Vergil, Eclogue IV, 60-63

60–63  The poet instructs the child to acknowledge his mother with a smile, signifying that he is an exceptional baby worthy to dine and lie with the gods.

60  risū cognoscere: "acknowledge with a smile." OLD cognosco 7.

61  decem … mēnsēs: the average gestation period is within two or three days of ten lunar months (Coleman). See Plautus, Stichus 159, illa me in alvo menses gestavit decem.

62  quī: “those who;” an indefinite relative pronoun (AG 307c) with an unexpressed antecedent, referring to children who have not smiled at their parents (smiling as an infant was seen as precocious behavior, marking this child above the rest).

62  rīsēre: third-person plural perfect syncopated form of rīsērunt, common in poetry.

63  nec deus hunc mēnsā, dea nec dignāta cubīlī est: supply dignātus est in the first clause and hunc in the second clause.

63  hunc: although singular, hunc refers to plural qui in verse 62; both generalizing pronouns refer to a type of person, not a specific individual (“those who … him”).

63  mēnsā … cubīlī: ablatives used with dignor: “to deem x (accusative) worthy of y (ablative).” AG 418b.

Apparently an allusion to Hercules, a mortal who, after his apotheosis, dined with the gods and married the goddess Hebe. See Homer, Odyssey 11.602-4 and Horace, Odes 4.8.29-30 (Clausen).