EPITHALAMION Wedding Song OF STEL-

LA AND VIOLAN-

TILLA.

Whence have the mountains of Latium sounded with sacred song?
For whom does Paean Apollo move the new plectrum? And upon whose
flowing hair
Do you hang the eloquent ivory lyre? Behold, from afar the goddesses
Depart from tuneful Helicon, and shake the solemn fire
With a nine-fold lamp as the bridal chambers unite,
And the vocal water from the Pierian springs.
Among them, saucy Elegy approaches with her expression,
Accustomed to Caesar, and encourages the goddess, and strives
To compose an alternating foot, and desires to seem
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The tenth muse; and she slips through, mixed in with her sisters.
Aeneas’s mother Venus herself leads the bride by the hand,
Her eyes cast down, blushing with sweet modesty;
She herself prepares the couch and the sacred rites, and in the Latin company,
Disguising herself as a goddess in hair, expression, and cheeks,
She moderates them, and rejoices to walk less grandly than the new bride.
I recognize the day, and the cause of the rite, this song celebrates you
(Open the doors), the chorus of Stella celebrates you, for you Phoebus and Evan Bacchus,
And the winged Tegeaticus Mercury from the Maenalian shade
Bring garlands; nor does bland Love, nor Grace cease
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To sprinkle the snowy limbs of the desired spouse, whom he embraces,
With countless flowers and fragrant thyme.
Now you receive roses on your forehead, now lilies mixed with violets.