De Larvata Gorgone (Epigr. VI)
The False Mask and the True Wisdom
The author rejects the empty, terrifying imagery of the Gorgon in favor of the true wisdom represented by Pallas.
Why do you force the grim Gorgon and empty phantoms on us, when the Muse is near and Medusa is far away? If your words are pleasing because the poets of old once called Pallas 'Gorgonean,' then so be it. Or rather, let us make a distinction. You and yours take the Gorgonean, and Pallas shall be ours.
Read the original Latin
Gorgona cur diram larvasque obtrudis inanes, Cum prope sit nobis Musa, Medusa procul? Si, quia felices olim dixere poetae Pallada gorgoneam, sic tua verba placent. Vel potius liceat distinguere. Tuque tuique Sumite gorgoneam, nostraque Pallas erit.
The Latin Poems companion
Read all 57 of Herbert's Latin poems, one a day
Chosen Portion delivers a Herbert poem (or another royal-court devotional text) as your free daily reading on iOS
Herbert's short poems were written for meditative re-reading; Chosen Portion serves one per day, turning the two collections into a two-month devotional cycle
- All 57 Latin poems in modern English, roughly two months of daily readings
- One short poem a day, readable in under 5 minutes
- Includes the full Sub Rosa archive of 78 historic devotional works