by Nonnus
375 καὶ Σεμέλη φλογόεντας ἑοὺς ὁρόωσα φονῆας
αὐχένα γαῦρον ἄειρε καὶ ὑψινόῳ φάτο φωνῇ:
‘Πηκτίδος οὐ χατέω λιγυηχέος, οὐ χρέος αὐλοῦ:
βρονταὶ ἐμοὶ γεγάασι Διὸς σύριγγες Ἐρώτων,
αὐλὸς ἐμοὶ κτύπος οὗτος Ὀλύμπιος, αἰθερίης δὲ
380 δαλὸς ἐμῶν θαλάμων στεροπῆς σέλας: οὐτιδανῶν δὲ
οὐκ ἀλέγω δαΐδων: δαΐδες δέ μοί εἰσι κεραυνοί.
εἰμὶ δάμαρ Κρονίωνος, Ἐχίονός ἐστιν Ἀγαύη,
Αὐτονόην καλέσωσιν Ἀρισταίοιο γυναῖκα:
Ἰνὼ ἔχει Νεφέλην, Σεμέλη λάχε σύγγαμον Ἥρην.
385 οὐ γενόμην Ἀθάμαντος ἐγὼ δάμαρ, ὠκύμορον δὲ
οὐ τέκον Ἀκταίωνα κυνοσπάδα, σύννομον ὕλης.
οὐ χατέω φόρμιγγος ὀλίζονος: οὐρανίη γὰρ
ἀστραίη Κιθάρη Σεμέλης ὑμέναιον ἀείδει.’
[375] When Semele saw her fiery murderers, she held up a proud neck and said with lofty arrogance: “I want no clearsounding cithern, I need no hoboy! Thunders are here for my panspipes of Zeus’s love, this boom is my Olympian hoboy, the firebrands of my bridal are the flashes of heavenly lightning! I care not for common torches, my torches are thunderbolts! I am the consort of Cronion, Agauë is only Echion’s. Let them call Autonoë Aristaios’s wife. Ino’s rival is only Nephele – Semele’s is Hera! I was not the wife of Athamas, I was not the mother of Actaion the forester, so quickly killed and torn by dogs. I want no lesser harp, for Cithara the heavenly harp makes music for Semele’s wedding!”
ἔννεπε κυδιόωσα καὶ ἤθελε χερσὶν ἀφάσσειν
390 ἀστεροπὴν ὀλέτειραν, ἀφειδήσασα δὲ Μοίρης
τολμηρῇ παλάμῃ φονίων ἔψαυσε κεραυνῶν:
καὶ γάμος ἦν Σεμέλης θανατηφόρος, ἧς ἑνὶ θεσμῷ
πυρκαϊὴν καὶ τύμβον ἐθήκατο παστὸν Ἐρινύς:
καὶ λοχίαις ἀκτῖσι γαμήλιον ἄσθμα κεραυνοῦ
395 Ζηνὸς ἀφειδήσαντος ὅλην τεφρώσατο νύμφην:
[389] So she spoke in her pride, and would have grasped the deadly lightning in her own hands – she touched the destroying thunderbolts with daring palm, careless of Fate. Then Semele’s wedding was her death, and in its celebration the Avenging Spirit made her bower serve for pyre and tomb. Zeus had no mercy; the breath of the bridal thunder with its fires of delivery burnt her all to ashes.
καὶ στεροπὴ πέλε μαῖα, καὶ Εἰλείθυια κεραυνοί:
κόλπου δ᾽ αἰθομένοιο διαθρῴσκοντα τεκούσης
Βάκχον ἐπουρανίη μαιώσατο φειδομένη φλόξ,
μητροφόνῳ σπινθῆρι μαραινομένων ὑμεναίων:
400 καὶ βρέφος ἠλιτόμηνον ἀδηλήτου τοκετοῖο
ἄσθμασι φειδομένοισιν ἐχυτλώσαντο κεραυνοί:
καὶ Σεμέλη πυρόεσσαν ἐσαθρήσασα τελευτὴν
ὤλετο τερπομένη λόχιον μόρον: ἦν δὲ νοῆσαι
ἵμερον, Εἰλείθυιαν, Ἐρινύας εἰν ἑνὶ παστῷ.
405 καὶ βρέφος ἡμιτέλεστον ἑῷ γενετῆρι λοχεῦσαι
οὐρανίῳ πυρὶ γυῖα λελουμένον ἤγαγεν Ἑρμῆς.
[396] Lightning was the midwife, thunder our Lady of childbed; the heavenly flames had mercy, and delivered Bacchos struggling from the mother’s burning lap when the married life was withered by the mothermurdering flash; the thunders tempered their breath to bathe the babe, untimely born but unhurt. Semele saw her fiery end, and perished rejoicing in a childbearing death. In one bridal chamber could be seen Love, Eileithyia, and the Avengers together. So the babe half-grown, and his limbs washed with heavenly fire, was carried by Hermes to his father for the lying-in.
Ζεὺς δὲ βαρυζήλοιο μετατρέψας νόον Ἥρης
ἄγριον ἐπρήυνε παλίλλυτον ὄγκον ἀπειλῆς,
καὶ φλογερὴν Σεμέλην μετανάστιον εἰς πόλον ἄστρων
410 οὐρανὸν οἶκον ἔχουσαν ἀνήγαγε μητέρα Βάκχου
αἰθερίοις ναέτῃσιν ὁμέστιον, ὡς γένος Ἥρης,
ὡς τόκον Ἁρμονίης ἐξ Ἄρεος, ἐξ Ἀφροδίτης:
καὶ καθαρῷ λούσασα νέον δέμας αἴθοπι πυρσῷ...
καὶ βίον ἄφθιτον ἔσχεν Ὀλύμπιον: ἀντὶ δὲ Κάδμου
415 καὶ χθονίου δαπέδοιο καὶ Αὐτονόης καὶ Ἀγαύης
σύνθρονον Ἄρτεμιν εὗρε καὶ ὡμίλησεν Ἀθήνῃ
καὶ πόλον ἕδνον ἔδεκτο, μιῆς ψαύουσα τραπέζης
Ζηνὶ καὶ Ἑρμάωνι καὶ Ἄρεϊ καὶ Κυθερείῃ.
[407] Zeus was able to change the mind of jealous Hera, to calm and undo the savage threatending resentment which burdened her. Semele consumed by the fire he translated into the starry vault; he gave the mother of Bacchos a home in the sky among the heavenly inhabitants, as one of Hera’s family, as daughter of Harmonia sprung from both Ares and Aphrodite. So her new body bathed in the purifying fire . . . she received the immortal life of the Olympians. Instead of Cadmos and the soil of earth, instead of Autonoë and Agauë, she found Artemis by her side, she had converse with Athena, she received the heavens as her wedding-gift, sitting at one table with Zeus and Hermaon and Ares and Cythereia.
BOOK 9
εἰς ἔνατον σκοπίαζε καὶ ὄψεαι υἱέα Μαίης
θυγατέρας τε Λάμου καὶ Μύστιδα καὶ δρόμον Ἰνοῦς.
Ζεὺς δὲ πατὴρ Σεμέλης φλογερῶν νωμήτορα κόλπων
ἡμιτελῆ λοχίοιο διαθρῴσκοντα κεραυνοῦ
δεξάμενος Διόνυσον ἐπέρραφεν ἄρσενι μηρῷ,
μαρμαρυγὴν δ᾽ ἀνέμιμνε τελεσσιγόνοιο Σελήνης:
5 καὶ παλάμη Κρονίδαο κυβερνήτειρα λοχείης
αὐτομάτη πέλε μαῖα πολυρραφέος τοκετοῖο,
παιδοτόκου λύσασα μογοστόκα νήματα μηροῦ.
καὶ Διὸς ὠδίνοντος ἴτυς θηλύνετο μηροῦ,
καὶ πάις ἠλιτόμηνος ἀμήτορι τίκτετο θεσμῷ
10 ἄρσενα θηλυτέρην μετὰ γαστέρα γαστέρα βαίνων.
τὸν μὲν ὑπερκύψαντα θεηγενέος τοκετοῖο
στέμματι κισσήεντι λεχωίδες ἔστεφον Ὧραι
ἐσσομένων κήρυκες, ἐπ᾽ ἀνθοκόμῳ δὲ καρήνῳ
εὐκεράων σκολιῇσιν ὑπὸ σπείρῃσι δρακόντων
15 ταυροφυῆ Διόνυσον ἐμιτρώσαντο κεράστην.
BOOK IX
Look into the ninth, and you will see the son of Maia, and the daughters of Lamos, and Mystis, and the flight of Ino.
Zeus the Father rec
eived Dionysos after he had broken out of his mother’s fiery lap and leapt through the delivering thunders half-formed; he sewed him in his manly thigh, while he waited upon the light of the moon which was to bring him to birth. Then the hand of Cronides guiding the birth was his own midwife to the sewn-up child, by cutting the labouring threads in his pregnant thigh. So the rounded thigh in labour became female, and the boy too soon born was brought forth, but not in a mother’s way, having passed from a mother’s womb to a father’s. No sooner had he peeped out by this divine delivery, than the childbed Seasons crowned him with an ivy-garland in presage of things to come; they wreathed the horned head of a bullshaped Dionysos with twining horned snakes under the flowers.
καί μιν ἔσω Δρακάνοιο λεχώιον ἀμφὶ κολώνην
πήχεϊ κολπωθέντι λαβὼν Μαιήιος Ἑρμῆς
ἠερόθεν πεπότητο: λοχευομένῳ δὲ Λυαίῳ
πατρῴην ἐπέθηκεν ἐπωνυμίην τοκετοῖο
20 κικλήσκων Διόνυσον, ἐπεὶ ποδὶ φόρτον ἀείρων
ἤιε χωλαίνων Κρονίδης βεβριθότι μηρῷ,
νῦσος ὅτι γλώσσῃ Συρακοσσίδι χωλὸς ἀκούει:
καὶ θεὸν ἀρτιλόχευτον ἐφήμισαν Εἰραφιώτην,
ὅττί μιν εὐώδινι πατὴρ ἐρράψατο μηρῷ.
[16] Hermes Maia’s son received him near the birthplace hill of Dracanon, and holding him in the crook of his arm flew through the air. He gave the newborn Lyaios a surname to suit his birth, and called him Dionysos, or Zeus-limp, because while he carried his burden lifted his foot with a limp from the weight of his thigh, and nysos in the Syracusan language means limping. So he dubbed Zeus newly delivered Eiraphiotes, or Father Botcher, because he had sewed up the baby in his breeding thigh.
25 καί μιν ἀχυτλώτοιο διαΐσσοντα λοχείης
πήχεϊ κοῦρον ἄδακρυν ἐκούφισε σύγγονος Ἑρμῆς,
καὶ βρέφος εὐκεράοιο φυῆς ἴνδαλμα Σελήνης
ὤπασε θυγατέρεσσι Λάμου ποταμηίσι Νύμφαις,
παῖδα Διὸς κομέειν σταφυληκόμον: αἱ δὲ λαβοῦσαι
30 Βάκχον ἐπηχύναντο, καὶ εἰς στόμα παιδὸς ἑκάστη
ἀθλιβέων γλαγόεσσαν ἀνέβλυεν ἰκμάδα μαζῶν.
καὶ πάις ἀντικέλευθον ἐς οὐρανὸν ὄμμα τιταίνων
ὕπτιος ἦεν ἄυπνος, ἀμοιβαίῃσι δὲ ῥιπαῖς
ἠέρα λακτίζων διδυμάονι τέρπετο παλμῷ,
35 καὶ πόλον ἐσκοπίαζεν ἀήθεα, θαμβαλέος δὲ
πατρῴην ἐγέλασσεν ἴτυν δεδοκημένος ἄστρων.
[25] Thus Hermes carried upon his arm the little brother who had passed through one birth without a bath, and lay now without a tear, a baby with a good pair of horns like the Moon. He gave him in charge of the daughters of Lamos, river nymphs – the son of Zeus, the vineplanter. They received Bacchos into their arms; and each of them dropt the milky juice of her breast without pressing into his mouth. And the boy lay on his back unsleeping, and fixt his eye on the heaven above, or kicked at the air with his two feet one after the other in delight; he stared at the unfamiliar sky, and laughed in wonder to see his father’s vault of stars.
καὶ βρέφος ἀθρήσασα Διὸς μαστίζετο νύμφη:
θυγατέρες δὲ Λάμοιο χόλῳ βαρυμήνιος Ἥρης
δαιμονίης κακότητος ἐβακχεύθησαν ἱμάσθλῃ:
40 ἐν δὲ δόμῳ δμωῇσιν ἐπέχραον, ἐν τριόδοις δὲ
ξεινοφόνῳ δαίτρευον ὁδοιπόρον ἄνδρα μαχαίρῃ:
φρικαλέαι δ᾽ ἀλάλαζον, ὑπὸ στροφάλιγγι δὲ ῥιπῇ
ὀφθαλμοὺς ἐλέλιζον ἀκοσμήτοιο προσώπου:
πάντῃ δ᾽ ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα νοοπλανέεσσι μενοιναῖς
45 ἔτρεχον ἀσταθέων τροχαλῷ σκιρτήματι ταρσῶν:
καὶ πλοκάμους βάκχευον ἐς ἠέρα θυιάδες αὖραι
πλαζομένους: κροκόεις δὲ περὶ στέρνοισιν ἑκάστης
ἀφροκόμῳ ῥαθάμιγγι χιτὼν λευκαίνετο κούρης.
καί νύ κε φοιταλέης ἑτερόφρονι κύματι λύσσης
50 νήπιον εἰσέτι Βάκχον ἐμιστύλλοντο μαχαίρῃ,
εἰ μὴ ἀσημάντοιο ποδὸς ληίστορι ταρσῷ
Βάκχον ὑποκλέψας πτερόεις πάλιν ἥρπασεν Ἑρμῆς,
καὶ βρέφος ἀρτικόμιστον ἔχων ζωαρκέι κόλπῳ
εἰς δόμον ἀρτιτόκοιο λεχώιον ἤγαγεν Ἰνοῦς.
[37] The consort of Zeus beheld the babe, and suffered torments. Through the wrath of resentful Hera, the daughters of Lamos were maddened by the lash of that divine mischiefmaker. In the house they attacked the servants, in the threeways they carved up the wayfaring man with alienslaying knife; they howled horribly, with violent convulsions they rolled the eyes in their disfigured faces; they scampered about this way and that way at the mercy of their wandering wits, running and skipping with restless feet, and the mad breezes made their wandering locks dance wildly into the air; the yellow shift round the bosom of each was whitened with drops of foam from the lips of the girls. Indeed they would have chopt up little Bacchos a baby still piecemeal in the distracted flood of their vagabond madness, had not Hermes come on the wing and stolen Bacchos again with a robber’s untracked footsteps: the babe lately brought he caught up, and carried in his lifeprotecting bosom, until he brought him to the house where Ino had lately brought forth a son.
55 ἡ μὲν ἀνηέρταζεν ἑῆς προθορόντα λοχείης
νήπιον εἰσεέτι κοῦρον, ἐπωλένιον Μελικέρτην,
παιδοκόμοις παλάμῃσιν: ἀνοιδαίνοντο δὲ μαζοὶ
θλιβομένοιο γάλακτος ἀναβλύζοντες ἐέρσην.
καὶ φιλίοις στομάτεσσι θεὸς μειλίξατο νύμφην
60 θέσκελον ὀμφήεντι χέων ἔπος ἀνθερεῶνι:
[55] She was nursing her boy Melicertes, lately born and a baby still, and held him in her arms with caressing hands; her swelling breasts dropt the dew of the bursting milk. The god spoke to her in friendly coaxing tones, and let pass a divine message from his prophetic throat:
‘Δέξο, γύναι, νέον υἷα, τεῷ δ᾽ ἐνικάτθεο κόλπῳ
παῖδα κασιγνήτης Σεμέλης σέεν, ὃν παρὰ παστῷ
οὐ στεροπῆς ἀμάθυνεν ὅλον σέλας, οὐδέ μιν αὐτοὶ
μητροφόνοι σπινθῆρες ἐδηλήσαντο κεραυνοῦ.
65 καὶ βρέφος ἀχλυόεντι δόμῳ πεφυλαγμένον ἔστω,
μηδέ μιν ἀθρήσειεν ἔσω γλαφυροῖο μελάθρου
ἠμάτιον Φαέθοντος ἢ ἔννυχου ὄμμα Σελήνης,
μηδέ ἑ κουρίζοντα, καὶ εἰ ταυρῶπις ἀκούει,
ζηλήμων βαρύμηνις ἴδῃ κεκαλυμμένον Ἥρη.
70 δέξο κασιγνήτης σέθεν υἱέα: σοὶ δὲ Κρονί
ων
ἄξια σῶν καμάτων ὀπάσει θρεπτήρια κείνου.
ὀλβίη ἐν πάσῃσι θυγατράνσιν ἔπλεο Κάδμου:
ἤδη γὰρ Σεμέλη φλογερῷ δέδμητο βελέμνῳ,
Αὐτονόν δὲ θανόντι σὺν υἱέι γαῖα καλύψει,
75 ἀμφοτέροις δ᾽ ἕνα τύμβον ἀναστήσειε Κιθαιρών,
καὶ μόρον οὐρεσίφοιτος ἐσαθρήσειεν Ἀγαύη
Πενθέος ὀλλυμένοιο, νόθης ψαύσασα κονίης,
παιδοφόνος γεγαυῖα λιπόπτολις: ἀλλὰ σὺ μούνη
ἔσσαι αὐχήεσσα, τόσης ναέτειρα θαλάσσης,
80 οἶκον ἀμειβομένη Ποσιδήιον, εἰναλίη δὲ
ὡς Θέτις, ὡς Ταλάτεια φατίζεαι Ὑδριὰς Ἱνώ:
οὐ χθονίῳ κενεῶνι κατακρύψει σε Κιθαιρών,
ἀλλὰ σὺ Νηρεΐδων μία γίνεαι: ἀντὶ δὲ Κάδμου
ἐλπίδι λωιτέρῃ καλέσῃς Νηρῆα τοκῆα
85 παιδὶ τεῷ ζώουσα σὺν ἀθανάτῳ Μελικέρτῃ,
Λευκοθέη, κρατέουσα χυτῆς κληῖδα γαλήνης,
εὐπλοΐης μεδέουσα μετ᾽ Αἰόλον: εὐδιόων δὲ
σοὶ πίσυνος πλεύσειε φιλέμπορος εἰν ἁλὶ ναύτης
βωμὸν ἕνα στήσας ἐνοσίχθονι καὶ Μελικέρτῃ,
90 ῥέζων ἀμφοτέροισι: θαλασσαίοιο δὲ δίφρου
δέξεται ἡνιοχῆα Παλαίμονα κυανοχαίτης.’
[61] “Madam, receive a new son; lay in your bosom the child of Semele your sister. Not the full blaze of the lightning destroyed him in her chamber; even the sparks of the thunderbolt which killed his mother did him no harm. Let the child be kept safe in a gloomy room, and let neither the Sun’s eye by day nor the Moon’s eye by night see him in your roofed hall. Cover him up, that jealous resentful Hera may never see him playing, though she is said to have eyes to see a bull. Receive your sister’s boy, and you shall have from Cronion a reward for his nurture worthy of your pains. Happy are you among all the daughters of Cadmos! for already Semele has been brought low by a fiery bolt; Autonoë shall lie under the earth with her dead son, and Cithairon will set up one tomb for both; Agauë shall see the fate of Pentheus among the hills, and she shall touch his ashes all deceived. A sonslayer she shall be, and a banished woman, but you alone shall be proud; you shall inhabit the mighty sea and settle in Poseidon’s house; in the brine like Thetis, like Galateia, your name shall be Ino of the Waters. Cithairon shall not hide you in the hollow earth, but you shall be one of the Nereïds. Instead of Cadmos, you shall call Nereus father, with happier hopes. You shall ever live with Melicertes your immortal son as Leucothea, holding the key of clam waters, mistress of good voyaging next to Aiolos. The merchant seaman trusting in you shall have a fineweather voyage over the brine; he shall set up one altar for the Earthshaker and Melicertes, and do sacrifice to both together; Seabluehair shall accept Palaimon as guide for his coach of the sea.”
