Thus spake the son of Saturn, but him Minerva addressed: "O father, never will I come as an assistant to the mice in trouble, since they have done me many ills, having befouled my garlands, and lamps, for the sake of the oil. But this thing, such as they have done, has particularly eaten into my soul, they have nibbled away a garment, which I had worked with mine own toil, of delicate thread, and I wove a delicate web, and they have made holes in it. But the †weaver[1] presses me, and demands usury of me, [and] on this account I am worn out. For having borrowed,† I worked it, and have not the wherewithal to pay back. But even thus I shall not be willing to aid the frogs. For neither are they discreet in mind, but yesterday, when I was returning from battle, when I was very tired, and wanted to sleep, they, making a noise, would not suffer me to close my eyes even for a minute,[2] and I lay sleepless with a headache, until the cock crowed. But come, let us gods avoid aiding these, lest some one of us be wounded by a sharp dart, [and lest any one be stricken as to his body with a spear or a sword;][3] for they are going to fight hand to hand, even if a god were to come against them, and let us all be amused, beholding the strife from heaven."
Thus then she spoke, and her the other gods all obeyed. But they all at once came together into one place, and two heralds, bearing the portent[4] of war, and then [with them]
- ↑ Chapman renders ἠπητὴς, a darner. But there is much difficulty in the whole passage. Coleridge, Introduction, p. 282, says, "I do not pretend to understand this passage exactly; there is evidently some confusion in the text. If πράσσει με τόκους, exacts usury of me, is genuine, is it possible to reconcile such an allusion to the Homeric age?" Parnell's version is very witty, but it is not to the sense:
"For which vile earthly duns thy daughter grieve;
The gods, that use no coin, have none to give."Coleridge considers that ἠπητὴς means "the man of whom Minerva got the stuff;" but Chapman's translation is confirmed by Phrynichus, who compares it with ἀκεστὴς. Ernesti would read χρήστην, creditorem. The Leipsic MS. reads καὶ πολὺ με πράσσει, which certainly gets rid of some of the difficulty; but the passage is by no means satisfactory.
- ↑ οὐδ' ὀλιγον,
"nor would stay
Till one wink seized mine eyes."Chapman. - ↑ Justly regarded as spurious by Ernesti.
- ↑ "Belli signum," Virg. Æn. viii. 1. Cf. Il. xi. 4. The verse however is wanting in two MSS., and since Jupiter is said to have given the
