Note 108 — BOOK VIII.
Charles Duke Yonge translation
This resembles the account which Ovid puts into the mouth of Pythagoras, in the last book of his Metamorphoses, where he makes him say:—
Morte carent animæ, semperque priore relicta Sede, novis domibus habitant vivuntque receptæ; Ipse ego, nam memini, Trojani tempora belli, Panthorides Euphorbus eram, cui pectore quondam Hæsit in adverso gravis hasta minoris Atridæ: Agnovi Clypeum lævæ gestamina nostræ Nuper Abanteïs templo Junonis in Argis.
Which may be translated:—
Death has no pow’r th’ immortal soul to slay; That, when its present body turns to clay, Seeks a fresh home, and with unminish’d might Inspires another frame with life and light. So I myself, (well I the past recall) When the fierce Greeks begirt Troy’s holy wall, Was brave Euphorbus; and in conflict drear, Poured forth my blood beneath Atrides’ spear: The shield this arm did bear I lately saw In Juno’s shrine, a trophy of that war.