Monday, March 30, 2026
Heaven's Law?
Lucan, Pharsalia 2.269-273 (tr. J.D. Duff):
‹Older
The part of air nearest earth is fired by thunderbolts, and the low-lying places of the world are visited by gales and long flashes of flame; but Olympus rises above the clouds. It is heaven's law, that small things are troubled and distracted, while great things enjoy peace.Most ancient authors say the opposite, e.g. Horace, Odes 2.10.9-12 (tr. Niall Rudd):
fulminibus propior terrae succenditur aer,
imaque telluris ventos tractusque coruscos 270
flammarum accipiunt: nubes excedit Olympus.
lege deum minimas rerum discordia turbat,
pacem magna tenent.
It is more often the tall pine that is shaken by the wind; the collapse is more devastating when high towers fall, and it is the mountain peaks that are struck by lightning.See the parallels collected by Nisbet and Hubbard for the passage from Horace:
saepius ventis agitatur ingens
pinus et celsae graviore casu 10
decidunt turres feriuntque summos
fulgura montis.
