“Unicus anser erat, minimæ custodia villæ,
Quem Dîs hospitibus domini mactare parabant.
Ille celer pennâ tardos ætate fatigat,
Eluditque diu. Tandemque est visus ad ipsos
Confugisse Deos. Superi vetuêre necari:
‘Dîque sumus,’” &c.
When the rest of the inhabitants of Phrygia, were, for their wickedness, destroyed by indignant Heaven, the two old peasants, we may add, found safety from the general Deluge. (Metam. viii. 664–688).[291]
It may be noted in this place that the great “Epicurean” poet, Horace (Ovid’s contemporary), bon-vivant though he was, and apparently uninspired by humanitarian feeling, yet now and again expresses his conviction of the superiority of the Fruit to the Flesh banquet, and of the greater compatibility of the former with the poetic genius. E.g. Carmina I., 31. Ad Apollinem:—
Me pascunt Olivæ
Me Cichorea levesque Malvæ.