by Nonnus
BOOK 8
ὄγδοον αἰολόμυθον ἔχει φθόνον ἄγριον Ἥρης
καὶ Σεμέλης πυρόεντα γάμον καὶ Ζῆνα φονῆα.
ὣς εἰπὼν ἐς Ὄλυμπον ἔβη θεός: ἐν δὲ μελάθρῳ
ὑψορόφῳ νόον εἶχεν ἀλώμενον ἐγγύθι νύμφης,
Θήβης οἶστρον ἔχων πλέον αἰθέρος: ἱμερόεις γὰρ
οὐρανὸς ἦν Κρονίδῃ Σεμέλης δόμος, ἀμφὶ δὲ παστῷ
5 ἀμφίπολοι Κάδμοιο Διὸς πέλον εὔποδες Ὧραι.
BOOK VIII
The eight has a changeful tale, the fierce jealousy of Hera, and Semele’s fiery nuptials, and Zeus the slayer.
With these words Zeus returned to Olympos; but in the highroofed hall his mind still wandered near his bride, empassioned for Thebes more than for heaven. For to Cronides Semele’s house was lovely heaven, and the quickfoot Seasons of Zeus became the attendants in the palace of Cadmos.
καὶ γαμίῃ ῥαθάμιγγι Διιπετέων ὑμεναίων
ὄγκῳ θλιβομένη Σεμέλης κυμαίνετο γαστήρ:
μαρτυρίῃ δὲ τόκοιο φιλοστεφάνου Διονύσου
στέμματι θυμὸν ἔτερπεν, ἐπ᾽ ἀνθοκόμῳ δὲ καρήνῳ
10 θυιάδος αὐτοέλικτον ἀνέπλεκε κισσὸν ἐθείρης
Βασσαρίδων ἅτε μάντις, ἐπεσσομένῃσι δὲ νύμφαις
ὄψιμον ἀγχιτόκοισιν ἐπωνυμίην πόρε κισσοῦ.
καὶ βαρὺν ὄγκον ἔχουσα θεηγενέος τοκετοῖο,
εἴ ποτέ τις σύριγγι γέρων ἐμελίζετο ποιμήν,
15 γείτονος εἰσαΐουσα φιλαγραύλου μέλος Ἠχοῦς,
οἰοχίτων θαλάμοιο διέστιχε θυιάδι ῥιπῇ:
εἰ κτύπος οὐρεσίφοιτος ἀκούετο δίζυγος αὐλοῦ,
ὑψορόφων ἀπέδιλος ἀναθρῴσκουσα μελάθρων
εἰς ῥάχιν αὐτοκέλευστος ἐρημάδος ἔστιχεν ὕλης:
20 κύμβαλον εἰ πλατάγησε, ποδῶν ἐλελίζετο παλμῷ,
λοξῷ καμπύλον ἴχνος ὑποσκαίρουσα πεδίλῳ:
εἰ δὲ τανυκραίροιο μεμυκότος ἔκλυε ταύρου,
ἀντίτυπον μίμημα βοὸς μυκήσατο λαιμῷ:
πολάκι ποιμενίην ὑπὸ δειράδα θυιάδι φωνῇ
25 Πανὶ μέλος συνάειδε καὶ ἔπλετο σύνθροος Ἠχώ,
καὶ νόμιον κερόεντος ἀμειβομένη κτύπον αὐλοῦ
εἰς χορὸν ἴχνος ἔκαμψε: πάις δ᾽ ἀλόχευτος ἐχέφρων
ἅλμασιν ἐνδομύχοισι συνεσκίρτησε τεκούσῃ
αὐλομανὲς μίμημα, καὶ αὐτοδίδακτον ἀοιδὴν
30 ἡμιτελὴς κελάδησε χέων ὑποκόλπιον ἠχώ.
ὣς ὁ μὲν ἀρσενόπαιδος ἀέξετο γαστέρος ὄγκῳ
ἄγγελος εὐφροσύνης, νοερὸν βρέφος: ἀμφὲ δὲ κούρῳ
ἀμφίπολοι Κρονίωνος ἐπέστεφον οὐρανὸν Ὧραι.
[6] By the espousal drop of the divine union Semele’s body swelled laden with a heavy burden. In witness of the birth of garlandloving Dionysos she took delight in wreaths. She plaited into her flowerdecked hair the natural tendrils of the maddening ivy like a prophetess of the Bassarids, and provided for the nymphs who were soon to be born, the later title of the ivy. As she carried the heavy burden of the divinely conceived child, if some old shepherd made melody with his panspipes, and she heard the tune repeated by countryloving Echo near, clad in tunic alone she went rushing wildly out of the house. If the mountainranging tones of the double pipe was to be heard, she leapt up, and out of the lofty halls went shoeless, uncalled, to the lonely woods on the hills. If there was clashing of cymbals, she tripled with dancing foot and shuffled a sidelong shoe in winding paces. If she heard the bellow of a broadhorned bull, her throat bellowed mimicry of the creature in reply. Oft on some hillside pasture she sang with Pan in maddened voice, and played harmonious Echo to him; she answered the tones of the herdsman’s pipe of horn by bending her steps to the dance, and the fruit of her womb (sensible, though yet unborn!) joined in his mother’s dance as if he also were maddened by the pipes, and although only half-made sounded a self-taught echo of tune from within her. So in the burden of the manchilding womb grew the messenger of merryhearted cheer, that understanding baby; and round about the boy, Cronion’s attendants the Seasons went their rounds about the sky.
καὶ Φθόνος ὑψιμέδοντος ὀπιπεύων Διὸς εὐνὴν
35 καὶ Σεμέλης ὠδῖνα θεηγενέος τοκετοῖο
Βάκου ζῆλον ἔδεκτο καὶ ἔνδοθι γαστρὸς ἐόντος,
αὐτοπαθὴς ἄστοργος ἑῷ βεβολημένος ἰῷ.
καὶ φρενὶ κερδαλέῃ δκολιὴν ἐφράσσατο βουλὴν
Ἄρεος ἀντιτύποιο φέρων ψευδήμονα μορφὴν
40 ἔντεσι μιμηλοῖσι, καὶ οἷά περ αἵματος ὁλκῷ
ἄνθεϊ φαρμακόεντι κατέγραφε νῶτα βοείης
ποιητῇ ῥαθάμιγγι, καὶ ὡς κταμένων ἀπὸ φωτῶν
βάψας ἰσοτύπῳ δεδολωμένα δάκτυλα μίλτῳ
χεῖρας ἐρευθιόωντι νόθῳ φοινίσσετο λύθρῳ:
45 καὶ κτύπον ἐννεάχιλον ἀνήρυγεν ἀνθερεῶνος
σμερδαλέοις στομάτεσσι χέων ῥηξήνορα φωαάν:
κλεψινόοις δ᾽ ὀάροισιν ἀνεπτοίησεν Ἀθήνην,
καὶ φθονερὴν οἴστρησεν ἔτι πλέον εἰς χόλον Ἥρην:
ἀμφοτέρας δ᾽ ἐρέθιζε: τόσῳ δ᾽ ἠνίπαπε μύθῳ:
[34] Now Envy, surveying the bed of lofty Zeus and Semele’s labour in the divine birth, was jealous of Bacchos while yet in the womb, Envy self-tormenting, loveless, stung with his own poison. In that crafty heart he conceived a crooked plan. He put on the false image of a counterfeit Ares, with armour like his; he scored the front of the shield with a liquid of his own made from a poisonous flower, to imitate smears of blood. He dipt his deceitful fingers in vermilion dye, staining his hands with red stuff which pretended to be gore (which it resembled) from his slain enemies. He belched out from his throat through his horrible mouth a nine-thousand power roar, a man-breaking voice indeed! He provoked Athena with seductive whispers, and goaded jealous Hera yet more to wrath, and irritated them both; and these are the words he said:
50 ‘Δίζεό σοι νέον ἄλλον ἐν αἰθέρι νυμθίον, Ἥρη,
ἄλλον, ἐπεὶ Σεμέλη τεὸν ἥρπασεν, ἧς χάριν εὐνῆς
Θήβης ἑπταπύλοιο γαμήλιον οὖδας ἀμείβων
οὐρανὸν ἑπτάζωνον ἀναίνεται: ἀντὶ σέθεν δὲ
τέρπεται ἀγκὰς ἔχων χθονίην ἐγκύμονα νύμφην.
55 πῇ μοι ζῆλος ἔβη μητρώιος; ἦ ῥα καὶ αὐτῆς
εἰς Σεμέλης ὑμέναιον ἐθηλύνθη χόλος Ἥρη
ς;
πῇ σέο κέντρα μύωπος ἀφειδέος; οὐκέτι πόντῳ
πόρτις ἁλιπτοίητος ἐλαύνεται; οὐκέτι βούτης
Ἄργος ἀκοιμήτοισι πολυσπερέεσσιν ὀπωπαῖς
60 κλεψιγάμου Κρονίδαο νεώτερα λέκτρα φυλάσσει;
[50] “Find another bridegroom in the sky, Hera, yes another! for Semele has stolen yours! For her sake he renounces the sevenzoned sky and treads the bridal floor of sevengated Thebes! In your place he holds in his arms an earthly bride with child, and is happy! What has become of my mother’s jealousy! Has even Hera’s wrath become unmanned for this marriage with Semele? Where are the stings of your merciless gadfly? No heifer is now driven in seapanic over the deep – no herdsman Argos with a thick crop of eyes watches the latest bed of lecher Cronides?
ἀλλὰ τί μοι δίμος οὗτος Ὀλύμπιος; εἰς χθόνα βαίνων
αἰθέρα καλλείψω πατρώιον, ἡμετέρην δὲ
Θρῄκην ναιετάων οὐ μητέρος ἄλγεα λεύσσω
ἀχνυμένης, οὐ Ζῆνα γαμοκλόπον: εἰ δέ ποτ᾽ ἔλθῃ
65 γαῖαν ἐς ἡμετέρην ποθέων Βιστωνίδα κούρην,
γνώσεται, οἷος Ἄρης, ὅτε χώεται: ἡμετέρην γὰρ
Τιτήνων ὀλέτειραν ἔχων θανατηφόρον αἰχμὴν
ἐκ Θρῄκης Κρονίωνα γυναιμανέοντα διώξω:
καὶ πρόφασιν μεφέπων, ὅτι παρθένον εἰς λέχος ἕλκει,
70 ἔσσομαι αὐτοκέλευστος ἐμῆς τιμήορος εὐνῆς,
ὅττι χαμαιγενέεσσιν ὁμιλήσας ὑμεναίοις
αἰθέρα ποικιλόνωτον ἑῶν ἔπλησεν ἐρώτων.
[61] “But what is this palace of Olympos to me? I will go down to earth, I will leave my father’s heaven and live in my own Thrace, I will no longer look on at my unhappy mother’s wrongs and Zeus the wife-spoiler! If he ever comes to my country because he wants a Bistonian girl, he shall know what Ares is like when he is angry. I will take my Titan-destroying deathdealing spear and chase womanmad Cronion out of Thrace! I will use the excuse that he drags this maiden to his bed, I will be avenger selfappoited of the bed where I was born, because he has frequented earthborn brides and filled the bespangled heavens with his loves!
οὐρανὸς ἱλήκοι, μερόπων δόμος: ἄξονα βαίνω;
Καλλιστὼ κατ᾽ Ὄλυμπον ἑλίσσεται, ἧχι φαείνει
75 κύκλος ἀερσιλόφοιο φερώνυμος Ἀρκάδος Ἄρκτου.
Πλειάδος ἑπταπόρου στυγέω δρόμον: ἐν γὰρ Ὀλύμπῳ
Ἠλέκτρη κλονέει με συναστράπτουσα Σελήῃ.
νῦν πόθεν ἠρεμέεις; ὑποκόλπιον υἱέα Λητοῦς
ἤκαχες Ἀπόλλωνα, καὶ οὐ Διόνυσον ὀρίνεις;
80 τικτομένη, Ἥφαιστε, μογοστόκε Τριτογενείης,
υἷα νόθης ἀλόχοιο λοχεύσεται αὐτοτόκος Ζεὺς
ὠδίνων τόκον ἄλλον ὑπέρτερον ἄρσενι μηρῷ,
οὐδὲ τεοῦ βουπλῆγος ἔτι χρέος. εἶξον, Ἀθήνη,
λῆγε Διὸς βοόωσα λεχώιον ἄντυγα κόρσης,
85 ὅττι σοφὴν ὠδῖνα τελεσσιγόνοιο καρήνου
αἰσχύνει Διόνυσος, ὅτι χθονίης ἀπὸ φύτλης
ἔσσεται αὐτολόχευτος Ὀλύμπιος, ὥς περ Ἀθήνη,
[73] “Goodbye Heaven – where mortals are at home! Shall I climb the pole? But Callisto circles about Olympos, and there shines the ring named after the highcrested Arcadian Bear. I hate the seven Pleiads in their courses – for in Olympos it irks me that Electra shows her light with Selene. Now why are you quiet? You persecuted Apollo in the womb of his mother Leto, and you leave Dionysos in peace? Hephaistos, you helped in the painful birth of Tritogeneia, and Zeus shall be his own midwife for the bastard son of a drab, more mighty still than Athena, and he shall produce him from his manly thigh – no need now for the pole-axe! Give place, Athena! Cease to cry up that rounded forehead as your birthbed! Dionysos puts into the shade the clever delivery of that teeming head! Sprung form a mortal stock, he shall be an Olympian like Athena, but self-delivered, and eclipsing the boast of Pallas the motherless.
κρύπτων Παλλάδος εὖχος ἀμήτορος. ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὸς
αἰδέομαι πολὺ μᾶλλον, ὅταν μερόπων τις ἐνίψῃ:
90 Ζ̔εὺς πόρε δῆριν Ἄρηι καὶ εὐφροσύνην Διονύσῳ.᾿
ἀλλὰ πόλον Κρονίδαο νόθοις τεκέεσσιν ἐάσας
ἵξομαι οὐρανόθεν μετανάστιος: ὑγροπαγὴς δὲ
Ἴστρος ἑὸν σκηπτοῦχον ἀλητεύοντα δεχέσθω,
πρὶν Διὸς οἰνοχόον Γανυμήδεα δεῦρο νοήσω,
95 βουκόλον εὐχαίτην, μετὰ Πέργαμον ἀστὸν Ὀλύμπου,
οὐρανίης ἄψαυστον ἀμειβόμενον δέπας Ἥβης,
πρὶν Σεμέλην καὶ Βάκχον ἴδω ναετῆρας Ὀλύμπου,
καὶ στέφος ἀστερόφοιτον ἐπιχθονίης Ἀριάδνης
σύνδρομον Ἠελίοιο, συνέμπορον ἠριγενείης.
100 κεῖθι μένω, μὴ Κῆτος ἴδω, μὴ Περσέος ἅρπην,
μὴ τύπον Ἀνδρομέδης, μὴ Γοργόνος ὄμμα Μεδούσης
οὓς Κρονίδης μετόπισθεν ἐνιστήσειεν Ὀλύμπῳ.’
[88] “But I am ashamed myself far more, when some mortal man shall say: `Zeus granted battles to Ares, and merry-hearted cheer to Dionysos.’ Well, I will leave the sky to the bastard brats of Cronides, and quit the heavens a banished god. Let Istros with his frozen flood receive its homeless monarch, before I see Ganymedes come here to pour the wine, that long-haired cowdrover, first in Pergamos then domiciled in Olympos, usurping the untouched cup of heavenly Hebe; before I can see Semele and Bacchos denizens of Olympos, and Ariadne’s crown translated to the stars to run its course with Helios, to travel with misty Dawn. There I will stay, that I may never behold the sea-monster, the sickle of Perseus, the figure of Andromeda, the glare of Gorgon Medusa, whom Cronides will establish in Olympos by and by.”
εἶπε, καὶ αὐτογόνοιο νόον συνέχευεν Ἀθήνης,
καὶ πλέον ἠέξησε βαρυζήλου χόλον Ἥρης.
105 καὶ Φθόνος ὀξὺς ὄρουσε, καὶ ἀγκύλα γούνατα πάλλων
ἤιε λοξὰ κέλευθα δι᾽ ἠέρος: ἀνδρομέοις δὲ
ὄμμασι καὶ πραπίδεσσιν ὁμοίιος ἔσσυτο καπνῷ,
[103] He spoke, and disquieted the mind of selfborn Athena, and the more increased the wrath of jealous Hera. Swift leapt up envy, and wagging his crooked knees passed on his sidelong roads through the lower air: he moved like smoke to human eyes and thoughts, arming his boggart’s mind for deceit and mischief.
εἰς δόλον, εἰς κακότητα νόον τελχῖνα κορύσσων.
οὐδὲ Διὸς βαρύμηνις ἐλώφεεν εὐνέτις Ἥρη:
110 ἀλλὰ θυελλήεντι παραΐξασα πεδίλῳ
ποικίλον εὐφαέεσσι κεκασμένον οὐρανὸν ἄστροις
ἄσπετα φοιτητῆρι διέδραμεν ἄστεα ταρσῷ,
κερδαλέην Ἀπάτην διζημένη, εἴ που ἐφεύροι.
ἀλλ᾽ ὅτε Δικταίης Κορυβαντίδος ὑψόθι πέτρης
115 γείτονος Ἀμνισοῖο λεχώιον ἔδρακεν ὕδωρ,
ἔνθά οἱ ἀλλοπρόσαλλος ὀρεστιὰς ἤντετο δαίμων:
καὶ γὰρ ἀεὶ παρέμιμνε Διὸς ψευδήμονι τύμβῳ
τερπομένη Κρήτεσσιν, ἐπεὶ πέλον ἠπεροπῆες.
ἀμφὶ δέ οἱ λαγόνεσσι Κυδωνιὰς ἔρρεε μίτρη,
120 τῇ ἔνι δαίδαλα πάντα βροτῶν θελκτήρια κεῖται:
ἐν μὲν ἐπικλοπίη πολυμήχανος, ἐν δ᾽ ὀαριστὺς
πάρφασις, ἐν δὲ δόλοι πολυειδέες, ἐν δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς
σύνδρομος ἠερίοις ἀπατήλιος ὅρκος ἀήταις.
[109] Nor did the consort of Zeus abate her heavy anger. She stormed with flying shoe through the heaven bespangled with its pattern of shining stars, she coursed through innumerable cities with travelling foot, seeking if anywhere she could find Deceit the crafty one. But when high above Corybantian Dicte she beheld the childbed water of neighbouring Amnisos, the fickle deity met her there on the hills; for she was fond of the Cretans because they are always liars, and she used to stay by the false tomb of Zeus. About her hips was a Cydonian cincture, which contains all the cunning bewitchments of mankind: trickery with its many shifts, cajoling seduction, all the shapes of guile, perjury itself which flies on the winds of heaven.
