Aratus with Commentaries

And with both feet, look under Bootes for
Virgo, who carries in her hands the radiant Ear of Corn.
Whether she is the offspring of Astraeus, whom they say
was the ancient father of the stars, or of someone else,
100

may she be carried peacefully. Yet another story runs among
men, that she was once on earth,
and used to walk among men, and she never once
refused the ancient tribes of men or women,
but sat among them, even though she was immortal.
105

And they called her Dike Justice; and gathering the elders,
perhaps in the marketplace or in the wide street,
she would chant public judgments with urgency.
At that time, they did not yet know of wretched strife,
nor of blameworthy discord, nor of the din of battle;
110

they lived simply. But the sea was difficult and far away,
and ships did not yet bring life from afar;
but oxen and plows, and she herself, the mistress of the people,
provided everything in abundance, Dike, the giver of what is just.
So it was, as long as the earth still nourished the golden race.
115

But with the silver one, she was small and no longer entirely the same,
mingling, longing for the customs of the ancient peoples.
Yet nevertheless, she was still with that silver race.
And she would come down from the echoing mountains at eventide