Juvenal Book 2nd: Satire 6th: Englished Against Women

It has been fabled (and it may be so,) That Chastity resided once below; But t’was when Saturn o’er the World had sway, And Men in subterraneous Caverns lay; Where, with their House-hold Gods, they Cattle kept, And under one dark Roof together slept. When the good-wife – (what different cares engage The Cynthias, and the Lesbias, of our age, Who, if a Sparrow or a Monkey dies, With Tears efface the lustre of their eyes) 10 When the good-Wife, on barren Mountains bred, With skins of Beasts and leaves prepared the bed; And at her prominent, unwieldy Breast, Of bulk much fitter to be tapp’d, than prest, With ever-running streams of wholesome food, Nourish’d with pleasure her Gigantic brood; Whilst by her side (tho’ hideous to the sight) Her windy Husband belch’d and snor’d all night. But then, indeed, the World was fresh and young, The Sky above Men’s heads but lately hung; 20 For whether on the teeming Oak they grew, Or from the quick’ning Mud existence No Sires they had, no Laws their steps to guide, Nature and common Reason both supplied. Some traces yet of Chastity remain’d, When Jove, but Jove as yet unbearded, reign’d; Long e’re the Grecian policy began, With new-invented Oaths to fetter Man; When none were taught (a custom then unknown) To swear by others’ heads, or by their own; 30 Blest age! when Truth spoke only from the heart, And Men were honest without help of art! When what their common parent Earth produc’d, Each, as his wants requir’d, as freely us’d; No thieves to pilfer from the public Store – Translation and Literature 15 (2006)