Pauca tamen suberunt prīscae vestīgia fraudis,
quae temptāre Thetīn ratibus, quae cingere mūrīs
oppida, quae iubeant tellūrī īnfindere sulcōs.
alter erit tum Tīphys et altera quae vehat Argō
dēlēctōs hērōas; erunt etiam altera bella 35
atque iterum ad Trōiam māgnus mittētur Achillēs.
notes
31–36 In the boy’s youth, there will still be some vestiges of mankind’s potential for wrongdoing.
31 vestīgia: “remnants.”
32 quae: pauca vestīgia is the antecedent for each quae in verses 32–33; supply iubeant for each relative clause and understand “humanity” or “mankind” as the implied object. The tricolon of relative clauses emphasizes each of humanity’s violation of the natural order, which are symbolized in three main ways: 1) traveling the sea, 2) ringing cities with walls, and 3) using the plow.
32 quae temptāre Thetīn ratibus: "disturb the sea with sailing vessels." LS tento II.B. Thetīn (Greek accusative form, AG 81–82) is Thetis, a sea nymph and Achilles’s mother, used here as a metonymy for the sea. In the mythical Golden Age people had no need to sea travel, since all their simple wants were supplied by the bounty of the earth.
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Coleman comments: "However, sea-travel was not just seen as a last resort when nature withheld her bounties from the sinful world; it was itself a symptom of that sinfulness, fraus. Commercial greed and lust for conquest had driven men to violate the natural order which had assigned all creatures their appropriate habitat."
32–33 quae cingere mūrīs / oppida: oppida is the direct object. The historical transition of human society from rural to urban living is seen as a decline. The thought is traditional.
33 quae iubeant tellūrī infindere sulcōs: "which order furrows to split the earth." Tellurī is the dative object of the compound verb infindere (AG 370).
Agriculture like sea-travel and city-building is one of the symptoms of human wickedness that is destined still to survive a short while (Coleman).
34–36 The tricolon crescendo of the three violations of the natural order is paralleled by the prediction that two mythical examples of such violations, the voyage of the Argo and the Trojan war, will be repeated before the Golden Age and the youth reach maturity.
34 altera … Argō: antecedent of quae. The Argo is traditionally considered the first ship and thus symbolic of sea travel more broadly.
35 dēlēctōs hērōas: hērōas Gk. acc. pl. (AG 81); the Argonauts were representative heroes selected from every Greek city (Theocritus, Idyll 13.16–18).
vocabulary
prīscus –a –um: ancient
fraus fraudis f.: crime, sin
Thetis –idis or idos f.: Thetis, a sea nymph and mother of Achilles
ratis ratis f.: ship
infindō –ere –fidī –fissus: to cut, split
sulcus –ī m.: a furrow;
Tiphys –yos m.: Tiphys, pilot of the Argo
Argō –ūs f.; acc. Argō(n): the Argo, the mythical first ship
dēligō dēligere dēlēgī dēlēctus: to choose, select
hērōs –ōis m.: demigod, hero
Troia Troiae f.: Troy
Achillēs –is m.: Achilles