Works of Nonnus

by Nonnus

  τοῖα παρηγορέων φιλίῳ μειλίξατο μύθῳ

  θοῦρος Ἔρως, γλυκὺ κέντρον ἐλαφρίζων Διονύσῳ.

  [482] So stormy Eros comforted Dionysos with gentle friendly words, and softened the sweet pangs.

  καὶ κινυρῇ πολὺ μᾶλλον ἱμάσσετο θυμὸν ἀνίῃ

  485 ἠιθέου διὰ πότμον ἀώριον. — ἀσταθέος δὲ

  θυγατέρες Λυκάβαντος, ἀελλοπόδοιο τοκῆος,

  εἰς δόμον Ἠελίοιο ῥοδώπιδες ἤιον Ὧραι:

  ὧν ἡ μὲν νιφόεντι κατάσκιον ἀμφὶ προσώπῳ

  λεπταλέον πέμπουσα κελαινεφέος σέλας αἴγλης

  490 ψυχρὰ χαλαζήεντι συνήρμοσε ταρσὰ πεδίλῳ,

  καὶ διερῷ πλοκαμῖδας ἐπισφίγξασα καρήνῳ

  ὀμβροτόκον κρήδεμνον ἐπεσφήκωσε μετώπῳ,

  καὶ χλοερὸν στέφος εἶχε καρήατι, χιονέῃ δὲ

  στήθεα παχνήεντα κατέσκεπε λευκάδι μίτρῃ:

  [484] But the spirit of Bacchos was scourged yet more with sorrowful care for he lad’s untimely death. – And the rosycheek Seasons, daughters of the restless lichtgang their stormfoot father, made haste to the house of Helios. One wore a snowy veil shadowing her face, and sent forth a gleam of subtle light through black clouds; her feet were fitted with chilly hailstone shoes. She had bound her braids about her watery head, and fastened across her brow a rain-producing veil, with an evergreen garland on her head and a white circlet of snow covering her frost-rimed breast.

  495 ἡ δὲ χελιδονίων ἀνέμων τερψίμβροτον αὔρην

  ἔπτυε φυσιόωσα, φιλοζεφύρου δὲ καρήνου

  εἰαρινὴν δροσόεντι κόμην μιτρώσατο δεσμῷ,

  ἀνθεμόεν γελόωσα, διαιθύσσουσα δὲ πέπλου

  ὄρθριον οἰγομένοιο ῥόδου δολιχόσκιον ὀδμὴν

  500 διπλόον ἔπλεκε κῶμον Ἀδώνιδι καὶ Κυθερείῃ:

  [495] Another puffed out from her lips the swallow-wind’s breath which gives joy to mortal men, having banded the spring-time tresses of her zephyrloving head with a fresh dewy coronet, while she laughed like a flower, and fanned through her robe far abroad the fragrance of the opening rose at dawn. So she wove the merry dance for Adonis and Cythereia together.

  ἄλλη ἅμα γνωτῇσι θαλυσιὰς ἔστιχεν Ὥρη,

  καὶ στάχυν ἀκροκόμοισι περιφρίσσοντα κορύμβοις

  δεξιτερῇ κούφιζε καὶ ὀξυτόμου γένυν ἅρπης

  ἄγγελον ἀμητοῖο, δέμας δ᾽ ἐσφίγγετο κούρη

  505 ἀργενναῖς ὀθόνῃσιν, ἑλισσομένης δὲ χορείῃ

  φαίνετο λεπταλέοιο δι᾽ εἵματος ὄργια μηρῶν,

  καὶ νοτεροὺς ἱδρῶτας ἀνιεμένοιο προσώπου

  θερμοτέρῳ Φαέθοντι καθικμαίνοντο παρειαί:

  [501] Another, harvest-home Season, came with her Sisters. In her right hand she held a head of corn with grains clustering on the top, and a sickle with sharpcutting blade, forecrier of harvest; her maiden form was wrapt in linen shining white, and as she wheeled in the dance the fine texture showed the secrets of her thighs, while in a hotter sun the cheeks of her drooping face were damp with dewy sweat.

  ἄλλη δ᾽ εὐαρότοιο προηγήτειρα χορείης

  510 θαλλὸν ἐλαιήεντα λιπότριχι δήσατο κόρσῃ

  ἑπταπόρου ποταμοῖο διάβροχον ὕδασι Νείλου,

  καὶ ψεδνὴν μεθέπουσα μαραινομένην τρίχα κόρσης

  καρφαλέον δέμας εἶχεν, ἐπεὶ φθινοπωρὶς ἐοῦσα

  φυλλοχόοις ἀνέμοις ἀπεκείρατο δενδράδα χαίτην:

  515 οὔ πω γὰρ χρυσέων ἑλίκων πλεκτοῖσι κορύμβοις

  βότρυες ἀμπελόεντες ἐπέρρεον αὐχένι νύμφης,

  οὐδέ μιν οἰνωθεῖσα φιλακρήτῳ παρὰ ληνῷ

  πορφυρέης ἐμέθυσσε Μαρωνίδος ἰκμὰς ἐέρσης,

  οὐδὲ παλινδίνητος ἀνέδραμε κισσὸς ἀλήτης:

  520 ἀλλὰ τότε χρόνος ἦλθε μεμορμένος, οὗ χάριν αὐταὶ

  εἰς δόμον Ἠελίοιο συνήλυδες ἔδραμον Ὧραι.

  [509] Another leading the dance for an easy plowing, had bound about her hairless temple shoots of olive drenched with the waters of sevenstream Nile. Scanty and withering was the hair by her temples, dry was her body; for she is fruitpining Autumn, who shears off the foliage from the trees with scatterleaf winds. For there were no vinebranches yet, trailing about the nymph’s neck with tangled clusters of golden curls; not yet was she drunken with purple Maronian juice beside the neatswilling winepress; not yet had the ivy run up with wild intertwining tendrils. But then she fated time had come, which had brought the Seasons running together to the house of Helios.

  BOOK 12

  δωδεκάτῳ φρένα τέρψον, ὅπῃ νέον ἄνθος Ἐρώτων

  ἄμπελος εἶδος ἀνῆκεν ἐς ἀμπελόεσσαν ὀπώρην.

  ὣς αἱ μὲν δυτικοῖο παρ᾽ ὀφρύσιν Ὠκεανοῖο

  ἠελίου γονόεντος ἐναυτίλλοντο μελάθροις.

  τῇσι δὲ νισσομένῃσι συνήντεεν Ἕσπερος ἀστὴρ

  θρῴσκων ἐκ μεγάροιο: διεσσυμένη δὲ καὶ αὐτὴ

  5 ἀρτιφανὴς ἀνέτελλε βοῶν ἐλάτειρα Σελήνη.

  BOOK XII

  With the twelfth, delight your heart, where Ampelos has shot up his own shape, a new flower of love, into the fruit of the vine.

  So these by the brows of western Oceanos took ship for the mansion of Helios their father. As they approached, Hesperos the Evening Star leapt up and went out of the hall to meet them. Selene herself also darted out newrisen, showing her light as she drove her cattle.

  αἱ δὲ φερεζώοιο παρ᾽ ὄμμασιν Ἡνιοχῆος

  κάρπιμον ἴχνος ἔκαμψαν. ὁ μὲν δρόμον ἄρτι τελέσσας

  ἠερόθεν νόστησε: πυριγλήνου δ᾽ ἐλατῆρος

  φωσφόρος αἰγλήεις τετράζυγος ἐγγύθι δίφρου

  10 θήκατο θερμὰ λέπαδνα καὶ ἀστερόεσσαν ἱμάσθλην,

  γείτονος Ὠκεανοῖο παρὰ προχοῇσι καθήρας

  μυδαλέων ἱδρῶτι πυριτρεφέων δέμας ἵππων:

  πῶλοι δ᾽ αὐχενίας νοτερὰς δονέοντες ἐθείρας

  μαρμαρέοις ὀνύχεσσιν ἐπέκτυπον αἴθοπι φάτνῃ.

  15 θυγατέρες δὲ Χρόνοιο πέριξ φλογεροῖο θοώκου

  ἱπτάμεναι στεφανηδὸν ἀτειρέος Ἡνιοχῆος

  τέσσαρας ἠσπάζοντο δυώδεκα κυκλάδες Ὧραι,

  δμωίδες Ἠελίοιο, συνήλυδες αἴθοπι δίφρῳ,

  μυστιπόλοι Λυκάβαντος ἀμοιβάδες: ὠγυγίῳ γὰρ

  20 αὐχέ
να δοῦλον ἔκαμψαν ὅλου νωμήτορι κόσμου.

  [6] The Sisters at the sight of the lifegiving Charioteer stayed their fruitful step. He had just finished his course and come down from the sky. Bright Phosphoros was ready for the fire-eyed driver, near his chariot and four. He put away the hot yokestraps and starry whip, and washed in the neighbouring Ocean stream the bodies of the firefed horses wet with sweat. The colts shook the dripping manes on their necks, and stamped with sparkling hooves the shining mangertrough. The four were greeted by the twelve circling Hours, daughters of Time, tripling round the fiery throne of the untiring Charioteer in a ring, servants of Helios that attend on his shining car, priestesses of the lichtgang each in her turn: for they bend a servile neck to the ancient manager of the universe.

  καὶ οἱ ἀνηΰτησεν ἔπος σταφυληκόμος Ὥρη

  μάρτυρον ἱκεσίης σχομένη φθινοπωρίδος ἅρπην:

  ‘ Ἠέλιε ζείδωρε, φυτηκόμε, κοίρανε καρπῶν,

  οἰνοτόκον πότε βότρυν ἀεξήσουσιν ἀλωαί;

  25 καὶ μακάρων τίνι τοῦτο γέρας μνηστεύεται Αἰών;

  ναί, λίτομαι, μὴ κρύπτε, κασιγνήτων ὅτι μούνη

  πασάων ἀγέραστος ἐγὼ πέλον: οὐ γὰρ ὀπώρην,

  οὐ στάχυν, οὐ λειμῶνα, καὶ οὐ Διὸς ὄμβρον ἀέξω.’

  [21] Then up and spoke the grapetending Season, holding out her hook of the fruitpining autumn as witness to her prayer: “Helios, giver of feason, plantdresser, lord of fruits! When will the soil make winemother grapes to grow? Which of the blessed will have this honour betrothed him by Time? Hide it not, I adjure you, because of all the Sisters I alone have no privilege of honour! I provide no fruit, nor corn, no meadow-hay, no rain from Zeus.”

  ἔννεπεν: ἐσσομένης δὲ τιθηνήτειραν ὀπώρης

  30 ἠέλιος θάρσυνε, καὶ ἀντιπόρῳ παρὰ τοίχῳ

  δάκτυλον ὀρθώσας ἐπεδείκνυε κυκλάδι κούρῃ

  κύρβιας Ἁρμονίης ἑτερόζυγας, αἷς ἔνι κεῖται

  εἰν ἑνὶ θέσφατα πάντα, τά περ πεπρωμένα κόσμῳ

  πρωτογόνοιο Φάνητος ἐπέγραφε μαντιπόλος χείρ,

  35 καὶ γραφίδων ποίκιλλεν ἐφάρμενον οἶκον ἑκάστῃ.

  καί τινα μῦθον ἔειπε πυρὸς ταμίης Ὑπερίων:

  ‘Κύρβιδι μὲν τριτάτῃ, πόθεν ἔσσεται οἰνὰς ὀπώρη,

  γνώσεαι, ἧχι Λέων καὶ Παρθένος: ἐν δὲ τετάρτῃ,

  τίς σταφυλῆς σκηπτοῦχος, ὅπῃ γλυκὺ νέκταρ ἀφύσσων

  40 γραπτῇ χειρὶ κύπελλον ἀερτάζει Γανυμήδης.’

  [29] She spoke, and Helios cheered the nurse of the fruitage to come. He raised finger, and pointed out to his circling daughter close to a wall opposite the separated tablets of Harmonia. In these are recorded in one group all the oracles which the prophetic hand of Phanes first born engraved as ordained for the world, and drew with his pencil the house proper for each. And Hyperion, dispenser of fire, added these words: “In the third tablet, you shall know whence the fruitage of wine shall come – where is the Lion and the Virgin: in the fourth, who is the Prince of grapes – that is where Ganymedes draws the delicious nectar, and lifts cup in hand in the picture.”

  τοῖα θεοῦ φαμένοιο, φιλάμπελος ἔτρεχε κούρη

  ὄμματα δινεύουσα, καὶ ὀμφαίῳ παρὰ τοίχῳ

  πρώτην κύρβιν ὄπωπεν ἀτέρμονος ἥλικα κόσμου

  εἰν ἑνὶ πάντα φέρουσαν, ὅσα σκηπτοῦχος Ὀφίων

  45 ἤνυσεν, ὅσσα τέλεσσε γέρων Κρόνος, ὁππότε τέμνων

  ἄρσενα πατρὸς ἄροτρα λεχώιον ἤροσεν ὕδωρ,

  σπείρων ἄσπορα νῶτα θυγατρογόνοιο θαλάσσης,

  ὅς ποτε λάινον υἷα κεχηνότι δέξατο λαιμῷ

  Ζηνὸς ψευδομένοιο νόθον δέμας εἰλαπινάζων:

  50 καὶ λίθος ἐνδομύχων τεκέων μαιώσατο φύτλην

  φόρτον ἀκοντίζων ἐγκύμονος ἀνθερεῶνος.

  [41] When the god had spoken, the wineloving maiden turned her eyes about, and ran to the place. Beside the oracular wall she saw the first tablet, old as the infinite past, containing all things in one: upon it was all that Ophion lord paramount had done, all that ancient Cronos accomplished: when he cut off his father’s male plowshare, and sowed the teeming deep with seed on the unsown back of the daughterbegetting sea; how he opened a gaping throat to receive a stony son, when he made a meal of the counterfeit body of a pretended Zeus; how the stone played midwife to the brood of imprisoned children, and shot out the burden of the parturient gullet.

  ἀλλ᾽ ὅτε μαρναμένοιο Διὸς πυριλαμπέα νίκην

  καὶ Κρονίου νιφετοῖο χαλαζήεσσαν Ἐνυὼ

  ἀμφίπολος Φαέθοντος ἀελλόπος ἔδρακεν Ὥρη,

  55 γείτονα δέρκετο κύρβιν ἀμοιβαδίς: εἶχε δὲ κείνη,

  πῶς βροτέην ὤδινε γονὴν πίτυς, ἢ πόθεν ἄφνω

  δενδρείην γονόεσσαν ἀναπτύξασα λοχείην

  ἄσπορον αὐτοτέλεστον ἀνήρυγεν υἱέα πεύκη,

  καὶ πόθεν ἄστεα πάντα κατέκλυσεν ὑέτιος Ζεὺς

  60 ἠλιβάτοις πελάγεσσιν ἄγων ὑψούμενον ὕδωρ,

  πῶς Νότος ἐκ Βορέαο, καὶ ἐκ Λιβὸς Εὖρος ἱμάσσων

  λάρνακα Δευκαλίωνος ἀλήμονα, γείτονα Μήνης,

  εἰς πλόον ἠερόφοιτον ἐκούφισεν ἄμμορον ὅρμου.

  [52] But when the stormfoot Season, Phaëthon’s handmaid, had seen the fiery shining victory of Zeus at war and the hailstorm snowstorm conflict of Cronos, she looked at the next tablet in its turn. There was shown how the pine was in labour of the human race– how the tree suddenly burst its tree-birth and disgorged a son unbegotten self-completed; how Raincloud Zeus brought the waters up in mountainous seas on high and flooded all cities, how Notos and Boreas, Euros and Lips in turn lashed Deucalion’s wandering hutch, lifted it castaway on waves in the air and left it harbourless near the moon.

  καὶ τριτάτην ὅτε κύρβιν ἐπέδραμεν εὔποδι ταρσῷ

  65 μυστιπόλος Λυκάβαντος, ἕλιξ στηρίζετο κούρη,

  μόρσιμα παπταίνουσα πολύτροπα θέσφατα κόσμου,

  γράμματα φοινίσσοντα, σοφῇ κεχαραγμένα μίλτῳ,

  ὁππόσα ποικιλόμυθος ἐπέγραφεν ἀρχέγονος φρήν,

  τοῖα προθεσπίζοντα, καὶ ἐν πινάκεσσιν ἀνέγνω:

  [64] When the priestess of the lichtgang passed with nimble foot to the third tablet, the circling maiden stood gazing at the manifold oracles of the world’s fate, in letters of glowing colour engraved with the artist’s vermilion, all that elaborate story which the primeval mind had inscribed; and this was the prophecy that she read in the tablets:

  70 ‘ Ἥρης βουκόλος Ἄργος ἐς ὄρνεον εἶδος ἀμείψει

  φαιδ�
�ὸν ἔχων βλοσυρῶν βλεφάρων τύπον ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὴ

  Ἁρπαλύκη μετὰ λέκτρον ἀλιτροβίων ὑμεναίων

  υἱέα δαιτρεύσασα θυγατρογάμῳ γενετῆρι

  ἠερίην πτερόεσσαν ἐρετμώσειε πορείην

  75 ὄρνις ἀελλήεσσα: καὶ ἱστοπόνος φιλομήλη

  ἔσσεται αἰολόδειρος ὑποτρύζουσα χελιδών,

  μαρτυρίην βοόωσα λιπογλώσσοιο σιωπῆς,

  δαίδαλα φωνήεντα σοφῷ γράψασα χιτῶνι:

  καὶ Νιόβη Σιπύλοιο παρὰ σφυρὰ πέτρος ἐχέφρων

  80 δάκρυσι λαϊνέοισιν ὀδυρομένη στίχα παίδων

  στήσεται οἰκτρὸν ἄγαλμα. καὶ ἔσσεται αὐτόθι γείτων

  Πύρρος ἐρωμανέων Φρύγιος λίθος, εἰσέτι Ῥείης

  οἶστρον ἔχων ἀθέμιστον ἀνυμφεύτων ὑμεναίων,

  Θίσβη δ᾽ ὑγρὸν ὕδωρ καὶ Πύραμος, ἥλικες ἄμφω,

  85 ἀλλήλους ποθέοντες: ἐυστεφάνοιο δὲ κούρης

  μίλακος ἱμείρων Κρόκος ἔσσεται ἄνθος Ἐρώτων:

  καὶ γαμίην μετὰ νύσσαν ἀελλοπόδων Ὑμεναίων

  καὶ Παφίης μετὰ μῆλα λεοντείην ἐπὶ μορφὴν

  Ἄρτεμις οἰστρήσειεν ἀμειβομένην Ἀταλάντην.’

  [70] “Hera’s herdsman Argos shall change form to a bird, with the appearance of his grim eyes made bright. Harpalyce after the bed of criminal nuptials shall carve up her son for her incestuous father, and paddle a winged course through the air as a stormswift bird. Philomela the busy weaver shall be a twittering swallow with tuneful throat, and cry abroad the witness of her tongueless silence which once she skilfully inscribed like talking words upon a robe. Niobe shall remain a monument of sorrow on the slopes of Sipylos, a rock endowed with sense, and mourning the line of her children with stony tears. Near her shall be Pyrrhos, a Phrygian stone enamoured, still feeling the lawless lust for impossible union with Rheia. Thisbe shall be running water along with Pyramos, both of an age, each desiring the other. Crocos, in love with Smilax, that fairgarlanded girl, shall be the flower of love. And after the goal of the stormy marriage-race, after the Paphian’s apples, Artemis shall change Atalanta into a lioness and drive her mad.”