Works of Nonnus

by Nonnus

  κούρη δ᾽ ἐγρομένη πινυτόφρονι μαίνετο δάφνῃ,

  καὶ Παφίῃ καὶ Ἔρωτι μαχέσσατο, καὶ πλέον Ὕπνῳ

  χώσατο τολμήεντι, καὶ ἠπείλησεν Ὀνείρῳ,

  290 καὶ πετάλοις νεμέσιζε καὶ ἀφθόγγῳ φάτο φωνῇ:

  ‘Δάφνη, τί κλονέεις με; τί Κύπριδι καὶ σέο δένδρῳ;

  [287] The maiden awoke, raved against the prudent laurel, upbraided Eros and the Paphian — but bold Sleep she reproached more than all and threatened the Dream: she was angry with the leaves and thought, though she spoke not,

  ἀασάμην εὕδοβσα τεοὺς ὑπὸ γείτονας ὄζους

  σὸν φυτόν ἐλπομένη φιλοπάρθενον, ὑμετέρης δὲ

  295 φήμης οὐκ ἐτύχησα καὶ ἐλπίδος: ὣς ἄρα, Δάφνη,

  σὸν δέμας ἀλλάξασα τεὸν νόον εὗρες ἀμεῖψαι;

  μὴ γαμίῃ μετὰ πότμον ὑποδρήσσεις Ἀφροδίτῃ;

  οὐ πινυτῆς τόδε δένδρον, ἀπ᾽ ἀρτιγάμοιο δὲ νύμφης;

  οὐ νέμεσις παρὰ μύρτον ὀνείρατα ταῦτα νοῆσαι,

  μαχλάδος οὗτος ὄνειρος ἐπάξιος: ἦ ῥά σε Πειθώ,

  300 ἦ ῥά σε χειρὶ φύτευσε τεὸς δαφναῖος Ἀπόλλων;’

  [292] “Daphne, why do you persecute me? What has your tree to do with Cypris? I was deluded when I slept under your neighbouring branches, because I thought yours was a plant of chastity; but I found nothing of your reputation or my hope. And so, Daphne, when you changed your shape you found how to change your mind? Surely you are not the servant of conjugal Aphrodite after your death? This is not the tree of a decent girl but of a bride newly wed. One might expect to see such dreams near a myrtle: this dream is worthy of a harlot. Did Peitho plant you, did your laurel-Apollo plant you with his own hand?”

  εἶπεν ὁμοῦ κοτέουσα φυτῷ καὶ Ἔρωτι καὶ Ὕπνῳ.

  [301] She spoke thus, angry at the plant and Eros and Sleep all together.

  καί ποτε θηρεύουσα κατ᾽ οὔρεα δεσπότις ἄγρης

  καύματος αἰθαλόεντος ἱμασσομένη χρόα πυρσῷ

  Αρτεμις ἔντυε δίφρον, ὅπως ἅμα Νηίσι Νύμφαις

  305 θερμὸν ὀρεσσιχύτοισι δέμας ψύξειε λοετροῖς,

  ἡνίκα μέσσον ἔην φλογερὸν θέρος, ἡνίκα πάλλων

  καρχαλέης πυρόεντα μεσημβρινὸν ἦχον ἱμάσθλης

  ἠέλιος σελάγιζε λεοντείων ἐπὶ νώτων.

  καὶ κεμάδας ζυγίοισι συνεκλήισσε λεπάδνοις

  310 Αρτεμις οὐρεσίφοιτος: ἐπεμβαίνουσα δέ δίφρου

  λάζετο καὶ μάστιγα καὶ ἡνία παρθένος Αὔρη,

  καὶ κεραὴν ἤλαυνε θυελλήεσσαν ἀπήνην.

  ἀενάου δέ θύγατρες ἀνάμπυκες Ὠκεανοῖο

  δμωίδες ἐρρώοντο συνήλυδες ἰοχεαίρῃ,

  315 ὦν ἡ μέν ταχύγουνος ἔην προκέλευθος ἀνάσσης,

  ἄλλη δ᾽ ἰσοκέλευθος ἀναστείλασα χιτῶνα

  ἐγγὺς ἔην, ἑτέρη δὲ τανυκνήμιδος ἀπήνης

  ἁπτομένη πείρινθος ὁμόδρομον εἶχε πορείην.

  καὶ σέλας ἰοχέαιρα διαυγάζουσα προσώπου

  320 ἀμφιπόλων ἤστραψεν ὑπέρτερος, ὡς ὅτε δίφρῳ

  αἰθερίῳ πέμπουσα φιλαγρύπνων φλόγα πυρσῶν

  ἀννεφέλους ἀκτῖνας ὀιστεύουσα Σελήνη

  πλησιφαὴς ἀνέτειλε πυριτρεφέων μέσον, ἄστρων,

  οὐρανίην στίχα πᾶσαν ἀμαλδύνουσα προσώπῳ:

  325 τῇ σέλας ἶσον ἔχουσα διέτρεχεν Ἄρτεμις ὕλην,

  εἰσόκε χῶρον ἵκανεν, ὅπῃ κελάδοντι ῥεέθρῳ

  Σαγγαρίου ποταμοῖο Διιπετὲς ἕλκεται ὕδωρ.

  [302] And once it happened that Artemis queen of the hunt was hunting over the hills, and her skin was beaten by the glow of the scorching heat, in the middle of glowing summer, at midday, when Helios blazed as he whipt the Lion’s back with the fire of his rough whistling whip; so she got ready her car to cool her hot frame along with the Naiad Nymphs in a bath in some hill burn. Then Artemis hillranger fastened her prickets under the yokestraps. Maiden Aura mounted the car, took reins and whip and drove the horned team like a tempest. The unveiled daughters of everflowing Oceanos her servants made haste to accompany the Archeress: one moved her swift knees as her queen’s forerunner, another tucked up her tunic and ran level not far off, a third laid a hand on the basket of the swift moving car and ran alongside. Archeress diffusing radiance from her face stood shining above her attendants, as when Selene in her heavenly chariot sends forth the flame of her ever-wakeful fires in a shower of cloudless beams, and rises in full refulgence among the firefed stars, obscuring the whole heavenly host with her countenance: radiant like her, Archeress traversed the forest, until she reached the place where the heavenfallen waters of Sangarios river are drawn in a murmuring stream.

  αὔρη δ᾽ ἀμφιέλισσαν ἑὴν ἀνέκοψεν,

  καὶ κεμάδας χρυσέοισιν ἀνακρούουσα χαλινοῖς

  330 ἀμφὶ ῥοὰς ἔστησε φεραυγέα δίφρον ἀνάσσης:

  καὶ θεός ἐκ δίφροιο κατέδραμεν: ἐκ δέ οἱ ὤμων

  τόξα μὲν Οὖπις ἔδεκτο, καὶ ἰοδόκην Ἑκαέργη,

  Ὠκεανοῦ δέ θύγατρες ἐύπλοκα δίκτυα θήρης:

  καὶ κύνας... ἐνδρομίδας δὲ ποδῶν ἀνελύσατο Λοξώ.

  335 ἡ δὲ μεσημβρίζουσα σέβας φιλοπάρθενον αἰδοῦς

  ἐν προχοαῖς ἐφύλαξε, διερπύζουσα ῥοάων

  ἴχνεσι φειδομένοισι, καὶ ἐκ ποδὸς ἄχρι καρήνου

  ἀκροβαφῆ κατὰ βαιὸν ἀναστείλασα χιτῶνα,

  ἀμφιπερισφίγγουσα πόδας διδυμάονι μηρῷ

  340 κρυπτόμενον μετρηδὸν ὅλον δέμας ἔκλυσε κούρη.

  λοξὰ δέ παπταίνουσα δι᾽ ὕδατος εὔσκοπος Αὔρη

  τολμηροῖς βλεφάροισιν ἀναιδήτοιο προσώπου

  ἁγνὸν ἀθηήτοιο δέμας διεμέτρεε κούρης,

  θέσκελον εἰσορόωσα σαόφρονος εἶδος ἀνάσσης:

  345 καὶ πόδας ἁπλώσασα τιταινομένων παλαμάων

  δαίμονι νηχομένῃ συνενήχετο παρθένος Αὔρη.

  ἡμιφανὴς δ᾽ ἀτέλεστος ἔσω ποταμηίδος ὄχθης

  ἰκμαλέας ῥαθάμιγγας ἀποσμήξασα κομάων...

  Ἄρτεμις ἀγροτέρη: σχεδόθεν δέ οἱ ἀγρότις Αὔρη

  350 μαζοὺς ἀμφαφόωσα θεημάχον ἴαχε φωνήν:

  [328] Then Aura checked her swinging whip, and holding up the prickets with the go
lden bridles, brought the radiant car of her mistress to a standstill beside the stream. The goddess leapt out of the car: took the bow from her shoulders, and Hecaerge the quiver; the daughters of Oceanos took off the well-strung hunting-nets, and [another took charge of] the dogs; Loxo loosed the boots from her feet. She in the midday heat still guarded her maiden modesty in the river, moving through the water with cautious step, and lifting her tunic little by little from foot to head with the edge touching the surface, keeping the two feet and thighs close together and hiding her body as she bathed the whole by degrees. Aura looked sideways through the water with the daring gaze of her sharp eyes unashamed, and scanned the holy frame of the virgin who may not be seen, examining the divine beauty of her chaste mistress; virgin Aura stretched out her arms and feet at full length and swam by the side of the swimming divinity. Now Artemis lady of the hunt [stood] half visible on the river bank, and wrung out the dripping water from her hair; Aura the maid of the hunt stood by her side, and stroked her breasts and uttered these impious words:

  ‘Ἄρτεμι, μοῦνον ἔχεις φιλοπάρθενον οὔνομα κούρης,

  ὅττι διὰ στέρνων κεχαλασμένον ἄντυγα θηλῆς

  θῆλυν ἔχεις Παφίης, οὐκ ἄρσενα μαζὸν Ἀθήνης,

  καὶ ῥοδέους σπινθῆρας ὀιστεύουσι παρειαί:

  355 ἀλλὰ δέμας μεθέπουσα ποθοβλήτοιο θεαίνης

  καὶ σὺ γάμων βασίλευε σὺν ἁβροκόμῳ Κυθερείῃ,

  δεξαμένη θαλάμοις τινὰ νυμφίον: ἢν δ᾽ ἐθελήσῃς,

  Ἑρμείῃ παρίαυε καί Ἄρεϊ, λεῖψον Ἀθήνην:

  ἤν δ᾽ ἐθέλῃς, ἀνάειρε βέλος καὶ τόξον Ἐρώτων,

  360 εἰ μεθέπεις θρασὺν οἶστρον ὀιστοκόμοιο φαρέτρης.

  ἱλήκοι τεὸν εἶδος: ἐγὼ σέο μᾶλλον ἀρείων:

  δέρκεο, πῶς μεθέπω βριαρὸν δέμας: ἠνίδε μορφὴν

  ἄρσενα καὶ Ζεφύροιο θοώτερον ἴχνιον Αὔρης:

  δέρκεο, πῶς σφριγόωσι βραχίονες: ἠνίδε μαζοὺς

  365 ὄμφακας οἰδαίνοντας ἀθήλεας: ἦ τάχα φαίης,

  ὅττι τεοὶ γλαγόεσσαν ἀναβλύζουσιν ἐέρσην:

  πῶς παλάμην μεθέπεις ἁπαλόχροα; πῶς σέο μαζοὶ

  οὔ τινα κύκλου ἔχουσι περίτροχον, οἷά περ Αὔρης,

  αὐτόματοι κήρυκες ἀσυλήτοιο κορείης;’

  [351] “Artemis, you only have the name of a virgin maid, because your rounded breasts are full and soft, a woman’s breasts like the Paphian, not a man’s like Athena, and your cheeks shed a rosy radiance! Well, since you have a body like that desirous goddess, why not be queen of marriage as well as Cythereia with her wealth of fine hair, and receive a bridegroom into your chamber? If it please you, leave Athena and sleep with Hermes and Ares. If it please you, take up the bow and arrows of the loves, if your passion is so strong for a quiver full of arrows. I ask pardon of your beauty, but I am much better than you. See what a vigorous body I have! Look at Aura’s body like a boy’s, and her step swifter than Zephyros! See the muscles upon my arms, look at my breasts, round and unripe, not like a woman. You might almost say that yours are swelling with drops of milk! Why are your arms so tender, why are your breasts not round like Aura’s, to tell the world themselves of unviolated maidenhood?”

  370 ἔννεπε κερτομέουσα: κατηφιόωσα δὲ σιγῇ

  σύννομος οἰδαίνοντι χόλῳ κυμαίνετο δαίμων,

  καὶ φονίους σπινθῆρας ἀνηκόντιζον ὀπωπαί:

  ἐκ προχοῆς δ᾽ ἀνέπαλτο, πάλιν δ᾽ ἔνδυνε χιτῶνα,

  καὶ καθαραῖς λαγόνεσσι τὸ δεύτερον ἥρμοσε μίτρην

  375 ἀχνυμένη. νέμεσιν δὲ μετήιεν: εὗρε δὲ κούρην

  ὑψινεφῆ παρὰ Ταῦρον, ὅπῃ παρὰ γείτονι Κύδνῳ

  παῦσε Τυφαονίης ὑψαύχενα κόμπον ἀπειλῆς:

  καὶ τροχὸς αὐτοκύλιστος ἔην παρὰ ποσσὶν ἀνάσσης

  σημαίνων, ὅτι πάντας ἀγήνορας εἰς πέδον ἕλκει

  380 ὑψόθεν εἰλυφόωσα δίκης ποινήτορι κύκλῳ,

  δαίμων πανδαμάτειρα, βίου στρωφῶσα πορείην:

  ἀμφὶ δέ οἱ πεπότητο παρὰ θρόνον ὄρνις ἀλάοτωρ,

  γρὺψ πτερόεις, πισύρων δὲ ποδῶν κουφίζετο παλμῷ

  δαίμονος ἱπταμένης αὐτάγγελος, ὅττι καὶ αὐτὴ

  385 τέτραχα μοιρηθέντα διέρχεται ἕδρανα κόσμου:

  ἀνέρας ὑψιλόφους ἀλύτῳ σφίγγουσα χαλινῷ,

  ἀντίτυπον μίμημα, καὶ ὡς κακότητος ἱμάσθλῃ,

  ὡς τροχὸν αὐτοκύλιστον, ἀγήνορα φῶτα κυλίνδει.

  ἔγνω δ᾽ ὡς ἐνόησε θεὰ χλοάοντι προσώπῳ

  390 Ἄρτεμιν ἀχνυμένην φονίης πλήθουσαν ἀπειλῆς,

  καί μιν ἀνειρομένη φιλίῳ μειλίξατο μύθῳ:

  [370] So she spoke in raillery; the goddess listened downcast in boding silence. Waves of anger swelled in her breast, her flashing eyes had death in their look. She leapt up from the stream and put on her tunic again, and once more fitted the girdle upon her pure loins, offended. She betook herself to Nemesis, and found her on the heights of Tauros in the clouds, where beside neighbour Cydnos she had ended the proudnecked boasting of Typhon’s threats. A wheel turned itself round before the queen’s feet, signifying that she rolls all the proud from on high to the ground with the avenging wheel of justice, she the all vanquishing deity who turns the path of life. Round her throne flew a bird of vengeance, a griffin flying with wings, or balancing himself on four feet, to go unbidden before the flying goddess and show that she herself traverses the four separate quarters of the world: highcrested men she bridles with her bit which none can shake off, such is the meaning of the image, and she rolls a haughty fellow about as it were with the whip of misery, like a self-rolling wheel. When the goddess beheld Artemis with pallid face, she knew that she was offended and full of deadly threatenings, and questioned her in friendly words:

  ‘σὸν χόλον, ἰοχέαιρα, τεαὶ βοόωσιν ὀπωπαί:

  Ἄρτεμι, τίς κλονέει σε θεημάχος υἱὸς Ἀρούρης;

  τίς πάλιν ἐβλάστησεν ὑπὲρ δαπέδοιο Τυφωεύς;

  395 μὴ Τιτυὸς παλίνορσος ἐρωμανὲς ὄμμα τιταίνων

  εἵματος ἀψαύστοιο τεῆς ἔψαυσε τεκούσης;

  Ἄρτεμι, πῇ σέο τόξα καὶ Ἀπόλλωνος ὀιστοί;

  τίς πάλιν Ὠρίων σε βιάζεται; εἰσέτι κεῖται

  κεῖνος, ὃς ὑμετέροιο τάλας ἔψαυαε χιτῶνος,

  400 μητρὸς ἔσω λαγάνων νέκυς ἄπνοος: εἰ δέ τις ἀνὴρ

  χερσὶ ποθοβλήτοισι τεῶν ἐδράξατο πέπλων,

  σκορπίον ἄλλον ἄεξε τεῆς ποινήτορα μίρης:

  εἰ δὲ πάλιν θρασὺς Ὦτος ἢ αὐχήε�
�ς Ἐφιάλτης

  συζυγίην μενέαινε τεῶν ἀκίχητον Ἐρώτων,

  405 κτεῖνον ἀνυμφεύτοιο τεῆς μνηστῆρα κορείης:

  εἰ δὲ γυνὴ πολύτεκνος ἀνιάζει σέο Λητώ,

  ἄλλη λαϊνέη Νιόη κλαύσειε γενέθλην:

  τίς φθόνος, εἰ λἰ λίθον ἄλλον ὑπὲρ Σιπύλοιο τελέσσω;

  μή σε πατὴρ διὰ λέκτρα μετὰ γλαυκῶπιν ὀρίνει;

  410 μὴ τεὸν Ἑρμάωνι γάμον κατένευσε Κρονίων,

  οἷα καὶ Ἡφαίστῳ καθρῆς ὑμέναιον Ἀθήνης;

  εἰ δὲ γυνὴ κλονέει σε, τεὴν ἅτε μητέρα Λητώ,

  ἔσσομαι ἀχνυμένης τιμήορος ἰοχεαίρης.’

  [392] “Your looks, Archeress, proclaim your anger. Artemis, what impious son of Earth persecutes you? What second Typhoeus has sprung up from the ground? Has Tityos risen again rolling a lovemad eye, and touched the robe of your untouchable mother? Where is your bow, Artemis, where are Apollo’s arrows? What Orion is using force against you once more? The wretch that touched your dress still lies in his mother’s flanks, a lifeless corpse; if any man has clutched your garments with lustful hands, grow another scorpion to avenge your girdle. If bold Otos again, or boastful Ephialtes, has desired to win your love so far beyond his reach, then slay the pretender to your unwedded virginity. If some prolific wife provokes your mother Leto, let her weep for her children, another Niobe of stone. Why should not I make another stone on Sipylos? Is your father pestering you to marry as he did with Athena? Surely Cronion has not promised you to Hermes for a wife, as he promised pure Athena to Hephaistos in wedlock? But if some woman is persecuting you as one did to your mother Leto, I will be the avenger of the offended Archeress.”