terruit exemplo Phaëthon, qui fulmina praeceps
in nostris efflavit aquis, dum flammea caeli
gleamed the golden horns that cast their brilliance all along the banks. No common crown of reeds adorned his oozy locks. The green branches of the daughters of the sun[29] shadowed his head and amber dripped from all his hair. A cloak was flung over his broad shoulders, a cloak whose grey texture was set aflame with an embroidery of Phaëthon and his father’s chariot. Resting beneath his breast an urn glorious with engraved stars makes clear its heaven-sent beauty. For there Phoebus had set in the sky all the sad stories of his woe: Cycnus changed into a swan, Phaëthon’s sisters transformed into trees, and the river that washed the wounds of his dying son; the charioteer is there in his icy zone, the Hyades follow on their brother’s traces, while the Milky Way sprinkles the outstretched wings of Cycnus who bears him company; the constellation of Eridanus[30] himself wets the clear southern sky in its tortuous course and with starry stream flows beneath Orion’s dread sword.
Glorious in such guise the god looked forth and saw the Getae advancing with bowed necks. Then he spake: “What, Alaric, hast thou then changed thy plans? Why hastenest thou back? Art wearied so soon of the coasts of Italy? Feedest thou not thy horses on Tiber’s grassy bank as thou thoughtest to do? Drivest not the plough on Etruria’s hills? Fit object of all the punishments of Hell, thinkest thou to attack the city of the gods with a Giant’s rage? If none other, was not my Phaëthon a warning to thee, Phaëthon fall’n from heaven to quench his flames in my waters, what time he
[29] The poplar.
[30] Eridanus was a mythical river of the far West, generally identified with the Latin Padus (mod. Po). Phaëthon is said to have fallen into it when he attempted to drive the horses of his father, the sun. After this Eridanus, the river god, became a constellation—hence Eridanus is said to “wet” the southern sky.
flectere terrenis meditatur frena lacertis
mortalique diem sperat diffundere vultu? 190