and trembling old man, who had the head-dress and all
the other vestments made from skins of the timid deer. And after these
was seen Obstinacy, who is born from the same seed, all in black, with
some boughs of ivy that seemed to have taken root upon her; and with the
great cube of lead that she had on the head she gave a sign of that
Ignorance wherewith Obstinacy is said to be joined. She had in her
company Poverty, her sister, who was seen all pale and raging, and
negligently covered rather than clothed in black; and with them was
Hunger, born likewise from the same father, who was seen feeding the
while on roots and wild herbs. Then Complaint or Querulousness, their
sister, covered with tawny draperies, and with the querulous solitary
rock-thrush, which was seen to have made her nest in her head-dress, was
shown walking in profound melancholy after them, having in her company
the sister common to them, called Infirmity, who by her meagreness and
pallor, and by the garland and the little stalk of anemone that she held
in her hand, made herself very well known to the spectators for what she
was. And on her other side was the other sister, Old Age, with white
hair and all draped in simple black vestments, who likewise had, not
without reason, a stalk of cress in the hand. The Hydra and the Sphinx,
daughters of Tartarus, in the guise wherein they are generally figured,
were seen coming behind them in the same beautiful order; and after
these, to return to the other daughters of Erebus and Night, was seen
License, all nude and dishevelled, with a garland of vine-leaves on the
head, and keeping the mouth open without any restraint, and in her
company was Falsehood, her sister, all covered and wrapped in various
draperies of various colours, with a magpie on the head for better
recognition, and with a cuttle-fish in the hand. These had Thought
walking on a level with them, represented as an old man, likewise all
dressed in black, with an extravagant head-dress of peach-stones on the
head, and showing beneath the vestments, which at times fluttered open
with the wind, the breast and the whole person pricked and pierced by a
thousand sharp thorns. Momus, then, the God of censure and of
evil-speaking, was seen coming after them in the form of a bent and very
loquacious old man; and with them, also, the boy Tages, all resplendent,
although he was the son of Earth, figured in such a manner because he
was the first inventor of the