BOOK I The Betrothal [1] Sacred principle of unity amongst the gods, on you I call; you are said’ to grace weddings with your song; it is said that a Muse was your mother. You bind the warring seeds of the world with secret bonds and encourage the union of opposites by your sacred embrace.? You cause the elements ro interact reciprocally, you make the world fertile; through you, Mind is breathed into bodies by a union of concord which rules over Nature, as you bring harmony between the-sexes and foster loyalty by love. Fair Hymen, you are the main object of the Cyprian’s care;$ Desire, inflamed by Venus, glows on your face, Perhaps? because dancing has pleased you, Bacchus being your father; or perhaps because you sing at weddings, which are the province of your mother; or perhaps because the three Graces granted to you, their kinsman, the task of garlanding the thresholds blooming® with spring flow- 1 This sort of appeal to vague authority is common in Martianus; cf. $5 4, 45, 188-89, ® This opening hymn is based on the concept of the universe as composed of varying elements or “seeds” brought into fruitful harmony and coherence by mutual attraction—here personified as Hymen, 2 god of love and marriage, The concept owes something to Empedoeles, but is elaborated by Plato (eg., Timaeus 32¢, Gorgias so8a) and especially by Neoplatonic cosmology (eg., Macrobius Commnentary on the Dream of Scipio 11. 2. 18). These lines also recall Claudian's description of Hymen as a pod of marriage, in a mafriage hymn possibly dating from a». 399 (Carmina minora 25, lines 31-55). Like many of the allegorical passages in the work, this hymn is in verse in the original Latin. Such verse passages have been translated into prose, but are set off from the rest of the text by indention at the left margin. % Maxima cura: a phrase used by Venus to describe Aeneas’ son Ascanius in Vergil Aeneid 1. 678, and by Arethusa to describe her sister Cyrene’s son Aristaeus in Vergil Georgics 4. 454. 4For this style of invocation, with a series of alternative reasons for in- voking the god concerned, cf. §§ 39, 149; and Apuleius Metamorphoses 6. 4; 1h. 2. 5 Martianus: comere vernificis florentia limina sertis; cf. Vergil Aeneid 4. 202: pingue solum et variis florentia limina sertis.THE BETROTHAL ers-for some such reason, Calliope is glad to have you bless the begioning of her poem concerning the wedding of a god. [2] While I was repeatedly reciting these verses of Hymen and pondering some original composition unimagined hitherto, Marrti- anus® interrupted me. He could not abide that a gray-haired man living in retirement” because of his advanced years should chatter silly tifles, and he said: “Father, why is it that you are in a hurry to recite before revealing your subject, and, like a sleepy priest, you chant a hymn before you open the entry and the portals? Tell us, rather, the burden and the meaning of your utterance.” I said to him: “Surely you are joking; do you not recognize like the dawn the opening passage of the work you see me reciting? Since the poem is addressed to Hymen, is it not clear that my theme is 4 marriage? If, however, your question is serious, when you ask from what source my ideas have flowed, I shall unfeld to you a story which Satire® invented in the long winter nights and taught me by the dimming lamplight—that is, unless its length discourages you,” 4 {3] There was a time when on all sides amongst the gods the ® This appears to be not only the author's name bur also that of his son. 7 The phrase incrementis lustratibus decuriatum licerally means something like “multiplied by ten with fivefold increases.” Commentators have taken this to mean “a man fifty years old." Decuriatum, however, can be applied to a man retired from office or military service. The translation given is deliberately vague; the general idea of the dignity due to age is clear enough. The possible ana of this passage are further discussed by W. H. Stahl above, Vol. I, ®This passage of dialogue echoes Apuleius Metamorphoses 1. 6. Martianus’ fon begins ged istud, mi pater...’ and Martianus describes his reply: ‘Ne er esipis, . Apuleius’ narrator begins: ‘Mi Socrates, quid istud?” see fe reply comes: ‘Aristomene,’ inguit, ‘ne tu... ignoras? ® Satura. The Latin term mi is ixed i E i iene itcrary te eans a dish of mixed ingredients, a stew; it became aiid VCS 6n-a miscellany jrented by early Latin writers—a mixture of prose became purely verse tes Hn pics. This is che genre satire; one type of satire Menippean satire, retai 5 fe satires of Horace, Persius, Juvenal); the other, Gdanus is weit te uae the mixtare of Prose and verse—this is what Mar- Was not Seed ‘austc tone which is implied in the modern word “satire” to the ancient genre, but was Present in the writing of Lucilius and Juvenal, i : European satirical ge and from the latter was taken over intoTHE BETROTHAL 5 sacred weddings of a numerous generation were being celebrated;!° the noble children of the gods and the celestial multitude of their beloved descendants were also for their part winning the embraces and pledges of the dwellers in heaven. The fruit of marriage espe- cially delighted the great gods, and the human race in its chatter spread the news through the streets of the gift! that had been given to the world. The poets, who were disciples of the Thracian lyre player [Orpheus] and the blind Maeonian [Homer}, old and elo- quent, published epic poems and lyrics about the marriages; they sang that amongst the delights of heaven nothing pleased Jove more than his wife alone. Old priests are encouraged by ready credence to give their message when the omens suggest it; and ready credence was given to the message of the poets that when Jupiter, unappeased despite many sacrifices, denies anything to the hesitant prayers of men worried by doubts and fears, it comes to pass, when prayer is addressed to his wife, when he has with dispatch passed a sentence and the hand of the Parcae is waiting to carry out his order, he can- cels it when his wife gently persuades him and mollifies him with her embraces. [4] Not only the king of the gods was thought to be under feminine domination; this was also said of Dis and Portunus [Nep- tune], while it was regarded as beyond question that Gradivus [Mars] was aflame with love for his wife Nereia, the daughter of Nereus. Aesculapius felt a similar passion; and Saturn, the melan- choly elder of the gods, was moved in the same way by his wife Ops, Cybele,!? when he caressed her. Janus with both his faces admires the Argive goddess;'* and they say that the queen of Mem- phis [Isis], so loved her husband that she was beset by unending grief and preferred’* never to find him. 10 This paragraph forms an interesting contrast to Arnobius Adversus nationes 4. 19-21, Where Arnobius says that the pagans debased their own deities by anthropomorphically ascribing marriages, adulterics, etc. to them. 11 This translates the text edited by Dick (idgue deditum mundo). Willis accepts Grotius’ diditum for deditum; the translation would then be “spread to the world the news of this.” 12 Ops, the Roman equivalent of the Greek Rhea, the Great Mother, was syn- cretized with Cybele. 14 The text is corrupt; Dick reads Argionam. “The Argive goddess” ought to mean Juno. 1s Isis’ husband Osiris was slain and torn apart by his brother; Isis sought and