BOOK V
BOOK V
While the heroic son of Danaë is relating these adventures amongst the Ethiopian chiefs, the royal halls are filled with confused uproar: not the loud sound that sings a song of marriage, but one that presages the fierce strife of arms. And the feast, turned suddenly to tumult, you could liken to the sea, whose peaceful waters the raging winds lash to boisterous waves. First among them is Phineus, brother of the king, rash instigator of strife, who brandishes an ashen spear with bronze point. "Behold," says he, "here am I, come to avenge the theft of my bride. Your wings shall not save you this time, nor Jove, changed to seeming gold." As he was in the act of hurling his spear, Cepheus cried out: "What are you doing, brother? What mad folly is driving you to crime? Is this the way you thank our guest for his brave deeds? Is this the dower you give for the maiden saved? If 'tis the truth you want, it was not Perseus who took her from you, but the dread deity of the Nereids, but horned Ammon, but that sea-monster who came to glut his maw upon my own flesh and blood. 'Twas when you lost her when she was exposed to die; unless, perchance, your cruel heart demands this very thing—her death, and seeks by my grief to ease its own. It seems it is not enough that you saw her chained, and that you brought no aid, uncle though METAMORPHOSESBOOK V you were, and promised husband: will you grieve, besides, that someone did save her, and will you rolb hin of his prize? If this prize seems so precious in your sight, you should have taken it from those rocks where it was chained. Now let the man who did take it, by whom I have been saved from childless- ess in my old age, keep what he has gained by his deeds and by my promise. And be ssured of this: that he has not been preferred to deserving you, but to certain death." Phineus made no reply; but, looking now on him now on Perseus, he was in doubt at which to aim his spear. Delaying a little space, he hurled it with all the strength that wrath gave at Perseus; but in vain. When the weapon struck and stood fast in the bench, then at last Perseus leapt gallantly up and hurled back the spear, which would have pierced his foeman's heart; but Phineus had already taken refuge behind the altar, and, shame ! the wretch found safety there. Still was the weapon not without effect, for it struck full in Rhoetus' face. Down he fell, and when the spear had been wrenched forth from the bone he writhed about and sprinkled the well-spread table with his blood. And now the mob was fired to wrath un- quenchable. They hurled their spears, and there were some who said that Ceplheus ought to perish with his son-in-law. But Cepheus had already with- drawn from the palace, calling to witness Justice, Faith, and the gods of hospitality that this was done against his protest. Then came warlike Pallas, pro- tecting her brother with her shield, and making and him stout of heart, There was an Indian youth, Athis by name, whon Limnaee, a nymph of Ganges' stream, is said to have 241 METAMORPHOSES BOOK V brought forth beneath her crystal waters. He was of surpassing beauty, which his rich robes enhanced, a sturdy boy of sixteen years, clad in a purple mantle fringed with gold; a golden chain adorned his neck, and a golden circlet held his locks in place, perfmed with mvrrh. He was well skilled to hurl the javelin at the most distant mark, but with more skill could bend the bow, When now he was in the verv act of bending his stout bow, Perseus snatched up a brand which lay smouldering on the altar and smote the youth, crushing his face to splintered bones. When Assyrian Lycabas beheld him, his lovely features defiled with blood -Lycabas, his closest. comrade and his declared true lover-he wept alou for Athis, who lay gasping out his life beneath that bitter wound; then he caught up the bow which Athis had bent, and cried: "Now you have me to fight, and not long shall you plume yourself on a boy's death, which brings you more contempt than glory." Before he had finished speaking the keen arro fleshed from the bowstring; but it missed its mark and stuck harmless in a fold of Perseus' robe. Acrisius' grandson quickly turned on him that hook which had been fleshed in Medusa's death, and drove it into his breast. But he, evcn in death, with his eyes swimming in the black darkness, looked round for Athis, fell down by his side, and bore to the shadows this comfort, that in death they were not divided. Then Phorbas of Syene, Metion's son, and Libyan Amphimedon, eager to join in the fray, slipped and fell in the blood with which all the floor was wet. As they strove to rise the sword met them, driven through the ribs of one and through the other's throat. 243 METAMORPHOSES BOOK V But Eurytus, the son of Actor, who wielded a broad, two-edged battle-axe, Perseus did not attack with his hooked sword,but lifting high in both hands a huge mixing-bowl heavily embossed and ponderous, he hurled it crashing at theman. The red blood spouted forth as he lay dying on his back, beating the floor with his head. Then in rapid succession Perseus laid low Polydaemon, descended from Queen Semiramis, Caucasian Abaris, Lycetus who dwelt by Spercheos, Helices of unshorn locks, Phlegyas and Clytus, treading the while on heaps of dying men. Phineus did not dare to come to close combat with his enemy, but hurled his javelin. This was ill- aimed and struck Idas, who all to no purpose had kept out of the fight, taking sides with neither party. He, gazing with angry eyes upon cruel Phineus, said: "Since I am forced into the strife, O Phineus, accept the foeman you have made, and score me wound for wound." And he was just about to hurl back the javelin which he had drawn out of his own body, when he fell fainting, his limbs all drained of blood Then also Hodites, first of the Ethiopians after the king, fell by the sword of Clymenus; Hypseus smote Prothoënor; Lyncides, Hypseus. Amid the throng was one old man, Emathion, who loved justice and revered the gods. He, since his years forbade war- fare, fought with the tongue, and strode forward and cursed their impious arms. As he clung to th altar-horns with age-enfeebled hands Chromis struck off his head with his sword: the head fell straight on the altar, and there the still half-conscious tongue kept up its execrations and the life was breathed out in the midst of the altar-fires. 24 5 METAMORPHOSES BOOKV Next fell two brothers by Phineus' hand, Broteas and Ammon, invincible with gauntlets, if gauntlets could but contend with swords; and Ampycus, Ceres' priest, his temples wreathed with white fillets. You, too, Lampetides, not intended for such a scene as this, but for a peaceful task, to ply lute and voice: you had been bidden to grace the feast and sing the festal song. To him standing apart and holding hi:s peaceful quill, Pettalus mocking cried: "Go sing the rest of your song to the Stygian shades," and pierced the left temple with his steel. He fell, and with dying fingers again essays the strings, and as he fell there was a lamentable sound. Nor did Lycormas, maddened at the sight, suffer him to perish unavenged; but, tearing out a stout bar from the door-post on the right, he broke the murderer's neck with a crashing blow. And Pettalus fell to the earth like a slaughtered bull. Cinyphian Pelates essayed to tear away another bar from the left post, but in the act his right hand was pierced by the spear of Corythus of Marmarida, and pinned to the wood. There fastened, Abas thrust him through the side nor did he fall, but, dying, hung down from the post to which his hand was nailed. Melaneus, too, was slain, one of Perseus' side; and Dorylas, the richest man in the land of Nasamonia-Dorylas, rich in land, than whom none held a wider domain, none heaped so many piles of spices. Into his groin a spear hurled fronm the side struck; that place is fatal. When Bactrian Halcyoneus, who hurled the spear, beheld him gasping out his life and rolling his eyes in death, he said: " This land alone on which you lie of all your lands shall vou possess," and left the lifeless body. Against him Perseus, swift to avenge, hurled e spear snatched from the warm wound, which, 247 METAMORPHOSES BOOK V striking the nose, was driven through the neck, and stuck out on both sides. And, while fortune favoured him, be slew also Clytius and Clanis, both born of one mother, but each with a different wound. For through both thighs of Clytius went the ashen spear, hurled by his mighty arm; the other dart Clanis crunched with his jaw. There fell also Mendesian Celadon; Astreus, too, whose mother was a Syrian, and his father unknown; Aethion, once wise to see what is to come, but now tricked by a false omen; Thoactes, armour-bearer of the king; Agyrtes, infamous for that he had slain his sire. Yet more remains, faint with toil though he is; for all are bent on crushing him alone. On all sides the banded lines assail him, in a cause that repudiated merit and plighted word. On his side his father-in- law with useless loyalty and his bride and her mother range themselves, and fill all the hall with their shrieks. But their cries are drowned in the clash of arms and the groans of dying men; while Bellona drenches and pollutes with blood the sacred home, and ever renews the strife. Now he stands alone where Phineus and a thousand followers close round im. Thicker than winter hail fly the spears, past right side and left, past eyes and ears. He stands with his back against a great stone column and, so protected in the rear, faces the opposing crowds and their impetuous attack. The attack is made on the left by Chaonian Molpeus, and by Arabian Ethemon on the right. Just as a tigress, pricked by hunger, that hears the bellowing of two herds in two several valleys, knows not which to rush upon, but burns to rush on both; so Perseus hesi- tates whether to smite on right or left; he stops Molpeus with a wound through the leg and was 249 METAMORPHOSES BOOK V content to let him go; but Ethemon gives him no time, and comes rushing on, eager to wound him in the and drives his sword with mighty power but careless aim, and breaks it on the edge of the great stone column the blade flies ofl and sticks in its neck, owner's throat. The stroke indeed is not dee enough for death; but as he stands there trembling stretching out his empty hands (but all in vain), Perseus thrusts him through with Mercury's hooked and sword. But when Perseus saw his own strength was no match for the superior numbers of his foes, he ex- claimed: "Since you yourselves force me to it, I shall seek aid from my own enemy. Turn away your faces, if any friend be here." So saying, he raised n high the Gorgon's head. "Seek someone else to frighten with your magic arts," cried Thesceļus. and raised his deadly javelin in act to throw; but in very act he stood immovable, a marble statue Next after him Ampyx thrust his sword full at the heart of the great-souled Perseus; but in that thrust is right hand stiffened and moved neither this way nor that. But Nileus, who talsely claimed that he as sprung from the sevenfold Nile, and who had n his shield engraved the image of the stream's seven mouths, part silver and part gold, cried : "See, 'erseus, the source whence I have sprung. Surely great consolation for your death will you carry to the silent shades, that you have fallen by so great a nan,,-his last words were cut off in mid-speech; you would suppose that his open lips still strove to speak, but they no longer gave passage to his words These two Eryx rebuked, saying: " 'Tis from defect of courage, not from any power of the Gorgon's head, that you stand rigid. Rush in with me and hurl to 251 that METAMORPHOSES BOOK V the earth this fellow and his magic arms!"He had begun the rush, but the floor held his feet fast and there he stayed, a motionless rock, an image in full arinour. l'hese, indeed, deserved the punishment they received. But there was one, Aconteus, a soldier on Perseus' side, who, while fighting for his friend, chanced to look upon the Gorgon's face and hardened into stone. Astyages, thinking him still a living man, smote upon him with his long sword. The sword gave out a sharp clanging sound; and while Astyages stood amazed, the same strange power got hold on him, and he stood there still with a look or wonder on his marble face. It would take too lon g to tell the names of the rank and file who perished. Two hundred men survived the fight; two hundred saw the Gorgon and turned to stone. But now at last Phineus repents him of this uin righteous strife. But what is he to do? He sees images in various attitudes and knows the men for his own; he calls each one by name, prays for his aid, and hardly believing his eyes, he touches those w ho are nearest him: marble, all! He turns his face away, and so stretching out sideways suppliant hands that confess defeat, he says: " Perseus, you are my conqueror. Remove that dreadful thing that petrifying Medusa-head of yours-whosoever she may be, oh, take it away, I beg. It was not hate of you and lust for the kingly power that drove me to this war. It was my wife I fought for. Your clain was better in merit, mine in time. I am content to ield. Grant me now nothing, O bravest of men, save this my life. All the rest be yours." As he thus spoke, not daring to look at him to whom he prayed, Perseus replied: " Most craven Phineus, dismiss your 258 METAMORPHOSES BOOK V fears; what I can give (and 'tis a great boon for your coward soul), I will grant: you shall not suffer by the sword. Nay, but I will make of you a monument that shal endure for ages; and in the house of my father-in-law you shall always stand on view, that so my wife may find solace in the statue of her promised lord." So saving, he bore the Gorgon-head where Phineus had turned his fear-struck face. Then, even as he strove to avert his eyes, his neck grew hard and the very tears upon his cheeks were changed to stone. And now in marble was fixed the cowardly face, the suppliant look, the pleading hands, the whole cringing attitude. Victorious Perseus, together with his bride, no« returns to his ancestral city; and there, to avenge his grandsire, who little deserved this championship, he wars on Proetus. For Proetus had driven his brother out by force of arms, and seized the strong- hold of Acrisius. But neither by the force of arms, nor by the stronghold he had basely seized, could he resist the baleful gaze of that dread snake-wreathed monster. But you, O Polydectes, ruler of Little Seriphus, were not softened by the young man's valour, tried in so many feats, nor by his troubles; but you were hard and unrelenting in hate, and your unjust anger knew no end. You even refused him his honour, and declared that the death of Medusa was all a lie. " We give you proof of that," then Perseus said; " protect your eyes!" (this to his friends). And with the Medusa-face he changed the features of the king to bloodless stone. Durin all this time Tritonia1 had been the couurade of her brother born of the golden shower. 1 Athena. 255 METAMORPHOSES BOOK But now, wrapped in a hollow cloud, she left Seriphus, and, passing Cythnus and Gyarus on the right, by the shortest course over the sea she made for Thebes and Helicon, home of the Muses. On this mountain she alighted, and thus addressed the sisters versed in song: “The fame of a new spring has reached my ears, which broke out under the hard hoof of the winged horse of Medusa. This is the cause of my journey: I wished to see the marvellous thing. he horse himself I saw born from his motber's blood." Urania replied: < Whatever cause has brought thee to see our home, O goddess, thou art most welcome to our hearts. But the tale is true, and Pegasus did indeed produce our spring." And she led Pallas aside to the sacred waters. She long admired the spring made by the stroke of the horse's hoof; then looked round on the ancient woods, the grottoes, and the grass, spangled with countless flowers. She declared the daughters of Mnemosyne to be happy alike in their favourite pursuits and in their home. And thus one of the sisters answered her: "O thou, Tritonia, who wouldst so fitly join our band, had not thy merits raised thee to far greater tasks, thou sayest truth and dost justly praise our arts and our home. We have indeed a happy lot-were we but safe in it. But (such is the licence of the time) all things affright our virgin souls, and the vision of fierce Pyreneus is ever before our eyes, and I have not yet recovered from my fear. This bold king with his Thracian soldiery had captured Daulis and the Phocian fields, and ruled that realm which he had unjustly gained. It chanced that we were journeying to the temple on Parnasus. He saw us going, and feigning a reverence for our divinity, he said: "O daughters of Mnemosyne' for he knew us-' stay your steps and do not hesitate 257 METAMORPHOSES BOOK V to take shelter beneath my roof against the lowering sky and the rain,--for rain was falling--‘gods have often entered a humbler home.' Moved by his words and by the storm, we yielded to the man and entered hisportal. And now the rain had ceased, thesouth wind had been routed by the north, and the dusky clouds were in full flight from the brightening sky. We were fain to go on our way; but Pyreneus shut his doors, and offered us violence. This we escaped by donning our wings. He, as if he would follow us, took his stand on a lofty battlement and cried to us: ‘ What way you take, the same will I take also; and, quite bereft of sense, he leaped from the pinnacle of the tower. Headlong he fell, crushing his bones and dyeing the ground in death with his accursed blood."' lhile the muse was still speaking, the sound of whirring wings was heard and words of greeting came from the high branches of the trees. Jove's daughter looked up and tried to see whence came the sound which was so clearly speech. She thought some human being spoke; but it was a bird. Nine birds, lamenting their fate, had alighted in the branches, magpies, which can imitate any sound they please. When Minerva wondered at the sight, the other addressed her, goddess to goddess: ""Tis but lately those creatures also, conquered in a strife, have been added to the throng of birds. Pierus, lord of the rich domain of Pella, was their father, and Euippe of Paeonia was their mother. Nine times brought to the birth, nine times she called for help on mighty Lucina. Swollen with pride of numbers, this throng of senseless sisters journeyed through all the towns of Haemonia and all the towns of Achaia to us, and thus defied us to a contest in song: 'Cease to de- ceive the unsophisticated rabble with your pretence 259 METAMORPHOSES BOOK V of song. Come, strive with us, ye Thespian god- desses, if you dare. Neither in voice nor in skill can we be conquered, and our numbers are the same. If you are conquered, yield us Medusa's spring and Boeotian Aganippe; or we will yield to you the Emathian plains even to snow-clad Paeonia; and let the nymphs be judges of our strife." <« It was a shame to strive with them, but it seemed greater shame to yield. So the nymphs were chosen judges and took oath by their streams, and they set them down upon benches of living rock. Then with- out drawing lots she who had proposed the contest first began. She sang of the battle of the gods and giants, ascribing undeserved honour to the giants, and belittling the deeds of the mighty gods: how Typhoeus, sprung from the lowest depths of earth, inspired the heavenly gods with fear, and how they all turned their backs and fled, until, weary, they found refuge in the land of Egypt and the seven- mouthed Nile. How even there Typhoeus, son of earth, pursued them, and the gods hid themselves in lying shapes: 'Jove thus became a ram,' said she, the lord of flocks, whenceLibyan Ammon even to this day is represented with curving horns; Apollo hid in a crow's shape, Bacchus in a goat; the sister of Phoebus in a cat, Juno in a snow-white cow Venns in a fish, Mercurv in an ibis bird. " So far had she sung, tuning voice to harp; we, the Aonian sisters, were challenged to reply-but perhaps you have not leisure, and care not to listen to our song ?" “ Nay, have no doubt," Pallas exclaimed, "but sing now your song in due order." And she took her seat in the pleasant shade of the forest. The muse replied : "We gave the conduct of our strife to one, Calliope; who rose and, with her flowing tresses 261 METAMORPHOSES BOOK V bound in an ivy wreath, tried the plaintive chords with her thumb, and then, with sweeping chords, she sang this song: " Ceres was the first to turn the glebe with the hooked plowshare; she first gave corn and kindly sustenance to the world; she first gave laws. Ail things are the gift of Ceres; she must be the subject of my song. Would that I could worthily sing of her; surely the goddess is worthy of my song «<'The huge island of Sicily had been heaped upoin the body of the giant, and with its vast weight was resting on Typhoeus, who had dared to aspire to thoe heights of heaven. He struggles indeed, and strives often to rise again; but his right hand is held down by Ausonian l'elorus and his left by you, Pachynus. Lilybaeum rests on his legs, and Aetna's weight is on his head. Flung on his back beneath this mountain, the fierce Typhoeus spouts forth ashes and vomits flames from his mouth. Often he puts forth al his strength to push off the weight of carth and to roll the cities and great mountains from his body: then the earth quakes, and even the king of the silent land is afraid lest the crust of the earth split open in wide seams and lest the light of day be let in and affright the trembling shades. Fearing this disaster, the king ot the lower world had left his gloomy realm and, drawn in his chariot with its sable steeds, was tra- versing the land of Sicily, carefully examining its foundations. After he had examined all to his satisfaction, and found that no points were giving way, he put aside his fears. Then Venus Erycina saw him wandering to and fro, as she was seated on her sacred mountain, and embracing her winged son, she exclaimed: O son, both arms and hands to me, and source of all my power, take now those shafts, Cupid, with which you conquer all, and shoot 263 METAMORPHOSES BOOK V your swift arrows into the heart of that god to whom the final lot of the triple kingdom fell. You rule the gods, and Jove himself; you conquer and control the deities of the sea, and the very king that rules the deities of the sea. Why does Tartarus hold back? Why do you not extend your mother's empire anu your own? The third part of the world is at stake. And yet in heaven, such is our long-suffering, we are despised, and with my own, the power of love is weakening. Do you not see that Pallas and huntress Diana have revolted against me? And Ceres daughter, too, will remain a virgin if we suffer it; for she aspires to be like them. But do you, in behalf of our joint sovereignty, if you take any pride in that, join the goddess to her uncle in the bonds of love." So Venus spoke. The god of love loosed bis quiver at his mother's bidding and selected from his thousand arrows one, the sharpest and the surest and themost obedient to the bow. Then he bent the pliant bow across his knee and with his barbed arrow smote Dis through the heart. Not far from Henna's walls there is a deep pool of water, Pergus by name. Not Cayster on its gliding waters hears more songs of swans than does this pool A wood crowns the heights around its waters on every side, and with its foliage as with an awning keeps o the sun's hot rays. The branches afford a pleasing coolness, and the well-watered ground bears bright- coloured flowers. There spring is everlasting. Within this grove Proserpina was playing, and gathering violets or white lilies. And while with girlish eager- ness she was filling her basket and her boson, and striving to surpass her mates in gathering, alinost in one act didPl so precipitate was his love. The terrified girl called luto see and love and carry her away: 265 METAMORPHOSES BOOK V plaintively on her mother and her companions, but more often upon her mother. And since she had torn her garment at its upper edge, the flowers which she had gathered fell out of her loosened tunic; and such was the innocence of her girlish years, the loss of her flowers even at such a time aroused new grief. Her captor sped his chariot and urged on his horscs, calling each by name, and haking the dark-dyed reins on their necks and Through deep lakes he galloped, through pools of the Palici, reeking with sulphur and up from a crevice of the earth, and where the Bacchiadae, a race sprung from Corinth between seas, had built a city between two harbours of nanes. the boiling two unequal Size. “ ‘ There is between Cyane and Pisaean Arethusa a of the sea, its waters confined by narrowing of land. Here was Cyane, the most famous of the Sicilian nymphs, from whose name the pool was called. She stood forth from the midst of her pool as far as her waist, and recognizing the goddess cried to Dis: "No further shall you go! lhou canst not be the son-in-law of Ceres against her will. The maiden should have been wooed, not ravished. But, if it is proper for me to compare small bay points itself things with great, I also have been wooed, b Anapis, and I wedded him, too, yielding to prayer, however, not to fear, like this maiden." She spoke and, stretching her arms on either side, blocked his way. No longer could the son of Saturn hold his wrath, and urging on his terrible steeds, he whirled his royal sceptre with strong right arm and smote the pool to its bottom. The smitten earth opened a road to Tartarus and rcceived the down-plunging up chariot in her cavernous depths 267 METAMORPHOSES BOOK V c"" But Cyane, grieving for the rape of the goddess nd for her fountain's rights thus set at naught, nursed n incurable wound in her silent heart, and dissolved ll away in tears; and into those very waters was she whose great divinity she had been but now might see her limbs softening, her bones becom- flexible, her nails losing their hardness. And first all melt the slenderest parts: her dark hair, her ingers, legs and feet; for it is no great change from lender limbs to cool water. Next after these, her houlders, back and sides and breasts vanish into thin vatery streams. And finally, in place of living blood, lear water flows through her weakened veins and nelted f'ou ng f othing is left that you can touch. Meanwhile all in vain the affrighted mother her daughter in every land, on every deep. Not Aurora, rising with dewy tresses, not Hesperus sees er pausing in the search. She kindles two pine orches in the fires of Aetna, and wanders without est through the frosty shades of night; again, when he genial day had dimmed the stars, she was still eeking her daughter from the setting to the rising f the sun. Faint with toil and athirst, she had noistened her lips in no fountain, when she chanced o see a hut thatched with straw, and knocked at ts lowly door. Then out came an old woman and eheld the goddess, and when she asked for water gave her a sweet drink with parched barley floating ipon it. While she drank, a coarse, saucy boy stood vatching her, and mocked her and called her greedy. She was offended, and threw what she had not yet drunk, with the barley grains, full in his face. Straight- way his face was spotted, his arms were changed to egs, and a tail was added to his transformed limbs; e shrank to tiny size, that he might have no great 269 eeks METAMORPHOSES BOOK V power to harm, and became in form a lizard, though vet smaller in size. The old womam wondered and wept, and reached out to touch the marvellous thing, but he fled from her and sought a hiding-place. He has a name1 suited to his offence, since his body is starred with bright-coloured spots. « Over what lands and what seas the goddess wandered it would take long to tell. When there was no more a place to search in, she came back to Sicily, and in the course of her wanderings here she came to Cyane. If the nymph had not been changed to water, she would have told her all. But, though she wished to tell, she had neither lips nor tongue, nor aught wherewith to speak. But still she gave clear evidence,and showed on the surface of her pool what the mother knew well, Persephone's girdle, which had chanced to fall upon the sacred waters. As soon as she knew this, just as if she had then for the first time learned that her daughter had been stolen, the goddess tore her unkempt locks and smote her breast again and again with her hands. She did not know as yet where her child was; stilh she reproached all lands, calling them ungrateful and unworthy of the gift of corn; but Sicily above all other lands, where she had found traces of her loss. So there with angry hand she broke in pieces the plows that turn the glebe, and in her rage she gave to destruction farmers and cattle alike, and bade the plowed fields to betrav their trust, and blighted the seed. The fertility of this land, famous throughout the world, lay false to its good name: the crops died in early blade, now too much heat, now too much rain destroying them. Stars and winds were baleful, and greedy birds ate up the seed as soon as it was 871 METAMORPHOSES BOOK V sown; tares and thorns and stubborn grasses choked the wheat.
- Then did Arethusa, Alpheus' daughter, lift her
head from her Elean pool and, brushing her dripping locks back from her brows, thus addressed the goddess: 'O thou mother of the maiden sought through all the earth, thou mother of fruits, cease now thy boundless toils and do not be so grievously wroth with the land which has been true to thee. The land is innocent against its will it opened to the robbery. It is not for my own country that I pray, for I came a stranger hither. Pisa is my native land, and from Elis have I sprung; I dwell in Sicily a foreigner. But I love this ountry more than all; this is now my home, here is my dwelling-place. And now, 1 pray thee, save t, O most merciful. Why I moved from my place and why I came to Sicily, through such wastes of sea, afitting time will come to tell thee, when thou shalt be free from care and of a more cheerful countenance. The solid earth opened a way before me, and passing hrough the lowest depths, I here lifted my head again and beheld the stars that had grown unfamiliar. Iherefore, while I was gliding beneath the earth in my Stygian stream, I saw Proserpina there with these very eyes. She seemed sad indeed, and her face was still perturbed with fear; but yet she was a queen, the great queen of that world of darkness, the mighty consort of the tyrant of the underworld." The mother upon hearing these words stood as if turned to stone, and was for a long time like one bereft of reason. But when her overwhelming frenzy had given way to over- whelming pain,she set forthinherchariot to the realms of heaven. There, with cłouded countenance, with lishevelled hair, and full of indignation, she appeared before Jove and said: "I have come, O Jupiter, as 878 METAMORPHOSES BOOK V suppliant in behalf of my child and your own. If you have no regard for the mother, at least let the daughter touch her father's heart. And let not your care for her be less because I am her mother. See, my daughter, sought so long, has at last been found, if you call it finding more certainly to lose her, or if you call it finding merely to know where she is. That she has been stolen, I will bear, if only he will bring her back; for your daughter does not deserve to have a robber for a husband-if now she is not ine." And Jove replied: "She is, indeed, our daughter, yours and mine, our common pledge and care. But if only we are willing to give right names to things, this is no harm that has been done, but onlv love. Nor will he shame us for a son-in-law -do you but consent, goddess. Though all else be lacking, how great a thing it is to be Jove's brother! But what that other things are not lacking, and that he does not yield place to me-save only by the lot? But if you so greatly desire to separate them, Proserpina shall return to heaven, but on one condition only: if in the lower-world no food has as yet touched her lips. For so have the fates decreed." « < He spoke; but Ceres was resolved to have her daughter back. Not so the fates; for the girl had already broken her fast, and while, simple child that she was, she wandered in the trim gardens, she had plucked a purple pomegranate hanging from a bending bough, and peeling off the yellowish rind, she had eaten seven of the seeds. The only one who saw the act was Ascalaphus, whom Orphne, not the least famous of the Avernal nymphs, is said to have borne to her own Acheron within the dark groves of the lower-world. The boy saw, and by his cruel tattling thwarted the girl's return to earth. Thern 275 METAMORPHOSES BOOK V was the queen of Erebus enraged, and changed the informer into an ill-omened bird; throwing in his face a handful of water from the Phlegethon, she gave him a beak and feathers and big eyes. Robbed of himself, he is now clothed in yellow wings; he grows into a head and long, hooked claws; but he scarce moves the feathers that sprout all over his sluggish arms. He has become a loathsome bird, prophet of woe, the slothful screech-owl, a bird of evil omen to men. « < He indeed can seem to have merited his punish- ment because of his tattling tongue. But, daughters of Acheloüs, why have you the feathers and feet of birds, though you still have maidens' features? Is it because, when Proserpina was gathering the spring flowers, you were among the number of her coni panions, ye Sirens, skilled in song? After you had ought in vain for her through all the lands, that the sea also might know your search, you prayed that ou might float on beating wings above the waves: you found the gods ready, and suddenly vou saw limbs covered with golden plumage. But, that you might not lose your tuneful voices, so soothing to the ear, and that rich dower of song, maiden your features and human voice remained c ' But now Jove, holding the balance between his brother and his grieving sister, divides the revolving year into two equal parts. Now the goddess, the common divinity of two realms, spends half the months with her mother and with her husband, half. Straightway the bearing of her heart and face is changed. For she who but lately even to Dis seemed sacl, now wears a joyful countenance; like the sun which, long concealed behind dark and misty clouds, disperses the clouds and reveals his face 277 METAMORPHOSES BOOK V “‘N ow kindly Ceres, happy in the recovery of her daughter, asks of you, Arethusa, why you fled, why you are now a sacred spring. The waters fall silent while their goddess lifts her head from her deep ring, and dries her green locks with her hands nd tells the old story of the Elean river's love. used to be one of the nymphs," she says, " who ave their dwelling in Achaia, and no other was nore eager in scouring the glades, or in setting the unting-nets. But althonh I never sought the fame of beauty, although 1 was brave, I had the name of peautiful. Nor did my beauty, all too often praised, give me any joy; and my dower of charming form, n which other maids rejoice, made me blush like a country girl, and I deemed it wrong to please. Wearied with the chase, I was returning, I remem- from the Stymphalian wood; the heat was great and my toil had made it double. I came upon a tream lowing without eddy, and without sound, rystal-clear to the bottom, in whose depths you might count every pebble, waters which you would scarcely think to be moving. Silvery willows and poplars fed by the water gave natural shade to the soft-sloping banks. I came to the water's edge and dipped my feet, then I went up to the knees: ot satisfied with this, 1 removed my robes, and the soft garments on a drooping willow, aked I plunged into the waters. And while I beat then, drawing them and gliding in a thousand turns nd tossing my arms, I thought I heard a kind of murmur deep in the pool. In terror I leaped on the en Alpheus called from his waters: Whither in haste, Arethusa?Whither in such haste? Twice in his hoarse voice he called to me. As I was, without my robes, I filed; for my robes were 279 ber, irst hanging earer bank. Th METAMORPHOSES OOK V on the other bank. So much the more he pressed on and burned with love; naked I seemed readier for his taking. So did I flee and so did he hotly press after me, as doves on fluttering pinions flee the hawk, as the hawk pursues the frightened doves. Even past Orchomenus, past Psophis and Cyllene, past the combs of Maenalus, chill Erymanthus and Elis, I kept my fAight; nor was he swifter of foot than I. But I, being ill-matched in strength, could not long keep up my speed, while he could sustain a long pursuit. Yet through level plains, over mountains covered with trees, over rocks also and cliffs, and where there was no way at al, I ran. The sun was at my back. I sav my pursuer's long shadow stretching out ahead of me-unless it was fear that saw it-but surelv I heard the terrifying sound of feet, and his deep-pant ing breath fanned my hair. Then, forspent with the toil of flight, I cried aloud: O help me or I am caught, help thy armour-bearer, goddess of the nets, to whom so often thou hast given thy bow to bear and thy quiver, with all its arrows!' The goddess heard, and threw an impenetrable cloud of mistabout me. The river-god circled around me, wrapped in the darkness, and at fault quested about the hollow mist. And twice he went round the place where the god- dess had hidden me, unknowing, and twice he called, ' Arethusa! O Arethusa' How did I feel then, poor wretch! Was I not as the lamb, when it hears the wolves howling around the fold? or the hare whicb, hiding in the brambles, sees the dogs' deadly muzzles and dares not make the slightest motion? But he went not far away, for he saw no traces of my feet further on; he watched the cloud and the place. Cold sweat poured down my beleaguered limbs and the dark drops rained down from my whole body. 281 METAMORPHOSES BOOK V Wherever I put my foot a pool trickled out, and from my hair fell the drops, and sooner than I can now tell the tale I was changed to a stream of water. But sure enough he recognized in the waters the maid he loved; and laying aside the form of a man which he had assumed, he changed back to his own watery shape to mingle with me. My Delian goddess cleft the earth, and I, plunging down into the dark depths, was borne hither to Ortygia, which I love because it bears my goddess' name, and this first received me to the upper air." " with this, Arethusa's tale was done. Then the goddess of tertility yoked her two dragons to her car, curbing their mouths with the bit, and rode away through the air midway between heaven and earth, until she came at last to Pallas city Here she gave her fleet car to T'riptolemus, and bade him scatter the seeds of grain she gave, part in the untilled earth and part in fields that had long lain fallow. And now higi over Europe and the land of Asia the youth held his course and came to Scythia, where Lyncus ruled as king. He entered the royal palace. The king asked him how he came and why, what was his name and country: he said: "My country is far-famed Athens; Triptolemus, my name. I came neither by ship over the sea, nor on foot by land; the air opened a path for me. 1 bring the gifts of Ceres, which, if you sprinkle them over your wide fields, will give a fruitful harvest and food not wild." The barbaric king heard with envy. And, that he hiimself might be the giver of so great a boon, he received his guest with hospitality, and when he was heavy with sleep, he attacked him with the sword. Him, in the very act of piercing the stranger's breast, Ceres transformed into a lynx; and bac 283 METAMORPHOSES BOOKV through the air she bade the Athenian drive her sacred team "Our eldest sister here ended the song I have just rehearsed; then the nymphs with one voice agreed the goddesses of Helicon had won. When the conquered sisters retorted with reviling, I made
- ‘Since it was not enough that you have
punishment by your challenge and you add insults to your offence, and since our patience is not without end, we shall proceed to punishment and our resentment.' The Pierides mocked, and her threatening words. But as they tried to speak, and with loud outcries brandished their hands in saucy gestures, they saw feathers sprouting on their and plumage covering their arms; each saw nother's face stiffening into a hard beak, and new forms of birds added to the woods. And while they trove to beat their breasts, uplifted by their flapping arms, they hung in the air, magpies, the noisy scandal of the woods. Even now in their feathered form their old-time gift of speech remains, their hoarse that answer earned indulge scorned fingers, garrulity, their boundless passion for talk." 285