[Previous: lines 846-893]
Christ, on the cross, is mocked by some of those present.
Attamen armati morienti illudere pergunt,------------
(estque hosti duro in bello multo optimus hostis): [895]
crudeli quassant risu caput: undique circum
insultant, tolluntque has laeti ad sidera voces:
“En, qui se cœlo missum, superique Parentis
progeniem iactat temploque urbique minatus,
seque Deum fictor fandi mentirier audit. [900]
I, sequere, illiusque pius nunc numen adora.
Qui multos leti eripuit de faucibus olim,
non potis ipse sibi tali in discrimine adesse.
Falsus abest illi longè, nec talia curat
nunc Genitor: sanè infami nunc liber ab orno [905]
desiliat, si numen habet, vincla omnia rumpat:
his quoque nos signis missum credemus Olympo.”
Talia iactabant, mediaque in morte dolore
semianimem hoc etiam cumulabant: cuncta ferebat
ille animi invictus: saevis clementiùs aequo [910]
hostibus orabat veniam, Patremque rogabat,
parceret ignaris rerum, caecisque furore.
But still the soldiers mocked the dying man------------
(foe only treats foe fairly in hard battle):— [895]
laughing, they struck his head: all around him
jeering and laughing voices rose to the stars
“Look—the man who’s Dad is God! Heaven-sent
to chuck us out of the temple and the city!
He dared to lie that he was the son of God. [900]
Go on—follow him! Piously adore him!
He who rescued so many from death’s jaws
somehow can’t rescue himself from this danger!
He’s far away, and doesn’t care about him,
that Father he falsely claimed! Let him hop down [905]
from this tree, if he’s a god! Bust himself free!
That would convince us he’s sent from Olympus!”
So they boasted, and amongst his dying pains
they added to his half-alive torment: but
his soul was strong; more merciful than just, [910]
he asked pardon for his enemies, begged the Father
forgive them the ignorance of their blind fury.
This passage sticks quote closely to its Biblical provenance:
Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ” In the same way the rebels who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him. [Matthew 27:39-44]There's an interesting emulsion of irony and sarcasm here: the latter put into the mouths of the soldiers (‘Go on—follow him! Piously adore him!’ and so on), the former inherent in the framing here, that everything these mockers are saying as if it were ridiculous and self-evidently absurd is in fact true. Nicely played, really.
The image at the head of the post is Hans von Tübingen's ‘Crucifixion’ (1430)
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