by Nonnus
[13] There is a city Beroe, the keel of human life, harbour of the Loves, firmbased on the sea, with fine islands and fine verdure, with a ridge of isthmus narrow and long, where the rising neck between two seas is beaten by the waves of both. On one side it spreads under the deepwooded ridge of Assyrian Lebanon in the blazing East, and there comes for its people a lifesaving breeze, whistling loud and shaking the cypress trees with fragrant winds. There the ancient shepherd shared his domain and made his music along with the fisherman; there was the dwelling of the farmers, where often near the woodland, Deo sickle in hand met Pan playing on his pipes; and the husbandman bending his neck over the plowpole, and showering the corn behind him into the newcut furrows with backturned wrist, the bowed plowman gripping his yoke of bulls, had converse with his neighbour the shepherd along the foothills of the woodland pasture. The other part by the seas the city possesses, where she offers her breast to Poseidon, and her watery husband embraces the girl’s pregnant neck with wet arm, putting moist kisses on the bride’s lips; his bedfellow in her well-accustomed bosom accepts Poseidon’s familiar bride-gifts from his hand out of the deep, the sea-bred flocks of the waters, the fishes of many colours for her banqueting-table, which dance on the table of Nereus in the brine, in the region of the Bear, where the northerly coast receives the deep waves into its long channel. About the southern neck of this delightful country sandy roads lead to the southern hills and the Sidonian land, where are all manner of trees and vines thick with foliage in the gardens, and a highway stretches that no traveller can miss, overshadowed with long leafy branches. The sea bending its course beats on the shore about the darkfaced west, while the bight of Libya is fanned by the dewy whistle of Zephyros as he rides with shrill-sounding heel over the western channels, where is a flowery land, where nurseries bloom hard by the sea, and the fragrant forest pervaded by humming winds sings from its leafy trees.
ἐνθάδε φῶτες ἔναιον ὁμήλικες ἠριγενείης,
οὓς Φύσις αὐτογένεθλος ἀνυμφεύτῳ τινὶ θεσμῷ
ἤροσε νόσφι γάμων, ἀπάτωρ, ἀλόχευτος, ἀμήτωρ,
ὁππότε συμμιγέων ἀτόμων τετράζυγι δεσμῷ
55 ὕδατι καὶ πυρόεντι πεφυρμένον ἠέρος ἀτμῷ
σύζυγα μορφώσασα σοφὸν τόκον ἄσπορος ἰλὺς
ἔμπνοον ἐψύχωσε γονὴν ἐγκύμονι πηλῷ,
οἶς Φύσις εἶδος ὄπασσε τελεσφόρον: ἀρχεγόνου γὰρ
Κέκροπος οὐ τύπον εἶχον, ὃς ἰοβόλῳ ποδὸς ὁλκῷ
60 γαῖαν ἐπιξύων ὀφιώδεϊ σύρετο ταρσῷ,
νέρθε δράκων, καὶ ὕπερθεν ἀπ᾽ ἰξύος ἄχρι καρήνου
ἀλλοφυὴς ἀτέλεστος ἐφαίνετο δίχροος ἀνήρ:
οὐ τύπον ἄγριον εἶχον Ἐρεχθέος, ὃν τέκε Γαίης
αὔλακι νυμφεύσας γαμίην Ἥφαιστος ἐέρσην:
65 ἀλλὰ θεῶν ἴνδαλμα γονῆς αὐτόχθονι ῥίζῃ
πρωτοφανής χρύσειος ἐμαιώθη στάχυς ἀνδρῶν.
καί Βερόης νάσσαντο πόλιν πρωτόσπορον ἕδρην,
ἣν Κρόνος αὐτὸς ἔδειμε, σοφῆς ὅτε νεύματι Ῥείης
ὀκρυόεν θέτο δόρπον ἑῷ πολυχανδέι λαιμῷ.
70 καί λίθον Εἰλείθυιαν ἔων βεβριθότι φόρτῳ,
θλιβομένης πολύπαιδος ἀκοντιστῆρα γενέθλης,
χανδὸν ὅλου ποταμοῖο ῥόον νεφεληδὸν ἀφύσσων
στήθεϊ παφληάφοντι μογοστόκον ἔστασεν ὕδωρ,
λύσας γαστέρος ὄγκον: ἐπασσυτέρους δὲ διώκων
75 δισσοτόκους υἱῆας ἀνήρυγεν ἔγκυος αὐχήν,
πορθμὸν ἔχων τοκετοῖο λεχώιον ἀνθερεῶνα:
[51] Here dwelt a people agemates with the Dawn, whom Nature by her own breeding, in some unwedded way, begat without bridal, without wedding, fatherless, motherless, unborn: when the atoms were mingled in fourfold combination, and the seedless ooze shaped a clever offspring by commingling water with fiery heat and air, and quickened the teeming mud with the breath of life. To these Nature gave perfect shape: for they had not the form of primeval Cecrops, who crawled and scratched the earth with snaky feet that spat poison as he moved, dragon below, but above from loins to head he seemed a man half made, strange in shape and of twyform flesh; they had not the savage form of Erechtheus, whom Hephaistos begat on a furrow of Earth with fertilizing dew; but now first appeared the golden crop of men brought forth in the image of the gods, with the roots of their stock in the earth. And these dwelt in the city of Beroe, that primordial seat which Cronos himself builded, at the time when invited by clever Rheia he set that jagged supper before his voracious throat, and having the heavy weight of that stone within him to play the deliverer’s part, he shot out the whole generation of his tormented children. Gaping wide, he sucked up the storming flood of a whole river, and swallowed it in his bubbling chest to ease his pangs, then threw off the burden of his belly; so one after another his pregnant throat pushed up and disgorged his twiceborn sons through the delivering channel of his gullet.
Ζεὺς τότε κοῦρος ἔην, ἔτι που βρέφος: οὔ ποτε πυκνῷ
θερμὸν ἀνασχίζουσα νέφος βητάρμονι παλμῷ
ἀστεροπὴ σελάγιζε, καὶ οὐ Τιτηνίδι χάρμῃ
80 Ζηνὸς ἀοσσητῆρες ὀιστεύοντο κεραυνοί:
οὐδὲ συνερχομένων νεφέων μυκήτορι ῥόμβῳ
βρονταίη βαρύδουπος ἐβόμβεεν ὄμβριος ἠχώ.
ἀλλὰ πόλις Βερόη προτέρη πέλεν, ἣν ἅμα γαίῃ
πρωτοφανὴς ἐνόησεν ὁμήλικα σύμφυτος Αἰών:
85 οὐ τότε Ταρσὸς ἔην τερψίμβροτος, οὐ τότε Θήβη,
οὐ τότε Σάρδιες ἦσαν, ὅπῃ Πακτωλίδος ὄχθης
χρυσὸν ἐρευγομένης ἀμαρύσσεται ὄλβιος ἰλύς,
Σάρδιες, Ἠελίοιο συνήλικες: οὐ γένος ἀνδρῶν,
οὐ τότε τις πόλις ἦεν Ἀχαιιάς, οὐδὲ καὶ αὐτὴ
90 Ἀρκαδίη προσέληνος: ἀνεβλάστησε δὲ μούνη
πρεσβυτέρη Φαέθοντος, ὅθεν φάος ἔσχε Σελήνη.
καὶ φθαμένη χθόνα πᾶσαν, ἑῷ παμμήτορι κόλπῳ
ἠελίου νεοφεγγὲς ἀμελγομένη σέλας αἴγλης
καὶ φάος ὀψιτέλεστον ἀκοιμήτοιο Σελήνης,
95 πρώτη κυανέης ἀπεσείσατο κῶνον ὀμίχλης,
καὶ χάεος ζοφόεσσαν ἀπεστυφέλιξε καλύπτρην:
καὶ φθαμένη Κύπροιο καὶ Ἴσθμιον ἄστυ Κορίνθου
πρώτη Κύπριν ἔδεκτο φιλοξείνῳ πυλεῶνι
ἐξ ἁλὸς ἀρτιλόχευτον, ὅτε βρυχίην Ἀφροδίτην
100 οὐρανίης ὤδινεν ἀπ᾽ αὔλακος ἔγκυον ὕδωρ,
ὁππόθι νόσφι γάμων ἀρόσας ῥόον ἄρσενε λύθρῳ
αὐτοτελὴς μορφοῦτο θυγατρογόνῳ
γόνος ἀφρῷ,
καὶ Φύσις ἔπλετο μαῖα: συναντέλλων δὲ θεαίνῃ
στικτὸς ἱμάς, στεφανηδὸν ἐπ᾽ ἰξύι κύκλον ἑλίξας,
105 αὐτομάτῳ ζωστῆρι δέμας μίτρωσεν ἀνάσσης.
καὶ θεὸς ἰχνεύουσα δι᾽ ὕδατος ἄψοφον ἀκτὴν
οὐ Πάφον, οὐκ ἐπὶ Βύβλον ἀνέδραμεν, οὐ πόδα χέρσῳ
Κωλιάδος ῥηγμῖνος ἐφήρμοσεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτῶν
ὠκυτέρῃ στροφάλιγγι παρέτρεχεν ἄστυ Κυθήρων:
110 καὶ χρόα φυκιόεντι περιτρίψασα κορύμβῳ
πορφυρέη πέλε μᾶλλον: ἀκυμάντοιο δὲ πόντου
χεῖρας ἐρετμώσασα θεητόκον ἔσχισεν ὕδωρ
νηχομένη, καὶ στέρνον ἐπιστορέσασα θαλάσσῃ
σιγαλέην ἀνέκοπτε χαρασσομένην ἅλα ταρσῷ,
115 καὶ δέμας ᾐώρησε, διχαζομένης δὲ γαλήνης
ποσσὶν ἀμοιβαίοισιν ὀπίστερον ὤθεεν ὕδωρ:
καὶ Βερόης ἐπέβαινε: ποδῶν δ᾽ ἐπίβαθρα θεαίνης
ἐξ ἁλὸς ἐρχομένης ναέτης ἐψεύσατο Κύπρου.
[77] Zeus was then a child, still a baby methinks; not yet the lightning flashed and cleft the hot clouds with many a dancing leap, not yet bolts of Zeus were shot to help in the Titans’ war, not yet the rainy sound of thunderclaps roared heavily with bang and boom through colliding clouds: but before that, the city of Beroe was there, which Time with her first appearing saw when born together with her agemate Earth. Tarsos the delight of mankind was not then, Thebes was not then, nor then was Sardis where the bank of Pactolos sparkles with opulent ooze disgorged, Sardis agemate of Helios. The race of men was not then, nor any Achaian city, nor yet Arcadia itself which came before the moon. Beroe alone grew up, older than Phaethon, from whom Selene got her light, even before all the earth, milking out from Helios the shine of his newmade brightness upon her allmothering breast and the later perfected light of unresting Selene Beroe first shook away the cone of darkling mist, and threw off the gloomy veil of chaos. Before Cyprus and the Isthmian city of Corinth, she first received Cypris within her welcoming portal, newly born from the brine; when the water impregnated from the furrow of Uranos was delivered of deepsea Aphrodite; when without marriage, the seed plowed the flood with male fertility, and of itself shaped the foam into a daughter, and Nature was the midwife — coming up with the goddess there was that embroidered strap which ran round her loins like a belt, set about the queen’s body in a girdle of itself. Then the goddess, moving through the water along the quiet shore, ran out, not to Paphos, not to Byblos, set no foot on land by the dry beach of Colias, even passed by Cythera’s city itself with quicker circuit: aye, she rubbed her skin with bunches of seaweed and made it purpler still; paddling with her hands she cleft the birthwaters of the waveless deep, and swam; resting her bosom upon the sea she struck up the silent brine, marking it with her feet, and kept her body afloat, and as she cut through the calm, pushed the water behind her with successive thrusts of her feet, and emerged at Beroe. Those footsteps of the goddess coming out from the sea are all lies of the people of Cyprus.
πρώτη Κύπριν ἔδεκτο: καὶ ὑψόθι γείτονος ὅρμου
120 αὐτοφυεῖς λειμῶνες ἐρευγόμενοι βρύα ποίης
ἤνθεον ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα, πολυψαμάθῳ δ᾽ ἐνὶ κόλπῳ
ἠιόνες ῥοδέοισιν ἐφοινίσσοντο κορύμβοις,
πέτρη δ᾽ ἀφριόωσα θυώδεος ἔγκυος οἴνου
πορφυρέην ὠδῖνα χαραδραίῳ τέκε μαζῷ,
125 ληναίαις λιβάδεσσι κατάσκιον ὄμβρον ἐέρσης...
ἀργεννὴ κελάρυζε γαλαξαίῳ χύσις ὁλκῷ:
αὐτοχύτου δὲ μύροιο μετάρσιον ἀτμὸν ἑλίσσων
ἠερίους ἐμέθυσσε πόρους εὔοδμος ἀήτης.
καὶ τότε θοῦρον Ἔρωτα, γονῆς πρωτόσπορον ἀρχήν,
130 ἁρμονίης κόσμοιο φερέσβιον ἡνιοχῆα,
ἀρτιφανὴς ὤδινεν ἐπ᾽ ὀφρύσι γείτονος ὅρμου:
καὶ πάις ὠκυπόδης, κόπον ἄρσενα ποσσὶ τινάξας,
γαστρὸς ἀμαιεύτοιο μογοστόκον ἔφθασεν ὥρην,
μητρὸς ἀνυμφεύτοιο μεμυκότα κόλπον ἀράξας,
135 θερμὸς ἔτι πρὸ τόκοιο: κυβιστητῆρι δὲ παλμῷ
δινεύων πτερὰ κοῦφα πύλας ὤιξε λοχείης.
καὶ ταχὺ αἰγλήεντι θορὼν ἐπί μητρὸς ἀγοστῷ
ἄστατος ἀκλινέεσσιν Ἔρως ἀνεπάλλετο μαζοῖς,
στήθεϊ παιδοκόμῳ τετανυσμένος: εἶχε δὲ φορβῆς
140 ἵμερον αὐτοδίδακτον: ἀνημέλκτοιο δὲ θηλῆς
ἄκρα δακὼν γονίμων λιβάδων τεθλιμμένον ὄγκῳ
οἰδαλέων ἀκόρητος ὅλον γλάγος ἔσπασε μαζῶν.
[119] Beroe first received Cypris; and above the neighbouring roads, the meadows of themselves put out plants of grass and flowers on all sides; in the sandy bay the beach became ruddy with clumps of roses, the foamy stone teemed with sweetsmelling wine and brought forth purple fruit on its rocky bosom, a shadowing shower of dew with the liquor of the winepress,... a white rill bubbled with milky juice: the fragrant breeze wafted upwards the curling vapours of scent, selfspread, and intoxicated the paths of the air. There, as soon as she was seen on the brows of the neighbouring harbourage, she brought forth Mild Eros, first seed and beginning of generation, quickening guide of the system of the universe; and the quickleg boy, kicking manfully with his lively legs, hastened the hard labour of that body without a nurse, and beat on the closed womb of his unwedded mother; then a hot one even before birth, he shook his light wings and with a tumbling push opened the gates of birth. Thus quickly Eros leapt into his mother’s gleaming arms, and pounced at once upon her firm breasts spreading himself over that nursing bosom. Untaught he yearned for his food; he bit with his gums the end of the teat never milked before, and greedily drank all the milk of those breasts swollen with the pressure of the lifegiving drops.
ῥίζα βίου, Βερόη, πολίων τροφός, εὖχος ἀνάκτων,
πρωτοφανής, Αἰῶνος ὁμόσπορε, σύγχρονε κόσμου,
145 ἕδρανον Ἑρμείαο, Δίκης πέδον, ἄστυ θεμίστων,
ἔνδιον Εὐφροσύνης, Παφίης δόμος, οἶκος Ἐρώτων,
Βάκχου τερπνὸν ἔδεθλον, ἐναύλιον ἰοχεαίρης,
Νηρεΐδων ἀνάθημα, Διὸς δόμος, Ἄρεος αὐλή,
Ὀρχομενὸς Χαρίτων, Λιβανηίδος ἄστρον ἀρούρης,
150 Τηθύος ἰσοέτηρος, ὁμόδρομος Ὠκεανοῖο,
ὃς Βερόην ἐφύτευσεν ἑῷ πολυπίδακι παστῷ
Τηθύος ἰκμαλέοισιν ὁμιλήσας ὑμεναίοις,
ἥν περ Ἀμυμώνην ἐπεφήμισαν, εὖτέ ἑ μήτηρ
ὑδρηλῆς φιλότητος ὑποβρυχίῃ �
�έκεν εὐνῇ
[143] O Beroe, root of life, nurse of cities, the boast of princes, the first city seen, twin sister of Time, coeval with the universe, seat of Hermes, land of justice, city of laws, bower of Merryheart, house of Paphia, hall of the Loves, delectable ground of Bacchos, home of the Archeress, jewel of the Nereids, house of Zeus, court of Ares, Orchomenos of the Graces, star of the Lebanon country, yearsmate of Tethys, running side by side with Oceanos, who begat thee in his bed of many fountains when joined in watery union with Tethys — Beroe the same they named Amymone when her mother brought her forth on her bed in the deep waters!
155 ἀλλά τις ὁπλοτέρη πέλεται φάτις, ὅττί μιν αὐτὴ
ἀνδρομέης Κυθέρεια κυβερνήτειρα γενέθλης
Ἀσσυρίῳ πάνλευκον Ἀδώνιδι γείνατο μήτηρ:
καὶ δρόμον ἐννεάκυκλον ἀναπλήσασα Σελήνης
φόρτον ἐλαφρίζει: φθάμενος δέ μιν ὠκέι ταρσῷ,
160 ἐσσομένων κήρυκα, Λατινίδα δέλτον, ἀείρων,
εἰς Βερόης ὠδῖνα μογοστόκος ἤλυθεν Ἑρμῆς,
καὶ Θέμις Εἰλείθυια, καὶ οἰδαλέου διὰ κόλπου
στεινομένης ὠδῖνος ἀναπτύξασα καλύπτρην
ὀξὺ βέλος κούφιζε πεπαινομένου τοκετοῖο,
165 θεσμὰ Σόλωνος ἔχουσα: πιεζομένη δὲ λοχείῃ
λυσιτόκῳ βαρὺ νῶτον ἐπικλίνασα θεαίνῃ
Κύπρις ἀνωδίνεσκε, καὶ Ἀτθίδος ὑψόθι βίβλου
παῖδα σοφὴν ἐλόχευσε, Λακωνίδες οἷα γυναῖκες
υἱέας ὠδίνουσιν ἐπ᾽ εὐκύκλοιο βοείης:
170 καὶ τόκον ἀρτιλόχευτον ἀπέπτυε θήλεϊ κόλπῳ
ἄρσενα μαῖαν ἔχουσα δικασπόλον υἱέα Μαίης:
