Aldhelm Riddle 8: Pliades

ALEXANDRAREIDER

Date: Thu 10 Mar 2022
Original text:

Nos Athlante satas stolidi dixere priores;
Nam septena cohors est, sed vix cernitur una.
Arce poli gradimur nec non sub Tartara terrae;
Furvis conspicimur tenebris et luce latemus
Nomina de verno ducentes tempore prisca.

Translation:

Ignorant ancestors said that we were the children of Atlas.
Our cohort is seven-fold, but one can hardly be seen.
We walk at the top of the sky and under Tartarus in the earth;
We are seen in shadowy darkness and we hide in the light,
Drawing our former name from springtime. 

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Pleiades


Notes:

This edition is based on Rudolf Ehwald, ed. Aldhelmi Opera Omnia. Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores Antiquissimi, 15. Berlin: Weidmann, 1919, pages 59-150. Available online here.



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