Works of Nonnus

by Nonnus

  25 ὤλετο δὲ ψυχῆς τρίτατον λάχος: ἀπλανέες γὰρ

  ἄφρονος ἐγκεφάλοιο μετατρωπῶντο μενοιναί,

  καὶ σφαλεραῖς ἑλίκεσσιν ἐβακχεύθησαν ὀπωπαὶ

  ἀνέρος οἰστρηθέντος: ἀπεπλάζοντο δὲ χαῖται

  σειόμεναι περὶ νῶτον ἀκερσικόμοιο καρήνου.

  30 καὶ στόμα οἱ βάμβαινε, καὶ ἠέρι χείλεα λύσας

  πέμπεν ἀσημάντων ἐπέων ἑτερόθροον ἠχώ.

  καὶ βροτέας βιότοιο μεληδόνας ἥρπασαν αὖραι

  Εὐμενίδων, καὶ γλῶσσα βαρύνετο θυιάδι φωνῇ:

  παπταίνων δ᾽ ἑλικηδὸν ὑπὸ στροφάλιγγι προσώπου

  35 ἀλλοφυὲς νόθον εἶδος ἀθηήτοιο Μεγαίρης

  οἰστρομανὴς Ἀθάμας ἑτερόφρονι σείετο παλμῷ:

  καὶ βλοσυρῆς ἀπὸ χειρὸς ἀμερσινόοιο θεαίνης

  ἁρπάξαι μενέαινεν ἐχιδνήεσσαν ἱμάσθλην:

  γυμνώσας δὲ μάχαιραν Ἐρινύος ἀντία κόρσης

  40 ἤθελε Τισιφόνης ὀφιώδεα βόστρυχα τέμνειν.

  καὶ κενεοῖς ὀάροισιν ὁμίλεε γείτονι τοίχῳ

  παπταίνων σκιόεσσαν ἐπίκλοπον εἰκόνα μορφῆς

  Ἀρτέμιδος, καὶ κοῦφον ἰδὼν εἴδωλον ὀπωπαῖς

  φάσμασιν ἀντιτύποισιν ἐς ἵμερον ἤλυθεν ἄγρης.

  [25] A third part of his soul was lost; steady thoughts were gone from his crazy brain; the glances of the maddened man went wildly round with flickering movements; the hair of his untended head shook disordered over his back. His mouth moved stammering; when he opened his lips he sent out into the air meaningless words of strange outlandish sound. The blasts of the Eumenides had carried away the troubles of mortal life, and his tongue was laden with the cries of madness. When he moved his face about he saw as his forehead turned a false transformed shape of the unseen Megaira. So the madman shook with a distracted spasm, and tried to tear the whip of snakes from the grim hand of the reason-destroying goddess; he bared his sword in the face of the Avenger, and tried to cut the viper-curls of Tisiphone. And he babbled nonsense to the wall before him, for he saw a shadow-shape, a deceitful phantom of the shape of Artemis; this empty form his eyes beheld and the imitated shapes made him want to go hunting.

  45 ὀψὲ δὲ ποικιλόδακρυς ἔτος μέτα τέτρατον Ἰνὼ

  νόστιμος εἰς δόμον ἦλθεν: ὀπιπεύουσα δὲ νύμφη

  καὶ πόσιν οἰστρηθέντα καὶ ἀρσενόπαιδα Θεμιστὼ

  διπλόον ἄλγος ἔδεκτο. καὶ οὐ γίνωσκεν ἀκοίτης

  εὐνέτιν ἀθρήσας χρονίην παλινάγρετον Ἰνώ:

  50 ἀλλὰ πόθον ταχύγουνος ἔχων κεμαδοσσόον ἄγρης

  εἰς σκοπιὰς ἤιξε θυελλήεντι πεδίλῳ,

  υἱὸν ἰδὼν ἅτε θῆρα κερασφόρον: ἰθυτενὲς δὲ

  τόξον ἔχων ἀκίχητος ἐπεσκίρτησε Λεάρχῳ,

  ὑψίκερων ἔλαφον δοκέων ψευδήμονι μορφῇ,

  55 θηρείοις μελέεσσιν ὁμοίιον: αὐτὰρ ὁ φεύγων

  ταρβήεις πεπότητο θοώτερα γούνατα πάλλων.

  χερσὶ δὲ λυσσαλέῃσιν ὑπηνέμιον βέλος ἕλκων

  παιδοφόνῳ νέον υἷα πατὴρ ἐπέδησε βελέμνῳ:

  καὶ κεφαλὴν ἄγνωστον ἀπηλοίησε μαχαίρῃ

  60 φάσματι νεβρωθεῖσαν: ἀσημάντου δὲ προσώπου

  αἱμαλέης ἐγέλασσε γενειάδος ἄκρον ἀφάσσων,

  ἀμφαφόων ἅτε θῆρα, καὶ ἔδραμεν ἅλματι λύσσης,

  παιδὸς ἔτι σπαίροντος ἀτυμβεύτοιο Λεάρχου,

  μητέρα μαστεύων, στροφάδας δ᾽ ἐλέλιζεν ὀπωπάς.

  65 οὐδέ τις ἀμφιπόλων σχεδὸν ἤιε: φοιταλέος δὲ

  ἑπταμύχου θαλάμοιο διέστιχεν ὠκέι ταρσῷ

  κικλήσκων ἑὸν υἷα, τὸν ἔκτανεν. ἐν δὲ μελάθρῳ

  νήπιον ἀρτικόμιστον ἐσαθρήσας Μελικέρτην,

  στηρίξας δὲ λέβητα πυρίπνοον ἐσχαρεῶνι,

  70 εἰς μέσον υἱέα θῆκεν: ἀναπτομένοιο δὲ πυρσοῦ,

  φοίνιος ὑδατόεντι λέβης ἐπεπάφλασεν ἀτμῷ.

  [45] At last after the fourth year, after many tears, Ino returned to her home; but when the wife saw husband mad, and Themisto mother of men children, she received a double shock. The husband did not know his wife when he saw Ino, recovered after so long a time; but in his passion for the staghunting chase, he was off to the heights nimbleknee with stormswift boot. He saw his son as if he were an antlered beast; holding the bow ready bent he leapt unchecked on Learchos, whom he saw in the false form of a stag with lofty antlers, his limbs like a wild beast. The boy fled in fear running with quicker knees; the father with frenzied hands drew and shot through the air, and stopt his young son with childslaying bolt. He cut off the head with his knife and knew it not, turned stag by his fancy; laughing he felt the hair at the top of the bloodstained cheek of the face unmarked, and pawed over his game, as he thought, then rushed with mad leaps and rolling eyes to find the mother, while the boy Learchos was gasping still, and still unburied. None of the servants came near him; with quick foot he went wandering through the seven chambers of his house, calling aloud for the son whom he had killed. In the hall he espied little Melicertes who had just been brought in, and setting a cauldron over the hearth, a steaming cauldron, he laid his son in it: the fire blazed up, the murderous cauldron bubbled with boiling water.

  Παππάζων δ᾽ ἰάχησεν ἑὸς πάις, οὐδέ τις αὐτῷ

  ἀμφιπόλων χραίσμησεν: ἀελλήεσσα δὲ μήτηρ

  ἡμιδαῆ πυρίκαυτον ἀφαρπάξασα λεβήτων

  75 ἅλμασι φοιταλέοισι ποδήνεμος ἔτρεχεν Ἰνώ:

  καὶ Λευκοῦ πεδίοιο διατμήγουσα κονίην

  [72] His son called out for “papa!” but none of the servants could help. Ino his mother came in like a stormwind, and snatched him from the cauldron parboiled and half consumed. Then she ran out bounding with wild-roaming feet swift as the wind; she traversed the dust of the White Plain, and for that reason she was named after it Leucothea, the White Goddess.

  Λευκοθέη πεφάτιστο φερώνυμος: ἐκ δὲ μελάθρου

  αἰνομανὴς Ἀθάμας ἀνεμώδεα γούνατα πάλλων

  ὠκυτέρην ἐδίωκε μάτην ὀρεσίδρομον Ἰνώ.

  80 ἀλλ᾽ ὅτε οἱ σχεδὸν ἦλθε πολυπτοίητος ἀκοίτης

  ἄστατον ἴχνος ἔχων σφαλερῷ ποδί, δὴ τότε δειλὴ

  ἀγχιπόρῳ στήσασα διαινόμενον πόδα πόντῳ

  παιδὶ φιλοθρήνῳ κινυρὴν βρυχήσατο φωνήν,

  μεμφομένη Κρονίωνα κ
αὶ ἄγγελον υἱέα Μαίης:

  [77] Athamas mad was out of the hall, stirring his knees like the wind and pursuing Ino over the hills in vain, – she was too quick for him. But when the raving husband with restless staggering foot caught her up, at that moment the unhappy woman had halted by the sea which washed her foot, moaning in plaintive tones over her crying child, while she upbraided Cronion and Maia’s son his messenger:

  85 ‘Καλά μοι, ἀργικέραυνε, πόρες θρεπτήρια Βάκχου:

  ἡμιδαῆ σκοπίαζε συνήλικα παῖδα Λυαίῳ:

  ἢν ἐθέλῃς, πρήνιξον ἀφειδέι σεῖο κεραυνῷ

  μητέρα καὶ νέον υἷα, τὸν ἔτρεφον εἰν ἑνὶ κόλπῳ

  σύντροφον ὑμετέροιο θεηγενέος Διονύσου.

  90 τέκνον, Ἀναγκαίη μεγάλη θεός: εἰς τίνα φεύγεις;

  ποῖον ὄρος δέχεταί σε πεφυγμένον ἐγγύθι πόντου;

  τίς σκοτίῳ κενεῶνι κατακρύψει σε Κιθαιρών;

  τίς βροτὸς οἰκτείρει σε, τὸν οὐ γενέτης ἐλεαίρει;

  ἢ ξίφος ἤ σε θάλασσα δεδέξεται: εἴ περ ἀνάγκη,

  95 λώιον ἐν πελάγεσσι δαμήμεναι ἠὲ μαχαίρῃ.

  [85] “A fine reward you have given me, Flashthunderbolt, for the care of Bacchos! See this boy, Lyaios’ agemate, half burnt to death! If it please you, strike down with your merciless bolt mother and son together, the little one I nursed in one bosom with your divine Dionysos! Child, Necessity is a great god! – where will you flee? What mountain will receive you, now you have fled to the sea? What Cithairon will hide you in a dark hollow? What mortal man will pity you, when your father has no mercy? Either sword or water shall receive you: if needs must, better to perish in the sea than by the sword.

  οἶδα, πόθεν τόδε πῆμα τεῇ κεκύλιστο τεκούσῃ,

  οἶδα, πόθεν: νεφέλη γὰρ Ἐρινύας εἰς ἐμὲ πέμπει,

  ὄφρα θάνω κατὰ πόντον, ὅπῃ πέσε παρθένος Ἕλλη.

  ἔκλυον ἠερόθεν πεφορημένον εἰς χθόνα Κόλχων

  100 ἅρπαγος ἀρνειοῖο μετήορον ἡνιοχῆα

  Φρίξον ἔτι ζώειν μετανάστιον: αἴθε καὶ αὐτὸς

  χρυσοπόκου κριοῖο μετάρσιον οἶμον ὁδεύοι

  υἱὸς ἐμὸς λιπόπατρις ἀλυσκάζων Μελικέρτης:

  αἴθε δὲ καὶ μετὰ Φοῖβον ἐποικτείρων σέθεν Ἰνὼ

  105 ξεινοδόκος Γλαύκοιο Ποσειδάων σε σαώσῃ.

  δείδια, μὴ μετὰ πότμον ἀτυμβεύτοιο Λεάρχου

  νεκρὸν ἄθαπτον ἄδακρυν ὀλωλότα καὶ σὲ νοήσω

  αἱμαλέῃ γενετῆρος ἐπισπαίροντα μαχαίρῃ.

  σπεῦδε φυγεῖν Ἀθάμαντα μεμηνότα, μηδὲ νοήσῃς

  110 παιδοφόνον γενετῆρα τεῆς ὀλετῆρα τεκούσης.

  [96] “I know where this disaster came from, rolling upon your mother: I know! It is Nephele sends the Erinyes after me, that I may die in this sea where maiden Helle fell. I have heard that Phrixos was carried through the air to the Colchian country, guiding aloft the Ram who took him off, and he still lives in a distant land. O that my son Melicertes too might escape to another country, and travel the high path of the goldfleece ram! O that Poseidon, the hospitable friend of Glaucos, might save you, pitying your Ino as once he pitied Phoibos! I fear that after the fate of unburied Learchos I may see you also dead, unburied, unwept, undone, panting under the bloody knife of your father. Make haste! escape from mad Athamas, and then you will not see the father who murdered his child, murder the mother.

  δέξό με καὶ σύ, θάλασσα, μετὰ χθόνα: δέχνυσο, Νηρεῦ,

  χειρὶ φιλοξείνῳ μετὰ Περσέα καὶ Μελικέρτην:

  δέχνυσο καὶ Δανάης μετὰ λάρνακα σύμπλοον Ἰνώ.

  ἄξια δυσσεβίης καὶ ἐγὼ πάθον, ὅττι καὶ αὐτὴν

  115 ἄσπορον ἡμετέρην γενεὴν ποίησε Κρονίων,

  ἄσπορον ὡς ἐτέλεσσα φερέσβιον αὔλακα γαίης:

  μητρυιή τις ἐοῦσα νόθην Ἀθαμαντίδα φύτλην

  ἀμῆσαι προβέβουλα, καὶ εἰς ἐμὲ χώεται Ἥρη

  μητρυιὴ γεγαυῖα νεοτρεφέος Διονύσου.’

  [111] “Receive me you too, O sea! I have done with earth. Receive Melicertes also with hospitable hand, O Nereus, as you received Perseus! Receive Ino, as once Danaë in her floating hutch! I have been justly punished for my impiety. As I made seedless the earth’s lifegiving furrow, so Cronion has made my family seedless. A kind of stepmother, I planned to mow down the bastard plants of Athamas, and Hera, the real stepmother of newly nurtured Dionysos, is angry with me.”

  120 ὣς φαμένη τρομεροῖσιν ὑπ᾽ ἴχνεσιν ἥλατο πόντῳ

  κραιπνὰ κυβιστήσασα σὺν υἱέι: Λευκοθέην δὲ

  πεπταμέναις παλάμῃσιν ἐδέξατο κυανοχαίτης

  δαίμοσιν ὑγροπόροισιν ὁμέστιον: ἔνθεν ἀρήγει

  ναύταις πλαζομένοισι, καὶ ἔπλετο ποντιὰς Ἰνὼ

  125 Νηρεῒς ἀφλοίσβοιο κυβερνήτειρα γαλήνης.

  [120] She spoke, and with trembling feet sprang into the sea, swiftly diving with her son. Seabluehair opened his arms to receive Leucothea, and took her into the divine company in the deep waters. She helps ever sine the seamen who lose their way, and now she is Ino of the Sea, a Nereïd who has charge of untumultuous calm.

  τὴν μὲν ἄναξ Κρονίδης ἐπεδείκνυε μητρὶ Λυαίου,

  ὅττι χάριν Βρομίοιο θεὰ πέλεν: ἡ δὲ χαρεῖσα

  γνωτῇ ποντοπόρῳ φιλοκέρτομον ἴαχε φωνήν:

  ‘Ἰνώ, πόντον ἔχεις, Σεμέλη λάχε κύκλον Ὀλύμπου:

  130 εἶξον ἐμοί: Κρονίδην γὰρ ἐμῆς ἀροτῆρα γενέθλης

  ἀθάνατον πόσιν ἔσχον, ἐμῆς ὠδῖνα λοχείης

  ἀντ᾽ ἐμέθεν τίκτοντα, σὺ δὲ χθονίῳ παρακοίτῃ

  νυμφεύθης Ἀθάμαντι, τεῆς ὀλετῆρι γενέθλης.

  σὸς πάις ἔλλαχε πόντον, ἐμὸς τόκος αἰθέρα ναίειν

  135 ἵξεται εἰς Διὸς οἶκον ὑπέρτερον: οὐ γὰρ ἐίσκω

  οὐράνιον Διόνυσον ὑποβρυχίῳ Μελικέρτῃ.’

  [126] So Cronides pointed her out to the mother of Lyaios, because she owed it to Bromios that she was a goddess. Semele in her joy addressed her seafaring sister in mockery: “Ino, you have the sea, Semele has gained the round heavens! Give me place! I had an immortal husband in Cronides the plower of my field, who brought forth the fruit of my birth instead of me; but you were wedded to a mortal mate Athamas, the murderer of your family. Your son’s lot is the sea, but my son will come to the house of Zeus to dwell in the sky. I will not compass heavenly Dionysos with Melicertes down in the water!”

  τοῖα μὲν αἰθερίη Σεμέλη μυκήσατο νύμφη

  γνωτῆς κερτομέου�
�α θαλασσονόμου βίον Ἰνοῦς.

  [137] That is how Semele the heavenly bride yelled out in mockery of her sister Ino’s life who dwelt in the sea.

  τόφρα δὲ καὶ Διόνυσος ὑπὸ κλίμα Λυδὸν ἀρούρης,

  140 εὔια δινεύων Κυβεληίδος ὄργανα Ῥείης,

  ἤνθεε μῆκος ἔχων, ὅσον ἤθελεν: ὑψιπόρου δὲ

  φεύγων Ἠελίοιο μεσημβρίζουσαν ἱμάσθλην

  ἥσυχα παφλάζοντι δέμας φαίδρυνε λοετρῷ

  Μῃονίου ποταμοῖο, χαριζόμενος δὲ Λυαίῳ

  145 Πακτωλὸς κελάρυζε, χέων χρυσόσπορον ὕδωρ

  πορφυρέαις ψαμάθοισι, βαθυπλούτων δὲ μετάλλων

  ἀφνειῷ κεκύλιστο βυθῷ χρυσούμενος ἰχθύς:

  καὶ Σάτυροι παίζοντες, ἐν ἠέρι ταρσὰ μεθέντες,

  εἰς ποταμὸν προχέοντο κυβιστητῆρι καρήνῳ,