FOREST POEMS

...it is more fitting to spur the horse, pursue wild beasts, and aim weapons. The mountains and forests themselves rejoice to offer access, and they leap at the sound of the hunting cry. Back at home, the exchange of letters follows in full. You report most pleasantly what the Roman Echo has said. You describe groves, the retreats of caves, hills, and springs. Everything smiles with elegant colors and your own genius. You speak with the Muses as if they were sisters, and with Apollo as a brother. Furthermore, human wisdom has established nothing so profound or deep that the success of your far reaching talent does not seem likely to reach it.

This pleased me most recently: when SIGISMUND LECANTA, your kinsman, before he was called away to Bologna, asked me to celebrate the sacred rites of Diana in verse, you added a warning. You told me to be careful not to diminish the authority of Pallas Athena. You said the religion of the Pierides original: "Pieridum." A name for the Muses, the goddesses of music, song, and dance. must not be defiled by the injurious joy of the Fauns The Fauns were rustic forest gods, often portrayed as rowdy or unrefined. The brothers are asking the poet to keep the hunting poems sophisticated and scholarly.. I accepted the command and the condition. Having complied with your most honorable wishes, I have offered sacrifices to both goddesses in turn. However, I have not spread myself across the entire scope of hunting, but have instead embraced only a few things from certain parts. The contradictions in this work must be measured against the distastes of grumpy men. At the end, there is a Dithyramb A wild, passionate choral hymn, often associated with ecstasy., in my opinion.

I.

That the pleasure of hunting is both serious and chaste.

For who would not be pleased by the life of the hunting Goddesses,

around leafy Mount Maenalus? A mountain in Arcadia, Greece, which was sacred to the god Pan and a favorite haunt of the goddess Diana.

Hither, beautiful and fierce DIANA; and you companions of Diana,

approach with your tunics tucked up: Stephanus

Golden-haired LEONTODAME, dark BRITOMARTIS, swift LYCASTE,

and dark-blue OPIS.

Hither, according to custom, stretch your nets; hither, Goddesses, direct your step,

with beautiful bare arms.

The chaste man loves the woods. For you also, chaste DICTYNNA Another name for Diana, derived from the Greek word for a hunting net.,

reject the marriage ring.

Because the lazy nymph SALMACIS did not want

her leisure to be mixed with hunting:

She was made into a soft creature, and ceased to be a maiden,

and became almost a true woman. In mythology, Salmacis was a nymph who rejected the active life of hunting for bathing and vanity. She eventually merged with Hermaphroditus, losing her independent identity.