AM. Estne aliqua tellūs Cereris aut Bacchī ferāx?
THE. Nōn prāta viridī laeta faciē germinant,
nec adulta lēnī fluctuat Zephyrō seges;
nōn ūlla rāmōs silva pōmiferōs habet;700
sterilis profundī vastitās squālet solī
et foeda tellūs torpet aeternō sitū —
rērumque maestus fīnis et mundī ultima.
immōtus āēr haeret et pigrō sedet
nox ātra mundō; cūncta marcōre horrida,705
ipsāque morte peior est mortis locus.
Notes
At Amphitryon’s prodding, Theseus describes how nothing grows in the land of the dead.
Seneca begins this passage with negative enumeration: no grass, no grain, no trees. He then proceeds to use near-synonyms (sterilis, squalet, foeda, situ) to emphasize decay. The passage ends with an epigram: death’s kingdom is worse than death itself.
697 Cereris aut Bacchī: metonymy for grain and wine, two of the main agricultural crops in the ancient Mediterranean. The objective genitives (AG 349) depend on ferāx (“productive of”).
698–702 Note the careful arrangement of these lines. Each of the first three lines begins with a negative word, and then includes two adjectives, two nouns, and a verb, in different orders. The pattern continues in the last two lines, without the negatives.
698 viridī … faciē: ablative of quality (AG 415). laeta: “fertile” (LS laetus II.G.2).
699 lēnī … Zephyrō: ablative of cause (AG 404). Zephyrus is the west wind, which was frequently described as blowing gently. It is usually a harbinger of spring, but here the crops are ripe.
700 silva: “orchard”
701 vastitās: a very rare noun in poetry, derived from the more common adjective vāstus, the source of both “vast” and “waste” in English. The basic sense of “emptiness” leads to the associated senses of “immensity” and “desolation.”
703 This line is in apposition to the previous few lines, and sums up Theseus’ description of the infernal world so far as “the sad end of all things and the farthest limit of the world.” que … et: the equivalent of et … et (“both … and”). fīnis … ultima: “the end” and “farthest limit,” in both a spatial and temporal sense (because the Underworld is far from the living world and is the final destination of all living things). ultima is a neuter plural adjective used substantively as a noun.
704 immōtus: the adjective is predicative, describing how the air hangs.
704–5 pigrō … mundō: locative ablative (AG 426)
705 Supply sunt. marcōre: “with decay,” an ablative of cause (AG 404). %% marcōre: a correction of the manuscript reading maerōre (“with grief”). See Par. Lat. 11855, 1st column, 11th line from the top; note the medieval spelling merore. The rare word marcōre would have easily been corrupted into the much more common maerōre.
706 ipsāque morte: ablative of comparison after peior (AG 406).
Vocabulary
Cerēs Cereris f.: Ceres; grain
Bacchus –ī m.: Bacchus; Bacchant; wine
ferāx –ācis: fertile, fruitful; abounding
prātum prātī n.: meadow
viridis –e: green
geminō gemināre –āvī –ātum: to put forth; sprout, bud
adultus –a –um: ripe, mature
lēnis –e: soft, mild, gentle
fluctuō fluctuāre fluctuāvī fluctuātus: to wave
Zephyrus –ī m.: Zephyr; gentle west wind
seges –etis f.: cornfield, crop
rāmus rāmī m.: branch
pōmifer –fera –ferum: fruit-bearing
sterilis –e: unfruitful, barren
profundus –a –um: deep, vast; the deep
vāstitās –ātis f.: waste, desert
squāleō –ēre –uī: to be rough, neglected, waste
sōlum –ī n.: ground, land, region
torpeō torpēre: to be stiff, numb, lethargic
situs sitūs m.: situation, position, site
immōtus –a –um: unmoved, immovable, motionless
haereō haerēre haesī haesūrus: to stick to, hang on to, cleave
piger pigra pigrum: reluctant; slow, lazy
āter atra atrum: black
marcor –ōris m.: withering, decay
horridus –a –um: rough, bristly; savage; rude
peior peius: worse