and David banishes the demon by playing his lyre . The verses which make up the strings evoke the Greek myth of Orpheus , whose musical gifts were second only to those of the immortals . As Robinson ’ s poem explains , the whole natural world took pleasure in Orpheus ’ song , and with his music he persuaded Hades to free his wife Eurydice from the underworld .
Frame Gratus … ipsa : the subjects of both clauses are obscure . We have assumed that ‘ gratus ’ ( m .) refers to the ‘ Princeps ’ and that ‘ ipsa ’ ( f .) refers to the lyre .
receptae : we translate as ‘ receptam ’ because ‘ receptae ’ makes little grammatical sense . It may simply be an error , scribal or grammatical , on the part of the author . Such errors appear in other poems : see e . g . no . 13 , where the poet incorrectly assumes that the word ‘ flores ’ is feminine .
Rex … cecinit : David , who was only the arms-bearer for King Saul when he drove the evil spirits from his heart , would one day become King of Israel himself .
Aureis … hymnis : the Psalms , attributed to David .
Strings Tyranni : Hades , King of the Underworld .
9 . Chalice ( John Reinolds ), p . 40 The poet offers a chalice of simple water , ‘ communis lymphae .’ The reference to a ‘ Persian king ’ is obscure , but it may relate to the idea that the ancient Persians demanded earth and water from those city-states which surrendered to them ( see e . g . Herodotus , Histories 5.73 ). Other possibilities include an allusion to Xenophon ’ s Education of Cyrus , a common schoolroom text of this period , which at 2.27-9 includes King Cyrus ’ extensive discussion of the benefits of taking water with food ; or a reference to Athenaeus ’ Deipnosophistae 12.9 , which describes golden springs of water from which only Persian kings could drink . The word ‘ calicem ’ in line 5 should be masculine , but the author evidently thinks it is feminine and makes ‘ quam ’ agree with it . The poem is written in elegiac couplets .
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