Georg. 3.209Sed nōn ūlla magis vīrīs industria firmat,
210quam Venerem et caecī stimulōs āvertere amōris,
sīve boum sīve est cui grātior ūsus equōrum.But no diligence strengthens their powers more than keeping off love and the goads of blind passion, whether one prefers to use oxen or horses. Georg. 3.212Atque ideō taurōs procul atque in sōla relēgant
pāscua post montem oppositum et trāns flūmina lāta,
aut intus clausōs satura ad praesēpia servant.And so they banish bulls far off to lonely pastures, behind a barrier of mountain and across broad rivers, or keep them shut up indoors at full mangers. Georg. 3.215Carpit enim vīrīs paulātim ūritque videndō
fēmina nec nemorum patitur meminisse nec herbae
dulcibus illa quidem inlecebrīs, et saepe superbōs
cornibus inter sē subigit dēcernere amantīs.For the female gradually wastes their strength and inflames them at the sight of her, and does not let them remember groves or pasture — she with her sweet allurements — and often drives proud lovers to fight it out among themselves with their horns. Georg. 3.219Pāscitur in magnā Silā fōrmōsa iuvenca:
220illī alternantēs multā vī proelia miscent
volneribus crēbrīs, lāvit āter corpora sanguis,
versaque in obnīxōs urguentur cornua vāstō
cum gemitū, reboant silvaeque et longus Olympus
Nec mōs bellantīs ūnā stabulāre, sed alter
225victus abit longēque ignōtīs exulat ōrīs,
multa gemēns ignōminiam plagāsque superbī
victōris, tum, quōs āmīsit inultus, amōrēs;A beautiful heifer grazes in great Sila: they in turn join battle with great force, with many wounds; black blood bathes their bodies, and the horns, driven against each other, are thrust home with a vast groan; the woods and the long sky re-echo. Nor is it the custom for the fighters to stall together, but the beaten one goes away and lives in exile on far unknown shores, groaning much at his disgrace and the blows of the proud victor, then at the loves he has lost unavenged; Georg. 3.228et stabula aspectāns regnīs excessit avītīs.and gazing back at the stalls, he has left his ancestral realm.
Georg. 3.229Ergō omnī cūrā vīrīs exercet et inter
230dūra iacet pernīx īnstrātō saxa cubīlī
frondibus hirsūtīs et carice pāstus acūtā,
et temptat sēsē atque īrāscī in cornua discit
arboris obnīxus truncō ventōsque lacessit
ictibus et sparsā ad pugnam prōlūdit harēnā.So with all care he trains his strength, and lies stubbornly among hard rocks on a bed unstrewn, fed on prickly leaves and sharp sedge, and he tests himself and learns to put his anger into his horns, butting at a tree-trunk, and he challenges the winds with his blows, and paws the sand as prelude to the fight. Georg. 3.235Post ubi collēctum rōbur vīrēsque refectae
signa movet praecepsque oblītum fertur in hostem:
flūctus utī mediō coepit cum albēscere pontō
longius ex altōque sinum trahit, utque volūtus
ad terrās immāne sonat per saxa neque ipsō
240monte minor prōcumbit, at īma exaestuat unda
verticibus nigramque altē subiectat harēnam.Afterwards, when his strength is gathered and his powers restored, he moves his standards and rushes headlong at the foe who has forgotten him: as a wave, when it has begun to whiten far out in mid-sea, draws its curve from the deep, and rolling to land roars monstrously among the rocks, and falls no smaller than a mountain itself, while the water below boils up in eddies and tosses black sand on high.