" Ὀφθαλμοὺς ἐστιᾶν."
"Atque oculos pascat uterque suos."
OVID. Amor. lib. iii.
It seems to me that the noble poet has condescended to avail himself of a little ruse in referring to this passage of Ovid. It would have been perhaps more honest to have referred his readers to those magnificent lines in the opening address to Venus, by Lucretius, "De Rerum Naturâ," beginning,—
"Æneadum genitrix, hominum divômque voluptas,
Alma Venus!" &c.
I subjoin the verses which Lord Byron really had in mind when he wrote the foregoing stanzas:
"Nam tu sola potes tranquillâ pace juvare
Mortaleis: quoniam belli fera mœnera Mavors
Armipotens regit, in gremium qui sæpe tuum se