Works and Days (580-595)

dawn which appears and sets many men on their road, and puts yokes on many oxen. But when the artichoke flowers,[*] and the chirping grass-hopper sits in a tree and pours down his shrill song continually from under his wings in the season of wearisome heat,

then goats are plumpest and wine sweetest; women are most wanton, but men are feeblest, because Sirius parches head and knees and the skin is dry through heat. But at that time let me have a shady rock and wine of Biblis,

a clot of curds and milk of drained goats with the flesh of a heifer fed in the woods, that has never calved, and of firstling kids; then also let me drink bright wine, sitting in the shade, when my heart is satisfied with food, and so, turning my head to face the fresh Zephyr,

from the everflowing spring which pours down unfouled, thrice pour an offering of water, but make a fourth libation of wine. Set your slaves to winnow Demeter's holy grain, when strong Orion[*] first appears, on a smooth threshing-floor in an airy place.