8 Prologue i-ii 



Caerulas inter catervas, inter et bipedes equos, 

 Fecit undantem Dionem de maritis imbribus. . . . 

 Ut pater totum crearet veris annum nubibus, 

 In sinum maritus imber fluxit almse conjugis," 

 Unde fetus perque pontum perque caelum pergeret, 

 Perque terras mixtus omnes alere magno corpora." 



We have seen above that Aphrodite (Venus) proclaims her 

 active complicity in the process and the result outlined by 

 Aeschylus, and a similar thought is expressed by the fourth line 

 quoted from the Pervigilium Veneris. Nor are these the only 

 passages of a similar purport. Hesiod, describing the birth of 

 Aphrodite, refers to her influence on vegetation {Theog. 194 ff.) : 

 'Then forth stepped an awful, beauteous goddess, and beneath 

 her delicate feet the verdure throve around; her gods and men 

 name Aphrodite, the foam-sprung goddess.' Aud thus Lucretius 



(1.7-8): 



Tibi suavis daedala tellus 



Summittit flores."" 



Elsewhere Lucretius says (5. 737-9) : 



It ver et Venus, et Veneris praenuntius ante 

 Pennatus graditur, Zephyri vestigia propter 

 Flora.'^ 



Ovid is no less explicit in his association of the goddess and the 

 season {Fasti 4. 125, 129) : 



"Arnobius (ca. 303) accuses (Bk. 5, chaps. 31, 34, 35, 37, 40, 43) the 

 heathen writers whom he is attacking of relating the story about Jupiter 

 and Ceres (cf. Hesiod, Theog. 912), Ceres (Demeter) being of course the 

 Earth under another personification. 



" Thus rendered by Mackail : 'To-morrow will be the day when the 

 primal Ether joined wedlock; then from the moisture overhead and the 

 orbed sea-foam, amid green multitudes and finned horses, sprang Dione 

 [Aphrodite], wave-born under nuptial showers. . . . 



'To quicken the whole year from the clouds of spring, the bridegroom- 

 shower has flowed into the lap of his fair bride, that so, mingling with 

 the vast frame, he might pass through sea and through sky and through 

 all the lands, to nourish their offspring.' 



" 'For thee earth, manifold in works, puts forth sweet-smelling flowers.' 



" 'Spring and Venus go their way, and the winged harbinger of Venus 

 steps on before; and close on Zephyr's footprints Mother Flora.' Cf. 

 Botticelli's Primavera. 



