Statius quotes - page 2

Long time has Thetis been scanning every corner with silent glance. (Statius)
Did not shame restrain him and awe of the mother by his side. View quote
Statius
The loss of one lion alone drew a tear from mighty Caesar's eye. View quote
Statius
Hear oh hear, if my prayer be worthy and such as you yourself might whisper to my frenzy. Those I begot (no matter in what bed) did not try to guide me, bereft of sight and sceptre, or sway my grieving with words. Nay behold (ah agony!), in their pride, kings this while by my calamity, they even mock my darkness, impatient of their father's groans. Even to them am I unclean? And does the sire of the gods see it and do naught? Do you at least, my rightful champion, come hither and range all my progeny for punishment. Put on your head this gore-soaked diadem that I tore off with my bloody nails. Spurred by a father's prayers, go against the brothers, go between them, let steel make partnership of blood fly asunder. Queen of Tartarus' pit, grant the wickedness I would fain see. View quote
Statius
And now it was your purpose to weep Vesuvius' flames in pious melody and spend your tears on the losses of your native place, what time the Father took the mountain from earth and lifted it to the stars only to plunge it down upon the hapless cities far and wide. View quote
Statius
But no clouds in a red sky promised daylight's return, nor in lessening shadows did a long twilight gleam with reflected sun. Black night that no ray can pierce comes ever denser from earth, veiling the heavens. View quote
Statius
Whence first arose among unhappy mortals throughout the world that sickly craving for the future? Sent by heaven, wouldst thou call it? Or is it we ourselves, a race insatiable, never content to abide on knowledge gained, that search out the day of our birth and the scene of our life's ending, what the kindly Father of the gods is thinking, or iron-hearted Clotho? Hence comes it that entrails occupy us, and the airy speech of birds, and the moon's numbered seeds, and Thessalia's horrid rites. But that earlier golden age of our forefathers, and the races born of rock or oak were not thus minded; their only passion was to gain the mastery of the woods and the soil by might of hand; it was forbidden to man to know what to-morrow's day would bring. We, a depraved and pitiable crowd, probe deep the counsels of the gods. View quote
Statius
Black Death sits upon an eminence, and numbers the silent peoples for their lord; yet the greater part of the troop remains. The Gortynian judge shakes them in his inexorable urn, demanding the truth with threats, and constrains them to speak out their whole lives' story. View quote
Statius
Wonderful but true! Shall future progeny of men believe, when crops grow again and this desert shall once more be green, that cities and peoples are buried below and that an ancestral countryside vanished in a common doom? Nor does the summit yet cease its deadly thrust. View quote
Statius
So in the dark of night a dense crowd of shepherds wards off a wolf from the steer he has caught. View quote
Statius
Even so a crowd of nestlings, seeing their mother returning through the air afar, would fain go to meet her, and lean gaping from the edge of the nest, and would even now be falling, did she not spread all her motherly bosom to save them, and chide them with loving wings. (Statius)
Raise your half-buried countenance from the sudden shower of dust, Parthenope, and place your locks, singed by the mountains breath, on the tomb and body of your great foster son. View quote
Statius
Yet all does the sire himself ruthlessly condemn to the murky flames, and bid his own signs of rank be borne withal, if by their loss he may sate his devouring grief. View quote
Statius
As a mariner caught in a winter sea, to whom neither lazy Wain nor Moon with friendly radiance shows directions, stands clueless in mid commotion of land and sea, expecting every moment rocks sunk in treacherous shallows, or foaming cliffs with spiky tops to run upon the rearing prow. View quote
Statius
Reputation hidden in death. View quote
Statius
Adrastus is amazed thereat and slow to believe. View quote
Statius
Tis noble to spare the vanquished. View quote
Statius
To stand still is torture; a thousand paces are wasted before the start, the heavy hoof strikes the absent flat. View quote
Statius
Barren are the years behind me. This is the first day of my span, here is the threshold of my life. View quote
Statius
Fear (in times of doubt the worst of prophets) revolves many things. View quote
Statius
A Nemean steed in terror of the fight bears the hero from the citadel of Pallas, and fills the fields with the huge flying shadow, and the long trail of dust rises upon the plain. (Statius)
...glad applause and the heaven-flung shout of the populace. View quote
Statius
Spying a young plane tree with long stem and countless branches and summit aspiring to heaven. View quote
Statius
All soil is human birthright. View quote
Statius
Pleasant is it to the unhappy to speak, and to recall the sorrows of old time. View quote
Statius