Works of Nonnus

by Nonnus

  σώζεο, παρθενίη, νυμφεύομαι ἡδέι Κάδμῳ:

  Ἄρτεμι, μὴ νεμέσα, χαροπῆς ἁλὸς οἶδμα περήσω.

  ἀλλ᾽ ἐρέεις, ὅτι πόντος ἀμείλιχος: οὐκ ἀλεγίζω

  μαινομένου ῥοθίοιο, συνολλυμένους δὲ δεχέσθω

  190 Ἁρμονίην καὶ Κάδμον ἐμὸν μητρώιον ὕδωρ.

  ἕσπομαι ἡβητῆρι γάμους βοόωσα θεάων:

  εἰ μὲν ἐς ἀντολίην με φέρει πλώουσαν ἀκοίτης,

  ἵμερον Ὠρίωνος ἐς Ἠριγένειαν ἐνίψω,

  καὶ Κεφάλου θαλάμων μιμνήσκομαι: εἰ δέ ποτ᾽ ἔλθω

  195 εἰς δύσιν ἀχλυόεσσαν, ἐπ᾽ Ἐνδυμίωνι καὶ αὐτὴ

  Λατμιὰς ἶσα παθοῦσα παρηγορέει με Σελήνη.’

  [182] “Ah me, who ahs changed my heart? Save you, my country! Farewell, Emathion and all my house! Farewell grottoes of the Cabeiroi and Corybantian cliffs; never again shall I see the revelling companies of my mother’s Hecate with their torches in the night. Farewell, maidenhood, I wed my sweet Cadmos! Artemis, be not shocked, I am to cross the swell of the blue brine. But you will say, the deep is pitiless; I care nothing for the maddened surges – let Harmonia and Cadmos drown together, and my mother’s sea may receive us both. I follow my boy, calling upon the goddesses who have wedded theirs! If my bedfellow carries me to the sunrise this voyage, I will proclaim how Orion loved Dawn, and I will recall the match of Cephalos; if I go to the misty sunset, my comfort is Selene herself who felt the same for Endymion upon Latmos.”

  τοῖα νοοπλανέεσσι μεληδόσιν ἤπυε κούρη

  ἄσχετος ἱμερόεντι δαϊζομένη νόον οἴστρῳ:

  καὶ κινυρῇ ῥαθάμιγγι διαινομένοιο προσώπου

  200 Ἠλέκτρης κύσε χεῖρα καὶ ὄμματα καὶ πόδας ἄκρους

  καὶ κεφαλὴν καὶ στέρνα, καὶ Ἠμαθίωνος ὀπωπὴν

  χείλεσιν αἰδομένοισι, κασιγνήτου περ ἐόντος,

  πάσας δ᾽ ἀμφιπόλους ἠγκάζετο: μυρομένη δὲ

  τυκτὰ πολυγλυφέων ἠσπάσσατο κύκλα θυράων

  205 ἄπνοα καὶ κλιντῆρα καὶ ἕρκεα παρθενεῶνος:

  πατρῴην δὲ λαβοῦσα κόνιν προσπτύξατο κούρη.

  [197] Such words the girl uttered in mindwandering plaints, and could not be restrained, her mind ravaged with the sting of desire. With drops of grief her face was wet as she kissed Electra’s hand and eyes, her feet and head and breast, and Emathion’s eyes, with shamefast lips although he was her brother. She embraced all her handmaids, and caressed lamenting the rows of the lifeless carven doors all round, her bed and the walls of her maiden chamber. Last the girl took up and kissed the dust of her country’s soil.

  καὶ τότε χειρὸς ἔχουσα θεῶν ὑπὸ μάρτυρι πομπῇ

  Ἁρμονίην ἀνάεδνον ὀφειλομένην φέρε Κάδμῳ

  Ἠλέκτρη, χυτὸν ὄμβρον ἀποσμήξασα προσώπου.

  210 Κυπριδίην δὲ θύγατρα λαβὼν ἠῷος ὁδίτης

  γρηὶ σὺν ἀμφιπόλῳ λίπε δώματα, δῶρον ἀνάσσης

  λάτριν ἔχων πομπῆα δι᾽ ἄστεος ἄχρι θαλάσσης.

  [207] And then Electra took Harmonia by the hand, under the witnessing escort of the gods, and took her undowered to Cadmos as his due, wiping the streaming shower from her face. Early in the morning the traveller received the Cyprian’s daughter with an old waiting-woman, and left the house, having as the queen’s gift a servant to guide him through the city to the sea.

  παρθενικὴν δ᾽ ὁρόωσα παρ᾽ ᾐόνας ὑψόθι πόντου

  ξείνῳ ἐφεσπομένην, φλογερῇ ζείουσαν ἀνάγκῃ,

  215 Κύπριδι μεμφομένη φιλοκέρτομος ἴαχε Μήνη:

  ‘Κύπρι, καὶ εἰς σέο τέκνα κορύσσεαι, οὐδὲ καὶ αὐτῆς

  ὑμετέρης ὠδῖνος ἐφείσατο κέντρον Ἐρώτων;

  ἥν τέκες, οὐκ ἐλέαιρες, ἀμείλιχε; καὶ τίνα κούρην

  οἰκτείρεις ἑτέρην, ὅτε σὸν γένος εἰς πόθον ἕλκεις;

  220 πλάζεο καὶ σύ, φίλη: Παφίης τέκος εἰπὲ τεκούσῃ:

  ῾κερτομέει Φαέθων σε, καὶ αἰσχύνει με Σελήνη.᾿

  Ἁρμονίη, λιπόπατρι δυσίμερε, κάλλιπε Μήνῃ

  νυμφίον Ἐνδυμίωνα, καὶ ἄμφεπε Κάδμον ἀλήτην,

  τλῆθι φέρειν πόνον ἶσον, ἐρωτοτόκῳ δὲ μερίμνῃ

  225 μνώεο καὶ σὺ καμοῦσα ποθοβλήτοιο Σελήνης.’

  [213] When the Moon saw the girl following a stranger alone the shore above the sea, and boiling under fiery constraint, she reproached Cypris in mocking words: “So you make war even upon your children, Cypris! Not even the fruit of your womb is spared by the goad of love! Don’t you pity the girl you bore, hardheart? What other girl can you pity then, when you drag your own child into passion? – Then you must go wandering too, my darling. Say to your mother, Paphian’s child, ‘Phaëthon mocks you, and Selene puts me to shame.’ Harmonia, love-tormented exile, leave to Mene her bridegroom Endymion, and care for your vagrant Cadmos. Be ready to endure as much trouble as I have, and when you are wary with lovebegetting anxiety, remember lovewounded Selene.”

  ὣς φαμένης ἑτάρους ὑπὲρ ᾐόνα Κάδμος ἐπείγων

  ὁλκάδος ἰθυπόροιο παλίμπορα πείσματα λύσας

  εἰαρινῷ κόλπωσεν ἀχείμονι λαῖφος ἀήτῃ:

  διχθαδίους δὲ κάλωας ἐφαψάμενός τινι γόμφῳ

  230 δουροπαγές πόμπευε δι᾽ οἴδματος ἅρμα θαλάσσης,

  ἰσάζων ἑκάτερθε νεὼς πόδας, οἷα δὲ Φοῖνιξ,

  ναυτιλίης νοέων πατρώιον ἠθάδα τέχνην,

  πηδαλίῳ παρέμιμνεν: ἐπὶ πρύμνῃ δὲ καὶ αὐτὴν

  Ἁρμονίην ἄψαυστον ὁμόπλοον ἵδρυε κούρην

  235 νηὸς ἰδὼν ξείνὁ̣̣̓ς ἐπιβήτορας, οὓς τότε ναῦται

  μισθοφόρους ἐδέχοντο. καὶ ἠρέμα σύμπλοος ἀνὴρ

  ἀμφοτέρους ὁρόων ἐκεράσσατο θαύματι φωνήν:

  ‘Αὐτὸς Ἔρως πέλεν οὗτος ὁ ναυτίλος: οὐ νέμεσις γὰρ

  υἷα τεκεῖν πλωτῆρα θαλασσαίην Ἀφροδίτην:

  240 ἀλλὰ βέλος καὶ τόξον ἔχει καὶ πυρσὸν ἀείρει

  βαιὸς Ἔρως πτερύγεσσι κεκασμένος: εἰσορόω δὲ

  ὁλκάδα Σιδονίην. Δολόεις τάχα φώριος Ἄρης

  ἕζεται ἐν πρύμνῃσιν ἔσω Λιβάνοιο κομίζων

  ἑσπερίην πλώουσαν ἀπὸ Θρῄκης Ἀφροδίτην.

  245 ἵλαθι, μῆτερ Ἔρωτος, ἀκυμάντῳ δὲ γαλήνῃ

  πέμπέ μοι ἴκμενον οὖρον ἀχείμονι μητρὶ θαλάσσῃ.’
r />   [226] While she was speaking, Cadmos hastened his companions over the shore. He released the back-running hawsers of the forthfaring ship, and shook out the sail to the mild spring breeze, and guided the timbered sea-car across the sea-swell, making the two ropes fast to a pin bracing the sheets equally shipshape and Phoinician fashion: for he knew from his fathers the traditional art of seamanship. He remained by the steering-oar, but he kept the girl Harmonia untouched sitting on the poop, his companion, when he saw strangers coming aboard as passengers whom the sailors were then taking in with the fare. One of the passengers seeing these two, mingled his voice with admiration as he said gently: “That sailor looks like Love himself! An no wonder that Aphrodite of the sea has a mariner son. But Eros carries bow and arrow and lifts a firebrand, he’s a little one with wings on him; and this I see is a Sidonian ketch. Perhaps that is the cunning old thief Ares sitting on the poop, and carrying Aphrodite into Libanos, from Thrace, whence he sailed last night. Be gracious, mother of Love! Send me a following wind in a waveless calm over your mother sea stormless!”

  τοῖον ἔπος λαθραῖον ὁμόπλοος ἔννεπεν ἀνὴρ

  λοξὸς ἐς Ἁρμονίην ἀντώπιον ὄμμα τιταίνων.

  [247] Such was the sort of things the travellers said to himself, looking keenly at Harmonia out of the corner of his eye.

  καὶ πλόον ἤνυσε Κάδμος ἐς Ἑλλάδα, Φοιβάδος ὀμφῆς

  250 οἶστρον ἔχων πραπίδεσσι, Διὸς δέ οἱ αἰὲν ἐπείγων

  ἔνθεος ἀπλανέεσσιν ἐπέτρεχε μῦθος ἀκουαῖς.

  ἔνθα Πανελλήνεσσι νεώτερα δῶρα τιταίνων

  ἀρχεκάκου Δαναοῖο φερέσβιον ἔκρυφε τέχνην,

  ὑδροφόρου Δαναοῖο: τί γὰρ πλέον εὗρεν Ἀχαιοῖς,

  255 εἴ ποτε χαλκείῃσι πεδοσκαφέεσσι μακέλλαις

  χάσματος οὐδαίοιο χυτὸν κενεῶνα κολάψας

  δίψιον Ἄργος ἔπαυσε, κονιομένοις δὲ πολίταις

  ὑγρὰ ποδῶν ἐπίβαθρα πόρεν, ξεινήιον ὕδωρ,

  ἐκ βυθίων λαγόνων ὀλίγον ῥόον; αὐτὰρ ὁ πάσῃ

  [249] So Cadmos finished his voyage to Hellas, with the inspired voice in his mind stinging like a gadfly; and the inspired word of Zeus ever ran unerring in his ears and dove him on. There he was to present newer gifts to All Hellenes, and to make them forget the lifebringing art of Danaos the master-mischiefmaker, Danaos the waterbringer: for what good did he do for the Achaians, if once he had dug the ground with his brazen pickaxes, and pecking at the flooded hollow of the gaping earth quenched the thirst of Argos? if he made wet the steppings of their feet for his dusty people, and brought up a streamlet from the deep caves – the stranger’s gift of water?

  260 Ἑλλάδι φωνήεντα καὶ ἔμφρονα δῶρα κομίζων

  γλώσσης ὄργανα τεῦξεν ὁμόθροα, συμφυέος δὲ

  ἁρμονίης στοιχηδὸν ἐς ἄζυγα σύζυγα μίξας

  γραπτὸν ἀσιγήτοιο τύπον τορνώσατο σιγῆς,

  πάτρια θεσπεσίης δεδαημένος ὄργια τέχνης,

  265 Αἰγυπτίης σοφίης μετανάστιος, ἦμος Ἀγήνωρ

  Μέμφιδος ἐνναέτης ἑκατόμπυλον ᾤκισε Θήβην:

  καί, ζαθέων ἄρρητον ἀμελγόμενος γάλα βίβλων,

  χειρὸς ὀπισθοπόροιο χαράγματα λοξὰ χαράσσων

  ἔγραφεν ἀγκύλα κύκλα: καὶ Αἰγυπτίου Διονύσου

  270 εὔια φοιτητῆρος Ὀσίριδος ὄργια φαίνων

  μύστιδος ἐννυχίας τελετὰς ἐδιδάσκετο τέχνης,

  καὶ κρυφίῃ μάγον ὕμνον ἀνέκλαγε θυιάδι φωνῇ

  λεπτὸν ἔχων ὀλόλυγμα: λιθοξοάνοιο δὲ νηοῦ

  γλυπτὰ βαθυνομένῳ κεχαραγμένα δαίδαλα τοίχῳ

  275 κουρίζων δεδάηκε: πολυφράστῳ δὲ μενοινῇ

  μετρήσας φλογόεσσαν ἀνηρίθμων ἴτυν ἄστρων

  καὶ δρόμον Ἠελίοιο μαθὼν καὶ μέτρον ἀρούρης,

  χειρὸς ἐυστροφάλιγγος ὁμόπλοκα δάκτυλα κάμψας,

  ἄστατα κύκλα νόησε παλιννόστοιο Σελήνης,

  280 πῶς τρισσαῖς ἑλίκεσσι μετάτροπον εἶδος ἀμείβει,

  ἀρτιφαής, διχόμηνις, ὅλῳ στίλβουσα προσώπῳ,

  πῶς δὲ συναπτομένη καὶ ἀπόρρυτος ἄρσενι πυρσῷ

  ἠελίου γενετῆρος ἀμήτορι τίκτεται αἴγλῃ,

  πατρὸς ὑποκλέπτουσα παλιμφυὲς αὐτόγονον πῦρ.

  [260] But Cadmos brought gifts of voice and thought for all Hellas; he fashioned tools to echo the sounds of the tongue, he mingled sonant and consonant in one order of connected harmony. So he rounded off a graven model of speaking silence; for he had learnt the secrets of his country’s sublime art, an outside intruder into the wisdom of Egypt, while Agenor dwelt nine years in Memphis and founded hundred-gated Thebes. There he pressed out the milk of the holy books ineffable, scratched their scratches across with backfaring hand and traced their rounded circles. And he showed forth the Euian secrets of Osiris the wanderer, the Egyptian Dionysos. He learned the nightly celebration of their mystic art, and declaimed the magic hymn in the wild secret language, intoning a shrill alleluia. While a boy in the temple full of stone images, he had come to know the inscriptions caved by artists deep into the walls. With much-pondering thought he had measured the flaming arch of the innumerable stars, and learnt the sun’s course and the measure of the earth, turning the intertwined fingers of his flexible hand. He understood the changing circuits of the moon as he comes back and back again – how she changes her returning shape in three circles, new-shining, half-moon, and gleaming with full face; how her splendour now touching, now shrinking back, at the male furnace of father Helios is brought to birth without a mother, as she filches the father’s selfbegotten fire ever lighted again.

  285 τοῖος ἔην: καὶ κραιπνὸς Ἀχαιίδος ἄστεα βαίνων

  ναυτιλίην μεθέηκε: σὸν Ἁρμονίῃ δὲ κομίζων

  ἑσμὸν ἁλιπλανέων ἑτάρων χερσαῖον ὁδίτην

  ἅρμασιν ἱππείοισι καὶ ἀχθοφόροισιν ἁμάξαις

  μαντῴοις ἀδύτοισιν ἐπέστιχεν: ἔνθα κιχήσας

  290 Δελφὸν ἀσιγήτοιο μεσόμφαλον ἄξονα Πυθοῦς

  μαντοσύνην ἐρέεινε, καὶ ἔμφρονα Πύθιος ἄξων

  κυκλόθεν αὐτοβόητος ἐθέσπισε κοιλάδι φωνῇ:

  [285] Such was Cadmos. Quickly he set out for the Achaian cities, and left his seafaring. With Harmonia, he conveyed a swarm of seawandering companions turned travellers by land, in horsecarriages and laden wagons, on the way to the oracular sanctuaries. Then he reached Delphi, and asked an oracle from the midnipple axle of never-silent Pytho; and the Pythian axle speaking of himself uttered oracles of sense, resounding about in hollow tone:

  ‘Κάδμε, μάτην, περίφοιτε, πολυπλανὲς ἴχνος ἑλίσσεις:

  μαστεύεις τινὰ ταῦρον, ὃν οὐ β�
�έη τέκε γαστήρ,

  295 μαστεύεις τινὰ ταῦρον, ὃν οὐ βροτὸς οἶδε κιχῆσαι:

  Ἀσσυρίην ἀπόειπε, τεῆς δ᾽ ἡγήτορα πομπῆς

  ἄμφεπε βοῦν χθονίην, μὴ δίζεο ταῦρον Ὀλύμπου:

  νυμφίον Εὐρώπης οὐ βουκόλος οἶδεν ἐλαύνειν:

  οὐ νομόν, οὐ λειμῶνα μετέρχεται, οὔ τινι κέντρῳ

  300 πείθεται, οὐ μάστιγι κελεύεται: οἶδεν ἀείρειν

  Κύπριδος ἁβρὰ λέπαδνα καὶ οὐ ζυγόδεσμον ἀρότρων,

  αὐχένα μοῦνον Ἔρωτι καὶ οὐ Δήμητρι τιταίνει.

  ἀλλὰ πόθον Τυρίοιο τεοῦ γενετῆρος ἐάσας

  μίμνε παρ᾽ ἀλλοδαποῖσι, καὶ Αἰγυπτίης σέο Θήβης

  305 πατρίδος ἄστυ πόλισσον ἐπώνυμον, ἧχι πεσοῦσα

  εὐνήσει βαρύγουνον ἑὸν πόδα δαιμονίη βοῦς.’

  [293] “Cadmos, in vain you travel round and round with wandering steps. You seek a bull which now cow ever calved; you seek a bull which no mortal knows how to find. Renounce Assyria, and take an earthly cow to guide your mission; search not for a bull of Olympos. Europa’s bridegroom no drover knows how to drive; he frequents no pasture, no meadow, obeys no goad, is ordered by no whip. He knows how to bear the dainty harness of Cypris, not the plow’s yokeband; he strains his neck for Love alone, and not for Demeter. No, let pass your regret for your Tyrian father, and abide among foreigners; found a city with the name of Egyptian Thebes your home, in the place where the cow of fortune shall sink and rest her heavyknee foot.”

  ὣς φάμενος τριπόδων ἐπεκοίμισε θυιάδα φωνήν,

  καὶ ῥία Παρνησσοῖο τινάσσετο Φοιβάδος ἠχοῦς

  γείτονος εἰσαΐοντα, καὶ ὀμφήεντι ῥεέθρῳ