PREFACE.
While hunting in Lesbos I saw in a grove, sacred to the Nymphs, the most beautiful sight which had ever come before my eyes—an historical painting,[1] which represented the incidents of a love-story. The grove itself was beautiful, abounding with trees and flowers, which received their nourishment from a single fountain. More delightful, however, than these was the painting, displaying, as it did, great skill, and representing the fortunes of Love. Because of the fame of this picture, many strangers resorted thither to pay their adorations to the Nymphs, and to view the painting. The subjects of it were women in the throes of child-birth; nurses wrapping the new-born babes in swathing clothes; infants exposed; animals of the flock giving them suck; shepherds carrying them away; young people pledging their mutual troth; an attack by pirates; an inroad by a hostile force.
As I viewed and admired these and many other things, all containing love allusions, I conceived the desire of writing an illustration of the piece, and having sought out a person to explain the various allusions, I at length completed four books,—an offering to the God of Love, to the Nymphs, and to Pan; a work, moreover, which will be acceptable to every one, for it will remedy disease, it will solace grief, it will refresh the memory of him who has once loved, it will instruct him who is as yet ignorant of love. No one, assuredly, has ever escaped, or will escape, the influence of this passion, so long as beauty remains to be seen, and eyes exist to behold it.
May the Deity grant me, undisturbed myself, to describe the emotions of others![2]
[1] Compare the description of the picture representing the story of Europa, in Achilleus Tatius.—B. i., and those of Andromeda and Prometheus in B. ii.
"Suave etiam belli certamina magna tueri
Per campos instructa, tuâ sine parte pericli."
Lucret. 11, 5.