Link to an image of this page [N3v p198]
Remedia in arduo, mala in
prono esse.
Remedies are hard, damage is easy
XCII.
Aetheriis postquàm deiecit sedibus Aten
Iuppiter,[1] heu vexat quàm mala noxa viros.
Evolat haec pedibus celer & pernicibus alis,
Intactumque nihil casibus esse sinit.
Ergo Litae proles Iovis hanc comitantur euntem,[2]
Sarturae quicquid fecerit illa mali.
Sed quia segnipedes, strabae[3], lassaeque senectâ,
Nil nisi pòst longo tempore restituunt.
Once Jupiter had cast Ate down from the heavenly abode, what an evil bane thereafter assailed poor man! Ate flies out fleet of foot with fast-beating wing and leaves nothing untouched by mishap. So Jove’s daughters, the Litae, accompany her as she goes, to mend whatever ill she has brought about. But they are slow-footed, poor of sight and weary with age, and so they restore nothing until later, after long passage of time.
Link to an image of this page [N4r p199]
Maulx viennent promptement,
et biens a difficulté.
XCII.
Attey de Juppiter chassée
Pour nuyre, vola sur la terre.
Et n’y fait pas une passée,
Sans rendre feu, fain, peste, ou guerre.
Lites apres vont, non grand erre,
Car vieilles sont, & mal trotans:
Dont l’on ne peult leur bien acquerre,
Fors apres longue espace, & temps.
1. ‘Jupiter had cast Ate down’. See Homer, Iliad 19. 125ff.
2. ‘the Litae accompany her’. See Homer, Iliad 9.502ff. Ate means ‘Mischief’, Litae, ‘Prayers’. Ate was cast out of Olympus to bring harm to mankind, a personification of humans being led astray. The Litae were a personification of prayers offered in repentance.
3. Textual variant: luscae.
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Link to an image of this page [k6v p156]
In vitam humanam.
On human life
XCVI.
Plus solito humanae nunc defle incommoda vitae,
Heraclite, scatet pluribus illa malis.
Tu rursus, si quando aliàs extolle cachinnum
Democrite, illa magis ludicra facta fuit.
Interea haec cernens meditor, qua denique tecum
Fine fleam, aut tecum quomodo splene iocer.[1]
Weep now, Heraclitus, even more than you did, for the ills of human life. It teems with far more woes. And you, Democritus, if ever you laughed before, raise your cackle now. Life has become more of a joke. Meanwhile, seeing all this, I consider just how far I can weep with you, how laugh bitterly with you.
Link to an image of this page [k7r p157]
COMMENTARIA.
Heraclitus philosophis fuit Ephesius. li-
bros composuit de industria adeò obscuros
ut vix à quoquam etiam doctissimo intelligi
potuerint, ideoque tenebricosus cognomina-
tus fuit. Is praesertim domum egrediens sem-
per plorabat, sibi enim omnia mundana non
nisi miseriae videbantur & angustiae. Alter
erat Democritus ex Tracia, in omni philoso-
phiae genere peritissimus qui tandem (teste
Cicerone lib. 5. Tusculanae quaestionum) semetipsum ob-
caecavit ut promptiores & subtiliores delibe-
rationes haberet, ad investiganda naturae se-
creta. Hic omnes hominum actus tanquam
ineptias & ludicra continuò ridebat, de quo
etiam Gellius lib. 10. cap. 17. & horum meminit
Cicero lib. 4. de Academicis. Sed nunc ô He-
raclite luge & defle humanae vitae incommo-
da acriùs, hoc enim nostro tempore longè
pluribus quàm unquam anteà malis & mise-
riis scatet. Imò tu Democrite nunc ex-
tolle risum in cachinnum usque:
Mundus etenim ridiculus
magis, multumque
ineptior fa-
ctus est.
1. This is a translation of Anthologia graeca 9.148. For Heraclitus, cf. [A56a252]. For the contrast between the despairing tears of Heraclitus (who withdrew from human society) and the sardonic laughter of Democritus when faced with the folly of men, see, among many sources, e.g. Juvenal, Satires 10, 28ff.
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