6 Prologue i-ii 



naturally had birth in warm climates, such as India, where the exces- 

 sive heat, at stated periods, seemed to bring the ether down in 

 abundant rains, which at once quickened all things ; hence the Agni 

 of the Rig-Veda cooperating with the mighty parents, Heaven and 

 Earth, to shed abundant showers. 



The thought of Aeschylus and Euripides has been thus 

 expressed (i. 250-3) by Lucretius (96?-55 b. c.) : 



Postremo pereunt imbres, ubi eos pater aether 

 In gremium matris terrai prsecipitavit ; 

 At nitidse surgunt fruges ramique virescunt 

 Arboribus, crescunt ipsae fetuque gravantur." 



And again in a passage (2. 992-4) imitated from Euripides®: 



Omnibus ille idem pater est, unde alma liquentis 

 Umoris guttas mater cum terra recepit, 

 Feta parit nitidas fruges arbustaque Iseta.' 



Lucretius (with perhaps his originals) is followed and ampli- 

 fied by Virgil (Georgics 2. 323-333) : 



Ver adeo frondi nemorum, ver utile silvis, 



Vere tument terrge, et genitalia semina poscunt. 



Tum pater omnipotens fecundis imbribus Aether 



Conjugis in gremium Isetse descendit, et omnis 



Magnus alit, magno commixtus corpore, fetus. 



Avia tum resonant avibus virgulta canoris, 



Et Venerem certis repetunt armenta diebus ; 



Parturit almus ager, Zephyrique tepentibus auris 



Laxant arva sinus ; superat tener omnibus umor ; 



Inque novos soles audent se gramina [var. germina] tuto 



Credere.^ 



* Munro renders : 'Lastly rains die, when Father Ether has tumbled them 

 into the lap of Mother Earth; but then goodly crops spring up, and boughs 

 are green with leaves upon the trees, trees themselves grow, and are 

 laden with fruit.' 



' Frag. 836. This is also translated in prose by Vitruvius, at the 

 beginning of his Eighth Book. 



^ 'All have that same Father, by whom Mother Earth, the giver of 

 increase, when she has taken in from him liquid drops of moisture, con- 

 ceives and bears goodly crops and joyous trees.' 



' Thus rendered by Lonsdale and Lee : 'The spring it is that ministers to 

 the leafage of the groves, and to the forests themselves as well ; in spring 

 the land heaves with fruitfulness, and requires the procreative seed. The 

 Heaven, the Almighty Father, comes down in fertilizing showers into the 



