Gaius Valerius Flaccus Zitate

“The Latmian hunter rests in the summer shade, fit lover for a goddess, and soon the Moon comes with veiled horns.”
Latmius aestiva residet venator in umbra dignus amore deae, velatis cornibus et iam Luna venit.

“Often again she is resolved to promise her skill to the unhappy man, then again refuses, and is determined rather to perish with him; and she cries that never will she yield to so base a passion…”
Saepe suas misero promittere destinat artes, denegat atque una potius decernit in ira ac neque tam turpi cessuram semet amori proclamat.

“Go now, go, but forget not the land that first folded you to its peaceful bosom; and from Colchis' conquered shores bring back hither thy sails, I pray thee, by this Jason whom thou leavest in my womb.”
I, memor i terrae, quae vos amplexa quieto prima sinu, refer et domitis a Colchidos oris vela per hunc utero quem linquis Iasona nostro.

“Are they heroes or mere dreamers?”

“And giving men power to steer their path across the sea with heaven as their guide.”
Et dedit aequoreos caelo duce tendere cursus.

“Fruitlessly doth he groan, beholding the face of the Colchian maid; then over all the mountain pain contracts his limbs, and all his fetters shake beneath her sickle.”
Gemit inritus ille Colchidos ora tuens. totos tunc contrahit artus monte dolor cunctaeque tremunt sub falce catenae.

“But Juno and the virgin daughter of supreme Jove were sharing heart to heart their inmost counsels and distracting cares.”
At Iuno et summi virgo Iovis intima secum consilia et varias sociabant pectore curas.

“Just as at first the South wind makes gentle sport as it softly stirs the leaves and topmost branches of the woodland, but soon the unlucky ships are feeling all its terrible strength.”
Velut ante comas ac summa cacumina silvae lenibus adludit flabris levis Auster, at illum protinus immanem miserae sensere carinae.

“Where still the branches guarded the skin of ruddy hue, like to illumined cloud or to Iris when she ungirds her robe and glides to meet glowing Phoebus.”
Cuius adhuc rutilam servabant bracchia pellem, nubibus accensis similem aut cum veste recincta labitur ardenti Thaumantias obvia Phoebo.

“But Medea in her chamber, trembling and terror-struck now at what she has done, is encompassed by all her father's threatening rage.”
At trepidam in thalamis et iam sua facta paventem Colchida circa omnes pariter furiaeque minaeque patris habent.

“Hereupon Juno and Pallas leap sheer down from the sky upon the rocks; this one the daughter of Jove, that one his spouse constrains.”
Hic Iuno praecepsque ex aethere Pallas insiliunt pariter scopulos: hunc nata coercet, hunc coniunx Iovis.

“And takes forth a Caucasian herb, of potency sure beyond all others, sprung of the gore that dropped from the liver of Prometheus, and grass wind-nurtured, fostered and strengthened by that blood divine among snows and grisly frosts.”
Et, qua sibi fida magis vis nulla, Prometheae florem de sanguine fibrae promit nutritaque gramina monti, quae sacer ille nives inter tristesque pruinas durat alitque cruor.

“[Medea] looked toward the gates and found him still even as he went; and alas! as he departed still comelier seemed the stranger to the lovelorn girl: such shoulders, such frame doth he leave to her remembrance.”
Respexit que fores et adhuc invenit euntem, visus et heu miserae tunc pulchrior hospes amanti discedens; tales umeros, ea terga relinquit.

“Even as the light that shifts and plays upon a lake, when Cynthia looks forth from heaven or the bright wheel of Phoebus in mid course passes by, so doth he shed a gleam upon the waters; he heeds not the shadow of the Nymph or her hair or the sound of her as she rises to embrace him. Greedily casting her arms about him, as he calls, alack! too late for help and utters the name of his mighty friend, she draws him down; for her strength is aided by his falling weight.”
Stagna vaga sic luce micant ubi Cynthia caelo prospicit aut medii transit rota candida Phoebi, tale iubar diffundit aquis: nil umbra comaeque turbavitque sonus surgentis ad oscula nymphae. illa avidas iniecta manus heu sera cientem auxilia et magni referentem nomen amici detrahit, adiutae prono nam pondere vires.

“Her eyes brimful to the verge of weeping.”
Ad primos turgentia lumina fletus.

“As they toil they are whirled round by a furious wave.”
Unda laborantes praeceps rotat.

“Why feel I so for him, whether he master his toils, or whether he fall?”
Quid me autem sic ille movet, superetne labores an cadat?

“Strikes his echoing lyre, singing the while, and bequeaths a name to the sands.”
Percutit ore lyram nomenque relinquit harenis.

“At the same time welcome Night brings on the star-heralding shadows.”
Nox simul astriferas profert optabilis umbras.

“Their words were spoken to the breezes nor swayed appointed fate.”
Dicta dabant ventis nec debita fata movebant.

“[A cave] that trembled with the roaring of the deep.”
Sonitu tremebunda profundi.

“Their fear deepened with the night as they beheld the face of the heavens turning and the mountains and all places rapt from view and all around thick darkness. The very stillness of Nature, the silent constellations in the heavens, the firmament starred with streaming meteors filled them with fear. And as a traveller by night overtaken in some unknown spot upon the road keeps ear and eye alert, while the darkening landscape to left and right and trees looming up with shadows strangely huge do but make heavier the terrors of night, even so the heroes quailed.”
Auxerat hora metus, iam se vertentis Olympi ut faciem raptosque simul montesque locosque ex oculis circumque graves videre tenebras. ipsa quies rerum mundique silentia terrent astraque et effusis stellatus crinibus aether; ac velut ignota captus regione viarum noctivagum qui carpit iter non aure quiescit, non oculis, noctisque metus niger auget utrimque campus et occurrens umbris maioribus arbor, haud aliter trepidare viri.

“Away with scruple in adversity!”
Rebus semper pudor absit in artis.

“One who mocked Jove's ardent wooing, unmoved by heavenly suitors; not Halys only or Apollo were deceived by the trickery of the nymph they loved.”
Blandos que Iovis quae luserat ignes caelicolis immota procis: deceptus amatae fraude deae nec solus Halys nec solus Apollo.

“Idmon, Phoebus' son,… to him the Father gave by his ordinance the foreknowledge of omens divine, whether he inquired of flames or close-viewed entrails smooth, or of the air thick with fowls that cannot lie.”
Phoebeius Idmon, ... cui genitor tribuit monitu praenoscere divum omina, seu flammas seu lubrica comminus exta seu plenum certis interroget aera pinnis.

“The whole landscape flashes while the hero now wraps about his body the fleece with its starry tufts of hair, now shifts it to his neck, now folds it upon his left arm.”
Micat omnis ager villisque comantem sidereis totos pellem nunc fundit in artus, nunc in colla refert, nunc implicat ille sinistrae.

“My song is of the straits first navigated by the mighty sons of gods, of the prophetic ship that dared to seek the shores of Scythian Phasis, that burst unswerving through the clashing rocks, to slink at length to rest in the starry firmament.”
Prima deum magnis canimus freta pervia natis fatidicamque ratem, Scythici quae Phasidis oras ausa sequi mediosque inter iuga concita cursus rumpere flammifero tandem consedit Olympo.

“And now the high crest sinks, now the head is nodding overpowered and the huge neck has slipped from around the fleece it guarded, like refluent Po or Nile that sprawls in seven streams or Alpheus when his waters enter the Hesperian world.”
Iamque altae cecidere iubae nutatque coactum iam caput atque ingens extra sua vellera cervix ceu refluens Padus aut septem proiectus in amnes Nilus et Hesperium veniens Alpheos in orbem.

“The other, his brow heavy with threats, had long been muttering and smouldering with hidden fire.”
Talibus orantem vultu gravis ille minaci iamdudum premit et furiis ignescit opertis.