Forbidden Couplings

Horace, Ars Poetica 11-13 (tr. H. Rushton Fairclough): We know it: this licence we poets claim and in our turn we grant the like; but not so far that savage should mate with tame, or serpents couple with birds, lambs with tigers. scinius, et hanc veniam petimusque damusque vicissim; sed non ut placidis coeant immitia, non ut serpentes avibus geminentur, tigribus agni. The commentaries of C.O. Brink and Niall Rudd on these lines are disappointing. Related posts: Eugenics and Dysgenics Good Seed and Bad Breeding Eugenics Nothing in Common Mixed Marriages Of Good Stock Well Born

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