thy absent father urges, “why do you hesitate to die? you may strangle your neck suspended from this ash, with your girdle that has commodiously attended you.  Or if a precipice, and the rocks that are edged with death, please you, come on, commit yourself to the rapid storm; unless you, that are of blood-royal, had rather card your mistress’s wool, and be given up as a concubine to some barbarian dame.”  As she complained, the treacherously-smiling Venus, and her son, with his bow relaxed, drew near.  Presently, when she had sufficiently rallied her, “Refrain (she cried) from your rage and passionate chidings, since this detested bull shall surrender his horns to be torn in pieces by you.  Are you ignorant, that you are the wife of the invincible Jove?  Cease your sobbing; learn duly to support your distinguished good fortune.  A division of the world shall bear your name.”

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ODE XXVIII.

To Lyde.

What can I do better on the festal day of Neptune?  Quickly produce, Lyde, the hoarded Caecuban, and make an attack upon wisdom, ever on her guard.  You perceive the noontide is on its decline; and yet, as if the fleeting day stood still, you delay to bring out of the store-house the loitering cask, [that bears its date] from the consul Bibulus.  We will sing by turns, Neptune, and the green locks of the Nereids; you, shall chant, on your wreathed lyre, Latona and the darts of the nimble Cynthia; at the conclusion of your song, she also [shall be celebrated], who with her yoked swans visits Gnidos, and the shining Cyclades, and Paphos:  the night also shall be celebrated in a suitable lay.

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ODE XXIX.

To Maecenas.

O Maecenas, thou progeny of Tuscan kings, there has been a long while for you in my house some mellow wine in an unbroached hogshead, with rose-flowers and expressed essence for your hair.  Disengage yourself from anything that may retard you, nor contemplate the ever marshy Tibur, and the sloping fields of Aesula, and the hills of Telegonus the parricide.  Leave abundance, which is the source of daintiness, and yon pile of buildings approaching near the lofty clouds:  cease to admire the smoke, and opulence, and noise of flourishing Rome.  A change is frequently agreeable to the rich, and a cleanly meal in the little cottage of the poor has smoothed an anxious brow without carpets or purple.  Now the bright father of Andromeda displays his hidden fire; now Procyon rages, and the constellation of the ravening Lion, as the sun brings round the thirsty season.  Now the weary shepherd with his languid flock seeks the shade, and the river, and the thickets of rough Sylvanus; and the silent bank is free from the wandering winds.  You regard what constitution may suit the state, and are in an