Works of Nonnus

by Nonnus

  αἰνοπαθής, ὅτι Πᾶνα δυσίμερον ἔδρακε κούρη

  ἰσοφυῆ μεθέποντα δασύτριχος αἰγὸς ὀπωπήν:

  ἔλπετο γὰρ μάλα τοῦτο, πόθῳ δεδονημένος Ἠχοῦς

  675 ὅττί μιν ὑπναλέην ἐβιήσατο μηλονόμος Πάν:

  γειοπόνους δ᾽ ἐδάμασσε πολὺ πλέον, ὅττι καὶ αυτοἰ

  Κύπριδι θητεύουσιν, ἐπεὶ πέλε γηπόνος ἀνήρ,

  Ἰασίων, Δήμητρος ἀμαλλοτόκου παρακοίτην:

  ἔκτανε δ᾽ ἀγρευτῆρα παλαιοτέρῳ τινὶ μύθῳ

  680 πειθομένη: Κέφαλον γάρ, ἀμήτορος ἀστόν Ἀθήνης,

  ἔκλυε θηρητῆρα ῥοδοστεφέος πόσιν Ἠοῦς:

  Βακχείης δ᾽ ἐδάιξεν ὑποδρηστῆρας ὀπώρης,

  ὅττι φιλακρήτοιο μέθης Βλύζοντες ἐέρσην

  οἰνοβαρεῖς δυσέρωτες ὀπάονές εἰσι Λυαίου:

  685 οὕ πω γάρ δεδάηκε δολοφροσύνην Διονύσου

  καὶ ποτὸν ἠπεροπῆα φιλακρήτου Κυθερείης,

  ἀλλὰ φιλοσκοπέλων καλύβας ἐκένωσε νομήων

  αἵματι φοινήεντι περιρραίνουσα κολώνας.

  [652] After these caresses, the bride started up; she shook off limbloosing sleep, the witness of the unpublished nuptials, saw with surprise her breasts bare of the modest bodice, the cleft of her thighs uncovered, her dress marked with the drops of wedlock that told of a maidenhood ravished without bridegift. She was maddened by what she saw. She fitted the bodice again about her chest, and bound the maiden girdle again over her rounded breast — too late! She shrieked in distress, held in the throes of madness; she chased the countrymen, slew shepherds beside the leafy slopes, to punish her treacherous husband with avenging justice — still more she killed the oxherds with implacable steel, for she knew about charming Tithonos, bridegroom of Dawn, the lovelorn oxherd, knew that Selene also the driver of bulls had her Latmian Endymion who was busy about the herds of cattle; she had heard of Phrygian Hymnos too, and his love that made him rue, the lovelorn herdsman whom another maiden slew: still more she killed the goatherds, killed their whole flocks of goats, in agony of heart, because she had seen Pan the dangerous lover with a face like some shaggy goat; for she felt quite sure that shepherd Pan tormented with desire for Echo had violated her asleep: much more she laid low the husbandmen, as being also slaves to Cypris, since a man who tilled the soil, Iasion, had been bedfellow of Demeter the mother of sheaves. The huntsmen she killed believing an ancient story; for she had heard that a huntsman Cephalos, from the country of unmothered Athena, was husband of rosecrowned Dawn. Workmen of Bacchos about the vintage she killed, because they are servants of Lyaios who squeeze out the intoxicating juice of his liquor, heavy with wine, dangerous lovers. For she had not yet learnt the cunning heart of Dionysos, and the seductive potion of heady love, but she made empty the huts of the mountainranging herdsmen and drenched the hills with red blood.

  καὶ νόον αἰθύσσουσα, κατάσχετος ἅλματι λύσσης,

  690 Κύπριδος εἰς δόμον ἦλθεν: ἀπειλητῆρα δὲ κεστοῦ

  λυσαμένη ζωστῆρα νεοκλώστοιο χιτῶνος

  ἁβρὸν ἀνικήτοιο δέμας μάστιζε θεαίνης:

  καὶ βρέτας ἀρπάξασα τελεσσιγάμου Κυθερείης

  Σαγγαρίου σχεδὸν ἦλθε, κυλινδομένην δὲ ῥεέθροις

  695 γυμναῖς Νηιάδεσσι πόρεν γυμνὴν Ἀφροδίτην.

  καὶ μετὰ θεῖον ἄγαλμα καὶ αὐτοέλικτον ἱμάσθλην

  δείκελον ἁβρὸν Ἔρωτος ἀπηκόντιζε κονίῃ:

  καὶ κενεὸν λίπε δῶμα Κυβηλίδος ἀφρογενείης.

  φοιταλέη δ᾽ ἀκίχητος ἐθήμονα δύσατο λόχμην,

  700 καὶ σταλίκων ἔψαυσε, πάλιν δ᾽ ἐμνήσατο θήρης:

  καὶ διεροῖς βλεφάροισιν ἑὴν στενάχιζε κορείην,

  ὀξὺ δέ κωκύουσα τόσην ἐφθέγξατο φωνήν:

  [689] Still frantic in mind, shaken by throes of madness, she came to the temple of Cypris. She loosed the girdle from her newly spun robe, the enemy Latmian herdsman (though his country and legend alike vary) was her love, and she cast him into an unending sleep. Hymnos, cf xv. 204 ff.; Iasion, Odyssey v. 125: Cephalos, see iv. 194. of the cestus, and flogged the dainty body of the unconquerable goddess; she caught up the statue of marriage-consummating Cythereia, she went to the bank of Sangarios, and sent Aphrodite rolling into the stream, naked among the naked Naiads; and after the divine statue had gone with the scourge twisted round it, she threw into the dust the delicate image of Love, and left the temple of Cybelid Foamborn empty. Then she plunged into the familiar forest, wandering unperceived, handled her net-stakes, remembered the hunt again, lamenting her maidenhood with wet eyelids, and crying loudly in these words:

  ‘Τίς θεὸς ἡμετέρης ἀνελύσατο δεσμὰ κορείης;

  εἰ μὲν ἐμὲ κνώσσουσαν ἐρημονόμων ἐπὶ λέκτρων

  705 εἶδος ὑποκλέπτων ἐβιήσατο μητίετα Ζεύς,

  οὐδὲ καἰ ἡμετέρην ᾐδέσσατο γείτονα Ῥείην,

  ἀγροτέρους μετά θῆρας ὀιστεύσω πόλον ἄστρων:

  εἰ δέ μοι ὑπναλέῃ παρελέξατο Φοῖβος Ἀπόλλων,

  πέρσω πασιμέλουσαν ὅλην πετρώδεα Πυθώ:

  710 εἰ δὲ λέχος σύλησεν ἐμὸς Κυλλήνιος Ἑρμῆς,

  Ἀρκαδίην προθέλυμνον ἐμοῖς βελέεσσιν ὀλέσσω,

  καὶ τελέσω θεράπαιναν ἐμὴν χρυσάμπυκα Πειθώ:

  εἰ δὲ δόλοις γαμίοισιν ὀνειρείων ὑμεναίων

  ἀπροϊδὴς Διόνυσος ἐμὴν σύλησε κορείην,

  715 ἵξομαι, ἧχι πέλει Κυβέλης δόμος, ὑψιλόφου δὲ

  οἰστρομανῆ Διόνυσον ἀπὸ Τμώλοιο διώξω:

  καὶ φονίην ὤμοισιν ἐπικρεμάσασα φαρέτρην

  εἰς Πάφον, εἰς Φρυγίην θωρήξομαι: ἀμφοτέροις γὰρ

  τόξον ἐμὸν τανύσω, καὶ Κύπριδι καὶ Διονύσῳ.

  720 σοὶ πλέον, ἰοχέαιρα, χολώομαι, ὅττί με, κούρη,

  οὐ κτάνες ὑπναλέην ἔτι παρθένον, οὐδὲ καὶ αὐτῷ

  σοῖς καθαροῖς βελέεσσιν ἐθωρήχθης παρακοίτῃ.’

  [703] “What god has loosed the girdle of my maidenhood? If Zeus Allwise took some false aspect, and forced me, upon my lonely bed, if he did not respect our neighbour Rheia, I will leave the wild beasts and shoot the starry sky! If Phoibos Apollo lay by my side in sleep, I will raze the stones of worldfamous Pytho wholly to the ground! If Cyllenian Hermes has ravished my bed, I will utterly destroy Arcadia with my arrows, and make goldchaplet Peitho my servant! If Dionysos came unseen and ravished my maidenhood in the crafty wooing of a dream-bridal, I will go where Cybele’s hall stands, and chase that lustmad Dionysos from highcrested Tmolos! I will hang my quiver of death on my shoulders and attack Paphos, I will attack Phrygia — I
will draw my bow on both Cypris and Dionysos! You, Archeress, you have enraged me most, because you, a maiden, did not kill me in my sleep still a virgin, yes and did not defend me even against my bedfellow with your pure shafts!”

  ἔννεπε, καὶ τρομέουσαν ἑὴν ἀνεσείρασε φωνὴν

  δάκρυσι νικηθεῖσα. τελεσσιγάμου δὲ Λυαίου

  725 παιδοτόκου πλησθεῖσα γονῆς δυσπάρθενος Αὔρη

  διπλόον ὄγκον ἄειρε: γυνὴ δ᾽ ἐπεμήνατο φόρτῳ

  ἄσχετα βακχευθεῖσα γονῆς, δυσπάρθενος Αὔρη ...

  ἢ σπόρος αὐτολόχευτος ἢ ἀνέρος ἐξ ὑμεναίων

  ἠὲ θεοῦ δολίοιο: Διὸς δ᾽ ἐμνήσατο νύμφης,

  730 Πλουτοῦς αἰνοτόκου Βερεκυντίδος, ἧς ἀπὸ λέκτρων

  Τάνταλος ἐβλάστησε. καἰ ἤθελε γαστέρα τέμνειν,

  ὄφρα δαϊζομένης ἀπὸ νηδύος ἄφρονι λύσσῃ

  ἄτροφον ἡμιτέλεστον ἀιστώσειε γενέθλην.

  καὶ ξίφος ἠέρταζε, διὰ στέρνοιο δὲ γυμνοῦ

  735 δεξιτερῇ μενέαινεν ἀφειδέι φάσγανον ἕλκειν.

  πολλάκι δ᾽ ἀρτιτόκοιο μετήιεν ἄντρα λεαίνης,

  ὥς κεν ὀλισθήσειε θελήμονος εἰς λίνα Μοίρης:

  ἀλλά μιν οὐρεσίφοιτος ὑπέκφυγε ταρβαλέη θήρ,

  μή μιν ἀποκτείνειε, μυχῷ δ᾽ ἐκρύπτετο πέτρης

  740 σκύμνον ἐρημαίῃσιν ἐπιτρέψασα χαμεύναις.

  πολλάκι δ᾽ οἰδαλέοιο γυναικείου διὰ κόλπου

  αὐτοφόνος μενέαινεν ἑκούσιον ἆορ ἐλάσσαι,

  ὄφρά κεν αὐτοδάικτος ὀνείδεα γαστρὸς ἀλύξῃ

  καὶ στόμα τερπομένης φιλοκέρτομον ἰοχεαίρης:

  745 καὶ νοέειν μενέαινεν ἑὸν πόσιν, ὄφρα καὶ αὐτὴ

  υἱέα δαιτρεύσειεν ἀναινομένῳ παρακοίτῃ,

  αὐτὴ παιδοφόνος καὶ ὁμευνέτις, ὄφρά τις εἴπῃ:

  ‘ Πρόκνη παιδολέτειρα νέη πέλε δύσγαμος Αὔρη.’

  [723] She spoke, and then checked her trembling voice overcome by tears. And Aura, hapless maiden, having within her the fruitful seed of Bacchos the begetter, carried a double weight: the wife maddened uncontrollably cursed the burden of the seed, hapless maiden Aura [lamented the loss of her maidenhood; she knew not] whether she had conceived of herself, or by some man, or a scheming god; she remembered the bride of Zeus, Berecyntian Pluto, so unhappy in the son Tantalos whom she bore. She wished to tear herself open, to cut open her womb in her senseless frenzy, that the child half made might be destroyed and never be reared. She even lifted a sword, and thought to drive the blade through her bare chest with pitiless hand. Often she went to the cave of a lioness with newborn cubs, that she might slip into the net of a willing fate; but the dread beast ran out into the mountains, in fear of death, and hid herself in some cleft of the rocks, leaving the cub alone in the lair. Often she thought to drive a sword willingly through the swelling womb and slay herself with her own hand, that self-slain she might escape the shame of her womb and the mocking taunts of glad Artemis. She longed to know her husband, that she might dish up her own son to her loathing husband, childslayer and paramour alike, that men might say—” Aura, unhappy bride, has killed her child like another Procne.”

  καί μιν ὀπιπεύουσα νέων ἐγκύμονα παίδων

  750 Ἄρτεμις ἐγγὺς ἵκανεν ἐῷ γελόωντι προσώπῳ,

  δειλαίην δ᾽ ἐρέθιζε, καὶ ἀστόργῳ φάτο φωνῇ:

  [749] Then Artemis saw her big with new children, and came near with a laugh on her face and teased the poor creature, saying with pitiless voice:

  ‘ Ὕπνον ἴδον, Παφίης θαλαμηπόλον, εἶδον Ἐρώτων

  ξανθῆς νυμφιδίης ἀπατήλια χεύματα πηγῆς,

  ἧχι ποτῷ δολόεντι νεήνιδες ἥλικα μίτρην

  755 ἅρπαγι παρθενίης γαμίῳ λύουσιν ὀνείρῳ:

  εἶδον ἐγὼ κλέτας, εἶδον, ὅπῃ ζυγίῃ παρὰ πέτρῃ

  ἀπροϊδὴς δολόεντι γυνὴ νυμφεύεται ὕπνῳ:

  Κύπριδος εἶδον ὄρος φιλοτήσιον, ἧχι γυναικῶν

  παρθενίην κλέπτοντες ἀλυσκάζουσιν ἀκοῖται.

  [752] “I saw Sleep, the Paphian’s chamberlain! I saw the deceiving stream of the yellow fountain at your loving bridal! The fountain where young girls get a treacherous potion, and loosen the girdle they have worn all their lives, in a dream of marriage which steals their maidenhood. I have seen, I have seen the slope where a woman is made a bride unexpectedly, in treacherous sleep, beside a bridal rock. I have seen the love-mountain of Cypris, where lovers steal the maidenhood of women and run away.

  760 εἰπέ, γύναι φυγόδεμνε, τί σήμερον ἠρέμα βαίνεις;

  ἡ πρὶν ἀελλήεσσα, πόθεν βαρύγουνος ὁδεύεις;

  νυμφεύθης ἀέκουσα, καὶ οὐ τεὸν οἶδας ἀκοίτην:

  οὐ δύνασαι κρύπτειν κρύφιον γάμον: οἰδαλέοι γὰρ

  σὸν πόσιν ἀγγέλλουσι νεογλαγέες σέο μαζοί.

  765 εἰπὲ δέ μοι, βαρύυπνε, συοκτόνε, παρθένε, νύμφη,

  πῶς μεθέπεις χλοάουσαν ἐρευθαλέην σέο μορφήν;

  τίς σέο λέκτρα μίηνε; τίς ἥρπασε σεῖο κορείην;

  ξανθαὶ Νηιάδες, μὴ κρύψατε νυμφίον Αὔρης.

  οἶδα, γύναι βαρύφορτε, τεὸν λαθραῖον ἀκοίτην:

  770 σὸς γάμος οὕ με λέληθε, καὶ εἰ κρύπτειν μενεαίνεις,

  σὸς πόσις οὔ με λέληθε: βαρυνομένη δέμας ὕπνῳ

  εὐνέτις ἀστυφέλικτος ἐνυμφεύθης Διονύσῳ.

  [760] “Tell me, you young prude, why do you walk so slowly to-day? Once as quick as the wind, why do you plod so heavily? You were wooed unwilling, and you do not know your bedfellow! You cannot hide your furtive bridal, for your breasts are swelling with new milk and they announce a husband. Tell me heavy sleeper, pigsticker, virgin, bride, how do you come by those pale cheeks, once ruddy? Who disgraced your bed? Who stole your maidenhood?

  O fair-haired Naiads, do not hide Aura’s bridegroom!

  I know your furtive husband, you woman with a heavy burden. I saw your wedding, clearly enough, though you long to conceal it. I saw your husband clearly enough; you were in the bed, your body heavy with sleep, you did not move when Dionysos wedded you.

  ἀλλὰ τεὸν λίπε τόξον: ἀναινομένη δὲ φαρέτρην

  ὄργια μυστιπόλευε γυναιμανέος σέο βάκχου,

  775 τύμπανα χειρὶ φέρουσα καὶ εὐκεράων θρόον αὐλῶν.

  πρὸς δὲ τεῆς λίτομαί σε τελεσσιγάμοιο χαμεύνης,

  ποῖά σοι ὤπασεν ἕδνα τεὸς Διόνυσος ἀκοίτης;

  μή σοι νεβρίδα δῶκε, τε�
�ς αὐτάγγελον εὐνῆς;

  μή σοι χάλκεα ῥόπτρα τεῶν πόρε παίγνια παίδων;

  780 πείθομαι, ὡς πόρε θύρσον, ἀκοντιστῆρα λεόντων:

  καὶ τάχα κύμβαλα δῶκε, τά περ δονέουσι τιθῆναι

  φάρμακα νηπιάχοισι φιλοθρήνων ὀδυνάων.’

  [773] “Come then, leave your bow, renounce your quiver; serve in the secret rites of your womanmad Bacchos; carry your tambour and your tootling pipes of horn. I beseech you, in the name of that bed on the ground where the marriage was consummated, what bridegifts did Dionysos your husband bring? Did he give you a fawnskin, enough to be news of your marriage-bed? Did he give you brazen rattles for your children to play with? I think he gave you a thyrsus to shoot lions; perhaps he gave cymbals, which nurses shake to console the howling pains of the little children.”

  ἔννεπε κερτομέουσα: καὶ ἔμπαλιν ᾤχετο δαίμων,

  θῆρας ὀιστεύουσα τὸ δεύτερον, ἀχνυμένη δὲ

  785 ἠερίοις ἀνέμοισιν ἑὰς μεθέηκε μερίμνας.

  [783] So spoke the goddess in mockery, and went away to shoot her wild beasts again, in anger leaving her cares to the winds of heaven.

  κούρη δ᾽ οὐρεσίφοιτος ἀμάρτυρος ὑψόθι πέτρης

  ὀξὺ βέλος μεθέπουσα δυηπαθέος τοκετοῖο

  φρικαλέον βρύχημα λεχωίδος εἶχε λεαίνης:

  πέτραι δ᾽ ἀντιάχησαν: ἐρισμαράγοιο δὲ κούρης

  790 φθόγγου ἀμειβομένη μυκήσατο δύσθροος Ἠχώ.

  καὶ παλάμας, ἅτε πῶμα, περισφίγξασα λοχείῃ

  κλεῖε θοὴν ὠδῖνα πεπαινομένου τοκετοῖο,

  καὶ τόκον ἀρτιτέλεστον ἐρήτυεν: ἐχθομένην γὰρ