Therefore I, considering that Love is a mighty and most powerful deity, and that the Golden Venus is so too, recollect the verses of Euripides on the subject, and say—
Dost thou not see how great a deityAnd that most magnificent poet Aeschylus, in his Danaides, introduces Venus herself speaking thus—
Resistless Venus is? No tongue can tell,
No calculation can arrive at all
Her power, or her dominions' vast extent;
She nourishes you and me and all mankind,
And I can prove this, not in words alone,
But facts will show the might of this fair goddess.
The earth loves rain when the parch'd plains are dry,
And lose their glad fertility of yield
From want of moisture. Then the ample heaven,
When fill'd with rain, and moved by Venus' power,
Loves to descend to anxious earth's embrace;
[p. 957] Then when these two are join'd in tender love
They are the parents of all fruits to us,
They bring them forth, they cherish them; and so
The race of man both lives and flourishes.
Then, too, the earth feels love, and longs for wedlock,
And rain, descending from the amorous air,
Impregnates his desiring mate; and she
Brings forth delicious food for mortal man,—
Herds of fat sheep, and corn, the gift of Ceres;
The trees love moisture, too, and rain descends
T' indulge their longings, I alone the cause.
