by Nonnus
ἄλλαι δ᾽ ὑδατόεντος ἐπειρήθησαν ὀλέθρου,
κρυπτόμεναι κευθμῶνι πεδοσκαφέος κενεῶνος.
ἀλλὰ πάλιν ναέτῃσιν ἀρείονα μῆτιν ὑφαίνω:
εἰσαΐω Ῥαδαμᾶνας, ὅτι δρυτόμῳ τινὶ τέχνῃ
445 νῆας ἐτεχνήσαντο φυγοπτολέμῳ Διονύσῳ:
ἔμπης οὐ τρομέω δόρυ ναύμαχον: ἐν πολέμοις γὰρ
ἄνδρα φερεσσακέων κεκορυθμένον ὑψόφι νηῶν
οὐτιδανοῖς πετάλοισι πότε κτείνουσι γυναῖκες;
ἢ πότε λυσσώων ὀρεσίδρομος ὑψίκερως Πὰν
450 θηγαλέοις ὀνύχεσσι διατμήξει νέας Ἰνδῶν;
οὐ δύναται βαρύδουπον ὕδωρ Σειληνὸς ἀράσσων
ἀπτολέμω νάρθηκι μαχήμονα νῆα καλύψαι,
εἰς χορὸν αἱματόεντα θορὼν λυσσώδεϊ ταραῷ,
κῶμον ἀνακρούων θανατηφόρον: οὐδ᾽ ἐνὶ πόντῳ
455 ταυρείοις κεράεσσι πεπαρμένον ἄνδρα δαμάζει
ἀγχιφανῆ μεσάτοιο διχαζομένου κενεῶνος,
ἀλλὰ τυπεὶς προκάρηνος ἀτυμβεύτῳ τινὶ μοίρῃ
κείσεται ἐν ῥοθίοισιν: ὀλισθήσουσι δὲ Βάκχαι
ἔγχεσι μηκεσανοῖσι μιαιφόνον εἰς βυθὸν ἅλμης,
460 τυπτόμεναι: καὶ νῆας ἀιστώσω Διονύσου,
ναύμαχον εἰκοσίπηχυ δι᾽ ὁλκάδος ἔγχος ἑλίσσων.
[430] “You all know, I think, my friends, what labours I went through among the mountain strongholds, until the Cilician land and the Assyrian nation bowed their necks as slaves under the yoke of Deriades. You know also what I have done in resisting Dionysos, fighting Satyrs, and cutting off the hateful heads of that oxhorned generation with shearing steel, when I dragged away and delivered to Deriades that fettered swarm of Bassarids, the prizes of war; and how the paved streets of the city were purpled by their gore as they were massacred, how others had a dance in the air with their necks choked in a throttling noose, how others were swallowed in a deepdug hollow pit and learnt what a watery death is like. But again I weave a better notion still for our people. I hear that the Rhadamanes have built ships for Dionysos the runaway by some woodcutter’s art of theirs. However, I fear not the seafighting tree! When was it known in war that women with paltry leaves kill a man in a ship full of shields? When will highhorn Pan, the crazy ranger of the hills, tear Indian ships to pieces with sharp claws? No Seilenos can row’ over the loudrumbling waters, and sink a ship of war with a peaceful ferule, leaping to bloody dance with frenzied foot, striking up a chant with death in it; in the sea he will never transfix a man with his bullhorns, and get near enough to cut him in two at the waist and vanquish him. No! one blow shall send him headlong, and he shall lie in the billow where he will find no tomb; the Bacchant women struck down with long spears shall sink into the depths of the sea soiled in blood. And the ships of Dionysos I will destroy, thrusting a twentycubit seafighting spear through the hulk!
ἀλλά, φίλοι, μάρνασθε πεποιθότες: ἀντιβίων δὲ
μή τις ὑποπτήσσειεν ὀπιπεύων στίχα νηῶν
Βακχιάδων: Ἰνδοὶ γὰρ ἐθήμονές εἰσι κυδοιμοῦ
465 κἰναλίου, καὶ μᾶλλον ἀριστεύουσι θαλάσσῃ
ἢ χθονὶ δηριόωντες. ἀνικήτῳ δὲ σιδήρῳ
οὐ πολέας Σατύρους ληίσσομαι, ἀλλἀ κομάων
ἀντὶ διηκοσίων προμάχων ἕνα μοῦνον ἐρύσσω
θηλυμανῆ Διόνυσον, ὀπάονα Δηριαδῆος.’
[462] “Come on, friends, fight with all confidence. Let no one shrink when he sees opposed to us the ships of Bacchos in line; for Indians are used to fighting by sea, indeed they have more prowess when they fight by sea than by land. My invincible steel shall not take many Satyrs; but instead of two hundred warriors I will drag home one by the hair alone, womanmad Dionysos, to be the servant of Deriades.”
470 ὥς εἰπὼν παρέπεισεν ἀθελγέα Δηριαδῆα
Μορρεὺς αἰολόμητις: ἐπεφθέγξαντο δὲ λαοὶ
μῦθον ἐπαινήσαντες: ὁμογλώσσων δ᾽ ἀπὸ λαιμῶν
οἴσμασι κινυμένοισιν ἱσόθροος ἔβρεμεν ἠχώ.
λῦσε δ᾽ ἄναξ ἀγορήν. Βρομίῳ δ᾽ ἐστέλλετο κῆρνξ
475 πόντιον ὑσμίνην ἐνέπων πειθήμονι Βάκχῳ.
[470] With this appeal, Morrheus, cunning man, persuaded implacable Deriades. The people all cheered loudly and applauded the speech: one concordant cry resounded from all throats like the noise of stirring waves. The king dismissed the assembly. The herald was sent to Bromios to declare war by sea against willing Bacchos.
ἄμφω δ᾽ εἰς ἓν ἰόντες ἐρυκομένοιο κυδοιμοῦ
ἀμβολίην ποίησαν ἐπὶ τρία κύκλα Σελήνης,
εἰσόκε ταρχύσωσι δαϊκταμένων στίχα νεκρῶν:
ἦν δέ τις εἰρήνη μινυώριος Ἄρεϊ γείτων,
480 φύλοπιν ὠδίνουσαν ἀφαπλώσασα γαλήνην.
[476] But both men agreed to forbid war and make a truce for three circuits of the moon, until they should do the solemn burial rites for the host of the dead who had fallen. So for a short time there was peace, never far from war, spreading abroad a calm that was pregnant with strife.
BOOK 37
ἧχι τριηκοστὸν πέλεν ἕβδομον, εἵνεκα νίκης
ἀνδράσιν ἀθλοφόροις ἐπιτύμβιοί εἰσιω ἀγῶνες.
ὣς οἱ μὲν φιλότητι μεμηλότες ἔμφρονες Ἰνδοί,
Βακχείην ἀνέμοισιν ἐπιτρέψαντες Ἐνυώ,
ὄμμασιν ἀκλαύτοισιν εταρχύσαντο θανόντας,
οἷα βίου βροτέου γαιήια δεσμὰ φυγόντας
5 ψυχῆς πεμπομένης, ὅθεν ἤλυθε, κυκλάδι σειρῇ
νύσσαν ἐς ἀρχαίην: στρατιὴ δ᾽ ἀμπαύετο Βάκχου.
BOOK XXXVII
When the thirty-seventh takes its turn, there are contests about the tomb, the men competing for prizes.
So the Indians, now sensible and busy with friendship, threw their Bacchic war to the winds, and buried their dead with tearless eyes, as prisoners now set free from the earthy chains of human life, and the soul returning whence it came, back to the starting-place in the circling course. So the army of Bacchos had rest.
καὶ φιλίην Διόνυσος ἰδὼν πολέμοιο γαλήνην
πρώιος ἡμιόνους καὶ ὁμήλυδας ἄνδρας ἐπείγων
ἀζαλέην ἐκέλευσεν ἄγειν ὀρεσίτροφον ὕλην,
10 ὄφρα πυρὶ φλέξειεν ὀλωλότα νεκρὸν Ὀφέλτην.
[7] When Dionysos saw friendly calm instead of war, early in the morning he sent out mules and their attendant men to bring dry wood from the mountains, that he might burn with fire the dead body of Opheltes.
τῶν μὲν ἔην προκέλευθος ἔσω πιτυώδεος ὕλης
>
Φαῦνος ἐρημονόμῳ μεμελημένος ἠθάδι λόχμῃ,
μητρὸς ὀρεστιάδος δεδαημένος ἔνδια Κίρκης.
καὶ δρυτόμῳ στοιχηδὸν ἐτέμνετο δένδρα σιδήρῳ:
15 πολλὴ μὲν πτελέη τανυήκεϊ τάμνετο χαλκῷ,
πολλὴ δ᾽ ὑψιπέτηλος ἐπέκτυπε κοπτομένη δρῦς,
καὶ πολλὴ τετάνυστο πίτυς, καὶ ἐκέκλιτο πεύκη
αὐχμηροῖς πετάλοισι: πολυσπερέων δ᾽ ἀπὸ δένδρων
τεμνομένων κατὰ βαιὸν ἐγυμνώθησαν ἐρίπναι:
20 καί τις Ἁμαδρυάδων μετανάστιος ἔστιχε Νύμφη,
πηγαίῃ δ᾽ ἀκίχητος ἀήθεϊ μίγνυτο κούρῃ.
[11] Their leader into the forest of pines was Phaunos who was well practised in the secrets of the lonely thickets which he knew so well, for he had learnt about the highland haunts of Circe his mother. The woodman’s axe cut down the trees in long rows. Many an elm was felled by the long edge of the axe, many an oak with leaves waving high struck down with a crash, many a pine lay all along, many a fir stooped its dry needles; as the trees were felled far and wide, little by little the rocks were bared. So many a Hamadryad Nymph sought another home, and swiftly joined the unfamiliar maids of the brooks.
καὶ πολὺς ἐρχομένοισιν ὀρίδρομος ἤιεν ἀνήρ,
οὔρεος οἶμον ἔχων ἑτερότροπον: ἦν δὲ νοῆσαι
ὑψιφανῆ προβλῆτα κατήλυδα λοξὸν ὁδίτην
25 ποσσὶ πολυπλανέεσσιν: ἐυπλέκτοιο δὲ σειρῆς
πυκνὰ περισφίγξαντες ἀρηρότι δούρατα δεσμῷ
οὐρήων ἐπέθηκαν ὑπὲρ ῥάχιν: ἐσσυμένων δὲ
ἡμιόνων στοιχηδὸν ὀρίδρομος ἔκτυπεν ὁπλὴ
σπερχομένων, καὶ νῶτα πολυψαμάθοιο κονίης
30 συρομένων κατόπισθε φυτῶν ἐβαρύνετο φόρτῳ.
καὶ Σάτυροι καὶ Πᾶνες ἐποίπνυον, ὧν ὁ μὲν αὐτῶν
ὑλοτόμοις... παλάμῃσιν ἀμοιβαίων ἀπὸ δένδρων...
φιτροὺς ἀκαμάτοισιν ἐλαφρίζοντες ἀγοστοῖς
ποσσὶ φιλοσκάρθμοισιν ἐπεκροτάλιζον ἐρίπνῃ:
35 καὶ τὰ μὲν ὑλονόμοι χθονὶ κάτθεσαν, ἧχι τελέσσαι
Εὔιος ἐν δαπέδῳ σημήνατο τύμβον Ὀφέλτῃ.
[22] Parties coming up would often meet, men on the hills traversing different mountain-paths. One saw them up aloft, out in front, coming down, crossing over, with feet wandering in all directions. The sticks were packed in bundles with ropes well twisted and fastened tight and trim, and laid on the mules’ backs; the animals set out in lines, and the hooves rang on the mountain-paths as they hurried along, the surface of the sandy dust was burdened by heavy logs dragged behind. Satyrs and Pans were busy; some cut wood with axes,... some pulled it from tree after tree with their hands,... or lifted trunks with untiring arms and rattled over the rocks with dancing feet. All this woodmen laid out upon the earth, where Euios had marked a place on the ground for the tomb of Opheltes.
καὶ πολὺς ἑσμὸς ἔην ἑτερόπτολις: ἀμφὶ δὲ νεκρῷ
πενθαλέην πλοκαμῖδα κατηφει τάμνε σιδήρῳ:
ἀμφὶ δέ μιν στενάχοντες ἐπέρρεον ἄλλος ἐπ᾽ ἄλλῳ,
40 νεκρὸν ἀμοιβαίῃσιν ὅλον σκιόωντες ἐθείραις.
καὶ νέκυν ἔστενε Βάκχος ἀπενθήτοιο προσώπου
ὄμμασιν ἀκλαύτοισιν, ἀκερσικόμου δὲ καρήνου
πλοχμὸν ἕνα τηήξας ἐπεθήκατο δῶρον Ὀφέλτῃ.
[37] There was a great swarm of men from different cities. Over the body they cut the tress of mourning with the steel of sadness. Groaning for him, they streamed one after another, and covered the whole body with their hair each in his turn. Bacchos lamented the dead with unmournful face and tearless eyes, and cutting one lock from his uncropt head he laid it upon Opheltes as his gift.
ποίησαν δὲ πυρὴν ἑκατόμπεδον ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα
45 Ἰδαῖοι θεράποντες ὀριτρεφέος Διονύσου:
ἐν δὲ πυρῇ μεσάτῃ στόρεσαν νέκυν. ἀμφὶ δἐ νεκρῷ
Ἀστέριος Δικταῖος ἐπήορον ἆορ ἐρύσσας
Ἰνδοὺς κυανέους δυοκαίδεκα δειροτομήσας
θῆκεν ἄγων στεφανηδὸν ἐπασσντέρῳ τινὶ κόσμῳ:
50 ἐν δ᾽ ἐτίθει μέλιτος καὶ ἀλείφατος ἀμφιφορῆας.
καὶ πολέες σφάζοντο βόες καὶ πώεα ποίμνης
πρόσθε πυρῆς: κταμένων δὲ βοῶν ἐπενήνεε νεκρῷ
σώματα κυκλωθέντα καὶ ἀρτιτόμων στίχας ἵππων,
ὧν ἄπο δημὸν ἅπαντα λαβὼν στοιχηδὸν ἑκάστου,
55 ἀμφὶ νέκυν στορέσας, κυκλώσατο πίονα μίτρην.
[44] The Idaian servants of mountainbred Dionysos built the pyre a hundred feet this way and that way, and on the middle of the pyre they laid out the body.
Asterios of Dicte drew the sword that hung by his side, and cut the throats of twelve swarthy Indians over the body, then brought and laid them in a close orderly circle around it. There also he placed jars of honey and oil. Many oxen and sheep of the flock were butchered in front of the pyre; he heaped the bodies of the slain cattle round the body, together with rows of newly slaughtered horses, taking from each of them in turn all the fat which he laid like a rich girdle all round the body.
ἔνθα πυρὸς χρέος ἔσκε: φιλοσκοπέλοιο δὲ Κίρκης
Φαῦνος ἐρημονόμος, Τυρσηνίδος ἀστὸς ἀρούρης,
ὡς πάις ἀγροτέρης δεδαημένος ἔργα τεκούσης,
πυροστόκους λάιγγας, ὀρειάδος ὄργανα τέχνης,
60 ἤγαηεν ἐκ σκοπέλοιο, καί, ὁππόθι σήματα Νίκης
ἠερόθεν πίπτοντες ἐπιστώσαντο κεραυνοί,
λείψανα θεσπεσίου πυρὸς ἤγαγεν, ὥς κεν ἀνάψῃ
πυρκαϊὴν φθιμένοιο: Διοβλήτῳ δὲ θεείῳ
ἀμφοτέρων ἔχρισε λίθων κενεῶνας ἀλείψας
65 πυρσοτόκων: καὶ λεπτὸν Ἐρυθραίοιο κορύμβου
κάρφος ἀποξύσας διδυμάονι μίγνυε πέτρῳ:
τρίβων δ᾽ ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα καὶ ἄρσενι θῆλυν ἀράσσων
ἔγκρυφον αὐτολόχευτον ἀνείρυε λαΐνεον πῦρ,
πυρκαϊῇ δ᾽ ὑπέθηκεν, ὅπῃ πέλεν ἀγριὰς ὕλη.
[56] Now fire was wanted. So Phaunos the son of rock-loving Circe, the frequenter of the wilderness, who dwelt in the Tyrsenian land, who had learnt as a boy the works of his wild mother, brought from a rock the firebreeding stones which are tools of the mountain lore; and from a place where thunderbolts falling from heaven had left trusty signs of victory, he
brought the relics of the divine fire to kindle the pyre of the dead. With the sulphur of the divine bolt he smeared and anointed the hollows of the two firebreeding stones. Then he scraped off a light dry sprig of Erythraian growth and put it between the two stones; he rubbed them to and fro, and thus striking the male against the female, he drew forth the fire hidden in the stone to a spontaneous birth, and applied it to the pyre where the wood from the forest lay.
70 οὐ δὲ πυρὴν φθιμένου περιδέδρομεν ἁπτόμενον πῦρ,
ἀλλὰ θεὸς Φαέθοντος ἐναντίον ὄμμα τανύσσας
ἀγχιφανὴς ἐκάλεσσεν Ἑώιον Εὖρον ἀήτην,
πυρκαϊῆς ἐπίκουρον ἄγειν ἀντίπνοον αὔρην.
καὶ Βρομίου καλέοντος Ἑωοδόρος ἔκλυε γείτων
75 ἱκεσίης, καὶ γνωτὸν ἑὸν προίηκε Λυαίῳ,
ἄσθματι πυκνοτέρῳ φλογοειδέα πυρσὸν ἀνάπτειν.
[70] But the fire kindled would not run round the dead man’s pyre; so the god came near, and fixing his eye on Phaethon, called upon Euros the eastern wind to bring him a breeze to blow on his pyre and help. As Bromios called, the Morning Star hard by heard his appeal, and sent his brother to Lyaios, to make the pyre burn up by his brisker breath.
καὶ θάλαμον ῥοδόεντα λιπὼν μητρώιον Ἠοῦς
πυρκαϊὴν φλογόεσσαν ἀνερρίπιζεν ἀήτης
πάννυχος, αἰθύσσων ἀνεμοτρεφὲς ἁλλόμενον πῦρ:
80 καὶ σέλας ἠκόντιζον ἐς ὴέρα θυιάδες αὖαι,
γείτονες Ἠελίοιο. σὺν ἀχνυμένῳ δὲ Λυαίῳ
Ἀστέριος Δικταῖος, ὁμόγνιον αἷμα κομίςων,
Κνώσσιον ἀμφικύπελλον ἔχων δέπας ἡδέος οἴνου
εὐόδμου, δαπέδοιο χυτὴν ἐμέθυσσε κονίην,
