Musicam Diis curae esse.

The gods care for music

Locrensis posuit, tibi Delphice Phoebe cicadam
Eunomus hanc, palmae signa decora suae.
Certabat plectro Sparthyn commissus in hostem,
Et percussa sonum pollice fila dabant.
Trita fides rauco coepit cum stridere bombo,
Legitimum Harmonias & vitiare Melos
Tum citharae argutans suavis sese intulit ales
Quae fractam impleret voce cicada fidem
Quaeque allecta, soni ad legem descendit ab altis
Saltibus, ut nobis garrula ferret opem:
  Link to an image of this page  [D5r f16r]Ergò tuae ut firmus stet honos, ô sancte, Cicadae,
Pro Cithara hic fidicen aeneus ipsa sedet.[1]

Phoebus, god of Delphi, Locrian Eunomus set up this cicada in your honour, an appropriate symbol of his victory. He was competing in the lyre contest against his rival Sparthys and the strings resounded as he plucked them with the plectrum. A worn string began to buzz with a hoarse rattle and spoil the true melody of the music. Then a sweet-voiced creature, a cicada, flew chirping onto the lyre to supply with its song the broken string. Recruited to follow the rules of musical sound, it flew down from the high glades to bring us aid with its chirping song. Accordingly, so that the honour due to your cicada, o holy god, may last undiminished, on top of the lyre she sits here herself, a minstrel in bronze.