by Longus
While hunting in a grove sacred to the Nymphs, in the island of Lesbos, I saw the most beautiful sight that I have ever seen: a picture representing a history of love. The grove itself was pleasant to the eye, covered with trees, full of flowers, and well-watered: a single spring fed both trees and flowers. But the picture itself was even more delightful: its subject was the fortunes of love, and the art displayed in it was marvellous: so that many, even strangers, who had heard it spoken of, visited the island, to pay their devotion to the Nymphs and examine the picture, on which were portrayed women in childbirth or wrapping children in swaddling clothes, poor babes exposed to the mercy of Fortune, beasts of the flock nurturing them, shepherds taking them up in token of adoption, young people binding one another by mutual vows, pirates over-running the seas, and enemies invading the land.
Πολλὰ ἄλλα καὶ πάντα ἐρωτικὰ ἰδόντα με καὶ θαυμάσαντα πόθος ἔσχεν ἀντιγράψαι τῇ γραφῇ: καὶ ἀναζητησάμενος ἐξηγητὴν τῆς εἰκόνος τέτταρας βίβλους ἐξεπονησάμην, ἀνάθημα μὲν Ἔρωτι καὶ Νύμφαις καὶ Πανί, κτῆμα δὲ τερπνὸν πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις, ὃ καὶ νοσοῦντα ἰάσεται, καὶ λυπούμενον παραμυθήσεται, τὸν ἐρασθέντα ἀναμνήσει, τὸν οὐκ ἐρασθέντα προπαιδεύσει. Πάντως γὰρ οὐδεὶς ἔρωτα ἔφυγεν ἢ φεύξεται, μέχρι ἂν κάλλος ᾖ καὶ ὀφθαλμοὶ βλέπωσιν. Ἡμῖν δ̓ ὁ θεὸς παράσχοι σωφρονοῦσι τὰ τῶν ἄλλων γράφειν.
Many other subjects, all of an amatory nature, were depicted, which I gazed upon with such admiration that I was seized with the desire to describe them in writing. Accordingly, I diligently sought for someone to give me an explanation of the details: and, when I had thoroughly mastered them, I composed the four following books, as an offering to Love, the Nymphs, and Pan, and also as a work that will afford pleasure to many, in the hope that it may heal the sick, console the sorrowful, refresh the memory of him who once has loved, and instruct him who has never yet felt its flame. For no one has yet escaped, or ever will escape, the attack of Love, as long as beauty exists and eyes can see. May God grant that, unharmed ourselves, we may be able to describe the lot of others!
Πόλις ἐστὶ τῆς Λέσβου Μυτιλήνη, μεγάλη καὶ καλή: διείληπται γὰρ εὐρίποις ὑπεισρεούσης τῆς θαλάττης, καὶ κεκόσμηται γεφύραις ξεστοῦ καὶ λευκοῦ λίθου. Νομίσειας ἂν οὐ πόλιν ὁρᾶν ἀλλὰ νῆσον. Ταύτης τῆς πόλεως ὅσον ἀπὸ σταδίων διακοσίων ἀγρὸς ἦν ἀνδρὸς εὐδαίμονος, κτῆμα κάλλιστον: ὄρη θηροτρόφα, πεδία πυροφόρα: γήλοφοι κλημάτων, νομαὶ ποιμνίων: καὶ ἡ θάλαττα προσέκλυζεν ᾐόνι ἐκτεταμένῃ, ψάμμῳ μαλθακῇ.
1.1 There is in Lesbos a flourishing and beautiful city, named Mitylene. It is intersected by numerous canals, formed by the waters of the sea, which flows in upon it, and adorned with several bridges of white polished stone: to look at it, you would say that it was not a single city, but a number of islands. About two hundred stades distant from the city, a wealthy man possessed a very fine estate: mountains abounding in game, fruitful cornfields, hillocks covered with vine shoots, and ample pasturage for cattle; the sea washed a long stretch of soft sandy beach.
Ἐν τῷδε τῷ ἀγρῷ νέμων αἰπόλος, Λάμων τοὔνομα, παιδίον εὗρεν ὑπὸ μιᾶς τῶν αἰγῶν τρεφόμενον. Δρυμὸς ἦν καὶ λόχμη βάτων καὶ κιττὸς ἐπιπλανώμενος καὶ πόα μαλθακή, καθ̓ ἧς ἔκειτο τὸ παιδίον. Ἐνταῦθα ἡ αἲξ θέουσα συνεχὲς ἀφανὴς ἐγίνετο πολλάκις καὶ τὸν ἔριφον ἀπολιποῦσα τῷ βρέφει παρέμενε. Φυλάττει τὰς διαδρομὰς ὁ Λάμων οἰκτείρας ἀμελούμενον τὸν ἔριφον, καὶ μεσημβρίας ἀκμαζούσης κατ̓ ἴχνος ἐλθὼν ὁρᾷ τὴν μὲν αἶγα πεφυλαγμένως περιβεβηκυῖαν τὸ βρέφος, μὴ ταῖς χηλαῖς βλάπτοι πατοῦσα, τὸ δὲ ὥσπερ ἐκ μητρῴας θηλῆς τὴν ἐπιρροὴν ἕλκον τοῦ γάλακτος. Θαυμάσας, ὥσπερ εἰκὸς ἦν, πρόσεισιν ἐγγὺς καὶ εὑρίσκει παιδίον ἄρρεν, μέγα καὶ καλὸν καὶ τῆς κατὰ τὴν ἔκθεσιν τύχης ἐν σπαργάνοις κρείττοσι: χλαμύδιόν τε γὰρ ἦν ἁλουργὲς καὶ πόρπη χρυσῆ καὶ ξιφίδιον ἐλεφαντόκωπον.
1.2 On this estate a goatherd named Lamon, while feeding his flock, found a child being suckled by a goat. There was a thicket of shrubs and briars, over which the ivy straggled, and beneath, a couch of soft grass, whereon the infant lay. Hither the goat often ran and wandered out of sight, and abandoning its own kid, remained by the side of the child. Lamon, pitying the neglected kid, observed the direction in which the goat went: and, one day at noon, when the sun was at its height, he followed and saw it cautiously entering the thicket and walking round the child, so as not to tread on and hurt it, while the latter sucked vigorously at its teat as if it had been its mother’s breast. Astonished, as was natural, he approached closer, and found that it was a little boy, beautiful and well-grown, and wrapped in handsomer swaddling clothes than suited a child thus exposed: it had on a little purple tunic fastened with a golden clasp, and by its side was a little dagger with an ivory hilt.
Τὸ μὲν οὖν πρῶτον ἐβουλεύσατο μόνα τὰ γνωρίσματα βαστάσας ἀμελῆσαι τοῦ βρέφους: ἔπειτα αἰδεσθεὶς εἰ μηδὲ αἰγὸς φιλανθρωπίαν μιμήσεται, νύκτα φυλάξας κομίζει πάντα πρὸς τὴν γυναῖκα Μυρτάλην, καὶ τὰ γνωρίσματα καὶ τὸ παιδίον καὶ τὴν αἶγα αὐτήν. Τῆς δὲ ἐκπλαγείσης εἰ παιδία τίκτουσιν αἶγες, ὁ δὲ πάντα αὐτῇ διηγεῖται, πῶς εὗρεν ἐκκείμενον, πῶς εἶδε τρεφόμενον, πῶς ᾐδέσθη καταλιπεῖν ἀποθανούμενον. Δόξαν δὴ κἀκείνῃ, τὰ μὲν συνεκτεθέντα κρύπτουσι, τὸ δὲ παιδίον αὑτῶν νομίζουσι, τῇ δὲ αἰγὶ τὴν τροφὴν ἐπιτρέπουσιν. Ὡς δ̓ ἂν καὶ τοὔνομα τοῦ παιδίου ποιμενικὸν δοκοίη, Δάφνιν αὐτὸν ἔγνωσαν καλεῖν.
1.3 At first he was minded to take up the tokens, without troubling about the child: but afterwards, feeling ashamed at the idea of being outdone by the goat in humanity, he waited till night, and took everything to his wife Myrtale, the tokens, the child, and the goat. When she expressed her astonishment that goats should bring forth little children, he told her everything: how he had found the child lying exposed, and being suckled by the goat, and how he had felt ashamed to leave it to die. His wife agreed with him, and they resolved to hide the tokens, to bring up the child as their own, and to let the goat suckle him. Further, they decided to call him Daphnis, that the name might have a more pastoral sound.
Ἤδη δὲ διετοῦς χρόνου διικνουμένου, ποιμὴν ἐξ ἀγρῶν ὁμόρων νέμων, Δρύας τοὔνομα, καὶ αὐτὸς ὁμοίοις ἐπιτυγχάνει καὶ εὑρήμασι καὶ θέαμασι. Νυμφῶν ἄντρον ἦν, πέτρα μεγάλη, τὰ ἔνδοθεν κοίλη, τὰ ἔξωθεν περιφερής. Τὰ ἀγάλματα τῶν Νυμφῶν αὐτῶν λίθοις ἐπ
εποίητο: πόδες ἀνυπόδητοι, χεῖρες εἰς ὤμους γυμναί, κόμαι μέχρι τῶν αὐχένων λελυμέναι, ζῶμα περὶ τὴν ἰξύν, μειδίαμα περὶ τὴν ὀφρύν: τὸ πᾶν σχῆμα χορεία ἦν ὀρχουμένων. Ἡ ὤα τοῦ ἄντρου τῆς μεγάλης πέτρας ἦν τὸ μεσαίτατον. Ἐκ πηγῆς ἀναβλύζον ὕδωρ ῥεῖθρον ἐποίει χεόμενον, ὥστε καὶ λειμὼν πάνυ γλαφυρὸς ἐξετέτατο πρὸ τοῦ ἄντρου, πολλῆς καὶ μαλθακῆς πόας ὑπὸ τῆς νοτίδος τρεφομένης. Ἀνέκειντο δὲ καὶ γαυλοὶ καὶ αὐλοὶ πλάγιοι καὶ σύριγγες καὶ κάλαμοι, πρεσβυτέρων ποιμένων ἀναθήματα.
1.4 When two years had passed, a shepherd belonging to the neighbourhood, named Dryas, while feeding his flocks, made a similar discovery and saw a similar sight. In his district there was a cave sacred to the Nymphs: a large rock hollowed out within, and circular without. Inside were statues of the Nymphs, carved in stone, with feet unshod, arms bared up to the shoulders, hair falling down over the neck, a girdle around the waist, and a smile on the face: to judge from their attitude, you would have said they were dancing. The dome of the grotto was the centre of this mighty rock. Water, gushing from a fountain, formed a running stream; a beautiful meadow extended in front of the cave, the soft and abundant herbage of which was nourished by the moisture of the stream. Within were to be seen hanging up milk-pails, flutes, pipes, and reeds, the offerings of the older shepherds.
Εἰς τοῦτο τὸ νυμφαῖον οἶς ἀρτιτόκος συχνὰ φοιτῶσα δόξαν πολλάκις ἀπωλείας παρεῖχε. Κολάσαι δὴ βουλόμενος αὐτὴν καὶ εἰς τὴν πρότερον εὐνομίαν καταστῆσαι, δεσμὸν ῥάβδου χλωρᾶς λυγίσας ὅμοιον βρόχῳ τῇ πέτρᾳ προσῆλθεν, ὡς ἐκεῖ συλληψόμενος αὐτήν. Ἐπιστὰς δὲ οὐδὲν εἶδεν ὧν ἤλπισεν, ἀλλὰ τὴν μὲν διδοῦσαν πάνυ ἀνθρωπίνως τὴν θηλὴν εἰς ἄφθονον τοῦ γάλακτος ὁλκήν, τὸ δὲ παιδίον ἀκλαυτὶ λάβρως εἰς ἀμφοτέρας τὰς θηλὰς μεταφέρον τὸ στόμα καθαρὸν καὶ φαιδρόν, οἷα τῆς οἰὸς τῇ γλώττῃ τὸ πρόσωπον ἀπολιχμωμένης μετὰ τὸν κόρον τῆς τροφῆς. Θῆλυ ἦν τοῦτο τὸ παιδίον, καὶ παρέκειτο καὶ τούτῳ γνωρίσματα: μίτρα διάχρυσος, ὑποδήματα ἐπίχρυσα, περισκελίδες χρυσαῖ.
1.5 A sheep, which had recently lambed, went so often to this grotto, that more than once she was thought to be lost. Dryas, wishing to punish her and make her stay with the flock to feed, as before, twisted a bough of pliant osier into a collar in the form of a running noose, and went up to the rock, in order to snare her. But when he drew near he beheld quite a different sight from what he had expected: he saw the sheep giving her teat, just like a human being, for a copious draught of milk, to a child, which, without a cry, eagerly shifted its clean and pretty mouth from one teat to the other, while the sheep licked its face, after it had had enough. It was a female child, and by its side also lay swaddling clothes and tokens, a cap interwoven with gold, gilded shoes, and gold-embroidered anklets.
Θεῖον δή τι νομίσας τὸ εὕρημα καὶ διδασκόμενος παρὰ τῆς οἰὸς ἐλεεῖν τε τὸ παιδίον καὶ φιλεῖν ἀναιρεῖται μὲν τὸ βρέφος ἐπ̓ ἀγκῶνος, ἀποτίθεται δὲ τὰ γνωρίσματα κατὰ τῆς πήρας, εὔχεται δὲ ταῖς Νύμφαις ἐπὶ χρηστῇ τύχῃ θρέψαι τὴν ἱκέτιν αὐτῶν. Καὶ ἐπεὶ καιρὸς ἦν ἀπελαύνειν τὴν ποίμνην, ἐλθὼν εἰς τὴν ἔπαυλιν τῇ γυναικὶ διηγεῖται τὰ ὀφθέντα, δείκνυσι τὰ εὑρεθέντα, παρακελεύεται θυγάτριον νομίζειν καὶ λανθάνουσαν ὡς ἴδιον τρέφειν. Ἡ μὲν δὴ Νάπη ῾τοῦτο γὰρ ἐκαλεῖτὀ μήτηρ εὐθὺς ἦν καὶ ἐφίλει τὸ παιδίον, ὥσπερ ὑπὸ τῆς οἰὸς παρευδοκιμηθῆναι δεδοικυῖα, καὶ τίθεται καὶ αὐτὴ ποιμενικὸν ὄνομα πρὸς πίστιν αὐτῷ, Χλόην.
1.6 Thinking that what he had found was sent from Heaven, and being moved to pity by the example of the sheep, he took the child up in his arms, put the tokens in his wallet, and prayed to the Nymphs that he might be permitted to bring up their suppliant happily. Then when it was time to drive back his flock, he returned home, told his wife what he had seen, showed her what he had found, and bade her adopt and bring up the child as her own, without telling anyone what had happened. Nape - that was his wife’s name - immediately took up the child and caressed her, as if afraid of being outdone in kindliness by the sheep: and, that it might be more readily believed that the child was her own, she gave it the pastoral name of Chloe.
Ταῦτα τὰ παιδία ταχὺ μάλα ηὔξησε, καὶ κάλλος αὐτοῖς ἐνεφαίνετο κρεῖττον ἀγροικίας. Ἤδη τε ἦν ὁ μὲν πέντε καὶ δέκα ἐτῶν ἀπὸ γενεᾶς, ἡ δὲ τοσούτων, δυοῖν ἀποδεόντων, καὶ ὁ Δρύας καὶ ὁ Λάμων ἐπὶ μιᾶς νυκτὸς ὁρῶσιν ὄναρ τοιόνδε τι. Τὰς Νύμφας ἐδόκουν ἐκείνας, τὰς ἐν τῷ ἄντρῳ, ἐν ᾧ ἡ πηγή, ἐν ᾧ τὸ παιδίον εὗρεν ὁ Δρύας, τὸν Δάφνιν καὶ τὴν Χλόην παραδιδόναι παιδίῳ μάλα σοβαρῷ καὶ καλῷ, πτερὰ ἐκ τῶν ὤμων ἔχοντι, βέλη σμικρὰ ἅμα τοξαρίῳ φέροντι: τὸ δὲ ἐφαψάμενον ἀμφοτέρων ἑνὶ βέλει κελεῦσαι λοιπὸν ποιμαίνειν τὸν μὲν τὸ αἰπόλιον, τὴν δὲ τὸ ποίμνιον.
1.7 The two children soon grew up, more beautiful than ordinary rustics. When the boy was fifteen years of age, and the girl thirteen, Lamon and Dryas both dreamed the following dream on the same night. They dreamed that the Nymphs of the grotto with the fountain, in which Dryas had found the little girl, delivered Daphnis and Chloe into the hands of a saucy and beautiful boy, who had wings on his shoulders and carried a little bow and arrow: and that this boy touched them both with the same arrow, and bade them tend, the one goats, the other sheep.
Τοῦτο τὸ ὄναρ ἰδόντες ἤχθοντο μὲν εἰ ποιμένες ἔσονται οἱ τύχην ἐκ σπαργάνων ἐπαγγελλόμενοι κρείττονα ῾διὸ αὐτοὺς καὶ τροφαῖς ἔτρεφον ἁβροτέραις καὶ γράμματα ἐπαίδευον καὶ πάντα ὅσα καλὰ ἦν ἐπ̓ ἀγροικίας᾿, ἐδόκει δὲ πείθεσθαι θεοῖς περὶ τῶν σωθέντων προνοίᾳ θεῶν. Καὶ κοινώσαντες ἀλλήλοις τὸ ὄναρ καὶ θύσαντες τῷ τὰ πτερὰ ἔχοντι παιδίῳ παρὰ ταῖς Νύμφαις ῾τὸ γὰρ ὄνομα λέγειν οὐκ εἶχον̓ ὡς ποιμένας ἐκπέμπουσιν αὐτοὺς ἅμα ταῖς ἀγέλαις, ἐκδιδάξαντες ἕκαστα: πῶς δεῖ νέμειν πρὸ μεσημβρίας, πῶς κοπάσαντος τοῦ καύματος: πότε ἐξάγειν ἐπὶ πότον, πότε ἀπάγειν ἐπὶ κοῖτον: ἐπὶ τίσι καλαύροπι χρηστέον, ἐπὶ τίσι φωνῇ μόνῃ. Οἱ δὲ μάλα χαίροντες ὡς ἀρχὴν μεγάλην παρελάμβανον καὶ ἐφίλουν τὰς αἶγας καὶ τὰ πρόβατα μᾶλλον ἢ πο
ιμέσιν ἔθος, ἡ μὲν ἐς ποίμνιον ἀνάγουσα τῆς σωτηρίας τὴν αἰτίαν, ὁ δὲ μεμνημένος ὡς ἐκκείμενον αὐτὸν αἲξ ἀνέθρεψεν.
1.8 When they saw this vision, they grieved to think that Daphnis and Chloe were destined to tend sheep and goats, since their swaddling clothes seemed to give promise of better fortune: for which reason they had brought them up more delicately than shepherds’ children, had taught them to read, and given them all the instruction possible in a country place. They resolved, however, to obey the gods in regard to those who had been saved by their providence. Having communicated their dreams to each other, and offered sacrifice, in the cave of the Nymphs, to the winged boy (whose name they did not know), they sent the maiden and the lad into the fields, having instructed them in all that they had to do: how they ought to feed their flocks before midday, and when the heat had abated: when they should drive them to drink, and when drive them back to the fold: when they should use the shepherd’s crook and when the voice alone. They undertook this duty as joyfully as if they had been entrusted with some important office, and were fonder of their goats and sheep than shepherds usually are: for Chloe felt she owed her life to a ewe, while Daphnis remembered that when exposed, he had been nurtured by a goat.
Ἦρος ἦν ἀρχὴ καὶ πάντα ἤκμαζεν ἄνθη, τὰ ἐν δρυμοῖς, τὰ ἐν λειμῶσι καὶ ὅσα ὄρεια: βόμβος ἦν ἤδη μελιττῶν, ἦχος ὀρνίθων μουσικῶν, σκιρτήματα ποιμνίων ἀρτιγεννήτων: ἄρνες ἐσκίρτων ἐν τοῖς ὄρεσιν, ἐβόμβουν ἐν τοῖς λειμῶσι μέλιτται, ἐν ταῖς λόχμαις κατῇδον ὄρνιθες. Τοσαύτης δὴ πάντα κατεχούσης εὐωρίας οἱ ἁπαλοὶ καὶ νέοι μιμηταὶ τῶν ἀκουομένων ἐγίνοντο καὶ βλεπομένων: ἀκούοντες μὲν τῶν ὀρνίθων ᾀδόντων ᾖδον, βλέποντες δὲ σκιρτῶντας τοὺς ἄρνας ἥλλοντο κοῦφα, τὰς μελίττας δὲ μιμούμενοι ἄνθη συνέλεγον: καὶ τὰ μὲν εἰς τοὺς κόλπους ἔβαλλον, τὰ δὲ στεφανίσκους πλέκοντες ταῖς Νύμφαις ἐπέφερον.
