at its height, because the nature of the upper air is purer there and it escapes far from the contagion of the earth.
Met. 15.196Nec pār aut eadem nocturnae fōrma Diānae
esse potest umquam, semperque hodierna sequente,
sī crēscit, minor est, maior, sī contrahit orbem.Nor can the shape of Diana by night ever be equal or the same, and always today's is smaller than tomorrow's if she is waxing, larger if she is shrinking her orb. Met. 15.199Quid?What? Met. 15.199nōn in speciēs succēdere quattuor annum
200adspicis, aetātis peragentem imitāmina nostrae?do you not see the year passing through four seasons, imitating the course of our life? Met. 15.201Nam tener ac lactēns puerīque simillimus aevō
vēre novō est: tunc herba nitēns et rōboris expers
turget et īnsolida est et spē dēlectat agrestēs.For in early spring it is tender and milky and most like a child in age: then the grass, shining and lacking strength, swells, and is not firm, and delights the farmers with hope. Met. 15.204Omnia tunc flōrent, flōrumque colōribus almus
205lūdit ager, neque adhūc virtūs in frondibus ūlla est.Then all things blossom, and the nurturing field plays with the colours of flowers, and there is as yet no strength in the leaves. Met. 15.206Trānsit in aestātem post vēr rōbustior annus
fitque valēns iuvenis: neque enim rōbustior aetās
ūlla nec ūberior, nec quae magis ārdeat, ūlla est.After spring the year, grown sturdier, passes into summer and becomes a strong young man: for no age is sturdier or more fruitful, none burns more hotly.
Met. 15.209Excipit autumnus, positō fervōre iuventae
210mātūrus mītisque, inter iuvenemque senemque
temperiē medius, sparsus quoque tempora cānīs.Autumn follows, the heat of youth laid aside, ripe and mellow, midway in temper between youth and old age, its temples too sprinkled with grey. Met. 15.212Inde senīlis hiems tremulō venit horrida passū,
aut spoliāta suōs, aut quōs habet, alba capillōs.Then aged winter comes, shaggy, with trembling step, either stripped of its hair or white in what it has. Met. 15.214Nostra quoque ipsōrum semper requiēque sine ūllā
215corpora vertuntur, nec, quod fuimusve sumusve,
crās erimus;Our own bodies too are always changing, without any rest, and what we were or are, we shall not be tomorrow; Met. 15.216fuit illa diēs, quā sēmina tantum
spēsque hominum prīmae mātrisque habitāvimus alvō.there was a day when we lived only as seeds and the first hopes of men in our mother's womb. Met. 15.218Artificēs nātūra manūs admōvit et angī
corpora visceribus distentae condita mātris
220nōluit ēque domō vacuās ēmīsit in aurās.Nature applied her skilful hands and did not wish our bodies to be cramped, shut up in the inward parts of our swollen mother, and sent them out from that home into the open air.
Met. 15.221Ēditus in lūcem iacuit sine vīribus īnfāns;Brought forth into the light, the infant lay without strength; Met. 15.222mox quadrupēs rītūque tulit sua membra ferārum,
paulātimque tremēns et nōndum poplite firmō
cōnstitit adiūtīs aliquō cōnāmine nervīs.soon on all fours it carried its limbs in the manner of beasts, and little by little, trembling and with knees not yet firm, it stood up, its sinews helped by some effort. Met. 15.225Inde valēns vēlōxque fuit spatiumque iuventae
trānsit et ēmeritīs mediī quoque temporis annīs
lābitur occiduae per iter dēclīve senectae.Then it was strong and swift, and passes through the span of youth, and, the years of middle life too completed, glides down the sloping path of declining old age. Met. 15.228Subruit haec aevī dēmōlīturque priōris
rōbora, fletque Mīlōn senior, cum spectat inānēs
230(illōs, quī fuerant solidōrum mōle torōrum
Herculeīs similēs!) fluidōs pendēre lacertōs;This undermines and demolishes the strength of former years, and Milo, grown old, weeps when he sees those arms hang empty and flabby (arms which in the mass of their solid muscles had been like Hercules'!); Met. 15.232Flet quoque, ut in speculō rūgās adspexit anīlēs,
Tyndaris et sēcum, cūr sit bis rapta, requīrit.The daughter of Tyndareus weeps too when she sees an old woman's wrinkles in the mirror, and asks herself why she was twice carried off.
Met. 15.234Tempus edāx rērum, tūque, invidiōsa vetustās,
235omnia dēstruitis, vitiātaque dentibus aevī
paulātim lentā cōnsūmitis omnia morte.Time, devourer of things, and you, envious age, destroy all things, and, gradually wearing them with the teeth of time, consume all things in slow death. Met. 15.237Haec quoque nōn perstant, quae nōs elementa vocāmus,
quāsque vices peragant, (animōs adhibēte!) docēbō.Not even these things endure that we call elements, and what changes they go through (pay attention!) I shall teach. Met. 15.239Quattuor aeternus genitālia corpora mundus
240continet;The eternal universe contains four generative bodies; Met. 15.240ex illīs duo sunt onerōsa suōque
pondere in īnferius, tellūs atque unda, feruntur,
et totidem gravitāte carent nūllōque premente
alta petunt, āēr atque āere pūrior ignis.of these two are heavy and are borne downwards by their weight, earth and water, and as many lack weight and, with nothing pressing on them, seek the heights, air and fire, purer than air. Met. 15.244Quae quamquam spatiō distant, tamen omnia fīunt
245ex ipsīs et in ipsa cadunt, resolūtaque tellūs
in liquidās rārēscit aquās, tenuātus in aurās
āeraque ūmor abit, dēmptō quoque pondere rūrsus
in superōs āēr tenuissimus ēmicat ignēs.Although these are separated in space, yet all things come from them and fall back into them; earth, dissolved, thins into flowing water, moisture, rarefied, passes off into breezes and air, and air, its weight also removed, very thin, flashes up again into the fires above.
Met. 15.249Inde retrō redeunt, īdemque retexitur ōrdō;Then they return backwards, and the same order is unwoven; Met. 15.250ignis enim dēnsum spissātus in āera trānsit,
hic in aquās, tellūs glomerāta cōgitur undā.for fire, condensed, passes into thick air, this into water, and earth is compacted from water rolled together.