On the Nature of the Universe (Oxford World’s Classics) (47 page)

Thought useless since its edge was quickly blunted.

Now bronze lies low in the esteem of men,

And gold has mounted to the highest honour.

1275

So with the rolling years times change for things.

What once was valued has no honour now.

Next follows something else, no longer scorned,

Which day by day more keenly sought once found

Is crowned with praise and honoured beyond belief.

1280

Now it is easy for you, Memmius,

To understand by yourself the way in which

The properties of iron were discovered.

The ancient weapons were hands and nails and teeth

And stones and branches torn from trees

And flame and fire, as soon as they were known.

1285

Later the power of iron and bronze was found.

The use of bronze was known before that of iron,

Being worked more easily and more plentiful.

With bronze they tilled the soil, with bronze they roused

The waves of war, and sowed the withering seeds

1290

Of wounds, and made a spoil of flocks and fields.

For all things naked and unarmed must yield,

An easy prey, to men equipped with arms.

Then gradually the sword of iron came forth

And, the bronze sickle’s curving blade despised,

With iron they began to cleave the earth.

1295

And in the dark uncertain fates of war

Things were made equal on the battlefield.

To mount a horse in arms, controlling it

With reins and bit, the right hand freed for action,

Came earlier than in a two-horsed chariot

To chance the hazards of war; and the two-horsed car

Came earlier than harnessing two pairs,

1300

And before armed men mounted scythed chariots.

Next elephants with turrets on their backs,

Snake-handed hideous beasts, the men of Carthage

Taught to endure the dreadful wounds of war

And all the mighty hosts of Mars embroil.

Thus Discord bred one foul thing after another

1305

To bring new terror to the battlefield

And day by day increased the horrors of war.

Bulls too were pressed into the service of war,

And they tried to send boars against the enemy,

And sometimes they sent lions in front of them

1310

With trainers armed and cruel keepers, skilled

To master them and hold them on the leash—

In vain, since heated by the general slaughter

Raging uncontrolled they threw the squadrons into turmoil

Tossing their dread manes everywhere. The riders

1315

Quite lacked the power to calm the terrified horses

And rear them round against the enemy.

The lionesses hurled their frenzied bodies

In all directions, leaping at men’s throats,

Or snatching unsuspecting victims from behind,

1320

Dragging them mortally wounded to the ground

Held fast by their strong teeth and curving claws.

Bulls tossed their masters and trod them underfoot

And gored the flanks and bellies of the horses,

Striking upwards with their horns, and in their fury

1325

Tore up the earth. And boars with their strong tusks

Savaged their allies, and bathing in their own blood

The weapons broken in their reeking bodies

To horse and foot alike dealt out destruction.

Horses would shy and swerve to avoid the tusks’

Fierce onset, or rear up and paw the air—

1330

In vain, since they were hamstrung and collapsed

And fell, and spread their bodies on the ground.

Even the animals that seemed tame at home

They saw boil over in the heat of action—

1335

Wounds, shouting, flight and terror and tumult—

And none of them would answer the recall.

For all the different wild beasts fled away,

As elephants often at the present time

Will run amok when wounded by the steel,

After they have turned their fury on their keepers.

1340

If in fact they did do this. For I

Can scarce believe that in their minds no vision

Or apprehension came that this would happen

Before the foul and evil event occurred.

Indeed it would be wiser to maintain

That this happened somewhere in the universe,

Somewhere among the many different worlds

Created in so many different ways,

1345

Than to credit it to any particular globe.

They did this not in hope of victory

But to dismay their enemies (and perish themselves),

Mistrustful of their numbers and lacking in arms.

The plaited garment came before woven cloth.

1350

And cloth comes after iron, since iron is needed

To make the loom: only iron can give the smoothness

Needed for treadles and spindles and shuttles and clattering leash-rods.

Nature ordained that this should be men’s work

Before it was women’s (for the male sex as a whole

Is much more skilled than women and more clever)

1355

Until the farm-folk called it a disgrace.

So men preferred to leave it to women’s hands

And join themselves with others in hard toil

And by hard labour hardened limbs and hands.

1360

A model for sowing and for grafting plants

Nature herself the great creatress formed.

Berries and acorns fallen beneath the trees

Sent up in season due a swarm of shoots.

From this they learnt too to graft slips in branches

1365

And plant young tender saplings in the fields.

Next, different types of husbandry they tried

One after another in their cherished plots,

And saw wild fruits grow tame in the sweet soil

With loving care and gentle humouring.

And day by day they made the woods retreat

1370

Ever higher up the hills, surrendering

The place below to tilth, to make for them

Meadows and crops, pools, streams, and smiling vineyards

O’er hills and plains, and running in between

The grey-green olives marking out the land,

O’er hills and valleys and across the plains;

1375

As now we see the countryside laid out

In charming patterns, studded and adorned

With luscious orchards everywhere, and full

Of fertile woods and groves enclosing them.

To imitate the liquid notes of birds

With mouth and lips came long before men learnt

1380

To charm the ears by singing tuneful songs.

And zephyrs whistling through the hollow reeds

First taught the country-folk to blow through pipes.

Then gradually they learnt the sweet laments

The flute pours out pressed by a player’s fingers,

1385

Through pathless woods and glades and forests sounding

And shepherds’ lonely haunts beneath the sky.

These melodies would soothe and cheer their hearts

1390

When they had had their fill of food; for then

All things go well and please the minds of men.

So often, lying in company together

On the soft grass beside a flowing stream

Beneath a tall tree’s shade, at little cost

They found sweet rustic pleasure; most of all

1395

When weather smiled and the season of the year

Painted the meadows and green lanes with flowers.

Then jests and talk and happy bursts of laughter

Were there, and the rustic muse was in her prime.

And then in joyful sport their heads and shoulders

1400

They crowned with garlands, of leaves and flowers woven,

And danced, all out of step, with clumsy limbs,

And stamped with clumsy feet on mother earth.

What mirth was there, what peals of happy laughter!

For these things then were new and wonderful

And flourished in the charm of novelty.

And when at night they watched, bereft of sleep,

1405

Their solace was to raise the tuneful voice

In song, with many a varied melody,

And run the curving lip along the reeds;

So watchmen now this old tradition keep,

Learning to play in tune; and not one whit

1410

Of greater pleasure do they get from it

Than those old earth-born woodland people got.

For what we have, unless we have seen before