Note 290 — APPENDIX.
Reading edition
Compare the beautiful verses of Lucretius—who, almost alone amongst the poets, has indignantly denounced the vile and horrible practice of sacrifice—picturing the inconsolable grief the Mother Cow bereft of her young, who has been ravished from her for the sacrificial altar:—
“Sæpe ante Deûm vitulus delubra decora Thuricremas propter mactatus concidit aras Sanguinis expirans calidum de pectore flumen, At mater viridis saltus orbata peragrans Noacit humi pedibus vestigia pressa bisulcis, Omnia convisens oculis loca, si queat usquam Conspicere amissum fœtum, completque querellis Frondiferum nemus absistens, et crebra revisit Ad stabulum desiderio perfixa Juvenci; Nec teneræ salices atque herbæ rore vigentes, Fluminaque illa queunt summis labentia ripis Oblectare animum, subitamque avertere curam, Nee vitulorum aliæ species per pabula læta Derivare queunt animum curâque levare.” (De Rerum Naturâ II.)
See also the memorable verses in which the rationalist poet stigmatises the vicarious sacrifice of Iphigeneia.—Tantum Religio potuit suadere Malorum (L).