25. In her wanderings on
that quest, she reaches the confines of Eleusis as well as other
countries4431
—that is
the name of a canton in Attica. At that time these parts were
inhabited by aborigines
4432
| 4432
Lit., “(they were) earth-born who inhabited.” |
named Baubo, Triptolemus, Eubuleus,
Eumolpus,
4433
| 4433
The ms. wants this name; but it has
evidently been omitted by accident, as it occurs in the next
line. |
Dysaules: Triptolemus, who yoked
oxen; Dysaules, a
keeper of
goats; Eubuleus, of
swine; Eumolpus, of
sheep,
4434
| 4434
Lit., “of woolly flock.” |
from whom also flows the race of
Eumolpidæ, and
from whom is derived that name famous among
the Athenians,
4435
and those
who afterwards flourished as
caduceatores,
4436
hierophants, and criers. So,
then, that Baubo who, we have said, dwelt in the canton of Eleusis,
receives hospitably Ceres, worn out with ills of many kinds, hangs
about her with pleasing attentions, beseeches her not to neglect to
refresh her body, brings to quench her
thirst wine thickened with
spelt,
4437
| 4437
Cinnus, the chief ingredients, according to Hesychius
(quoted by Oehler), being wine, honey, water, and spelt or
barley. [P. 503, inf.] |
which the
Greeks term
cyceon. The
goddess in her
sorrow turns away
from the kindly offered services,
4438
and
rejects them; nor does
her misfortune
suffer her to remember what the body always
requires.
4439
| 4439
Lit., “common health.” Arnobius is here utterly
forgetful of Ceres’ divinity, and subjects her to the invariable
requirements of nature, from which the divine might be supposed to be
exempt. |
Baubo,
on the other
hand, begs and
exhorts her—as is usual in such
calamities—not to
despise her
humanity; Ceres remains utterly
immoveable, and tenaciously maintains an invincible austerity.
But when this was done several times, and her
fixed purpose could not
be worn out by any attentions, Baubo changes her plans, and determines
to make merry by
strange jests her whom she could not win by
earnestness. That part of the body by which
women both bear
children and obtain the name of mothers,
4440
| 4440 So
the conjecture of Livineius, adopted by Oehler, gene-t-ri-cum
for the ms. genericum. |
this she frees from longer
neglect: she makes it assume a purer
appearance, and become
smooth like a
child, not yet hard and
rough with
hair. In this
wise she returns
4441
| 4441 So
Stewechius, followed by Oehler, reading redit itafor the
ms. redita; the other edd. merely
drop a. |
to the
sorrowing
goddess; and while trying the common expedients by which it
is usual to
break the force of
grief, and moderate it, she uncovers
herself, and baring her groins, displays all the parts which decency
hides;
4442
| 4442
Omnia illa pudoris loca. |
and then the
goddess fixes her
eyes upon these,
4443
and is pleased with the strange form
of consolation. Then becoming more cheerful after laughing, she
takes and drinks off the drought spurned
before, and the
indecency of a shameless action forced that which Baubo’s modest
conduct was long unable to win.
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