Works of Nonnus

by Nonnus

  [188] Watchfires were all around: for the blazing flames of the stars, and the nightly lamp of unresting Selene, sparkled like torches. Often the shooting stars, leaping through the heights of Olympos with windswept whirl from the ether, scored the air with flame on Cronion’s right hand; often the lightning danced, twisting about like a tumbler, and tearing the clouds as it shot through, the uncertain brilliance which runs to and fro, now hidden, now shining, in alternating swing; and the comet twined in clusters the long strands of his woven flame, and made a ragged light with his hairy fire. Stray meteors were also shining, like long rafters stretching across the sky, shooting their long fires as allies of Zeus; and the rain’s comrade, the bow of Iris, wove her many colours into a rounded track, and shone bent under the light-shafts of Phaëthon opposite, mingling pale with dark, and light with rosy.

  205 καὶ Διὶ μουνωθέντι παρήγορος ἵκετο Νίκη

  ἠέρος ἄκρα κέλευθα διαγράψασα πεδίλῳ,

  Λητοῦς εἶδος ἔχουσα, καὶ ὁπλίζουσα τοκῆα

  ἀντιτύποις στομάτεσσι πολύτροπον ἴαχε φωνήν:

  ‘Ζεῦ ἄνα, σῶν τεκέων πρόμος ἵστασο, μηδὲ νοήσω

  210 μιγνυμένην Τυφῶνι γάμων ἀδίδακτον Ἀθήνην:

  μητέρα μὴ τελέσειας ἀμήτορα, μαρνάμενος δὲ

  ἀστεροπὴν κούφιζε σελασφόρον ἔγχος Ὀλύμπου,

  καὶ νεφέλας συνάγειρε τὸ δεύτερον, ὑέτιε Ζεῦ:

  ἤδη γὰρ σταθεροῖο τινάσσεται ἕδρανα κόσμου

  215 χερσὶ Τυφαονίῃσιν, ὁμοζυγέων δὲ λυθέντων

  στοιχείων πισύρων ἠρνήσατο λήια Δηώ:

  ἥβη λεῖπε κύπελλον, Ἄρης δ᾽ ἀπεσείσατο λόγχην,

  Ἑρμῆς ῥάβδον ἔθηκε, λύρην δ᾽ ἔρριψεν Ἀπόλλων,

  καὶ πτερόεις πεπότητο λιπὼν πτερόεντας ὀιστούς,

  220 εἶδος ἔχων κύκνοιο, τελεσσιγάμου δὲ θεαίνης

  ἄσπορος ἔπλετο κόσμος ἀλωομένης Ἀφροδίτης,

  ἁρμονίης δ᾽ ἀλύτου λύτο πείσματα: νυμφοκόμος γὰρ

  πανδαμάτωρ ἀδάμαστος Ἔρως θρασὺς εἰς φόβον ἔπτη

  τόξα λιπὼν γονόεντα: καὶ ἠθάδα Λῆμνον ἐάσας

  225 σὸς πυρόεις Ἥφαιστος ἀπειθέα γούνατα σύρων

  ἆ βραδὺς ἀστήρικτον ἔχει δρόμον. ἆ μέγα θαῦμα,

  καὶ μάλα μοι κοτέουσαν ἐποικτείρω σέθεν Ἥρην.

  ἦ ῥα τεὸς γενέτης πάλιν ἵξεται εἰς χορὸν ἄστρων;

  μή ποτε τοῦτο γένοιτο: καὶ εἰ Τιτηνὶς ἀκούω,

  230 οὐκ ἐθέλω Τιτῆνας ἰδεῖν κρατέοντας Ὀλύμπου,

  ἀλλὰ σὲ καὶ σέο τέκνα. σὺ δὲ κρατέοντι κεραυνῷ

  Ἀρτέμιδος προμάχιζε σαόφρονος: ἦ ῥα φυλάσσω

  παρθενικὴν ἀνάεδνον ἀναγκοίῳ παρακοίτῃ;

  ἦ ῥα τόκου ταμίη τόκον ὄψεται; ἦ ῥα τανύσσει

  235 χεῖρας ἐμοί; ποίην δὲ καλέσσομαι ἰοχεαίρῃ

  ἵλαον Εἰλείθυιαν, ὅτ᾽ Εἰλείθια λοχεύσῃ;’

  [205] Zeus was alone, when Victory came to comfort him, scoring the high paths of the air with her shoe. She had the form of Leto; and while she armed her father, she made him a speech full of reproaches, with guileful lips: “Lord Zeus! stand up as champion of your own children! Let me never see Athena mingled with Typhon, she who knows not the way of a man with a maid! Make not a mother of the unmothered! Fight, brandish your lightning, the fiery spear of Olympos! Gather once more your clouds, lord of the rain! For the foundations of the steadfast universe are already shaking under Typhon’s hands: the four blended elements are melted! Deo has renounced her harvests. Hebe has left her cup, Ares has thrown down his spear, Hermes has dropped his staff, Apollo has cast away his harp, and taken a swan’s form, and flown off on the wing, leaving his winged arrows behind! Aphrodite, the goddess who brings wedlock to pass, has gone a-wandering, and the universe is without seed. The bonds indissoluble of harmony are dissolved: for bold Eros has flown in panic, leaving behind his generative arrows, he the adorner of brides, he the all-mastering, the unmastered! And your fiery Hephaistos has left his favourite Lemnos, and dragging unruly knees, look how slow he keeps his unsteady course! See a great miracle – I pity your Hera, though she hates me sure enough! What – is your begetter to come back into the assembly of the stars? May that never be, I pray! Even if I am called a Titaness, I wish to see no Titans lords of Olympos, but you and your children. Take your lordly thunderbolt and champion chaste Artemis. What – do I keep my maiden for a bridegroom who offers no gifts but only violence? What – is the dispenser of childbirth to see childbirth of her own? Will she stretch out her hands to me, and then what gracious Eileithyia shall I call for the Archeress, when Eileithyia herself is in childbed?”

  ὣς φαμένης σκιοειδὲς ἑὸν πτερὸν Ὕπνος ἑλίξας

  εὔνασεν ἀμπνείουσαν ὅλην φύσιν: ἀλλὰ Κρονίων

  ἦν τότε μοῦνος ἄυπνος: ἐφαπλώσας δὲ Τυφωεὺς

  240 νωθρὰ βαρυνομέναις ἐπερείσατο νῶτα χαμεύναις

  πλήσας μητέρα γαῖαν: ἀνοιγομένοιο δὲ κόλπου

  χάσματι κοιλαίνοντο σεσηρότι φωλάδες εὐναὶ

  εἰς χθόνα δυομένοισιν ἐχιδναίοισι καρήνοις.

  [237] So she spoke: and Sleep beating his shady wing sent all breathing nature to rest; but Cronion alone remained sleepless. Typhoeus stretched out his sluggish back and lay heavy upon his bed, covering his Mother Earth; she opened wide her bosom, and lurking lairs were hollowed out in a grinning chasm for the snaky heads which sank into the ground.

  ἠελίου δὲ φανέντος ὁμογλώσσων ἀπὸ λαιμῶν

  245 εἰς ἐνοπὴν πολύπηχυς ἐπεβρυχᾶτο Τυφωεὺς

  Ζῆνα μέγαν καλέων: βλοσυρὴ δέ οἱ ἵκετο φωνή,

  ῥιζοπαγὴς ὅθι πέζα παλιμπόρου Ὠκεανοῖο

  τέτραχα τεμνομένην περιβάλλεται ἄντυγα κόσμου,

  ζωσαμένη στεφανηδὸν ὅλην χθόνα κυκλάδι μίτρῃ:

  250 φθεγγομένου δὲ Γίγαντος ἀμειβομένη στίχα φωνῆς

  παντοίη σμαράγησε καὶ οὐ μία σύνθροος ἠχώ:

  τοῦ δέ κορυσσομένοιο φυῆς πολυειδέι μορφῇ

  ὠρυγὴ κελάδησε λύκων, βρύχημα λεόντων,

  ἄσθμα συῶν, μύκημα βοῶν, σύριγμα δρακόντων,

  255 πορδαλίων θρασὺ χάσμα, κορυσσομένων γένυς ἄρκτων,

  λύσσα κυνῶν: μεσάτῃ δὲ Γίγας βροτοειδέι μορφῇ

  Ζηνὸς ἀπειλήτειραν ἀπερροίβδησεν ἰωήν:

  [244] The sun appeared, and many-armed Typhoeus roared for the fray with all the tongues of all his throats, challenging mighty Zeus. That sonorous voice reached where t
he root-fixt bed of refluent Oceanos surrounds the circle of the world and its four divided parts, girdling the whole earth coronet-wise with encircling band; as the monster spoke, that which answered the army of his voices, was not one concordant echo, but a babel of screaming sounds: when the monster arrayed him with all his manifold shapes, out rang the yowling of wolves, the roaring of lions, the grunting of boars, the lowing of cattle, the hissing of serpents, the bold yap of leopards, the jaws of rearing bears, the fury of dogs. Then with his midmost man-shaped head the Giant yelled out threats against Zeus”

  ‘Χεῖρες ἐμαί, Διὸς οἶκον ἀράξατε, πυθμένα κόσμου

  σείσατε σὺν μακάρεσσι, καὶ αὐτοέλικτον Ὀλύμπου

  260 κόψατε θεῖον ὀχῆα, καὶ αἰθερίης ἐπὶ γαίῃ

  κίονος ἑλκομένης φυγέτω δεδονημένος Ἄτλας,

  ἄντυγα δ᾽ ἀστερόφοιτον ἀπορρίψειεν Ὀλύμπου,

  μηκέτι δειμαίνων ἕλικα δρόμον — οὐ γὰρ ἐάσω

  ὤμοις θλιβομένοις κυρτούμενον υἱὸν Ἀρούρης

  265 αἰθέρος ὀχλίζοντα παλινδίνητον ἀνάγκην — ,

  ἀλλὰ θεοῖς ἑτέροισιν ἀτέρμονα φόρτον ἐάσας

  μαρνάσθω μακάρεσσιν, ἀναρρήξειε δὲ πέτρας

  τρηχαλέοις βελέεσσιν ὀιστεύων πόλον ἄστρων,

  ὃν πάρος ἠέρταζεν, ἱμασσόμεναι δὲ κολώναις

  270 ταρβαλέαι φυγέτωσαν ἀνάλκιδες οὐρανὸν Ὧραι,

  δμωίδες Ἠελίοιο περιπλέγδην δὲ λαβοῦσαι

  ἠέρι μίξατε γαῖαν, ὕδωρ πυρὶ, πόντον Ὀλύμπῳ.

  [258] “Smash the house of Zeus, O my hands! Shake the foundation of the universe, and the blessed ones with it! Break the bar of Olympos, self-turning, divine! Drag down to earth the heavenly pillar, let Atlas be shaken and flee away, let him throw down the starry vault of Olympos and fear no more its circling course – for I will not permit a son of Earth to be bowed down with chafed shoulders, while he under-props the revolving compulsion of the sky! No, let him leave his endless burden to the other gods, and battle against the Blessed Ones! Let him break off rocks, and volley with those hard shots the starry vault which he once carried! Let the timid Seasons, the Sun’s handmaids, flee the heavens under the shower of mountains! Mix earth with sky, water with fire, sea with Olympos, in a litter of confusion!

  καὶ πισύρων ἀνέμων τελέσω δούλειον ἀνάγκην,

  μαστίζω Βορέην, κλονέω Νότον, Εὖρον ἱμάσσω,

  275 καὶ Ζέφυρον πλήξαιμι, καὶ ἤματι νύκτα κεράσσω

  χειρὶ μιῇ : καὶ γνωτὸς ἐμὸς πολυπίδακι λαιμῷ

  Ὠκεανὸς πρὸς Ὄλυμπον ἄγων ὑψούμενον ὕδωρ,

  πέντε παραλλήλων πεφορημένος ὑψόθι κύκλων,

  ἄστρα κατακλύσσειε, καὶ ὕδατι διψὰς ἀλάσθω

  280 ἄρκτος Ἁμαξαίοιο δεδυκότος ἱστοβοῆος.

  [273] “I will compel the four winds also to labour as my slaves; I lash the North Wind, I buffet the South, I flog the East; I will thrash the West, with one hand I will mix night with day; Oceanos my brother shall bring his water to Olympos aloft with many-fountained throat, and rising above the five parallel circles he shall inundate the stars; then let the thirsty Bear go wandering in the water with the Waggon’s pole submerged!

  ταῦροι ἐμοί, δονέοντες ἰσήμερον ἄντυγα κύκλων

  αἰθέρι μυκήσασθε, χαρασσομέναις δὲ κεραίαις

  ἰσοτύπου φλογεροῖο κεράατα ῥήξατε Ταύρου:

  καὶ βόες ὑγρὰ κέλευθα μεταλλάσσωσι Σελήνης

  285 δειδιότες βαρύδουπον ἐμῶν μύκημα καρήνων:

  καὶ βλοσυρῶν μέγα χάσμα διαπτύξασα γενείων

  ἄρκτος ἀνοιστρήσειε Τυφαονὶς Ἄρκτον Ὀλύμπου:

  αἰθερίῳ δὲ Λέοντι λέων ἐμὸς ἀντιφερίζων

  Ζῳδιακῆς ἀέκοντα μεταστήσειε κελεύθου:

  290 ἡμετέρους δὲ δράκοντας Ὄφις φρίξειεν Ἁμάξης...

  ἀστεροπαῖς ὀλίγαις κεκορυθμένος: ἀλλὰ θαλάσσης

  κύματα λυσσήεντα, λόφοι χθονός, ἄγκεα νήσων

  φάσγανά μοι γεγάασι, καὶ ἀσπίδες εἰσὶ κολῶναι,

  καὶ σκόπελοι θώρηκες ἀαγέες, ἔγχεα πέτραι,

  295 καὶ ποταμοὶ σβεστῆρες ἀκιδνοτάτοιο κεραυνοῦ.

  δεσμοὺς δ᾽ Ἰαπετοῖο Ποσειδάωνι φυλάσσω,

  ἀμφὶ δὲ Καύκασον ἄκρον ἐύπτερος ἄλλος ἀρείων

  αἰετὸς αἱμάξειε παλιμφυὲς ἧπαρ ἀμύσσων

  Ἡφαίστου πυρόεντος, ἐπεὶ πυρὸς εἵνεκα κάμνει

  300 ἥπατος αὐτοφύτοιο χαρασσομένοιο Προμηθεύς:

  υἱάσι δ᾽ ἀντικέλευθον ἔχων τύπον Ἰφιμεδείης

  κρύψω ἀλυκτοπέδῃσι περίπλοκον υἱέα Μαίης

  χαλκέῳ ἐν κεράμῳ πεφυλαγμένον, ὄφρά τις εἴπῃ:

  ῾λύσας δεσμὸν Ἄρηος ἐκεύθετο δέσμιος Ἑρμῆς.᾿

  305 λυσαμένη δ᾽ ἄψαυστον ἑῆς σφρηγῖδα κορείης

  Ἄρτεμις Ὠρίωνος ἀναγκαίη δάμαρ ἔστω,

  καὶ Τιτυῷ πετάσειε παλαίτερα φάρεα Λητώ,

  εἰς γάμον ἑλκομένη βεβιημένον: ἀνδροφόνον δὲ

  ῥωγαλέων σακέων γυμνούμενον Ἄρεα δήσας

  310 κοίρανον ὑσμίνης ληίσσομαι ἀντὶ φονῆος

  μείλιχον, ὀψιγάμῳ δὲ συναπτομένην Ἐφιάλτῃ

  Παλλάδα ληιδίην νυμφεύσομαι, ὄφρα νοήσω

  Ἄρεα θητεύοντα καὶ ὠδίνουσαν Ἀθήνην.

  [281] “Bellow, my bulls, shake the circle of the equator in the sky, break with your notched horns the horns of the fiery Bull, your own likeness! Let Selene’s cattle change their watery road, fearing the heavybooming bellow of my heads! Let Typhaon’s bear open wide his grim gaping jaws, and worry the Bear of Olympos! Let my lion face the heavenly Lion, and drive him reluctant from the path of the Zodiac! (Little do I care for Zeus,) with only a few lightning to arm him! Ah, but my swords are the maddened waves of the sea, the tors of the land, the island glens; my shields are the hills, the cliffs are my breastplates unbreakable, my halberds are the rocks, and the rivers which will quench the contemptible thunderbolt. I will keep the chains of Iapetos for Poseidon; and soaring round Caucasos, another and better eagle shall tear the bleeding liver, growing for ever anew, of Hephaistos the fiery: since fire was that for which Prometheus has been suffering the ravages of his self-growing liver. I will take a shape the counterpart of the sons of Iphimedeia, and I will shut up the intriguing son of Maia in a brazen jar, ‘Hermes freed Ares from prison, and he was put in prison himself!’ Let Artemis break the untouched seal of her maidenhood, and become
the enforced consort of Orion; Leto shall spread her old bedding for Tityos, dragged to wedlock by force. I will strip murderous Ares of his ragged bucklers, I will bind the lord of battle, and carry him off, and make him Killer the Gentle; I will carry off Pallas and join her to Ephialtes, married at last; that I may see Ares a slave, and Athena a mother.

  καὶ μογεροῖς ὤμοισι παλινδίνητον ἀείρων

  315 οὐρανὸν Ἀτλάντειον ἐλαφρίσσειε Κρονίων

  ὄρθιος, ἡμετέρων δὲ γάμων ὑμέναιον ἀκούσῃ

  ζῆλον ὑποκλέπτων, ὅτε νυμφίος ἔσσομαι Ἥρης.

  οὐ μὲν ἐγὼ δαΐδων ἐπιδεύομαι: αὐτόματος δὲ

  δαλὸς ἐμῶν θαλάμων στεροπῆς σέλας, ἀντὶ δὲ πεύκης

  320 αὐτὸς ἐμοὶ Φαέθων ἰδίης φλογὸς ἁψάμενος πῦρ

  νυμφιδίῳ τανύσειε Τυφωέι δούλιον αἴγλην,

  καὶ γαμίους σπινθῆρας ἐπαιθύσσοντες Ὀλύμπῳ

  ἀστέρες ἀστράψειαν ἐμῶν λαμπτῆρες Ἐρώτων,

  ἀστέρες ἕσπερα λύχνα: σὺν εὐθαλάμῳ δ᾽ Ἀφροδίτῃ

  325 εὐνέτις Ἐνδυμίωνος ἐμὴ θεράπαινα Σελήνη

  δέμνιά μοι στορέσειε: καὶ εἰ χρέος ἐστὶ λοετρῶν,

  λούσομαι ἀστερόεντος ἐν ὕδασιν Ἠριδανοῖο:

  ἀλλὰ Διὸς μετὰ λέκτρα Τυφωέι, κυκλάδες Ὧραι,

  πήξατε παστὸν Ἔρωτος: ἀπ᾽ Ὠκεανοῦ δὲ καὶ αὐταί,

  330 Λητώ, Ἀθηναίη, Παφίη, Χάρις, Ἄρτεμις, Ἥβη,

  νυμφοκόμῳ Τυφῶνι κομίσσατε σύγγονον ὕδωρ:

  καὶ γαμίοις πλήκτροισιν ἐμῆς παρὰ δαῖτα τραπέζης

  ἀντὶ Διὸς μέλψειε Τυφωέα λάτρις Ἀπόλλων.