Works of Nonnus

by Nonnus

  250 φύλλα τὰ μὲν κατέχευαν ἐπὶ χθονὶ θυιάδες αὖραι

  ὥρης ἱσταμένης φθινοπωρίδος, ἄλλα δὲ καιρῷ

  εἰαρινῷ κομέουσι τεθηλότα δενδράδες ὗλαι:

  ὣς βροτέη γενεὴ μινυώριος ἡ μὲν ὀλέθρῳ

  δάμναται ἱππεύσασα βίου δρόμον, ἡ δ᾽ ἔτι θάλλει,

  255 ἄλλῃ ὅπως εἴξειεν: ἐπεὶ παλινάγρετος ἕρπων

  εἰς νέον ἐκ πολιοῖο ῥέει μορφούμενος αἰών.

  [248] Beloved lady, why do you ask me thus of my blood and breeding? I liken the swift-passing generations of mortal man to the leaves. Some leaves the wild winds scatter over the earth when autumn season comes; others the woodland trees grow on their bushy heads in spring-time. Such are the generations of men, short-lived: one rides life’s course, until death brings it low; one still flourishes, only to give place to another: for time moves ever back upon itself, changing form as it flows from hoary age to youth.

  ἀλλ᾽ ἐρέω περίπυστον ἐμὴν εὔπαιδα γενέθλην:

  ἔστι πόλις, κλυτὸν Ἄργος, ἐδέθλιον ἵππιον Ἥρης,

  νήσου Τανταλίδαο μεσόμφαλος: ἔνθα δὲ κούρην

  260 θηλυτόκοις ἔσπειρε γοναῖς εὐπάρθενον ἀνὴρ

  Ἴναχος, Ἰναχίης ὀνομάκλυτος ἀστὸς ἀρούρης,

  νηοπόλος, καὶ φρικτὰ πολισσούχοιο θεαίνης

  ὄργια βυσσοδόμευε θεηγόρα μύστιδι τέχνῃ

  πρεσβυγενής: καὶ Ζῆνα, θεῶν πρόμον, ὄρχαμον ἄστρων,

  265 γαμβρὸν ἔχειν ἀπέειπε, σέβας πεφυλαγμένος Ἥρης,...

  ταυροφυὴς ὅτε πόρτις ἀμειβομένοιο προσώπου

  εἰς ἀγέλην ἄγραυλον ἐλαύνετο σύννομος Ἰώ,

  καὶ δαμάλης ἄγρυπνον ἐθήκατο βουκόλον Ἥρη

  ποικίλον, ἀπλανέεσσι κεκασμένον Ἄργον ὀπωπαῖς,

  270 Ζηνὸς ὀπιπευτῆρα βοοκραίρων ὑμεναίων,

  Ζηνὸς ἀθηήτοιο, καὶ εἰς νομὸν ἤιε κούρη

  ὀφθαλμοὺς τρομέουσα πολυγλήνοιο νομῆος:

  γυιοβόρῳ δὲ μύωπι χαρασσομένη δέμας Ἰὼ

  Ἰονίης ἁλὸς οἶδμα κατέγραφε φοιτάδι χηλῇ:

  275 ἦλθε καὶ εἰς Αἴγυπτον, ἐμὸν ῥόου, — ὃν πολιῆται

  Νεῖλον ἐφημίξαντο φερώνυμον, οὕνεκα γαίῃ

  εἰς ἔτος ἐξ ἔτεος πεφορημένος ὑγρὸς ἀκοίτης

  χεύματι πηλώεντι νέην περιβάλλεται ἰλύν, —

  ἤλυθεν εἰς Αἴγυπτον, ὅπῃ βοέην μετὰ μορφὴν

  280 δαιμονίης ἴνδαλμα μεταλλάξασα κεραίης

  ἔσκε θεὰ φερέκαρπος: ἀναπτομένοιο δὲ καρποῦ

  Αἰγυπτίης Δήμητρος, ἐμῆς κεραελκέος Ἰοῦς,

  εὐόδμοις ὁμόφοιτος ἐλίσσεται ἀτμὸς ἀήταις.

  [257] “But I will tell you my lineage with its noble sons. There is a city Argos, famous for horses, and Hera’s habitation, the midnipple of the island of Tantalides. There a man begat a daughter, and a beautiful daughter, – Inachos, famed burgher of the land Inachian. A templeman he was, and brooded over the awful rites that spoke the voice of the divine cityholder, he chief and eldest in practice of her mysteries: aye, he refused to wed his daughter to Zeus lord of the gods, leader of the stars, all for reverence of Hera . . . at the time when Io changed her face and became a cattleshaped heifer; when she was driven to pasture along with the herd of kine; when Hera made sleepless Argos her herdsman to that calf – spotted Argos, covered with unwavering eyes. He was to watch the horned bride of Zeus, Zeus whom eye may not see. To pasture went the girl Io, trembling at the eyes of her busy-peeping drover: then pierced by the limb-gnawing gadfly, she scored the gulf of the Ionian sea with travelling hoof. She came as far as Aigyptos, my own river, which my people have called Neilos by name because year by year that watery consort covers Earth with new slime by its muddy flood – she came as far as Aigyptos, where after her cow’s form, after putting off the horned image ordained by heaven, she became a goddess of fruitful cropsl when the fruit starts up, the fruit of Egyptian Demeter my stronghorned Io, scented vapour is carried around by fragrant breezes.

  ἔνθ᾽ Ἔπαφον Διὶ τίκτεν, ἀκηρασίων ὅτι κόλπων

  285 Ἰναχίης δαμάλης ἐπαφήσατο θεῖος ἀκοίτης

  χερσὶν ἐρωμανέεσσι: θεηγενέος δὲ τοκῆος

  ἐξ Ἐπάφου Λιβύη: Λιβύης δ᾽ ἐπὶ παστὸν ὁδεύων

  Μέμφιδος ἄχρις ἵκανε Ποσειδάων μετανάστης,

  παρθένον ἰχνεύων Ἐπαφηίδα, καὶ τότε κούρη

  290 δεξαμένη ναετῆρα βυθοῦ χερσαῖον ὁδίτην

  Ζῆνα Λίβυν τέκε Βῆλον, ἐμῆς ἀροτῆρα γενέθλης.

  καὶ Διὸς Ἀσβύσταο νέην ἀντίρροπον ὀμφὴν

  Χαονίῃ βοόωσι πελειάδι διψάδες ἄμμοι

  μαντιπόλοι: πέμπτῳ δὲ πατήρ ἰσόμετρον ἀριθμῷ

  295 Βῆλος ἐπασσυτέρην γενεὴν σπερμήνατο παίδων,

  Φινέα καὶ Φοίνικα λιπόπτολιν, οἷς ἅμα θάλλων

  ἀστὸς ἀμοιβαίων πολίων περίφοιτος Ἀγήνωρ

  ἀσταθέος βιότοιο, πατὴρ ἐμός, εἶχε πορείην

  εἰς Θήβην μετὰ Μέμφιν, ἐς Ἀσσυρίην μετὰ Θήβην,

  300 καὶ σοφὸς Αἰγυπτίης ναέτης Αἴγυπτος ἀρούρης

  αἰνοτόκος πολύτεκνος, ὃς ἀρσενόπαιδι γενέθλῃ

  ἤροσε τοσσατίων μινυώρια πώεα παίδων,

  καὶ Δαναὸς λιπόπατρις, ὃς ὥπλισεν ἄρσενι φύτλῃ

  θῆλυ γένος τανύων γάμιον ξίφος, ὁππότε παστοὶ

  305 αἵματι φοινίσσοντο δαϊζομένων ὑμεναίων,

  καὶ κρυφίοις ξιφέεσσι σιδηροφόρων ἐπὶ λέκτρων

  ἄρσενα γυμνὸν Ἄρηα κατεύνασε θῆλυς Ἐνυώ:

  [284] “There she brought forth Epaphos the Toucher to Zeus, so called because the divine bedfellow with love-mad hands touched the inviolate breasts of the heifer child of Inachos. Epaphos the god-begotten was father of Libya; to Libya’s bower came Poseidaon on his travels, migrating as far as Memphis in search of Epaphos’ maiden daughter. There the girl received the denizen of the deep, now a traveller by land, and brought forth Belos the Libyan Zeus, the husbandman of my family. And now the new voice of Zeus Asbystes which the thirsty sands give forth in soothsaying is equal to the Chaonian dove. Belos was father of a numerous family of children, as many as five: Phineus, and Phoinix who went abroad; with them grew up Agenor, who flitted from city to city and belonged to each in turn, a man of unstable life, my father – he travelled to Thebes after Memphis, to Assyria after Thebes. Then there was the wise
Aigyptos, who lived on Egyptian soil, ill-fated father of many children, who begat all those flocks of short-lived sons; and Danaos who went abroad, who armed his daughters against that family of men, and drew a weddings-word, when the marriage-chambers were reddened with blood of the murdered bridegrooms, and with secret swords on armed beds, Enyo the female bedded Ares the male naked and helpless.

  οὐ μὲν Ὑπερμνήστρῃ κακονύμφιον εὔαδεν ἔρυον,

  ἀλλὰ παρωσαμένη δυσπένθερα θεσμὰ τοκῆος

  310 ἠερίῃ πατρῷον ἐπέτρεπε μῦθον ἀέλλῃ,

  καὶ καθαρὴν ἐφύλαξεν ἀναίμονα χεῖρα σιδήρου:

  ἔπλετο δ᾽ ἀμφοτέρων ὅσιος γάμος. ἀρτιθαλῆ δὲ

  γνωτὴν ἡμετέρην θρασὺς ἥρπασε ταῦρος ἀλήτης,

  εἰ ἐτεὸν ταῦρος: ἐγὼ δ᾽ οὐκ οἶδα πιθέσθαι,

  315 εἰ βόες ἱμείρουσι γυναικείων ὑμεναίων.

  καί με κασιγνήτοισιν ὁμήλυδα πέμψεν Ἀγήνωρ

  σύγγονον ἰχνεύοντα καὶ ἄγριον ἅρπαγα νύμφης,

  ταῦρον ἀκυμάντοιο νόθον πλωτῆρα θαλάσσης,

  οὗ χάριν ἀστήρικτος ἀλώμενος ἐνθάδε βαίνω.

  [308] “Nay, but Hypermnestra was displeased with this bridal crime. She thrust away her father’s commands, – that bad goodfather! she let the winds carry his words away, and kept her hand clean from blood and steel: those two consummated a proper wedlock. But our sister in her youthful bloom was ravished away by a bold vagabond bull, if bull he really was; but I do not know how to believe it if bulls desire marriage with a woman. And Agenor sent me along with my brothers to track our sister and the girl’s wild robber, that bull the bastard voyager over a waveless sea. That is why my random journeying brings me here.”

  320 τοῖα μὲν εὐσύριγγος ἔσω μυθεῖτο μελάθρου

  Κάδμος ἐυγλώσσοιο χέων ἔπος ἀνθερεῶνος,

  πατρῴης ἐνέπων τεκνοσσόον οἶστρον ἀπειλῆς

  καὶ Τυρίων ῥοθίων ψευδήμονα ταῦρον ὁδίτην,

  Σιδονίης ἀκίχητον ἀπευθέος ἅρπαγα νύμφης.

  [320] Such was the tale of Cadmos in the cloistered palace; the words poured from his eloquent lips, as he told the sting of a father’s threat when he would urge on his children, and the counterfeit bull travelling the Tyrian surf, the ravisher of the Sidonian bride, no catching the ravisher, no news of the bride.

  325 Ἠλέκτρη δ᾽ ἀίουσα παρήγορον ἴαχε φωνήν:

  ‘Ξεῖνε, κασιγνήτην καὶ πατρίδα καὶ γενετῆρα

  Ληθαίῃ στροφάλιγγι καὶ ἀμνήστῳ πόρε σιγῇ:

  οὕτω γὰρ μερόπων φέρεται βίος ἄλλον ἐπ᾽ ἄλλῳ

  μόχθον ἔχων, ὅτι πάντες, ὅσους βροτέη τέκε γαστήρ,

  330 Μοιριδίου κλωστῆρος ἐδουλώθησαν ἀνάγκῃ:

  μάρτυς ἐγώ, βασίλεια καὶ εἰ πέλον, εἴ ποτε κείνων

  πληιάδων γενόμην καὶ ἐγὼ μία, τῶν ποτε μήτηρ

  θηλυτέρας ὠδῖνας ἔσω μαιώσατο κόλπου,

  ἑπτάκις Εἰλείθυιαν ἐῇ καλέσασα λοχείῃ

  335 κέντρον ἐλαφρίζουσαν ἀμοιβαίου τοκετοῖο

  μάρτυς ἐγώ: πατέρων γὰρ ἀπόπροθι δώματα ναίω,

  οὐ Στεροπήν, οὐ Μαῖαν ὁμόστολον, οὐδὲ Κελαινὼ

  σύγγονον ἐγγὺς ἔχουσα συνέστιον: οὐδ᾽ ἐνὶ κόλπῳ

  γνωτῆς Τηϋγέτης Λακεδαίμονα δίξυγι παλμῷ

  340 παιδοκόμῳ πήχυνα γεγηθότα κοῦρον ἀγοστῷ:

  οὐ σχεδὸν Ἀλκυόνης ὁρόω δόμον, οὐδὲ καὶ αὐτῆς

  φθεγγομένης Μερόπης φρενοτερπέα μῦθον ἀκούω.

  πρὸς δ᾽ ἔτι καὶ τόδε μᾶλλον ὀδύρομαι: ἀρτιθαλὴς γὰρ

  υἱὸς ἐμὸς λιπόπατρις, ὅτε χνόον ἔσχεν ἰούλων,

  345 Δάρδανος Ἰδαίης μετανάσσατο κόλπον ἀρούρης,

  καὶ φρυγίῳ Σιμόεντι θαλύσια δῶκε κομάων

  Θυμβραίου ποταμοῖο πιὼν ἀλλότριον ὕδωρ:

  καὶ Λιβύης παρὰ τέρμα πατὴρ ἐμὸς εἰσέτι κάμνει

  ὤμοις θλιβομένοισι, γέρων κυρτούμενος Ἄτλας,

  350 αἰθέρος ἐπτάμωνον ἀερτάζων κενεῶνα.

  [325] When Electra heard, she answered in words of consolation: “My guest, let sister and country and father pass into the whirlpool of Forgetfulness and unremembering silence! For this is the way men’s life runs on, bringing trouble upon trouble; since all that are born of mortal womb are slaves by necessity to Fate the Spinner. I am witness, queen though I am, if I was ever born myself one of those Pleiads, seven girls whom our mother once carried under her heart in labour, seven times having called Eileithyia at her lying-in to lighten the pangs of birth after birth – I am witness! for my house is far from my father’s; no Sterope is near me, no Maia my companion, nor sister Celaino beside me at my hearth; I have not dandled up and down sister Taygete’s Lacedaimon at my breast nor held the merry boy on my cherishing arm; I do not see Alcyone’s house hard by, or hear Merope herself speak some heart-warming word! Here is something besides which I lament even more – in the bloom of his youth my own son has left his home, just when the down was on his cheek, my Dardanos has gone abroad to the bosom of the Idaian land; he has given the firstling crop of his hair to Phrygian Simoeis, and drunk the alien water of river Thymbrios. And away by the boundary of Libya my father still suffers hardship, old Atlas with chafing shoulders bowed, upholding the seven-zoned vault of the sky.

  ἔμπης τόσσα παθοῦσα παρήγορον ἐλπίδα βόσκω

  Ζηνὸς ὑποσχεσίῃσιν, ὅτι γνωτῇσι σὺν ἄλλαις

  ἐκ χθονὸς Ἀτλάντειον ἐλεύσομαι εἰς πόλον ἄστρων

  οὐρανὸν οἶκον ἔχουσα, καὶ ἔσσομαι ἕβδομος ἀστήρ.

  355 καὶ σὺ τεὰς πρήυνε μεληδόνας: ἀπροϊδὴς δὲ

  εἰς σὲ βιοπλάγκτοιο τύχης στροφάλιγγα κυλίνδων

  φρικτὸς ἀκινήτοιο μίτος σφρηγίσσατο Μοίρης:

  τλῆθι φέρειν λιπόπατρις ἀκαμπέα δεσμὸν ἀνάγκης,

  ἐσσομένων προκέλευθον ὑπέρτερον ἐλπίδα βόσκων,

  360 εἰ γένος ἐρρίζωσε τεὸν πρωτόσπορος Ἰώ,

  εἰ λάχες ἐκ Λιβύης Ποσιδήιον αἷμα γενέθλης:

  μίμνε παρ᾽ ὀθνείοις, ἅτε Δάρδανος, οἰκία ναίων,

  ναιετάων ξένον ἄστυ, πατὴρ τεὸς ὥς περ Ἀγήνωρ,

  ὡς Δαναὸς γενετῆρος ἀδελφεός: ὅττι καὶ αὐτὸς

  365 ἄλλος ἀνὴρ φερέοικος ἔχων γένος ἔνθεον Ἰοῦς,

  αἰθέριον βλάστημα Διιπετές, οὔνομα Βύζας,r />
  αὐτογόνου Νείλοιο πιὼν ἑπτάστομον ὕδωρ

  γείτονα γαῖαν ἔνειμεν, ὅπῃ παρὰ Βόσπορον ἀκτὴν

  Ἰναχίῃ δαμάλῃ πεπερημένον ἕλκεται ὕδωρ,

  370 πᾶσι περικτιόνεσσι τιθεὶς φάος, ὁππότε κείνου

  ἀκλινέος δόχμωσε μεμηνότος αὐχένα ταύρου.’

  [351] “Still and all with these great sufferings I feed a comfortable hope, by the promises of Zeus, that with my other sisters I shall pass from the earth to the stars’ Atlantean vault, and dwell in heaven myself a star with my sisters six. Then do you too calm your own sorrows. Unforeseen, for you also the terrible thread of Fate immovable is rolling the eddy of your wandering lot of life, and the seal is set. Have a heart to endure in exile the unbending shackle of necessity, and feed the prevailing hope which foreruns things to come, if Io with the first seed has rooted your race, if you have got from Libya Poseidon’s blood in your family. Abide among foreigners like Dardanos, there make your home; dwell in a city of strangers like your own father Agenor, like Danaos your father’s brother. For another man also who carried his home on his back, one of the divine stock of Io, a heavenly sprout dropt from Zeus, named Byzas, who had drunk the seven-mouth water of self-begotten Nile, inhabited the neighbouring land, where alone the Bosporos shore flows the water once traversed by the Inachian heifer. To all those who dwelt about he showed a light, when he had turned aside the neck of that mad bull unbending.”

  εἶπεν Ἀγηνορίδαο κατευνάζουσα μερίμνας.

  Ζεὺς δὲ πατὴρ προέηκε τανύπτερον υἱέα Μαίης

  εἰς δόμον Ἠλέκτρης ταχὺν ἄγγελον, ὄφρά κε Κάδμῳ

  375 Ἁρμονίην ὀπάσειεν ἐς ἁρμονίην ὑμεναίων,

  παρθένον οὐρανόθεν μετανάστιον, ἣν Ἀφροδίτης

  λαθριδίῃ φιλότητι γαμοκλόπος ἤροσεν Ἄρης: