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| A Roman taking a woman from her home in Sabine |
The beginning of the Western Civilization. Ovid, the poet of this poem, was not the only one to write about this. Is there any truth to it?
The king gave the sign for which they’d so eagerly watched.
Up they sprang, then with a lusty roar,
Laid hot hands on the girls.
As timorous doves flee eagles, as a lambkin
Runs wild when it sees the hated wolf,
So this wild charge of men left the girls all panic-stricken.
Not one had the same color in her check as before –
The same nightmare for all,
though terror’s features varied:
Some tore their hair; some just froze where they sat;
Some, dismayed, kept silence;
others vainly yelled for Mamma:
Some wailed; some gaped;
Some fled; some just stood there.
So they were carried off as marriage bed plunder:
Even so, many contrived to make panic look fetching.
Any girl who resisted her pursuer too vigorously
Would find herself picked up and borne off regardless.
“Why spoil those pretty eyes with weeping?” she’d hear,
“I’ll be all to you
That your Dad ever was to your Mum.”
~Ovid. Art of Love~
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